V-Day

I am not a big fan of Valentines day to be honest. I think it's a sorry excuse to tell someone you love them.  I remember back in high school, I had a boyfriend who got me a teddy bear on valentines day and I ended up shoving it in my locker. That's how much I love it. And if we're going to get a holiday, I should at least get the day off right? I specifically asked Jared not to get me anything and all I wanted was to go out to dinner and see the vow. Overall it was a good night and  it gave us the excuse to go out to dinner. 

Does this picture look familiar? This was the picture Jared and I took last year on valentines day. We didn't take any pictures this year so I figured this would be good enough...probably because I wore the exact same shirt, the exact same jeans, the exact same coat....not to mention the exact same earrings and oh yah...I did my hair the exact same way.  I'm very original I know. Jared wore a blue striped shirt rather than a purple striped shirt instead. So, we pretty much looked the exact same this year :) 

We're off to spend the weekend in Salt Lake just for the heck of it and I'm looking forward to every minute of relaxing! Hopefully I remember to take pictures of that little get away.

Beware....Sappy

I know when I started this blog I said that I wasn't going to be too sappy about being married and how great my husband is but it's hard to not brag to the world about how you all missed out and how I scored...BIG TIME. I couldn't have asked for a better husband.

I remember my Dad telling me the night before my wedding, "You think you love him now, but just wait. You don't even know what love really is." Jared and I have only been married 7 months but it's amazing how much deeper your relationship gets over such a short amount of time. And yes, I know, we are experiencing the least of our troubles right now and my Dad will probably still tell me that I don't know what love really is but hey love has to start somewhere right?

A wise person once told me, "If single people knew what marriage was really like, they would be a lot more miserable than they already are." I would have to agree whole heartedly. Life is definitely not easy once you're married but for some reason it seems a little bit more bearable when you have someone standing by your side, especially when you have someone like Jared. He is truly one of a kind and every day I think, How did I get so lucky to deserve someone like him? He's definitely not perfect, nor am I, but he is perfect for me and that's all that I need.

All in all, I just have to say I have the best husband in the world. Not only is he smart, funny, athletic and spiritual,....he's just down right HOT and what more can a girl ask for?

Tender Mercies

The past few months have been some what of a whirlwind for me. I feel like I work constantly, which I actually don't mind. I really love my job and I love the people I work with. I really have nothing to complain about, I'm only taking 6 credits right now, working 30 hours a week and the rest is kind of undecided. But the past few weeks I've really noticed how much God is apart of our lives every day. He consistently gives us tender mercies on a daily basis and I would say that most of the time we don't even recognize them. Needless to say, I've had a couple experiences that have really strengthened my testimony of how much God is really aware of us and our needs.

This may be a very silly example but it really strengthened my faith. The other day Jared and I were doing laundry  and were literally one quarter short from completing a load (yes we have to use coin operated machines). We decided to go up to campus anyway and take our tests and then on the way home we could pick up some quarters from the bank. I kept thinking how awesome it would be if I just found one quarter on the ground on the way to campus. I will have you know that I stared at the ground the ENTIRE way to campus. I had total confidence that I would find a quarter. Nonetheless, we didn't find one on the way to our home from campus. It really wasn't a huge deal to go get more quarters but what an inconvenience right? Only ONE quarter short. We got home and decided that we were going to look under the machines in case a quarter had dropped. Sure enough...there was just one quarter sitting under the machine. Now you may say to yourself, "total coincidence." And what I have to say to that is, "I think not." In my eyes, it was definitely a tender mercy.

On a more serious note...As many of you know, I have applied for a full time job at my work and I just had my interview on Tuesday (Glad it's over). For the past few months, I don't think there has been one prayer that I haven't asked for help and confidence going into my interview. A few days before the interview as well as the day of, I pleaded, begged, and literally cried for help. As soon as the interview was over, I walked out and found myself saying,"I nailed it. I'm awesome." I immediately texted Jared, my mom, Dad, and my mother in-law to tell them how good I felt. A few minutes later I got in my car, and was immediately humbled. I recognized that I was not alone in that interview and I was definitely being guided by the Spirit. How often do we do that? We beg and plead and sometimes even cry for help and when we get our answer, we take all the credit for it. How prideful are we? I'm grateful that God sometimes has to humble us to teach us a lesson. And in my eyes, those lessons are little tender mercies.

Christmas Break

Jared and I had the opportunity to visit both of our families during our seriously needed winter break. We spent Christmas with my family and the week after Christmas with his. I unfortunately didn't take very many pictures. As this was our first holiday we spent together (minus thanksgiving) it was an eyeopening experience for us both to see how very different our definitions of "vacation" are. Christmas at the Bell home is filled with lots and lots of activities. This year there was a visit to the Santa Monica Pier, riding bikes along the beach in Santa Barbara, and kayaking in Ventura Harbor. Are you noticing a theme here?...they all revolved around the beach. I can't get enough of it.

Jared's family, on the other hand, likes to vacation by relaxing....A LOT of relaxing. They like to play a lot of basketball, but mostly like to stay inside and just veg. Which was actually a GREAT way to end our break before we started up with our busy lives of work and school. I usually don't do well vegging all day so I made sure to go on a run every morning to get my body going. I actually really didn't mind the vegging...and in Jared's defense there actually was SOME sort of activities...we did go to the movies to see the Muppets (Not my favorite...but I was never a muppets fan growing up) and we did get to go to a Pheonix Suns game! Merry Christmas to Jared :) Unfortunately it was a TERRIBLE game. Jared's man, Nash, did not do so hot. I am already not too fond of the guy (only because I think he is ugly) so the fact that I could've probably played better than he did that night only confirmed my dislike for him.

Needless to say, There is nothing weird about the way our families vacation....they're just different :)

CALIFORN-I-A

Finals are over and I couldn't be happier. Jared and I are pretty sure we both got straight A's. This marriage thing is really treating us quite well. We leave tonight for good ol' sunny/warm/heavenly California. We are flying out to Phoenix the day after Christmas to spend time with Jare's family. We're excited to get out of this cold and head on over to the beach! Goodbye Provo.

Love Story Part 2

Read Love Story Part 1 here.

After Jared came to pick me up from my place, he took me back to his friend's apartment which is when I then realized this was going to be a group date. The date was totally set up for Jared and I because our other two guy friends invited girls that i knew they were NOT interested in. Our good friend, James, is an incredible dancer so he taught us how to bachata which is a very suave Latin dance which requires you to get extremely close to your dance partner. Talk about breaking the touch barrier on the first date. It was extremely warm in their apartment so there was quite a bit of sweat action going on....nothing says I want to date you more than two sweaty people awkwardly dancing close.

Just as a side note...Jared just asked me what I was doing. I told him I was updating my blog about our love story. He asked which part I was at and I told him I was on our first date. This is his version...Quote: "I held you close. We shared a moment together where we sweated". So my version is pretty accurate wouldn't you say?

Back to my version....After we were about done sweating our faces off Jared and James (who also served his mission in Italy) made us some legit Italian spaghetti. SO GOOD. The date ended at about 9:00...talk about an awkward time to end a date. The other two guys took their dates home. Me, trying to avoid the awkward door drop off scene, invited Jared to come over to my place to watch Shark Week....best week of the year. Being the gentleman that he is, he accepted my invitation.

We sat in the small love seat together, shared a blanket even though it was in the heat of the Summer just so we could be close. And that's when the nerves set in. Should I make my  hand available for him? Is it too soon...this is only the first date? So what did I do...perfectly placed my hand on my right leg which was also touching his leg. Then my hand started to get sweaty...but hey we were used to the sweat by now right so not a big deal. And then I sat there and waited...and waited...and waited some more. Then I got stubborn and moved my hand just to see what he would do. And he did just what I thought....placed his hand right where mine was...on his left leg which was also touching my leg. And you know what I did....Nothing. I was not about to make the first move...he had his chance and he just lost it. Yep....we totally played the immature middle school game and I don't even care.

After he left you would probably think I was disappointed that there was no hand holding action but I was actually quite relieved. I wasn't sure how I felt about Jared. I knew he was great, I found that he sweats a lot, and I knew he had a strong testimony but I was staying clear of boys remember? Being arrogant like I was, I was afraid that he wanted to date me and I wasn't sure if I was quite ready for that. I remember talking to my roommate asking her for advice on what I should do. I didn't want to hurt his feelings. I had a fun time with him and I had totally lead him on by making my hand available. I felt stupid. I was dreading the conversation we would have when we would decide if we were going to date and I was going to have to explain to him that I was not interested and that I was sorry for leading him on. The next day on Sunday I received a text from Jared asking if I wanted to go on a walk with him. The symbol for going on a walk only meant one thing...either you were going to express undying love for each other or you would break up. Since we weren't yet dating and breaking up wasn't possible it only meant one thing...

Stay tuned for part 3

Thanksgiving

Jared and I were able to fly down to Arizona to spend time with his family during Thanksgiving break....nothing like that 72 degree weather all week long. The trip up to the Salt Lake airport was quite the journey to say the least. We decided to take nothing less than the good old public transportation up there. That's right....2 and a half hours of bus then trax then bus again. I knew I was in for a treat when this was the first thing I saw on the bus...

It was an interesting experience and probably wouldn't want to do it again :) After we got to Arizona it was smooth sailing. There was a TON of wii...hours upon hours of wii. I'm pretty sure my right arm is still aching from the sword fighting.

I'm pretty sure Jared's mom kicked our TRASH at the sword fighting every single time....I still don't understand how she did it. She took on 3 marines.....still kicked their trash. There was no stopping her.

Of course Thanksgiving Day was filled with tons and tons of food and we were lucky to have two of Dallas's marine buddies spend the day with us. Jared was kind enough to go Black Friday shopping with me at midnight! It was his first time doing it and I'm pretty sure he never wants to do it again :) On Saturday we headed down to Tucson to spend some time with the extended Tate family. It was great to see everyone again.

Our Thanksgiving was CONSUMED with sports....but I guess that's what you get when you marry into a family of all boys right? Volleyball....football...basketball (A LOT of Basketball)....ping pong. The sports were never ending. It's a good thing I like them so much and hey, I got my fill of Black Friday shopping so I was happy.

To cap off the whole trip we ended up at the beloved Ostrich farm. That place was smart to start you out slow....we started out feeding the donkeys. Those things did absolutely nothing. They ate maybe one pellet of food we gave them.

Then we headed on to the deers. Those things were a little more pushy...poking their heads through the gate. You can see I wasn't too fond of the whole idea....

Then we moved on to the goats....those things were feisty.

And then we moved on to the dreaded ostriches. Those things were deadly...no joke. Look at that thing just peering over the wall....You could already tell it had something up it's sleeve....if it had sleeves...

They would peck SOOO fast at our cup. I tried to throw a few pellets at them from my cup and ended up throwing my whole cup. Here's a little video of Jared. It's not every day that you get bit by an ostrich.

After the ostriches we moved on to the bird cage. I unfortunately did not take any pictures of this place because I was SWARMED with birds. They give you a cup of nectar and those dang birds literally ripped the cap off the cup of my nectar and started landing on me. All I have to say is I didn't realize how much I don't like birds. I hated every second of it. There was a good mixture of tears and laughter. I'm grateful for my in-laws and for them putting up with through that whole ostrich farm.

Overall it was an awesome trip. Jared and I had so much fun and it was great to spend more time with my in-laws. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Now it's time to set up for Christmas!