Thoughts.

I have had a lot on my mind lately. I have been thinking about how life is hard and how it isn't fair. I have been overwhelmed with school, life, friends, etc. I have been experiencing feeling of inadequacy and like I can't do it. But through many sources I have been reminded of the Eternal Perspective, as it was put in a Priesthood blessing that I was given yesterday by my sweet husband. I am thankful for his worthiness and willingness to exercise the Priesthood that he holds in our home everyday. I am so blessed to have such a strength and example in my life. Heavenly Father has given me trials-ones that are unique and tailored to me, my personality, and my temperament. I know this. BUT I also know that He will NOT give me anything that I cannot handle. In thinking about this I was reminded of NieNie. After surviving a plane crash where 80% of her body was burned her life has been changed. She now deals with her trial everyday, but she has an incredible perspective of what the Plan really is and a greater eternal perspective. I encourage you to watch her Mormon Message here. Jared and I watched it and we were in awe. Her trial is tailored to her, it is something that many of us may not be able to handle but Heavenly Father knows that she can handle it. Heavenly Father knows that I can handle the trials that I have been given. It just takes faith on my part to remember that I can handle them as well. After watching the Mormon Message from NieNie I saw the link to another Mormon Message by Elder Holland Good Things to Come from this talk. I can make it through. I can finish this semester and will be able to finish my student teaching. I will be able to get over situations with friends, and other daily things that happen. Heavenly Father has given me and will continue to give me the power to do the things that I need to do to pass through my trials. Heavenly Father knows that I can do it, it is just me proving to myself that I can do it. We all can do it. We just need to turn to Him and ask for the strength we need. It may not be easy-I am not saying that it will be because I know just how hard it can be sometimes, but it will be worth it and we will grow and become stronger from it. I know that Christ lives and that I have a loving Heavenly Father who loves me. I know that my Savior died on the cross for me so that I can repent, but also draw strength from Him as I go through trials in my life. You can make it. you can get through whatever you are experiencing right now. You must just create eyes to seeWhat Heaven Sees in You.

You can.

Enjoy the Journey.

Like Father...

Like Son. This made me laugh.

Enjoy the Journey.

Memorial Day Weekend.

I have been waiting to do projects for a long time- just wishing I had days to relax and finally they came!!!! I love the site Make it and Love it. And her tutorials are so easy to follow! One day I will be like her-making the tutorials not following them.

A skirt for Julia-the only "pattern" I had was this tutorial.

2 Crayon Holders using this tutorial.

A Tagie Blanket!!! I had the kit to make this and finally got around to it-Jared and I love it! (Making it into a tagie was my idea-I am so glad I did!)

Grocery Sack holder using this tutorial.

2 flowers using this tutorial.

Headband with a bow using this tutorial.

A hair bow... one of the over 60 (last I counted it was 61 but I don't know....) that I made since Thursday evening.

A close up of the pillow I recovered.

It was such a nice weekend!! I loved having the chance to relax and just be creative! Everything that I used I already had at home. And MY SEWING MACHINE works! I have had issues with it for a long time but we found out that if you have a Brother machine (I have the $100 from Wal*Mart) you HAVE to use Brother bobbins or it won't sew properly. Good thing they are cheap!

Enjoy the Journey.

Honeymoon Part 1

These are going to be in backwards order but I am finally getting them done!!!

The two nights of our honeymoon we were in Pocatello at the Black Swan Inn. We just relaxed and enjoyed having the stress of the wedding over with! We opened the cards, and our honeymoon banks. To explain our honeymoon banks I got the idea from Lisa when she married Chad. She had a big jar of change that they used just for their honeymoon. Well since I was in high school at the time I just decided to start saving for myself-except I was using cash. Whenever I got a big pay check I would slip some money in there, a dollar here, five there, twenty a few times. :) One time I was telling Jared about this and he decided to do one of his own. Mine were in the coconut banks that you get in Hawaii but his was in a dog statue that he had-he just cut a hole in the back. Mine were easy to get apart-we just had to break the hot glue seal. Jared's had to be completely broken-hence the picture. Here is a really funny story that happened:

After Jared's family had left the reception apparently his aunt realized she had forgotten her jacket, so Jordan and Cahlin were sent back to get it. Jordan got there only to run into my mom who told him that she needed him to do something. She told him that the one thing I said was "Don't let me forget this black bag," so she asked him if he would deliver it to us. Karissa mentioned that she had heard we would be in the Romeo and Juliet Suite. -Switch to our end. We had just gotten to our suite and Jared's phone starts ringing and it says Jordan, he says "ha!" and turns his phone off.-So off they go. Jordan and Cahlin head to Pocatello to deliver the "black bag"-contents unknown. The next day we wake up and there is a text from Jordan about forgetting a black bag. I text Jordan from Jared's phone asking him to please bring water (it tasted so gross there and we had already drank our water bottles) when he brings the black bag. Immediately Jared's phone rings and it is Jordan. I answered it and he explains that they delivered the black bag last night and that it should be on our door knob. They found the door, heard talking and TV so they knocked but we didn't answer and it got quiet. Then he said they waited and then he talked to the door saying "It's okay you don't have to answer we brought the black bag." Then he put it on the doorknob and they left. " I said "Jordan which Romeo and Juliet suite did you go to?" He responded saying "There is more than one?" He said they went up stairs to a hall of doors and found it. I realized that it was the wrong one. He started laughing and said "Well at least we didn't ruin your night!" So I sent Jared to go and track down the black bag. He responded that my mom said it was important so he knew he needed to bring it. I don't know when she heard me say that I needed to make sure not to forget it but the contents of the black bag: My hair and makeup stuff. :) (this story is much better if you hear him tell it in person. you will die laughing.)

Monday morning we went and returned Jared's tux to the mall and got smoothies, cinnamon rolls and pull aparts for breakfast and hopped in the car to head to Utah.

Enjoy the Journey.

Haircut.

I love Jared's curly hair. The longer it gets the curlier it gets and I love it. But it does get really long! I have been meaning to cut it for a while now but we have been busy. Finally last night I cut it. I used the clippers on it and his clippers were a titch broken so it took forever. After he showered he fixed them. Here is a picture of all of the hair that I cut off! I am constantly amazed by the amount of hair that this boy has-but I love running my fingers through it! (Oh and the vacuum that we got for our wedding-$20 at walmart- is awesome for cleaning up afterwards! I would recommend it to anyone who has hard floors-even if you don't use it for cleaning up after a haircut.)

Enjoy the Journey.

New Interest

Lately I have found an interest in little girls jewelry boxes. I started buying them if they were $2 and under (except I may have paid $4 for one... I don't remember). Anyways I have had this plan to redo them. I didn't know exactly how I wanted to go about this but today I started on the project. I wish I would have taken a before picture of the inside but I forgot. So the only before picture is all of the old fabric ripped out in a pile. I redid the entire inside of it! I also added the black ribbon just for something modern. I want to redo the outside but I don't have the stuff up here right now, so for now it is a half done project.

Outside

Inside

Drawer

The inside.

Enjoy the Journey.

Projects

I decided to switch my projects up and make a wreath today! It is the first one that I have made but I think it turned out pretty cute! It seems more like Spring to me than Summer but that's fine because that means an excuse to make another one soon!

The white is scrap knit from my knit jacket I made last semester. The yellow and green are eyelet that I picked up at DI, and the pink is just cotton that I got from Debbie when she was cleaning out. The actual wreath I picked up at the dollar store. So... this probably cost me $1.50? And now our front door looks so cute!

Also this is my quilt top that I made as my last project in my Advanced sewing class last semester. I LOVE it!!! I think it turned out sooo cute! I can't wait to finish it! I have some ideas I am tossing around to finish it! :)A close up of one of the quilt blocks. Each block has 9 pieces. But it goes so quick! I almost finished all of them the first 2 hour class period that I started working on them.

I love it!!!

Enjoy the Journey.

I have the itch....

To be creative.

Seriously it is killing me. I want to have all of the time in the world just to create things right now but I don't. Luckily this semester I don't have to worry about roommates/social life so I am able to have more time to be creative and I love it! I have started working on bows again. I have done some of the normal ones but have also been coming up with some new designs. I want to just keep doing new designs and selling them more. I am in the process of starting to sell them again through my dad taking them to work. I hope it works again and that I can stay semi busy, but not overwhelmed with business while I am still in school this semester.

I have been using scraps of fabric and odds and ends I have collected from random places and have been able to make a lot that I am loving!!! Let me know what you think! :)

This is the last one that I did before I decided to update the blog-a mix of a few designs!

If anyone has ideas for new ways to sell them let me know. Also I have lots of ideas in my head that I am dying to get out in the next little bit so check back to see what I am coming up with! :) I can't wait for more time so I can bust out my sewing machine.... oh the designs and ideas that I have for that!!!! Endless!!!

Enjoy the Journey.

One Month!!! and Update

It is crazy to think that I have been married to my best friend for a whole month. Since I have been behind in keeping the blog up to date one might ask where that month has gone. So.....

I came home to these beautiful flowers, a large bag of Sour Patch Kids (I am seriously addicted to them.) and a sweet note from my cute husband for us being married for one month. :) I love that boy.

After moving into our apartment we have been busy with starting one semester and finishing the other. I started the exact same day Jared ended (due to my class being cancelled the official first day of classes). Since then I have been busy with school and Jared has been busy with work. Right now he is just doing his ebay business and keeping really busy with that. He has applied for a few internships/jobs but we haven't heard back on any of them. With school I am taking 16 credits this semester including Methods, and Curriculum Development, Food Science, Reading in the Content, and Parenting (online). I have been pretty busy, but am able to find time each day to do something fun with Jared as a break. We started running together which I really enjoy, we take bike rides, cook together, or I work on bows (another post) and he works while we watch our favorites-Castle, Pawn Stars, or Auction Hunters. We are nerds.

On Monday night we made conference bread.... We put a few too many Rhodes rolls in the pan,(Thanks Kara and Alvin!! We love it!) and our oven cooks ridiculous but they turned out good! (Side note: Our oven cooks 75 degrees hotter than the dial says-so you would think if you just turn it down it would cook normal but it still doesn't. The only thing I have had turn out is bread sticks. )

Jared is so good about helping me cook dinner! He also makes my lunches every day in a brown sack and writes my name on the outside and leaves me a note inside. I am sooo blessed!!!

We also have been eating a lot of watermelon and corn on the cob. We had the watermelon on our counter for a day and a half and hadn't touched it until I cut it all up and put it in this awesome container. It is huge. Now it is so much easier to grab and eat. This is definitely something I will continue doing.

I am still waiting on my placement for student teaching but the good news is is that they have been getting them out the past few weeks so it is just when they get around to me... I hope it is soon... I am dying!!!! But the good news is that mid terms are in 2-2.5 weeks. I can't even believe that they are already so close!!!

Enjoy the Journey.

Date Night, Easter, and the Dino Baby.

We had our first official "date night" last Friday night. We had a couple of gift cards to Wingers so we went and had dinner. After that we headed to the dollar store to finish our Easter Baskets.

(At the dollar store we found a flamingo-which apparently we need for our house so we can be true "trailer trash." Alicia appreciated the effort in finding one-BUT we did not purchase.)

We were gone over Easter weekend in Utah and Shelley-Utah Friday night/Saturday afternoon for Heather Belle's baptism. We are so glad that we got to be a part of it! We are happy you made that decision Heather! Then Sunday was Jared's cousin Kendal's "leaving on a mission talk." Kendal did awesome! He will be a great missionary and we are loving that we can use Dear Elder to write him for free while he is in the MTC. It was great to see both sides of the family and not have the stress of the wedding.

Anyways, we had already decided to do each other's Easter baskets about a month before we got married; we just never finished them. So we shopped at the dollar store and headed home. We put our baskets together and then put them on the couch with a towel over each of them so that we couldn't see what was in them. Then we headed to Walmart and Broulims to get a few things. When we got back the Easter Bunny had been to our house!!! (The Easter bunny had visited us Saturday morning in Utah and Sunday afternoon in Shelley too!)

We opened our baskets and were excited about the things that we found for each other.

I was most excited about a new hand mirror because mine had broke.

Jared was most excited about the dino egg.

We played Connect 4,

Finger Bowling,

and then decided to excavate dinosaur bones.

The dino-egg was actually a lot of fun! We loved doing it-and were easily amused. We took turns doing the different "jobs" and getting excited over finding the bones. After we found all of the bones Jared put it together. We had our own little dino baby! It was a successful date night and we look forward to more in the future!

Enjoy the Journey.

This One Time....

I married my very best friend. April 9, 2011 was the best day of my life, I became Jared Paul Fielding's wife. It was such a perfect day! For the purpose of this being journaling I am going to be as detailed as I can... just an FYI. :)

Well....for me the preparation kicked in high gear when we started setting up on Thursday night. We were so lucky to have a lot of help with setting up! Mom, Dad, Karissa, Chad, Lisa and kids, Jason Geary, Aunt Kathy and Allison, Aunt Sherry, Holly, Pauline, Kaylee, and Ishmael (I think that was everyone....) were all there to help. We got a ton done! I was amazed with what we got done. Chad and Jason hung the wire across the gym while the rest of us hit the ground to get stuff done. By the time we left Thursday night we had the wire, lanterns, and lights up, tables, tablecloths, backdrop, and chairs all up. The biggest part was done it was just the little-probably time consuming things that still had to be done.

Friday morning started with Jared heading to get his tux in Pocatello and me heading to Amber Arsenault's to get my hair done. (I can do other's hair but I don't trust myself to do my own! She did my hair for my MissRusset pictures, my bridals, and my wedding. SO EXCITED she is having a girl... like this week!!!) After that Jared and I ran a few errands before we headed to Rexburg with Jon and Lindy to take pictures. We left a bit later than planned and we needed to grab something from where Jared and I would be living so we decided to change there. Lindy helped me get dressed while Jared got dressed. Jared and Jon headed to Smith Park where we would meet them. After we go to Smith Park Lindy took Jared and positioned him where she wanted him with his back to me. During this time Kaylee came and delivered our flowers- THEY TURNED OUT AWESOME!!!!!!! Then Lindy took me and put me where she wanted me behind Jared. She gave he okay and then he waited for me to tell him he could turn around. When he did he just stopped. I think he said "WOW.............. You look beautiful............ the dress is perfect and looks amazing on you............" During all of this Lindy captured the moment. :) Then we took pictures at the park and headed to the temple. It was FREEZING outside!

We got some awesome shots with our last one being in the field with the temple behind us.

We LOVE that picture!!! Then as we got in the car it started snowing like crazy!!!! We met up with Kaylee and Ishmael to get the centerpieces and give back my bouquet and Jared's boutonniere. We headed back to the house, changed like mad people, and headed to our dinner. I will say it... we. were. late. BUT I am okay with that because no one seemed to care and we got some AWESOME shots we wouldn't have otherwise. For our dinner Jared and I picked Hawaiian Haystacks with Cheesecake for dessert. It looked great! It was the atmosphere that I wanted and I loved it! We had casual dress so that it was a party! Half of the tables had things about us and our relationship and the other half had the beautiful flower centerpieces.

Some of the things on our "other" tables were:

• Our first kiss/holding hands
• Graduation from high school/seminary
• BYU/ BYU-I
• Masquerade
• Prom
• Our favorite things

At the table we were at it was just us and our parents. After we had a little to eat we started making the rounds visiting with everyone that was there. There were so many people there who love and care about us! It was awesome!!!! I want to have dinners like that just because and for no reason at all!!! :) After the dinner we said goodbye at the church and I headed for pie. In my family pie is a tradition with the girls the night before you get married. This time it was Karissa, Becky, Alicia, Lindy, Holly, and I. I ended up getting food and pie because I was hungry from not getting very much to eat! On the way home Alicia got a phone call and when she said that the person better tell her who they were I, for some reason, knew it was Jared. It turns out I still had his cell phone in my bag from pictures earlier. We headed to his house to drop off the phone. I was excited to get to see him again. :)

Saturday brought lots of fun and excitement. I was up and at Amber's house at 7 a.m. to start my hair. Karissa and Briana joined at about 8. It was a fun and relaxing morning for me because it was quiet and I just chilled with my sister and the girls I grew up playing with. As soon as my hair was done-about 9:45 I headed home. Jared got there shortly after I did. I hurried and changed into my dress and then we were off. Mom drove my car with Jared and I in the back seat. It was cute. We got to the temple and started doing everything that we needed. My mom was able to help me get dressed in the Bride's room which was absolutely breathtaking. There were 20 weddings in Rexburg that day! President Kinghorn was our sealer- I know him because he is my old roommate Ashley Bedke's grandpa, but he also served as the Patriarch for the 4th Stake in Rexburg when Jared's Grandpa Fielding was on the high council. The sealing was beautiful. The room was filled with family and friends. It was packed and I think there were....4 people standing? After the sealing President Kinghorn invited people to come and congratulate us on their way out. I was fine until our siblings and the rest of our immediate family/grandparents/ aunts came. That's when I started to cry. Jared kept telling me not to cry because it is a happy thing but that is why I was crying. There were so many people there who love us-not to mention all of those standing outside or in the waiting room. My mom and Julie came back with me to the brides room to get dressed and head out of the temple. We waited inside until we go the cue that everyone was ready and then we went out. We had to go through one set of doors and let them close before we went through the other to keep the noise out of the temple. When we went out there were so many faces of people we love. It was awesome. Jared took me in a dip and kissed me. Everyone cheered. :)

We did family pictures at the temple, group shots, etc. then we headed to do the pictures we wanted and didn't get on Friday. While we were doing pictures at the temple Jared's parents went and grabbed us Arby's. After we finished with the temple shots we walked down to the stake center below the temple and ate in the Relief Society room. Then we grabbed my parents and headed downtown for pictures.

We were trying to find the live laugh love wall but never found it. We did find a lot of other cool walls and got some great shots!!! After we finished with pictures downtown we headed back to the temple. We were the last bride and groom to leave the temple that day. We had a brief scare of lost keys but we found them and headed to Shelley. We stopped by my house for something.... I don't even remember, then headed to the church. By the time we got to the church it was time to get dressed again and start pictures. The finished gym looked AWESOME!!!!! We loved it. When my mom was fixing the lace up on my dress I noticed a quilt and asked her who made it. It was beautifully pieced, pink and brown out of material that we had bought years earlier for a project. She responded holding back tears that she had. We love it! After pictures it was time for the reception to start. My shoes came off by I think the 2nd person? :) The line was constant except one short give for like maybe 2 minutes. It was CRAZY!!!! Seriously the gym was packed the entire time and the line was out the door. Jared and I were amazed by how many people there were! Randy and Sheila la got us food from the gas station-we were thankful for that! Holly and Julisa made sure we had plenty to drink, and I was able to call Alicia over whenever I needed a picture taken. We were supposed to have a line from 6:30-8 then a dance from 8:00-8:30, but we ended up being in line until 8:40 then danced until about 9. We danced together for our first dance to Love of my Life,

then I danced with my dad to I Loved Her First.

It wasn't long before he started crying-but I was holding back the tears too. We did Cotton-Eyed Joe, the Hokey Poke, Love Story, and a few others. Honestly I don't remember the other ones-I just know we did. Before we left the reception we grabbed the basket of cards and headed out. Our car was lovely-with paint and balloons. We had an escape car at my house but Chad got wind of that and made sure he painted the windows of that car too. We changed out of our formal attire into sweats, grabbed the suitcase and headed out! The day was perfect and we loved every minute of it! Thanks to all who were a part of it!!!!

The crazy things that happen when the bride and groom leave....

Lindy did an awesome job with our pictures! WE can hardly wait to see the rest of them!!! To see the slideshow click here. (the pictures on here aren't very good quality because I had to take a screen shot of them-hence the line through some of them. BUT click the link and view the show!!!!)

Enjoy the Journey.