Hey Four Eyes

Mark has really bad eyes.

He's been getting by without getting glasses all this time but with the coming of the end of the year and also the end of his eye insurance he decided it was finally time.

We all headed over to Walmart for his exam.

We have been watching Brooke while her mom is helping her sister so she got to come model glasses with us.

Mark didn't end up getting glasses, just contacts for now.

Since he's had them he likes to tell me how different he sees things.

Like how at night when he drove he couldn't see the lines he would just try to stay to the right of the lights coming at him. 

Kinda scary!

I'm glad we survived to get you to see how beautiful the world is babe.

Love of My Life

While Mark is the true love of my life I have another that I knew long before him.  This person taught me what love is.  This person has been there for me through all of my breakups and through all of my relationships.  I still love this person to the nth degree.  Before you all start calling me a cheater I will tell you that I have never officially met this person although I feel like this person knows me better than anyone and I feel like I know this person better than most of my closest friends.  This person is a woman who has been dead long before I was born.

Her name is Jane Austen.  She is my favorite author and I don't know if you all know this but she has written me into almost all of her books.  I am Elizabeth Bennet, Elenor Dashwood, Anne Elliot, and Emma Woodhouse all rolled into one.  I love everything about her books and have dreamed of falling into one of her books.  Her stories of love are enchanting but it's not just the romantic in me that loves her.  I love the way she describes all her characters and have met people that are exactly like them which leads me to her amazing ability to see the world around her.  The people and the choices they make and the results of their choices still exist which makes the novels timeless but in some ways sad considering she wrote some of those stories as things that needed to change in life.  I find it so depressing that she never married and although all of her heroines received happy endings with their loves, she and her sister did not.

My love affair first started when I was home sick (or faking sick, I can't remember that part) and I was watching movies.  My family had recently discovered the $.99 area of our local video rental store (that's right kids, they used to be stores and not just vending machines).  The movies that were that price were all these old time movies.  My mom started renting the ones she loved while growing up and my sisters fell in love with them too.  I found the old black and white version of Pride and Prejudice.  I remember my little sister Kate watching this story on the kids show Wishbone.  I loved it.  So I moved onto the 70's version of P&P then the Colin Firth version that was 6 videos long that we had to pay $2.99 for each tape to see, that was a big commitment.  Well I eventually moved onto renting the newest Gweneth Paltrow movie.  The very night I rented it my parents rented the older version of Emma.  I watched just a bit of it thinking that it was another one of lame movies my parents got (Mr. Knightly was bold and I tend to judge movies based on how cute the guy is).  I honestly had no clue that the movie they rented and the one I got for my friends and I to watch was the same story.  I also realized that it was the same story as the movie Clueless.  From there I put together the pieces of Jane Austen.  I started to pursue her works as my guild.  She had made two great stories; maybe the others would be also.  Sense and Sensibility came next.  My brother bought me the book of all her books and so I finally started reading the literature.  I have since read all her books and seen every one of her books turned to movie.  I own every version of Pride and Prejudice including the LDS and the Bollywood version.  P&P is my very favorite and Elizabeth is my favorite heroin.  Mr. Darcy was once all I could dream about just like Jane from Austenland and it may have given me a similar problem as Jane's in the book had I not met Mark.  Mark is no Mr. Darcy, especially since from the moment I met him I thought him to be a great example of a modern gentlemen.  The more I learn about Mark the more I am convinced he is just like Mr. Knightly and I in turn find myself to be so much like Emma.  Mark being so calm and collective and logical and me being so not those things.  One person’s weakness is the others strength and so we help each other become better people all round.

Jane Austin believed in true love.  She believed in good people getting a happy ending.  She believed that money and class, although and obstacle at times, not a reason to prevent two people from being in love.  She believed in strong minded women who should be appreciated and respected.  She believed in kindness and charity.  I just admire her forward thinking and creativity so much.  I wanted to take this time to thank her and wish her happy birthday.  Jane Austin you are the creator of the love of my life.

Five Years and Counting

Mark and I have now been married for 5 whole years!

We decided to go out the weekend before our anniversary since it fell on a Wednesday this year.

I really wanted to do something amazing this year.

It's the big 5, kinda a mile stone, I think.

But I knew Mark would want to keep it low key.

I thought about pressing the issue, trying to get him to make a big deal.

But then I had a thought, it's not just my anniversary, it's also his anniversary.

Getting married in December means that we don't really do gifts, but this year I decided my gift to him would be not throwing a fit, not forcing him to do what I want.

I would be chill and relaxed and let him decide what to do.

So we decided to do dinner and a movie.

Come the day we were to go out we still hadn't come up with a place to eat.

I was starting to get bugged at the lack of plan, at the lack of preparation, at the lack of making it a big deal.

I'm not going to lie, I wanted to explode at him.

Five years ago I had planned the most perfect day for us and he couldn't return the favor to me even on a small scale.

I held my tongue and just kept telling him it doesn't need to be fancy, let's just go to Panda Express, let's just DECIDE!

So he did.

He picked this Vietnamese restaurant in West Valley.

For those who aren't familiar with SLC, West Valley is what I call the ghetto. 

I'd never eaten Vietnamese food and the only oriental food that I know I like is American Chinese.

I eventually said OK because I knew if we kept trying to figure it out I would explode and my gift to him would be ruined.

I was quiet the whole way there still scared I might loose focus and go crazy on him.

We got there and sure enough it was in the same parking lot as a cash loan place and across the street from a tire place.

Not the makings of a good anniversary dinner.

But we walked inside and it wasn't West Valley.

It was kinda nice.

We were seated at a nice table.

It wasn't what I expected at all.

Maybe it was because my expectations were so low, but the service was good, the atmosphere was nice and the food was delicious.

I quickly changed my attitude and found myself falling for Mark all over again.

Even after 5 years I still don't trust him in some ways.

I expect him to act a certain way because he acts that way in other areas.

I forget the biggest reason I fell in love with him in the first place.

And that reason is his ability to surprise me.

Others that know Mark or rather think they know him think he is incredibly predictable.

And he can be at times.

When he isn't predictable I find myself mystified and asking myself "who is this man?"

He is Mark Ellis, the man I have loved for 6 years, been married to for 5, and the father of my child for 3 years.

After dinner we went to see The Hobbit and it was awesome, we both loved it.

We lifted the arm rest and cuddled the whole way through, something we haven't done since we were dating.

It turned out to be a wonderful night.

I tell this story so I can remember how silly I am, and so I can remember our weird dynamic.

I stress about things, I plan things, and Mark stays calm.

He thinks he's not good at making plans or even being romantic but he is if given the opportunity.

This is us.

We may have a weird relationship but it's ours and I love it.

Happy Anniversary Mark,

Here's to another five on our way to eternity.

What is this World Coming to?

Today the unthinkable happened.  There was a shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. This 20 year old man first shot his mother then went to the school where she worked and went on a shooting rampage.  In the end 20 children and 6 teachers died then he killed himself making the total 28 dead.  I am horrified.  It has also come out that they believe this man had aspergers.  This rocks me even more.  I can't help but wonder how a mother raises a child in the world today?  I am so grateful for the gospel to help give me guidance and perspective in this question but I am still sorrowful.  Times like this that I start to have an inkling as to how Moroni must have felt seeing everyone around him die or becoming evil.  I wonder how he and his father continued on in such a fallen world.  I wish I could talk to Mormon and ask him how he raised such a righteous son with so much evil all around.  I am comforted by the spirit letting me know as it has so often to so many questions of "How am I supposed to do this?"  It whispers, "You can do it but it’s going to take a lot of work.  Just don't give up."  God bless those children who witnessed todays events.  God bless those families who now have to pick up the pieces to a mad man's disaster.  God bless the family of the shooter.  I have never thought about the family of shooters before.  I've always been so angry at the shooters and found comfort in thinking that they are getting the justice they deserve from God.  Finding out that this man possibly had aspergers and hearing that his mother told a neighbor that she might need help from him because her son was having more frequent fits.  I am given a whole new set of worries today.  Like I said the thoughts of comfort I used to be able to find after a shooting I am unable to gather.  I am some silly girl hundreds of miles away from this horrifying incident and as sad as I feel it is nothing in comparison to those in that city right now.  I am filled with empathy for them.  I pray for them.  I know that Heavenly Father is holding some beautiful spirits right now and I don't just mean those who died; I also mean those who are morning.  It is these times when we feel so alone and feel so angry that God is the closest wanting to carry us.  I have felt him at my darkest hour.  I pray that those hurting can find his comfort.  For now I find comfort holding my Scotty boy a little closer. 

Santa Clause is Coming to Town

 And when I say town I mean your local neighborhood Harmans Grocery Store.

Scott has never met Santa before.

I didn't want to freak him out.

Well I guess it doesn't matter how old you are when you meet Santa for the first time, he's just going to be scary.

Oh well.

Scott did good till we sat down next time him.

Here's to Holiday traditions started.

Snow Day

We are actually having a normal Utah winter.

Last year the little snow we got melted within a day or two.

This year we are getting tons of snow and it's sticking around.

Scott loves it.

He loves it so much that he wont get in the car without a fight.

He loves it so much that he will go outside without proper snow attire and scream when he is almost frozen to death.

Drives me nuts.

But when we can go out and play it is so much fun. 

Christmas Time is Here

Hurray!

Christmas time is here and I'm so excited.

My excitement this year stems from Scott.

He finally understands that there's excitement in the air.

He wants to be apart of it.

Last year he didn't get into the season at all and on Christmas getting him to open gifts kinda felt like a chore.

This year it's going to be different.

He loved me putting up the decor and tried to help. 

 Keeping the step stool away from the tree has been a bit of a joke.

I keep putting in where it goes and he keeps moving it back.

This time of year with Scott is magical.