Never in a million years would I have ever thought that I'd finish up college only to return to high school. Not ever. And it's not that I didn't love high school when I was younger, but working with high school students at this age has proven to be quite the experience. I feel like I will have stories worth telling for the rest of my life! I'm not kidding when I say it kind of feels like being a part of an audience in a live reality soap opera ... kind of.

The TA's are usually my favorites (I don't care what people say, you will always have favorites) but there is one who I absolutely adore. We'll call him Chase. Chase is just about the sweetest kid on the planet, and walks in every morning with a big smile on his face always asking, "What can I do for you today?" I texted Max this morning and told him if Chase ever need to be adopted into a family (he's not an orphan, but lets just say he was) we would definitely be the first parents in line!

Anyway, today I needed help sorting through papers, and as I was asking some of the students about prom, which is coming up in a couple of weeks, I noticed that when Chase mentioned the girl he had asked, some of the other students looked surprised. In fact, one student even asked, "Why on earth would you take her? She's so weird." Another chimed in agreeing. Chase kept sorting through papers, and shrugged his shoulders responding, "Because. I think she needs a friend."

I don't know who this girl is, but boy was I impressed. It reminded me of a piece of advice I was given a long time ago, "Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind."

what matters the most.

What matters the most is what lasts the longest.
-Elder M. Russell Ballard

I have so been looking forward to a weekend entirely devoted to the two most important things in life: my family and my faith in so many, many things.

The gospel has brought so much joy in my life and in the lives around me, I can't think of any day more joyful than the day I got married. But the older I've grown, at least over the last year or so, I have become so much more acutely aware of the peace the gospel brings too.

Today as I watched the morning and afternoon sessions of the LDS General Conference, I was particularly impressed when I was reminded of what the Savior taught in the scriptures: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

I remember an experience I had during my first semester of college. My first day of college, actually. I was a newly-18-years old freshman, not knowing a single soul on that small campus all the way out on the north shore of Hawaii. I remember realizing as I sat in my dorm room and looked around, how awfully alone I felt. I was scared and uncertain and honestly, afraid. I look back and remember realizing that the only thing I could do (beside call my parents for the tenth time) was to pray. So I knelt down in prayer next to my small bed, and began to talk with my Heavenly Father. I don't even remember what I asked for or what I said, and it didn't change the fact that I was by myself or that my family and friends were still thousands of miles away, but I will never forget the way I felt. I knew as well as I knew anything else that at that moment my prayers were being heard. I had a Heavenly Father who was watchful of me, who loved me, who was just as aware of my prayer and my hopes and my worries as I was. Not everything was immediately solved or changed during that time on my knees, but the way I had felt was. I felt loved and I felt at peace, and knowing that I was going to be okay was enough.

I share that experience only to explain the way the gospel felt for me lately, today as I watched conference, whenever I hear discouraging news on the television or between family and friends, or even when I simply wake up on the wrong side of the bed. I have always been grateful of the joy the gospel brings, but am now so grateful for the peace I can always feel too.

simplifying.

I've always been back and forth with Facebook, but have had an Instagram, Pinterest, Blogging account for a long time. My sister recently told me about Tinder... which is past my time at this point, but to be completely honest with you, we think its awful. Anyway, after one long talk with my Grandma a couple weeks ago I decided to forego all of social media for a little while, which is why over the last month [or two] I haven't been on my blog as much either.

There are pros and cons to what all of the above has to offer, but I'd be lying if I said that taking a break from all of it wasn't great... because it was. It might all just be in my head, but I honestly felt like I actually had more time in my day to read, spend time with people I care about, think about things worth thinking about, and so on. I had started to notice that over the last little while whenever I had a free minute or two I would usually grab my phone and check my readers, news feed, etc -- and I got so annoyed with myself for being one of those people who knows whats going on with people I don't even know (or pinning recipes I know I'll never try!) or even worse, doing both of these things while I was with other people.

Rant over. But whether you love or hate social media, I'd highly recommend taking a break every now and then. It's nice not knowing or pinning or posting every once in a while.

image via

easter weekend

We're heading off for the weekend (this time with family!) and I'm excited knowing that I will finally get some free time to start a new book that I was just recommended, The Poisonwood Bible (I'll let you know what I think!)

It's safe to say that this winter has worn its welcome in our home, and it's amazing how much more cheerful I feel just knowing that the sun is out for an hour longer!

Hope you have a happy spring, and a happy easter weekend :)

xx

balboa island, ca

When I was younger, my best friend Betsy and I would cut up magazines and spend hours picking out our favorite homes, dining rooms, husbands (male models in a JCPenny catalog... you know). I always thought I'd want to live on the east coast somewhere, maybe Boston, and have a big yellow house with black shutters and a wrap-around porch. That never really changed growing up, but 15 years later and I've decided to change my mind.

Last weekend, we took off for another last minute trip (literally last minute, because as we drove to Salt Lake at 2:15 PM we turned the car around at 2:18 and decided to pack our bags and go!) We met up with some of our friends already in Vegas, and off to sunny California we went. The first night we were there, we stayed in Laguna beach and were able to drive up the coast to Newport and Huntington, and take one tiny detour to a little town called Balboa Island thanks to Max insisting that we stop by.

I just about died. Something about small beach towns, especially when they're homey and quaint (quaint meaning tiny homes but $100,000 dollar cars in the driveway) makes me fall in love. The ferry, the carousel, the American flags hanging on the porches, and sail boats lining the shore just seemed to come straight out of one of those magazines I used to cut up when I was nine years old. So it's settled. When we make our millions one day given our sad economy, we'll head back to Balboa island.

In other news, I spent two hours one morning during our vacation making a pro and con list of a day in Disneyland vs. a day at Six Flags. Just to give you an idea of what it looked like, Six Flags had 2 pros, Disneyland had 11. I was outnumbered when voting, but I'm thinking any excuse to go back to CA and the happiest place on earth (they're one in the same now) is okay with me.

in my absence.

The last month of our lives have been chaos. Apartment hunting, job hunting, packing, moving, life changing, everything changing, and in a nutshell, a bullet point list:

• Changed our living plans... half a dozen times. 
• ... if you need any information on any apartment from Provo to Bountiful, call me.
• Found the most wonderful one bedroom for two.
• Fell in love with our one bedroom apartment for two!
• Purchased our very first television!
• Had a small house warming party... which meant eating on the floor with our friends.
• Had every meal over the last two weeks... on the floor with each other.
• Lived in my grandparents basement for a weekend.
• Loved living with my grandparents for the weekend.
• Picked my family up from the airport (they're home!!)
• Celebrated Valentines day with Subway sandwiches (this is called budgeting).
• Furnished our bathroom.
• Began to furnish our living room.
• And felt like newly-newly weds all over again.

I am all the more convinced after this last month of chaos, that if you really, really pay attention, you'll be able to see that life always turns out better than what you had thought it would in the first place.

Someone's looking out for us, that's for sure.

my funny valentine.

I woke up the other night to see Max with a flashlight strapped to the top of his head. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me that he didn't want to wake me up by turning on the lights - so he improvised instead.

I love him more than yesterday, and I'll love him more tomorrow, and I'm so happy that I get my funny Valentine forever.


(february 14th is never complete without this song! )

Happy Valentines Day to you and yours.

if i had to live my life over.

“If I had to live my life over...

I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the "good" living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather rambling about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle sculped like a rose before it melted 
in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television, 
and more while watching life.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick, instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment, realising that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's" and more "I'm sorry's"


. . . but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute . . . 
look at it and really see it . . . and never give it back.”
-Erma Bombeck

I've never loved reading something so much, (and that's saying a lot).

zion/weekend/i'm in love with max

So I've lived in Utah my whole life and have never been to Lake Powell, Zion, Bear Lake, the Grand Canyon, whatever... growing up my family just preferred hotel rooms over camping and Disneyland over boating.

So when we decided to hit the road last weekend, Max wondered if we could go into Zion for a couple of hours. At first I was hesitant, and I was in no way prepared to go hiking, but he's pretty cute when he tries to be convincing, so I thought sure, why not? We maybe went on three hikes (and by hikes, I mean nature walks) and I took a whole lot of pictures, mainly thinking about Cars Land and how we should probably go back to Disneyland again this year (Thanksgiving 2013 baby!) But, I'll be honest: for living in Utah my whole life and never having visited Zion National Park (and never really having wanted to) I was definitely impressed. It's amazing to see in real life.

The rest of the weekend was splendid, too. My camera died quickly and I forgot the battery charger so since we are without photos, I will describe it to you instead: We watched rom-coms on my laptop (because in-room-movies are $15 dollars these days) and after eating out, we'd stop by the grocery store for dessert and diet cokes and bring it back to the hotel room just so we could sit in our pajamas and talk in bed. The only bad part was pulling in the driveway when we got home, and when Max announced, "Our trip is officially over!" I started to cry (a little bit) because I hate the end of getaways, even if they last only 48 hours.

But Beyonce performed on TV last night, and I made homemade Mexican rice that didn't taste too great but Max ate all of it to be polite, and then we sat in bed again eating cookies from a box talking about all that needs to happen this week... which is a lot. So the weekend was great. And I love being married to Max.

this weekend.

Like I said in a previous post, January has been kind of a blur of craziness and stress (that's an understatement, fyi) and I've never been more ready to kick a month to the curb. Although a lot of it is exciting and (still) developing, uncertainty has never been my cup of tea. So when Max surprised me the other night by casually asking, "So what would you think about taking off this weekend?" I couldn't help but think I married a mind-reader.

We resorted to the Magic 8 Ball last night, (we're still getting used to planning vacations without parents, I guess) and thanks to the answer "yes, definitely..." our plan actually solidified itself. And I packed 6 movies just in case.

Bed & Breakfast: I am coming to you.