Different Roads

So I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought it would be a good day to sit down and write something about life. *Warning: could be long*

Just a quick rap about us: Joe and I are awesome! We are in our summer term so there is a lot of gaming going on in our home at this moment. (Good? I'm not sure but we enjoy playing together!) It gives us a chance to break in our new futon. This makes our house a little more cozy but we love it.
Joe is still at good old Wal-Mart, and recently received a promotion and a pay raise. I am working longer hours at the college, so all in all more money this summer. Which is good because that means we will be able to go on our vacations this summer with our families! One will be spent in Moab and one close to Boulder.

Today was our first day at our new ward! It was nice because a lot of the ward members are recently married and it was nice not feeling completely alone in being a newly wed.
In relief society we talked about how we all have trials and how we need them in live, and I started thinking about some of the trials Joe and I have had to go through in the past couple months and I have been really down about a bunch of different things, money issues especially. There is a couple that Joe knows the husband from work and they don't seem to have any troubles what so ever, they have a nice house, two vehicles that run just fine, etc. and I think why cant we have those things. But today in the lesson I realized that they may have those things but they probably are having trials that are unique to them and their needs. It kind of reminded me of roads and how no road is the same.

My road feels a little like this road winding this way and that. It feels like everything is going good and then suddenly the car breaks down or we are short on money way before pay days. However things work themselves out and yet again everything turns in the opposite direction.  Thus the cycle of our life.
The couple however, in my eyes seem to have the road on the left. a nice easy path. Some roads look like a straight line to the finish and seem to lead right where they want to go but who knows what came before the nice easy path? It could of been like my road or a spaghetti bowl for all we know, leading different ways and making life seem far harder than it really is.

I am so thankful for the savior in my life, and knowing he has given us these trials for a reason is the most reassuring thing in the world. Knowing Joe will be with me through thick and thin make the tasks a lot less daunting. With them and the rest of my friends and family i know that I will be ok and make it down my long winding road to eternity.

Dr. Suess Rainbow Cookies :)

I found this crazy cute cookies on Souders Cookery blog at www.souderstudios.com :) So I do not take credit for it at all. However, I thought I would share it with those who follow me :)

What you need:

• 17.5-oz. bag Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix, mixed according to package directions (or your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe)
• Liquid food coloring, as desired (McCormick Neon shades work well)
• Rainbow sprinkles, if desired

1. Mix cookie dough together.

2. Preheat oven to 350°F. 

3. Divide dough evenly into five bowls.

4. Color each with a different color liquid food coloring. I found that these amounts worked well for me.

• Purple: 2 blue, 2, purple, 1 pink
• Green: 7-8 green
• Blue: 4 blue
• Pinkish-Red: 3-4 pink

5. Roll each color of dough into grape-sized balls. 

6. Combine a ball of each color and quickly roll into a larger ball. It will look like a little beach ball.

7. Roll that ball between your hands and the counter until you have a cylinder about 12 inches long.

8. Starting from one end, roll the dough into a coil, twisting the cylinder as you go.

Optional: Roll edges of the cookie in sprinkles. I didn't add them.

9. Bake the cookies for 10 to 11 minutes, or until done.

Depending on how big grapes are to you, amount may vary mine made 20 but Souders Cookery said that theirs made 30. So it depends. :)

Cooking....I Actually Enjoy It :)

Married life is awesome!!! I love being able to wake up with Joe right there next to me. I love being able to come home with Joe there waiting for me. I have also found that I really do enjoy cooking very much! I am very thankful that Joe will still eat it even if it isn't very good. My favorite so far, has been the Hot Hoagies because Joe keeps coming up ideas for what he could do to make it different. These are some of the things i have made.

Hot Hoagies

BBQ Chicken

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Italian Chicken and Rice

wal-mart: always low prices?....

O...my story about being a good wife... I am not a cook let me tell you.... So these week i am attempting to create homemade dinners every night. In doing so I had to make a Wal-Mart run for some supplies i did not have. This was the beginning of a very long and frustrating day...

To start off, you should know, I left my wallet in Fillmore when we were up there last. So I did not have my cards or cash on me. We had a couple other checks from our wedding that I was going to cash at Wal-Mart. That was my first mistake...

Apparently the bank there won't cash my checks because I don't have an account with that bank. OK that is understandable, I'll just go to to Wells Fargo (were I do have an account). That didn't work either... Because Josephs name was on each check, and not on my accounts, I was not able to cash them.

 

I then went back to my apartment and found my checks that happened to have at my house. I then went back to Wal-Mart, and shopped around for probably about an hour and a half looking for everything I needed for my dinners I was going to make this week. I made it to the register (finally), and found that I could not use my checks. My ID was still in Fillmore. I could not buy my groceries. They then proceeded to return everything I found, to the shelves.

I left very mad and very frustrated. I went home woke up Joe (which I was trying to avoid in the first place) and took him to Wells Fargo. Instead of just cashing the checks, we just added his name to my account. After fifteen minutes there, we returned to Wal-Mart and went back around the store finding everything I had already found. 

Older Picture but I love it anyways ;)

By the end of the day, I was just sick of Wal-Mart. I was not happy and I am sure Joe did not enjoy being woke up. However, Joe really enjoyed the hot Hoagie recipe my mom taught me. It was really worth all that trouble in going through all that. May I just say I learned so much about shopping on Friday. I know Joe loves me so much and understands that I get frustrated easily, but he is still never going to love me less.

Forever has Arrived...

I haven't been on this for 4 months now. :S However, I figure its better time than not to sit down and write a bit about my new life with my amazing husband, Joe.

 

We were sealed and married for time and all eternity on February 11th, 2012, in the St. George Temple. Everything was beyond Perfect what more could a girl ask for? I am so thankful to all of our amazing friends and family who can to support us! It is an amazing feeling to know we have all those people who care and love us so much to come all that way to support us.

Also my dress was perfect too :) I was able to be sealed in it which I didn't think was allowed to be honest. But I am so thankful it was.

Our reception was awesome!!! Even though Joe complained for 2 hours straight about standing in the line for 2 hours. My mom and everyone that help decorate did such an awesome job!! I loved it and our cake was so beautiful. I really had the most amazing wedding. Nothing in the slightest happened to dampen our exuberant mood.  

Now we are back in cedar and in our own little apartment of our own :) It is so perfect, and I am just beginning to decorate a little. {can't too much or Joe wont want to live there anymore ;) } I don't really enjoy being there alone at night though, but Joe comes to check on me during his lunch hours so that does help.

Living Room

Kitchen

Bedroom, [still needs some pictures]

My amazing husband <3

  

Thankful For...

I have noticed that everyone is doing things they are thankful for for each day. But I am very behind. So I will make a list of the 10 most important things I am thankful for: 

1. Joseph Jackson. With out him, I don't know where I would be. He is my best friend in the whole world! And he always will be. I can't thank him enough for everything he has done for me, and we have been through so much together, good and bad. I love the fact he can see when something is wrong and know exactly what to do to fix it. I love random things he does for me, like 'I cook for you' nights, tells me I'm doing good at a video games when its obvious I am doing horrible, and when I get surprise flowers in my car right before school. I can't wait until I step out of that beautiful temple, into eternity, as his wife.

 2. My family. I am so thankful for my family, especially for my parents. I could never ask for better parents in my life. They raised me to be the best person I can be, and they showed me the kind of life I want to lead. They also pushed me to succeed and I am thankful for that now, even though I wasn't when I was younger. My siblings are amazing, despite arguments we may get in. They are the best and we will always be best friends with fun memories. I love them all. 

3. Family (Part 2). Along with being married, I also become part of another family. I will not be the oldest anymore, I'll have older siblings I can call on if needed, and I can help them if they need me. I also get two more awesome parents, Ken and Linda are wonderful. I am thankful for them for raising Joe in the gospel like I was, so we can be together forever. Also the 22 nieces and nephews are all awesome, even if I don't know two of them, I hope to someday.

4. The Gospel. Wow, can I just say that no matter how much I thank our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, it will never be enough. I am SO thankful for the gospel and everything it provides. I may not show it as much as I should but I know it is true, and I am so thankful for the atonement. I am also thankful for the wonderful people that have been brought into my life because of it. 

5. Extended family. All my cousins are awesome! I wish I could see them all everyday, but unfortunately travel distance keeps us apart. I'm also thankful for my grandparents, both Keel and Bradshaw. But my Bradshaw grandparents, I really need to thank because I have been mooching off them for a year now, and they haven't ever gotten mad or anything.

 

6. Friends. My friends are awesome, even living so far away from them, I know we will always keep in touch. We have had so many memories good bad and in between. Random and serious, happy and sad. All of our inside jokes, they will always be part of my life.

7. Art. I am so thankful for the talent I have been blessed with. It gives me a chance to express myself in a way not many can. I love being able to create something from nothing. I hope one day that I can do it for a living. Courtney Lunt, my first art teacher, has always been an inspiration to me. She is strong LDS, and as become very successful because of it.  I hope to be able to do work that is inspiring to others. 

8. Imaginations! I love the fact that I haven't outgrown my imagination. I love being able to read a book and picture it in my mind, or get an assignment in school and have millions ideas pop into my head at once. Movies too, even though you see the screen, my imagination goes wild trying to guess what comes next. 

9. Education. Despite the fact of how expensive it is for school, I would never think of stopping my education. I love learning new things, and I hope to continue to learn new things. I also hope to be able to show my children in the future that education is the best thing in the world for them to do. 

10. Random things. Things like: jumper cables, an umbrellas, etc, that I have found I need since I moved out of my parents house, and don't have them for everything. I have never been so thankful for random things like that, because I never knew how much I would I would appreciate the little things like that in my life.

 I have so many things that I am thankful for that I have not listed. These are just the most important at this point.

Halloween...

Halloween is just around the corner. Definitely my fave holiday! ( and not just because it is my b-day) I love all things creepy and cooky. Its the day where kids actually get to be the heroes of their everyday lives. The day they get to eat candy non stop and wont get in trouble. The day they get to create there own person on the side of an orange veggie (fruit?).
 Its not just a day for kids, its for teens and adults
 too. Joe's roommates scared the crud out of me earlier, running in like zombies complete with fake blood and guts that looked scary real. They had just returned from a zombie walk, and plan to
 go to the haunted hospital tomorrow. I also know that there are dances, and spook alleys that college students can go to. Its just an amazing holiday, where people enjoy to be who they aren't and get scared! Parents too can join in by helping their children. It and christmas i think are the most family friendly holidays.

Tim Burtons movies are always good to watch around Halloween. All time favorite movies of mine! I just love things that are not always perfect and happy. He expresses himself in his movies; his personality  comes out in them. My favorite is probably Sleepy Hollow. I'm not sure why but it is.

I think that Jack-o-Lanterns are awesome too! People get to be creative and design what ever they want. This guy is amazing when it comes to pumpkin carving! I really want to do something like this someday that would be awesome!!