Halloween

I've been meaning to post about this for quite a while now, but our computers/internet have been giving us problems and I expect that we haven't yet seen the last of those problems.  Dang machines!

Anyway, I'm a firm believer that it's better late than never, so here are our  Halloween pictures from this year.  Happy late Halloween and  happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

#30 - Who are you?

I awoke at about 2:30 this morning laying next to my husband on our recliner with a sudden realization that we had missed the very last post of this thirty day challenge.  Blast!  On the plus side, 29 out of 30 isn't bad, right? 

The last post in this challenge is a deep one; one that I don't feel entirely qualified to answer, but I've made it this far so there's no turning back now. 

We are a couple of kids who like to have fun.  We are a husband, a wife, a daughter, a son, a sister, a brother, a friend.  We love to serve and we serve to love.

Tyler is a competitive, ambitious number cruncher who loves all things soccer.  He is patient and kind and will do just about anything for me.  He loves to laugh and get together with friends.  He also loves creating things, especially around the yard.  I thank my lucky stars every day that I get to share my life with someone who treats me so well.

I am a quirky redhead who will probably never grow up.  I love the mountains, the Book of Mormon and my savior, my family, and my husband more than anything in the world.  I get to hang out with beautiful beehive girls at least twice a week and I couldn't be happier about it.  I like BBC movies, pedicures, and dirt bikes and I'm always looking for good buys.

Together we are two people who fell in love despite firm plans not to.  We have filled the past four years with learning and growing together and still have much more to do.  We like surrounding ourselves with good people.  We love being married and we love setting/accomplishing goals together.  We have so much joy in our lives and sometimes wonder what we did to deserve it.  We love life and look forward to what lies ahead! 

WOOHOO for passing the thirty day blog challenge!  It has been a fun experience.  Now hopefully we can keep this habit up of posting more regularly.  I hope you all do the same because your blogs are all so fun to read!

P.S.  Happy Veteran's Day to all our brave Veterans out there.  Thank you so much for fighting for freedom and for our country.  As I once heard Sheriff Thompson explain, our legal system is so flawed, but it's the most perfect of all the other systems out there.  We're so thankful for the rights we enjoy every day and for the beautiful country we live in.

-The End

#29 - In the past month what have you learned

For your convenience, I am providing a color code for today's post:
Items in green were contributed by Tyler.
Items in purple were contributed by his lovely wife.

-Blogging is a lot easier than I make it out to be.  It really doesn't take much time.  You just have to sit down and do it.
-We need to take more pictures!  I noticed that our post from last night included a picture that we've already posted on here before.  Unfortunately we are terrible at taking pictures, but this has opened my eyes to the fact that we need to get better.  How sad is it that I have no recent pictures with friends?!  Sheesh.
-Our relationship has become more dynamic since we've been married and we like it a lot.
-Tyler really can write and blog!  Happy day! 
-Tyler does really care about more things than soccer and money.
-Tyler likes to try to upsell me in every purchase decision we make, even trivial items like laundry baskets.
-Shaela is really scared to play on a coed soccer team with Tyler.
-Tyler thinks that before you ask for his help you better have tried to work it out yourself (this is not aimed at Shaela).
-I LOVE bargain shopping!
-I LOVE buying stuff!
-I like the movie "North and South" (BBC version) just as much as I did when I first saw it.  It is still fabulous!
-I could never be an army wife.  It was so sad to be a lonely person in my house while Ty was gone.  The cleaner house was not worth the trade off of having him here with me :)  Hats off to all the lovely ladies out there who are better at it than I am.  You are strong women!

#28 - A pic of you last year and now, how have you changed

Shaela has tasked me to write the post tonight, I don't think she fully understands what she was asking me to do.  She wants me to write how we've changed?!  Why can't I get an easy topic like what we crave or something like that.  How have we changed...Physically I'd say fatter which is a horrible thing since our cruise is coming up.  We just seem to run out of time, what an excuse huh?

Below is a picture of us in DisneyWorld which is almost a year ago.

Below is us this summer.  I couldn't find two really comparable pictures so these will have to do.

We are more relaxed now which is a great thing.  A year ago we were always thinking about school work, what test was next, how long was our paper suppose to be, and other various school stresses. We may not have more free time but we get to chose what we do with that time.  We have decided to spend more time with friends and family, it has been fantastic!  When we were first married we were so focused on us, getting use to being married, trying to make it financially, it was all about us.  Now that we have adjusted to married life and are more comfortable with our situation we have the opportunity to grow closer to our families and make new friends.

#27 - Why are you doing this 30 day challenge

Tyler agreed to go along with me and my desire to do this 30 day challenge because he is a good husband and lets me do whatever I want.  It has been a lot of fun to involve him in all of this!  It's definitely the most I've seen him get involved since we started the blog.  Surprisingly, he actually reminded me about the need to post on several occasions when I forgot about it. 

As for me, I just thought it sounded fun.  I've always liked blogging, but I rarely get around to doing it because it's such an easy thing to put off when there's no time constraint.  I knew that with this challenge I'd have a reason to blog every day.  It's been great because it has gotten me into the habit of sitting down and just doing it.  It's actually a fairly easy thing to do and doesn't take nearly as much time as I once imagined. 

Here's a shocker though- I never expected to gain such a conscious eye for things to blog about.  Now that I'm in the habit of blogging every day, it's always in the back of my mind.  I can think of several times in the last couple of weeks where I've seriously made mental notes about possible future blogging topics.  It has really gotten my brain juices flowing.  Overall, I'd say it's been a great experience; I accepted the challenge for fun and surprised myself with the consequences that came because of it.  You should all try it sometime!

#26 - What you think about your friends

Ty and I just came home from a fabulous night out with friends so today's post is especially appropriate.  We love our friends!  I think that one of the greatest blessings we have is credited to the people around us.  It really feels like we are surrounded by tons of awesome people!

Being married is awesome because you instantly gain tons of new friends through your spouse.  Tyler has such a fun group of friends and I really enjoy hanging out with them and their wives.  I pretty much end up laughing until I cry every time we get together with them, due to all the energy and hilarious comments floating around between everyone.

My friends are also fun to be around.  We don't live as close to some of my friends as we do Tyler's so it feels like we don't get to see them nearly as much, but we always have a nice time whenever we plan things.  Speaking of which, hooray for pizza parties!

Additionally, we have made lots of hip new friends through school, work, and church since we've been married-- friends we go camping with, friends we play Rockband with, etc...  and it's always a joy to kick it with them as well.

I can honestly say that each of our friends are incredible.  They are all great people and very supportive of us and we feel so blessed and so privileged to have them in our lives.

As a side note, Tyler and I got talking about friends on our way home today.  We were discussing how awesome it is that you can go years without seeing a friend and then run into them and it's like nothing ever changed.  It takes some truly great friends to pull something like that off.  Recently we've been getting together with some friends who Tyler hasn't seen since elementary school.  Seriously, elementary school!  And guess what?  We have enjoyed it immensely.  Everyone gets along great; they still have tons of fun and make a point to get together now regularly.  And what's more?  The wives/girlfriends have totally hit it off.  Now that's what I call cool! 

Thank you to everyone who is reading this for being such awesome friends!  You guys are the best!

#25 - What I would find in your blog

Our blog is pretty low key.  I imagine that people reading this right now already know the answer, but basically you'll find our story on our blog. 
We don't have a themed blog offering great advice and project portfolios.  We don't even have cute kids to brag about.  We're just a couple of young college graduates who occasionally write their thoughts as they experience life and document what little experiences they remember to capture on camera.  You'll also find a variety of music that we try to add to on a regular basis.
In a nutshell you'll find the many ramblings of Tyler and Shaela; so cliche and yet so true.