This Little House

To anyone else, this is just a little house. 

It had its lawn mowed tonight. It smells a little like wildfire smoke from the fire up the canyon. If you walk inside, you will see a couple washing and folding laundry. The dishwasher has clean dishes...The garbage can has trash in it...The basement is full of boxes.

But to me, this is not just a little house. 

This is a Sacred Home. 

This is where I learned to serve....where I learned service is not easy....where I learned not all service is done with Christ-like love. Christ-Like service is a chosen path, a deliberate and patient service. 

This is where I learned how thin the veil is on earth...where I felt a room full of angels...where I watched anxiously for hours, waiting for mortality to slip into immortality...where I watched my hero's heart stop and breath cease. 

Today, this little home became a sacred home. Sacred love of children to parents. Sacred love of spouses. Sacred love of serving others in times of pain. Sacred in Spirit. 

This is an example of how a home can be as holy and sacred as a temple of God. 

It is a sacred little home.

1 WHOLE stinkin' Month of Alex

One Month of Alex

(I'm pretty sure I've never been able to keep up with something this long. I'm pretty proud of myself.)

I love my husband! So very much.

Most of you know that I wasn't over the moon for him when we were dating, or engaged, or even the morning of our wedding....but Heavenly Father knew he was the right man for me.

Most of you know that I am a bossy grouch, who deserves a bossy grouch...but Heavenly Father gave me a kind hearted, patient, and honorable man.

Most you you know that I am a goof ball, who needs to be kept in line...but Heavenly Father gave me someone to laugh alongside with.

Most of you know I am a cry-er, who needs a dose of slap-you-upside-the-head every once in a while....but Heavenly Father gave me a man who will literally wipe my tears on a daily basis.

I love my sweet husband. He is incredible. Thank you for sticking with me darling!

(Our Favorite Formal Wedding Day shot)

(Holy Cow! Our First Year of Marriage has REALLY aged us!)

Family Movie Night

1.M.of.A. #30

I love that Alex looks forward to Family Movie night at my parents' house every Sunday. He was a little resistant to the idea at first, but now he LOVES it! He takes his KoolAid and Pop Corn making role VERRRRY seriously. He delivers his sippy cup full of Koolaid to dad faithfully every week. I love that he puts forth so much effort to make Della feel important. I love that he has nicknames for Lauren and Emma. I love that he makes sure to hug everyone before he leaves. I love that he fits in so well.

Lagoon

1.M.of.A #29

I love that my husband and I were such old fuddy-duddies, that we spent the first hour in the park walking around the Pioneer Village and staring at coins and peacock butts. I love that we spent 10 minutes taking pictures of peacocks. I love that we dressed up in Western Clothing and spent and arm and a leg. I love that we got sick out of our minds on the first ride, and only did kiddie rides for the rest of the day. I love that we went home before dinner, and that was enough for us. I love that we pigged out on GIANT burgers after....and that we walked a handful of blocks away, just to buy chocolate.

Getting Away

1.M.of.A #28

I love that my hubby takes me away from all of the buggie and end-of-the-year stress, with a fancy hotel. Thanks sweetie!

Ok, so the buggies aren't gone.....yet

1.M.of.A #27

My husband knows I am mortified at the thought of these awful bugs. My husband knows I prefer safe/prepared, rather than sorry. My husband knows he might as well go out of his way to go the extra mile, because in the long run, I will go back and do the task again if it wasn't above and beyond the first time.

I love that my husband was willing to take apart the kitchen last night, so we can have the exterminators come today. I love that he took the time to concoct a plan of action, so I wouldn't have to. I love that he will stay around the house today, and talk with the exterminators personally, because he knows I have a million questions, and hate that I have to be at work and not at home.

You wanna do what?

1.M.of.A #26

I love that my husband supports me in the silly things I want to do. He is patient with me. He may roll his eyes, but I'm pretty sure there is love in that roll. ;)

Dishes

1.M.of.A #25

I love that my husband will do the dishes after dinner. He knows that I wash all of the day dishes and make dinner, and wash dinner stuff as I go....but there are always some left over. He let's me disappear and get going on my To Do List, which is where I really want to be.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

1.M.of.A #22

I love that my hubby takes such good care of me. He took Emma and I to see Captain America (Which we LOVVVVED!!!), but I developed my first ever migraine as we drove home. Not only did he help me shield away the light, and get up the stairs, but he also answered EVERY one of my questions when my curiosity about migraines was more apparent than the pain of my migraine.

1.M.of.A #23

I love how my husband and I work together to teach a Sunday School Lesson. It is such a blessing that we get to do that together. Not only do we get to study in depth together, we get to work on leadership and teaching skills together.

1.M.of.A #24

My cousin and his wife had a baby a week ago....and she is ADORABLE! We got to go love on her for over an hour yesterday! It was absolutely marvelous! I loved watching him reach over to slip his giant finger into her tiny hand. I loved handing her over and watching him figure out how to hold her. I love that he handed her back when she started to fuss, and I he let me feel like a woman who knew how to calm her. I love that he was the one to volunteer to feed her the bottle, and he did great! (Other than the first moment when he tipped the bottle down and splattered milk all over her face and hair.)

(This was us dating...in our classic Sunday spot: on the couch in the basement, watching a movie...aka taking a nap...with the sisters interrupting us ever 30 minutes to keep us from being too obnoxious of a couple.)

Buggies Be Gone

1.M.of.A #21

I love my husband because of all the hard work he puts in around our home. (Especially the nasty stuff.)

Today, for his day off, he spent the whole time cleaning and scrubbing the house, and perfecting the kitchen so I wouldn't be embarrassed when the managers came in today to tackle the beasty buggies. Then, when the managers came, he worked side by side with them, scrubbing all of the junk and nastiness that has accumulated between the oven and cupboards over the last 20 years. He braved the buggies because he loves me.

(If you were worried, the buggies are gone.....At least we hope so. We officially discovered what they were: Weevils. However we don't know where they came from, because they weren't near food and and none of the food in the house is infested.)

(This is our favorite place to be. We walk there every Sunday)

Video Game Cases

1.M.of.A #20

My husband loves video games. My husband loves me. I do not love video games. My husband loves me enough to play them when he is alone, or once every few months when he invites his brothers over to play.

For the first time since we were married, at my insistence, Alex finally bought himself a new game (a used game, so it was super cheap).

My husband loves movies. I love movies. I love organizing movies. He loves just having access to them....which means he has an oddball CD case with a few random movies, that I always beg to get containers for.

How do these tie together?

He also knows me enough to consciously pick a game, that came in a clear box, so we could use it to organize the movies we already have. (Yes, he made sure I knew how thoughtful he was too.)

Buggie Trash Diggers

1.M.of.A #19

My husband loves me because he will dig through the vacuum bag trash with me to find the bodies of the dead bugs from yesterday, so we can give them to the apartment managers, so they can take it to an exterminator.

YUP. He loves me. He had no desire to do it, but he helped anyways.

Buggie Panic Attack

1.M.of.A #18

Let it be known to all the world that I am a clean freak, and that I take great pride in my ability to clean and KEEP a clean house. (Bragging: I get compliments form my visitors on how clean my house is and how thorough I am at cleaning up after a meal.)

Sooooo, what happened last night ABSOLUTELY MORTIFIED me.

I was almost done prepping dinner, and was about to throw it in a pan to bake in the oven. I pulled out a dish, and there was a single slug/maggot looking thing in it! I pulled out the next 8x8 pan....another maggot! Then I pulled out my third 8x8 pan...and there were 3 mini maggot/slug things!!!!!

GROSS!!!!

*Here is the backstory....a month or 2 ago, when I got to school, I found a mini maggot/slug thing on my lunch bag at school. I thought I had brushed by a bush as I walked to school. The bug was no longer than a centimeter, and maybe a millimeter or 2 thick. Nothing to worry about. Then maybe 2 weeks later, I found one in my cupboard. I was rather perplexed as to how it got there...because I was still under the impression that it had come from outside. Another few weeks went by, and I found another 1 or 2. Ewwwww!!

I didn't think too much of it. I expressed my concern to Alex, but he didn't think it was a big deal. We didn't have any rotting food in the house, none of our dry ingredients had been contaminated or infested...so it must be a fluke.

Back to last night...
 After finding all the bugs in my baking pans, I started to pull everything out of that cupboard. The faster I pulled them out, the faster my heart rate went. Then I started into the drawers right above the cupboard....1 or 2 more mini bugs in each drawer! Then my breathing changed, and something came over me...

I became a woman with a mad mission of destroying her kitchen. I pulled out everything, and I mean EVERYTHING!!! Where were these nasty booger coming from?!?!? I called Alex in a panic told him I needed him home as soon as possible so I didn't explode or over exaggerate. I frantically searched the internet for an explanation, but nothing matched up.

When he got home, he found me in a whirling tizzy, the kitchen looking like a war zone, and me almost crying.

This is why I love my husband:
- He helped me clean it all up.
- He held me like a compression vest (something from my students that actually works on me too.)
- He helped me wash the bug covered pans.
- He personally composed an email to the managers so I wouldn't have to (and let me correct it so I didn't feel my cleanliness abilities were being attacked.)
- He put away the dinner fixings.
- He convinced me to change my clothes and come out to dinner with him.
- He took me to grab some dinner fixings, and then we parked at the Provo temple.
- Not to mention, this parking included a singing at the top of your lungs, and dance party.

I love my husband. He helped me forget the ugliness I had felt as I tore the kitchen apart. He helped me feel like it was clean enough to function. He made sure I was calm and content before I went to bed so I wouldn't have bad dreams.

Lunches

1.M.of.A #17

Have I mentioned that every morning my husband makes my lunch? We get the containers of left overs fixed up together every night, but he puts together all the snacks and other goodies while I get ready. I don't thing he knows how much of a lifesaver that is.

Milk Jugs and Mother's day

1.M.of.A #15

We went to the grocery store late Saturday night...and I sent Alex off for the milk. He came back with a jug that wasn't our normal color.

"What milk did you get? That's not 1%...."

"Well, first the price was 20 cents cheaper than the others, and then when I saw the date, I couldn't help it."

For those who don't know, when I was a kid, my sisters and I got a real kick out of finding the jugs that had important dates on them. We wanted to buy the milk that had our birthday, or Mom and Dad's anniversary, or a holiday on it. (Random, I know. But it was what we did.)

I think I shared this story with Alex once maybe twice in the last 4 years....AND I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT HE REMEMBERED!!!

(I guess I shouldn't be shocked, because when we were dating, he remembered allllllll kinds of random things I had mentioned in passing.)

1.M.of.A. #16

Today is Mother's Day, and Alex made sure to buy me a gift as the Mother of his Future Children. It may have been a favorite treat, but he still did something. He also made sure to explain that he would have gotten me something nicer, but he knew I would throw a stink about not being a mother yet and not needing THAT grand of a gift, so he went with simple.

LOVE THAT MAN!

Bonus Love

This is a Bonus Love Moment.
I couldn't keep it in.

Most of you know I was NOT the typical bride...I wasn't giddy, weepy, silly, or mush brained in love.
I was a bit too practical for my own good.

I missed out on some of the fun, because I wouldn't let myself be vulnerable. God said do something, so I followed his instructions.  No need to be girly or sappy.

It wasn't until after we were married that I REALLY started to love and adore my husband.

Just now, as I stood here doing the dishes (as in I am typing with bubbles on my fingers), a peppy love song came on about how their significant other was the air you breath and the soul you need....and I was swaying along, envisioning my husband, and TRULY echoing all of the mushy, lovey dovey sentiments.

I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

For the first time ever, I caught myself dreaming of him, singing about him, and being totally head over heels for him. 

Too bad it has taken a year of marriage for me to get to this point. ;)

Cinco de Mayo

1.M.of.A #14

Alex was kind enough to go to back-to-back school events this week. He did the field trip on Wednesday and the School Fiesta on Thursday.

He and I were stationed at the Maraca Craft Table. Oye. He was such a trooper.

And when I drooled over the Mexican corn, he handed me a $20. LOVE HIM. He stood in line with me the whole time, refusing my offer every time....good thing because when I finally tried it, I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. All that anticipation...and then I ended up faking my enjoyment.

I also love that he rolled his eyes and laughed at me when I finally confessed what it actually tasted like right before bed.

Sleeping In the Movie Theater

1.M.of.A #13

We went to the Dollar Theater last night...I fell asleep...twice.

I love that my hubby didn't get frustrated with me. He let me snuggle up and then filled me in after the fact. He never gets frustrated with me when I fall asleep. Love him!

Field Trips

1.M.of.A #12

I love that my husband took the day off from work to come on a field trip with me. He seemed to love it, and the kids were STOKED to have him there. I am thankful that he supports me in my career, and that he is willing to help with the things that are important to me.

Couldn't wait

1.M.of.A #11

Usually I wait until the day of to write why I love my husband. I work really hard to keep my goldfish brain remembering the topic I want....

I. COULD. NOT. WAIT.

I love my husband, because today he cussed.

wahhhh!!!!????!!!!!!

He CUSSED!

It was so cute!

He refuses to say anything of the like. I nudge him along, and goat him to say something naughty... He gets close sometimes, but then won't do it.

I, the wicked wife of the west, have the tendency to use "it" in stories, or repeat it in a quote. ... I might actually enjoy it a bit. (that is my ultimate wicked confession right there)

Today, he needed to explain a man who called, and there was only one word that would do the job. HE ACTUALLY SAID IT!

I was such a proud momma!

Love him!

Pretty Lady

1.M.of.A. # 9

I love that my husband always makes me feel beautiful. He makes sure to say it multiple times a day. And he makes sure I know he is sincere.

(At a football game, when we were dating...but it was the first time he ever actually flirted with me.)

1.M.of.A #10

I love when Alex hears the alarm go off in the morning, and then rolls over and holds me close. We do our own thing on each side of the bed all night long...but as soon as he knows I need to leave soon, he holds me close and makes sure I start my day off loved.

Snags

1.M.of.A #8

Silly Saturday: I love that my husband doesn't seem to mind too bad when I DON'T shave my legs. Thank heavens he just chuckles when my leg snags his as we go to bed. Thank heavens he doesn't make me feel bad for having a prickly day. Thank heavens he is a furry beast, and can handle being married to a furry beast.

Temple Blessings

1.M.of.A # 6

I love that my husband can take me to the temple. I love that we live close enough to walk to the new Provo City Center Temple. I love that we go across the street for frites at Bruges after every temple trip. I love that he humors me and lets me convince him to take a picture in front of the temple.

(Little did he know, I wanted the photo specifically for this Blog Post.0


1.M.of.A # 7

We are having our carpets cleaned today (I'm kinda stoked, because it shows how much our complex values cleanliness...which is totally my thing). Alex and I were up late last night with his brother...so we didn't have time to vacuum the floors and move the furniture before bed. 

This morning I had an early meeting, so Alex was kind and helped me get going in the morning. I fully anticipated him sitting in bed and watching a show while I showered. But when I got out, there was a funky sound coming from beyond the door. 

I opened the door, and found him, in his jamies, messy bed-hair, ear buds plugged into his iPad (watching his show), but vacuuming the whole apartment, picking up as he went.  I love that my husband will jump up and do things that he knows are on my to do list. I also love that he does a fantastic job of it (knowing and appreciating my standards for clean).

Yoga Pants

1.M.of.A #5

Yoga Pants.

Do you understand the magic of them?

(Watch this video....it explains it all)

I love my husband, because he knows how much I love yoga pants.

And he knows the look on my face, when he walks in the door, and see's my need for yoga pants. He kisses me sweetly, and then turns me around, about-face, and walks me to my room. He says one sentence.

"Put on your yoga pants sweetheart."

It is one of his most magical sentences.

Usually, as I exit our room, all yogo-panted-out, I run into him in the kitchen. Then he says his second sentence to me...

"What am I making you for dinner?"

See, they are magical pants.

How Much Do You Love Me?

1.M.of.A #4

I have the tendency to forget things, and to be a bit needy.

Alex has learned, that if I call out for him, and ask, "How much do you love me?" ...that he should just answer, "What do you need sweetheart?"

He is so good about being willing to help with whatever I ask...even when its absolutely silly (or as he would call it "ridiculous").

Thank you for rolling your eyes, smiling, and doing it anyways.

(Another Honeymoon pic...This time at the beach on Camano Island...where I fell in love with Washington.)

Nightmares

1.M.of.A #3

Most of you probably don't know that I have frequent nightmares. They vary exceedingly. Sometimes I wake up thrashing because snakes are biting my feet. Sometimes my dreams have so many finite details that I can't tell what is real life and what is dream. Quite frequently, those real life dreams are like the cartoons, where you wake up within your dream, within your dream...and you can't tell if you are actually awake or if you are awake in a dream.

Last night was a bad night. I "woke" up at 3 am frazzled, stressed, and confused about reality. I tossed and turned for half an hour, and then tried to sleep on the couch so I wouldn't disturb Alex, who had a final at 7am.

When his alarm went off, and I wasn't in the bed, he knew where to find me. Even hours later, I was still quivering and having a hard time getting my reality straight. He immediately and tenderly started to calm me down.  I love Alex because he does not get frustrated or fed up with me. He calms my nightmares like he has had practice doing it for a lifetime.

Sunday Lovin'

1.M.of.A #2

Today we had the same lesson in Elders Quorum and Relief Society....and we both thought to share the same thought about Forgiveness and Marital harmony....

Alex WILL NOT fight with me. He told me when we were dating that he wouldn't, and I didn't think we would actually make it through the first year of marriage with that statement still being true. We have not had a fight. Disagreement, yes, but never arguing. He is calm and patient. He knows when either he or I need time to cool down alone, and he knows what to say to help me see that I'm being unreasonable. He is incredible.

One Month of Alex

Alex insists that I don't ever blog anymore...aaaaaaand, he might be a little right, because I haven't posted in 6+ months.

(But with that in mind), he won't check this blog until I tell him to.

(Honeymoon in Washington)
I love this sweet man. So much. He tricked me into falling in love with him, and thank heavens he did. He surprises me every day with his love and adoration. I want to surprise him with mine.

April 23 marks one month until our 1 year anniversary...

...Every day for the next month I will post a reason why I love him.

If any of you (the three of you who read this) tell him, you will have me to deal with.

One Month of Alex
1.M.of.A #1
I love his cute little smile when he is pleased with me, or when he is happy to show me something.