Thanks, Mom...

Alex and I were given the opportunity to speak in church today (something I truly enjoy!) and the topic was either a General Conference talk from last session, or on Preach my Gospel. Talk about choices!! After a little searching, I chose L. Tom Perry's talk, "Mothers Teaching in the Home." I'm sure you know by now that my mother is absolutely fabulous- and everytime I even bring her name up in a talk, I cry. And I cry a lot.


I talked about several things that my mom did for us growing up, and all the subtle- yet sometimes not so subtle- principles she taught us. From the first story I told, the tears started.... there was a family that my sister, Jill, was babysitting when she was a teenager. (Note: this family was having a difficult time, single mother with I think 5 kids.) Jill went to make them food and noticed they hardly had a thing in their cupboards or refridgerator. She called my mom, who was the Relief Society president at the time, and she immediately, without question, called her counselors and went grocery shopping for this sweet family. I think my mom was surprised that I knew this story... because she never told it to me. I'm glad Jill did.


After that, I went into how she taught us to have high self-esteem by complimenting us, talking to us, and being affectionate with us. On our birthdays, she implemented a rule where we went around the table and every member of the family had to say a few things they like about the birthday person. It was difficult sometimes (especially if you were in a fight with that particular person as a child....) but I think it helped shape all of the children's relationships with eachother now. We all get along and compliment eachother easily.


She also would have us on various Sundays write a letter to someone in our ward telling them what we appreciate and admire about them. I absolutely LOVE that she did this, and I plan on doing it for our future little ones. I have since talked to various adults that we sent letters to, and they say they still have the the notes the "Russell kids" would write. What an amazing example my mother is. Truly....


So anyway, thanks Mom for being a good mother and making me cry. (The whole tear-up easily whilst speaking comes from her, too.)


Oh, and P.S. The Paul McCartney tickets sold out in 3 hours. Thanks to Alex's brother, Paul, we were able to get them. It was a close one.....

Can I Just Tell You..

that Alex and I will be purchasing tickets to see Sir Paul McCartney in the flesh?

(I loooooove Mr. McCartney with a beard and the long hair. I'm a hippie lover at heart, it's true... plus, as you may or may not have noticed, I have a thing for beards.)

Alex and I are SO THRILLED. We're kind-of obsessed with The Beatles, so this is going to be a delight. He still is a fantastic performer, and I'll admit it- I still think he's extremely attractive. Don't judge.

It is absolutely okay to be jealous.

Why, Hello!

Let me formally introduce myself.

[Warning: this is a LONG post of me rambling about my life.]


My name is Rachel Teran. I have no middle name. My maiden name is Russell, and I loved it. I miss signing it, but I decided to not have it be a middle name, and just went with Teran. (I was just so giddy when I got married that I wanted the feeling of dropping the old and embracing the new. Little did I know everyone would mispronounce it....)

This is what I looked like as a baby.

I was 10 lbs 2 oz when I arrived. My mom said that I was adorable, but in all honesty- I think I was just fat. Fat babies are always cute babies. Heavy, but cute.... I know you may not be able to tell from the dress (because it's slimming, you know) but there is many a'rolls under there. I imagine I smiled because I was comfortable and couldn't move even if I wanted to.

Some big achievements in my childhood were being the LEAD dinosaur in my second grade play, a spelling bee contestant in fourth (I misspelled synonym. Who knows that in fourth grade?), I was in the Mustang Area Chorus in 6th grade (the video footage is classic), and I memorized all 13 articles of faith by 8 years old. (I'm a little rusty, but I bet I can still recite them.) I know what you're thinking... with a rap-sheet like that, this girl was destined for greatness.When I got to be in 9th grade, I decided that dressing like a boy would be preferable- popular even! I found out later, in hindsight, that it wasn't. It really, really wasn't. A personal low in that time period was when I wore dickie pants cut at the mid calf, and a hurley shirt, thick skater shoes (I didn't skate. Jus' throwin that in there) and my infamous thick framed glasses. Oh, can't forget an occasional backwards hat. (!!) I remember waking up at the beginning of 10th grade thinking, "I want to be a girl again. This is ridiculous." And so it was. (Also during this time, I came up with cool "different" outfits like this little number:
You are seeing correctly. That is a taxi cab hat I got from a thriftstore. Not much more to say than that... I guess pictures speak much louder than words.

In the middle of 10th grade, I moved to Stillwater. I lived with my sister and brother-in-law and their little one at the time, Anna. I love that town. Much more exciting than Mustang, though Mustang will always have a feeling of "home." I didn't have a car all through high school. At the time, it felt like one of the hardest and just "most embarrassing things like, ever".. but one day you're out of high school, and everything gets put into perspective. It's an interesting feeling when you realise that high school really does. not. matter. I was in such a hurry to get a car. So I got one. And it looked like this:

I still have this thing. It is a 98 Chevy Metro. With no air-conditioning. And no power steering. And the headlights barely work. And there are only two hubcaps. And it sounds like a racecar when you accelerate it past 15 mph. And the doors don't lock. And it's been broken into more than once. And it was stolen. And when it was stolen, they (the culprits who were never found) ran it into a telephone pole. And it was fixed. And I still have this thing. It was $1200.00.
After graduation, I was living with a friend, and not really happy with my life. I wasn't going anywhere, doing anything. I was working at an icecream shop (which, by the way, if you're ever in TX, OK, KS, AR, or MO, you have to go to Braums. It's a delight.) for which I had been working for three years. Not my dream job, believe it or not. So my mom called me, said she was moving to UT in 2 weeks, and asked if I wanted to come along. I considered declining due to the fact that 1. It was August and I would have to drive the Metro all the way to UT with no airconditiong and 2. Well, really that was the only reason. But I did it. Evan and I squeezed in the little wind-up car and shook all the way to UT.

This is what we probably looked like the entire way:
(Except a lot grumpier.)

We did, however, listen to a lot of Queen on the way. And that was quite enjoyable.

So I came here. I got a job at Jordan Credit Union. I saw a handsome man enter the building on my second or third day. He ignored me. I decided that he was probably just shy. I was right. I tried to get to know this hunky stranger. I asked him open-ended questions like, "So, you went a mission to Taiwan huh?" And he would answer, "Yep." Silence. Determined, I continued. "That's cool! You speak Chinese, then huh?" "Yah." Silence. I thought about giving up. But I decided to press on, but go about it differently. I pretended to be in love with him. I would always talk about "when Alex and I get married" and mutter "I love you" under my breath just to get a reaction out of him. He would just usually stare at me in silence. I'm not sure if he knew how to react.
(I realise that I got very, very lucky with this)

After about a month of me saying things, he loosened up and even joined in my marriage talk. I remember saying something about not liking swimming and he said, "Well, that's going to be a problem on our honeymoon because we're going to a beach." :) That makes me smile. I think it was from that moment that I knew I liked him. This whole time I pretended to love him, and now I'm interested. So I casually asked him to hang out on Halloween. He said he had plans. I was embarrassed and sad. The next day he called me homie. I thought it was over for good even before it began. Yet on that Saturday, he brought me a fortune he had receieved from a fortune cookie that previous night. It said, "A new relationship is about to blossom. You will be blessed." He asked me out, and the rest is history.

When we dated, we took a lot of pictures. Mostly of cheesy make out pictures like this:

Then we were engaged, and then we were married for time and all eternity.

Alex and my relationship has been strong from the get-go. I think that since we went through hard times during the dating/engagement period (My fault. I had fears and insecurities), it made us go through the hard part first and then just enjoy marriage. We compliment eachother. He supports me. I support him. He's understands my needs, as I do his. We can look through home decor stores for hours and dream of the future. We listen to The Beatles together and get excited for Christmas. We say "I love you" every single day. We go to church together and we go to the temple. We're dedicated to eachother and I know that when we expand our little family, things will only get better. We have common goals. We love our Heavenly Father. We love Jesus Christ. We love the Gospel, and we love our families. He's a great man. I'm a lucky gal.

I hope by reading this you not only know me, but you may want to be just like me. No, in all honesty-- it's been quite the journey and there were hard times, but they've all lead me here.

And here is where I want to be.

Things I Love Right Now

I figured since there isn't anything particularly exciting in our lives right now- I'd jot down a few things I love about my life.

1. Alex. Yes, this is obvious. I gotta tell you, he just keeps getting better!
2. Re-adjusting goals and feeling motivated again. I know it's only May and quite a few of my goals from New Years are gone with the wind.... but it just makes it that much better to re-evaluate, re-new, and re-start.
3. Making an honest effort to get to know those around me. There are so many family members, co-workers, old friends, and new friends that I haven't made an effort to just talk to. I really want to develop close relationships with those around me, and I like how it's making a difference in not only my self-esteem, but my happiness.
4. Remembering birthdays! Something I've never been particularly good at, and I feel 15x better about myself when I not only remember a birthday, but get involved.
5. Laying off television. You never realise how many hours you waste on t.v. until you put it into perspective. It's baaaaad. I mean really, who gets into The BACHELOR? I do, that's who. Don't judge me.
6. Getting amped for our vacay in a month! We're staying here, but we're making plans rather than sittin' on our butts all week. Plus it's our big 2 year anniversary, and we've already made reservations for our honeymoon bed and breakfast. Sigh. It's going to be a great week.
7. The temple. I love that place. I really, really do.
8. Remembering my mum on Mother's Day. I think I have the greatest mom on earth. Don't test me on this, I know what I'm talking about.

I'm livin the dream.

I Have a Feeling..

a feelin' deep inside, oh yeah.... that 2010 is going to be a great year for me.


I don't know how to describe this feeling I have... but I just feel good and hopeful. I don't have too many goals this year, solely because I didn't want to set a million goals and not acheive a good portion of them. So I set reachable goals that I do intend on keeping.


First, I want to take more pictures. Since the purchase of our new camera, I was set on taking more pictures. I haven't. I want to fill our apartment with pictures of people I love and places I've been. It's something I've never been very good at, but I intend to change that with the new year.


Second? I want to make more time for the temple. I only live what? 10 minutes away from one? And 15-20 minutes away from 2 others? Yeah, I think that's do-able..
Put more focus on the significant other. Yes, I know we're newlyweds--that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. :)


There are other things that I'd like to work on and I do intend to do just that. But at the end of 2010, I want to look back and feel I accomplished what I wanted to, put what's most important first, and be able to be proud of myself for doing so. I've learned a lot from 2009- and I intend to learn even more in 2010. :) Don't you love new years?