First of all let me begin by saying that I can't possibly blog about all the wonderful amazing things in our life. That is to say that I am not as good as my mother at doing catch-up blogging and I wish I was. Because lately with all the changes happening for us, as soon as I start thinking of blogging about the last big thing that happened, something ELSE happens. This whole summer has been far too amazing to even try to put into words and I think I'd probably just stress myself out if I tried to. So for now I'm just going to blog about all the amazing things that happened to us this week.

The first of which is: Our new apartment! On Wednesday we moved in to our very first, very own, all our own place to live. Place to keep our own books and movies and put our own magnets on our own refrigerator, a place to make (and clean up) our own messes, and a place where we don't have to worry as much about breaking someone's kitchen appliances - because their all OURS! I promise to post better pictures of our pretty little place once we get it all nice and organized. But this was the living room on our first day:

Remember what I said about our own messes?

Okay the second big thing is that Saturday I got my hair cut! It's very short and it kind-of reminds me of Claudette Colbert or some other black and white movie star. And so I love it.


The third big thing: Andrew's first day of school was Monday! I wanted to take a picture of him holding his big BYU books with his backpack on and all, but for some reason he wasn't loving the idea. So this is the picture I got, and it's still a good one:

And the fourth thing is from today. Now that I'm not worrying as much about breaking kitchen appliances, I've become a lot more confident in experimenting with cooking. I've been wanting to try some recipes out of the "Our Best Bites" cookbook, and today I finally worked up the courage and began. Here are the results.

Cheesy Garlic Bread Swirls which we had for dinner with soup.


And Apple Streusel Bars which we had for dessert!


All completely from SCRATCH. Overall I think it was a successful endeavor.
It looks like life in Provo is gonna be okay.

Yesterday was a lovely Sunday. For more reasons than one. We taught our primary class, had Sunday dinner with the fam, watched Tangled, played some Clue and then came back to our temporary home for some Hillary and Andrew time. The two of us watched a Jimmy Stewart movie and read some family history of mine. We both commented that we're kind of a strange couple. That might've been a good date in 1952, but today I think people would raise eyebrows at us. Anyways, as I mentioned in the previous post, something we like to do is hang out on the roof. We always have to check the weather first by poking our head out the screen door. Well yesterday as I was putting my shoes on to venture out, Andrew did the checking. And then..he started yelling. "Hillary Hillary! Come here quick seriously! HURRY!!!"
Now I thought that maybe it was a gorgeous sunset like usual, so when I followed him outside (after taking my sweet time with my shoes) the first place I looked was towards where the sun usually sets. And sure enough there it was setting. Now as a person who has seen a good many sunsets in her life, I said, "Oh Andrew, it's so pretty." And he said "No, look THIS WAY!" When I turned around to see where he was, this is what I saw:And as I came out all the way THISis what I saw. And my patronizing little "Oh Andrew" turned into "OH MY GOSH ANDREW OH MY GOSH OH MY GAAAAWWWSH ANDREW!"
It was a FULL, COMPLETE rainbow about 2 or 3 miles wide end to end! And we were the ONLY ones who saw it in it's full splendor. We seemed to have come out at the EXACT right moment, where it was shining its most brilliant. The sun setting on the other side added the most beautiful lighting on all the buildings and made this ghetto little neighborhood look amazing. And of course the light of rain was falling. The whole experience could not have been orchestrated any better. And of course the pictures don't do it justice.Our camera couldn't even catch the whole thing in one shot. If we stepped back any further we would've fallen off the roof.




















Can you imagine? That on one side and this on the other:I think those weird pipes sticking up on the roof of the next building looked like ducks swimming on a purple pond.There are few things more inspiring than a rainbow. I suppose that's why Noah needed one at the end of those long dark 40 days and 40 nights. Just seeing one you can feel God's love. I'm so thankful for this wonderful world we live in and that God has given us such a beautiful place to do our learning and growing. I love life.Yesterday was a lovely Sunday.

We are house sitting (well, apartment sitting) for some of Andrew's friends for the last two weeks of our Alaskan life. The apartment is above Andrew's work so it has been awesome for us. One of the coolest things about staying here is being able to go out on the roof. It has a beautiful view of the mountains on one side and the sunset on the other and we like to go out there whenever the weather is nice enough. The other night we decided to test our luck and SLEEP on the roof. And it was the only night this week that it didn't rain! Still, we set up a tent just in case. It was so fun!

In the two months that we’ve been married we’ve both done a tremendous amount of growing. It seems that a lot of couples today stay away from marriage even if they are totally and completely in love. I’ve heard that many steer clear of it and try to keep things casual and non committal because they are worried that if they do get married they will grow apart as the years go by and then be stuck with each other. But in these two short months of marriage I have learned something important about that. It’s a quote that I can’t remember but I know would perfectly sum it up. That marriage itself helps you grow together. And I don’t just mean at the same time or same speed, but in the same direction. Towards each other. I’m sure I was told this many times in the months of engagement and I know it’s probably something that all happily married couples have already known for years. It feels very good, though, to be experiencing it ourselves in our marriage. Because now it’s not something we’ve heard and hoped for, it’s something that we’re feeling and witnessing firsthand. And it feels just great to be so close.

You are together in the same place, having experiences together good and bad. And you both learn from them. Not that you learn exactly the same thing or that you feel the same way about it every time, but that at the end of the day as you get ready to go to sleep you talk about it. Agree or disagree about it, fight about it, cry about it, bounce ideas off each other, and then you both learn even more. I think that marriage makes it easier to not grow apart. Which is ironic. The very thing people are afraid of about marriage is kind of solved by marriage. Or has the potential to be at least.

In this newlywed stage of life we’re in it’s all about learning. It’s so fun to live together, to ‘stay up late talking and laughing just establishing our life’ as Andrew and Hillary. Learning how to be together, how to help each other, and learning how to learn from each other. We’ve already had a few of our first challenges, but knowing that through our covenants God will make sure that everything will work out makes everything easier to bear. And being together through it all makes it easier to bear too.

So, uh, happy almost-not-even-two-months-yet anniversary Andrew! Here's to the next...uh...two months! Or the next two hundred!

I sure do love you.