July 8th

I can't believe it's been 16 months since I have been to Michigan. I thankfully have been able to see my parents since then, but I miss my sister (and occasionally my brother!). Crystal and I are both planning trips there for the summer. I went back and forth between driving and flying and with how many miles are on our cars, flying won. Due to some heavy financial "burdens" we've had lately (I will talk about that later), we decided that I would go alone this time. I bought my ticket from DFW to DTW, but I haven't booked my flight home yet. The flight there has a lay-over in St. Louis of all places (an airport I am NOT fond of, but I will deal). I'm still debating on what airline to take and it wasn't any cheaper to book it round trip either way I went. I'm being a cheapskate because I don't want to pay a single cent more in fees for anything. These luggage fees are just insane considering I'm paying nearly $75 more for this ticket than I normally would. I pre-packed to make sure I could fit all of my clothes into my carry-on luggage and I managed to fit it all. On the way home, however, I may fly Southwest so I can check a bag for free. I'm going to pack a duffel bag flat in my carry-on and stuff it full of my clothes for the trip home. I'll check that and bring anything I buy home with me in my carry-on. It saves me money and the flight home is non-stop. So, I definitely leave for Detroit on July 8th and I'm pretty sure I am coming home on July 22nd (but at 6:30 in the morning).

As for the financial "burden" I was talking about, we just bought new windows. I cannot wait until they are installed because looking out of my old ones makes me depressed! We went with top-of-the-line windows that are eco-friendly and all of that. They are double hung, including the huge picture window in our kitchen, so they will be a breeze to clean. None of our windows currently have screens either, so it will be so nice to be able to open them (which will probably be in the fall, as it's in the 90's here already). Our electricity bill will be pleasant to receive those first few months too. This is the first big project we've started in the house. It's hard to believe we closed a year ago!

Things are good around here, we've been keeping very busy. My calling keeps me on my toes, I once spent 6 straight hours on my computer e-mailing, making bulletin posts, organizing our calendar year for the Ward. It's great, I love it! I'm not being sarcastic either, I really do enjoy this. I used to spend whole weekends organizing my room. I wish I were that motivated about things now in my house...at least I can be with my calling.

march madness

I'm not a basketball fan, I will admit, but I do hear a lot about March Madness while working at the Dendy's (Dallas is a huge sports fan). The March Madness I am referring to is the crazy weather we are having again. It was gorgeous for almost the entire month and I was longing for when the pool would open. We packed away the winter clothes and blankets. Yesterday the temperature dropped dramatically, back into the 30's. Warm weather, come back to us!

If you can believe it, my toe is still recovering from my plate drop. I'm convinced I put a crack in the bone and it's just taking it's time to heal. It doesn't bother me much, but if I put any pressure on the top of my toe, it hurts like the day I injured it. I have two new injuries at the moment. My arm started to ache last week and it feels like I pulled a muscle in my elbow. This causes some issues with carrying Grace, but since she can walk with assistance I usually make her walk everywhere and I'm sure she doesn't mind! Yesterday Forest and I were walking out of Wal-Mart and my neck just started to ache like I had slept on it weird. It's still feeling really sore, but I'm not sure what I could have done that would have made it feel so bad so fast. It comes and goes too, but if I stay pretty still it doesn't hurt at all. I think it's weather related, the drop in temperature does weird things to me.

Forest and I planning a trip up north this summer. We're planning on driving through St. Louis to see the Arch and then of course up to Michigan. On the way home we are going to see Nauvoo again. We were there 4 years ago but we didn't have our Temple Recommends so I am so excited to be able to go do a session at the Temple. We'll also be able to go see the Pageant, as we'll be going sometime in July. We haven't been to Michigan in a while and it's also been a long while since we've seen some of my friends and family, so it'll be a nice visit.

Not much is going on with us for now. We're re-landscaping our backyard and I will post pictures when we get it all done. It should look really nice. Hope everyone is doing well!

Our Sealing

Today I went to my friend Christi's baby shower, which was very cute! She is having her first boy after 4 girls, so we stocked her up on all sorts of very blue things. I just got home from that and I normally don't come home until 6 on Saturdays, so I have a little bit of extra time. Time to finally sit down and write about our Sealing, even though it was almost a month ago now (I can't believe it either!).

I woke up to a down pouring of rain. I was so sad that it was pouring down rain because I thought for sure we'd never get any good pictures. Here in Roanoke it stopped raining just before we left. I took my parents with me and Forest took Heidi, Mark to my sister-in-law Laura's so she could watch the kids. We were on 635 in Dallas and we realized we were driving right in the storm. My knuckles were bright white because I was driving so nervously. We passed the aftermath of two accidents and I didn't want that to be us! Thankfully we got to the Temple in one piece and it had stopped raining! Forest was a little late, but that was okay. We both got dressed and when you are Sealed, you are able to use the Bride's Room. There were several weddings going on that day, so it was a bit crammed. I was completely fine getting dressed in the changing area, but the matrons wanted me to be able to use it on my special day. We had a chance to sit in the Celestial Room for a few minutes before they called us in to the Sealing room and that was wonderful. We have only been there when there are several people there with us and we were completely by ourselves. We were called into the Sealing room and the first three people I was able to see were Christi, Meredith and Valentyna. As soon as I saw them smiling at me, I was starting to lose it!

The ceremony was quicker than I thought it would have been, but it was very to the point and wonderful. I can't wait until I can hear those words again. I was so focused on Forest and how much I loved him that I'm not sure I heard everything! I also completely forgot to look in the mirrors, I was just looking at my husband the entire time. Afterward we headed outside and took some fantastic pictures with our friends and family.





After this, we got dressed back into our street clothes and it was time to leave. It was already over, I couldn't believe it! Forest took Heidi to go get Laura and the kids so due to room constraints, Mark came with us. It was a good thing too because my car started acting funny while we were coming up Preston back to 635. It dawned on me that we were running out of gas and just a few hundred feet from the entrance ramp (and a Shell station) it finally puttered out. Mark and my Dad pushed the car into the gas station and I filled up my tank. Needless to say I quite embarrassed. In my defense, I was driving Forest's car and it doesn't have a gas light!

Despite the tiny inconveniences, it was a very nice day. I thank everyone who was able to come support us and for those that were there with us in spirit! I have some more pictures from the Sealing, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I will let everyone know when I finally do.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

and also the busiest....

The last two months have flown by in a whirl. It's hard to believe that in just a few hours we will be saying goodbye to 2008 already. 2008, despite it's flaws, was a very good year for Forest and I. Here are a few of the reasons I haven't updated this blog in a while:

Ward Christmas Party: Our Ward's Christmas Party was Dec 12th. I was asked to plan for it about 4 weeks before that. Even though I had a short time to do everything, it turned out pretty amazing in the end. It was quite the experience and I would do it again. I might even have to, next year.

Family, Family, Everywhere: On Dec 21st my parents came into town safe and sound. The day before they came, it was in the 70's and very nice. The day after they landed we took them to a drive-in movie theater (my Dad worked at one when he was in college so we thought it would be nostalgic for him to go). It was in the 30's! Even though we were kind of cold, we did have fun eating to keep warm and the movies were pretty good. We had a great Christmas Eve with the Wrights and the Myerhoffs. The day after Christmas we gained 5 more family members when Forest's sister Heidi, her husband and three kids came to stay. We had a very full house!

Sealing: On Dec 27th, Forest and I were finally sealed in the Dallas Temple! It was a really amazing day. I will post about that later, it really does deserve it's own entry!

New Years: Our family is all gone (*sniff*) and we are gearing up for a big party at the Dendy's tonight! I am working a whopping 11 hours today and hopefully not more than that because Gracie needs to sleep before midnight. I can just imagine how cranky she will be if she stays up until then.

I am sad to see this year go (because it means I'm really starting to get older) but I am excited to see what is in store for next year. Happy New Year!

mid-week update

Halloween: Halloween was so much fun this year! I went as an angel, Forest went as Jim from the Office, Gracie was a Pegasus, McKay went as a nerd (or Forest's perfect date in junior high) and Alexa was a kitty. The very blonde one is a friend of the girls (and is a daughter of a friend of mine) and her name is Megan. I'm just glad I'm not in this picture!

I walked around for a few minutes with wings on and they kept wanting to be crooked, so I took them off and commented that "We're Mormon, we don't believe angels have these anyway". Gracie was being very cute. Whenever we put a costume on her she makes all sorts of growling noises. I put my sunglasses on her today and she did the same thing, it's very odd but hilarious.

Temple: We are going to the Temple the day after tomorrow! I can't believe it is finally here and that we are all ready to go without any hitches. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop! Knowing me I will forget Forest's suitcase or something trivial. I found out this week that my dear cousin was hours away from home and had forgotten her recommend when she got married! At least if we forget something we are close. I have planned and re-planned, so I think we are good to go! There are so many people coming that I thought for sure weren't going to be able to, I wonder who is watching so many people's kids...

Fort Worth Zoo: I went to the zoo today with a bunch of friends from Church, mostly the ones who read this! We had fun today didn't we? ;) I got some cute pictures but I didn't realize my camera battery was on it's last leg so I only got a few. I'll post them eventually, I am so tired right now that I don't feel like moving from this spot. We walked around so much, I'm sure the little ones that were with us are fast asleep from all of the fresh air!

Random News: We really are going to have a full house in December! Heidi, Mark, Katya, Emma and Toby are all coming on Dec 26th! We are going to have a really fun time while everyone is here. I hope my Mom actually gets to rest during her trip though, it seems like we are so busy while they are going to be here!

brr!

I am so cold! The longer I live in Texas the more wimpy I get when it finally gets cold around here. It's actually warmer in Detroit right now, so I guess I'm being pretty rational ;)

Next week is Halloween! Gracie is going to be a Pegasus. We put the costume on her last week and she was making these funny growling noises the whole time, like she thought she was some sort of evil monster. It was SO cute. I am going to have my Mom send me my prom dress and possibly go as a "guardian angel". I went as that for Halloween right after I graduated. The dress is pink, so at least I'll sort of match Gracie somehow. Here is my prom picture, purely for nostalgic purposes:

This was taken 12 days before my 18th birthday, I haven't changed much have I? At any rate, that dress has had many good uses. I wore it then, for Halloween, my sister wore it for Halloween and she wore it to my wedding. It cleans up very well and the cut is fantastic. I meant to take it home with me when we were in Michigan last but I forgot about it. It will be nice to finally have it back.

In two weeks Forest and I are going through the Temple for the first time. We are so excited! We got all of our clothing the other day. There were two dresses that I looked at, one was on sale and the other wasn't. As we are first time buyers, we were able to use a 50% discount. I tried on the one that was on sale and it was nice, but when I tried on the second dress, I knew I had to have it. It was twice as expensive (although I only paid 23 dollars for it anyway) but I just loved it so much that it was worth the extra cost.

When we are Sealed in December, we are going to have a full house! My parents are coming on the 21st and Forest's sister looks to be coming on the 26th. I am going to push the Sealing to Saturday as well, which may work out for some who wanted to come. It's going to be a busy few months!

i love to see the temple, i'm going there someday

I just didn't know it was going to take this long for me to do it!

After many years of waiting and essentially dragging our feet, Forest and I are finally ready to enter the Temple. It's been an interesting road but we both completely understand what we are committing to and we want to do it for us. It has been very exciting these last few months with preparing and learning. Like any girl, the most fun thing as of lately is picking out my Temple dress. I can't wait to be all dressed in white and sit with my husband and finally be properly joined with him. We have had a lot of adversity since we've been married and I know that everything has been done to keep us from going. Once we finally got down to the bar and decided to make huge changes to prepare, things changed for us. We have been blessed beyond measure this year and I know the blessings will continue.

We have decided to take out our endowments at the Dallas Temple on November 7th. This particular date is very special to us. November 6th, 1943 was the day my maternal grandparents were married. November 8th, 1996 was the day that my Grandpa went back to live with our Heavenly Father. I was very close with him and I know he will be smiling down on us that day. We will have a special day to remember in between a good day and a not so good day. Anyone in the Dallas area is welcomed to join us, it is during our Ward Temple Night actually. We are so excited to share this day with everyone who can be there with us.

As for our Sealing, we haven't decided on the exact day but of course we are only able to invite a few friends to come with us. It will be during the Christmas Holidays, while my parents are here visiting us. We are beyond excited and I know so many people have been cheering us on for so many years. Thank you for not giving up on us and helping us reach this goal. It's been amazing.

you are loved!

I am giving fair warning for what will happen next month. Get ready for it...I am coming to Michigan on February 10th. If that doesn't knock your socks off (if you live in Michigan, of course) then this will. Forest is coming with me! Yes, I really promise this time, we got our tickets last night. I've been promising for the last 4 trips that he would be coming with me. I may just be more excited than anyone else and the only reason I am ever going to want to leave is because I will undoubtedly miss Gracie.

On a side note, today Grace was crying at Jennie for no reason (as usual) but she had her cup of Cheerios in her hand. She handed them to Jennie, who told Grace "you can only have these if you are happy". Grace immediately started laughing, but it was so obviously a fake laugh. We were cracking up, it was so cute. She's doing a lot better, I know that she understands a huge deal of what we say to her. If she starts to cry and we tell her we're going to ignore her, she usually stops. Another fun story, I picked her up from school yesterday and if she hadn't been buckled into her chair she would have jumped clear out of it to get to me, it was so dang adorable. Things like that make me so happy that I'm doing what I'm doing, it's fantastic. Who else gets that kind of love from their employers?

Off the top of my head, I really can't think of much else that is going on. I'm really excited about our trip though, I haven't seen my sister in almost two years, I haven't seen Rob in over two years, so it will be great to see them. I realized that Rob and Forest haven't seen each other in over 5 years, long before any of us got married. A lot of things have changed, haven't they? We are planning to take a trip to Frankenmuth sometime during our visit and we're going to try to stay the night at the Bavarian Inn. It's a huge hotel will 5 indoor pools, including an adults-only pool and hot tub. It also has indoor miniature golf and a huge game room where I'm sure we will spend a lot of time. Their chicken dinners are so amazing, I think that is what I am looking forward to the most. I will just have to try not to overeat...

The weather here has been CRAZY! It had been pretty cold (even for me) for a few days then all of the sudden on Saturday it was beautiful. We hit a high somewhere in the 80's and it lasted for three days. It got a bit cooler yesterday and this morning it was cold again. I had to use an ice scraper for the first time in 4 years or so. I'm glad Dal left one for me or I would have been sitting there for a while heating my car up. I can't wait to get a garage... So, because of this weather, my fibromyalgia has been all over the place and I've been feeling stiff as a board but I take it all in stride. I move around a lot hanging out with Grace and that helps keep me from locking up. I'll suddenly feel dead tired in the middle of the day but that is another thing remedied pretty well by my job so I'm grateful for that. I can't believe I am willingly visiting Michigan in the dead of winter, at least this time I'll have a proper coat.

I also haven't updated on Courtney's progress in a while, in case you were all wondering. She is doing very well! She finally got to come home after her bone marrow transplant just after the new year and got to enter it officially cancer-free. We still continue to pray for her and hope that life can get back to normal as soon as it possibly can.

what, do you think we're made of money?

Today was a very very full day!

I was scheduled to be picked up by Jennie at 9:45 this morning (and it would be the last day she'd ever have to pick me up!) but was greeted by Dal and McKay instead. So, we got over to their apartment and we all piled into the car to take a fire truck ride around Roanoke. McKay won a poster contest at school for fire safety so we were all rewarded. Unfortunately they weren't able to do it just then due to some malfunctions in their 2nd truck and we didn't want to be out joyriding in case they needed to leave quickly. They rescheduled at 4, so we headed back to the apartment.

Both the Dendy's and the Grabert's bought a "new" car today. Dal picked up his Honda Accord today while I took his Saturn off of his hands for him. So, while his is actually new, mine is just new to me. Forest had never even been in it until today, so it was really new to him! It's a nice little car, it'll do it's job in getting me around. The best part is, our insurance policy dropped a few hundred dollars due to having multiple policies and caused less than a $25 a month increase. Not bad!

After we were all done spending our wads of cash for the day (or so I thought), we headed back over to the fire station to take our ride. The trucks only seat 6 people, including the driver, and we were 7. We decided Grace was the expendable one and she sat on my lap. Grace was on cloud 9 almost the entire time, she was laughing and squealing away as we hit all sorts of bumps. Alexa was feeling car sick (I don't blame her) but managed to take pictures of random things, something she is very good at. I think it's time to get her a cheap digital camera so she can take all of the pictures she wants without wasting film. It was very fun for me, I am glad I had this after the disappointing day we had yesterday!

Grace woke up yesterday morning with pink eye, so neither of us got to go to her Christmas party! I know Jennie and I were far more bummed than Grace was, of course. I feel so bad the poor thing has to deal with pink eye. She has been so happy the past few days though, so it doesn't seem to be getting her down much.

Anyway, so, after our trip Forest called to tell me he was headed to Fry's to pick up something for Jennie's new phone (new car, new phone, new house, we're all made of money!) and found a headset I wanted. I told Jennie about it and she wanted one too! It's a Bluetooth (for you non-computer nerds out there, that means wireless) hands-free headset that converts into stereo earphones. It is very awesome and I can't wait until they are done charging tomorrow and I can mess with them. I took my new little car to pick up a present for Forest. It goes with his brand-new monster computer. This thing is a beast!! Oh yes, that also took a decent chunk out of our bank account as well, but was mostly paid for by the 3 days of pure overtime he had to work in October. So, while we're certainly not made of money, during the holidays it sure seems like we are.

I start my 4 day weekend today...and I know by Wednesday I'll be missing the laughter!

a great day

Somehow my great day also included vomit. Let's start from the beginning...

I woke up around 8 feeling pretty good, although my husband was freaking out because he was supposed to be in downtown Dallas by 8 for work today. Apparently I didn't set the alarm clock...although I did, but for me. He has his own alarm clock specifically because we usually wake up at different times. Nice thing about him working on Saturdays is that he could probably not even show up and no one would even notice. At any rate, I got up and ate pancakes for breakfast, along with some apple cider I got the other day. I took a huge swig of the apple cider and immediately noticed that it tasted like alcohol! It was horrible. Shortly thereafter, I got a slight headache, I had a little bit of a tummy ache and I was feeling hungry. I snacked on a few things, but the headache got worst and I started to feel nauseated. I laid around for a few hours trying to calm my headache, but nothing worked. I eventually got sick, which of course is never fun, but within a minute I was feeling totally fine. My headache and stomach aches were both gone. I don't think it was a flu or anything, I am pretty sure I just can't hold my fermented apple cider! It was a very bizarre turn of events, but I am SO glad I got feeling better, because I had a very good day.

Tonight was our Ward's Trunk or Treat. It's become a tradition in our ward, but I've never been before. The families line their cars up in the parking lot and pass out candy to the kids. I went with the Dendys to help with Grace. I went as a witch and she was a spider. It was quite a bit of fun, especially since I got to march around with a cute little spider all night. I also have never seen so many children in my life, it was actually overwhelming!

Jenny the Witch, McKay the Alien, Gracie the Spider,
Alexa the Flower and Dallas:

I got to see Courtney tonight! She was there with her little ones, which was fantastic to see. I can't believe a week ago she was so weak she couldn't do much of anything. She really is such an amazing woman, she isn't letting this get her down. I didn't want to spread too many of my germs on her, so I only got to talk for a minute, but that was more than enough for me considering it's been 7 weeks since I've seen her.

Courtney and her adorable family:

In other great news, my friend Crysta had her baby boy today! I don't know all of the details, but he was born around 7am this morning and his name is Spencer Jaxson. He joins his big sister Grayce. Congratulations Crysta and Chris!