Some of you know that we've been looking in to buying a town house in Spanish Fork. We really love it and are saying our prayers and crossing our fingers and toes that everything works out. The home is on short sale so there are some extra approvals that are required from the bank - which we're waiting to hear back from. I'm soo anxious to hear what they say. I ask Matthew two or three times day if he has heard anything - like he wouldn't tell me if he had. :)
I'd always thought that Spanish Fark as it seems to be called by the original locals - was super hick-ville - (not that theres anything wrong with that - I'm from Millville and Matthew's from Roosevelt and we turned out okay!) But I was pleasantly surprised when Matthew first took us out to look there. Its cute and cozy and everyone in the neighborhood around the town house seems super friendly! Anyone that I have talked to who lives there loves it. I love all the little stores up and down main street. I'm a sucker for antique shops, books stores and unique finds that seems to run ramped in little main street type shops. Its so irresistible and a place I'd be happy to call home! So - if you run out of things to pray about - feel free to include us and our little dream home! We will return the favor anytime! :)

I know its a little late for my Friday post, but if you know me I’m sure you know that I'm always running late so I’m not too concerned. But lets pretend that its Friday so I can post about how much I love my hubby and how awesome he is.
Matthew is so patient with my girly tendencies and is incredibly understanding, even when he doesn't really understand.
I'll just say that its been a trying Sunday. I'll somewhat explain. For the last year Matthew and I have been working as ordinance workers at the Provo Temple. We have loved it - loved it! Over the summer we took a leave because we both had classes on our assigned nights and though Matt still has a class Thursdays I began working again in August. Working at the temple has been a huge release for me amidst all the busyness of working full time, going to school, church callings and learning to be a wife. Along with Matthew working full time and then some, his classes, his calling and learning to deal with me learning to be a wife as well. :) Sighhh busy. Well, being able to work in the temple has really kept me going some weeks when I was sure there was nothing left to give. It was my "me" thing - you know that one thing you do for yourself that can cheer you up no matter what’s going on? - Yeah, that. Maybe your thing is scrapbooking, or decorating, running or updating your bog. Maybe its cooking or a new hair color. Everyone has something. (If you don’t I highly suggest you go out and find something - it feels so good!) I can't put into words how much I have loved the experience.
Anyway, today our bishop asked my permission for him to release me from my calling as a temple worker so that I could better fulfill my calling in our ward relief society presidency. It was so completely unexpected that I didn’t really process it until I was already out the interview door and on my way to Relief Society. Once it hit me that I was done theres no was to put it but that I just fell apart. Because of meetings, Matthew and I had driven to church separately and by the time I got home to see him I was a total wreck. I'm talking streaming tears and hiccups, snot and whimpering - needless to say I wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at, nor very easy to understand. I was finally able to collect myself enough to tell him what had happened. He was glad to hear that no one had died but was so perfect just to hold me and let me cry. I think every woman out there will attest to the power of someone just letting you cry and just listen you. No matter how silly it is. It makes a world of difference and I’m so so grateful that I have Matthew not only to be my knight in shining amour but also my comfy comforter. Although deep down inside I knew it would be fine, I just needed that time to be sad. Matthew always makes me feel like I am the most important person in the world when there is something bothering me. He drops everything to see that I'm taken care of and that I know that he is there for me. You cant buy love like that. He is amazing and the most perfect husband and friend I could possibly ask for.

Thanks babe for letting me wipe my nose on your shirt. I love you! :)

I don't know if anyone has looked outside today, but the last time I caught a glimpse of the outside world - it was pretty dark and gloomy out there. All is pretty quiet in our office and all the offices around and the silence as gotten a little bit eerie. I could definitely use a little pick me up and inspiration to brighten the day.
In thinking about it Matthew seems like the perfect place to start because he inspires me more than almost anything else and makes me so happy! So - here you have it. The first of my Friday "my husband rocks" posts. (yeah, I know its Monday, but if I don't start now I never will.)

My birthday was a little over a month ago (24 blah!) and for my big day Matthew got us tickets to see Keith Urban! The concert wasn't until this Wednesday so it has been something I've been looking forward to. Matthew was such an awesome sport letting me drag him there - I'm pretty sure the female/male ratio was 150/1! I LOVED it! We had a great time and it was so wonderful to be out with my hottie honey. We have been so busy lately between work and school and everything else, that we don't often get a free night to forget about everything and just have fun! This was a PERFECT birthday present! It meant the world to me that he would take time out of his busy schedule just to suffer through listening to my aussie county crush. THANK YOU BABE!

Also, Matthew saves me from stuff. Constantly. Take for example this bird. We returned home one night from a weekend in Roosevelt to find that this bird had flown through our swamp cooler into our house! I unsuspectingly wandered into the living room to put things away and suddenly there was something big and black (okay, medium and brown speckled) flapping and flying madly around our little kitchen! "AAAhhh!" I screamed and down the stairs came Matthew all ready to save his sorry damsel. Now we are bird free - but the sucker would probably still be living in our kitchen if I didn't have Matthew around to save me. I wont even mention the spiders. Okay I will. We get HUGE spiders in our little duplex. I'm not sure what kind the are but they are BIG - like comparative to the bird. and Matthew is extremely diligent at spraying for spiders and checking the house to make sure they aren't turning our pleasant home into a love shack. I have some serious fears of these nasty critters and knowing that Matthew is on duty makes me feel so much better.

All in all, my husband freaking rocks. I love him with all I've got and its gonna stay that way - always.

Something I look forward every summer is when Sarah and Paul come down to Provo to compete in the Special Olympic Summer Games! BYU hosts the Utah S.O. at their track field and its a chance for me to take most of the day off work and give some TLC time to my sibs! They are serious athletes! I was so impressed watching them race in the heat. They both won several metals for their track events and also in the softball throw. This is I'm so proud of these two! This year the games were at the end of May, so its been awhile, but I just loaded these to our computer and I just had to share how proud I am of them! Good job you guys!!!

Sooo I haven't updated our blog in half of forever... but I changed our background.. Maybe that counts for something? Well, despite our boring blog, we have been incredibly busy!
This last weekend was all out party, we went on our first camping trip up Spanish Fork Canyon - to a spot called Tucker. We got our first flat tire while we were there! Matthew did a awesome job at rescuing us, I was so impressed! After dinner we got rained out and finally decided to go home, but we had great time! Tin foil dinners and s'mores make any camping trip a happy one. I thought it was great, we got five or six hours of the mighty outdoors and still got to sleep in our own bed - perfect!
Saturday, Matthew was a stud and took me shopping in Park City! I think he just got tired of me standing in the closet every morning making grumbling noises when I realize that I STILL don't have anything to wear. lol... he is so patient! There we met up with Penne and Lane, who took us to the Leann Rhymes and the Utah Symphony Concert at Deer Valley Resort - amazing! I had only been to Park City once or twice before I met Matthew, so every time we go there I get so excited! It was such a beautiful night and perfect weather. It was SO fun to be there with Matthew's parents, I adore them! We took a picnic up and had dinner up on the hill. I couldn't have imagined a anything better than being curled up in blanket, listening to these amazing performers under the beautiful night!
Sunday we slacked all duties and went to Salt Lake to tour the Beehive House and wander Temple Square. We met some cute sister missionaries who were anxious to share all about the Beehive home. Before my family moved to Utah, we were here on vacation and toured the home, but I was just little, so it was like new for both Matthew and I. If you love antiques (which I certrainly do!) or are even just into the vintage fade -go and visit the Beehive House, its so beaultiful and the history of it only makes it better! I was tempted to heist everything and bring it all back to decorate our own place with, everything so was elegant and detailed, the restored pieces of furniture, lamps, books and drapes even down to the toys the children played with where really truly beautiful - everything was so beautiful! So many of the original decorations of the home took my breath away. The tour told a lot about the life style and personality of Brigham Young, and I was even more impressed with him when we left.
We also visited Gilgal Sculpture Gardens. Its tucked away on a little side street, and has some beautiful gardens. It was build in the 50's by a mason and is filled to brim with sculptures and stones engraved with scripture, poetry and some intriguing literature. It was so interesting, interesting being the key word. :) Salt Lake has so many hidden attraction you'll never see if you don't keep your eyes open...and drive around aimlessly!

I've been doing my best to keep Matthew well fed. When I was just cooking for myself, I thought I was pretty good that whipping up delightful dinners, but cooking for two has thrown me for a loop! Especially trying to compete with Matthew for Best Cook - He is amazing! My man has the Midas Touch when it comes to the kitchen - time and time again, he reaches into our refrigerator with one hand and to the stove with the other and magically creates something both beautiful AND delicious, when I was SURE we had nothing to eat. I'll never understand how he does it! But I'm grateful!

Out of fear of ruining dinner, I do very little experimenting while I cook. I mean really, ruining dinner is bad news bears! Not only have you wasted a lot of good food - but you still don't have anything to eat! Siiigh.

This weekend though, I forced myself out on a limb and did some ego-pumping up by creating my own bacon smothered chicken. :) Mmm... halved chicken breasts, stuffed with cheese and bacon, wraped in bacon strips. (precooked, and rubbed with brown sugar and pepper). Then baked them in cream of mushroom soup and served over white rice. YUM! I haven't been that proud of myself in a long time!

All in all - it was an amazing weekend! But how could it not be?.. We're newlyweds!

Weekends have never been better! I just cant get enough of those minutes between 5:00 pm Friday and 5:59 Monday morning! No one told me that once you are married the weekend turns into mini vacations every time! Conference was the perfect excuse to pull out the hid-a-bed, our notes books and pens and stay in our pajamas all weekend! Siiigh... Life can't get any better than this. :)

Conference was a good experience. As usual, I have a list of areas that I am set on improving in. I love our Prophet Thomas S. Monson with all my heart and soul and definitely have a secret old-lady crush on our LDS - silver fox President President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

I watched conference this time with a little different view in mind. In one of my classes, we were assigned to listen to a speech and write an evaluation on it. A girl in my class, who is not religious - and is not very fond of the LDS Church asked me what time our conference was showing. She commented that she had to watch some of it in order complete our evaluation assignment and was sure to mention that she wasn't happy about it. I have really come to like her over the semester, and I spent most of conference trying to think of things as if I were her. Obviously there were a lot of things that I wouldn't understand, every time the "great and spacious building" was mention, I had to smile to myself, I'm sure a lot of the typical "mormon" terms are pretty confusing to people not familiar with our beliefs. We may even sound nuts! But over all, even trying to put myself in the shoes of the other 6,756,823,885 people in the world, who believe in something else, or nothing at all, I was as I always am, so impressed with how in tune the brethren are to the needs of the day. They know (through divine inspiration), exactly what is needed. I believe that. The principles that were taught this weekend will not only help improve the lives of our church members, but even if their council is taken at face value, as if it were just advice from old men, they could really change the world if they were applied to the lives of the masses. Imagine, if six billion people were a little kinder to each other - judged each other less, gave to the poor a little more, had more hope, tried to be more educated, more honest, what if six billion people suddenly got more involved in their communities and more importantly, what if 6 billion people got just a little more involved in their families - imagine the difference it could make!

I know that the instruction we heard this weekend was more than just good advice - it was divine commandment. and I am SO proud and grateful that I belong to a church that promotes such goodness! Dang straight I'm proud!

It was mind opening experience though, to try to see our teaching through the eyes of someone with different beliefs. I remember growing up in Washington, being one of two LDS kids in my school, and how different things were - I have gotten pretty used to living in LDSville and I think it can be hard to remembered that there are others out there. :) I hope my classmate watched a talk that struck a good cord with her. I'll have to ask what she heard.. Maybe it will improve her view of the gospel or at least, like it did for me, open my mind up to the thoughts of others.