12 June - 25 June 2023
Wow, okay, so I missed a week for the first time in over a year... but no sweat. This is a place for me to document and journal about life events that I want to remember, plus a fun way to look at photos and revisit the memories associated with them. I've had a lot of time for self-reflection these past couple of weeks, and it amazes me how much I truly do not know and cannot comprehend. It sure keeps me humble. So just a quick update on the week before this last week: the guy I'd gone on one date with was sending off so many red flags and bad feelings, so I courteously let him know I was no longer interested in going on dates or spending time together. I had some help from my wonderful older sister to word it nice and make it more palatable to receive, cuz y'all know me, and I'm super blunt. It's not that I take pride in that, but complete honesty is so important to me, and so I like to be honest, and sometimes it can come across difficult to hear. I'm still working on my tact :). But thank goodness for older sisters who are geniuses at drafting up the perfect response to send. Seriously, a friend told me to patent that response to give out to people to use when they are not interested in a guy 😅. Anywho, I've also been spending a lot of time attending missionary lessons for my new friend Kimberly, which has been great. I love being involved with missionary work and having opportunities to bear testimony and share my experiences. Work has been super busy as we've been working on replacing over 200 agents' signs with new designs on top of our regular work. I've also been learning to master the sticker machines, making cut lines. It's been pretty neat! On Friday, I had a good heart-to-heart discussion with my supervisor about how making deep connections with others are difficult and how I often don't feel heard. We discussed how rare it is to make really good, life-long, deep friendships and connections, and how we often just have to meet people where they are at and can go through periods of loneliness when we don't have the deep connections we want. I've experienced that a lot before, but those feelings were exceedingly tender in that moment and it was comforting to hear that it's a normal struggle that I'm not alone in, that it's not a "just me" problem. On Saturday, my sisters and I decorated stickers. I hated seeing all the sticker paper scraps go to waste, so I took them home and ordered Sharpies to try to create custom stickers for fun with Lucy before she goes off to college, and us three sisters had a blast making them! Lucy's alcohol markers worked SUPER well. I think it's an art idea I'm going to incorporate into therapy sessions with clients.
This past week, I went to Kimberly's house on Monday to hang with her and the sister missionaries for a bit, and she showed us her Irish dancing moves, which was cool. We made potato cars to race at FHE that evening, which was actually super fun! We had a huge turnout, and I ended up getting fourth place! Which is incredible when you consider that I was going to quit and give up at one point in the making of the car. The wheel placement is SO tricky! And Lucy, the Goomba, named her car "Loser" and won the whole thing! My car was named Ron Weasley, in case you were wondering ;). On Tuesday afternoon, I did initiatories at the temple, and then the elders were over for dinner (a last-minute plan), so I ate with them but then had to leave for a lesson at the church building with Kimberly, where we discussed the Law of Chastity and eternal marriage. Thursday evening was Giselle's bridal shower, and Valerie did a marvelous job setting up and decorating for it at our house. She was so pleasantly surprised. I left early to go meet with a bishop about what I do as a therapist... so, I'd messaged 55 bishops from different wards in the valley, letting them know I'm an LDS counselor and that I'd love to meet or talk with them. I gave them my profile link and contact info. So far, I've heard back from three bishops, and one of them wanted to meet up. So that was pretty cool. We'll see if I actually get any clients from it, though. Who knows?! (Well, God, obviously, but you know what I mean). I helped clean the church Friday night, polishing the wood in the chapel, which was quite a bit dusty! On Saturday, I took dad out to lunch for Thai food as his Father's Day present. He ordered SPICY food, and we shared, so my mouth was on FiRe! But it was still yummy. That evening, I left to set up the photobooth for the stake skate night, which went super well. Not as many people used the photobooth as I expected, but a lot of people did grab stickers! And skating was super fun. I have a new-found love for my rollerblades. I tried the rental blades at the rink just to compare (since skate rental was free) and mine are SO MUCH BETTER. SO much. So yeah. Always good to be humbled and feel grateful for what you have :). Although, my pride did get the best of me that night because I decided I didn't need to bring my knee pads or wrist guards, and sure enough, I got a gnarly bruise on my knee and slightly sprained/twisted my wrist. Oh well. At least I was looking SUPER cute that night! I did such a good job on my hair and makeup, and got lots of compliments on my eyeshadow (don't worry, I'll include LOTS of pictures below). My knee is pretty swollen and bruised still, but at least I'm still alive and walking! Sunday was long because I had an 8:30am extended ward council meeting, plus two meetings after church for FHE and the Stake Activities Committee (which I ran and it went super well. I printed out agendas, brought sticker paper and makers for people to color during it, and also brought treats!). Oh yeah, and Lucy and mom drove up to Utah on Friday morning to get Lucy settled in at BYU. The one perk of that is now I get to move the storage boxes that have been sitting in my room into her room, hehe. So now I have more space in my room and it looks less cluttered.
Much love,
Emily Burnham
