Future Mother's Day

This was my first Mother's Day as a Sadie (married lady)! Even though I am not a mother, I feel like getting married has gotten me one step closer, so figured I may as well be celebrated as a future mother! They gave me the flowers in church and everything (I remember wanting a flower so bad when I was little). I ended up with 2 because someone brought me one AND Josh brought me one, and Josh forgot to put his back. But I love how much fresh flowers brighten up the apartment.

Josh, however, was not aware that I was hoping for a Future Mother's Day. So he didn't have anything for me...but he ended up having something for me the very next day! I don't know what made him catch on. Maybe it was the fact that during sacrament meeting when the speakers talked about recognizing and appreciating all the women and mothers in Zion, I would shake my head mournfully and say "not ALL the mother's in Zion."

Anyway, he figured it out. And he brought me my most favorite candy in the world, Reese's, and the movie Pinocchio!

Pinocchio might seem like an odd present for someone my age, but it was perfect for me! For the past few years, I have been trying to collect all the classic Disney movies. I was absolutely obsessed with Disney growing up, and to be honest, I still am. So I want all my kids to grow up watching and loving these movies, too. The collection is really coming along!

I still need Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, and Toy Story...and probably a few others that I can't think of right now. And yes, that IS a Chinese Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Now I know to read the fine print on eBay...

Anyway, Happy Mother's Day to all! And a special Happy Mother's Day to my own Mom, who is also my best friend. I'm so grateful to her for being there for me through thick and thin, all through growing up, and even now that I'm an adult! I couldn't have asked for a better mom, and I know she'll be an awesome Nonnie one day when I have kids.

Also, a special Happy Mother's Day to Josh's mom, who has been absolutely incredible and accepted me as one of her own. I can't thank her enough for raising such an amazing son! She'll also be a fabulous Grandma to our future children.

New Couch Cushions

The last time my mom was in town to visit, we decided that the apartment could use a little more color. I have been going with a color scheme of sage green and chocolate brown, so I thought it would be nice to throw in some yellow and a coral pink. If you've ever been in my parents house, that color scheme might sound incredibly familiar. But what can I say? My mom has great taste.

Since Josh and I have been married, we've been trying to slowly collect more and more stuff to make our little apartment more home-y, and have come along way from when we first got married. Now that we have more colors, I'm trying to get things that will help tie in those colors. I thought more couch cushions to go with the chocolate brown ones that I already have would be a great way to do that. The problem was, I have been looking for new couch cushions for months and haven't been able to find any that I like. So finally I decided that I could just make them, and then they would be exactly what I wanted.

This brought in a new set of problems. The first was that I had a really hard time finding fabric that had my colors and had a pattern that I liked. After some searching, I decided to just get different fabrics in my different colors and put them together. Eventually, I was able to get what I needed from a combination of Wal-Mart, Hancock Fabrics, and JoAnn's.

The next problem: I don't have a sewing maching. And I couldn't borrow Lindsey's because they were moving. I thought of maybe using the fabric adhesives that you can buy, but I wasn't sure if that would be strong enough to hold a couch cushion together for a long period of time. So my only option was to hand-sew them.

The problem with that? Despite the fact that I have a mom who designed, sewed, and sold children's clothing, I don't exactly have a lot of experiece with the craft.

I ended up accidentally sewing the pillow to my pants who knows how many times. I'm sure Josh was getting pretty worried about how they were going to turn out.

I was making 3 pillows total: 2 identical 12x12 pillows, and one smaller 12x16. I started with the 12x12s because I thought they would be easier to begin with. And the first one turned out surprisingly well; it at least gave me enough confidence to keep forging ahead.

The middle cushion was going to be trickier, because it had a lot more details. I had to make little fabric flowers to go on it, and sew lace to the fabric before I could sew all of the fabric to the edging.

I think the flowers are my favorite part.

You can tell that they are handmade and not the best craftmanship, but it was fun to do, and we like how they turned out. They really brighten up the apartment.

Dad's Visit to Utah

Recently, Dad was able to fly out from South Carolina and come see us all here in Utah! It's always so great when he can come out for a visit, and we were able to do a lot of fun things while he was here!

He came out not long after his birthday, so we had a little party for him on the night that he got here. The Bells, Jordan, and Kaitlyn all came up from Provo and Lindsey and I cooked a Mexican dinner for everyone. We had a fun time talking and catching up and, as always, Kenzie was great entertainment.

Lindsey has been teaching herself cake decorating recently, and so she made Dad his birthday cake. And, I have to say, it is pretty much the most adorable cake I have ever seen. Dad loves Star Wars, so Lindsey used that as inspiration and created this Yoda masterpiece.

Love it.

One of the main reasons Dad came out was because Nick was graduating with his master's degree in electrical engineering, and all of the graduation ceremonies were that week. We are all so proud of him! We were able to watch him go across the stage and get his diploma, and then went to an awesome graduation party that Lindsey put together that evening.

The only sad part was that just a few days after, Lindsey, Nick, and Makenzie moved to Arizona. We are so happy for them that Nick found such a great job, but we miss them already. But we had a great time during Dad's visit, and can't wait for the next time he comes! Mom is hopefully coming at the end of May, so that's the next fun visit we have to look forward to!

GO JAZZ!

Josh is an avid Jazz fan, and tonight the Jazz have a huge, red-letter game. It's so important because if they don't win...uhhh...something or other bad happens that Josh tried to explain to me...I think it helps them get a higher position for the play-offs or home court advantage or something? Anyway, Josh was glued to the screen from the beginning of the game to show his loyalty. But then, I had to convince him that there was only one way to really, truly show his loyalty. The Jazz definitely have a die-hard fan in Josh. Hopefully we sent some good karma out there to help them win!

An Update

It seems that lately, our lives have mostly revolved around work (and school for Josh). My training at Aspen Landing has been going pretty well. As I said before, a lot of the stuff I had already learned at my old job, but I've had to learn the differences between Canterbury and Aspen Landing. At Canterbury, we only stayed at the beginning of the event to make sure that everything was running smoothly, and then we'd turn the event over to a hostess. At Aspen Landing, the wedding coordinators are also the hostesses. One of the jobs that a hostess must do is to cut and serve the wedding cake. I never learned to cut the cake at Canterbury, so this is something they have been training me on. Square cakes are easy to cut, round cakes are a little more challenging. Also, buttercream cakes are easier to cut than fondant cakes. We also have a preferred vendor at Aspen Landing, Cindy, who's cakes, we have found, are way easier to cut than other vendors' or especially homemade cakes (this is because her cake doesn't crumble when you cut into it). Natalie (the girl who was training me to replace her) taught me how to cut the cake, and though we went through it several times, I was a little nervous to do it on my own.

However, Natalie left, and I eventually had my first night as the only wedding coordinator on duty. The cake artist delivered the cake before the event, and I found THIS little number.

Round (plus some tiers whose shape doesn't even have a name). Fondant. Not one of Cindy's. It almost felt like I was on Punk'd. What are the odds that this would be the cake I'm left to cut on my first night?! Lucky for me, one of the girls who works in the kitchen also helps with some of the hostess roles, and therefore had a lot of cake-cutting experience and could help me out.

While some stressful and unexpected situations come up at Aspen Landing, the job also has it's perks.

When people have fresh floral centerpieces and don't want to take them home at the end of the night, I get to take them home to enjoy! Even the vase I put them in came from Aspen Landing. When there is a lot of left over food, I get to take some of that home, too! I've been able to bring home soups, salads, sandwhiches, desserts...it's been great!

Between work and school, Josh and I have had a few other things going on, too. My mom came out for a visit in March, and we had a great time with her!

That same week that my Mom was in town to visit, Julianne and her family came into town as well as James and his family. This was awesome because it meant that all of the Benson's were in one place! We got to spend time with them, and it was so fun! I think the neices and nephews might have had a hard time keeping up. Samantha definitely proved that:

SO CUTE!

One highlight of that same week was that we were all able to go to Juliet and Claire's baby blessings. We already love these darling babies, and it was wonderful to hear about the wonderful girls they are and will become.

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but about a month after we first moved here, I was called as the Young Women's second counselor. The Young Women's president is Robin, the first counselor is Jessica, and the secretary is Christine. They are so fun to work with! Our ward is pretty small, so we only have around 10 young women, and of those, there are only three or four that come pretty consistently. We love these girls! Anyway, for one of our activities, we got to go to a University of Utah/University of Nebraska gymnastics meet.

It was really fun, and surprisingly crowded. Gymnastics definitely fascinates me; I can't understand how a human body can have enough power to do the things they do! We had a great time watching. It only made sense, though, for me to cheer for Nebraska...considering the U of U is BYU's rival, and since Mom grew up in Nebraska and all her family are huge fans.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Josh was released from his calling as Young Men's instructor and was called to be the Ward Mission Leader. He's a little nervous about it, but as soon as he got the call he came home and poured over thick notebooks and papers that the last ward mission leader handed over. He's so dedicated, and already doing such a great job!

Josh and I have even found the time to go out on a couple of dates! Just the other night, we splurged and had a night out on the town at IHOP. I love "buy-one-entree-get-one-free" coupons!

On Easter Sunday, we were able to go over to Janalynne's for a fabulous breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes and to watch the first session of conference. Jacob and Stephanie came up from Provo as well, and Jilleena and Chris made it, too! It's so great to have family that lives close by!