Wedding EVE!

Sorry! I'm too tired to actually post anything. Had an busy..frustrating..stressful day, not gonna lie. But I got endowed. I'll..err.. post on monday or something haha.. SO SLEEPY.

BUT TOMORROW I GET MARRIED!!! ..err.. today since it's 1am! welp, goodnight!

Getting Pretty Excited. :)

Today was a pretty fantastic day. This morning we woke up and picked my dad up from the airport. I was glad to see him and that he was able to come down. He's liked everything so far, minus the humidity, haha. He was like, "sure we can move down here. And your mom can get a job and I'll stay at home in the pool all day" lol. So after picking him up we headed to the Houston Temple to get some clothes for me and my dad. The people were really nice, and I got a nice looking temple dress. :) Tomorrow should be an exciting day.

Afterwards we headed back to our apartment, all the while Jonathan and his dad and the missionaries were loading/unloading all our furniture and my mailed boxes to me and Jonathan's new apartment. It looks WAY nice. I'm so excited to call that our home. :) And I'm so thankful for his mom for hooking us up with such a good place to live, especially with the cost of rent and stuff. She is awesome.

After we all saw the apartment, the sweaty hard working boys showered (lol) and all the family headed over to a BBQ place. Most of us had really good BBQ ribs. It was delicious and it was fun enjoying each others' company. My dad's so goofy, talking in his little spanish that he knows, but he's awesome. :D I'm SO happy he came! Afterwards we headed to the airport near us to pick up Laura (Jonathan's sis), Zach, and little baby Anna Isabella. She's SO cute. ...err.. I wanna little bebe like her when I have my own! Adorable. :) After we went to Al's formal wear to pick up Jonathan's tux. He looks way good in his turquoise blue tie and vest and the whole shabang. :D Lookin' good hun!!!

Then we headed back to their apartment and hung out for a while and a few of Jonathan's friends showed up for his bachelor party, in which all the ladies had to leave. While we were waiting for his mom to show up, Mari and Sniper were showing us a few of their moves - dancing, that is. I'm way excited for this Saturday. Should be way fun! - all the dancing that we're gonna be doing. yay! It should be fun to watch my parents latin dance, or try to haha..

Well, tomorrow I have a big day ahead of me. I'm getting endowed and then we have to set up the church building all day (and fit in dancing lessons from Snipa some time) So I should probably hit my pillow! I'm pretty sleepy anyway. It's about less than 2 days from being a married woman! I'm sooo excited. :D

Well, g'night!

And yet, another busy day

Welp, today we got up and were supposed to go to the airport early to pick up my aunt, but her flight got canceled so we had to sit around for a little bit and then head out to Houston. Then once we got there we had to wait some more in the airport and then she finally came in. :) Once we got them situated we headed out for lunch at a chinese place, the four of us - Alex, Jonathan, me and Mari.
Afterwards we headed back to his mom's work and we got to see OUR apartment!! It's so cute, and BIG. :D After that we dropped the car off and got some wedding decos to work on then headed home to our apartment. Before we started the decos, Sniper taught us how to dance latino. Mari was actually really good at it, woot woot! I like dancing, but mostly with Jonathan, cause he makes me comfortable. Later Jonathan's friends came over and hung out and I took a nap. When it was time to go to Institute Jonathan woke me up and we headed out again with Alex, aka Sniper ;).
Institute was really good, I do have to say, and I'm usually pretty picky. We got there late so we sat in the back, but that was okay. We mostly talked about the Atonement, and Elder Nelson and his life. There was a few partner activities, one in which we had to look on this page of quotes and find the one that touched us personally, about the atonement, and tell our partner:
What piece of truth can you find in that quote?
How has that truth blessed your life?
What is a good question that you need to ask yourself?
What can you do right now?

At least, I think those are the questions he asked haha. Jonathan volunteered me to talk to the class about what I had shared about, and mine was about "Remember Him" and how I need to remember to take upon me the name of Christ, and not mock it. And how Elder Holland in general conference mentioned that when people sinned or messed up they always say, "what was I thinking???" and he says, "well, obviously, they weren't thinking of Christ." And whenever I do wrong, that sentence always pops into my mind. And I just need to remember Christ more in everything that I do.
Anyways, institute was really good. I like that teacher. He seems inspired.

After institute we headed back to Jonathan's parent's apt and hung out and worked on the fan/shell looking napkins. Then we just talked with his family for a bit. I just love them to death! His dad is suuuch a cute man. And his mom is hilarious. :D I love their family.

Well, tomorrow's another busy day!!! We get to pick up my dad from the airport AND the boys are taking our mailed boxes and our furniture to our apartment! Hoooow exciting!!! :D Should be a grand day tomorrow. Yaaay. :) Well, goodnight for now!

Sometimes plans just change...

I'm gonna do my best to make this short because we have to pick my aunt up early in the morning from the airport.
Today I got up, prayed, read my scriptures, and the wonderful boys (Jonathan and Alex) brought over breakfast burritos. Then we started our drive out to Galveston. It was pretty cool. A lot of huuuge expensive mansions and a lot of houses that looked run down or maybe ruined by the hurricanes, since it is right on the beach. It was really neat to see it all - all the big church buildings and stuff.
Then! We got to go to the beach and see the ocean. The water looked brown and dirty, only because the sun wasn't out today (It was still way humid, mind you) but the water was soooo warm. We were down there playing for about 20-30 minutes, taking pictures and just wading up to our shins in the water. It was way nice. And it wasn't crowded either because it wasn't a super sunny day. My first time at an actual beach at the ocean. I can't wait to go down again when I am in a bathing suit! :D

After that we headed to the Kema boardwalk. There they have lots of rides, such as the ferris wheel, the inverter (which we went on- you go upside down), a big.. high dropping one, and lots others. We only wanted to spend money on the inverter and it was worth it - so fun. They had one rolar coaster but I think it wasn't working cause no one was going on it. So sad. :( haha. We also got to go to the Aquarium restuaruant. It was way neat. They had huge fish, sharks, sting ray, and a turtule in the aquariums where you sit and eat. And the glass was huuge. But it was pretty expensive there, so we're not sure if we're going to eat there later.
OH! And we got to go on the spongebob 4D ride. That's right, 4D. It was soooo much fun. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but you're sitting in these seats, buckled in with 3D glasses on and while you're watching the movie, while things are popping out at you, your seat is also bouncing to everything that's going on with the movie. SO cool. :D

After that the boys got a haircut, in which I convinced my novio to just get a trim. And he looks SO GOOD. I was really happy. I like his hair longer. :) I don't think he likes it, but I do. :) Then we headed back to the apartment to relax and then me and Mari took a walk around the neighborhood before we headed over to Jonathan's mom's work, which is the leasing office for our apt. Then we got everybody and headed to the store for a few things and then back to his parents house. It was then when his mom asked me if I had eaten lunch when I remembered I hadn't really eaten at all all day. So they graciously made me mango chicken drumsticks, with rice and cilantro, and beans with a tortilla. It was way the heck good. I definitely like staying home and eating than going out to eat every day..for almost every meal, which is kinda what this week has turned in to. Uh-ohh.. haha.

I'm not going to lie. Today was a really hard day for me, towards the middle/end. It sounds stupid but, I had curled my hair in the morning, loading it with hair spray AND I even used gel, I wanted to look nice. And halfway through the day it was totally flat..and frizzy and there were no curls. In fact, the humidity and hairspray made my hair sticky and it looked like I had dreadlocks. So gross. Then later on, just the topic of what me and Jonathan had been talking about kinda got me down, even though what he was saying was true and right. But what really topped it off is just.. well, I guess everything. I'm totally fine now with my mom and sister here, and especially knowing my dad's coming in a few days. But I know things are going to be way different when they leave..and it's just me.. and I don't know anybody besides his family and I'm in a big city, and I'm definitely not a spendy-big city type of person. And I still have to get a job. Which normally would be fine..except I don't have any connections here and I'm afraid to be a medical assistant here because I don't feel fully satisfied that I learned what I needed to on my externship and I'm afraid here is going to be more strict? I guess you could say.

It's just crazy thinking about all the things we have to get/do. I mean, we have been SO blessed the last few weeks. We're getting so much model furniture for just 200 bucks it's amazing. And just all the people I have met have been sooo nice. But we still have to worry about a car (plus insurance), jobs for the both of us, the rent, that furniture money, and the rent money to save when we go to Idaho plus any fees/books Jonathan needs then, without even considering a future family. So, it's just overwhelming. And stressful. But I guess that is life.

I guess all of that was just piled up on my brain, which almost brought me to tears a few time, and people said I looked tired and/or triste - sad. So I had to fight it back a lot, otherwise I'd have explaining to do ..and I did not want that. But that is mostly my day. During my personal dinner prayer I asked God to help me be more cheerful and happy and it totally worked. And Jonathan was being nice sweet self. So I had a pretty good rest of the night. I love him. I don't know what the heck I'd be doing down here if I didn't have him or the love of his family. So thank goodness!! (I also got to talk to Amy and the kids and dad on the webcam/mic so that was neat. :D I miss them.)

Anyways, I always say these'll be short, but they're always soo long! Gotta go to sleep for reals!

G'night!

More Like Home Every Day

Hay everybody,

So today we got up and were ready by 8:30 to have a pretty productive day. We went to the courthouse to get our marriage license...without realizing it cost 71 bucks..and they didn't accept visa haha. So Mari and Alex helped out with some cash which we were grateful for (and paid back haha). It's weird to see how many people in Alaska, and even here, are so against marriage. This old man saw what we were doing and he was like, "You're not, surely.."...and we're like.. surely what? and he's all, "Surely you're not getting married are you? ____ did you give them your speech?" As he was talking to the desk guy. I don't know about anybody else, but I happen to love Jonathan and I'm excited to marry him this Saturday. :D

After that we tried going to the tux place but it was closed for about an hour and a half, so then we went driving around in their old neighborhood where they used to live. Everywhere is just so nice and beautiful (and expensive looking). We also got to visit their friend pres. Burgesson, who is a chiropractor and he gave us free shirts! :D (With his logo on it haha) Then we went to the tux place and I gotta say, the boys are going to look great.
Next we went to DSW? ...err.. some shoe place. TONS of shoes. I couldn't find any I liked for the wedding though. I guess I'm picky. I could only think of one person who would love this place more than..well, I guess my sister. And that was Ruth and Jesa.. okay, that's two people.. but whatever. They both would love it there. Shoes galore.

After that we went back to the mall... for about 2 hours or so, looked around. Mari went shopping some more. Then we ate and went back to where Jonathan's mom works to get her to go to another apartment complex and look at furniture they were planning on selling for cheap to us. :) Then we headed back to our apt and took naps. I tell you, I had the weirdest dream.. which included newborn babies.. but they died. It was really weird. I didn't like it at all. :(

Then after his mom got off work we headed back to their place. Me and Jonathan were in charge of family home evening, so suggested we do it on Gratitude. So we put something together and waited a bit for his dad to come back from a family's house. Meanwhile, I was working on all the mens' boutineer's. They look pretty nice. And we got to talk to/see Laura and little baby Anna Isabella. She's adorable. :)

We ended up starting family home evening without his padre. I started out by saying that we have been given so much in this world, and we always need to be grateful for the things that we've been given - for life, our material comforts, the people around us, the gospel. Then I mentioned how Pres. Duval said, "You're only as happy as you are grateful," and how that's always hit me and how when we're grateful about the things in our life, we experience more happiness. Then Jonathan talked a little big about being grateful and then we passed out these papers. The rule was, you're not allowed to read the paper til it was your turn and on each paper there was a word and you had to tell why you were grateful for it and why it made you happy. It was a really good lesson. The words were; Book of Mormon, Families, Prayers, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, Temples, Joseph Smith, Prophets, and the Priesthood. Each person who participated said really meaningful, touching things about why they were grateful for that thing.
I really liked what Alex said about Jesus Christ and how none of us will really know how to truly express our gratitude for what Christ did for us because the Atonement is such a personal thing for each individual. I know I'm grateful for the Atonement in my life and for what Christ has done for me. That reminds me of what I heard in a talk once in church, "The worth of our souls is so important to Christ because He suffered for us individually." And I believe that.

Needless to say, it was a really awesome family home evening and a great day. I just had to give his dad and mom a hug before we left. And then his mom said, don't forget about grandma! So then I gave her a hug, and when I did that grandpa immediately stood up for his hug! lol It was pretty funny. I just love their family. I'm grateful for all they do.

Well, it's been a long day, and tomorrow we have lots of fun things planned! Goodnight!

Feeling a bit cold here?

Well, today was day two in Texas. We got up and got ready to go to church. It was...interesting. The people were very friendly, and Relief Society was fun, especially when we were discussing the Preisthood and one of the questions was, "What is a quorum?" and this older lady, who is a recent convert, started going off about the "corral" reef and no one had any idea what she was talking about. I think she heard corral instead of quorum. It was pretty hilarious. I wouldn't consider her slow..just different. The lady next to me said she was a little eccentric haha. And when people answered right they'd get a candy, and she was always saying she helped the person get the answer right, so she deserved more candy. She was a funny lady.

Then we had sacrament meeting, in Spanish. Luckily I took Spanish in high school so I recognized some words and was able to kind of get the picture about the story they were saying during their talk. It was pretty noisy with the children, and it seemed like no one was paying attention and the building was cold, compared to outside anyway haha. But that's where we're going to go to church from now on and I really don't care because Jonathan's dad is the branch president and he is one of the nicest, most humble people I know. And even though I couldn't really understand what he was saying to the people in Spanish, I love him a lot anyway, and I love his good heart.

Afterwards we headed home toooooooooo eeeeeeeeat. We were so hungry. But Jonathan's mom made really good enchiladas... with a little bit of my help, heheh. I stuffed them with chicken and cheese and rolled them, she did all the rest. So we had that, rice (with banana slices = way good), salad, and a yummy juice drink. Dinner was fun. I love being over at their apartment and with them. His mom is so funny, always making jokes and his dad is just so warm hearted. I know for sure that I'm going to hang out with them a lot when my family goes back home. I already consider them my parents.
After dinner we all took naps, then hung out some more and now me, mom and Mari are back at the apartment. It's weird cause the AC in the buildings makes it feel like Alaska does outside - air wise - being able to breathe. Outside it's just muggy and humid and hard to breathe. But lately I've been feeling pretty cold inside, so maybe I'm adjusting, yes!!!

Tomorrow we have a busy agenda. It's nice though, our apartment is right next to the courthouse so we are going to get set up for our marriage license first thing in the morning, go see about Jonathan's tux, see about some white wedding shoes, maybe send out some more last minute invitations, and go to the mall...again haha. The weather's been nice lately. Some thunder, little bit of rain, but it's been good. We saw lightning last night. Everything's definitely different.. but as long as I'm with my true love, I'll be alright.

Well, goodnight!

First Day In Texas

Soo, I will make this short seeing how I have church in about 7 hours or so.. It's weird being on Texas time - 3 hours ahead.

So today and yesterday seem like one big blur. We left Friday night at 1am from Fairbanks, Alaska and basically flew all night (morning). We had a 5 hour flight to Salt Lake City, Utah and then about a 20 minute layover until we boarded our next 2 and 1/2 hour flight to Houston, Texas. I admit, it was hard leaving my siblings. I participated in a tear fest - although my littlest sister, no doubt had the hardest time seeing me leave. She bawled her eyes out. I probably would have too, but right now it still seems like I'm on vacation..and that I'm coming home at the end of the week. So I'm sure by this Sunday when my family returns back to Alaska, and it's just me and Jonathan, it's all gonna be a big shock.

Needless to saaaaay, it's been quite the adventure so far. The airport was pretty cool (as in not hot - I really don't judge airports haha)...and then you walk outside and man! It feels as though you've stepped into a sauna, but with all your clothes on. Pretty gross. I've wanted to take a shower all day. That will definitely take some getting used to, for sure.

After the airport we went and dropped off the luggage at the model apartment that my parents, sister and I are staying at for the week (which'll be at the same apt that me and Jonathan will be living in come Aug 1st, thanks to his wonderful mom who hooked us up with a great deal!) and then his dad picked up his grandparents and we all went over to a China buffet, I don't recall the name. But it was pretty good. Afterwards, my sister wanted to go to the mall, so that's where we headed. Me and Jonathan just looked around and got a cinabon (hehe ;) ) and my sister shopped. I'm not a big mall person, and I really have to be in the mood to go clothes shopping so we kinda just sat around, talked, and waited. I do have to say, it has been weird experiencing summer time with it completely dark outside. I'm so used to Alaskan summers with light all the time, so walking out of the mall at 9pm and seeing it all dark reminded me of December in Alaska. It was weird. Then we took a little trip to Wal-Mart for groceries and shampoo. And now, I'm home, showered and just laying in bed after my prayer and scripture read. It feels good to have the AC on, laying on a nice mattress and clean. Woot! I can't wait til I am married and can unpack all my things and just start life.

Oh yes, I must express how much I love Jonathan's parents! They are definitely some of the nicest, funniest people I know. I'm so glad that they are going to be my new in-laws in a few days. I thank the Lord for their kindness and goodness. I love them. :) They have done so much for us already - for the wedding and for our new lives and living situation. I'm so grateful!