Busy Holidays

    Jared, I and the baby are moving to Atlanta the beginning of 2012! And I mean right at the beginning. Jared accepted a job offer that couldn't be passed up and he starts working January 3!

    Oh my!

    We are spending a week in Augusta with my parents and a brother to relax. On the way though, we stopped at an apartment hunter agency and looked at some nice apartments. We saw all the ones we wanted, except one. Bummer. But we like one we saw and decided that would be "the one!"

    The plan so far: my last day at work is December 30. The next day, someone will help Jared move our stuff into our rented moving truck. We'll just have the truck hanging out for the weekend so we can officially move out of our Nashville apartment on Monday, Jan 2. We'll head out that Monday morning, get to Atlanta and have people help Jared unload. I kinda wish I could help...kinda :)

    Our vacation has been great so far! We've been able to relax and also have lots of fun with Christmas traditions. 

    My mom got to show off my preggo belly to her co-workers. Dad, Jared, James and I made tons of sugar cookies and a few gingerbread cookies. I learned from Dad how to make the frosting and we used up all our frosting trying to finish all the cookies...we still have quite a few left over to frost :)

    Tonight we get yummy Christmas soup and we'll frost the rest of the cookies! Hooray!

    We love Christmas! We love family time! We made a little Christmas video for Jared's family's Christmas Eve Program! We are also excited to have Christmas with just us this year...our last chance to have a Christmas with only us before kiddos come!

Great Thanksgiving!

    Jared and I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving. We got to go out to Ohio and spend it with his grandparents, parents, two of his siblings and the aunts and uncles and cousins who are already out there. 

    We got great news the morning before Thanksgiving! Found out we are going to have a baby GIRL! Oh my heck we are so excited and couldn't be happier! Then we hopped in the car and headed up to Ohio. 

    That night we met up with Suz (hooray!) and had a fun dinner with her and Sammie (her friend who came out to Nashville a bit ago). It was nice to catch up and we had a great time talking. 

    After dinner we made a quick trip to Target to get some cute baby outfits and also some Christmas gifts for the family members we'd be seeing the next day. 

    We got to his grandparents in great time and had so much fun chatting and hanging out.

    The next day was so fun when everyone got to the house and the feast began! Oh my goodness the food was SO DELICIOUS!!! And there was so much of it! I was good and just a little bit of everything at a time. Then when I finished the smaller portions I could get seconds and thirds of stuff I liked and not get too full! I had to make sure to save room for the pie!!

    Everyone was so full of dinner and his grandpa kept cracking me up asking me every hour if I was hungry the whole day. I guess it's obvious I just eat small snacks throughout the day. 

    A bit after dinner a few people were having to leave because they had to work for Black Friday. I guess for some people it was too early for pie, but gee whiz when I heard it was time for pie, I was up and at the table already picking out what pieces I wanted!

    Later most everyone said they didn't enjoy the pies as much as they wished because they were still too full from dinner. I had been waiting for these pies for months and they tasted great to me! I had plenty of room reserved for them. 

    We all stayed up late talking and having a fun time. The next day was just more relaxing and we found a few fun things to do. His grandpa took us on a little walk to a waterfall and we have some fun pictures!

    It was just a great vacation. We came back home Saturday evening and unpacked all the stuff we got. 

    I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving as well! And now that it's over, we're getting ready for Christmas!

Pictures: 

 The waterfall...

 Jared and I on the waterfall walk. I always seem to cut off the top of his head in pictures...sorry dear

 Picture with his grandpa! We all wore blue that day

 Tiny waterfalls

More tiny waterfalls

 Jared sawing wood with his grandpa. So manly

Jared breaking the wood while his grandpa had the saw

Big News This Week!

    Jared and I are so excited to be getting our big news this month! On Wednesday we are finding out if we are having a boy or girl! Most people already know this and have made their guesses. 

    Apparently most everyone thinks I will have a baby girl, which would be awesome. But if we have an awesome baby boy, only a select few will have the bragging rights of guessing correctly. 

    Really, it's all a 50/50 guess. We have absolutely no idea what we are having. I don't feel any intuition on whether it's a girl or not. And we're pretty sure it's healthy and growing well, so I just want to see it on the screen and watch it move! 

    I love feeling the baby kick. It feels like little pokes and hasn't hurt at all. I think it's a grouch when it wakes up because there are times I don't feel it move and then other times where it kicks and moves like crazy. 

    We're getting ready to spread the big news around family as well! We're going to Ohio for Thanksgiving with Jared's relatives/family out there. So after our doctor's appointment in the morning, we'll call our parents and text whoever we have in our phones and we'll start our drive to Ohio talking and being excited the whole time!

    So we'll do our best to keep everyone up-to-date about the baby and what it is. We're so excited to know so that way we can call it by the name we have picked out for it and we can start buying cute baby girl/boy things!

Great Georgia Weekend

    With my day off work for Veterans' Day, Jared and I decided to make a trip out to see my parents and brother James out in Augusta, GA!

    It was so fun and such a nice weekend. We took our time getting ready in the morning, the weather was great for driving, we stopped at a Mexican place Dad recommended (which was absolutely scrumptious), had some more nice driving, and got here in time for a nice dinner with the family. 

    Saturday was for errands, relaxing, going to lunch and then having fun at a Canasta party/competition. James left for some football game, but my parents have friends here who like to play Canasta, the card game. They have different rules, but there are some couples who were hysterical!

    Another couple brought their 8-week old baby and it was so cute! And because we were the odd couple out, Jared and I got to play with him!! :)

   It was great practice :) And I think we did pretty well! I got the baby asleep after some fussy moments. Jared held him while he slept and kept him all snuggled perfectly in the blanket. 

    Anyways, it was super fun! We had to leave Sunday to make it back for work on Monday.

   To repeat myself, it was such a fun weekend! I like seeing my family and it was awesome just to relax for a little bit. 

    I love my family!

    Oh! And there are only two more weeks to guess if we are having a boy or girl. I finally figured out how to let anyone post on my blog, so for those who couldn't before, it should work now...Let me know if it doesn't!

Already November

    I can't believe it's already almost the end of the year! It feels like just a little bit ago Jared and I were moving here, celebrating our first year of marriage and making plans for a family. 

    We had a great Halloween (even though I worked during the day, couldn't dress up for work and felt a little sick). Our pumpkins were super cute and we had awesome decorations all over the house.

    All our candy was put in a big bowl and we put on some classic movies to watch.

    Only sad part was that no trick-or-treaters came...but that's OK. We got to watch Charlie Brown's Halloween movie and also the animated Disney version of Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Up side to no trick-or-treaters is that I get the left over candy :) 

    People are starting to guess what we are having, which was great! We're excited to find out in the next few weeks so we can start calling the alien by the name we have picked for it!

    Today we went for a walk around the agricultural center again. Jared found a fun path the other week when walking around and talking to his Mom while I worked on a Saturday. He took me on the path this afternoon and it was SO BEAUTIFUL! 

    I absolutely love the trees changing colors! The lighter colored leaves are my favorite, but all of it looks good. It's also fun to crunch the leaves beneath our feet and hearing a satisfying CRUNCH :)

    We love this weather, we love Nashville, we love our new friends here. Hooray for November even though it came pretty quickly.  

Loving the Fall

    Fall in Nashville has been so great so far! The weather has gotten cooler for perfect sweater and sweatshirt weather. I can wear my cute scarves and have fun hiding my long socks under my pants at work!

    Jared and I have had so much fun this fall getting ready for Halloween and just the fun spirit in the air! A few weeks ago we looked up a pumpkin farm in a nearby city and decided to get some pumpkins. Boy oh boy did we get pumpkins!

 Jared in the pumpkin thing

 My head in the pumpkin

    I only have pictures of the tiny pumpkins the old lady let us color with markers. I'll put up our other 3 pumpkins when we carve them Sunday or Monday.

 Jared coloring his tiny pumpkin with a scary face

 Mine was just silly and still needed some eyes :)

 Our cute pumpkins!!

    And 3 Halloweens ago, our first date was seeing a comedy show and decorating snicker doodles. It's a family tradition for Jared and it was SUCH A GREAT DATE!!

    So we made some and they taste so yummy! When the snicker doodles are still warm and usually fresh out of the oven, you can decorate them with tootsie rolls, caramel, candy corn, whatever! We used tootsie rolls and candy corn.

 Our dough and cinnamon

    To make the mouths, we just roll the tootsie rolls in our hands until the are soft (we washed our hands several times that night) and easy to manage.

 Some examples of faces :)

Me rolling the dough in the cinnamon and getting ready to prepare my tootsie roll faces

    We got a little creative and had a fun time making silly faces. I made a cat face and Jared made a face with an eye glass and mustache. It looks awesome!

 And then we just got silly and made our own faces :)

    There is also talk about going to a Haunted House this year with a couple in the ward. We'll see if that happens, but it would be fun! Another date Jared and I had was going to a Haunted House in Salt Lake. Not to be a party-pooper or anything, but Haunted Houses are sometimes pretty expensive. Sometimes I'd much rather watch a scary movie on my couch and get the same scared effect :)

    Anyhow, we just can't get enough of the candy corn and pumpkins. I haven't had cravings yet in the pregnancy, so I just say I'm craving chocolate :) Is it bad that I'm crossing my fingers not many trick-or-treaters come by? I might be terrible, but I wonder if kids trick-or-treat in apartment complexes...mostly I've seen kids stroll around neighborhoods...

    Maybe I can put a gnome outside our door holding a sign saying "Knock for Candy!" so that way they know we have some. Jared would appreciate one less gnome in our apartment :) He loves me and tolerates them...for now

Starting the Polls

    I had another Dr visit today. It's SO fun hearing my little alien's heartbeat. And I'll only refer to it as an alien for another month! 

    We scheduled our anatomy ultrasound for right before Thanksgiving Day. Then we can pray and be specifically thankful for our baby girl or boy. 

    Because we are finding out, everyone should start thinking of what their guesses will be. I think it'd be fun to do the whole thing, just to see who is closest and who is way off. I don't have any prizes, but it just seems like a great way to get even more excited!

    So guess the gender, weight, length and what day it will come. My due date is technically April 11th, so ya'll can guess anywhere in that ball park.

    But the alien is doing well. Good strong heartbeat. I feel a few little butterflies every now and then, which they say can be the alien. I felt one with the heartbeat was going, so that was super cool. I'll know in a few weeks if it's for sure the alien and not just my stomach acting funny when it's hungry!!

Enjoying My Days Again

    I've hit the second trimester and things are good so far! My nausea has cut down considerably, I have a little bit more energy, and there are some fun pictures on the fridge of the little person growing in me. 

    There have also been a lot of lessons learned over the past few months and I've finally figured a few things out. For example: I shouldn't eat right before bed, or I'll wake up in the middle of the night hungry!

    Other things I've learned: 

    Drinking lots of water helps with nausea

    Some things start to taste and smell differently, so be careful

    Smells stick around, even after brushing teeth and changing clothes...sorry Jared

    Sometimes my hungry feeling isn't really hunger. If I can sit it out, the hunger and nausea will go away

    Snacks are the way to go. I eat multiple times a day, but it's always small snacks. A few crackers, handful of goldfish, a fruit cup, handful of grapes and things like that. 

    Work is going well, I have a chair most of the time, so I can sit and relax. Every now and then I get up to walk around when things are slow (gotta get some exercise!).

    Poor Jared gets me every night when I'm tired and agitated from work, but he still loves me and puts up with my sickness days. 

    Waking up in the middle of the night has gotten better lately, but it still happens sometimes. There have been some days where I'm exhausted, but I can usually survive. Most of the time it's just waking up a few hours earlier than I want to eat something! :)


    And it is so much nicer having people know I'm expecting! I can make fun little comments and I don't need to try and hide the fact I've gained some weight (even if it's just been a little bit and only I can tell). 

    Jared has been really great this whole time, wanting to take care of me and help whenever and where ever he can. Sometimes there isn't a whole lot he can do, but the thought counts to me.

    I'm so excited to figure more things out. I can't wait for the nausea to go away some more. And I love Jared and can finally enjoy more time with him, rather than feeling sick all the time and feeling like I constantly complain...

Finally!!

    Jared and I had such a great Tuesday morning and and are so excited! And now that we know the alien is real and that things are going well, we don't have to keep it super secret anymore! Hooray alien! This means there may be a few posts every now and then about the funny things that are going on.

    Jared was super cute and thought of a clever way to tell his siblings. He gave them each a letter that could be found on same page in the middle of some random word in the middle of a sentence. Anyhow, it was cool and they all got to figure out the clues together in their separate homes and states! :)

   They pretty much figured it out right away...His mom would have the family do that when she was telling them they would have a new sibling in a few months. 

    I was a little less clever and just texted my brothers a picture of the alien and had them call me when they had free time.

    We called grandparents and they are all very excited.

    I put it up on our family's website so now the extended family on my side know. We're hoping the information will spread on Jared's side without us having to tell everyone :) There is just too many people to call!

    Anyways, it's just exciting! Keeping it from our parents was hard enough the first little bit, but once they knew, things got better :) And we only told them after I nearly passed out one afternoon while kneeling too long on a half empty stomach!

    We went to Cracker Barrel afterwards and had a great breakfast! We love that place and we love their breakfast foods!

    We feel so blessed and are so excited for the things to come! It is the right thing for us at this time and we couldn't be happier!

Full-Time Fun!

    So I am now working full-time at Bank of America which has been great so far! It's nice having set hours and I can work about the same time Jared does! I started the day after Labor Day weekend, which was awesome by the way!

    Suz and two of her friends came down, Tyler and Sammie (Suz was one of my amazing roommates at BYU while living at the Colony Apartments). I have been DYING to see Suz for the past couple months, especially when she had planned to come out before and then couldn't. 

    But she finally made it down! They came down Friday night and we had a fun Saturday doing tons of stuff! We went mini-golfing in the late morning, went to Martin's Barbecue for lunch (which was delicious as always), played games at the apartment and visited the Grand Ole Opry before bar hopping! Well...to be honest, it's the Mormon version of bar hopping... :)

    We went to a couple bars to listen to music and laugh at all the drunk people! It took us a while to walk off our full bellies after eating dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, but we somehow got it done! It was so funny to hear the girls exclaim at things like something hailing a cab off the street. 

    The great ending to the night was Suz and Sammie living a dream of going inside Coyote Ugly. Ladies got in free and they got to take a couple pictures inside the bar next.

    Sunday was relaxing after a good day at church. I made my Mom's lasagna for dinner, which was so yummy! I made it just the way Jared and I liked it, which happened to be good enough for the others!

    Monday we relaxed again. The weather was not on our side. They sadly had to pack their things up and head home before it was too late. 

    It was so fun having them visit! We can't wait for them to come back really soon! I was lame and didn't take many pictures, but they did, which is really all that matters in the end. 

    Now it's back to life, which is also fun, in a different way. :) Jared and I are having a great time down here in Nashville and would like to stay as long we can possibly can!

Today is Cleaning Day!

    I am so excited for my old roommate Suz and two of her friends to come down for the weekend!

    They will get here late Friday night and I have to have everything ready by then. Which means: 

    I have to pick up our bedroom, do the laundry, clean the kitchen, clean our living space, vacuum every place including the stairs, and clean the bathroom. Our apartment isn't exactly dirty, but it's not ready for visitors to come. 

    Tomorrow will officially be for grocery shopping and for laundry, but today all the cleaning should and will get done. Once again, I get a full day off work and I will use today productively. 

    Jared is so great at usually keeping things clean. He'll pick up most of his stuff, while my stuff pretty much covers the floors!

    But we are SO excited for them to come and it will be a fun weekend!

Jared Spoils Me

    This is another post dedicated to how great my husband is. The past few days have been awesome!

    For the past week, I've made little comments about wanting Dairy Queen or how I like the pretty flowers at Wal-mart and that I LOVE milky ways. Ok, my love for milky ways is not really any kind of random thought, I love that candy and Jared has known it for almost the entire time we've been together.

    So on Thursday, he came home from work and on the way got me Dairy Queen, flowers, Dr Pepper cherry and milky ways! He's so great and it was an AWESOME surprise!

    Friday we went out to celebrate my interview at a PR place and also that I got full-time at the bank. It's a win-win either way! I can either work full-time at a place I really like, or I can work somewhere and actually do what I majored in!

    We went to The Cheesecake Factory and it was so delicious! We split the orange chicken dinner trying to make room for cheesecake (another of my favorite treats). We probably had more left over than what we ate between the two of us! But we still got the pineapple up-side-down cake cheesecake to go! :)

    Saturday Jared woke up super early, started the laundry and even went grocery shopping all before I got up for work. By the time I was ready to leave for work, the laundry was all done and I was able to fold a lot of it before leaving. At the store he bought a lot of goodies that I normally don't buy, but he wanted to splurge and I didn't complain! :) Now I can eat Cookie Crisps for breakfast and take little pudding things to work with my lunch!

    We still hadn't been to the temple this month, so Saturday was the day we'd planned to go. I got home, Jared made me a quick snack to eat in the car and we had a fun afternoon in the Nashville Temple! After the temple, we went and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Wendy's, which used to be a little tradition we'd do while dating.

    For our anniversary he got me a wedding band and had to guess my ring size. He was only off by a little bit, but we decided to go to the mall so he could get his sunglasses fixed and I could get my ring re-sized, which was nice. I'll get it in a few days and it'll be great!

    Later that afternoon, there was a surprise birthday party planned and we were invited! Hooray we can be social! We had a really good time with people in the ward at this fun barbecue place. I remember it being Judge Bean's Barbecue and Steakhouse. Anyhow, it was a fun night.

    Sunday morning, Jared made the muffins he bought at the store the morning before and it was yummy to have something different and warm for breakfast. They are cranberry and orange muffins (cranberry and orange in the same muffin! Not two different mixes!)

     I was planning on putting pictures on, but now that I've already typed everything and realized I still haven't taken pictures of stuff, I'll just leave it at this :) I hope everyone else has or will have husbands as great as mine!

Morning Conversation

    "I'm the cuddler in this relationship," said Jared this morning.

    "You're the cuddler only when you take up my space! When I try to cuddle with you, you move away," I replied. 

    "Well, I need my space," Jared said. 

    "So you can take up my space, but I can't take up any of yours?" I asked.

    "Exactly!" Jared exclaimed. 

    This short conversation was pretty funny for us this morning as we headed downtown so Jared could get to work. What brought it up is that I didn't sleep well last night because of our distinctly different sleeping styles. 

    My style: No air blowing on me, multiple blankets and I am on my own side of the bed. I have sweatpants, socks and a thick shirt on. If it is cold, I snuggle in closer to Jared to get his body heat. If air is blowing from the fan, I try to make a pillow wall or I try to use Jared as a shield. I'm a restless sleeper and if something isn't up to my standards, I don't sleep well.

    Jared's style: On top of the covers with a fan on/under a sheet when the AC is on. He sprawls out to reach the most comfortable position and sleeps like a rock most of the time.

    Problems with our differing styles: Usually I get some type of accidental injury. One night a long time ago I was karate chopped by Jared in his sleep (he really just rolled over and somehow his arm went flying over my mid-back to knock the air out of me). A few nights ago I was elbowed in the forehead when I was trying to snuggle on a "cold" night and he moved to switch positions. On several occasions I've woken up to find my space invaded by his legs or his whole body. That's when I try to push him over to no avail.

    There was one specific time he was sleeping diagonally. His head was normal on his pillow, but somehow his feet were pretty much hanging off my side of the bed. I'm not totally sure how that worked, but I was sleeping in a ball while he had control of 2/3rd the bed.

    Last night, Jared turned the fan on. We've been using the AC lately, so I had to get used to the air blowing and the buzzing sound of the fan again. It didn't work out so well. My pillow kept flopping over when I tried to make a wall, the blanket suffocated me when I covered my face from the air, it was useless. Finally, Jared moved to sleep on his side and I tried to use him a barricade. As soon as he felt me snuggle in, he moved to a flatter position, ruining my plan. 

    Eventually, I gave up, got my pillow and blanket and went out to the living room to sleep. I've taken many naps on this couch and thought it might be worth a shot to actually sleep on it. All in all, I only got a couple hours of sleep last night and decided I was going to drop Jared off at work and then take the car back home so I can sleep for a little bit before work in the afternoon. 

    I commented to Jared about how silly it would have been for us to get a King-Size bed when our bedroom is so little. Jared commented about how we'd be too far apart to cuddle. I said that's impossible because he always sleeps in the middle, no matter what. 

    He made a joke about always sleeping in the middle so he could cuddle with me. That's what initiated the conversation in the very beginning of the post. 

    It might take us all of eternity to figure out how to make our different styles work together in harmony!

Unavailable...what!?

    I don't have much to say today, so I will rant about what happened late last night.    

    Last night at 11 P.M. Jared and I woke up to an irritating sound....my phone ringtone going off. This has never happened...no one ever calls after 9 and if they do, it had better be for something important!!

    I ran up out of bed to grab my phone and saw my caller ID: Unavailable. What the heck does that mean! Some one or some thing called me at 11 P.M. with a number I can't call back and didn't leave a message.

    Not bothering to stay up if they call again, I silenced my phone and went back to bed. Woke up and saw two more missed calls from this same Unavailable number. 

    Does anyone have any ideas on what it is? Is anyone else getting these ridiculous calls? I thought solicitors weren't able to call after 9 P.M. I have most everyone in my family in my phone, so if they called, their names would have come up...same with friends...

    I guess there are just some mysteries in life that won't be explained anytime soon. I can add these strange phone calls to my list and hopefully cross them off soon. Maybe if they call again, I can answer and see if it's just some crazy machine.

Origami

    Jared had some free time one day at work and looked up instructions on how to make origami things. He made some sort of box and was so proud. 

    One night, we were a little bored of watching Netflix so he got online and looked up instructions on how to make more oragami!

    Some of it was easy, I used to do it in elementary school and some of middle school. It was totally fun and kept us students entertained. Working on it as an adult was almost as much fun!

    The first things we made were frogs. Not too hard, I made them as a kid. They really jump!!

 

    After the frogs we made the box thing that Jared had made at work. It's the one where you can put water in it and drop it on someone like a water balloon. We tested it out just on the sidewalk outside...it was great!!

    Then we made silly little swans. Nothing too fancy, but you can see what they are :)

    We were feeling pretty good about ourselves and we have plenty of paper to spare. Jared found a site that had different levels. Having no idea what Level C meant, we decided to try to make a dinosaur...

    A close up of a dinosaur...

   As you can see, we just pretty much gave up after about step 5 of 30 million. Level C must mean Complicated or Craziness!

    But it was fun trying something new. Maybe we'll do it again and just stick to simple things :) 

Missionary Fun!

    Somehow the Sister Missionaries had Jared's name written down for exchanges last night. We aren't quite sure how it happened, but we are SO glad it did!

    The Sisters are so sweet and they texted me yesterday afternoon asking for Jared's number because he said he would go on exchanges with them that night. I laughed and gave them his number, thinking he'd be out and I would stay home. But nope! Jared said I was going with them.

    The first and last time I remember going out with sister missionaries was not the best experience. They were Spanish-speaking and I only went because they were teaching a friend of mine and he told them I would give them a ride. They spoke Spanish the whole time except for when they asked me to bear my testimony on the spot. That's not my kind of thing...

    But this time was so great! Jared and I had enough time to eat dinner before we met up with the Sisters to go visit/teach this lady. We got a quick background on her and learned she is very smart and knows her stuff. I got nervous, because I honestly don't know a lot of stuff...

    We got to her house and it was so great. The lady has met with missionaries before, but she had been out of town. She wanted to ask the Sisters some questions to clarify what she was reading. Her major in school was Religious Studies, so she knows her stuff and her Bible. She asked about the chronological timeline in relation to the Bible. I had no idea....but the Sisters were amazing and answered her question with no problem.

    Anyhow, all in all, I think it went great. Even though it might have just been an academic visit, the spirit was there, I learned stuff and we answered her questions.

    When it was over, Jared and I thought it would be silly to follow the Sisters as a little joke, to see where they were going and if it led us back to a main road and out of the neighborhood. Turns out, they were heading to a couple they like to visit. I'm so bad at remembering faces, so I think I have seen them at church, but I'm not sure. Lately, it's been hard for them to get to church now that she is going through terrible morning sickness, but I am so excited to see the couple again! They seem really great.

    It was so nice to meet them and I think it was a fun visit. Sister Valentine just shared a quick message and left the couple some homework for the week. :) Sister Franson has such a sweet testimony and they both are such great Sisters.

    Jared and I are wanting to go out more with them, especially if they go back and teach the first lady. We hope the couple will come back to church. We'll make sure to look out for them so they don't sit by themselves.

    Last night was such a great missionary experience and I am so excited to have more. I even created a mormon.org profile and it was approved, thank goodness! For some reason I was worried they would think my responses were blasphemous! I keep changing them every now and then when I think of something I would like to add.

    The link to my page is: Mormon.org and I would love for ya'll to check it out. Please offer ideas and help me make this a missionary tool!

One Year Down!

    Jared and I celebrated our first year anniversary and it was so great! We got to spend the whole weekend together and had so much fun!

    Friday night we got ourselves a Papa John's pizza (so delicious) and we split it the way we normally do. My half of the pizza has pepperoni, canadian bacon and pineapple. Jared gets pepperoni, peppers and onions. We have very different tastes sometimes :)

    We also watched a movie that night, Jared's pick. We watched E.T. I'm not a big alien fan, but there were some funny parts. I didn't pay attention to anything really than the funny parts...I'm not a movie critic :)

    I made Jared go to bed early so I could decorate the apartment and I secretly wrote him a little note on a card I got without him knowing :) I'm so cute. When I got the card I also got streamers (pink and blue) like our wedding colors and I put them all over the place. 

 In the kitchen...

The living room was an obstacle course :) Either crawl under all of it, or go over and under 

    Jared liked the streamers. I also put one of his mugs in the freezer so it would be nice and chilled when I gave it to him in the morning. 

    He woke up super early Saturday morning (early compared to me). He went out and got me flowers and he wrote me a wonderful little note and hid it behind lots of files. So I clicked on documents, opened the file: OPEN THIS FOLDER STEPHANIE to open the next file: JARED to open: LOVES to open: STEPHANIE to open: YES!!!!!!!! to open: HAPPY 1ST ANNIVERSARY! to open a PDF file of a sweet note from the best husband ever! He also went out and got me a treat for the movie we would see later. I got one for him, but didn't get one for me. He thought it would be fair for us both to have a treat.

    Then Jared made cinnamon rolls, which were yummy and we had a good morning getting ready for our temple trip! We weren't going until noon, so I had time to quickly made potato salad for our picnic we had planned for Sunday. We decided it would be fun to do sealings, seeing as how we were sealed a year go. Seemed perfect! Such a great experience. 

    We took some fun pictures outside the temple!

 Jared is so cute!

 We're kinda cute sometimes. I'm SO proud of myself for getting Moroni up in the background!

 Pink flowers behind us!

Up close on cuteness!

    For lunch (because I was starving) we went to McAlisters and had a fun time! With our extra time to spare, I thought it would be good to go to the movie theater so we could buy tickets for Harry Potter 7 before they sold out, if they would. We were an hour early, got the tickets and hung out outside for a little bit. That was before I realized I didn't have my wallet in my purse...

    I freaked out and we looked all over for it. I asked the theater workers and it hadn't been returned! I'm cursing the world for the awful generations to come that steal wallets. It was a Saturday, so all the banks were closed and there was no way to call and cancel my cards before someone went on a spending spree!

    But the people were so nice and remembered we bought the tickets and believed I had honestly lost my wallet. I cried before the movie started because I am SUCH A HUGE BABY. 

    The movie was good and really fun. I'm glad the series had a good ending. When it was over we decided to try one more time to see if my wallet was returned. As we walked up to the person we talked to before, she left for a split second and came back with something familiar looking in her hand. 

    Someone was great enough to return my wallet! Oh my heck I was so happy and Jared was happy that I wasn't wanting to cry anymore! It would have been such a huge weekend spoiler for me to have lost my wallet. 

    Anyhow, we got home and I felt so much better. I decided I wanted my presents and Jared gave in. He got it all ready and came out with a little box in his hand. The only clue he gave me as to what it was was that I gave him the idea before. I remembered I said I wanted earrings, so I totally thought that's what was in the box. 

    I was half right :) I opened the nice box with the ribbon on top and found some super cute earrings! Only they weren't just earrings, they were gnome earrings! Now I can have two cute gnomes with me every day I wear them!

    That wasn't the only part of the present though. Like how Jared proposed, the real present was in his pocket. He got me a beautiful wedding band that matches my engagement ring perfectly! I couldn't get any good pictures, but it is absolutely beautiful and it makes my finger Blingin'!

    After that, we tried on our wedding outfits again :) I still fit in my dress the same way as a year ago. I had my hair curly like that day too, only my hair isn't as long as it was then. Jared put his cute pocket square and tie on!

 I still fit

    It was such an awesome first anniversary! And we made the whole weekend out of it. 

    Sunday we missed church (Whoops) and got ready for our super fun picnic! We had been planning it for weeks. I cut up the pineapple, steak, chicken, green bell peppers, got the bacon, the bbq chips, the potato salad, bbq sauce and A1 sauce, cinnamon, skewers, lighter fluid and we hit the road. Our charcoal is always in the trunk. 

    We went to Percy Priest's Lake and it was so great! We didn't go swimming, but we went to the picnic area and learned we can go canoeing for only $5 an hour! Heck yes!

    The food was so good. Jared did a great job with cooking them. The pineapple was soooo good grilled with just the cinnamon on it. We got so full so quickly. The potato salad was really good too. I got the ingredients from Laura, Jared's mom, so I'm glad it all worked out. 

Pictures:

 I tore the head off the pineapple with my bare hands!

 Good salad

 Shish kabobs off skewer

 Putting the pineapple on the grill

 So yummy looking

We were so full!

    We got home and relaxed and waited for our tummies to not be so full. When we finally got our tummies good, Jared melted some chocolate and dipped strawberries and pineapple in it! Yum Yum!!

So delicious!

    Monday was nice. When we both were up, we just had a nice time relaxing. Jared had the great idea to go out to the pool. The water felt good and we tried to tan for a little bit. But some losers came by us and started smoking, which made me want to leave. Even in the water, the smoke still got to me. 

    I started to get hungry, so we went to El Tapetio! Hooray Mexican food! We went to Mexico for our honeymoon and I didn't eat anything authentic, so Jared appreciates me liking this. And I love it! We have enough to fill us for two meals!

    Later, we went out and bought some new flowers for outside to hang above our patio. Since the bird made the nest, our flowers before died...I wanted something pretty outside. We got some very nice purplish ones, which we love. 

    Laura sent us some gift cards and a fun little card. Even though we had food left over, we thought it would be good to use one of them. We decided to go to Applebee's and get an appetizer and a dessert. Jared remembered liking the wings, so we got those, half hot half mild with sides of ranch (hooray!) and we got the triple chocolate cake. I tried the kiwi lemonade, which was pretty good, not great. The wings weren't all that great and the cake was nothing extraordinary. It was a good meal though. 

    When we got home, the Sister Missionaries dropped by! They said they were in the neighborhood and decided to drop by, but we secretly think it was them checking up on us because we missed church. They are so funny and stayed for a few minutes and we just talked and hung out. They are absolutely amazing and it makes me want to miss church  more if it means they'll drop by!

    The rest of the night was just relaxing. Nothing too big. We went to bed at a decent hour because we both had to return to work the next day. 

    Such a great weekend and a great first year of marriage! It's amazing how it doesn't even feel like a year. We're just living life and we love it!

    We appreciate all the love and support from our family and friends! We are so happy to be married and we love that it's for eternity! Hooray an eternity of great anniversaries just like this one!!!