TOP 12 of 2012

Well, the futuristic year of 2013 is almost here! It's crazy. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. 2012 still deserves to be celebrated. I had a wonderful 2012--narrowing it down to the 12 best moments/events was a bit of a daunting task. But, here they are:

12. Life plan: somewhat decided. Coming in at number 12 is the fact that I decided what I want to major and minor in. This shouldn't be such a big deal, but it is because it's taken me so long to decide. Haha. I have decided to major in communications with a journalism emphasis and minor in music, focusing on piano. We'll see where this takes me, but for now I could not feel any better about this decision.

 

11. Missions and Marriages. I've decided that 2012 has been the year of weddings and mission calls. This made the list because so many of these missions and marriages are taking place among my friends and it's so weird! I do not feel old enough to be at this point in life. But, reality has set in and I've come to embrace these wonderful events ;) (even if I do still feel too young for this).
 

10. The Scooter. I love my little royal blue moped that was my trusty companion all summer (and most of the fall since the temperature was usually over 70 degrees...). Definitely a highlight of 2012. I can't even calculate how much gas money this has saved me. One gallon lasts a nice, long 75-100 miles. I did learn the hard way a few times when I ran out of gas on the way to school...(whoops)...but now I've got it under control. Scooty and I are best buds. And the little neighborhood kiddos love it too.

9. RED. This may be kind of pathetic that it made my top 12 of 2012 list, but Taylor Swift is wonderful and so is her new album, RED. It's not what you would call the album of a country singer (which is what she still claims to be...), but it's so good. I've decided that she's smart to adapt her style to fit with the new hipster, indie-pop era that Americans seem to be migrating towards. Nonetheless, she IS Taylor Swift and will still have millions of fans regardless of what her album sounds like.

8.Awkward Family Photos. My family and I have been obsessed with awkwardfamilyphotos.com for quite some time now so this holiday season we decided we must reinact our own awkward Christmas photos to send to Jake for Christmas (we quickly discovered that we are not meant to be an acting family...haha).
 

 

7. My 21^st Birthday. Well, just as everyone does, I had a birthday this year. That in-and-of itself is not monumental, BUT the fact that I turned 21 sure is. Turning 20 felt weird, but 21 feels like I'm ancient. I know some people (aka my parents) are probably reading this and laughing because they think 21 is young....it's all relative, mom and dad. ;) Anyway, the age of 21 has been great to me so far—I can finally apply for a credit card! And I can buy spray paint at Hobby Lobby without showing an ID! That is livin' the life, I tell you. Yeah, 21 is great.

6. fun. Concert. Earlier this year fun. came to Salt Lake!! To say I love fun. is an understatement. Jake and I are obsessed with them. And after going to their concert we only became more obsessed. Not only are they amazing live, but their lead singer doesn't even read music. He sings a melody and the keyboardist and guitarist write the music, harmonies, and everything musical about the song. Amazing, right? We bought their second album, Some Nights, at Graywhale the day it came out so we could get wristbands to go to a special pre-concert party (pretty much just another concert....just up close and personal). It was SO wonderful. They sang four songs acoustically....all of which were, of course, so great...and then we got to meet them and NOT take pictures with them (but we did anyway...whoops). Then we got FRONT ROW seats at the concert!! When I say “seats” I actually mean we were practically sitting on the people behind us because everyone was standing, trying to get closer and closer to the stage and it was pretty awkward. But, one of the best concerts I've ever been to, nonetheless.

5. Jake's mission call. In May of this year, Jake received his mission call to serve in Costa Rica!! Now, this day was probably one of the longest of the entire year. My dad said he was more nervous for Jake to open his call than he was when he opened his own call. Our family was so nervous for him...I don't think he needed to be nervous at all because we were nervous enough for all of America. BUT, finally 7:00 came and friends and family gathered at our house to hear the announcement. He didn't read it line-by-line like I told him to, so I watched the look on his face before he actually read it out loud and it was priceless. He looked excitedly scared out of his mind. It was a great, great, great night that night at the Hampton house.

 

4. California trip. One particular vacation of the year that makes the is our trip to California with the Russells. We stayed on Coronado Island and went to Sea World, Universal Studios, swam, played on the beach, and just relaxed. It went by way too fast. We took a day to go to the San Diego Temple to do baptisms and it was amazing! We also fulfilled an item on my life-long bucket list: ride cruisers on the beach. Thanks to a quaint, handy little bike shop on the island we were able to rent cruisers, ride around the beach, and see the different areas of Coronado. Kylee and I became even more obsessed with the ultra classy, picture-perfect houses with bright beautiful flowers grazing each porch and windowsill. Such a great trip always comes with vacationing with the Russells. (We once got chased by a security guard...but that's another story for another day.)
 

3. Half Marathon. In November of this year I ran my first half marathon! This has always been a goal of mine, so on November 3, we made the journey down to good ole St. George where me, my dad, and my sister ran the Snow Canyon Half Marathon and my mom and two other sisters ran the 5K. It took lots of training and long runs to accomplish it, but I would do it again in a second. I felt so good knowing I had worked hard for and accomplished a goal I had been working on for some time. It was definitely hard but definitely worth it—I can say that now that it's over ;) Just kidding. It really was great.

2. Costa Rica Bound. Okay, I know I already talked about Jake's call to Costa Rica, but obviously (as any missionary family would know) this has been a HUGE part of 2012 for our family. He left to the MTC on August 22 and I don't think any of us expected it to be as hard as it actually was when we dropped him off. We all knew we would miss him so much, but after dropping him off it sort of felt like he had died or something. It was hard to be happy for like a straight 24 hours after we drove away. But, we would not have it any other way—we would be more sad if he was not serving a mission. He is very missed around here, though. Just say the word missionary to my mom and she will probably start crying and then proceed to tell you all about how Jake is doing :). He is doing so great and is such a wonderful missionary!! This has been huge for our family and we have received so many blessings from his service. We love you, Elder Hampton! (Hopefully August 2014 gets here quickly...)
 

1. EFY. This summer I had the greatest opportunity to work as a counselor for the Especially for Youth program. It was a life-changing experience. I can't put into words how much I loved working with the youth of the Church and feeling a small dose of Christ's love for them—most of whom I did not know until I met them at “Meet Your Counselor” on Monday afternoons. EFY was such a wonderful time...that's why it deserves the number 1 spot on my list this year. I grew so much and gained a greater perspective on life in general. Not to mention the Peanut Butter and Jelly Dance......definitely learned to love that thing. ;)

Here's to another year! 2013 is going to be a great one.

This Holiday We Call Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Aside from family, great food, and pumpkin pie (it's so good it deserves its own category), I love the spirit that comes with Thanksgiving. It seems like everyone is just....happier. For no specific reason, necessarily. And it seems most of the American population falls into this rut of holiday cheer from the third Thursday in November until the first day of January and then everyone suddenly comes down with the Winter Blues. I fall into this same trap, don't get me wrong, I just find it really interesting. Why can't we be grateful for what we have all the time? Funny how spoiled us Americans are...I found myself complaining the other day that my iPhone froze so I couldn't check my email for like two minutes. How pathetic that we consider situations like this a "problem," right? I've really been trying to be more grateful for the blessings I have (obviously, because it's after that third Thursday in November...haha) and I have realized more and more that we really do have so much to be thankful for. Especially here in Happy Valley, Utah. How often do we find ourselves complaining that we have to make our beds, clean our rooms, or do our laundry? And for each time we complain about doing these things, how many people are wishing they had a bed to make, a room to clean, and clothes to wear? It's humbling. 

We watched this video in one of my religion classes and it was so powerful. Watch it--I dare you. ;)

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-helping-hands-hurricane-sandy-video

My favorite part is when one victim is talking about all the devastation that has come from Hurricane Sandy because she said something that has stuck with me. In the midst of all this destruction--the victims being interviewed had pretty much lost everything--she said "we are luckier than a lot of people are." Wow. If someone who has just lost all worldly possessions can say they are lucky, how lucky (or blessed, rather) should we feel? There is a song by Josh Groban that I loooove. It's called Thankful. One of my favorite lines in the song says, "It's up to us to be the change. And even though we all can still do more, there's so much to be thankful for." 

Happy Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's Day! (It will probably take me that long before I have time to get another post up...)

The Skinny Minnie

I was watching the Today show the other day when they showed a clip about Barneys New York and the new Electric Holiday Campaign. Barneys is giving classic Disney characters (Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Goofy, etc.) a makeover--their displays feature these characters dressed in high-fashion apparel and have made each of them stick-thin. These characters look more like sickly models than signature faces of the happiest place on earth. Here's a clip of the story: 

I do not agree with this at all. I think it is putting the wrong image into the heads of children, giving them the idea that they are not "fashionable" if they are not stick-thin like these characters. It also sends the message that they weren't good enough at the size they were before--so, in order to display them in New York City, they have to change how they look. What kind of messages is this sending children? And, on top of that, how many children actually believe the messages that are conveyed to them? I'd say it's probably quite a few, considering all the emphasis on media and technology that we have these days. Through replacing average-sized characters with extremely skinny ones, young girls (especially) become vulnerable to feeling like they aren't good enough if they don't look like these models, no matter how harmless Barneys meant for them to be. Anyway, I just found this really interesting so I hope you do too! Enjoy!

21.

Well, today I turned 21. Weird. But this year has been good to me. Life has been good to me in general. I've learned a lot in my 21 years of life (I know, I'm super experienced........). I have learned a few important lessons, though. So, in celebration of my 21st birthday, here are 21 things I have come to learn, or appreciate, in my wisdom-filled life so far ;).

1. Friends come and go, but family will be with you forever!
2. Do your best and be satisfied. Your best is all you have to offer-if you've given that, there's nothing to regret or feel bad about.
3. Attitude is everything. Think happy, be happy!
4. Always, always, always trust in Heavenly Father and his timing. He knows what's best for us and his will is going to be done no matter how much we try to control our own lives. Trusting in Him will bring us more peace than we can find any other way.
5. Exercise. Aside from keeping you healthy it's an instant happiness boost.
6. Make new friends and meet new people.
7. Service cures bad hair days, ugly outfit days, and days where everything seems to be going wrong. As soon as you think outside yourself and serve others, your problems seem trivial and you may even feel stupid for having your own little pity party.
8. When you are scared to do something, do it.
9. Mom is always right. I don't care what anyone else says...she's always right. And it's kind of freaky. ;)
10. Integrity is more important than fear or a bad grade.
11. There is no such thing as a "coincidence." Everything happens for a reason.
12. Know when to have fun and when to be serious.
13. Everybody loves to talk about themselves, so make people happy and ask about their lives. No one likes a self-centered chatter box :) (and I mean that in the nicest way possible).
14. Appearances only matter to an extent-a very small extent.
15. Happiness comes from living the way we know we are supposed to live.
16. When your room is clean it is much easier to get things done...whether they be in your room or not. Something about a dirty room irking the back of my mind prevents me from doing anything productive.
17. Music is medicine.
18. Everyone deserves respect-we are all children of God.
19. The Gospel doesn't always make sense, but it is ALWAYS true. It always has been and it always will be.
20. There is something good that comes from being busy. I don't quite know what it is, but being busy makes me happy and I feel accomplished.
21. Life can be hard, but if it weren't, it would never be good.

Here's to another year!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

The day has come. Hannah turned SIXTEEN today. So crazy. I love Hannah. We have so much fun together...I forget she is only 15 (well...16 now I guess haha) sometimes because we get along so great. She is such a sweet girl--and she has like 1 million friends to show it! Not to mention her adorable style--she borrows my clothes all the time. HAHA just kidding. She has such cute clothes that sometimes I actually copy her outfits or even buy the same shirts...whoops! We always have great times...like, for example, one time we got in trouble by the Costco manager because we snuck in without a card and went around to get all the samples (what else is Costco good for, right?). The workers apparently saw us sneak in and started getting on their radios, giving descriptions of what we look like and they all started searching for us until they finally tracked us down. It was great. And awkward. But mostly great. We can spend hours on end going shopping together, talking about Fashion Week, bike-riding, talking about good music, eating, driving, scooter-ing, and planning our half marathon goals (that WILL happen. Snow Canyon 2012 baby.). Oh, and we even got to spend a week at EFY together (I was a counselor, she was a participant...obviously)!! It was the best. What can we conclude from this? Doing things with Hannah is great. Hannah is just great. Yep.

I love you, Hannah! Thanks for being so smart, talented, beautiful, kind, and amazing! Happy sweet sixteen! Don't date too many boys! ;)

Rise and Shout!

Well, summer is over and school is back in session. Summer always goes by too fast...but winter seems to drag on forever...funny. Fall semester is actually my favorite, though. I love football season (I've never been a huge football fan in and of itself, but going to the games is just all around great for so many reasons). The first game of the season was last night. It was so great--we destroyed Washington State 30-6 and I had such a great time with friends and those free pom-poms they set on all the seats. Those things are obnoxiously great. I also love walking on campus during fall semester. Even if it is 99 degrees at least it's not bitter cold, and campus is just so pretty. I am starting my major classes this semester and I LOVE them so far (let's see if I still say that at the end of the semester...). Public Relations is so interesting to me. And I'm minoring in music, which I also love. So, it's going to be good when (or IF...) graduation ever comes and I can actually do things with these classes...you know, like in real life. Yeah. Here's to a great semester! 

P.S. I'm sure you've all seen this. But it's hilarious. So, if you need a good laugh, just watch it again. Totally worth it. Enjoy!

Elder Hampton is on his way!

Today we dropped Jake off at the MTC. It was definitely a bitter-sweet day. We have been so close...it's going to be hard not having him around for two years. But he is going to be the BEST missionary--I'm so excited for him. Read the blog we are doing for him for all the details of today, pictures and all. :) 

elderhampton.blogspot.com

Happy Wednesday (which I will now and forever think of as missionary-drop-off day.)!!