Who I am, My Family, and What This is All About

I have never really been one to blog. I have always thought blogs were a place to tell stories about your life and your family can read about it to keep themselves updated. Well, I hit two problems there; my life truly isn't all that interesting and Facebook. With Facebook you can share a quick story, new picture, or funny video instantly. I can tell all of my "friends" that my first week of a new semester at college was "Super Awesome!" and be done with it. Bam. They are all updated on my life. It isn't just my barrier to blogging. I have a few friends who were like, super bloggers. Now I look back and they haven't blogged in years. Well, you are probably asking yourself, "Self? Why is she blogging now?" Well this blog is for a class I am taking up here at good ol' Brigham Young University - Idaho.

Let me pause in my contemplation of blogs to tell the many readers I am sure I will have (could I emphasize the sarcasm any more?), about myself! My name is Emily Barrow, I am from Northern California and I just turned 19 years old. There are three things I let myself completely geek out on.

1. Dogs 

2. Marvel

3. Theatre

My whole life I have had this crazy desire to help people. I know it sounds cheesy, but it is true! If I see someone crying on the side of the street, it is like they are calling out to me, "Emily! I need to talk, and you have a great pair of ears!" ... not that I see crying people on the side of the road often but you understand what I mean. So I started my first semester here at BYU-I last Fall as a Psychology major. I didn't really know what or who I wanted to focus on, but I thought that Psych would be a good place to start. At the same time, I took a Child Development class, honestly just for fun. I remember more from my Child Development class than I did from my General Psychology class. That is not to say that my Psych class was not memorable, child development just seemed to click more. So I went home for winter break (more about the BYU-I Three Track System here ) I took a class called "Careers in Psychology" and I realized who and what I wanted to focus on. Families. After I realized that, it was like everything just fell into place, I had all of these realizations of why I should do this, and remembering that I get excited every time we talk about families in Church. I am sure I will go into more depth as to why I chose Marriage and Family to focus on later on in my posts.

I guess since this whole blog will be about families... I should talk about my own! Well, I have a mom (Peggy), a dad (Jeff), and two brothers (Nick and Casey). Mom and Dad met in their twenties, fell in love, got married and had Nick! Six years later, Casey came along. But Casey didn't stay with us nearly as long as we would have liked. Casey was born with congenital heart defects and passed away about six months after he was born. So I have a sweet brother looking after me from the Spirit World, and I feel his presence in my life often. Six years after Casey, my mom started to feel sick... should be the flu right? Wrong! It was me! Surprise momma! Apparently she had just finished nursing school, so I came at a perfect time! I love my family with all of my heart and I thank Heavenly Father everyday for sending me to them.

 

My momma and I when she came to visit me this summer!

Nick and Dad looking so excited to be watching one of the plays plays I was in!

 

What 34 and 3/4 years of marriage looks like!

I love my dad... and his golf hats!

And now that I have bragged about my family...

I will be updating this blog weekly, (and if I am especially inspired, maybe even twice a week!). The themes will run pretty consistently with what I am learning in my Family Relations class that week, but I promise I will not just be regurgitating (it's a gross word, but I felt it appropriate) the lessons my teacher gives. Also, I am taking a Parenting class , as well as an Eternal Family class, and a Infants and Toddlers class this semester, (how I am going to keep them straight, I have no idea) so I will try to incorporate what I learn from them as well. 

I believe and have a strong testimony that the family is a unit that God Himself created. This week in my Eternal Family Class, we talked about how God made man, and then he made woman, literally for the man so that they could be married and "cleave" unto her. Heavenly Father put Adam and Eve on this earth, so that they could not only replenish it, but raise a family, the first family (Genesis 2:21-24). I will share more experiences as to why the family is so important, not only to me, but to everyone. 

So! Now I shall do the typical thing a blog writer does! Please like, comment, share, talk about, learn from and just simply enjoy this blog. Ask questions! I will be happy to answer them (Or consult someone much smarter than I and get back to you). I will be talking a lot about my Church and it's relation to the stance on families and if I do not explain myself well enough in my posts, please do ask me questions. Or go to mormon.org or to lds.org  you will get any questions you have answered! I promise! 

WELL! That was long. I hope it wasn't too boring! 

Now back to my blog contemplation...

How do I end these things?