Friday, July 18, 2008

Memory Lane!

I can't resist being a copy cat! =)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Miracle

I was shown this picture in a class at BYU, and it has been one of my favorites ever since. I think it is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. The picture is a uterus of a pregnant woman, and the baby is only 21 weeks into development, just into the second trimester of pregnancy. The surgery is being done to try and alleviate complications that were occurring early on.
It's pretty hard to say that a baby is not considered to have "life" until after birth, when this child is actually holding onto the finger of the surgeon. I'd say that's a miracle.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

About six weeks ago, Austin and I decided to turn a little patch of dirt in our backyard into a garden. It was quite a task, since the previous occupation of this area was a landfill for prior tenants of our apartment. Treasures included an old fridge that still had food in it, including milk, two broken windshields, bags of cement, a hundred cigarette butts, and other unidentifiable objects we unearthed in the process. Plus the entire thing was overgrown with weeds. I wish I had taken a picture before, because the clean-up was a feat of miraculous proportions.
So after digging, fertilizing, planting, watering, tending, weeding, thinning, and a lot of praying, we have ourselves a little vegetable garden. Even though a couple of things we planted didn't grow at all, the things that did grow make up for it.
Here's a few pictures. I know it's just little, but I love it!














These are our strawberries. They're doing really well, but every time a strawberry even starts to grow, the robins eat them! So we have to net them if we want them to be more than just a bird feeder.

Our tomatoes have done exceptionally well, we're having a hard time keeping them tied to the cages


This is our corn...I don't know why, but it's just gone crazy growing back there! They say knee high by the 4th of July, but I think most of them were up to my hip by then.















And last week for Family Night, we finally planted my very favorite... PUMPKINS!!! They'll hopefully grow out of these three little mounds.

I'll make sure and update all of you after the big harvest! =)

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Loving economic turmoil

Ashton and I have been talking a lot lately about how many things we worry about now. Things that we never gave a second thought to before we were old, married, and out of the house. (Old being a bit of a stretch since we're both only 21). Things like gas prices, cost of housing, food costs, and the biggest one of all lately...RECESSION. It's our time to start worrying about grown up things.

But then I found this article online today. It is honestly one of the best articles I have read in a very long time: "10 Reasons to Love a Recession". Just ten simple things that we can all look forward to as our economy plummets into ruin. The ultimate example of looking on the bright side.

Never actually out on my own

As of my graduation in December, I have been supposedly "cut off" from the wallet of my parents. It's been a harsh reality as I find out the costs of car insurance, health insurance, tuition, cell phone plans, etc. etc. There is no way to know how much your parents take care of you, until they're not doing it anymore. But the truth is, they are still taking care of me.
Just last week, they hooked up a trailer to their car, loaded up all of our wedding presents which they have been storing for us for two months, an amazingly nice couch, and loads of other great things they gave to us for free. Then they drove down from Washington to Utah, an unbearably bland and long drive, only getting 12 miles to the gallon because of the weight of the trailer. Then they came to our little apartment and unloaded all of our things for us. AND, after all of that, they bought us dinner every night they were in town and took us to Lagoon.
So I think "financially independent" is a very loose term for what I am. I still could never do anything without them, not only because of money, but because of how willing they are to take care of me in every way that I need. In the last years they have transitioned from being embarrassing, burdensome, fun-killing parents, to being my very best friends. And it wasn't them who changed to make that happen, it was me.
And I'm the luckiest daughter in the world.