Pictures from Salt Lake temple

As I said on my Memorial Day weekend post, we got to go to the Salt Lake temple with my friend Jamie. I got those pictures, and I love them so much that I wanted to post them immediately.

 Brandon and I... temple #7 together!

 Jamie... gotta love her.

We also got to "accidentally" go to the Beehive House and see our favorite Temple Square Sister, Bekah! She gets home in less than 3 weeks, it will be fun to see her again soon!

That's all. It's halfway done with the year. I can't believe it.

The time Brandon laughed the hardest in his life.

So, as mentioned before (now under the label "sleeping stories"), Brandon and I are pretty entertaining when sleeping. Especially when I start talking. This is one of those stories...

Now, I have no idea what this dream was about, but Brandon woke up to me saying, "Ohhh, that's SO cute!!" He woke up, and asked me what was so cute. I pointed toward the wall and said, "She's about to cry!!"

Right as I said that, I woke up.

I immediately knew I was in danger of being made fun of for forever, so I started whining in my half-asleep stupor, "Awwww, don't make fun of me!" over and over again.

I can assure you, I've NEVER heard Brandon laugh that much. He kept trying to suppress it under the blanket, but I heard him burst into laughter a good 5 or 6 more times.

Just another story for our kids to read later and be embarrassed by their mom!

4 years out of high school?

I had a startling realization last night.

It's been 4 years since I graduated high school... which is as long as I spent there.

All those friends that I thought I'd never part from? I haven't seen most of them since Grad Nite.

And I certainly had always planned on seeing my favorite teachers at least once in the last 4 years... I guess that never happened.

High school was so traumatizing for me... I thought college could never get more exciting.
I got my license, first car accident, and first (and only) time getting pulled over within a year.

I definitely learned how to pick a good guy. Oh wait, no I didn't. I learned how to pick the WRONG guy. But, there were some fun times.

I was just thinking about all the concerts I went to, my annual pass at Disneyland, and how many times my heart got broken in high school. I had so many fun times in high school chorus, and made a lot of friends that I won't forget any time soon.
I rotated through groups of friends every year of high school, which made leaving more easy.

So anyways, realizing I've been out of high school as long as I've been in high school made me start thinking what I've been doing with my life.
There have been 4 Halloweens:

Power Ranger.

Sandy from "Grease".

Trophy wife.

Newsie.
I've traveled to another country, and had a life changing experience:

This was my favorite class to teach ever. Little Piedra, the one in my lap, broke my heart when I left.
 I've made so many friends up here I can't imagine how I went on with only friends from Irvine. And I love my friends from Irvine, so that's saying something.
And my crowning achievement of the last 4 years?

Obviously. Over half the time I've spent graduated has been with this guy... which was good so that I could stop being such a crazy little girl and grow up a little bit.
I am glad that I left Irvine. I wanted so badly to get out and see other parts of the country, and it's safe to say that I did. I know that there are people who were happy with their lives in Irvine, and that's perfectly fine. I do wish I could have kept better contact with people from high school, but it's safe to say that I live a different lifestyle from everyone else. I never lived with my husband before I married him, I've never drank alcohol, and I don't go to casinos. It's fine, just not what I do.
I'm watching where my friends are going. Some are in bands, either famous or getting there. Some are going international (Like Katharine in Vietnam?! So cool!). Others are getting married and graduating college. It's so cool, I love this.

Remember this?? So cute.

In short, I am proud of how I've grown in 4 years. I may not be graduated just yet, but I'm getting there and I've been working my tail off in order to get to this point. Afterwards, Brandon and I are moving out from Rexburg and starting our new life. In our next chapter, it's completely unknown but I'm sure I will make more friends that I will want to keep in contact with.

Humbling Video

Man, whenever I think my life is hard, I see a story like this on the news... I'm not usually one to tear up at stories. OK yes I am. I cry during "America's Got Talent" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition", for goodness' sake. But THIS video is so inspiring! It hits home for me, because of my major and everything we're working with right now. So if I'm the only one who cries, that's OK with me.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/paralyzed-teen-fulfills-vow-walk-high-school-graduation/story?id=16557742#.T-tkavVv6f4

HWD

I know I was moping in my last post, so this is more positive.

I've been working on a "Higher Wider Deeper" project for one of my classes. It's worth 25% of my overall grade, and terrifying. I was allowed to choose any subject that had anything to do with Special Education, and I chose Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or O.I. I used the  story of our wonderful family friends, Mike and Amy Phelps, as a personal touch. I put together all of my information, which is essentially copied and pasted (with resources in the first post at the bottom) onto a blog HERE. It was made with the purpose of giving people access to information about O.I. I realized that I know absolutely NOTHING about this disease, and now I'm interested and want to learn more.

Let me know what you think, it's due on Wednesday so I'm hoping it's good! I have a 95% in the class so if I get a 0 on it I will still pass. But I'm hoping for more than that.

My One Regret

I have a few regrets from college.
- Not trying harder in some classes.
- Not making the insurance company pay me for every day they didn't fix my car... I would have made over 900 dollars that way.
- Not taking more fun classes.

BUT, one regret that Brandon and I have in common from college is NOT doing a study abroad. I've been reading up on some study abroads that we would have wanted to do, and it hurts my heart. I have had this OBSESSION with other cultures lately, and I want to do one so badly! We both want to go somewhere Spanish speaking, whether it's Spain itself or a Latin American country. We both love Latin America.
We do not regret getting married by any stretch of the imagination! Getting married still was the best decision I've ever made in my life. But, we wish we could have gone on a trip or study abroad to a foreign country.
I loved my experience in Nicaragua, and Brandon loved his mission. So that leaves us in the Latin American region of the world. We were thinking of going to the Peace Corps to have that experience again (not a serious possibility- don't freak out!).


So, if anyone wants to spot us $15,000 dollars we'd greatly appreciate it!

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day is such a sensitive issue. Many people I know do not have dads in their lives, do not speak with their dads, or are raising children without dads. So I'm just grateful that I have a dad, have a good relationship with him, and can wish him a happy Father's Day.

(I just loved the face he's making here)
I am so grateful for my dad. He's taught me a lot over the course of my life, and I know that I would definitely not have turned out this well (cough) if it weren't for him and my mom teaching me. He's taught me the importance of hard work, and the importance of family. When I tell him something about my life, even though I know he has no interest in it, he really listens and follows through with asking about it later. He's been so busy, with being bishop and traveling on an almost constant basis for the last few years, but he's still taken time out of his schedule to spend with each of the kids. When he was first called as bishop he took me to New York City for a graduation trip, and even though I was a little bit of a teenager during the trip he still made it so much fun for me. I'm going to always remember that.

I'm so grateful to have a father-in-law who has taught Brandon so well about the power of hard work. Brandon has been working this "wonderful" job for over a year in order to support us, and I know that he wouldn't keep doing it if it wasn't so engrained in his mind that this is what needs to happen. He's been putting himself through college. I didn't want to marry a "spoiled' boy who didn't know the meaning of hard work, because I know that's what will get us through the hard times in our lives. So I'm glad that Steve has taught Brandon those principles that he will carry with him for the rest of his life.

I'm so grateful for the grandpas that I have. The two that I've known my whole life are the epitome of hard work, and never giving up. They were both mission presidents, and both of their families have turned out in a wonderful way. I really think that a big part of this was the fact that they never gave up, and always kept their family on the straight and narrow path and never accepted anything less. I can see it in how both of my parents raised me.
Grandpa Giullian is also a wonderful example to me. I don't even know him all that well, having met him twice, but he is also a great patriarch and raised his son well to be Brandon's dad today. He has done many great things in his life, and I'm so glad we have those experiences to look at.
And as for the grandpa I'll meet on the other side of the veil... well I've heard that Brandon acts a lot like him. So I can't wait to meet him someday.
The other day we were talking about our dads in a class I have, and one girl just kept talking about how her dad left them and how she thought that dads were not a necessary role in people's lives, and I just sat there and felt 2 things. 1, sad for this girl that she never experienced having a dad, and 2 indignation. I needed my dad when I was growing up! So I raised my hand and in a roundabout way said that I thought dads WERE a necessary part of growing up to those who have had good relationships with their dads, and those who haven't now have the chance to either marry a good man who will be their children's dad or be the dad they always wanted. I don't remember how I said it, I just talked about my experience with my own dad. But that was my point.
I also have a bunch of uncles, cousins, and friends who are dads and who show me how being a dad should be. I am so excited to watch Tommy be a dad starting this fall, and I know when the time comes that Brandon will be a great dad too! Just not yet.
Happy Father's Day everyone!

Austin's Mission Blanket

So I've been working on a blanket for Austin's mission... it's definitely been a big piece of work. I bought the pattern for $5 off Ebay. It took 6 skeins of yarn, which equals over a mile of yarn.
It's been so much fun, but I think my hands are about to fall off!

(1/4 of the way done... 40 rows down.)

50 rows down.

75 rows down.

85 rows down, more than halfway!

100 rows down, 60 to go.
On Mother's Day, I was talking to my mom about the blanket on speaker phone. I told her it wasn't going to be square, but proportionately like a flag. Austin yelled in the background, "I'll use it as a towel!" ... I'm so glad he appreciates all the work I'm putting into this.

 110 rows done, only 50 to go!

June 9... I finally got the blanket done! I just need to make a border and sew in the ends that are on the back.

It's been so fun, and it's my first completed blanket! I'll make sure that Austin takes a picture of it when he gets it... We're going to mail it to him when he gets to Montreal so that he doesn't take up half his suitcase with the blanket. But it's really warm and I'm sure it will keep him warm in the Canada winters!

Graduation must be coming up...

School is getting hard! I still love it, because it's what I want to do. However, I've been so busy.

I just took the Praxis today... pray for a miracle that I passed. That was easily the hardest test I've ever taken in my life!

Second, I'm learning that dumb people SOME people might have a hard time getting along with my personality. I got a nasty "anonymous" peer review from someone saying that my personality rubs them the wrong way. But you know what? That's my personality! I'm a leader, and when I see something that needs to be corrected I call people to action and make sure it gets done. I don't like people getting away with not pulling their weight in the classes I take, whether they were preschoolers (I never let them get away with much haha) or peers. If someone has a hard time with that, not my problem. I think it shows a lack of maturity to say something like that, especially because I know the difference between what I WANT to say and what I do say.

At any rate, the thing keeping me going with all that paperwork I'm doing is that I will be DONE with school in less than a year! However, I may try to be TESOL certified, which would be another semester of classes. However, again something that I want to do.

Next semester, I'm taking Spanish 101. I'd better get an A, otherwise I'll disappoint myself greatly.

Bill Cosby

So Bill Cosby came to Rexburg. Yes, THE Bill Cosby. It was the only famous thing to happen in Rexburg since pretty much ever, so the tickets sold out in about 15 minutes. They started with just one night, but expanded it to two, then three nights. We were too lazy to stand in line for the tickets, so we just pushed it out of our minds.

Fast forward to Sunday night. Brandon gets a text that one of our friends' roommates was trying to sell two tickets, and she said we could have them if we wanted. So we took them! We may have been lazy the first time around, but we're not dumb.

Man, it was a great night. I can't even retell the jokes, because it just wouldn't be right the way I would tell them. But it was so funny, he still has it at 75 years old. His facial expressions were classic, and I couldn't recreate it for anything. However, I did get some pictures...

 I want one of those sweatshirts.

 Describing his 6 year old brain.

 The pompous parents who had such smart kids.

 

As he was leaving. We were hoping for a Cosby dance.

He told stories about himself, his family, getting "beaten" as a child, his underdeveloped brain as a child, sending his first daughter to college, and my favorite was-

"When I would do something bad, my grandma would say, 'God bless your little heart.' It's not like God said 'Here, have a little heart. Bless, bless, bless." I laughed SO much! I just wanted to record this for later, otherwise we might not remember it later.

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

So Memorial Day weekend was something I've been looking forward to for a long time. It was when we were going to get to be in California with our family all together one last time for 2, maybe 4 years.  Austin was going on his mission!!!
It was a miracle that Brandon and I were able to both go. It took everything short of an act of Congress to get Brandon's coworkers to step up and cover his weekend shift. But that's ANOTHER story. He had to work 6 straight night shifts before the weekend, and then 2 more night shifts after the weekend. It was pretty rough to watch, and Brandon now has a "Get-Out-of-Jail-Free" card. I told him it can be used on anything but pregnancy.
So we drove down Thursday, and spent the evening with Stuart and Heidi. We went to a sports grill, and watched the Heat game. I think Stuart drank about 10 cups of Mountain Dew while we were watching the game haha, he drained that cup so quickly.
We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Myres' house, and spent the morning talking to them. After that it was down to the Governor's mansion (645 house in Provo) to see Bennett and Jazz. It's always so fun to see cousins! We lost track of time, and didn't have time to go back up to Pleasant Grove to see Annalise and Hyrum... sorry guys! But they did come with us to the Salt Lake temple, and I got to go with my friend Jamie!! It was so fun, I haven't seen her in almost 2 years. I'm waiting on her pictures (ahem, ahem), but trust me, it was beautiful. I was amazed at the inside. I had always thought that the Salt Lake temple was overrated, because there are SO many weddings in there (84 the weekend we got married). But after going inside, I think it's my favorite temple.
We also got to see my friend Bekah, who is serving in Temple Square! We just "happened" to walk into the Beehive House... had nothing to do with the fact that she was supposed to be there. It was so fun!
We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Murphy's house, and got up at 3:30 in the morning to drive down to the airport on Saturday. I was so tired, but we were so excited!
Alyse and Tommy came to pick us up, as they were on their way down from Santa Monica. We got there before the man of the hour was even awake. Rumor had it that he wanted to hang out with his friends, but I would have none of that. We got up at 3 in the morning for crying out loud! I think he understood me.
Our first activity was the beach. All I can say about it is- Austin and I got FRIED. It's my own fault... but man it hurt. We played volleyball and got sunburned. I'm still feeling the after effects from that.
At dinner time, we got some "Boston Market", which was a blast from the past. We then played Ultimate Frisbee. Brandon's never seen my more competitive side, because I don't go all out when I'm not super comfortable around everyone I'm with. As my family has seen everything, there was nothing holding me back. Unfortunately, we lost.

When we got home, it was time for "Just Dance". I also spent the night putting aloe vera on Austin's back.

 Poor Austin.

 Dad and Charlie.

 Cole and Storm.

Alyse and Austin.
We spent Sunday morning getting ready for the open house that we were going to have. When we got to church, there were SO many people there. We had to cram our family onto one side pew, and it was a cozy fit. There were two boys giving their farewell talk, Austin and Reed Gubernick, a boy from our ward that is Austin's age.
They both did SUCH a good job! I had such a hard time keeping my emotions together while listening. It's so great to hear Austin's testimony, and see how ready he really is to be out there.
Afterwards we had an open house, with the Alpine Myres and the Jafeks and whoever else wanted to come. Naturally, we talked the entire time. It was great!

Sunday was Evan's birthday, so we had a cake and sang to him.
After everyone left, Austin got set apart as a missionary. It was real then! We took some family pictures.......

 The 8 kids, with baby Camilo Paul taking a cameo in Alyse's belly.

 Trying to be serious... half of us at least.

The next morning, Brandon and Tommy got up with Austin and his "companion" Dallin to do companion study. I didn't take this picture, but it's tender that they were all together.

We went to In-N-Out for Austin's last time for 2 years... I got a picture of the 3 Murphy boys.

My dad and Austin brought us to the airport... it was very sad to say goodbye to him but I know he will be great! And I"m almost done with his Canadian blanket.

Au revoir, Austin!