Summer!

It's FINALLY summertime!!

Jeffrey and I have been waiting for this summer for a very long time. Both of our schedules become significantly slimmer and we are able to spend more time together. School is out for both of us and we are able to do all of the fun things that we want to do.

I am still working at the elementary school for summer school, but it is over in two weeks. We then get to travel to Florida to hang out with Jeffrey's family. We are so completely excited for this trip. We haven't seen his family since we got married over eight months ago. We miss them. A lot. I miss my family when I don't see them, but they live about 1000 times closer than Jeffrey's family so we are able to visit so much more often.

The rest of our summer is going to comprise of the park, Netflix, lazy naps, hiking, running, walking, doing anything outside, and eating lots of food. Also, popsicles. We love popsicles. They are the best.

At the end of the summer, we have the amazing opportunity to attend the Paul McCartney concert. We are elated that we get to go. I have been listening to the new album and trying to learn all the words so that I can sing along to every single song. This is going to my first real concert. I'm glad that it is someone classic, timeless, and I won't regret telling my kids about it later on in life. MUCH later on in life.

Right now, we are just enjoying life and trying to make the most out of it. We have been watching the World Cup non stop since it started. We loved watching Chile play and felt so stressed during the USA vs. Ghana game, we had to do a yoga session afterward. We get a little too invested in our sporting events sometimes. I am learning so much about the sport and Jeffrey loves educating me. That's what we have been doing with our time!

Easter

Easter is one of the best times of the year. Spring time is beginning and all of the trees are blossoming and the flowers are growing. I love it. This Easter was surprisingly enjoyable.

Being married is an adjustment, and one of those adjustments, is not spending every holiday with your own family. This has been something I have always known about, but never really thought about. It never seemed real, and that made it hard for me to grasp. I got to spend our first Christmas with my family, but Easter was different.

My family decided to head to my sister's house in Denver this year for Easter. I would have loved to join, but the work situation did not allow for that. Jeffrey's family lives across the country, so we were going to spend our holiday as a couple.

We didn't do anything big. We gave our presents early, because we are basically the most impatient and incapable of keeping secrets from each other, people ever. We didn't do Easter baskets, but we did dye some eggs. We thought it was going to be quite a boring, and lonesome day. But then we got invited to the Hadlock's house.

The Hadlocks are long time friends of Jeffrey's family and I work with one of them at the elementary school. Through my marriage, I have really come to love this family. They are the friendliest, more generous, kind people I know. They have known me for such a short amount of time, but have made me feel so welcomed and taken care of. Whenever we leave their house after visiting, I feel so much happiness to be apart of something so great. I can only hope and pray to be able to raise a family with so much love and happiness.

I'm so happy and grateful to have such wonderful examples all around me for what I would like my future family to be like. I have my own family, Jeffrey's family, and now, the Hadlocks. I can only hope to mash up all of these cultures and traditions to form an equally wonderful family.

40 Days of Holiness

I wish I could tell you something life changing has happened, but honestly our lives are boring. We have the same rigid schedule every week, but I actually quite enjoy it. But I do have things that I have been thinking about lately and I would love to get them out on a more public forum. 

Our stake conference (a religious meeting held with a few other congregations in our area) was 3 weeks ago. In that stake conference our stake president asked us to read the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as part of 3 Nephi in the 40 days since that meeting until Easter. 

Usually, it is hard for us to read a lot of scripture at one time. I tend to have a lot of questions and we like to discuss thing. However, we decided to do this program. We are reading on average 7 pages of scripture a day. That doesn't seem like a lot when I think that I read most of the Harry Potter books in a weekend, but scripture is heavy and takes a lot more digesting. 

So, we have faithfully been reading the assigned amount of scripture every day for the last 3 weeks, and I just want to let everyone know how blessed I feel our marriage has been. We have had our tiny, annoying, arguments less, and have shown more love and compassion than ever before. We have been blessed financially and physically. 

I'm not saying things are perfect, we have still fallen ill and can't buy everything we want. But I just feel that because of our obedience to our stake president, that we have been blessed. We have been blessed not just in our earthly home and life, but we have been blessed spiritually. I feel I know and understand the Savior more than I ever have, and that only will increase as we finish these next two weeks leading to Easter Sunday. 

I am so happy and proud that we decided to take on this challenge from our leaders. I know that as we continue to follow in their counsel, especially as this conference season is upon us, that we can be blessed beyond measure if we have faith and endure to the end. 

Valentine's Day

Jeffrey and I have technically been dating for 3 years now! How crazy is that to believe? Well, despite this fact, we have only been in the same country for one Valentine's Day. Jeffrey is actually secretly romantic. He will never let anyone besides me see this part of him, but it really is there. 

However, this year, he had to work Valentine's Day night, so we got to experience a more relaxed, casual, fun Valentine's and I would not have it any other way. I didn't have to work, and Jeffrey doesn't have Friday classes, so we got to sleep in and take our time waking up. Then, we had a relaxed morning getting ready to go out. We went to lunch for endless sushi. It was oh so delicious and I think I'm still full. We then went to go shopping at the mall. We have so much fun just walking around and browsing at all of the things that make us happy. Even the ones we know we can't afford. We can still look, right? After walking around for a while, we decided we wanted to sit down and relax for a bit, so we went to see a movie. Hear me out here; I didn't want to go see a cliche, yucky, probably boring chick flick. Barf. And I didn't want to put Jeffrey through that either. And, quite honestly, I didn't want to sit in a packed theater of high school kids making out, so we chose to see the Lego Movie. I really, really enjoyed it. It was quite clever and sweet. 

After our fun filled day, we came home to hang out by our pet frogs and watch the Olympics, which has been our obsession since they started. I really had such a fun day, and I'm so glad I just get to have fun with the love of my life. 

The more time I spend with Jeffrey, the more the love I have for him grows. I feel so happy and so blessed that I get to spend an eternity with this man. I get to learn how to grow along with someone and learn that there is no limit to how much you can love. 

Married!

Sooooo.... Jeffrey and I have been married for just over three months. Things have been going great. I really can't complain. Here is how it happened:

At the beginning of July, Jeffrey came on a little family vacation with my family to visit my sister, Leslie, in Colorado. That was when he finally met all of my sisters. I wish I could say it was blissful, but they are embarrassing. Anyway, my nieces and nephews took it upon themselves to give him a deadline of when to propose. That deadline happened to be by my birthday which is at the end of July. At least they wanted him as an uncle, right?

We got home and everything was perfectly...not that great. Jeffrey was living in Salt Lake and I was still in Logan. Although 82 miles is closer than across an ocean, we still weren't liking the distance. But we visited each other as much as we could. Then on July 21, he FINALLY proposed. Okay, he was a week early from his given deadline, but I waited two years, I think I have the right to be a little impatient. His proposal was simply wonderful. Simply us. I loved it. We promptly set the date for October 10. A whopping two and a half months away. I'm sure our mothers loved us a little more before we did that to them. I have to give mad props to our wonderful moms; they made our wedding everything we, ( I ), dreamed of.

Shortly after the proposal, we decided living so far away wasn't so fun. I also got a job here in Salt Lake and was starting at the end of August. That was reason enough for us to start apartment hunting. We got super lucky and found one we loved quickly. I moved in at the beginning of August and everything was set for him to move in when we got married. And the best part was it was my apartment was about half a block away from his! That was distance we could live with.

I started my job at Redwood Elementary and he continued his work with the church at Temple Square. Everything was great. Then, it was time for wedding stuff. I had a love/hate relationship with wedding planning. It was fun, stressful, beautiful, awful, and exciting all at once. Good thing our moms took care of most of it.

Our celebrations started October 3. I was lucky enough to be endowed that day in the Logan LDS Temple. It was wondrous. I loved every minute of it. We had a little family luncheon and then a open house for all of my family and  friends in Logan. It was a cute little party that turned out simple and elegant. Then it was time for the big day. We got married in the Salt Lake LDS Temple at 9:40 AM on October 10, 2013. Our closest friends and family attended the ceremony and it was more amazing than I ever dreamed.

We had a great reception with so much fantastic food that I couldn't even write it all down. Obviously the company was great. We are so thankful to anyone who came to support us. We loved everything we received, whether it was a gift, or love. We feel like the luckiest people in the world to have the family and friends that we do. We have so many good people in our lives.

Anyway, back to marriage. Life is great. Jeffrey is in school and working. I am working and trying to become a better wife everyday. Our hobbies include binge watching old tv series on Netflix and eating. We love living downtown and being so close to so many things to do. If we ever get bored, its our own fault. We have so much to do and see all around us.

We are just taking life one day at a time and loving almost every minute of it. We don't really love the morning minutes when the alarm goes off and we have to go to work and school and all the adult things that don't seem that fun, but then actually are a lot of fun, and I actually love work, so I don't know why I get so grumpy in the morning. Anyway, other than that we are loving everything marriage has thrown at us thus far. And he hasn't died from my cooking yet, so things are looking good.

RM Status

HE'S HOME! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! HE IS HOME!

Oh my goodness. I don't even know where to begin. So, my situation is a little different than most missionary girlfriends. Most girls get to go to the airport and give them a hug, then wait for them to get released and hang out. I didn't get to do that. Jeffrey's parents had the opportunity to go pick him up in his mission and see the places and people he served. They stayed there for about two weeks, and then came home. The bad news is, his family moved across the country after he left for his mission, so he is not close to me at all. The good news is, Heavenly Father has allowed amazing technology to be made and I get to FaceTime him pretty much every night.

I was so nervous for him to come home. I was scared that I hadn't grown or matured enough. I was scared that he would come home and think that he didn't really like me as much as he thought. I was nervous about so many things. But the second I saw his face on my little screen, it all didn't matter. He is perfect. We still joke around with each other like we did before and he is just as adorable, if not more so, then he was before he left.

I couldn't be happier with how things are going. Even though he is still really far away and we have to play the long distance game for 3 more weeks, I am so blissfully happy. I can do FaceTime and text messages for 3 weeks compared to emails and letters for 2 years!

I just wanted to say a couple of things. First of all, don't forget to improve yourself while waiting. He is learning and growing and becoming a better person every single day. You should be too! Don't ever be afraid to ask your Heavenly Father for strength, and always follow his counsel. The Holy Ghost is the absolute best gift you have. Always listen to him and you can't go wrong. Stay open minded and don't be afraid to try new things. Love yourself and stay happy!

Waiting has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life. There were times it seemed awful, and I wanted to give up. I'm glad I didn't. I dated a little, I turned down dates. I traveled, and learned. I read the Book of Mormon more times in 2 years, than I had my whole life. I gained a stronger testimony of this Gospel. I improved my relationship with my Father and Savior. I learned about patience and true happiness. These are all things I probably wouldn't have learned any other way.

This is our FaceTime. 90% of the time we just make weird faces at each other while I screen shot them without telling him. I have some pretty great pictures this way! :) Keep going girls and always remember Heavenly Father is there for you no matter what. Tell Him everything. It will only work out for your benefit. 

“Don't you quit. You keep walking, you keep trying, there is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon. Some come late. Some don't come until heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in Good Things to Come.”             -Jeffrey R. Holland

Confessions of a Missionary Girlfriend

So, my wait is coming to a close. Jeffrey's parents left TODAY to go pick him up. They will be able to pick him up from the mission home on Monday. I'm so excited that they get to see him, and hang around where he has been serving the past two years. But since, he is coming home, I thought I would confess some things that have occurred over the last two years, that I swore I would never do.

1.) I hardly ever get do my make up and hair in the same day.
       I didn't have anyone to impress, and I'm lazy. Doing my hair and make up became an unusual thing. Now I have to get in the habit of it again. Oh boy.

2.) I now take shameless selfies, just to to send them to Jeffrey.
        Okay, so I didn't get ready that often, but when I did, I almost always took a selfie, just so it really  looked like I was functioning like a normal person. Oh gosh, how I hated selfies before he left.

3.) I now wear leggings as pants.
        Yeah, stop judging me. They are comfortable alright?!

4.) I sometimes would go out on dates just because I was broke and needed a free dinner.
       Living on your own is expensive, and so is sending packages and letters to a different continent. So, sometimes I would take advantage of nice boys, who wanted to take me out to dinner. Sue me.

5.) I got butterflies through emails.
        Having basically no other communication, emails became such a crucial part through this journey. Just seeing his name pop in my inbox gave me butterflies. I think I'm going to miss it a little bit.

So there are some of my confessions. It's been such a fun journey and I'm going to miss the letters and all the good things that come from supporting a missionary. I have learned so much about myself, the gospel, and how to follow Heavenly Father's plan for your life. I could have never learned these things so intimately in any other way. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have had to support and write a missionary in this way. My testimony of missionary work has grown immensely and I couldn't ask for better things in my life right now.