What the?

Wait a second... I'm MARRIED? When did I turn 20? How am I going into my JUNIOR year of COLLEGE? Pretty sure that like 2 seconds ago I looked like this:


and this:
and also... this:

and not too long ago my family looked like this:

Add about 14 years, another little Hammer girl, and 2 handsome men to this picture and that's what our clan looks like now.

It's pretty weird to think about how fast time goes by. That's one of those things that often makes me sad/ freaks me out. If you'd like to get sad about this also, all you have to do is listen to "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman. It's such a good song so sometimes I want to listen to it, but every single time I do, the first few verses leave me with the same results and I eventually regret even turning the song on. This regret happened to me for the umpteenth time just a few minutes ago as I was writing in my journal about my wedding. I was thinking about the Father/ Bride dance and how my dad and I danced to this song. So, since I was already in a reminiscent mood, I decided to listen to it....

And that's why I'm here at work. All by myself. Sitting in the corner of this room. Crying. I'm pathetic.

On the more positive side, my reflections have led me to think about 2 things.
1) how thankful I am for my great childhood and my amazing family.

-I've always loved my family and enjoyed being with them. However, it almost takes being away from them to fully realize what they mean to me and the impact they have had on my life. Going away for school gave me that experience, but I always had the assurance that I would be going home to them for the holidays or for the summer. Now that I'm married, being with the family won't occur quite so frequently, and I've grown to love and miss the goofiness between me and the sibs, the dancing and singing that would occur while doing dishes after dinner, the silly faces that were exchanged when our attention span couldn't last through the entire family scripture-reading time, the fun and the laughter. I've also learned to greatly appreciate my parents: my dad for working to provide for our family, coming home and happily going straight to work on the next new project my mom had planned out for him. And my mom for the meals she made, the laundry she folded, the decorating and the cleaning she did. I've come to realize that those things don't get done by themselves, and they sure take quite a bit of time. So here's to you, Hammer fam.

2) How grateful I am to have a cute little husband who works all day to take care of me and comes home each night to eat with me, talk to me, and laugh with me.

- Luke makes me happy. He makes me smile. He makes me laugh.... even when we're laying on the couch at midnight and he makes me carry him to our bedroom because he's playing dead (yep... that happened last night. Picture a 108 lb girl trying to carry a 160 lb boy. I had to take him limb by limb til I got him on my back... and even then I had to use the wall as a support system as I walked hunch-back with him on me to our room). He compliments me on my dinners, even when I didn't have enough time to run to the store to get some key ingredients. He takes care of me. And he loves me. Who could ask for more?

Basically I'm very content with my life, although a little confused about how it's going by so quickly. But such is life. And that's why we've got to take advantage of it.