Back from the dead and a new look

Ok, so I actually was far from dead these past 18 months, but to many of you it may have seemed that way. I have been home from my mission now for about 3 1/2 months and have yet to revive my habit of blogging...but we are working on that. This is just the first step: letting you all get to hear my own voice again (through type, of course) and know that I, Carianne King, am still alive and fighting more than ever. I thank my wonderful sister, Michal, for taking over the blog updates while I was away.

On February 24, 2011 I returned from serving 18 months in the Honduras Tegucigalpa mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I absolutely loved my time and experience there and wouldn't take it back for the world! There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it and miss it and the people I came to know, serve, and love. But I know that "to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." (Eccl. 3:1) I know that my time to serve a full-time mission has ended for now, and that now is my time to take what I have learned from it, go forward and put it to good use blessing my own life and the lives of others.

Thank you all for any letters, emails, or packages you sent me, or even your thoughts and prayers...I sure felt the support and it was greatly appreciated in any form!

My wonderful parents were able to come down to Honduras and spend a week and a half with me at the end of my mission and travel around, seeing the country and having fun, visiting the areas in which I had served, and getting to know a good portion of the people I love with so much of my heart! It was sweet to have my parents meet these Hondurans whom I love so much, put faces and personalities with names that had read so much about in letters, and understand me when I got home and was missing my Catrachos (Hondurans). If you would like to see pictures of this trip, I have an album on my facebook.

I came home to Colorado to spend a wonderfully exciting week with all my family (19 of us including Grandma Ihli!) and have a Christmas in February all together! My family decided to wait and save their Christmas vacation time to come out when I got home and have Christmas together then - I love my family! We also got to take a new family picture!


Don't I have the most beautiful family ever?!

I also came home to another surprise...realizing I do not have my perfect 20/20 vision anymore! I started noticing I cannot see clearly things that are far away (such as road signs when driving). Went in for an eye exam and...long story short, I now have these:


I don't have to wear them all the time, but am starting to like the option of wearing them now and then. I mean, since we were little, Michal and I have always wished we could wear glasses. :) But now that both of our blind brothers, Nathan and Jameson, have gotten lasik surgery, I am the only one! :)