General Statements

*DISCLAIMER*

This post may or may not be about marriage... again.

I find it hilarious that everyone is deciding to blog about why they aren't wearing leggings, or why they are happy they didn't get married young. It seems that everyone has an opinion and no matter what it is, they are right and if anybody thinks otherwise, then they are uneducated or inept.

So today I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, and I came across an article that my old dance teacher posted that said something along the lines of "What parents are teaching their daughters wrong... blah blah bad parenting..." I agreed with a lot of it. Seriously, we should start teaching young girls to be independent. I loved that it said to teach your daughter to have an opinion, to go to school and gain a quality education, to not dress in a certain way just to grab a boy's attention, and even some small things like not eating your feelings, then it came to one "rule" that I absolutely despise, "Don't allow your daughter to get married young".

What. The. Blank.

#1- AGAIN with the not getting married young thing? I seriously thought we were done with this.

#2- ALLOW? Since when do you allow your ADULT daughter to do something? There is this thing called independence that you aren't letting your daughter to have and practice if you are not allowing her to make her own decisions. 

I've been thinking about blogging about this topic for quite some time now, but every time I do I always convince myself that I don't want to be one of those fanatical bloggers who write about topics like this so passionately that people who have an opposing opinion don't dare to say anything because they are afraid of the blogger and their faithful followers' backlash. However, I am very passionate about this subject and want to show a different side of it.

I got married when I was 19. That is really young. I didn't even finish my first year of college before I met, dated, and was engaged to my husband. Everyone looked at me weird when I went wedding dress shopping. Many people I encountered seemed doubtful of my relationship lasting. It honestly hurt when a lot of people who I thought were my closest friends didn't support my decision. I knew the risks (I even took a marriage and family university course that explained them extensively), but whenever I thought about not having my husband in my life, I knew I would regret that decision forever. 

My parents were very supportive of my decision. They loved Chad the minute they met him, but they never forced me one way or another. They said that this had to be MY decision. Everyone else decided to give their opinion on what I should do with my life. Some of my friends said that I should date Chad longer, others said that I should get married fast, Some people thought that I should break up with him and travel or "discover" myself, but every time somebody gave me their opinion, I didn't want to listen. My parents encouraged me to think about the commitment I was about to make and to make sure I was ready. They didn't think that I needed to travel, or wait to figure out who I was to make my decision. I knew I loved Chad and that we would be able to balance each other out and make a healthy relationship work.

I don't know why people think you need to figure out who you are in order to get married. That is the biggest joke ever. People change. I feel like I have changed a lot over the last year. I'm not the same person I was when I first came to college and I don't think I will be the same person in five years. I became very comfortable with who I was my junior year of high school, but for some reason I felt like I didn't know who I was and I couldn't wait to "discover" myself in college. The whole act of "discovering" oneself seemed so interesting and that once I achieved it that all of my problems would be solved and I could live happily ever after.. ladeedahh whatever. THIS CONFUSED ME SO MUCH. I came to college, and for the first half of the fall semester I kept trying to discover who I was but it only made things more difficult. I just kept thinking that I was supposed to be an entirely different person,but what I really learned is that you don't need to figure out who you are or become a new person, you need to be comfortable and confident with yourself and then other things will fall into place.

What bothers me most is that people say "you shouldn't get married young" instead of "wait until you are ready to get married". There are some very good reasons for a person to not get married young. Some don't feel ready to have a serious relationship, others are not ready for the commitment and responsibilities. You need to be ready to make important decisions and have a mature relationship. Life is rough and marriage just adds more responsibility to it, but it doesn't mean it can't be a wonderful and joyful experience. MARRIAGE ROCKS. However, if you are not ready for marriage and what it entails, wait a little bit longer.

Even at our wedding receptions, people seemed to doubt that we would last very long. I remember receiving several comments that doubted our maturity and ability to make a relationship work. At the reception in Boise, I remember one man asking me my age. I thought to myself, "Oh no, not another comment on how young I am, or a lecture about making a relationship work takes a lot of effort." Instead this guy had the HUGEST smile on his face and said to Chad and me, "That's so great! You two get to grow together. You both are going to have a lot of adventures and get to enjoy each other when you are still young. You two aren't completely set in your own individual lifestyles and it makes it easier to blend them together. You'll love growing closer as you grow older." Bam. That was exactly what I needed to hear. Somebody who knew that you could have a successful relationship even if you married young.

I guess what I'm trying to say overall is that there is no 'right' age to get married at. Some people find their sweetheart in grade school, some find them their first year out of the house, and others might not find them until later in life. Whenever you find the person who makes you better, happier, person, that is the right time. Don't wait to get married because other people think you should, but don't rush into things if it doesn't feel right. Make sure it is YOU making the decision.

xoxo

I love love!

Valentine's Day this year was super fun thanks to my handsome guy. We were able to sleep in super late, binge watch Netflix and Disney movies, eat at the cutest and tastiest place (The Crepery), and spend the whole day together. It was g r a n d . I loved it! But I want to dedicate this post to tell the WHOLE WIDE WORLD about how much I love Chad. He is awesome. He makes me laugh. We have different personalities that bring out the best in each other. He makes life so much more fun! I'm so happy we had a clumsy first kiss on Valentine's Day a year ago, because now we are together forever and it feels so good. Love you babe!

xoxo

.20.

Twenty years old doesn't feel that different, but boy is it g r a n d. Chad did an AMAZING job making my birthday unforgettable. I love spending time with him-- I try to spend as much time as possible with him throughout my day. For my birthday, he skipped his afternoon class to eat lunch and spend time with me, and during that time he got me the cutest surprise a girl could ask for. HE RENTED A PUPPY FOR ME! Okay, if there is one thing that you should know about me, it is my incredibly, everlasting, joyful, serendipitous, some other huge-A words, LOVE for puppies. They are so cute and so fun and make life a million times better. This puppy was so darn cute and definitely made my day so bright! 

That's not all folks. So when you are a poor college student, you don't really get a lot of protein/ red meat in your diet. The struggle can be so real. To help fight this struggle, we decided to go to Texas Roadhouse for my birthday dinner because steak. That's why. It had been sooooooo incredddiiibbllyyy long since we last had red meat, and this dinner was heaven sent. Amen. Later that night we decided to make cake and have a couple of my closest gal pals come over to our apartment. It was a lovely evening and I really enjoyed spending it with my cute hubs and some of the loveliest ladies in the world. 

Overall my birthday was super stellar and just g r a n d. Twenty is going to be a good year. 

xoxo

Catching up

Holy guacamole.. it has been such a crazy past few months! The holidays are always crazy for my family and there is always something to do. This was the first year I didn't spend Thanksgiving in SLC. This year, Chad and I went up to Boise to spend the holiday with his family. It was really nice. I've loved getting to know my in-laws better and although things were different from what I was used to, it was still really wonderful. I loved getting to spend time with two of his sisters. There are a lot of great ladies in his family :).

Christmas was super crazy!! But isn't it always? Chad and I traveled to SLC to spend it with my side of the family. We had our whole entire family together, which doesn't happen very often, but it was still a blast. We had all the grandkiddos there so you can probably imagine how crazy that was. On Christmas Eve we had our huge family party with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins, and then we woke up bright and early on Christmas Day to open all of the fun presents that Santa brought for us. The only downer over the break is that all of the kids got sick, then almost all of the adults got sick. It was no bueno. But other than that, it was a complete success.

Now I feel like I can write about what has been going on this month! So, Chad and I have started a new semester. This semester is going to be pretty easy for me, but Chad decided to take 17.. yes that is seventeen... credits! I think he is crazy but I know he's going to be just fine. I also got a job! I work for the university during events and such. It's a pretty good job and the people I work with are fantastic! It's seriously a blast. We also went to a wedding for my friend Marissa. It was fabulous! She looked so stinking gorgeous and they were so happy and love was in the air and holy cow it was just g r a n d !

So that is pretty much it. I'll probably post some pictures from the wedding soonish and get working on a better post because not gonna lie.. this one was pretty lame.. and I am NOT a lame person who writes lame posts... except for this time...

xoxo

happy halloween, beaches

So... I thought our costumes this year were quite adorable, but I'm a little biased because I made them. Yeah man, that's right.. I MADE THEM. To be honest though, I only had to make three things, but I still technically made them. Here's the story. Chad and I really wanted to be Curious George and the man in the yellow hat for Halloween this year, but we were having the hardest time finding yellow pants and I had no idea where I would find a grown lady monkey costume.. so that was pretty much a complete bust. So for the next few days we Pinterested and Googled for cute couple costumes and most of them were weird and others were slutty and.. I just won't go into details. We finally narrowed it down to three and went with the easiest (but still cute) one-- Mickey and Minnie. 

Here is the low-down on the DIY. If anybody needs a last minute costume, this would be a quick, cute and easy one. The tutu was really easy. I bought rolls of tulle and an elastic waistband from Hobby Lobby, cut the tulle into strips about 18" long, folded them in half and did the weird loopy knot thing around the waistband. I wanted my tutu to be really big, so I scooted the knots really close together to make it full and fun. Bam.. alliteration. Any-who, The ears were surprisingly easy to make too. I just traced a cup on foam sheets (About three times for each ear), stacked them and then hot glued them together and onto a headband. For the bow, I just sort of free-handed and hot glued it onto my ears. 

Just a close up of our faces...

We went to two.. count it 1,2, DOS parties this year! It's like we are really popular or something! But not really.. One was a family party my mom's side throws every year and the other was a smallish get together with a bunch of people from our apartment complex. Both were super fun and all I gotta say is that this year's Halloween was a success. 

Have a happy November and thanks for reading!

xoxo

wedding bells and all is just swell

So this post took a lot longer to do than I originally thought it would. But hey, better late than never right? I was totally ready and super stoked to get this shizz done, but then a psychology test, family applications paper, finding a sub for our sunbeam's class, cleaning and getting ready to go down to Salt Lake to visit my parents all got in the way. It's all good though. So may I present to you, our wedding day.

We got married on August 9th, 2014. I wore a white dress, he wore a blue suit, and everything was magical. Honestly, that day was a very vivid blur; a magical, magnificent, blur.

It was

.g r a n d.

I have several favorite memories of that special day, but one of my very favorites was sitting in the Celestial room with Chad before we were sealed. We were one of the first couples sealed that day, so the temple was really peaceful and quiet. The whole experience of waiting to be sealed, holding his hand, looking around at how beautiful God's temple is, and knowing that what we were doing was sacred and right was an amazing experience that I will always remember. I didn't really recognize it at that moment, but the Holy Ghost was bearing a witness to me that Chad and I had made the righteous decision to marry in the temple and have a forever family. If that isn't cool, then I don't know what is. 

So... now onto the pictures and details of the BIG day. 

We were pretty stoked to finally be married. It was pretty much the best feeling ever.

 This is my favorite picture... love is  g r a n d .

The pictures shown were just some of the ones that I thought highlighted our wedding day pretty well. My bro did an AWESOME job as our photographer.

We had two receptions, one in Salt Lake in my grandpa's backyard, and the other in Boise in Chad's parent's backyard. We had awesome turn outs at both of the receptions. To be honest, we didn't really get to enjoy the SLC reception, but we heard that the food was pretty good. After the SLC reception, we honeymooned in Newport Beach and had a fun day in the magical Disneyland (BIG thanks to the Pulley family!). Disneyland was seriously MAGICAL. I pretty much ate that entire experience up. It was perfect. We would also go cute little walks on the beach and spending that quality time with Chad was so much fun. Our honeymoon was so much fun! After the honeymoon, we had to haul butt up to Boise for our second reception. We didn't get in until midnight, and we were so exhausted from just flying into Utah and then having to drive 6 hours to Boise. The struggle was real. But the reception turned out great. Kevin and Susan (Chad's parents) did an awesome job and the Cheesecake Factory cheesecake was YUM. Both receptions were fabulous! Our wedding day was truly memorable... but the life after the wedding is wayyyyyyyyy better. Being married is the greatest thing ever. I love everything about it. 

hello october

This, THIS, is my favorite time of year. It's just  g r a n d  and wonderful. What could be any better than falling leaves, crisp air, cinnamon candles, and cuddling on the couch with the cutest boy ever watching classic chick-flicks like You've Got Mail, or having a Harry Potter movie marathon?

Here are some highlights you might have missed over the last few weeks:

• We got lost in a corn maze for almost three hours and ended up cutting through the corn stalks and got covered in burrs that stuck all over our pants and shoes, but the PJ party after was lovely.
• Ate Little Caesar's pizza and watched a movie in a true architectural wonder. (a.k.a. a blanket and couch fort)
• One night, I had to stay up late to get some homework done and my hubs surprised me with a Diet Coke to help me get through the night.
• Went to a concert on campus that was kind of a bummer, but the dancing with Chaddy-babes was supah  g r a n d  .
• Went to a concert for Chad's birthday and got second hand high from all the sketchy kids smoking weed. It's chill though because we FINALLY got the smell of kush out of our clothes.
• Released a dragon fly back into the wild after it somehow got trapped in our apartment.

I guess the BIGGEST highlight is that Chad and I have been married for two.. *read it* 1, 2, DOS, months. Life is ABSOLUTELY wonderful. I really cannot describe how wonderful it is. Like I seriously just tried to write one sentence and it was really hard. I am at a complete loss for words. So here are some pictures instead.

Just us enjoying a  g r a n d  football game.

Having a simply wonderful time at the Atmosphere concert.

The most challenging corn maze known to mankind.

So.. that's basically it. Life is great. Gotta love the married life.

xoxo

.the m u r r i e d life.

So once upon a time this crazy chick met a super cute stud muffin and now they're married and life is just  g r a n d  . I was one of those girls who goes to college, gets into a serious relationship, and gets engaged within their first year. So if you're wondering, the answer is yes, I am nineteen. I'm not going to go into a huge rant about how 'getting married young was perfect for me... blah blah' because so many people are doing that now and frankly nobody cares about how you proved everybody and their statistics(which are total crap) wrong and such.. it's lame and over done. However, I will be somewhat of a 'spokesperson' on why marriage is so great!

I was pretty nervous to get married. I don't know why. Maybe because I felt like I wasn't going to be as independent as I had been, or the short amount of time that we dated and the even shorter engagement was just really fast, but I knew it was right... So I kind of jumped in and it has been the best decision of my life.

When the mission age change occurred, I had been swept off of my feet and almost drowned with excitement in the missionary work 'wave'. I had been preparing myself to serve an LDS mission for about a year and a half, but things kept going wrong. I had a tooth implant surgery that failed and I would have had to wait an additional 6-8 months to even submit my papers, I didn't get accepted into the university that I wanted and what I had planned out for the next three years kept falling through. I wasn't really frustrated, but there was definitely some confusion as to why my plan and righteous desire to serve the Lord and help with his purpose wasn't working out how I had intended.

While all of this crazy and stressful confusion was going on in my life, my husband had declined a scholarship from the university (that I was just DYING to go to) and decided to go to the one that we currently attend now. He also decided to serve a full-time LDS mission and came back to our university the spring semester of my freshman year.

Here's the love story: We met in freezing cold January. We had a humanities class and an LDS Institute choir together. I recognized him in my class from choir and decided that he was pretty cute so naturally I should strike up a conversation in class and see where it goes, right? (It was truly love at second sight) Well I did and this kid was pretty chill and totally opposite of me. He was SO quiet and reserved (with other people). We got along great. We would sometimes spend about an hour and a half chatting after class or choir. It took him about a month to ask me out on a date (it pretty much killed me because it seemed like it took so long), and I had the best date of my life on February 7, 2014. This kid had literally swept me off my feet (well, not literally.. at least one of my feet remained on the ground the entire date). We laughed a lot and I can only describe my feelings as blissful and wonderful. He liked me enough to ask me out on a second date on Valentine's Day. This date was such a hoot. I dolled up and he was looking pretty nice too, so we went to my favorite local place to grab some hot chocolate. As soon as we sat down, the embarrassment came.. the waiter spilled hot chocolate all over his pants and after that, let's just say that we watched a movie and our first kiss was probably MY most embarrassing moment in my entire life. I missed his mouth. It was that bad. But it's chill because the kisses after that were right on the lips! Later that month, we made our relationship 'official' and such.*BAM* *FASTFORWARD* We were engaged by the third week of May and married on August 9, 2014. It happened fast but it was great and I wouldn't have changed a single thing, including the fact that I missed his mouth on our first kiss.

So there was my answer to all of my confusion. I had a different mission in life and I'm totally okay with it. The married life is so great. I finally have somebody to share my love of Disney/ Pixar movies with and a Disneyland ride partner for all of time and eternity. Really, who could ask for more? The Lord's fingerprints are truly all over our lives. I could probably write a blog post on all of the little ways that my husband's life and my own lined up and such, but that would probably be pretty boring and a waste of time because there is only one explanation to it and it's that our Heavenly Father loves us and puts His hand into our lives so that we may have happiness in this life and the life to come.

xoxo

hmmm....

So it's spring break and life is soopah crazy like always. I had to get my tooth implant thingy for a second time (because the first time it failed) and it hurt like a mother. This time I asked for laughing gas and holy coww... I really liked it. I probably shouldn't have liked it as much as I did but, I did. It's great. Don't get it. It's really fun. But seriously, don't get it. It's too fun.

My sister Lyndsey is such a trooper. Her husband was recently diagnosed with cancer, but it hasn't stopped her from pushing through life. Health problems have always been something my family has been challenged with. It can sometimes be really discouraging and hard, but that doesn't mean you can't smile. If there is one thing that I have learned from my upbringing is that no matter what, find the joys in life. Life can be super hard and rough and icky, but it shouldn't stop you from living. Yes, things are really crazy right now and they will probably continue to be crazy for awhile, but I know that everything will work out. This sounds kind of weird but sometimes my soul feels the most at peace during these crazy times. I know that it is because of my Heavenly Father. He really is so great! I'm blessed to have God in my life. Without him I would feel so lost and alone. He helps my family and me during our most difficult times. I'm grateful for these challenges because without them, my relationship with my Father in Heaven would probably not be as strong. I figure whenever I'm faced with a difficulty in life, I have two choices: let the little bump in the road bug me, distract me and harden my heart, or allow it to humble me and give me a chance to grow closer to God. They both can be difficult, but one reaps a greater reward. No matter what happens, you gotta beam a smile and keep positive.
(If you want to take a gander and learn a little bit more about my sister and her husband's journey with cancer, go to this blog: http://kentbarkerupdates.blogspot.com/2014/03/side-effects.html )

So.. Let's get positive! The highlights of my break so far:
-sleeping in
-eating yummy homemade food
-watching frozen.. again
-getting letters/emails from my missionary friends
-going to the art gallery at BYU with the beautiful paintings of Jesus
-going to a Venezuelan/ Colombian restaurant
-playing with my nephew
-face timing... :)
-chilling with the fam bam!!

This break has been great. I survived midterms and I feel ready to finish the semester strong! It's gonna be great!

xoxo

They Say When It Rains, It Rains Pennies From Heaven..

It's been a really long time since my last blog post. I have such a hard time keeping up on it! Today was a pretty crazy day. It was pretty stressful because I had a three page paper due and I had started it just this morning. The weather pretty much matched my mood perfectly-- rainy, wet and stressed. As I walked into my Sociology class, I found a penny heads-side up. It reminded me of the saying, "Find a penny, heads-side up and all day long you'll have good luck!" I loved that saying. It makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world and somebody is really looking after me. Just that feeling of having somebody looking after me reminded me of one of my favorite poems:

      Pennies from Heaven
i found a penny today
just laying on the ground
but it's not just a penny
this little coin i've found
"found" pennies come from heaven
that's what my grandpa told me
he said angels toss them down
oh, how i loved that story
he said when an angel misses you 
they toss a penny down
sometimes just to cheer you up
make a smile out of your frown
so don't pass by that penny
when you're feeling blue
it may be a penny from heaven
that an angel tossed to you

     ~ C. Mashburn

xoxo