The Background :)

Just a quickie explanation for the background that I chose :) I've been excited for the Jazz to finally be getting healthy and getting everyone back (Boozer is back in a week!) and after they beat the two top teams of the NBA - Lakers and Celtics - I figured that the Jazz pretty much rock! I haven't gone to a game yet this season but I have to since I live there! ha ha But I thought I'd support them with my blog background! YEAH! Also, March Madness is in a week so go Duke! I haven't kept up much with the NCAA but I love watching any basketball! SO . . . go JAZZ!

Half-Way Mark Weekend

I thought the time would never come when I was going to finally see Clay up in Washington! Well the weekend was so surreal! It went by slow but when I got home it seemed like it never happened. When I first came off the plane and saw Clay, it felt like butterflies all over again right before we got married - I was shaking non-stop! We stayed across the harbor on another island from Tacoma called Gig Harbor at a Bed and Breakfast called the Maritime Inn (I highly recommend the place) for a couple nights. This was our room below - a little small, but perfect (not like a regular hotel room ya know)!

We just relaxed the rest of Friday night which was so nice to finally be back with Clay. Saturday morning (Valentine's Day) we took a walk around the town along the boardwalk and saw all the boats and looked out across part of Puget Sound which was absolutely beautiful!

Later on that morning we took a drive around the town and basically through the forest with all the towering trees (hello, it's Washington! ha ha) and grabbed some lunch. So Clay told me that whatever else we did we just had to be done before 2:00. So that time came and we took a walk down the road and we walked up to this place called Jax Salon. We got in there, Clay checked in and this lady brought us champagne glasses with Sparkling Cider. Clay surprised me with an afternoon at the SPA!!!

We both started out with pedicures, had a dish with strawberries and chocolates, and got the best foot scrub and massage! After that, we got to take a hot steam shower. The shower head was like 12'' in diameter and there was steam coming out of a hole in the wall! It was just amazing :) Below is just an example that I found on the internet - Clay and I want to get ourselves one for this next Christmas!

We then got to get into those awesome white robes and white, soft slippers and head off to the massage room. Clay wasn't so sure about this part but I assured him he wouldn't look back after getting one and he'd look forward to getting another one! It was an hour massage with hot rocks and hot towels - SPECTACULAR! So that pretty much ended our spa time but it was definitely well spent and was the best Valentine's present! Kudos Clay :) Later that night we went to an Italian Restaurant which was pretty good and enjoyed the night out. Sunday we checked out of our place and headed off to Clay's church. Boy, was it ever good to be at church with Clay - it's been hard to go to church each time without Clay and then see all these couples. I met Clay's housemates when we got back from church and just chilled the rest of the Sunday afternoon.

Monday, Clay first took me to the military base that he works on, Fort Lewis, and we drove around seeing where he worked, etc. It was neat to know earlier that my mom first moved there on the base when she first came to America from Germany and her sister was born in the old hospital there that you see above. Below is the building that Clay works in!

Later that morning we headed off to Seattle and walked around probably like 10 miles - at least it sure seemed like that!

We parked right by Pikes Place and walked around there and then down on the boardwalk along all the piers. We went to all the big department stores and decided to check the Space Needle out. Well, it ended up being more pricey than what we had thought it was, so we figured that we'd skip out on it since it's kind of like the ride at Sea World that takes you up to the top to overlook the park.

Anyway, well we really had nothing else to do since we hadn't made plans so we headed off to the airport. It was the hardest to leave Clay behind me and go through security, but obviously it had to happen so off we split and now 7 more weeks until we see each other again! It still stinks not seeing him like it was when he first left, but we're both doing great in our internships and can't wait to be done and be back together! It's so crazy to think about the year ahead of us because we're graduating in July and who knows where we'll be by the end of the year! Here's to the year ahead . . . !

Love for the Small and Simple Things

So this was really random in some ways. I'll admit I'm a fan of David Archuleta and love his voice. I've really started to listen to this song of his called "To be with you" and it started to make more sense tonight. I was talking to a friend of mine this afternoon and she asked me how I knew it was right to marry Clay. After listening to this song, it seems to explain a lot of it and how I felt going through everything and getting all my answers, although they were small and simple, and not huge like I was looking for because it was such a huge decision. Who wouldn't expect a huge answer for a huge decision? Anyway, we were talking about the Temple and how amazing it is. So with this song too, I can't imagine not being sealed for eternity to Clay and I know that Heavenly Father answered all my prayers and blessed me with the best husband in the world for me. I am so grateful so I wanted to share my love for this song with all of you! I didn't know how to get the youtube video in a post so here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALOsa6nOCg0 Check it out!

Seattle Here I Come!

It's now been 2 weeks since Clay has left and fortunately I have been surviving! It does still stink that he's not here but we talk on the phone every night like we were dating again. ha ha I love it though because we really focus on each other and talk about everything! So we've been trying to find a time where I could come up to see him and it was basically Valentine's weekend that looked the best for me because I didn't have school that next Monday (President's Day I believe) and it was kind of a half mark of when he left to when I'd be up there to drive back with him. So I've been trying to find great flights and Southwest was the only 'cheap' one. I love Priceline naming your own price, but I wanted specific times so I could be with him as much as possible so yes, Southwest was the cheapest at $205. Well we decided to wait and see if it would get less but I was getting antsy. Anyway, I came home the other day and jumped on here to see what the prices were and surprise, surprise! Southwest had a special 3 day sale to Seattle!!! How crazy is that!? The tickets were 50% off so it ended up taking about $30 off though. Hmmm, I thought to myself that I should check Priceline ONE more time. I couldn't believe my eyes - they jumped down like $80! I quickly went through the process of about to buy them and it showed that there were only 3 more tickets at that price. Shoot, well we didn't have money in our account yet from Clay's paychecks so I transferred some from another one and quickly bought them! So it's official! I am going to Seattle for Valentine's Day weekend!!!!!! What a blessing it was to get those tickets at the price that I did - Heavenly Father must really want me to be with my husband to celebrate our birthdays, Valentine's Day, and kind of a late Anniversary romantic getaway :) Clay booked a few nights at a Bed and Breakfast place too so I'm super stoked about it all!!!

Clay just sent me this picture today of him at work - I believe it was his first day at work! He's such a hottie! But this is great Tacoma (technically Fort Lewis on the Military Base) with the overcast skies 24/7 basically. He says a good day for everyone there is when it's not raining - ha, not my idea of a good day! He's doing great though getting right into the swing of things. I'm so proud of him - he's such a hard worker!

On another note, I started teaching this week! I really don't have bad kids at all thank goodness! I have 4 Health classes, 1 swimming and 1 lifetime sports class! It's great though because I have all my classes for the first 3 periods and then lunch and my prep hour so I'm done by 12:08 every day!!! I think that's what makes this teaching so great! haha Just on a side note and totally random - I love listening to Pandora Radio on the internet (pandora.com for all you who don't know about it) and I just decided to add a Disney station to it. I'm such a nerd but I absolutely LOVE it! It has songs from Disney movies, shows on Disney channel, music from Disney stars and teen pop stars - yeah I admit to liking that type of music :) You should check it out!!! Anyway, I'll keep ya updated on my stories :) But until then . . . TTFN!

Being Away From Your Best Friend . . .

This will probably be the hardest thing I have done in my life so far. Clay ended up getting a GREAT internship - only it is in Fort Lewis, Washington. These last few days have been getting harder as I counted down when he would leave. The other night his brother, Tyler, called us up telling us he had some Utah Grizzlies Hockey tickets so we took 'em! We still had to run errands that night so we got to the game with like 12:00 left - not bummed. It was great just to be there. He didn't have to pay for the tickets so we didn't lose out on anything - it was just great to go with Clay and spend time with him and he could spend time with his brother which they have been all week long! I started student teaching this week and let me tell you my cooperating teachers wipes me out! She is fully of energy - almost too much for me! I'm fine in the morning but after classes and not even doing anything, I'm dead and she's still on full throttle. She is already helping me out greatly and I'm excited to teach Health. However, I found out what P.E. classes I will have - Lifetime Sports and . . . Swimming! Yeah, I haven't really been a swimmer in a pool since I was like 7 and here I have to teach now! WOW! Well it really won't be hard just challenging and time consuming. I'll start teaching in a week or so when the new semester begins. I'm glad that a friend of mine from back home is teaching Orchestra at the High School too so I'll at least be able to know someone and vent with her! haha But, today was the day that Clay left for Washington. It's already been quite hard, mostly last night. He's probably about settled in to his hotel room for a couple of days and hopefully he'll find an apartment this weekend for when he starts work on Monday. Luckily too he gets reimbursed for driving the 13 hours there and back here! It was weird coming home to no one, no roommate. I'm more worried for him because he knows no one there compared to me here I have friends and family all around me. This will be a great experience for both of us though and this internship will be great for him - it's a superb company and there's a better possibility of having a career with them now. Anyway, I'll try and keep you updated with student teaching or whatever fun things I do. Hopefully a Jazz game is in sight soon :) Hope all your new years have started out great!

2008 Comes To An End

I don't even know where to begin seeing how I haven't written since Thanksgiving! I'm not even going to go into much detail - so sorry, but I'll try and fill ya'll in with everything that's happened since then. Clay and I finally got through the Fall Semester with having gone to school all year long except the 8 week break. We got on Fast Track so we could both get done this coming July and can I tell you that it's exhausting to go to school that long! haha I was getting ready for student teaching in the winter semester in South Salt Lake and Clay was going to do his internship which I will talk about later but we rented our apartment for the winter semester and we'll be back in it for the summer! We spent Christmas with his family - we were supposed to go visit my family for Thanksgiving but everything fell through so we never got to see them and then we didn't want to have to travel to Burley, back to Rexburg, then to Utah right before we moved. Christmas was awesome though! Mamasita's side of the family has a dinner Christmas Eve and a gift exchange so that was fun. I got the best presents this year! haha I got a Magic Bullet that you see on TV that you just push down on the "blender" to chop everything - it's absolutely amazing! We also got a crock pot - finally! We never got one for our wedding, kinda weird because it seems like everyone gets one. Clay got me a scrapbooking program for the computer, I got an electric blanket/sheet! I love this because I am always cold! I also got a Deron Williams jersey - Go JAZZ! - and tickets for whenever I want (my bro in law has the hook ups :) It was great just being able to be with Clay and not have to worry about work or school. I obviously quit my job at ARTCO which was driving me crazy and Clay quit Sinclair which he had been there for like 3 years! Well we moved the Saturday after Christmas - it was quite a blizzard but we had everything packed so we still left. Clay's brother, Brandon and his family - Barbara and Leland flew in the night before and so we drug them to Utah with us to help move which we really appreciated. We had 2 trucks and 3 cars hauling everything! Luckily no one went off the road and we all got here safely. Wow, this is getting long. I may just make 2 posts! Well we got a great hook-up by my friend Kelsie Sterzer who had just done her student teaching in West Jordan and they were living beside her Aunt/Uncle's house (Brian's Aunt and Uncle) and they had a basement that they fixed up and let us rent it! Great price, great neighbors, great location (5 minutes from Taylorsville High School where I'm student teaching)! Couldn't have gotten better. We ended up going back to Rexburg for New Year's Eve and had a party at our Aunt Mel's which was a blast! Our friends Nicole and Nathan came and joined us too and we got to play Rummy - my latest favorite card game :) So this ends the year 2008! I can't believe that we have been married through a full year! We loved every minute of it and spending all the great holidays together. Clay is my best friend and it's always hard when you can't spend all the time with your best friend as you will have probably already read with the newer post above this one . . .

Breakfast at McDonald's

I got this in an e-mail from my friend Leisa and I can't help but share it with the rest of you. It touches my heart dearly and is in a sense a testimony of my love for my Savior Jesus Christ and the real test of why we are sent to earth to do God's work.

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree.

The last class I had to take was Sociology.

The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with.

Her last project of the term was called, 'Smile.'

The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.


I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake,
literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald's one crisp March morning.

It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son.

We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then
even my husband did.

I did not move an inch... an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved.

As I turned around I smelled a horrible 'dirty body' smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men.

As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was 'smiling'

His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance.

He said, 'Good day' as he counted the few coins he had been clutching.

The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation.

I held my tears as I stood there with them.

The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted.

He said, 'Coffee is all Miss' because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).

Then I really felt it - the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action.

I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray.

I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman's cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, 'Thank you.'

I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, 'I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope.'

I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, 'That is why God gave you to me, Honey, to give me hope..'

We held hands for a moment and at that time, we knew that only because of the Grace that we had been given were we able to give.

We are not church goers, but we are believers.

That day showed me the pure Light of God's sweet love.

I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand.

I turned in 'my project' and the instructor read it.

Then she looked up at me and said, 'Can I share this?'

I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class.

She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings and being part of God share this need to heal people and to be healed.

In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald's, my son,the instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student.

I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn:

UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE.

I know that I am a Daughter of God. And so it is the same with every individual that has ever or will come to this earth to receive a body of flesh - we are all sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. As such, it is our responsibility to treat all just as that - our brothers and sisters. I have struggled to do so but this simple story has taught me so much. Especially in this time of season I hope that I can be more giving to those that I love and those that I don't "know" because I have met all my brothers and sisters in the previous life and I hope that we can all return to our Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ in the next life. I know it will make more sense to me when I have my own family someday that I want all my children to return to our Heavenly Father and live for eternity together. We all need to help each other out to return our our Father because He loves us unconditionally - we will all make mistakes, some small, some great, but we can be forgiven through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. He died for us that we can repent and be cleansed so that we can show ourselves unto our Father as a clean spirit and being. I know this to be true, for I have felt of the truth through the Holy Ghost and can testify of the great love and power of our Heavenly Father. Come unto Him. I am so grateful for this time of year to reflect on our Savior's birth and the perfect human example He is that has ever come on this earth or ever will. Let us all remember the real meaning of Christmas :) Merry Christmas to all!!!