Lost and Blind in Independence

Yesterday I told Adam that I would get off at the Rockside bus stop (close to his school) and meet him at the Walgreens on the corner of Rockside and Brecksville. On the ride into work, I realized that what I thought was a Walgreens was actually a Drug Mart. I forgt my cell phone, so once I got into work I called Adam (no answer) and left a message on his phone telling him that I meant Drug Mart. I called him quite a few times during the day without an answer (this is very common when he's at school so I just hoped that he'd get my message. Well, I got off the bus later that day and waited at the Drug Mart. Now, many of you know that I have a lot of problems opening my eyes lately, so I was a bit nervous about attempting to explore Independence on my own to try and find Adam. After about an hour of sitting and praying that Adam would find me I decided to search for a pay phone. These are really hard to find now that everyone pretty much has a cell phone. I walked over to a gas station (the scariest walk across a parking lot of my life because I couldn't really see) thinking for sure they'd have a pay phone. As I manually lifted my eyelids to get a glimpse of my surroundings I saw it across the street...WALGREENS!!!... which had been blocked from my view by the gas station and blinding sunlight. I quickly made my way to the corner of a very dangerous intersection to make my walk of death across the street. I was able to keep my eyes open long enough to see the green man appear that lets me know I can "walk." As I stepped into the street my eyes shut again and I prayed that I could walk straight. As I got toward the othe side of the street I heard Adam honk the horn of our car. I was so excited and relieved to have found him and to have made it safely across the street that I had a little cry of relief. The world is less scary when you can see!

Our $80 Mistake

When Adam and I moved into our townhome, the managers only had one key for our apartment. We had really good intentions to go and get another one made, but Wal-mart isn't very close to us and every time we did make a trip there, we'd forget about the key. Adam gets home from school before I get home from work, so it's never been an issue...he keeps the key. Well, Monday morning I had a doctor appointment, and I wasn't sure if I was going to come home afterwards or go to work. Since we only had one key we left it in our "secret place" for whoever got home first. Well, Adam got home first and then a few hours later had to leave to come and pick me up from work. When we got back home, he realized that he had locked us out...we could see the key sitting on our kitchen table inside! The management office didn't have any spare keys, and so Adam attempted to break into our own house. When we realized that all the windows downstairs were locked, Adam decided that he'd try the second floor. There wasn't anything near our house for him to stand on to help hoist him onto the porch roof, so he decided to drive the car over...across the lawn...so he could stand on that. After all that work, we found out that all the windows upstairs were locked too. The next thing I know was Adam was trying to jump off the roof. I asked him to just kind of slide back onto the car because the jump made me nervous. He thought that was even more dangerous and insisted on jumping...which he did...into a puddle of mud! We finally surrendered at this point and went to our neighbor's to find a locksmith in the yellow pages. We found one, and he wanted $80...in cash! He came and was able to unlock the door in about 3 minutes...maybe less. Adam decided he was going to quit podiatry school and become a locksmith ($80 in three minutes...not too bad!!!). I told him no. Needless to say...we now have three keys!

They were called letters...

On Thursday, Adam and I received a letter from Zach (my 16 year old brother-in-law). With today's technology...email, cell phones, text messaging, blogs, etc...we don't receive too many letters. I must say that Adam's family is probably some of the best letter/card writers in the country, and we do get them from his parents every now and then. Well, Zach had never written us a letter before, so it was quite a surprise getting it in the mail. I just love getting mail, especially letters! Now, there is nothing earth shattering really going on in the life of this guy, but everything he wrote was fun to read. It really made us laugh (he's hilarious!). Now, I have a little confession to make. I LOVE checking the mail. When I am at home for the day, I will check the mailbox 2-3 times before the mailman comes, just to see if maybe he came early today. Growing up, I would get mad if anyone would check the mail before me. When I went to college, my family didn't check the mailbox for a week because they were so used to me doing it. When I get home from work, the first thing I ask Adam is, "Did you get the mail yet?" I don't know why I have this obsession with getting the mail because usually it's just junk adds or bills. But every once in a while, that golded letter comes (like the one from Zach) that brightens my day and takes me back to a simpler time...before the internet and cell phones!

Ol' blue Jeans on!

So, anyone who went to high school with me pretty much knows that I'm a jeans and t-shirt kinda girl. I don't remember ever wearing anything but jeans in high school! Well, with the job I have now, I can't wear jeans to work. Today, was a special day because we got to wear jeans in and it totally made my day. So this post is dedicated to jeans and reasons why they're great.
Jeans...

1. match everything...you can wear any color with jeans and it'll look good


2. are comfortable


3. are warm (skirts/dress pants are NOT suitable for Cleveland's winters)


4. can be dressed up...you can wear with a blouse and heels and look fabulous


5. are flexible


6. allow you to move free (you have to watch how you're sitting in a skirt, but not in jeans!


7. can be worn many times before washing and no one can tell (I promise I do wash my jeans though)


8. Jeans can easily be recycled (cut-offs, jean quilts, etc.)


9. It's cool if they look worn (you can't wear a skirt, shirt or khaki's with a hole in it and still look decent)

Jeans make me so HAPPY!!!

A New Family Tradition!

Last night we got together with our friends, Dan and Amber Patty and Tyson and Lauren Fiala, to make gingerbread houses. It was so much fun that I decided making gingerbread houses was going to be a family tradition for us!

Note: Yes, Adam's thumb nail is painted a green/yellow color. I have NOTHING to do with this. He does it on his own accord whenever we go to the grocery store. If you have any questions, please speak with Dan Nelson!

This is a back shot of my gingerbread house. I would put a back shot of Adam's on here, but his looked the same on both sides. As you can tell from the picture of him and his creation, we're not really sure what Adam built. This makes me nervous, and I decided that we will never build our own home.

There were a lot of creative juices flowing and it was fun to see what everyone came up with. Here's a fun picture with the whole group and our houses...

For our friends and family who live far away...these are our friends, Amber and Dan Patty. Poor Dan had a bit of trouble with the skyscraper gingerbread building he was making. It collapsed during the building of the fourth floor. What your seeing in the picture below is the remains of his project. His is the second one to the left in the picture above.
We hung out for the first time last night with Tyson and Lauren Fiala (below). They were a lot of fun, and we hope to do more with them! They both had great gingerbread houses, although Tyson's was really impressive with his two story home.

Dan in Real Life

If you have not seen Dan in Real Life, I would stongly urge you to stop reading this post. I cannot promise that what I write will not spoil the end of the movie for you. This movie is worth seeing; it has many truths and laughs in it that are all too familiar too all of us and our families!

Friday nights are mine and Adam's date night. For as long as I can remember, date nights have consisted of us going out for dinner. Last night we were both in the mood for something a little different, so we decided it'd be fun to go see a movie. Now, going to the movies is not something we do very often because one of two scenarios always takes place:

Scenario 1- We go see a movie Laura wants to see, usually a chick flick or Disney movie. Adam laughs in parts that are NOT funny and doesn't laugh in the parts that are. This annoys Laura a little. Laura places herself in a move when she watches it, so by the end of a good chick flick she feels happy and in love! After the movie she wants to talk to Adam about her feelings and thoughts, and gets little to no response from Adam except "Good movie." This really annoys her, and they both wish they hadn't gone to see the movie together.

Scenario 2- We go see a movie Adam wants to see. Laura drags her feet a little because they're usually filled with some kind of fighting and a story line she can't follow. This annoys Adam a little. Due to the fact that Laura "lives" every movie she watches, the violence eventually gets to her. She doesn't like the way the movie is making her feel and walks out. This makes Adam very annoyed, and they both wish they hadn't gong to see the movie together.

Well last night, after debating between Adam's choice, Beowulf, and Laura's choice of Enchanted, we decided to go middle of the road and see Dan in Real Life. We fell in love with the dynamics of the family. They were so real and deep. Not the kind of deep that you have to analyze to figure out, but the kind of deep that hits your heart because as you watch it you feel the love and concern that exists in your own family. The comedy was there too, and it was so real. None of those silly jokes that make it look like they were "trying" to be funny, but the kind of jokes and funny things that happen in every family.

It was a little coincidental that the two main characters' names, Dan and Marie, were both names that Adam and I have and don't go by. Their love story reminded my a lot of those first few experiences I had with Adam. This first time I met him, I felt a connection with him that I'd never felt with anyone else. He made me feel valuable and safe at the same time, just by the way he looked at me. For a month after that he stayed away from me because his roommate (not brother, liked me...we were not dating though). One Saturday afternoon , a group of us were over at his apartment. As usual, he wasn't saying much to me because of his roommate. As we were all talking, he picked up his guitar and started playing "To Make You Feel My Love." As he played that song, I knew that somehow I was going to have to get him to talk to me, if not date me. Well, our romance unfolded pretty quickly after that. He asked me out on a "non-date," and we talked for hours. Everything was the best with him, and he lifted me up. At the end of the movie, Dan talks about how we always tend to plan our life out, but it never turns out the way we plan. He says that we should teach our children to "plan on being surprised." As amazing and wonderful as my husband is, he is far from the blonde hair, blue eyed, sensitive, rugged person I had dreamed up. But as Adam said, "I was pleasantly surprised."

Our First Christmas Tree

This is going to be our first Christmas together! While my family was here, we went and bought our first Christmas tree! We bought a real one this year with the plan to buy an artificial tree when they go on sale after Christmas. Although, I've enjoyed the pine smell so much that I might ask Adam if we can do a real tree every year. I started putting the lights on, and then Adam did the rest. It was funny because our idea of Christmas lights on a tree was very different, and you could see it on our tree. My lights were spaced out pretty far, and Adam likes them concentrated. Our tree looked so goofy that Adam had to fix the part I did so that our lighting was consistent.It was fun decorating for Christmas, but I am definitly looking forward to the collection of Christmas decorations through out the years. With it being our first Christmas, we don't have a lot to decorate with. Luckily, we got married in December and used ornaments and lights as decor at our reception so we did have some stuff!

Kirtland

While my family was visiting for Thanksgiving, we took a drive to Kirtland, Ohio. It was the first time my family had been together to visit a church history site (excluding Temple Square in Salt Lake City). We started our tour at the Kirtland Temple and then went over to the LDS visitor's center and N.K. Whitney Store. We had a nice little surprise at the visitor center because the video they were showing was different than the one they usually show. Instead of one about old Kirtland, they showed the new Joseph Smith movie that originally played in the theatre at temple square. Adam and I had already seen the video in Rexburg, Idaho, but my family hadn't seen it and wouldn't get the opportunity in Georgia. My mom was so excited when she found out what video she was about to see. The movie is so good and always helps me appreciate the wonderful blessings that the gospel brings to my life. I am grateful that I know that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three seperate beings. Because of this, I am able to have a personal relationship with each one and understand the important role of each in my life. I hope that I will be stong enough to make the sacrifices needed in my life to instill a love and understanding of the gospel in my future children.

I love this picture because of Dallen. It had been a really long day for the little four-year-old who had to watch historical movies he didn't understand. He fell asleep, and we woke him up for a picture. You can tell he wasn't too happy about it!