Forget-Me-Nots

President Uchtdorf's talk was incredible this past Saturday at the General Relief Society Broadcast. WOW. I will think of him when I see these flowers now.  I was called to bring a non-member with me, found us a ride at the last minute, and ended up riding in a car full of girls. Everything worked out for a reason and I am so grateful.

"Let us not walk the path of discipleship with our eyes on the ground, thinking only of the tasks and obligations before us.  Let us not walk unaware of the beauty of the glorious earthly and spiritual landscapes that surround us.

As an Apostle of our Master, Jesus Christ, I proclaim with all the certainty and conviction of my heart and soul--neither are you!

You are not forgotten.

Sisters, wherever you are, whatever the circumstances may be, you are not forgotten.  No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you.  In fact, He loves you, with an infinite love."

Be happy now.

Don't forget the small things when you are waiting for your golden ticket.

Handsomeness

Despite Kade being busier than ever right now with school and campus recruiting, he has still made the time to be such a sweet husband.  These are times that I never want to forget...I feel like all of our memories are so precious. This is his last year as a student, and the last time we will live in this apartment in Philly. Our life will change to something new next summer. 

Due to our mouse problem, Kade thought it would be funny to play a joke on me. I was teasing him on the couch one night telling him that he was too busy everyday to do anything romantic for his wife. It instantly made him remember something he had done before leaving to school that morning and I saw in his face what looked like a light bulb turning on.  He tossed my joke aside and turned serious telling me that he heard a mouse up in our cupboard the night before when he was alone studying and had forgotten to tell me.  He made me believe that when he looked up there after hearing it, he saw a hole and determined that was how they were getting around in the walls.  I believed him, knowing how tricky mice are, and when I went over and opened up the cupboard... I found this:

Who does that? My favorite part is the smiley face inside the O's. Haha. Little moments like this make me appreciate him so much. He is SO dang funny and is always making me laugh.  This picture below, for instance, is another moment in time that made me laugh one of my hardest.

There was a HUGE storm outside and the thunder and lightening was crazy.  There was one particular strike of lightening that sounded like it was on top of our roof.  He immediately pulled the covers up, laid on his stomach, threw the pillow over his head and acted as though he was hiding. "Babe, monsters are coming!"  This is coming from a guy that likes a bowl of cereal or a big cup of ice cream before he goes to bed. "Milk helps me sleep better."

I love him so much. He makes me smile every single day and reminds me how grateful I am to be with him. He has been working so hard at school...I am so proud of him.  We will be blessed because of his endless efforts.

This is a perfect quote that I found on Pinterest the other day.  It is what I will strive for every day of my life just to try and show him how grateful I am to be married to him.

Farmer's Market

Saturday was the big Farmer's Market and Flea Market, just two blocks down from our apartment at Clark Park. Going there made me wish that I had a house to buy some antiques that people were getting rid of to paint and fix up. One day! For now we just enjoyed looking at what was for sale.

We are on a search for a second bike--there were plenty of old ones to chose from but they were not very comfortable!

There were a bunch of tents lined up with all the fruits and veggies you need.  They also had stands for fresh, cheap flowers.

Since there are only two of us,  I just purchased a little bit.  We wanted to try the produce and see how we liked it. We got a great deal and everything tasted very fresh!

The Flea Market is once a month, but the Farmer's Market is every Saturday until it starts to get too cold. I now know where I will be every Saturday morning. YUM!!

Life in Philly

Well, we made it back to Philly.  Our cute friend Lindsey picked us up from the airport--she grew a big belly over the summer! We are excited to see her little baby when it comes soon. When we first walked in our apartment, we smelled the bunny. Yuck!  We dropped our bags and left to go get some pizza for dinner, and to go grocery shopping.  The next two days I spent deep cleaning, organizing, and putting away boxes while Kade started his classes and job in the library. It feels good to be back.... here is a picture of our cute street:

We have been able to see a lot of this little guy already! He is now a little bit older and can remember my name.  Michelle had a baby over the summer, so he now has a little sister named Madeline.  His new thing to say is, "Oh...sure!" Kade and I quote him at home all the time. 

Our first Sunday back we showed up right on time for sacrament at 12:00.... only to hear them saying the closing prayer.  Apparently we missed the Stake Conference memo!

The bishopric saw us, however, and didn't waste any time... we already received our callings!

Kade: 1st Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency

Brittany: Sunbeams Teacher

We are very excited, and want to magnify our callings while we are here in this ward. 

The weather has been very hot and humid since we got here.  There were a few cold nights, but it didn't last long.  We are trying to not use our window air-conditioning units in fear that our electrical bill will put us in debt, so we use a fan when needed. 

Our butter doesn't last long if I leave it out on the counter...

...and all of our cups sit in a pool of water no matter where they are placed. 

One morning when I was getting ready for church, Kade came in and asked me if I had been getting into his Oreo's. He didn't believe me when I told him no and was laughing at me as though I was caught. He then made me go look at the package for myself. 

 Look closely at this picture below---the Oreo's are up on the TOP shelf in our pantry.

Yep Kade, I don't know how to open the package with my hands...so I nibble.  NOT! We have a pet mouse, and it is not very welcome here. There were little pieces of Oreo packaging all over the shelves and every Oreo was nibbled on all along the top. How it got up on the top shelf you ask me? It must have crawled up my apron and jumped. I don't even want to think about it. There are no holes up there or even tiny cracks, I have already checked and re-checked.  I keep our apartment very clean so I am guessing they were attracted to the bunny that lived here over the summer.  Beautiful. We have traps out, but the scoundrel has set them off and ran. 

On a better note...I got a job working with this little cutie:

Violet Jane. 12 weeks old.

She has been a lot of fun to watch but will not let me put her down. She loves to be held so we take naps together and just hang out. 

I have to be at her house at 7:00 am and this is the view I get to see from my bike every morning.  Gorgeous! 

And the best for last....we got a package in the mail from my Mom and Ron.  Words cannot even describe how giving they are.  You ask for one treat, and they send you a box bigger than your body.  We won't ever be able to repay them, so we try to be as grateful as possible.  They are incredible.

Kade has been working hard towards getting more interviews for a job after graduation.  He has his full time offer from The Bank of America to choose from, but isn't sure that is what he wants to do. On campus recruiting has already started and he had his first interview yesterday with a company based in Boston. Who knows where we are going to end up but we are both open to any location. I am proud of him for his hard work and know we will end up right where we need to be! As for now, we will enjoy the time we have here in Philly. 

Home?

Well, Kade and I aren't quite sure where home is.  It used to be Italy, then we went "home" to Utah.  Philly was our "home" in the Spring, but then we moved to Washington D.C.  We kept going "home" to Utah in-between all of these other cities...and now we are back in Philly.  Our apartment here feels like "home" and knowing we will be here for the whole school year makes it seem more permanent than anything we have had since being married. No more living out of suitcases, and the furniture here is stuff that we purchased on our own. But, our family is in Utah and that is what we are most familiar with.  We will be going "home" for Christmas, and possibly Thanksgiving. We will just consider ourselves lucky, and say we have a couple places to call "home."

Between Hawaii and Sun Valley, we did manage to have two weeks in Utah before we moved back to Philly.  We tried to fill it with as much family time as possible, and anything else we could squeeze in after.  Sometimes it was nice to only have plans with Payton...to wrestle, watch a movie, and make cookies. It was fun to go to my Dad's house and enjoy some lentil tacos while catching up with Elizabeth.  Kade and my Dad talked about church books, of course.  My Mom and Ron met us for our favorite treat...frozen yogurt.  There are not many frozen yogurt places here in Philly--it is definitely a Utah fad and we take advantage of it when we are "home." We went to the gym every morning with Ann, and came home and talked over breakfast. We were able to have a home cooked Cafe Rio meal by Mari and time well spent with friends. Now when we crave it, I can attempt to make it myself...although I will not make an apron look half as cute as she did! We went to meet the Smith Clan up at the Bountiful bubble one night to hang out with the nieces and nephews...my favorite! We got to officially congratulate baby Clark that is on its way in Calaigh's belly, and catch up with Grandma and Grandpa Wads over a horrible dinner at Christopher's. Everyone ordered fish with Risotto and it tasted totally fermented.  I thought Ann was going to throw up--yuck! Kade and I made a good decision and were the only ones to order a steak. Kade got to go to lunch with Cole, and again with Rhet and Jordan. We got to see little Owen and the Towners, and also met Morgan's girlfriend whom we have heard about for months.  She was a sweetheart.  Now that we are back in Philly, we are feeling guilty that we did not see  certain people while we were in Utah. Time goes by so fast--it's crazy!  Our biggest problem is that people usually want to meet for lunch, dinner, or dessert.  We have a hard time passing up the offer because we are only in town for such a short period of time, but yet we don't have a lot of money to spend on every meal of the day.  We are going to have to get creative and find ways to see people without spending money every time we meet up with someone new! One day we will be back in Utah and we won't have this problem...but then we will miss the ward and friends we have made out here on the East coast.  I am not even going to think about it...stresses me out!  Here are some pics from time well spent at "home...."

Hiking Donut Falls with Paytie

Birthday lunch with the girls

Golfing with Preston

Bragging Time: My hubby has a hidden talent that most people don't know about.  He is a fabulous oil painter!!! For my Mom and Ron's Birthday gift, he painted them a picture from our honeymoon when we were in Como.  He started painting it while we were in DC, and finished when we were in Utah.  It turned out amazing.

We hung out at my Mom's with Ster and Calaigh and went on a scooter ride.

We had a lot of fun seeing a lot of different people...but the most important night was on August 27th.  We got to celebrate our One Year Anniversary! Wahoo! Where has the time gone? My husband is still as romantic as when I met him.  I am a very lucky girl.

We had promised each other that we would not do presents this year.  We celebrated a few months ago when we took a trip to NYC and did some shopping.  Little did I know, Kade had the whole day planned.  It started out with shopping at The Gateway, and then we headed up to Park City to go to the outlets. He is such a good shopper, always next to me picking out clothes he thinks I need to try on.  I would much rather shop for him in the guy section though! 

Then we went to the St. Regis hotel where we spent our first night as a married couple and had dinner out on the patio. It was gorgeous weather and we had a very pretty view.  We had a few visitors buzzing around during dinner but I killed them with my fork. 

When we got home, he gave me the Anniversary Willow Tree statue that I have been wanting and a journal to go with it. I felt very guilty for not surprising him with something, but we decided that next year I get to do all the planning and surprising.  I do not deserve this guy, that is for sure! 

This is the last picture we took of us in Utah before we took off on our plane.  On to our next adventure...and the start of Kade's last year as a student! 

Sun Valley

Over Labor Day weekend we went to Sun Valley with the Wadsworths, and their friends Ryan and Michelle Relyea.  They have four cute little girls and one of them is the same age as Paytie.  The car was literally packed to the roof--golf clubs, fishing gear, food, clothes, and bikes on the back. Here is a picture overload of a very fun weekend.

Feeding the ducks with McCall

This trip involved a lot of wrestling... all girls against Kade.

The Labor Day festivities started with an all you can eat pancake breakfast...

...then the girls decided to volunteer to sit at the dunking booth. People who paid for a wristband got three chances to hit the target with a baseball.

Paytie got a little unlucky!

After the boys saw how brave the girls were...they started lining up in their underwear.  Paytie and Surette started a trend!

Then we had pizza and watched the afternoon parade.

Outdoor skating rink:

I have a very handsome husband :)

The guys went mountain biking early every morning...

...and then sat in the hot tub to de-thaw.

Antique car show in town

The girls went shopping and got ice cream one day for dessert while the guys went golfing.

It was a very fun last weekend in Utah.  We were grateful that we were in town long enough to go. It was a lot of fun to get to know Michelle's little girls, and Kade loved talking to Ryan about business.  We all had a great time together.