My First Kiss Went a Little Like This...

OKAAAY, IT'S TIME!
Today it has been officially six months since my first kiss. Say whaaat? Time has been flying like a fighter jet! *pew pew*

Because of this wonderful milestone I've reached, I will TELL YOU A DETAILED STORY OF MY FIRST KISS! Ahhh!

For those of you who just want the gist, scroll to the bottom and read the section after the last gif :)

I'm honestly REALLY embarrassed to tell this. I don't even know why I'm doing this in the first place! It's like whenever I make a post on this blog, I just get this huge surge of bravery and share everything, which is really out of character for me!
Well, I hope you all can handle all my sharey-ness! I feel like this blog is more of a diary for me... I'm really writing all of this so I don't forget, because I'm one of the most forgetful people I know!

ANYWAY, the story!

Now, our Feature Presentation: Chanel's First Kiss! (Chanel's side of the story)

Achoo! I Think I Caught the Blues...

This Sunday is Mother's Day, which means Elder Gibby gets to talk to his family!! How exciting!! I'm so super excited for them :D Seriously. When you have a missionary in your family, Mother's Day and Christmas are the best days ever!!!!!!

Did you all know that this past Saturday was Stars Wars Day?!?

May the 4th be with you ;) 

Elder Gibby loves Star Wars! Sometimes I wish he was serving state-side so I could send him packages all the time for the dumbest reasons without feeling like I was going broke. I totally would have sent him a Star Wars package. It would contain things he could use on his mission, of course! I don't know what exactly, but it definitely would! Hahaha.

So my family had the missionaries over for dinner last night! They were super nice and fun to talk to! I mean, I remember having the missionaries over for dinner a lot before I left for college (especially when my brother-in-law was investigating. I saw them like twice a week!), but other than those missionaries, I never really talked to the missionaries much…
Gah, I just love missionaries to death now though! For some reason whenever I see a missionary, my eyes get wide and I say to myself, "THEY KNOW ADAM!"
I did that A TON when I was working at the MTC and saw missionaries at the Provo temple!
Sometimes I catch myself and think:

BUT IT'S A POSSIBILITY!
Hahaha. Anyway, missionaries are the best! And Elder Gibby is definitely my favorite one!! ;)

Alrighty, well... This is my blog, so I know I'm entitled to say whatever I want. Aaaand I should be able to post about all my thoughts. Or something like that. But just FYI, the rest of this post contains moping... So proceed with caution.

Rainbows, Hiking, and Divine Intervention!

Oh MAN has this past week been insane! Yesterday I finished my last final of the semester, and today I'm heading home to Oregon! Yeeeehaw! I'm SUPER excited!!! I've missed my family so much, and I can't wait to see all my friends from back home! It feels good to be done with my first year of college :) But at the same time, I'm a little sad. Some of my friends from BYU are leaving off on missions, and for those who aren't, I won't see them until Fall semester, and it won't be nearly as often cuz we'll be in different housing :( I know I'll see my friends again at one time or another, but why do "see you later"s have to be so hard? :/ I wish all my friends could just sit on top of a happy rainbow and stay there forever… I guess I'll just have to wait until we get to Heaven until all these "see you later"s are over for good, huh? :)

Ooooor... I could just gather all my friends together and puke a rainbow for us to sit on right now! Just kidding, just kidding. Guys, that's just plain gross, even if it is a rainbow.

Wednesday afternoon I hiked the Y with a few friends! It was so much fun, and it was SOOO windy! Anyway, we took some pictures and hiked to the top and whatnot! 

My Face Is Destined To Be Eternally Red

So I woke up this morning, and my first thought:

(If you don't know what this is and you want to laugh so hard you cry, click here. You're welcome!)

♪ It’s Monday, Mondaaaaay, Monday Monday Monday!! ♫

Do you know what that means?!

I GOT AN E-MAIL FROM MY ELDER! :) YAAAAYYYY!!!
Monday is my Funday of the week! :D

I really wish there was something I could do for Elder Gibby when he's having a rough time... I just need to accept the fact that since I’m thousands of miles away from him and he’s on a mission, the most I can really do is just support him, cheer him on, write him, and pray for him. Sometimes it's hard to only be able to do just that. But I hafta remember, this experience will help him grow and continue the process of him becoming the best man he can be! Gooooo Elder Gibby!

However, on the bright side, he got to play soccer! He’s crazy about sports (remember in the letter he wrote to my parents, his number 1 thing on the list was the he LOVES (capitalized and underlined) sports!), so I’m sure he really enjoyed that!

Oh, you were wondering about the title of this post? 
It's something related to embarrassment, perhaps?
Uh, so yeah. 
I just found out that ELDER GIBBY'S MOM KNOWS ABOUT MY BLOG.

It's a Small World!

So a couple days ago I requested to join this Missionary Girlfriend Support group on Facebook just for the heck of it, figuring I’d just read other Missionary Girlfriend’s stories and blogs for fun. BUT YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!

I was added into the group yesterday and was asked to tell a little about myself and my missionary, so I did. Then someone replied and said she’s from Oaxaca. Cool, right?! BUT WAIT.
She then posts this picture on the page and says, “Lovely miss Chanel Lawson, please tell me is this your Elder Gibby? :)”

My reaction when I saw the picture:

IS THAT MY ELDER GIBBY?!? LET ME TELL YOU, WHY YES IT IS!!

He was wearing the tie I gave him and everything!! GAH he's so cute! And his hair! It was as fantastic as always :) Ahhh! :D

My First E-mail!

OHMYJIGGLYJELLO GUESS WHAAAAT?!?!?!

No, I didn't get a puppy, but I'm sure happy enough to feel like it!!! :D
(That's a big deal because I really love puppies! And I want one SO BAD.)

Now I really want a puppy...
Well, to make up for both of our disappointment, here's a picture of an adorable puppy!:

Awww so precious! If you get this puppy for me, I'd love your for life!

Well ANYWAY, I got my first e-mail from Elder Gibby!! YAYAYAYAY!

All day I've been checking my e-mail, mainly because I've been e-mailing a friend who's serving his mission in Oklahoma. I was waiting for his reply since today is his Preparation Day (P Day), one day each week that missionaries can send e-mails/run errands/relax.
There was a part of me that was crossing my fingers that I might hear from Adam today, but I wasn't going to let myself get my hopes up.

This afternoon after getting back from class, I checked my e-mail.
I swear I heard a booming voice from Heaven announce:
"BEHOLD, CHANEL, I PRESENT YOU WITH A LETTER FROM ELDER GIBBY!!"

HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD!

The Terrifying Attack of the Surprise Letter

I love surprises! Surprises are really fun! You know, surprise birthday parties, surprise gifts. They're so great, right?! Except when it's something that is totally unexpected and freaks you out.

Elder Gibby wrote me a letter. And in this letter I found out some of the MOST TERRIFYING NEWS EVER! He had written my parents a letter and sent it to them! In his words:

"I wrote your parents. Just kind of told them a little about me... Sorry! I need them to know me a little! I hope they like me! So ya sorry it's been bugging me though because I want to know them a little! LOVE YOU SO MUCH"

My first reaction:

YOU DID WHAT?!?!? NOOOOOOO! 

And then I felt bad:

I know I should have properly introduced Adam to my parents... I really do. And I wished I would've. I met his mom and sisters back in January! But understand where I'm coming from. I've never told my parents anything personal. Hardly ever. It's that way with my brothers and sister, too. We talk to each other, but not our parents. Honestly, the main topic of conversation with my parents is academics. I never had that relationship with my mom where I told her about each of my crushes or things I struggled with. Don't get me wrong, I have a great relationship with my parents! It's just not an open-communication, say-whatever-you're-feeling sort of relationship. So imagine how difficult it was to tell my parents that I had a boyfriend in the first place (keep in mind, he's my first boyfriend)! And at that point, he was leaving on a mission in less than a month. I was so worried about what they were going to think.

Leaving the MTC

Elder Gibby left the MTC today to head to Oaxaca, Mexico! It's so crazy! After 6 weeks of being in the same city as him, it's a little sad that when I go to work I can't say, "Adam's here! He's just in a couple buildings over! WE'RE SO CLOSE TO HIM RIGHT NOW."

I told him not to, but being the incredibly thoughtful guy he is, he sent me a package as a half-birthday/Easter/leaving-the-MTC present. There was candy in it and a picture of Christ walking out of the tomb when he was resurrected. But the best part was this little guy:

A Book of Mormon?! Really? What could be so special about that? Well, let me tell you!

In this copy of The Book of Mormon, Elder Gibby highlighted and underlined verses throughout it. He made a key at the front of the book that said which verses related to Patience, Love, Faith, etc. Then he underlined verses that related to us. He included suggestions of things to do while I read. For example, in the Book of Enos he said "Write down all the things you are grateful for!"

While flipping through it, I came across some things that quite literally made me laugh out loud.

I SAW HIM.

So I work at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, which is where LDS missionaries get trained before heading off to the field. I do Night Custodial two days a week, and work in the Cafeteria during breakfasts on Tuesdays. Before Elder Gibby entered the MTC, we thought we would see each other every Tuesday for those 6 weeks. When he got into the MTC, however, he found out that he wouldn't be able to come into the Cafeteria on Tuesdays and Thursdays for breakfast. His district has gym at 7:30, so all they had time to do was go grab a sack breakfast before heading off to gym. Knowing that I wouldn't see him ever, I couldn't help feeling a little bit like this:

Anyway, a couple weeks ago on March 19th (a month into Elder Gibby being on his mission) I ditched classes so that I could work a lunch shift (don't worry, I was responsible and got notes from the classes I missed!). Of course I wanted to see him, but I left it up to him whether or not we would see each other.

So, Tuesday comes around and I'm at the MTC, at the Soup and Wrap Bar. And I get SOUPER nervous (Hehehehe. I love puns!) Anyway, I'm busy making wraps and salads for missionaries, trying to move as fast as I can. As I turn around to go help the next missionary in line, I hear someone exclaim, "Chanel!" 

OH MY GRAVY. The next person in line was my missionary!!!!!! 

Pilot: 1,000 Days

I figure I should probably make my first post about the general story behind this blog... Well, I'll give a brief overview of the situation I'm in. So here it goes!

Hah. I kind of hate telling this story in a way, because it makes me sound like such a stereotypical BYU student! I know it sounds like things were really insane, rushed, and whatnot. I never would have imagined I would've been involved in this situation, but here I am!

Adam (now Elder Gibby) and I are students at BYU in Provo, Utah. We met each other through a mutual friend at the beginning of December 2012. The next week (finals week), he asked me out on two dates. The first was, y'know... average, nothing too special. We saw Brave in the movie theater, ate candy, and got to know each other a little bit. The second date, December 13th, we ended up deciding to go hike the Y. The Y is a giant, well, Y, that is on the side of a mountain.

It's quite the hike!