7 YEARS!?!?!?!

Yesterday Ryan and I had a lot of fun being productive. We ran to Bed, Bath, & Beyond to grab some items. Then we came home. Ryan did homework and I ran to the library, Walmart and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Then we both were home. Ryan needed a break from homework so we watched a wee bit of Newsies. (One of our favorites) Later we headed up to SoJo for Betty and Brett's wedding. It was a great wedding for us to attend. Ryan played lacrosse with Brett and I played lacrosse for Betty. I do believe we've found a good pair of married friends to chill with. Then we stopped by the Woodbury Parentals for some good conversations and food. ;)

Today, Sunday, was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I woke up happy but during the morning routine I was hit by a strong wave of grief for my mom. I just started crying and wanted to crawl back in bed. Ryan was so good. He held me and really laid on the comfort. Then he left me alone when I needed to just cry and calm down. It was nice to be able to be allowed to feel that grief and emotions. Ryan is a gift. He knows just what to do for me. While in the bed by myself crying I calmed down with the help of the Spirit and started focusing on all the good times with my Mom. All the crazy things that she would do.

xample:

- she was a prankster in young womens and she never lived down some of the things she did there. Once she tied fishing line to the dinner bell and then would secretly ring the thing from her cabin-bed late at night.

- another thing that I remember was once at Youth Conference up in Jackson Hole we were playing volleyball against the leaders. My very dignified Mother made a wonderful spike and then leaped up in the air with a jolly good scream of excitement. I was shocked to see my Mom acting like a teenager; especially when she won and let us all know we had lost.

- I thought of all the notes she would send me, the emails, the letters, the cards to let me know she loved me whenever I was far from home.

-I thought of her sitting at the Stats table at the lacrosse field and then later running up and down the field in her striped shirt with a no-nonsense whistle. Which she proudly claimed to 16 years of recess duty.

- I thought of her ability to handle the Cancer. She was always calm and courageous. There was always a smile close at hand.

- I thought of her when she was close to the end and the drugs had taken most of her brain away. She never got bitter or mean which is a common side-effect of the drugs. She would say the silliest things and when we'd laugh at her she'd smirk. It brought her joy to make us laugh at her crazy.

HOMEWORK: Please leave a comment about some of the memories you have of my Mom.

After a little bit of crying thanks to the Spirit I was able to laugh and find the joy in the journey. Just like my Mom would have wanted. I'm pleased to say that Ryan got a shock when he walked in to check on me only to find a pillow coming straight at his face! We have several decorative pillows and they usually end up as the ammo in our usual pillow fights. This pillow fight ended on a very sad note.

I threw our lovely EuroPillow at Ryan who successfully ducked out of harms way. The mirror was not gifted with the ability to move, took the full blunt force and came away shattered. We have been cursed with 7 years bad luck.

OOPS :-S

What a crazy week!?!?!

This week I have been utterly exhausted. I had the joy NO the privilege of conducting SEP’s or in other words Parent-Teacher Conferences. They start off right with nightmares days in advance and little sleep during. The actual conferences were only on Wednesday and Thursday nights but the nightmares were all week long.

I had a conference scheduled on Monday but they called and cancelled so I totally lied to Ryan and surprised him at home with some good desserts as well as dinner. Unfortunately I forgot I had a ward-y coming over to explain my calling so we had our dinner interrupted but it was fine in the end we just reheated and started again.

Tuesday was uneventful. I did a lot of prep at school for conferences and then got home, made dinner and went to bed. Ryan was up all night doing homework. He put me to bed then worked until about midnight before coming back in. I was so out I don’t recall him coming back to bed. Around one my nightmares started and so I tossed and turned all night. Poor Ryan.

Wednesday I had a full day. Left apartment around 6:50am and returned about 8:30pm. FUN stuff. I got home and immediately crashed out in bed. Ryan was up till midnight again doing homework and the Tuesday night repeated itself including the nightmares.

Thursday was a half day of school(thank goodness) and so was conferences. I left the apartment around 6:50am and returned around 5:30pm. Once again I got home and I was out. I slept all afternoon and evening. No more nightmares!!!! Ryan finished his work and is all ready to go to Canada this week.

Friday I had the day off of school. I was really looking forward to our reverse roles. I stay in bed; Ryan gets up in the dark and heads out to school. Only to realize that my good husband doesn’t have class until noon so we both got up. We got up wonderfully late, got ready and then walked upstairs to the surprise of a lifetime….SNOW!!!! In beautiful big white flakes coming down silently. Ryan and I both stood there with our mouths wide open before we really registered that we needed more layers. I went and dropped Ryan off at school for his favorite Gender class. Around 1 I picked him up again and we headed to the Provo Temple to do a session.

I love the temple there is such a peace there. No matter how frustrated I am going in it all melts away whether I want it to or not as soon as I change out of my street clothes. Friday was a hard day. Friday was my Mom’s birthday. If she was alive she’d be turning 51. Birthdays are always so hard. It was wonderful to have my dear husband around willing to take on my crazy moods with so much patience.

After the temple we picked up Marie and met my Dad in American Fork for a birthday dinner. It was fun to get together and have some good conversations.

I am so grateful for all my wonderful family members; new and old. Ryan’s Mom was amazing. I don’t know how she knew about my Mom’s birthday but she called and left a sweet message letting me know she was aware of my needs that day. I am truly blessed.

Its a secret

My good husband won't let me post anything annoying in my facebook status like "my husband is the greatest" or "my hubby is amazing" but he hasn't banned me from doing in on the blog yet so shhhhh.

I HAVE to brag about my husband real quick.

He is amazingly aware of my needs even before I am. This week will be stressful to say the least. I have 2 days of SEP's (parent teacher conferences) which are always fun. I basically sit there while 30% of the parents will tell me how to do my job better in very rude language. 30% doesn't seem like a high number but if you factor in the rudeness factor it ups the annie. I come home from SEP's completely spent and down on myself. So thats gonna add to my stress factor.

The other thing coming up this week is my Mom's birthday. Her birthday is March 25 and birthdays are always hard. This will only be our second birthday without her.

I haven't honestly had time to look ahead and figure these things out. I'm kinda living day by day during the school year. Anyways last night Ryan turned to me as we were sitting on the couch each in our own world of homework and told me he wanted to really do something special for me. He wanted to just make my home life a safe-haven from my stressful week. I was touched but didn't know what to really say. He went on to explain that it wouldn't be big or expensive he just wanted to make sure he did all the small little things to help me with my stress. I was touched to say the least. I didn't really know exactly how much his loving service could do for me.

Today he gave me the best hair-play I have ever gotten. I have been addicted to having my hair played with since I was a little girl. My dad used to come in and play with my hair whenever I had a bad dream. (I soon discovered this and took complete advantage of it) Ryan didn't ask, or have to be told. He just did it. I could literally feel his love for me and how much he wanted to help. I melted! It brought tears to my eyes (cheesy I know but very true). I felt so relaxed and ready to go afterward. I felt like I could conquer the world with a smile no less!

Thank you Husband!

I love you more then Garfield loves Lasagna.

"I can fix that."

First off, Savanna doesn't know where the quote in the title is from. I do. Ha.

Second off, homemade egg n' cheese bagel sandwiches are way better than the Golden Arches'.

On with the blog! This week has been a semi-normal week. The beginning of the week was "normal and bore-ish" (which I'm assuming means boring), says my wife.

School is busy for the both of us. Whether teaching or learning, we come home exhausted, but still busy. Savanna has found time to decorate our apartment. She made a yarn wreath to go along with the yarn balls. She also bought some window panels to liven up our bedroom. It's really nice to be married. I remember on my mission, the only decorations elders would have on their walls would be gospel pictures or quotes, maps, and a white board. I thought I was living the life as a missionary. Well, little did I know, married life is exaltingly better. Our apartment is looking wonderful.

Savanna and I found a sister-restaurant to Cafe Rio, called Cafe Paesan. It's a delicious, fast, fresh Italian place. It's just like Rio, but more Paesan. For example, instead of shouting out, "FREE MEAL!" when a Cafe Rio addict gets 10 meals, Cafe Paesan rings a bell, and just like Pavlov's dogs, the workers start golf-clapping. It's fun. After Cafe Paesan, we went to Roberts to find a glue gun. A glue gun became a glue gun, six wood blocks of varying sizes, scrapbook paper, brown ink pad, sand paper, creme paint and glue-on flowers. Magic! But you know what, I didn't mind one bit. The little decoration that Savanna is going to craft is going to be beautiful.

As you may know, Savanna and I love lacrosse. We decided to support our cousin, who played in the Gathering of the Tribes (Beetdigger) high school lacrosse tournament. She did well and we enjoyed being with family. We watched some more games; our desire to play is getting stronger. If only we had time. Saturday night, after the games, we went to the dollar theater to see Tron: Legacy 3-D! What a sight to see! I forgot that my wife doesn't really like video games, so she got bored at times.

This coming week, we know, is going to have it's ups and downs. Savanna has SEPs (parent/teacher conferences) all week. I have to get ready for Canada. But we will find time to enjoy life's simple pleasures.

Ryan

A day in the life of an ant

Today has been so much fun. Ryan and I had a lovely relaxing morning. We woke up late (8am) took our time getting ready and had a nice cooked breakfast. (I'm so grateful my husband has introduced me to fried eggs YUM)

Here is my Hubby cutting the

cheese!

He doesn't mess around when frying eggs!

Around 10 we took off for Salt Lake so we could watch my amazing little sister play some sweet lacrosse. She did amazing. They played a mismatch of alumni and USU players since the team they were scheduled to play dropped out. My Dad brought his girlfriend Darla and my Grandparents showed up too.

The whole drive up today I worked on my yarn balls. Ryan shakes his head in confusion about this project but I am so excited for it. Late last night I w

as caught by the crafting bug. I found these really cute yarn balls that people had made and hung in their houses and on trees. Since I'm not allowed to hang anything I will put them in a cut

e dish for the table. It was so nice to work on something cute and fun again I've missed it.

After the game we all went to this hole in the wall diner called The Blue Plate. It is kinda a hipster place but it has darn good food. The old people were a bit wary of the place, posters of small indie bands and postcards decorated the walls, our waitress had several tattoos and body piercings, the environment is loud and chaotic, but the food won them all over quickly! It has the best sandwiches and fries around the Salt Lake Valley. They are simple but done right.

After lunch Ryan and I stopped by his parents casa for a quick hello before we drove back down to our humble apartment.

To entertain ourselves while waiting for food my dad gave us his best Presidential Smiles. Here are my favorites.

Ryan is currently crashed out. laying horizontally across the bed. Too bad he missed my wonderful wonderings about a day in the life of an ant.

I finished my yarn balls and they now sit proudly in a basket on the table. Looking very springy if I say so myself. After putting them in their arrangement I started to process of mopping the kitchen floor.

Our apartment has been run over with ants. They are all over the kitchen, in the bathroom, in the bedroom and in the dinning nook. We bought the ant killer and have been using in plentifully. So to mop I had to first sweep up several dead ants and a few ants who thought they had escaped the spray. As I swept I had to keep re-sweeping them into the dust pile since they would try desperately to crawl away. "I am an ant killer, I am the Hitler of ants" was a thought that came into my mind. I then entered a downward spiral on the innocence of these few ants who had worked so hard to stay alive over the past week. It was horrible. I was thinking thoughts like "what would their mother say?" "what if they have little ones to take care of." I solemnly swept them up into the sweep catcher (what is the thing called where you transfer dust piles to garbage cans?) to throw them out with the trash. As I dumped the poor helpless, brave warrior ants into the trash can and comforting thought popped into my mind, setting my conscious free. There at the bottom of the trash can was a whole slew of food crumbs. These ants thought they were going away to their awful death but really they got to skip death and go straight for ant heaven. Ahhh good has been done this day!

Haricut :S

I got a hair cut..... I don't know how i feel about it. What say you?

I think I want to go back and get another 1/2 inch off the whole thing.

We're Married!

Hello World,

I feel as if I have been cut off from my normal life but then I realize that it’s not being cut off its just changed since I’ve gotten married. I’ve been looking at my friends’ blogs and it seems that once they get married they start to blog. I’ve been thinking about it for a while but after my first couple attempts to blog I’ve realized I’m not too good at it.

As the days went on(I was going to say months but it’s only been 1 month and about 24 days since I got married)I decided that it’ll be a good family journal of sorts to blog and thus I’m recommitting myself to the wonderful world of blog.

Let’s back up to the fun things; marriage and the honeymoon. You won’t get all the details because I just don’t have the time to document them in words but I’ll share them in as many pictures as I can.

Our wedding was beautiful. We were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple January 13 by my Grandpa Heywood. It was extra special since he is my mother’s dad and having him play such a central role really kept her spirit close. After a couple hours of FREEZING cold picture taking we had a lovely luncheon at the Lion House and then a wonderful reception at Ryan’s Stake Center.

The reception was so perfect. I know you’re all thinking how could a reception in a Stake Center really be perfect but thanks to my Aunt Stephanie and many others who stepped up to help it turned out beautiful. It did not feel like a gym at all. It was so much fun to be there and celebrate our new life together with all our family and friends.

For our honeymoon we flew out January 14^th at 7am to the wonderful world of Disney! We got to our hotel, dropped off our bags and jumped on the adventure without a care in the world. It was so much fun.

I will be completely honest and sentimental when I was a little girl about 10 or so I saw a newlywed couple and the girl was wearing the bridal Minnie ears. Right then and there I decided I would honeymoon in Disneyland with my very own Minnie Bride ears. My Dad then decided to crush my hopes by telling me the honeymoon was all the groom’s choice since it’s the only thing he gets a say in. When Ryan and I were talking plans he was so good to go with what I wanted wedding wise I didn’t have it in my heart to ask for Disneyland. I was so overjoyed when he decided to plan the honeymoon in Disneyland. Several times while we were in the park I’d be overcome with his love and thoughtfulness for me.

Being married is incredible. I was always told it would be a hard transition. It is definitely a transition (that’s for sure) but I’d never say it was hard. The blessings far outweigh any hardness. It is so nice to come home from work and have someone to talk to, someone who listens to my crazy stories, someone who makes me laugh and someone to cuddle with. I had the funny notion that once I got married my life would get simple again. I wouldn’t be planning a wedding I could focus on my teaching again but I’ve found that although I truly still love teaching I want to spend most of my time with my husband. Husbands are a wonderful time-suck; and I LOVE IT! ;)

Oh the joys!!!

*This was our first post before we deleted and recreated our blog*
After spending several days deciding we have in fact decided to start a blog. It seems like thats what married folk do and we are married!
After deciding to start a blog we then spent a day gathering ideas for our blog name. Then we spent about 40 minutes typing in then deleting then typing then deleting and typing before we ended up with our current title woodburys R us.
To make things more exciting we then spent another 30 minutes trying to make our blog cute (when I say we I really mean me while Ryan watched Napoleon Dynamite.
This is our first post. Deal! ;)

The best is hopefully yet to come.