Making The Change

I've been thinking a lot lately about how different my life is today than it would have been if I had continued on certain paths. I'm not proud of where I've been, but grateful for those people and those things that steered me in the right direction.

While many of those changes that brought me to where I am today are very personal, there is one that I want to proclaim to the world: DIET AND EXERCISE! If you know my husband, you know that this is an important thing in our family. Before I met him, I was all otter pops and ice cream. If I put forth the effort to make a meal, it was stake and instant potatoes. And I thought I was doing pretty good because I was skinny. And that's what it's about, right?

Oh so wrong. And I know we all know that, but do we really know that? Do we really know how bad that is - to be unfit? I believe what God said in Doctrine and Covenants 29:34 that "all things are spiritual". It just took me a while to figure that out.

Since dating, being engaged to, and marrying Tom, my attitude and life have changed drastically in this area. I believed that I could still be a really good person without being concerned about my body. Because isn't focusing on our bodies selfish and conceited and ungodly?

But I don't want to be a really good person. I want to be the best person I can be, which includes great concern with my health and wellness. That doesn't mean I'm selfish at all! That means I'm trying to be a good steward over this body I've been given with temporarily. This isn't a hindrance in my life, in fact it is the greatest physical change I've ever made.

I began to look at labels. Not for calories necessarily, but for ingredients. What am I putting into my body?
I began to eat more vegetables and fruits and whole grains.
I began to exercise.

And do you want to know what happened?

I sleep better every night.
I find that I have more time in the day to do what I swore I wouldn't be able to do if I made the time to exercise. That may be because....
I have more energy.
I feel stronger.
I feel in control of my life.
I gained confidence.
I feel more gratitude for what I can do every day.
'Symptoms' have disappeared.

And a whole lot of other things.

I'm still no expert, and I still crave chocolate and cake and deep fried foods. And every once in a while, we eat all those things! We find our lives equally full of good food and all the great things that come with it. In fact, I feel MORE joy. I feel humbled, because so many people talk about how important it is, and I thought I was the exception.

Do I look any different? No, not really. Besides the 6 pack that I'm working on ;) And that should never be the focus! It should be on being fit - keeping your diet and exercise in an area where you feel that you are truly in alignment with the Word of Wisdom and with modern revelation from prophets and apostles. Be in a place where you can receive personal revelation more easily because you are awake, alert, and aware.

I feel just outright happy. My changes feel drastic, though they really weren't. I'm SO grateful for my husband who encouraged but never pushed. One big bonus to all of this is feeling closer to him. Every prayer we say includes gratitude for healthy bodies and healthy food, and a request for that continued blessing as we do our part to maintain our health. I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me! Not because I now spend all my time at the gym, because I don't. Because I know that at the end of the day, I have exercised, eaten well, and been spiritually fed. That makes me feel very accomplished.

I could probably go on for a long time, but World Religions looms, as do the great snow clouds and wind outside, so I must bundle up and be off. But I will most definitely talk about this again. Soon.

The Perfect Sunday

Yesterday was the perfect Sunday. It went a little like this:

We slept in.
We ate cereal in bed.
We indexed in bed (talk about the greatest calling ever! No dressing up or meetings...just my computer in my bed!)
We tried to shower but it was FREEZING. Thank you to everyone in the complex getting in the shower at the same time. I might have had a minor melt down, don't ask me why. Sweet husband runs to get the heater and brings it in, and puts 3 pots of water on the stove to start boiling. Then he set up a nice relaxing bath, and it was PERFECT.
My hair actually looked good yesterday! It's amazing what happens when I take the time to really do it.
Tom looked SO HANDSOME yesterday on account of he is super good looking. Plus he was wearing a shirt my mom bought him for Christmas as a trial run and WOW. I did good, y'all.

After church we fixed up pulled pork enchiladas and 4 layer bean dip. In honor of the Super Bowl, which neither of us have ever watched. But we can't deny the food is great!
While eating, we watched the Glenn Beck Conversion Story.
We walked to the Snow building to play the piano for a while. On the way back, Tom wrote this in the snow for me to see while I walk to and from campus:

We talked, danced in the kitchen, relaxed, wrote a card to someone special, emailed my brother, read scriptures, and stayed up till 12 making delicious healthy muffins that we're OBSESSED with. I'll have to post the recipe one day.

Then I don't really remember what happened because I was so dang tired. But I remember falling asleep holding Tom's hand and thinking that if every Sunday was like yesterday, or even half as good, I would feel pretty dang lucky my whole life long.

I love this life of ours :)

Friday Thoughts

1. Tom and I were overwhelmed at the response from my last blog post. I am not used to having a lot of readers (at least none that comment, etc.). You want to know the biggest irony? I was writing that post about how blessed we are and how everything will be okay and before I could post it, in walks husband with the biggest bill either of our eyes had ever seen. I allowed myself time to break down and cry. And then we read through the post together, and published it. Because even though that curve ball threw us for a loop, those things still all happened! We are still so blessed! Thank you for those who messaged and commented and offered suggestions, sent packages, and more. I didn't expect that at all, and that just solidifies my knowledge that we are all too loved by others to fail at anything!

2. For Christmas, my sister Kim gave us a year subscription to the Ensign (great gift idea!) and we are SO grateful. I grew up with the church magazines in our home always, and I am so grateful to have that again! Tom mentioned to me yesterday that he read a really good article I should take a look at, and it changed my life! At least my outlook. And I hope that it will have lasting effects. Go ahead and take a gander when you have a few minutes at Elder Scott's suggestions on how to be happy!

3. Can I just take a minute to brag about my husband? He was given the key to yet another door of opportunity today. I won't reveal too much until we know a little more about it. But he is a rockstar! Seriously, I married the ultimate stud. He is doing such a wonderful job teaching this semester! He is also completely in love with his internship, and the clients they help. It's a wonderful thing to watch someone I love so much do something he loves so much, and do it well! I am so excited to watch the changes in his client's life. (For those who don't know, Tom is interning as a wellness coach for the Biggest Winner program on campus, which is like Biggest Loser but without copyright infringements.)

4. President Beck of the Young Men General Presidency came to give our devotional on Tuesday. What a talk. He also shared this video with us, which I promptly bawled through.

5. We received my family's Christmas card in the mail today, and boy howdy do I miss them all. If you ever want to talk about a group of stellar people, just give me a call, cause I have 25 of them I could talk for hours about. Thank goodness we're related and eternal.

6. It's almost February! Which means that we made it through January! And that is really exciting because January is a very cold month, and we're that much closer to Spring. Sometimes I listen to Jon Schmidt radio or Parachute radio on Pandora and songs come on that I just close my eyes and envision Tom and I on an evening walk around the streets of Rexburg, and then I can go outside and face the foot of snow and below freezing temperatures. Just once more.

7. My thoughts go out to those who are in much worse conditions weather-wise! I've seen some sad stories and some people who are very much actually debilitated by the cold and snow and ice, but I have to say that this made me laugh really really hard:

All in all, we're doing very well. School continues to keep us busy, and we love being busy! I'm learning to enjoy every stage of life, because soon it will be all gone! We're only newlyweds once, and only without children for so long! (No that is NOT an announcement, just to clear the air!) We are excited for the future, but goodness we're just having so much fun! I love being married to Tom. He is my greatest blessing and my best friend. I just don't think I could ask for much more than that.

It's not about the money money money

I feel that I can no longer sit back and NOT blog about the miracles in mine and Tom's life. Everyone needs to know what we now know. For the last few months we have seen incredible tender mercies that have taught and strengthened us, and this morning tipped us over the edge of gratitude, and there is not any way that we can deny that God is aware of us and our financial struggles. He also seeks to bless us when we are obedient.

All newly weds are poor, right? Right. So I don't know even why we deserve these blessings more than anyone else, but needless to say we are humbled. Here are a few of the miracles we have seen. I hope that in sharing these, you will be touched with the knowledge that Heavenly Father is equally aware of YOU.

When my parents came up to Utah to drop my little brother off at the MTC, they brought one of their cars for me and Tom to have (this was before we got married). He was able to sell his Mustang at a great price, and we no longer had a car payment to make.

Just before we got married, we were discussing our honeymoon (we had planned to go to Disneyland). As we discussed the costs, it became depressingly clear that Disneyland was out of the picture. I was so upset, and I think it was partly because my subconscious wasn't prepared to deal with financial struggles like that until we were married at least, or until the honeymoon was over. My brother called me later that night and offered to pay for one night at a hotel in Park City and a day of fun. I cried a lot that night at the gesture of love. They had just had a baby, and I knew that their financial state could not have been anything to throw money around, but I was touched. And guess what, our honeymoon to Park City and Lava Hot Springs was just as fun if not more fun than we would have had in Disneyland. We are so glad we did that the way we did.

Then our wedding came, and we were completely spoiled. My sister let me wear her gorgeous dress, helped me do my hair and makeup that morning. Someone in Tom's ward offered to do our reception for free in her yard. Two previous roommates did the flowers and invitations. One of Tom's family friends did our pictures at an incredible price. We were able to have the most incredible and perfect wedding reception I could have imagined, at the lowest of costs. It truly was the best day of my life. Thank you notes just didn't cut it. So many people provided so many things for us, and it eased our burden. Infinite thanks to those of you who were so generous.

When we moved into the apartment together, we found SO many things in the "free nook". It's a little spot in the hallway of our apartment complex where people leave things they don't want, and it's free game. From there we found a couch, an over-the-toilet cabinet, clothes, decorations, etc.

We also have some incredibly kind friends who, when they were moving, gave us some furniture and a whole lot of food, and some other things. This happened on two occasions.

In December we went to do sealings at the temple. I actually passed out while we were there, and I think part of the problem may have been that I donated plasma recently before that, but maybe not. There was a sweet couple in there celebrating their 25th anniversary, and he helped take care of me. After the session, Tom was waiting in the lobby for me to change. The man came up and asked if I was okay and then handed Tom $100 and said "Merry Christmas". Because of him, we were able to afford a Christmas for each other.

My tax return didn't get filed, and it took FOREVER to get everything figured out and get the money on it's way. It came just in time for us to pay rent.

Tom was picked to teach a class on campus, as well as to do the internship for the Biggest Winner program on campus. He also got approval to be paid for both, which rarely happens.

Last semester Tom took a class that prepares you to become certified group fitness instructors. The certification was cancelled, but we couldn't have afforded to certify him anyway. An anonymous donor left an envelope for Tom with the needed amount so that he could get certified this semester. It was a lot of money, and we were told it was a student. I know that most people can't afford something like that for themselves, let alone others. We were deeply humbled.

I got a very small raise at work. Everything counts! We were also able to work more hours than I expected for the first 3 weeks of the new year.

We have both had relatively great health.

One of Tom's friends was walking out of class with him and he gave him $20 for a race fee that we had forgotten all about. He could have just not paid us back, but even two months later, he was good to his word.

This morning we got in the car to drive to the gym and I opened the middle console. There was an envelope that neither of us recognized, no writing on it, with $20 inside. I'm not saying it was an angel or anything but...it definitely wasn't us.

And I guess that maybe Heavenly Father knows that without these miracles we wouldn't feel so secure in our ability to pay a full tithe. Maybe down the road there will be something way worse (Grad school tuition, anyone? Children? Bigger apartment/home?) and we will rely very heavily on the trust that God watched over us in this time of need, and that He will continue to do so because He loves us. Or maybe it's just true what the scriptures say, that when we pay our tithing, He will "open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it".

OH HI.

I realized today that it's been a full month since I last blogged! Shame on me! Things have been busy busy busy and I love it love it love it! Christmas and New Years were awesome, and we came back up to Rexburg to start another semester, which has turned out to be amazing. At least for the first 2 weeks.

Tom was a little bored for the first week, but now that things are getting going, he's loving it too. Not the part where he has Organic Chemistry every day, because, well, it's Organic Chemistry. Ever day. But the parts where he teaches a class on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays? Yeah, he's loving that. And I definitely don't mind walking by the gym and seeing him all lit up and excited to introduce the class to circuits.

This weekend was also the kickoff for the Biggest Winner program on campus! Tom is an intern for the program as a Wellness Coach for Team Yellow! It was so fun to go and meet everyone on the team. I'm so excited for how their worlds are about to change, and so excited for my husband to help them along the way. This is his DREAM JOB. And nowhere else in the world could it be so good. So we're feeling considerably blessed for him to be doing this. I am one proud wife over here!

My classes are going great! I'm taking 17 credits this semester, which sounds like a lot. Okay it is a lot. But things are awesome so far, and I'm able to stay on top of everything. I still work part-time at the Online Support Center, which is still the best job on campus in my opinion. I have worked out EVERY DAY since the new year, so we should all give a real big standing ovation for that one. I'm working towards my personal goals, and making time for everything, and I just wonder how that all happens? How does anybody have time to do what they need, and do it well? Well, people don't make it happen. God does. I feel His hand supporting and sustaining me every day. And when you make time for the important things, everything else works out!

So that's a pretty good catch up of what's going on here. If you were to come over, our house would probably not be very clean, because neither of us exactly have time to do much of that. But we would still have plenty of pulled pork left over from our wedding (yes, even after 5 months), and we'd be happy to make you a pulled pork enchilada (current Cook favorite), and talk to you about how wonderful married life is and how great it is to have your best friend FOREVER. I don't think that will ever get old. We'd also talk about all the miracles we see in our life. And of course we'd ask you about your life and there would for sure be some games. So come on over some time, why don't ya!

Does anyone else hate unpacking?

Getting ready for a trip is stressful. Not to mention when that trip is post-finals and post-big-work-messes and post-end-of-semester-yahooligans.

Plus, I'm like my Mom. I like things clean. And for some reason, when I am about to leave for a trip I want everything pristine. I mean, cleaner than I would ever have it if I were staying here. Weird? I know.

But last time I had a pre-trip clean obsession, it worked in my favor. We returned from Thanksgiving break thinking "WOW it feels good to be home, and wow does our home look good". And we were really grateful that we had worked to hard to clean.

That said, here's what my to-do list looks like for today/tomorrow morning:

-Pack. I love packing. But I hate unpacking. Problems.
- Exercise. Today we're running stairs so if I never see you again...
- Empty the fridge of all things that will rot
- Scrub the fridge out
- Finish making Christmas gifts (just call me the ULTIMATE procrastinator)
- Wrap Christmas gifts
- Mop kitchen floor real good
- Wipe down the walls (this sounds really strange, I'm not even sure why I put it up. But that's me, bebe).
- Take down Christmas tree
- Date night!
- Tidy up bathroom
- Dust livingroom
- Index (for our calling)
- Write missionaries: Hermana Franklin and Elder Andersen

And a whole lot more. But I realized after that last one that this is probably going to be the lamest post you've ever read and you probably never ever want to hear about my to-do list again. Sorry, guys.

This Family Is Forever

Plus, we're a pretty good looking bunch. And despite the image of crying children, we really do have a whale of a time when we're together...

Whatever that means.

I sure love my family.