2015 in Review

Well folks, Jordan and I have officially lived in Utah for a year now, and what a year it has been! It's always fun to look back at the end and capture all of the good, the bad and the ugly. So here goes nothing. (I'm going to organize it by month since my brain works better that way):

January

• Moved from Rexburg, Idaho to Salt Lake City, Utah
• Jordan started working two part-time jobs at Harmon's and National Life insurance company
• Had a second Christmas celebration with Chanel and Kathy
• I took and passed the NCLEX exam

February

• I received my official RN license
• Lots of job hunting for me
• Celebrated Valentine's Day with the Jameson family
• We received our first church calling as Primary 5 teachers

March

• I got a job at the University of Utah hospital
• Bought a new set of couches (our first big purchase together)
• Drove to Washington for the girls' spring break
• Celebrated Mom's and Grandma Shaftoe's and Grandpa Warren's birthdays
• Gave our first Sacrament meeting talks as a couple in church
• Jordan and I donated blood

April

• Celebrated our one year wedding anniversary
• Celebrated Easter with the Amparans/Webbs
• Bought our first car (2012 Hyundai Sonata)
• Celebrated Jenna's and Lydia's birthdays

May

• Jenna flew down for free to visit (since Dad got a new job at the airport)
• Attended a few of Kyle's baseball games here in Salt Lake
• Celebrated Sam's birthday
• Attended Beaux and Lauren's wedding
• Played the piano in Sacrament meeting for the first time in forever
• Watched "Avengers 2"
• Visited the cemeteries in Springville to find some Warren ancestors for Memorial Day
• Celebrated Mother's Day

June

• Shonna, Ronnie and Lydia flew down to visit
• Went to the zoo for the first time
• Played lots of games at Fat Cats
• Went to Boondocks for the first time
• Jenna and Sammie stayed the night on their way back to Washington from Hawaii
• Watched "Jurassic World"
• Celebrated Father's Day
• Jenna and Lydia flew down to visit

July

• Moved into a new apartment in Murray
• Jordan re-applied to LDSBC
• Celebrated 4th of July with Chanel and the Yenchiks
• Eric and Kyle stayed over for baseball games
• Alex came home from her mission, went to her final testimony meeting
• Drove to Washington for our annual summer trip
• Went to Silverwood with the family
• Took family pictures
• Attended the Columbia river temple with Shaftoe family
• Mom, Dad, Alex and Jenna flew down to visit
• Celebrated Mom and Dad's 23rd wedding anniversary
• Watched Sharknado 3
• Donated blood
• Ostermillers and Shonna stayed over for more baseball games
• Jordan registered for classes
• Alex flew down to get ready for college

August

• Ran my first 5k race
• Helped Chanel move into a new apartment
• Bought another car (2012 Nissan Xterra) since the 2004 Xterra was totaled in an accident
• Attended lots of wedding receptions
• Mom and Dad flew down to go through the Bountiful temple
• Signed a lease contract for another apartment
• Alex and mom flew down to set up for college
• Celebrated Grandma Jane's birthday

September

• Moved into a new apartment in Sugar House
• Mom and Dad flew down to help with the move
• Celebrated Dad's and Grandma Helen's and Shonna's and Chanel's and Jordan's birthdays
• Celebrated Grandma and Grandpa Warren's 50th wedding anniversary
• Bought a Sam's club membership
• Jordan started school at LDSBC
• Shonna flew down to celebrate her birthday
• Used my first sick call at work
• Jordan and I bought new glasses

October

• Family flew down for General Conference
• Attended General Conference at Temple Square
• Dad and Jordan attended the Priesthood session at Temple Square
• Ate at Red Robin to celebrate all Fall birthdays
• Jordan quit his job at National Life
• Attended our first BYU game as a couple
• Celebrated my 22nd birthday
• Attended Grandpa Lamar's funeral
• Carved pumpkins and watched scary movies
• Took a mini vacation to Park City-just the two of us
• Helped the Butlers move

November

• Celebrated Alex's and Ronnie's birthdays
• Jordan registered for next semester's classes
• Bought a leaf blower for the massive amount of leaves at our apartment
• Donated blood
• Lots of shopping at Old Navy
• Decorated for Christmas
• Watched "Mocking Jay Part 2"
• Celebrated Thanksgiving with the Evans and the Andersens/Stewarts
• Splurged and bought a 60 inch smart TV on Black Friday
• Attended our first Jazz game as a couple

December

• Saw the lights at Temple Square
• Jenna flew down to visit on her way to Hawaii
• Lots of Christmas shopping
• Used my second sick call for work
• Started snowing in Utah
• We received our second calling in our new ward as Primary 5 teachers
• Flew to Washington for Christmas
• Celebrated Christmas with the family and Grandma Shaftoe and Grandma and Grandpa Warren (while Alex was in Brazil)
• Ate at Shang Hai twice
• Participated in the annual Fast Food Frenzy
• Watched "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
• Had a pizza night with Cameron, Dallin and Connor
• Watched "Daddy's Home"
• Flew back to Utah with Jenna and Gma and Gpa Warren

And that about sums up our year! We love living here in Utah (especially with the mountains surrounding us) and we love visiting family as much as we can. We feel very blessed with everything God has given us this year, including stronger family relationships and friendships. With our two incomes we've been able to do a lot of things we've always wanted to and we can't wait to do more.

Life hasn't been a piece of cake during the last year. In fact, many days it's felt like a piece of crap more than anything. But we realize that the hard times won't last forever and that this is just a phase of life that will pass. Our marriage has grown stronger over the last twelve months and we've cherished every bit of time we've been able to spend together, especially considering how busy life has been lately. It's been fun having family fly down and we're so grateful to Mom and Dad for all of their hard work that allows that to happen.

As for now, we don't have too many big plans in the near future but we're excited to see what 2016 will bring!

Happy New Year from the Stewarts!

A Weekend Getaway

Jordan and I finally took a mini-vacation getaway, just the two of us, since our honeymoon. With him working and going to school and me working full-time at night, our schedules don't mix very well and we don't get to see each other very often (if we do get time together, it's usually spent sleeping). And with other stressful events taking place recently, it was much needed to just get away and not have to think about anything.

We decided to make our trip during Halloween weekend. Since we didn't have very much time to take off, we figured it would be best to not travel too far away so we could make the most of our time. With that in mind, we decided to spend the weekend in Park City. The last time we were there was for our honeymoon but the weather wasn't too great so we weren't able to do some of the things Jordan had planned. So we thought we would give it another try and reminisce about our honeymoon 18 months ago and make new memories as well.

Friday, October 30
Since Jordan had Friday off of work, we spend the majority of that day helping some friends move into their new apartment. After that, we supported another friend at his ward Halloween party and enjoyed participating in the kids' games haha. Once Jordan finished the homework that was due, we finished packing, ate dinner at Training Table (one of my favorites) and headed to Park City. Since we weren't spending too much money on gas and traveling, we figured we could splurge a little on the hotel. So we stayed at the Marriott Mountainside resort in Park City, right next to the Alpine slide and only a few minutes away from Main Street. It was gorgeous up there! The only compliant I have is that they were doing construction on the hotel so that was a little inconvenient. But other than that it was a great place to stay. We checked in around 11 pm and just relaxed, watching some TV until we fell asleep.

The donut game at the Halloween party

Our room!

I promise he's not really going to the bathroom. Just trying to be funny haha

Saturday, October 31 HALLOWEEN!
Well, we slept in that day until noon haha. Obviously we were exhausted. But it's not a vacation unless you catch up on some sleep, right? We got ready, watched some Beetlejuice while getting ready, then headed to Main Street for lunch. We decided to eat at a pizza place (Main Street Pizza and Pasta) that we had tried on the honeymoon that we really liked. But this time, it was way more crowded with families since it was a holiday and that was fun to see all the cute kids in costumes. We stuffed our faces with pizza then decided to try the Alpine slide since it was closed (due to weather) on our honeymoon. But just with our luck, we came a little too late in the season and it was closed again haha. Next time we're going to try it in the summer and maybe finally be successful. Since that idea didn't work out, we went back to main street to join in the Halloween fun. Apparently, Park City has a tradition of trick-or-treating on main street and there were a TON of people there. It was so crowded! There were both local families and visiting families walking up and down getting candy from the different stores and even though we don't have any kids yet, it was still fun to see all the costumes enjoy the festive environment. Once that was over and it started to get dark, we decided to eat dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. Our goal for the trip was to only eat at places we had never eaten before (aka, places we usually eat at in Salt Lake City). Then we enjoyed the beautiful and very warm outdoor hot tub area at the hotel. That was the best part of the hotel for sure. We also figured we should do something Halloween-y so we watched Halloween 5 which was on TV. The only reason I agreed to watch a scary movie was because 1) I had seen parts of those movies at work since they were constantly playing on TV and 2) Jordan is just too convincing and too cute to say no to. So yeah, we watched a scary movie and ate white cheddar popcorn on Halloween, da best.

Main Street Pizza & Pasta

Main Street Trick-or-Treating

Cutest little kid costumes we saw

Easiest costume ever haha

Love this dork

Best way to spend Halloween!

Sunday, November 1
Since that was Daylight Savings day, we ended up only sleeping in until 11 am haha. It's kind of rare that both of us to get to sleep in together so we definitely took advantage of that. After our typical routine of getting ready we found a cute little Mexican restaurant in Kimball junction for lunch (don't judge us for eating out on Sunday...technically we were on vacation and we didn't want to buy groceries for a 3 day trip so those were our justifications haha). After lunch, we spent a few hours at Tanger Outlets, trying to convince each other that it was okay to buy Columbia jackets that were on sale haha. We watched the last Twilight movie that was on TV (Jordan half slept/half watched haha) and then we ate dinner at another restaurant in Park City called Squatters. We enjoyed our last night in the hot tub and then watched more movies on TV. It was just fun being able to watch TV on a really soft and comfy king sized bed without having to worry about ANYTHING. And cuddle. Cuddling relieves a lot of stress. If you don't believe me try it out for yourself. It was a good Sunday.

Lots of delicious Mexican food

Day view from our room

Night view from the hot tub

Monday, November 2
We had to check out by 10 am so we actually got up early that day! Haha. We checked out, ate breakfast at Kneader's, did a little shopping on main street and bought a souvenir this time (since we didn't buy one on our honeymoon haha. It also helped that we had a little more money than we did back then). After a few hours we decided to head back home, cause ya know, it was such a long drive back. We got home, did some cleaning and laundry, ran a few errands and went over to Kallen's to catch up on the Walking Dead. And that officially ended our vacation.

An apple pie apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate

It was a great weekend. Even though we weren't very far away from home, it was still far enough to just focus on each other and spend some quality time as a couple without the worries of home. Plus, it was fun to go back to Park City and relive some of those new, exciting feelings we had as newlyweds. I think sometimes we get so caught up in the busyness of life and work and school and family and friends and work and school (did I say that already?) that we forget we're married and that it's okay to focus on each other every once in awhile. We see each other as financial partners or business partners or just people that live together and say hi as we pass. We forget that it's okay to flirt, to kiss and hold hands in public and have real, deep conversations with each other. I'm glad our little trip was able to add a little bit of that spark back into our marriage. I know, I know, we've only been married 19 months and I talk as if we've been married for 40 years. But I've learned in that short time that rough patches like these can happen to any relationship of any age.

Honestly I wish we could take short trips every weekend but that's not realistic or affordable haha. So until we're filthy rich and retired, we'll just make the most of the days we do have together and keep that little romantic spark alive.

P.S. If you've never been to Park City before--and you love to ski or snowboard or look at mountains--then I would highly recommend it!

One Year Older { and wiser too }

Here it is the middle of October and I just realized that I still haven't blogged about our one year anniversary! In fact, we just passed our 18 month mark on the 12th? Can you believe we've been married that long?! It's still weird for me to think about sometimes but I've loved every little experience we've shared together (both the good and the bad).

Marriage is absolutely wonderful.
In my opinion, it is so much better than just dating or being engaged, because even though we aren't with each other all the time, from now on we'll always have someone to come home to, or someone to sleep with and we won't ever have to wonder if or when we'll see each other again. Before getting married, I was told by many people not to expect things to get easier or better with marriage because marriage can be stressful. But to be honest, life has gotten SO much easier and SO much better since we've been married. Sure, we have tons of bills and we work all the time and we have disagreements and we get stressed out and we get sick. But the best part is that we get to do all of those "terrible" things together!

A pic from two and a half years ago, when we first started dating

*Disclaimer: I should probably explain for those who don't know (or don't remember) that I think marriage is better than just dating and being engaged because Jordan and I didn't really have a normal dating/engagement relationship. We lived in different states before we were married and only got to see each other about once a month. The 13 months we dated was way too stressful for me because I spent the whole time wondering when I would get to see him again and how long we would have to continue dating like that before we finally got married. So needless to say, I did not enjoy the whole dating process as much as I enjoy marriage now.

Just as we get to experience all the negative life obstacles together, there is thankfully an opposition to all things and we get to experience all the positive life blessings together as well. I don't have to

worry or feel guilty about doing something fun without him because I know we'll always be able to enjoy them with each other. Even something as little as going to church together makes me so happy because that is not something we were able to enjoy very much while we were dating.

Do you want to know how I knew I was ready to get married? Some people might say I was too young to get married at 20, but I couldn't disagree more. I knew I was ready when I couldn't picture anyone else by my side. I knew I was ready when I just wanted to be with him all the time, even if we weren't doing anything. I knew I was ready when I wanted to experience everything in life with him. I knew I was ready when I cared more about his happiness than I did my own. And here we are a year later, and I still feel the EXACT same way about this wonderful man. When you know, you know, and I didn't want to wait any longer than I had to to continue the rest of my life with him. I might have been too young to get married but hey, that just means more time with Jordan and that's perfectly fine with me.

One of my favorite wedding pictures

So to celebrate our big day, we decided to do some of our favorite things or try things we've never done but always wanted to do. For example, we started the day by sleeping in together (something that doesn't happen very much) and then enjoying a couple's massage and  boy was it wonderful. I'm so glad we finally made it happen because there is nothing more relaxing than a massage. We will definitely be doing that again. Then we went to Denny's for brunch after that even though we were so swollen we could hardly keep our eyes open haha. I'm telling ya, they worked us good and we never felt better. We exchanged gifts once we got home and they were perfect for each of us. When it comes to holidays and special occasions, Jordan and I both try to buy gifts that are sentimental or have some sort of meaning for the person. If anybody knows Jordan, they know he LOVES the Broncos haha. Ever since we started dating, he talked about how much he's always wanted a jersey. So of course, being the best wife ever, I knew it would be a perfect anniversary gift. And he, being the best husband ever, gave me the perfect gift as well. Knowing how much I love jewelry, he had a necklace personally designed just for me which included little pendants that each shared a special meaning in my life.
The palm tree for being born in Hawaii (he calls me his Hawaiian princess)
The RN medic symbol for being a nurse
The volleyball since it's my favorite sport to play
The infinity sign for our eternal commitment to each other
The "J" letter for both of our names
The musical note for how much I love to sing and play piano
and The "I Love You" sign which is pretty self explanatory
Like I said, it's perfect and I love it. Just like him.

After gifts, we took advantage of the 7 Eleven slurpee deal that was going on and enjoyed the afternoon at the park with the sun and the ducks. Then we went downtown to Temple Square and reminisced about our perfect day a year ago and took pictures to document our one-year mark (specifically for those of you who didn't think we would last this long- *cough* Kallen...). For dinner, I wanted to try something I'd never had so we ate a romatic italian dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was delish! We were too stuffed to do anything after that so we just went home and watched a movie together. It was a great day filled with little things that we love to do.

Gotta love Slurpees

Sugar House park

Couldn't have such a wonderful marriage without this wonderful man being involved

Old Spaghetti Factory

Eating the top tier of our wedding cake one year later. It tasted terrible haha

And that was that. A wonderful day to celebrate a wonderful year.

A person will never be perfectly ready for marriage; you could always save more money, always finish more schooling, always date more people, always spend more time thinking about it. There will always be "one more thing" to do before getting ready for marriage. Now obviously, you want to be at a certain level of preparation or readiness before making that big decision. But if a person lives their life always waiting to be a little more ready before doing something, they'll be waiting forever. I wasn't perfectly ready for marriage. Things weren't perfectly aligned or perfectly figured out before it happened. But I knew I was ready enough when those things didn't matter as much as my relationship with Jordan and I knew we could take on those challenges together. Now that we're married, we're still saving money, we're still going to school, we're still dating each other and we're still spending time thinking about big decisions. But now we're doing them together and it doesn't seem so bad. I just wanted to throw that in there in case there's anyone reading this who's feeling this way or felt this way before. Marriage is a wonderful choice and it takes little choices everyday to keep it wonderful. It's really that simple and it's really that worth it.

So here we are in 2015. As a couple we are one year older and much wiser too than we were before-

which means it's only gonna get better.

What is Love?

Where do I begin. I had actually written a post about a month ago talking about how most of our crummy situations have improved over the months and that even though some things are still hard, they had basically gotten better and life was moving on happily. Then I realized that that wasn't entirely true so I decided not to publish it on the blog. Yes, some things have improved but there have still been some really bad days. And while some relationships have gotten worse, others have been greatly strengthened throughout the mess.

Certain things that have happened in the last month have me thinking about the idea of love and reconsidering what it actually means. As a result, my thoughts and feelings on this emotion have changed and because of that I hope to improve how I will show love to others from here on out.

I used to think "love" was just a noun. But it's not. It's a verb. Love is an action word. As Jordan and I have been dealing with family issues during the last four months or so, we've realized this more than ever.

Until there is some sort of physical proof or physical action behind the words "I love you," that's exactly what they are: words. Words with very little meaning behind them. Words that are quickly cancelled out by the lack of action that should naturally accompany them.

Luckily, there are people in our life right now, both blood and non-related family, that have chosen to love and support us no matter what. And I'm not just saying that they "love" us because they agree with us or share the same feelings of shock and disappointment. I'm saying that they love us because they've proven their love through their words and actions. They've reasoned with us to see both sides of the story. They've cried with us when we were thrown out on our feet and had no idea what to do. They've listened to us when we just wanted to vent what we were thinking and feeling. And even though they aren't always physically available for us, they've shown us time and time again that they are mentally and emotionally available to help when we need it.

And THAT is love.

Love is not deciding when it's convenient or inconvenient to be there for someone.
Love is not saying whatever you want to criticize someone and then feeling okay about it because they're family or because you've been in the same situation.
Love is not sending a text message once a week and hoping everything is okay (even though it definitely isn't okay).
Love is not just being someone's friend on Facebook.

Love is putting someone else's happiness before your own.
Love is trying to see someone else's point of view by stepping into their shoes for even just a second.
Love is taking the time to talk to someone, to just be there for someone when they need it.
Love is choosing to be there for someone even when it's become "inconvenient" or when times are tough.
Love is simply calling someone to see how they're doing when you can't physically be there.
Love is recognizing when something is wrong and taking the time to figure out how to fix it or how to help.
Love is choosing to see the positive and the potential in others instead of focusing on the bad (even if the bad seems to be outweighing the good at the moment).
Love is unconditional and selfless.
Love is physical and emotional.
Love does not give up.
Love is not just a word. It's an action.

There are always two sides to a story and it takes two to work together to fix a problem. Although we may be angry and upset at the moment and even though the other people may not be willing to do their part to fix it right now, we have decided to keep the door open to possible improvement and healing in the future. Why? One word: love.

Any amount of love, whether great or small, is enough to not give up on relationships with people who may have hurt us. Although the trust factor is thin and fragile, we realize the importance of eternal family relationships and have decided to put that above our own feelings and frustrations.

Thankfully, Jordan and I have found that selfless, unconditional love within and towards each other. We know neither one of us is going to jump ship when the ship sinks a little. We're in this until the end no matter how bumpy the road is.

Before I finish, there is one thing I want to clarify: in writing this blog post I am not implying that Jordan and I are perfect in loving everyone the way we should. If it were true, I wouldn't even be writing this. But our minds have been opened and our hearts have been changed because of these recent events and the lessons we've learned (even though we learned them the hard way) have hopefully changed us for the better. Obviously there are certain areas we can all improve in, but I wanted to write this post to maybe help others see things differently as well.

To end, I am going to quote from my favorite TV show, The Office (I know right, who would have thought The Office could actually be serious?!). In the final season in the second to last episode, Dwight is asking Jim what he should do concerning a marriage proposal. And Jim gives the perfect response:

"I don't know what you want me to tell you man. All I know is that every time I've been faced with a tough decision, there's only one thing that outweighs any other concern. One thing that will make you give up on everything you thought you knew, every instinct, every rational calculation: Love. No matter what happens, you gotta forget about all the other stuff. You gotta forget about logic and fear and doubt. You just gotta do everything you can to get to the one [person] who's gonna make all of this worth it."

That's what love is.
How blessed I am to have a family and husband who love me and make all of this completely worth it.

Trouble in Paradise

Time for another update on the Stewart family since a lot of things have happened in the last month. And when I say a lot I'm not exaggerating.
July started off with a weekend visit from Jenna and Lydia who came to see a Sister missionary who had served in their ward in Washington. Jord and I were already a little stressed because we were busy trying to help his sister Chanel move out and find a new place to live after having been given a week's notice to leave. Nonetheless, we were still enjoying the weekend with my sisters and looking forward to our annual trip to Washington.

Then everything was turned upside down.

It was a typical Saturday night and Jordan was over at his mom's house helping Chanel move her stuff out. And that's when we received the news.

We were being "evicted."

I put that word in quotation marks since it was incredibly illegal and unreasonable. Without giving too much personal information away, let's just say our "landlord" (who isn't even technically the real landlord of the place) was kicking us out of our apartment because we were an inconvenience ruining his personal life. Of course, Jordan blatantly told him he had no right to kick us out and that what he was doing was illegal, but he threateningly replied that he would get a lawyer to fight it. Obviously we don't have the kind of money for a lawyer and he certainly wasn't worth the trouble so we decided to just leave. Technically, we could have stayed there as long as we wanted since nothing was ever given to us on paper, but you can understand why we wouldn't want to stay in such a tense and messed up situation. One of the things I was most sad about was leaving our ward. We were finally starting to make friends and we actually enjoyed teaching our cute crazy primary class. Sadly, we didn't get the chance to say goodbye without leaving but we knew that it was for the best that we left the ward to avoid unnecessary conflict.

We immediately started packing and looking for a new place to live, and by Wednesday we had found one. On Saturday, the fourth of July, we spent the day moving and thanks to the help of friends and ward members, we were completely moved out and moved in to our new place by the end of the day. Fortunately, we have wonderful friends who invited us over to celebrate the holiday with dinner and fireworks, and that relieved some of the stress and frustration of the week.

And from that day on, everything has been perfect and we've been living happily ever after. The end.

NOT.

Turns out, we don't really like the apartment we're living in. Jordan and I realize now that we rushed into choosing an apartment way too quickly and we moved in without having looked at it in person beforehand. It's not terrible, but it's certainly older and smaller than what we wanted. To add to that, our neighbors are a little frustrating and unsettling, considering that they like to drink while having a gun in their possession. Our apartment smells like smoke a lot of the time which does not make me very happy and it's also a basement apartment which we didn't know when we moved in because they had to switch our assigned apartment last minute. My dad has reminded me to be grateful that we found one that's decent and does its job, and trust me I am! But it just doesn't feel like home to us and we don't particularly look forward coming home to it. My philosophy is that if we're going to pay a significant amount of money to live somewhere, we should actually enjoy living there. That's rational, right?

So anyway, we started looking for a new new place to live haha and once again we were blessed to find one. But this time we learned from our mistakes and actually visited the apartment complex in person and looked inside the apartment before signing anything. Unfortunately, we have to wait 60 days before we can move out of our current apartment, but that gives us plenty of time to go through stuff again and pack. I am extremely excited to move to this new place because the kitchen is updated with new cabinets and stainless steel appliances, and the bathroom is actually nice and spacious. Those are the two main rooms I look at when choosing an apartment, is that weird? Either way, it will be so much nicer to live in a 2 bedroom place with its own washer and dryer, and be in a safer location with better perks and such. Shout out to Alex for suggesting the apartment complex since it's one she tracted at during her mission here in Salt Lake and thought it would be a good place for us to live haha.

But since one problem was resolved there has to be another one right?
About a week before leaving for Washington, Jordan got in a car accident. He had just dropped off Chanel at work (since ironically her car was at the shop) and driving down 13th east when a lady blew through a stop sign going full speed and smashed into the car, t-boning the whole passenger's side. Thankfully, Jordan was the only one in the car and he didn't suffer any physical consequences from the accidents. But our car certainly did and it had to be towed away. The lady's insurance paid for a rental car so we were able to take that one to Washington, but while we were gone we found out that unfortunately our car was totaled. So it was back to the drawing board and round two of car shopping. Obviously, this isn't an extremely terrible situation because we do have the Sonata and now we get to buy a new car, but it's still an inconvenience nonetheless and one more thing to worry about (we have to give the rental car back today). And that's our life right now.

Okay, now that I've complained enough, I guess it's time I list some of the blessings we've received from these unfortunate and stressful speed bumps in the road.

Our relationships with Jordan's sister and his dad and stepmom are much stronger and closer since we're all in the same boat, experiencing the same stress and drama. Even though some family relationships have been damaged, others have been strengthened and for that we are grateful.
We found a place to live in three days and were able to move out within a week of receiving the bad news.
We have great jobs that pay the bills and allow us to soon move into a nicer apartment.
We have the opportunity to move into a new ward and be our own family now.
We were still able to spend a fun week in Washington (I'll write about that in another post) with wonderful family who love and support us in any situation and allow us to vent and complain when we're about to explode.
We are learning how to budget better now that we have to spend money on bills more than we have before.
We have a great car that has been a saving grace while we look for another car.
We have amazing friends who are willing to help with anything and do so much more than we could ever ask for.
And probably most importantly, Jordan and I have grown stronger and closer as a couple as we've learned to rely more on each other and on our Heavenly Father. We've learned more about each other and realized how much we need each other to get through tough things. We've been humbled and blessed to recognize the little things that mean so much in difficult times.

Yes, there is something to be grateful for in every situation, something to be happy about and something to look forward to. And because there is an opposition in all things, it gives us hope to know that things will get better and we will find peace and comfort once again. There's a reason for everything and while we may not know what the reason is, we trust that God knows what he is doing, and that somehow, this will end up working out for the best.

So thank you to all of you who have prayed for us, cried with us, reminded us of the good things, supported us either in person or in spirit, loved us, helped us and have made our lives better just by being in it. We couldn't do it without you and we honestly mean that. Thank you for being part of the little things that make life worth living.

Sisters in Salt Lake

Welcome to the new and improved blog! I was getting a little tired of seeing the same design all the time so I decided to change it up a little and design something that fit me better. In case it wasn't ovious, I am pretty much obsessed with the color mint.Those of you who attended either one of our wedding receptions or even looked at our wedding pictures will recognize that. I will always stop and look at something in the store if it's mint... that's how much I like it. My family knows that they could buy me anything that's mint and I will love it guaranteed haha. I am also equally in love with the color gold, specifically gold glitter. And that is probably the girliest thing about me haha, I'll admit that. This can sometimes be a problem since Jordan absolutely hates glitter. But our deal is that if I buy something with glitter on it, the glitter has to be glued on really well so it won't come off at all. And I can live with that haha. So that is the reasoning behind the new blog design and a little more about me I guess. I hope you like it!

Everyone loved the mint dresses!

Example of mint and gold together

Besides the new design, the rest of this blog post will be about my sisters' visit last weekend.

The girls finished their last day of school on Wednesday, June 10 and as a little celebratory gift, Mom and Dad let Ronnie, Shonna and Lydia fly down to visit us! First off, can I just say that it is SO weird to me that Sammie is now a senior, Ronnie is a sophomore, Shonna will be finishing her last year of middle school and Lydia will be finishing her last year of elementary? Holy. Crap. Where has the time gone. Even though I'm excited for them to experience things like I did, it still makes me a little sad that they have to grow up too. I can't even imagine what it will be like with my own kids someday haha.

Stare-down at Taco Bell

Anyway, I left work Thursday morning and picked up the girls from the airport. It was so cute to see them ride down the escalator and then have Lydia run towards me as fast as she could! I love being an older sister just for that reason. We came home to yummy bagels for breakfast and said goodbye to Jordan as he left for work, then spent the morning lounging around and watching TV since we were all really tired. A few hours later we couldn't decide what to have for lunch, so we told Lydia to choose. Can you guess where we went? Yep, we went to Taco Bell, her absolute favorite haha. That girl cracks me up. After lunch, we lounged around some more and I did the girls' nails while we caught up on The Bachelorette. I love having girls around! (If you haven't started watching this season of The Bachelorette, I would highly recommend doing so because of how dramatic and entertaining it is haha. There's just something about guy drama that makes it worth watching...) Anyway, once Jordan got home from work we took the girls downtown to City Creek where we browsed through the Toy Store as well as the Disney Store (a favorite of ours. Does anyone else remember the Disney Store that used to be in the Kennewick mall? We were all so bummed when they got rid of it. That was our favorite thing about going to the mall.) Then we walked around Temple Square and played some basketball at Sugarhouse Park. For dinner, we absolutely had to introduce the girls to Training Table and they absolutely loved it haha. But honestly, who doesn't love cheese fries. Even Lydia ate most of her guacamole hamburger which should tell you something considering she doesn't eat much.
To finish off the night, we enjoyed some glow-in-the-dark mini golf at Fat Cats-which is conveniently located across the street from our house-and ate ice cream while watching The Office (I've taught them well.) And that was day 1 with the sisters!

                             

Day 2 started off with more Office while we all got dressed and ate breakfast and I helped with everyone's hair (have I mentioned I love having girls around?!).Once Jordan got home, we went to Arctic Circle for lunch-the girls love it and there isn't one near them in Washington-and headed to the zoo! We were especially excited since there were going to be REAL LIVE DINOSAURS there. Just kidding, we know they were fake. But it was still fun to walk around and see the animals as well as some robotic dinosaurs thrown in. Did you know that a giraffe's heart is the size of a basketball, in order to pump blood all the way up its long neck? Or that even though its arms are really short, a T-rex could still lift over 400 pounds back in the day? Needless to say, we had a great time at the zoo or "Zoorassic Park" as they call it haha. Since we were all a little worn out from the walking and the sun, we hung out at home for a bit after our zoo adventures and let Shonna play basketball on the PlayStation (she loves having an older brother with fun games like that). It's fun watching her play because she is so talented when it comes to anything that has to do with sports. For dinner we ordered two of those giant party pizza things from Pizza Hut that come in strips to dip in an assortment of delicious sauces. That's the best way I can describe it haha. And after watching School of Rock for a little bit, we headed back over to Fat Cats to play more arcade games. Lydia and Jordan played a game called Deadstorm Pirates that Lydia was obsessed with for some reason haha, Shonna of course had to play basketball and then Ronnie freaking killed it on Guitar Hero. I am more and more impressed each time I watch her play that game. She is so incredibly talented I don't understand how her fingers can fly across the guitar like that. Is that something weird to be proud of? I don't care she's awesome and I would challenge anyone to play against her. Totes jelly, Ronnie. Keep shredding it.
We finished the rest of School of Rock as we got ready for bed and then called it a night.

Arctic Circle!

Crying from laughing so hard because she hid the fries haha

Fat Cats arcade games

The next morning we packed everything up and then headed back to the airport after a fast two days of vacation. Since the girls are under 18, I was able to get a "Gate Pass" and walk with them all the way to the gate to help them meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Warren who were flying up to Washington for the weekend! The girls really loved seeing them again. We stood around and talked until all five of them boarded the plane and that was that. I went home, cleaned and slept.  Later that night, Jordan and I joined some friends at Boondocks to play mini golf and then stuffed our faces with ice cream at Leatherby's for date night. What a great weekend with family and friends.

All in all, I love the benefits of Dad's part-time job that allow me to see my sisters more than just three times a year. Even though Jordan and I can't fly for free, I still really enjoy having them visit and stay at our place. I love spoiling them when I can and I'm sure they love it too haha. Even though I didn't believe it growing up, there really are perks to being the oldest sister and I can't wait until I get to spoil them again!

Well that concludes today's blogpost folks. Thank you for your time and attention, please come again!