Me!

The biggest part of growing up is figuring out who you are and what you want to be. Lately my friend, Jen, has been asking me this a lot! Who do I want to be? Who am I now? What do I see myself becoming? These were really hard for me to answer because at first I had no idea..Slowly I've started to figure out bits and pieces though. This is what I've come up with.

-I see myself as good person. I like doing things for others and being part of something great!
-I see myself as being smart and good at math and science.
-I see myself as being a good friend and having some of the greatest friends I could ever ask for!

 

-I see myself as a determined athlete. I know I'm not the best figure skater or runner but I really strive to be better every day.

-I see myself as a strong member of the LDS church

-I see myself as a happy person!

-I see myself as a leader. I love being in charge of planning group activities or anything like that!

-I see myself as being a pretty hard core dancer/singer!

Things that I hope to be:

-I want to graduate from Utah State University!

-I hope to be a better communicator. Right now I'm just not good at saying what I think.
-I'm striving to be a successful adult and find the carrier that will make me the most happy! SCARY!
-I want to be an LDS missionary! (turning in my papers in a year!)
-I want to learn to be one of them healthy eaters!
-I want to be a worldwide traveler! (GOING TO VIETNAM IN JUST 90 DAYS WITH THIS BEAUTIFUL GIRL!)

-I want people to see me as an example!
-I want to be a wife to someone like my dad and brothers. Those boys are the most perfect boys I know. All are return missionaries and just so fun and hard working. I love them to death! They do so much for me!
-I gotta be a mommy someday! Kids are my life! It for sure is going to be the hardest job in the world but I couldn't be more excited for the day when some freakin' chubby baby calls me mom. AHHH (yes, that picture is me)

-I for sure want to be more like the amazing women in my life (All of them..heather and megan included!) These ladies are smart, strong, confident, independent women that I never stop looking up to and trying to keep up with!

I know that I have the potential to be something great! I am so excite and scared to go to college and figure out who the real Carly is. The other day my brother told me that the best thing I can do is be myself, the real me is going to work for some people and not for others no matter what. So why not just be yourself? I've got nothing to lose. 

Sorry I've been so bad at blogging lately! One of these days I will figure out a story that is worth telling. For now, enjoy my random ranting about life!



Temple or Bust.

          Confession time.....I am not very good at going to seminary. Today was no different. Once again Claire and I tried to avoid going as long as possible by trying to talk to our seminary principal, Brother Sweat. This trick normally helps us avoid a couple of minutes of seminary and get a note from him excusing our tardy. Who knew that this simple childish act would end up being a blessing.
          Today we walked into that office and started asking every question we could think of. At first the questions were stupid and just a waste of time but slowly the questions turned into really cool topics in an hour we covered these topics.

 

1. Joseph Smiths marriage and how hard it was for Emma

2. Polygamy in general

3. Temple marriage

4. Worldly marriage

5. The work inside of the temple (he couldn't go into much detail)

6. Cloning

7. The lost plates

8.The sealed plates

9. John and The Three Nephites (These guys are legit!)

10. Resurrection

11. Going on a mission

12. There is only heaven

13. Temple names

14. Divorce

15. The priesthood

16. How much the Bible connects with the Book of Mormon

 

          I have a testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This church is the one and only true church! Without it I really believe that I would be lost and unhappy. The joy that it brings me everyday is incredible. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me! The Holy Ghost touches my life in small simple ways daily! Everything in the church just.....WORKS! God seriously has timed everything in history perfectly! He is obviously a genus and creator. Don't take my word for it. Go read those books! I'm so excited to go on a mission in just a year and a half. Being able to show people what they are missing will be amazing! Being able to go to the temple in about a year is so humbling. I'm going guys! I'm not settling for anything less than the temple! I'm blessed to have a family that raised me in the church. I was baptized by my dad! How lucky is that? I love having three priesthood holders in my house. This church is everything to me. 

Life is Good!

          You know that moment where you finally accomplish a huge goal and you suddenly feel like you're on top of the world? That happened yesterday. It started out being a normal day. I woke up, ate a bowl of Special K cereal, took notes in first period, read and analyzed an article in second period, skipped third period, thought about skipping fourth period then ended up going, had the usual lunch group over at my house for pizza, then went to fifth period where I failed to run more than a mile thanks to the pizza. All of that was fun and average. The amazing part was next.

          Every Tuesday I have a lesson with one of my coaches, Merna. She is for sure my strict coach and most of the time I end up getting frustrated in my lessons with her. Yesterday was different! I finally got a smile out of her! The whole lesson was working on my footwork and somehow after every element she would smile and say something like, "Wow! Carly I can see your improvement." or "Those are looking so good!" IT WAS JUST WHAT I NEEDED! This may not seem like a big deal, but for me it was a huge blessing! The rest of my ice time was spent vigorously working on something else to impress Merna with next week! Who knew those simple sentences could mean so much!

          Somehow, that lesson really got me thinking. I have a lot to be grateful for! Today I spent the entire day choosing to be happy and make the most out of everything that happened. Here's what I noticed.

 

I get the most joy in serving people.

If you make an effort to say hi to someone they will say hi first the next time you see them.

You decide if your day is good or bad.

Making some one's day can be so easy!

The Lord times everything perfectly.

I absolutely adore my friends and family.

 

 

Have a good week! The weekend is quickly approaching! What am I going to get myself into next!?!?!



From 2012 to 2013!

Another year has come and gone. How is that possible? Lately I've been thinking a lot about what I accomplished this past year and what I maybe could have done better on. So much has changed in my life within the past 12 months. I've created relationships with new people and let go of some of the old ones. 2012 taught me a lot about what's important in life, to let God be your best friend, and to always have a smile on your face no matter what. This year will be another year full of that I'm sure!
It freaks me out to think about what 2013 has in store for me. Moving out and growing up is beyond scary. I am just barely figuring out how to do laundry without shrinking everything that I own or putting the wrong colors together! SCARY! I have so much to look forward to and so many lessons to learn. Let's make this next year a good one! May the odds be ever in your favor. :)

Christmas in the Sand!

This Christmas the fam went to Hawaii. You read that correctly. HAWAII! It was a week of relaxing, laughs, water, adventure, family, and the perfect amount of sun! We spent most of the time swimming in the ocean. The second day was spend kayaking through some river and hiking to a secret waterfall! It was beautiful.....and a really good arm workout! Our tour guide, TC, was awesome with his dog, small fry. On Sunday we did something amazing as well! WE ZIP LINED OVER/THROUGH THE FORESTS! Pure awesomeness! It was 6 hours of flying over the trees, then we headed to some hidden pond that was once meant for royalty! How cool is that? I thought it was pretty cool. :)

I love getting to spend time with my family. Being stuck on an island together was the perfect was to get everyone together!

All the other pictures were taken on Trent or Marks camera...but this is what we got on Sarah's phone! (Sorry they are fuzzy)

Some airport fun!

It's fuzzy but it's still my favorite.

Dinner after a long day of kayaking!

Snow cones with ice cream in the middle!

 

We started out the trip with the idea to do one yoga pose on the beach per day....We ran out poses really fast. The rest on pintrest were too advanced.

Cute mermaid Sarah.

 

VIETNAM!

Dear Friends,

I am writing to tell you about an amazing opportunity I have for the next year. I have recently become a part of a local program called Youthlinc, which gives me a chance to serve people here in Salt Lake throughout the year and people in Vietnam for two weeks this coming summer. After completing eighty hours of local service, I will earn a partial sponsorship to help cover my expenses. However, I still need to raise $2,370 to cover the remaining costs of the rest of my service trip. I’ve committed to go, and have been saving my own money for the last several years, but I would really appreciate your support. If everyone receiving this letter helps donate just a small amount of money to my trip, I will reach my goal! If I exceed my goal the extra money will go towards more of Youthlinc’s humanitarian work.

Local volunteer work has always been a priority of mine, and going on a humanitarian trip abroad has always been my dream. I feel that Youthlinc is a great organization which will help me fulfill my goals and dreams. The program’s mission is to create lifelong humanitarians through providing leadership and volunteering opportunities. On my Youthlinc Vietnam Team, I will have the chance to help a village in Song Cau, Vietnam, Which is still recovering from the effects of the war decades ago. I will get to help plan and carry out projects to construct homes, repair the school, teach vocational skills, help start small businesses, provide medical assistance and education, teach about sanitation and health, and provide school lessons for the local children. One of my favorite parts about this program is that I will be part of a team that meets frequently to actually plan the projects we will do while in Vietnam. I feel like these leadership opportunities help me become more capable of making a positive difference. To learn more about what our team plans to do in Vietnam, go to www.youthlinc.org.

Youthlinc also emphasizes the importance of serving locally, and requires that I complete eighty hours of local service before I am able to go abroad to Vietnam. I plan on volunteering at the Good Shepard Hospice center and the road home, and with a special needs church group. I also will be spending a week of my summer volunteering at a Summer Camp for children that have been affected by cancer.

Please support me with what you are able. I promise your investment will go a long way in Vietnam, here in Salt Lake, and in my goal of becoming a lifelong humanitarian.

Thank you for your support!

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me:

Carly Barton

carlb.95@hotmail.com

 

To donate:

1) Go to www.youthlinc.org
2) Click on the DONATE page
3) Then select MAKE A DONATION TO A PARTICIPANT
4) Enter my name and the registration number #753

5) Once the payment is processed, a confirmation e-mail will be sent to you which can be used for tax deduction purposes.

 

That was my formal letter to anyone who wants to donate...now here is me just rambling.

I honestly cannot wait to go spend two weeks helping the people of Vietnam! I'M GOING TO VIETNAM...AHHHHHHHH!!!!! This is one of the coolest opportunities I could have ever imagined! Plus I get to go with pretty much the greatest friend, Alyssa! We are both so fortunate to be able to go! It not only means having a two week long humanitarian trip with my best friend, it has given us other ways to be able to make time for each other! Since we have to do 80 hours of service we are going to help motivate and support each other in that, plus we have about a billion meeting with youthlinc! I cannot wait to spend so much time with that awesome chick.

Making time for this new project is a little overwhelming but it's a sacrifice I am more than willing to make! We leave on July 12 (201 days. But who's counting?). Guys, I just cannot stop thinking about this amazing adventure! Donations would be greatly appreciated! Let the adventures begin!

WA

The third high school dance of the year has come and gone. It was another girl's choice dance. I decided to ask good old Austin! He's a really cool guy that I didn't know super well until that night. The whole planning process was a little stressful but we figured it all out! For dinner we just did some night Cafe Rio catering! YUMMY! After filling up on enchaladas and taking a massive amount of pictures we danced the night away! WA was by far the best dancing dance....if that makes sense. It was great other than the fact that my feet were covered in blisters! My parents and coaches were not impressed.

After the dance we went to Kimi's house and ate soooooo much pizza! Finally it was 12 which means it was off to classic skating! This part was everyone's favorite! We rented out the classic skating place so we got the bounce house, arcade, and skating track all to ourselves!!!!!!! It was awesome! Thanks to all who made it happen! 

This is right after dinner! Yes, our group is huge!

My awesome date!

The skating gang!

Admit it. The guy in the red looks like Mario!