the twelfth day of september.

This lovely lady was one of the first people I met when I arrived in Virginia. Jeanie Sanchez. And the first time I met her, she told me that my hair was too long and I had too many siblings.  

By the end of my stay in that area just outside of Richmond, which was just a short six weeks, Jeanie and I had become great friends. 

One great contributing factor of that was that we discovered that we had the same birthday! September 12. (Yep, we just had our birthdays!) After that, Jeanie believed that she knew me inside and out. We were both Virgo's! She "knew" what I liked and disliked, how I handled stressful situations, and that I liked my 'alone time'...

The picture above was my last time seeing her before I left the area. And it's a good thing she doesn't have a computer because she wouldn't be happy if she knew this picture was up here.

Jeanie met with missionaries for about six years before she finally felt ready and understood how the gospel could really help her in her life and wanted to get baptized! Luckily, I was able to be there on that very happy day! It was great and, of course, she was so happy!

This is her house. I raked ALL of the leaves around her WHOLE house one time. It took forever. Over 30 bags. haha This was Christmas Day, 2010. She and her husband shared their Christmas dinner and evening with us and we listened to the Josh Groban Christmas CD on repeat for about four hours.

I talked to Jeanie on the phone yesterday to wish her a happy birthday! I called her on our birthday day but she didn't answer. So we chatted yesterday and it was wonderful. She is still just so great and special to me. I love her.

It's been a great birthday week. I'm 23! But as Michelle would say, I've been 23 for the past three years.

But the week has included: Surprise and planned visits from loved ones. Good food- very important! Dancing. Alice in Wonderland. Picnic (tomorrow). Shopping. Nice notes. PUMPKIN PIE. Being with people that I know and love and those that I don't know too well but want to get to know better. Almost fall weather.

I love September.

Good for the soul.

I went on a bike ride tonight. I rode really fast. Too fast; my sister told me to slow down. It felt really good. We received a lot of rain today so the night was very cool (75 degrees F). Speaking of rain, it really bothers me when people call it 'moisture.' Why can't they say rain? 'Moisture' is a gross word. It has negative connotations. Makes me think of sweat. Or bacteria growing somewhere it shouldn't. Ew. Just say rain. Please. It's a perfectly good word.

Also, my sister, Michelle, attended a rooftop concert last weekend where The Lower Lights performed. She loved it. And told me I would have loved it. I looked them up today, and she was right. I can only find four of their songs online and believe me, I have listened to them a lot. Sadly, when I just tried to purchase the album, something messed up and it wouldn't let me put in my credit card number... so I am stuck until I try again tomorrow and hopefully it works! I showed my mom a song and she used the word 'hokey' to describe them. I would say they have a pleasant twang. It's definitely not overly twangy or annoying. It's just wonderful. I like them.

In my little brother's English class, they have to choose a book each quarter to read and then at the end of the quarter, they write an in-class essay about the book they read. All of the books are from a college-prep list the teacher got and there are a lot of really good classics on it. When I was in the class, a couple of the books I read were A Tale of Two Cities and Jane Eyre. He chose To Kill a Mockingbird. The in-class essay was today, so of course, he didn't get the book until a week ago today (remember when I went to Bookman's with Julia at 9:30? the real reason was to get the book for Bryan). And, of course, he didn't really start reading it until Saturday. What ended up happening was my mom read it aloud to us children pretty much all day yesterday, in between sessions of General Conference and through the evening until we finally finished at 1:30 am. I love that book! And Harper Lee is one great writer. It's just so powerful and emotional. It makes me so mad that people really treat other people that way. I hate prejudices.
But I love Atticus. He is such a great parent and person in general. And I love that Gregory Peck plays him in the movie. I want to be like him (Atticus, not Gregory) when I grow up. And like Miss Maud. And Scout. She is hot headed and proud, but she is really smart. And she knows a lot about people. It's a great book. And I love reading books aloud. Michelle and I read aloud to each other when I lived in Utah. That was so great.

Ok, I need to go to bed. I am babysitting the niece and nephew in the early morning!

P.S.
1. I am really excited to meet Walt Disney in heaven.
2. I am never taking Excedrin again. ever.