A form of rebellion.

For the past week I have been helping out my mother-in-law (oh, hey Delight!) with a family's family history project. The part that I've been working on is typing up the entries of a woman's diary. Considering how much I love reading other people's blogs, which are basically online diaries, and typing up my own blog (ahem, diary), I've been fascinated by the everyday comings and goings of this woman.

Now, to keep her things private and all that jazz, I'm not going to say who she was or type in any of her journal entries or anything. But I can't help but be inspired by some of the entries that had me quietly smiling to myself. Most of the entries are everyday life -- like "I cleaned the house" or "went to the doctor's office today." But on some special days, my new friend wrote about her life when she was a child, or about what she wants her grandchildren to know about life and her beliefs.

One such entry, she talks about how she feels like a teenager who wants to rebel from what others want her to do, because she didn't want to go pick oranges with her son. She tells a story about a day that her and her sister came home after midnight and turned up their record player so loud that they woke up their neighbors, all because their parents weren't home and, well, because they could. I smiled the whole time I copied the entry into my computer and laughed at the thought of a sassy grandma rebelling against her doctors or friends and dancing to a record player at one o'clock in the morning.

Maybe I'm rebelling by not keeping my own conventional journal. Maybe I'm not rebelling at all and I just like to say that I am. Either way, I know that I'm so grateful for the blogging community. I have never been very good at keeping journals. I could show you the 43 different journals that I started when I was younger, all unfinished because I lost interest. But I'm not losing interest. I'm sticking with my own form of journaling. And some day, my children and grandchildren will be able to look back and see their crazy, sassy grandma in a new light and know that I did this so that I could get to know myself and, more importantly, that they could come to know me, too.

 So, how do you rebel?

A thief in the night.

A couple nights ago, as I was dreaming of unicorns eating flowers under a rainbow of butterflies, a large, rough hand grabbed my shoulder with such force that I abruptly awoke. My eyes shot open in fear and my instincts kicked in. My fists began to fly and I was fending off the villain with extreme force. Suddenly I heard a whimper to my right. My poor, sleeping husband was being attacked by none other than me while all he wanted was me to stay close to him.

I've been asked a few times what is the biggest adjustment to being married. Welp, one of the hardest things about being married is sharing my bed with another person. And I think that's the problem -- I brought my bed, that I've had for probably 8 years, to our apartment. I'm still in that mindset that it's my bed and I can lay wherever I darn-well please. Therefore, my poor, unsuspecting husband is unprepared for the fury that lies within these sleepy fists. And believe me, your don't want to be on the wrong side of these fists in the middle of the night when I think I'm being kidnapped by a masked murderer.

Lucky for me, he still loves me a little.

A day in the life, part two.

Headband: Forever 21; Shirt: borrowed, thrifted; Jeans: AE; Shoes: gifted, Toms

Yesterday morning, Kendall and I had our first talks in our new ward where we live. This wasn't my first time giving a talk in church, but it was still nerve-racking to be speaking in front of a bunch of people I hadn't gotten the chance to meet yet, and unlike the last time I spoke, I only had an outline of what I wanted to say. After I finished, Kendall gave his talk, and it was over, just like that. As people were complimenting us, all I could think about was how proud and lucky I am to have such an amazing, spiritual husband.

The point I'm trying to make is not to brag, but to show how we live our lives day-to-day. Before we headed off to church yesterday morning, we got in a little argument. I don't want to make my life out to seem perfect or unrealistic. We fight, and it sucks, and sometimes it hurts. But why talk about all the little fights when at the end of the day we're grateful for each other and we are able to appreciate the little day-to-day things? With each little tiff, I learn a little bit more how to appreciate my husband and be a better wife. Making up after a fight is what allows me to see him in a positive light at church and to post such happy, braggy blog posts. Because our after-fights usually look a little something like this:

I know that this is a hot topic among bloggers lately -- not wanting to give off a false sense of themselves to others. What do you do to avoid making your blog too fairytale-esque?

Salt Lake City dreamin'...

I mentioned in once that I wouldn't feel like a real Mormon until I visited Salt Lake City, and saw the beautiful temple that everyone always raves about. And that's exactly what we did on our trip! The whole reason for our trip was to attend Kendall's best friend's wedding. Although I wasn't able to attend the sealing ceremony inside the temple, I was able to spend the entire day (with Selah) in Temple Square, exploring this wondrous new land. Kendall told Selah that the temple was "Cinderella's Castle" and that we had to wait outside for the princess because she was getting married inside.

A conversation between me and a 3-year-old:

Selah: I want to get married!

Me: Oh yeah? Who do you want to marry?

Selah: Kendall!

Me: Nice choice. Do you want to marry him in the castle?

Selah: Nope. It's too dirty!

Kids say the darndest things, ya'll.

(Don't worry, I explained to her that it wasn't really dirty, but made out of rocks that made it look dirty. Then she was ok marrying Kendall in the castle!)

Needless to say, it was breathtaking. After the temple sealing, we rushed off to get ready for the reception, which was a blast! Colin and Alison are amazing and I'm so happy for them and excited for them to start their new life together, and be crazy-awesome newly weds like us!

It was like going to Disneyland, but better. And if you know how much I love Disneyland, you know it must be unfathomable how much I loved the Salt Lake City temple.

P.S., I've been getting a lot of questions about how to contact me. Hopefully I'll be getting a new layout soon with quick and easy links to all those things, but for now I'm going to post all my contact info here, on my "Me." page. Can't wait to talk to ya'll!

Three places I'd never been before.

I apologize for my noncreative blog title, I fails. If you can come up with a better title for a post about 3 food places that I'd never been to before in Utah, by all means, you may contest and fight to the death if you please, maybe I'll pick a winner. Maybe the winner will get my famous cookies. Maybe my cookies aren't famous. Who knows at this point?

Moving on.

Just in case you are planning a trip to Utah and want an idea of places that Utahans (really spell check, Utahans?) flock to and rave about, let this be your guide. 

1. Pantrucas.

Forgive me for my lack of actual food pictures, but I'm a shy closet blogger who still isn't completely comfortable taking pictures of every second of my day in front of complete strangers. I'm working on it.

If you didn't know, Kendall served a two-year mission in Chile! So it was kind of a must to go to this restaurant with some of his mission buddies. It was my first time having Chilean food, and it wasn't as scary as I made it up to be. I got a grilled cheese, filled with stake. Don't knock it til you try it, people!

2. Glade's

So as we were driving around with Kendall's cousin (my cousin?), I said that I wanted to go to a real Utah place. Not Red Robin, not McDonald's, a Utah place darn it! Apparently, stand alone burger places are a "thing." I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty tasty, and me and Kendall look dang cute in that picture.

3. J Dawgs

I was told, by many reliable sources (Kendall's 11-year-old cousin), that J Dawgs was the new hip and cool thing in Utah. I love being hip and cool. So hop on the bandwagon, I did, and it was a delicious bandwagon at that. The special sauce was to die for. TO DIE. Seriously, Arizona, get on that!

And there you have it, three places I'd never been before. Or whatever you'd like to name my post.

The thing about road trips.

One thing you should know about me and Kendall is that we love road trips. I'm pretty sure that if we could have driven to our honeymoon without having to stop every few hours for, ahem, marriage related things, we totally would have driven just for the fun of it. Unfortunately for Kendall, most of our road trips have been under 6 hours and bearable enough for me to say "this ain't so bad!" Being skilled in road trippy-ness, he was prepared for the inevitable. I was unprepared for the terror that was at hand.

TEN FREAKING HOURS.

Ten hours in a car is ridiculous, people. I learned some things about myself in those ten, dreadful hours.

1. All other drivers on the road become awful drivers, because in no way shape or form could it be my fault that they are in my way and driving the speed limit legally.

2. Bums can go numb.

3. Your body gets used to moving at 80 mph, and when you get out of the car your body still thinks you should be going 80 mph, causing extreme dizziness and grumpiness to all those involved.

4. After approximately 5 hours, all the blurry scenery still looks like blurry scenery.

5. Forget about sleeping, it's not going to happen.

There also happens to be a "fortunately" for this trip.

1. When you read Harry Potter outloud to your husband while driving, the usual carsickness does not ensue. I'd call that HP magic if there ever was.

2. If you bring a DVD player for children, they don't care if you're driving through a volcano during an earthquake in stop and go traffic, they will be completely content.

3. My husband is a wonderful, loving, kind man. And freaking awesome for driving, like, the whole time.

4. Driving ten hours means that you get to your destination, which is lovely.

I'll blog about the rest of the trip when the rest of the pictures are edited. Give me a break, 3 is better than none! Also, if you haven't seen on my Facebook or Instagram yet, you can go check out a preview of the wedding that our photographer posted here.

Insta-awesome Utah.

After a long weekend, we finally arrived home yesterday evening, just in time for Father's Day. I'm kinda sorta exhausted, and due to that exhaustion I just can't bring myself to edit any pictures from my trip (since that takes so much energy out of me). So, I'm opting out by using Instagram pictures of our trip!

 

 

 

 

 

1 & 2. Ten hour car rides are no bueno, but after a couple hours, Mr. Clark turns to me and says, "will you read Harry Potter to me?" "Umm, will you make out with me right now? Of course I will read Harry Potter to you!" You may commence with the barfing of how nerdy and cheesy we are.

3 & 4. I got to visit the beautiful Salt Lake City Temple! It was probably my favorite part of being in Utah. I wish I could have gone in for the ceremony, but just being there was amazing and so uplifting.

5 & 6. Selah made some best friends over the weekend, or as she liked to call them, her "sisters." She doesn't have sisters at home so we just let her have fun with them, and we were happy someone could keep her entertained while we were there. I don't know how mom's do it 24/7.. This weekend was one big birth control pill for me.

7 & 8. We went to this place in Utah called The Wood Connection that apparently is only in Utah and is amazazing. Michelle bought us a few things to do a craft so we can have a big "C" in our house, since I've been wanting one but haven't found one yet. I can't wait to get it done!

9. This picture was literally Kendall's cousin's backyard. Seriously, Utah?! Why you so gorgeous?!

10. And finally, the long drive home with my handsome husband. Ain't he cute?


Please excuse me while I try to find a house to buy in Utah so I never have to leave it again.

Utah, Utah..

We are having such an amazing time here in Utah! I'm probably going to wait til we get home to post all our adventures, but I wanted to update and let everyone know we're alive. I thought about doing that whole "guest post" thing, but then my brain exploded a little because of all the things I already had to think about. I'll try to plan ahead next time. Emphasis on the try part.

Basically, I love Utah and I never want to leave. Here's to the start of my Utah adventures.

(ps, check out Selah's eyes behind Kendall's shoulder; she looks like those things from Pacman!)

Instascatterbrain.

I've been meaning to post this for the last few days, you know, to keep up on being a good blogger and whatnot. My husband seems to think being a good wife is a little more important though, so I spend most of the last few days watching movie and becoming obsessed with The Walking Dead.

Duuuuuuuuude! The Walking Dead is the next LOST. But more gory. And zombies are scarier than angry smoke. Why didn't I find out about this until this weekend? Seriously, if you haven't seen it, go on netflix and watch it, now.

Since this post is all over the place anyways, here are some random pictures!

 

 

 

 

1. Me and Selah have very similar, um, drinking contraptions, and Selah, the girl I work with everyday, likes to call them "Brittany's Sippy Cup" and "Selah's Sippy Cup."

2. I'm getting pretty good at doing baby hair, wink wink.

3. Probably my favorite part of our house. A set of candles and an old window my sister and law gave me for my bridal shower. I think me and Kendall like candles more than regular lighting.

4. Kendall has started liking dogs this week! Finally.

5. Lots and lots of swimming and swimming lessons this week! You would think I'd be tan by now..

6. Seriously, I can never eat those gross processed fast food fries again now that we perfected the homemade french fry. It's now my favorite side to all our meals. I find myself thinking of meals based on the assumption that we're going to have fries with it. Have I mentioned we're going to be fat very soon yet?

7.  If I ever find enough old wrenches, I'm making that glockenspiel.

8. My favorite chair, handmade Mexico blanket, and the amazing book I just finished.

To add to my scatterbrained-ness, we're packing up tonight and heading to Utah for Kendall's best friend's wedding! We're taking miss Selah with us, to give her mom a little bit of a break this weekend. I've never been to Utah before, so I'm SUPER excited. I don't feel like I can be a real Mormon until I've been to Utah.