four of them.

happy four year anniversary to my dear bloggie. 

how dare you four years go by so quickly! 

I remember sitting in my dads kitchen talking to lizzie about how i was moving to new york. she told me that this was the perfect time for me to start a blog so that my family could see how i was doing, and so that my time there would be well documented. it was well documented and i could not be more grateful for that. 

on january 11, 2008, i was blogging from harlem, ny. 

my dad helped me settle in to my apartment before flying back to utah.

something i didn't blog about was how scared i was to be there. the neighborhood i was living in was absolutely awful and the actual apartment i was in was even worse. the landlord was the weirdest part of it all. i remember going to a fried chicken store a few yards from my apartment with my dad. we were discussing what i would do at the end of the month and where i would move to. i stopped talking, looked at my dad and started to cry. i told him that i didn't want to stay. i could just go back to school at the community college, fly home with him and drop out of my school in new york. at a young age of 19, moving anywhere is scary. moving to the opposite coast without knowing a single soul: also pretty scary. of course my dad wouldn't let me do that, no matter how badly i wanted to at the time. i'm so glad that i stayed. i ended up loving the city and my time spent there. every once in a while, i think about new york and get a pang in my heart. i miss living there so badly sometimes.

in january 2009, i was living the single lady's dream. 

 i started to fully immerse myself into the interior design program at salt lake community college. i was living in sugar house in my sisters old place with her friends. i was working as a receptionist in sandy at a sketchy place that i later got laid off from. they called me back to hire me again, and i declined. but, that is neither here, nor there. 

what i hadn't blogged about was how i had recently sworn off dating anyone seriously in hopes of being single by the time chase got home. this gave me plenty of time to hang out with my girlfriends. i was sincerely happy at this time of my life. a few weeks later on february 3, jon and i started hanging out again....as 'friends'. 

one year later, in january 2010, i was an engaged woman. 

i was working as a front desk manager at a fitness center while going to school full time and interning at a design firm. all while trying to plan my wedding. 

what i didn't blog about was how hard it was on me that i was, in fact, planning my wedding alone. i am not ungrateful for the help i did get. it was a very lonely process, as happy as i was. since my fiance was living far away, i got to spend a lot of time with my cute nephew. i was so excited to be engaged, i loved wearing a new ring and having a 'fiance'. i was also coming to grips with the fact that my best friend had just gotten married. isn't that funny? i was excited to be getting married, but it was bitter-sweet that lyndsi and i were growing up. also, at the time, i was unaware that my brows were three sizes too small.

exactly one year ago on january 11, 2011, i was staying at my dads. i had been there for about a month. jon was deployed. we had spent all the major holidays including christmas and new years eve apart. i was sad to be spending our first holidays away from each other. i frequently thought about my favorite quote "Always together, never apart. Maybe by distance, but never by heart." i don't think i blogged about this at the time, but the silver lining i saw in our situation was that i had another year to spend my christmas however i wanted. and that was with my family. katie was about to come visit me in california for an entire week. i had a lot to look forward to. i was about to start my first semester at san diego state university, and i was past the halfway mark of jon's deployment. my cat had driven to utah and from utah with me. things were going well, considering. 

this year, i am really happy. we spent christmas and new years together. we were in utah for a week, and now we are in texas spending time with jon's family. i am starting school next week; taking six classes. i'm planning on graduating from SDSU in may 2013, just in time for jon to get out. i still don't have a job. something i wouldn't usually blog about: jon and i are probably going to move to utah when he gets out. he isn't 100% about staying in or getting out, but he most likely won't reenlist and we'll be heading home so that he can go to the university of utah. it's a big decision, he hasn't applied to the U and we are still undecided. it's up in the air. we are taking it one day at a time though, and enjoying each others company. things are going well. :)