So many wonderful things have happened this year. It's really incredible to think of all the changes that have occurred over the past twelve months, and how much I've grown and experienced. Working more towards earning my teaching degree, getting engaged and married, and moving out of California permanently, just to name a few major changes.
This year I worked hard at keeping a journal more regularly, and wrote a whopping 16 pages about my wedding day, which I know I'll treasure in the years to come as the little memories of that day fade away. I went through the temple for the first time to receive my endowments, and was able to do so with both my parents by my side. I've also been working hard at the first truly demanding calling I've received, and opened my own Etsy shop.
I've met so many wonderful people and made countless memories, some good and some bad, but I've worked on using those experiences to help me grow as a person, instead of letting them weaken me. I've let go of some relationships that weren't benefiting me in any way so that I can focus more on the positive relationships in my life, and on strengthening the relationship I have with my husband. All of these and many many more are what 2014 has been filled with, and I'm grateful for the changes I've made in my life to bring me to the place I am today.
I can't wait for the adventures, trials and experiences I'll have in 2015!
Jake and I had a great Christmas, even though it was a lot quieter than I'm accustomed to--having a Christmas with two people instead of 6-30 is a BIG difference!! This was my first Christmas away from home and it was hard, but it's just part of growing up and living away from home.
Christmas Eve after Jake got home from work, we put on Christmas music and made some sugar cookies. Jake wore his Santa hat (with a t-shirt and shorts, of course) and danced around the kitchen like a goofball. We delivered some of the cookies to our neighbors, and then exchanged our stockings. In Jake's, I put a toothbrush, car air fresheners, bike pump pins, Skittles, Smarties, and Sour Patch Kids, as well as a spatula (since he's the one that always makes pancakes) and some "manly" lotion. Inside mine, Jake had put a HUGE amount of chocolate...and a toothbrush (which I bought for myself when I bought his). So the image was pretty amusing: this GIANT pile of candy, and a toothbrush.
On Christmas Eve around three, it started snowing! We haven't had snow that sticks for more than a few hours in several weeks, but Christmas Eve it snowed HARD. It snowed all afternoon and evening! By Christmas morning, we had seven inches of white, fluffy, beautiful snow outside. I was so excited that we had a White Christmas!
Christmas morning we woke up and I started getting breakfast ready--some homemade sticky buns. Jake said that Christmas morning was the fastest he's ever seen me get out of bed haha! Usually he has to take the blankets away to get me to get up, but not for Christmas!
Probably the most precious gift that I received was a very short letter from Jake, explaining that he and my mom were pitching in to fly me home in May when my best friend Carly gets home from her mission. I had been hoping to go home to see her, but over the past few months it's been looking more and more like it wouldn't happen because of our financial situation. So when I found out that it's really going to happen, I started crying. I tear up every time I think about it! I'm so excited to visit home in just a few months, and to see my best friend again after 21 months of being apart--Carly left on her mission a few weeks before Thanksgiving of 2013, so when I left for school that September we had to say goodbye.
Overall the day was a great one, and I can't wait for many more shared with my husband.
This week was the last one of the semester! I'm so glad to be done with all my classes, and grateful that I was able to finish everything on time and do reasonably well (hopefully!).
Monday was my last full day of classes, and it started out in a pretty awesome way. My first class of the day was Book of Mormon, and we sang an opening hymn: "Far Far Away on Judea's Plains", a song written by an ancestor of mine. After we sang, my professor mentioned that this is the only Christmas hymn written by a Latter-day Saint, so I raised my hand and shared that I'm related to him. My professor got SO excited and said "So you must know the story behind the hymn, then!" I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I didn't know, but my professor did, and he shared it with the class.
When St. George was first being settled, one of the first things the pioneers built was the St. George Tabernacle. Around Christmas of 1869, a huge group of Catholics moved into the area, and wanted somewhere to hold a Christmas Mass service. They were told that they were welcome to use the tabernacle. However, they had no music with them, so John Menzies Macfarlane (my great great great uncle) offered to write a Christmas hymn for them. He did, and it was performed at that Christmas mass service by a choir comprised of both Catholics and Latter-day Saints. The story is really neat and fun, but I got something more from this experience: I would NEVER have listened as intently to this story told by my professor if I hadn't known that I was related to the composer. Because I've been involved in genealogy for the past few years, I was able to recognize the name of an ancestor, and learn even more about them. It strengthened my testimony of genealogy so much!!
Tuesday was my little brother Alex's 8th birthday! Jake and I FaceTimed with him that night and got to hear about his birthday party, and how much fun he's having taking karate classes. I miss that little guy so much.
Jake and I have been talking about starting to save money to buy a dog hopefully sometime next summer, because we had been told that we were allowed to have pets here as long as we paid a little more for rent every month. However, we looked on our apartment's website and talked to the managers, and it turns out that we can't have pets here at all. That was really disappointing news for me to hear, because I've been really missing having animals around, even more than I thought I would. It would have been really nice to have a dog to keep me company when Jake is at work or in school or busy with his church calling, but unless we move somewhere else in Rexburg that allows pets, that won't be happening any time soon.
On Friday morning, I gave my final presentation in my Book of Mormon class. We had to be in class at 7 am which I was NOT happy about, but it was my last final for the semester, so that was somewhat comforting. Here is the video that I made and presented to my class. I spent the entire semester looking for examples of service and charity throughout the second half of the Book of Mormon, and figuring out how to apply it to my own life. It was a really eye-opening experience and I'm so glad my professor asked us to do the assignment, because I never would have thought to do it otherwise. After I finished presenting I was allowed to leave, and that feeling of freedom was so awesome! As I waited outside for Jake to pick me up, it started snowing! The snow didn't stick since it's still not quite cold enough, but it was fun while it lasted.
Saturday Jake and I woke up ready for a nice day together, since Jake didn't have to work until that evening. We decided to go grocery shopping and as we were on our way, it started snowing SO hard that we almost couldn't see! We made it to the store and back safely, and it was a fun little adventure. Then Jake decided that since today was his last day off until Christmas Eve, he wanted to finish his Christmas shopping for me. So he dropped me off at home and went to the store, and was gone for about an hour. When he got back I locked myself in the bedroom so he could wrap my gifts. He had put some gifts into plain cardboard boxes, so I was allowed back into the living room as he was finishing up, and I have to say it was really amusing watching him try to wrap things properly. Mom taught me some wrapping tricks a long time ago and I guess I've just always taken them for granted, because watching Jake was just hilarious. I ended up finishing his wrapping job on the last box because it was turning into such a mess!
Sunday morning I made Jake a festive Christmas bow tie for him to wear to church, and he looked adorable! We had fun at church playing with a little two year old girl sitting in the pew in front of us. She sat on my lap for a good 20 minutes and we looked at some picture books together.
This past week has been a crazy one! It was my last full week of classes for the semester, so I spent a lot of time doing my big final projects for classes. I still had a cold for most of this past week, so it definitely made studying and homework a lot more difficult than it needed to be. I accomplished a lot though, and this coming week I only have a few more things to do before the semester is officially over!
I've also spent the last week or so working on homemade Christmas presents for friends and family, which we're getting in the mail very soon! They're not the most amazing gifts ever because we're trying to stay within a strict budget, but they come from the heart and that's what counts anyways, right?
This past Friday, Jake and I went to our ward's Christmas party. The theme was "Christmas in Mexico" so there was a team of Latino dancers that came and performed for us, along with homemade Mexican food from a couple in our ward. I have a tendency to be very introverted in new situations, but because of Jake's big personality we've been able to make a lot of friends in our ward. It was a fun night and Jake and I enjoyed talking and laughing with the friends we've made over the past few months.
This morning (Sunday) Jake and I woke up, and saw that it had snowed!! I was SO excited. We haven't had snow since the beginning of the month; the past few weeks have been "hot" here in Rexburg--we got up to a whopping 54 degrees at one point! So while it's rained, we haven't had any snow that actually sticks to the ground. But it's been snowing on and off all day, and I'm so happy about that.
This week December officially started, which means Christmas season is HERE! I've been having a little too much fun decorating around our house haha. It's really awesome to finally have our own place that we can do whatever we want with (following the contract we signed with our managers of course, since we're just renting...) + since Jake doesn't really care about how the decorations look, I get to make all the fun decisions! Yay!
Probably the most exciting part of our week was finally getting our defective counter replaced. When Jake first moved in back in July, we noticed that the counter directly next to our stove was really warped from someone putting a hot pot on it. We've been pestering our managers to get it replaced since then, and they FINALLY had someone come and fix the problem. I was mad at first because I got a call from the managers at 4:30 and was told that they'd been trying to reach Jake all day but he hadn't answered (of course he hadn't answered, it was a Tuesday and normal people work weekdays! Duh!) so they had finally had the brilliant idea to call ME, now that the day was almost over. They told me they needed to come over ASAP to take out the old counter, and I needed to have everything cleared off of the top as well as out of the drawers and shelves underneath. So I hurried to finish making dinner, cleared everything out, and then waited for them to come at 5:30 like we had agreed on. I waited, and waited, and waited. Finally I had to leave to pick Jake up from work, and they still hadn't shown up. When Jake and I got home, STILL no one was there. So Jake went over to talk to the managers and apparently they were having a "staff meeting" and the maintenance guy had to be at that meeting. Long story short, we should have received a call from him telling us that he would be late, but he apparently hadn't thought to do that. The whole incident was ridiculous and made both Jake and I mad, but at least the counter is fixed now, which means we won't have to deal with it again.
This week was a stressful one for me, because finals are getting close. That meant that a lot of projects were due this past week and also this coming week, so I've been up to my ears in research papers and lesson plans. But I'm almost done, so I know I can make it!
Towards the end of the week, I finally caught a cold. Last fall when I was here in Rexburg for my first semester, I caught a cold in October that I had for the ENTIRE rest of the semester. So I'm very proud of myself for making it this far! However, that doesn't mean I'm happy to be sick. Jake and I are praying that I feel 100% soon, but with the stress of finals looming overhead I'm not very optimistic about that.
Also, I thought I'd share something gospel-related I've been doing for the past few months. I've been trying a new way to study the Book of Mormon and I'm really loving it. As I read, I make a list of the characters mentioned and their personality qualities either inferred from their actions, or directly mentioned. It's teaching me so much about the prophets, the people, and even those in the scriptures that were wicked. It's helping my testimony grow a TON! I definitely recommend this method of studying the scriptures!
