Anniversary Trip

A few months ago, Brent and I made a list of the top 5 places we wanted to go for our 2nd anniversary. Brent then took the reigns and planned from there. He chose to take me to Asheville, North …

October Smashup

I don’t know where October went. I blinked and suddenly it is November. The tragic fact of October is that I had a great month and didn’t take a single picture to remember anything. However, as I am trying this electronic form of journaling for posterity, I am going to recount the events anyway.

1. Catch Me If You Can – Brent and I flew up to SLC to “catch” (ha ha) our last show of the 2014 season at the Hale Center Theatre. The show was super fun with tons of extravagant costume changes and chorus-filled dance numbers. Brent and I didn’t know what to expect but it was tremendously fun. I think it’s over now, but if it’s not and you happen to live in SLC, check it out.

2. Weekend Parent Retreat – Brent flew to Grand Island to play 27 holes of golf with his dad and watch the Nebraska game at a sports bar. The first part of his weekend sounds truly terrible to me, but at least he got some golf out of his system since he hasn’t been able to play much in Texas. I flew to Denver on Saturday and had the BEST day with my mom. Work has been tough, and there’s nothing that a mom cannot fix. This is the text from my mom after she dropped me off at the airport “so here’s what we accomplished we did brunch we took a drive and saw the fall foliage we were able to go to an outdoor fair we went clothes shopping for jewelry shopping we had a silly wild fries we had See’s chocolates” Translation = moms soothe all problems in life. The only picture I took on my phone in October was during clothes shopping. I always send a picture to Brent while shopping, so he can give me his opinion that way I don’t have to go back to the store and return the item (I don’t always trust my own clothing judgment). Ironically, his phone died, so I actually sent the pictures to his dad while they were golfing. This way I had three opinions on the outfits. Best of all, they all agreed on the same shirt. Hooray for technology and quick trips with moms.

Note: My cell phone camera is lame and I can only take selfies (the camera on the other side is broken)

3. Second Anniversary – Brent and I have survived two years of marriage. Woot. We actually couldn’t celebrate this week since Brent’s work schedule has required him to work extremely long hours. This year both my birthday and wedding anniversary fell on Monday, which is by far the most tragic day for celebratory events. At least we are going away for a fun anniversary trip this coming weekend.

4. Work Survival – When I lived in Cheyenne, one of my friends greatly disliked her job. I remember reading one of her blog posts which only contained the words “I love my job” about 40 times. She then commented that she hoped this would help her actually love her job. I’m not sure that I feel this negative about my job but I haven’t found sublime happiness either. Many variables have contributed the difficulty of the school year – a new district, new schools, a caseload involving students with abilities ranging from the language ability of a 3 month old to a 14 year old student who stutters, so much paperwork, different procedures from all other states, and different acronyms. I think I am finally out of survival mode (cross fingers). I have only cried once a week for about two weeks now which I consider a victory. I know it will get better but sometimes it’s hard to see the good in the midst of the trial.

5. It’s a Lemon- Brent and I may have bought a lemon of a house. We experienced the joys of a plumbing leak. It’s a good thing my mother taught me to clean baseboards or we may have never caught this leak. As I was cleaning the baseboards in our kitchen, I noticed some gunk kept on growing on our baseboards and that they felt spongy. I would wipe of the gunk, but invariably, it would return. Brent and I speculated that maybe it was termites from our termite incident of July, but the bug man said no. The plumber came, easily ripped away the baseboard, and diagnosed a broken pipe entering the slab. Hooray! Thankfully, I have a great work friend with connections in the area. She recommended her plumber, who fixed the leak for 1/3 of the cost of the first plumber. On top of that, our fridge fritzed out for a day; then our washer broke down after 3 weeks of procrastinating laundry. I’m not sure that I recommend home ownership after October.

5. Lord’s Blessings – I haven’t been the happiest person with whom to live for the past few months. Bless Brent. This week was particularly hard as I experienced some more unexpected heart ache. I read a talk by Elder Maxwell entitled “Plow in Hope.” Although I felt the spirit of peace, I still wanted to wallow in self-pity a little longer. It’s a good thing the Lord looks out for us and hears our prayers. On Thursday I had two doctors appointments to check in on some long-standing health concerns. At both visits, the doctors commented on how the progression and symptoms of my conditions were exceptionally good and even expressed surprise that I had been given a certain diagnosis. At that moment I realized that even though we don’t always get the blessing that we really want and think we need, the Lord takes care of us. He is constantly blessing us, but we need to open our eyes to see the blessings He sees fit to send.