Being the youngest.

Everyone thinks being the youngest means you get super spoiled. Well hate to break it to you, but it is not true. Growing up you always have older siblings around to tease you or to pick on you, until everyone else leaves and you are the only one left at home. Sure being the only one at home has its nice moments like you get to go out to eat with your parents more, but it has more negative moments. You get so used to having someone around and all of the sudden no one else is there. There are a lot of days when I am home alone most of the days and don’t see my parents until that night. My first few years of high school I had one sister that was still living at home and she was usually the only one home when I would get home from school because my parents would be at work. She and I got really close but then she went up to BYU for school. All of a sudden I became the only child pretty much. It became super lonely and I started getting super sad and not wanting to do anything anymore. I would cry some nights because I missed her so much and missed just having someone there when I came home from school. As time passed I just learned to get used to not having someone around all the time. I never knew if I would come home from school to an empty house or if one of my parents would be home from work already. Just as I was getting used to all of this, my world had a little earthquake. My parents got a new calling in our church to go to another ward which is in the next city over. They still live at home but they are over there at least two times a weeks if not more for a few hours. So now instead of going to the same ward as my parents and spending Sundays with them I barely see them. This was very hard for me and is still very hard on me. At the time that they got this calling my dad was working from home most of the time but now he has a new job so he works out of the house a lot more. I had posted a picture onto Facebook with my dad and my aunt commented on it saying something like, “I bet you love being the youngest and spending so much time with your parents.” The realty of it though is that I feel like I never see my parents. There are some days that I wake up after they leave and go to bed before they get home. Every minute I get to spend with them I treasure because I never know when we will be able to spend time together again. So when people ask me if I like being the only won at home my answer is no.

This is a very old picture but it will have to do until we can get a new one.

What I Believe.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have been a member of this church my whole life. Some may say the only reason I am a member is because my parents made me go when I was a kid and for some that might be the reason they go but for me it isn't. When I was a Sophomore in high school me and one of my good friends out of no where stopped being friends but we also went to the same church. At this point because of what happened I did not want to go to church but I went because I knew my parents would make me go, so I would sit there and not talk to anyone because everyone knew we weren't friends for some reason and no one wanted to get in the middle. A couple years later when I looked back I realized how stupid I was for letting someone else decide if I had a good time at church or not. That was when I stopped going for my parents and started going for myself. I would apply myself into the lesson more and I would try to find a way to have everything I learned be a part of my life. When the time came for me to graduate and go to what we call the Young Single Adult (YSA)ward at church I would get really bad anxiety (getting it just writing about it) so I decided I needed to turn to the Lord and pray about if I should stay in the family ward where my parents were or go to the YSA ward. One day sitting in church I got this very strong impression that I needed to stay in the family ward, why I am still not sure but I listened and I stayed. When I tell people that I get super funny look or the "why did the spirit tell you that" question. So I stayed in the family ward and I got a calling to be a primary teacher to some of the 4-5 years old kids in my ward. About this same time my parents got a calling to go to a different ward out in Oxnard to be missionaries and help the growing ward. I had a really hard time with this because no I felt like I was in a family ward with no family so why was I told to stay? The first couple weeks without my parents were super hard because all the talks were on families and how important they were. I started not liking going to church anymore and if I hadn't had a calling there is a good chance I would of told people I was going to the YSA and the family ward I was going to the YSA ward so that they wouldn't know and I wouldn't have to go to church. But I kept going and I am so glad I did. I still get asked all the time why I don't go to the YSA ward and when I am going and I still don't want to go. I am not sure what is holding me back but I just get super anxious when I think about going. I say as long as I am going to church it shouldn't matter which ward I go to. But no matter what happens I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true and I am so thankful I get to be a member. I get little reminds when I'm talking to a friends, reading the scriptures, teaching my primary kids, or even just playing with kids that this church is true and that I would not be the person I am today if I did not have the church in my life. If anyone has questions about my church feel free to ask me.

This is the beautiful Los Angeles temple.

The Book Of Mormon. The best book you could ever read!

The ones that get me through anything and everything.

I can count on one hand all of my really close friends. When you are little the more friends the better but when you get older the fewer friends the better at least for me. Out of my five close friends two live in different countries.

This is Jacob, he is serving a mission for the LDS church in Russia right now. He will be coming home in March but will still be living in a different state so we will have to figure out a way to see each other.

Conni is the best of friend any girl could ever ask for. The only problem is that she lives in Austria and for just a little bit forever. It is really hard having your friends live so far away but thankfully there are phones and facetime, and a sneaky dad that plans a surprise for her and I get to join them on vacation.

Next we have Emily and Kelly. Emily and Kelly started off friends first but were so nice to let me join in. We knew each other but were never super close during middle school but in High School me and Emily hung out more and than all three of us and something just clicked! The best thing about the three of us is we can all hang out together or just two out of the three and no one gets jealous of the others. This girls are ones I hope to always have by my side!

Natalee is a great friend to have! She also happens to be my big sister. We were not always that close we used to never hang out or even really talk. Once she had her first baby Josh everything changes. So I guess you could say thanks to Josh we are best friends now. I love that we have gotten so much closer and we don't let our eight year difference get in our way at all! Actually people ask if we are twins a lot, I am the one they usually ask to see an id for, and only once have we been asked if we were mother daughter. Overall having a sister as a best friends is a really nice thing!

Introducing Me

Hi I am Melanie Sawyer. I am 19 years old and I was born and raised in Camarillo, California. I am the youngest of five kids and the only one not married/has a kid. But that's okay because I get to do a lot of things with my parents the other didn't since I am the only one home. For school I just started doing the pathway program through BUY-I so it is all online, we just have to meet once a week in a group to talk about the class. I am one of the weird people that does not go to the singles ward for church and stayed in the family ward where I am a primary teacher to some very sweet 4-5 year old. I decided to start this blog to write down different thought and things that go on in my life so that I can remember them later. My life isn't all that exciting but maybe I will have to change that now. So sorry if it isn't that exciting and you get bored with it.