We were in Midway, Utah getting ready to head to Provo to OUR apartment :) We still couldn't believe we were finally married and could barely remember the blur of a wedding that had just happened....
Happy 1 year anniversary! It's been great :) I'm going to share an excerpt of a paper I wrote for my religion class around our 6 month mark...followed by a few favorite pics of the last year...
(The scripture heading was part of the religion class assignment...this is the scripture I chose from our class to relate to my paper.)
D&C
132:19; March 18-24:
And again, verily I say unto you, if a man a a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and b covenant, and it is c unto them by the Holy Spirit of d, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the e
of this priesthood; and it shall be said unto them—Ye shall come forth
in the first resurrection; and if it be after the first resurrection, in
the next resurrection; and shall inherit f, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths—then shall it be written in the Lamb’s g of Life, that he shall commit no h whereby to shed innocent i,
and if ye abide in my covenant, and commit no murder whereby to shed
innocent blood, it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my
servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity; and shall
be of full force when they are out of the world; and they shall pass by
the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their j and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the k forever and ever.
Marriage: the
experience of my life! I cannot tell you
how much I love being married. It is simply the best thing I’ve done thus
far in my life. Nothing can compare to
having that person in your life with whom you share everything; not only the
apartment, or your car, but dreams, fears, and frustrations.
A
lot of people tell you that the first year is the hardest and once you make it
past that year; you are good to go for the rest of your life. I’m here to say that if these last 6 months
have supposedly been a part of the hardest period we’ll face, then we’re going
to have a pretty amazing time and eternity together.
Now
I’m not saying by any means
that this has been a cake walk. There
are definitely arguments and frustrations, but it’s so different once you are
married. Arguments and such become
something to work on between the two of you, rather than a frustration that
could ultimately result in breaking up.
The
hardest adjustment I’ve had to make: changing my focus from “What’s best for
me?” to: “What’s best for us?” Before we got married, I had been in school
for three years focusing on getting my education and preparing
for my
future. Looking back, I can’t believe
how selfish I had let myself become!
Once upon a time, in a marriage prep class I took, I remember the
teacher suggesting we create a “Love Journal”.
The purpose was to write down each day how you showed your spouse you
love them. I am definitely not a very
good journal-keeper, but I am good at texting, and somewhat regular at
blogging. Using these self-proclaimed
strengths of mine, I decided to create a blog, just for me, where I could text
myself these “Love Journal” entries. The
best part about this system: it is completely private, something I will actually
do, and has become what I consider to be my regular journal. Nobody can access it without my permission
and I can even add pictures if I feel like it.
One
thing I really like about the love journal, is as I read each entry, I can go
back and reflect on the whole moment from that one snippet of my memory. I can
reflect on situations and see where I was being dumb and unreasonable; and, for
future reference learn how to handle these things better by learning from the
past. Not only does this help keep me in
perspective with my marriage, but I am keeping the most regular updated journal
of my life. I like to think of it as a
somewhat selfish way for me to learn how to be unselfish.
I included a few days from the "love journal" for ambiance:
March
18, 2010: I spent hours looking up coupons and
preparing to go grocery shopping. We
have a pretty strict budget we try to stick to and I wanted to make sure we
were getting the biggest bang for our buck.
March
19, 2010: I went in to his
family party alone while he prepared his grandpa’s birthday present. This is a big deal for me because I am super
shy, still meeting family members, and still trying to remember everybody’s
names whom I have met before.
March
22, 2010: I cleaned up the
apartment so his Air Force friend could come over and prep for this weekend’s
dinner. I then let them defile my Magic
Bullet with crazy foods for their assignment to create the “grog” of said
dinner.
March
23, 2010: I picked up some dinner on my way home from SLC from his
favorite place: In ‘n Out. Apparently
they are open until 1 a.m.?
March
24, 2010: I cancelled all my morning plans to go watch an Air Force
parade in the COLD weather and even after we had a pretty big argument I stayed to
support him at the ceremony afterwards where he was awarded two ribbons.
He made me a really yummy lunch while I
was at class to help ease the tension from previously mentioned
argument.
As a side note, I should mention that half way through the "love journal" assignment, we went from writing down what I did for my spouse, to what my spouse did for me. It was a lot of fun and helps you realize how much we rely on each other.
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| this one was in the BYU magazine. :) famous husband! |
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| famous again! leading off the provo 4th of july parade! |
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| fishing with the puppy :) |
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| cousins |
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| 1 year :) |
What a great year :) I can't believe how fast it has gone and how much it feels like we have been married for 10 years!! Can't wait to see where it goes...
to quote my tweet from that night: "1 year done... an eternity to go! (literally!) :) xoxo @FeenerUT"
