July 2018: The Move & Another Wedding

Oh, July.

A month I was both anxiously anticipating and dreading all at the same time. I HATE MOVING. Have I ever mentioned that? You would think after living in West Virginia, Florida, California, Utah, and back to Florida in the last five years (plus two separate moves in Utah and two in Florida) that I would be an expert and it would be a piece of cake by now, but it’s not and I’m not.

We got home from our Utah trip, enjoyed the Fourth of July, and set the dreaded dates for moving. To touch briefly on the 4^th, Brian had the day off and we spent it at the beach at Honeymoon Island with a picnic lunch and lots of swimming, then headed home to get cleaned up, eat some Buffalo Wild W

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ings, and catch fireworks at downtown Clearwater overlooking the ocean. It was pretty much the perfect, all-American day.

The next weekend, we started packing and moving. We enticed my grandma with Wimbledon to come over and be at the house while Tatum napped so we could start taking some stuff over to the house. It felt good to start getting stuff packed up and out of there, especially a lot of boxes that we never unpacked before in our apartment because we just didn’t have the room. I was doing a happy dance for our third bedroom and garage at the house!

The next week, we spent most of our time packing and prepping for the big move on the 14^th. I got everything packed up, we rented a moving truck for the day, and we had so much help from our friends and family! We had everything packed into the moving truck, driven to our house, and unloaded inside the house in an hour and a half flat. SUCH GREAT FRIENDS. It took some time to get the house in order and I’m still adjusting to a smaller kitchen, but we got unpacked in record time and all set up before I left for Maryland/West Virginia the next weekend.

Onto that trip… I have the best husband ever. My parents will tell you that they’re witness to the fact that Tatum and I both are grumpier before Brian arrives. He always encourages me to visit family a few days before he flies up so that I’m not bound to his PTO schedule, so Tatum and I flew up on Saturday the 21^st and came home on the 29^th. We’ve been saving all Brian’s PTO for the holidays this year, so he flew up on a Friday evening (the 27^th) and flew home with us on Sunday evening. Talk about a trooper! He was literally there for less than 48 hours and spent time with all my parents plus attended the wedding (the main reason for the trip) with me.

The start of the trip was rough. I specifically booked a flight that left at 8 PM on Saturday so that Tatum and I could spend the whole day with Brian and then hopefully she would fall asleep on the plane. We were supposed to arrive at 10:10 PM. Our flight wound up taking off 45 minutes late, Tatum didn’t sleep the whole flight, and as we were about to land in Baltimore 1000 ft off the ground, we were suddenly shooting back up to the sky. They tried to land 3 times but the winds and storm were so bad that they rerouted us to Philadelphia. Oh, joy. We wound up landing back in Baltimore at 1 AM, got our bags and were in the car with my dad at 1:45, and Tatum finally fell asleep once she was in her car seat. Talk about a long day.

Sunday, we were up by 9 am despite the previous late night. We had a huge breakfast with my dad and stepmom and hung out and played before heading to West Virginia. We stopped in the middle to have a dinner and girl’s night with my best friends from college. I love trips home because it’s an excuse for everyone to get together and we don’t get to very often! My friend Sam has a little girl who’s a year younger than Tatum and the two of them sat together and laughed and shared food and it was the cutest thing. Three hours later (the waitress probably hated us) and we were on the road again headed to my mom and stepdad’s house.

Growing up, I probably took for granted how much their house is a child’s paradise. They live in the middle of nowhere, on top of a mountain surrounded by woods, with a creek at the bottom of the hill, and a personal petting zoo. When I was growing up we had chickens and horses, but my parents have expanded that to include goats, sheep, ducks, and a million other things. When we were there this time, they had baby kittens, ducks, and goats and they were the cutest things ever. Tatum adores my mom’s house cat and calls him “ee-shee” for kitty. She spent every minute inside the house looking for or petting him and he was surprisingly tolerant of her.

Monday was a pretty laid back day of hanging out at their house and visiting my stepdad’s mom, now warmly referred to as “GG” for great-grandma. Tuesday, Tatum and I headed to see my two Brittany(ney) friends and have a playdate with their littles! One has a little boy that’s two weeks older than Tatum, and the other has a little girl two years older and a little boy three months younger, so it’s always fun to see them “play” together and have some girl time to catch up!

Wednesday was the best because I drove to Cumberland to see my Alysha! It’s always funny to us how we became friends and the circumstances that led us to be so close. This girl is such a rock to me and no matter how long we have to go between seeing each other, we always fall right back into place. It was perfect timing because the day before she had taken her licensing boards to finally become a physical therapist and she passed! We grabbed lunch with a friend and spent the day catching up and laughing my guts out, like usual. Everybody needs an Alysha in their lives, and I’m so grateful for mine.

On Thursdays, my mama leads a bible study group at the local nursing home where my grandma stayed for a while after she couldn’t live with us any longer. As if I needed any more reason to love and admire my amazing mother, she gave me another. I wasn’t planning on dropping by originally, but we wound up getting all packed up and ready early so I took Tatum in and caught the end of her class and got to meet a few of her favorite residents. Everyone loved seeing Tatum and I’m happy that I decided to drop in after all. We grabbed some lunch with her after and then headed back to my dad’s house in Columbia.

I usually plan my weeks out better since it’s a two-hour drive in between my mom’s and dad’s houses but with Brian flying in on Friday and the airport only being 20 minutes from my dad’s, it made more sense to stay there Thursday and Friday night. On Friday, my dad was able to work from home so Tatum got to spend more time with her Poppy and we took walks and played at all the playgrounds I used to go to when I was little. After I got her in bed, I picked Brian up from the airport. His plane was delayed an hour also so you know, that was great… -___-

Saturday was the day of one of my best friends since middle school, Ardath’s, wedding. We drove back up to West Virginia, hung out with my mom and stepdad for a bit then headed to the wedding. The ceremony was in Ardath’s dad’s church where he has been the pastor since we were little. My other three best friends from high school were there and it was kind of my favorite day of the entire month getting to watch our best friend marry the love of her life and celebrate all night. Her reception was held where we used to have prom together and it gave me all kinds of nostalgia. I think Brian caught a small glimpse of my life growing up as we sent Ardath and Kenneth off after a huge circle swaying to Country Roads, singing at the top of our lungs, with tears in people’s eyes. I’m so grateful for these incredible women that made me who I am today and the bonds we still share.

Sunday, we had to head back to Maryland and fly out that evening. We did breakfast with my mom and stepdad, said bye to GG, lunch with my dad and stepmom, and headed out. Thankfully, our flight home wasn’t delayed and we were home by 8 PM, got Tatum in bed, and we resumed life as usual. 

Trip 3 of 7 for 2018 done, with wedding 3 of 4 in the books.

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Ringing Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus!

When I was little, the circus would come to town (Baltimore) every year on my birthday weekend. I was obsessed with animals, especially my "ellie-pants" and going to the circus was the best treat I could have ever asked for on my birthday. I kept up with this tradition until I was 14 or 15, until I thought it was uncool to go to the circus for your teenage birthday.

I've decided it's not too uncool for me anymore.

About a month or so ago, I heard the circus was coming to town on the radio. I immediately freaked out and told Brian about it and said we should get tickets. Like everything else, if we don't buy tickets immediately, we forget about it and then when we remember, the event is over.

After a week or so I forgot about it and if I had remembered, I probably wouldn't have thought to still try to get tickets.

On Thursday night last week, Brian called me and asked if we had plans for the next evening. A few friends had asked us if we wanted to do something, but I knew he was asking if I had secretly planned any other urgent wedding events that he had to attend (which I don't make him do frequently) and when I said no, he said "good, because I got us tickets to the circus if you still want to go."

OF COURSE I DID. So we went and we were probably the only people (besides the couple that sat directly beside us) that didn't have children. But that's okay, because I'm sure the way I squealed when the elephants came out led everyone to believe I was a child.

There were camels, horses, elephants, tons of clowns and dancers, trapeze acrobats, a clown cannon, a guy in this spinning salt & pepper ride shaker thing (I don't know what it was but it was cool as he ran on the top of it as it spun in circles 50 feet off the ground), and lots of lions among other things. I admit it was slightly cheesy, and I won't make Brian suffer through it again until we have children, but it was a blast nonetheless. And since he had NEVER BEEN (....how is that even possible....), I'm super ecstatic he surprised me with tickets. 

Saturday, Sabra, Kate, Jessica and I went to the South Towne Bridal Show. We left in a sugar coma after incredible cupcakes, hours d'ouvres, drinks, and desserts. I was almost sad that I'm such an avid planner because when we got there, my accompanying bridal party looked at me and asked "what do you still need...?" To which I realized....... nothing. Well, except cake. But we have a consultation appointment for that on Wednesday night. So yeah, nothing.

It was nice to go and see everything, including the store where I bought my dress. I oohed and ahhed, but still appreciated that my dress was more beautiful than all the ones there and I have successfully planned everything as perfect as the examples, for about a quarter as much money ;)

Sunday, Brian and I went back to visit my ward and give out some invitations! I can't believe it's less than 7 weeks away now. It still seems forever away, but the fact that this week starts the beginning of October makes it better!

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Brian Turns 23 & I Conduct My First Devotional

This was our beautiful view all day Friday. For Brian's birthday, we went to Pineview Reservoir with his family for the day and went wakeboarding, water skiing, water tubing, and swimming. It was a perfect day, about 85 degrees out which made it warm enough to jump in and not freeze to death. Surprisingly the water wasn't too cold once you jumped in. I attempted water skiing for the first time and was almost successful, but for the first time in my life my feet were too small for the boots and my feet kept slipping out whenever I would actually stand up and start going. I'm absolutely determined to get it next time.

Funny story for you: I'm 99% positive I got a concussion while water tubing. Brian's dad was driving the boat and whipping us all over the place. Brian and I were in a two person tube, but because he's a good bit heavier than I am, my side of the tube was always sticking a bit out of the water and I was leaning on him the entire time.

After jumping a big wave which gave us at least 3 feet of air, we came down and I slammed into Brian's shoulder, almost wrapping my neck around it and smacking the side of my head. It hurt a little at first, but the actual pain that followed came the second time we went.

When we got back on the boat I was having difficulty seeing (black spots were all over my vision) and I got extremely tired. Brian said I passed out a few times on the way home, but I don't really remember. The rest of the weekend was complimented with a severe headache and neck pain, which caused me to suffer even more as I sat and watched Brian and 15 of his friends play paintball Friday night instead of participating.

This is another activity we'll be revisiting.

Below are a few more pictures of Brian being awesome at wakeboarding.

I didn't actually get any pictures of him in the air but that's what happens when you use a phone camera I suppose.

 

Saturday was a day filled with errands and outdoors. Saturday morning we went and helped Brian's aunt and uncle pack and move to their new home. That afternoon we went to Bountiful Park for an outdoor event put on by Nocea. For anyone that hasn't heard of the company, it is a local clothing company that was founded by two guys who grew up in Utah that promote healthy living and outdoor, active lifestyles. Two of the guys in Brian's singles ward are in a band called Ties For Tolliver and they performed at the event. There was cornhole, the ladder game where you throw the ropes with balls on the ends, giant jenga, football, volleyball, and a slack line.

For anyone interested in checking out the clothing line, their website is: http://www.nocea.us/shop/

Also, the singer from Ties For Tolliver, Austin Berenyi's music page: http://austinberenyi.bandcamp.com/

 

Saturday evening, Brian and I went to Roamer Park in Riverdale. There was a stage setup and lots of music and dancing until sunset, and then they put on an awesome firework show. I'm a big fan of fireworks and they're such a summery event. It was way fun!

 

And now... my big TA-DA of the week!

Sunday wasn't any less busy than the rest of the weekend because the stake RS devotional I've been planning for two months finally happened! Five sisters (3 singers, one pianist, and one violinist) from my ward performed the song "I Will Shine," a song written about a talk President Uchtdorf gave in the September 2008 Women's Satellite Broadcast. It was beautiful and really brought the Spirit to the meeting.

Below you'll find a photo of our speaker, Kari Rich, and myself. Maybe it's cheesy of me to have gotten a picture with her, but when I told her it was my first time ever conducting a meeting of any sort, she was shocked and said I had done an incredible job and it was even more impressive that I started with a stake-wide devotional.

Sister Rich spoke about how we are all given individual Christ-like talents, and we should never compare our talents to other peoples. At one point she said, "If we all had the same talents, we wouldn't need each other. We would all be the same and that would be boring. We should use our talents to compliment other people's talents and empower each other as daughters of our Heavenly Father."

Another one of my favorite parts of her talk was when she discussed how much we learn from our struggles and trials. She talked about how the book of Alma is roughly 160 pages of war and tragic things for 40 years, while 4 Nephi easily covers 200 years in one chapter because nothing bad was happening. She was an excellent speaker and perfectly set her talk around our theme: Power is in You, which we chose based on D&C 58:28.

Kari has two books out, "Heaven Help Us! A Humorous Look At Surviving Womanhood" and "Lighten Up and Laugh" for anyone who would like to check out her work!

Overall the devotional was a smashing success and I felt like a big deal sitting between our Stake President and Stake RS President. It was a lot of fun as well, and I'm finally able to breathe a sigh of relief that my part is done.



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