I LOVE FALL!

It took me until very recently to discover that fall is my favorite season. Probably because Idaho actually has normal fall weather, as opposed to California where it's either summer or winter! Here are some of the reasons that I love fall:

My mulled cider candle

hot chocolate

leaves changing colors
air that's cold and crisp, but not TOO cold

sweaters, scarves and boots

cuddling

More Classes + a Concert

This week was filled with the usual: classes, friends, fun adventures with Zoe, and of course lots and lots of homework.

On Wednesday, Jake surprised me by coming home early, which meant that he had to walk all the way home. It was such a nice surprise! And he even brought me some beautiful flowers and a root beer, one of my favorite sodas. I have a pretty great husband!

Thursday I had to run to the Dollar Tree to pick up a few things, and noticed all of their Halloween decorations and some fun little costume accessories. There were some fairy wings, and I couldn't resist getting a pair...Zoe wasn't a huge fan of wearing them, but she cooperated pretty well all things considered! It definitely cracked me up!

This is a photo of their version of Taylor Swift's "Shake it
Off", one of the songs they performed on America's Got
Talent!

On Friday evening, Jake and I had the opportunity to go onto campus and see Alex Boye perform! You might have heard of him because he was recently on this season of America's Got Talent, and made it pretty far before being eliminated. He's also famous for a version of Frozen's "Let it Go" that you can find on YouTube! It was so incredible to hear some live music, and especially from someone as talented as Alex. We really enjoyed the concert, and definitely recommend that everyone who ever has the opportunity to see him live take advantage of it!

This Week's Spiritual Thought

Saturday was the General Women's Broadcast, and it was so great to watch! My friends Emma and Kyrsten came over and we watched it in our living room, and Zoe even seemed to pay attention a bit which had us giggling. It was so wonderful to hear from church leaders, and to get even more excited for General Conference this upcoming week! One of my favorite points shared by Sister Rosemary M. Wixom was that we should take our validation vertically from God, not horizontally from the world. Validation from God means that we can continue growing upwards and become even better than we are now, but if we take our validation from the world, we don't have the chance to grow as much as we should.

Am I Supposed to Look Like This?

I remember when I was little, playing with Barbies and Bratz and thinking that one day I would look like them, or all the women on TV. I would draw myself: "Jessica at 17" or "Me at 25". I'd have a tiny waist and huge boobs and perfect hair and makeup. And when I hit puberty and started actually "becoming" a woman, I would get frustrated. Because I didn't look how I was supposed to.

I think that's why we have so many girls/women today who are unable to see themselves as adults and take responsibility for their actions: they think the way that I did. That once I had a tiny waist and huge boobs and perfect hair and makeup, I'd be a grown-up. I'd be mature and ready to face the world. So until that happens, I'm still a kid, right?

This is how I look today; how I look most days. And it's not
the way the media usually portrays women, but it's pretty
dang realistic if you ask me.

We need more "real" women in the media, more realistic dolls, more believable figures for our sisters and nieces and daughters to look up to. So that girls don't sit around at 25 thinking they're not ready to be adults yet, because they don't look the way the media has made us believe a grown woman looks.

Fall Semester Begins!

This week was full of STUFF! Getting back into the swing of things with classes, spending time with some great friends, dealing with "grown-up" frustrations (like our internet going out 5 times in one week), and of course enjoying our time with Zoe.

This semester I'm taking ENG 351 (Detective Fiction), ENG 325 (Grammar), ENG 314 (Advanced Literary Analysis), and SPED 360 (Special Education). The classes are definitely going to be challenging, but I'm enjoying them so far! My professors are all not only very intelligent (of course) but are wonderfully sarcastic and hilarious. I don't go a class period without laughing at least once, which is just awesome. 

Jake's taking another class online, and this will probably be his last "easy" semester--for his Winter semester, he's probably going to have to take some classes on campus. Which means wearing pants (shorts are against the Honor Code at BYU-I). Jake's not too happy about the pants issue, but there are worse things, in my opinion!

Wednesday night I had a girls night at my apartment for some of the new kids up here, and it was fun! Not a lot of people could come because of the homework load this first week of classes, but it was still great to see the girls who were able to come and talk and laugh. Thursday after classes, my friend Becca came over and we watched "She's the Man", definitely a hilarious romantic comedy that I highly recommend if you haven't seen it! It never fails to make me laugh.

Friday once Jake came home from work, we relaxed for a while before heading over to some of the parties that Rexburg was having to celebrate the first weekend of the semester. It was great to have fun dancing and seeing friends!

Saturday was definitely my favorite day of this past week. My friend Janae and I got together to have pizza (which she bought, yay for friends), talk about our week, and do some service for one of our friends, Courtney. Starting out college is rough no matter what, but when you're away from home and trying to balance everything it's very overwhelming. We had fun doing something nice for Courtney that hopefully made her smile when she came home from a long day at work!

That night, we had a bunch of friends over for a game night at our apartment. We vacuumed the floor before everyone came over, and discovered that Zoe is definitely NOT a fan of the vacuum...she ended up jumping onto my back while I sat on the couch! Jake snapped a picture because he couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous we both looked.

Having friends over for a GIANT game of Apples to Apples was so much fun! We ended up squeezing a grand total of 14 people into our teeny tiny living room, which is pretty impressive if you've seen how big the floor space is.

Before the last 3 people showed up, so only 11 of us are pictured here and it
was already a cozy group!

Sunday Jake and I went to church, and one of the speakers in sacrament meeting said something that really struck me. She talked about how when astronomy was first becoming a "thing", people believed that all the planets, including the Sun, revolved around Earth. Copernicus taught us that it's actually the Sun that is at the center of our orbit, so all of the planets revolve around it. She likened this to how our marriages should be: centered on the SON; Christ, not on worldly things. Having a Christ-centered marriage is not a new concept to me, but this analogy definitely made me rethink how I look at marriage!

Top Five Life Changing Books

All of these books hold a special place in my heart, because they've truly changed my perspective on several different subjects. If you haven't read any of the books on this list, you need to get to your nearest library or bookstore and MAKE IT HAPPEN.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This was the first book that I've ever marked up of my own free will. My copy of this is fairly worn out, since I've read it at least five times and every time I read it I find something new that strikes me.

Here is Amazon's description of The Book Thief:

The extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. 
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I read this book a few years ago, and when I recently read John Green's Paper Towns it reminded me a lot of this for some reason. Maybe it just has a John Green-ish vibe, I'm not sure. Either way, I LOVE this book.

Here is Amazon's description of Thirteen Reasons Why:

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why. 
Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway

This was the first young adult book I ever reread. The first time I read it I was around 14 or 15, and it just hit me incredibly hard. Such a beautiful (but frustrating) story.

Here is Amazon's description of As Simple As Snow:

Anna—who prefers to be called Anastasia—is a spooky and complicated high school girl with a penchant for riddles, Houdini tricks, and ghost stories. She is unlike anyone the narrator has ever known, and they make an unlikely, though happy, pair. Then Anna disappears, leaving behind only a dress near a hole in the frozen river, and a string of unanswered questions. Desperate to find out what happened the narrator begins to reconstruct the past five months. And soon the fragments of curious events, intimate conversations, secrets, letters—and the anonymous messages that continue to arrive—coalesce into haunting and surprising revelations that may implicate friends, relatives, and even Anna herself.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I'm not unlike many other young adults when I say that this is one of the few required readings from
high school that I actually really enjoyed.

Here is Amazon's description of To Kill A Mockingbird:

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

This book is an interesting twist on the concept of groundhog day, and I think about it often. In my opinion if a book is on your mind often, it's either incredible or just plain awful. And this book was definitely incredible.

Here is Amazon's description of Before I Fall:

With this stunning debut novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver emerged as one of today's foremost authors of young adult fiction. Like Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and Gayle Forman's If I Stay, Before I Fall raises thought-provoking questions about love, death, and how one person's life can affect so many others.For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

The End of Summer

This was our last full week of our little summer break, and we had some fun little adventures! Our week was filled with time spent spoiling Zoe, preparing for school, organizing the house, and meeting up with friends. It was also Jake's first week back at work after our vacation, so he was getting back into the swing of things there. Zoe gets so excited when he comes home from work, it's too cute! She jumps all over him and dances around the house with excitement. We love it!

Tuesday we FINALLY got Zoe to sleep in her own bed! After a few nights of her sleeping in our bed with us, she managed to sleep in her own bed under the desk in our bedroom all through the night. We're such proud puppy parents!

Thursday I finally got to meet my friend Janae since she's here in Rexburg for school! It was so great to see her and talk with her. We discovered pretty quickly that if we're in a room together you better watch out because neither of us will be able to shut up haha! That evening Jake and I took Zoe on a walk as usual, and she saw a GIANT black dog tied up near the back of our apartment complex. The fur on the back of her neck stood up and she really started yipping and going crazy! It was funny to us because Zoe is a very calm, quiet little doggie. To see her get so defensive like that was definitely a big change!

Friday was the official beginning of Move-In Weekend here in Rexburg, which basically means that the entire city is like a mall on Black Friday. Normally I try not to leave the house at all because the traffic is horrendous, but I wanted to help my little freshmen friends adjust to being away at school so I took my friend Kyrsten to Walmart and Albertsons and Saturday I showed my friend Melly around BYU-I's campus. I braved the traffic and survived!

Saturday evening Jake and I gave Zoe her first bath! She was very calm and cooperative, although we could tell that she definitely did NOT like being bathed. Watching her run around the apartment afterwards doing a little "I'm clean!" Dance had us both laughing. We love our little furbaby.

Sunday was our official TS meet-up for the semester! We've been planning this for a few weeks, gathering info from everyone who was going to be up here for school and setting up carpools for the kids that don't have transportation. It was so great to finally get to meet some of the people I've really grown to love after the past year or so!

Bullying in the Church

It makes me incredibly sad that in a gospel so focused on the love of Jesus Christ, bullying is still something many of the members deal with on a regular basis--particularly in female-driven groups, such as Relief Society and Young Women. Some of this bullying is simple teasing with good intentions, and might not even be considered cruel by the person accused. But hundreds of people experience painful situations and hurtful comments far too often to be considered entirely accidental.

There is a fine line between taking offense too easily, and allowing yourself to be abused. I firmly believe in the idea that we can choose whether something offends us or not, and whether those incidences cause us to leave the church. However, we should not allow ourselves (or others) to be put in situations where we are belittled, abused, or made to feel less than the children of God that we each are.

Here are some suggestions I have to help bullying in the church become a problem of the past.

Avoid gossip.

Whether this means keeping your mouth shut when you have a piece of information you're dying to share with others, plugging your ears and humming to yourself when others around you are discussing someone's personal life, or simply walking away, just avoid gossiping. Think before you speak. It's really that simple! Take a look at these three steps to avoid gossiping from this article:

1. Don’t talk about people. If you’ve run across some information or have a less than positive observation, don’t go sharing it with everyone. If you wouldn’t say what you’re about to say directly to the person who is the subject of your gossip, don’t talk about it. The only exception to this rule would be if someone is in some form of danger. Then, use common sense and tell somebody who can help. But outside of that, don’t talk about folks. OK? Moving on...

2. When you’re with a very close friend enjoying a nice conversation and perfectly paired Sauvignon Blanc, you may start chatting about folks in your friend group. When you start to do that, read No. 1 again.

3. If it seems like a perfectly justified and innocent time to share, AND you’re doing it out of the spiritual well being of that person, AND you have good intentions and no malice in your heart, read No. 1 again. Not kidding.

 

Love one another.

As terribly cliche and naive as this may sound, loving each other really does help. When we have the right intentions, we're less likely to hurt others by what we say or do. Put yourself in that person's shoes and ask whether you would appreciate being treated in a certain way. Even if we do hurt someone, hopefully the pain can end quickly when the "victim" learns of our genuine intentions.

Take a breath and let it go, let it go...

This one goes out to the victims/potential victims of bullying.
Do.
Not.
Go.
Looking.
For.
Reasons.
To.
Be.
Offended.
There are some people who, no matter how hard they try, always seem to put their foot in their mouth. And sometimes you just have to learn to roll with the punches, laugh it off, and let go. If it really becomes a repeated problem, maybe you shouldn't be taking things so lightly. But try to let things go as much as possible. Holding a grudge will only hurt you in the end, not the bully.

Talk with your leaders.

Sometimes the experiences we have with bullies aren't necessarily from our "colleagues", but from a leader in our group: a Young Women's president, a Relief Society counselor, etc. So we feel that we have nowhere to turn when we need help. But there is always a higher authority! Talk to your bishop. If he's the problem, go to your stake president, and so on.

Pray.

This seems to be the answer for every problem known to man, and that's probably because it works so dang well. I've had personal experiences where I was having trouble dealing with a certain person, and prayed for the strength I needed to be patient, understanding, and forgiving. And it worked wonders! Take the time to pour your heart out to God, and I promise He'll find a way to help you. God's got your back.

The Journey Home + Our New Furbaby

This week SO MUCH happened! We had our last few days in Texas, traveled to Salt Lake City, and added a new member to our family.

On our last night in Texas, we got ice cream with Jake's grandparents at a place called Beth Marie's. The ice cream was SO good! I got Black Forest Cake and French Toast (which sounds super weird, but is delicious). It was a fun night!

Thursday morning we had breakfast at Old West with Jake's parents, a little breakfast place that reminded me of a Texas version of this little diner in Woodland Hills that my family and I used to go to on special occasions. It was nice feeling like I had a little piece of home in Texas! That afternoon we flew out from Dallas to Salt Lake City, and spent the night at Jake's Uncle David's house. 

Friday we drove back out to Salt Lake City and spent the day with my best friend Carly! It was so great getting to see her again after about three months apart. Seeing her in Utah was also pretty special because she had never spent time with Jake and I together, just separately. So it was AWESOME getting to hang out with two of the people I love most! We spent some time at Temple Square, the mall, and had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Thank goodness for texting, FaceTime and other social media so we can still stay in touch all the time!

Some of you may know that Jake and I have been hoping to get a dog since the beginning of this year. At our old apartment pets weren't allowed unless there was special permission from a doctor, which we couldn't get. At our new apartment, though, animals are allowed! We've been looking high and low for a dog ever since we moved, but haven't had any luck. There's very slim pickings for small apartment-friendly dogs in Rexburg, since they're in such high demand. So we took the opportunity we had with our trip to Texas to search near Jake's parent's home, as well as in the part of Utah we'd be visiting. And we finally had some luck! 

First family photo!

Friday evening, we went over to look at two dachshunds that a woman was looking to rehome. We instantly fell in love with Zoe, the larger of the two little pups. She's about 2 1/2 so she's already potty-trained and very well-behaved, a HUGE plus for us. Saturday morning before we left to drive back to Rexburg, we picked Zoe up and became a family of three. Jake and I have been having so much fun introducing her to our little home, and getting to know her better and help her to adjust. She is the BIGGEST cuddler I have ever met, and is the perfect lap dog! Snuggling with her is my new favorite hobby. Saturday night was a little rough since she's still adjusting, so Zoe ended up sleeping in our bed with us. I was terrified one of us would roll over and squash her in the middle of the night haha but she was fine! Spoiled little girl. 

This Week's Spiritual Thought

As we've been unpacking from Texas and attempting to get settled in again, I've been thinking a lot about the blessings we've received over the past few weeks. Being able to travel and see family and friends, experience new things, and especially finding a sweet little pup for our family after months of searching. Not only is Zoe a dachshund (a breed that Jake and I both adore), but she was given to us for free because her previous owners just wanted her to go to a good home where she could be loved and receive the attention she deserves. This darling girl has already brought us so much joy and laughter, and we're so blessed to finally be able to have our very own furbaby! 

Starting Our Own Traditions

I've been working on this post since right after Jake and I got married, and now that we've hit ONE FULL YEAR of marriage, I can publish it! Here's a list of our first year of holiday/seasonal traditions, that will hopefully continue to get longer as our years together progress.

SEPTEMBER

-First Day of School pictures

OCTOBER

-Cinnamon rolls on Conference Sunday

-dressing up together on Halloween

For our first Halloween together last year, we were Lucy and Schroeder from Peanuts!

NOVEMBER

-making gratitude lists on Thanksgiving

DECEMBER

-decorating the Christmas tree together
-making sugar cookies on Christmas Eve

-"Twelve Days of Service" leading up to Christmas

-Homemade beignets and watching "The Sword in the Stone" on New Year's Eve

FEBRUARY

-Making handmade Valentine's Day cards for each other

APRIL

-Cinnamon rolls on Conference Sunday

-dying eggs together

-Easter egg hunt

MAY

-homemade cheesecake for Jessica's birthday

-making a birthday crown for Jake's birthday

JUNE

-making s'mores together around the first official day of summer

JULY

-4th of July fireworks

AUGUST

-taking anniversary photos

Have any ideas for more traditions we can start? Leave them in the comments!