Inspiration

This is one of my favorite "I"m a Mormon" videos that I've seen. Very inspirational. Check it out.

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Cute Husband

I usually try not to get too mushy on here, but this is an exception. So if you don't want to read about some of the cute things my husband does, then you better stop reading now.

Patrick went up to Yellowstone over Labor Day Weekend with his family. I had to work so I was unable to go. I was really sad to not be able to go and was just having a hard time dealing with that fact all week last week. Patrick always does cute things for me whenever he leaves town, even if it's just for one night. He usually buys little presents/treats for each night that he's gone and hides them around the house for me to find. I love it! It's like a little treasure hunt each time he's away and it lets me know that he's thinking about me and loves me. I came home from work on Friday night to my favorite icecream in the freezer and a few other treats hidden throughout the house. It totally made my night better, even though I was still quite sad to not be able to be with everyone on the family trip.

On Monday night Patrick came home and had bought me a few little souvenirs from their trip. So fun. Patrick's parents also sent a Yellowstone Park Ranger badge with my name on it, which was so thoughtful. Then today when I checked the mail I had another surprise waiting for me. There were 8 postcards, one from each person that was on the trip, with a sweet note on each one. It was so fun!! Thanks everyone for sending them and making me feel so loved! And thank you Patrick for being so kind and thoughtful. You are way too good to me.

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Claude

Meet the newest addition to our family! Claude Jacob Stone! :)

We went to the fair last night and found this little guy for sale. Patrick had mentioned before we left that we should get a bunny, but I quickly dismissed it. Well, I fell in love with this little guy and we ended up coming home with him! He is the sweetest little thing! He just sits contently on our laps and cuddles with us. When we put him down, he hops around a little bit, but he's a pretty chill rabbit. We love him already!

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2 Years Baby!

Can I just tell you that I love this boy! I really do. He's amazing and I'm so lucky to have him as my husband. On July 1st, Patrick and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. Crazy! We had a great anniversary. We had been out of town with Patrick's family in Yellowstone the week before, so we both had to work on the day of our anniversary. We both got off of work and immediately headed off to dinner at Hamilton's. Dinner was fabulous and it was so fun to just be together. After dinner we went shopping to a few stores around Logan and had fun window shopping. Then we went to a park and watched the Logan firework show. It's really fun having our anniversary at the beginning of July because it means that there are usually fireworks on, or near the day of our anniversary. It's quite the way to celebrate if you ask me!

Thanks for the last two years Patrick! They have been some of the best years of my life. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life and eternity with you by my side. I love you!

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Our Summer Thus Far

We've been very busy over the last couple of months. Hence the lack of blogging. Patrick has been busy studying for the DAT and getting ready to apply for Dental School. He turned in his first round of applications last week! YAY! It's hard to believe that he is actually applying. We've been talking about it for so long and it's so great that it's finally here. We're going to need all of the extra thoughts and prayers that you have to offer as we continue the application process over the next several months. We should find out where we're going by December or January. We couldn't be more excited about it all!

Here are just a few of the fun things we have been up to lately:

I was able to hang out with some of my favorite girls. We've all been friends since the first week we came to Utah State. I probably wouldn't have made it through those first two years of college without these ladies. It's been since before my wedding that we were all able to get together. It was so fun!

We also had a chance to spend some time with Patrick's sister Maria and her family. It had been since Christmas that we had seen them, so it was much needed. We had a blast! Thanks for letting us come down Maria and for showing us such a fun time!

The next weekend I met up with Maria and Valerie in Layton for a girls night. We went to dinner at Zupas and had some fun shopping before we headed back to Maria's for some games. It was so much fun! Thanks for allowing me to come down and crash your sisters's weekend ladies! I'm so lucky to have sister-in-laws that treat me just like another sister.

Over Memorial Day weekend we went up to Idaho. One of Patrick's good friends from high school got married on that Saturday. We were able to go to her wedding dinner on that Friday night and then attended the sealing the next day. It was really fun to be able to be there and spend some time with some of Patrick's other friends that were able to come. We spent the rest of the day with Mark and Halli. Halli took us shooting in the morning, which always proves to be a good time. That evening we went out for dinner and saw the new Pirates movie. It was a fun start to the weekend.

On that Sunday we went up to Island Park for the day. My sister is moving to Guatemala for a year with a non profit agency she works for. We wanted to get together with the whole family before she leaves in August. It was so much fun! We went to church, played in the snow, ate some good food, and just enjoyed some time together. Here are a few pictures from our time there.

This post is getting rather long. I'm impressed if you're still reading. Just one last thing.

Yesterday my mom, Shauna, Kristine, Kristine's mom, and I were all able to attend Time Out For Women in Pocatello. I have gone to this event the past two years with the girl's in Patrick's family, but no one in my family had ever been. We all had such a good time! If you haven't been to Time Out for Women and you have an opportunity to go, you should! It's fantastic.

Well, there's an update on some of the things we've been up to. We've had a lot of fun so far this summer and can't wait for the rest of it! I'm so glad that it is finally warming up enough to spend some time outside without getting too cold or too wet. Hooray for summer!

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Blessed

I'm feeling very blessed today. We had such a great weekend! We were able to listen to General Conference, and it was amazing! It's always amazing, but I feel like it gets better and better each time. I'm so grateful for the opportunity we have every six months to listen to the prophets and apostles and learn from their inspired messages. They truly are inspired men that are called of God. I just love Conference! I feel spiritually recharged and motivated to continue to work on becoming a better person each day. I don't remember who said it, or the exact wording, but someone mentioned in their talk how easy it is to share the Gospel with all of the technology we have at our disposal. I feel like I don't do that enough on this blog, so I'd like to share an experience.

Today, I was able to attend a very special wedding. The bride is a good friend of my mom's. My parents were able to help the missionaries teach her and her family the missionary lessons. They were baptized when I was a senior in high school, and I have never met a brand new convert with such an amazing testimony of the Gospel. Her faith has always been so inspiring to me. When I was a freshman in college, our family invited this lady to come with us to do some baptisms for the dead for some family names we had. It was her first time attending the temple, and it was such a blessing to be there for that experience. Today, she was sealed to a great guy for time and all eternity in the Logan Temple. I can't tell you how amazing it was to be there in the temple with her and see how much the Gospel has helped to change her life for the better. It was incredible. It just made me realize how lucky I am to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and know what I know. I know the answers to life's toughest questions. I know who I am, where I came from, what will happen to me after I die. The Gospel gives me so much hope, peace, happiness, and direction in my life. I'm so grateful to know that families can be together forever! How great is that?! I was thinking of Chuck a lot today. I usually do when I go to the temple. I miss him, but I know that I will see him again and all of my other loved ones who have passed away. I'm so grateful to know that! It makes life so much easier to have those eternal truths.

I'm so blessed to have such an amazing family, supportive friends, a good job, a safe home, and more than anything, an incredible husband! He's so good to me. I fall more in love with him each and every day. It's fabulous! He's my very best friend and I can't wait to spend forever with him by my side! I love you Patrick!

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Pizza and Lawn Darts

Today was the warmest day of the year so far! T-shirts and flip-flops were definitely worn. :) It was wonderful!! I know this warm weather probably won't last because, let's be honest, Logan summers don't start until about June. It will probably be snowing again in a few days, but it's okay because today was great! Since Patrick and I were both at work or in school all day long, we decided to spend the evening at the park to enjoy the nice weather. We grabbed some pizza from Dominos and had a great time watching a group of young Freshman playing Ultimate Frisbee at the park while we ate. It was entertaining to say the least! Being a Freshman in college sure is an awkward time of life, isn't it?

After we ate, we played Lawn Darts! Awesome! Patrick happened upon this little gem at one of his recent DI trips. While it might be illegal in some states and definitely has some safety warnings on the labels, it rocked. And don't worry, we were as safe as we could possibly be.

And that's how it's done, folks. Patrick may have won that game, but you better believe I'm going to give him a run for his money next time. I think that this will become a regular activity for us this summer. We'd love to play with anyone else who is interested! It will, of course, be played in a nice open area free of small children to avoid this:

Don't worry that this was the second picture that came up in my Google search for "lawn darts." Disturbing? Yes. But I couldn't resist sharing it. I promise this won't happen to you if you play with us. I don't know about you, but I can't wait for summer! Summer, come faster please!

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Fishy Fishy

We said goodbye to our 3 fish today. :( Sad, I know. After Clint, our algae eater died, the tank got pretty hard to keep clean. We were worried that if we introduced another algae eater into the tank, it would have the same fate as Clint. Olivander (the big, orange and white one) was also getting rather large for the tank, and there just isn't room for a bigger tank in our extra room. So after much discussion, we decided that it was time to say goodbye to our little friends and find them a better home. We posted an ad on KSL, and within a day we had 4 people interested. A nice guy from Brigham City came up tonight and took them home to his 100 gallon tank. I know we'll miss them and their crazy personalities, but we think they'll be very happy in their new home!

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Suggestions??

I just finished reading The Hunger Games series. I loved these books! Definitely worth reading. I'm usually not much of a reader and it normally takes me months to finish a book, but I couldn't put these down. I haven't read too many books since I graduated, but reading this series reminded me of how nice it is to be able to read something and not have to worry about writing a paper about it after I've finished the book. Anyway, I'm looking for a new book/series to read now, and I need your help. What are you currently reading? What is your favorite book you've read? I've got a few ideas on my list, but I'm looking for more. I'd love to hear any suggestions you all might have for me! :)

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Bad Night in the Tank

For those of you who don't know, Patrick and I have several fish. They aren't your normal fish though. They are large, aggressive, and very territorial. They jump up out of the water when we feed them and enjoy chasing each other around the tank. We've had these fish for just over a year now. Let me introduce you to them. Sorry that the pictures are a bit blurry.

This is Olivander, our first fish. He was probably about an inch and a half in length when we first got him, and has now grown to be about 7 inches! Olivander is by far the most aggressive and territorial fish in our tank. We've had several fish (4 to be exact) that didn't respect his space and ended up dead after a day or two in the tank. He is really fun to feed because he will jump up and get the food from us if we hold it over him.

This is Cool Snubs. He's about 4 inches long and is very quick and alert.

We have another fish named Frita. I couldn't get a good picture of her though.

This is Clint. We got him at the same time as Olivander. He is an algae eater and is probably the fastest fish in the tank. He burrows underneath the rocks on the bottom of the tank to hide from the other fish that like to chase him. Olivander has had something against Clint for some time now. He's always chasing him around the tank and nipping at him any chance he gets. We've been quite surprised that Clint has lived this long and attribute it to his speed.

Well, Clint has been getting old and slower lately. We've been waiting to find him dead in the tank for a while now, but never expected to see what we found a few days ago.

See that white blob? That would be Clint, or what's left of him anyway. Sick, huh? Apparently it was a bad night in the tank. We guess that either he died and Olivander decided to have a late night snack, or Clint must have done something to really tick off Olivander. Regardless of what happened, he is no longer with us. He was a good fish. May he rest in peace.

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