May 25, 2010

Tuesday

Well, this last weekend was Daniel and my one year anniversary, on Sunday, in fact; but we celebrated for 3 days in a row because you can’t do some things on Sundays.

 1 year Anniversary Poem

 

From the day we were wed, ‘tis one year,

An event which does merit great cheer;

And so I will tell,

You must listen well,

To our story, so worthy to hear.

 

Our first meeting was in a fine class

Of music; since we both wished to pass,

Study we did do

So that we could pull through,

But that’s all that there was … alas!

 

So concerned was I, once, of my plan

That left no room at all for a man;

Then you came one fall

And ruined it all,

And for that I am your greatest fan!

 

Hesitant I was for to date,

For the opt of a different mate.

But that all fell through,

Thanks be to you;

Though our courting time came rather late.

 

That following year was to be

Spent inseparable, you and me;

Did really cool stuff,

T’was never enough.

Marriage? We’d just have to see!

 

One favorite date where we dressed

In prom clothes, all steamed and pressed.

A cheeseburger deluxe,

Fed grapes to the ducks,

What a wonderful way to De-stress!

 

But difficult times were to come.

Misunderstood, indecision, and some.

Thank goodness it passed!

We’re together to the last,

And now it all seems kind of dumb!

 

Mem’ry Grove carries much sentiment,

Where I watched you go down on knee bent;

A question expressed,

The answer was “YES!”

Knowing together our lives would be spent.

 

“In May!” It was what we both said.

“What a blissful, bright month to be wed!”

The plans were all made,

As our parents bade,

We knew that good times were ahead.

 

We were married on May twenty-third,

A day of blue sky and song bird.

In the temple were sealed,

(How my head reeled!)

A grander love tale never was heard!

 

What a wonderful year this has been!

Thank you, for being my best friend!

It’s exciting to know

That wherever I go

I’ll have you there, holding my hand.

 May 21, 2010

Friday

Wednesday was a pretty busy day for Daniel and me. We had to finish everything that we wanted/needed to do on that day, because we were leaving on Thursday. Daniel worked a lot on the home videos, and I worked on getting pictures uploaded to Costco’s website, so that we could print them off. It took a long time, and I made some thank you cards while I waited for them to upload. I had been planning to send thank you cards out for a while, so I tried to get that done. Dan and I also went to AAA with mom, so that we could start planning our trip to DC. We got a whole bunch of tour books from them for all the states along the way, so we will be able to pick out what we want to go see. We’re pretty excited about it! I also finished hemming pants that night, with mom’s help, which is a relief, because I haven’t been able to wear a pair of pants for a couple of years because they were too long.

We packed that night and hung out with the family. Dan was still working on recording the home videos, so we all stopped for a while to watch them together, and that was pretty fun.

Yesterday, Daniel and I spent the whole day driving. I slept a lot at the beginning, which Daniel was kind of bitter about, I started driving for him and he read to me “And then there were None”, a mystery by Agatha Christi. It finally started getting good! We stopped in Elko for dinner at KFC (gross … I hate fast food! It never makes me feel good after I eat it! We were sad that there was no subway in Elko) and then Daniel drove the rest of the way to Utah, while I read to him from “Catching Fire”, which he started reading a few days ago. It wasn’t too bad a drive, though I had some moments when I wasn’t feeling very good at all. But those passed quickly. Plus, we spent some time talking about things, like politics (what little I know of what’s going on) and family, our plans for after graduation and stuff like that.

We got in pretty late last night, so I slept in way longer than I had planned to this morning. Daniel took the car to get emissions and inspections done, and I read scriptures and a journal entry from when I was in high school, and now I’m writing.

That journal entry from the end of my junior year was actually just a collection of questions that I answered on paper. It was a study of what I was doing and what I want to do; I thought it would be of worth to read now that I’m done with school entirely, to see what I wanted back then, and how things are different than I planned. It was worthwhile. A lot of things that I had planned didn’t happen, or happened differently than I thought. I wanted to go to Dental School back then, and obviously that is probably not going to happen. But maybe Dental Hygiene school will. I hadn’t planned on getting married until after Dental School, but it turns out I got married during my undergrad years. Things turned out differently than expected/planned, which is probably why I am struggling now to figure out what I want to do with my life. I’m glad the way things turned out, and I probably need this period of struggling, to figure out who I am and what God wants to make of me. I also discovered, reading that study of myself, that I worried a lot about what people thought of me; and I still do to some extent (probably not as much as in high school, which is understandable). But I’m sure I’ve matured a lot, and I don’t really care as much. Plus, in that entry, I wrote a lot about developing myself and not worrying so much about others, or spending time with others. And I think that is not right. I mean, naturally, I want to be the best I can be and develop myself; but I think I should be spending a lot of time with my loved ones and in serving others. That seems to be the most important thing anyway. I could be the most accomplished person ever; but life would seem dull and empty if I didn’t spend a lot of time with my husband and family and friends. I think I felt the way I did in HS because I had really dumb friends, really untrustworthy friends and friends that did not treat me very well at all. But friends usually come and go; but my family will always be my friends and supportive of me.

 May 19, 2010

Wednesday

It’s early in the morning, but I wanted to write and do some things first before the day gets crazy, because I know if I don’t, it won’t happen.

Yesterday was a busy day. I got up at 5 in the morning to go to the ward exercise group that 6^th ward does (just to learn and pick up tips on exercise classes), only to find that no one was there. Later, mom told me that they only meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So, when I got home, I did my own thing, going off of one of mom’s exercise DVDs. It was pretty good, and today I’m really sore; combination cross fit on Monday and yesterday’s activities. So, probably today, I won’t be exercising; give my muscles a little break. After exercising, I did all my and Daniel’s laundry and folded it while watching a movie, read scriptures and talked to mom and Diane. The three of us went to see “Letters to Juliet” later that morning at Tinseltown. It was a cute movie, and we all really enjoyed it. The cleanest chic flic I’ve seen in a LONG time.

After we got back, I did my reading assignment that I’d given myself for my personal training book, and then took a 2 hour nap (I mean, really … I was tired; I woke up at 5 in the morning!). I helped mom make dinner and then spent a few hours scrapbooking while we all watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3. That movie actually made me kind of sad. The first one is definitely the best one.

I’ve gotten a lot of scrapbooking done during this little break of ours. It’s been good. But I’ve been thinking a lot about it, scrapbooking and different hobbies like that. And I don’t really know what to do about it. I really love to scrapbook, and I think it helps me develop creativity, which I think I’m lacking. But I look at mom and her love of quilting, and how it takes over much of her time, and how stressed she is trying to accomplish things for others. And I am afraid that I will stress so much over scrapbooking that it will take up too much of my life, when I could be serving and developing myself in other ways. I suppose anything could be a danger; reading could be for me. I love reading and getting caught up in the story, I’m afraid that it could get out of hand and I will end up spending too much time reading. I was thinking about this last night. When do I stop? I’m almost done with my trip to Nauvoo, and next I’m going to work on Spain. But then there’s our honeymoon, and our school years, and coming up our summer in DC, etc, etc, etc. And then when we start having kids? I know it’s kind of ridiculous to stress over something like this. But I am afraid that I will spend too much time on it, and not enough on people. I thought maybe eventually, I could do less scrapbooking and do more of putting pictures in my journal. I mean, everything is on computers nowadays anyway, and it would be easier and less time consuming to do that, though not as pretty or fun.

Last night I was thinking a lot about giving and using our time wisely. Mom told me that Mary doesn’t want me to go to Milli Vanilli today, because I have been saying mean things about it. (Milli Vanilli is a big assembly that North does at the end of every year, and it’s just a competition between the different classes in the form of a dance and song kind of a thing. I didn’t like it much when I was in high school, because I just felt it was a time for the popular kids to get up and show off, girls to dress in skanky clothes and dance all slutty, and the rest of us have to watch. I skipped most of ours when I was in high school … that is, when I could escape it. So I tell Mary how I feel about it, but it’s really important to her, she puts a lot of time and effort into these things and she really likes it. I was mean in saying those things to her, and it was really rude of me, and I feel awful about it.) So, none of us are going to watch her in Milli Vanilli today, because of what Diane and I have said about it. I was feeling really badly about it last night, crying to Daniel about it, because I’m mean and selfish. I’m not as full of love and service as I would like. Sometimes, there’s an opportunity to help someone, or to say a kind word and make someone feel good, and I just don’t want to do it. That’s awful! But it really hit me last night, when Mary didn’t want me to come because I was mean. And I have a new resolve to be kinder and more serviceful. Dan and I also talked about giving to the poor and what that means for us, how much we should give, and how we should spend our money. And there is a lot of room for improvement there for me as well. I think Daniel is good about giving, but I’m not so much. I’m kind of stingy when it comes to money, but then sometimes I spend so frivolously, on stupid things that don’t matter. Sometimes, it really strikes you how far from being like the Savior you are … and last night was one of those times for me. I usually think I’m doing pretty okay. I try to do what is right, and keep the commandments. But sometimes I realize how far I have to go. And today I have a new resolve to do much better; be kinder, more giving, and serve more.

 May 17, 2001

Monday

Lately, I have been feeling the need to write more often in my journal than I have been the last year or so. But, then, every day when I write, I feel like there isn’t much for me to say! That’s how I feel today at least.

Over the past few weeks since I graduated, I have been writing a list of things that I would like to accomplish during the course of the day, every morning. It’s been hard to feel motivated and to know exactly what I would like to accomplish, now that I’m not in school and have so many pressing deadlines.  Mainly, my daily goals have been created to aid me in accomplishing my bigger summer goals: read in my personal training textbook, go to the temple, help Daniel shop for new clothes for his internship, exercise daily, write in my journal and read my scriptures, etc. Last week, I hardly got any of my daily goals accomplished. I spent a lot of time scrapbooking and putting together Brian’s Missionary book, which are good things to do, and needed to be done. But then today, I got done nearly everything I had planned to do.

I woke up late, no big surprise, and then stayed in bed for over an hour reading my book. I’ve been reading a lot lately, and it feels so good to pick up a novel and not feel too guilty for reading it (because I should be doing homework or something like that). I started a book last night called “Juniper” that Julie lent me, and it’s really good, I like the story. I’m almost done with it. Anyway, Dan and I went to work out at a Cross Fit gym here in Medford. Patty Chambers is an instructor there, and she told us to come so that we could check it out and talk to her about fitness instructing, as that will be my internship. It was an intense workout; but I felt really good later about it.

When we got home, I started reading in my textbook (and finished the chapter that I was working on, thank goodness! …I’d been working on it for day, finally got it read), and Daniel started working on the door to our bedroom, the sliding one, trying to fix it. I think he almost has it! I also learned how to hem pants from mom, helped make dinner tonight, read a little more from my book, ate and now I’m going to start looking for a job.

I guess, even though I don’t have much to write about every day, it helps me to write down the things I have accomplished. It helps me to stay on track with my goals and everything. Plus, President Eyring has counseled us to write every day in our journals to remember how the Lord is in our lives every day. I think I have been blessed to come to Medford and to have the means to do the things I have been doing. Also, working out and exercising has been a big part of my life for a while, and I feel very fortunate and blessed to have the bodily capabilities and knowledge that I do. And I haven’t been hurt in quite a while doing all the fun things I’ve been doing. I’m really looking forward to this internship and increasing my knowledge of health and fitness so that I can help those around me, even if I don’t make it a job. I think my Mom and Mother-in-law, as well as some of my sisters, could benefit from a program like that. But, we’ll see. I’m just worried about them all, I want them to be happier and healthier.

May 16, 2010

Sunday

Daniel and I are in Oregon with my family. After packing up all of our stuff and putting it in the extra bedroom, cleaning our apartment and putting our summer stack in the storage (to retrieve when we are heading to DC), we went to Mark and Julie’s to spend a few days. We left on the 4^th of this month to head up there. It was fun to see Julie and the boys. They are SO cute!! I could barely contain myself around them. We just hung out and played with them most of the time. On Thursday of that week, we went to the Oakland Zoo, which was fun. I can’t remember the last time I went to the zoo, and it was better with the little boys. Little kids always make stuff like that more fun. I just asked Julie to send us those pictures, so hopefully we can keep that memory. At the zoo, there was this elephant that was playing in the water, and we stopped to watch him for, like, 20 minutes! It was so funny; you always see elephants just standing around, eating or pooping. But this one was way funny, and you could totally just see his personality as he was playing around in the pond. It was just a fun day.

The next day, Friday the 7^th, Daniel and I went to see Grandpa Fernandez and spent most of the day with him. He’s not doing so well. He has a TON of health problems, which prevents him from doing what he likes. He has to have kidney dialysis and he has a LOT of dietary restrictions, which is sad, because he loves food. He took us out to Applebee’s for lunch, we played games with him and he showed us his scrapbook when we got back to his house, and then he took us out again for dinner to the Elephant Bar. We had a lot of fun with him, but I was also kind of sad, too. He just seems so sad and lonely to me. He was so happy that we’d come to see him, and he really seemed like he wanted us to stay all day (which we did). He even said, right before we left at around 8:30, that next time we should come stay at his house a couple of days, after our visit with Julie. I feel so bad for him. None of his family members live close enough to go visit him on a regular basis (except Julie, but she’s got a crazy schedule for her boys), and I wonder how often any of us really call him to talk. Granted, he’s not a great phone-talker (neither am I, so you can imagine the conversation and awkwardness of that); but still. He’s so cute and so loving and so good, and I feel so bad. I love him, and I don’t want him to be lonely and sad.

Dan and I stayed up til 3 in the morning that night talking to Julie, so the next day we slept in way late, and we didn’t get on the road until about 2 in the afternoon. We spent all that day getting ready to leave and then driving to Oregon. When we got here, only Mary was here, so we went on a short run before going to bed.

This last week was none too exciting. Daniel and I have been working on projects for mom: Dan’s been working on putting our home videos on DVD, and I have been putting Brian’s letter scrapbook together. We also went shopping for Dan’s and my work clothes for this summer, and we got a super-good deal for Daniel’s nice clothes. We went to Van Hussen’s and mom had a bunch of coupons for us to use, so we only ended up spending, like, $25. It was awesome!

We also went to see “How to Train Your Dragon” for FHE with my family. It was a really cute movie, and I liked it a lot.

Dan and I have also been trying to work out a lot. We went running most days last week. We met the chickens; they are really fun! They are kind of cute, and we transported them last week from the garage where they’d been living, into their new chicken coop. It was really fun, and now I want chickens.

This weekend, our family took a trip to the coast, so that Daniel could see the Oregon Coast … and so that we could all have some fun together. We left on Friday, in the late morning. We stopped in Brookings and spent some time on Harris Beach, flying Kites and climbing rocks and watching the ocean. We also went on a short hike to the beach through the woods a little ways outside of Brookings. The hike led us to some big cliffs by the ocean, and we climbed around on the rocks and scared mom half to death. But it was fun.

We stopped that night in Gold Beach, where mom and dad had rented a beach house, only a little ways from the ocean. Mom made some lasagna and Chinese chicken salad and then we played games til very early in the morning. About halfway through a game of skip-bo, we heard some funny noises outside, but didn’t think much of it. Pretty soon, we heard what sounded like rain or fireworks, but still didn’t think much of it, until someone came knocking on our door talking about our car and a fire. We all ran to the door (thinking our car was on fire) to find the wood shed, not 40 feet from our little house, in flames. Huge flames! It was fully on fire! Dad moved the car (I’ve never seen him drive that fast) and we all stood there, really quite scared, until we realized we might have to evacuate if the fire spreads quickly. We all gathered everything we could and had with us, stuffed things into bags, cleaned up the games, and left the house, around the side to the back of it. It was really scary, actually. Diane was especially worried, because last summer she was in an explosion while working at the fair. Dad and Daniel stayed around the house (far enough away) to watch what was going on. The firefighters got there eventually and put it out, a lot quicker than I thought was possible. We watched from the other side of the lot, far, far away from it.

We weren’t about to stay in that house after what had just happened, so we went to the front desk to see if there was anywhere else we could stay; but the only place they had was too small for us, so we ended up going back to our little house for the night. I was so tired I didn’t have any trouble falling to sleep, even after that ordeal. It was after 3:30 by the time we’d settled in anyway. It was all very exciting, though. I’ve never seen a fire like that, that close up!

The next day, we were kicked out at 11am (checkout time), which I thought was rude, after such a night as we experienced. But we left, drove further up the coast looking for food, and didn’t stop until Bandon, where we had breakfast/lunch at a little Mexican Restaurant. We walked around Bandon for a little while, looking in the little shops and enjoying the town. We went further up the coast to Spinreel Sand Dunes, to go Dune buggying. That was really fun! Last time I went, I was too small and young to go on a quad. And this time, Dad, Scott, Mary, Daniel and myself all had quads, and we rode down to the beach and all over the dunes. We had a great time.

I read pretty much the whole way back home after our many adventures. I was reading “The Bronze Bow”, and it was a pretty good book! I finished it today.

We all feel very fortunate that we weren’t in any trouble or accidents during our trip, especially when there were so many opportunities for it! Heavenly Father was definitely watching over us! And we had a good time altogether. I just hope Daniel had a good time, because we all love the Oregon Coast, and we wanted to show him how cool it can be.