Back to School :)

It has been far longer than I intended since my last blog post! For a brief update, I have since started working at a law firm, and Eric and I have moved to a new apartment that I LOVE!! It is very close to my work and has a lot more space than our apartment in Utah. It also is pretty quiet, which is a pleasant first. Eric picked a good one! 

We had a wonderful experience with the members of the Kansas City 3rd Ward, and I hope that they are all doing well. Our new ward is a bilingual ward, and a vast majority of the adults are Spanish-speaking. Some of the talks and messages in sacrament meeting are in English, and some are in Spanish. A translator speaks into a microphone near the front of the room, and some of the members wear headphones to understand. Eric speaks Spanish, and so it is a very interesting experience! 

We had a good summer, though. We went to Nauvoo, walked around pretty areas of Kansas City, visited family, and went canoeing with my friend Jenni who is still visiting Missouri from Hawaii :)

Night classes started up again, and so with that and a full-time job, I'm feeling a little busy, but I am excited for all that I will learn. I think working at a law firm while I am taking these classes will definitely help me to retain what I'm learning a little better! I'm going to try my best to reserve Sunday's for rest and for thinking about the Savior and his teachings, and not to do homework. I've noticed that when I am busy, I almost need that day of rest and reflection more than I do in other times! It's easy for me to get sort of weighed down by sad news stories and just life in general, so it is nice to do what I can to add a calm and happy spirit to my home. Eric really contributed this evening by practicing and singing along with a couple hymns he likes :) 

I think I will end today by sharing a little poem that I liked:

Talk Happiness

Talk happiness. The world is sad enough

Without your woe. No path is wholly rough; 

Look for places that are smooth and clear, 

And speak of those, to rest the weary ear Of Earth, so hurt by one continuous strain

Of human discontent and grief and pain.

Talk faith. The world is better off without 

Your uttered ignorance and morbid doubt.

If you have faith in God, or man, or self,

Say so. If not, push back upon the shelf

Of silence, all your thoughts till faith shall come;

No one will grieve because your lips are dumb.

Talk health. The dreary, never-ending tale 

Of mortal maladies is more than stale.

One cannot charm, or interest, or please

By harping on that minor chord, disease. 

Say you are well, or all is well with you,

And God shall hear your words and make them true.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Thanks for reading! Until next time!

- Sannah

Life in 2015

Well, as a news update, Eric and I have been happily happily happily married for a little over a year and a half. He's working at a great job and I'm getting ready to start a paralegal program! We're pretty excited for how our plans are going.

I've spent the last two years working as a Sushi waitress at three different restaurants, and that was a great blessing! I was able to work with some wonderful people and it was awesome to be able to earn money while Eric was finishing up school.

Right now, I'm looking for some jobs that will either work well with my school schedule, or would be able to provide me with experience with law offices, and I found some promising opportunities last week!

So lately, I've been talking to my friend Jenni (who lives in Hawaii right now with her husband and beautiful little son), and she kind of inspired me to read more books lately! I get so into reading stupid little news articles in my free time, and it had been a while since I had read actual books consistently... Eric is WAY better about it than me! He's read 24 books so far this year, some of them behemoths like "Crime and Punishment" and the like. So, last week I read a biographical book about Brigham Young. It was fascinating to hear about how much that man traveled. I learned some pretty cool and interesting things about early church history, too!

And now, I'm been in the process of reading G.K. Chesterton's "The Innocence and Wisdom of Father Brown", which is actually two books. Each chapter is a new mystery, and so far I've only guessed 2 out of 14 of the "solutions" by the chapter's end. His descriptions of the settings are intriguing.  Often the story takes place in the evening, and the sky takes on some crazy color, like "peacock green with ribbons of gold", for a typical example. I especially enjoyed chapter 3, a funny mystery about an exclusive club called "the twelve true fishermen." And chapter 4, "The Flying Stars" had a part about a "good-old fashioned Christmas eve 'pantomime'" that really stuck with me. It was magical, but a bit eerie.

In other news, Eric and I met with the bishop of our ward for the first time, and both of us were impressed with just how sweet of a man our bishop is! He truly loves the people in the ward, especially those who have less stability at home. He really prays for the Lord's inspiration in the decisions he makes to help the congregation. He extended callings to both Eric and I, Eric to be a counselor in the Young Men's program (which I think is very neat, because Eric has never experienced working with the Young Men since he joined the church while he was in college), and I was asked to be the first counselor in Relief Society. We were both very humbled. I really look forward to working with and getting to know the other women in our ward and trying to help as best as I can. It will be good for me as well to make it a priority to go to the activities! It will be a big learning opportunity for sure.

After meeting with the bishop today, we went for a nice walk. It was really muggy and summery out! 

Yesterday evening we checked by the Kansas City Symphony to see if they had any tickets available for their "Disney's Fantasia LIVE" performance, because if there is ANYONE who would enjoy that show, it would be us. We love Fantasia! Unfortunately, the very cheapest were like almost $90 combined, and we just can't do that at the moment. We knew it would be a long shot anyway and it was fun to check, because the Kauffman Center is beautiful. And it wasn't a total loss, because we were able to eat at a new barbecue place, Q39, which was delicious! I'll go into a more extensive "barbecue rating" post sometime of the places we've tried, but this experience was fun because there was this super friendly couple sitting next to us and we hit it off pretty well talking about barbecue in KC. Eric and I aren't the best at making new friends because we're both more reserved in public, and so I almost wish I had gotten some information to hang out (and maybe eat at more barbecue places with them in the future), but I didn't know if that'd be weird. After that we walked around the Plaza. We love walking around beautiful places, and in Kansas City there are a LOT of great places to enjoy. We want to take advantage of living so close to cool things! 

Anyway, today ended with Eric kindly agreeing to watch "Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-day Comedy" with me. Admittedly, it is a cheesy and sort of dated movie with moments of not-the-best-acting, but it is still a movie I really love. Is it because the main character Elizabeth reminds me of my friend Jenni? Is it because the part where the friends go from ice-cream eating shut-ins to exercising, river-floating success stories is somehow inspiring to me? Is it because the guy who plays Collins does waaaayy too good of a job playing his part??? Yes, yes, yes and more. (Mozart for Dogs, anyone?)

 It's thunderstorm weather, which means it is time to catch some glorious Zs. Good to be back! :)

--Sannah

Day three

I've been keeping up with the writing and duo lingo. My husband even started German! :) work in the morning, so good night!

Day two of writing:

Success! A journal entry, poem and short story :)

Back!

There is so much to talk about! Just briefly, I am loving having Eric back, I am loving being married, and in general, am just very happy and blessed. I haven't been very motivated, goal oriented or ambitious though, and I believe writing has a way of helping me to be in touch with myself. I am happy to report that tonight for the first time in a LONG time, I wrote in my journal. First step in the right direction! 

Church was good today, about the importance of remembering Christ's Atonement for our sins and about taking steps in our lives to be prepared for the difficult things in life. Eric and I went to my sister and her husband's house for games this evening, it was fun. Anyway, that's all for tonight! Good to be back :)

--Sannah

Waiting for a missionary

A few random thoughts:

• For me, the first year was very easy. Eric was my best friend, I remembered our relationship really well, I got letters sort of regularly--like the first couple of days were rough, but then it wasn't so bad, I got used to it, and thought things would pretty much feel the same the rest of the time. I really enjoyed making friends, and sort of found that that helped distract me a little. 
• Around the one-year mark, like two months before, time seemed to go slowly. Pretty much that point until like the 3/4ths mark was rough. I was sort of depressed, and there was some other stuff going on as well... school was VERY busy, I felt lonely, and was not feeling close to Eric at all, like in some ways he was a stranger. I'm not happy to say that, but it's true... 
• Six-months-to-go-mark: Felt great, came surprisingly fast, and I knew at that point that time would be going VERY quickly from that point on. I woke up happy for a couple of days, just because I knew I was going to be seeing Eric soon. Now it's sort of worn off-- 20 weeks to go! I know I'm going to be very busy with preparations, but surprisingly and sadly I'm not very motivated.

And this is not a good sign... I don't want to change the relationship status on Facebook to "engaged". I don't even know why! Eric told me to change it two weeks ago, and I keep putting it off. I should just do it, but I'm worried about regretting it, stupid as that is...  I'm not looking forward to the reaction, I wish we would have just changed it before he left, but he was concerned that it would frowned upon, a guy getting engaged right before his mission. But most of my close friends know about it, so they'll just be like "About time!" and stuff. Whatever, I guess who cares what people think, I'll go ahead and change it I guess. I guess part of the reason I don't like it is I'll feel extra alone in a way, like I am the one who handles and responds to everyone's reactions, just me... and planning a wedding by myself... I wonder if getting married in November is the right thing, I almost feel like I'm getting cold feet. I just wish things didn't have to be so rushed, I wish it weren't so convenient to just get married in November, and then move to Utah... I would have enjoyed planning everything together, I think. Maybe I should tell him I'm sort of having doubts :( Plus it's like, he brings up things that he wants for the reception and stuff, and I appreciate that he's trying to be helpful, but it's like it creates more questions...

A few minutes later:

Ok, well I aired some of my complaints and concerns with my awesome friend Jenni, and she had some excellent suggestions and gave me some reassurance... I feel much better now. I'm very lucky to have a support system, even while Eric's gone. I guess I'll change that status now!

Best,

Sannah

Ridiculous Conversations Like This Don't Happen in Letters

I miss spontaneous stupidity, letters are usually a bit more serious (and not really all that spontaneous, compared to a real-time conversation). Part of a chat between Eric and I from June 11th, 2010:

12:20amMe
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285579/Eggs-straordinary-Harriet-hen-crack-record.html

12:26amEric
 I wonder what your mom would say if her chicken did that

12:26amMe
lol
would you feel safe eating that egg?

12:27amEric
no sir

12:27amMe
lol!
could have a sea monster inside!
or a baby giraffe!

12:27amEric
yeah, a gargantuan mutant chicken with laser beams comin' outta his eyes

12:28amMe
yeah, and tanks for legs!

12:28amEric
yeah, and machetes for arms!

12:28amMe
yeah, and aerosol spray and a match for flamin hair!

12:29amEric
yeah, and feathers made out of diamond!

12:29amMe
yeah, and six electric guitar strings for a tongue!

12:30amEric
yeah, and a cannon ball for a stomach!

12:30amMe
yeah, and an earring made of gold!

12:31amEric
yeah, only one earring, in his left earring. And a heart that pumps pure baby tears!
oops, his left ear
I'm tired

12:32amMe
and his screech that sounds like a car crash!
me too
two others just started talkin to me and I want OFF!

12:33amEric
oh no
tell 'em to am-scray

12:33amMe
I will, I'll say I'm just getting off

12:33amEric
tell 'em you left your tuba in the oven

12:34amMe
Oh no! I did that FOR REAL! I was wonderin what that fat smell was

12:34amEric
oooohhhh BOY! Cheeeeeeesey

12:34amMe
pheewy, you said it, palpalpal

12:35amEric
Yeah, palpus

12:35amMe
yuck

12:35amEric
Papist

12:35amMe
lol

12:35amEric
Paper

12:35amMe
uh ok
that's quite enough

12:35amEric
PayPal

12:35amMe
go to bed!

12:35amEric
I am! I'm sleep messaging
that's why they're so stupid
I won't remember any of this, lucky me

12:36amMe
oh boy, this gonna go on all night?