Anniversaries

We've been celebrating anniversaries a lot this summer. 

First — our wedding anniversary! I promise I'll be posting details of our wedding soon (it's only taken over a year...but it's coming!) and we had a great time celebrating our one year by going to Sundance, getting a couples massage, having dinner at the Art City Trolley (milkshakes included) and then setting up the tent in our living room with the Netflix fireplace and looking at all our wedding videos while eating some homemade chocolate-covered-strawberries.

We also did a later present to ourselves by having our friend Taz photograph us. Excited to have these memories, even the one where I got mad because Matt wore birkenstocks with socks for the photos. Funny now, but was not laughing then. Taz did a great job of capturing us though. Here are some of the things I love about Matt:

He lifts me up. Literally and figuratively. Sometimes when I'm stressed he'll actually lift me up just like the above photo to make me laugh and it weirdly makes me feel a lot better. 

He always gives me a warm shoulder to laugh or cry on. 

He's super supportive of everything I set out to achieve. Whether that be the big things like graduate school (did I mention I'm starting school again? I'll get to that another time ;) ), or a smaller thing like doing Whole30 with me (which is actually kind of a big thing — we just started it Saturday, so far so good). He's the behind-the-scenes reason I'm able to accomplish so much without going insane.

He makes life way more fun.

He gives me so much love, even when I feel like I don't deserve it. He's taught me so much about patience, grace and forgiveness. 

Bonus: He is super handsome. ;) 

I'm grateful for these photos as they also reflect another anniversary we celebrated-ish (it's bittersweet): moving to Utah!

That road trip was the fastest I've ever taken. We went from Nashville, through Kansas, Missouri and Colorado before we finally reached our new apartment late at night in a matter of a couple days. As you know, with road trips I usually like to make a lot of stops along the way but for this one, we had a completely packed to the ceiling car of stuff and we just needed to get to our new home. We actually went to the wrong apartment at first before we finally found ours. We had never seen it in person and when we first walked in, it felt smaller than the photos. We slept in a sleeping bag on the floor of the one-bedroom. When we woke up the next morning, things felt a lot better. Even though I had visited Provo numerous times, it felt different. Everything felt as if I was seeing it for the first time. We went to get Google Fiber and checked out their VR set, Matt went to do some work at the bike shop and I went to IKEA with Britt. I was pretty determined to have everything set up in 24 hours. That was all the time we had before going to Los Angeles for our Open House and then going to Italy right after.

Matt and I got really frustrated with each other that first night because I wanted everything put away and the IKEA furniture put together and set up so we could sleep in an actual bed, and I just wanted to have more of a home to come back to, and he was ready to call it a day. At 2am, after not speaking for a couple hours and doing our own thing in separate rooms, I came into the bedroom after Matt had just finished setting up the bed and side table...only to realize they didn't go together as I thought they would. So I gently said, "Hey, I really appreciate you putting these things together. I just don't think they go together well, maybe I can take the side table back?" And with that, we went to bed.

My relationship with Utah feels like the kind of relationship that forms slowly. I've gotten to know it as my home on my own, and have appreciated it for all the resources and things it offers. I survived the winter and more than survived, actually enjoyed it. It's been a great place for Matt and I to grow and is really where we need to be.

Another anniversary this summer is my baptism. On August 28, 2011 I was baptized and then on September 4, 2011 I was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Love these missionaries that sacrificed their lives so they could teach me. 

This excerpt that I posted on my @sundayglow page sums up my feelings pretty well:

Seven years ago, I was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was a serious journey. And this scripture (above) is the one that gave me the peace and courage to start it. And I’m not talking about becoming a member of the Church even, but seeking God. I was so cynical about religion, how it didn’t seem to make much of a difference because of the things I saw in the news, how people that claimed to be part of a religion didn’t seem to act like it and it felt like they were just hypocrites sometimes. And I just figured, who really needs it? Just be a good person and go on with your life. I had always wanted to explore religion and just see if God was even real. But I think for a long time I pushed back on it because once I got my answer, that would be it. I thought it might be like uncovering the truth about Santa Claus. Anyhow, I had a Book of Mormon that a friend had given me awhile before. And by another recent circumstance, a missionary had said if I open it up, I’ll find what I need. And I opened to this scripture. The words resonated with me. But I was barely reading them. What I felt and heard was “what have you against seeking out what could be so good for you?” And when I really understood it, I realized I was letting fear prevent me from learning. So I started meeting with the missionaries and I went to some other churches as well which helped to eliminate cynicism as I realized that almost every religious institution preaches good things, and it’s the imperfect people that we all are — which is why most people go to church, to learn and become better — that mess up. I built my testimony of God, then Jesus Christ, and finally received a sure impression of the truth of the Book of Mormon. Nine months after that first impression, on this day, I was baptized. And my life has been changed forever for the better.

When I think about all the blessings I've received, trials I've overcome, and choices I've made based on the knowledge I have now, I'm filled with so much gratitude. I love this church, but most especially, I love God and Jesus Christ. Without this first step, I would not have any of these other anniversaries to celebrate.