The First Nine Months!

In three days James and I will have been married for 9 months! Not a big mile stone, but it just shows that I haven't posted a single thing for ten months... SO here is the update of everything :D (Start from the bottom with August 5th and then work your way up).

May 3, 2012

Finally caught up! The last three days I have been a worthless bum at home lol... Well, one of them I was extremely sick again and yesterday I was getting better. And I've used today to catch up on our blog! So far since we've been in Issaquah living with Will and Tori, we have gone paddle boarding, long boarding, flown James' power kite on the beach, done an endowment session at the Seattle Temple, and even went on a hike before church on Sunday. We love it here, there is so much to do! I'm learning the roads and the stores in the area. So far haven't heard about any jobs but am still looking. If I don't get a job I want to take the next couple months to work on learning new things. I even may invest in a short membership at the local hot yoga place... although a hate hot yoga with a passion.
A few things on my list to learn:
                     -Sewing
                     -Craft (making?)
                     -Cooking! (Either baking or cooking meals)
James has now been working at his internship for four days. His first day was pretty hard, he ended up using a chainsaw to remove weeds/trees from an area and then had to haul them out. It was just him and another man doing the work. The last two days have been a little easier and he has been planting flowers by a retirement community. He has some silly stories about it so maybe I can get him on here soon to put up a few of his personal stories from it all :)

April 4-23 2012

VEGAS!! Winter 2012 semester past us, Vegas in view. But before we went to Vegas with my dad and step mom, I went to my brother Will's sealing in the Manti temple. And oh ma' goodness is it a b.e.a.utiful temple! I love it. It was a beautiful sealing and it was great seeing my family again. James wasn't able to make it down with me because he had a class that he needed to go to on the Friday of finals time which happened to be the day of the sealing. After the sealing I saw Jason Hutchinson for the first time since he got back from his mission and I got to hang out and play cards with everyone! It was wonderful sitting back and seeing everyone in the same room again :) The next day I picked James up from temple square and the following day we headed to Las Vegas. 

Me being excited that we were almost to Vegas!

I'm going to add just a few photos of the things that we saw when we were there.

It was extremely hot this day. But it was our first day there and we walked the south part of the strip.

This is still my favorite place. M&M World.

We went to two shows when we were there: Blue man group and Mystere. They were fun but the latter was my favorite. We ate out every single day! Craziness... Talk about food frenzy. We relaxed a lot. Went to the hot tub a couple times at night. We originally were going to stay in Vegas one week, but a couple of the days were filled with non vacation things, such as how my Volvo officially died... and we got a new car. We now own a 2005 Honda Element EX. It's worked great so far with no issues. Since we lost a couple days, my dad decided to stay another week haha but James and I only stayed until Wednesday. While in Vegas, James bought me my first Ipod :) I call it my blue berry and my car is my big blue berry. After Vegas we stayed and Aunt Shirley and Uncle Larry's for a couple days. It was a lot of fun and really relaxing. We then headed up to Portland, stayed there for a couple days and then finally made our last trek to Seattle!

January 2012-April 2012

Our fifth semester at BYU-I. This semester was big for both of us. James was jam packed with too many courses and most of his professors believed they were his only professor... meaning an insane semester packed with a ton of work. Poor guy :/ BUT he made it through great! He got all A's and one or two A-'s :) I'm so proud of him. He doesn't think that he works that hard but he really does. I worked once again at the testing center. I had a really fun couple of shifts but towards the end of the semester I dropped one of my shifts so I could have my week nights free to do homework and projects. I finally decided on what I want to do with my life. I changed my major to communications and am going to be taking courses based in public relations and organizational communication. I'm working to be an event planner, hopefully for large scale events maybe even humanitarian events. James had a couple courses that inspired his interest in doing an internship. He interview with Brickman and then later went on an internship expedition where he met with them once more. He secured an internship with them and we started the process of moving to Seattle for the next semester. Oh yeah! I cut my hair. Here is a before picture:  

For the after picture, look at our Vegas pictures.
 

December 2011-January 2012

December was a big one for us, a scary one. I got really ill. The craziest part about it is that I never get sick. But it happened. I can’t remember every detail perfectly any more but here is what I recall:

            I started having really bad cramping stomach pains, like it hurt to stand, and I was nauseous. I showed up to work (at target) and one of the Leads on Duty (LOD) told me to leave and go to community care; I looked like crap. I went and they couldn’t really tell what was going on so they prescribed me medicine for the nausea and cramping. That went away for about a day or so, but then the worst came. I started throwing up. I couldn’t keep anything down and I didn’t have an appetite. After about three or four days of this went on I started to really worry about getting dehydrated. I visited yet another community care where they weren’t sure what was up, just gave me and IV for dehydration. I felt okay for about a day, but then I got sick again. This happened about three times on and off. I got extremely weak. I hadn’t been able to eat much for about a week at a time. I looked frail and was exhausted. Eventually I had gone to community care four times, received three different diagnosis that all contradicted each other, a few prescriptions (either antibiotics or medicine for nausea), and about four or five IVs for dehydration. Finally, on Christmas Eve, I went to the ER. Finally found out it was a stomach virus that was going around the area. They gave me three IVs and a good prescription for nausea. Also they gave me a good diet to follow to help me be able to eat and keep food down. By Christmas, I was able to eat most of the food. About a week went by and I was fine. But yet again something hit me. I was having really bad problems in the bathroom and it was causing horrible pain. Once again I went to the ER. I found out that what I had was caused by antibiotics that community care prescribed me; antibiotics that were for something that I never had. Ultimately, I found out that I lost 16 pounds. I don’t have weight to lose; it was scary finding that out. And today I still have only gained about 3 pounds back.

September 2011-December 2011

During this time, James worked for Aunt LaDawn and I got a job a Target working softlines. Both of which were huge blessings to us. I also volunteered for RecSports on the side. Around November, James got a job being a runner for UPS.

On October 13th, something special happened in the family! David and Dani had their first child, baby Alice :) James and I went down to see her the next day and ended up being the first visitors to the new baby! Whats funny is that for about the first three months of her life we ended up seeing her and her parents every two weeks.

Here are a few images (though not the best quality images) to show what we have been up to!

I learned I have a love for baking. This was particularly delicious! (Although, I did make it around Valentines day).

How tall it ended up being

James and I liked to leave each other little messages as we left for work. I particularly liked this one from him :)

James grew a beard, and then decided to get creative when shaving it.

Then... he shaved it to this later that day...

James' last day working for UPS!

Halloween! I don't want to explain mine, haha.

Sunday drive :)

August 14-21, 2011

Honeymoon time! And let me tell you it could not have come sooner. We just ended a year at school, got married, two receptions, moved into our new place, and drama with our lemon of a car. We went to Cabo San Lucas and stayed at the five star resort my dad has a time share with. We slept most of the trip on our king size bed.

August 13, 2011

Today was the Portland reception. All in all, I wish we didn't have it. I did love seeing all my friends in one place once again. It was held at the Happy Valley church building and Ariana Evensen, Kathy Robertson, Jeff Klein, Kenny Hall, Mack Brown, Josh Palkki, and others helped put it all together to make it beautiful. Thank you everyone! 

Before it was completed

Cutting the cake!

 

August 6, 2011

 I don't know what is was like or will be like when you get married, but that morning (I hope I can blame it on the horribly hot bathroom lights) but I was so nervous, I felt like I was going to puke! I had to step out from the bathroom to breath and calm down. Eventually my mom and I made it to the IF temple in safety and on time. We went through it all. Filled out the paper work, I was sent back to the bridal room where I was pampered, and still being nervous the ladies there gave me something to munch on before I was fully dressed for the sealing. As soon as I saw James, I knew I was okay. One memory I have that I will never forget is when we were sitting in the celestial room waiting to be taken to the sealing room. James and I were sitting there, taking it all in. Then James turns to me and says "now when he asks, you say yes." Straight face, dead serious. :)
ANY WHO, I don't want to bore you with too many details... But the sealing was amazing. I almost broke down in tears when we looked each other in the eye at the alter. We were surrounded by so many loved ones. When my dad and I hugged after, I truly broke down as did he. Since I was in primary I became okay with the fact that my dad would never see me get married... yet, there he was! The next few hours were a blur. After the sealing we took a few photos with family and loved ones.
 

 

Right after the sealing at the IF temple

The Idaho reception followed, and it was wonderful! All I had to do was show up, say hello to friends and family, eat a little bit, and cut the cake! We were even able to open presents at the end :) So much fun! 
Idaho Wedding Reception Video

August 5, 2011

Today was my birthday! And what a special day indeed :) Today was the day I received my endowments. I decided to get them out at the Idaho Falls temple since we were going to be sealed there the following day. I will admit that I was a little disappointed I couldn't be sealed and receive my endowments at the Portland temple, but the closer the two dates came the less disappointed I was! I found out that the Idaho Falls temple is where my dad had received his own endowments, and (as you'll see in the next date) other reasons just kept popping up that made it so special to me, and him! The best part of today... My dad went through the temple with me :) The best birthday present I could have received. He surprised me by showing up at the temple. He had been working since he first heard we were getting married to get his recommend. It wasn't just for me, but it was a great motivation for himself. I couldn't have been happier :)
 

Later (to celebrate my birthday) we went to Craigos (now pizza pie cafe) with my family and James :) It was a great day and welcomed in the next wonderful day!