One Year Anniversary!

I've been uber excited to post about this because we had an AMAZING anniversary. What Alex did for me could not have been any more perfect. Read on!

On Saturday we went up to Zion, with the original intent to do a hike, but it was dang cold! So we just went to lunch and walked around the shops. We found guns!




They were really heavy, just like the real old-fashioned guns.

I bought a cute new bracelet because Alex made me :)



Ok, so I love Colbie Caillait, right? Right. Alex knows this, like a good husband :)
So I come out of the bedroom on Sunday morning (our actual anniversary) and the song "Bubbly" by her was playing, a bubble machine was blowing bubbles right in front of me and the walls were covered in balloons that were filled with reasons that he loves me. I know, right??!!!?? Best. Anniversary. Ever. I stood in the doorway and totally cried for a minute :) I'm such a sucker for romantic stuff. Here are some pictures. Sorry they're fuzzy, I think the flash was turned off.




So basically it was amazing. I should've gotten some pictures of what I got him...but I didn't. I did a big print of one of our wedding pictures for our bedroom and some vinyl lettering. And I made a book of pictures and memories from our first year.

For dinner that night our awesome friend, Dan the MexiCAN came to make us a gourmet meal!! It literally was probably the best meal I've ever had. Grab a napkin, cuz you might drool when you see the pictures :)






So there you have it. Our anniversary was amazing and I am so grateful to be married to someone who loves me for who I am and who puts up with me when I hurt myself a lot and whine about it, like I have the last few days...
Check out this awesome burn from an epic incident with a Cup o' Noodles:



It hurt SO bad! But it doesn't hurt anymore, and it didn't blister, so I'm counting my blessings. So there is what's new in our life. Pretty exciting, eh?

Ramblings....

I want to blog, but I was planning on blogging about our anniversary, but I don't have pictures. So the anniversary blog will come later. I just feel like typing my random thoughts.

I'm at work, and they are currently painting the wall that is 10 feet from my desk and I feel as if I may asphyxiate from the fumes. Sometimes I feel like I may asphyxiate from life, is that normal? I don't even know what it is that makes me feel that way. Maybe that my life is so different than I ever thought it would be. You grow up with this picture in your mind of what life is and then you actually start living it and it's really not anything like you expected.

Our P90X endeavor is slowly deteriorating into nothingness. It all starts with one day when you don't want to get up, and then you don't have time after work to do it... It's been a solid week since we've done any exercises. We fail.

Dan is an amazing man. We need to find him a good woman.

Is it bad that I don't really care when some friends stop being my friend? To me the relationships that are best are the ones that I don't have to work on all the time. I have great friends that live far away and I see once every 6 months, text once a month maybe, and that's enough. And I still love them just as much as I did when I hung out with them every day. I shouldn't have to work so hard at keeping someone happy.

How about the fact that I don't really have any girl friends? Really the only person we hang out with is Dan, which is fine enough by me. He's rad. And he makes us amazing food. Always down for anything at any time, amazing friend who will do anything for us and he is so low maintenance. Why can't girls be like that? Hence...why I don't have any girl friends.

This might get a little deep here, but I feel like a big part of me has gone missing. And I keep trying to get it back, but it's like it doesn't want to. Like a 3-year old being pulled away from the ball pit at McDonald's. But here's the big question: do I want it back? It seems like I don't, judging by the measure of my efforts. Why now? Why this point in my life for this to happen? It seems out of place. Out of context. That's not how it's supposed to be. All my life this part of me has been...well, a part of me. Even when I was totally ignoring it, I still knew it was there, just waiting for me to come over and ask it out to lunch. But now it's just gone AWOL. I try to text it sometimes, albeit half-heartedly, to see if it wants to go get a non-committal drink, but it never answers the way it used to. Maybe it just doesn't want to be part of me anymore.

So there you have it, the deep ramblings of a somewhat lost girl on an overcast morning.

ONE YEAR!!

One year this weekend I married the love of my life. Can't you tell in this picture how I just adore him? I still do, only it's more so than that day because I know him even more now. I have absolutely loved this first year with him, getting to know him, getting to know who I am when I am with him.

He holds my hand through everything, good and bad.



He makes me laugh and we can be crazy together.







He looks SOOOO good in a tux :) And he loves kids.



He still takes me on dates and makes me fall more in love with him every day.



I fit perfectly in his arms.



He jumps like a freakin ninja.



And I know that he will love and cherish me for all our years to come.



And I will love him forever.

New Year!

Well probably the craziest thing I can think of right now is that Alex and I have been married for almost a year. A year?! What the?! Crazy.

Other crazies going on in my life:
P90X.
Managing money in a way that I have never known.
Thinking about actually having babies.

I guess that's all I can think of. Not as much crazy as I thought. P90X has been totally killer, but I am proud to say that we made it through the first week alive. On the first day of the workout Alex threw up and I went back to bed for three hours, so still being alive is really saying something.

Alex and I want to get really serious about getting completely out of debt. I have a really strong desire to be out before we have a baby. Baby. Whoa. It has just recently begun hitting me, the baby thing. I've always thought "Ya, I'll have babies like two years after I'm married, I'll be a stay at home mom, it'll be great." But seriously? Seriously. It's really scary when it's staring you in the face, you know? Right now Al doesn't make enough money for me to quit, and let's face it, I don't want to quit. I LOVE my job and I will probably never find again the awesomeness that I have found here on every level.

I also have to let you know that Alex and I decided to not get a new camera on account of getting an old one fixed for $15 as opposed to a new one for $200. So we will spend the extra money on getting out of debt! YAY!

Oh yeah, Christmas came and went...

Whoa, it's been a while... I'm already slacking in the "blog often" quest. It's really, really hard to be motivated to do it when I don't have any pictures to show. BUT good news in that department. Whoa - time out. I just remembered that I had a very vivid dream last night in which a woman called to tell me she had found my camera. I literally cried with joy. Alas, just a dream.
Anyway - mine and Al's one year anniversary is in three weeks (HOLY CRAP, I know!)and we decided that instead of a big expensive trip we're going to buy a new camera! YAY! I'm so excited to have one again. So stay tuned for pictures in a few weeks!

Ok, so I guess I better give the Holiday report. It was totally awesome. I absolutely love Christmas. We went caroling with my family the Sunday before Christmas. I love, love, love being with my family and sharing our talents with people. We got to spend Christmas Eve with my family having dinner and chatting and then we went to the Theobald's and they were pretty much done partying so we helped them with gifts. Christmas morning was a new experience with just Alex and me. It was...quiet :) So fun, though! He loved all his gifts and he did really well with mine! He got me make up and bathroom stuff (I love getting stuff that I would've had to buy myself in a few weeks), P90X work out stuff (so pumped to start next week!), a massage!, and the highlight was a craft storage box that he decorated himself!! He told me to tell everyone that it is very manly but it is the cutest thing ever. He did such an amazing job! Thanks, babe!

We also got some awesome gifts from other family members, including a VERY generous gift from Al's parents. Also movie money and gift card for Texas Roadhouse! Couldn't ask for anything better.

We've been to the movies a few times and have seen Sherlock Holmes and Avatar, both of which were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! I'm excited for some other movies coming out in January. I LOVE movies :D We also got to hang out with some friends from high shcool and we had a freaking blast. I hate video games, unless played with a group of crazy friends that yell the whole time.

I can't believe how fast the last few weeks have gone, let alone the last year!! It seems like just yesterday that I was planning my wedding. P.S. let me know if you have any ideas of what Al and I can do for our anniversary. We'd like to stay somewhere other than our house (a cabin, vacation rental, etc) for really, really cheap so we can afford our camera. Long shot, I know, but I figure people have vacant stuff all over the place that they'd die to make $50 off of.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and that you have a Happy New Year!!

-Jaylyn

Holy crap, Christmas is soon!

Ok, I admit that I have no motivation to blog when I don't have exciting pictures to show. We've definitely had some fun times, but when I don't have cool pictures maybe I think you won't believe me or something. But I'll tell you about them anyway.

Last week the highlight was both of our work Christmas parties. Well, mine much more so than Alex's :) They were coincidentally on the same night, so we had dinner at his work (Heritage Elementary) where we were basically shunned as everyone else sat at different tables, so we left after 30 minutes. Which was great with me because I was dying to get to my work party! Guys, I don't know how to tell you this, but my work rocks. I love everyone I work with. Even the ones I don't like, I love. Hope that makes sense :) We had a total blast decorating gingerbread houses, playing this crazy dice game for prizes (during which I may or may not have screamed a lot of profanities) and playing a really fun white elephant game. We walked away with "Anger Management" on dvd, a cute ceramic popcorn bowl with goodies and a $25 gift certificate for Red Lobster! Yeah, baby! I looooove Red Lobster and haven't been in forever.

The weekend was super fun. I got some awesome sister time going to lunch and getting free manicures! I love free stuff! And then we almost sold the car. Ugh. I don't think we'll ever sell it. We'll end up selling it for parts when we finally get the stupid thing paid off. Or maybe we'll donate it to one of the schools for the Homecoming week when they destroy a car decorated like their rival. I would be okay with that. We got some Dan time on Saturday, which is always great. Love that kid.

I'm looking forward to decorating gingerbread houses and dinner with Dan this week.
On a side note, I wish I knew what I should be doing with my life right now. And how to get motivated to do so. That's all.

Friday Already?!

Whoa! I didn't even realize that I hadn't blogged this week since Monday. Despite how slowly I felt this week going while I was in it, now I feel like it went by fast. I haven't gotten much sleep so I'm feeling pretty freaking loopy this morning! 4 hours last night, not much more the night before. But for now I'm hyped up on Dr. Pepper! Might have to step it up to a Mountain Dew after lunch time. I always get SO sleepy after lunch! My tummy is full, and it so nap time. I need to move to somewhere where they have siestas...

So anyway, let's talk about Christmas!! I love, love, love, LOVE Christmas! Just going to the store really quick turns into this happy occasion where people smile more, there's super cute stuff everywhere and always a good song playing in the background. Last night really helped me to get in the Christmas spirit even more by making a totally awesome Christmas book! My family makes them to give to the people they do 12 Days of Christmas for, but after spending 7 HOURS on mine there is no way I can part with it! So I'm being selfish first thing this Christmas season and keeping ours :) I love it.

These are all totally out of order, but I don't know how to fix that, so I'll be content knowing that you're probably smart enough to know what the front and back page look like.











So cute, huh? I brought it to work and now everyone here wants to do one. I love crafts!
Well I'm so ready for this weekend to start. Not a whole lot planned, but we are definitely going to the Dicken's Festival. Love that place! I'm excited to go and feel the Christmas spirit even more!