Advice to the teens...

VIRGIN

That word up there is the best advice I have to every unmarried girl.  

I choose to share this personal info. about my life in hopes that it will help 

somebody out there to make the decision right now that they are going 

to save themselves for marriage. 

It's not easy, but it's not too difficult either.

The two most important things I did that helped me:

#1 Make the decision before you start dating. 

              Make the decision to save yourself for marriage.

#2 Date and surround yourself with boys 

          that have the same morals and standards. 

I promise you that if you choose to only date guys 

that share your same morals, it will make all the difference. 

It will be so much harder to make the decision to stay abstinent once you are 

head over heels smitten with someone 

who doesn't want to stay abstinent until marriage.

Save yourself for your husband.

It's never to late to commit yourself to this. 

If you've already been struggling with this, recommit yourself.

You can do it, and I promise it will be worth it. 

Oh How I Live For SATURDAYS!

One thing I am so blessed to have

are amazing grandparents -- 

who have a gorgeous house -- 

on lots of beautiful land -- 

WITH A POOL! 

& they let us all use it whenever we please its the greatest :)

Michael & I have made it a weekly tradition that every saturday we go swim,
especially if its hot!

I'm really going to miss this once summers over, but for now I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Here are some pics with my handy dandy underwater camera from today -->

Kya in her intertube we created for her to float around with us :)

Michael always catches me at my best!

sinking slowly but surely

planking at the bottom of the pool

our waterproof Nixons... were obsessed

Kya was sick of the intertube... haha

I love him, he's so cute

we prefer pretending to eat each other, no kissing thats gross

warn out kya boo after a long day in the sun!

Until Next Saturday :)

Paydays

Dolla Dolla Bills Ya'll

Now a young married woman I'm learning the phrase "living paycheck to paycheck". 

However Michael and I make it a lot more exciting :) 

We take it day by day. 

We splurge here and there. 

We have a savings. 

But we also have money that we do what we want with. 

Our financial plan works for us... well at least so far! 

Right now we are young, no kids, barely any bills and a whole life ahead of us. 

Luckily we are both going into fields that will make us the big bucks once we graduate! 

But for now we enjoy ourselves with the money we have and we're doing just fine. 

But one thing I have come to appreciate more than I ever have before is PAYDAYS!!!! 

One day every Two weeks where Michael and I feel on top of the world, 

that is until we see all our money go to bills and such. 

But that one day every two weeks we have SO SO much FUN :) 

We've made it our go out to eat night and our grocery shopping trip day. 

& let me tell you its my favorite! 

That's all for now :) 

The Land of The Free

Happy Day America! 

Our Fourth of July started with Michael and I sleeping in for once, it was so great! 

Then we went to Michael's parents house for their annual Crepe Brunch
(they explain this by saying that since the French were our allies we have to celebrate them to?
works for me, I love crepes!) 

I had such a good time as usual, it was a packed house.
Andi brought her friend Wayne whom we all got to meet!
Erin, Jacob & their kiddos were there, as well as my mom came which was such a special treat.
I love when Michael and I's families come together it gives me a little glimpse of what heaven might be like :) I'm so blessed to now belong to TWO amazing families!

After brunch at the McBride's I went shopping with my mom at this sweet dollar store I found a few weeks prior!
The Dollar Tree off of Eagle and Fairview has everything you can imagine!
But the greatest thing it has is cheap greeting cards.
Who wants to pay five dollars for cards that people just throw a way when you can spend $1!
They have a great selection too, I understand this is something quite silly to get excited over,
but I love finding ways to save money now that I'm a broke married woman!
So after my mom and I loaded up on greeting cards, we went gift shopping for my little cousins birthday and then finally my mom brought me back to Michael :)
After about an hour away from him, (especially on the only day I really get to spend with him cause we both have saturdays off) I get Mikey withdrawals very quickly! 

From there Michael and I went home and made holiday sugar cookies with blue frosting and red sprinkles.
We brought them over to my aunts Fourth of July party and they must have been good because everyone devoured them quite quickly!

Now to my favorite part of the day-->

My dad's best friend from High School who now lives in California asked a favor of my Dad.
It was his mother's 75th birthday and she loved fireworks and her husband had to work and none of her kids lived in Boise anymore.
So he asked my dad if he could go do a firework show for her. 

So Michael and I decided to join my dad and my brother & Corinne to entertain what we thought was just one cute old lady.
But as we got their we found out that she had invited almost all the cute little old people in her neighborhood.
Literally within ten minutes everyone came out from their houses in this cute little retirement community, with lawn chairs in hand to watch my dad's firework show.

It was so cute and so humbling to watch how excited they would get over the littlest spark. 

It made me so happy :) 

Why is it that little kids and the elderly enjoy life so much more than the rest of us? 

Why can't we appreciate and be happy over the smallest things like them?

This what was on my mind as I watched all of their faces light up with joy over the simplest things.

My new goal: Find the Joy in EVERYTHING... before I get old.

Happy Birthday Mrs. Egland, it was so fun celebrating with you!

Hope everyone had a great fourth! 

Family Traditions

As of three months ago I have started my own family with Michael as you all know. I'm so excited to have a family of our own someday! But I'm even more excited to start our own family traditions. Between my family and Michael's I have put a list together of the traditions I've heard from our families and friends that I really like and want to do with my own family. There's quite a lot but at least I have options. Had to share them with the rest of you :)

General Traditions
Birthdays- Choose your favorite meal and dessert
No one can go to bed until they tell each family member I love you
Scripture Study as a family every sunday night
Monday Night-Family Home Evening/ Game Night
Saturday's are dads day to make breakfast with the kids
Day Before Going Back To School: family party with yummy food, goals for the school year & fathers blessings

Thanksgiving Traditions
Thanksgiving Morning: As a family participate in the Idaho Food Bank Turkey Run
Send out Thanksgiving Cards (instead of Christmas Cards)
who has money during christmas time to send them out during christmas anyways!
& what a great opportunity to tell all your family and friends how thankful you are for them!
Help Serve food at a homeless shelter as a family, or invite those who dont have a place or family to come over for dinner.

Christmas Traditions
Draw names in your immediate family to make homemade gifts for each other.
Tree decorating party (immediate family) with good food, & christmas music & together as a family make an ornament that represents the previous year
Act out the christmas story with extended family
Christmas Eve- new pajamas every year
Day Before Christmas Eve Go To The Temple Together
or Trip to temple square week of christmas or new years eve!

New Years Traditions
go to temple square as a family
go visit those in the hospital and bring them cards wishing them a better healthier year

Valentines Day
make valentines day cards for your grandmas

Easter
easter baskets with only church related gifts (and candy of course!)

4th of July
brunch at michaels parents house
go on a hike together as an immediate family and have a picnic at the top while watching fireworks

Speech Pathology-- whats that?

For a couple years now I have been debating what I wanted to do for a living for the REST of my life. Big decision and so many options leading me to change my mind, multiple times. After taking a semester off school to plan my wedding and try to figure this out I finally had it narrowed down to the field I wanted to be in. Now it was just a matter of choosing between occupational therapy and speech therapy. After many observation hours and lots of prayers I finally figured it out. I went to the temple one night, with my prayers centered on this decision. At the temple I had decided that I would let Heavenly Father pick. A couple days prior I had an advising appointment with the speech pathology director at ISU meridian right by Michael and I's house. She told me I could not have come in at a better time because there was one spot left in the program for this fall and they were deciding on who was going to get the last spot. She had me fill out an application right then n there and said she would get back with me the following week. So I had decided that all this was too perfect, me coming in at the perfect time and there being one spot left... So like I said I put it in God's hands. At the temple I had decided that if I got the last spot that I'd take it and that my prayer will have been answered. Although I expected to receive this answer by phone the following week, after the temple that night I had this weird feeling that I needed to check my email. So I did and low and behold there was an email from the director at ISU informing me that I was chosen to fill the last spot. God must know me and my patience level REALLY well because boy does he answer my prayers quickly. I'M GOING TO BE A SPEECH PATHOLOGIST!
So for all my family and friends that responded What Is That?? Here ya go-->

Speech-language pathologists, sometimes called speech therapists, assess, diagnose, treat, and help to prevent communication and swallowing disorders in patients. Speech, language, and swallowing disorders result from a variety of causes such as a stroke, brain injury, hearing loss, developmental delay, a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, or emotional problems.

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