Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

After having my share of the sinus infection I was itching to get out of the house. Luckily for me, work did not take my call in and mother nature decided to bless us with a beautiful day. So what did we decide to do...go to the zoo, of course!

We both got ready, packed a picnic lunch, hopped in the car, rolled the windows and sun roof down and made our way to the zoo. Luckily for us the Rosamond Gifford Zoo is only about 20 minutes away from our house and has a cheap admission fee of $8.00 for adults.

With such a cheap entrance fee we figured that the zoo would be kind of lame but boy were we wrong! The exhibits were awesome and we saw so many different kinds of animals. It really was the perfect little outing. My favorite animals at the zoo are always the elephants so I was overjoyed when we saw new baby elephant! They even had a maternity ward building for the elephants which was so neat to walk through.

It was so neat to see so many of the animals up close, though I'm pretty sure it was nap time for over half of the animals there!

After we finished at the exhibits we found this field near the entrance of the zoo with an awesome staircase and of course a picnic and mini photoshoot was necessary.

I have tried up loading some of the pics but blogger is being a little iffy so I'll keep trying another day. Until then Happy Tuesday! 

Hump Day Randomness

We recently joined Brad's company kickball team. There is nothing that confuses me more than when his coworkers are looking him in the face and calling him Brandon. I sit there thinking "why the heck are they calling him Brandon?!" Oh yeah...that's his real name. You will never catch me calling him that though he always has been and will be Brad to me.

Speaking of that man...he has been sick as a dog this past week. Poor guy over works himself all the time. He was nice enough to share his sickness with me, hello sinus infection. At least he is thoughtful, today he texted me asking how I was feeling and if I needed him to pick up anything from the store. He's a real catch I tell ya.

In 25 days I will be back in good ole Georgia. We will be going for the baby sisters high school graduation, can't believe she is old enough. You know I will be eating my fair share of Chick-fil-a. I miss it oh so much! Plus I'm super excited because ALL my family will be there, it will be wonderful.

I have been loving the sunshine and warm days we are having here in New York. It makes living here bearable will I can open up my windows and feel the spring breeze and then hop in the car, roll down all the windows, and get funny looks as I jam to my country music. I'm nervous to put my snow boots away just because I don't want to jinx it.

Anyways, life is oh so sweet. Happy Hump Day

Protecting What's Important

It's been awhile since I've blogged, I'm sorry. Life has picked up again and Brad and I seem to always be busy with school, work, and church callings. A lot has happened lately that has me thinking about the future. 

 

Last weekend was General Conference. I absolutely LOVE conference weekends. I find it to be such a blessing that we have modern day prophets who receive revelation from God just for us. I personally think this was the best conference ever. A favorite for me was Marriage: Watch and Learn by Elder Clayton. As a newly wed I learned SO much from this talk. My favorite was at the end when he stated "Marriage is a gift from God to us; the quality of our marriages is a gift from us to Him." What a perspective to have on Marriage. Marriage is not always fun and games, it does have its ups and downs. After this talk Brad and I had a long and loving conversation about this talk. It was just what the two of us needed and we both learned so much. We decided that we need to make a more conscious effort to make sure that we are doing our very best to make sure that we are giving the best gift we can.  I know that just in this past week our home and relationship has been a lot happier and healthier.

 

After the bombings in Boston this Monday, the whole thing with the legalization of Gay Marriages, all the shootings, and the ordeal with the Boy Scouts, I can't help but cringe when I think of all the evils of the world. It makes me sad to see all these people suffering or thinking that they are finding "happiness" in their choices. It makes me sad to what society now finds acceptable. I often find myself contemplating not having kids because I don't want them to be raised in a society like we have now. I don't want to put one of God's children here and see them suffer. However, I know that it is all part of His plan. We are all sent here to be tested and we all have our agency (which I am not a big fan of, at all). Boyd K. Packer gave an excellent talk this past weekend at conference titled These Things I Know. In the talk he states " We will not always be safe from the adversary’s influence, even within our own homes. We need to protect our nestlings.

We live in a very dangerous world that threatens those things that are most spiritual. The family, the fundamental organization in time and eternity, is under attack from forces seen and unseen. The adversary is about. His objective is to cause injury. If he can weaken and destroy the family, he will have succeeded.

Latter-day Saints recognize the transcendent importance of the family and strive to live in such a way that the adversary cannot steal into our homes. We find safety and security for ourselves and our children in honoring the covenants we have made and living up to the ordinary acts of obedience required of the followers of Christ." This really spoke to me. It got me thinking am I doing all that I can to make sure my home is a safe haven? I took a look around my house. We have Ensigns on our table, Quotes from General Authorities on the fridge, pictures of the Temple, and we read our scriptures, but is that enough? As I was looking around I realized that I didn't have a picture of Christ in my home. I was shocked and to be honest, embarrassed. That is now top on my list of things to get. I was slapped in the face with another thing I need to make a conscious effort to do, not just when I have children but now when it's just Brad and I.

I am so blessed to be a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I'm so grateful that twice a year I have the opportunity to hear from modern day Prophets and Apostles. 

Pilates

I figured now that it's almost been a week since Easter I should probably post about how we spent our Easter Weekend. Friday night we dyed Easter Eggs for our date night. It was a lot of fun! I even made a pink polka dotted one (my fav) Saturday we were blessed with beautiful weather, it was almost as if spring was right on our doorstep. I also did some Easter crafting! Sunday morning we woke up and went to church! I wore my new chevron maxi skirt which has to be hands down the most comfortable piece of clothing I own. Our sacrament meeting was all about missionary work which bothered me a little bit because it was Easter Sunday for crying out loud. I personally feel like it should have been about our Savior's Atonement and Resurrection, since that is what we are actually celebrating at Easter. Anyways, then we went to Sunday school which was again about missionary work. Then it was my turn to teach in young women's. Just a little heads up, I hate teaching. I love making handouts and doing all the fun things that go along with a lesson but asking me to teach, it is not my favorite. I sometimes feel as if I'm not qualified enough for the job. I'm not much older than these girls and sometimes it's a tad bit intimidating. I have a really embarrassing story though. I know everyone enjoys those. I was so focused on my reading in my lesson that I pronounced Pilate as Pilates (like the exercise). SERIOUSLY?!?! Can't even believe that happened. At least non of the girls noticed. I cried. So embarrassing. Also I had this wonderful Easter dinner planned out but half of the things didn't get made because I forgot to buy half the things I needed. However, we did have a delicious ham, green bean casserole, a hash brown casserole, and of course a bunny cake! 

Easter Egg Date Night

Easter Sunday!

Niagara Falls

Is it just me or does everyone have the urge to use the bathroom when they hear the phrase "Niagara Falls"? Maybe it's because my sisters and I used to torment each other by saying that on long car rides when one of us had to go to the bathroom.

Anyways...

Last weekend was ward conference and we were bad and decided to skip to go to Niagara Falls. You see it's only a 2 hour trip from where we live and neither of us had been so we decided to just go for it. Talk about a fun but FREEZING trip. We did both sides (The Canadian and American) of the park. It was so beautiful with all the snow around it but we want to go back in the summer because that is when everything comes to life there and we will probably enjoy it more because we won't be freezing our booties off.  They also had a neat little museum there that told the history of the falls and I'm pretty sure that was Brad's favorite part. It was also St. Patrick's Day and you can't tell because we are all bundled up but we were wearing green. We did see a rainbow though so I'm hoping that means we will be extra lucky this year!

Now for some pictures from our trip

Us at the Falls!

The Falls/The Rainbow

It was the perfect little get away and break from reality. Plus I can now say I've been to Canada! 

Hope everyone has an awesome week! I am so excited for Easter next weekend! What do you have planned?

just breathe

Life has been pretty crazy around here...

Work

School

Callings

They all take up so much time. There are days where I just want to sit down and breathe for a second. Now I'm not saying that being busy is not good. I for one like to be busy and I like to have a routine but sometimes it just seems like it's too much. Sometimes I just feel like if I have a good cry for a minute and then everything will be okay.

Today was one of those days. 

I don't know who told my ward choir director I could sing but if I ever find out I might punch you in the throat {justkidding...maybe}because somehow I got dragged into singing in sacrament on Sunday because it's Relief Society Sunday. JOY. I don't consider myself to be a singer maybe it's because I grew up in a house with a mom and sister who have voices of angels {I seriously could listen to them sing all day} I can't read music at ALL but if I stand next to someone who can sing I can fake it till I make it. Anyways, I had singing practice this morning at 9:30am. Then I came home and did laundry, I used to love doing laundry but now that there is two of us it seems more like a chore every time I do it. Also it's finals week so add in studying for a final and then taking it to my "to do" list. It was also Wednesday which means mutual, we watched a movie. Life gets a little more difficult when you have to share a car and you both have to two different places at the same time. I wish people were punctual, start and end on time {probably one of my biggest pet peeves, if I'm being honest}

I would say I'm ready for the weekend but that just brings on waking up early and going to work or church. So I'm going to say I'm ready for  March 20th to get here because Mo is coming to visit me and I couldn't be more excited!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Victoria's Secret

It's been a whole month since I've started working at good ole VS.

I can't believe how fast it has gone by.

I remember the night of my first day.  I had come home from work and my feet and legs were throbbing. I knew I had to get up for work at 5 the next morning so I went and took a hot bubble bath hoping that it would make my legs feel better and help me sleep better that night but it didn't. I remember waking Brad up and saying we needed to go get medicine right then and there. So we hopped in the car and drove to Wal-mart to get some medicine, what a good husband I have. Thankfully my feet quickly adjusted, getting new shoes and gel inserts probably helped a lot with that problem. 

For waking up at 5am three days a week I have to say most of the time I enjoy my job and don't dread waking up so early and working all day long. Working in a store full of girls was a big concern for me when I took the job, you see girls and I don't always get along and of course there will always be one who hates me (luckily I don't have to work with her very often) but on a more positive note there is a girl from North Carolina and we totally clicked so it's nice to have a girl to talk to and it is a bonus she is from the South.

Also working there comes with awesome free/cheap gifts! I have 2 new bras for free already and I've only worked there for a month. I also got recognized at our bra summit/shrink meeting. I was so happy and I was the only new girl who got recognized so I that made it even better! I usually only work in shipment but the last two weeks I have also worked in pink and beauty so I'm getting to know everything. And as sad as this sounds they told me when I onboarded that soon I would be able to tell you a bra's name just by looking at the straps and to be honest I can do it for the most part. 

As much as I enjoy my job and enjoy making money there are days where I really miss my weekends with Brad. I work Friday and Saturday so it pretty much limits what we can do since I have to be up so early. Plus, life is about to get really crazy because I will be taking a bigger course load this next term. To say I'm a little nervous would be an understatement. Overall though I am so grateful for the job I have mostly because it gives me something to do! 

And since I know somebody will ask me...Maybe one day I will tell you all Victoria's Secret! ;)