HE'S HOME.

So... this happened last Thursday:

 Yes, Ryan has returned from the motherland. He spent an honorable 2 years there serving the Lord and serving the people of Scotland and of Ireland. Check out what we believe and why he was willing to spend 2 whole years of his life teaching it. He grew so much and when you talk to him, you can see that growth and maturity, yet he's still just as ridiculous and silly as he has always been. Our family feels nearly complete with him being back, we just need Adam now. Ryan left this weird gaping hole in our family that could never quite be filled and I am so happy he has returned. He is a best friend that will always be stuck with me for eternity and I feel so blessed.
Also, he put his kilt on the minute he entered the house from the airport. Typical.

A French Elder

So... I have many brothers, we all know this. And it looks like I'm making this a mission tradition, so look forward to more posts about my brothers in future years. And here is a shout out to my dear brother Adam.

He is currently on his 2 year mission for our church (click here  or here for more info) in the West Indies. What an adventure! I am so excited for Adam but I did not want him to leave back in July. He is the sweetest dear boy in the world and I love him with my whole heart. He always takes my side in arguments (much to Ryan's frustration) and we are equally crazy and loud together. He is always up for an adventure and he is super creative. He has got to be one of the funniest people I have ever met in my life, though I may say that about every one of my brothers. I'm just all around a big fan of him. And I know he is being an incredible missionary and touching so many lives!
Here's some photographic proof of the amazingness that is Adam (also the model that Adam thinks he is). I tried to cut down the number of pictures, but they were all too good:

He tried to tell us that there was a mustache there... False.

This is for his cardboard cutout at my wedding (because he's convinced I will wed while he's gone)

You can see where he gets his good looks and model tendencies.

The dos of them or missionarying now. I'm so proud.

Awkward family photo?

This was when we dropped him off. This is the adorable face of an incredibly nervous missionary who is about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime and has no idea what to expect.

And he's off. There he goes ladies and gents, there he goes. Love him.

Life is just a-movin!

Check this kid:

This is an Adam. He's awesome. And he's my broski. Love this guy. And check that stache. And guess what's happening today?! Yeah, he's getting his mission call.
I know exactly what you're thinking, "What the heck?! I thought your other brother just barely left on his mission." And to that I respond, yeah, TELL ME ABOUT IT. I'm freaking out!
Ryan has only been gone for 9 months and here Adam is just being an adult and graduating from high school in few months and getting ready to go on his mission! Blows my mind. I'm so proud of him; of both of them. I definitely have the best brothers in the entire universe.
Here's a great pic of all of us:

Halfway there.

9 months have come. 9 months left to go. Here in the middle of things, I appreciate experiences more than I used to. Also, I can even almost see the end. That's thrilling.

Let's just see how the next 9 months turn out. Should be interesting.

As of late.

Sometimes life can be a very surreal experience.
I can have a serious conversation with someone I hardly know. And the next moment I will have nothing to say to a good friend.
Maybe it's just me.
It's probably just me.
But life is weird.
Somedays your brother is a normal human being, and then the next he is a missionary in Provo, and the next day after that he is on a plane to England. Yeah, this is real life.
True that. My brother became a missionary last Tuesday night and it was amazing experience. I know that the gospel that he will be teaching is the truth and I'm so stoked for him to teach it. Then on Wednesday, due to the lack of visa-arrival, we dropped him off at the Provo MTC (missionary training center). It was sad, but it would have been way more sad had my family not been the most ridiculous and hilarious individuals in all of Provo. Then, blessings of the Lord, his visa arrived Wednesday afternoon and they threw him on a plane and shipped him off to the Preston, England MTC on Thursday
He leads quite a life. And because he is the luckiest person in the world, things just tend to work out for him.

So that's been an interesting adjustment without him. Thus far, I'm not a fan. Though I am a fan of him being abroad. Missioning and things.

Also exciting in my life: Spontaneous road trip to St. George this past weekend to the the solar eclipse. Yeah, it was sweet. My fabulous roommate, Jenna, and I were just sitting in our apartment on Saturday afternoon and within a matter of 30 seconds, we went from having no weekend plans to deciding to go on the 3.5 hour trip down to St George. SO FUN. We also went with some fabulous human beings. This is us looking at the eclipse (as stolen from Josh's fb album):

This is all 8 of us (Josh is in the picture via shadow). We were a little short on astro-glasses, so some of us went blind. Also, our names were a treat to list off: Jake, Jenna, Jennie, Jared, Josh, Kaylee, Halie, and Spencer. Someone stands out like a sore thumb...
Basically, it was an excellent 24 hour trip filled with laughter, games, banana stranglings, accent speaking, piano playing, singing, mission call opening, sun staring, driving, accent to apple inventing, and other shenanigans. I have good friends.

I'm a fan of the summer in Provo; people are always outside doing fun things, and craziness is always right on the brink of occurring. I don't even mind that I am taking a class right now. Though studying outside isn't nearly as productive as one would think.

Also, I love my job. We get some crazies up in there.

Pictures of Elder Lever departing are forthcoming. Prepare yourself.

This post was a random culmination of thoughts and events. Jumbled, it may be, but that's what my brain is like right now, so you're just experiencing my real life via blog.

Elder Lever.

I have a brother. Well, actually I have a lot of those. But this particular brother of whom I speak is the eldest of the five and he is going on a mission. Well, hopefully all of them are going to be going on a mission, but his mission is actually here upon us. And by that, I mean he leaves in ONE WEEK.
And to decode this message for you: Ryan is out. To Scotland/Ireland. To share the truth and help bring eternal life to these great people. He will be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,  the Mormons, if you will. He's going to be amazing.

So, Ryan and I are two years apart in both age and school. But age has never really separated us. Maybe I'm just remember the good times, but honestly, I feel like we've been best friends for a solid 19 years - his entire life. Especially through high school. We are friends with each others friends. We hang out. We used to attack each other in the hallway of the high school. Basically, he is wonderful. This is us back in the day...

But lets get real, obviously there is no way that we've always gotten along.. true, we fight sometimes. Actually, he's probably the one of my brothers that I fight with the most, but in the end, we stop the madness and end up just laughing our heads off at some ridiculous bit of humor.
We have the same sense of humor. All of my brothers do. Apparently our humor is unique and most don't understand it, but we do and we have WAY too much fun laughing at our jokes. Ryan and I can just sit there going back and forth, beating the same jokes to death for hours. It never gets old.
We even look alike. Lets get real, anyone that has ever seen us thinks we're twins. We are the same person. Check this pic, we even laugh the same:

Ryan is the best. I don't know what I would do without him in my life. He listens to my ridiculous stories; rolls his eyes and shakes his head, but listens nonetheless. He has always been my shoulder to cry on, my bodyguard, my source of advice, my own personal comedian, my best friend. He is adventurous and kind and would never admit it, but is just adorably sensitive as our dad. Ryan has a testimony that is obvious through everything he does in his life. He is an example to me and inspires me to be a better person. I just love him with all of my heart.
I can't even put into words how much I'm going to miss this boy. But I also can't express how proud I am of him. He is going to touch so many lives. I can't wait to write to him all of the time about the craziness that is my life.
When I look at him, I still see this cheesy, adorable little kid:

But really though, he's like a man and I'm so excited to see him grow even more spiritually and emotionally these next two years. Not going to lie, it's going to be sad when Ryan leaves and I'm not going to know what to do with myself, but I wouldn't have him doing anything else with his life right now. Go get 'em tiger.

One more picture, just because I love this one:

Late

Welp. I can't sleep tonight. Hence the reason for 2 blog posts in one night. This has never happened before! Crazypants.
Time goes so fast. I was just about to go off on this topic, but then I remembered that I already have. THIS blog post speaks to part of how I'm feeling right now.  I can't believe how much I have done in my life, but I also can't believe how young and inexperienced I am. I feel like a baby, but somehow I think I've grown up somewhere along the way. I look at my 13 year old brother and I wonder when he stopped being a baby and became this teenager who is taller than me and sounds like a man. That blows my mind. And the real baby of the family is 7. SEVEN years old! He thinks he's a regular adult! Wow, time is so weird.

I am a nut case sometimes. Today is one of those times. I was going to write everything that I'm thinking that is keeping me up tonight, but I promise that no one wants to read my word vomit. And that's exactly what it would be. Just let it suffice to know that I love life. I freak out a little bit sometimes, but that's not a bad thing. I adore where I am. I adore the people I know. My life is a win.

Let the good times roll.

Christmas was a success.
Good amounts of family time. Song singing. Present opening. Church going. And all around joy.
One of the highlights for me was our pre-Christmas program rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. I also enjoyed the dubstep dance party Adam and I had before everyone arrived for Christmas Eve dinner. The traditional Christmas Eve sibling sleepover was fabulous. A fair amount of Super Smash playing went down, some uno, some unintentional fat jokes, tons of catch phrase, and lots of laughs. My brothers are wonderful.
Christmas is such a lovely time of year. Obviously getting gifts is super fun. And being around my family so much is even better. But let's not ever forget that Christmas is really about Christ. A celebration and remembrance of his birth and life and death and resurrection. Here's a lovely video:

Sad note: Ryan won't be here next Christmas.
Happy note: He is going to be one a MISSION next Christmas. This is wonderful.
He got his mission call about 2 weeks ago. He's going to the Scotland/Ireland Mission! I am so excited for him! I have a couple friends in that mission, so that's exciting as well. Here is what he (and the parents) looked like when he first read his call:

 I can't wait! Missions are amazing things. Plus, 2 years really isn't that long. I've realized this recently because my wonderful friends are returning from their missions and as soon as I see them, it feels like they never left. Excellent.

Another good thing about Christmas: getting together with good friends from back home. At a lovely Chrsitmas sweater/pajama/mustache party.

I have the best friends. I miss seeing these girls all the time. We are so funny and have wicked dance moves and laugh more than my abs can handle. Life is just so great when I am around them and for that reason, I love breaks from school.

Sister Yoshi.

It's a really strange feeling when your best friend/roommate is old enough to open her mission call. That means she's 21. That means she's a full blown adult. That means that I'm older than I feel. Here's the story:

Kendra at 6:00: "I'm opening my mission call at 6:15!"

Kendra at 6:20: "I'm opening my mission call in half an hour!"

Kendra at 6:50: "They'll be here in 15 minutes, and then I can open my mission call!"

Kendra at 6:55: "5 more minutes! Ahhhhhhhhh!"

7:00 - Walbeck's arrive with the fated mission call.

7:01 - "Sis. Walbeck, you have been called to labor in the TOKYO, JAPAN MISSION!"

7:02 - Mass screaming ensues. Hugs are thrown about. Tears are shed.

7:03 - "Finish it! When do you leave?!"

"You will enter the Provo MTC on December 28!"

Mandy: "You won't miss the wedding! My heart almost stopped!"

The rest of the evening: Mass hysteria and happiness and phone calls and smiles and tears.

Sister Walbeck, You are the best roommate ever, and you will be the most amazing missionary. I love you. Go teach you some Asians and connect with your native country.

Twice.

Sometimes grandparents come home from missions to Africa. This has happened to me twice. It was just as fabulous the second time.
I love when amazing, serving, loving, hilarious grandparents are back in Utah.
I also like when 90 year old great grandmothers take an extended vacation to Utah.
Mostly, I'm just a fan of grandparents. Specifically all of my grandparents.

Returning

Yesterday I attended the "I just got home from my mission so I'm going to tell you about it in the context of the topic I've been given" talk in church of two of my friends from high school. These are the first two boys that were in my grade to return home from their missions. And within the next year, most of my friends will be coming home as well. This realization brought about all sorts of thoughts and feelings.

I have been graduated from high school for over two years. Oh wow.
Two years seems long when they first leave.
I can't believe how fast two years actually goes by.
What have I accomplished in the 2 years since I last saw my friends?
How much have I changed?
How much have they changed?
I will be 21 in two months. Oh my heavens.
I'm filled with joy at the thought of seeing old friends again.
I am a Junior in COLLEGE!
I hadn't realized how much I missed these boys until I thought about them coming home.
I love reminiscing about our old adventures.
We used to be crazy and do outrageous things.
Have I become boring since they left?
I can't believe my brother is almost old enough to go on a mission.
Time is a funny thing.
My friends are a funny thing as well.