CAUTION: This Blog is not for the foodian faint of heart.

If we had the word of the week then last week's word would have been PUDDING! I swear, it came up at least everyday in context or in application! It was one of the tastiest weeks we've had in a while!

The week started with me talking to one of my friends talking about pancakes and I suddenly remember the BEST pancakes I have ever had! It was on my mission when my companion went to General conference and I stayed with the Morgans for the day. They made pancakes by using any quick pancake batter or powder you get from the store then add 1/2 a package of pudding! We had butterscotch, chocolate, and vanilla DELICIOUS pancakes. No syrup needed, just a little powder sugar on top. Yum Yum Yum!


On friday we went to Ben and I's new favorite restaurant Chuck-a-Rama with our new favorite friends Lyndsey and Michael Douglas. That's right, we are friends with Michael Douglas- haha! Near the end of dinner Mike got up to make his "signature" hot cocoa: Hot cocoa and a dollip of chocolate pudding! Don't knock it till you try it! Tastes sooooo warm and thick- just like the hot cocoa made in Europe! Unbelievable!


And finally yesterday we had dinner with our Puerto Rican friends, who made Chinese food! haha, They told us they were running behind and asked us to make the dessert. I was a little bummed to see the Cake Box on the counter UNTIL we looked at the recipe which called for pudding and sour cream and some other ingredients. Its called "too much chocolate cake" and trust me just one slice will suffice!


Life is short- Make it as tasty as possible!

Lyndsey and I after dinner - she's the primary president!

All of us being ~SILLY~

ITS NOVEMBER!

I can hardly believe that November has arrived and that is warmer then October.

Ben and I celebrated our Halloween with a party on the 30th and hanging out with our friends Andrew and Emily on the 31st. The party was a big hit and everyone seem to have a lot of fun! Plus we played some great Halloween games that we found online.

One of my favorite parts of the night was doing Ben's makeup. Before I went on my mission I took a theater make-up class and learned a lot of tricks of the trade. I also had a mother who knew the ins and outs of the makeup world who taught us a lot growing up. The Darlings were going to go to the party as Zombies, but Ben's makeup took too long so he was a Zombie and I was a newly turned vampire:

One of the games we did was to split the party into 3 teams and give them a bag of random objects and put them in separate rooms to create a Murder scene, then one person goes around and takes a picture of each murder scene and we vote on the best. EASILY the best was Ben's group (i was the one who took pictures of everyone). They used the whole room, every person, AND everything in there bag and including their bag as a mask - hahah it was so good that I had to take multiple pictures of it.

"No news is good news"

As Ben and I read through the family blogs last night we contemplated what we should write in our own. We've both been working full time and didn't even had time for a date night this week so nothing was too note worthy. But I have always been the fan of the phrase, "no news is good news."

Something fun that I got to do (ben has been working till close) was to hang out with my old roommate Joy. She is one of those people whose name was spot on - you just feel wonderful being around her. We decided to have a fun girly night of brownies and doing our own manicures. Pretty soon Hysen, another roommate, called and asked if she could hang too. Hysen has literally traveled the entire world because her dad is an international lawyer and gets to fly the family for free. I would hear her talk to her mom, "no, lets go to Sicily first then Cairo." Good thing she is too nice and fun too hate her! haha. And when we went to pick up Hysen Alyssa already had her coat on ready to come too!!!

It was great to just chill with my best friends up here all together! Sometimes I get a little jealous that they all still live together, but with Ben working so many late nights I've been known to pop back over to the house to distract them from homework. I like to think of myself as a good distraction.

A few minutes before Ben walked in the door we decided to scare him, since he didn't know the girls we're going to be over, by having them hide and then jump out. Problem is- Where can 3 girls really hide in an apt?! We decided to put them under our comforter which I thought would really work, until Ben walked in and just stared at it. Ok so no scare factor, but fun none the less!

Alyssa, Hysen, Joy

Thank Goodness for the Lord's day of rest because it was the only day Ben and I had off! HURRAY!!!! We had an improtu FHE with more sugar cookies! But this time it was with the real Evans' tradition of cookie cutters. I was sooooo excited when Ben found these ones because they look just like the ones that we Evans' kids grew up with!!!

The one stencil that I was really missing was the full body witch, we miss the strangest things from our youth don't we?!

Happy Hallow-month

To me Halloween is one of those wonderful times of the year that shouldn't just be acknowledged just one day or week out of the year, but for the entire month of October. I figured since christmas has taken over both december and november there shouldn't be objections made for its pagan sister.

With Ben getting an entire saturday off all I wanted to do was go to a pumpkin patch and pick out a some nice practice ones for the contest that our apt complex is doing next week (I'm very excited and overly ambitions about it). Unfortunately I forgot that I live in Idaho and not the fantastic state of Nebraska and we have zero pumpkin patches here! The local grocery store had ample supply and at 2 dollars a piece you couldn't argue with the price!

We eagerly sunk our hands and knifes (not at the same time) into the pumpkins which turned into a 3 hour long reminiscing of jack-o-lanterns of old. As I scooped out the insides I thought about how fun this'll be when I have my own little kiddies. Then I realized I'd probably have to scrape out their pumpkin guts as well. Which faded into a mathematical conundrum of 'how many pumpkins did my mother clean out?' If we started to clean out our own pumpkins at age 8 and mom having 4 children that would be 32 kids pumpkins and then adding her own that she did would be 41est pumpkins of her motherly life. Cleaning pumpkins has changed my view point of how many kids I want. Maybe I'll just grow a pumpkin patch here instead!

Can you guess who's is who's?! Ben made the sith lord and I craved the jack-o-lantern eating a cat. Its a protest against the apartments new policy to allow cats, but not dogs! Animal-cist.

Answering to another prayer - we made friends! A couple who loves playing video games and watching movies, who served in Brazil / was raised in Brazil. No, oddly enough not Michael and Cris but their life twins Taylor and Gabriella. They live in our building and are so much fun!

We dressed up and went to the local haunted house called 'The Slaughter Mill'!! At first it was pretty terrifying, but that was only the first 30 seconds. Then rest was soooooooo lame and had that rustic 'this is being put on by the boy scout troop #419' feel as all the actors appeared to be around the age of 11 and thought it was ok to touch you. Seriously! A couple parts they would grab your ankles (I kept tripping and almost falling) and pinching us- isn't that illegal? At least no one got hit in the eye!

OH OH OH - the absolute WORST part was we get into this large empty room with literally nothing in it except a hand rail and they lights are completely out. I couldn't even seen Ben who was inches in front of me. We all stood there wondering how this was scary since no one was in the room to jump out at us when a loud voice shouted, "Hold to the rod, don't let go of the rod or you'll be lost. Hold to the rod." We shouted back, "Thanks nephi, but we want to go to the large building! It looks so specious!" I can't wait until the next testimony meeting where I'm positive I'll hear, "there was this room and we had to hold to the rod...."

Possibly the scariest part of the night was the fact that Ben can exactly mimic the Jokers voice and that's enough to send a tingle up any one's spine.

Its 'The Joker' and Harley Quinn!! Well, my outfit had to be modified a bit,

I didn't quite have anything like that in my closet (thank goodness!)

Heavenly Father answers prayers, and then some

On saturday I was having a particularly looooong and dreary day. You know, one of those lonely elongating days that you just feel like no one quite understands you? Yep that was my entire Saturday! I keep thinking of women in my situation right now who I could talk and laugh with and was drawing a blank- UNTIL - I remembered Mallory!

Mallory Carty is the wife of Chris Carty whom I got to teach and see baptized on my mission. They're both my age and she really understands the loneliness of newlywed life and wearing dark nail polish in a Utahard world.

We've been able to talk on and off the past couple months and I couldn't help but long for her company in rexburg (she lives in Layton) RIGHT when I kept thinking of what she was up to - SHE TEXTED ME! How wonderful and perfect timing!!! We texted back and forth for a couple hours! It was great. All I could think about is how Heavenly Father knew and understood what I was going through.

Well, just getting to talk with her and joke with her made my day! But the Lord didn't stop there in blessing me: as Ben and I sat down to dinner and I told him a million and one reasons why he would love Mallory & Chris and their whole family I got another text that said, "We're in Rexburg, want to go out for pizza?" I couldn't believe my blessing as I called her and sure enough they were passing though the area while picking up a new trailer and had time to stop!!

I know that Heavenly Father has such a close eye on us and all we need to do is to ask for help, and tell him personally whats going on. He wants to bless us. We were not made just to endure life, but to completely enjoy the journey! Here are some cell phone picks of us in the trailer. Kirsten Forsberg came too!! She was my comp. when we taught chris.

Kirsten, Me, and Mallory

The sign outside the restroom at Craigos, tickled my funny bone

Wow, wow, wow, this just absolutely made my day. Grab the tissue box and watch this amazing video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZtU676jA_k

The Doughnut Confession:

Here's an EMBARRASSING story that happened to me just this morning that hopefully you'll find equally as hilarious as I did.

The local bakery at the grocery store makes the best doughnuts. Usually Ben and I are at work all morning and we never get a chance to dig in to their warm gooey deliciousness. We've gone a couple times at the end of the day, but its always too late and its not the same.

Today I found myself in town at just past 9am and realized my opportunity. There aren't many joys in life that only cost 59 cents, so when I find on a deal as this I tend to get overly excited. In fact, this morning my excitement turned into a song that went simply into a taunting chant of "I'm getting a doughnut, I'm getting a doughnut, etc." Over and over again all the way to the grocery store, "I'm getting a doughnut, I'm getting a doughnut."

Now I understand that most people sing such songs in there head, but oh no not me! I sang out loud the doughnut ditty for blocks as I drove to the store. As I repeated it over and over again it became so automatic that my vocal cords took over with out the need of mental prompting. The really unfortunate thing is that I didn't stop singing when I got out of my car. And I didn't stop singing as I walked up the store. And I didn't stop singing as I walked behind the nice old man who turned around and gave me a startled look as if I had completely lost my marbles. I looked back at him confused and then realized (mid-lyric) why he was looking at me that way. haha!

After turning a little pink I ran inside and grabbed my doughy goodness prize for scaring the natives. Haha, embarrassing, but worth it.

And if that didn't tickle your funny bone then this might:
Scene- Ben and Rachel just getting tucked into bed
Ben: You know, its really nice to sleep in the same bed with someone
Rachel: *feeling loved* what do you like best about it?
Ben: Well, come winter you have a free bed warmer
Rachel: *feeling used* you're silly
Ben: You're cost efficient

I laughed for about 10mins straight

Who Moved My FALL?!?!

Remember last week's post of the nice warm breeze night and the summery ice cream- no more! Look what Ben and I woke up to:

SNOW

I knew that it was going to be a chilly morning, but this was an unforeseen blitzkrieg of snow fall. Ben and I both start work before the sun comes up, so we woke up to a dry false sense of security. Getting the morning started I wrapped up in a blanket, since Ben and I talked last night how we really didn't need to turn on the heat yet, and started the morning calls around the country. As I could tell that the sun had risen above the horizon I went to crack the shade to let it in- when I saw it. Its white slushy goo that devoured everything in its path- I was surrounded on all sides! After a very audible *gasp* I grabbed my camera and knew what my Monday blog was going to be about.

See for the past 2 autumns I've been "out of commission" and unable to enjoy its crunchy leaves and spooky treats. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to get the fall party started and revel in every seasonal cliche Idaho had to offer: fright houses, corn mazes, farmers markets, Carmel apples, long happy walks in the evening, and the Halloween parties galore. And with one sprinkle from Jack Frost's gang of flurry miscreants my hopes of a crisp fall were dampened. And yes I have turned the heater on now.

Ok, slightly on the dramatic side, but its drama that I do well. :) I do have some questions from my female familia: we're looking for a good (and cheap) table set- any suggestions for an online place besides walmart. Walmart.com is good, but just in case you'all know of something else. Then same question goes for a mattress topper/bed pad.

The other question/problem that I need assistance with is the front door has an AWFUL draft coming from it and I can almost watch the heating bill being sucked into its cold whirlwind. I know there are things you can put at the bottom of the door, but is there anything that I can hang on the side or front or something? Any ideas of suggestions will be happily received

Oh yeah, we haven't heard from any home or visiting teachers yet. It might have something to do with our apt mat:

That reminds me! I will still be doing a video tour of our little home, but I want to get every one's pottery here first! And a table, if we can find one!

ONE MONTH

Happy One Month Anniversary!

Can you believe it?! We have survived one month of the marriage life! People keep telling me that the first year is the hardest and if it is- score! Because its going pretty nicely.

I love Ben so much, but that's old news. He's just so easy to love!
~I loved when I got my calling as Primary Pres's Councilor and he prayed for me the rest of the week.
~I love that he's obsest with Halloween.

~I love that his number one joy is making me happy.

~I love that texts me almost everyday just saying how much he misses me or is thinking about me.

~I love that adorable gleam in his eye just after he kisses me.

~I love of great he looks in all our pictures together!

~I love when he cooks Italian food.

~I love that he constantly encourages me to keep writing and wants me to succeed in whatever I choose in life.

~I love that he's so neat and tidy.

~I love that remembers to say morning prayers every day.

~I love that he takes the time to explain the 'star wars universe' to me while we're watching the movies.

~I love when he's already seen an intense movie and warns me not to get attach to a certain character he knows is going to do so I won't be sad.

~I love that he reads ALOT.

~I love his artistic skills and marvels at how fast he can finish any art project or craft project.

~I love that he chooses to do his very best in whatever calling the ward gives him.

~I love that he calls his mom and checks up on her.

~I love that he loves to garden and can't wait to have our own!

But most of all, or at least, most recent

~I love that when I asked him last night what his favorite part about the past month has been he said, "I love that I come home to our little place and to my family everyday." And I thought he was going to say the food!

So for our first anniversary we pretty much stayed in! I cooked up some stir fry with an AWESOME homemade sweet-and-sour sauce. I got the recipe from a lady on my mission and its sooo easy to make and just tastes fantastic! The best I've ever had. If you want the recipe let me know and I'll make sure to post it!

When Ben got home he brought me a bouquet of Roses!!

I almost didn't hear him knocking when he got home because I was listening to 'Cash Cab' so loudly in the kitchen. When I looked through the peep hole to make sure there was someone at the door all I saw were those beautiful pink flowers! I felt bad thought because while I was in Nebraska I bought a little somethin' somethin' but can't find it anywhere in our apt! All I remember was thinking, "oh i'll put it here so he won't find it." and can't remember where 'here' is! I'll look again today and hopefully it'll turn up!

After dinner we took a nice stroll down to our favorite creamery which is a couple blocks from our apt. The weather was perfect for walking and since the high will only be 44 tomorrow we figured we better get the ice cream now!! Its called "G's Dairy" and we both ended up getting our favorite Gorilla Munch even though we both said we'd be getting something new. Gorilla Munch consists of banana ice cream with peanut butter swirls in and Oreo cookie pieces- heavenly. Pure celestial.

A better week

Actually better then just a better week- a GREAT week!

With the new arrival to the Beams house and David getting the Job I think our family has had a great week!

Thank you so to Katie for sending me ideas! I have done a bunch of them ex- writing down the hopes and dreams, and making elaborate dishes (ben really likes that one too, homemade rolls and chicken tetrazini) I boiled a chicken for the first time in my life. Gross smell, but tasty!

Another BIG thank you goes to my mom (wait, am i at the Emmys or something) for sending me LOADS of swedish weaving supplies. For those who don't know what swedish weaving is its like crossstich on a LARGE scale. You take one long piece of yarn and string it through the holes of fabric while turing the needle in a backwards direction. Its actually really easy and turns out beautiful. I'm working one a girl baby blanket and a soon after a boy baby blanket. Not too shabby huh? No, this isn't how i'm announcing a new "little darling" just preparing for the future when we do! Another idea from katie.

A rough beginning. A lot more rows to go!

In all its been a about a 3 hour process so far. This is a patient project.

Ben, with his new work schedule, gets weekends free. A whole Saturday to ourselves and what two things does my husband suggest?!?! Shopping and Crafts. Did I marry the perfect man or what?!!?
So I.F. we went to get a couple more things for our apt thanks to the random wedding gift cards that keep coming in. What a great time in our lives where going out to the mail box means making another 20 bucks! The extra money we had left over went into this weeks Halloween craft project:

Its 10 times cooler then the tree because Ben was there to help. We spent about 45 mins in the Rexburg's mini version of Hobby Lobby called 'Porters'. We took a big black square of poster board, bent it in half in an 'L' shape, cut out the mansion for the bask piece, cut holes in the bottom to add lights, super-glued the tombstones in, cut up pieces of bone hands to make bones, tore apart spiderwebs to make the fog, and cut grey card stock for the fence. Needless to say it took all afternoon. And for those wondering, Ben painted the blood on it - not me!

Yeah, we're pretty proud of it. We joked while making the haunted grave yard that our kids are going to have AWESOME science projects. And possibly they'll have nightmares from all the halloween stuff in our house! Looks like we won't get any more stuff till the AMAZING day after halloween sales. I love that day.

Part of our shopping extravaganza took us to target where I got a halloween bowl for the youngsters. Sure it was only a dollar and i'm pretty sure its too flimsy to stick in the dishwasher, but this bowl means so much more to me. Its my halloween bowl, for my house, where my husband and i will hand out candy, on my favorite holiday. It took me about 8 mins just to pick the exact right one and i held it close to me the rest of the shopping time and refused to part with it to put it in the cart.

Oddly enough though, we've had our first trick-or-treat-ers. Well, sort of. This prized piece immediately took a place of honor on our coffee table and already got filled with left over movie theater contraband that we snuck in. So here i am sitting in the afternoon with our front door open waiting for some friends of ours to come over when I leisurely pick up a snicker from the bowl and sink into a fit of caramel delight. In mid decent and wrapper still in hand I get that 'some one is watching me' feeling. There were 2 soon to be 3 then 4 sets of little eyes spying on me and the large candy feast. I happily let them have some and even take some pieces for later. I love kids and there innocence. I wish that i could go sniffing about the neighborhood for whoever is cooking the best dinner that day and expect to get fed!

This wonderful week ended with more sugary niblets, at least these were mostly given away to an old mission buddy of Ben's and our new dinner friends the Coons. They were surprised at the decorations, considering its still September, but loved the fact that they were all homemade right down to the butter cream frosting. Oh yeah, I'm officially enjoying my time away from time.

Next weeks blog: How I spend all my time at the Gym.

I'm alive - i promise!

21 days married, 13 days as a housewife

Hopefully you'all were able to check out facebook and see the pictures we posted of our honeymoon! It was so much fun to just relax and for the first time since Ben and I met each other we didn't worry about jobs, school, or wedding plans. Whoever invented 'the honeymoon' should get a Nobel peace prize! We've already planned out our 1st anniversary to (hopefully) Las Vegas!

And for all those who have even the slightest creepy bone in their body I highly suggest staying at the Stanely Hotel. I promise anyone who stays there will hear things that go bump in the night and (especially if you take the haunted tour like we did) you'll get to hear an abundance of stories of ghostly things that have happened. The reason I happily suggest this place for anyone is because even when we would hear or feel stuff it never for a minute felt evil. Not even a little bit. The theory of why there is so much post mortal phenomenon is because this was were people were the happiest in their lives and just wish to come back and dance in its halls forever.

Our Ghost Tour guide

This is our tour guide how closely infringed upon the lines of peppy and annoying. One part of the tour she told us that up on the most haunted floor -(the 4th floor, which reminds me, if you do stay for a night or two DO NOT stay on the fourth floor. that's where the ghost hunters could see the doors opening and closing. That's a little too much for me even if it is just Casper) ANYWAY - theres a bench that constantly moves on its own and even between tours you can hear it moving and sometimes be able to see it slide to the other part of the wall. After our hour and 1/2 tour Ben and I decided to be a little devilish ourselves and slide the bench to the other wall. We really wanted to wait in the stairwell behind us to hear here reaction when the next group came through, but the cleaning ladies came up.

BOY we're cute!

On Wednesday we made our 11 hour trek back to rexburg and finally Thursday we moved in! After unloading all our stuff we drove separately to Idaho Falls and shopped from 12:30pm to 8pm non-stop. We didn't even eat dinner until we got back home! The first night we slept in the living room because it was the only spot that we'd cleared enough room.

Walmart has been our saving grace! When we first went out shopping we went to target because that's where most of our giftcards were for. We got most of our shopping done there and figured it was the lowest prices - OH NO! After getting to our last stop Walmart we realized that most of the stuff there was $5, $10, even $20 cheaper at Wally World. So we bought from there and then went back to Target and returned items we had gotten 3 hours earlier.

Our first dinner that we ate sitting at our coffee table. This is Ben's "I'm so tired, why are you still taking pictures, but I'll smile because i love you" face. I know it well.

At least now we've gotten into a routine. 6:15am we get up and get ready for work which starts at 7am for the both of us. I work till about Noon sometimes One and then eat lunch and work out. Clean up the house, clean up myself, and maybe get dinner started around 5 or let him get dinner started when he gets home which is usually 4 or 5pm.

Something I didn't know about being a housewife- WOW its lonely. Luckily I have this amazing husband encourages me to go shopping or out with friends, but when all your friends are single they just don't want to hang out. Sucks, but true. They have their own lives and I feel a little pushed to the side. In there eyes I have an eternal companion so they see it as some one whose always there. But it just doesn't work out that way. Plus theres only so many times that i can go to Idaho Falls by myself and shop without buying anything simply because theres nothing there I want to buy.

BUT here's what I do have that happily occupies my time: CRAFTS ( i made a Halloween tree from scraps, beads, and a well used sharpie marker), the anticipation of wedding pictures that will need to be scrap booked, BOOKS I'm reading 3 different ones and writing one as well, CASTLE CRASHERS Michael and Cris will be proud that I'm up to level 19 with one of my guys, THANK YOU CARDS they are never ending and going out in instalments. And finally Calling my mom about twice a day. :D All things i love to do.

My 'charlie brown' halloween tree. Of course we already have our halloween decorations up! Well, these are the only ones we have so far. I bought the wire tree for 1/2 off (SALE!!) for Ben and then made every last stinkin' plastic decoration on there. Took me three hours. Sing it with me - "Too much time on my hands!"

Stanley Hotel Ghost

The house warming gift mom and dad got us- LOVE IT

Its amazing what you can accomplish with beads and a sharpie

As I embark on this new chapter of life, "Married and no kids- feels a lot like being single" i do so with enthusiasm and spark. The windows of adventure are open and life awaits! Any Suggestions of how you did this part of your life?

Can you believe it!?

i'm engaged!

I can hardly believe it. A part of me still doesn't feel quite old enough to have an fiancee. I look down at my ring or over at Ben and I can't help but think to myself, 'wow, that man loves me enough to spend eternity with me.' Every once in a while the classic line from The Sandlot rings in my head "For-ev-er, for-ev-er"
At least my lack of age-acknowledgment is the most of my worries! In one week mom, dad, and I have gotten the following: a reception place, honey destination, wedding dress, veil, bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dress picked out, cake ordered, food pick out, flowers assembled, and most of the table decorations. PHEW! That is all by the grace of our very loving Heavenly Father who apparently really wants Ben and I married because every time we reach a hic-up in the plans we find a solutions which is better then what we had planned! Sometimes it does feel as if I get one thing off my list only to add 20 more. One day at a time.
The greatest part about all of this is that I know how much I love Ben and how much he loves me in return. I can't imagine going through all of this while wondering if I wanted to get married to him or not. It is such a blessing to have the Holy Ghost in our lives to have these answers and reassurances to get us through. I still have the occasional morning where I wake up and have a mini-freak-out, but by the time my morning scripture study is done I'm calmed down again.
Finally a story about how wonderful my Fiancee is and how well he knows me. When talking to his mom (who was thoroughly shocked at the engagement because Ben didn't tell her before hand he was going to propose. Boys - CALL YOUR MOMS MORE!) she said at the end of their conversation, "Ben, you promise me one thing. You Promise me that you will treat her like a princess." Ben, when telling me the conversation later that day, said, "Princess? You're a queen." :D Man I'm going to love being married to him. For this reason and the fact that we're getting matching chuck taylors for the wedding.

MEETING THE PARENTS IN B-TOWN!!!

Doesn't matter who you are or what time period you've lived in - meeting the parents is always a nerve racking time. You just want to make sure that everything goes perfectly and that your family begins to love him as much as you do. Well, maybe not quite as much as I love him but you know what I mean.
So we pack up the car Wednesday morning and just before we get in I say, "Ok, you're going to meet my parents and my grandparents tonight. How are you feeling?" With smile Ben just says, "Bring it on". A perfect response for a person meeting a whole gaggle of Evans.
Three hours later we show up at my mission office and catch up with the senior missionaries who work there and I get the pleasure of showing off Ben! Two scoops of Farr's Ice Cream later we head to the hotel where my parents were staying....

BIG DEEP BREATH IN

"Mom, dad - this is Ben Darling."

AND THEY LOVED HIM!!!!

Or at least Mom and dad did a great job of making it seem like they liked him. And what makes things even more wonderful Ben really loved hanging out with the 'rents in return. Even got through a whole dinner with a my Evans Aunt. In the midst of all this comradely I feel as if I've achieved something. Like I should get some sort of award for finding person who fits in so well with everyone. Mom made the best point though: when Ben was out of the room I took the opportunity to ask them what they thought of him. After agreeing that they thought Ben was a good guy mom asked, "Do you like him?" "Very much so." Then she gave me that smile that says, "Well, that’s what really matters." Come June it'll be my turn to meet Ben's mom at his sister's wedding. Hopefully it will go just as well as this did!

Ben LOVES to take pictures. Heres me just outside the Bountiful Temple

I know you can't really see his tie, but its my favorite one he owns

Admiring the flowers. I thought they had my favorites - Peonies - but it turned out to be a Tulip that was dressed up as a peonies for halloween. Tricky plant.

And finally, my favorite one from the day! "Hey everyone! Come see how good we look!" :D

The Lord's hand

I have been so blessed this week in about fifty different ways that i thought it most appropriate to share them! Its just amazing to me how the Lord takes such special and good care of us - sometimes through other people, sometimes through those special promptings of the spirit. He's always there in our lives and i think, if we don't take time to notice, we sometimes over look His hand.

1. Ben's art history test, which are usually on wens, got scheduled for monday. Now he can come with me to Elizabeth's wedding and meet mom and dad (which will be an interesting blog of its own!)

2. Being reminded at the last minute that i have church meeting (relief society teacher now) just in time to go and not be late

3. Reading all i need to for a class, i didn't understand it when i read it, but i was able to participate in the class discussion quite a bit

4. Always having enough time to read my scriptures in the morning

5. Watching the trees around rexburg all bloom at once.

~and finnally

6. We have a semester long project in my Journalism class called 'Profile' where we need to find one person to exctract a particularly intersting story from their life. I could NOT think of anyone in Rexburg who fit that discription. I've been really interested in alzhimers' lately and went down to the Brenchley Home where i voulentear to hopefully find some one with this disease. Right when i walked in there was no one at the help desk and no one around except for Rob. Turns out Rob is an ex-bodygaurd, ex-acid addict, ex-kung fu master, who now works for the rexburg temple. I have got a wonderful story and a heartfelt new friend.

And had to add my latest picture of Ben and I just before our date on friday. We went to Jonny Carinos - because we cannot get enough italian food!! I'm going for the whole 'vogue' pose if you couldn't tell. OH and another cute story about the boy before i go (yes sarah, you should probably grab your motion sickness bag now) since we study most of our lives away this summer, both taking classes right now, we study together. Yesterday we were at his house and he got up, picked a flower out of the outside garden, came back in and handed it to me without saying a word. Just smiled. Stinkin', stinkin' cute. :)

LETS MEET BEN!

For those who i haven't updated in the past 2 months - this is BEN DARLING. Yes thats right, darling is his last name and his personality. We met while he and his roommate crashed our FHE party and it turned out we had a bunch in common: Buffy the vampire obsession, accident prone, and a great hatred for Drew Barymore.

His easily my biggest surprise of 2009. In fact in our first couple dates we made it VERY clear that neither one of us wanted to be in a serious relationship and that we weren't going to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Then we started spending every day together.

The thing that attracted me MOST to Ben is that we can talk and talk and talk for hours about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. And i've always felt so comfortable around him - even dressed up as a pirate.

We both leave "future" things up in the air for whatever will happen next. I love him and i'm so contently happy with him. Joy for me!

Stats for the family: He's from Utica, NY, served a mission in Las Vegas, 24 yrs old, favorite color green, Art major, loves to dissect and critic movies, got me 2 seasons of the 'O.C.' for my birthday, smells fantastic, Batman and Spider-man enthusiast, loves me, youngest of 7 kids, Halo master, loves his Xbox but doesn't have enough time for it, spontaneous, loves Chinese and Italian food, slightly momma's boy, THE favorite Uncle, and sucks at planning dates UNLESS they are on the spure of the moment.

Today is a New day

First - I blame my sister-in-laws for my discovery to Blogger

Second- I blame my mom for the suggestion that this is a good beginning template for a journalist

and HERE I AM blogging

Mostly because we, as a family, are so far away and i found myself pouring over my siblings blogs, reading them, giggling at all the pictures, and thinking what I might say if i wrote my thoughts for the day/week. I feel like there is a-lot on the for front of my life and this way we all don't miss a beat. Also a good way to suggest and possibly mock my ideas. :) Can i count this as a journal and not feel so guilty every time they give a Conference talk about it?

Me and mom just after i got all moved in at BYU-I . Shortly after this picture was taken i got smacked. Totally worth it