2 years ago

Two years ago today I went on my first date with my wonderful husband. In honor of that, I want to share a few reasons that I love him. Just a few though.

1. He makes me laugh. Like whenever I'm sad, he teases me and acts silly until I am straight-up belly laughing.
2. He tickles me. This is a love/hate thing...but he's so cute when he does it
3. He works harder than anyone I know.
4. He makes dinner about half the time...and when I'm making it, he always helps me.
5. When I was dishes, he stands by my side the whole time to dry them.
6. He thinks I'm cute...even when I first wake up in the morning
7. He is so logical. He cannot understand why anyone would enjoy something that isn't logical at all. He definitely balances out my lack of logic.
8. He wants me to be happy. No matter what that means for him.

I am so grateful that he went out with me 2 years ago, held my hand 2 days later, and that he loves me. He is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Ohio here we come!

I am so proud of my husband. Matt got an internship for this summer at Kroger in Ohio. We're really excited to get to go out there and have the adventure. I've never been that far East. Here's just a few reasons we're excited:

The food
I'll have time to work on my teacher work sample and lesson plans for fall.
Work experience
We can go to Kirtland on a long weekend sometime.
Matt's brother will come visit us (he lives about 8 hours from where we'll be in Ohio)
More time together

There will be more to come, but I'm currently charging my camera for the second time since getting married so that I can take plenty of pictures of Provo before we leave, and even more pictures of Cincinnati while we're there.

Speaking of moving...does anyone know of someone looking for married housing for the end of April/beginning of May?

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.