Seven Months Flew By!

Yesterday was Mark and I's seventh month anniversary.  Must say - PRETTY CRAZY!  Time flies by!  I know I really shouldn't gush too much about how much I love this man of mine, but I really do.  He is so incredibly good to me.  He makes me so happy every day.  Here are some things, especially the last month that he has done, that make me love him even more every day.

1 - He always makes sure to come home and sit down on the couch and talk with me.  For a socially deprived person, this is the greatest thing in the world!

2 - Once he's done with school - he comes home!  I feel so blessed that Mark studies at home and not at the library on campus.  It is completely selfish on my part, but I love to have someone else home at night.  I know that this is a rarity in a graduate student - and I truly am grateful to him for it.

3 - Mark is probably one of the most caring and thoughtful men I have ever met.  He is always there to cuddle and talk with me when I need him.  He is the greatest husband a girl could ask for.

I could go on and on about how much I love him.  But I guess I will just end that we are a very happily married seven month and one day couple.  Seven months down - eternity to go!

Family History

Since apparently I am destined to be unemployed here in Denver I have been coming up with lots of ways to keep myself busy.  I am making Christmas stockings.  I think Mark thought I was crazy when I told him what I was doing when I started last month. I think he reminded me how far away Christmas was more than once :)  haha, they are actually turning out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself - a lot more time consuming then I initially thought but I guess for me right now, that's a good thing!

I am also starting to make our wedding scrapbook.  I have never really done the whole scrapbook thing - but I absolutely love them and so want to have them.  However, as much I love the immense creativity I see with other people's with all of the embellishments and ribbons and things of the sort, I am not sure I am quite up to the task.  I am trying to focus my efforts on journal-ing and the pictures.  It looks pretty simple, but I think I am okay with it.  Maybe once I get a little bit more done I will post some pictures of the pages.  My goal is to never get more that a year behind in our family scrapbook.  By the end of December I want to have the wedding scrapbook DONE!  Next year, I will work on the 2011 scrapbook.  We will see how the goal goes - I am optimistic. 

However, what has BY FAR kept me the most busy is doing family history work.  That has essentially become my full time job.  I spend hours and hours doing it.  In fact, I am pretty sure it is safe to say, the entire time Mark is at school I am on the computer researching.  What has been even MORE fun is that Mark has gotten really into it as well.  He obviously doesn't have as much time to do it as I - he's got that whole school thing going on at the moment :) - but he seems to really enjoy doing it as well.  In fact about a month ago when I first showed him how to look up things and add it onto our Personal Ancestry File and such, he stayed up till four in the morning looking up stuff.  He was bursting to show me all that he found when we got up the next morning.  It is so much fun to have this work to do together. 

We are actually planning on making a book.  We want to have someplace to put all of our research and stories and pictures and journals that we have found about our families.  We want to have something that we can pass along to our little kiddos someday.  It is so much fun to find out so many new things each day.  The one we are really excited about right now is yesterday, I found out that one of my grandpas way back when - was an adviser to the Prophet Joseph Smith.  He is listed in the Doctrine of Covenants four times.  I was VERY excited to say the least yesterday!  I learned that although he was not a perfect man - he was a good man.  Anyway, it is a wonderful thing to find out the legacy that was made before you and to try and continue that on in your own life.

Right now, I guess I am just trying to find my "purpose."  I don't really feel like I am getting any closer.  Just trying to not get discouraged but how un-exciting my life is right now I guess.  A job I interviewed for last week that was IDEAL - absolutely perfect - I got e-mailed yesterday from the principal telling me that they are not sure they can afford to hire me with the budget because they now have to hire another teacher.  Rarr...kind of discouraging.  Oh well, I just keep hoping that something will work out.  I guess for right now, maybe family history is what I am supposed to be doing.  So off I go - more research to do! :) 

Our Day in Golden

This Labor Day we decided we'd better stay close-ish to home (only one day off plus Mark had a test on Tuesday) so I looked up a couple of possibilities and we decided we would spend our day in Golden.  We woke up early on Monday morning and drove about an hour to Golden Gate State Park.  It's a beautiful area just about a half hour drive from Golden.  

They have twelve trails that all look pretty awesome but we decided this go around we would do the "Buffalo Trail."  It was a beautiful day to go hiking but we were a little sad to not see any exciting wildlife (the day before on the trail we went on people had seen a mountain lion and a moose).  But we still had fun!

At the end of our hike were these old historical buildings - some were holding up a little better than others :)

This was called the Tallman Ranch and it was nestled here by this little lake by a Swedish family in the 1870's.  Their family stayed here until the 1950's - pretty crazy.  A beautiful place to be though. 

After our hike we went and ate lunch at Panorama Point.  It was beautiful - perfect day.  

After we were done eating we changed our clothes and drove back down to Golden.  It's a nice little town on the west side of Denver.  We decided we would go to the Colorado Railroad Museum that is there.  I have quickly learned that the railroad is a BIG deal here is Colorado and they have a really neat museum here.  They have made all of these replicas of different trains and the whole countryside with them plus have some other interesting stuff inside.  

This replica was ENORMOUS!  So cool how detailed it was!

Outside of the museum they have a bunch of trains that you can look at and inside.  It was neat to see how this form of transportation looked like inside and try and imagine traveling like that.  

These HUGE trains cleared away the snow on the tracks - they were absolutely MASSIVE!

 

Overall it was a really great day.  We are excited to be here and see these new sights here in the Denver area. 

BYU Football

I think I can pretty confidently say that Mark's favorite time of the year has come and he is one happy little boy.  FOOTBALL SEASON!  And more specifically - BYU FOOTBALL SEASON!  I'll tell you what - I thought my family were die-hard fans, we are nothing compared to the Bernings.  THEY LOVE IT!  And it is quite fun actually.  And I am totally fine with being a BYU fan - until they play the Aggies of course (which by the way, we did pretty darn good on Saturday!). 

But to commemorate this fun new beginning of BYU football, Mark and I decided to make "Y" shaped sugar cookies.  We had fun making and decorating for the big event.  We are SO happy that BYU was able to win on Saturday against Ole Miss (14-13).  I am learning so much about the world of sports.  WOOT WOOT!

Mark's Birthday!

Last Friday was Mark's 29th birthday!  It was the first time we have been married for one of our birthdays and so it was full of excitement! haha, not really that exciting - but we had fun. 

One new tradition that Mark was probably not fully prepared for was birthday breakfast!  My family has always had a big birthday breakfast for the birthday boy or girl and I loved it and wanted to carry it over.  Mark is, hmmm...how do I say this, not a morning person :).  He hates having to get up in the morning, in fact, I daresay it is his least favorite time of the day.  I told him that if our kiddos someday are as hard to get up as he is, I might just have to give up now!  Getting up one is hard enough!

Anyway, but he rolled out of bed and we had orange french toast which was yummy.  This was one of his more awake - trying to be excited - pictures.

Mark had one class in the morning and was done by 9:30 which was pretty wonderful.  He was able to come home and relax for a bit and then he drove me downtown for my first and only interview I have been able to get here in Denver.  The job itself wasn't super high on my list of jobs I wanted but at least it is progress right.  At least it gave me a little positive boost with the job hunt.  

The job itself would be really interesting in a very interesting environment.  I would be a teacher's aid for kindergarten for three hours and then for first grade another three hours.  I think I would learn a lot and it would get me in the classroom which is all I really want.  The school is in a really poor part of town - definitely what you would expect from an inner-city school in a large city.  The building itself is over 100 years old and really run down.  I felt a little overdressed (and was actually told so) when I arrived for my interview in black slacks, green blouse, and black sweater.  All of the other teachers/secretaries were in jeans and tank tops (no air-conditioning).  A little weird.  They told me that the school is about 90% Hispanic (I really wish I knew ANY Spanish) and the rest is black.  She told me that I would really stick out in the environment (especially if I kept dressing like I do) but it would be a really good experience.  I would love to just dive in and do what I can for these little kiddos.  Anyway, we will see what happens.  I guess whatever happens happens, and at least I know I am in the system of names and maybe something else will come :)

After the interview we came home and just relaxed during the afternoon.  Later, Mark decided that we would go out to eat at The Olive Garden and then we went and saw a movie.  Mark is a big Steve Carell fan and so we went and saw "Crazy Stupid Love."  It was pretty funny - some parts probably didn't need to be in there but for the most part is was good.  The other people in the theater probably made it far more entertaining then it actually was with their laughter - so overall fun night.  

We came home and had cake and opened presents.  My family sent him a Harry Potter Encyclopedia of sorts which is actually pretty fun to look through and The Lord of the Rings trilogy in a nice leather book.  LOVE PRETTY BOOKS!  And I got him a new game for the wii that we can play together.  Pretty low-key but it was a great day.  I am so thankful that I have this little cutie as my hubby.  

His birthday also happened to fall on our sixth month anniversary - SO - Happy Six Months!   

White Coat Ceremony

Last weekend we were able to have two very exciting things happen.
1) Mark's wonderful parents were able to come down and visit with us for a few days.
2) Mark had his white coat ceremony for pharmacy school.

Last Thursday Mark's parents were able to come down from North Ogden and spend a couple of days with us.  Friday morning Mark had some classes he had to go to but then his parents and me drove down to campus to meet him for the ceremony.  I didn't really know what to expect but it was a really great program.  The dean of the college spoke for a couple of minutes about the profession, their goals and what they can expect for the future.  It was fun for me to hear some of the stuff that we have to look forward to in the future. 

After the dean spoke they announced each member of the program (all 157 of them!) and they came up and helped them put on their "white coats" and then they signed a poster board with their class motto on it. 

I will admit I felt a little silly, but I even got a little emotional when they called Mark up.  I am so proud of him and everything he is trying to do for our little family. 

Afterwards all of the students stood up and recited their motto together. 

We got to take home a copy of it but I can't seem to find it now - but it was great!  After that they were dismissed to take pictures and then they had a picnic for all of the friends and family.  We had a good time eating and walking around the campus and being able to spend some time with one another. 

We took Mark's parents on a drive around the Denver/Aurora area and that was fun.  We then ended up going and seeing a movie.  We saw "The Help" which I had heard nothing about actually but LOVED IT!  I was again bawling like a little baby, but it was a really great story.  After that, Gus took us out to dinner and we came home and played games and ate cake.  I know their are many talented people out there that know how to make amazingly beautiful cakes - I unfortunately learned that I am NOT one of them.  This is was my go at making a pharmacy-esque cake.  :)

 

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and then said goodbye to Gus and Darlene.  It was so great to see family again.  I know we haven't been away for that long but it was still great nonetheless.

We feel so grateful lately for all of the love and support we have received from amazing family and friends.  We feel blessed to be here together and to be moving forward.  Thank you to all of you who have been so wonderful.  We love and miss you all. 

Our New Home

I am proud of myself that I got the pictures of our new house A LOT quicker on here than our previous house :)  So here it is -

We are the bottom apartment - nice big windows which we like - 

just not quite as private as our house on the lake ;)

The view when you first walk in

Our living room

Our "office" area

The little peek-a-boo hole in between living room and kitchen

The dining room

The kitchen

Our laundry room 

(that is the door at the end of our kitchen)

LOVE being able to do laundry at home now

Our bathroom

Our bedroom 

And our closet - 

it is a good thing it is huge because we need it for storage :)

We have really loved being here so far.  We have been very blessed to be around such wonderful people.  We have also enjoyed being close to things and not having to do everything on our Saturday like we used too.  Getting used to traffic being a factor whenever we go anywhere has been an adjustment but we are making it.  

There have been some funny things that have happened.  The closest non-scary grocery store (believe it or not) is actually the Super Walmart about five minutes away.  We learned it is one of two "experimental" Walmarts in the country  built to focus on health and environmental things - anyway, so it is generally pretty nice.  

Anyway, so I was in there grocery shopping the other day and a lady came up to me and well, I will just dialogue the conversation out for you:

"Are you married?"

"Yes."

"How old are you?"

"22"

"You look like you are about six."  

"...Thanks..."

"Did you grow up in Denver?"

"No, I actually just moved here."

"Where did you move from?"

"Utah"

"Oh - so are you a Mormon then?"

"Yes"

"Oh don't worry, we will break you in soon enough."

And then she walked away.  

WEIRD!  And I would like the record to show that I was not wearing my hair in pig tails, wearing a Dora the Explorer shirt or anything of the like that would make me look like I was six, but apparently I did.  Haha, it's been an interesting experience.  I guess I should be grateful - by the time I am 40 I will look like I am only 24 - BONUS!  

Gotta love Denver!