Reunited

And it feels so good!

Well, this weekend was the move. Everything went very smoothly (which is easy for me to say because I didn't do any of the heavy lifting) and we love our new apartment. It feels much more "homey" (as homey as you can get with an apartment.....) and it's change.

As you can see, my dear sweet piano and I were reunited. We didn't have it in our last apartment, it was stored away in his parents living room.. untouched, unplayed...... and now we are back together again. This piano is particularly important to me because it has been around since before I was born, and everytime I look at it- I have this image of my mom playing on it. Sigh... It's a beauty. Seriously, we'll be having a lot of jam sessions very soon.

I don't have too many pictures as of yet, because we still have a few pictures to nail up and re-arranging to do... but we love it. And we finally get to use our bedset! Once I get some better pictures, I'll put them on herrre.
 

Within the next couple days you'll see our new casa. I dream of the day when we can have our own house... I'm realistic, and I know that in time that dream will become a reality, but it's nice to think about...... is it sad that I have ideas for every one of my rooms in a house that I don't have???

I saw this on Pottery Barn and I fell in love. I have decided that I need it. It's not a want, it's a need. Fantastic.

This. This is the color that will be my bedroom. Isn't the dark blue romantic? Yes... I love it. I've been looking around for a white comforter... it just looks so clean... and relaxing.

Gifts For Me. From Me.

One of my New Years resolutions of 2009 is to be healthier. Therefore, I've heard these two books are great to start with. I'm so excited! As well as eating healthier, I plan to work out 6 days a week, go to the temple at LEAST once a month, and pay off our debts as quickly as possible. I'm so pumped to make necessary changes to make my life better. Don't you just LOVE New Years?!

Come What May... and Love It.

Lately, especially with changes happening in our laws, our states, our presidency, and our day to day interaction with eachother... I often find myself in fear for the future.

Everyday, I hear more and more stories of murder, rape, infedelity, abortion, theft.... and that's only to name a couple. Pretty soon, however, I will be bearing children of my own- and this is the world that they have to come into? I felt growing up was hard for me, what about them?

With all the blessings we have today come great obstacles. I'm so proud to know what I know, and be apart of the very thing that gives me a reason to get up in the morning. A reason to keep going.

If I ever have a day where I'm especially nervous about what's to come, or a day that I feel the future is hopeless.. I look at this picture, and I feel peace. Even if only for a split second, it comforts me. Looking at these righteous, wonderful men gives me yet another affirmation that what we do as Latter Day Saints is not in vain. We all have a purpose, and we just have to keep going- even if it seems as if we're going into the darkness.

Many times I'll think I'm standing alone. I'll feel like my opinions don't mean much, or are overlooked. I may be persecuted for what my beliefs are, or made fun of. But isn't that only a reassurance that what we believe is right?

Out on our own.

Well, after ups and downs- getting our hopes up and then changing our minds- we made it "out on our own." It's an awesome, scary, nerve-wrecking feeling... but we're both extremely excited. Our apartment is so cute and I hope you all come and visit it. It's tiny, mind you, but just what we need.

I love my husband because he has the same mind as I do. We both are very anal about everything matching.... everything. All of our dishes, pots, pans, furniture, even our microwave matches everything else. We had a lot of fun decorating. I wanted to wait until everything was organized before I took pictures... so in the next couple days you will be seeing it. :) Understand that the pictures don't do it justice. We love it!!

Interesting how when you are growing up, you feel so safe because your parents are there. You have this mindset of, "My parents are here. Nothing bad can happen because mommy and daddy are in the next room." Now that we're "on our own" I feel incredibly vulnerable when Alex isn't there. He has night school Mon-Wed, and so I'm at the apartment by myself. Of course, every noise is extremely apparent to me, and it freaks me out. Nothing is better than Alex walking through the door... big sigh of relief. (And he's just so darned good looking.) :)

More to come in the future, ladies and gentlemen. More to come.

MOVED IN

and loving it.

Pictures of our cute apartment soon.......

Planssss.

This week will be a good one. I have decided that myself. :) Life IS 10% what happens to you, and 90% attitude. I've really been trying to wake up and know that the day will be good. It's hard, mind you... but makes a real difference when I'm successful.

A co-worker of mine is getting married next Tuesday, and endowed this Saturday. Alex and I are lucky enough to be able to attend both. I'm so excited for them! They're so happy. This is their engagement picture, cute huh? It has not been an easy road for them being engaged... lots of contention and stress, but they've kept pushing forward. I'm very glad that I never had any big hurdles to jump while being engaged. I did seem to have a lot of health problems though, which cost us a lot of money, which probably didn't ease Alex's mind to much. "What am I doing... I'm going to have a sickly wife!" :) But it seemed after we got married, I haven't had problems since. Funny how that works. ;)

We've been debating back and forth on where our money is going and what we're wanting to do. We're currently living free of rent (which has been incredibly helpful), and have been paying down a lot of unnecessary debts with the extra money. Alex is going to school this semester, and we're wanting to move out.. so we will need all the money we can get. I've been dying to go to school... but it seems that I haven't really had the opportunity. Hopefully by next semester I can start going and eventually get a degree. It's really important to me that I start and finish college. We're just going to have to really watch what we spend from here on out.

There are so many huge decisions that await in our future. When to have kids, what Alex should major in, what jobs to have, where to live. It's all very overwhelming, but inevitable.

Attitude....attitude....attitude. :)

Decisions, yay!

Well. It seems that my life has been dark and dreary over these past few weeks, but in all reality, it hasn't. I have just chosen to write about the sad things I was going through, as opposed to the good things. :) So, everything is going great right now with Alex and I.

We've (I think..) made the decision to stay here in UT until Alex finishes school. We talked it over today, and we both feel that it's best for us. We had to come to a decision of not going off what our families may want, but what we want. And ultimately, this is what we came up with. As hard as it is to know that I probably won't live in Oklahoma ever again, unless a miracle happens, I know that this is right. All I need to do is focus on what is best for our little family. It isn't necessarily "set in stone" yet, BUT we're going to pray about it over the next few days- fit in a temple date- and see how we feel. I have a good feeling about staying here though... our lives seem to always be up in the air. Good thing I'm extremely impulsive and love change!

Lately, we've been on a pretty regimented work out plan- which has made both of us feel 110% better about ourselves and our situation. It seems that everytime I'm stressed about something, or feeling overwhelmed, the two best things to do are go to the temple or workout. We've been doing both, so we're good to go. Alex says that since we've quit Dr. Pepper (our love...) and workout almost every day, he hopes to look like this:

We'll see what we can do ;)

Yesterday...

Or rather, the past two days have been very emotional and depressing. Therefore, I will make this post brighter than the last. We can't focus on the hard and difficult all the time, can we?

I really think the trials and negative feelings over the past week have been to strengthen us. All we've really been doing is thinking of ourselves rather than what God wants. We absolutely hated fighting and disagreeing. So tonight we are going to the temple to receive some peace and tranquility. After stressing nonstop for the past 48 hours, all we want to do is feel the spirit and be with eachother. We're not going to constantly focus on, "What are we going to do?!" but more "Let's pray, research, decide and ask if it's right."

SO.. who knows! Wherever we go, we know we'll be alright because we have eachother. Did I mention that my husband is amazing???? I'm sure that I say that every day, but get used to it because I'll probably say it every day from here on out. I'm very lucky!

I can't believe it's already August. This year sure has flown by and has been quite an exciting year. I'm married, my sister is married. I'm living in Utah, I'm working and I'm happy. Everything has happened so fast and the ride has definitely been worthwhile.

I know it's not too exciting to read my blog because I don't have cute quotes from my children or exciting new spectacles, but it is my life, and I'm okay with that. :)

Alas.

"None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months or a few years to change all the tenor of our lives." -Kathleen Norris

This post isn't going to specific, and may not make sense to anyone else but me... but I'm okay with that. It is my blog after all. :)

I've been having ups and downs with a certain situation over the past few month or so. It's difficult because it so directly affects Alex and I. It seems like a win-lose situation. One of us wins, the other sacrifices. If situation is reversed, it's the same. Making life-altering decisions are difficult enough single... now that we're both trying to decide what to do- it's twice as hard.

I have lived a life of selfishness. I've always seemed to "get what I want" in relationships of the past... and only cared about me. This is the only relationship I've had where I genuinely care about the other person more than myself. I love Alex more than I could convey in words. I've learned much from my wise mother. She has taught me to appreciate and love your husband with all your heart. Do things to make him happier, put him first. If you're a feminist- then you may disagree with that statement. But I will live each day for Alex, and go to bed hoping that I've made his day just a little bit better.

So, even though I have selfish wants.. I've got to put those aside for the interest of my husband. I know what he wants deep down, and I don't want him to be upset or hurt in any way. I would willingly put my wants and desires second for him.

Alas, another adventure begins. Our life continues on as it is now.. but with a different future ahead. One that we have no idea what will happen, but I guess that is how life turns out, huh?

One thing I've learned about life is it keeps going. It never stops, and it's very short.