2013 Recap

This blog post is something I continuously worked on throughout the year. It was something I wanted to do, so that we could remember all of the things that happened this year. Often times at the end of each year, I try and think back to everything I have accomplished that year. Sometimes it is difficult, and I often only think of the negative things. Which is the other reason I wanted to do this. To remember all of the great things that happened to us in our first year of marriage. I hope to do this in the future years to come, but next time I promise to try and include more pictures :)

January:
-My best friend came home from his mission on the 10th.
-We started dating again on the 12th.
-We had our last first kiss again on the 16th.
-I turned 20 on the 31st, Isaac did a fake proposal (just to psych me out).

February:
-We went ring shopping on the 1st.
 -My wedding dress was ordered and purchased on the 2nd.
-We scheduled the temple on the 5th.
-We got engaged on the 8th.
-Most of the wedding planning details, at least the big ones, were done this month.

March:
-I started birth control this month, and boy did it make me crazy.
-We took a trip to Utah with my family.
-After much thought, prayer, and conversation, I decided to change my major.
-We went and supported Cassie at some of her softball games.

April:
-On the 3rd, we toured our first place for the first time.
-I was offered a job at downeast on the 10th.
-We signed the lease for our first place together on the 12th.
-I officially changed my major to accounting on the 15th.
-My first day at Downeast was the 16th.
-I went through the temple on the 27th, and received my endowments.

May:
-We ended the semester, and took all of our finals the beginning of May (we both did well in classes!)
-We were married for time and all eternity in the Idaho Falls Temple on May 10.
-We went on our honeymoon to Park City, and enjoyed a nice week of relaxing.
-My best friend, Hailey, left on her LDS mission on the 22nd, to Richmond, Virginia.
-We quickly learned just how great married life is. Being together is our favorite place to be.

June:
-After no other birth control working, we went with our last option, the dep-provera shot.
-We were introduced into the real world when we got our first real callings on the 9th. We were put in Cub Scouts together, more specifically the bears. I also was put into primary as a "buddy" for a little down syndrome sunbeam boy. 
-On the 13th, Isaac found out he got a job at Fedex as a package handler. He had been searching all summer and finally got his second job!
-We realized just how early we needed to go to bed, just so that we could function, especially since Isaac now had to wake up at 4 am Tuesday-Saturday.
-We witnessed Isaac's youngest sister get married to her sweetheart on the 22nd. All of the Wood children have now been married off.

July:
-I had been sick most of June and into July. We started charting what I ate, and realized it was dairy that was making me sick. Almond milk became a regular part of my diet! :)
-We were able to spend the 4th of July up in Idaho Falls. We went boating with some of Isaac's family for a little bit that day, then had a barbecue at his parents house. We went to the Chukar's game with his parents and his sister Karlee's family. We went and watched fireworks with my family in our usual spot.
-On the 23rd of July, I was offered a shift lead position at Downeast, which I took. It pretty much means that I have to work a minimum of 20 hours a week, and just have more responsibilities than before.
-Towards the end of July, I couldn't really eat any food without getting sick. My health problems started linking with gallbladder symptoms. Which led to multiple doctor appointments, a hide-a-scan, and ultrasounds.

August:
-I had surgery on August 5, to have my gallbladder removed. My first surgery ever, and it went well.
-Isaac decided to start training for a half marathon in November, and boy was he excited.
-Right before school started up again, we were able to go with Isaac's family to a condo up Ogden canyon for a few days. It was filled with boating, a cousin's mission farewell, more boating, and cherry hill. Isaac got burned crazy bad, but it went away fairly quickly. We had a great time, and it was nice to have a tiny vacation from real life.
-One of our best friends, Breanna, left on her mission on the 21st, to Louisville, Kentucky.
-School started up again on the 26th. Isaac had 16 credits, and so did I.
-Isaac's last day at Domino's for awhile was on the 30th. Since his semester was going to be very challenging, we decided it best for him to only be working 1 job, with about 17-20 hours a week.
-Very quickly I discovered that I couldn't work 20-25 hours a week, take that many credits, and still find time to clean the house, so I cut my hours at work to 10-15. I had been very nervous about working during the semester, since I had never before worked while going to school.

September:
-We were able to make many trips home this month, which is always a great relief.
-My parents took us to the fair on Labor day, which was a blast. Fair food is definitely one of the best things.
-I switched up my birth control, yet again, to progesterone only pills this month. Still trying to find something that will work well with my body.
-Classes were very different for each of us. Isaac's were some of the harder classes he had taken, up to this point. Luckily, this month he found a wonderful statics tutor, who helped him understand all of the concepts.
-My classes were somewhat easy, in comparison to all of the college classes I had taken. I was thoroughly enjoying almost every single one of my classes. I discovered that I was finally in the right major, and was extremely excited about it.
-On September 28, Isaac rode in his first bike race. 50 miles. He loved it, and can't wait to do it again next year.
-I developed a sinus infection towards the end of this month. The same week I had 4 exams.
-Isaac also started thinking about changing his major towards the end of September. From mechanical to civil engineering.

October:
-We watched conference together the first weekend of this month. It was wonderful to just be able to spend some time together and not have to worry about anything else.
-This month was crazy with midterms, projects, tests, work, and everything else that seemed to happen.
-We were THRILLED to say the least when our infrared heater came in the mail. Now we don't have to freeze this winter!

November:
FLEW by!
-Isaac ran his first half marathon on the 2nd, with a time of 1:37:35. It was very close to the goal he had set.
-I got a 95% on my Accounting test, and was oh so excited about it!
-We hit our 6 month mark of being married!
-I went to Utah with my mom and sister for a couple of days to do our annual shopping trip.
-Our ward's primary program was on the 17th, and the cute kiddos did great.
-Isaac turned 22 on the 25th, and also went skiing for the first time of the season that day.
-For Thanksgiving we drove down to Provo to be with Isaac's mom's side of the family. It was great to see everyone. 

December:
-We went to The Forgotten Carols on the 2nd, it was my first time going.

-We tried the advent calendar for the first time this year. We weren't super successful with it, but we had a lot of fun doing it.

-We celebrated our first Christmas together, and started a few traditions as a new family. 

-We went to temple square and saw the lights on the Saturday after Christmas with my family.

-We rang in the new year together, and look forward to the year 2014 and all of the wonderful things that will come our way.

Advent Calender

Newly married + student (taking 16 credits) + working part time = no blogging

Life is great. Super duper busy, but when will it not be! Only two weeks left of school. That's what we are excited about around here. Despite our anxiousness to be done with the semester, it has flown by. This year has also just flown right by.

We are excited to be able to spend this Christmas together, for the first time in three years. Also, to have it be our first one as a married couple. We have decided a few traditions that we want to start in our family, and it has made this year exciting. It's always fun starting new things with someone that you love.
One of the things that we both wanted to do with our family now, as well as in the future, is to do an advent calendar. Filled with many different Christmas related activities and fun things.

Here is a picture of day 1: Setting up Christmas decorations. Another tradition we had discussed was giving each other Christmas ornaments. This is one that I gave to Isaac this year.


Day 2 was going to The Forgotten Carols.
Last night, Isaac and I had the opportunity to go to The Forgotten Carols (thanks to his parents!). It was my first time going, and it was just so great. Definitely made me think a little bit more about how I want this Christmas to be. It also helped to get me more into the real Christmas spirit. It hasn't felt like it could be even remotely close to Christmas yet.

Day 3: Writing down all of our advent ideas and putting them into our cute advent calender!

Hopefully I will be better at blogging this month, so that I can keep record of everything that we do this Christmas season.

Kids say the darndest things

Conversation between Isaac and I today:

Me: "I hate this gap right here, between the bottom of my belly and my pants. I'm wearing my baseliner pants and they come up higher than my jeans and suck my belly out. So I have a muffin top..."
Isaac: "Are there blueberries in your muffin, because I REALLY LIKE blueberry muffins!"

Needless to say, there is never a dull moment around here. I sure do love this guy.

Love

It still is amazing to me how much I love my sweet husband. He is just the greatest. Sometimes, when I hear love type songs on the radio, I just want to start crying, because of how much I love him. I am so extremely grateful for everything he is and does for me. He is the greatest thing in my life, and has blessed me in so many ways.

Sickie

So apparently I'm a sickie. It's ridiculous. I had my gall bladder out a month and a half ago, and now I have a sinus infection. Which is incredibly awful. One of the worst migraines of my life, that I have had for almost two weeks now. Along with 4 tests this week. That's fun. Two done, and two to go. Wish me luck.
Isaac also had one test this week, and one last week. It's crazy that we are along enough into the semester of school that the first tests are starting to roll along. Time is flying by at an alarming rate. And it seems there is never enough time to do everything that needs to be done. Fortunately I get to spend lots of time with my sweet husband.

First Date

Four years ago today was our first date. Wow. Can't believe it has been that long already. Seems like it was not that long ago.
Isaac had asked me to homecoming a few weeks prior, and I was really excited. Our day date was SOO much fun. I remember we rode bikes to Community Park from Hillcrest, and then played a whole bunch of fun games at the park, and ate Pizza.
For the dance and dinner part. We ate at this place downtown The Victorian? (the name escapes me) with our whole group. It was like a wedding venue place, that one of the kid's moms owned. The moms all helped make the food for us to eat. It was a great time. Then we went to the dance. I remember being so nervous and excited all at the same time. That boy definitely had a way of giving me butterflies all the time, still does really. I felt so comfortable around him, and was CONVINCED by everyone, including myself, that he was going to kiss me when he dropped me off! Nope, didn't happen. I was SUPER bummed. Who knew that I had just gone on a date with my future husband! Crazy great.

Before he picked me up. We forgot to get a picture together after he got there to get me.

Accounting

Everyone says that accounting is boring, well it may be. But I am extremely enjoying my accounting class. I think I have finally found the major I will enjoy. I can finally wrap my head around all of the things I am learning in my classes. I also feel like instead of being in the bottom half of my classes like for the past two years, I feel like I am in the top half. I am finally starting to enjoy college a little bit. I feel just enough challenged, but not too much so that I'm overwhelmed with life.
My kickboxing class is kicking my entire body badly. After not working out for so long, my body is taking what seems like forever to get back in shape. But I know that eventually I will be glad that I am getting back into shape.
Isaac is doing pretty well in his classes. He has a few tutors to help him with a few things here and there. But he will do well. He is smarter than he gives himself credit for sometimes.

One of the craziest things lately has just been when Isaac gets home from work at 7:45 and has class at 8. I usually drive him on those days, so that he can change his clothes and get something to eat.
I cut back my hours at Downeast, since it was proving impossible to get home at 9:30 or 10 at night, and then try and eat dinner and get to bed at a decent hour. Especially since Isaac has to get up at 3:30 am in the mornings to go to work, and then go to class until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. But we are making it quite well now :)

We enjoy the little bit of time we get to spend together here and there. Occasionally there are a few bumps along the way, but as long as we have each other, nothing else really matters. We couldn't be more glad that we are married to each other, and that we get to be together for eternity.