A Weekend!

Hooray! It's the weekend, AND it's the last day of February. I'm so happy! February is the month that to me just seems to drag on. It's because in February I'm tired of winter, but Spring still seems so far away. But March is when Spring starts, and I'm very eager to get there.

Tonight Kent and I are going to go through a session at the temple, and I'm very excited to finally have a chance to take advantage of our beautiful temple being only a mile from our house. And I think we're going to have a "Leap Day" Party, though I'm not sure yet what we'll do. Maybe I can find something yummy to make for dinner. Good food is always a reason to party.

This week has been pretty busy. We've been so glad to finally be feeling better, doing a lot of school work (it was midterms this week), and I've been spending some of my time working on my latest Blurb book. Those things are so much fun to make! I'm thinking about maybe starting a little mini-business where I'll make books for other people, just because I like to do it so much and I don't have any other books I want to make for myself. I'm still working out the details of that idea, though.

update

There's been some confusion about my last post--I didn't have to go to the hospital or anything, I just went to the health clinic here on campus.

Also, I'm so happy because after only being on the medication for two days, I'm feeling almost completely better. Wahoo! The only time it really hurts anymore is at night if I try to lay on my left side. It's so nice to be better. And, the sun just came out for the first time in nearly a week, so things are looking up!

And Again

Okay, so it's been forever since I've been on here, I know. Kent and I are recovering from our flu episodes, slowly but surely. I was so glad to finally be feeling good again. But then on Sunday afternoon I started having really weird chest pains. Every time I took in a breath or talked or laughed or anything the entire left side of my chest really hurt. I thought it might be heartburn, but when it got much worse during the night I knew I should probably go in to the doctor. So before classes on Monday morning I went to the student health center. The doctor was worried that I had a blood clot in my lung, so they did a bunch of tests (I was there for nearly 2 hours!) and finally they diagnosed me with pluerisy, which is an inflamation of the layer of fluid that surrounds your rib cage. When it gets inflamed, every breath makes the double layers rub against each other like sandpaper (yeah, it hurt quite a bit!). It's caused either by infection or by injury--from coughing so much with the flu I had. SO, here we go again... now I'm on medication for pluerisy. I just know spring and good health will be here sometime, right? :D

In health and in sickness

Sorry I've been gone a while. On Saturday I started getting some cold-like symptoms, but nothing too bad, and Kent and I drove down to Logan to stay the long weekend with my family. On Sunday after church I was a little tired and I laid down for a nap...and couldn't really get up until this morning. I don't think I've ever really gotten influenza before, and I can definitely say I don't ever want to get it again. :D Kent was so good taking care of me when I had it the worst, he was right there by my side and so attentive to whatever he thought would help me feel a little better. So of course, he gets rewarded by catching it too. It finally hit him hard last night, so he's still in the thick of it, but I'm finally starting to feel a little better. I get pretty tired in the afternoons and I don't have as much energy as I usually do, but at least I can function and go to class. I think if I could just stop coughing I would feel a billion times better...this cough is just so bad.

I am soooo grateful for indoor plumbing, hot showers, night-time cold medicine, and especially for a husband who isn't complaining that our apartment is a mess and I haven't made dinner or anything for a few days now. So, I'm now on the mend, and Kent will get through it in a few days, also. I guess this is our first experience with the "in sickness" part of being together forever. Somehow, laying next to each other and both being too sick to even stand up kind of brings you closer together in a strangely funny way.

Heart Day

Ingredients for a perfect Valentine's Day:

2 pieces of heart-shaped toast with strawberry jam for breakfast

1 piece of that toast that falls on your foot as you lock the door on your way to school and it leaves a perfect heart shape jam mark on your sock (kind of hard to see in the picture, but it was pretty cute!)

1 year Anniversary of your first kiss

1 loving husband

28 little red hearts left around the house last Saturday with love notes for husband to find

1 husband finding heart number 28 as he crawls into bed on Valentine's Day

1 wobbly card table moved into the living room and set for dinner

2 tall white candles and a vase with pink carnations

1 roast

4 twice-baked potatoes

A handful of steamed asparagus with ranch

1 bag of baguette bread slices

Red punch

Strawberry ice cream, peanut butter cookies, and a snuggle on the couch while you watch a movie.

I Love...

Yep, you guessed it!

My Sweetheart

I love Kent so much! He's my sweetheart. I love this picture of him with his neice, Carlee, because it shows in a small way why I love him so much. He's so fun and loving and gentle, and he loves kids. He is the greatest husband! I'm amazed at how much my love for him grows every day, and how great it is to be married to Kent Andersen.

So I thought I'd list a few of the little (and funny) reasons why I love my Valentine.

1. He can't walk past me in the house without giving me a tight squeeze.
2. He sings all the time, in an adorably funny voice that makes me laugh.
3. He insists on cleaning up after dinner for me. And he loads the dishwasher, does the laundry, etc. when I need help.
4. He likes his pizza exactly room temperature, which is just one example of how he's very particular about the temperature of all his food.
5. He wants me to be happy more than anything else, and he shows it!
6. He thinks I'm "just so cute" when I get silly.
7. Our day usually starts with a report of the dreams he had during the night, which usually inclued him being some sort of superhero and rescuing me or fighting off the bad guys.
8. He has great faith, and he always reassures me that everything is going to work out as long as we're doing what is right.
9. I love his laugh when we're watching a movie and something strikes him as absolutely hilarious. I'm always laughing more at him laughing than at the movie itself.
10. He loves to play, and he tries to make everything a game. (The other night he suggested that we make cookies while holding hands so everything has to be done with just one hand.)
11. He takes good care of me and makes sure that everything is taken care of so that we have a comfortable place to live and our situation is good.
12. He weighs himself on our bathroom scale at least four times a day and reports to me exactly how much his weight changes. (He's not worried about his weight, he just likes to experiment to see how he can get different results at different times of day.)
13. He's very motivated, and when he has a job to do, he gets it done and does it well.
14. He has an obsession with tickling me, which keeps things exciting.
15. He loves ice cream. And, he loves my cooking and always eats so much he's moaning in pain afterwards.
16. When we go to the store for anything it is necessary to get something "exciting." Usually a movie or a special treat; anything works as long as he feels it is exciting enough. And if I send him to the store alone, he buys all exciting things and it makes me laugh to see what random things he comes home with.
17. He's incredible with computers, which makes my life a lot easier when it comes to homework and stuff.
18. He's not afraid of good, hard work, and he likes to get it done quickly so he can get back to playing. :D
19. He's wonderful to me when I'm upset or stressed or sick; he takes perfect care of me!
20. I could go on and on. The point is, I LOVE my husband!

I Love...

Ballet Flats

Kent calls these my "happy shoes" because while we were dating I would always wear them when I was in a really good mood. I really like these shoes. They're so comfortable and yet dressy at the same time. It's shocking, I know, but I don't actually like to wear heels. Especially since Kent and I are nearly the same height, I'm not looking to gain a few inches. And heels just don't work here with the snow and ice. So I like to wear ballet flats, which are a little more practical, but they still don't look frumpy.

Anyway, I cleaned up my "happy shoes" to wear them for my wedding. They were perfect.
And these are some cute flats I found online that I wish I had. :D

I Love...

Spring Flowers

I love Daffodils, crocuses, tulips; anything that is a burst of color early in the springtime just makes me so happy! I think I get a lot of this love from my mom. She has always been so excited about the first signs of springtime, and she makes sure she points them out to us. I remember when I was probably 7 or 8 and she and I would sit by the window and watch the robins hop around the muddy garden and she would tell me that it was the first robin of the spring. And when our tulips start to come up around our house she always points them out to all of us, to make sure we see them and know that spring really is coming.

Me vs. video games

So I just had to post about this conversation we had yesterday because it was so funny...

Kent is sitting at the computer in the kitchen and I'm putting the roast in the crockpot for our dinner. I was saying something that really wasn't very important. :D But I said something and then it was time for Kent to respond and he did so in a voice that made me know that he wasn't actually paying attention. (he was looking up previews of new versions of video games online). So, to just play around a little, I began to talk about how I understand that his games are more important than me, etc, going on and on just to see how long it took him to start listening to me.

Me, trying not to laugh at the situation, with a dramatic little sigh, "I understand, Kent, that I'm second in your life, and I guess I can come to terms with that." (of course I'm kidding, just seeing what he'll do)

Kent, still looking at the computer, says, "No way!" in a very loud voice that made me think that he was going to jump up and kiss me and tell me that what I was saying was completely false. So I stay in the doorway with a surprised and pleased look on my face, waiting for the jump and kiss.

"No way," Kent continues. "This game used to be $50 and now it's only $2!"
I can't keep myself from laughing anymore. "Kent, did you hear what I was saying?
Kent looks up at me. "What?"

I leave and go into the other room. A few minutes later, I come back out and Kent has checked to see when another game comes out and he says, very excited, "I know what you can get me for your birthday!" Well, at least he remembered when my birthday is. :D

I Love...

Fresh Peaches

Every summer my family gets peaches from Brigham City. We buy them by the bushel, usually to bottle them for the winter. I love how the stacked up boxes of peaches make our car smell as we drive back to Logan, and I love the fresh peach milkshake we always make that day. And then, for breakfast I always have peaches in milk with sugar. And then there's peach pie with vanilla ice cream, which we eat on Sunday afternoons in my grandparent's backyard with all the family around, the perfect summer night treat... Yum!

I Love...

Playing the Piano


I don't often get a chance anymore to just sit down and play the piano whenever I want. (Mostly because I don't have a piano or even a place to put a piano if I had one.) :D But I love playing when I get a chance. Right now I'm actually taking piano lessons once a week for school credit, and it's nice to have a reason to find a practice room during the day while I'm at school and play the piano. It's so therapeutic for me, and I love to be so involved with something beautiful as I play music. When I was still at home and in high school there were some days where I would play the piano for as long as 2 hours, just because I enjoyed it.


Interesting fact: A couple of semesters ago I had four callings in my ward-- Relief Society pianist, Sacrament Meeting pianist, Choir accompanist, and Sunday School Pianist.

I Love...

The Rexburg Temple



Today is the dedication of the Rexburg Temple. Kent and I are going to watch it broadcast to a chapel in one of the buildings on campus. I'm so excited to have a temple here! It will be such a sacred and holy place, where we can go often to learn the things of eternity. Last night we went to a Temple celebration--children from stakes all across our temple district performed songs and dances that told the history of this area and celebrated having a temple here. The dedication is going to be wonderful. President Monson and President Eyring are dedicating it today in four separate sessions. It's going to be wonderful for Kent and I to have a temple literally only 1 mile away. We can see it from our parking lot. It's so beautiful up on the hill.

A few interesting facts about it:

• The temple artwork and detailing is themed around wheat. All of the beautiful stained glass windows have a wheat pattern in them, the upholstery on the chairs is wheat patterned, the carpet in the Celestial and sealing rooms has been hand-etched by a local artist in a beautiful wheat design, and the moldings in the stair railings have pictures of wheat. There's actually a beautiful wheat field just east of the temple that makes some great pictures.
• President Hinckley was very involved in the construction process. He had a special hand in every detail of it. This temple was prophesied by Wilford Woodruff back in the 1880's when the saints from Logan were asked to settle the Snake River Valley. President Woodruff came to cheer them up because they were suffering from the harsh climate (think lots of snow!) and he told them that one day there would be a temple here.
• This temple has the largest sealing room of all the temples around the world. I think they said that it can seat 115 people.
• The Celestial room and the sealing rooms are all lit by incredibly beautiful chandeliers of genuine Austrian crystals.

I wish I had pictures of the inside to show you. It's the most beautiful building I have ever been in. A lot of the woodwork is actually pear wood, which is a very unique color and grain, and there's also a lot of beautiful marble tilework in the floors. It's definitely fitting for the House of the Lord. It has been such a wonderful experience to watch the temple be built. From groundbreaking until dedication I've been living in a place where I can see the temple from my front window, and I love it!

I love...

My Cutlery Set


Kent thinks that I have an unhealthy attachment to a set of knives, but he's never tried to cut raw chicken breasts with cheap and dull knives. When we registered at stores before our wedding, I made sure to register for three or four sets at each place, and I got one! I love using my knives. And no, I don't have any dangerous tendencies. I just like to cook.

I love...

Things that are small

When we were shopping with our wedding money and gift cards, Kent noticed how everything I got excited about was a small version of something. I will admit, I have a fettish for small things. Not things that are supposed to be small, like paper clips and buttons, but things that are usually big, but have a smaller version, too. I think it comes from all the cute little toys I had when I was growing up; Polly Pockets, Littlest Pet Shop, etc.

A good example is the teeny tiny cheese grater we bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It's so cute! It's about 1 1/2 inches tall. Not very practical, but so cute. I also love to see little toys, like the dollhouses that have mini replicas of kitchen appliances, furniture, etc. When I'm shopping, I love to stop and look at the baby shoes; I think they're adorable!! Especially the shoes that are modeled after adult shoes and are just made tiny.

A Week of Love

I stole this idea from my cousin's blog. There's a week left until Valentine's day, so for every day I'm going to post about something I love.

I love Melona Bars

This is a Korean ice cream bar that we discovered a few years ago. My uncle introduced them to us when we were in Hawaii. (There seems to be a Hawaii theme with me lately...I'm really wishing it weren't so snowy here). :D Anyway, Melona Bars are the best treat I have ever, ever had. They are ice cream that tastes like honeydew melons. We found a little Korean store in Logan that we buy them from, but they aren't quite the same as they are in Hawaii. There are ten bars in each box, and when we're on vacation, our family goes through three or four boxes of them. They're that good.

Something warm...

I am tired of looking at the snow pictures every time I pull up my blog, so I decided to look through my files and find some warm pictures I've taken. Just because it is nice to remember that there really are such places in the world. :D

These are the condos my family stays in when we go to Hawaii

This is where we live

This is Rexburg, Idaho...a place some fondly refer to as "Iceburg." And we still don't get a single day off of school. Ever. The local school districts have been closed for the past week because it's too cold for the buses to start, but since us college students are still breathing, we can walk to school, so BYU-Idaho never closes. Ever.

The snow is very pretty, but there's so much of it. And it's very, very cold. I had to buy myself flowers the other day because I needed some sunshine. I love to see the cheerful daisies on the table!

Snow even up to the first floor windows!

I took this from inside the car. Yes, there is a road ahead of us. The tricky part is making sure you stay on it.

Our beautiful temple!

We keep watching for the day that this bike is completely buried.

They don't know how to plow the parking lots here.

We found this cool ice sculpture of the Rexburg Temple outside of a local restaurant.

I just thought I would also post a few pictures of our little home. We're very happy with our first place, and it's been fun to try and decorate it, although I can't wait until I have more time and resources for that kind of stuff. :D

Note to self.

Just for future reference: Cooking shortcuts can be good, but sometimes...they're not.

I'll just say I'm really grateful to have a husband who's a good sport and ate dinner tonight anyway. :D And from now on, when it says to use a crockpot, I'll use a crockpot. And substituting ingredients is probably not a good idea, either. But no guarantees on that one.