“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”–Anais Nin

“I’m going to start a blog”…

2 posts and 4 years later…

I am trying again. 🙂

In four years, we are still married, and we still like and love each other! We decided to extend that like and love and we created a little boy, Reed. He just turned one month and so here I am, attempting to stay more current with a blog because I simply hope we never forget these times.

Colton is finishing his clinical doctorate and will officially be an Audiologist come December. He will then pursue his PhD at ASU this coming January. I am currently on maternity leave from my SLPA position in schools, hoping to revive my love of writing and discover new hobbies. Reed is juggling a few things right now between naps and eating; he is learning to have a BM and to lift his noggin during tummy time. We are all just trying to survive right now and taking naps in between.

Here is Reed:

• He is 1 month old
• He loves staring at whoever is holding him… and also loves to stare at his best friend, the ceiling fan
• He can chug a bottle like a champ
• He grunts, strains, groans, squirms all night trying to make a big job. (According to my google searches, this is normal and is called dyschezia and should resolve in a couple weeks. I promise to not confess to his pediatrician, tomorrow, that I “google diagnosed” my child)
• He smiles and giggles just as he falls into sleep. I know it is not “real,” but it does not make it any less cute
• He does not really cry, and we all hope it stays this way
• He is almost too big for his newborn clothes, and is fitting into most 0-3 month clothing
• He is so sweet and has completely changed me for the better

 

“Another road where I could find another mind there”

Life is pretty mundane for the most part around here,  which is why I leave my blog posts until something fun happens. I’m sure no one, but me, really cares that I accidentally bought waterproof mascara for the umpteenth time in my life.  24 hour lash blast on the mascara tube actually means… this sucker is not coming off no matter how much soap and scrubbing power you use. Shoot! I just didn’t want racoon smudge eyes.

We went to Lagoon! Our good friends, Joy and James, gave us some of their tickets to go to Lagoon. We had so much fun! We rode every ride we wanted to without any wait time! Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures. I thought about asking this couple on our way out, but after a double-take, realized it was Cody and Michelle from Bachelor in Paradise. I was too embarrassed to ask them to snap a picture (looking back: a total mistake on my end.) It was our first time going to Frightmares at Lagoon, so it was full of people dressed up as everything scary: zombies, clowns, vampires, chainsaw people.  Colton had to make major detours around the park to avoid these people all together.

The next day we saw the BYU and Utah State game. It was really sad for our team, Taysom Hill. But super fun nevertheless! Colton’s little brother and dad took us. It was fun to see them. And then my brother came the next day! It was like a weekend of nonstop adventures. He also made me this cool headboard!   We watched General Conference! We love the prophet! It was a really inspired and inspiring conference. And this classy fella just turned 3! Here he is as Star Lord preparing to shoot me with his gun.

 

Things we have been doing lately:

1) reading Harry Potter. We have been reading all the Harry Potter books aloud to each other. We are currently on The Half-Blood Prince. It it too funny to listen to Colton read through the mushy love parts and the parts about “Harry’s monster” whenever he sees Ginny. I wish I could have recorded Colton reading the part about “after several long moments…or possibly several sunlit days…”

2) learning to hypnotize. Not really. Colton just thinks he can do it. “1,2,3.. sleep!” I don’t know the science behind hypnotism, but I don’t think counting to three is the charm.

 

 

Currently

We have been married for a little over ONE YEAR!

 

That means:

We are still in love! And super happy.

We are more honest. ( I don’t make the bed… ever. It really is a huge sacrifice when I make the bed, and it really is only because I love him. Sorry it never “came up” before. And sometimes I listen to One Direction because I feel like it.)

We are subject matter experts on each others likes and dislikes.

We are more clear on things we can and can’t share. (I CAN’T share my crepe with him; I just need the whole thing. We CAN share a bank account; we are both so worried about spending our shared earnings that we rarely spend on ourselves.)

Amongst other things.

I asked Colton what he has learned after being married for one year, and he said, “That you’re the best!” He really has learned so much.

 

For our anniversary, we went to Park City! We had so much fun. We ate pizza, went to the Olympic Park, ziplined on the “Xtreme line”, we were treated to lunch with Colton’s uncles, stayed at a charming bed and breakfast, and watched the coolest concert at Deer Valley! But we are such law abiding citizens that we didn’t take pictures or videos of the concert! 😦

<us carrying the Olympic torch and Colton at Vinto>

Ben Folds sang with the Utah Symphony. It was super impressive. We loved every minute of it! He was so good live! He made a song on the spot, complete with orchestral parts. I’m all about that. It will be hard to top our first anniversary!

Last weekend Colton’s sister got married! We went to Idaho to help watch over Colton’s little brother while everyone else took care of wedding details. It was such a  beautiful day and we are so excited for the happy couple.

 

While watching Colton’s brother, Bode, we went to the driving range. I hit about 15 balls from the bucket, but swung probably about 45 times. I woke up with aching muscles. I need to work out. Colton and Bode killed it, though! Once Bode found his special Michael Jackson glove, he was set.

 

 

We were also able to see my family where we played some backyard baseball (with my four year old nephew’s tee ball set) with some of my siblings and their kids and spouses. They are always so fun! No photographic evidence is on my person, thankfully.

“thumbs up” for our one year!

Sorry my photography skills range from poor to pathetic…

 

Background

Like every cliche blog, I’ll probably talk about how this is a cliche blog. However, this one also needs a story on how we came to be! We met in high school. It is true love, or perhaps selective memory loss, that he still loves me after watching all the uncoordinated hazards in P.E. It was kind of a cat and mouse kind of game (or me just being a moron). I liked Colton when we were juniors and we shared Anatomy and P.E. classes. I sat next to him everyday just waiting for him to say “hi.” When he finally DIDN’T, I took matters into my hands and sparked up awkward conversation. We talked everyday! I loved his mysterious looks and our witty banter. I asked him to Sadie Hawkins and he said “yes.” (His speech does not market use of exclamation marks unlike my speech). I don’t remember much about that dance, except I think we had a pretty good time? Mostly, we joked about other people and laughed all night (not much has changed). After that, he kept showing interest. I got scared, I did not want a boyfriend. So, we kind of just split communication outside of the classes we still had. Colton says he just wanted to be friends, but let’s be real… Anyway, high school ended and things between us had not changed. We both dated other people and we would probably agree that after we got those diplomas, we would have never seen each other again.

BUT WE DID! Obviously. After we finished our first year at different colleges, we were both home for the summer in between my sophomore year of college and his going on a mission. I stayed with my dad in Las Vegas for the majority of the summer living for free rent and food! He was living at home in Idaho Falls with family before he set off for Orlando for two years. My mother still lived in Idaho Falls and I planned to stay with her for a bit when I returned from Las Vegas. While I was still in Vegas, Colton messaged me on Facebook. We joked about my job in Vegas. Since we are super sarcastic I said that some people may have called what I did “escorting”, even though I was the Copy Queen at my dad’s office. To which Colton replied “oh, miming? I’ve heard that’s fun.” He suggested I escort him to the movie dressed as mimes! I said “Duh!” and I let him know when I got back to town the following week. I expected obviously not even to see him, thinking everything was a big joke, so I didn’t even look cute for the date we set. He came to my house, though! We watched Despicable Me and had the best time ever. It didn’t end there! After the movie, Colton opened his glove box to show me he brought face paints so we could dress like mimes. I have never laughed so hard as we put our mime face paint on in my old bedroom. We went to the park in our mime attire but could only laugh when we looked at our great paint jobs.

 

Colton left on his mission and I again expected never to see him. I continued to go to school and dated really dumb boys. Six months into his mission, his sister asked for my address so Colton could start writing me. I was so pumped. I immediately sent her my address. Very shortly after, I received my first Colton letter. He was so funny and he was such a good missionary. I fell so hard and looked forward to every letter! We probably wrote one letter a month. I still was attending school at ISU and had no intentions of moving to BYU (where he planned on going on his return in two years). I made a rash decision to transfer to BYU days before the winter deadline due to some provoking of my sister who convinced me that BYU was the ish. I thought for sure there would be a larger dating pool at BYU and didn’t expect Colton would be interested in me as more than a friend. That idea seemed out of question to me. So, I went to school at BYU and had a blast. I went on some dates, some good guys, some not as good. I was still writing Colton once a month and I knew he would be coming home soon. So, in my last letter I told him that “we should hang out when you get to Provo!” I never heard back and so I kind of felt like I asked too much of a super missionary(come to find out the letter was lost until he was just about leaving his mission). Much to my happiness, he messaged me on Facebook again once he actually got back. “I’m in Provo! Here is my number. Call if you would like!” I was like, Booyah! And I called him. And I saw him. And I kept seeing him. And I’m still seeing him. And it’s the best thing in the world.

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