Holy mother it has been a looooooong time since I have posted on the blog. So sorry about that! You guys know how it is when you go through a massive life change.... it feels like you've been punched in the face like a hundred times before you get settled. Any of you peeps that have ever had a huge move, you know what I am talking about. But! Here we are. So here's the down low on what has been happening with us since we have be here! We first arrived on August 16, tired and way hungry! We flew on Icelandic Air and to our surprise they don't feed you at all on their flights. So we stuffed face (with the classic Euro bread and cheese haha) and found our way to our Airbnb apartment. By found our way, I actually mean that Skylor's mission president picked us up from the airport, seriously the nicest man ever. It was nice not to have to track down a taxi with all of our luggage (we had 7 pieces of luggage and a stroller, so it was kind of a nightmare). I should've taken more pictures of our Airbnb apt, but accidentally never did haha. I found it a little weird to be photographing someone else's apartment! But we LOVED our Airbnb. It was a reasonably price, huge, and had everything we needed. It was our first experience with Airbnb, and as of right now we can't wait to use it again (which will actually be kinda soon... we have a trip coming up this weekend! EEK!) The first (full) day that we were here, we went out and about in the city. We had a little bit of a tough time figuring out the public transit without data on our phones... but we finally got the hang of it after walking our feet off haha! As we were walking around that first day, we actually found a Geology building and we laughed because we thought it would be such a coincidence if that was Skylor's school (University of Copenhagen is set up in various buildings around the city, so for the first couple of weeks we didn't know where Sky would be spending most of his time).... turns out that IS his building. Its a great building and there's also a Natural History/Geology Museum very close as well so it turned out perfectly. That first week turned out to be a little (and by a little I mean A LOT/FREAKING A/I WANT TO DIE) stressful. We did not find housing before we arrived in Copenhagen because landlords actually wanted to meet us before renting to us. We had no idea that it would be IMPOSSIBLE to find housing once we were actually here. No lie, Sky sent over 500 messages to potential landlords and NOTHING. I was freaking out. At the end of our first week there, we didn't know exactly where we would be going next sooooo yeah. So homeless haha. I guess the Danes know how crazy it is to find housing here in the Fall, even they have a hard time and they aren't students. Fortunately, there was this great couple in our ward (Kenneth and Marion) who had a spare room that they were willing to temporarily rent out to us while we looked for a new apartment. Talk about a life saver! We ended up in that temporary place for about 5 weeks. It was so so nice to have a place to be, but I was also very much missing some independence. It was difficult for us to adjust to being here because we didn't have anything permanent. I had a few meltdowns over the hotplate (the only thing we had to cook with... LOL) but we survived and made some fun friends out of the whole experience. K and M were great and their family is also so so kind. We feel very blessed that we were able to meet them. While we were still living in Hvidore (with K and M), Skylor had a new student orientation at KU where we found out exactly what campus he would be studying and how some things work here, which are pretty freaking complicated and annoying (see the CPR story...). This student orientation pretty much saved our butts because we were finally able to find housing out of it. Because we didn't have a permanent housing contract for several weeks, we were unable to get out CPR numbers. These numbers are vital to survive and get anything done here in Denmark. Even though we had our official visas from the government, we were unable to get a bank account, phone plan, internet or see the doctor. This was obviously a little difficult since I am like, a million months pregnant, but we survived (I actually get to see the doctor for the first time here this Friday... its been about 8 weeks since baby has been checked so we are anxious to make sure he is okay in there). Anyways (sorry that was kind of a long tangent!), we went to the school's housing foundation during orientation to see if they could help us at all. KU doesn't have student housing, let alone housing for a family so they couldn't help us a ton except for giving us a very short spreadsheet of landlords we could contact. Low and behold, one of those few contacts turned out to be a guy with a great apartment, who was leaving for 3 years (we are only staying for 2 but that means that we don't have to move at all while we are here or find different housing). He was particular about who he was willing to rent out to (he didn't want a bunch of party people trashing his apartment) and thankfully, he liked us! I guess he didn't think we would be partying too much with a baby... little does he know. JK! The place is smaller than we were used to back in the states, but super reasonable here and fit perfectly in our budget. We have a kitchen, bathroom, living room and a bedroom- after getting so desperate we were willing to rent a studio apartment, this place is a dream! Its in a great and quiet area too, which we love and I'm sure we will appreciate once we have baby boy. I will snag some pics of the apartment soon and do a little mini-home tour :) We finally got our wifi set up today (hallelujah!) and finally can like communicate with the world. We have been living off of limited "pay as you go" data so I am happy to have internet in our place :) In other news, Skylor is doing well in school! It is much different here, but he seems to like it a lot. He speaks Danish like a boss (even though his classes are in English), so he can get around and meet people whenever and wherever! He had a field trip about a month ago, he got to go to a few different places in Sweden and Aalborg (which in here in Denmark). The geology is pretty different here compared to UT (haha go figure) so he is having fun learning about a totally different geologic region. We hope to do updates periodically, so this is a pretty good way to keep up with us if you care to! We miss all of our friends and family back home, but we are super grateful to be here and to have this opportunity. As with all good things, they present their own challenges (like no good American peanut butter....) but we are learning and growing. Can't wait to have visitors to tote around!! Also, if you missed our little video diary of us running around Copenhagen a few weeks ago, the link is below! We are trying to practice our video skills, they are just way more fun than photos sometimes!
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First of all, no- not pregnant or having a baby right now. Had to get that off my chest cause several people have been asking! Don't worry- we will for sure share that kind of happy news once we get to that point :) ANYWAYS. Our big news that I posted about on instagram (HERE) a couple of weeks ago is that we are headed to Copenhagen, Denmark! I'm seriously freaking out still. Skylor was accepted to the University of Copenhagen where he will pursue a Master's Degree in Geoscience. Freaking smarty pants haha. We've been (okay, I've been) running around like crazy trying to figure out all of the in's and out's of moving abroad. Everything from passports to visas to banking to housing. We do however, feel very lucky that Skylor still has some great connections in Denmark- everyone from his previous mission president to friends that he met or taught on his mission... We will be leaving mid-August to get settled before Sky starts school in September. We really cannot wait for this next adventure! It has been a dream of ours to travel abroad again & Denmark has just fit perfectly.
That's all our news for now haha- but I will try my hardest to keep all of our friends & family updated :) February came and went so quickly! I swear, time is flying. We have some exciting changes coming up and we cannot wait to talk about them! But for now... here's some of our happenings from last month. Skylor has been begging for some type of reptile... so I opted out of the snake and in for leopard gecko. He loves that Guy. For reals- his name is Guy (middle: co; last: fox) Anyone? Also, my mom bought the sweetest little puppy! Lucy is a golden doodle full of life and so so freaking cute. I die. She is growing up so quickly, I swear every time we go upstairs she is bigger! Skylor's little brother was in a high school pageant (for lack of a better term). It's called Mr Springville- he did such an awesome job! It was a hoot to watch his performance. He's the biggest goof I know. Skylor and I celebrated Valentines Day with some quality time at home together and a trip to Cheesecake factory. Why are we so obsessed with that place?!? Haha. I swear- every holiday or event we end up up there. So grateful to have this sweet man as my forever Valentine- he makes life infinitely better! I taught my very first U-Jam class at Vasa fitness last month... so nerve wracking! I forgot my choreo a couple of times but it ended up all good. I was like dying by the end of class haha- way different when you teach vs just taking the class. I love this format. It is so fun and such a great workout. If you haven't tried it yet, you definitely need to give it a shot! We ended the month with a trip down to Houston to check out housing! My mom is moving down there in a couple of months so it was fun to check out the area. We feel super blessed that Chuck (my mom's brother) and Julie live down there- it has been years since I've seen them so it was really nice to catch up. We are full well into March now LOL... so here's to getting out a March update before April ends :)
I thought I would do a little post about my quick work trip out to SD back in January! I had never been to San Diego before, so it was fun to pop out there and see what it was all about. Work wasn't super crazy out there, we didn't start until the afternoon on all of the days and also had some nice breaks. I just took my camera out on one of the days when we walked down the pier. I loved all of the boats, yachts, and little stores scattered everywhere. Seriously so beach and SO California. This sounds really dumb but I had no idea that this "Save the Kiss" statue was here.... so that was a fun surprise! Haha. The USS Midway looked AWESOME but we didn't have the time to do the entire tour. Its so freaking massive! It was cool to see all of the different aircrafts, even from far away. I was able to go out on the town a little bit on the last night there- it was cloudy and gray but still really beautiful. We tried a restaurant called, Spike's Africa and it was actually pretty good! We arrived at the perfect time (no wait at all) and happen to be there during their 'restaurant week' which gave us a cheaper menu (#winning). I guess during this week, a ton of restaurants get together and do a sort of sampler menu to allow people to try some of their more popular items. We didn't try any other places since these were legit dinner size portions. I had an amazing Clam Chowder before my fish- probably my favorite part of the meal! All in all, I was really glad that I was able to go to San Diego- it was beautiful and nice to get out of the freezing weather for a weekend.
My people. My family. Although not everyone is pictured here (missing my oldest brother and his family), I love these people so much. Our family has had a really tough couple of years and I couldn't be more grateful to claim these people.
I haven't posted anything on this personal tab in a while, so I thought I'd take a Friday and post some of our day to day happenings! We got to spend the day with Skylor's family and it was such a blast! The day was full of good food, good company and lots of laughs! There was a full house over there (only missing Elder Steed all the way over in Romania. I wish we would've gotten a pic with everyone! I branched out and make a pumpkin caramel cheesecake. It turned out pretty tasty if I do say so myself... Although it isn't a great picture haha. Now onto my favorite time of year... who doesn't love trees, lights, hot chocolate and (sometimes) snow?!?! I vote no one. And how could you not love this cutie dressed in all her winter apparel HAHA. We were dying. Also- that's our very first Christmas tree together! Even though it was frustrating to set up (artificial tress.....) I'm so glad we had it! With Skylor out of school and most of my family in town, my mom rented a cabin up near Sundance for everyone to play and have a good time! It was so fun! I loved being with everyone and the kids made Christmas so magical! Speaking of kids... all of the kids (especially Landon) LOVE Skylor. He's their favorite person (I swear) and will do anything to be by him and play with him. Melts my freaking heart its so cute. I can't even tell you how much snow was up there.... it was a lot! So much that we didn't know if we were going to be able to get my Camry outta there to Springville to talk to Braxton on Christmas. Sorry, had to throw this one in here cause I got Sky a beard groomer for Christmas and we were looking up different styles haha. The crew! We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. So much love for these guys.
May I introduce you to the Steed family? I married into one of the greatest families around! We've had a struggles but I am super grateful that I married into this fam bam. See that cute kid in the green? We took these pics right before Braxton headed out to his mission to Romania (cray cray, right?) I'm getting all trunky and stuff cause we get to talk to him on Friday! Merry Christmas to us! Can't wait for that kid to come home in June. Sky and I miss his face. Um hi. Is my hubby hot or what?? (Insert heart eyes here!)
I seriously had the best birthday this year- I am constantly amazed by the love and friendship that so many people offer to me. I am so blessed! I was driving home from dinner on Monday and I just felt like, DANG. Life is good. You know what I mean? Even though it can be crazy and hectic and messy, its so good. On Friday, we were able to go ice skating at the Peaks Rink in Provo with a lot of my family- the kids were killing me! It was so much fun to skate around with Skylor (even though I am a total wuss and go too slow for him) and to skate with my cute mom (whose really good at skating) and my siblings. I'd have to say that one of the best parts of the activity was skating with my cute nieces and nephews.... Oh my goodness I was dying. They all did so good and I loved holding their cute little hands and going around the rink! My mom got us all eclairs to celebrate & Mabel and I wore some cute little birthday things cause our birthdays are so close to each other. We ended the night at good ol' texas roadhouse- it was way too much fun to just be with the family and hang out! Skylor took me out on Saturday to celebrate and I just loved being with my guy! We went to lunch, a movie, to pick up a mattress (this is how I can tell I am getting old haha), and went to the cheesecake factory for dinner (obviously not my healthiest moment- real life!) I feel so so blessed to have this sweet man. Not only did he spoil me on Saturday but he spoiled me on Sunday and Monday too... He's the best birthday present I've ever gotten! Gahhh. Sorry, I'm being mushy right now. I just love him a lot. Here's to 24 and all that this year has to offer #holla
This is by far my favorite day of my whole life. Being sealed to this amazing human for time and all eternity is the biggest blessing & I am the luckiest girl in the world. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! We were sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple at 9am (and as I look back, this is definitely the part of the day that I remember the most). We had a luncheon and ring ceremony at The Bungalow in Pleasant Grove- we were joined by so many friends and so much family. Literally love was look oozing out of every corner of my heart! I am so grateful for every person that came and showed their love for us. We finished the night with dancing, cake, crepes, garters, flowers, more dancing and sparklers.
AHHH! I wish I could relive this day over and over again. I'm officially finished with my undergraduate degree from BYU (finally!). I have been anxiously working towards this day for SO long. I wish I could tell you how often I wanted to drop out of school- how easy it would have been to "take a semester off" - or how badly I sometimes wanted to go to a technical school instead. I will spare you from all of the pity party details of the craziness and just say this, I am proud. I had to work my butt off to get here. It was hard- hard on me, hard on my husband and I'm sure it was hard on parents (who, so graciously, put me through school so I could graduate debt free). Right now, I'm going to be totally honest. I cried. I cried at the end of each of my classes on the last day when I heard my professors bear their testimonies. I cried when I realized that I would never have to fight for parking again (OKAY THAT'S A LIE), or when I knew that this was probably the last time that my education would come first, before other priorities.
So here's to being done with school and onto the next! I remember starting this post like over a month ago. Its so sad that I didn't even write one sentence about it yet! Gah - this semester has turned into one crazy ride! It's hard to even go back and try to remember what we have done so far haha. Might as well give it a shot right? These probably won't be in chronological order, more like in order of importance so here goes. We finally scheduled the time to get our 1 year anniversary pics done! I'm like super impressed that we got it done before our 2 year mark, lol. Chloe and I have been trying to schedule something for ages so I am super happy that it worked out! I ended up taking some pics for them & she took some pics for us (win win). I found my new happy place- it's called 'the Puppy Barn' and it basically the cutest place on the planet. Its packed full of the sweetest puppies. You can't go there and not be happy. It's impossible. These guys were killing us! I want my very own so badly (I think this is probably equivalent to 'baby hungry?') And some other news that don't have any picture attachments... not as fun but who doesn't want to hear about school and stuff???
That's all for now. But everyone be excited cause it's Friday.
Fall is my favorite time of year- I absolutely love the trees and the weather... oh and my fall clothes are way cuter than my summer clothes (probably only cause it is way easier to hide the chub among scarves and sweaters than with shorts.) One thing that I dislike about fall is that it is so dang short! It has snowed already. What the heck? At least halloween past without a flurry. Winter will be here before we know it! Sky and I are trying to take advantage of the gorgeous weather (and of our weekends!!) The weekends are never long enough, but it is AMAZING to spend all day everyday of Saturday and Sunday together. Hands down- best two days of the week. This weekend was another weekend to go down in the books. Thursday was halloween. We still had school and work (obviously) but work wasn't too terrible (I mean- it ain't bad to get handed a $50 bill for dressing up!). Later that evening I convinced my cute sweetie to dress up as a cop. And I dressed up as a robber. And we went to a little get-together. Not gonna lie. We played a hilarious question game. I'm thinking I want to play again for another holiday party? We will see. Friday evening started with a freakishly long nap (I'm pretty sure my body is still recovering from Convention- pathetic, I know) and ended with a trip to Ross and some Farr's ice cream (I am obsessed with the salted caramel fro-yo- easily my favorite dessert right now!) Saturday morning my cute friend, Amy, came by to show me her brand-spankin new apple computer & to chat for a while. Not only did she stay and chat- but she helped do some of our dishes. Talk about a good friend right there! Sky & I then left to SLC to go on a "field trip" He had to attend a mosque for one of his classes. I didn't complain because it reminded me of the good ol' days of Jeru. We both loved it! Our outing not only included the islamic center but also; savers, kmart, taco bell, halol, nordstrom rack and Thai food. And target. Twice. We were looking for stockings alright? Sunday we ran to our ward to say the closing prayer in sacrament & then ran up to Saratoga springs for my niece's baby blessing. Chloe is the most precious baby ever. So stinking cute. And then we ran to Alpine to chill, do laundry and eat my mom's delicious tuna casserole and brownies. After we got home, we started working on the 2nd bedroom... one day it will be finished. One day. Cheers for now!
love, the Steedzz Man! Time is seriously flying. I can't believe that it is already halloween today! This has been the best 70 days of my entire life. No joke. Being married is seriously the best thing. EVER. I have never ever been this happy in my life. Marriage is even better than I could have ever hoped for. We have gone through a few bumps so far (who doesn't right?), but I can honestly say that I married the most amazing man. Life is good :) Alright- so this will be a bit of a throwback post to cover the last little while. Its been freaking busy (and we have been in LA-LA land..) Here goes! My job comes with A TON of perks. Skylor is not a huge football watcher but he came and sat in the NuSkin suite with me for a BYU game :) Check out these colors! I love the fall! Not only does Fall bring football games, but yummy treats and wanna-be crafts that I can't afford to buy in a store. I saw a spider (I want to say it looked like this... but not really) in Sams club. Took a pic. Tried to replicate. Maybe crafts aren't really my calling? This is probably Skylor's favorite part of this semester so far- say goodbye to the Cam-cam... And hello to the Celly!! We searched for almost a year for cars that we could love and call our own. Finally we found Skylor a good one. After several different... and interesting test drives, we found this bad boy. Found it on KSL, bought it from a bunch a dudes from Russia and Ukraine. Closed on the car & drove away without the Celly. But only because the Russians lost the keys on accident. Hate it when that happens. Among some other exciting things that happened at our apartment this semester, we had to take this lovely picture of ourselves. Both sick as dogs. And locked out of our apartment. Here's to paying $65 to getting your apartment unlocked! Here is one of those "other exciting things" that happened in our beloved apartment. Check out this freaking amazing counter top that Skylor's g-pa made for us! We are seriously so proud. And excited. Trust me. This counter top was a HUGE blessing. I literally had about 1 sq foot of counter space. If you can imagine, it was a little difficult to cook, wash dishes or do almost anything else in the kitchen. We are so incredibly grateful. Remember when I was talking about the perks of my job? Well it also includes sweet seats at the Jazz games. I will never complain about tickets to a jazz game. By the way, is my husband not the cutest thing ever? So this Camry is actually new as well... We got rid of one Cam-cam and adopted another Camy. And Skylor, being the sweetheart that he is, he cleaned and polished my headlights for me. Now my car looks brand-spankin-new. I'm pretty pumped about it. Until next time!
I feel like this week never even happened. It was like a dream- I opened my eyes at the airport... blinked for a second and opened my eyes again and all of the sudden I was on my way home. On my way to Nashville, I have literally never been so excited to see a plane in my life. It took FOREVER to finally board the plane. When I landed and headed to the baggage claim I was so excited! I couldn't even contain my happiness. Seeing him, in his orange shirt, waiting for me at the bottom of the escalator was the best view that I have ever seen. I LOVE THIS GUY SO MUCH! I dont deserve this wonderful and amazing person in my life- but I am so grateful that he picked me! After Skylor's short pull out in Mt Juliet we went to this yummy Greek Restaurant and got the biggest Gyros ever. Literally neither of us could finish them. Unfortunately, our lunch got interrupted by a job... so we quickly ate and then hurried off to the job. Once his job was finally over we headed off to the CMA festival where we enjoyed a little free music and some enormous crowds... And Sky got to sign our names on race car... if you look closely there is a heart with an "S+H" He's so freaking cute. After leaving the festival we headed off to the speedway and enjoyed a few races before Skylor got called off on another job. Saturday went too fast... And before we knew it, it was Sunday morning and we nommed on this delicious breakfast before packing up all his stuff to get him ready for Alabama. Leaving him again was just as hard. We are not supposed to be apart and it took everything inside of me to let go of his hand and walk into the airport. I love this guy more than life itself. I wouldnt change or erase any second that I have with him. I miss him more than anything and I am so grateful for him in my life. I couldn't have imagined anyone better- he is my dream come true and more than I could've hoped for. I'm going to work everyday to be the woman of his dreams.
I'll be honest. The second that his face left my sight I wished that I was back with him. I can't wait to see him again. Skylor and Hollie (almost) Steed have arrived! Check out our goodies!!! I'd like to thank the wonderful Chelsie Clarke for being our photographer! If you need a good set of pics... hit her up!!! Long story short... IM DYING TO MARRY THIS HOTTIE! He makes us look so good :) love him!!!!
Okay so I am not really in the mood to be clever right now.... but I figured that I should blog about what has been happening the past few weeks. Here is my adorable momma blowing out the candles for her big 2-0 birthday cake! WOOOOO! Cutest little 20 year old ever :) So my dad was so cute and wanted to throw my mom a surprise party for her big day, he made a plan and recruited all of the kids and her friends to play along. The original plan was that my dad would take her to dinner and then bring her home for a movie or something (they have a weekly date anyways so it wasn't anything too out of the ordinary) All of the kids went over to decorate right after they left for dinner. We ordered some Barbacoa and got to work. It was Skylor and I's assignment to go and pick up dinner..... Barbs didnt realize that they had an order so we ended up waiting there for like 20 min. We got home to 7 starving people and we immediately dug in. My dad on the other hand, had apparently texted one of the boys that they would arrive back home in 15 min.... Knowing our dad he sometimes exaggerates the time. So we all figured that they wouldnt be there for at least 20 and he would give us a 1 min warning. All of the sudden we see Mom's head pop in the window. Ruined surprise. Oh well! Still way fun to celebrate this cutie's brithday Long (ish) story short... I work at Nuskin and sometimes we get awesome perks..... like floor seats at the Jazz game. WHATS UP. Skylor was taking a test so he wasnt available so I decided to ask this guy! Chad isnt super into sports but I think that he still had a good time (who wouldnt when you are literally sitting on the court). We were able to eat their "gourmet" dinner before where I ran into my future father-in-law (Skylor's gammy has floor seats that she distributes to her kids every once in a while) I sat there and chatted with the Steeds for a bit while Chad was just awkwardly standing behind me. Chad and I finally sit down and he asks me who that guy was. Told him it was Skylor's dad.... "That guy is way to young to be his dad!" Hopefully that makes Bob feel pretty good. :) Onto the best part of last weekend... SKYLOR'S 23 birthday! My baby is so wise and mature now... ;) We started his big day with a McDonalds breakfast (its our tradition to go to Mcdonalds on all birthdays since that was were we went our my birthday for our date. My b-day was on a friday so everything in west Jeru was closed for shabbat.... Except the golden arches!) After Breakie we realized that I had been locked out of my apartment. For some strange reason I was never given the correct key and the door leading to the garage was locked.... I have my theory but whatever! So while we were killing time we went to the Paintball shop just down the road. Skylor was in heaven. It was freaking adorable. The rest of the day was filled with errands, cars, oil changes and panda express. And finally.... TUCANOS! This week both of our families were out of town (mine in HI and Skylor's in NZ) We were in charge of watching Skylor's little brothers, Robert and Braxton. We all had a good time and I finally became besties with Dixie. WIN! She freaking loves me now. She always brings me gifts whenever I come over :) Now this weekend I was so exicted about! First of all, conference was amazing. I really felt like there were so many talks about strengthening marriage and family. I just ate it up! Secondly, Skylor and I attempted to take our engagements! How do they look? Okay okay. JK.
We had the fabulous Chelsie Clarke take our pics and I am dying to see them. She is a genius with lighting. So hopefully they turn out as good as I want! But Skylor is so stinking cute that it would be hard for them not to turn out freakishly adorable. Sunday I found this little treasure. This was the first book the Skylor ever published and I just about died. CUTEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. I wish I could've known him his whole life because he must've been the cutest kid on the planet. His book (and all of the other books) was about Dinosaurs. Not much has changed :) Finally I get to blog about the most exciting thing that has ever happened in my life.... Im engaged to the most perfect man I have ever met! I get to marry Skylor Steed on August 23rd and I honestly couldnt be happier. I never knew that I could be this happy and I am so grateful that Skylor came into my life. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to go to Jerusalem and I am ecstatic that Skylor just happened to go out at the same time as I did. I have received so many blessings from those 4 months but I have to say that Skylor has been the best blessing in my whole entire life. So heres the juicy details.... Skylor and I met during the first week of our semester abroad (after an intital "check out" on Skylors end at the Orientation in Provo- I must have passed the test pretty early on!). Our first conversation started with the garden of Gethsemene (come on it really doesnt get any better than that!) and ended with him saving my life from a speeding bus. No exaggeration at all- Skylor totally saved my life. (Okay okay Im going to be honest here too... before we had ever spoken with each other I definitely checked him out while we were at the gym.... I know I am such a creeper!) A couple of days after our first encounter we had an all day field trip (something like 7 am to 4pm) and we hung out the whole time. At first I was like, "Whoa slow down buddy! Im not looking for anything here!" and the next couple of weeks continued like that until we got to Turkey. We had held hands for a while... and I denied him the chance of being my bus buddy for the trip... oops. The tides turned and I was dying to let Skylor finally kiss me on the shores of the Aegean Sea but to unfortunately I killed the mood on the only couple occasions that we had the chance to kiss. Super bum right? A first kiss in turkey wouldve been magical, but our first kiss was just as good. The day after we arrived back home to Jerusalem from Turkey we were upstairs on the balcony outside, talking about our 5 year life plans and looking at the beautiful view and all of the sudden BAM. I kissed him. Yep- I kissed him! I had told him previously that our first kiss needed to be PERFECT and blah, blah, blah. I am pretty sure that I scared him off so I had the feeling that I needed to kiss him! (Luckily I did because he told me afterwards that our relationship up to that point had been so unstable that he was about to drop me and move on... SAD). But our first kiss was funny and awkward and totally perfect. I can't imagine a better place to begin and strengthen a relationship that in Jerusalem on a 4 month study abroad program. We got to spend approximately 16 hours a day together, eat every meal together, go to church and school together and travel together. I can honestly say that meeting Skylor out there- away from technology and silly distractions- was the absolute best thing for us and has led us to where we are today. We knew that our relationship was permanent after a few ups and downs and we began making plans all the way back in October. OCTOBER. When you know, you know! We decided to wait a few months to tell our families- especially our parents so that each of our families could get to know us and see us together. We didnt want to rush anything and we weren't worried about anything- we knew that we were both in it for the long run. Skylor asked my parents if he could marry me on February 24 and that same evening we also told his family that we would be getting married. Everyone was thrilled and we are both so grateful for the support. It is nice to know that your family is behind you 100% and is in agreement with your decision. And the best night of all so far... on Friday evening (March 15) Skylor took me to his gammy's house in order to check out her pool for our open house- we ended up stopping by his parents' house after wards where he took me up to the gazebo in front of the pond, knelt down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I have never been as happy as I had been in that moment. His smiling face melted my heart and I couldnt help but hug and kiss him. I cant believe that I get to spend the rest of eternity with someone so amazing-I am one lucky girl. I love every single second of my life with him and I am so freaking excited for all of our adventures. Life has so much in store for us.... eternity with Skylor just couldn't be long enough. He's the only one for me and the love of my life. We can't wait to finally be married! Forever is just not long enough.
We have been as busy as ever with this semester! I just survived my 2nd midterms week... its been rough to say the least! But the good news is that I only have one more midterms week and one finals week and Winter 2013 will be DONE! The end of this semester does bring the end of school but it also takes my love away with it for the whole summer. And that is not something that I am looking forward to. IM NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT THAT YET. Anyways! We have had an exciting couple of weeks. I would say its in my top 5 favorite- youll know why in my next blog post! :) A few weeks ago we went out on a double date with my friend Amy and Skylor's friend Ben. We started off with some good ol' in-n-out and ended with some ice skating. I thought that it was a blast! It was especially nice to be with Skylor and Amy at the same time.... Im never going to be sad about hanging out with my favorite people!
I can not get over how wonderful this week has been. Yet another confirmation of what an amazing man I have in my life. He makes my life so much happier, I couldn't imagine anything better. He exceeds my expectations on a daily basis! We started out our valentines festivites on tuesday evening with a night out at the Cheesecake factory. Talk about yum! The dinner and the company was absolutely perfect. We tried about 10 times to get a good quality picture... this is the best that the iphone had to offer! Wednesday night I had to sneak into Skylor's car in order to decorate it for him.... I arrived at work on Thursday to this gorgeous bouquet of flowers... am I a lucky girl or what?!! It was so cute... I walked in and the girl at the desk just had a huge smile on her face... I walked in and asked if they were for her.... Nope. Lol she was just way excited to see my face when I saw the flowers! It doesn't end there! I got home from work to find more flowers, a bottle of sparkling cider (its getting crazy!), a caramel apple, the sweetest note ever and my man waiting for me! (He was the best part of the whole set up!) I dont have a picture but after dinner we went up to the Steed's house to give them some chocolates and hang out for a while. The boys disappeared (of course- apparently they were just staring at the new TV... not saying a word) so the girls got to chat, Julie and Taylor are seriously the sweetest things ever.
I would have to say that Valentines day was a huge success! It couldn't have been sweeter. I freaking love this kid!!! Being home has been everything I thought. Bittersweet to say the least. I miss Jerusalem and everything that happened there. My life has been forever changed because of my experiences there and I am so grateful that I was able to go. I never dreamed how much my life would change over those 4 months. I wouldnt trade those memories and experiences for anything. I had the best presents waiting for me when I got home... Katie, Lillie and Devin are in Utah! They get to spend a few months with us and I am thrilled to be with them! And Im going to be honest here... I have missed snow! Coming home to a white winter wonderland was awesome!! Its so pretty and we had a white christmas. Couldn't ask for anything more :) We had a family sledding/snowman day- Annie bug and I playing in the snow! My sweet boyfriend made my belated-birthday party as wonderful as could be. Skylor came over the Sunday we got home for a family birthday/welcome home party. He finally got to meet my family and they all got along great, everyone loves Skylor :) My mom and I went to go get pedicures.... holy cow did I need that! My feet were dry and gross from so much walking in sandals in a dirty city. Thank you mom!! It was a blast to get to spend some alone time, I missed her dearly when I was gone. The Steed residence has a vast amount of dead animals on the wall. Makes me feel really safe... and I guess I would never feel lonely at their house since I have friends always hanging on the wall. This particular Bambi was one that Skylor shot. I was way proud. One of the best things about being home is hanging out with these goobers! I missed them. Last weekend I got to babysit Luke, Annie and Mabe... so of course we had to make a candy stop!! Skylor and I didnt realize how hard it would be to come home. After spending 24/7 with each other for 4 months it was quite the adjustment to come home. We have had to take turns making the hour drive to each others houses every night. And during the day I miss him so much. But we are adjusting and making the most of our time together! Skylor dug through some of his old boxes at his parents house and found his gas mask for the end of the world on 12/21. Needless to say that he only needed to massage my feet. Rude!! lol Christmas eve was the first day that we have gone without seeing each other. Man it was hard!! I couldnt believe how strange it was to not be together. So on Christmas we got together for a couple hours and spent some time together. Best Christmas present ever. Thursday night I went up to temple Square with Skylor's family and it was an absolute blast. I seriously love that family. They are a hoot! I love this picture! He is such a cutie... He definitely makes us look good :)
And last but not least we have Kassie and Dallin's wedding reception. It was AMAZING to see a bunch of my Jeru peeps. It feels like its been forever :) I dont have the picture of all of us but this one will have to do!! Jackie is one of our favorites. Man we love that girl lol.
So far I have loved being home. I miss Jerusalem but I also love my life here- I couldnt be any happier than I am right now!! It has been quite a while since the ladies of the 215 have gone out together with just the three of us. I have missed it!! These girls are literally my best friends. I love them both to death! We don't hang out everyday, and when we have boyfriends the play time lessens a bit. But no matter what happens these girls always have my back and we can always just pick up right where we left off! Tuesday nights are generally pretty relaxed nights- and it was a night that all of us had off so it was the perfect time to get all snazzied up to go and get drinks at Spark. A tradition in the making I hope! Don't worry- they are obviously non-alcoholic :)
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HollieHere you'll read about all the good stuff. So mostly the random daily adventures of Skylor and myself. Archives
October 2016
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