Tomorrow.

 

Y'all. Oh goodness. I'm laying here and I simply cannot sleep. Tomorrow is the day I see my precious sister for the first time in 10 months. 

How on earth does one express their feelings when something like this is happening? I can't even describe how it feels to know in a mere 7 hours, ill be boarding a plane, and in another 5 hours after that, she and I will be reunited. 

Oh, glorious day. 

I'm going to be blogging about this as much as I can. I want to keep y'all up to date and all that jazz. 

I'm going to try and sleep now - try. I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve right now, y'all. 

Goodnight;

Xoxo, Ruthanne

the week in review.

Whew. What a week I had. It was kind of cray cray, y'all. Hehe. Ready for an update?

Wednesday

I met my friend at starbucks and caved to a venti pumpkin spice latte. I know. Bad me. My hair cooperated wonderfully. I saw the boy. He blew me a kiss as I drove out of the church parking lot. Melted my heart, per usual.

 I also made 80 crab ravioli from scratch. 

Thursday

It rained all day. All day. I had worship practice.We sang Christmas songs - my favorite. But I was glad to go home and get to bed...only after talking to him for half an hour. hehe.

Friday

was spent shopping for Christmas decor for the church with these two boys and my worship pastor and his wife. They're insane. (like my headband? new hobby - going to give one or two away in a couple weeks - stay tuned!!)

Saturday

was spent at the church decorating with aforementioned decorations. It turned out real spiffy though, so I can't complain about being there all day. And I had a blast with my wonderful "brothers"...hanging lights and ornaments and almost dying and all that jazz. The rain let up for a while...until it got dark.

Sunday

I had worship at 7:30 am. It was pouring, guys. Pouring. I woke up to ten flood warnings on my phone. I was glad we were at 6,000 feet above sea level where our house is because it was bad. Haven't gotten this much rain in a long time. I also wore my lovely new pink coat and polka dot scarf. It was great. On top of all that, I, along with a bunch of my friends, went up to Mavis' after church for brunch and to help her decorate her house for Christmas, since her recent surgery has left her unable to maneuver heavy boxes. 

But not before Rachel and I stopped for starbucks and snapped this super adorable photo.

When I got home from all of the earlier events, the previous owner of my car was there to finish the paperwork. After he was done, I went to fill it up the first time, and I also put my amazing car kit my best friend sent me for my birthday in it. Equipped with princess band-aids and goldfish, I will never be too stuck. 

I then spent the evening decorating our house for Christmas.  Part of our mantel display, and a favorite ornament. 

Monday

I enjoyed a couple hours spent with my sweet friend Rachel. I snapped this picture of her...she probably will text me in a minute to scold me. Deal with it. And then I spent an hour face timing Rebekah. It was supposed to be a quick 15 minute call..but..uh. We don't do quick.

Took the "scenic route" above downtown to the post office to see this pretty view. Don't tell anyone I snapped a pic while driving! Oops.

And today...well. Today is fresh, with no mistakes in it, and I plan to make the most of it. 

(please tell me you caught my Anne of Green Gables quote.)

xoxo, Ruthanne

guest post - janae of the letter 4

Good morning everyone! Today, one of my most lovely friends is here to share some knowledge with y'all! Her name is Janae, and she is 1/4 of The Letter 4! Janae and I have been getting to know each other better lately (praise the Lord for facebook!) and she's become a dear friend of mine! Plus, we're both gingers, so there's a fantastic connection there! hehe....and without further ado....miss Janae! :)   --------------   Hello readers of Ruthanne's blog. I'm Janae and I'm a sister over at The Letter 4 and I also just started a blog for my photography and videography over at Blood Orange Productions. Ruthanne is one of the sweetest people ever, and I'm so happy that she asked me to share on her blog!

I've recently been attending LDS Business College and really want to share what I've been learning! It could definitely apply to any of your businesses, blogs, or even just everyday life.

First off, if anyone has been noticing the negativity about school starting, you're not alone. School is so amazing and we should not take it for granted! I have been so excited to start learning in a classroom again. You can never be over educated, you know. No matter what year of school you're in, be happy you get an education.
Alright, down to business. Have any of you heard of the "Golden Circle"? It's an amazing tool that will help you create a more personal relationship with your customers, clients, readers, etc. It is designed and explained by Simon Sinek. But! Most people use this tool incorrectly and this is the reason a lot of businesses fail. Here, I'll show you.
 The average person thinks from the outside in. "What" we do, "how" we do it, and "why" we do it. That's not interesting, everyone uses that and it won't create an emotionally connected relationship.

Now, when you think from the inside out, things change. You proclaim why you do what you do, truthfully. You believe what you say. If you believe what you say, others will. Then after you have stated your "why", you move on to how you accomplish your why and what you have to offer.

Simon Sinek always says, "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." This is so true. If you honestly express why you do what you do, you will have more loyal customers, employees, friends, readers, etc.

This is a SUPER brief overview of some of the things Simon Sinek lectures about, so if you'd like to listen to him and his genius ways, go here to listen to his amazing lecture. You won't regret it.

autumn && friendship.

liz, becca, me, rachel. october 2010.

excuse my horrible skinny jeans and plaid, but lets be honest...this picture is great. 

two of my favorite people in the world. james and I have known each other for 12 years, been close friends for 10 of them.

friends since ever, basically.

so maybe this wasn't fall...but whatever.

taylor's benefit (the whole community came together to raise money for her expenses. if you haven't read taylor's story, you can do so here)

becca, amy, me. two years ago.

I've been blessed with some awesome friends. seriously. and we always seem to have the best memories in the fall. 6 weeks of amazing times, wonderful company, and so many smiles. I know fall is still a ways away, but I was looking through these pictures on facebook, and couldn't help but smile, knowing it's coming again. it'll be different, like it is every year, but it'll be great, too. we have new friends who've opted to join in on the madness.

a story of true friendship: rebekah and ruthanne.

this is probably the longest post I've ever written. fair warning.

Happy wednesday, friends! :) So, I don't think I've mentioned this yet...but in exactly 7 days (eep!) I will be in Texas visiting my best friend! Exciting much? Ah! 

We have probably the coolest friendship story ever, so today I wanted to kind of share that with you, because it is so sweet, and something that her and I both know was a one-in-a-million kind of thing. Ready?

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 

Lets go back to December 25th, 2008, for a few minutes, shall we?

That was the day I first had any contact with my best friend.

And you know what? it was on a message boards forum site for Nancy Drew computer games.

Around "the boards" as all of us dedicated members so fondly referred to it as, I was "Caroline". Partly because of an internet safety thing, and partly because I wanted to see what going by my first name was like. 

These message boards were dedicated solely to fans of the Nancy Drew computer games made by the company HerInteractive. 

There were separate sub-forums for basically everything. There was a review and help board for each game released, and then the "fun" parts of it. Forums for writing alternate endings to the games, creating post signatures for people to use, where you opened up a thread and it was called your "signature "shop". There were forums for games, and reviews, and petitions for new games, etc. 

Anyway. Christmas day, 2008. Right. 

I was an avid writer of the Alternate Endings I mentioned above. I loved getting to re write the endings of the games however I wanted. I was browsing the boards after the Christmas madness was over, and clicked on one Alternate Ending by a certain "NanDrew78". I read, and was intrigued, and totally smitten. There began the friendship.

This girl's "name" was MnM...or Maudie.

The rules of the boards were very strict. No private messaging, no last names allowed, no email exchanges, no threads just for talking about your personal stuff,  and absolutely no links to any url that wasn't part of HerInteractive's site. We found loopholes in it all, of course. We'd figure out how to get the personal stuff in and still abide by the rules, but never had any contact outside of the boards.

About a year after this, almost exactly, the company joined Twitter. Naturally, all of us "true" ND fans did too, to keep up with everything. This was probably one of the best things ever. A new thread went up saying that the company had, and giving a disclaimer about how they're not responsible for anything that happens because of that and yada yada yada. None of us cared what they said...we were on it. Being as smart as we all were, we joined, made our accounts private, put our board username in our profile, and then follow the other people who did the same and also followed the company. Brilliance, I know.

Over the first year I got into contact with so many of my friends. Like, real contact. We were all constantly checking HeR's followers to see if anyone new had joined, and frequently, they had. We would end up sending a bajillion direct messages to each other, because of the character limit, then we'd move on to email...and then skype..and then text. I can honestly say I met some of my favorite people ever during those two years. 

When "Maudie" joined twitter, I was so excited. I found our her real name was Rebekah, or Beka for short, and I told her my name was technically Ruthanne. I found out she lived in Texas, and she found out I lived in California. We were bummed to say the least.

We ended up sharing our hearts with each other over DM's for a few months, and became so close. One thing led to another, and we began sending emails and skyping, and eventually started sending each other birthday and Christmas presents. 

During the Summer of 2010, Beka started talking and telling me about a trip they might be taking to the east coast. October came around and it was official. The day they left for DC she tweeted about their drive. She would tell us what town she was in now, or what state. I, being the detective I was, (ha), looked up on Google maps what the trip looked like. And nothing she said matched up. 

On top of that, my mother was acting weird. So weird. And Beka wasn't really posting pictures of the trip - something I thought strange. The girl is a photographer's daughter. She. Likes. Pictures.

My parents told all of us kids that they would be going out to dinner with a client/friend of my dad's that night, and we may or may not go too, so to get ready. That was really weird for them. It's always either "we're going" or "we're not going". But, I got ready anyway. 

I was sitting on the couch with Addy, who was almost 2 months old at the time, and noticed that my mom kept glancing at the driveway, as if looking for someone. I began to look too, all while still watching tv. I saw car lights gleam against the wall...and tried to contain myself. I had had to get on my mom's computer earlier that day, and saw an email for Beka's mom, Vicki, to my mom. I was trying not to be too excited about what I thought may be happening, just in case it didn't...but that didn't work too well. I went back to my sisters' room to get Addy something, and came back out to the kitchen. I was waiting with the baby when my mom went and opened the door, and called my name. 

I turned around and there stood my best friend.

can you tell we'd been crying? about ten minutes after our first real hug took place. 

I squealed. And probably almost dropped the baby. As quickly as I could possible hand Addy off to someone I did, and hugged that girl and cried. We both did. It was like everything in the world was finally right. I hugged her parents, too, and just looked at her in disbelief. 

on our way to dinner - sooo full of joy!

We ended up having dinner with her family that night, and then spending the next day together at Tahoe.

so happy.

having her with us was just like having another sister! ♥

we're both notorious posers. all day. every day.

I have never met another girl I love this much.

Ever.

We are so close, and truly sisters. I know she's got my back, even though she's all the way in Texas. Rarely does a day go by when we don't talk - there is always an "I love you!" to be said, and if either of us need prayer, the other one's got it.

This is my best friend, and I thank God all the time for blessing me with her friendship. 

seven by seven.

7x7.

Hey, look! My amazing friend Chelsea tagged me today :) this makes me quite happy! I love tags....

Rules:

1. link back to the blogger who nominated you.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself.

3. Share 7 blog posts that fit into 7 categories.

4. Nominate 7 award-winning blogs/bloggers.

1.) I am a really awkward dancer. No lie. It's a good thing I'm not one to want to "go dancing", i.e., clubbing....because it would embarrass you to no end. I just don't have the flow. Awks.

2.) most people I meet don't believe I'm 16. The most common guess/assumption is 21 and 23. I think I've gotten16 like four times since I've actually been sixteen...weird.

3.) I pretend like I'm an iPhone guru, but I really have no idea how some of the stuff on my phone works. It's pathetic.I often find myself going "um....what the heck just happened..............." yeah. true story.

4.) If you tell me something I do bugs you, chances are that I'll keep doing it because I hate letting others dictate what I should and should not do. Drives me nuts.

5.) The only herb I have an aversion to is Cilantro. It makes me sick. Literally sick to my stomach I'm going to puke all over you sick. Gross, eh?

6.) My daddy has this terrible problem with heartburn, and unfortunately it's hereditary. I have frequent heartburn at 16. Cool, huh? No. Not at all. My addiction to tums at such an early age is baaaaad.

7.) The worship pastor at church told me, when I was 12, that he thought I was going to be a worship leader someday. I said he was crazy...but hey, 4 years later and a lot of mentoring by him, and here I am...an official worship leader at church. Who knew.

And 7 posts of 7 different categories:

1.) a favorite thing I've made.

2.) my second post.

3.) an inspiring story about a childhood friend.

4.) some of my most favorite photos ever.

5.) a post of all things awkward.

6.) that time I gushed about John Mayer.

7.) me trying to be funny.

And now for seven blogs I'm going to tag!
1.) My dear friend Beka over at Forever Unique
2.) Miss Amanda at Anthropomorpity (coolest blog name ever? basically.)
3.) Lauren from The Perfect Pear
4.) My new friend Susannah at Susannah Bean
5.) Leney from a Girl Named Leney - I love her blog. SO much.
6.) my four favorite sisters over at The Letter 4 - I love them SO flipping much.
7.) Miss Lauren from Tastes Like Love :) adore.

Okay, those who have been tagged....GO!

Happy monday, friends!

I hate to see you go, but I can't wait to see where it leads.

Two nights ago I found out my dear friend is moving away...

And not just like "two hours away" away, like, "2000 miles away" away. 

So, I wrote out this post, just for him. :) 

---------------------------

I do not cry frequently. I do not enjoy crying, nor do I allow myself to do it often. You know that. But last night, I couldn't take it, and I borderline sobbed for a good hour...that is how much I will miss you.

I will miss your encouraging words and hugs when I'm not in that great of a mood.

I will miss your jokes about how any guy who takes interest in me will have to go through my dad, then you. 

I will miss geeking out over musical things...like riffs in a song, or a little inflection of a singer's voice...

I will miss spending hours just laughing with you. Filling up our bank of "inside jokes" once again.

I will miss teasing you about being British, and listening in on your conversations with your parents, just to hear your accent.

I will miss it all.

But, I know this...

You are moving away to pursue something greater...you may not have your plan in swing yet...

.....but we both know our God has His plan working right now, as I type this.

And you know what else I know? 

I know you'll miss me too. 

And I know you'll come back. :) 

I don't say that to make myself seem like a great friend, though...I say it because that's just how we are.

In the little under two years I've known you, I feel like it's been our entire lives.

Somehow, I've managed to get to know you better than most. Of course, you know it's because we're superior....

Kidding. 

Kind of.

Actually.....nooooot really....

(readers: that was an inside joke reference. my apologies.)

Anyway, the whole point of this was to tell you, without actually telling you, because I don't think you'll ever read this, unless you google my name weekly, was just to let you know how much I adore you. You've played a huuuuuge role in my life these past two years. Your encouragement, and faith in my musical abilities has been tremendous. Your honesty about what I need to work on has been a blessing. And  your amazing girlfriend whom you introduced me to, has become one of my dearest friends. I

I hate to see you go, but I can't wait to see where it leads. 

p.s.

per usual, your actions have lead to inspiration for another new song. you will be hearing it soon.

love, your little sister.

new year blogging party ♥

This past month, I participated in the New Year gift Exchange that was hosted by Casey, Danielle, and Alycia. A little get together, so to speak, where you're paired with another blogger, and get to get to know them, and send them a little gift :) how fun, right?

I was so excited to join in on the fun!

I was paired up with a lovely blogger named Monica - who blogs over here. She is so sweet, and adorable, and all around amazing! We had a lovely time getting to know each other over email, and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed our time! I was so blessed to be paired up with this amazing woman! I was so relieved that she wasn't uncomfortable with my being over ten (yes, it's true) years younger than she! The woman is amazing, y'all. She sews, is a wife (that alone is a huuuuuge accomplishment, can I get an amen?) and is totally girly - which is basically the greatest thing ever. 

She knew me so well within the few weeks we had to talk and figure out our gifts for each other! She sent me an adorable little journal for my songwriting. Perfect to fit in my purse and go with me wherever! 

She also sent me a wonderful little set of notecards, to ensure that I never forget the importance of hand written notes, and real communication outside of technology. Such a lovely and thoughtful gift.

Along with the previously mentioned, she sent me this GORGEOUS scarf, for the cold, chilly days here in my town! It is so beautiful and I wore it all day! ♥

My darling friends, please head over to miss Monica's blog, and give her a follow! She loves fashion, her hubby, and their adorable little pup, and is a pinterest addict! three cheers! hehe :)

hope you all had a wonderful day ♥