Exploring our new home!

So, we are settled and enjoying this new city of Springfield.  Ben has a good job managing an Arby's over in Eugene, and enjoys the work he does. I have settled into a fun life of going out with the sister missionaries, crochetting, and reading good books. I'm still thinking about finding a job, but don't really know what to do.

Last saturday Ben and I decided we wanted to start exploring this area, seeing what we had close at hand. We spent the day Saturday visiting the Visitors center in Springfield, the Library (of course with two bibliophiles, that would be one of our first stops, right?) and the Saturday Market, which is much like the farmer's market in SLC, only more psychedelic. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and, in visiting the visitors center we found, not only a fellow Latter Day Saint, but also a large array of things to do in and around Springfield. We decided that we definately needed a visit to the coast, it being only an hour away, so bright and early Monday morning we were off on another adventure!

The drive proved to be very beautiful, passing through more trees than I think I've ever seen in my life. Some of the leaves were just starting to change color, and it was a spectacular sight. Trees curved over the road, creating a tunnel for us to pass through. It was a sunny fall day, very warm, and very much PERFECT for our adventure!

The city of Florence, Oregon is 65 miles from Springfield. We stopped there first, to enjoy the small "old town part" with it's little shops, and river shore restaurants. It is very much a quaint little town, and we found good eats, and beautiful scenes all around us. My favorite part was the bridge, I have pictures, just can't find the camera, but will post soon.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Mo's which has fabulous clam chowder! And then decided to get out of town to see the OCEAN! As we left town we stopped back at one of the first gift shops to get a wind chime I had spotted that I wanted to get, and we then we were on the road again.

11 miles north of Florence is the world's largest sea lion cave in the world. It houses a herd of over 400 Steller sea lions, and we were excited to see them. Unfortunately, we arrived to find that they are not in their cave much during September, and will be back in the winter. Fortunately, we watched hundreds of sea lions play in the waves and scurry up the rocks to sun themselves. It was a great adventure, and we look forward to returning sometime in the winter to see them more up close in the cave.

Less than a mile north of the caves is the Heceta Head Lighthouse, with its neighboring beach. We decided to take a break from walking and play on the beach for a little while, enjoy the cold water soak our feet in before we hiked up to the light house. Mother Nature, being crafty and sly, decided to hit us with a huge wave, that soaked us both! Before heading up to the lighthouse we had to dry off and by the time we got there, they had closed for tours, but we were able to take pictures, and enjoy the view from the lighthouse.

From there we decided it was dinner time and almost watched the sun sink into the ocean, instead it sunk into a bank of clouds, and then into a dike, maybe next time we will have better luck! We did get to see some spectacular stars as we drove home, too!

All it all it was an amazing day! We thoroughly enjoyed or excursion, and hope to continue exploring as long as weather permits.

HOME!

We finally made it! After much packing, driving, and unpacking we are finally in our new home! We found this apartment when we came up here to visit a few months ago, and were lucky enough to get it! It has just about everything we wanted! And for the right price! who could ask for anything more?

This is the view as you come in from the parking area, on the left is a storage shed, which is rather large. It is two story, the kitchen, pantry, laundry room with half bath, dining room, and living room.

View from the front door, Office, Dining room, and Living room!

My Kitchen! Big enough for two+ people to be in, without
crowding  each other!

Reading nook! Complete with LoveSac and 6 boxes of books!

Backyard! Not quite as spacey as before, but it is shaded most
of the day, and we have a hammock, even if we need to figure
out how to make it not drag on the ground when occupied!

Then we venture upstairs, two bedrooms and a full bathroom await us!

Wall of pictures! WE have to have some way to see family, right?

Not quite so glamorous, but great bathroom!

Bedroom! Is kind of glamorous, and enjoyable! We definitely like it!

Spare bedroom/craft room/storage room. It is a room of many hats,
and we like it!

We are very excited for our new home! it is definitely a change from Utah. We went to our new ward yesterday, and were very warmly welcomed in! It is a rather diverse ward, and we are very excited to be there! There was a baptism not long ago, and will be two more this weekend. To say the least, the work is moving forward, and we are excited to be a part of it!

We miss all of you, our dear family! and hope we will be able to keep in touch!

Some BIG changes

Wow, its crazy how time flies! Tomorrow will be two months of this great adventure! I can't believe it! And we are headed for some ENORMOUS changes!

Ben and I have always wanted to live, for at least some part of our married life, outside of Utah. Utah is a great place, and we love it dearly, we just want a change of scenery! And they say the best time to do that is in the younger years, when you're not so worried about children and house payments and all of that fun stuff.

So, after much deliberation, prayer, and long talks, we have decided to move to Eugene, Oregon! There is a great University that Ben and I will attend starting next fall (2011). Ben will be working on his Bachelors in Math and Chinese so he can teach in high school, and and college one day, and I will be working on my Masters in Marriage and Family Counseling.

We are scheduled to move the end of August, and are very excited about it! But before we do, we have a lot of fun little trips planned: off to Oregon for a family reunion, and job-searching/apartment searching; family camping trip; family cabin trip, going to Idaho for a cousin's homecoming and to say goodbye to all my siblings and nephews. Super busy!

YIPPEE!

Saturday was the happiest, most wonderful day of my life! Ben and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple! I could not have asked for a more perfect, amazing day! It started out with a bit of a hiccup, but everything turned out!

Instead of waking up at 4:45 am to the sound of my alarm, I woke up at 5:15 am to a text message from my wonderful sister-in-law, Brooke, making sure we were on our way! I was not, but, with the help of my loving twin sister, Amanda, we made it to Brooke's house with everything we needed, and in plenty of time for us to get ready! As we pre-viewed the slideshow Ashley, my super talented cousin-in-law made for us, tears of joy came to my eyes, just thinking that today I would begin my life with my amazing Ben!

The morning was super cold, but the sky was clear and blue! The perfect day to marry my best friend! We arrived at the temple at almost the same time and I could not express the feelings I had. We were really about to do this!

The ceremony was attended by all of the people we love dearly! No one was missing! It passed so quickly! It amazes me how much one half hour can change a person's life, for the better!

After being sealed for time and all eternity to my wonderful husband, the day was a blur. Our luncheon was, to say the least, chaotic, but it was a fun time to be with family.

I am so blessed to have so many family members who were so willing to help out at the reception! It would not have worked without them! Thank you all so much!

Everything turned out perfect! The decorations, the food, the cake!  It all came together perfectly! Dancing was a blast! I could not ask for a more perfect day!

We were slightly impeded in leaving by the decoration of our car! Thank you  my brothers and sisters, cousins, and friends! It made me smile!

It's still hard to fathom that I am married! But I have the bestest (yes, bestest) husband in the world! I cannot imagine being happier with anyone else! Now we are just beginning the Grandest Adventure ever!

Melissa

In the end I wanna be standing At the beginning with you

What is a Wedding?

Well, this is my first post here. There are about a million things that I could post about, ranging from the positive, "How wonderful my fiancée is," to the negative, "What I hate about planning a wedding," and on through the completely absurd, "Why did aliens abduct my dog?" But what do I actually want to write about? Only one of those sound appealing to me—and despite what you think, it is not the "aliens abducting my dog" post. The problem is that I could include that in a post, but a post dedicated to "how wonderful my fiancée is," would just come out mushy and somewhat annoying for those not involved. Finally though, I reached a decision on what to write about. I want to talk about "Weddings." I'm sure some of you may be tired of this topic, but please just stick around a little while, and I hope that I can make it worth your while.

So, what is a wedding? Well it's an occasion where two people get married, merge, join, "tie the knot," or "get hitched." The "all-knowing" Wikipedia says, "A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage[ . . . ]." As one famous movie says, "Mawage is wot bwings us togeder [that day]."

So a wedding=marriage? Wait a second. I have been planning a wedding for the last five months. I have had little chance to talk about the marriage that begins on that day. Sure my fiancée and I have talked about it. But it is rarely connected with the wedding. Here's what I have connected with the wedding: hard work; vendors cancelling on you; you cancelling on vendors; questions like "Where'd the money go?" and several other unpleasant experiences. Why is that? I know nearly every girl grows up dreaming of how wonderful her wedding will be. How everything will work out just right, and the day will be absolutely beautiful. And then they grow up, and many of them find weddings to be "stressful." They become the infamous "bridezilla," a bride or groom gets cold feet, the wrong color flowers gets delivered, the wrong type of flowers get delivered, a nephew puts chocolate all over your brand new $100 to $2,000 dress or any number of other problems. I look at these two views and think, "Where did this huge contrast come from?!?"

Now we come to the reason that I posted about this today. I think that the wedding can, should and—at least ours—will be that wonderful day that little girls grow up dreaming about. It's much like any other portion of life. Sometimes there's hard work involved, and sometimes it's not perfect. But if we can remember what we're really there for, it becomes something meaningful, wonderful and—I dare say—perfect, even with all of the mishaps, foibles and troubles that are thrown our way.

So that's it. That's why I believe there is such a huge contrast in the way weddings are seen. I myself am excited to get married, merge, join, "tie the knot," and "get hitched" to my best friend Melissa. She is so wonderful, and I love her so much. I love that she can stay positive and keep going in planning this wedding even when so many things go wrong. And soon I will get to marry her, and celebrate that day with our friends and family. And however it turns out, it will be perfect.

Wedding Plans...

So, I think every engaged person planning a wedding, at some point says, "Do I really have to do all of this?" Social norms dictates yes. So ahead we plunge, knowing it will all be worth it, and sometime in the near future it will be all over, and life with that special someone can begin. This is about where I am now, but, LUCKILY, most of the wedding things are done! Just some loose ends to tie up and all will be well!

The best thing for me, though, is the AMAZING man I am about to marry. He is constantly asking what he can do to help, and doing all sorts of things for me. I am the luckiest girl in the world! The other night, we had just booked a caterer, and decided on a location for the reception. Then all of the other things I had to do came to mind. The cake, the dresses, the favors... the list went on and on. But, being the WONDERFUL man he is, Ben spent the night calming me down, and reassuring me that everything was going to be alright. No matter what happened, our wedding was going to be the best, and it would be a perfect way to kick off our new life together.

How it all began!

     Our story begins, quite un-presumptuously at a Stake Family Home Evening Game Night. My roommate, who planned the activity, likes to take credit for us meeting. I think it was serendipity. 

 

     As we talked, we found we had many things in common, hiking being one of them. At the time I was partly in charge of a hiking group, and I invited Ben, and his roommate David to come along, the next saturday, and Ben did. We have sort of been inseparable since then.
 
      We spent the summer together doing anything and everything we could together: dancing, barbecuing, talking, partying, you name it, we did it! And had a blast doing it.

     About the time of my birthday, Ben went on a vacation to Oregon to see his family there, and we both decided, independently, that we didn't want to be that far away from each other again.
 
     For my birthday he took me out to La Caille ( the most amazing French restaurant in Salt Lake) and then for a surprise... To see the Scarlet Pimpernel at Hale Center Theater.
 
      A few weeks later, after going to the temple, Ben turns to me, and says, " This isn't a formal proposal, because you deserve one, but, Will you marry me?" Of course I said YES, I wouldn't be writing this blog if I hadn't! We spent the night grinning, and laughing, and crazy. I think my roommates thought we were high, or something. But pure joy, as we felt it, will cause you to literally EXPLODE if it doesn't have a way of getting out!
 
       So, we had decided we were going to get married, but when? where? how would he "really" propose. I admit I was more worried about the later, as I'm sure you are.

      The day was Thursday the 10th of September. We had ward temple night. Ben had called early to say he might not make it...the power had gone out at work. Somehow I felt something was up, but didn't say anything. Session went smoothly. As we were leaving, I asked Ben where he parked. He mumbled off that he wasn't exactly sure, but steered me off to the right as we were leaving the temple, toward the grounds, asking if I wanted to go for a walk. 
     
     Then I knew something was REALLY up, and asked but he said nothing, and I just let it slide. We walked around the reflecting pool, and over to where the carriage rides are, and asked if I wanted to go for a ride. Of course I did! so off we went!
 
      It was a beautiful night for a carriage ride. He got down on one knee, there, in the middle of the carriage, in his suit, and asked if I would marry him. I must admit, I was mean to him, I hit him for not telling me what was going on( I LOVE and HATE surprises). And then I laughed hysterically for a bit. and THEN I said YES!
 
     Life is crazy, it always is! but I am SO EXCITED that starting the March 20, 2010 (03-20-10, get it, 3-2-1 blastoff!) I get to spend the rest of my life, and all of eternity with my best friend, Ben!
 
      This is OUR story as told by ME, Melissa. I'm sure at some point Ben will put his two cents in here, too!