Christmas!!!

Christmas has come and gone.  It was a good Christmas, even if it was fairly different from previous years.  First of all, I'm married.  Yeah, that's different, but really, really awesome too!  Julie's parents are really cool.  They were willing to fly both of us out there for Christmas, but since I had to work all of last week, Julie is the only one that went.  I don't know everything that went on, but I do know that Julie had an amazing time and barely slept all week long.

Lucky for me, we had a few friends stay in the area over break.  There was only one day that I didn't spend at least a little bit of time with someone else here in Provo while Julie was gone.  I was lucky enough to get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after off work, so I got a 3 day weekend, and I didn't even lose any hours either!  I worked a full 40 hours last week, and I get 40 hours this week too!  Anyway, Julie got back in town the morning of Christmas Eve, so I went and picked her up (Thanks Jeremy for letting use use your car all break!)  As soon as she got home, she crashed for a good 3 hour nap.  Julie NEVER takes naps.  She was TIRED.  We still didn't have anything to put in our stockings, so we went to Walmart only to find that it was stripped bare.  It was crazy.  It actually wasn't as busy as on Monday when we went back to grab some groceries (the return line went half way across the store).  But we had a nice Christmas Eve just being together.  Before we went to bed, we read Luke 2 by candle light.  This is, more or less, what our Christmas looked like:

We didn't get a tree.  We were going to put lights on the dragon, but the only lights we could find on Saturday were icicle lights or net lights...  Yeah...  So instead, we had... swords...  Whatever.  We'll do something better than this next year, for sure.  One of our friends that Julie met her freshmen year here at BYU is from Orem, so we ended up spending most of Christmas evening there at his mom's house. In short, it was just a really simple Christmas, but it was fun.

Because I had Monday off as well, we decided that we were going to make some yummy food!  I used the recipes from the Chinese food cookbook that I got last year for Christmas, and we made Broccoli Beef and Chinese Dumplings.  It was so good!  I think that the dumplings turned out better than the other dish, but it was still a lot of fun.

After making and eating dinner, we went to the dollar theater to watch Real Steel.  If you haven't seen it yet, go see it!  It was such a good movie!  Both of us really loved it.  We went with Michael, the same friend who we spent Christmas day with.  It was just a really nice, relaxing day.  But come Tuesday, my three day weekend was over, and I had to go back to work.  Work has been okay, nothing special.  But that has also left Julie home alone all day :-( NO FUN.  We just remembered yesterday that we got her some Zumba DVD's a month or so ago, so she's going to keep herself busy doing Zumba.  On top of that, we are having a good friend from study abroad over tonight.  Geneva is one of the happiest people you will ever meet!  We're excited to have dinner with her.  Then tomorrow night, we are having a small party at our place with some friends and family who are still in Provo for New Years.  We're going to make pizza, play games and just have fun.  Perhaps we'll actually have some more pictures after the party (but don't hold your breath, neither of us ever take pictures...)

Only Hope

So, I forgot this blog existed... I think Keith did as well, seeing as neither of us have posted anything in the past three months...

Anywho, life is swell! I absolutely love being married! Except for the fact that we have no money... and my husband is at work all day while I sit at home bored out of my mind...
but other than that, it's fantastic!!!

I am so happy I married my cute boy. He is seriously the most amazing guy in the world. He always tells me I'm beautiful, and he laughs at my stupid jokes. He deals with my blunt straightforwardness, and he NEVER gets upset or impatient with me. I've never seen him angry. I'm glad that's not his style. He knows how stressed I've been with homework and finals over the past few weeks, and he does everything possible to try and lighten my load. He makes me yummy food for dinner, does the yucky chores around the house, and is willing to just sit and relax with me when the night is finally through. He does goofy things that make me laugh CONSTANTLY and doesn't judge me for the random phobias that seem to control my life. He has gotten to know my best friends and loves them almost as much as I do. He respects and appreciates the things that I enjoy, even if he doesn't particularly care for them himself. He surprises me with things like candy and cheesecake. HE KNOWS ME WELL! He loves his family and tries to learn more about mine.

Speaking of family, I wish he could visit home with me! I'm going home to visit my family next weekend, and Keith can't come because he has to work all that week. It makes me SO SAD! Keith hasn't had many opportunities to interact with my family. By the time they finally started opening up to him, it was the day we were leaving after our wedding! At least he got to have fun with them for a few hours. Though I will be sad to part with my cute boy for a week, I am SO JAZZED to see my family again. I miss them like crazy and think about them every day. My brother Josh is going on a mission in January, so that's the main reason I'm going home. Mom thought it would be good for me to spend a little more time with him. Who knows where I'll be when he gets home in two years?! I'll be back on the morning of Christmas Eve, so I'll still get to spend that time with Keith. (Didn't think it'd be a great idea to spend our first Christmas as a married couple 2000 miles away from each other. Imagine that.)

Anyway, life is grand. Yesterday was the last day of classes for this semester, and I sadly realized that it was my last day of classes at BYU period! Next semester is just student teaching! I'm so close to graduation, and to be honest, I'm terrified about actually moving on to a new phase of life next year, but at least I'll have my best friend with me, and we can do it together. I love Keith so much and can't wait to find out what the future has in store for us. :)

P.S. In case anyone was wondering what the title was all about, I've been re-living my childhood for the past few days, and I thought of the movie A Walk to Remember. The song Only Hope (the one Mandy Moore sings in the play) was one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES! I love Switchfoot's original, but Mandy Moore's cover is SO good, and it's all because of the cello part. (I'm slightly obsessed with the cello. I think it's the most beautiful instrument in the world.) Anyway, it was always one of my dreams to play this song as a duet with someone else on piano, and I decided today that it was actually going to happen haha. Ordering the music now.

Listen/watch HERE if you don't know what song I'm talking about. SO beautiful. :)

Books

I love reading.  I enjoy movies as well, but reading has so much more potential to suck you into the world that the author crated than movies will ever have.  Sure, there are times when I'd rather just watch a movie and be wow'd by the visual effects and how the director took the world in his mind and made it visual for everyone else to see.  But that's always someone else's idea of how it looked, how the story played out.  When you watch a movie made from a book you've previously read, you will inevitably be disappointed because this character didn't look the way you imagined them, or that character wasn't played the way that they should have been, or this place wasn't as fantastic as you had imagined it.  Even if all you have is a vague idea in your head of what something should have been, a movie will disappoint.  One of the beauties of books is that even with all of the description an author puts in, each person who reads will still interpret the characters slightly differently.  The "movie" playing in your head as you read the book will be different from person to person, and even from one time you read the book to another.

The one thing I dislike about books, however, comes directly from their ability to engulf you in their world.  After you finish a book, the world is over.  You can no longer continue to explore the world as the character. Yes, you can go back and reread the book, and you'll probably catch things a second time that make the book new again.  Or if you haven't read the book in a while, it will become new as you try to remember specifics about the characters or plots and rediscover them.  But in the end, after you finish, you're thrust back into reality where the world you were so much a part of is just a story.  There is one way around this: reading a book that is part of a series.  I loved Harry Potter, with each book you read, you get to know the characters even better.  You get to continue to explore their universe with them.  The story doesn't end.  Ok, so it eventually does end, but it lasts so much longer than just a single book!  The same happened when I read  The Chronicles of Narnia.  As amazing as those books were and as great as it was to continue to live in the universe that the authors created, I still got to the end of the series and had to leave their world.

One of my all time favorite books is Ender's Game.  If you haven't read it, you should.  It is such a great book!  I just finished reading the last book that follows Ender's life.  Children of the Mind.  Even with having to go to work, I still was able to finish the entire book in just over 3 days.  It really love how it ended.  It really was just a continuation of the 3rd book Xenocide.  I could hardly put the book down (just ask Julie).  But even though I finished a story line from the Enderverse, I'm not done.  I still have the entire Shadow series, which starts off with one of the best books in the entire Enderverse: Ender's Shadow.  Man I'm excited!  So, even though I got to the end of one of the story lines, I can still throw myself into that same universe for a while longer and enjoy the brilliant characters Orson Scott Card created.  Again, if you haven't read them, all of the books in the Enderverse come highly recommended from me!

PS. I know I'm horrible about posting on here and in all honesty, should have probably posted something about our wedding or any of the other more significant things that have happened over the past few months, but a post about a book is better than nothing, right?  But I really do love being married to Julie.  It really is the best thing that has ever happened to me.  Perhaps I'll post something of a little bit more meaning later, but I wouldn't hold your breath ;-)

Or Not...

Well, this was going to be a post about how awesome it is to have the key to our apartment and have a lot of my stuff moved in...  But when I went to get the key to the apartment yesterday, the day that they told me to come by to get it, the office was closed.  Ya, really cool huh?  I was planning on having all the big stuff moved in today so I could have time to organize everything and clean what I need to in my old place before I check out.  Well, looks like I'm just going to be really busy this week with moving and cleaning and organizing.  Oh well.  I'll survive.

Among the obvious reasons why I'm so excited to move into our new apartment, there is one reason that most of you don't know about...

(Thank you Google for auto-save...  I tried dragging and dropping this picture

 and instead of adding it where I wanted it, it went away from this page and 

opened the picture up instead.  Again, thank you Google for auto-save.)

No, my house isn't infested with tons of flies...  Just two.  Two flies (I thought it was just one for a while, but was proven wrong when they decided to tag team me) have been terrorizing me in my apartment for the past few weeks.  They're pretty slow, but just fast enough that I can't catch them.  They like to hang out where ever I am.  If I'm making myself some food, they'll come taunt me right beside my plate or the sink or on the cupboard door (Thanks again Google for voice search!  When spell check fails to read my mind, at least you can understand what I'm saying...).  Or I'll be hanging out on the couch and they'll just land right next to my feet and start walking on them...  Ya, that's obnoxious!  Or my head, they seem to like that too.  Like I said, they have been tormenting me for far too long and I'm so ready to be rid of them!  Yes yes yes, I know...  I should just go get a fly swatter.  Two things: One, I'm lazy. Two, I never think about it when I'm not at home and the flys aren't teasing me.  Now, what I need are one of those electric bug zapper/fly swatters that everyone seemed to have in Taiwan.  When I was on my mission, I was sure that you wouldn't ever be able to buy them in America because, well, let's face it, it's a bunch of exposed wires with electricity going through them!  But low and behold, Amazon has them for sale for $12.99!  Not that I'm going to buy one...  Anyway, good riddance to those stupid flys!

I love the dentist

So yesterday morning I had a dentist appointment. Just a regular exam, the kind you get every 6 months or so. A while ago, I decided I really love the dentist. He's always able to get the yucky stuff off my teeth that I somehow can't get myself. He also compliments me. I love compliments. :)

Yesterday he said, "Julie, you have beautiful teeth! I think you're the best we've seen all day."

I actually talked about this with my brother a few days ago. I told him how the dentist compliments me on my nice teeth every time I go see him. My brother claimed that he says that to everyone, just to be nice. So after my dentist told me that my teeth were beautiful I asked, "Are they really? Or do you just say that to everybody?"

He laughed and then said, "NO! I think you've got the best set we're going to see today, and I would totally rank you in the top 10 for the week."

So at least for now, I once again absolutely love my dentist. He tells me I have pretty teeth :)

Holiness to the Lord. The House of the Lord

Today was going to be an epic day. I was going to go to the distribution center in DC to pick out my special LDS underwear. Hooray! Though I wasn't feeling too hot and had a lot of other things on my mind, my mommy and I started our trek to Washington.

Definitely wasn't an exciting trip though. We had to take my dad's truck, which doesn't have air conditioning. In case anyone doesn't know, it's been over 100 degrees out here every day for the past week. IT. IS. HAWT! Starting at 3 in the afternoon, we made the 2 hour drive to DC. Mere minutes away, we find out that the bridge we usually take to get there is closed. We have NO IDEA how to get there now. And we forgot the GPS... cool. Luckily my mom and I see this woman walking down some residential road, and we stop to ask her for directions. She turned out to be LDS. Blessing #1. She told us how to get there, and we got there quickly. I am VERY thankful for this lady. When you get lost in DC, you can EASILY waste an hour trying to find your way. We couldn't afford to lose this time because the distribution center was going to close at 5:30. We got lost at 5. Bad news. But we found it and got my special unders just in time.

Speaking of those, I didn't know it was going to be so stinking hard just to choose what kind I wanted! I walked out of there with a billion different styles, cuts, and fabrics. I hate trial and error shopping. I would much rather buy something I KNOW will fit and that I'll like. But I'll get over it I suppose. Does anyone have any suggestions by the way?

Man alive, I'm just like Keith. This thing could easily turn into a manuscript...

To make a long story somewhat shorter? My mom surprised me by telling me we were going to stay in DC a while longer. The youth were coming to do baptisms at 7:30. We were going to stay. Not going to lie, but after driving around in that freaking hot car for 2 hours and getting a bit lost, I was NOT in the mood to waste 2 hours in DC and then stay for baptisms which always take FOREVER! We were all going into the baptistry, and I just wasn't in the mood to be there. I waited until the end of the line, still hoping that somehow I wouldn't have to go inside and I could magically transport home? One of the YW leaders actually forgot her recommend, and the entire time, I was hoping that she wouldn't be able to go in. That way, I would have an excuse to go out and do something with her. (STUPID! I KNOW! GRRR...)

They ended up getting everything with her straightened out, so I had to do the baptisms. As soon as the man scanned my recommend and I walked inside, I was overwhelmed with this feeling of love. The very second I stepped inside the baptistry doors, one of my friends was there to meet me. She squeezed my arm and said, "I'm happy you're here." I started bawling. I think I'm a little stressed? I was so ashamed of myself. I couldn't believe that just a few seconds earlier I had been so selfish. Why in the world would I not be "in the mood" to go to the temple?! It's not like it's going to do me any harm! I had forgotten what kind of work goes on inside those hallowed walls. It is the work of the Lord. The temple is His house. I was served a piece of humble pie to the face, while still feeling the Lord's love for me. (It's crazy how He can do that!) I needed to forget myself and my stresses and just do some service for a while! It made SUCH a huge difference in my attitude the rest of the night.

Basically, I love the temple. And even though I prefer to start my temple trips in a better mood, sometimes you really just need to walk in the doors anyway. I felt so peaceful, and after a few minutes of crying, I was totally happy. I also loved the fact that I was there with my 12 year old sister. I realize that we don't spend much time together. I loved doing her hair after we were baptized and her telling me how beautiful mine was. She is SO FUNNY, and I absolutely ADORE her.

I can't wait until the next time I get to go. I'm sure I'll be a bit more excited seeing as I'll be with my fiancee! And the next day we'll go again, and he'll become my HUSBAND! For time and all eternity. Incredible work really does go on in there. Holiness to the Lord.

Bridal Shower

I had my bridal shower this morning, and it was a blast!

My good friend Amy threw it for me. In all honesty, I think she has done more to plan/prepare for my wedding than I have. I couldn't thank her enough for everything she's doing for me. She's ordering the flowers, arranging them and taking care of decorating the venue (which needs a LOT of help) I love her and her family to death and am inexplicably grateful for their help.

Anyway, my bridal shower was at her house this morning. It was a brunch, so we went, socialized, talked about the new harry potter movie (which most of us saw at midnight of course), and ate delicious food. After a while, she decided to play a game called how well do you know the bride and groom. Everyone got paper and pencils and had to answer questions about Keith and I such as where/how we met, what our first official date was, what we're studying, etc... I am proud to announce that I am the only one who got all of the questions correct. A lot of my close friends only missed one or two.

After that was over, Amy pulled out a package of napkins. She split everyone into 3 groups and announced that they would be making me a wedding dress out of said napkins. One group was to make a skirt, another a bodice, and the last group was supposed to make a veil. It was SO funny to watch everyone try to put the pieces together. After all of the pieces were assembled, it was then time to actually put them on me! Not gonna lie, I've never seen a better looking napkin dress in my life! Seriously, my friends were super creative and really got into this. My waterfall style skirt has a train covered in roses, I have a braided napkin belt across the bodice, and a rose on the front of my veil to tie the whole piece together. Not to mention, I had some rockin shoulder pads as well. Here are some pictures. Let me know what you think!




Next was the gifts. I got some great recipes I'm looking forward to trying out when I finally marry my cute boy (3 weeks from today! AHHH!) I got mostly gift cards because everyone knows we won't have much space when we move back to Utah, but there were some other surprises thrown in there as well. ;-)

Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who made an appearance in person or in spirit. The love I have for you is immeasurable.