Guess Who's Back (back, back, back again)

Hello, Blogger world! It's been a while and plenty of things have changed since my last post. First, as you can see by my new title, I am no longer in China. I'm in Utah! My decision to go to school at Utah Valley University was a little spontaneous but, not nearly as spontaneous or impulsive as my sister's decision to join me! I decided to come out here, talked my roommate into coming with me two weeks before classes started, and then Rachel joined us about three weeks ago. But, before I start talking about my life here, let me rewind and tell a little bit about my six weeks at home.
After spending one long night here in Utah, I finished the last few hours of my journey home to the gorgeous state of Virginia. I got home late Friday night/early Saturday morning. I was able to surprise my parents by showing up the night before they thought I was actually going to be there. At that point, it was just Mom, Dad, and Erin my youngest sister at home. Sammi and Amber were gone to Youth Conference, and Rachel was living at her own place. So, I was expecting to get at least 18 hours of sleep. I even locked the door to ensure that I would not be bothered. But, did that happen? Of course not. At 7am, about four hours after I had fallen asleep, Erin picked the lock to my room and crawled into bed with me. Gotta love her ;)
Thankfully, I was able to get my job back, so I started work at EvriChart bright and early on Monday morning. It wasn't too fun to be working the whole time that I was home, but I definitely needed the money. Plus, working with great people always helps. I love my EvriChart family. They were so sweet and kept in contact with me the whole time that I was in China.

I got back to the States at the perfect time. A week before Independence Day! My love and appreciation for this wonderful nation grew tremendously during my time abroad. Don't misunderstand me, I am in no way trying to put China in a bad light. I learned so much while I was there! But, one thing that I learned was that I have been so blessed to have been born into a wonderful family in a wonderful country. I am so grateful to be able to enjoy the freedoms that being American grants me.  Independence Day fell on a Sunday this year, which only helped me to be that much more thankful for my religious freedom. Ask my family, I bawled like a baby through most of the church services that day. I truly believe that our founding fathers involved the Lord in their work, and I am just so grateful to be American!

Whew! Done with that tangent.. I spent the rest of my time at home with family and friends. I, of course, went to the midnight showing of Eclipse with some fabulous friends. I was able to FINALLY see my cousin's baby, Karlee! She's so precious. I was also blessed with the opportunity to spend time with a friend's baby. His name is Julian, and I'm pretty sure that he is one of the most adorable babies that I have ever seen. He's so funny! He'll be turning a year old this month.
Even though I enjoyed my time at home, I wish that it wouldn't have passed so quickly so that I would've been able to spend more of it with my family.  But, it seems that this semester is going to go by super fast (midterms are next week!) so I'll be home for Christmas soon enough!

Happy Tuesday!

PS- there will be more about China. Have no fear ;)