Grand Pianos Live

So, even though there is less evidence on this blog I really do love music and I love to perform. I was really happy when recently I was able to get on a stage. A real live stage where people could applaud when I was done - something I haven't done since before my mission. The experience was a lot of fun and I was mostly happy with how it went. Not perfect, but a good experience to get the taste of the stage again and remember how much I enjoy it. So without further comment I will share with you the video. Not the greatest angle, but I'm impressed by our little camera's sound. Hope it works. Also I have to put in a plug for William Joseph, who wrote the song and you should all go out and buy his CD because its really good.

P.S. Skip the first 15 sec. because I'm just talking and you can't hear it anyway :)

Halloween

So its been a really long time since I've blogged and if there's anyone who cares, I'm sorry. Its been a busy month, but I feel like my head is finally above water and I can get back into routine a little. I've intended on a few blog posts, so I'll combine all but one into this one. Complete with pictures :).

Just as an update from the last one, Matt was absolutely correct that getting in was difficult, in fact, they decided that it just wasn't for us, so we will not be going into the Marines. We're pretty sure his mom's prayers made that possible. For us, we're just waiting to see what direction that God takes us in. I'm sure it will work out.

So on to the topic at hand. I've never really liked Halloween (sorry I know lots of you love it) but this one has been a lot of fun. Our celebration began as we carved our pumpkin about a week too early, but we were both proud of it - being our first "fancy" pumpkin carving. It was a great family home evening. We also roasted the seeds - very yummy.

Next was the Masquerade. This was actually a week before Halloween, but it was my first formal dance with a date and I did actually enjoy it a ton. I'm glad I got to go with someone I really love though, not some random high school boy that wouldn't matter a year later. So all in all, not sad I never went to prom or anything, but very happy to be able to go to the masquerade. BTW, doesn't my date look attractive :).

Our ward did their Halloween party on Friday night, so we went to that after one of Matt's swim meets. It was a lot of fun. We dressed up as Smurfs, which turned out pretty well. We did a relay race at the party and I was proud of how we did. We were also pleasantly pleased that the blue Hawaiian punch mix we used for paint actually washed off pretty well.

And on Halloween itself we had a fondue party with some friends and Matt's sister. Fondue is good and we had fun with many different items and chocolate and cheese fondue. If anyone wants to do it I can recommend a menu - it was great. I forgot to take pictures during it, so here's our wonderfully cheesy (pun intended) posed one.

Afterwards Matt went and shot Nazi's with his friend (who knows?) and I went to a Halloween orchestra concert. It was a great ending to a good holiday. And we came home and cleaned-up the mess, which was actually also a lot of fun :) My husband is very helpful.

M E P S

When people tell me that being a Marine is one of the toughest jobs on earth, I'm beginning to think that most of challenge is just getting into the Corp. Even the recruiters, who try to gloss over most of the paperwork as "simple" put the fear of fire and brimstone into recruits before going to MEPS. Military Entrance Program Stations are where the doctors make sure everything is working before drill instructors break it all down. As nervous as I was, the process wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. The doctors are actual people with skewed senses of humor (like: Why are there Marines on Navy capital ships? Well, the Army uses guard dogs for secure bases and the Army got to pick first). So the worst part was trying to track down paperwork that didn't exist (got shredded after 7 years of doing nothing). Of course, it was odd to leave my lovely wife all alone in our apartment, but she did get her best night's sleep without me rolling over her in the night. Imagine that.

Alone

So, I just dropped my husband off tonight and I called my mom and I realized that this is probably the second night of my whole life that I will have been completely alone all night. I've always had roommates, family, and missionary companions. Then a husband. I was trying to think back, and thought there was probably one night where my roommates were all gone for Christmas and I was working and I stayed at my apartment, but I could also be making that up. So this is more or less a new experience for me. I'm not scared or lonely really. Its just strange that in over 24 years of life I have never been alone.

Reflections on Idaho

I woke up this morning and we had to scrape the windows of the car for the first time this year and it caused me to want to comment on my experience in Idaho thus far. Everyone always says Utah and Idaho are the same, and I don't think so thus far.

1. There is still open space in Idaho. Ok, so there's technically still open space in Utah, but its gradually disappearing. You have to drive pretty far south, north, east or west from my parent's home to find a lot of open space.

2. The air is actually dryer (if that's possible.) I loved the humidity in Texas, and coming back to Utah was a shock. Now I'm using tons of lotion and my hair feels like steel wool. So if you like a lack of humidity move to Idaho.

3. No one speeds! I commute a little to work and the road is a 65 mph highway. Everyone is going 65 or less. If I go 68 I'm passing people the whole time. Compare this to I-15 in Utah where the posted speed limit in Salt Lake and Utah county is 65 mph and as long as its not rush hour and the traffic is not bad, everyone on the road is going a minimum 65 and most are going in the 70 range and 75 is not even very fast.

I'm sure there are more observations I will make on my continued time here. What an interesting place, but I'm definitely enjoying it.

My Dream Wedding part 2

So here's the last set of pictures. I think that the pages are better today, if I do say so myself. But its been really fun to go back through all of the pictures, since so much of the day was such a blur. A very very good blur, but blurred nonetheless. So we start out today's pictures with the parents. Our parents are just amazing and I love them a lot. So this is a big thank you to the parents and their love and support and everything. This day wouldn't have been possible without you.

For those who don't know, I now share my anniversary with my parents. It was their 25th wedding anniversary, and so it was neat to share it with them. Sometimes my parents still act like newly-weds and so I loved these pictures because its proof. The newly-weds and the 25 years - looks like its been a good 25 years.

And the grandparents. We got to go to the Clayson's and the Walker's in between. The Clayson's have housed Matt when he comes down to visit us and we're always grateful for that. I love going over and visiting them. Some of my best memories with my grandparents is their example of serving missions and church service. That example always meant a lot. Love you! And not to leave out Grandma Durrant, she was one of the first people to find out we were engaged and I still think her reaction was my favorite. So here's a big thank you to our awesome amazing grandparents. Also we're grateful their still around and hope they can be for a long time.

This is the last set of pictures from the events. Cutting cake and dancing. We were nice mostly when we cut the cake. I was kinda nervous because its not something we really practiced and I hoped we could do it. It turned out just fine and I love the pictures because you can see how happy we were at the moment. What you can't see, but what I remember is how hungry we were at this point in time. We were a little later than we should have been getting to my house due to traffic ;). So we didn't eat before the reception. But it didn't matter too much. Dancing with my dad and with Matt were definitely highlights. Matt and mine's first dance was funny to me because lots of people were watching, but mostly all that mattered in the world at that moment was him and me. P.S. I loved the tiki torches!

So here's some pictures of my handsome, goofy husband. He's still a little boy in some ways - everything he picks up turns into a weapon. He was so cute and nervous on this day. Sitting with him before the ceremony was great, he was just excited and nervous and could hardly contain himself. Then he stepped on my dress on the way into the room. I loved the things that the officiator (sealer) said and then the chance to just stare into his eyes as we were sealed together for time and all eternity. Wow! The temple is in the background because throughout this whole process and planning, he was always so focused on the temple. He's pretty awesome!

And so here's the pictures of me. Lots more of those :). A couple of stories about the things I'm wearing. First of all, if you can't tell, I love flowers and I was very excited about the bouquet. I also love my shoes. I won't tell the story about them, but just I LOVE FLIP-FLOPS, although I did feel awkward even just walking out of the temple in them. umm, sister made the sash, isn't it gorgeous, and the pin that held it I found in a antique store in McKinney Texas. I was very excited, I think its beautiful.

So here's me having lots of fun with the husband. Once again, I love these pictures. And it was actually a lot of fun taking them. I was surprised how easy and fun.

Finally, just a word, I am truly grateful for the gospel and the power restored to earth to bind families together forever. The feeling at the ceremony was incredible and the bond created I'm very grateful for. What a joy that families are together and I get to be with Matt forever. I'm truly grateful that through Jesus Christ this is possible. And I want to say I love Matt a lot :) When he proposed I said I wanted to be his forever, and now I am. That's truly what makes this my dream wedding.

My Dream Wedding

So this is actually my second post for the day, but they seemed to need to be separated.

So here's day one of pictures of my wedding. I just have to first of all say thank you.

Thank you to my mother, sister, and mother-in-law for planning the various events and all the time that went into them. Thanks to my other sister who is responsible for all the awesome pictures that you will see here. By the way you should check out her websitewww.edgeofshade.com. She's really amazing. I tried to think of the best way to allow people to see as many of the pictures as possible and enjoy my amazing day with me, but not have to scroll through all 300 that were taken and given to me. Here's my best attempt, it might be a little busy, but it mostly works. Hope you enjoy them. Oh and if anyone see any they like, contact me or Matt and we can send it to you to do with what you like.

Wedding started out with the Brigham city open house. I didn't wear my wedding dress since it was a couple of days before the actual wedding. It was wonderful and we're down to the last two slices from the yummy extra cheesecake mom Durrant gave us.

Lots of people in these next pictures. These are the luncheon. It was fun, my mom talked about me for a minute and Matt's dad talked about him. It was all really sweet and fun. The food was amazing (I love Los Hermanos).

Next was the ceremony and pictures afterwards which will show up more tomorrow or Sunday. That was awesome, of course, but I won't give anything away. So after that was the reception in the backyard that looked like a dream. And the food (that was able to eat) was really good. Special thanks to the youngest sister for the cake. She and my mom made it and it looked amazing.

And what reception is complete without people. There were tons of them. The girls are my awesome piano students who helped a ton. Pay special attention to Ben telling a "fish story." Actually I have no idea what he

was talking about, but I'm sure it was a good story. Sorry this set has a lot of people in it.

Now we get to go to the pictures of all the wonderful people around me. First of course is the friends. All really good friends and a couple from a long way away. One of the girls came from

Austria, and Matt had someone he knew on his mission here from Hong Kong. Neither made the trip specially for the wedding, but it was really cool to have them both there. P.S. This was my favorite collage.

Sorry, this is turning into a really long post. So less talking from me. Here's the boys. Boys are crazy. Enough said.

And the girls who all look really beautiful. Aren't my new nieces cute? I love being an aunt.

Here's Matt's immediate family. They are all so awesome! I got extremely lucky with my in-laws. We had fun getting a good picture with the nieces and nephews.

And Matt's extended family more. And trying to take a picture at the open house.

And my awesome family. I just realized that I didn't include the best one of the sibs. I like my siblings. Notice that yes, I am the shortest. For those of you who haven't met them, when I talk about how tall my family is, I'm not exaggerating.

Everyone who came to the temple. The big group picture.

And finally the really awesome picture of the siblings.