Lucy Ann Smith Crane

AKA: The greatest mom in the world. This is kind of a huge undertaking to start with this great lady because they really don't come much better than her. I look up to my mom in more ways than I can count. Every time someone asks, "who do you know that is a good example of (insert good quality here)?" Without fail, the first person that comes to my mind is my mom. She exemplifies absolutely everything that I want to be.

I am so grateful for the way that my mom raised me. I have such a hard time in my FCD classes when we are talking about things that our parents did that weren't so great, or things that we saw in their parenting styles that we have vowed to never use on our own children. I can never contribute to these conversations. In my eyes, my mom was and is the perfect parent and I wouldn't change a thing. I have learned a lot about parenting in the last few years and a lot of times it makes me think that my mom must have a secret PhD in parenting. She does it perfectly.

I am, of course, grateful to my mom for everything she did and taught me while I was growing up. Some of  my favorite memories of her are of when she was taking care of me when I was sick. There is no better nurse. She is the perfect paper editor, the most selfless server, and her ability to remember things and always be on the ball amazes me. Simple as it may be, I always loved those times when I would briefly mention to her that I needed something like more hairspray on my way out the door, and when I got home from school there was a new bottle in my bathroom for me. I was always grateful that I never had to be one of those kids left sitting on the grass outside the elementary school because my mom got too busy and forgot to come pick me up. In both big ways and small, she has never let me down.

More than all of the countless things that she has done and still does for me, I am grateful for the relationship that I have with my mom. I have always been close to my mom but the older I get, the better friends we become. I still need her in her mom role, but she is incredible at the best friend role as well. I can't think of a single thing about me (or my friends) that my mom doesn't know. I tell her everything and there isn't an easier person for me to talk to. I know I can go to her with anything and she will always know exactly what to do or say. We never went through a typical teenage phase where we didn't see eye-to-eye or I felt like she didn't understand me. I have always valued my mom's opinions over anyone else's and trusted her to do what was best for me; and I have never been wrong in that.

My mom has been through a lot and she is hands-down one of the strongest women I know. I am so grateful for her spiritual strength as well and its influence on my life. I am so glad that she had the faith to be baptized into the LDS church when she was 16 so that I could be raised in a family that embraces those values and will be together for all eternity.

I am so grateful for the endless support that my mom gives to me and my siblings. She never misses a game, a match, a concert, a play, a recital, a clogging competition, or anything else that comes up. No matter what we are doing she is watching and cheering us on (and, of course, thinking we are the best ones there). I don't think I would be able to go to school so far away if I didn't know that, despite how hard it can be sometimes, I have the full support of my mom. I know that no matter what I do, she will always be proud of me and want the best for me.

I could go on for hours about the endless reasons why my mom is my biggest hero. In my eyes she is absolutely perfect and I love every second that I get to spend with her. She is beautiful and loving and funny and helpful and supportive and my very best friend. She will be lucky if she finds a guy who I think comes even close to being good enough for her. She's the best and deserves the best.

Thanks for everything Mom. I love you. 

Happy Thankful Month!

On Thursday I realized it was the first day of November which is a month full of gratitude. I decided I would be really clever and write one thing that I was thankful for on my Facebook status every day for the entire month. I thought that this would be a good way to recognize and express how thankful I am for all of the blessings in my life and it would be fun to share with all of my family and friends. I soon realized that I was not nearly as clever as I thought I was. Apparently this is not a new idea. Mostly all of my Facebook friends had this same idea and my news feed is now full of people being thankful. So, rather than follow the crowd, (which I really hate doing) I thought I would be thankful on my blog instead. Okay, that's probably not actually a super original idea either, but I liked it better.

I have had a huge realization recently of how blessed I am with the people in my life. I have obviously always been thankful for my friends and family, but sometimes it hits you harder than others. The last few months has been one of those times. So, instead of making blog posts of everything that I am thankful for (which really is waaaaaay too much to condense into 30 days of blogging) I have decided that I am just going to talk about who I'm thankful for. That sounds fun yeah?

Disclaimers:
-These people will be thanked in no particular order. I can't prioritize the people that I love.
-These people will not be thanked to the fullest extent that they deserve. Once again, there is way too much to be said than what I can (or want to) write on a simple blog post.
-This will not be an exhaustive list. There really is no way for me to thank every person that I love or who has impacted me in some way. So I will do my best, but just know that this isn't everyone.

Here we go.....

Sandy

The first part of this week was pretty exciting. As you probably know, on Sunday/Monday a massive storm was headed for the east coast. Hurricane Sandy. She was predicted to be the storm of the century. She was huge, strong, slow and, with the cold front and snow expected with her, she was not your typical hurricane. So, understandably, people were nervous. Many schools had prematurely closed and government officials had declared states of emergency up and down the coast. As for us in the western Virginia town of Buena Vista, there were varying degrees of concern. For those who had been here for the major storm this summer than downed trees and killed power for weeks; there was a lot of stress. For those of us who have been conditioned to not be bothered by a little wind and have seen the minimal effects of hurricanes on BV before;  we weren't too ruffled. I was a good kid and prepared like I was supposed to anyway though. I bought some water, charged my phone,pulled out my flashlight, and got my homework done that required my computer. Monday was a really weird/eerie day. It was dark and cold and quiet. Everyone was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. We were all bracing ourselves for whatever might come (and secretly hoping it would be good enough to cancel school). By late Monday night, it was raining a little and there was a breeze, but nothing major. I woke up on Tuesday morning to near-freezing temperatures, snow, rain, and a slight breeze. But I also woke up to every tree being perfectly in-tact, light and heat in my house, no flooding, and a hot shower. While all of SVU was grumbling about the disappointment of the century and having to go to class bright and early, I was watching and reading news reports in horror at the damage that had been done so close to me (but let's be honest, I still wished school would have been cancelled too). It's weird to be so close (literally 2 or 3 hours away) to so much destruction and yet be perfectly fine. Really nothing happened here, and yet:

I have to throw this in here too. I have indescribable amounts of respect for these men. They never left. 

All in all, we got extremely lucky here and I know that there are huge numbers of people that were not near as lucky as we were. I also feel extremely lucky because of the huge amount of love that I felt during all of this. I have the most incredible friends and family who keep an eye on me from a distance. They never miss a beat and usually know what's going on here even before I do. I didn't even know we were expecting a hurricane until my sweet Aunt Vicki text me on Saturday to see how the weather was looking for us. Even though we ended up being completely fine here, it was so nice to get those texts and calls making sure everything was okay. I have absolutely the best people in my life. So blessed. I can't wait to see them all in just two weeks!!

Happy Free Confused and Lonely

Okay, this blog has been very badly neglected. I don't have a great excuse either. Fortunately I have some great (naggy) friends to keep me in line. So I will try to do better.

I feel like I probably have a lot that I should write on this since it's been so long, but I don't really know what to say. So this might be a little scattered.

I was going to write a semi-depressing post about how stressed I am with school and life in general, or about how I have been more homesick the last 3-4 weeks than I think I ever have been while going to school out here. But then, I listened to Red (Taylor Swift's new album), and she came through for me like she always does. Her song "22" is nothing deeply moving or thought provoking, but it's perfect. And it was perfect for changing the way this post is going to go and they way I feel about life right now. If you haven't listened to it, here is a little taste for you (also go listen to it!). 

"It feels like a perfect night to dress up like hipsters
And make fun of our exes
It feels like a perfect night for breakfast at midnight
To fall in love with strangers
We're happy free confused and lonely at the same time
It's miserable and magical Tonight's the night when we forget about the deadlines, it's time 
I don't know about you but I'm feeling 22
Everything will be alright if you keep me next to you
You don't know about me but I bet you want to
Everything will be alright if we just keep dancing like we're 22
It seems like one of those nightsThis place is too crowded too many cool kids
It seems like one of those nights
We ditch the whole scene and end up dreaming instead of sleeping
We're happy free confused and lonely in the best way
It's miserable and magical 
Tonight's the night when we forget about the heartbreaks, it's time 
It feels like one of those nights
We ditch the whole scene
It feels like one of those nights
We won't be sleeping"

Obviously, I'm not quite 22, but that's beside the point. It's mostly just a fun party song and it reminds me of my life right now. Sometimes I am a serious student and want to cry about everything that's expected of me, and sometimes we ditch the whole scene, make breakfast (or have pizza) at midnight, forget about the deadlines, and dance like we're 22. Despite the studying and the homework and the homesickness and the non-stop schedule and the fears about my future, I just absolutely love my life right now. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in being a responsible adult that I forget that I'm 20 years old and allowed (and expected) to have a good time. And when I do remember that, then we have some pretty good times. I have realized that I have to enjoy every moment right now, because this part of my life is almost over. In 6 short months I will be graduating from SVU and leaving this town and most of these great people, so why wouldn't I enjoy it while I'm here? I think I had this same realization my senior year of high school. As much as I was more than ready to graduate, I decided that it was silly to wish that time away, and instead I partied it up with my friends and made the most of that last year. Do I wish I was back in high school? No. But I am so glad that I made the most of that last year and made some great memories so that I can look back on it and smile rather than regret just waiting for it to be over. Which is what I am trying to do now. I have to fill my tank with great college experiences before it's over and all I have left are the memories. So far I think I am doing a pretty good job of that. Granted, we don't do lots of crazy fun stuff, but watching a movie, or baking, or taking a little road trip to get Taylor's new CD, or running around campus trying to pull together a fun Homecoming are the kinds of simple things that might not sound like anything special, but for me, with the right people, they really are. 

I'm doing pretty well in my classes right now. I'm super busy with senate and committee meetings; which I secretly love. I just finished my fall season of tennis, loved every second of it, and can't wait for spring. I have made some great new friends. I can't step outside right now without being blown away for the millioneth time with how beautiful this place is. I get to see my family in 23 days. I'm  teaching my second Sunday school lesson on Sunday. And it's pumpkin pie blizzard season at Dairy Queen. 

Mostly life is just wonderful and I am trying to savor every moment. I have a lot on my plate and things get a little hectic sometimes, but I am just going to keep dancing like I'm 22 (or 20). 

Crazy....

Hey I just got here

And life is CRAZY

But here's a blog post

So love it maybe?

Ha okay I can't believe how busy I got in such a short amount of time! That's a senior year of college for you I guess. Weirdly enough, despite having no free time and stressing about a hundred things at once, I am just a happy kid. You know when you just feel good? Life is hectic but at the same time it is just so good and I just have this happy feeling all the time. I just feel like this is going to be a great year and I just have that feeling that there are some really good things to come. It's kind of a fun feeling to have.

Classes are classes. It's still a little soon to tell how they are all going to be, but for the most part I think I will be okay. Minus my FCD capstone class. Family Life Education (FLE). It's going to kill me. At SVU the Family and Child Development major doesn't require a senior paper like most of the other majors do, but it does require a "senior capstone experience" aka, a class from....you know where.... Okay, so the class itself doesn't seem like it will be too bad, but it's all that's required with the class that is freaking me out. We don't have to write a senior paper but we do have to write a bunch of little papers and a research paper. The biggest part of the class is a presentation that we have to give toward the end. I hate presentations as much as the next person, but this isn't your typical 15-minute presentation that you make a powerpoint for and present to the class. We are required to give an hour long presentation/workshop/class to a group of people in the community. Terrifying. It's an FLE presentation so it is ideally supposed to be given to some kind of group of parents or people with family life needs. I haven't done much with it yet, but I am planning on contacting the local Head Start program and setting up a presentation for the parents of the kids at the Head Start. Now besides the obvious stresses of giving a super long presentation in which your professor is critiquing your every word and movement and determining whether or not you graduate, I am even more terrified for this whole thing because of my audience. This isn't like a presentation to my classmates in which half of them are asleep and the other half are too focused on what they will say in their presentation to listen to mine. I am going to be asking real parents with real questions and concerns and problems to give up an hour of their day to come listen to what I have to say. If people show up it's because they are legitimately interested in what I will be talking about and are hoping to gain something from it. That's some pressure. They are going to be looking to me, some 20-year-old college kid who has next to nothing when it comes to interaction with young kids, to give them valuable advice and principles to apply to their parenting. What do I know? The even scarier thing is exactly what I will be presenting about. What bigger job do people have than properly parenting their own children? None really. And I'm supposed to tell them how to do it? Ummmm......yeah you could say I'm freaking out a little bit. But I know it will be good for me. Let's try and think positively.

In other (much more exciting) news, I am now a member of the SVU tennis team!!! I could not be more excited. I have missed playing tennis sooo much. I thought about trying out my freshman year, but then I pansied out and never did. This summer I decided that I might as well give it a shot so I called the coach (Deidra Dryden) and talked to her about it. We talked a couple of times but I ultimately just ended up walking on the team. We started practice on Monday and I am loving it. I'm really terrible and I don't know the other girls very well yet, but I am still having fun and can see that it is headed in a good direction. We have our first match on Wednesday, but I don't think I will be playing in it. From what I understand, our matches consist of two doubles teams and two singles teams. So only 6 girls actually get to play in the match. We have 10 girls. So I'm not 100% sure what that means for me other than that I can be pretty sure that I won't be playing in every one. But hopefully (probably) some. I absolutely love Coach Dryden. I don't know her that well yet but I can tell that she is just an incredible coach. She kicks our butts but I feel like I have gotten better in the last 3 days than I did throughout my 3 years of tennis in high school. I really wish that I would have started my freshman year because I think I could be sooo much better by now, but I also know that I probably couldn't have handled it when I got here two years ago. I'm better at managing my time now than I was as a freshman and I'm just more comfortable in everything now than I was. Even bigger than that is the fact that I physically couldn't have handled it my freshman year. I am in ten times better shape now than I was two years ago and I can guarantee you that if I was in the same shape now as I was then, I probably would have  ran walked away crying yesterday when Coach Dryden told us that we would be ending practice with a "puke drill." Instead, I saw it as a challenge and while I was absolutely exhausted by the time we were done, I felt sooo good. It's definitely a nice change. 

One last piece of news. On Sunday, Imari and I were called to be the Gospel Principles instructors. Ahhhh!!! When our first counselor text me Saturday night and asked if he could meet with me before church, I immediately knew I was getting a calling. I also knew it would be a semi-big one since it's the beginning of the semester so everything has to be redone. I thought to myself "Anything but teaching. I can handle just about any calling, but pleeeaaase don't let it be teaching." Of course that's what I got. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? I'm trying to laugh along with him, but I am freaking out. I've never taught before and Gospel Principles is generally the class for the less actives/investigators/non members. Which means I really don't want to screw it up. So yeah, I'm terrified, but it will probably end up being good for me too. 

Okay, that ended up being way longer than I planned but there it is for you. Those are the highlights of my life right now. I'll keep you updated.

Oh Shenandoah...

Oh hey there. Remember me? I kind of forgot I had this little guy honestly. But I decided I should probably get back on top of this since I have such an exciting life! Okay, that's not entirely true, but it is kind of a major time in my life, so it should probably be documented. I feel like there's probably a lot that I could write right now, but let's start with a quick rundown of what has happened since we talked last.

I finished up my summer classes at BYU. And....I passed them all!! I even got A's (well, A-'s). I was super impressed with myself considering what a slacker I was this summer. It's super hard to focus during the time of year that you have been programmed to spend playing all your life. Somehow I got through it (with a lot less boating than I would have liked).

After my summer semester was over, I had about a week before I had to leave for Virginia. I spent most of that time just catching my breath and having a ridiculously short summer vacation. It was nice to just stay at home with my family without any worries for a minute. I just love that place and those people.

On August 21st, Kenzy and I hopped in her big, white truck to begin our long trek across the country. Somehow I got roped into driving all the way across the country to get back to school, rather than taking a quick plane ride. I'm still not sure how that happened.  I wasn't thrilled about doing a 30+ hour car drive instead of a 5 hour plane ride, but I was doing it with one of my best friends which makes just about any situation soooo much better. And we did have a good time. It was a long drive and I got restless, but it was fun at the same time. It's crazy that I'm old and responsible enough (in theory) to take a road trip across the country with my best friend and no adults. We are the adults. Except I'm really not at all. We made it in one piece though and made really good time. And let me tell you, I have never been so happy to see this cute little town.

Getting back to Buena Vista, Virginia honestly felt like coming home. It's confusing to have two homes, but so nice at the same time. I leave one and go to the other, and am so happy either direction I'm headed. The first two years I was a little apprehensive and less than excited to get here, but I was so ready this year. By the time we got to West Virginia, the landscape was starting to look like my beautiful state of Virginia, and I honestly almost cried a little. It's weird how a place can grab your heart so quickly. It didn't take Virginia very long to grab me and for me to lay claim on it as a place I will call home for the rest of my life (even if I only spend 3 years here total). Sorry if that was cheesy, but I really just love this place so much!

Once we got back here, we started training to be orientation leaders for the new students coming in this fall.  This week has been crazy and exhausting with training and check-in and orientation, but it has been sooo good. I love when I get the opportunity to share my love for this university with other people. I have met some wonderful new people and have gotten to know some of my fellow classmates a lot better. I don't want to go into all the details of this week (they would probably be boring to you), but it has been a great one! I'm so happy to be back here.

Sidenotes:

The heat and humidity here are absolutely ridiculous here right now! I cannot even describe it to you. It's bad. We are supposed to get some of hurricane in the next 24-48 hours and then hopefully the humidity will die down a little bit.

The fireflies are out in full force. The early evenings are magical! I love them sooo much!

Imari and I each bought a $3 cactus at walmart the other day. Mine's name is Carlos.

When my bishop and his wife found out I was still in their ward, they were both so genuinely excited that it made me want to cry. They are the sweetest people and I know they are sincere when they tell the members of the ward that they love them. They really do. And we love them back.

Elder and Sister Crowther not being here is mostly the worst thing ever. Getting done with sacrament meeting today and not getting to walk to the back of the chapel and talk to them for a while almost made me cry (man I'm an emotional kid these days!). It's going to be hard not having my best friends here. We did get to go have one last game night with them at their house in Logan before we left. That was sooo much fun! And I won every game of Scum that we played! Whooo!

For anyone who is wondering, Willard is still alive. Love that little guy.

Okay, that's enough useless information for now. I will try to keep up with this better than I have been from now on. Have a nice day. 

Home Sweet Home!

High on Summertime

Do you know what I love? Driving home for the weekend. Okay, I don't actually love the 3 hours in the car by myself part. What I do love is that I can decide last minute that I would rather spend my 3 day weekend with my family in Burley, than alone in my apartment in Provo. And then just hop in my car and make that happen in a matter of hours (or longer if I decide to stop and spend the night in Kaysville with some girls that I kind of like). I feel like I am reverting a little bit because, with the way it's looking, I will probably see some part of my family every weekend (or week) of the summer. That's the kind of thing that a new freshman in college does right after they move out and are going through their first semester of college away from home. However, I never really gave myself that option. I went home for Thanksgiving my first semester of college. Now that going home a lot is an option, I am definitely taking advantage of it. Really though that was kind of the point of me taking classes at BYU this summer. I was going to take classes either way, but I decided that I would rather do it at BYU than SVU so that I could be closer to my family and go home every weekend. I realized that this is my first real summer away from home, and it drives me crazy to think that I am missing out on what constitutes a traditional Crane family summer. So, I am going to do a lot of driving so that I don't have to miss out on too much.

It was kind of silly for me to go home this weekend, because I am going back up there after class on Tuesday for the 4th of July and then to head to Spokane for Mikey and Corrina's wedding. That is already going to be a TON of driving, but I wanted nothing less than to sit in Provo for three days doing nothing while my favorite people were just 3 hours away. And it may not have made the most sense, but I had a wonderful weekend. I played with my puppies, baked chocolate cookies with Mom, played Life with Mom and Mitch, watched Clash of the Titans with Dad, wrote a paragraph of my paper that's due on Tuesday, went to People Like Us with Mom, went boating with Dad, Mitch, and Cheri, watched (slept through) Captain America, laid in the hot sun, and went to church with my family.

Sam and Lexi are both out of the country right now, which I'm not a huge fan of. It was weird for me to be the one at home with neither of them there. Lex has only been gone for 4 days and I am already so sick of her being gone. It will be a long 3 weeks. Sam has been gone forever and will continue to be gone forever. I hate that. I'm excited for when (if) we all get to be together for a second.

Well, that's about all I have for you. I'm enjoying trying out this school close to home thing. I may be slowly losing the independence that I have gained the last two years, but I'm not too concerned about that. I just like my family.