Things I don't realize.

How much do I take my family for granted? How much do I take my friends for granted? How much do I take the gospel for granted? How much do I take my husband for granted?

My family is amazing. Probably the best I’d say. My immediate family, my extended family, and now my in-laws, are amazing. I know they love me so much and support me in the things I choose to do. I have so much fun with them, laughing, making fun of ourselves, telling jokes, and even talking serious. My sisters are my best friends. The older we get, the closer we get. I actually just talked to my sister Lindsay for 45 minutes yesterday and it was amazing. It’s awesome to know that they will always be there for me no matter what! Lindsay even offered to come nanny my kids (when I have some), mostly as a joke, but the offer still stands. It’s so amazing to be able to talk about anything with them. Sometimes they don’t like hearing about my married life, they think it’s too sappy. But I tell them anyway and they just get to hope that their marriage is as great as mine!

My friends are great. This is my last semester up here at BYUI so a lot of my friends I have seen come and go. Most of them older than me and some just chose to go a different path. The friends I have here in Rexburg are amazing though. They put up with my cluelessness, goofiness, tears (on occasion), my goofy husband, and all my weird quarks. Then I have friends like Dara McFarlane, Lexi Lott, and Valerie Braun who are just there for me whenever I need them. Let me tell ya, those girls are my rock when it comes to girlfriends.

I grew up in the gospel, so there has never been a time where I haven’t had it. I know I take the teachings, relationships, and knowledge I have for granted. This has helped me become the woman I am today.

My husband is my pride and joy. I love him with all of my heart. He does so much for me that sometimes I may look over or don’t recognize. He is always there for me. He makes me laugh, smile, and makes my eyes light up every time he enters the room. He helps me when I’m stressed, when I have so much to do, and when I need advice. He always has so much animation to everything he says to me. I love knowing that I get to spend eternity with this man.

Mesa Falls

Husband and I are only going to be in Rexburg for another 4 more weeks or so and we haven't yet seen everything there is to see here yet! So we thought we would take a day and head to Mesa Falls because husband hadn't been there yet.

We left yesterday afternoon and took the hour drive up there. It was a beautiful day and we were so excited to be out of our apartment and walking around. I apologize about the pictures because they are horrible quality. Husband grabbed one of our cameras thinking that it was charged and, well, it wasn't. The only way we had to take pictures is from our phones. Stinky. But we brought our lunch, got eaten alive by bugs, and had a very nice relaxing walk around Mesa Falls.

"Find the good - and praise it."

So I am in a Marriage class and had to do much thinking about problems and issues that come up in marriages this week. When I was thinking about this, I thought of this quote, “I love being married.  It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”  ~Rita Rudner. I think it is very interesting because it’s true in some sense. I married my husband because we are great friends, I would do anything for him, and my love for him has grown stronger than I ever thought possible. But there are things about each other that annoy us once in a while. Especially trying to adjust to living together, we have found that we have to learn to deal with many things that we did not before. We have found that we have to work together in many different things to get the job done.

Then I thought of this quote that I have written in my journal many times, “Don't marry the person you think you can live with; marry only the individual you think you can't live without.”  ~James C. Dobson. This is what I have lived by basically my whole dating life. There were guys I dated that I probably could have lived with and we would have worked things out. But the reason I chose my husband is because I know that I couldn’t live without him for eternity. I think of him and me as an all-star team and we can’t be separated or else we won’t win the gold. I can look over the things that annoy me because I know he does it for me. We look over those things and then we make the best team possible. That is what I think a great marriage consists of.

After criticizing my husband and complaining about what I think is annoying I found this quote that I really thought applied to me specifically, “Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate.”  ~Barnett R. Brickner. If I just sit there and complain about all of the things he does wrong, I won’t see the things I am doing wrong or not doing at all. When I strive to be the best wife possible, it just helps our marriage and relationship grow that much more. I have had to slowly learn that along the way though. In fact, I am still in the process of learning it. I just have to work on it a little every day and maybe by the time I leave this earth I will have become an amazing wife, mother, and friend.

"The greatest gift I ever had came from God, and I call him Dad!"

Happy Father's Day to my Daddy!! He is alsways one to be the goofball. He always tries to wrestle with us, which is where is famous quote came from, "It's all fun and games 'til someone gets hurt"... and it's so true! haha He has always been there for me through everything.

This ladies and Gentleman, is my Daddy!

This is normally how we are... always laughing and being silly!

This Daddy Daughter dance was probably the best one ever! We bawled through the whole thing.

Then Mom came over and we bawled some more.

He taught me all kinds of things. How to throw a ball, how to fish, how to be sarcastic, how to laugh at things, and how to love. But he also taught me about the gospel and how to cherish it. He has been a great example to me. I love you so much Daddy! And yes, I will forever call you Daddy!

Relationship Journey...

Concecration is all about loving and serving your spouse. I love this. When you are dating life is bliss. It's all flowers, rainbows, and sunshine. You want to do everything for eachother, no martter what. You want to help them with their homework, their clean checks, and you even start buying them things. What are we thinking?! We are on cloud 9 right? Yes.
Then the next step, the engagement. You get the ring, show it off to everyone and their dog, and then continue on with the wedding plans. Now this is the step where the real person begins to appear. You begin telling each other the truth. You actually don't want to do everything your fiance wants to do. And he doesn't really care what colors the flowers are for the wedding. Ok, ok, we are still fine. We still love each other and that's what matters.
The wedding day comes and it is as amazing as you expected it to be and even more so. The honeymoon is wonderful and happy. Then you get back to real life. Wait, your husband hates window shopping with you? You finally tell him that you hate some of the clothes he wears. Yes folks, this does happen. It's not like we try and hide things before we get married. It just doesn't come up until after you are married and you become more comfortable with each other.
This makes it a little harder to want to serve one another. You want to deep down, but then the other person does something that really irritates you. Now think of it this way:
You met this man, became great friends, decided to date only each other, and then he asked the most important question of your life. He asked you if you would spend eternity with him. Through all of the ups and downs, the tears and laughter, the joys and sorrows. You are giving yourself to him as he is to you. Everything you have deserves to go to him. Your one and only. Your husband.
Serving him is only one way that you show him you love him. I serve my husband by doing the little things. I probably say that a lot, but it's because it's true. The little things is huge. But what I mean by little things is cleaning the apartment, making him meals, spending time doing what he wants to do, running errands for him, cheering him up when he is sad, helping him study, and cuddling whenever he wants! This is the man of my dreams and I love him more than anything else in the entire world. Through all the little bumbs in the road, I know he'll be there for me still loving me and serving me, so I will be there for him.

Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once...

So much has happened the past week or so that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will start with the earliest date. Last Thursday, the 9th, Adam and I have been married 2 months! It is so crazy how time flies! It feels like we just got married yesterday. But I love it. I love every second of it and him. Married life is so worth waiting for, especially to your best friend.
We celebrated by staying in and cooking a meal together. We sat at home, ate it, and then talked for a while before we put on a movie. I even got flowers out of the deal!  :)

Then on Friday, I get the horrible news that my grandmother went in to the ICU in Pocatello. We went to see her on Sunday and thank goodness she is ok and everything is going to be fine.
Saturday, we went to my other grandparent's house to see them and my cousin Brecca's family. Her daughter just turned 5 so we took her a little gift and celebrated with them.
Adam and I are just crazy busy with school right now. We just finished midterms, which is crazy because guess what! That means we only have 6 weeks until we graduate from college!!! We are both very excited to be moving on with our lives and getting out of Rexburg. We are still waiting for Adam to get a job before we know where we are going. After we know where we are going, then I can start looking for an internship! Both of our families are coming up for graduation so it will be great to see them and relax before we head out to the "real world".