I Had The Best Day, With You, Today.

This weekend, compared to all others these past months, has been the greatest. With my brother home from his mission, its tradition to give a homecoming talk the second week after your return. Today was his homecoming talk. Today, was a good day. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should start from the beginning; Friday. Sick with a cold, I had asked my friend Megs for a ride home since my dad would need the car that afternoon. She, being the wonderful friend she is, took me home and we enjoyed some chicken noodle soup together. (Okay that's a lie. SHE enjoyed the chicken noodle soup. I whined and complained about how I didn't want soup for lunch. But you know how she can be...I ended up eating the noodles and the chicken...and hid my face while she tried to feed me the rest.) Around 12:30 she left to go back to school and I watched Strictly Ballroom with my sister. Surprisingly I didn't fall asleep, I actually started to feel a little better. So when the movie ended, I went downstairs. A few moments later the doorbell rang and a delivery man handed me flowers. So as you can see, my week started off PRETTY good. Then around 7, my family started to arrive. First the Uffens, and then the Brownings, and then finally the Theels. My heart lept with joy. ME AND ASH WERE FINALLY REUNITED. It was like everything bad that had happened that week just faded away. We stayed up late that night watching Charly and cried together. (That's what bestfriends do...they cry with each other.) I didn't even care that I was sicker than a dog. My bestfriends were in town and I wanted to spend every waking minute with them. Saturday came and we got ready for the day. After shopping with the moms for a while we (me, Kaitlin and Ashley) decided the Brownings house would be our final resting stop before dinner. We popped in "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and cuddled on the couch. Ashley fell asleep on my knees while I, getting so involved in the movie, squealed at every romantic part and cried at every devastating moment. The movie ended and I realized that I too was deprived of sleep. So me and Ash snuggled and fell asleep for a good hour on the couch. I woke up to another set of family arriving. THE THEELS :) (The second pair that is.) Baby Cooper and I smiled and giggled for a while then I decided to go pick apples with my amazeball cousin Blake. (Who at one point this weekend went by Rachael instead of Blake...and vise versa) I tried waking up my sleeping beauty with a kiss on the forehead but she wouldn't budge so it was just me and the boys. We picked apples illegally and had a huge apple war. We were lucky no one ACTUALLY got hit. We came home to dinner being prepared and I hopped right in. As I helped with the preparations, Cindy came up to me and well...that led to a long conversation which extended into our dinner conversation as well. Discussing modesty with all my girl cousins and all our moms was a wonderful feeling. After several hours of talking about the church and boys, we headed home. Me and Ash were both tuckered out and unfortunately my cold was going nowhere. So instead of watching a full movie, we popped in Psych and watched the two scariest episodes. Now that brings us to Sunday, the Sabbath day. I woke up with a smile on my face. Not just because my family was in town, but also because today was the day I was going to give a talk with my mother, brother, and friend Tyler. I hopped in the shower and goofed off a bit with my mom. We got to church and I talked with my cousins on the Porter side until it was time for me to make my way up to the front. Oh, I wish you all could have been there this morning. The spirit was so strong. And my mom and brother did exceptionally well. (We later joked that my mom had written a novel....she was worried about it not being long enough...trust me, it was most CERTAINLY long enough.) After the block ended our family gathered for a cousin picture. The love I felt was so warming. And I thought that at that very moment, life couldn't get any better. But I was wrong. We decided to all go to the Brownings house to watch 17 Miracles. Crying together and watching the Pioneers go through their hard trials brought us all closer together (If that were even possible...we're already SO close.) But the happiness had to come to an end. Me and Ash have a tradition where we say goodbye to everyone else first then walk away with each others arm wrapped in the other. We say our long goodbye and sing our sad song. We talk about how we will see each other soon, but soon isn't soon enough. We wave goodbye and blow kisses, and our hearts ache as we watch each other get further and further away. My family left with all my lovelies. They left with my love and my testimony of this gospel. I will love them for time and all eternity. So after I got home and tidied up the place, I decided to get glad with Pollyanna. My mom joined me. And as I watched her struggle with a painful headache, I was all too happy to help her in any way I could. She decided a long foot massage would suffice. I agreed. The movie ended, I went downstairs, I plugged in my Ipod, something went wrong, and I lost all my music. Instead of getting upset and angry about the situation, I was actually quite happy. Heavenly Father is just blessing me, AGAIN. I had wanted to delete music from my Ipod all week but just couldn't find the time. Now was my chance to fill it up with wholesome, pure, uplifting music. I no longer own any songs with foul words, vulgar context, enticing beats, or worldly opinions. I encourage everyone to do the same. Then you will also notice the changes it brings. 

Remember to be glad. 

Love, 

Rachii.