Thanksgiving and Christmas Breaks (and my birthday)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Being that the past few months have been very busy and filled with lots of family and fun and there's just so much to say about it all, I figured I'd just sum most of it up with the pictures I took along the way. Here are just a few...

We went to my Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen's place in Idaho for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to see all my family! One of the highlights was when we celebrated Grandma's 80th birthday by giving her a book filled with memories about her from all of the grandchildren. She cried a lot and it made us all happy.

We had a Christmas party with our Sunday School class where we made gingerbread (graham cracker) houses and had a white elephant gift exchange!

Perry spent the weekend before Christmas break with us. We we to Buffalo Wild Wings, a BYU basketball game, and to see the new Hobbit movie!

After a fun weekend with Perry, we traveled down to Apple Valley to spend Christmas with Jon's family. Christmas was so much fun! I got to skype with Emily (who is doing awesome!) and got lots of stuff for our 72 hour kits.

Jon also did a FANTASTIC job getting me gifts! He got me wool socks (I wear them literally every day during the winter), a subscription to the Ensign Magazine, a book called The Cannon that I've wanted to read for some time, tickets to BYU's production of Monte Cristo, and 3 huge family sized bags of peppermint Hershey's kisses (this last one made me laugh out loud...I had mentioned a week before that they were my favorite and that I wanted a lifetime supply. He said that that was ridiculous). ALL of these things are things that I've mentioned wanting over the past few months...I guess he really does listen when I'm talking!

And I also super loved the gift Jessica got me! She knew that Jon was taking me to Monte Cristo, and so she got me an Olive Garden gift card (my favorite place to eat), a scarf to wear, and yummy icy breath things to make the night a complete date!

This is the scarf Jessica got me! 

For the second week of Christmas break, we had to come back to Provo so that Jon could work. We managed to have tons of fun, though--from New Year's Eve with our friends Rylin and Shayla to playing games with the new game set Abby got Jon for Christmas to building the lego dirt bike I got Jon for Christmas to going skiing and snowboarding for the first time! (Jon LOVES snowboarding, but I've never gone. So while he learned to ski, I learned to snowboard).

Sometimes Jon like to wear my clothes. Not really, but this day he did!

Just three days after school started up, I turned 23! Jon did a wonderful job pampering me, and we spent the evening eating homemade alfredo, opening gifts, playing chess (he beat me really bad), and watching/listening to a taped performance of a David Foster and friends concert.

Since then, we've gone snowboarding/skiing twice, cross country skiing, gotten together with new and old friends, lost and found Jon's phone, tried out yoga, and lots of other really fun things. I think I'm finally starting to get this whole marriage thing figured out, and I quite like it. Jon's in for the next few eternities with me, and we're both totally on board with the idea.

The Story of Jon and Lindsey: Our First Date

Who knows if Jon and I would have ever ended up together if Rylin Patterson and I hadn't become friends. Winter of 2013 was a hard one for me. I felt like I was failing at everything: failing at being relief society president, failing at being a good roommate, failing at being a good older sister, failing at becoming an English teacher, failing at living healthily, failing at being a good friend, and any other failing out there--I was doing it. I was feeling pretty down and sorry for myself, and for some reason--after a random night of going to see "Wreck It Ralph" at the dollar theater with a group of people in the ward--Rylin decided to be my friend. It was random, and I was a bit confused about who the heck this short and often weird guy was, but I wasn't complaining because suddenly I felt like I had a friend.

One night I was at his house and we started talking about all the awesome things we wanted to do that summer and decided that we should make a summer bucket list. So we did. We had something like 50 items and he titled the top of the page: "The Most Awesome Summer Ever" or something like that. After finals week ended, Rylin and I were sitting down, looking over our list, and trying to figure out how to start off our summer (though technically I guess it was still spring). Earlier, I had admitted that I thought I needed to start going on more dates than I had lately and he was all over the idea of doing a double, so we decided to mark off our Hike the Y and Watch a Sunset goals and to make it a double all in one whammy the following Saturday. Rylin was anxious and excited because he already knew who he wanted to ask. I, however, had no clue who I was going to ask, but figured that with all the new people moving into the apartment complex for summer term, that I could find someone.

I don't remember most of the details from the beginning of the next week, but I do remember that Rylin pestered me just about every single day to see if I'd gotten a date yet--because he had!--and I just had to keep telling him that: "No, Rylin, I haven't. But I'm trying!" Which was true. There was a new guy in the ward that I had thought about asking, and had maybe even tried asking...but due to some circumstances, it just wasn't working.

Wednesday evening came and I still didn't have a date. The time to ask was escaping me, and I still had no clue who to pop the question to. It wasn't that I was afraid to ask a guy out (been there, done that), it was just that I sincerely had started to lose interest in dating and if I was going to go to the effort of asking someone I wanted it to be at least a semi-successful evening.

Enter Jon Paul Self:

-'Bout 6 feet tall
-Lean
-Dirty blonde hair
-Brown/green eyes
-Horribly handsome
-Ubber righteous
-Avid BYU fan
-Frequent ESPN stocker
-Lover of watermelon and doughnuts
-Professional napper
-That guy who likes to make jokes in his prayers
-The man of my dreams

You know the guy.

But I didn't. In fact, I had barely figured out his name. Jon belonged in this conglomeration of roommates that were super close and ran around together having fun all the time. I knew all of their names: Joseph, Eric, Kelly, Kyle, Alex, and Jon...I just didn't exactly know which name went with which face. Except Joseph. I knew him. There were so many times over the past year, since Jon had been in the ward, that I would see him on campus and call him the wrong name. Our gym schedules seemed to be the same, so it usually happened there.

"Hi Eric!"

"Actually, it's Jon."

"Oh. Yeah. Well, hope you're workout's treatin' you great! See ya later!"

Super romantic, right?

As I was saying--Enter the horribly handsome Jon Paul Self: dressed in a white shirt and tie, coming from the parking lot and happening to pass by where I was sitting on a bench, on his way to his apartment.

I thought I'd be friendly.

"Hello, Jon!" I called.

He paused at the sound of my voice and looked up. "Hi, Lindsey." He came over to where I was sitting.

"You look mighty nice," I commented. "Where you coming from?"

"I just came back from the temple."

This was the point where my conscience tugged at me and I remembered that in addition to working on my dating life, I was also trying to work on going to the temple more. So far, I'd gone approximately zero times. My excuse? I didn't have a car, and had been too lazy to walk the mile and a half there thus far.

"The temple?" I repeated. "That's cool! I've been wanting to go to the temple sometime soon, but I don't have a car and haven't been able to find a ride." I forgot to mention the part about me being lazy.

"I'm going again tomorrow and wouldn't mind giving you a ride."

In the excitement of a prospective ride, my mind totally skipped over the oddity of him going to the temple two days in a row and I cheerfully responded with: "A ride would be awesome!"

(The reason Jon was going to the temple two days in a row was because he was just coming from having an interview with the temple president to help with the work that goes on there. He was planning on attending the following day to attend for himself.)

"Okay," he replied. "What time works for you?"

"I get off work at 5...Would 6 be okay?"

"Sure."

And then as he was walking away I remember thinking to myself: Self: this kid doesn't seem like that bad of a guy. Maybe tomorrow when he gives you a ride to the temple, you could see if he's free to go on a date this Saturday at 7:30pm. 

And that's what I did.

And he said that he was free.

And I could finally ward off Rylin's: "Have you gotten a date yet?" with a: "Why yes, Rylin. I have."

But let's be honest here: I wasn't expecting much. I mean, sure Jon was horribly handsome and pleasant to talk to, but he and I had been going to church in the same ward for the past eight months--most of the time with me not even remembering his name--and nothing had happened. Nothing was going to happen. I wasn't even terribly excited for the date.

Saturday, May 4th, 2013 came waltzing around and I found myself sitting in Rylin's kitchen talking with him at 5pm, about two-and-a-half hours before the date. I don't remember what we were talking about but I do remember that Adam Beus--a friend in the ward--dropped by to talk because he was going to join us with a girl at the date too.

"Who are you going with?" he asked me.

I told him "Jon," and his reaction was so strong and immediate that it caught me off guard.

"I approve!" he exclaimed. "Jon is a really good man."

Three hours later, I didn't need Adam telling me that Jon was a really good guy. Two-and-a-half hours later, however, the date had yet to begin and I was not feeling too pumped. I distinctly remember not wanting to go on the date because I was in the middle of having a really good conversation with my friend wherein I was trying to figure-out the woes and troubles associated with thinking that you're failing at everything in life, and the date was interrupting it.

But I hauled myself away and picked Jon up at his place. We met up with Rylin, Adam, and their dates, crammed into Rylin's car (there might not have been enough seat belts...good thing Jon's bum is small!) and made it up to the start of the Y trail head.

And so we started hiking.

And started talking.

And I accidentally started falling for the 6 foot tall, blonde hair, brown/green eyes man whom I'd been calling the wrong name for the past eight months.

No big deal.

Legit picture of Jon and I on our first date sitting at the top of the Y!

I just remember loving the way I felt with Jon. As previously mentioned, I'd had a hard winter. I was feeling down and as a result, had turned into this somewhat fake person in order to feel like I could make myself fit with people without letting them see the mess that was inside. But with Jon, I felt like my old self again. I felt calm and understood. Above all: I felt the Spirit, and it felt awesome. After the first ten minutes, Jon stopped and apologized for talking too much about church stuff and said that his friends always teased him for making everything about church. I picked my jaw off the ground and reattached it to my skull so that I could say that my friends also teased me for making everything about church and that I didn't mind it one little bit and that he definitely shouldn't be apologizing. I remember talking that whole entire date and not once feeling like we struggled to have something to say and that it was just so easy to be with him. We had so much in common and just kept saying: "Me too!" 

The date came to an end and we got back into the car with everyone else. On the drive down, we started talking with the other couples again (everyone had paired off while on the mountain). As we drove, I frowned as I paused and considered the words coming out of my mouth. Back with everyone else, I was being that fake version of myself again. It was such a stark contrast to the way I felt for the two hours just Jon and I had talked. I didn't like it. I wanted what I had when I was with just Jon back. I wanted to be a better person.

I didn't admit it then--even to myself--that I liked him, but deep down I knew I did. I tried to attribute it all to feeling like I once again had hope with my dating life. But within the following weeks--after coming up with reasons for him to take me to the store and to go to the baseball game with him and to talk with him at treat night and to coincidentally be wherever he also happened to be--it was very obvious that all hopes in regard to my dating life were targeted very pointedly at one man, and that I was trying very hard not to hope too much for a bulls eye for fear that I might miss.

Luckily, Jon asked me on a second date.

"Don't Use Fake Last Name"

Today in Jon's technical writing class, they all brought in a copy of their resume, hung them on the walls, and then walked around and edited each other's papers. When the activity was over and Jon got back his paper, this was written on it:

I've heard many puns about my new last name in the month and a half that I've been married. For example, today in one of my classes we were learning about the 6 types of conflict and the kids thought it was hilarious when we couldn't decide if a scenario we were studying about a student and a teacher was an example of character versus character or character verses (Mrs.) Self. It was awesome.

This comment on Jon's paper, however, might be even funnier. We don't know if the culprit was serious or just kidding. Either way, it made our night.

Homework Time!

Tonight after FHE I was cleaning up things from our activity so that Jon could get started on some homework ("Do you have lots of homework tonight?" I'd asked him..."YES!!! LOADS!!!" or something like that was his reply). After I cleaned up FHE I went in the kitchen and got out things to be productive so that I could make good use of the time while Jon was getting homework done. In the middle of all this, Jon got up from the table and disappeared into the living room. I didn't think twice about it, assuming that he was going in there because it was cooler and he'd been complaining all night about how hot he was.

The culprit...the game "Wordament"

I wrapped up working on something and then, realizing that I needed my iPad for my next task, got up and started looking for it. When I walked into the living room I found Jon holding my iPad. At first, I was confused. Then, as I walked up to him and asked: "What are you doing?" I realized what was going on. Jon looked up at me like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar--guilty, cute five-year-old smile and all. He was not doing homework. No. He was playing a word game app that he's been addicted to for the past month.

My brain could not take it in. This is my husband, and I feel like I'm walking up to a kindergartner! He just kept smiling up at me with that guilty, five-year-old smile as I exclaimed: "Aren't you supposed to be doing homework?!" and then I just burst out laughing. It is one of the most ridiculous/endearing/hilarious things that Jon has ever done. And when I tried to take the iPad away he said, in his best five-year-old voice: "No!" and then I started laughing again. So much for the "LOADS" of homework.

Yes, I realize that this story is probably ten times more funny to me than to any of you, but man--if you could have just seen his face...At the very least, I think I can adamantly claim that Jon has mastered the following scripture:

“…Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” –Matthew 18:3

Another Week

This past week has been filled with many fun activities. On Tuesday we had Jon's old mission companion, Andrew Perkinson, over for dinner. It was fun to sit and listen to the boys reminisce over mission times and to tell stories. I love how much Jon loves his mission. It's one of my favorite things about him!

Thursday we join Steve and Milli again for dinner and to watch the BYU football game. Growing-up in a house of all girls, I never watched football (or any other sport) when I was little (my poor father!) Hence, I don't really have a love for watching the game. Since marrying Jon, I've tried to change this. It was so nice to have Milli--who was often similarly confused/clueless as to what was going on--while we watched the game. Friday, we made pizza and watched a movie. Saturday Jon helped our ward with Friends of Scouting money donations while I ran errands and we went to Stake Conference in the evening.

Okay, so I look a little excited
about the popcorn too...

Today we went to Stake Conference in the morning and heard the words of apostles and other inspired church leaders. I was very grateful for the inspiration and guidance I received by listening to their words. This upcoming week feels so much more doable and exciting because of the comfort and direction these leaders provided. And just because Jon has to keep things interesting, he brought a Ziplock bag full of popcorn to the meeting so that he could have a snack like a three-year-old. I thought he'd get there and be embarrassed. Wrong. He ate from the bag like it was a badge of honor. Children...

 Lunch after Stake Conference was one of the best lunches I've had in ages. We invited my friend, Anna Stewart, over to join us. Anna just got back from serving an eighteen month mission for the church and I hadn't seen her since she got back until today. Before Jon and I went crazy and decided to get married, Anna and I had been planning on living together when she got back. Now when people ask her if she moved into a place with anyone she knows she gets to tell them that she was going to but that instead her friend ditched her and got hitched. Oops. Luckily, she doesn't hate me, which is a rather wonderful thing because as wonderful as Jon is, it is rather awesome to also have girlfriends in my life too. I hope Anna and I get to see each other often and maybe even go to the temple together like we used to always do.

We ended today by spending dinner at the house of one of Jon's coworkers--Nathan. Nathan has severe autism, so rather than serving a full-time mission, he works with Jon's BYU ground's crew as a service missionary. The food was delicious and spending time with Jon's coworkers/friends was super fun, but the best part of the evening was hearing Nathan's mom express her gratitude to Jon's crew for letting her son work with them. She talked about how many people get easily annoyed with Nathan, making him feel unwelcome, and about how it's been hard for their family to find places where he feels loved. Jon's crew, however, has been one place that Nathan has felt welcomed and loved. As her eyes gleamed with tears the Spirit whispered to me: This is what life's all about...helping the heavily burdened, welcoming those that others turn away, loving everyone--especially the outcasts, and making people feel the way that Nathan's mom feels about Jon's crew. 

It was the perfect way to end my Sunday. My life is absolutely perfect right now: I love my job, my husband, my ward, my apartment, my calling, my family, literally everything! However, even though it's absolutely perfect, everything is so new, which makes life sometimes hard to figure out. Along with all the joys of my new married/being-a-teacher life, the past few weeks have held their share of tears, frustrations, and moments of feeling like I have no idea what I'm doing and/or like I'm messing everything up. As these crazy moments have come, I've found myself wracking my brain, trying to find the secret answer to knowing how to fix everything. Today, though, Stake Conference reminded me that there's one fail safe source I can always turn to for help, and Nathan's mom reminded me that there's always one fail safe solution that will help me feel better: Christ is the fail safe source--I can always turn to Him for help, and charity--loving others as He does--is the fail safe solution that will always make me feel better. In the busyness of getting married and starting teaching I've lost track of these two things. After this weekend, though, I feel humbled and I'm determined to be better at remembering Christ and living with charity in my heart. I'm so grateful for the answers that the gospel provides. After 22 years it has never failed me, and for the rest of eternity I know that it never will.

Our First Camping Trip

Two and a half weeks ago, Jon and I thought we'd be proactive and plan a camping trip. We'd always talked about how fun it'd be to go once we were finally married, and now we were, and so we were gonna' make it happen. We figured out the details, got the materials together, and were excited to go!

Day of: Grey clouds. Cool breeze. I tell my students I'm going camping and one of them says: Isn't this weekend supposed to have the coldest nights of  the summer so far? Weather forecast said rain. Things are looking just dandy.

I called Jon to see if he still wanted to go. He was already sick, after all. He gave the affirmative, and I agreed that it would be a fun adventure, so at 6:05 pm Jon picked me up from work and we were off, headed up into Payson Canyon. For the most comically lame camping trip of our lives.

We got to Maple Lake, the first campsite we had looked up online, and decided to check out the one after it instead of settling. One full campsite and thirty minutes later, we found ourselves back at Maple Lake hoping that there was still an open place. Around 7:45 pm we found a place we liked, set-up tent, and finally thought that we had some time to breathe, eat, enjoy nature...

Upon going to pay for our site, we discover that we're not really set-up at a site. Rather, it's a picnic spot for day hikers. Should we try to move? We spend five minutes trying to find the campsite owner to talk to him about it, decide it's too late, and that we'll just hope we don't get kicked out.

As we start building a fire to roast our hot dogs over for dinner, it starts to sprinkle. Rain. Pour. We give up and go sit in our tent to eat the hot dogs cold (Jon refused to eat one...too gross, and he has a point) along with the buns (which Jon ate plain), yogurt, and trail mix. This can still be fun, we think...just playing games and eating snacks in the tent.

The only photo from the whole trip: Jon feeling
very well rested and dry on the way back home

Things only got more interesting. The water falling from the sky turned from a "pour" to a lightning-and-thunder-stick-your-fibia-outside-for-two-seconds-and-you're-drenched-head-to-toe (how does that happen when you only stick out your fibia?) type of rain. It was insane. We forewent the games, read our scriptures, tried to go to sleep, found out that the "condensation" on Jon's water bottle was actually a leak in the tent that had been gradually soaking his cotton/cloth sleeping bag, tried to squeeze together for the night in my sleeping bag (which had a water-resistant outside), froze a little, heard a wild animal outside our tent in the middle of the night that I thought was eating something alive and might come eat us next (it didn't), and then finally got out of our tent at 6:45 am, packed up the mud encased/water drenched tent, and left. Less than 12 hours after getting there and after having done essentially absolutely nothing, we were gone.

Most of the whole ordeal was a pain, but there were still definitely moments of laughter, and now we have a very original "first married camping trip" story to tell, especially for two experienced outdoors men like us.

A week-and-a-half later and the tent still hasn't been washed off. Don't tell my dad.

Juice, please!

Tonight, after reading our scriptures together, I pulled out my laptop to write a blog post while Jon got off the bed (the only piece of padded furniture in our apartment at the moment), and left the room to go do some stuff for class. As soon as he left, I thought that a drink of juice sounded nice, and figured that since he was up and goin' and I was down and sittin' that he might possibly be kind enough to get me some.

"Hey, Jon! Would you mind doing me a favor?"

First, he exclaimed: "Hot turds!" which was followed by laughter and: "What do you want me to do?"

"What's so funny?"

Laughter. "It took me forever to get out of the room and then as soon as I finally did you ask me to come back so that I can do you a favor."

Well. Um. I guess I didn't think my request through as well as I should have? Live and learn?

"So...do you still mind doing me a favor?"

"What?"

"Could you maybe possibly please get me a cup with ice and some juice in it? It just sounds really good right now!"

He stares at me for a few seconds, eyes twinkling. "Sure!" he exclaims, turning around and leaving the room.

As I sit on the bed, I hear laughter and then dead silence.

I start to feel an inkling. I'm suddenly reminded of all those times growing up when someone asked me for a cup of water and I'd bring it back with only a few drops or with hot water instead of cold because it was pretty much the funniest thing on earth.

Oh no.

Sure enough, a minute later this is what walks through the door:

Oh gosh, Honey, you shouldn't have.

At least after he came back with enough juice in the cup to satisfy a normal human, he very cheerfully said: "All you need to do for a refill is say: *Ehem* Refill, please! and I'll get you a refill!"

Is this him preparing me for kids or just introducing me to the husband?

Watermelon

When Jon and I are married and have fun little Sunday night dinners with our friends, we will not serve watermelon. Jon and I love watermelon. L-O-V-E it. Unfortunately, our love has gone to a bit of an
extreme, and we find ourselves at a point where we are unable to share this love for others at dinner parties for the unforeseeable future. It just simple isn't in our budget and we simple lack the self control necessary to maintain human-like characteristics when the fruit is placed in front of us.

It's dinnertime. I instruct Jon to cut the watermelon. He does so, leaving half of it uncut while chopping the other half into pieces and putting them into a bowl. We sit down to eat with the bowling ball sized bowl filled with watermelon before us. "Great," I think to myself. "Half a watermelon. This can be the fruit we have at dinner for the next several nights." We say a prayer, eat the main course, even take a sip of water now and again. The meal is going great!

And then, we start eating the watermelon.

No longer are we two humans sitting down at the dinner table to partake in a humble meal. No. Now we become two thirsting camels who have stomachs that are able to take in and hold 30 gallons of water in just 13 minutes, and suddenly no matter what we do, we can't get enough watermelon into our mouths and our forks just keep returning to the bowl again and again and we just can't stop ourselves and we keep going and going and going until--

Where did that whole bowl of watermelon go? That bigger than a bloated chicken entire half of a watermelon bowl of fruit go?

In one meal?

Yes--in one meal.

A whole fifty percent of a normal sized watermelon??!!!!

Yes--a whole fifty percent.

And you two don't see this as a problem?

Actually, we do. We just don't plan on trying to fix it anytime soon. And we also don't plan on serving watermelon to our friends at our Sunday night dinners. Our pocketbook, along with our good name, can't afford it.

Sundance Concert and Hiking Date with Jon

The past couple of days have been absolutely wonderful, last night in particular. After working, running, going to the temple, and talking to my sister Kate on the phone; Jon and I went on a date! For the first part of the date we went on a short hike along a trail past Vivian Park and Big Springs. I love being outside in the woods! That's what we talked about for about half the hike--about how we're excited to run off on camping adventures on the weekends when we're married and about how excited we are to take our kids camping when the time for that finally comes. We ate dinner at our destination and then jaunted back to the car. From there we went to Sundance to listen to the Utah Symphony play at the outdoor theater there. After approximately five minutes at the concert, I came to a conclusion:

ALL CONCERTS SHOULD BE PERFORMED OUTSIDE UP IN THE MOUNTAINS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BEAUTIFUL WOODS.

Especially if it's the Utah Symphony and they're playing "America the Beautiful" and the spacious skies and mountains majesties are literally right in front of you and the love of your life is laying down on the blanket next to you and you're just sitting there, taking it all in, and thinking about how much the Creator loves us to have made us such a beautiful earth. I usually fall asleep at symphony concerts because of the uncomfortable chairs and the dim lights, but when it's outdoors on the grass in the middle of the woods, it's the most relaxing, comforting, soothing, enjoyable thing ever.

At one point during the night, my eye caught sight of one of the huge cabins nestled among the trees on the hillside and I started thinking about how neat it would be to be a movie star or some rich person so that I could easily go visit beautiful places like that. "But I don't need a huge cabin," I thought. "I can go off and enjoy places like this with just me and my little self."

I paused for about five seconds as the play in my words struck me. I had meant that I didn't need anything else but myself to enjoy beautiful places like those woods. I realized, though, that I wouldn't be traveling through life enjoying them by myself, but with My Self--with Jon Self. This thought immediately brought a smile to my face and I felt so grateful that I won't be enjoying life's beauties and weathering life's storms through life alone. Mr. Self will be there with me through it all--to share the good and the bad, no rich person cabin necessary.

I love outdoor concerts. I love cool last names. I love awesome dates with Jon.

Utah Lake Biking Adventure

Yesterday evening Jon and I rode our bikes down to Utah Lake. It wonderful fun! When we got there, we laid out a blanket and each ate a half of a mini watermelon. Then, we decided to go out near the water’s edge so that we could walk along the shore and play in the water.

Well. Apparently Utah Lake has no such thing as a solid, sandy beach. Welcome to suddenly getting stuck in mud as the water’s edge laughs at you 10 feet away. We tried to retreat, but the mud sucked our shoes down a foot into the ground. So then we worked on ungluing our shoes. By this point, we were both barefoot, muddy shoes in hand, and stuck between the water’s edge and solid ground. Figuring that we’d make it all worth it, we left our shoes behind and braved the last 10 feet to the water’s edge. The mud was up to our knees! But it was so fun.

Knee deep in mud, stuck out near the water’s edge, holding hands with Jon—it was one of the most fun sunsets I’ve ever had. 

On Missing the Party and Showing up Late

Jon was late. Again.

Today it went like this:

I was planning on him being at my place around 5:20 for dinner so that we could make it to our interview with the bishop at 5:50 (he likes to meet with us regularly because we're getting hitched soon!) I called Jon at 4:50 to see if he could come over a little earlier so that we would have enough time. He informed me that he was still at work and wouldn't be able to make it 'till 5:20. No problem. I text him at 5:15, reminding him to bring rice. He replies with a phone call, informing me that I should probably just go ahead and eat because he wasn't going to make it until right before the interview.

This is the second time something like this has happened in four days. Before that it was Saturday. We were supposed to go to my cousin's baby's birthday party up in Lyndon. The party started at 5, but it's an hour and a half long drive, so we were planning on leaving at 4. I called him around 3:40, telling him that I was going to be a little late because I'd just finished my run and needed to get ready. He hesitated, and then admitted that he wouldn't be ready at 4 either...would 5 be okay? If we left at 5 we'd be pretty late, but we would still make it in time to have some fun! Come 4:45, though, Jon called me to tell me that he wasn't going to be able to make it to the birthday party at all.

Irritated. Frustrated. Annoyed. These were all emotions that I was tempted to feel in each of these occasions. Jon is ruining your plans, a voice in my mind said. And for a split moment I considered listening to that voice.

I was surprised both times, though, when I realized that I really wasn't feeling irritated, frustrated, or annoyed. In fact, I was feeling the opposite! Grateful, happy, supportive, loving--these were the emotions filling my heart. Why? Because in these moments, I realized that Jon was proving himself to be the man I have always wanted to marry.

Jon did not prevent us from going to the birthday party because he was finishing watching a football game or because he was glued to a TV screen. He was late because he was helping a man, who had recently sustained some back injuries, with his yard work. Yes, it was paid, but Jon didn't want to run off, leaving the rest of the work for the owner to do by himself. And so he stayed. Two-and-a-half hours longer than he'd been planning on so that he could serve someone in need.

Jon did not postpone having dinner with me because he was finishing up something he'd procrastinated on or because he was trying to check things off an all-important to-do list. No. He was late because right as he was leaving work, a boy trying to get to University Mall for work asked him for a ride. Of course Jon said yes, even though he'd already worked an extra hour-and-a-half past when he was supposed to be off and was cold from having worked out in the rain and was hungry and had an appointment with my bishop and I in less than an hour. He made the time to help the guy out.

I would not have it any other way. Jon is proving himself to be a man who always puts the Lord's errand first, who is always willing to help and serve, even when it's inconvenient, and I feel extremely blessed that I get to be the woman who supports him in his efforts. We missed the birthday party and were 10 minutes late to the appointment with the bishop. So what? President Monson, the worldwide prophet and leader of the LDS church, has shown up late to General Conference and other important meetings because he was serving someone in need. I figure that if the prophet of a worldwide church can show up late to a meeting that is being broadcast around the globe because he was serving the one, that Jon and I can be late to a meeting with the bishop because he is serving the one too.

So, does this mean that in a little over a month, when I marry Jon, I'll be committing myself to an eternity of missing parties, of showing up late to meetings, and of things not going according to my picture perfect plan? Possibly. But if it is for the right reasons, then that is exactly what I want. Because the best of life is not made up of parties or meetings or picture perfect plans. The best of life consists of helping those around us like the Savior would and of answering the call when He extends it.

Thank you, Jon, for making us miss the party; thank you, Jon, for making us late.