Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving break was all family and homework and Netflix and turkey and pies and taking little ones to the park.

And we hit 7 months of marriage! That's love y'all.

Friends Thanksgiving 2.0

I love my friends. And I love food. And so when Thanksgiving rolls around, combining the two just seems like the right thing to do.
Soooooo this past Sunday, for the second year in a row, we invited our friends to bring a dish to share and we had our own little pre-Thanksgiving feast and enjoyed each other's company.

Tyler invited friends from his mission and I invited my good friends. Obviously I enjoy both groups, so it was a lot of fun to bring those two worlds together to enjoy them all at once and see them enjoying each other. There were good feelings and good food and it left my heart warm. To me it was just a reassurance of what wonderful people our friends are and how blessed we are to have those relationships. I definitely have a lot to be thankful for.

Brett is kinda shy.

 

Side note: I'm really proud of myself for neither burning nor undercooking my first Thanksgiving turkey. I'm no Martha Stewart, but we'll put that one down as a win anyway.

This weekend

A Saturday of studying, paper-writing and wedding-ing.
A Sunday spent corralling 8/9 year olds while trying to teach them about the Word of Wisdom.
Baking 2 loaves of chocolate chip pumpkin bread with neither of them looking good but both of them tasting great.
Practicing and pep-talking for a Monday morning job interview.

And also,
did I mention SHE'S HOME?!?!?!

Thankful Month

Lately I've been feeling ever so grateful. And not just because it's November and Thanksgiving is coming up. I actually forgot it was November until just now. Anyway.

You know, as much as people joke about Provo being boring and so... "Happy Valley," it is really a great place. I appreciate it much more now that I'm not constantly bombarded by the dating culture. But I love living here. I know I am really going to miss it someday when Tyler and I finally get out and about in the world. I love the cute little houses and how close we are to the mountains. I love having all four seasons. I love how many outdoorsy things there are to do. I love that it's a city but it's not a big city with crazy traffic and lots of shoppers like most college towns. I love the restaurants. I mean you gotta admit, it's a pretty good selection.

And you know what else I'm grateful for? The free time I have. Yeah, I'm super busy and nights and weekends with Ty are precious commodities, but I know that we are only going to get busier and we will look back on the simplicity of this season of our lives fondly and even longingly. We have the things we need, we have time to enjoy each other, we are not yet under the stress of paying lots of bills and taking care of children and dealing with real life issues. We're just students and all we have to worry about is getting good grades and making enough money to stay alive. I like that.

I'm grateful we live so close to a temple (soon two temples!). Honestly there are probably 10 temples within an hour drive of me. What a blessing that is that I can drive 5 minutes and attend a session. That is a lot smaller time commitment than it will be if we ever move anywhere outside of Utah where you have to drive two hours just to get to the temple, making it a 6 hour outing. I'm grateful for the convenience of it that I enjoy (for now).

I've just been seeing snapshots into what I hope our future will be, and it's pretty likely that we won't have the things we enjoy here in our little college town. I know it will be wonderful, but I also know that it's wonderful now. Life is good. Life is good.

Getting a Grip

I've been doing a lot of introspection lately. I think that's natural for periods of transition. I'm coming to a big turning point in my life--graduating college, leaving school (the only thing I've ever really known), finding a job that hopefully pays the bills and gives me a sense of fulfillment. And that has really made me examine myself. My weaknesses, my strengths, my interests. I'm realizing I don't know myself that well. (There's really no avoiding a realization like that when your interviewer asks you what your career and life goals are and you can't come up with anything better than "Uhm, ya know... I don't really know.") It always sounded crazy to me when people would take time off from real life to "find themselves." But now I'm starting to see the appeal.

Anyway, as I was looking into these things, I started to realize how little time I have spent exploring my interests. I've been so busy trying to keep up on schoolwork and find relevant job experience that will hopefully make me competitive in the workforce that it never really occurred to me to pursue the things I wanted to do. As it happens, it seems like those are the things that really set you apart in the workforce. Irony, amiright?

But what have I been doing with all my free time then, if not the things I enjoy? Oh, I'll tell you what I've been doing with my free time.

Facebook.

Yup. I bet if you added up all the times I would surf Facebook when I woke up, during car rides, while walking between classes, while procrastinating my homework, and before bed, I was probably spending up to 4 hours a day on Facebook.

You're gasping with disgust. I know. I am too. How do I live with myself? I don't know.

Honestly, I don't even know why I let the compulsion get so bad. Facebook is so boring. Roughly 85% of my drama since Freshman year of college has come from Facebook. It's a breeding ground for feelings of inadequacy and judgment and annoyance. It has really brought me nothing but trouble, and it has been stealing hours, days, weeks of my life away from me in the process.

So no more. Two days ago I decided to pull myself together.
For a month, I will not be getting on Facebook and Instagram. I will not be checking notifications. I will not be surfing my news feed. I will not be stalking anyone.

Instead, I made a list of my interests so that when I find myself with free time, I can use it to pursue those things that will make my life richer and fuller, and will help me to grow as a person.

I'll let you know how it goes.

The Blues

A few thoughts I've had since I applied for graduation this morning:

I'm graduating! I can't believe it! I'm going to put on a cap and gown and walk across a stage and shake somebody's hand and after that I will never have to go to school ever again.

I have to get a job.

OMG who's going to hire me?

I'm going to be a secretary for the rest of my life. I got a college degree so that I could be a secretary for the rest of my life.

I can't wait to work 40 hours a week and have the other 128 hours to do anything I want with.

OMG who's going to hire me for 40 hours a week??!

I better start looking for jobs.

What do I want to do? I don't even know.

I have no passion.

I am destined to be a secretary. A passionless secretary.

At least when I have nothing but being a secretary to worry about I will have plenty of time to start working out again.

 And then I cried.

Smooth Sailing

Wow. Tyler and I got home yesterday only to get slammed with the realization that school was starting the next day, so we spent our Labor Day putting our old textbooks up for sale, buying new ones, and scrambling to get ready for the coming semester.

Allow me to take a little breather and reminisce on our week of honeymoon bliss before we get completely swamped and overwhelmed with school and work.

 

 We spent the first 3 days on the cruise ship. To pass the time, we drank pina coladas, saw some cool shows, ate tons, soaked in the pools and hot tubs, went rock climbing, and took dance classes (I made Tyler learn the cha cha and the jive with me. I think we really impressed our instructors).



We weren't drunk.

On the fourth day of the cruise, we made our first stop: Roatan, Honduras. And all we wanted was a little beach time. We spent a few hours snorkeling and tanning (well, Tyler tanned.. I burned to a crisp).


#datbeach



I tried escargot! Not my fave



My lobster pose because I got burned in Honduras the day before



Our rainy day in Belize

On the fifth day, we went cave tubing and ziplining in Belize. We used a Belizian company called Butts Up, and they were THE BEST! Half the price of the cruise excursions and tons better. They gave everyone shots of cashew wine on the way to the caves.

 

("When you hear wine you probably thinkin the kind you swish around in your glass and smell it and savor it. This ain't that. You just drink it down. If you like it, good. If you don't, it's already over. Things you don't like in life you just learn to live with.")

 

We didn't have any cause we don't drink, but if we did...

They also fed us authentic chicken tamales afterward. No complaints here.

 

Before we had a chance to get on the bus back to the ship, it started POURING warm, tropical rain. We got caught in a rainforest downpour--it was a blast!

 

We spent day 6 in Cozumel, Mexico where we visited the Mayan ruins and learned a little bit about the symbolism in their structures. Pretty cool stuff.



The Mayan ruins + our tour guide Ivan



 

We stopped at a beach for a few minutes on the way back to the ship. This was as wide as I could open my eyes.. Clearly I am not used to sunlight.


Reeeal Mexican tacos. Plus real Mexican sprite with real sugar.

P.S. Today I started my last fall semester of college. Um, what??