Adventures and Lessons of a new wife

WOW what a crazy couple of weeks!! Of course, crazy in a good way :)
So the wedding was AMAZING and everything just went so smoothly and on time-no complaints. I'm DYING to see the pics though-we should have those by next week-I'm basically chomping at the bit because it's such a whirlwind day that it's hard to keep it concrete in your mind and I know Brandee got some cool pics of things that we didn't get much of a chance to see being in an area greeting people for most of the night. I definitely decided that going to someone else's reception is SO much more fun than having one-you can look at everything, wander around, do what you want etc. But it was still way fun and we're looking forward to our open house in sugar land this weekend since it'll just be fun already being married and all-just show up and chat with people and get loads of presents 8)

So I will write an entry all on the honeymoon with pics and fun stories but I don't have the camera on me at the moment (currently in the library). So as far as our new apartment goes we are 75% there. We have all the furniture set up except the bedside table and a few things left to unpack or organize better, but we're soo close. Now's the fun stuff where we will start hanging up clocks and pictures and paintings that we have. Ok, so that makes us sound all ritzy when we only really have two paintings-one a beautiful print of the savior in a pretty frame from my mission president and the other a beautiful comissioned painting of fallen monarchs by william bliss baker that cody did for my birthday. It's still in the tube and we just need to get a nice frame but I'm SOOOO excited to have my own space and fill it with great books and art and just....sigh....anywho.

So some fun lessons that I've learned since becoming a married woman:

1. Don't forget that you put oven mits in what seems like an oven drawer when you're not sure it's really an oven drawer....yeah...it was a broiler tray...."Wow...our oven smells really smokey..like a campfire..." cody runs over and opens the "drawer" revealing the blackened smoking oven mits....."so I guess that wasn't a real drawer then..."
2. When you're told to call and put the utilities in your name before you move in-do it right away! I came home today and went to turn on the lights-nope, the fridge was dark-no dice, but not to worry-they'll have the lights back on before 7 p.m. at the latest (oh, that's 7 p.m. tomorrow) at least we still have gas so we can have a hot shower, haha. (thus we're in the library where there's internet and...light...) I guess it's time to invest in some candles 8)

I told Cody it's important that we make all these dumb mistakes now before we have kids so that when we have our kids they'll think we are all knowing and powerful and not realize what goofballs we really are, haha

p.s. we just went crazy at target and got every boardgame that we wanted to-I'm so excited!!!!

homeless

It's finally here, my final night in singles' housing. Now before I gush over the fact that I'll only have one roommate the rest of my life, let me say-I was VERY lucky and had great roommates all the way through. I mean, honestly if I didn't go ona mish and they hadn't gotten married I could have lived with them like that for a long time so it's prolly good for everyone that we had different things force us to progress. But I just can't wait to be able to have a home to my own-to know that when I come home no one is going to be there. We can plan what we want to do whenever we want to do it and not worry about if our apartments will be free, or have to do dishes when you know you only contributed a lil bit, or wonder who owns what and labeling things. I swear we prolly only ate half of the stuff we bought because it would be in the fridge forever and we would not remember what was ours or forget about it cause it was so filled/buried under stuff and then we find it all gross weeks later. Now we will know EXACTLY what food we have!!! That is so exciting to me 8)
and if something is in the bedroom I don't have to go get it for Cody, he can go get it etc. Anywho, all exciting things...and we'll have COMPLETE control over what our apartment looks like, smells like, etc. good, good stuff.

One Week Away...

I can hardly believe that one week from now I will be, well...hopefully sleeping since I'll have to get up SUPER early to get all ready before we head up to Salt Lake for the sealing.
Mom and Dad get in tommorrow and this weekend is just a matter of packing and moving out of Centennial on Monday. I'm so so excited. Really, everything is pretty much taken care of. Sure there are little things, but the actual sealing and luncheon is pretty much locked in.
We got our sign-in book today in the mail. It looks soooo good!
We went to Walmart and got an entertainment table...thing...for the tv, a bookcase, and a nightstand for a pretty good deal. Cody goes to pick up the mattresses and couch tomorrow with the help of his aunt sam and uncle corey-thanks guys! So now, all that is left is a dresser and a kitchen table and we are completely furnished. It's slowly coming together piece by piece and I'm so so excited for our future. As much as I love new transitions, I can't wait til we are in our routine and a well-adjusted married couple and used to the whole married life routine. It'll be an adventure with tons of laughs along the way-cody will gaurantee that ;) We were passing out programs at church and our high councilor came up to us and just said to me: you will never be bored...or something to that affect. I just smiled and said, I know.
It's crazy how you get used to not being around family, but then when they come around it's so exciting and familiar.
This will be an eventful week 8)

Where Love Resides

"Young lovers seek perfection.

Old lovers learn the art
of sewing shreds together
and of seeing beauty
in a multiplicity of patches."


I was thinking about love today, particularly love as depicted in movies. Some of my favorite love stories in movies are actually not romantic comedies. Sure they are cute and funny but not real enough for me...it seems if you only have the bright and happy scenes of life it cheapens the love story. Love, to me, isn't about everything being wonderful and rose-colored (though more often than not it is), but Love is about constancy throughout a huge variety of emotions and experiences, the ups and downs, and I think that it is most beautiful when felt and shown in the middle of your deepest lows.

When I was young, I used to watch movies longing to experience love like the characters portrayed. Now, i'm reminded of a scene from sleepless in seattle where rosie o'donnel's character is telling Meg Ryan that she doesn't want to be in love, but that she wants to be in love in a movie. I have come to learn that those are two very distinctly different things.

It's funny, but now I watch these same movies that used to make me wish for that kind of love, but now...now, I feel how hollow the love in movies is cause I have found the love of my life. He's not some cookie cutter actor spitting out perfectly edited lines to woo me. He's real, I'm real, and our love is real. Neither of us is perfect but both are willing to forgive each other of our weaknesses and to not only start out on this adventure together, but to finish it as well.

Now when I watch these movies it only makes me all the more excited for my own real love story. It's more magical than any hollywood execs can come up with- cause it's mine.

p.s. watch: How To Make an American Quilt 8)

Fun at the Senaquin Rodeo

So I didn't realize that they did something to make the broncos and the bulls buck like that. I just figured they didn't like to be ridden- they were untamed etc., but I was NOT aware that they put a belt really tightly around their unmentionables to get them to react that way. Instantly I found myself rooting for the horse: "yeah! buck him off! you tell him-he has no right to do that to you!"
...poor horsies...

Today's subject: muffins

Today's subject: muffins. Now, most likely many of you will have different reactions to his subject-most of them positive...unless you don't like muffins. Now earlier today it was ten and both me and cody were working on various things and hungry. Blamo-inspiration: I'll go get some muffins and milk. It sounded so good and I remembered those HUGE otis spunkmeyer muffins my mom would get-ya know the ones to which I'm referring-the big chocolate ones with chocolate chips in it...basically eating cake for breakfast and I've always loved them. So instantly my desire is set-have to get these muffins. So I offer to go and get them cause it will be real quick right? I'll just pop into smith's and get em', be back in 5......

Well, first of all can I just say-if you want anything that is not typical staple grocery store food: bread, milk, eggs, do NOT go to Smith's cause they will not have it. At least this has been my experience-I always go there cause it's closer secretly hoping they'll have what I need but am ALWAYS dissapointed and have to make the one minute longer trip to Macey's anyways-you'd think I would just learn already.

So anywho, I'm in Smith's and yet again-no dice. Oh they have muffins-bakery baked muffins but not the glory that is otis spunkmeyer muffins. No biggie, I'm used to Smith's dissapointing me so I'm off to Macey's. I can't find them there either...odd...so I ask someone and they point me in the direction of the bakery-instantly I know they don't know what i'm talking about cause these would not be in the store bakery. So I figure I'll cut my losses and just go to walmart cause that's where my mom always went for groceries growing up anyway-so they had to be there......I know, I need to just learn to let things go-it's hard for me, like i'm admitting defeat or something...darn my pride/stubbornness.

So I get to walmart and yet again....nowhere.....not in the bakery section, not in the bread area, not in the breakfast area.....not even in the snack area...nowhere.....so at this point i'm pretty livid-it's been building up for an hour now, I could actually feel my blood pressure rising. So I go and ask the first helper I can see and she gives me this blank stare......"have we always carried that?"......"well, all throughout my childhood...." She turns to a coworker and asks: "do you know where some otis muffins would be...." she didn't even know the name of them/hadn't even heard of them before (i thought they were a well known brand-apparently not).
Again they give me vague direction towards the bakery section-absolutely clueless.

So by this point I go back to the bread and debbie cake isle and there were muffins there...debbie cake muffins....off brand muffins.....gag me. So I got them, cause I couldn't come home empty handed-not after my hour of driving around looking for them. I was upset.
like I said, I really need to learn to be more flexible and move on when something I have my hopes set on doesn't work out....or....at least become more graceful at it. I'm going to have a new policy-I'll always just go to Macey's and if they don't have it, fine, I'll forget my desire and just go home-it is not worth all the gas I waste.

elder richards I hardly knew thee...

So it finally happened! the last of the Richards' clan to serve a mission, steve, entered the mtc today. He came intown Monday and stayed with our Richards' grandparents and then I woke up at the crack of dawn Tues morning and went up to Salt Lake to meet them for a session in the SLC temple. It was cool to be there and to hear grandma's different stories and to do some sealings for the dead which was especially cool to listen to the words etc. hopefully it will help me be able to pay attention/appreciate it all the more on my wedding day since it wont' be the first time I've heard it. Then after that we went over to murray to see our grandpa adams and mandy the crazy dog who sounds like a pig. Then it was on to buy some last minute supplies for steve. MAN did I get a headache from this day! We went out to a chinese buffet for dinner with code and then played some games with eric,heidi, nate, and andrea and got some frozen yogurt at spoon-it-up. It was a way fun night, but yeah-I just wasn't feeling very good.
After a good night's sleep I woke up feeling way better and after eating lunch at brick oven and a lot of nervous waiting around I took Steve to the mtc around one. I got a pic of him standing by his bags on the curb as seen below and watched him walk off with some elders to go learn the lay of the land. I won't lie, watching him walking away in the rear view mirror made my eyes misty for 2.5 seconds but I blame it on the dosage of hormones I'm taking every day.
I really am excited for him though-it'll be a great experience for him and I can't wait to hear about his different wacky adventures up in Washington.

All the Best Elder!



p.s. the old man directing us in said-wow, what a tall elder you've got..must be an older brother? ...no...(i didn't bother to tell him i'm 5 years older)
"oh, well he must not have let you get to the food, and that's why he's so big"

The Countdown continues...

19 days til I am an official married woman. The other day Cody was saying how he has to keep reminding himself that we're not married cause he'll forget and it just feels like we already are which I guess is a good sign 8)

I went and got 7 black photo frames to put on the tables at our reception today from the dollarstore-gotta love it. The only main things I have to check on at this point I guess is whether or not the Petersons have a way of playing music outside-like speakers or anything, if not I'll have to start researching other ways...would plugging in a boombox and sliding it under the treats table and blasting it be too tacky? haha, I don't really care as long as the music can be ever so slightly heard. That plus no rain and finding dishes/trays to use for the refreshment table and we will be good to go 8)

In other great and AMAZING news-we got our all-sports passes today and I'm sOOOOOOOO excited!!!! I mean, yeah classes are great and staying up studying in the library at all hours is fantastic, but nothing says college like the start of football season-the packed stadium, eventually-the nice weather and the start of fall....a great time of year-Rise and Shout!