Labor Day Ups and Downs

Jon and I began our Labor Day when the alarm went off at 5:30am. We convinced ourselves that we could affort an extra 15 minutes of sleep and then spent the following forty minutes rubbing sleepiness out of our eyes as we got dressed and ready for the morning. We were going to the Ogden Temple open house with Jon's crew from work. Outta the doors by 6:26, picking up two of his coworkers, hitting the road by 7:50, and making it there just in time: a little after 8. We spent the next hour watching a video about the sacredness of temples and then touring the Ogden Temple itself.

Temple open houses are rare. They only happen right after a temple has been built or right after a temple has been majorly renovated. In both cases, the temple is open to the public to come and tour for a short amount of time. After the temple is dedicated, or rededicated, it is only open to worthy members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is because members want to be sure that what goes on inside the temple is kept sacred and held with reverence and understanding. At temple open houses, however, members and non-members are welcome within the doors to see the beautiful architecture and to feel the peaceful Spirit that resides within the holy walls. (Click here to learn more about Latter-Day Saint temples).

The temple was beautiful. I was so grateful for the time we had to walk through and quietly observe the beautiful lights, paintings, stairways, rooms, doors, and walls. It was such a good reminder that we should all be striving to make it to the temple so that we can feel closer to God and be united together with our families forever.

After the long drive home, Jon and I were exhausted and a little at a loss of what to do. You see, we are still learning how to function in this whole marriage thing and sometimes it's hard to know exactly what to do. Something I've found myself struggling with a lot is knowing how to balance independence and personal to-do lists/goals with companionship. Often, Jon and I have found that one of us has things to get done while the other doesn't, and so the one who doesn't finds him/herself bored while the busy one finds him/herself feeling pressured to finish their stuff at an uncomfortable pace. As a single lad (or lady), you can just skadaddle and go play with your friends when your partner is busy, but we haven't quite figured out what you do in that situation as a married bloke yet.

Anyways. That's the position Jon and I found ourselves in this afternoon. He was tired and wanted to sleep. I wanted to get stuff done. We each did our own things, but four hours later found that we were both frustrated with feeling like we had been stuck in the house all day with little purpose and energy.

So, we fixed it. Or rather, we changed it. The situation. Instead of continuing to be bored and frustrated, we decided to make some super awesome plans. We Skyped my family. Jon helped me makes some tortillas for tomorrow's dinner. I made a super delicious meal, we packed it up in the picnic basket that my Grandma Sorensen and Aunt Janet gave me, and we went and had dinner on the water's edge up in Provo Canyon at Upper Falls. We came home, cleaned up, and had an awesome FHE (which began with my laughter springing around the room as Jon tried to get me to sing "There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today" in Spanish--which I do not speak--at a katrillion words per minute). We made plans for the rest of the week. We're excited about life.

It's so easy, when you're having a bad day, to just let the bad day keep bading. BUT, we each have the power to tell the bad to stop bading and to make some good start gooding. We are powerful people with potential and possibility perusing through our veins. The day we realize that and start living like it's true (which it is) is the day we enable ourselves who we want to be.

...Stepping off the soapbox, now...

Tomorrow's almost here, and I have a test to give and papers to grade and exercises to do and a dinner to make and a husband coming back from his first day of the semester's classes to love and a million other awesome and wonderful and worth-while things to do. Life is so much happier when you live it on purpose, and that's how I like to live mine.

Make the good keep on gooding.