Post Wedding

Wow it’s been an eventful past couple of months—like really, my life has been so crazy busy I’ve been just trying to do my best to keep up with it! Haha well where do I even start. . .
Morgan and I got sealed together for time and all eternity on June 19th in the St. George LDS Temple. It was such a special day for us! Thank you everyone that contributed to making it such a perfect day! Later that evening, we arrived early for the reception to get some fun family pictures in before the guests arrived. . . but to our dismay, the wind was blowing so strong outside that we couldn’t even have any of the flowers or pictures out there—we had to wait till the wind stopped blowing to set up a ton of the decorations outside, which fortunately for us- calmed down about 15 min prior to show time. We were all in a panic trying to get everything ready, and of course there were all the early birds approaching our driveway. . . and I’m in the big white dress, so there’s really not any way for me to just look invisible until I’m ready. That’s kinda the sign for people at weddings . . . just look towards the big white dress, all the other people you came to see will probably be standing somewhere near that. . . and you know that you must pass through them to get to the food. I didn’t know where to stand, and we hadn’t even formed the line yet—
By 7:30 (the time that we were actually scheduled to start the reception) we were all there, finally in line— everything about as in order as it was going to get. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the outcome of the reception— I missed a few of my friends. . . but it’s impossible to find a day that’s convenient for everyone. Morgan couldn’t have looked more handsome, the weather couldn’t have been better—especially for June in St. George—we totally lucked out! The band was Amazing— so much talent! Their repertoire was a perfect mix of our favorite songs! My sister’s and mother couldn’t have looked more gorgeous. My Aunts and cousins couldn’t have been any more adorable as those giggling girls in the kitchen prepared our yummy desserts. Jamaica did a fabulous job at copying the cake from the picture I showed her—so pretty.

The flowers were so full and lush! Our sweet little nieces and nephew were so fun to watch spinning on the dance floor.I hadn't seen my one and only niece for almost a year, and she'd grown up so much!

All the video’s our friend Alan White made for us were just awesome— What as special treat that was for us!
The finishing touch was all of our sweet friends and family’s smiling faces there, loving and supporting us— what more could've we asked for!


We left the next morning right after church to head up to Park City for our honeymoon in our new car! haha just kidding, I wish! We just parked next to this car on our honeymoon, and I decided that if I had to. . . I could be persuaded to run my errands in a vehicle like that--easily! The drive went by quickly; time fly's when you're having fun. It’s so much fun being married to your best friend ;)

We headed home on Wednesday and then spent the rest of that evening packing up our stuff. We woke up early the next morning and went to get a new drivers license with my new name on it. Then we went and ran a few more errands and started packing some more. Our plan was originally to leave about noonish but we didn’t leave 'till after 6.

This trailer was packed clear full! There's a couch in there, and my harp, and tons of other fun stuff. . . luckily we were able to make it all fit;)


The trailer took a while to pack and we had to be really careful driving with it, so we had to go extra slow. We drove to Vegas, then heading towards Laughlin we had something fly down right in front of us and slam into our grill. Fuzz said that he thought it was an owl or something. We just continued to drive for another ten minutes or so and then we came to a rest stop. Fuzz wanted to go get a treat or something and see if there was any damage to the front of the truck---- I watched as he made his way towards the front of the truck, where his eyes got huge, “Babe, the owl’s still here!” It made me just sick. I was way sad that the bird had to fly down and get killed, and sad because it broke Fuzz’s grill on his truck- I’ve waited years for this truck to become half mine and it breaks within my first week of my part-ownership! I got out just enough to peak at the damage--- I saw the bird mounted to the front of the truck with his huge wings outstretched. That was about all that my tummy could take—I had to hop back in the truck and keep my hand over my mouth to muffle my girly squeals—when I see sick things like that, I can’t help but freak out—I don’t like to, but I just do—I just blame it on being a girl—and sometimes us girls just do silly things.

I was being a baby and wouldn't go take a picture of the dead bird on the front of the truck, so I found one that looked just like it-- really, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this the actual bird we hit! See how big these wings are--
Fuzz pried the owl off and threw it on the side of the road—so so sad. I know, we should have at least buried it, but it was so late, and we had so much more driving to do. We stopped in Laughlin to stay the night. I don’t recall ever even passing through that city; it was like a mini Las Vegas.



The room was really nice though and we were able to get some good sleep so we’d be able to get up early the next morning. Well the sleep was good. . . we just got a little too much of it. Yea, we both slept through the alarm. . . and so we didn’t end up leaving until about 7:30 when we were planning on leaving closer to 5:00.



Are we there yet? Almost? . . .



We could see this rainbow from the freeway, and weren't surprised to find that the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow was literally right in the middle of Las Cruces, a beautiful city just outside of El Paso. I have a very good friend that use to live there, and so I wasn't surprised to find it at the end of a rainbow. . . having heard about what a special place this city is.

With the trailer on the back preventing us from going as fast as we would have liked to. . . and the traffic all through Phoenix, our journey was delayed so much that by the time that we got to El Paso that night, the office was closed at our apartment so we weren’t able to sign the lease and pick up our key. It was probably a good thing though because we were both so tired that I think we would have been too exhausted anyways to unpack the entire trailer, and we didn’t have our bed yet, we still needed to go and pick it up from the place that we’d purchased it. The office wouldn't be open until about 10 which was fine because we were able to sleep in a little bit, and still have time for Fuzz's hair cut. He'd been able to let it grow while he was on his one month leave, but now it will have to be super short again, until he's finished with the army.


This was my first haircut I've ever done on a guy. I got half way through and decided that this looked good enough. . . just kidding. . .


Tada!

We quickly unloaded the trailer and then went and picked up our bed, washer and dryer and then went to Fuzz’z barrack’s to pick up all of his stuff.
Our living room was so full that night with boxes and just stuff—I wasn’t sure we’d be able to find room for it all. Well it’s been about a couple weeks now, and we’re just about there. We just have a few more boxes to sift through and we’ll be finished with that. . . maybe we’ll be able to finally hang up some pictures!
Our 4th of July was awesome! Lacked a few fireworks—though, we saw one illegal one in a neighborhood as we drove past—but that was about it for us this year. We were going to go to a baseball game the night before and see fireworks there at the end of the game . . . but our one hour nap turned into about a four hour nap. . . and we totally missed the game. We have a buddy that is getting married next month so he moved in the same weekend as us to his apartment. He had invited us over for a BBQ and to show us his new place-- so cute. And the food was yummy too! We were lucky because Fuzz had Friday and also Monday off work so it was a super fun filled weekend! We’re still exploring our area, and just loving it more and more every day. We’re within about 15 min of two of our church's, a Super Target, couple of Walmart's, Joanne’s fabric store, a ton of our favorite restaurants, the movie theater, our bank, Marshall’s, Ross, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond, and this way cool store called World Market. . . just to name a few of our fav’s.


This is Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. This city is adjacent to El Paso, just on the other side of the the border. It's crazy how different this city is from El Paso. The first time I saw Juarez I turned to Fuzz and said, wow that looks like Mexico over there! Fuzz turned to me and said kindly, "That's because it is Mexico." I couldn't believe that we were so close to it. I asked where the border was and Fuzz pointed down towards this tiny little stream, really-- so tiny, and said, "That's it." Yea, I can't believe that people get shot crossing that! It's not like I expected a Great Wall of China to segregate the two countries, but this looked like hardly anything!

The closest temple to us is just over the border in Juarez, which is a very dangerous city, with an estimated 8-10 murders occurring daily with all the drug wars going on, it's insane! We aren't even allowed to go over there because there's a rule that no men in the military can even cross the border. So now we get to travel about 4 hours to the closest temple. We were spoiled living in St. George, less than ten minutes away from the temple. Even in New York the temple was less than 5 miles away--
We'll be fine, we'll just have to plan out our trips to the temple so that Fuzz can submit his paperwork to leave El Paso for the weekend. We're aiming for once a month. . . which really shouldn't be a problem. We'll make it work!



We are so blessed to live where we do and thus far to have everything work out as well as it has—knock on wood. Here is a picture of one of our beautiful sunsets. Every night the sunset is just gorgeous, all different colors, just so so pretty!

Our ward is awesome—we’re excited to get to know more people in it. It was so funny going our first Sunday in that ward, and bumping into one of my buddies that I worked with for a couple years in UT at Pizza Factory. She was there with her husband and her cute baby. They were just down here because her husband is selling security systems for the summer. I haven’t seen her for years, and then I run into her in Texas of all places—crazy. Well I probably better go and finish unpacking—hopefully the next post will say that I’ve finally finished! We’ll stay hopeful-

Up Until Now. . .

One thing that I really wanted to see before I left New York was go to the Moth. The Moth is a storytelling night, where there is a designated theme, "Green" was the theme the night I went. Anybody that wants to can put there name in the bag and then if they are drawn, they have 5 minutes to share their story with us. It has to be true, and go with the theme, and can't go over the time limit, or they get points deducted off of their final score. The judges are randomly selected out of the audience-- Lex and I, along with her buddy from work, were selected to be judges (well, one of the 3 judge teams). We had to stand in line for over an hour to even get in, and there were so many people there that most people just had to stand the whole night-- and it was a few hours long! We were lucky and got their early enough that not only did we get in, but we got seats too! It was fun hearing all of the different ways green was used in the different stories; to some it meant new, or environmental, or even marijuana-- it was just fun to hear people tell their own stories. The stories are recorded and are avail on podcasts and some of them even on the radio! The host of the night who's picture is above, (totally looks like Snape from Harry Potter!) is actually a writer for GQ magazine, and had an article in April's edition about moving home after like 20 years when he'd moved away without any intention of coming home for anything more than a holiday here or there--- it's really a hilarious article.
The Moth is really such a great idea! Here's the site: http://www.themoth.org/

So I had just discovered one of my favorite new restaurants, Room Service with my buddies Dana and Nicole, and then headed home to meet Lex. Lex and I were suppose to go clear up town to the top of the island to meet our friend Bobbi for dessert at a new restaurant we'd never been to. We got up there and Lex asked if we could maybe stop by our buddy Brook's house because she needed to pick up something from her-- and since we seldom came up in those parts for anything besides church it made sense that she'd want to run over there while we were already so close.

It took us a sec to find the right building-- they all look the same. We went up and shared our little submarine elevator-- you know what this is if you've ever been on one--- way old school, with a older gentleman carrying home some groceries. When we finally got to Brook's floor, we hopped off and started heading down the hall towards a dead end of all red doors. Lex and I were confused which one was actually Brook's as they all looked the same, all except this one with a big Jewish symbol on the outside of the door that said God Bless. I turned to Lex, "I have no idea which one is hers, do you? Well, hmm... It could be that one, or that one, . . . I know it's not that one!" I said pointing to the God Bless door---- just as the man I'd forgotten was behind me shuffled around me and said, "Yes, this one is mine." I was SO embarrassed! I was trying to say something to fix it when the door in front of me opened and, SURPRISE!!! It was my buddies-- they'd thrown a surprise going away party for me, and had a camera in my face-- haha we had to watch the replay later because I told them how I had already frozen my tongue with embarrassment and then the shock of the surprise too--- had me completely speechless! haha it was hilarious. My friends were so nice! It was so fun to be able to have a night to say goodbye to everybody. Below are some of the pictures that were taken towards the end of the night. You can see all their cute decorations.

This is my bishop, Bishop Orton, and his adorable wife-- I was so lucky to know such amazing people!

Melissa, me, Kelly and Lex-- I'll miss those girls!

Furrr fun!!!


So my moms been begging me to chuck these shoes for soo long. . . and finally, they just up and fell apart on me. I was at the party with my buddy's and looked down to see part of my shoe just dangling. I loved those shoes--- but I just can't make them work anymore. They were so pieced out--- it was time.

I took advantage of my last Saturday in the city. It was gorgeous weather! I went walking all day all through my favorite parts of New York. . . saying my goodbyes to my second home. I went shopping, for the first time since I'd been there-- I went shopping for me! Not for toilet paper, or toothpaste, or milk and eggs. . . but for the fun stuff! It took me a while to get back into it, I used my winnings from the fitness challenge for a lot of it-- even though that's what I'd gotten the money for-- it was still hard not to have buyers remorse. . .

But I don't anymore! Every once in a while, it's okay to buy some nice things to make you feel special! ;) After that, I met up with my girls to go for pedi's and mani's! I just did a pedicure though because I knew that I'd muck up my nails with all the cleaning and packing I was in for and I didn't want to waste it. Everyone's nails looked so springy and fun! We had such a good time together. Later, Melissa and I stopped by one of my favorite places on the upper west side, it's called Caesars Pizza-- but they have awesome gyro's too! I mean-- like the best I've ever had awesome! Melissa had never had one before-- but she loved hers! The weather was so perfect outside that they had all of the windows open, and we were so close to them that we could just about reach out and grab people walking by. . . hahaha well, if we had wanted to. It was the perfect place to people watch! We actually got someone to take our picture -- we just handed them our camera through the window-- haha that was weird, but so cool!

So I've decided that I just LOVE Tai food! I went here with some of my friends and decided it was so amazing I just had to bring some more of my friends back to enjoy it! It's called Room Service, and it's located in Hell's Kitchen, a part of New York filled with fab restaurants.

I enjoyed one of the most amazing chicken pot pies ever created at the Houndtooth restaurant, with my colleague Alan White-- it was my last supper ;( on my last day of work, but it was a new restaurant for both of us and the food was awesome!


I had never made a Lemon Meringue pie before-- until now! I tried to do a flat meringue, so it would be easier to transport. . . but it kinda didn't work-- well we live and we learn, right?

Here are two more new recipe's;) my last two. There is cornflake chicken on the left, and ranch chicken on the right! Yummms!

My last day at work was tough. I went to go and get my regular at the Pax restaurant in the lobby of my building, and starting crying when Jose handed me my whole wheat-scooped-out-bagel, lightly toasted, with butter on the side. He would have it in the toaster sometimes I swear before I even walked in the door! He always knew just how I liked it, and I'd never have to say a word, but "Thank you." It was the best way to start out my day! Such sweet, smiling faces, always super efficient, but in such a great mood! The manager couldn't have been nicer! They always treated like I was such a valuable customer when I'd buy about the cheapest breakfast they offered, a bagel and banana. When they told me to have a wonderful day, I knew they meant it, and I think that they played a huge part in making it just that. Poor Jose couldn't understand my tears. The Manager came over and then the girls, wondering what could have caused this. I just told them that it was my last day. It took me a second to get the words out, and Jose asked me if I'd just gotten fired. Haha that's probably what it looked like, but I told him that my boyfriend had just gotten back from Iraq. "Is he injured" he inquired? He was so sweet. I just told them that I was so grateful for them always taking such great care of me and that I would miss them. They were so sweet as I spoke through my sobs and wished me the greatest happiness, and promised I'd be missed.

I had to hurry and clean my tears up before I got back up to my floor. I couldn't start off my day like this! I knew it was going to be hard, and that the tears would only make it worse.

Later that day, after my lunch, I was surprised again, this time by my colleagues, who had surprised me with some yummy cake, and sweet going away gifts in the conference room. I couldn't keep my tears in any longer. I will, and do, miss all of them! I'm so grateful for the blessing it was to get to know such great, brilliant people!

So I moved to UT for one week, and Morgan surprised me by driving the entire night-- 13 hour drive up from El Paso to come and see me! Mom let him wake me up-- It wasn't the reunion I'd imagined, me and my makeup-less, bed head, morning breath mess! haha but Morgan didn't seem to care much-- and I was just so happy to see him that none of that really mattered. We went to 3 Easter picnic's that weekend-- one at his house, one at the Iverson's, and one at mine.

We got to listen to the beautiful messages given at General Conference, (click here for the audio recording of all four sessions):

http://www.lds.org/conference/languages/0,6353,310-1,00.html .

The messages are so profound, that I dare say, anyone whether they be of our faith or not, would become a better person by listening to the talks and testimony's born. I feel so inspired every 6 months as I listen to the prophet and other church leaders stand and bare witness that God is so aware of our needs, he is so mindful of us, and so willing to help us if we will but turn to him. Each conference session, I feel only replenishes my resolve to just try a little harder to be a little better.

At the end of this beautiful Easter weekend, it was time for some more goodbyes; goodbye's to my family, and goodbye's to my beautiful St. George. . . but just for a short time.

It took two days for Morgan and I to get down here to El Paso. The road trip was so much fun! I live on the other side of the city from Morgan, we're about 40 min. away, but I was lucky enough to have a place to stay, that the commute we feel like is absolutely worth it. I live in a beautiful neighborhood with a roommate that couldn't be nicer. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I'm going to do here for the next month or so. . . besides date my adorable boyfriend. So far it's been super exciting. . . hopefully soon I'll have some even more exciting things to blog about! . . . We shall see. . . ;)