apparently, i'm a cry baby.

Ok...I can finally blab my news across cyberspace.  After serving in young women's (our church's organization for girls 12-18 year olds) for 3 years, I was released today.  I've known it was coming for a couple of weeks and have already shed my fair share of tears over this, despite Chris' insistence that I should be celebrating.  (He really was very confused that I would be crying over something that made him so darn happy!)  I have loved this calling to death.  Yes, it has taken a lot of my time.  Yes, sometimes it makes me want a nap.  But I have been working with my three oldest daughters and a group of 30 spectacular young women (and women!) that you just can't help but love.  When I went into young women's, the teenage years scared me.  I wasn't close to any of the girls in our ward that were older than my own girls.  Within a very short period of time, I was able to get a glimpse of our Savior and Heavenly Father's love for each of these young women.    Their love for these girls was contagious and it is what has made the last three years so stinking awesome.  And that love is what made me sob all day long.  It was pretty ridiculous.  I can't imagine a ym president carrying on like this, but in my defense: I tried to stop crying.  Really.  And now I am writing about this without crying, which I see as a pretty big victory.   Lilly and I have even made plans for this Tuesday night. (I would normally be at our weekday activity until 9 pm)  We are making cookies and playing the electric ukulele together.  I tried to get her to invite dad, but she says he doesn't play the ukulele.  I guess he can make the cookies?

What really got me to pick myself up off of the couch (Autumn was sweet enough to cuddle me all better without any of the judging.  Hannah made it very clear that I cry too much. Maybe so, but shush. ) is my new calling.  I decided to start working on it and that just kind of made things all better.  My new calling is amazing.  Not YW amazing, but pretty amazing.  As in, I told my dad that I was going to request this calling whenever they released me from YW.  The kicker?  I didn't even have to request it. (which is good because I probably wouldn't have actually asked for a calling.)  Heavenly Father is that cool.  I am the new ward family history coordinator.  Which is fancy talk for a made up calling that I get to figure out.  I am to work with the adult and youth consultants and get our ward on fire, blazing through their family history like never before.  Pretty amazing, eh?   Family history, here I come!  Which also means that next February...I'm going to rootstech.  Again. I love, love, LOVE family history.  I also have a very strong testimony of the blessings that family history work can have on teenagers. (ok.  it blesses all of us.)  So put all of that together and it makes an amazing calling.  I am thrilled!

My little rays of sunshine on a kind of hard day?
•The sweet sweet yw that acted sad enough to make me cry more.
•Lilly's response to my release: So we're going to need to pick you up from relief society after church now? (like I'm in primary, needed a parent to pick me up)
•Walking into the chapel (straight from a mtg so I didn't get to see what my girls chose out for church) and seeing little Lilly, dressed up like a mini "Sister Dunford", who is a scarf loving sister missionary from the neighboring ward that Lilly LOVES.  She could have gotten away with murder in that outfit with all of its adorableness.  (Although that would be highly inappropriate with her being a missionary and all!)
•a pile of thank you's from the yw thanking me for small acts that I have done over the last 3 years and realizing that the cards were really just a short list of the many promptings that I have received  from their Heavenly Father, who knows them in such a personal and loving way.
•having my new visiting teach-ee share a quote that summarized my feelings and brought me peace:
"There seems to be something inside of us that resists endings.  Why is this?  Because we are made of the stuff of eternity.  We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless and who promises eternal blessings without number.  Endings are not our destiny." Dieter F. Uchtdorf, I love you. And these tears are because I am made of the stuff of eternity.  Ha. :)
•hearing Rachel refer to the yw changes (I'm just going assume that she was referring to my release and enjoy this moment here) as someone ripping out your heart, stepping on it, poisoning it and putting it back in.  A. Did she just say she is going to miss me??  That's what I heard...  B. That is pretty much how I felt.