Mark's Baby Pics

Here are a couple pictures of me as a baby and child.





More can be seen here.

My First Pumpkin

I carved my first pumpkin last night. No, really—my first pumpkin. I’ve never done one before. I’ve actually only been eye-witness to a very few pumpkin carvings in my life. Maybe—two? I actually can only think of one.

Anyway, so I carved my first pumpkin last night. Mark was shocked that it was my first one. He didn’t know that it was my first until I was well on my way of having it all gutted. I’ll be honest—it stinks. And, it’s pretty gross. But, I managed to gut it pretty well.

I wanted to make a monster, but not a “scary” monster. We just watched Monster’s, Inc. on Sunday, so Mike came to mind. I grabbed the DVD case and had a good look at him. Then I found circles of varying sizes so I could trace them: the almond extract lid, a spice bottle, a coaster, a plate, and a bowl. I traced the eye.

Mark came over to see what I was doing. I was all nervous because when I told him it was my first, he reacted like I was a freak, and he boasted that he’s done nigh onto 30 pumpkins himself. (Don’t worry, he didn’t say any of this in any degrading way—I was just ultra nervous being in the presence of someone so expert. She failed to mention that I told her all of my pumpkins suck because I am not very good and have no artistic ability. ) He said a couple things about how hard the mouth might be—so I got more nervous.

I got the face drawn on. Mark mentioned—a few times—that I should have drawn it on with a pencil. Alas—my lack of knowledge showing through again. I had drawn it on with a marker so I could see it. Oh well.

Then I started carving with Mark hovering over me. He kept shifting around me so he could see better. That made me nervous too.

Overall, I think I did a pretty fair job. Mark helped only when my hand got tired of sawing. He gave good advice. And I like it—I like my pumpkin.

(Mark was very concerned with the marker lines, so he insisted he clean them off. I taught him a trick I’ve learned somewhere along the way. I learned it about whiteboards and figured it might work with pumpkins too: color over the marker with a whiteboard marker and then erase both. It did indeed work and Mark was so impressed.)

My Dream Man

Our ward meets at 9:00 am. Mark's first meeting is at 6:30 am. We pray together every morning--even on Sunday mornings.

Yesterday morning, my dream man woke me up to say goodbye to me. He was tall, broad, smelled delicious, was clean-shaven, was wearing a white shirt and tie, and was all glowy. [swoon]

We prayed together. He held my hand for a few seconds, tucked me back in bed, and then left my dark bedroom.

I am so blessed. :-D

Five Month Anniversary

I just want to give a shout out to my best man: Mark.

I LOVE YOU! Happy Five Month Anniversary!!!!!!!

The Mortuary

Call me crazy, but I think going to a mortuary for an October Young Women's activity is one of the coolest things ever.

When I was in YW, one year we did a YW/YM activity and went to Price to the mortuary there. We had a tour of the facilities, including the room with the big shiny table where they embalm bodies. Then we talked about the plan of salvation.

In my new ward, I am one of the YW leaders. I was sooooooo excited when they asked for ideas because I wanted to try and do something similar to my experience. After making the right connections, we got our date and time set up to go tour a local mortuary: Valley View Funeral Home last night.

Our YW are few in numbers and in activity. Last night, we only had half of our usual count--only three girls came. There were three of us leaders and our bishopric leader (my hubby). There was a grand total of seven of us. (I had told them probably 10-12 would come, I was off.)

We had two "tour guides." One was a licensed funeral home director/mortician (a bishop in another ward). I'm not sure what the other one was (one of our high councilmen). We were there for almost 2.5 hours. It was really, really cool.

We talked about viewings, makeup, caskets, urns, cremation, hair, clothes, burial plots, hearses, body bags, costs, time, laws, etc. We asked lots of questions and had all of them answered. And, we also talked about how death is just part of the plan of salvation.

It turned out to be less of a spiritual talk than I had originally thought it might be--because when I went as a young woman, we didn't get to see as much and we didn't have as much of an opportunity to ask questions. I would like to talk more about death, though, and about the Plan. But, honestly, it was such a great experience for me. I'm really glad the three girls came that did come. And, I hope they learned something that will one day help them cope with losses in their own lives.

In the past year

So, today is 1 year since I left American Samoa. When I left American Samoa it was 85 degrees. When I landed in Salt Lake, it was 35 degrees. I am amazed at how my life has changed since I left.

This is what has happened in the past year...I...

1. Started a job with Jolley & Jolley as a divorce attorney.
2. Got a settlement of $1,250.00 from a cell phone company for illegally signing me up.
3. Met Andrea (on December 31, 2007).
4. Got engaged (on February 23, 2008).
5. Married Andrea (on May 24, 2008), the woman of my dreams.
6. Had my dream wedding reception.
7. Went on a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean
8. Gained 30 pounds.
9. Learned how to ride a motorcycle & took a road trip.
10. Bought a condo (well put my name on the title).
11. Lost money in the stock market.
12. Got ordained a High Priest.
13. Got put into my ward's Bishopric.

It has been the best year of my life!

Our Storage

Instead of lounging around Saturday like I had hoped we would do, we actually did a bit of work.

* We went grocery shopping.
* We bought new shelves for our storage room.
* We reorganized our storage room, using the new shelves (as you can see).
* We worked on our 72-hour kits.

That doesn't seem like a ton, but, in my opinion, I think it was a good Saturday's workload. Not too much to get annoyed or anything. And, we did things that are already having a positive impact on our household. I'm quite proud of the new shelves and of the 72-hour kits.

And now we have more shelves to actually put food on. It was kind of frustrating to try and cram food on a teeny tiny shelf that wasn't intended to handle food storage.

The Right Person at the Right Time at the Right Place

(Warning: Long Post)

That's the advice Mark's last mission president sent Mark home with.

I am soooooo glad that I waited for the right person to take me to the right place. I've thought a lot about that lately. I guess it's still weighing on my mind: how thankful I am to have Mark in my life.

A few years ago, I was in love with a guy named Richard. We talked a lot about getting married and raising a family. I went to Samoa to spend six weeks with him. I thought our future was going to be pretty great.

But....

But, his testimony was growing dimmer and dimmer. He got more and more lax about going to church. And his time was not spent in the service of the Lord, but in gratifying himself. I could also tell in his word and deed that his testimony was waning. It was disappointing.

One day, I finally took a good look at our relationship and realized his promises to get back to the temple to take me there were not going to happen. I realized he wasn't ready for me. Maybe he never would be - because he wasn't working toward that goal at all.

I broke up with him. It took me two years to get over him. He was my first love. He was a person who truly made me feel feminine and in many ways like I wanted to feel. I was excited and happy to have children with him. He treated me wonderfully. But there was no way I wanted to marry a man outside the temple, especially when I didn't know for sure if he ever would take me there.

Mark and I have talked a lot about us (Mark and me). We have talked about how good it felt (and continues to feel) that we were able to decide to get married and just call the temple up to set our sealing appointment. We talk about how great it is to go to the temple together now and be together in the Lord's house. We talk about how some day, our kids will be glad that we've tried so hard to set up the best life for them that we can.

The right person at the right time at the right place.

Mark has a friend right now who is engaged. She is so happy and in love. She is a returned missionary. Her fiance took the discussions--or some of them. But, now, he's decided that he doesn't really want anything to do with the church.

Mark is concerned about this friend, and I am too. Boy, do I know how exciting it is to be loved and to be talking about marriage. But, I also know how despairingly sad it is to know you won't be marrying that man in the temple, getting the promises of all eternity with him.

My recommendation: don't marry him. It would be miserable to be married to a man whom you love, and yet be forever uncertain about your union.

Her family is apparently supportive because they love her so much. But, they're all worried too.

Mark and I have talked about how marrying someone who doesn't want a thing to do with your religion is giving up a huge part of who you are. You won't be able to share everything fully with them. Your marriage will not be as gratifying. You're giving up on a dream you've most likely always had. You aren't fulfilling your full potential. It will most likely lead to conflict and confusion.

Anyway....

I also have another friend who got married outside the temple. But, she and her husband continue to go to church and are looking forward, with happy hearts, to the day they can go to the temple together. She tells me about who she is going to invite. She tells me about promptings she receives about their future. She tells me about how she is so glad that she waited for the right person. And for her and her husband, it was the right time due to other circumstances. The right person at the right time. Together, they're going to go to the right place.

It's rather exciting. And I'm so happy for that day when it comes for her.

Last Thursday at Young Women, I bore my testimony to the girls about this. In Mormonland, Mark and I were both older than most when we got married. But, looking back at our lives, we wouldn't have changed it. We married the right person at the right time at the right place. And both of us are so incredibly happy and satisfied that we did.