Catching up on the Wedding and Honeymoon

I think some updating is in order. Let's back up and talk about my wedding and honeymoon.


Wedding: a time for frivolity and real, happy tears. I never understood why we spend so much money and fret so (so, so) much about crushed, pink tablecloths until I arrived at the Salt Lake Temple on May 23, 2012. It really was the best day of my life. People said I wouldn't remember the details, but I think I do. We had cute straws... :) It was wonderful to see the two families so nicely integrated. I loved it! Also, and most importantly, Jeff and I and all our future posterity are sealed for time and all eternity. That's forrrrevvvverr. DO ALL THAT YOU MUST TO GET MARRIED IN THE TEMPLE. :) Just do it. It's so worth it.  I think one of my favorite parts was seeing my seven-year-old sister catch my bouquet and then head back again to catch the garter, bahahaha. A word about that, mmm, don't throw it from a balcony. I believe my bouquet picked up speed exponentially like a meteor about to hit the planet. Speeding mass of flowers careening through the Ivy House. Watch out.


I loved the whole thing. Weddings are awesome.


Honeymoon: the best darn sunburn you'll ever get. Turns out everyone on Earth knew I was going to Hawaii for my honeymoon, except me. Give that man a Klondike bar. I planned and packed for seven days in San Diego until we printed out our inventory at the airport. (!!!)

I was beyond excited and I almost used an airplane toilet (but I chickened out, for six hours).


It was all really fun. I swam by sea turtles, count'em, three times. Twice there was no one around but me, my hubby, and some algae-eating green sea turtles. Let me tell you what, turtle are exciting rocks. I hate to admit how bored I got watching them bask in the sun (for sooooo long) but they are really cute and interesting when they swim and eat, especially when you're not expecting to find one midst all the other things that look like rocks. I loved snorkeling except for the time this big scary eel swam under me, in five feet of water. It looked exactly like the one in the snorkel safety video with the caption, "some sea life may be hostile so keep your distance."

Eels. So creepy.

It probably wasn't that bad.

 Pretty sure I peed. In the ocean. Party foul. Anyway, eels aside, I love animals in nature and they were everywhere! I am sorry to say the only gecko I caught (one of my first goals set on the flight over) was a dead one. And I still took a picture with it to look cool. 


I also really liked when we were at Panda Express and Jeff said, regarding his fortune, "Claire, this is perfect for us today." It was. I cracked mine open and found the same one. Destiny!

We did get very, very sunburnt. Meh. It was funny- and painful- and now we are tan! We had a great time and props to Jeff for being such a champ when I asked him to ask the gift shop lady at the PCC if the display Christmas tree was for sale. Incidentally, it wasn't. Hahaha :)

Doing What Wifes Do

This is fabulous. I was always pretty concerned about aesthetics as a wee young thing so I cleaned and crafted and cooked and crocheted and tried to sew and took lotsandlots of cool pictures and I loved it. I put most of that on hold when I graduated high school and actually didn't buy a single baking supply until about my junior year of college. Well, I am married and my inner June Cleaver is screaming to come back. I have again donned my pearls and apron and I'd like to share what I've been up, outside of work and school and handling all the post-wedding details.


Our home had no furniture, until last week. Mister knew I was interested in painting if we couldn't find any noteworthy pieces for free or very, very cheap so one day I came home to a sturdy, practical, plain-looking desk he found on the side of the road. I had never painted furniture so I looked for some direction and found this blog that gave a wonderful tutorial. We headed down to Home Depot and  purchased TSP, primer, high gloss wood and metal paint (in "Forever Black", haha), some $2 foam rollers, foam brushes, and a drop sheet. It came about $40, what we had agreed to spend on a reasonable desk. Cool.

Jeff stationed me in the clovers and I got to work. It took two days and six or seven coats between the paint and primer. Now it looks like this:

I am pretty pleased. :)

As for the food in my little home, recently we've made Taco Chicken Tortilla Soup. We even pulled out our Gorge Foreman Grill to add an extra touch. It's a favorite. We've made it twice. We made no bake cookies (which my mother-in-law lovingly dubbed "squat-and-leave-its") and while listening to conference talks, made orange, sunflower, zucchini bread. It was not meant to be quite so poignantly sunflower so that was weird. Nevertheless, it crowned beautifully and the texture was phenominal. Lastly, I made Thai Peanut Noodles in, mmm, twenty minutes and it was not bad. The recipe calls for Linguine noodles (we used whole wheat), honey, peanutbutter, soy sauce, Sriracha hot chili sauce, minced garlic and ginger, cilantro, green onions, limes, and chopped peanuts. 

What a stylish black desk that bowl is stationed on :)

I am so happy to be back into crafting and such full swing. It's an irrepressible part of my soul. How's that for drama? 

The Blissful End of a Five-month Engagement

Well, it happened. I am now Mrs. Married Lady and I love it. 

I love this.


Married life, in a word, is awesome. You can fall asleep watching "Meet the Robinsons" and wake up to green smoothies together. It's a date, all the time. A word about the Mister. It doesn't get better than him. Jeff is absolutely everything I've ever dreamed of.  He's the best and I want to be just like him. The most important thing is that he puts Heavenly Father first in all things. Everyone who knows him can testify of his sharp intellect, high integrity, mind-blowing prioritization skills, and a deep love for rugby. I truly have the best husband. Ever.

Well, the function of this new blog is primarily to update my family but I'll also include all the wifey things I've found helpful for anyone who might be looking for crafting stuff or great camping spots or a cache of someone's daily blessing. Those will likely all be inserted at some point... So watch out. :)

Happy trails, my lovelies.