Lisa's Birthday and our Third Anniversary

For my birthday this year, I told Thomas that what I really wanted was to clean up and organize our apartment and get rid of the stuff we don't need. We took a day and did just that! It was good. I also got some new clothes and Thomas got me my own French Bible! We've been reading La Bible together recently, but have had to share one book since that is all we had. Now we each have our own copy!

On my actual birthday, after work, we picked up KFC on the way home and had a nice little picnic at a local park.

Thank you to each of you who sent birthday greetings! I appreciated your gifts and wishes. It was nice to be remembered on my birthday!

Two days later, we celebrated our third anniversary! It was a fun day. We took part of the day off work to hang out together (and go to Tucanos during lunch time!).

We started off our afternoon with a trip up into Provo Canyon to walk along the river.

It was a sunny day, as shown by this handy dandy weather rock...

Provo River

Then we headed to Tucanos for a delicious lunch.

After recovering from all the food, we attended a sealing session at the Provo Temple. It was so nice to be there on our anniversary and remember the promises we made three years ago! When administered by the proper Priesthood authority in holy temples, entered into by faithful people who strive to obey the Lord's commandments and keep covenants, and prioritized and treasured, marriage and family relationships can last forever! We are three years into our eternity :o)

oxox

March 2013

The past month in Provo we have had really lovely weather. We've been able to get outside a bit and take some walks. It has been so nice!

The first weekend of March, we went back to where Thomas proposed along the Provo River.

 

 Here are some other things we've seen as we've gotten a little fresh air and sunshine.

Rounded-off ice chunks under the bridges along the Provo River

Cute neighborhood cat that visits sometimes. He used to have a collar but wasn't wearing one when we saw him this time. He is so pretty.

Looks like a good place for a nap!

I do not know what this is.

The Y

Among other happenings, we were released from our calling in our ward's Sunday School. Thomas now has a Priesthood calling (he is a counselor in the Elders' Quorum) and I have a Relief Society calling (I am an assistant secretary to the presidency). It is a change of pace for us (weekly Sunday School lesson preparation has been replaced by more meetings for Thomas, and I am working on a photo directory for the Relief Society) and will allow for personal growth in new areas! We are happy serving the Lord wherever He inspires our leaders to assign us. We enjoyed teaching the youth in our ward, but we are enjoying these new callings, too.

I had a birthday and we celebrated our anniversary, but I will post about those separately.

For Easter, we sang in our ward choir and then had our friends the Gates' over for dinner. It was a nice, simple way to commemorate the life, atonement, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately we forgot to get a picture of us and our guests...

oxox

February 2013

At the beginning of February my family came out for a few days to drop Morgan off at the MTC. It was a little hectic because Morgan had a lot she wanted to accomplish but there was not much time! I think the essential stuff got done.

Dad, Sister Paulson, Mom, me. Thomas had to work. This is across the street from the MTC.

Our little missionary - she left the MTC last week for Louisiana.

Here are some other things we have been up to:

We got a great deal on strawberries, which made for some perfect pink smoothies.

Valentine's Day:

For Valentine's Day, Thomas got me some beautiful Peruvian lilies. I made truffles and a candy box for him. On top of that is a rose I crocheted. I also made some crocheted heart garlands but we didn't get any pictures...

On Valentine's Day, a couple in our ward invited us to a dinner activity for the Special Needs Activity Program (their church calling). This is Sister Johns and her son Micah. We had a great time and loved learning about the "SNAP"!

This was our 5th Valentine's Day together-- crazy, huh?

Other stuff:

I started reading The Infinite Atonement, a gift from a friend in our ward.

We took a walk the other day when the weather was nice last Tuesday and snapped a picture of the Provo City Center Temple construction progress.

We also stepped inside the new Provo Convention Center. We might have explored a little but there was nobody around.

We checked out the Covey Center for the Arts gallery for the first time in ... probably a couple years, sadly.

Last Wednesday a special and much-anticipated package arrived:

A graduation gift from Thomas' parents!

Now I need to decide on a good break-in project :oD

Thomas' dad came for a couple days last week. He was in town for a presentation.

After the temple, we had pizza and root beer floats together (with Samuel, too).

This weekend, we made it up to BYU campus:

We went to an indexathon hosted by the Vineyard (BYU chapter) that Samuel invited us to.

On our way home we briefly checked out the new venue in the Wilk, The Wall. It's a project Thomas' uncle worked on.

Other than that... well... we've been working and doing the usual stuff. I'm back to full-time hours. Work for both of us has changed buildings so it's been hard to establish a normal routine this year. We've been trying to eat healthier and exercise - I do my Leslie Sansone walking DVDs and Thomas has been playing basketball on Saturdays.

We still teach the 14-15-year-old Sunday School class. We've been implementing the new curriculum, Come, Follow Me. Today, we had a lesson on Doctrine and Covenants section 76, "the vision" of the post-judgement degrees of glory. The best part for me was when one of the students read verses 103 and 89-91 and testified that God is merciful and loves His children because even those who do wicked things ("liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers") may receive a glory "which surpasses all understanding". Very very awesome.

oxox

January 2013

We've had a very wet, very cold January. The snow has just stuck around, and every week or so we get some more. We've had some insane icicles around Provo, including on our complex. Unfortunately the gutter above our top step leaks, so we end up with a very slick patch of ice at the top of our steps.

It's hard to tell, but we were guessing the longest ones were 5-6 feet long.

I'm enjoying being out of school, especially since I do not have to walk to campus in this cold.

Here's a picture with me holding my diploma cover. My diploma arrived about a week later but we didn't take a picture :o)

In mid-January I went to visit my family for the weekend to be there for my sister to receive her endowment at the Sacramento temple and for her farewell talks. Unfortunately, Thomas couldn't come this trip. Doubly unfortunately, I was sick the entire time. Other than that it was a good weekend with lots of time with family.

Morgan at Sacramento Temple

Aunt Cookie, Mom, Dad, Morgan, Me, Aunt Ruth

Uncle Bob.... with same group as above. He and Aunt Cookie switched as photographers :o)

All the relatives that came to dinner after. Uncle Bob, Aunt Cookie, Aunt Ruth, Morgan, Dad, Mom, me, Aunt Lucy, Cousin Gail.

Morgan came back to Utah with me and stayed with us for a week. She and I went shopping at all the local places to get her outfitted for her mission! While she was here, we worked on an embroidery project our Aunt Patsy sent us a few months ago :o)

Embroidering!

Morgan sang a song for us while she was here :o)

This weekend it actually got a little warmer (like above freezing) so we went on a walk up to campus to deposit some checks/get some exercise.

Yoda and R2D2 made out of sticky notes....

oxox