Our First Time Bowling

Jon's been bothering me for the past 11 hours about blogging this post, so I figure I'd better get to it. Last night, we went bowling together as a couple for the first time. Before going, we both admitted to each other that we weren't that good. For example, I usually bowl somewhere around a 115. Him too. So we show up at Miracle Bowl in Orem at 9:30 (it's only $1.50 per game after 9!) and started. What followed was both hilarious and embarrassing.

After the first three sets, this is what the scoreboard looked like:

Those cross things under Jon's name? Those are strikes. Those round things under my name? Those are zeros.

After five sets, Jon still had all strikes. This is what he looked like:

Even our neighboring bowlers were noticing. Finally, with his 6th set he "only" got a spare. By the end of the game he had bowled 6 strikes and 3 spares. I'm not going to tell you what I bowled.

In the end, Jon had a total score of 207. I had a total score of 41.

It was the best game of his life.

It was the worst of mine.

It might have also been the best night of Jon's life. He really loves winning.

It might have also been the best night of mine, because I really love him.

"I Want to Be a Mother!"

One day when I was in seventh grade, I sat on the curb outside the school waiting for my mom to come pick me up. While I was waiting, one of the school counselors happened to see me and came to join me. He'd talked with me in the past and we knew each other. He seemed to view the "waiting on the curb" moment as a great opportunity to talk a little bit about life, because that's what he started doing.

He asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. This was an easy question for me to answer. Without pause, I replied that I wanted to be a mother. He seemed to laugh to himself and then asked me what I really wanted to be. Slightly infuriated, I responded that I actually really did want to be a mother, but that if he was curious that didn't mean that I wasn't planning on attending college and that I still wasn't sure what I wanted to major in but I had considered teaching and dietetics, thank you very much!

That was me all growing up. Being the strong, religious person that I was, I learned early on that the greatest possible "profession" I could aspire to obtain someday was that of mother. A wonderful stay-at-home mom--along with the feelings in my heart--convinced me that this was true. And just like I said to Mr. 7th Grade Counselor, whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew-up, my first response was: "A mother!"

How surprising it was, then, when this started to change when I went to college. I went to college at BYU, an institution funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka: the Mormons). At BYU, people joke about the female population and how they're all really just there to get married (Studio C's music video on the subject is hilarious!) It's a great topic to joke around about, but it's not reality for most girls. Overall, I believe that most girls at BYU place equal value on the acquisition of knowledge as they do on the acqisition of a husband.

Unfortunately, however, during my time there this running joke started to influence me. I didn't want to be seen as the girl who was only there to find a husband. I wanted people to know that I valued my education too. As a result, my answer to the "What do you want to be when you grow-up?" question changed.

"I'm still deciding what to major in," I said my freshman year.

"I'm going to give elementary education a try, but we'll see what happens," I said after that.

"English Education," was my final response. "I'm going to be a teacher."

It is ironic how sometimes, when we live in a culture saturated in what we believe, we start being untrue to ourselves just because we don't want to be defined as a label.

Luckily, I married a man who saw past all my "I don't want to be defined as a label" mumbo jumbo, and five years later--as of one week ago today--I graduated from BYU with both the man and the degree.

I didn't really recognize the shift that had taken place within myself until six months ago when I was called to be my ward's girls camp director. When my bishop extended the call, he made sure I knew that it was against camp rules for pregnant women to attend camp. Though I hadn't really been putting having kids on hold, it wasn't something I was actively pursing at that point and the bishop's words barely made me skip a beat. In fact, I wanted to say yes to the calling right away (I love the youth!), but I felt like my husband and I should talk and pray about it first, so I told the bishop I'd get back to him. I'm so grateful that I did, because even though I accepted the calling in the end, the process of discussing it with my husband, studying the matter, and praying about it reminded me of the conviction and aspirations I had deep inside of me but had lost sight of while at college.

I'm so grateful that the Lord has helped me remember that there is nothing second rate in attending a top-notch university and in wanting to be a mother at the same time. In fact, for women who choose to pursue higher education, it's how He wants it to be.

In this past April General Conference, Sister Oscarson said:

"[W]e need to boldly defend the Lord's revealed doctrines describing marriage, families, the divine roles of men and women, and the importance of homes as sacred places--even when the world is shouting in our ears that these principles are outdated, limiting, or no longer relevant. Everyone, no matter what their marital circumstance...can be defenders of the Lord's plan described in the family proclamation. If it is the Lord's plan, it should also be our plan!" (Defenders of the Family Proclamation)

What a wonderful second reminder her words were to me of who's team I'm on and what I should be standing up for. I want to be a defender of the Lord's plan! I want His plan to be my plan as well.

Today, if someone were to ask me what I want to be when I grow-up, I would proudly respond with: "I want to be a mother!" Because I do. And there's nothing wrong with that.

On Being Locked Inside of My House

Yesterday my friend locked her keys in her car.

Apparently, I decided to one up her this morning and lock myself in my house.

Yes--as I type this, I am currently locked inside of my house.

How the heck does this happen? Let me explain.

Our house is very old. We've been having problems with the doors, but have always managed to get it open in the end. Today, that luck ran out. I went to open the door and it wouldn't. The locks were unlocked and the door still wouldn't move.

Upon closer inspection, I found the problem. The little bar thingy that's supposed to go inside the door when you turn the knob wasn't going inside the door.

Okay. I'm a capable woman. I just fixed our bikes the other day; I can fix this too.

I unscrew the doorknob off the door. I hear the other half of it fall onto the ground outside and I take off the inside half. I try my best from this position to get that little bar inside the door, but it still won't move!

Finally, I gave up. I called the renters and they sent someone over to pry off the lock, promising they'd send a handyman along later. So now I can get out of the house, there's just a big hole in my front door.

Gotta love livin' in an old house!

A Bike Ride with Jessica and FHE with Bugs at Utah Lake

If you haven't caught on, I'm using some of the extreme amount of free time on my hands to chronicle every bit of my life. It's being fun, and I doubt I'll ever have time like this to do something like this again, so I'm goin' for it!

Yesterday was Tuesday, Jessica and Jon's day off! Unfortunately, Jon had to cover for someone, so he had to miss out on the daytime fun. Jessica and I had tons of fun though riding our bikes along the Provo River Trail up to Bridal Veil Falls and back! I was really excited because I'd spent the morning tuning our bikes, so I thought everything would be perfect! Well, in order for that to be the case I would have had to tune the bikes perfectly, which I didn't. Therefore, the handlebars on one of the bikes got flipped the wrong way shortly into the ride and wouldn't move back and the gears on one of the bikes didn't work well and the handlebars on one were too short and the tires weren't as full as I'd like them to be.

Therefore, rather than perfect, it was interesting.

But 20 miles later, we'd done it!

Later that evening, Jon joined us for FHE (which was a day late). I was in charge and I had this wonderful idea. This was the plan:

Make our way to Utah Lake right as it gets dark. Talk about the story of The Brother of Jared from The Book of Mormon. Then, because that story has glowing rocks, we'll splatted rocks on the lake shore with glowstick gunk and then skip them across the lake, watching the glow jump it's way across the water.

It would have been great, except then we got there and HOLY BUGS!!! I've never seen so many bugs all in the same place at once. They literally peppered the sky and filled the air with the constant sound of their buzzing. Loudly.

I've been to Utah Lake at night before, and this had never been a problem, so needless to say, this was a surprise.

We tried talking about The Brother of Jared, but Jon and Jessica were hopping around like rabbits and so we decided to try moving somewhere else where the bugs didn't qualify as a new form of air pollution. This new spot had less bugs, and so we tried cutting open some glowsticks, pouring them in a bag, and then shaking some rocks around inside of it. The problem now, however, was that instead of having bugs congest the sky, this new area had mosquitoes, and mosquitoes really, REALLY like my blood for some reason.

Jon was suddenly as happy as could be because he was skipping rocks and thinking he was cool for how many times they bounced, and Jessica was enjoying watching him. I, on the other hand was hitting myself obsessively to try and kill the mosquitoes that were raiding my body. I would hit three on my left leg (I was wearing capris) and then four on my right leg and then four on my left arm (short sleeves) and then five on my right arm only to look back to my left leg and find five more already there again! And I'm not dramatically exaggerating here! (My leg is itching in memory as I write this!)

I tried staying, because Jon kept wanting me to watch him be really cool and skip a rock a ton of times, but I failed to watch him skip nearly every rock because I was too distracted with hitting myself. Finally, after about five minutes, I just turned around and left. It was not worth it. Plus, the glowing rocks didn't even glow as they bounced across the water like the internet said they would. Lame!

Today, my legs look like they're recovering from chicken pox.

Our Bucket List and Jessica Being Better at Watercoloring

So. The bucket list is actually on track to get completed! On Monday Jess and I made pasta salad and it was super good. I'm just posting the photos of it so that you can see how pretty it is. Apparently (and according to Jessica) one of the reasons why kids like candy so much is because it's colorful, so all the kids in the world would probably really like our pasta salad too because it's colorful:

Then, we spend some time watercoloring postcards. Let me preface this: Before this day, I'd spent over an hour drawing what I wanted to watercolor and then about another hours starting to watercolor. I finished up while Jessica created hers and this is what mine turned out like:

Jessica, on the other hand, sat down, didn't draw a thing, and whipped this out in about an hour:

Obviously, the artsy genes didn't go to me. We painted more again today. The same thing happened. That's okay, it was still super fun!

Trek 2015

Last week Jon and I got to give parenthood a go. At the last minute, another couple at our church wasn't able to go on our church's trek and so Jon and I got invited to go!

Pioneer treks are exactly what they sound like...for several days, people go out in the wilderness pushing handcarts so that we can get a taste of what it was like for the early members of the church who had to do so. It's a youth activity for kids between 12 and 18 and they divide everyone up into "families" to push handcarts and do activities. Jon and I got to be the Ma and Pa of one of these groups!

The first day, Thursday, we had to wake-up super early so that we could meet at the church at 5am and then carpool up into the mountains. Being that Jon finished his finals the day before and we were up until nearly midnight, we were pretty tired:

But we made it there and two hours later were at the trail head, ready to start on our journey.

At the trail head we finally met our family. The kids in our group were absolutely fantastic!

Sonja was the first one to show up. From Hawaii, she is in town visiting her grandparents and got to come along and join in our fun. I was so grateful to have her in our group. Sonja was always willing to help when asked, reach out to those alone, and never once complained. Her testimony of the gospel is evident in the way she lives her life.

After Sonja, others came along. Among them was Ciarra. Ciarra was very quiet, but very kind. She was my constant companion throughout the trek and often kept me company when I was alone. I was grateful to have her in our family because of her quiet strength and friendship.

Then, there was Bethany and Jack. I put these two together in the same sentence because they are siblings and were nearly inseparable. The love and concern that they showed each other was mind blowing. Whenever one of them felt unwell, the other could not rest until they felt better. I was grateful to have them on the trek for their example of love.

We had two Joshs in our group, so I referred affectionately to them as "Josh the Elder" and "Josh the Younger." Josh the Elder was the eldest member of our group. Having just graduated high school, he is working of submitting his mission papers. Josh's testimony of the gospel shown bright in every word and deed. I could tell that he really pondered things and took them to heart. I was grateful for the leadership he provided our group. (He was even willing to be the only one in our group to make a cornhusk doll, and he's a boy!)

Josh the Younger provided our group with optimism and energy. He was always one to help keep the conversation going when we were walking and he participated in games whenever given the opportunity. He even gave up one morning to help in the kitchen! I was grateful to have him there for the willingness and joy that he provided.

Last, but not least, there was Saul. Saul was the power horse in our family. I doubt we would have made it up some of the hills we did without the strength he provided.He also showed his spiritual strength when he participated and gave answers during family devotionals. He also never once complained, even though he was treking with an injured hand. I was grateful to have him there for the physical and spiritual strength he provided.

Thursday was hiked 7 miles and then camped for the evening. When we camped, we first played some games and then took naps:

We happened to camp right next to another group who was also treking, so after the naps and dinner, we joined them that evening for a dance. We did organized square dancing, and holy cow--it was so fun! The biggest surprise to me is how much JON enjoyed it! He was grinning super DUPER huge and started talking all about how we need to go camping with six other couples and square dance at night. I loved seeing how happy it made him and everyone else and gained an understanding for why the pioneers danced so much.

The next day we spent the morning doing some pioneer activities and games. This was a nice chance to relax and have fun after one hard day of work before a new one.

We learned how to clean and spin wool:

Played some games:

Carved some soap:

And (Jon's favorite) made corn husk dolls:

After the games we ate lunch and went on our way! The second day's trekking was definitely the hardest. Though it was shorter than the first day (only about 5 miles) the entire thing was uphill--pretty major uphill. But we did it and made it to the next campsite where we ate (again--yea!), danced, and did devotional.

The next morning brought us to our final day. After eating and doing a family devotional, the whole group got together for a testimony meeting. It was a good opportunity to reflect on the experiences we'd had and what they mean in the big scheme of things. After lunch, we hiked our way down and out of the mountain another 5 miles and then we were done! Jon and I said goodbye to our family, grabbed a HUGE otter pop, and then got in the car and drove home.

Treks are one of my most favorite church activities! There are so many reasons why, but here are some of the reasons why I loved this trek in particular:

1. I loved that the Lord was able to count on us to come at the very last minute, even though it took some sacrifice.

2. I loved feeling like I had purpose. Summer break has been awesome because it's allowed me to do so many things like trek, but that sense of meaning that I get when I'm living my life for others has been mainly absent. I loved having an opportunity to serve these kids and to share in some pretty neat experiences with them.

3. Most that anything, I loved watching Jon be Jon. What I mean by that is that I loved observing Jon serve those around him and do what needs to be done in small and simple ways. Jon's not one to be loud and in front of the crowd (that's me!), but that doesn't mean he doesn't reach people. In fact, it's because of this that he often reaches those quite people on the sidelines that otherwise don't get reached. He did this while on trek. One morning, I shared my favorite pioneer story with the kids: the story of 3 eighteen-year-old boys who carried nearly every member of the handcart company through blocks of ice across the Sweetwater River, much to their own personal expense. As I told this story, I reflected on Jon and what I know about his character, and realized that I married a man who would do the same.

How grateful I am to the pioneers--for their example of faith and strength--and for the opportunity I had to experience the smallest taste of what it was like for them.

My First Year Teaching

After the very last day of school at Salem Junior High, all the teachers sat in the cafeteria eating lunch to celebrate the end of it all. I sat by the art teacher, who turned to me and asked: "Did you have a bunch of students hang-up a poster in your room today?"

I recalled watching a boy in my last class of the day scurry up to the white board and try to hang-up a poster on my board. When the white board failed, I had suggested that he try stapling it to the builtin board instead. 20 too many staples later, the poster hung on my wall. It said: "We are going to miss you!!!" and had the signatures of many of my students on it.

"Yes," I replied.

"Yeah," the art teacher continued, "This student came to me today frantically asking for a piece of poster paper. I told him there was no more poster board left in the whole school. After more persistence, I finally offered him an extremely large piece of paper. You saw what it said, right?"

I smiled. "I did."

"I'll just point out that no one made me a big poster," she replied.

Yup--my students made me this awesome huge poster on the last day of school that said: "We will miss you!!!" and had a ton of signatures. Many of the students who didn't have a chance to sign the poster graffitied my whiteboard with goodbyes. Others brought me treats. One even brought me a carton of ice cream because I always talk about how it's the best food in the world!

Man, teaching these kids this past year was one of the best experiences of my life. I doubt that there's any better place to intern as a full-time first year teacher than at Salem Junior High. Though there were some rough patches, the kids always made it easy because they were so good. I'd have people come in to observe me and say things like: "Wow--you have really good classroom management!" and I'd be like: "No--they're just really good kids!"

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have been a teacher this past year and to have felt like I made a bit of a difference in the lives of some of those kids. I went all year wondering sometimes, but that last week I received an outpouring of love so big as to erase all doubt: they did think that I did make a difference. I hope that I have the opportunity to teach middle school again, but we'll see what the future holds. For now, knowing that I helped these kids is enough.

Family Scripture and Prayer

Having just finished reading "The Book of Mormon" together as a little family, Jon and I decided to start reading "The New Testament" together. Being that Jessica is in town and often over at our house, she sometimes joins us.

The other night, the three of us were reading Matthew 6. We were on verse 6, and it was Jon's turn to read. He started reading the verse on the couch sitting next to us...

"But thou, when thou prayest,"

...and then stood up while still reading and started walking towards the closet...

"enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,"

...got inside--still reading...

"pray to thy Father which is in secret;"

and shut the door. 

(From within the closet): "and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

I think Jon has mastered the principle of likening the scriptures unto himself. Spiritual giant, that one. 

At times like this, I have to wonder what family scripture and prayer is going to be like when we have kids. I mean, what's Jon Jr. gonna' do to Lindsey Jr. when we get to the war chapters in "The Book of Mormon"?!! Whatever it's like, I'm sure that Dad will keep it interesting!

Summer Bucket List 2015

A couple of days ago I did an impromptu interview with Jon about me to see what he knew. One of the questions was: "What does your wife like to do?" and one of his answers was: "Making lists." He was right! I love making lists! They help me infuse my life with purpose and give me things to do in my free time. So to make our summer more awesome, I of course suggested to Jessica that we make a summer bucket list. She agreed! And we made one! And we're already crossing tons of stuff off of it! And I'm ending way too many sentences in a row with exclamation marks!

We split our list into three categories: food, outdoor activities, and stuff we could do at home. Being us, of course the food category is the biggest of the tree. Naturally, this is also the category we have already started to tackle.

The first thing we made from this category was popsicles. This was Jessica's idea, and I think it's probably one of the best ideas she's ever had because the AC unit in our apartment doesn't work and I've become a chain popsicle sucker. The best part of all is that the popsicles we made aren't even bad for you! We just made up some Wyler's Light lemonade with a little less water than normal, mixed it with some fruit, and froze them in cups with spoons stickin' out. My favorite was the one with pineapple and strawberries.

The other thing we've made is tomato bisque. This is another one of Jessica's ideas, which was--once again--fabulous! We used this recipe. It was incredibly easy, and incredibly good. I'm definitely going to make it again!

Here are just a few of the other things on our list that I hope we cross off this summer:

• Make fruit pizza
• Make cauliflower potatoes
• Eat tatter tots!
• Go geocashing
• Go swimming
• Go to an outdoor movie
• Watch all the Star Wars films
• Paint postcards
• Grow basil plants
• Write and send Emily a poem

Rock Canyon Hike

Yesterday Jessica and I went on a hike up Rock Canyon. It was very beautiful and very fun!

I really, really, REALLY love having my sister here to share my summer with! Jessica--thanks for hangin' out with me so that I'm not some loner teacher-on-summer-vacation-with-a-husband-busy-with-school bum! This summer's gonna' be epic with you around!