My Culture

Growing up, I was always a huge bookworm. I almost always had my nose buried in a book. Even though I lived in the same town for my whole life, I couldn't find my way around anywhere when I started to drive, because I had always read in the car. Even now, whenever I have free time, I spend it reading. Because of this, I am familiar with many books, and many different genres of books. I also am a stickler for grammar and spelling.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The part of the church that has always been most meaningful to me, is having latter-day prophets to reveal new truths to us.  Because of this, I consider this framed copy of the Proclamation to be a huge part of my culture. I read it frequently, and am so grateful to be a member of the church. It has also affect my culture in many ways, simply in that being LDS is a culture unto itself.

I love to cook. I have always felt more at home in the kitchen than anywhere else. Because I love to cook and bake, I  think that my kitchen aid was the best gift I have ever received. I spend a lot of time using it to try out new recipes, I then take the food to my neighbors.

Nothing really sums up a person's culture the way their family does. I love my family, and have always been so grateful to them. My family is not a typical Mormon family. My extended family has always lived very close to me, so I have grown up appreciating and wanting a large and close family like the one I grew up with. I also included a picture with my in-laws, because I feel that they are a large part of my culture. I learn more from each member of my family each time I speak with them, and they help me consider ideas I wouldn't on my own.

Dating after marriage

So, after you get married, you probably think first dates and the stress of dating is done right? All you have to do is go out and enjoy yourself with someone you already know you really like, and already likes you...WRONG!! What you have to do now is date for friends. Now what you have to do is couple date.

Couple dating is a little bit more stressful than regular dating for the following reasons:

• You only have control over your own actions--not your spouse's, and either could cost you a potential couple friendship.
• Not only do you have to like the other person and have them like you back, but you have to like 2 people, your spouse has to like them both, and they have to like both of you as well.
• It can be harder to motivate yourself to go on couple dates. 
• There aren't couple dating rules (you know, like the next day text, never say no to a first date, etc.) Some transfer over, but some don't.

Matt and I went on a couple date tonight. Luckily, it went fabulously...on our side. Fingers crossed that they enjoyed themselves as well. But that's what got us started thinking about this. We found ourselves getting a little bit nervous through the day, and it reminded us of getting ready for first dates back in the days before we found each other.

So, here's hoping happy dating for all the single people, and happy couple dating for all the married people!

1 year later

As of 2 days ago, Matt and I had been married for a year. Our anniversary had an interesting start, but ended up being absolutely wonderful. We got up in the morning, and went to the Social Security office. I am finally getting around to changing my name. It only took a year for me to get there. :)
We budgeted about 2 hours for that, but it wound up taking only 20 minutes, so we went home to exchange gifts before the next part of our morning. Matt took our certificate from the temple and had it professionally framed. It looks amazing, and I am so happy to have it! I got him a leather bound copy of Sherlock Holmes and wrote him a letter about our first year together. After we opened our presents and ate a little, we had plans and tickets for watching The Hobbit. However, when we went to the door at 10:30, our lock was broken. We couldn't get it to unlock so we could get out the door. My wonderful husband magically fixed it with some fiddling...and some climbing out the window...at least enough that we could go to the movie.
By the way, the movie was incredible. Everything I hoped for and more.
After the movie, we came home, ate lunch, and the maintenance guy came by to fix our broken furnace and take a look at the deadlock. He was very friendly, and I enjoyed talking to him.
Once he left, we were out the door to go up to Salt Lake for the night. We went out to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory, then stayed the night at The Anniversary Inn.
The room at the Anniversary Inn was gorgeous. We stayed in the Venice room, and the bed was made in a gondola frame with a couch in the front part. We enjoyed watching the Food Network, and posing in the front of the gondola in a Titanic-related manner. It was nice to be away from home and have nothing to worry about...Plus breakfast was provided, and was incredible. All in all, I would recommend the Anniversary Inn.

I am so grateful that I married such a wonderful and caring man. He takes such good care of me, and I always know that he loves me. He balances me in many ways, and complements me in ways that I didn't know I needed. To me, he is proof that Heavenly Father really does love us enough to give us what we need instead of what we want...and Matt is both of those to me.

Christmas Time is Here

It's Christmas time!!!

Matt is very firm that Thanksgiving needs time to be appreciated as a holiday, however, when we got home Thursday from dinner, I managed to convince him that it was time to decorate for Christmas.

We made gingerbread houses at Thanksgiving dinner

This is our Christmas corner. We didn't have enough decorations to decorate the whole  apartment right off the bat. More pictures will be coming.

My wonderful sister-in-law Maija made me these last Christmas after seeing me pin them on pinterest.

 So, if you couldn't tell, I love Christmas. I get very excited about it, and I love that everyone suddenly loves everyone around each other. I love Christmas music, I love decorations, I love snow. I love giving people presents. I just love everything about Christmas time.

Since I took these pictures, we have put Christmas blankets over the back of our couch and chair, put my Christmas bear out on the chair we're babysitting for my in-laws, and put up a nativity!! We also plan to make paper snowflakes and Danish hearts to decorate our window. I am loving having my own place to decorate the way I want for Christmas.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

It is amazing how blessed we are when we step back and look at our live objectively. Really waking up each day is a miracle. So, here is a list of the miracles I've experienced just today.

1. Waking up this morning.
2. Having a husband to hold my hand.
3. My phone to wake me up.
4. A roof over my head.
5. Running water.
6. Toothpaste
7. My refrigerator
8. Feeling totally comfortable and at home with Matt's family.
9. A baby blessing.
10. The Gospel of Christ.
11. Spiritual promptings.
12. A husband who can take care of things.
13. Answered prayers.
14. A baby snuggling against me.
15. Chocolate.
16. Good books.
17. Memories
18. A cousin who makes me feel so loved-Thank you Kirsten!
19. An apartment that feels like home.
20. Savings for emergencies.

This is just the list I get off the top of my head. I am so blessed. I have hundreds of thousands of blessings every single day. It amazes me how often I am blessed.

S'more Cupcakes Please!

"These are s'mores stuff. Now pay attention. First you take the graham. You stick the chocolate on the graham. Then, you roast the mallow. When the mallow's flaming, you stick it on the chocolate. Then you cover it with the other end. Then, you stuff. Kind of messy, but good!"

-Ham Porter

I saw something on pinterest the other day. Someone suggested that when you don't have time to frost your cupcakes, you should put a large marshmallow on them 5 minutes before they're done cooking to create a toasted marshmallow topping. When I showed it to Matt, he said that it reminded him of s'mores. So I looked up a recipe for graham cracker cupcakes, put the marshmallows on them, then put pieces of Hershey's chocolate on top of the marshmallow, which Matt then spread out for me.

As you can see, there was only one real flaw with this. It's impossible to control how or in which direction the marshmallow spreads when it melts. 2 of them turned out amazingly where the mallow spread out over the whole cupcake, and didn't go over the edge very much at all. But most of them have a large chunk of mallow hanging off one side while the other side is uncovered. Overall though, I would call this a successful recipe!

Yummy Yummy!

These 9 were the ones I thought looked best. So I took them to work to celebrate the end of the summer with my friends.

This one was the best cupcake by far. The toasted marshmallow was perfectly spread over the top.

Preschool

Since about the middle of June, I have been teaching in the BYU preschool. The last month and a half has essentially flown by. I have loved teaching these kids, and I have loved the opportunity I've had to learn from them. I love each of the kids, even though sometimes, some of them make me want to tear my hair out.

It breaks my heart to think that after Thursday, I will probably never see these kids again, and I will have no idea what happens in the rest of their lives. It surprises me how invested I've become in each of them. So...to celebrate my time with them, I want to share some of my favorite moments:

While walking to a fire drill, to keep them in a line, we asked them to stay close to the wall, so a lot of the kids were walking with their hands against the wall. The little boy in the very back tapped the girl in front of him on the shoulder and said "Hey, I have to tell you something important. You're getting germs all over your hand."

While walking back from the fire drill, the same little girl told me "when you have a baby, you go to the hospital, and the baby pops out of you. And when the baby pops out of you at the hospital, people bring you flowers."

Every time that little girl covered her ears because it was "too loud."

Once while in our 'restaurant', a little boy walked over to me, and handed me a plate, then just kept bringing me over food. Then he told me it would be eleventy-five dollars. I told him that I didn't have that money, and he said "It's okay. I'll be your boyfriend and pay for you."

I helped another little boy arranging his name with magnetic letters, then he turned to me and asked me to marry him. I told him that I was already married, and he asked me if I would marry him when he got big.

Every day at the end of class, when parents come to pick up their kids. I love seeing the kids get up and run to their mom or dad and give them a big hug. I am so excited to someday have my own child be that excited to see me.

This experience has really been amazing for me. I have learned so much about teaching, kids, and myself. I love these kids, I love the age group, and I am so grateful I have had this opportunity. I highly encourage everyone at BYU to do the two courses regarding the preschool, no matter how little it has to do with their major. In the end, watching the kids show off that they can write their name, or something new that you have taught them, it is so worth it.