Adventures of Alex, Orchid & Layla

My Review of Roku 2 XD Streaming Player

2011-10-10T13:09:00.001-07:00

Originally submitted at Roku

Features the highest-quality HD streaming available.

AWESOME ROKU

By The Flower from Rexburg, Idaho on 10/10/2011

Pros: High quality picture, Reliability, Built in Wi-Fi, Easy to use, Compact

Cons: Hard time streaming live

Best Uses: Primary TV, Living room

Describe Yourself: Netflix fan

Great! I tried to watch the LDS General Conference on it, but it had a hard time streaming the live Conference... So that's been the only problem! THank you!!!!

(legalese)

Finding myself on the road to Damascus

2011-09-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

Layla is the most gorgeous little girl I've ever seen! Of course I'm a little bias BUT really look at her, I'm sure you can agree! She is getting so big! She's 10 months old, crawling like crazy, pulling herself up, and cruising, jabbering, waving bye-bye, and hello! Loves to get into things ! Loves learning! If I ask her what a dog says she barks, if I ask what a bear says she growls, and we're trying to learn more about animals! She is a beautiful funny little girl. She does this funny breathing thing were she scrunches her nose and smiles at me. Oh I just want to melt she's so cute!

SO now that I've talked about how wonderful and great my daughter is I've thought about my new identity as a mother and a wife, and also a new me. When I was 18 I was on top of the world and had a plan. Then I met the love of my life, and plans changed a little. Then we decided to have a sweet little baby and nine months later a sweet baby was here. Well, through all of these changes I wasn't sure how I fit into them.

One of my favorite Apostles is President Uchtdorf. He gives such powerful talks. One he gave recently was called "Waiting on the Road to Damascus." He begins with the story of Saul and how he was up fronted by an angel asking him why thou persecutest me and Saul changed his life. This all happened on the road to Damascus. President Uchtdorf talks about how a lot of us don't make the great change Saul did to becoming Paul, a lot of us just wait on the road to Damascus. He said this:

"The truth is, those who diligently seek to learn of Christ eventually will come to know Him. They will personally receive a divine portrait of the Master, although it most often comes in the form of a puzzle—one piece at a time. Each individual piece may not be easily recognizable by itself; it may not be clear how it relates to the whole. Each piece helps us to see the big picture a little more clearly. Eventually, after enough pieces have been put together, we recognize the grand beauty of it all. Then, looking back on our experience, we see that the Savior had indeed come to be with us—not all at once but quietly, gently, almost unnoticed.

This can be our experience if we move forward with faith and do not wait too long on the road to Damascus."

Isn't that incredible. I decided I was going to find myself! Find Christ myself! I love the Gospel! So I've been trying to read my scriptures better, and I've been writing in my journal everyday, and I found something that I'm really excited about that has given me such a confidence boost! I'm now a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant! I love Mary Kay products and I love the confidence it gives me! I hope that I can give the women around me the happiness, confidence, and wonderful feelings I've gotten from becoming a Beauty Consultant and wearing makeup that's good for my skin! I've been able to boost my confidence and feel like I'm doing something again, something I like. I've also been so happy because I feel like I've been a better mother because I have somewhere to fill my bucket.

By the way, I've been trying to figure out how to better "play" with Layla. Like I take her to the park, read her books, take her on walks, play with toys, and I've been trying to teach animal sounds, and where parts of our face is ( ear, eyes, mouth, nose...etc.) what else do you do with ten month olds, eleven months olds? I've tried to do signs with her, but she doesn't seem interested. Anyways... what is a way that I can get her interested in signs? Anyways, Love ya'll!!!

Like a Skyscraper

2011-08-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

When I heard this song for the first time a few days ago, i was taken away. My heart flew with the lyrics.

When I was in late elementary school and all through middle school I was told how ugly I was.

"There is the Orchid Man!"
"She's so fat!"
"Her hair is so frizzy."
"She's so hairy!"

So mom didn't let me shave my legs until I was in late 5th grade after begging. She didn't let me use makeup or pluck my eye brows. She didn't teach me

My entire life I lived in a family that believed in beauty and money.

"No Orchid, don't wear your glasses."
" No Orchid don't leave your hair curly straighten it."
"No Orchid you must become a doctor to have lots of money."

Summer before eighth grade I spend 10 days in the hospital. Shortly after 9 grade I spend 8 days in the hospital. That december I move to Miami. 3 high schools later and I end up at my 4th in powder springs, ga

I moved to a new school my junior year of high school. I made friends with good people. I made friends with everyone. I lost the ugly names... I wasn't "Orchid Man" anymore. Then senior year, one of the most popular girls in our school befriended me. She was just my friend outside of school . She took me home after school. One day she invited me to dinner, I was amazed she wasn't embarrassed to be seen with me.

Is it weird hearing Orchid say strange things.... well every girl wants to be popular in high school, I was in the running for FRIENDLIEST though...

Anyways, I was introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What changed my life.

A lot of time I'm afraid of talking about my conversion because I don't want to be that "convert" that acts like she's better than all of those life longers etc. But I didn't realize what my conversion did. I have been so reminded of the the change of my life.

I could've been somewhere without God, I could've been broken, but through all the trials and tribulations I have been through I rose above it.

All those words that hurt me all my life: Heavenly father saved me.

You can take everything I have,

You can break everything I am,

Like I'm made of glass,

Like I'm made of paper.

Go on and try to tear me down.

I will be rising from the ground,

Like a skyscraper,

Like a skyscraper.

This is not a post to make anyone feel bad for me, a post to tell them whatever they are going thorough, they can rise above it, like a skyscraper.

Like a Skyscraper

I am like a skyscraper

How could you be mad?

2011-07-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Layla is honestly the most beautiful baby in the whole wide world. I'm sure everyone thinks that of their own baby, and rightly so, BUT really she is just aesthetically pleasing, don't you think?

So she's getting teeth and any mother that has been through this can tell you that they are the worse thing that ever happen to mothers and babies everywhere. They're in pain so they act funny, and you're frustrated because they're in pain and you can't fix it and they act funny. Layla just doesn't like naps since this teething thing has begun, but really she has some great days and some bad days.

I always think, man our kid is so beautiful. We should exploit her good looks and pay for Alex's schooling. Don't you think?

But seriously, sometimes I get so frustrated because I need her to take a nap so I can finish up the laundry or make Alex lunch before he gets home, but when you see this face, how could you be mad?

Rockin out to music at the Farmer's Market

Flashin her beautiful eyes at the world

Smiling at mommy and daddy, isn't she sweet! How could you be mad?!

P.s. I have had really really bad post prego acne these last couple of months... i would have to say since about the end of April ( after Layla turned 6 months old, and she's turning 9 months old in 4 days.) If you have any suggestions at all of how to get rid of it I would be eternally grateful. I just get sick looking at old pictures of me without this crap on my face. thanks so much!

Life's a Mess!

2011-07-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

This picture describes our lives! Fun, sweet, cute, disastrous! ha ha. I know I've been out of the blogging world since Layla was a month old and now she's 8 months old!!! To be honest when Layla turned about 2 months old I kinda drifted into the baby blues and blogging became a part of my self-destruction. I kept looking at blogs and felt like I was never going to be as good as all these other moms. I felt like the worse mom is the whole world... and I just kept beating myself up. So I did myself a favor and I said goodbye to the cyber world until I could figure myself out. I talked to a friend not to long ago that really changed the way I thought about blogs though. I talked to her and asked her, how is it that she is always so positive and so happy and seems like she's got life figured out. She said, "Orchid, I have doubts and bad days too" but the way she stayed positive is by authoring a blog of positivity! I realized that I can't compare my PRIVATE LIFE to someone else's PUBLIC life. We all have hard times. We all have days where we just wish we could sleep in another hour. We also all have days where the laughing never stops and the cutest just keeps going. I love sharing my life with my friends and family and I hope they love reading about it. I have a wonderful life with my best friend and my sweet little baby girl.

See you soon!

*Orchid

Dangerous Fraud- Please read!!!

2011-02-16T15:00:00.001-08:00

IMPORTANT: If you get a call talking about activity on your

visa hang out right away!!! It's fraud!!! I just got a call the

number will show up as 000-000-0000.... PLEASE save

yourself don't press any buttons just hang up!!!

Laylas Birth Announcement

2011-01-26T21:43:00.001-08:00

Garden Grow Birth Announcement

Design your birth announcements with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

You know you're a mom when...

2010-11-15T17:34:00.001-08:00

You know you're a mom when you it's noon and you're starving because you forgot to eat worrying about your daughter

You know you're a mom when you cry as they poke her little arms to get blood and they can't so they poke her 4 times and she screams.... and you cry...

You know you're a mom when you rather stay up at night just to watch her breathe

You know you're a mom when you're rushing to get dinner done, but she gets hungry just as you begin to cook it...haha

You know you're a mom when you want things for her for you're Christmas gifts

You know you're a mom when you think about getting your husband's lunch made so he'll have enough food to eat and miss out on your chance to get a shower that morning... ha ha

I love being a mother

SO.... I wrote this blog like two and a half or maybe 3 weeks ago just never posted it... I haven't been really into blogging much since she's been born, and it stinks because I haven't been good at journaling... but I remember things, she smiled first when she was 5 days old and everyone tells me it wasn't a real smile, but I believe it was....she was born with jaundice and she's been struggling with it the entire time, but it's breast feeding jaundice so it's not dangerous anymore and it'll just be a couple of months before her eyes turn back white ( they're yellow with jaundice) I have taken tons of video of her, but it's too hard to put on the blog, and this past Friday she was more awake than ever and started to react to me a little and coo... and it was so sweet. I love this sweet little baby and she's my heart and my soul. I'm so grateful for her and the blessing it has been to have her. She's such a beautiful little baby. Here are a ton of pictures that people have been waiting for and I'm trying my best to put them in order from her age:

more pictures to come soon

Pointe Digital Giveaway!!!!

2010-11-11T16:52:00.001-08:00

Pointe Digital is having a giveaway!

Check it out here http://pointedigital.blogspot.com/ :)

October 20th, 2010

2010-10-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

After 18 hours of labor

Layla was born October 20th, 2010

She was 6 lbs 1 oz

She was 18 inches

She had brown hair and big steely gray eyes

She is gorgeous

We love her so much

More to come...

And FALL begins!

2010-09-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

So Fall begins and This is my 33 week picture! I have to say I wish I had my hair curled in all my pictures I've taken, it just looks better haha... so this girl can be born in the next 3 to 5 weeks... wowee!!!! ( well I'm actually about 34 weeks now so 2 to 4 weeks.... although I did have a dream that the doctors told me they changed their mind and were going to let me go FULL TERM... I got worried ha ha... )

So right before school started Alex took me camping for the very first time! I had never been and really wanted to go. This is him working at the fire... it was really hard to get it going...

BUT ALAS!!! We did!!!

It was fun being out there with my best friend. Man I love that boy.

We set up our tent and got all snuggly inside the tent, but then I got scared.... We were camping all by ourselves with no other couples and the camp ground was completely empty with no one else there and I just thought.... what if we get killed in the night!!!!!

SO we packed everything up and camped in our living room, but ya know I still feel like I got the camping experience, I really did lay down on the ground.

So then, My great friends Nicole and Kelsi threw me a baby shower for the girls in my ward!!!! It was sooo cute!!! They decorated sooo well and the food was sooo yummy!!! I was really blessed and had a lot of support there from the sisters in my ward and received awesome things for our little baby girl!

yummy food!!!

me and all those gifts!

So this is our baby girl's nursery! This below is the changing table

This is a view from the inside of her crib with the pretty bumper and the adorable mobile that Al's mom got for us!

So if you look at the bedding set and the valance, the wall hanging all those things were made by the one Mrs. Patty Randall, then most incredible woman! She's soooo good at sewing it's crazy!!!! She was so sweet and made this bed set for our baby!!!! Then if you look below at all that furniture! We were soo blessed! I know so many people that just deal with the bare minimum when they have their baby, but my Dad and my in-laws were sooo sweet and bought and gave all this stuff to us!!!! We are reallly really blessed. I am so grateful for my family!

Here is my hottie husband puttin together the baby furniture like a man!! OOoOO He's sooo handsome!!!

This was a picture from his first day of school. He's wearing his orange cheap shirt. He loves his cheap shirts soo much! We got like 5 of them for a buck 25 each!

A New place called Sammy's just opened and on the opening weekend we went both Friday and Saturday. They do live music on the weekends! It's such a fun place. AL fell in love with the place. He just thought it was so fun. Good food and Good music... who needs more??

Sammy's

There we are the other night we were there!

Our friends Chandra and Schyler came with us. We love these two they are soo dang fun!!!

Last but not least my Mom-in-Law, Lahni, and two of my best friends Jaclyn & Sarah threw me a baby shower!!

It was tons of fun!! There below is Lahni measuring my belly. I was about 33 weeks then and I measured 40 inches around!! COOL HUH??

There was the yummy food too!!! I'm so spoiled!!! Two awesome baby showers and an incredible husband and soon to have a cutie pie baby!!! I'm so excited!!! WAHOO!!!!

There will be more updates to come!

Happenings of the Summer

2010-08-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

So this summer has been pretty wild. I've been so bad at blogging! We haven't done a ton of stuff, but I've been trying really hard to keep myself super busy, so I'm not in the house a lot and when I am, I am with Alex and I don't like to do anything that is by myself work.... I do everything WITH Alex....

SO this picture of is of me 29 weeks pregnant. I'll actually be 30 weeks prego this Tuesday!!! SO CLOSE!! She's coming! Our sweet little Layla! SO we have a friend of our family and she's is an incredible professional seamstress and she has helped me make a few baby blankets and burp cloths and now she's being so wonderful and making a baby bedding set for us. We found the sweetest fabrics and it was really hard getting all the pieces of fabric to match for me because I don't have a vision, but hopefully the fabrics I picked will looks great. Patty, this incredible woman, seem to think it would. I am sooo grateful for her!!! For more baby news my Dad was so sweet and he bought us a ton of baby furniture and a car seat and stroller, MAN are AL and I spoiled. So many first parents get a ton of mismatched used stuff, that works great and is awesome, but my Dad just got us all new stuff. I feel sooo sooo grateful. I'm excited to break in my rocker's cushions ha ha!

This picture of us after TOY STORY 3! It was such a fun show!!

If you see that is Schyler in the back round! We went canoeing with them!! It was the first time I have ever gone canoeing!!!! It was soo cool!

This is me and Chandra ( Schyler's wife!)

Alex played a Bluegrass show in Swan Valley!!!

The coolest thing about that is that Swan Valley is the home of the WORLD FAMOUS SQUARE ICE CREAM CONE!!!! Can you see it in the picture below???

So Alex just got a long board and he loves it! He uses it to go to work and he loves feeling the wind in his face!!! I won't let him feel it through his hair because I want to protect him, but funny enough Al likes wearing it and I think he looks pretty hott in it.

This is from a while ago! We went to a work party for Al in Idaho Falls and we stopped at the Visiting Center!

That evening Al had a show! It was such a long day that day....

That is me and AL and mom finding out that the cheap theaters in town had 3-D movies!!!! And So we saw Despicable Me!!! It was sooooo funny!!!! Mom says that when our Layla is about two years old she'll look like Agnus... " It's so fluffy I'm going to die!!!!!!"

That night after the movie we went and burned wax out of his ears!!! His ear was full of wax!! His ears were hurting so we tried to fix it and he couldn't hear out of one of them. We ended up having to go to the doctor's to get it flushed out because it just was soo bad!

So this picture is Al at Porter Park! This was the Beehive Picnic! It was so fun there was a BIG BAND if you can see in the back round and Al loved it!

This shark slide was at Al's work party that same day we went to the IF Temple and he played that show.

There is my sweet little boy going down the slide. He's sooo cute!!!!

Doesn't he look so satisfied??? I love that sweet boy!!!!!

At his work party he was in this contest trying to pop other's balloons on their ankles!!! With his backward's cap!!! He's soo cute!!! AHHH!!!!

There we are after the game!!!

SO.... we're going to the Doc's tomorrow and hopefully everything will be okay with our sweet little Layla. This is so crazy she's coming sooo sooon!!! Please pray for our daughter that she's safe and she comes here safely!!!

Until next time!!!!

Rescue Kitty Mission & More

2010-07-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

So after our one year anniversary, my dad had come for a visit for a week here in ole Idaho. This was the Saturday he was here and Alex played a show in Idaho Falls for a Bluegrass festival. My daddy is such a cute little old man. Even when he was young he was an old man because he is so solemn. I don't know if he had a really fun time here, but it was nice having him.

This is after my dad left-- this is the fourth of july. We hung out with some of Al's friends. It was a fun day. I loved spending the time with my sweetheart.

And now for the Rescue Kitty Mission. So we have some neighbors and their cat had some kittens. Alex immediately fell in love with them cute little sweet kitties. Well we immediately had problems with the owners of the sweet kitties. They didn't seem to understand that the kitties were their responsibility. One of the little yellow ones had an eye infection and when we warned them they seemed not to care and just was like whatever. Then later on Alex and I sadly found a kitty dead in the road, the little black kitty.

SO we decided we had to rescue these kitties! We had to find them a home and so were were feverishly praying that we'd find somewhere for them. There was a cat adoption place right by our apartment, but they were overbooked and we couldn't think of anywhere to take them! We were at our wits end with these kitties we were ready to just stand outside of Broulims with a box begging people to take them to a good home.

We were so blessed because Alex's mom bumped into this lady at her job that had a pet adoption place that didn't have any baby kitties!! So in the morning we stole the kitties from the neighbor's ( they were outside) and mom took them to a safer pasture.

Poor Al, he really loved those little kitties.

Well I have more past things to talk about, but later on!

One Year Anniversary Weekend!

2010-07-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

So loading pictures onto Blog stinks big time. I'm sad that my "complaining" blog was up so long before I put another one on... I apologize! I have a lot more to blog about, but I'll do it one at a time! So the pictures are all in weird order. So the beginning of the photos were the actual day.

We had chocolate covered strawberries and mormon bubbly and watched our wedding video at the very end of the evening on our actual one year anniversary, June 20th, 2010

We had links throughout the week and that was our last link: ONE YEAR!

Alex wore the tie from our luncheon and I wore my dress. I was actually really surprised being about 5 months pregnant I was fitting pretty well in my dress... couldn't zip it all the way up, but come on 5 months pregnant!

We took pictures in front of the temple and this is one in the lawn of the Temple. There is one of us in front of the temple up at the top.

Alex and I went to the park earlier and he was playing with a boomerang he bought in Yellowstone. He got it stuck in a Pine Tree like 20 feet high and he climbed up and saved it!!

My sweetheart is such an incredible man. He bought me three roses on saturday before our anniversary. A red one for romance, a yellow one for our baby, and a pink one for both together. I LOVE HIM!!!!

The Saturday before we went to Yellowstone and our big event was the PLAYMILL THEATER!! We saw Beauty & the Beast and my sweetheart bought me a plush rose! Oh it was such a wonderful show!

yay! Playmill!

For dinner we went to this place.... um... what was it called.... THE GUSHER... maybe I was starving... I don't think so, but that was the BEST burger I have ever had!!! It was delicious!!!!

Alex played a show that Thursday. He is just sooo cute!!!! He did sooo good! man I love that boy!! AHHH!

We try to go to the Temple once a week and usually on Fridays. This friday because it was right before our one year anniversary we decided to do a sealing session.

The sealing session was so sweet. I didn't realize how faint I'd get though, ha ha.

These two pictures are not "cool" They were just us on the way to West Yellowstone for our One Year Anniversary EVENT . The Sign to Montana.

Oh one year... I can't believe it. It went by sooooo fast, but at the same time I feel like I've been been Alex forever. I can't remember life before him... well I guess I can really, but I never want to. I love this boy soooo much. He's incredible. I'm so grateful for this man and I can't wait to say I've spent ONE HUNDRED years with him!!!! I LOVE HIM!

bad blogger...

2010-07-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

I don't know why it's so hard for me to blog.... I've got all day and when Al's home he's studying unless I'm distracting him so I have more time then too.... BUT I just hate loading pictures onto my blog. It takes soooo long and to get them there in the right order is such a pain in the butt! I read a friend of mine's blog and she just rambled about thoughts she had, but when I read her thoughts they were positive things... it made me think of the rambling I do inside my head that keep me up at night.... There's this book I heard about in church by John Bytheway... Something about how to be miserable... and I thought that's me... where I get this awful tendency to kill myself with thoughts is beyond me....

So here are some of my ramblings... I will post pictures when i feel like it later...

SO... one I've thought about my place as an stay at home mother. A lot of the girls I know that stay at home with just one baby or none yet ( like me) have hobbies like sewing, or cake decorating or flower arranging or painting.... stuff like that.... NOW I've really wanted to start hobbies like that ( sewing & cake decorating in particular) but I've been sooooo terrified of the money it costs. I hate thinking about it, but now and even worse in the fall Alex and I really can't afford very much. We live to the brim every month... even when I was working and getting paid... we had a little more play and savings money, but really we've always been pretty poor.... NOW i don't want this to sound like I'm complaining, because I know that Alex is a really hard worker and he's only in the beginning ( this fall) of his junior year of college and I know that one day we'll be comfortable, probably never rich, but comfortable with savings, comfortable enough to buy stuff that we want sometimes, but now we're not and it's okay... the problem is, is that I've never had time for a hobby so I couldn't prepare myself for this time. I've always been in school full time and work full time... I miss having a job... working was my hobby... I've tried to get a job, but no one wants to hire a pregnant person and I know people say you don't have to tell them, but to me that feels dishonest... they'd get me for four months and then what, they'd leave me with a bad recommendation because I didn't tell them I was having baby before I was hired. People don't realize how detrimental it can be to your ability to get hired somewhere else when they don't like you had the job you had before.... SOOO anyways I'm still looking for a job and praying someone will hire me for the summer, but hobbies are so expensive... there are other things I can do that are free... like

study french ( I took it for so long and school and can't speak or read very well)

practice piano ( But I never do that because I don't want to get up and go to the school to do it and we can't afford to get one )

I read... reading is good

I take walks... that's good

I'm working on family history, but it's hard because of my heritage. They didn't start keeping records until my parents generations so it's not like I can go on family history.com or whatever everyone else does to collect it and my family isn't that great at helping me... so I get discouraged...

I go to the temple....I've been trying to go once by my self a week ( I go with Al every week, but he only has time for that he works and has so much school)

I just feel like when someone wants to hang out I have nothing to talk about because I don't do anything....

I'm too scared of trying to hang out with someone without a planned activity because of the possibility of the awkward silence I would cause.

So ...... anyways.... I don't know, and when the baby comes. I know I'll have a lot of busy time with baby, but what about the down time... what will I do...

I'm sorry I hope I'm not completely trying to depress everyone.... really just babbling, trying to get it off my chest. I'll probably do this a lot more and if you don't want to read, don't feel bad maybe I just need somewhere to let my feelings off on....

CONUNDRUM #2- Father's Day!?!

2010-06-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so since I got a pretty good response from the last question.... WHAT DO I DO FOR FATHER'S DAY?!?!?! Same day as my one year anniversary, but it's still important I feel for him to know I remembered it!

Need your ideas! Please!

HELP HELP!!! Including today 6 days away...

2010-06-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

So Al and my one year anniversary is Sunday. On Saturday we're going to Yellowstone and spending the day there and then going to a musical at the Play Mill. I don't know what to do to make this a sweeter thing.... I have an idea for next year that takes an entire year to do.... BUT what to do this year!!! AHHHH, someone help please!!!

EGGS!!!!

2010-06-05T20:05:00.001-07:00

Okay, so really I am a complete psycho and I'm sure you all will agree after reading this post.

SOOO most of you know, I'm pregnant. And I think most of you know that I haven't been a huge fan of food as of late. Well... I haven't really had any cravings since I've been pregnant more aversions of food, but Thursday we went to Sun Valley, Idaho on a field trip with Al's class. We stopped at a restaurant there and I ordered breakfast. I was nervous to order eggs, but I could tell my body was craving protein. SO I ordered eggs. Well, the best eggs I have EVER tasted came out for me to eat. I recognized them because I worked at IHOP restaurant for 4 years and we cooked our scrambled eggs with this.... I know this sounds gross, but it is called... LIQUID WHOLE EGG. It some sort of pasteurized egg and it's only sold to restaurants and fast food joints in bulk and they use it to make omelets and scrambled eggs and usually the outside of the french toast, but it is delicious! Fresh eggs for some reason kind of give me the heebee jeebees and oh those eggs I had a couple of days ago were just incredible!!!! I'm soooooo sad that I can't buy liquid whole egg myself. They don't sell it in the stores, they just sell that stuff ... ya know fake eggs for those with cholesterol problems... WELL alas, my only craving and I can't have it unless I pay an obscene price at a restaurant to get them. Well.... just thought I'd rant and rave about it.

Wonder Woman and Super Woman

2010-05-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

I'm really proud of Al and I.... even though it really looks like we have a ton of stuff, the tons of stuff don't take that long to unpack. ALthough I can't give myself all the credit! My wonderful sister-in-law, super woman extraordinaire, and my mother-in-law, aka Wonder Woman, both helped me soooo much... even though I'm into my 4th month and pretty much kinda sorta half way through the pregnancy I still am having a hard time moving around a ton. I've for sure gotten better, but without the help of those two incredible ladies I would've been in trouble! It would've take me forever to unpack. I love Megan because she's really good at just trying to get things organized. Al and I have a TON of books.... and I don't just mean a lot, but a TON because he's an english major and I've been collecting for our babies and my future classroom...

Our new apartment is awesome!! It is HUGE!!!!!!! We have so much storage space it's incredible.... In our old apartment... it stunk because no matter how much I cleaned it always looked cluttered because we had stuff stuffed in every corner! Now we have places ( like closets) too put them!!! It's wonderful! We do lack a couple of book shelves, but we can be patient! Anyways.... not much else going on in the world of Al & Orchid... we've become pretty boring people...

OH but a question to put out for the world... I have for the VERY first time in my entire life have absolutely nothing demanding my time.... I mean I can clean the house, cook dinner, do laundry, regular stuff, but I have no job and no school and my baby isn't here yet!!!!! I'm kind of terrified of getting lazy and bored. THUS my question for those that have been in my situation:

PLEASE TELL ME.... what would you fill your days with?????

ALSO if any of your know any type of job that I could do online from home that a girl with a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, with tons of people skills, and can learn computers pretty quickly.... I don't know what I'm trying to say, but I'm trying to figure a way to work from home... just let me know!

11 months

2010-05-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

For those that have been married for a year or more do you remember how crazy it was when you were just a month away from being married for an entire year!

Maybe not.. maybe I'm just dramatic... which I am, but really!

In just about a month I had the best day of my life. Honestly, my wedding was soooo fun!!! I had a blast and don't regret a moment of it! There was nothing I would've changed, it was wonderful!

This past 11 months have gone by sooo fast... and strangely enough I can't remember life without Alex.

Man I love MARRIAGE! What a great idea!

Love,

Orchid

I'm so glad she didn't stop at 3.

2010-05-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

My sweetheart is the 4th baby in his family and I'm so glad even though pregnancy sucked for her she still had my sweetheart. What would I have done without him.

We celebrated his birthday sunday with his family then monday together.

He was tired after having sugar.

Megan & Mikel's gift....

Gift from Misti

Gift from Mom & Dad

PLAYING!!!

MONDAY!!!

he was surprised by two of his best friends being in our APT

They wrote him a song that was way fun!

Coconut Cream Pie... with a burning 23...

Blow it out!

About to open my BIG gift. He got scriptures from me too. The new baby separates & I got him some french scriptures he's been wanting... but wanted to buy him a toy.

1st blanket, 2nd wrapping paper

He has been staring at the baby amp for months! Just in love with it. he would pet it every time he went into Mike's Music..... so I finally brought it home for him.

Then we went to Applebees for a treat. While we waited for food we read... Sir Gawin & the Green Knight... daily reads in the Christensen home.... lol

Well there we go.... my sweetheart... I love him so much.

Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Only a matter of holidays...

2010-05-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

ONCE AGAIN... this is another one of my guppy I love Alex because he is such a sweetheart and honestly tries so hard to make our marriage fun. Being pregnant is really hard... it's not that big of a deal I guess, but it's hard. I hate food and I get randomly sick and I get ornery randomly... and I hate almost everything 50% of the time... I know completely dumb, but Alex even though he has an awful wife to deal with right now he still is incredible.... where men like him come from is completely beyond me, but he cares so much for me that he gets less sleep because I wake up with an AWFUL nose and with nasty Sinus problems....So I don't sleep and because my sweetheart is a light sleeper... he doesn't sleep either... then spends saturday making me happy.... by the way if you're wondering I'm talking about last night and today.... Now let's go back to last sunday: Mother's Day!

Alex woke up 2 hours early and spent two hours with my scrap booking stuff and with his colorblindness I'm sure a frustrating two hours and made me the sweetest book I have ever read...
Page One: " I used to be a little boy, and you a little girl." and there we are me with a little hat because Alex didn't want to make hair... I had lots of hair as a baby...
Page Two: "Now you're all grown up... And I'm just a big little boy." And he put a sweet picture of him from last summer when he got his ... well our... vacuum. He thought it was the coolest thing and he calls it our green spaceship... in order to make me laugh last summer he climbed in the box... It was sooo funny, he's such a little boy, but such a sweetheart.
Page Three: "For this reason and more, I'm glad I married you. To me, you are the best wife... And mommy too. I love you. Heart Al." There are duckies in that picture and that's because Alex calls our little baby: Ducky. The reason is because he watched a baby movie of me and apparently I have Ducky hairs... and then our great friend Maxine brought us baby ducky slippers for our baby therefore... I'm momma ducky and our baby is baby ducky or just ducky. If you didn't notice there is a random piece of pink & black paper with like twirl or whatever on it and Alex sweetly put it there for the reasoning that it was pretty and I would like it, but the colors don't match at all... It kills me how cute and sweet this man is...

FIN. ( The card/book is over) Beautiful huh?

So, funny hair comb/ pocket watch story. Alex's birthday is on the 17th and mine is on the 5th. I was so excited about Alex's birthday gifts that I went and bough his. I bought him a new set of scriptures ( because he still has his mission scriptures which are falling apart) and I bought him a nice French Triple that he's wanted (he's learning to speaking/ read french). I'm also getting him something that he hasn't seen yet, and I haven't gotten because if I got it before his birthday... I'd spoil it and give it to him early... I wanted ONE thing to give him on the day of... So anyways after this long story has been given we couldn't afford for him to get me my birthday gifts. SOOOO we switched... I gave him his gift on my birthday so he gave me a gift today, and then he said one tomorrow and then the BIG one on Monday... on his birthday! ha ha So UP ABOVE is the Old Testament Stories... We studying the the Old Testament in Church and I got the BOM Stories from Meg & Mike and that helped me with my personal study and Al bought me the OT STories to help me study the OT for Sunday school... isn't he cute!!!
Well... Then he got me these things you cut out for FHE lessons, and quiet books and things like that... So I could cut them out so it gives me something to do and I've recently been trying to figure out how to use my extra time at home alone and I've been making things like File Folder games and FHE Lessons and I LOVE stuff like this... you take me to the distribution center and I'll want to buy everything in it, but I never do because I can think of something that we need more... like food ha ha... Alex is such a sweetheart. I guess we'll be waiting to know what I got for my other gifts!

WOW, I love that boy... even though I'm ornery and don't cook, barely clean... he still loves me and still treats me like I'm a good wife... and if he saw me write this he'd kill me.... he says I am a good wife... I'm creating a BABY for goodness....

Sorry my blogs are so long... I'm lonely and I need to talk about my best friend because he's my everything...

23 years in the making...

2010-05-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

So this picture really has nothing to do with this blog entry, but this is Al right after he got out of the shower one morning and his hair usually does this crazy thing and I just thought he looked soooo cute this morning so I am posting this picture. Oh I know I just have been talking about this so much lately, but I am so in love with my sweet husband. I've just recently seen what apparently "most men" are... and it disgusts me.... I'm sure not every man is this way so don't think I'm talking about your husband....but I have seen just the most "macho", insensitive, ridiculously rude, demanding, jerks I ever seen. Alex is the greatest sweetheart I have ever known. Apparently most men wouldn't wash the dishes and clean the kitchen when their pregnant wife is feel like crap. Apparently most men wouldn't fix the bed every morning because they know their wife has a strange pet peeve about unfixed beds. Apparently most men would be angry at their wives for not cooking dinner because they're too sick and food makes them sick... Alex is the best husband ever. Maybe I'm a bad wife because I haven't been really doing that great at cooking, and I keep the house pretty clean, but sometimes I let the dishes pile up a little lately, and it's been a little hard to fix the bed early in the morning.... I've just been so sick and tired, oh Alex I love you sweetheart and you have no idea how much I appreciate you, your hard work, and your energy..... I love you baba...

Okay, so this is what the post is really about... Yesterday I turned 23 years old...

Saturday Alex took me out for Bajio's ( Mexican for Cinco de Mayo)

Mmmm! AL and I have never eaten there together so it was kind of funny. We like the exact opposite foods so we got one burrito and split it... mexi rice on half with spicy beans, sweet rice on the other half with black beans... I can't handle spicy food....

It was so fun to go with him... he's so sweet and cute

I've gotta tell ya though eating there brought back memories... memories of eating there with my best friends... Lindsay ... Ruth... Jaclyn.... Nathan... I'm so sad

Then on Sunday my In-Laws threw me a party. I got a call from my great friends the Alley's and asked them to come to dinner at my in-laws and it was so nice to see them and spend time with them! Mary is actually due in July... maybe June, I think it's July! Exciting huh?

So the gifts.....

Megal or Miken..... or Megan and Mikel ha ha got me Book of Mormon STories & THe Children's Primary Hymn CD

Al's parents got me a shirt with matching earrings and a belly band for when I get big.

Misti got me two maternity shirts... it'll take me a while to grow into though lol

beautiful orange and raspberry colors!

Julie & her family sent me a very sweet card that made it in the mail on the day of my birthday. It was really sweet.

My gifts from my family are on the way in the mail... it's sad I live so far from them now, I really miss them on occasions like these.... They all called and texted to make sure I knew how much I was loved.

Now the day of! It's funny we couldn't afford for AL to get me a birthday gift right now because I went and got his birthday gift even though his birthday is the 17th and mine is the 5th ... it's like one of those COMB / POCKET WATCH STORIES ha ha ya know.. the Gift of the Magi!

The day of my birthday was kind of a slow... just normal everyday day... it kind of stinks because when your 23 it's just not cool to have a birthday... no one really super celebrates your birth, but my sweet ALex did as much as he could on the day to make it special...

It's funny I thought about my 23rd birthday a lot before it came... when I was a little girl 23 was my favorite number and I swore during my 23rd year everything was going to be wonderful: I'd be married ( which I am) , I'd be graduated ( which I am ) and I'd have a baby on the way... ( which we do in about 6 months...)

I got everything I wanted for my 23rd year... I know that this was just a prayer of a little girl, but God heard me.... even though the day was just boring, I saw the love of my Heavenly Father and how he answered the prayer of a sweet little middle eastern girl that didn't even know his truth yet...

I love this gospel, my God, my Savior, and my sweetest wonderful husband in the whole entire world.

Happy Belated Birthday to me.

Lego Date Night

2010-04-30T14:38:00.001-07:00

Last Night Alex and I got out all of his legos and played for about an hour... He made a little Robot with all the gears and stuff that help it move around and it called it a Love Machine, while singing that song Love Machine:

"I, I , I'm just a love machine and I won't work for nobody, but you!"

It was soooo cute!!!! Alex is so funny. I made a little apartment house with a bedroom and a desk and a bathroom with a shower and a kitchen with a table and a living room and a closet as well.... If I don't say myself it was pretty cool.

Oh man It was so fun. Well today is a very sad day for me.... Alex is such a trooper.... it's month end and he has to be at work from 2:30 until TEN!!!! So I'll be by my lonesome....I watched the movie the BLINDSIDE, now if you can you should watch it.... well you don't have to, but it made me think.... I hope I can show the world be a Christian like the mom in that movie.... She was such a great woman. I hope I can be a example to the world that I feel she was.

Well.... you know I've never appreciated Alex more in my life.... He's an incredible example of what a Church member should be... and I miss him so bad now that he works full time.... WOW Raise your hand if you appreciated your husband more ( or wife) when they went to work.... Oh how I miss my best friend... I love him so much!

Well! See ya later!

Mission Blues....

2010-04-25T21:18:00.001-07:00

This isn't anyone I know, but it is a good picture of what a girl usually looks like as she opens her mission call. So here it goes...

Well I think it's true that the grass is greener on the other side. Before I met the love of my life I really wanted to go on a mission. Heavenly Father knew that it wasn't my destiny to serve a mission for the Lord, but to start an eternal family instead, BECAUSE that's what happened. I'll never regret or want to turn back time so that I could serve a mission instead of marry the love of my eternity, but to be totally honest every time I watch a girl open her mission call, my tears well up for one, happiness, but a little tinge of jealously in the background.

I am so excited to say that one of my best friends, Molly Davis, was just called tonight to the Manchester, England Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

And so he lied....

2010-04-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

So the weather man totally lied about Tuesday and Wednesday, but sadly enough Wednesday evening it stormed.... I'm going to be honest, I so badly miss the thunderstorms of GA and that Wednesday Night Thunderstorm really did comfort me. I've been really sick, but it looks like Friday is starting to warm up....

Man I love summer.... it's fabulous!

Summer's here!!! jk

2010-04-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

That is one dang cute baby... I just found this picture on google, but I thought it totally represented how I feel about Summer.

Juicy Watermelon

Bright Sun

Green Grass

Blooming flowers

I love SUMMER and I wish so badly the weather man would be wrong. HE said it was going to rain and thunderstorm tuesday wednesday and thursday... and be quite cold....

Let's hope summer stays.

President Ucthdorf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

2010-04-12T22:37:00.001-07:00

Sunday Morning Sessions of the April 2010 Conference.

Everyone should listen to this talk

I have learned so much from these few words than I ever have my whole life I feel.... or maybe it's just right now... Please watch it.

I've tried to upload it a million times and it won't upload.... SO....

Here is a link:

http://www.lds.org/move/index.html?type=conference&event=april180&lang=english

OR you can go to LDS.org and if you click on

April 2010 Conference audio/video archives

That will take you to a page and at the top you'll see a little tv that says English next to it. Click on that and another window will pop up. Click on Sunday AM and then on Elder Utchdorf's talk.

This talk changed my life.... but I'm sure in October I'll find another talk to have changed my life for the next six months.

A Makeup Post

2010-04-10T10:44:00.001-07:00

So you know when you want to post really bad, but then you just get frustrated because of ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the events you haven't posted about!? Then you feel like you have to make up for all of them. Well here is my Make up Post... Sorry I've been so bad at it, I've been really sick with flu stuff so I've just been dead to the world! Here we go:

First of all, I want to give a shout of to two of my best friends in the entire world. It was Jaclyn's birthday ( girl in the middle) yesterday on the 9th, and it was Ruth's Birthday( The other girl that's not me) on Conference Weekend. I am seriously the worst friend ever and did not call either of them until much after their birthday...

Ruth- YOU ARE INCREDIBLE! I am so proud of you and your new job. I've been thinking about you a lot lately and it's just incredible that you are such a woman and you just let yourself have fun!!!! I love you and I thank you so much!!!!

Jaclyn- YOU ARE INCREDIBLE TOO!!!!! First of all, just as a blogger, you're soo good. You always blog about stuff, even if it doesn't seem to be the most important thing... ( like burnt cookies) but to people like me, it is super important because I can now make fun of you for burning them, because that was something I would do. You're just so professional and classy and always upbeat. I just love you two women so much and I'm so glad I've had you in my life.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY

SO the weekends begin. Last week before COnference Alex and I went down to Ogden, Utah!! He was accepted and went to present at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference! The first person we saw there was ALanah! She's a great friend of mine that I work with at Wingers. I was so proud of her. Her Creative Writing piece was probably the best one.

That day for lunch, ( i was having flu symptoms this weekend) we had HOGI YOGI TERIYAKI STIX... it was okay, but ALEX LOVED IT! He had two lunches there!

That evening the Conference treated all of it's recipients to a DELICIOUS steak dinner at Timbermine Steak House in Ogden. That was probably the first dinner I ate in a while! It was yum!

This is Alanah and I again! I don't look that great in this picture, but Alanah does!

This was our dessert... YUMMY! Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake :)

SO Friday morning Alex and I slept in and couldn't find parking at the University and he didn't present until 2 pm so we went and hung out at the local pita pit and once we felt like eating we did. We were there for like 2 1/2 hours lol.

There is Alex getting ready to present!! He was nervous that why his face look ponderous.....

YAY!!! Alex did incredible!!!!!

So Easter is here and I made Alex an EASTER BASKET!! My friend Lori Shirley, the incredible, invited me over to to make these cutie pie animal easter eggs. I filled each little egg with my testimony of Christ, my gratefulness for Alex, some scriptures from Easter, and more... Then I bought him a tshirt with Guitars on it ( his favorite thing other than me) and I bought him church and regular sockies! He really needed some! AND white chocolate reese, they are the only candy he likes and I don't like!!!! I love that so I won't eat em!

He bought me a gift too! Little Bandit!

It was an EASTER SHEEP!!! Al is so cute, he read me a scripture of the lamb of God and then he gave me this little lamb!

Easter Egg cake... didn't really work out....

Easter Basket.

MY LITTLE ANIMAL EASTER EGGS!

K, so now for this weekend. Yesterday Al and I left early in the morn and drove down to Twin Falls to go to Schyler and Chandra's wedding!!!

That's me getting all motion sick!!!

Look at them come out of the temple!!!

They're in LOOOOOOOOOOOVE!!!!

Their color was YELLOW with a splash of pink! That was me and Al's colors!!! Look at Chandra laugh and Schyler giggle! Man I love those two.

Me and the gorgeous BRIDE!!!!

Schyler and his buddies and there is my allie pallie!

Ah they're soo cute!!!

That's the two of us at the wedding luncheon!

Oh goodness, what a great weekend it was! I love sealing ceremonies I cry so much and remember the blessings that AL and I recieved at the temple many months ago...

THE END.

A teacher's worst nightmare!

2010-03-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

So I'm a Seventh Grade teacher and it's really hard. I think MOST of my students do this every morning when their parents wake them up. I have a few students that work really hard and I think they love school, but the others students make teaching so hard. I wish so badly that they understood how important school was.

I think though all this experience in teaching has made me realize one important thing that I am going to support my children in school!!! I want to help them with their homework, and let them know how important it is and make them feel good about themselves!

Be a good parent and help them in school!

KATIE SUGDEN!!!

2010-03-19T21:42:00.001-07:00

I have been trying to get a hold of you forever!!! I am not longer connected to your blog! EMAIL ME YOUR BLOG VIEWER~~~ I MISS YOU! orchid.christensen@gmail.com

I love Alex Marshall Christensen

2010-03-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

I love Alex Marshall Christensen

I have been really sick lately and he's been washing the dishes, and making dinner, and getting me frozen yogurt to easy my PAIN...

He's so caring and sometimes I just wonder why I have him in my life. He's so caring and Christ like.

I wish I could be more like him. I love my husband. I don't know what I'd do without him.

Orchid.

2010-03-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

For our Valentine's Date Alex was going to take me to a nice restaurant, but I didn't want to spend the money so we went to somewhere I'd never been before: TACO TIME. It was pretty good. Not my favorite, but good. The company was much better ;)

That next Saturday we went to the Institute Party ( free Ice Skating) I haven't been ice skating since I was a freshman in college and I've only ever done it in an indoor rink and this was NOT THE SAME! Ice Skating is sooooo hard! Especially Ice Skating on a bumpy rink!

Just to let you ladies know: DON'T USE THE HOCKEY SKATES. People might tell you they're comfortable, but those ladies who have tried them know they're not made to fit lady feet so it hurts sooo bad! I want to go back and try to skate with figure skating kind. My friends tell me they feel good.

The week after that we went to the Idaho Falls temple. I'd never been there and we only did intiatories, but it was really cool still!

That evening we went to a party in celebration of Chase's birthday. It was a lot of fun, but do you ever sometimes feel really awkward at parties because you don't really know a ton of the people and then on top of that don't really share a lot of the same interests and such?

I guess that's what's been going on in the life of the Christensens. Love you all!

Dear Alex Marshall.... Happy V-Day

2010-02-14T18:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day everyone.

So I worked Friday and Saturday this weekend so like most we didn't get to go on our Valentine's Date on Saturday and because Sunday both of us are home all day I surprised Al with my part of my V-day gift on Saturday... SOOOO I wish I didn't lose my photo card reader because I can't put pictures up of what I did, but I will describe it.

So I made a bunch of hearts for my 7th graders to make Valentines and heart attack and the die cut machine made an outline heart to it as well and so I wrote why I love Alex on all the outlined hearts and then hung them from the ceiling. Then I bought him this cute little book with quotes about love. Then.. I made this cute little thingy with hearts and stuff... REALLY I'll just have to put pictures up.

Let me write why I love my husband...

Alex is the sweetest thing I have ever had in my life...

He is so funny and makes me laugh!

Example: I am not a morning person... which is funny because my whole life I was, but anyways....

When I wake up, Alex is awake, wide-eyed, smiling at me and popping out of his blanket and says something like RUUUUUUUU! In a baby voice and it's sooooo funny and so cute! Then for the next twenty minutes in bed we just lay there and he makes me laugh sooooo much!!!!

Alex also treats me like a pretty pretty princess when I'm sick. When I'm sick I am so ornery when I'm sick and I just beg him to do things for me and he'll do it in a heart beat.

Example: Alex really wanted to show me the new sound on his amp because he had just changed the tubes! SO I said, PLEASE let's look at all my new clothes first... I want to show you! AM I a sweetheart or what?!! That was like yesterday I think!

I've been such a brat because I've been sick... Oh dear and my husband is wonderful...

Alex Marshall,

I love you and you are my best friend. I love listening to you play your instruments and I love listening to your ideas about your wild English papers...

Thank you for everything you do for me and make me feel beautiful even when I feel ugly and fat... I love you baby.

Love,

your crazy wife.

Dating!

2010-01-26T20:14:00.000-08:00

I'm so cheesy! I love my husband and I love going on dates with him. We went on the best date tonight. I looked into his eyes and tears just filled my eyes. I was looking at the beautiful green and gold eyes of my sweet husband and was so excited about our life together. I hope you all find a love like this. A beautiful life heading toward Celestial Glory.

sorry so short,

melted like butter

More Blessings...

2010-01-25T17:04:00.000-08:00

I feel like all my posts are very... very... well a little bipolar. I'm either in despair or extreme happiness. Well I have a lot of blessings in my life.

So I'm just hoping that everyone is counting their blessings.

The Day of Bleh!

2010-01-18T16:31:00.000-08:00

So today I woke up and felt really bleh. I don't know how to explain it, but BLEH. I think there are a few reasons.

Reasons:

1) I've been sleeping really late.

2) I slept in

3) I haven't worked out since Tuesday

4) I feel slightly overwhelmed

5) I'm a little anxious

So I love my job as a teacher, but I feel like it's not the job I expected it to be. I don't understand why students don't do their homework, because I always did. I don't understand why they don't respect me sometimes, because I always respected my teacher.... It's kinda confusing, but ya know... I also just feel overwhelmed with the time I feel like I should put into my job, but I don't. I feel really bad because I put just enough time to get things done, but I feel like I should put more into. I guess it's that feeling we're suppose to feel all our lives. I'm told that if you ever feel like you've reached a point where you're "good" with God, you're probably in trouble. I guess I never want to get to that point, but I always feel like I should be doing more and then I get overwhelmed with all that I feel like I should be doing...

REALLY... I never understood Al & his mother's point of view on being the sleep police, but I think little by little I'm understanding more. I need sleep, but not like naps and sleeping all day because I believe that's what causes the bleh, but I need good 8 hours a sleep every night this week sleep, SOO hopefully I'll get it! Anyways, love ya'll!

Orchid

I'm so BLESSED!!!

2010-01-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

SO... I just started my new job as a LONG TERM SUBSTITUTE for the 7th grade. I have felt some nerves going jumbly in my tumbly and I've been worried about whether I've been a good or bad teacher, but so far I think I'm doing okay...BUT during this week I've been so blessed with the amazing people in my life! ( In no particular order)

Alex, my husband. I have no idea what I would do if I didn't have him. He's the sweetest man I have ever been around and just treats me as if I was a princess. I swear I'm sooooo undeserving, yet I recieve the best from my baby.

The Shirleys. I don't know what I'd do without them they are so wonderful to me! They made us the best dinner last night!!!

The Brantinghams made us wonderful cookies!!! There were more... we just ate them all!

The Meachams made me Brownies wishing me good luck!

And I don't have a picture of Andrea Bowman, but she's incredible and she's been such a blessing in my life! She calls at the right time, she texts at the right time... she's incredible and I'm so grateful for her. I love everyone

Most of all I am the most grateful for my Savior. He is the one who helped put all these people in my life to make my life the way it is. I love him and I hope that I show him how much I love him in my obedience. I LOVE THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!

It's a new year!

2010-01-09T23:28:00.000-08:00

So this will be a really long post because I haven't posted in a while and there is ALOT to tell.

So let's begin with Christmas Break. It was a blast and I had so much fun! I think I did mention in my last post that my sweetheart wrote a song for me for Christmas with his old band from high school. WOW I love Alex so much, he really is my bestest friend in the whole wide world and I honestly don't know where I'd be without him.

Before the break I got a job at Madison Middle School as an AIDE for the 5th grade. I was at first applying to be a 7th grade long term sub, but the job was given to someone that had known the Principal and worked for the principal longer. I was apparently 2nd runner up because this person who was given the job decided a few days into it that he couldn't do it. NOW, I'm going to be vague, but completely honest about this job... I've been given a disaster!! I teach 2 classes of Language Arts and one class of Social Studies. I'm really excited, but this is going to be a GREAT challenge.

Over the break I got a job at WINGERS restaurant. I am a hostess two nights a week. Come by and visit if you want to :) It's a fun place to work and I really like it! Everyone there is nice. The only yucky thing is that hostesses have to clean the potties.... gross. lol.

Now Alex and I were going to take a FRENCH class together, but because of the new teaching job I can't anymore and I'm really really really really sad about it. I love my sweetheart so much and I don't feel like I ever get to see him. I miss him sooo much and I hope he knows how much I love him.

This is a picture of what he wanted to dress up like on the first day of school, but decided against it because he thought it would be a little sacrilegious at a LDS University... lol!

Oh WOW! I love my Al! Isn't he soo cute!!! I love love love him! and I love all of you! Happy 2010!!!!!

Cheese of the Month!

2009-12-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

So Al and I decided to have a cheese of the month and we started that in November. We're super poor newlyweds who enjoy delicious cheeses of places like Paris, London, Rome, Geneva, and more! SO since we can't afford to have it all the time.... ONCE a month we choose a cheese we want to try or that we've tried and loved!

November's Cheese was Chevre-- basically goat cheese. It's delicious and creamy and ALEX loved it!
December's Cheese was probably Al's least favorite of the two... lol, he just didn't like it. It was Brie! I love it and so does his mother. This is a native french cheese that does wonders on a baguette!
SO... I suppose since Christmas just happened we should talk about it a little. I got Al a journal that he really wanted. He's an English nerd and has wanted a nice journal to write his book ideas, movie ideas, and teaching ideas, and analyzing ideas, and really just his ideas in general. My sweet boy is so funny! He says that one day years after we've passed away someone will find the great journal of Alex M. Christensen and publish it and it will be a great work! So I got him this beautiful journal from Barnes & Nobles leather covered and looks like one of the oldin days atlases. I also got him some little toys for his stocking as well. Alex bought me 7 pairs of crazy socks because my socks are old and not fun! I will now be known as the crazy sock lady.... THe best gift I was given of all is a sweet song my baby wrote for me. In high school he had a SKA BAND named 2 Fat 2 Fly. Well everyone from that band is finally home from the missions. THe last one got home 3 weeks ago. SO 3 weeks ago he called the last band mate and begged his band mates to help him play this song and record it for me. He wrote all the instrument lines by himself and the lyrics and spent hours for a month coming up with this song!!! I wish I knew how to upload it, but if they ever come up with a music video for I'll definitely post it! I love my hubbie!!!!!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, Eat Cheese!

Ten things that make me Happy

2009-12-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

Thank you Sister Sorenson! I was tagged, but I secretly love being tagged because it gives me a reason to BLOG!

Ten things that make me Happy... in no particular order ( I think these are also blessings Heavenly Father gives to me!)

1) Realizing that it's been a half of a year being married to my best friend! ( isn't that crazy!)

2) waking up on time

3) Watching Al get excited about anything

4) water ( I'm thirsty a lot)

5) The children in my ward ( they are all so beautiful and honestly make my day better)

6) Having a job to support my family

7) Serving in the Temple

8) Watching Al play music

9) Talking to my family -- even though they drive me insane

10) Reading and taking walks ( not necessarily at the same time lol, I just wanted to sneak an 11th one in there)

I love my friends and they really help life seem a lot easier and help me think less of the "bad" things and more of the GREAT things! They make me happy.... THEREFORE I am going to tag:

1) Jaclyn Robbert

2) Vicki Matheson

3) Andrea Bowman

4) Jenaca Jett

5) Julie Pack

6) Bekah & Hannah Hintze!

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

I don't like buying gifts

2009-12-20T22:58:00.001-08:00

I feel like gifts are supposed to be meaningful, but I'm not good at it. Trying to get Al the gift that helps him know how much I love and appreciate him has taken the joy out of Christmas this year. I hate buying gifts.

Christmas Card Photos!

2009-12-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

Okay so TODAY our best friends/ neighbors, The Shirleys, went with us to take pictures of each other for our Christmas Cards. Thank you Jaclyn Robbert for giving us the opportunity to get free Christmas Cards... since ya know we're poor College Students we can't afford real ones! Anyways... So this first shot is the Shirleys and they look dang hott ;)

This is the Shirley's personal favorite of ALex and I. Aren't we just attractive!

I would have to say that this is my favorite one of us. The only problem is that you can't really see our faces... but do people really need to?

This one would've been great if I'd been smiling. What was I trying to do??

I REALLY like this one. Isn't it romantic!

This one is really cute too. You know that the snow is so beautiful even if it makes you soakin wet!

I miss taking engagements and wedding photos. Getting to be all over AL for no real reason is great ;)

The Shirleys took this very artistic shot. I liked it a lot!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm tellin you why!

Santa Claus is comin to town!! ( with mrs. claus too!)

This one is cute, huh?

I wanna hold your hand hand hand!

And there we go... Christmas Card photos!

SO which one is YOUR favorite?

Baby Hungry

2009-12-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

I think that babies are beautiful and I want one!!!! Well.... we all know it's up to Heavenly Father, but here are some cute babies I like to spend time with. This is McKenna. Her mom is my RS president and one of my best friends. They are such an incredible family with an incredible baby... I know the picture is side ways but it takes so long to load them on I didn't want to do it again!

This is David and Sydney! They are so cute. I baby sit them every once and a while and they are the funnest!!! I just love David so much, if you know his family you should check out their blog. There are Davidisms on there and they are the cutest thing that you'll ever read!

This is Nathan, he just woke up from a nap! Isn't he the cutest thing!!! He's really funny especially on halloween when he was dressed up as a little waddling chicken!

This is Caden. HE's a sweetheart! He loves to read and spell his name and he's only 3!! I just love this little cutie pie!

This is who we know ( according to Caden) Baby Valene! She's the cutest little thing and just the sweetest baby!

This is Licoln. He's gone now sadly. Al helped his parents move out and stuff so he took pictures of this sweet little boy!!

Here's AL & Lincoln! AWWWWWWW!!! I hope I have a little blonde boy. You know I have the chance. Al was blonde and so was his sister when they were babies!

I baby sat on Wednesday this sweet little girl Briley! Isn't she beautiful! She's helping Al with his homework here.

"But I really want to watch T.V. Orchid!" Yeah she's too young. I rather her learn to love PLAYING!

Oh dear look at that dimple! SHe's SOOOO CUTE!

I guess this is either making my baby hungriness worse or it's helping it until we're ready to have our own, but isn't it wonderful to be in a family ward where there are so many cute little angels of Heavenly Father! I sure think so!

One Mountain climbed forever to go!

2009-11-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have been so blessed so blessed this semester. Student Teaching was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm done and I have this bittersweet feeling inside. Some of my little girls cried, a boy that hates pictures took one with me, I had all these sweet gifts. I love my students so much and I will miss them. Ammon Elementary such an awesome school and has a great staff.

I guess I don't have much to write about right now. I'm done student teaching and looking for a job. I applied to be a substitute and I'm waiting to hear back because it'd be good to be in the classroom while I'm waiting to get a "real" job. I hope I do get some sort of job though I need to sugar momma my sweet husband through school. I'm also looking for a night job if I sub during the day because subbing isn't a full-time gig and I should be working at least 40 hours a week don't you think?

I'm excited for Thanksgiving for a couple of reasons. I do honestly love Thanksgiving, but I am more excited for Christmas. I say this because to me these two holidays blend together to me! Christmas is the season of Christ, the season of our Savior's Great Sacrifice! At this time we are extremely grateful for him! Does that not have to do with Thanksgiving!!!!

The other reason I love Thanksgiving and am so excited about it is Thankful lists.... So here mine goes

I AM THANKFUL FOR...

1) First and fore most my Heavenly Father

2) Jesus Christ

3) My husband

( from this point on NO particular order)

4) My life

5) My family and my in-laws

6) The Gospel

7) The scriptures

8) The Ensign

9) Conference, and the Conference Edition of the Ensign

10) my apartment

11) my car

12) my friends

13) my straightener

14) my students

15) a college degree

16) BYU-Idaho

17) Rexburg

18) Snow

19) Musical Theater

20) Music

21) the piano

22) Lola & Rosie ( Al's guitars)

23) babies

24) Disney movies

25) my health

26) food

27) cute crafts

28) visiting teaching

29) stuff animals

30) and so much more.... that's just what I was thinking of

Saviors on Mt. Zion

2009-10-24T21:37:00.001-07:00

We've been so blessed to have been given the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this day. There are so many sweet and sad souls out there that have no one to hold on to. No one to look to. Al & I went to Stake Conference tonight and it was incredible. We must all try to be Saviors on Mt. Zion. We must all try to lift the burdens of those around us. I love my Savior and I want to so badly become more as he is. I have such incredible examples in my life, such as Alex. I love him so deeply and I look up to his great and sweet hearted soul. What a service oriented man I married. How blessed am I? My healthy family, my lovely lifestyle... what more can I ask for. I must give it back to the world.

Mosiah 18:8-10 8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are ^adesirous to come into the ^bfold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are ^awilling to mourn with those that ^bmourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as ^cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the ^dfirst resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being ^abaptized in the ^bname of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a ^ccovenantwith him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

Please watch this video. It is incredible it really did touch my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coef8G5ax6E

Round two of the Flu

2009-10-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well about a few weeks ago Alex and I got the stomach flu together. Pretty awful stuff. Well this week Al got the "regular" flu and today I got the stomach flu again. Isn't that just great! We have stake conference tomorrow so I'm worried. I really want to go and not infect anyone. I hope we can. Everyone--- this is message out to be EXTREMELY careful this winter. The Flu is on a crazy rampage so guys please be careful! I love you all... until next time.

Conference with the Christensens

2009-10-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

Conference...

It's such a wonderful time to spend with family get around the television and look to the Prophets of our day and listen to them speak.

Conference is also a time to get answers to prayers.

I've been rethinking teaching a lot lately. I just get so stressed out when the students don't listen and when I have management issues with them, it just kills me.

I get so stressed out when I don't know how to teach a concept. I try to teach it in a few different ways and when it still doesn't get to them I get so sad.

I guess frustration is the wrong word, but I just feel incapable of teaching sometimes. I just feel like it's so important for me to get to each and everyone of those students and when I can't it just kills me. I want to know in my heart that every single one of my students leave knowing they will be on level with the grade they're going into. I want every single of my students to leave LOVING learning. I want every single one of my students leave having confidence in themselves as a person and a contributor of the world...

But Alas, these are only the dreams of a College Student Graduating in Elementary Education...

I've prayed a lot and decided that in these next three years being here in Rexburg while Alex is finishing his Bachelors that I want to go ahead and get my Masters Degree. I mean why not... I'll be here for the next three years, and I bet working full-time as a teacher I can get my Masters done in three years, don't ya think? I do... I want it to happen, therefore it will! Heavenly Father I feel like has put his stamp of approval on it.

Anyways, other than these things that I've come up with, I've got to spend a wonderful weekend with Al's side of the family. I am the honestly the LUCKIEST girl in the entire world. I love my family so much, but I don't get to see them much. My mom living in Iran, my brother in Atlanta, and my Dad in New Orleans we are all scatter and it's hard to get us all together ever. Yet I married a boy with a family right here in town. It's wonderful, because every single sunday we get to go over and spend a great time with them. I have never been to such a happier dinner table then one of the Christensens. Mom is the best cook and it's like Thanksgiving EVERY SUNDAY... I wonder what Thanksgiving will be like. And Dad and Mikel are so bad, joking around all the time making me laugh so hard I fall out of my seat, while Megan is saying, " OH MIKEL!" In her sweet voice. I love her so much, she has the sweetest voice. I can just know that wherever they end up Megan will be all her children's friend's favorite mom if that makes any sense. I am really blessed with my own family because my brother, dad, and mom are just so wonderful even though they're far away, and they get my nerves ( whose family doesn't, honestly!) I love them so much and love talking to them. But then I've also been blessed to have a family right here close to home where I can come and just be with and they make me feel as if I've been their daughter my entire life.

I love Conference.

Sweet Husband & Goodbye Friends

2009-09-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

They are beautiful huh? My husband is wonderful... I had my first formal observation by my university supervisor and it was stressful. I got home and there was....

My sweet husband. I love him so much.

This is my new friend, Rugi Bear, inside joke...

RUGI!

Below is my sweetheart's first day of school! I love him sooooo much!!!!!

I saw Ashley for the last time, she's leaving for the Orlando Florida Mission!

Same week I said good bye to another one of my sweet friends, Melissa who is leaving for the New York, New York Mission. I'm going to miss them all so much.

So Al plays in a Blue grass band and on Friday they played at the Rexburg Farmers' Market in front of the Tabernacle. Ya'll should check it out it seems pretty awesome.

Isn't he sooo dang cute. There's my baba... I love him.

Saturday they played in a Battle of the Bands here in Rexburg at Rexburg Unplugged and his band WON!! He won our family a $25 gift certificate to Broulims! Pretty sweet, huh?

Thus far life has been pretty motionless for me. I just kind of go with the flow of things. I get stressed out and my sweet husband calms me down. I just need prayers for the Social Studies Unit I'm doing. I hope it all works. Until we meet again.

Student Teaching and MORE

2009-09-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

So I don't have any cool pictures, because I haven't really taken any...It's been a busy semester thus far and it's only to get worse I'm sure. My online class starts soon and I don't know what i'll do! I'm so busy trying to get stuff done all the time! Student Teaching though has been quite the adventure. I'm not going to lie, I'm quite terrified of my University Supervisor... She's a sweet women, but VERY SERIOUS about not giving us a good score the first time she watches us teach. Now I find it slightly strange that I am being evaluated against teachers that have been in the field for 5 to 10 years... Most teachers I've talked to have said that is EXPERIENCE that helps us. With the knowledge that I have, I feel that I'm a pretty good teacher, and the experience by the way. I'm getting observed tomorrow and I only pray that my Supervisor will have mercy on my poor perfectionist's soul. I'm ridiculous, huh?

SO today I was driving home with Mom (ALex's mom) because we carpool together to work. I love riding with her. We had a great laugh together today because as we were driving home from school and work today we made a left turn and this STUPID car decided that she was going to drive even faster because we were turning in front of her ( although we were driving into the complete opposite lane than her) SO I sit and wonder, and Mom and I laughed so hard because we thought who in their dang right mind would want to get into a car accident, wait for 2 hours to 4 hours for a cop to fill out everything and BE out of a CAR for over a week from the damage. I mean HONESTLY! Anyways....

I was just called as Second Counselor in my Relief SOciety. ( For those who don't know what that is, it is the largest women's organization in the world, and is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's wonderful, we really do try to be the RELIEF of the members of the Church and of the world around us. We like to do service and build up our homes in righteousness. Anyways, Being in the RElief SOciety Presidency in a Singles Ward was never that time consuming. I mean we had our jobs, but now this Relief SOciety is so much time and effort. I LOVE IT, I DO !!! It's incredible and my testimony of Relief Society and of the Gospel has grown so much, but it a lot more work than it was in the Singles Ward.

Anyways... that is my life at this time.... Really there wasn't much about Al, which there should've been because he's the rest of my life and I love him so much. I'm honestly the luckiest girl ever... I'm so grouchy sometimes and soooo busy that really for example I leave at 7 am get back at 6:20 or 6:30 go to a meeting or go to help out someone, and then come back work on my school stuff and then it's 9:30 pm and there I go back to bed to get up the next morning again. Anyways... busy life. In the Eternities Alex and I will be able to be together all the time without worries... I HOPE!

My First Day of School!!!

2009-08-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

So I've been helping my cooperating teacher set up her classroom a few times and I went to Inservice, but I don't believe that was the real first day.... My official first day of student teaching was this monday. On Monday the fifth graders filed into the classroom and I was nervous... It has turned out so far that they take me seriously as a teacher!!! This is our classroom. Really this is my cooperating teacher's classroom which she will let me borrow! Here I am all ready to go to school. Al took a picture of me because he felt like he was sending me off to school for my first time... He's such a sweetheart! As I got ready for school he made my lunch and helped me get ready that morning.
These are the roses from Alex for our two month ( whoops... I put year lol) anniversary... Two roses... he's so cute! AH! I have the best husband EVER!!!!

Georgia Fest!

2009-08-17T16:43:00.001-07:00

Introduction:

So I'm going to be completely honest.... We were suppose to go to GA for a honeymoon, but it was not fun at all... I don't want to go to GA for a long time. It was really hard. I was lucky though because I have the most positive husband and he just pointed out the happy parts. The greatest part of this whole trip, although it was kinda miserable was that on our way to GA our flight from Denver to Atlanta was overbooked and so we forfitted out tickets and because we did we got a 30 dollar Food Vocher, a hotel for the night and they booked us for the 10 am flight this next morning and TWO FREE AIRLINE TICKETS from anywhere to any Southern State... and since we didn't get the honeymoon we wanted, we're going to hopefully go to vacation in ORLANDO!!!!!!! I haven't been there in forever ( since I was 14, and now I'm 22)... Now we cannot begin to be able to afford spending money in Orlando, we'd go and have to sleep in the AIrport not being able to afford a hotel... but we have a year to use those tickets, so hopefully by next summer we can save money to go to Orlando and enjoy ourselves. :) I love Heavenly Father for blessing us!

Centennial Olympic Park

AL's first time in an Aquarium EVER!

My baby & me with the fishes in the Sea!

Sharks... Ahhh

In front the Coca cola Factory

Coca- Cola Factory

Al's First Shave :)

With a razor instead of an Electric

AL's first Chik-Fil-A

Setting up Jenaca's Reception!

Persian Reception

Being with my baby. I love him.

Cutting a fun Cake at my Persian Mini Open House!

The Girls!

Just hanging out with the Persian Family!

Getting a Taste of GA

HE went to La Parilla, best Mexican Food, best cheese dip!

GA Open House

These girls are my "sisters"! I'm the oldest of them all, but aren't they beautiful girls! SO cute!!!

My Aunt Ferry bought us a wedding cake! Is that not absolutely beautiful!!!

About to feed each other cake :) I smashed it in his face this time :)

Me & Al... He's so handsome, huh? I love, love, love, love him. I'm so lucky to have the greatest man in the entire world... for me of course, because ever woman should have the greatest husband!
This was Aunt Ferry, Uncle Mehdi, and Little Banafsheh! They are incredible. They are like my God Parents, if Persians had that. THey did so much for me!

SO what's next...

I start student teaching officially this Wednesday. I've been in my school, hung out and helped out my teacher, met my University Supervisor. Honestly I'm terrified... AT the Orientation they made it sound like it was going to be the hardest thing ever, but I don't feel like it should be as awful as I thought it sounded. Honestly I felt as if I was being scared into doing well, but I'm just going to try my hardest to make the lives of my students better. I want them to know even if they have no where else to go.... for 7-8 hours a day they have a Haven in the classroom.

For the Good News....

I can't wait until our real honeymoon... but I have to be thankful for Misti, my sister-in-law, she paid for our wedding evening hotel and then the Strobels gave us two nights in a cabin up in Island Park, so really we've had awesome honeymoons.

I'm in GA!

2009-08-07T12:14:00.003-07:00

I'm in Georgia and because we have SO MUCH to do I probably won't be posting much until I get back. I get back next Thursday, so see ya'll then!

Financial Aid ( FAFSA) of the Government -- INCOMPETENT

2009-07-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

I just thought that I would tell the world that they should never, ever, ever trust FAFSA government with anything in the Financial Aid Department. Last Fall & Last Winter I had enough scholarship to pay for my tuition, yet they used my pell grant. Well, that's okay because I had my pell grant to use. Well now I've looked on my account and they've recharged me for my Fall of 08 & my Winter of 09 tuition saying that they sent my pell grants back. That is not possible. After something is paid for you can't just remove the money at free will give it back and then make the student pay for it, when they had no idea that this was happening. They are complete incompetent idiots and really this will keep people from going to any University, because if they can't even trust the Financial Aid they are recieving, why would they run the risk of going to College at all! I will not pay for the mistake that they made. They will pay for it. I am not mad at my Heavenly Father, because this is a mistake of man, and these people are completely idiotic and out of their minds. I hate the government and they are complete idiots and they have no idea how much they are ruining the lives of College students everywhere. And I never use that word, but I honestly HATE them.

Island Park, A baby blessing, and a show... what a wonderful world

2009-07-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Afternoon Sister Strobel called Al's mom and told her that they had a free cabin for us in Island Park and I was done with school so Al surprised me with telling me we were going on a MINI MOON!!! This is us at a Red Light in the car...

We stopped at Quiznos to get some dinner because we weren't going to get to Island Park until about 9 or 10 pm
We got there and saw our cute little cabin. This below was the kitchen eating area.
Al modeling in our baby living room.
Al blowing kisses in the bedroom. We had brought blankets and pillows thinking that we'd be roughin it.
Thursday we had to come back down for Sydney Grace Simon's Baby Blessing, and then Al had a show he had to play in Idaho Falls. Here is the cutest picture of Linz holding Sydney. I love her!!! She's such a beautiful baby!! AHHH!!!
We gave her a card and wanted to watch her open it. I don't know if she felt very comfortable with the card. Alex & I felt like it was funny :)
Al is holding Sydney. I think that it's so cute! She loves him! He's sooo cute!! Man I love my husband. There is something about a hot man holdin a baby *wink*wink*
Me and my new baby best friend. I just love that baby soo much! I love her. I love her. I love her!
She's so funny she was yellin, and talkin, and bein so funny! I lover her so much! She's such a sweet girl!
There is Alex at his show!! He's an incredible guitar player! He's awesome! I love him! He's sooo dang good lookin!
There is him and the band. That's Nyk on the Mandolin and Elle on the fiddle. Im not sure about the bass player. He usually doesn't play with them, but he did a good job!
Here's the day's band lookin all serious! Ha ha! It's the GQ look ya know.
There is Alex leavin our Cabin the next day after we went to the show and the baby blessing, and we went back up to Island Park. It was so fun going on the mini moon. The night before we left we got into the hot tub and it felt so good! Al made fun of me and it was so funny, because Al said we'll have to get a hot tub when we're old because it'll help my little bones and muscles!
Here we are in the pretty little woods. You know there is a God when he has created such a wonderful world for us to look at.
I see skies of blue.... and clouds of white

bright blessed days.... dark sacred nights

And I think to myself... what a wonderful world....

Sick...

2009-07-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ugh, being sick is just not fun. I've been sick pretty much since Alex and I got married. I'm sooo tired of being sick.

BEWARE this is a complaint blog!

I've been getting off meds, getting on meds that all have awful side effects. I've been so tired and just cranky. POOR Al has been so sweet to me and taking care of me. I just wanted to complain. Don't feel bad because I have the best husband in the whole world and even though I'm sick he's a sweet heart. I have an awesome blog to put on the blog, but I have to get the pictures on my computer first.

I passed the Praxis! And wedding photos!

2009-07-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

I PASSED THE PRAXIS!!!!

I was so scared that I wasn't going to pass my second Praxis and I just found out that I did!! Great, huh?

Now to the good stuff you're probably thinking... here are some pictures of Al and I from our Bridals & Temple Pictures

Closer to Love... Madison, Ashley, & Alex

2009-07-13T08:41:00.000-07:00

Closer to Love...

What does that mean?

Madison Bradshaw had it on her blog and I listened to this song and it hit my heart so hard. If you listen to the lyrics they're incredible.

It actually made me think of three people...

One) Madison Bradshaw
She's incredible. She has such faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ. I look at her and I am so amazed by the way she is with all those around her and the trust she has in our Lord. She's so close to him and I miss her a lot. She's home in Washington now and I just blog stock her, but ya know. I feel very blessed to have ever known her.

Two) Ashley Akin
Ashley is one of my best friends in the entire world. You know I have a lot of best friends, but for some reason Ashley and I have always had this deep connection spiritually. I don't know what it is, but I am so proud of her! She got her mission call to Orlando, FL Mission! I know that she's going to do something incredible there! Heavenly Father needs here in Orlando and when she gets there they won't know what hit em, because she's a spiritual powerhouse!! I love her so much!

Three) Alex Christensen
Last, but not least, my eternal best friend. This song is so beautiful and it make me think of my husband. He helps bring me closer to my Heavenly Father and to my Savior. He makes me realize how important it is to rely on the atonement! He's got such an incredible spirit and he loves the Gospel so much. it's incredible I'm the luckiest girl ever. Really. You think I'm kidding, but he's such a rock in my life. I love him so much and I feel so blessed to have him. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for him. He's a Gift from My God to help me get back to him. Wow I love hiM!

So this song is first on my playlist so ya'll should listen to it. It's incredible. Here are they lyrics:

She got the call today
One out of the gray
And when the smoke cleared
It took her breath away
She said she didn't believe
It could happen to me
I guess we're all one phone call from our knees
We're gonna get there soon

If every building falls
And all the stars fade
We'll still be singing this song
The one they can't take away
I'm gonna get there soon
She's gonna be there too
Cryin' in her room
Prayin' Lord come through
We're gonna get there soon

Oh it's your life
Oh it's your way
Pull me out of the dark
Just to show me the way
Cryin out now
From so far away
You pull me closer to love
Closer to love

Meet me once again
Down off Lake Michigan
Where we could feel the storm blowin
Down with the wind
And don't apologize
For all the tears you've cried
You've been way too strong now for all your life

I'm gonna get there soon
You're gonna be there too
Cryin' in your room
Prayin' Lord come through
We're gonna get there soon

Oh it's your life
Oh it's your way
Pull me out of the dark
Just to show me the way
Cryin out now
From so far away
You pull me closer to love
Closer to love

Cause you are all that I've waited for
All of my life (We're gonna get there)
You are all that
I've waited for
All of my life

You pull me closer to love
hu huuh Closer to love
hu huuuh Pull me closer to love
You pull me closer to love
Closer to love oh no
Closer to love
Closer to love
Pull me closer to love

The Family Proclamation- I met my Help Meet

2009-07-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Genesis 2:18

18 ¶ And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be ^aalone; I will make him ^ban help meet for him.

Today in Doctrines of the Gospel we talked about Families and about Marriage. We were created as Help Meets to help each other meet God. That's cool huh? I think about the blessings that I have for being sealed in the Temple for time and all Eternity. Wow... I've been sealed to my best friend and he and I will help each other go back to God.

I think it is so important that in this time of our life that we remember the Proclamation made to the Family from the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That Proclamation is a message that talks about our role as women and the importance of Marriage in this life. The importance of Family in this life. I think about the responsibility that I've taken on by being sealed in the Temple to my best friend. We've decided to start a family and that has responsibility.

I feel so blessed to have Alex Marshall Christensen. I love him so much and I know that we are both going to work hard and helping each other meet God again. Without one another we can't do it. We will both, with Heavenly Father and the help of his son Jesus Christ through the atonement, become perfected and grow into our Eternal State and live with him again!

I have a true testimony in this document and I believe that all those who can read it should. I feel that I am so happy to be a member of this church and I've been given the opportunity to be blessed with this great gospel! I love the gospel of Jesus Christ! It's TRUE!! IT'S TRUE!

President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “ Only through the family can we obtain eternal life.”

LOVE, EDIFY, BUILD A FAMILY...

Married for 2 weeks!

2009-07-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

So Al & I have been married for two weeks!! Marriage is seriously the best! Just like everyone says! I feel awful though because as soon as we got married I decided to get sick!!! I had this disease when I was 13 called pericarditis and it affected my heart. Well lo and behold it came back the saturday after I got married... Saturday Night I was hyperventilating because I couldn't breathe. My sweet husband held me all night until my body finally gave up and just fell asleep. He gave me a blessing every night for a few days because my body was just ailing. I honestly do have the best husband in all of life. I just can't believe how incredible he is. I'll get all upset and he'll just make me laugh. He's so funny.

I know everyone is waiting for wedding pictures... I know I know!! But we haven't gotten them back yet! The Day of the wedding was perfect! We got all the wedding pictures done with the family... BUT, when we started to take just couple pictures around the Temple is began to rain. We got a few, but of course not enough. SO This Saturday, my incredible photographer ( Chelsea Lasley, I recommend her!) is going to spend all day with us taking wedding Temple pictures! Woo!

Life is amazing and I recommend everyone to marry their best friend. I promise more news is to come! Love all of you soo much!!!!

In Six Days...

2009-06-14T12:56:00.001-07:00

In Six days I will be Sis. Orchideh Binesh Marvasty Christensen. That's a mouthful huh?? Well, I am so excited to be married to Alex in six days. He's the most incredible boy I have ever met. He is perfect for me. This semester has been wonderful and I have had the best time. It's been time consuming and busy, but it's been wonderful. I've started this blog as a new blog for Al and I and I'll of course probably be the only one posting, but I'm so EXCITED!!!