Life's an Adventure!

This month has been such an adventure.  Aaron and I have had so many big decisions to make and we've become so much stronger through it all as we've been guided by a loving Heavenly Father.  Earlier this month     Aaron and I were faced with a tough job decision which could very well affect the next 30+ years of our lives.  There was so much good about staying here but there was also a lot of opportunity if we chose to move.  In the end after much prayer, fasting, and discussion we decided to make Cedar City our home.  Since we made the decision, life has only gotten better as far as blessings go.

 The past couple of weeks I have had job opportunities come up, all of which are good offers.  The interviews all went very well and now I am just waiting to hear back from my two favorites.  The pay is better with Zions Bank and there is more opportunities to pick up extra shifts. However, I am quite excited about the job opportunity at TURN community services.  TURN is a place where they work with adults in the community with disabilities.  In so many ways I feel such a strong connection with these amazingly strong spirits!  My parents and other family members have always helped me to be so understanding with people with disabilities.  My mom especially was a good example to me.  I miss working with people. I miss being in an environment where I feel I can help make a difference in people's lives by helping them do things that they can't do for themselves.  More importantly I miss the opportunities I had to learn from them.  In the end I know that everything will work out for the best.

Aaron is so supportive in all of the decisions I make and he always makes me want to be a better person.  I am amazed at his strength and how hard he tries to improve himself each day, he shows me and tells me how he loves me so much especially through serving me .  He is such a blessing in my life and my appreciation for what he does has grown so much.  Not a Sunday goes by where I don't have someone mentioning how much they appreciate how he goes out of his way to make them feel welcome.   He has a way with people and is such an amazing influence on everyone he comes in contact with.

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One Year ago today (May 7, 2011) we were sealed for time and all eternity in the Manti Temple.
We still don't know everything about marriage but our love has deepened so much as we have stayed true to our covenants and have served one another.  I am so grateful for my husband and for how hard he works for our family.  I don't know where I'd be without him and know that marrying Aaron Mark Simons is the best decision I have made.  I look forward to our life together because I know that it will only get better if we continue to put each other first.

It  is so fun to look back on our first year together and realize the changes that have happened.  As most couples do, we started out with extraordinary plans.  It was exciting and scary.   We started out, unsure of what the future would hold.  So far we've found that marriage is better than anything we could have hoped for, but it has to be something that is constantly worked at.   We have struggled financially and emotionally at times as we have been putting ourselves through school and planning for the future but we've found that we are blessed by temple attendance, tithing, and service to others.

In the first months it felt almost like playing house, our roles as husband and wife were so fun and new.  
Now there are times were cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping don't always seem so exciting, especially on a busy day, but when I remember how hard Aaron works for us with school and work I learn once again how rewarding it is to serve my sweet husband.  Not a day goes by where he doesn't show appreciation and love for my efforts and for me.

I still feel so blessed and "Lucky to be in love with my best friend".  Aaron truly is my best friend!


I Love you!

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March 20, 2012

I can't believe we've been married nearly a year.  While I was looking for my journal I came across a book about writing personal history. Although I did not find my journal I found some fun writing prompts about the first year of marriage.

I feel so blessed that I can say that my parents loved my choice for marriage and I married into a family who loves me and accepted me on day one.  Going into marriage, Aaron and I had some high expectations and I honestly feel that for the most part marriage has been better so far than anything I could have expected.  Aaron and I have had so many chances to learn and grow together and although we personally haven't endured a great hardship we have grown together as we have watched all that his family has endured this year.  We have had so much opportunity for service and it has helped strengthen our love and appreciation for one another.

I've learned so much about Aaron this year and it has been the best year of my life so far.  As I look back over the year there have been some pretty hysterical things that have happened as we've tried to figure this marriage thing out. For example, our first apartment was a dive.  Aaron jokingly says that he had to move me into it before we found another place so basically anything would be amazing after the first place.  It had a tiny kitchen that I could hardly fit in alone. There was no oven so every meal we made was stove-top. There were only a couple of cupboards so we had to use our dishwasher to store our dishes rather than for washing them.  The bathroom was smaller than a half bath and had mold problems.  It was a basement apartment and on the door to the apartment there was about a 3inch gap from the bottom of the door to the floor, which enabled bugs to easily crawl into our house. One good thing about our place was the air conditioner, but wait, even that blew dirt around in the air.  Like I said before, it was a total dive but we didn't care much because we were newly married, had no debt and knew the living conditions weren't  permanent.  While we lived there we enjoyed living close to Aaron's parents while still having our own little place. Aaron was able to make us a beautiful bedroom set at his dad's shop and made the same design for Joe Cummings, who happened to be teaching a very expensive carving class which Aaron had been wanting to take for a while.  The work was traded in order for Aaron to take the class and he loved the skills that he learned.

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Leap Year

Leap year is actually pretty hard for me and my family.  8 Years ago my sweet mother passed away.  I just wanted to take a moment and reflect on lessons I learned from her as well as some precious memories.  She was such an amazing example to me of service. My mom was someone who always put others before herself.  I loved the way that she encouraged us to serve along side her.  I remember many many occasions where we went to help out with my Grandma Larrabee when she was bed-ridden. She helped us make cookies and we took them to soldiers on the air-force base on Christmas.  I remember how my mom ingrained in us the importance of being kind to everyone. When someone was in need she always tried to help them in any way possible.  I remember once she literally gave someone the coat off of her back on a cold winters day. Another time all she had was some fruit loops for the baby in her purse, but she still gave that because it was all she had. It didn't matter who it was. My mom was always someone who loved to listen and empathize with others.  She would laugh or cry with you depending on the emotions you were feeling.  As a mother, sister, wife, and friend she cherished her relationships and boosted others up.  My mother has forever influenced me for the better. It is because of her creativity that I developed my abilities in art.  She has been the inspiration for my love of writing.  Because of her I became so passionate in educating myself about alternative health.  She has inspired me to love working with mentally handicapped. She also inspired me to educate myself on mental health which led me to working at the college as a mentor, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  My goal this last month was to serve more because I knew it would help me draw near to my savior, my mom, and my husband. I am so grateful that I chose to do this when I was down this month it helped so much to focus on other people. Most of all I learned from this experience that it is so important to say I love you and to express your feelings.  I love you mom!!! I love my wonderful husband for being such a great support, and I love all of my  family (including my husband's) and friends!!

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January 1, 2012

School has been pretty crazy, but the weekend is finally here.  Hooray! Lately we've been pretty excited for weekends because we've been making new friends with people from our young married ward.  To be honest we struggled with our ward in the beginning.  It took until we finally invited some people over and made an effort to reach out to the other couples in our ward before we realized that it was our attitudes that really needed to change.  I think that it can be that way in the church quite often.  If we would have continued to just think negatively about the ward and just waited around for someone to reach out to us, eventually it may have happened but then again maybe not. Anyways it's turned into a pretty regular thing, getting together with friends, we switch off houses and activities and each week we get to meet at least one or more new couples from the ward. 

The other thing that really motivates us is the opportunity we've had to go to lessons with the missionaries.  We really like going and it helps us to focus on Christ and keep at the center of our home.  It has proven to be the greatest blessing in our marriage.  As we strive to have a more Christ centered home we are better able to endure the challenges that life throws at us and those close to us.  We've also noticed that our testimonies and our love for the Book of Mormon has strengthened as we have made it a goal to read it personally and together each night. 

Life in general is good, other than the fact that we still have no clue what we are doing.  Aaron has a good job,I'm able to learn how to be a wife, and we both are going to school.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to major in and most of the time I feel that I learn more on my own from the good books I've been reading, along with doing research on topics that interest me. ( I bet my parents would've liked to hear that more often when I first started homeschooling ;), but at least I came around to admitting it, right? ) There are still times when Aaron isn't sure that he absolutely loves his major or his job.  He still really misses woodworking and would love to do something that requires more creativity rather than the repetitiveness of what he is doing now.  However, one thing is for sure and it is the fact that we feel so blessed that he has a job!

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