Slap Happy

You know what I like? Those random moments when you can't stop laughing and everything is funny. Jed and I just had one of those moments. I love that we are married and we can have these moments. He has such an infectious laugh. I like that marriage can be so fun and silly sometimes.

Busy Weekend

Well, Jed gets on the train TOMORROW to come back to me and I will be picking him up at a bright and early 4:30 AM. I am happily surprised at how not lonely I have been this week. The evenings of course are lonely, but I have kept very busy each day.

Friday I was in a kindergarten all day, went bridesmaid dress shopping with Amy and Natalie, then Amy and her fiance were kind enough to watch Robin Hood with me (we all fell asleep) and Amy was kind enough again to sleep over. I know Jed is a little sad he missed out hanging with Amy and Brandon. We are so lucky to have such great friends! We are very lucky in that my friends from college and high school have husbands that my husband gets along with. It makes it so easy when we want to have people over.

Saturday I spend all morning with Amy and her family helping them garden the backyard where her reception will be. It will be really beautiful and I can't wait to see it all decorated and in full bloom! My brothers were also kind enough to go grocery shopping with me ha ha.

Today, Sunday, I fully appreciated how long church is. Also, with all the people moving in and out, I visited a new family in our ward with two adorable boys. They are from Russia, and the boys just sound so cute when they speak Russian. I feel like it's such an adult sounding language, so coming from their cute little voices is just so funny. I am going to enjoy having them in Primary because they are very social, and their mom I already enjoy talking with. I also visited my new Second Counselor who I didn't really know before, but I am already looking forward to becoming better friends with.

For dinner, my siblings came over. It was great fun to have them over for dinner and made the evening a lot more enjoyable than it would have been without them. (I know as soon as my mother reads this, she will be so jealous because she missed a family dinner since she's in Lake Powell. Don't worry Mom, in July when Jed is gone for three weeks, I have no doubt I will come home often.) I feel so blessed to live so close to my family. It is so nice to call them up and randomly have dinner or go grocery shopping with them. I feel quite sad when I think about the fact that Jed and I are bound not to live in Utah for the rest of our lives. It will be sad not seeing them every couple weeks, but I know that this is what happens in life. I am all the more grateful that we are sealed together for eternity because while life may take us apart for a while, we will have all of eternity to visit each other and the worlds we create.

Have a happy Sunday!

Traumatic Birthday Cake

So, yesterday was my lovely sister Brittany's birthday! To celebrate I took her out to lunch at Zupas and also got a lovely sunburn in the process.

On Monday, we had our family birthday party. It was fun and we played Locale, a fun geography game similar to Balderdash but with locations... So anyway, my mother made a delicious chocolate cake. However, the moment I got my piece I literally put my hand to my heart and just stared at it... it looked EXACTLY like the chocolate cake from the movie Matilda! You know, the scene in the assembly where the fat little boy ate some of the scary principal's cake, so she makes him eat the whole thing? And he nearly throws it all up in the process? Well that scene was always so disgusting to me and it often made me lose my appetite. Imagine my surprise and flashbacks to my childhood of being traumatized by that movie (Mrs. Trunchbull was SUPER scary) when the exact cake was set before me to eat!

However, I still ate it and it was delicious. It was incredibly rich and couldn't be eaten without some ice cream and some milk to wash it down. So, despite the horror of it being the Matilda cake, it was quite good and I would love to have it again sometime.


(This is the cake... looks good right? And ridiculously rich? It was both of those.)

Alone

Well, my Jed is gone for the week. Five days in California. It was so sad saying goodbye to him. We sat on the tailgate of our car as we waited for the train to come, and when we heard the horn we jumped up, made sure he had everything, and walked up to the platform. As I wheeled his suitcase up the sidewalk, it was like I was in a movie: the train got closer, the horn got louder, and it seemed like time slowed and all I could focus on was the echoing horn that rang in my ears, and as it got louder all it told me was Jed was leaving… sad, right? I feel a little pathetic because he’s only going for five days. I can’t even imagine how the families of marines and soldiers who leave for a year feel…

You see, I’m the type of person who needs to be around people. Take tonight for example: After dropping Jed off, instead of going home to study for my D&C test tomorrow, I went to this cute crepe café (alliteration right there, folks) and studied. I studied surrounded by people (loud people) and live music and somehow I focused better than I ever would have in my too quiet apartment (Ask me anything about D&C Sections 1-24. I bet I know it.). I don’t get it, but I have discovered this part of my personality. It may be weird, but I love that I can’t seem to function without people. I think that’s why I liked having roommates so much. I don’t like to be alone. Jed on the other hand loves to have his alone time. That’s why I’m glad for him to get this little break, even a break from me. While we have a happy and healthy marriage, I know he even needs a break from me sometimes. Luckily I also know that he’ll be as happy to be with me come Tuesday as I am to be with him.

So people, feel free to stop by this weekend. If all goes as planned, I will have a clean apartment and my homework for next week will be mostly done by Saturday night, and I bet at least six, maybe seven, episodes of Psych will have been watched by then as well. Thank goodness I have Shawn and Gee Buttersnaps to keep me company.

Our FIRST Anniversary

Is it amazing or what? I honestly can't believe we're celebrating our first anniversary. We both agree: it doesn't seem like a whole year ago was our wedding and yet it seems like we've been married for forever. Regardless, here we are, and we couldn't have had a better first year!

Because of school (and because we're poor college students), our year celebration had to be simple and short.

Before leaving for our trip, we gave each other surprises. We each had a card, and then a little present. I gave Jed a Martinelli and shrimp cocktail to be used for a future picnic/sunset date. Jed set up on the table a bunch of cards with random letters on it. Each one had a phrase that started with the letter on the card about something he loved about me ("'O' is for our wedding day on which you looked so beautiful... 'T' is for today in which you look even more beautiful" and so on and so forth). It ended with "R" for roses, which Jed pulled out from behind his back. It was lovely and it actually made me cry, I loved it so much.



So after the presents went to the Draper Temple to do some sealings. (It is our goal to go to a different temple for every anniversary.) It was lovely. The temple workers were so cute and they loved to hear that it was our anniversary. We got to spend some time in the room we got sealed in and in the Celestial room and reminisce about when we got married. I also went and took a look around the Bridal Room which was as beautiful as I remembered. Same with the Celestial room--it was sooooo tall and the chandelier was beautiful.

Then we went to Park City. We checked into our hotel room at the Marriott, made dinner reservations, and headed for Main Street. We loved it. First of all, the weather was absolutely perfect. There was a cool breeze and warm sun which made walking around so pleasant. We also loved seeing all the cute shops with random stuff. Jed had a favorite shirt that said, "Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies." The fact that it was practically empty was great, too. It made for a very leisurely walk and exploring.



Next we ate at The Riverhorse Cafe. It was the nicest place either of us had eaten at (and therefore the most expensive). The waitress even used a metal crumb brush to wipe off our table between bread/entree course. We were amazed at the exotic plating and the artistic ways that they put the food on the plate. The food also tasted amazing and overall, it was the PERFECT anniversary dinner.



We ended the night in the hotel's sauna (which I did not like) and the hot tub, and by watching the movie Salt. (P.S. Salt was good. HUGE twist. We enjoyed it and recommend it.)

In the morning on our actual anniversary, we slept in, headed home, went to Sacrament Meeting, and then we went for a lovely drive on the scooter around the temple and BYU campus.

THEN we took a break from our anniversary and celebrated Mother's Day! But afterwards, Jed and I went home, watched Star Wars Episode 6 (which we have decided is my favorite), and finally broke out the top of our wedding cake!



We cut it together like on our wedding day, fed it to each other (and like on our wedding day, all I got was a chunk full of frosting), each ate a piece, and then felt almost sick from all the frosting on that cake. But man, it was good. Oh and we made goals for the coming year. It's pretty satisfying to look back at the goals we made a year ago while on our honeymoon, knowing that we have reached our goals by making a habit of couple scripture study, couple prayer, weekly dates, monthly temple trips, and other things.

So, there we have it. One year down, an eternity to go. How exciting!

Faith in Every Footstep

This Spring Term, besides my two Special Ed major classes, I'm taking Doctrine & Covenants. I have forgotten how much I love these religion classes. If I could do another major, I think it would be some sort of religion studies major (seminary teaching?). I just love learning the history behind all of our scripture because it makes it so much more real and meaningful to me.

In most of the sections I have read, they start out with "A marvelous work is about to come forth" or something to that effect, and every time I read that, it takes me back to the three mission reunions of Jed's I have attended. They were always fun because I could hear about Jed's mission and meet people he talks about, but at the end there was always a spiritual thought from his mission president, often a slideshow, and always we'd sing "O, Canada" and "Faith in Every Foodstep." Those of you who know that song know it start out "A marvelous work is about to come forth, among all the children of men." It is an incredibly powerful song to me and I love the message of the restored gospel. I never had the chance to be an official missionary, but I hope I can share the gospel and the happiness it brings in my life to those around me. It really does bring so much happiness to me. I know that as I read the scriptures I find peace in my life, guidance, and knowledge. I gain a stronger testimony of the restored gospel, that it is true, and a stronger testimony of Christ's eternal sacrifice which allows me to have my body forever and to live with my family forever. This is especially pertinent as mine and Jed's one year anniversary comes up in four days! I am so glad to be sealed to him for eternity, and I am so glad that we can visit the temple as often as we want to learn more and to come closer to God.

Here's the video I watched today. I hope you enjoy it and it brings the Spirit a little stronger into your life!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkTl_zjeqG4