You Wear White and I'll Wear Out the Words 'I Love You'

Soooo.  I forgot to blog yesterday.  I played Diablo 3 with Mr. Jones instead, and lost track of the time.  We beat the game.
Friday was an awesome day, though!  My beautiful cousin, Adrienne got married!  I was invited to the ceremony and the luncheon and the reception.  It made me feel so special to be included.  First, Kurtis and I dropped our kids off at my bestest friend Nicole's house so that they would be kept out of trouble while we were at the ceremony and luncheon.
I have to tell you, the ceremony was so spiritual.  It was in the Salt Lake City Temple, and the temple is a place Mormons go to feel closer to God, perform ordinances in which we make covenants with the Lord.  It's quiet, peaceful, and a place where reverence is sacred.  The marriage ceremony in the temple is one in which husband and wife make a covenant with each other to love, cherish and take care of each other.  We also include God in our marriages as well.  Marriage is hard, and sometimes we need a little divine help from above to figure out how to communicate and navigate through the things life throws at us, so we pledge to be faithful to our husbands and wives and always look to our Heavenly Father as the one who will help us get through it all.  We believe that we cannot get to heaven alone and that we need each other to help each other in this life and in the next.  It's a beautiful thing.
As I was sitting in the room (we call them sealing rooms) waiting for my cousin and her fiance to be brought in, I realized something.  I've been to the temple several times to make some of the covenants that I have made for my ancestors who have passed away without having their chance to have them done for themselves, and I always felt a sort of giddy joy while I was there.  I always just assumed I was feeling the presence of my ancestor and their excitement at having their work done.  That might sound weird, but I believe your spirit lives on after you die, and I do believe they come and witness their temple work being done even if it is just to see what happens.  Joy isn't an emotion that I would say I experience a whole lot.  I'm just depressed a lot.  It just comes with the territory.  Being mentally ill and all.  You get used to it.  But as I was sitting in the temple that day, I felt that same giddy joy I felt when I do work for the dead, and it dawned on me that maybe, it's not somebody else's feelings that I am sensing when I come to the temple.  Maybe that is what joy feels like and I was actually experiencing it in that moment.  The temple truly is a place of joy and love, and I want to live my life in a way that allows me to continue to be there.
After the wedding ceremony, Kurtis and I stayed a little longer than everybody else and took a few extra pictures.  Then we went across the street to the shopping center called City Creek.  My feet hurt from walking in my heels, so we went to the food court.  I realized I hadn't eaten anything yet today and the luncheon wasn't until 3:30, so Kurtis got a gyro, I got a small frozen yogurt and we shared a smoothie.
The luncheon was wonderful.  We ate a lot of food and stuffed ourselves silly.  Then we went and checked out my brother's apartment which was pretty much also just across the street from Temple Square, and I got to chat with Lili for a little while.  Then it was time to pick up the kids who had been swimming at Nicole's mom's house and get them ready for the reception.  The reception was beautiful.  There were a lot of people there, too.  My cousin and his wife drove down from Idaho, and they were there.  I had so much fun chatting with them for a little while.  All too soon, Kurtis was doing the "It's time to go" back rub and I had to leave.  He and Zach had to get up early the next morning and go off to Camp Kiesel with the Weblos.  Zach didn't get to go last year because he broke his elbow and so they let him go this year.  He had a blast and loved every minute, so I'm really glad he got to go.  Whew.  What a weekend, though.  I loved it!

Yes.  Yes, I did take a lot of pictures.  And yes, I am going to show you a lot of them now.  No, not all.  Just 42 of them.  That's not that many, and you'll just want to keep looking at them over and over again, so it's okay. :D

 Here they are!  The newly married couple exiting the temple!

 This is the train on her dress.  It was a magnificent dress.

 Stealing a kiss.

 Her whole family with her grandmas.

 Mother and daughter.

 Her hot sister.  It was a really hot day that day.

 My cousin and her new husband.  Her reception pictures can be seen here.

 My uncle said to Sarah and me while we were waiting for Adrienne and her new husband to come out of the temple, that my cousin's (pictured above) dress was really lovely, and that she looked beautiful in it.  What a sweet thing for a father to say!  He's right though.  I want that dress! :)

 Aww!  I love my new cousin!  He's such a sweetie!

 My aunt and uncle.  They are so happy and proud for their daughter.

 These sisters finally have a brother! :D

 These are the shoes.  I should have brought a pair of flats to wander around in.  But who wants to carry around an extra pair of shoes.  My purse isn't that big!

 Our view from the bench we were sitting on.  That's the Joseph Smith Memorial building on the left and the City Creek sign on the right.

 Kurtis said, "Hey, look.  It's your cousin and her husband.  Heading to the luncheon."

So I stealthily took a picture of them from across the street.  Muwahahahaha!

 This is where the luncheon took place.  Guess what.  Thirteen years ago, Kurtis and I had our wedding reception at that very same place.  But not in the very same room...

 Pretty honey butter!

 A beautiful center piece with a beautiful woman behind it.

 That's my mom on the left being all thick as thieves with her sister on the right.  Good times.

 The temple!

 I don't know if you can see it, but it was really windy that day, and the wind was blowing the water off the top of the fountain and creating a mist.  It looked really neat and cooled you off at the same time.

 There are a few fires burning right now.  A really, really bad one was east of the reception center and as the winds picked up, it blew the smoke all over the valley.  You could barely see the mountains and you could smell it in the air.

 My beautiful cousin in her bride's maid dress.

 The guest book table.

 My other beautiful cousin in her bride's maid dress.

 She's actually talking to someone, but I just wanted a picture of her, and I like to just take pictures when people aren't looking. :)

 My grandmother.  I think she is beautiful.

 I thought this was a really cute idea that I had never seen before.  On one table, there is a picture of the groom and in that frame with the word "He" across it, she has written down things that she loves about Jaben.

 Then on the other side of the entrance, is a picture of her (which I love) and he has written down all the things he loves about Adrienne.  I love that idea!

I had fun taking pictures and I really thought this was one of the most beautiful days.  I hope my cousin cherishes her memories of this day and always finds joy and love in her marriage.  She is such a wonderful person with so much love in her heart and her new husband is a wonderful man with a happy heart.  They compliment one another and I am so happy for them.

We Can Be Them Two Birds of a Feather

I've been going to a lot of weddings over the past couple of months.  Thursday, my friend from Guys and Dolls got married.  She invited me to her wedding reception, and I was going to tell my husband all about it and that he was supposed to come with me.  But alas.  I was a little distracted by painting my wall and forgot.  He ended up making plans to visit with a family we go to church with, and so I needed a date.  I ask on facebook if any of my friends wanted to come with me, and didn't think any one was going to respond, so I told Kaleb he could come with me.  I knew he would be bored, but I knew I would be more bored if he didn't come with me.  At the last minute, my friend that I met during Guys and Dolls answered my plea.  As I was driving to the wedding reception, I took a detour and picked him up at his apartment.  He is not LDS like I am and didn't really know what to expect at a Mormon wedding reception.  Unless he was lying to me.  I'll never know for sure.  He claims to have been born and raised here, so he should know the lingo, right?  I'm just kidding.  He's also Latino.  So the reception was quite mild compared to what he is used to.  Those Latinos love to party. ;)  I laughed as he took his skull earrings out while we were waiting our turn to hug the bride and groom.  He was all like, "Why didn't you tell me I shouldn't wear earrings?"  Because I didn't see the problem with him wearing earrings.

This is usually how a Mormon wedding reception goes (and I am not trying to sound like they are boring or not fun in any way because they are nice and I do enjoy going to weddings and wedding receptions, I just don't like to go by myself and not have anybody to talk to):  The bride and groom line up with their parents and sometimes their bridesmaids and groomsmen, and greet their guests, then you go get a refreshment and a non-alcoholic drink, sit at a table and chat with people you know.  I got there late, and they had already cut the cake.  Cutting the cake is my favorite part.  I always think it's really funny that the bride tells the groom not to shove it in her face and get cake all over her dress and then she shoves it in his face and tries to get him all messy.  Hee hee.  Usually, they cut the cake and serve it, and after the reception, the bride will toss the bouquet and the groom will throw the garter.  Then they run off into the sunset, and have a wonderful honeymoon and life together.  They don't have to do those things in that order.  Some brides and grooms like to have dancing and make things a little more lively.  It mostly depends on the bride and groom, but that's they typical format.

Any way, I knew I really wouldn't know anybody there, and wanted to go with some one, so I wouldn't be bored.  Kaleb was bored (I knew he would!).  He at least got two pieces of cheesecake out of the deal, though.  I was glad to have Jake along.  He and I got to talk and one other person from Guys and Dolls came and said hi to us, but I'll admit I wouldn't have stayed long if I was alone.  

I was so happy for my friend, though!  She looked so beautiful and so happy.  I wish joy and love and happiness on her and her new husband forever more.  But I didn't take pictures.  Sigh.  I know, I usually do. I was too busy talking to Jake though.  And she didn't throw the bouquet and he didn't throw the garter.  Unless I missed that, too.  Ah, well.  It was fun to see her again and hug her and see Jake again and talk and get to know him better.

So because I didn't take any pictures, I went facebook stalking these two, and look what I found!  A picture of Karlie and Jake during Guys and Dolls.  :)  We had some good times.  I hope we get to have some more soon. :)

Oh, and this is the card I made them.  I think it turned out really well.  It's also what made me late. :P

This post was longer than I thought it would be, so tomorrow, I will blog about the next wedding I attended. I took a lot of pictures at that one! :D

In Which We Learn A Thing or Two

So I'm letting some of the girls I go to church with come and have girls' night at my house tonight, and I just can't motivate myself to clean off my kitchen counter.  I'm going to blog instead.  I did promise to post pictures of the finished room, didn't I?  I wouldn't want to go back on my word.  That's just not like me.
Any way.  First, let's travel back in time a couple months...
I don't really remember when I'd say April sometime after the floors got done, my bestest friend Nicole and I went to IKEA and got two new shelves for my front room.  It's not that the other two got damaged in the Christmas Flood of 2011 or anything.  We just needed more book shelves.  Kurtis and I are collectors of books I guess you could say.  We put the other two shelves in the tv room and are using them for our dvd collection.  It's also pretty big.  The new shelves have been sitting in the bay window of the front room ever since, just waiting for some wonderful person to come along and put them together.  I figured, get the wall done, then put them together.  Well, Monday, Kurtis decided he was tired of waiting and wanted to put them together.  No, no.  Even better idea.  He would have Zachary help him put them together.  So after our dentist appointments and dinner, Kurtis and Zach set to work.  Tuesday, I asked Kurtis to help me bring the other two from the garage and we started bringing up books.
I have this weird problem.  I live amongst a butt load of clutter.  I haven't figured out how to organize things at all.  But.  I do like my books alphabetized by the author's last name.  And my cds need to be in alphabetical order, too.  I like to eat my candy so that I will end up eating the flavor I like best last.  I can organize my brain to do those kinds of things, but my kitchen counter looks like my mail box vomited all over it, or there was an explosion in the Stampin' Up! factory and it landed on my counter.  I can't keep it clean for long.  I don't like it.  My mother would love to come and help me out, but I don't want my mother to help me out.  Or anybody for that matter.  I just need to figure this one out on my own.
So we alphabetized our books while I gave a lecture about putting them back on the shelf.  I know my husband ignored it (he always does), but hopefully the kids won't.  There's more of them.  It took a couple hours.  Then I let Zach stay up and while Kurtis supervised, he put that last shelf together all by himself.  I feel such pride.  My baby's all grown up and building furniture!

 Kaleb wanted a turn with the drill, too. :)

All finished with Monday night's shelf.

 Hooray!  I'm done and I can go to bed!

 Riley is glad to have his reading place back.

This is my dream couch.  I want it to go where the white couch is now.  Sometimes, I think it would be nice to have unlimited amounts of cash.

 These are all of our fiction books.  Our non-fiction books are in those boxes and we are debating where to put them at the moment.  I'm not really worried that the last shelf isn't full.  Give it time.  Our kids are becoming book collectors as well.

 The bay window needs some furniture now.  But we threw out the purple rocking chair.  It was falling apart.  I have a chair that needs to be reupholstered and I will put it there when it is done.  We just ran out of money for the other one.  Sigh.  Eventually, this room will look the way I want it to, and then we will move.  It's the curse of this house.  The lady we bought the house from said the same thing when she moved out.

This is Riley's art work.  The top one he painted in second grade, and we thought it was frame worthy.

Then he brought home the second one sometime in May, and we thought it was also frame worthy.  Kaleb is really jealous and is setting out to make something frame worthy, too so he will get a picture on the wall.  He he.  Sibling rivalry.  :)