one year anniversary

It has officially been one year since I started working active duty for the U.S. Army. One year down, three to go! Some days it feels like the time has flown by, at other times I'm wondering what to do with all this extra time. I've picked up a few hobbies- blogging, yoga, reading, running, and online journaling (oh! and interior decorating!)-to fill up the extra time. Sometimes, the hobbies just aren't enough.

The Army has been good to Bryan and I though. It's one of the "safest" jobs right now- meaning I don't fear the loss of a job anytime soon (although I wouldn't mind it). All in all, it pays the bills plus a little extra for savings and fun!

"I wish I knew you better"

So I taught the YW lesson this past Sunday about supporting your family. It wasn't a sappy lesson, but I am pretty emotional anyways. Thanks mom! I discussed with the YW why is it that we fight with the one's closest to us- our parents, our spouses, our brothers and sisters. Instead, we should be supporting and lifting them up.

The night before, I watched a movie called the Pianist- basically its about the Jews being sent off to concentration camps. While this family was being separated, the brother whispers to the sister "I wish I knew you better". She simply relied "thank you".

I didn't cry during the movie, but when I referred to this scene in the lesson, I couldn't help crying. I guess deep down, I too wish I knew some of my siblings better. One of the young women came up to me and hug me saying she would be my little sister. That was sweet of her.

I guess it just got me thinking. It's hard being away from home. Most of my family lives close together and I feel like I am missing out on those important events. Do we really know each other well enough? My "sister's pregnant" or my "family's struggling from the recession" or my "parent's are losing it". I don't know the details. Do they know how hard it is living apart from Bryan? Do they know how hard it is to be the only person unable to have kids when every one else around me is?

I think I might be homesick.

Credit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FspHU8hOxhY

So I saw this commercial on TV with Bryan the other day and asked him if he checked my credit score before we got married. He got this look on his face like he had done something wrong. I didn't want to believe he checked, but he wasn't really giving me a straight answer either. Apparently my credit wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Figures he'd check something like that. Not that it really matters...right babe?

I like these commercials. They're pretty funny.

Spring Break

Bryan and I don't get much time together, mostly because we live in different cities, so we decided to do the whole Spring Break thing on our own. It's actually nice having a little spring break. BYU never had it, do it's kind of different. We didn't want to go some place too far or have to fly. Bryan's mom has a million time share spots and found one about 9 hours away in Fairfield Bay, Arkansas. I'm sure we could have found some where closer, but I've never been to Arkansas. I know it doesn't sound cool for a vacation area, but I really didn't care where, I just wanted to spend time with Bryan. Fairfield Bay is a small town in northern Arkansas- like 100 miles north of Little Rock- with a population of 2400, which are mostly old retired couples.

While traveling to Arkansas, we stopped at the Dallas Temple. I have to admit, it's been close to a year since both Bryan and I have been able to go to the temple. My excuses are valid though. Not really. But it does make it hard being 2.5 hours away with a husband who lives 3 hours away as well. Anyways the temple was great. It was also nice to visit with some of our friends from BYU, the Shaha's. Thanks for the delish food!

Bryan and I definitely are good at taking pictures of ourselves. I think this might be better than Ryan and Katie's for sure!






Then we headed off to Arkansas. The first 3 days we had really nice weather. We hiked, played tennis, biked, and swam. I really wanted to go fishing, but then the weather changed dramatically. Not even joking, I got sun burnt on Monday and it was snowing on Thursday. So we hung out at the Recreation center and played basketball, exercised, and swam some more. We also watched a lot of movies, cooked really good food, read books, and Bryan studied for some of his mid-terms for the following week. I beat Bryan twice in knock-out and twice in
h-o-r-s-e, but he really won the ultimate challenge. We bet for a kitty and he won. I guess he really didn't want a cat?

The Ozarks is filled with history. This cave was the home of prehistoric cave dwellers!

There is actually writing on the walls in the caves.

See why I wanted to go fishing? These fish are HUGE and this lake is stocked full of them!

This picture turned out a lot better than the temple one.

Bryan's being a little kid.

See, it really did snow! I haven't seen snow since I left Utah.

We had lots of fun on our little trip to Arkansas. I think every states has its own beauty. Utah has the mountains and the sandstone desert arches. Central Texas has its rolling hills and country side. Oklahoma has the most gorgeous sunsets ever. I would have to say that Arkansas has thick forests and wild rock creations.

Self Reliance

I was catching up on some reading in the Ensign last night and the theme of self reliance was mentioned in many of the talks. Our church leaders have been preparing, warning, guiding the members for these days of recession (P.S the unemployment rate just hit 8.1% in February). Marion G Romney had a great comparison in a General Conference talk given in 1982, pulled from a Reader's Digest, of what our government and our parents have taught the people of the United States to become:

“In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don’t know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved. …
“The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the … sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets.
“Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the ‘something for nothing’ lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.
“A lot of people are like that, too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the U.S. Government’s ‘shrimp fleet.’ But what will happen when the Government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come?
“Let’s not be gullible gulls. We … must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence.”

What a blessing it is to have spiritually inspired leaders on this earth, preparing the people for times of trial with Heavenly Father's message. We just have to listen for their warnings and act. Over the 3+ years Bryan and I have been married, we have never really thought much about food storage or saving cash for a rainy day. I guess we figured someone or something would bail us out. Who needs 100 pounds of wheat anyways? It is actually funny how often this very subject has come up in daily conversation. I would just brushed it aside saying "not yet", "we don't have the space", "maybe next year", or "thats for old people". I guess the Lord was just waiting for my heart to be soften? I don't know...

So now, Bryan and I are going to become self reliant. The Church has published a 4 step approach to building home storage. They are as follows:

1. Build a 3 month supply gradually

2. Store drinking water

3. Set aside a little money

4. Gradually establish a longer-term supply

This has now become our goal theme for 2009. Anyone have ideas for water storage?