Tahoe and Other Adventures

For the Fourth of July, Karen and I ended up going to Tahoe. It was quite a drive (and not a super pretty one, if we're being honest), but we stayed semi-entertained listening to audiobooks and podcasts. But the time in Tahoe itself was great.

We drove up Thursday night and left Sunday, so we had two full days there, which was wonderful (especially since neither of us had to take any vacation time). Friday, we rode up the Heavenly Gondola, and then went even further up on a ski lift. The view was beautiful and it was so peaceful. At times, it felt like we were the only people in the world, since not a lot of people were up there. We later went to the beach, ate burgers at a restaurant, and then went back to the beach to watch the fireworks over the lake. Saturday, we hung out at the beach, got delicious sushi for dinner, and then played in the arcades of a couple of casinos. I wish the trip had been longer, but I'm very grateful that Karen made the trip happen. I had going to Tahoe on my 101 list, but once I moved to Boise, I figured I wouldn't pull it off. She convinced me that we could and we did! It was great.

In other news, Karen has decided she's moving away from Boise at the end of next month. It makes me sad and I'm still not entirely sure where I'm going to end up. But, as I'm trying to look for the positives in this situation, it is pushing us to do a lot of stuff we have never gotten around to doing together. Friday, we went out to eat at a yummy Italian restaurant that I had a Groupon for and then wandered around Warm Springs, looking at all the beautiful houses. And yesterday, we went swimming at the pond and then saw a double feature at the drive-in. We have a lot of things still to accomplish on the list, so I'm hoping we have a good last few weeks together. And I hope I figure out soon where I'm supposed to end up.

Home and Trusting in the Lord

A couple of weekends ago, I was able to go to Provo and see my parents one last time before they left to go to Brazil to serve for three years as mission president and companion. I was able to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord as they were set apart, which was a really neat experience. It has been weird to come to terms that my parents aren't going to be around physically for the next few years. (Though I do hope to visit them at Christmas.) I must say, I am very grateful for technology... even though they're over 6000 miles away from me, it can seem like they're just still in California if I don't think too hard about it. I've already been able to talk to my mom on the phone, and I've been able to e-mail both my parents and get pretty fast responses. So even though they are much farther away physically than before, they certainly don't have to feel that far away if I need them. :-)

Anyways, with them being gone, and with some other random things going on in my life, I've been thinking a lot about home again. I ended up thinking about it even more when I realized that I hadn't printed out a particular old blog post and put it in my journal like I normally do. So I went to look it up and print it out. I almost laughed when I read through it and realized the topic and found that so much of it still resonated with me. (For reference, it was this blog post.)

Since I wrote that blog post, Boise really come to feel like home, in no small part due to my roommate, Karen. But with some things going on, and with Boise starting to feel a bit temporary again, I don't know how everything is going to play out. I hate being in limbo and I just wish I knew the answers now. But as my dad told me in an e-mail today:

I think that the Lord will make it clear for you and the way will open up.  Remember my trials with the opportunities that seemed to make so much sense, but never really happened even to the point of having us to have to pray for it?  None of it made sense at the time.  I had three CEOs wanting to hire me, but for one reason or another, in all three cases, things were "on hold"........even though they REALLY wanted me to start.

God knew what needed to happen.  I just had to be patient and hang in there.  I was clueless as to what was getting set up to happen.  But, God opened the way and now, here we are.

You have a ton of faith in Him.  He will help you move in the right direction.  Just stay committed to that and don't worry (I know............that is easy for me to say). 

So basically...I need to keep trusting in the Lord. No job opportunities worked out for my dad when by all reasonable accounts, they should have. So instead, he was able to work on a bunch of things he wanted to do (including opening up a pharmacy with my cousin) and now he's able to serve the Lord full-time. But trusting in the Lord is a constant battle for me. It's talked about in EVERY father's blessing I've gotten for at least the past couple of years and I guess it's a lesson I still need to learn. 

It will work out. It will. I just need to keep doing my part. And for now, that's continuing to make sure Boise is home for me (at least for now) and make sure I'm open to His promptings if things do need to change. For He truly knows best.