Ward, WHYs, and a Wedding

November 4th-10th

Well, Caleb turned 12 and got the priesthood this Sunday! Aww! I'm so proud of him! Pretty soon we'll all be old and in nursing homes. :P I had to give a quick snippet on my views of thinking positively in YW today... so I talked about Havasupai and how my first time I hated it because I could only think of my aching feet and how many more miles, rather than the final destination. But the second time I went, I decided that it would be super fun, and it turned out to be my most favorite place in the world, with some of my fondest memories attached to it, with my favorite people doing what I love most. So that is how a positive attitude can change the way you see the world. :) Amen! I really enjoy public speaking when I am prepared and have a love for what I'm talking about. I can get anybody fired up about something. I hope I was able to touch and inspire a few hearts that afternoon. :)
Monday we had a Ward Dinner Party at Bishop's house. At first NO ONE showed up.. like maybe six families? But then after being all paranoid and sad-like, the Cluffs came and made my whole day and whole week!! :) We went on a hay ride, or two, melted some ice in our hands, policed the yard for trash.. I almost got a quarter... but then I refused. Then a we lost a kid... but he's alright now! On the second hay ride, Cal ran behind the trailer for like 97% of the time, and it was a long ride, too! He hopped on the back, and then said, "I need to get into shape!" Oh please, Superman... good grief. ;) Basically, I live for Ward functions. I looove them, and I don't care what other teenagers think of them, I think they're so great! :) So a bit later, I asked Cal when he was available to tutor me (our moms made a deal: He would tutor me, I would take their family pictures..) and so my mom had been bugging me about it, so I kinda jokingly asked him, but then he came right out and said "How about tomorrow?!" UH. Give me some time to give a response, geez! Haha so I said alright... I don't know why I did because it was a disaster.
The next day after work, I resentfully called him, resent because I DID NOT want him to find out how dumb I am in math.. that was my biggest fear: that he would find out that my math brain is not wired correctly and that I can't comprehend anything with numbers.. :( Pretty sure he found out quick enough because I FORGOT HOW TO ADD. Guys, it was terrible. And of course, he wasn't appalled by my stupidity, of course he can't because he's PERFECT. Goodness gracious, that kid. He just nicely laughed at my struggles and in the background was Kayla laughing at me not so nicely because I said a wrong answer. Basically, I was so intimidated by him and his super genius-ness that my brain conveniently SHUT OFF, thus making me seem like an utter fool.. I tried every excuse to get out of there, my head was aching, it was super hot in their house, it was Election Night! (by the way, Obama won again.. :P) and I just couldn't take the embarrassment any longer! Sure, I was probably making a bigger deal about it than it actually was, but it meant the world to me then.. I'm still in disbelief that I could be SO stupid. I guess when you're blessed with an overly sensitive eye for detail and a pretty spiffy writing talent, your creative side takes over the logical side of your brain. Oh well, it's just one of those things I'll never be truly successful about, and that's alright with me. But I walked out of his house in verge on tears.. I'm still the same old sensitive little 5 year old girl, after all. :/ I'm dreading going back. I hope I don't go back into shelter mode and completely avoid him, because that would be tragic. Not that I don't want to be around him, because I do, I just don't want to be around him while he's tutoring me.. Haha I'm such a coward! :P
Anyways, later in the week we made posters at Mutual for Jette's benefit fair next Saturday. Then I babysat twice this weekend..

But first...
I PHOTOGRAPHED MY FIRST WEDDING.
Yeah guys, it ACTUALLY happened! I didn't think this day would come so soon! Brother Olsen called me on Monday and asked if I would do it for his nephew's wedding on Saturday.. and of course I accepted! Finally the day arrived, and I still had no idea what I was doing. Luckily, I wasn't alone because no one else knew what was going on, so I just shot everyone's confusion, basically. THANKFULLY, I was able to get some really nice shots! I was stressing about it ALL WEEK LONG. What if I miss a huge monumental moment? What if my lighting is terrible and there are nasty shadows everywhere? What if they hate their photos and it's just terrible? What if my lens breaks and all my photos are blurry and I don't know it until I get home? Questions like these would just consume my thoughts, and they didn't go away, until I started editing later that night. First off: it was a weird wedding. So not a typical wedding. Completely different than what I was used to. But you know what? It was okay. I was able to calm down once I got in my element. I have to warm up to the camera, and it takes a while, but once I do... I can do some pretty amazing things. :) I'm still in the process of editing, and it's going to take FOREVER. This was a quick little wedding, too. Imagine how many hours I'll be trapped behind a computer when my events get bigger and longer! But I'm excited, I love doing what I do and I'm excited to get more schooling on it next year at college. :)