Date Day

Sterling has had a TON TON TON of tests lately...which has greatly reduced our amount of time together. Thursday is one of his most free days, and his tests were all over...so when I got off work at 1:00, we went to the mall together. We weren't really buying anything, but it was so much fun to spend all afternoon with him!!! We spent an hour and a half at Quilted Bear. Crazy, I know. Initially we went in to see if they had any of the knitted stockings that I've fallen in love with. They didn't. But then Sterling noticed they had a whole corner of hot sauces. He spent FOREVER pouring over the labels. I even went and used the bathroom and came back and he was STILL reading them! (and yes, they have hot sauces 600x hotter than jabanero peppers....it says you have to dilute the sauce before using. Crazy.) It was funny too because later that night we were at marrieds committee and they fed us dinner (clam chowder, yum!) and Sterling turned to Eric (he lives in our apartment complex, is in our ward, and was on institute council last year, so we know Eric and Brittany really well) and said "We found the greatest thing at Quilted Bear today!!!!" and everyone just started laughing because, really, who gets that excited about Quilted Bear??? Haahaa. He actually bought some Dave's Insanity popcorn. Anyone's welcome to come and try it when he decides to pop it!

Then we went to the dollar theater and watched Toy Story 3, and can I just say, that movie is the best! I love it more than the other two! And I cried through the whole ending. Pathetic, I know. But hey, it was touching! Even better, now whenever Sterling flips through channels on the radio, he stops at the Spanish channel and says "I'm going into Buzz mode" and starts swinging his hips! Its the best. I love, love, love that man!

Then we went to Married's Committee and had a shortened lesson so we could all eat dinner! It was a fabulous day, and I'm so happy I got to see my hubby so much! Now....I should probably do something about the massive piles of scrapbooking paraphanelia and pictures all over our living room floor. Is it bad to just glue pictures to a plain-colored page so that you can have all your pictures from college and going to Chicago in order and stop worrying about it? Because really, I just want to do everything digitally from now on...but I still have these pictures to scrapbook, and I am so sick of them! That is all.

Marriage

I find it really annoying that every single time I compliment my husband in front of people they just smile and say "you're still newlyweds". It's not so annoying when its someone who actually knows us, but yesterday someone told me that at a dental office that I was subbing at, and she had never even met me until that day. I was saying that my husband is very, very, incredibly patient about everything and we were getting free massages and I said that if he was taught where my muscles are sore after a full day of hygiene, he would rub it for me at night. And they all just laughed at me. But they really didn't get it. Sterling wouldn't even care. He'd do it every night. Maybe some nights with less attentiveness than other nights, but its one of those things that wouldn't even bother him at all. Now, there's other things that he might not do for me, like pick up his socks(EVER!!! He leaves his socks EVERYWHERE, no joke, I found a dirty pair of his socks in our trunk once. How did they get there?) or any other number of things that don't need to be written down. Point of story-it just really bugs me, cause I hear that phrase ALL THE TIME. And aren't we supposed to be happily married? And is it so incredibly impossible to have a happy marriage after your supposed "newlywed" stage? Does it have to be something that is commented on so negatively? Can't they just say "That's so sweet that he would do that for you" or something like that?!?!?!?! Instead of acting like being happy is a one-time thing and will never happen again? And maybe we will do nice things for eachother less frequently when we've been married longer, but I'm sure we'll still do SOME nice things for each other. Bah humbug on everyone who shoots down happily married newlyweds.

Chocolate

Last night my hubby walked into the kitchen (following the smell of my beautiful loaf of banana bread) and started to laugh and said "I can tell you went shopping." "Why's that?" "Well, there's chocolate covered raisins on the counter, there's oreo's in the cupboard, and there's icecream in the freezer." Now, I ask you, why is that so hilarious? I think it shows that he had impeccable taste in a wife who really understands the necessities of life.

The night before last I made cheddar and ham soup---I always forget how much I love LOVE LOVE LO---VE that soup! I only made the recipe because usually I end up with excess amounts, and so we only had enough leftovers for one meal, and Sterling was very disappointed.

Cross your fingers everyone, because I subbed for an office today and I'm HOPING they want me to come back in January to cover a maternity leave. It would be 2 and a 1/2 days a week for eight weeks and that would just be really, really happy. I loved the office, loved the people, felt really comfortable, except for some reason I had a TERRIBLE time trying to figure out their xray machine. The dr. said that you can't just use the xray holder (like any other xray machine in the world) to direct it, you have to judge by the xray head. Which, yes, I assume we learned in school, but I have never had to use again because xrays are usually my easiest thing that I have no problem with...and you usually can use the xray holder. On bitewings I was fine. It was the PA's for full mouth series that I was having issues with. Luckily, the specific patient also needed a pano and so he told me my xrays were ok to keep, since he could see everything on the pano anyways. Sigh. Hopefully the dr understands that I would figure it out if I had to use it more and I'd be just fine!

Thats all folks. Wish me luck playing as the background music for a wedding tomorrow night!

Recent Happenings That I Have Been Too Lazy To Post Until Now...

This first picture was taken on my way to my mother's house, in Sardine Canyon. I was very disappointed in this canyon this fall, because it rained all week and got really cold all of a sudden, and so none of the leaves really changed colors, they just fell off. But I got a couple neat pictures.

This is what the sky looked like when I came out of the canyon. I pulled over and took pictures. It was amazing! These are the pumpkins that Sterling and I painted...and the pumpkin house and headstone. We had a lot of fun!This was one afternoon when Sterling wanted to put off homework for a bit, and we went a flew a kite. He flew the kite and played his guitar, I read my book and occasionally took pictures. But he is INCREDIBLY good-looking, especially here.Story of the collage: Sterling seemed very far away...so I got closer. Then he got camera-shy and tried to ignore me, when that didn 't work, he pouted, and when I took a picture of that, he smiled, hoping that would be enough. Then he started jamming out. Then he pretended nothing eveer happened. The end.This is the beginning of our "camping" party at Sterling's mom's house. (It was Fall Break this weekend). We were originally going to be at a cabin...but when that didn't work we decided to camp in the backyard (even though a tent was set up, we all ended up in beds, haahaa). This is everyone making tinfoil dinners. I think Jenny was trying to show off that she just got her braces off, but her tongue is kinda in the way!

This is all of us getting really excited to start the fire! (okay, mostly Jenny, but everyone really was excited)

Ethan was posing. As what, I'm not quite sure....haha!

I absolutely LOVE this picture of Cindy (mom) because she NEVER smiles big for the camera! You have to catch her off-guard!

Everyone warming up by the fire... We went to a pumpkin patch earlier in the evening, and everyone got to pick out a little pumpkin, they looked so cute on the mantle!!!

Jess took this picture for us, because she thought it was HILARIOUS that Sterling fell asleep while Jenny was trying to read him a story.

Grandma Ball was also reading stories!

This is a craft we did the next morning...mine looks a little shabby because some candy corn fell off on the drive home, but they were a lot of fun, even though we had a major homemade chicken noodle soup catastrophe mid-craft (not saying I was in charge or anything...)

The next night we stayed over at the Rasmussen household and Sterling stayed up with Wyatt and Tim until 4am playing the Wii. Sigh. The next morning Sterling did Chemistry homework while we went to the American West Heritage Center Fall Days. This is a man helping Emeline get the kernels off her corn cob.

Miriam made a corn husk doll, and I thought it turned out really pretty. Oh and that belly is Andrea's pregnant belly. Just so ya'all know.

This is Emeline's corn cob completely devoid of kernels. We tried to do that to Eli's, he got very upset. Later on, his kernels came in handy because he ate them. Haahaa.

This is Andrea's kids in a Model-T. I thought it was pretty nifty.

They gave train rides...it was awesome!

The only reason I have so many pictures to post is because Andrea had me take pictures for her of her kids...this is them riding in the caboose. Somewhat like a jail...which is why Andrea liked it so much! Haahaa After the jail, we put some kids in stocks...

We tried a corn maze, but we all were pretty tired and decided to cut through the corn and not follow the trail to get out. All in all, it was quite fun. Not quite as exciting as the first time I went there, but still fun to see the kids watch everything and get rides.

So, these have been our fall activities! Sorry you had to look at so many pictures!

Pic for Kayli

My sister decided it was post pics of your wedding day. Not that anyone is terribly interested in my wedding pictures, since it was only 8 months ago, and I still post pictures of it fairly reguarly. But here are some fun ones I've found since working on my wedding book in the last two days.

I don't know what I'm doing in this picture, but all I know is that if I'm leaning even a little bit, with no heels on...I am REALLY short next to my hubby! And I think its funny, because Marlowe looks so dead in the background. Oh, gotta love the line!This is another lovely picture of us standing in line, which I think is hilarious! Apparently, we weren't all too enthused at the moment about being there. Which is funny, because looking back it seemed to go by in such a blur! And I loved saying hi to everyone who walked through! Just not right then, apparently.
This is me and all of my stellar sisters, minus Kayli whom this post is for because she was far away in Switzerland. It's ok. Red's not her color.

This is me and all my stellar brothers. I don't know why the coloring is so bad...but this one I've touched up, and I promise...its a lot better than the older version! I feel especially short when I remember I'm wearing two inch heels in this picture.

That's all folks! Have a wonderful day!

My Honey

Once upon a time, my sister Kayli was engaged (or almost engaged?) and home for the holidays. While playing a card game, she was on the same team as dad and we had taken a break and I can't remember what she said but she referred to dad as "honey". We all laughed really hard for a long time. On Wednesday, I had flashbacks of this experience.

I had spent the morning canning applesauce with my mother and my little brother Ethan came upstairs for lunch. I was really excited about my applesauce so I said "HONEY! Look how good my applesauce looks!" Then I realized what I'd said, and Ethan had a little smile on his face, and mom was laughing. Hm. I think I call Sterling that. A lot.

Last night at the temple we saw the Hahn's, the family Sterling lived with before his mission, and it was super fun to see them. I love the mom, Melanie, she's always so interested in our lives and so happy for us, and tells us that we are so amazing. I love people like that.

Last night after the temple we went to Marrieds Committee at the institute (my favorite part of the week, mostly because I get to socialize with other young wives like myself) and a couple was asked to come up and role play an argument that they might have had. They sat down in chairs and then the husband got all choked up and said he was ruining the role play because he honestly couldn't remember what any of their arguments had been about, and that his wife was so sweet and that they always stayed in the same room and talked until they understood each other. It was the sweetest thing in my life. And I don't think it killed the role play at all.

My husband is the best man and husband in the whole entire universe of worlds. And he talked to me the whole drive to work today because I thought I was going to die on the freeway because it was raining so hard and hailing that I could barely see, and I was going 20 mph, and every truck that went past me sent water over my entire car. It was more than a little nerve wracking. I'm done with the rain. Really, really.

Holding Hands

I was telling someone as I cleaned their teeth about how I met my husband. (She told me she tried institute council, and it didn't work for her...haahaa) And for some reason the subject came up of the first time we held hands, and I remembered how cute of a story it was, and thought I would share the memory with everyone.



Last year I told my oldest sister Megan that I would babysit for her on Conference Sunday because her and her husband had to work. Five kids, trying to make them watch conference...no sweat. Only.....I was seriously dating Sterling at the time and I thought, what a wonderful way to spend a whole day with him! So I cautiously invited him, warning him that five kids are disruptive and crazy during conference and he might not see a lot, and that was a lot of kids and I didn't want to scare him away, and that I really wanted to see him if he could come! Well, of course he did.



So Conference morning came, I had to be out there at 6:30 am, but Sterling came later, 9ish I think. Anyway, morning session went fairly well, dinner went decently between the sessions, and the second session was...a little rough. While we were getting dinner ready Sterling was wrestling Myles and Danica was helping me, and she asked me if this was a "friend" or my "boyfriend". Danica was pretty up on my social life, understanding that some of the boys she had seen were just "friends" and that one recently had been a "boyfriend"..she was ten I think at the time. I told her that we were mostly just friends. He hadn't even held my hand yet. I said something like "Maybe when he holds my hand I'll call him my boyfriend, but we aren't very serious yet." She nodded as if that was very wise and she understood completely. Then we had the last session. Mostly we colored and someone fell asleep on my lap while Sterling tried to convince the kids to work on the conference coloring pages that Megan had printed out for them. After the session Sterling had the brilliant idea to go on a walk up the mountain and look at all the pretty fall colors.



It was somewhat raining, but we put all the kids in rain boots, took umbrellas, and went off. While on the hike we had lots of fun, and after a while, Sterling held my hand. Then Anders fell and Sterling went to help him up, so Danica and I were quite a ways further back on the trail and Danica says "I thought you said you'd never held his hand!" and I said "I never have! This was the very first time!" and she looks at me with big, wide eyes and says "I just watched you hold hands for the very first time? Really?" It was so adorable! I was laughing so hard! Then throughout the whole night she kept looking at him and giving me meaningful looks. It was so, so funny!

That night, actually, was our first kiss as well. Jared called and said he was on his way home, so we could leave if we wanted to because he would be there soon. All the kids had just been put in bed, so I checked on them all one more time and then we went to leave. Well, since we drove seperate vehicles we had to say goodbye. And he kissed me for the very first time. (That could be a story in and of itself, it took him quite awhile to work up the courage, and he was really worried because he thought I would think it was too soon.) Right after that Jared pulled in. Which was kinda funny just because Jared has been my brother-in-law since I was six, and so he is definitely a big brother of mine, and it was kinda odd to introduce him to the man I had just been kissing, have them shake hands, and then have Jared walk inside. I wonder what Jared thought, having me in his driveway, poor man! We left pretty quick after that, but it was a very good day. And fun to tell this story exactly a year afterwards!