Patience

"Be Patient with yourself... Perfection comes not in this life, but in the next. Don't demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvement."

The other night I had work and Jenny stayed home working on homework and other things around the house. When I got home she said that she had gone over to our neighbor's house, Thomas and Kayla's, for Family Home Evening. She said they had watched a Mormon Message video titled "Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them". When I got home from work (yes I work a ton it seems like) this evening I had the chance to sit down and watch it. For those of you who haven't watched it yet, watch it here:



This video could not have come at a more appropriate time in my life. Tonight on my break Jenny and I were texting back and forth about our lives and how we need to keep on being better together. Not that we aren't happy or aren't successful in life, but we need to keep on improving daily. If one finds themselves standing still, they are not progressing. In church I remember as a kid hearing you're either moving forward or backwards, there is no standing still on the journey to God. I find this true more and more every day. Every day we have the opportunity to do things that will bring us closer to God. If we fail to do those things, we are only hurting ourselves and distancing ourselves from Him. That is not say He distances Himself from us, but rather we are choosing to pursue other things that instead could be filled drawing closer to Him.

I know that as we strive daily to find ways to improve, we can. The Savior will help us as we draw on His strength. He went through all that we have so that we can be strengthened when we need it. I know this to be true. I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the opportunity to live it daily in a country that allows that religious freedom. We are so fortunate to have so many blessings in this life.

This is for the Grandparents

Well Jenny has been the one that has kept this blog alive, so I figured it was my turn to blog a bit! (this is Michael if you were confused) We have sure been busy. When Jenny is busy one week, I find myself having great nights off of work, perfect to want to spend time with her. But when I have the craziest work schedule, I am also slammed with homework, and Jenny seems to have nothing to do. It's all about finding that balance right? Haha. Things sure are good and we still find time make each other laugh and feel special.
So some updates since last time we blogged (for a more comprehensive list look at Jenny's blog here...)

1. We flew home for my brother's wedding in California.
2. Halloween has come and passed
3. I had my 23rd Birthday. 
4. Daylight savings was maybe one of the best late birthday presents ever- I love sleeping in :)

So the real reason I thought of blogging tonight was at dinner. As Jenny was putting the food on the table I noticed a couple things she had set out. 

Jenny's Place at dinner-
Her vitamins that she takes each day

My plate at dinner-
The doctor ordered me to eat an Activia daily

I laughed to myself as I looked at our table and thought of eating dinner with my grandparents. I remember as a kid that immediately following the dinner prayer, both grandparents would take their medicine. I love that we are now starting that dinner tradition so early in life together- I guess it will make it easier when were old right?

Today was a great day. It was a good end to a great week and weekend. This past week I celebrated my 23rd birthday. One of the highlights is captured in this picture below

note: not my baby.

I got to hold baby Carter as everyone sang me Happy Birthday. I love that little guy. He's our neighbor's baby and is about a month old. Some of our neighbors and my sister came over to wish me a Happy Birthday. It was a ton of fun, and my cake was awesome! Jenny did such a great job. It made me excited for our own children's birthday and the themes they will all have.

Going backwards in time, Halloween was two days before that.. We carved pumpkins and had a great time. This was the first year ever that I gutted my own pumpkin. I don't know how I liked the experience. It was so mushy and gross. For those of you who don't know, textures bother me so much. If it is something I'm not used to, it makes me gag. It made me grateful for my parents and all the pumpkins they have gutted out for me. To add to it, I'm not a fan of the smell of pumpkins which also adds to the gag reflex. But we had a great time, Jenny even put on the Halloween Pandora station. It was a ton of fun.

Our pumpkins!

A couple days later, it snowed, which I love love love! Snow means a couple things- cuddling, movies, and hot chocolate. It's been great! While it wasn't a ton of snow, it was enough to get me excited for Christmas- so much in fact that our Christmas stocking are hung up and a few Christmas decorations are making their way out of boxes from our spare bedroom.

The tree outside our apartment

We are doing so well, and are so blessed with all that we are given. We are both extremely busy, but are both so amazed at how much you can love someone even when it feels like you never see them. We find the time to make it happen, and cherish the time we do have together.

My favorite picture of us that we have recently taken--

gotta love photobooth!!

Many a thing...

There has been many a thing going on in our lives the past two months... Jenny spent 3 weeks in Chicago running a camp for inner city girls. We moved. We slept on an air mattress for a good month. We took a canoeing trip in Island Park. Our friends Stephen and Madison came up to visit. Wayne came to drop Lara off to school. Took a day trip to go to the Salt Lake Temple. Ed and Linda came up for a weekend visit. We got a couch. School started. And most recently, we took a weekend trip to Yellowstone to use Jenny's free pass she has been begging to use.
Life keeps us busy. Our love for one another continues to grow and we just keep on having fun and experiencing life to it's fullest. We absolutely adore most everything about our lives (sometimes work and school are a little overwhelming.) and we look forward to continuing to grow together. 

Me and Michael at Summer Jam Camp in Chicago. Michael came out for the last week.

Yellowstone, Momma Linda insisted that we get out and take our picture by this sign. 

Neglect...

We have neglected this blog to the max... Our intentions are good, and we talk about what we are going to put on our blog ALL the time, but life gets busy and more important things get put in place of our blogging. In short life is simply wonderful. Michael is busy working at Taco Bell as a shift manager. And I, Jenny,  just finished up a semester of school and is getting ready to head out to Chicago for 3 weeks. The past three months have been wonderful for us. We were told by many people to make sure we have fun together and I'm convinced that we always and will always have fun. We continue to be blessed with wonderful friends and family along with a lot of opportunities to do cool stuff.

The "cool" thing we recently got to do was go to beautiful San Diego with the Worthington clan. It was wonderful. We had a big surprise at the airport when Katie and Wayne (Michael's parents) were there to pick us up. After a little confusion and a lot of happiness we headed off to meet the rest of the gang at the beach. It was a wonderful trip full of laughter, fun and yeah... Worthington awesomeness. Here are a few pics...

Jumping pictures are a must for us! We are getting to be quite the pros at this and I must say that jumping in my swim suit is a lot easier than jumping in my wedding dress. Plus, there were no grass stains as a result of this jump.

I learned to love smashball when I lived with an awesome group of girls two summers ago and as soon as I saw my cousins brought it along I begged Michael to play with me. I LOVE this game!

Amy insisted that the lighting here was great. So... we posed next to the Walrus tank.

My dad is one of the coolest people I know. Although my family had already gone to this Mexican Restaurant in Old Town my dad took us back so we could enjoy some fine Mexican cuisine.

I love the dolphins and we fed those bad boys. Michael loved it? I think....

We even got to ride a gorilla at the San Diego Zoo.

This is the elephant Michael is going to let me get. I've always wanted one and I think that this one is the perfect elephant with perfectly shaped ears and just the right amount of cuteness.

Mucho love!

Um.... this is us, right outside the panda exhibit. I like to think we are a cute couple, but hey maybe that's just me.

At one point in the trip we lost Heather at the penguin exhibit... so after this I kept telling everyone to keep track of their "Seaworld Buddy" "Zoo Buddy" or "Vegas Buddy". This is Michael and his more seasoned Zoo Buddy. In her words, she is the step up from me. Thanks mom! :)

VEGAS!!!!

A really long post that some may not even care about....

Ok. So married life is pretty good if I do say so myself. Amy said she would help us make it so you could see who is posting what, but until then I'll clear this up. This is Jenny. Jenny Dill.

Anywho, married life is great, different than what I always imagined? Yes! but it's a good different. We try to stay pretty busy and that is just what we have been doing lately.  (*** WARNING*** This post contains a lot of photos, if you do not like photos, to bad!)

First off, for our wedding my little sister Heather was SO SO excited to give us "the perfect" gift she had found for us. She knew we were going to love it and I don't think anyone was as excited as her to give us their gift. (if you were, sorry I think Heather really was more excited) When we opened it we found....... *drum roll please* a blender! So we decided to put this little beauty to good use and made ourselves some strawberry milkshakes. Thanks to Heather for the awesome Wavemaker! 

 We went down to Salt Lake to visit the fam. Since we got married we no longer visit the great So Jo every weekend and have been feeling a little bit deprived of the greatness that lies therin. It was a wonderful weekend spent celebrating birthdays, running to craft stores, visiting with family, eating good food and all that good stuff. On Sunday we had to opportunity to go visit temple square and meet Elder Babbitt (Michael's old mission companion) and his family. They were simply lovely and I can't wait to spend more time with them in the future. Temple square was absolutely beautiful and all the flowers looked immaculate. My favorite = blooming tulips!
 

I really do love him :) Promise!

 Ok so Utah was lovely. Being back in Idaho is great too. We have our own little routine that we are still trying to figure out and we have had a lot of fun together figuring it all out. We recently got a few more additions to our home including a few cute pillows from IKEA and these two little beauties we found at The Trackside Mall in Idaho Falls. It's a cute little consignment shop where all sorts of people sale their whatevers and other people (like Michael and myself) go find them and think they are the coolest thing ever. A friend of Michael and I told us we would love it there, and we do! We found a few things and I'm sure someday we will find a few things more. When we told Katie (Michael's mom) we got a killer good deal on a real cute rocking chair we had to reassure here there are no babies on the way, but that we just love a good deal especially on cute rocking chairs with a old fashioned creak to it. The blue chair is a bar stool from the 1950's and it swivels back and forth. So so cute, and I ramble on and on...

 

  We also have been in the process of establishing a budget and such. We decided that one way we could save money is me cutting Michaels hair. I have yet to convince him that he should learn to cut my hair, he refuses, but I'm perfectly fine with the idea. Anywho, we set out to Wally World to get some clippers to turn the beast into a man. And that's just what we did. There were a few moments when I thought to myself, "Why I am cutting his hair?" But was reassured by his constant reassurances that it would really be just fine, and it was.

A debonaire Mr. Michael showing off his long locks.

I told him to smile... what a smarty pants!

It was a lot of hair! Men are hairy, that is that.

 With spring in the air and flowers blooming all around I have had the biggest desire to plant some little flowers of my own in some sort of pot. Michael always puts up with my silly antics and let me pick out a few plastic pots and some flowers to put in 'em. So now my green thumb can go to work. ***NOTE TO READERS: If these flowers die, totally not my fault. It will be due to the fact that we got them at Walmart and Rexburg is windy and cold.***
I don't plan on them dying anytime soon, and I am simply thrilled to have them sit right outside our door for the summer. I hope they can bring a little bit of sunshine to others as well as me and Michael.

Potted plants... As close to a real garden as I'll get for a while.

 AND THE BIG NEWS!!!!!! We bought a kitchen aid. Yeah that's right we got a kitchen aid.

It. Is. Adorable! 

We are grateful for everyone who helped contribute to this lovely new addition, namely those who gave us cash at our wedding. We have what I like to call our wedding savings, that is the money which we got from our wedding that is helping us get a nice start. We thank all the kind people who gave us gifts. We really would have NOTHING without any of you and our so glad you would help us start from scratch. There have been countless blessings given to us that have helped us so much. I have been so overwhelmed from the amount of love, kindness, and friendship that so many people have shown us. We love you and grateful to each and every one of you who have touched our lives for the better.

And here she is ladies and gents...

First thing we made? Snickerdoodles of course!

And Then There Were Three

2 + 1 = 3

No matter how you add it up, when you add one of something to two, you get three. That is what Jenny and I are learning as a newly married couple. Two is just not enough, so we went for three...

and we did it.

The bookcase...

Ok, so Michael and I bought some real cute bookcases at our favorite store, Target, last weekend. We were so excited for our awesome purchase. As we drove down Hitt Road after "oh shoot! We forgot to get some tools." was a big realization. We hurried back to Target, they were closing, and searched madly for a mini tool kit. Important Information: The Idaho Falls Target is probably one of the weirdest organized targets I have ever been to. So, we finally had to ask an employee where we could find one and he knew.
After a trip to Denny's (it's all that was open) we headed home to assemble our first furniture purchase. Needless to say, we didn't need any tools besides a screw driver. Oh well, if anyone needs a hammer or any other tools we have a 144 piece set, just let us know. While building we laughed, we took pictures, we enjoyed step #7, but mostly we loved when they were all finished at around 2 a.m. (Um, the pictures we took while building I don't know how to get off the internal memory of the camera, so this one will have to suffice.) Here they are.... along with our cute wall clock from Mrs. Densley (aka Miss E.) and chilean pig from awesome possum Shauna!

Here is the finished project! Whoo whoo! 

This Has Gotta Be the Good Life

 

Well ladies and gents, we did it. They call us Mr. and Mrs. We sealed the deal and now we're married. After much partying and a lot a lot of traveling, we are finally getting nestled into our cozy apartment back in Rexburg. Life goes on as normal, though we are constantly reminded of how good this life is. Too make our marriage that much more real, we started a blog. How Mormon of us right?

Since both of us really aren't great at blogging individually (Michael being much worse) we are hoping that together we can blog more regularly and keep everyone up with the on goings of the newlywed.

Highlights of the past two weeks of married life:

• Being sealed in the Jordan River Temple for time and all eternity
• Driving 2,300 miles for our Honeymoon and Open House in California
• Dancing the night away at both shin digs. Even Grandpa Blomquist was high kicking it. 
• Opening gifts and realizing how much love people have for us. (not to sound cocky, but it's nice to know that so many people care about you)
• Moving into our apartment and buying our first pieces of furniture together. (much more to come...)
• Simply finding joy in every minute of married life. It is nice to come home at the end of a long work day and have someone else there waiting to see you.

For our Honeymoon we decided to drive to San Francisco, stopping in Lake Tahoe for two days along the way. It was great. We did tons of stuff including, biking the Golden Gate Bridge, visiting Alcatraz and taking the audio tour, riding the cable cars, visiting the aquarium, and having sourdough bread bowls. Jenny had her first experience with room service which she decided she could take a liking to and she swears there is more homeless people in San Fran than any city she has ever been to. Though Michael has had room service before at hotels, he still got quite a kick out of it, and could get used to it as well (if it wasn't so expensive!)

We then took a quick drive down to Clovis, and stayed and Michael's mom's house for a couple days. There we had a great open house filled with tons of family and friends, lots and lots of ice cream, and just about as much candy. It was a great time and everyone had fun.

We felt that our honeymoon hadn't quite been long enough so we stopped on our way back to Utah for one night in Vegas. That was tons of fun. We walked the strip and did many different things. By far the most memorable was tasting different Cokes from around the world. Some were good, and well... some weren't. The one from Italy especially... As one friend put it, "It tasted like liquid skunk."

After leaving Vegas, we spent a couple nights at Jenny's house, then headed back to Rexburg. We're adjusting life just great. Were so grateful for the many blessings that we have, for the love we have for each other, and the love that we feel from others. As we look back, it's been a great journey so far, and we look forward to the road ahead.

Goals for the upcoming week:

1. Teach Jenny to drive stick and take her out on real roads with stop lights.

It should prove to be fun :)