More to Come Soon!!

I promise!! Mark and I are in the process of unpacking our stuff right now... and we have a LOT of stuff :o) ... and a tiny little (but VERY cute) apartment in married student housing on campus. We LOVE it here!! We have one of the best views ever out or front room: the soccer fields :o) Really, they are pretty, (and not just because my husband is a soccer nut and wants to go out and play with them all the time). Beyond the field is a forest, and above the forest is exactly where the sun sets, so it is really really nice to take walks, and it is so peaceful over here. We totally, LOVE IT! We have taken a lot of pictures for you guys, BUT! (hence the promise of more blogs to come) I cant find that magical little chord that will allow me to get the pictures out of my camera :o( So! fun blogs and promised pictures will be soon to come, pending the finding of the magical cord. :o) You would think that would be incentive enough for me to get off the computer and start unpacking, huh ;o)

BUT! first, a few stories :o)

We had lots of people come and help us move our stuff into our apartment :o) Mark decided he was having so much fun he took matters into his own hands and left the keys in the moving truck when we turned it back in and locked the door. OH NO!!! yes, yes, I know this is shocking, primarily because it was not me that left it in the truck, chronic key-lock-er-in-er that I am. (I would call to your remeberance the keys I locked in the TRUNK of mom's convertible when we were checking out of the hotel...for instance. Not to mention the time I locked the keys in the car at the church building...and the time I locked them in the car at the institute building...) Mark says that I am rubbing off on him. oops! We called the rental truck people (since it was after they had closed) and they said that we could call a locksmith, or they could. One of the elders that was helping us, Elder Garfield, said that he could break into cars since he used to work at a car auction *wink wink* (jk! Elder Garfield is a great guy! :o), and offered to help us out. After examining the truck, he said that we definitly should call a locksmith (apparently, moving trucks are pretty hard to get into). True to this elders prediction, the locksmith we called had a veeeeeery hard time getting into the truck. Eventually he had to call for reinforcements. oh dear!! Thankfully, he finally got into it and we were able to say good bye to the moving truck. :o) HOO-RAY!!


The next funny story I had is mostly for Iwalani's benefit :o) Well!! we just got Rupie-mach-II back from the doctors (translation: we just got my laptop back from the computer service) and he is all better!! No worries!! :-D

Now, for all of you who were wondering what was wrong with him....(drum roll please)....there had been TWO cd's smached into Ruperts mouth! ha! No WONDER he couldnt spit them out!! :o) Its situations like this that make me wonder how "being retarded" could possibly be covered under my computer warranty, although I'm really glad that it is :o) You would think that something like this would fall under "user misuse" or something like that. I am really glad that people don't over estimate how helplessly retarded people can be with technology sometimes :o) On fact, I wonder if it is possible to underestimate some people :o) *sigh* what I would give to know what the computer tech was thinking when he opened up Rupie...especially since I introduced him to Rupert AND told the receptionist that I thought my laptop had gotten "car sick" on our cross country trip ... ;o)

more to come!!! cross my heart ;o)

...before the beginning :o)

I figured we should put a few pictures in here from our engagement as well :o)



Mark and I met through an introduction from Marks Aunt Katie and my Mommy after Katie and her family moved to NM and she and my mom became friends. My mom called me one afternoon while I was on an internship in WA and told me that she had given my email to her friend for her nephew and that someone might be emailing me in the next few weeks. I doubted to ever hear from someone who would email a strange girl based off a distant aunts recommendation of a girl she had never met... WELL! on Marks end, he was in the hospital getting his lung re-inflated and glued to the wall of his chest cavity when Aunt Katie called and said that he should email me. Being in tremendous pain, he decided to pass and focus on relearning how to breathe ;o) before he thought about emailing some girl. A few months later Aunt Katie again suggested that he email me. Truth be told, we both thought that we would never, ever get into a long distance relationship-especially an internet based relationship...

Then began the emails which shortly lead to the phone calls which shortly lead to the VERY expensive phone bill (apparently, talking for 4-5 hours a day can be a bit costly when you are not on the same cell phone provider, go figure) which promptly lead to buying a phone on the same plan as mark, which shortly lead to my flying out to meet mark, which lead to our getting engaged in the car driving back from meeting marks parents, which lead to us getting sealed which leads to us -being in the process of- living happily ever after!! :-D HOO-RAY!

So! before the beginning there was a lot of blessings, luck, and preparation that lead to Mark and I having the opportunity of meeting and developing a close friendship that serves as the building block of our future. How lucky I am to be married to my bestest-best friend who I get to play with every day!

In the beginning...

...we were married! :-D

This is the temple we were sealed in (note: this is not a picture taken at the wedding as there is noticeable greenery and lack of snow ;o) )











This is an actual picture of the temple on our wedding day (note: the realistic presence of the shivering, huddled masses) sorry everyone about the snow! -really sorry about the ice Eddy :o( thanks so much for sticking out the snow and attending our sealing, it was so wonderful, I am so glad for those of you who were able to come and share a little bit of heaven with mark and I. We sure love you all!



Mark and I were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogoes Temple in the afternoon of December 21, 2007, the first day of winter. As such, (for those of you who were not there) it was freezing, really windy, and snowy, and perfectly wonderful. We got sealed in Utah, even though neither of us is from Utah, because when we got engaged we realized both our families would be in the St. Lake area at Christmas: Mark's family because his older brother, Michael, got sealed the day after us, my family because we were having a family reunion since my sister and my two cousins, Johnny and Barry came home from their missions, making it the first time my moms side of the family was all home at one time for several years.

While I would not jump at suggesting a winter wedding to anyone else (there is something to say about being able to stand outside without having the blood congeal in your veins) a wedding ring is a pretty awesome Christmas's gift ;o) . I am very grateful we were able to have such a lovely, wonderful wedding and such a beautiful beginning for our new life together. How wonderful it is that the sealing power has been restored, and what a wonderful blessing it is that Mark and I can be together forever! The best-est Christmas gift forever! :o)

Here is a slide show of me and mark coming out of the temple! Please note that as it was so cold they let us take wedding pictures inside the temple for a little bit. Then we were chased back outside in the cold. Also note, that it is really, really hard to smile while your teeth are chattering (and yes, those are smiles, not grimaces, I promise):


After the sealing we went to Darbles and Eddy's house to have an open house. My mom and aunt shaun and many others decorated, planned, and provided wonderful, beautiful, delicious food. What a wonderful, gracious family we have! :-D

Here is a slide show of the open house (thanks so much to all of you who made this possible and wonderful! thank you thank you thank you!! ):



Then, we had a quick drive back down to NM for the reception there! (thank you shelly and my wonderful mom and family and katie's family and mommy harggett and everyone else who helped with everything) here is the slide show!:



here is the reception in IN (thanks so much to mark's parents and friends of the family who made this possible! all we did was show up and they had taken care of everything! thank you thank you thank you!):



There is no way that we could have done any of this with out all the help that you guys gave to mark and I. Thank you so much (especially to my mom) to all of you. In looking over these pictures I realized just how MUCH everyone did for us! :o) What a wonderful blessing it was to us, and thank you all so much.