We have been married for a month already, and boy has it
been a blissful one :) If you have
read our other blog posts, I am sure you know how happy we are and don’t need
to hear it again, but we are SO HAPPY!! Coming home to the love of your life after a
long day of work, waking up to them in the morning, and all the fun perks of
marriage never get old. Something I have
come to love already is grocery shopping.
We have gone together every time since we got married, and it is so fun.
We received a couple of gift cards to
grocery stores that we have been able to use on our first few shopping trips,
which has been such a relief since we are starting from scratch! We have had to buy the basics and stock up
our cupboard with things like flour, sugar, oil, etc. that we won’t have to buy
on a regular basis, so our shopping trips have been a little bit more costly
than they will usually be. BUT, it has made
marriage feel a bit more real to have to buy our own essentials like that. You know how you become kind of partial to
certain brands after having used them for some time? Marriage means sacrifice ;) It has been a learning experience, not only
to see what kinds of foods and brands we both prefer, but also to make
compromises. It has been fun to find new
things to try that we both love. Most of
you who know Grant probably know how frugal he is… lucky for me. While I plan out our grocery list full of
stuff he didn’t know existed, he is there to make sure we get the best
deal. What would I do without him?!
If you read my last blog, I wrote about making a date night
jar together. We did just last week, and
it was so simple and fun. We have 50
popsicle sticks in the jar with date night ideas, and we marked the top of the
sticks that have ideas costing money… that way we can choose if we want a cheap
date or one that will require some cash.
Our first date night that we drew from the jar was a TV show
marathon. The decision for which show
was pretty easy… How I Met Your Mother.
It’s one of Grant’s favorites, and I have wanted to watch it from season
one since I had seen a few episodes here and there. However, because of our work schedules, there
was not one day we could have sat and watched even one whole season. We decided to turn it into a running marathon
instead. For the past week and a half we
have been watching one or two (sometimes more) episodes when we are both home
from work. We are well into season two
right now. It is so wonderful knowing
that I get a little mini date night every single night of the week :)
Our date night jar
On Wednesday this week, we went to the Evergreen State Fair
in Monroe with my family. It was so
fun! For the first couple hours, Grant,
Serafina, and I went on lots of rides.
It made me even more excited for our honeymoon to Silverwood in a couple
of weeks – I can never get enough of amusement park rides. While we were
there, Grant and I took my little brother, Steven, on the “YO-YO” ride. I thought he would like it since you just sit
in a big swing and spin around, but I was totally wrong. The first thing he said when he saw that the
swings go around in a circle was, “I don’t do circles”. So funny!
I felt really bad a little bit into the ride because he was scared and
said, “Tell him to make it stop!!”.
Little Steven likes to play it safe.
I guess Serafina took my other little brother, Robbie (who is younger
than Steven), on the same ride right before we had gone on with Steven. She said Robbie totally loved it! It cracks me up how different they are! Anyways, we had a blast at the fair and ate
some great fair food, funnel cake included :)
We even found a Michael Jackson fun house. Best thing ever!
Grant and I at the fair
The best fun house EVER
We have just about finished purchasing the rest of the items
on our wedding registries, and have still been receiving gifts from friends and
family in the mail. Since we are at my
Grandma’s house, there is a lot of things that we don’t need to use until we
move for school, so most of our gifts are being stored in the spare room next
to ours and in the shed. Half of the
spare room is being taken up, and I can’t believe how many gifts we have received
every time I go in there! We have such
wonderful friends and family :) I use
some of the stuff we have gotten for the kitchen like our rice cooker, crock
pot, and kitchenaid mixer. The first thing I made with our mixer was cake cookies using a
cake mix we also got as a wedding gift (thanks, Kassia Reed!). I have also made pancakes, mini German
pancakes, and chocolate chip banana bread. I am extremely excited to move
so that we can start using the rest of our stuff... it’s just so much fun to have
your own things to cook and bake with!
The room full of gifts... this picture doesn't even
begin to do it justice
Not only did we celebrate a month of marriage this past
week, but also a year since our first date!
Some of you may not know the story of our first date, so I thought I
would share. The Monday before I left
for BYU-Hawaii, Grant and I were talking after a church activity. This is when I first found out that he was
from Yakima and that we had a lot of mutual friends from there as well. We had talked about how we both grew up going
to Yakima Bears games and that my grandparents always host the players at their
house during the baseball season.
Coincidentally, the Yakima Bears were in town that week playing the
Everett Aquasox. Grant said, “We should
go on Friday!”, and I ecstatically responded, “Yeah! I can ask my grandma to get tickets for us”. So, I got his number and told him I would
text him once I talked to my grandma. A
few days later, I let him know that we had two tickets for Friday night’s game,
and we also planned to go back to my house and watch a movie afterwards. The date was so much fun, and we both enjoyed
being the only two people amongst a bunch of Aquasox fans rooting for the Bears
:) I was crazy about him by the end of
the night, but he was a bit hard to read.
He didn’t put his arm around me, hold my hand, or even share the blanket
with me when it got chilly later in the game.
After we had been dating a few weeks, he ended up informing me that when
he suggested going to the baseball game, he meant a group of us from church…
not just the two of us. When I sent him
the text saying I had two tickets, he thought, “Well, I guess it’s a date”. He says that he held back quite a bit because he knew I was leaving for school really soon and didn't want things to get difficult. Such a thoughtful guy :) To this day, we laugh about the fact that I basically made our
first date happen. I think he appreciates
it simply because of how it turned out for us :)
A couple months ago, we decided that we wanted to recreate
our first date. So, last week on the
same day as our first date last year, we got two tickets from my grandma for
the Aquasox vs. Bears game. This time he
actually held my hand ;) It was great to
once again be two of the few that were rooting for the Bears, but as a married
couple this time. It brought back great
memories of our first date and made us both laugh to think about how it happened.
At the Aquasox vs. Bears game
First date replay :)
