There's No Place Like Home

Well the hubby and I made a whirlwind trip to California last weekend for his sisters wedding!  And boy, what a week it was.

I started a new job nannying four little rascals last Monday.  I look after a 2 month old baby girl, a year and a half year old boy, a three and a half year old boy, and a six and a half year old boy from 7 AM to 3 PM.  (I don't know about some people, but 6:30 AM is real early for me.)  The oldest one is at school most of the day I'm there so it's just me and the three little ones.  And it's a zoo.  But they are all adorable so it makes it worth it.

We fed the Sister missionaries on Tuesday night.  It was a crazy day.  We did laundry and fed the missionaries all in one night!  I love having the missionaries in our home!  It's such wonderful thing.  They brought such a sweet spirit into our home it was lovely.  For that whole hour I forgot about the trillion things I had to do that week.

On top of going out of town Friday morning, I had to plan some music things for stake conference, Nathan was busy with school, homework, tests, his wife, work, and everything else, AND we had cleaning checks Saturday on our kitchens and bathrooms so we had to deep clean before we left.

Wednesday was spent cleaning the kitchen and attempting to catch up on sleep.  I know me.  I could already feel a cold coming on.  My body was so exhausted but I didn't have a choice but to keep on pushing through.  I could die on the plane, or in California, that's closer to Utah than here in Hawaii!

Thursday I didn't have any energy left.  I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.  So I did a little cleaning and slept!  I didn't even bother to pack.  haha.  Thank goodness for my rock star husband.  I woke up so sick Friday morning I could hardly move and had no desire to finish my cleaning or pack my stuff.  So my wonderful husband cleaned and did about 10 million other things while I slept, showered, and packed.

We hopped a plane Friday morning and headed out ready to embrace our quick trip to California!  We landed around 10:00 PM, tired and hungry but safe.  After some insane traffic circumstances we finally got to the place we were staying for the weekend around 1:00 AM.  Even though I had a raging fever, the cold medicine and In N Out in my stomach made for a solid night of sleep.

Saturday I woke up still sicker than a dog.  I was grateful the wedding wasn't until 3 PM and how gracious everyone else was with letting me sleep and relax a bit.  I took that cold medicine and cough drops like my life depended on it.  Mostly because it did.  

But 3 PM rolled around and we were all ready to go!  It was a beautiful wedding!  It was a country chic themed wedding in a barn!  It was so cool. Everything looked amazing.  Nate's sister, Carissa, looked so beautiful.  A bunch of family and friends were there and it made for a wonderful day!  We played games, we danced, we just enjoyed ourselves!  I almost forgot I was sick, until about 9:30 rolled around and I was ready to hit the hay.  (This is the part where you laugh.  Barn...hay...haha)

And just like that, in a blink of an eye, we were back on a plane headed home to Hawaii.  We were exhausted, but just happy to be together.  And so happy to have had the opportunity to even come and be a part of the wedding and be with family and friends.  It was a bittersweet goodbye, as always.  We made up for it on the plane though.  We just started playing with Photo Booth on the plane.  I'm sure everyone around us thought we were insane, but we had a good time!  Here are some pictures for a good laugh.  

These show just how crazy we really felt after our whirlwind trip!  

Even after we got home, we were so crazy, we couldn't help but take a few more.

This is the look on our faces when we actually saw ourselves. ;)

After all that, I'm glad we're not taking anymore whirlwind trips to the mainland for a while.  I think we'll just relax on the beach for Halloween. ;)

A Letter to "Stephanie"

Dear "Stephanie",

I don't know who you are...but the random people who keep calling me from all across the United States are looking for you.  I don't think they are important people.  They're mostly telemarketers or recordings of telemarketers.  

I'd like to think that you just got your phone number wrong when you gave it out to whoever you did.  I really hope you just didn't put down some random phone number, because it didn't turn out to be random.  It turned out to be mine.  Whoever you gave it to, gave it to about a thousand other people.

Wanna know what's even worse?  The time difference!  Little did you know that incorrect phone number belonged to someone who lived in HAWAII.  No one likes being woken up at 4 AM every hour till 7 AM to a phone number they don't know, just to have it be a telemarketer looking for someone who isn't even you.  And oh how I wish it was from the same place!  That way I could just block it or ignore it, but it never is.  Maryland to Arizona.  New York to Washington state.  California to Virginia.

So "Stephanie", I'll continue to ignore the calls or tell them they have the wrong number.  You're welcome.

Sincerely,

I'M NOT STEPHANIE

So This is Love

DISCLAIMER:   This post is cheesy.  But worth it in my opinon

I realized something the other day.  One morning, Nate was getting up to go to class and I wasn't having the best morning.  I was sick, sleep deprived, and I was feeling really clingy.  Lucky for me, my husband doesn't 100% hate clingy.  While I begged and pleaded for him not to go to class (which...is not a good idea, mind you), he got dressed and ready to leave for class anyway.  As I rolled over to try and go back to sleep, feeling really grumpy, I felt him climb back in bed and snuggle up to me.  "5 minutes" he said, as he kissed my cheek and snuggled closer.  When our five minutes of extra morning cuddles was up, he got back out of bed and left for class.  

That's when the thought occurred to me:  True love is made up of the little things.  

Things like your husband not doing his hair before class to you extra morning cuddles! (As previously posted on Facebook. haha)  And ever since then I've been thinking of all the "little things" that have happened in our short 5 months of marriage.  

So here's a list of the "little things":

True love is your husband driving to come get you after work, because you just don't feel like taking the bus for an hour that day.
True love is your husband coming to eat lunch with you at your work, even if it is only to use the microwave at your office.
True love is your husband doing laundry, and you mowing the lawn, and being totally ok with that.
True love is your husband learning to mow the lawn, because he's never had to do it before.
True love is your husband being better at mowing the lawn than you.
True love is your husband taking you shopping to get rid of your "puppy" anxiety. 
(Long story short: puppy coming home, I was restless.  Solution: SHOPPING)

True love is your husband giving you a kiss when he gets out of bed in the morning, even if you're still sleeping.

True love is your husband doing the dishes because you don't feel like it.
True love is your husband going to fill water bottles at the school because your tap water is gross.

True love is your husband killing bugs all over your apartment because A- you don't want to and B- they are gross.

True love is your husband making dinner with you.
True love is your husband making you pancakes just because.
True love is your husband making bacon with 5/7 meals during the week, and being enthusiastic about it. 
True love is your husband not judging you, if all you want to eat is mashed potatoes for dinner.
True love is your husband finding another solution for a healthier dinner that also involves mashed potatoes.
True love is your husband making cinnamon rolls with you again even though it's hard, time consuming, and the both of you secretly don't really want to.
 True love is your husband playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors" with you when you can't remember whose day it is to pray. (Loser prays)
True love is your husband saying the prayer anyways, even though he won fair and square.

True love is your husband not getting sick of your endless Disney knowledge.
True love is your husband actually being impressed that you know all the lyrics to most Disney songs.

True love is your husband not getting sick of you randomly breaking into song, whether your singing voice sounds good or not that day.
True love is your husband listening to you sing "Truly Scrumptious" as a love song to him.
True love is your husband admitting he hates the word "scrumptious" even after you just sang it like 10 times.
True love is your husband saying he likes your singing anyways.

True love is your husband being better at quoting movies than you.
True love is your husband watching Dr. Who reruns on Netflix because you want to.
True love is your husband judging couples on the Amazing Race with you and deciding who to root for. (Or against.)

I know it seems like a lot.  But I'm sure there are THOUSANDS of "little things" I'm not noticing.  So while Nathan continues to drive in the fast lane, I'll just sit in the passenger seat and notice as many "little things" as possible.