"Hey, I can reach the tap now for the very first time today"

"I wonder if I'm growing, I wonder if I'm growing? My mom says yes, I'm growing, but its hard for me to see!" -Raffi

Not only do those lines from Raffi (including the title of today's post) make me tear up a little, but they equal truth. I have a hard time feeling like a grown-up most days, but as I started to write this post, I started to see some things about my life this year.

Last week I officially became an adult. How? you may ask. Well I will tell you. The answer is that I got a Costco membership. Yes! My very own!! No longer will I have to rely on the kindness of others (Thanks, Braden!) or wait until someone is going so that I can revel in the delightfulness that is Lethbridge Costco. Samples! Books! DVDs! Yam Fries! Occasionally, mini-doughnuts!! There are, of course good and bad points to this acquisition. The good points are all mentioned above. The bad aspect (o.k., there is only one!) is that I will spend way too much money there. I have a hard enough time controlling myself when I am not driving the cart. I will probably need some sort of supervision, so if you ever need to go, please let me know and we will go together. My only stipulation is that you have to at least attempt to discourage me from buying one or more of the following:

1. a Kitchen-aid (sp?)
2. the entire series of "Gilmore Girls"
3. a black-forest cake if there is no discernible gathering approaching
4. a life-size singing Santa
5. a trampoline
6. a box of chocolate bars
7. a Lobster roll

Getting the membership was part of my year long transition to adulthood. This year I got a new adult-type job, I bought a car, I travelled to Europe by myself, I moved to a Family Ward, and I am learning to wrap a present so it doesn't look like it was done by a blind man with only 3 fingers. Denise and I were talking about how the theme of 2008 was "Change the fate", and as I look back, I did just that. Pretty exciting. I often used to think that we have to become the person we aspire to all at once, that it would just happen. I am starting to realize that it is possibly an evolution instead of a transformation.

Thanks for all of the support in 2008, I really couldn't have gotten to where I was without your help. Here's hoping that we will all get the chance to grow a little more in 2009. If anyone has any suggestions for a title/theme for next year, let me know.

Here are some (pretty darn awesome) ideas:

2009

"The stars for me will shine"
"This year is mine"
"The journey is mine"
"This year will be fine"

Talk to you soon!