this week:

--Found out both of the ways I pay for school are no longer there
--Got a call from my brother, saying he is leaving for boot camp a full four months early and that this is the last time I will see him for a very long time
--Could not stop thinking about my exchange brother and the poor people of Norway
--Got back to a workplace with new management, employees leaving left and right (four this month), and a brand new take on the system I've worked on for the last seven months
--Had to leave the place I love the most, and try not to bawl at the airport when my grandma said goodbye
--Dealt with a very complicated relationship or two.

Needless to say, coming back to Salt Lake has been difficult, because now I feel like I have to face all of these things from less than 1,000 miles away. But I keep taking comfort in the fact that God is bigger than all of these things, even though they are very really and very scary. I took my grandma's dog for a walk a few days ago and listened to a good teaching on anxiety by Mark Driscoll. Jesus is my peace and my rest from all of the crazy things happening. For, "Who of you by worrying can add a single span to his life?"


Besides all of that, good things too:
--Salvation. Grace. HOPE.
--I have a very clean bedroom again. Oh, I have a bedroom again, too. That's nice.
--I have stamps, that I am really, really hoping not to lose this time (there is something about writing letters that I love).
--I was invited back to Michigan for a whole entire summer. Yes, please.

I think I can do a whole new year. My vacation was a complete blessing. My grandma is such a strong, wonderful woman and it is so encouraging to see her so healthy again. It's been a scary few months for her.


Oh, and on a completely different note, I am loving "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terreell, and I think, way too early, that I am choosing to dance to it at my very far in the future wedding.