My mom is amazing! I want to be just like her when I grow up! Ever since I was little, we’ve had green eggs and ham for breakfast on St. Patrick’s Day. I already had plans that night and because my family loves me, they postponed the annual corned beef with cabbage dinner until the next night I’d be free (that next Sunday). The dinner I missed was salad bar. Mom made green jello jigglers and dyed the butter for the rolls. I had left overs for lunch the next day. Haha.

Sunday we had our St. Patrick’s Day dinner. I helped Mom make it. (Oh, my gosh… I’m going to miss that time we have together when I go back to school. I really enjoy it. Everyone else is preoccupied so it’s just Mom and me in the kitchen, usually. I’ve learned to make a few things that I hadn’t before. I’ll post pictures and an entry about that later.) Since we had rolls with salad, we were debating wither or not we should make green rolls again or something else. We decided against the rolls and opened one of her cook books. We laughed, took a deep breath, and tried something totally new. It was a a success!! I can now say that I know how to make Irish Soda Bread…from scratch!!! It reminded me of the constancy of corn bread.

I got home from work on Friday (the 17th) and Mom was making cookies – another reason that my mom is amazing! Haha. Of course, the cookies had to have some kind of green to them. She makes me laugh.

 

Like I said, I want to be just like her when I grow up. She is loving, patient, and selfless. She is such a wonderful example of Christlike love. I look up to her so much. She has been there for me in every aspect in my life. We have had so many late night talks. She’s there if I need to cry, laugh, or even just talk. We have spent countless hours laughing at silly things. We have shared many great memories. She is an incredible person. I’m going to miss her when I move back to school. I’m sure glad we will be able to call and talk to each other! <3

 

Lewis and I have been doing the long-distance thing for almost nine months. I’m in Idaho and he’s still in Utah. It’s been hard. It started with him going on his sales job with Jamon last May. He was gone for three and the other six have been because of me. I felt like I needed to move back home and take a break from school for a bit….plus I didn’t have enough money to stay at school. Anyway, long distance has been hard and painful. We have been very blessed to have been able to skype, call, text, and occasionally have the opportunity to be together in person (holidays, weddings, and weekend trips).

When February came around we had talked about wither or not we’d be able to get to spend our anniversary or vday together this year. The two dates are a week apart so we usually combine them into one “big deal” thing right in the middle. He’s been having health issues and I’ve been working lots of hours, so we didn’t see any way we’d have a chance to spend time in person together until maybe May when I come back to school. We were both disappointed but understood why.

We Skyped lunch together on Valentine’s Day and spent several hours after that talking and laughing.

I had it all planned out, thanks to Mom’s helpful suggestions. I made sure that I was all dressed up cute. I went all out! I curled my hair, did fancier makeup than normal, made a simple version of a fancy dinner, put candles out, and turned out romantic music. It was so great! He was going to love it!! I have it all set up and text him “ready whenever you are!” He called me on Skype, I answer, and he starts giggling. Here I was, all dolled up and fancy while he was eating taquitos off of a paper plate in his pjs – he did tell me that he had changed his shirt before he called me. Hahaha!

We’re both trying to save money so we can finish school, get married, and have a somewhat stable life when we get married so we decided (meaning I suggested and he said sure) that we would do homemade gifts this year. I thought doing this homemade thing would be cheaper and a little more personal. I like personal gifts; they tend to mean a little more. Since our anniversary and valentines day are literally a week apart, to cut down on costs, we combined the two holiday presents this year too. So with all of that discussed and decided, we went on our separate ways. I knew I wanted to do something kind of crafty but I had no ideas. After talking to one of the craftiest and cheesiest people I know, I had figured out a plan. (BIG SHOUT OUT TO MY MOM!!) I mailed a homemade card to his house everyday, starting with Valentines day and ending on our two year anniversary. Here’s some of my favoritest ones:

It actually didn’t turn out the way that I thought it would…. That’s how most things go though, right? Haha. It took longer for the first card to get to his house, we had a Monday holiday, and there were days where he got two or three at the same time. He thought it was cute even though it didn’t go how I planned. He told me that he thought it was super adorable and cheesey, just like me!

The cards were just part one. Part two was also super fun.  I have a wooden letter S with pictures modge podged onto it hanging in my bedroom. I thought that would be fun to do something like that. We have taken so many selfies in the last two years and I wanted to use them somehow. (Plus, since we’re getting married, now we have something crafty and cute for our house!)

 

 

 

 

That was a fun project….and it turned out soooo cute! When I gave it to him, he started tearing up. It almost made me cry! He told me that no one had ever made him something so special like that before. It sure made me feel even better about my present.

For his present, he made me a wonderful dinner but that’s getting ahead of the story. Oops. Okay, so, after we both came to agreement that we might have to celebrate our special days when I moved back to Utah, we were sad but okay with the decision. Well, a week before the beginning of March, he told me that he had a surprise for me. I thought he was just teasing me about his anniversary present or something. We were talking one night before bed, he told me that in a few days I’d have a delivery but it’s special and timed so it would show up between 2 or 3 in the morning that Friday. I was sooo excited but equally as confused. Luckily, I didn’t have work that Friday so I would be fine to stay up until my package came. I didn’t want to have anyone woken up when whoever was coming came so I just made a bed on the couch. It felt like I was a child waiting for Santa Clause on Christmas Eve. Hahah!  I drifted in and out of sleep until my alarm went off at 2:00. I wanted to be awake so I could just answer the door and then go back to sleep. I texted Lewis and told him that I was awake and I was super tired but I hadn’t been able to sleep. He called me half asleep and told me to just wait. It should get there soon. He seemed super out of it…probably because he had been asleep. I quickly apologized for waking him up and told him that I loved him. We hung up and I watched Netflix on my phone. About 3:30, no one had come. I was really tired and a little irritated. I was half asleep and almost done with my third episode of Parks & Rec when I heard a weird noise in the kitchen. I figured it was the ice machine or something and I was tired enough to dramatize it in my mind. Obviously I wasn’t too worried because I just cuddled deeper into my blankets on my makeshift couch-bed. I saw a shadow out of the corner and I looked over. At 3:30 in the morning, Lewis was standing in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen with a huge smile on his face. It took me a few minutes to register that he was actually standing there! I jumped up and ran to him. I started crying and laughing from excitement (and a little bit from exhaustion too probably).

He had been in cahoots with my mom! She had left the sliding door unlocked in the sun room so when he got here, he could just come in. With a grin on his face, led me down to my room. There was a vase of flowers and a bag of dark chocolates (my favorites!). I was super glad that I had cleaned my room and actually made my bed that morning! Haha.

The next day, after we both woke up from our late night, we opened the new game console he had picked up before he came to Idaho. (Yep. He had bought the new Switch. The night he was coming was also the release of the Switch. That’s why he didn’t get here until 3… Oh that silly boy of mine.) We opened it, set it up, played with it for a bit, and about dinner time my family left. Lewis’s home made present was a yummy dinner: Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and shrimp, zucchini, asparagus, and toast. It was soooo good.
I didn’t want to ever get full!

 

 

I had quite a few hours at work while he was here, so he got a chance to spend time with my brothers and parents. I think that’s always good. 🙂 One afternoon I had off, we went black light mini golfing and then went and saw Moana. That was super fun. I love that movie more each time I see it. The day he left, we went to another movie. This is one he really wanted to see. Go see the Lego Batman movie. It is hilarious!! I was laughing so hard my stomach was hurting. He had to go home that night. It’s always sad to say goodbye to the person you love. I never like doing it.

It was such a fun week. I sure appreciate him and I love him lots. Happy anniversary my darling love! <3

Happy Wednesday everyone! So, in my last post, I blogged about posting a selfie and adding filters to it. I decided that I needed to “…make it a personal goal to let myself be vulnerable in my social media. For one week I am going to post one selfie every day, UNEDITED and NO FILTERS with something positive about myself.” 

(My thoughts are kind of everywhere… I hope this makes sense.) I’ve come back to tell you that I did it! It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be… I am usually a positive person. I know that I am blessed. I know that I have a good life. I know that I can name multiple positive things about myself. I do think highly of myself (in a humble way…not holier than thou way). I was able to come up with a weeks’ worth of positive things about myself and my life but I filtered some of  my thoughts. Weird, huh? I wanted to say things like, “I have an amazing body” or “I am a walking miracle.” I totally wouldn’t mean them in a full of myself kind of way. I would have added “I have an amazing body. It’s capable of so many amazing things. It can move, bend, get sick/hurt and then heal itself. It’s crazy!” Since I couldn’t edit the pictures to make them look better, I captioned them with things that were kind of obvious and carefully worded. See, I’ll show you:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was amazing. I think I said this in the last post, but I believe that this whole experiment was more for me than anyone else. I have always known that I was flawed. I’m not perfect, but hey, no one is. I have also always known that I have a wonderfully blessed life. As I’ve reflected on this, I don’t think I’ve ever combined the two in this kind of light. With this, I was able to go out of my comfort zone and grow. One of my teachers once said, “There’s no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone.” I got lots of positive feedback on everything; comments, likes, loves… It made me feel odd at first. I’m not usually the kind of person to flaunt my life, imperfections, or blessings out for everyone to see. With this project I had committed myself to, I had to do both. As the week went on, I got more excited to post my daily selfie (wither or not I was ready for the day). It was harder to come up with positive things that didn’t sound super holier than thou. Some days, it was tricky but I did it! I made it a whole week. In future selfies and captions, I know that I can be a little more secure and confident in my flaws and continue being my positive self! Thanks for reading.