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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

fridays are always the best

i think about everyone in this universe will agree with the title of this post because we all know fridays really are the best. in the swainston household friday night means one thing...date night. date night always includes dinner out, and on the really lucky date nights we go to a movie, or some other entertainment. farm boy and i are pretty simple though and love food so eating out together is our usual date night routine. so we hit up cafe sabor in logan this past friday (which we had never been to together), and then headed home to watch a movie and relax...about thirty minutes in though i looked over and found this...

yep, this is farm boy dead asleep at 7 o clock on friday night. we had quite the friday night, didn't we?

he is probably going to kill me when he sees this. he was so deep in sleep he never even noticed me get out of bed to take pictures, go to the bathroom, and bake cookies. yeah, i was so bored just watching tv that i decided to bake some of the halloween chocolate chip cookie dough i had leftover from the night before.

(i have to give you a little background though. you see farm boy has been working his tail off with early morning work everyday, class and homework all day long, and then on top of that he is working extra hard on job hunting for when he graduates in may. this past week included a lot of everything, especially future job opportunities, so i was not surprised one bit when he was fast asleep...he deserved the break after working so hard and non stop all week long.)

don't worry though i wasn't alone all night long. he woke up around 9 and was rested and ready to go. at that point i was getting really tired, but stayed awake long enough to watch half of the movie, o brother where art thou. i hadn't seen that movie in so long and farm boy had never seen it so it was quite entertaining to see his reactions to all the different scenarios that play out for the main characters throughout the film. he was quite disturbed with the gangsta bank robber shooting up some cattle along the road.

don't worry though it's not all crazy bank robbers, so check out my favorite scene from the movie which includes the signature song, "i am a man of constant sorrow". and next time you're in the market for a movie to watch, check it out.


flowers on a cold winter day

sometimes when you're walking towards your bosses office to turn in your time card for the week, you see your husband.

and sometimes you ask him what he is doing and he gets all weird and awkward, and just tells you that one of your boss has your car keys (because you forget them in the car that morning), and he proceeds to walk away and not really say much else.

and then sometimes you walk in the bosses office to grab your keys and see this huge vase of flowers sitting there, with a lovely little card with your name on it, and you get that little school girl feeling in your heart and can't stop smiling because you are reminded yet again that you got the best husband a girl could ask for.


farm boy does sneaky things like this every once in awhile and i am still completely surprised every time. and what girl wouldn't be. i mean look at those flowers. once i picked my jaw up off the ground from shock, i got to carry these across a small corner of campus back to my office with a huge smile on my face, and realized this cold dreary autumn day in cache valley just got a whole lot brighter and happier. 

and not only did i get a surprise of flowers and a sweet note, but that sweet note included a dinner date tonight of my choosing (and dessert as well, and we all know how much i LOVE dessert), and even after dating slash being married to my handsome farm boy for over two years i am beyond excited for an impromptu date with him tonight.

Friday, October 25, 2013

flashback friday: the proposal i'll never forget, part 1

before farm boy and i could get married, he had to get down on one knee and make sure i was in for the long haul. well to be honest he had known for a long time (over a year actually) that i was ready and willing to marry him, but protocol includes an actual proposal. and this boy's proposal did not disappoint one bit.

this story begins way back on the first day of 2013. i had flown back from christmas break at home in indiana (which farm boy was lucky enough to join for a few days as well) with my family. farm boy had picked me up from the airport and as we were finally rolling through cache valley he decided we needed to stop at a local hispanic market. as he continued to drive i proceeded to argue with him about where exactly it was at. i knew he was going the wrong direction and did my best to explain that to him, however he continued on his course and we ended up a couple blocks away from the market, but conveniently parked right behind logan's most marketed jeweler, se needhams. and you can just imagine my excitement when he proceeded to lead me into the jewelry store and casually tell the worker we were there to look at engagement rings!!

now before this outing we had never looked at rings...together. (i had previously looked with both my older sisters at two different jewelry stores in indiana the summer before. nothing ever came of the rings i had picked out there though.) i was a giddy little school girl checking out rings with him and finally saw a glimpse of light at the end of this dating tunnel. because at this point we had been dating for about 19 months, and i was beyond ready to marry this kid!

after i tried on as many beautiful rings as i possibly could, it was down to two gorgeous rings that were very similar. i turned to my handsome farm boy for thoughts and together we chose the very ring that is on my ringer today. now, i wish i could say a couple weeks after this visit he got down on his knee and popped the big question. i mean we had finally looked at rings together, picked one out, and even had chatted about getting married around the time of spring break. i had mentioned to my family, and some close friends of our new year's day outing and even tried on some wedding dresses just a few weeks later. unfortunately, the weeks started to roll by with no appearance of any such ring.

we quickly rolled through january, and then february. our original plans of a "spring break wedding" were long gone, and i was starting to loose hope that we were getting married any time soon. as march began, we were two weeks away from spring break, and just nine weeks away from my college graduation. and as i had told farm boy several times before, "if i wasn't married when i graduate, i was going back home to indiana to work with my dad." and he knew i wasn't kidding.

well wednesday march 6 i woke up and headed out to the USU south farm to feed my furry little calves before going into work my second job on campus for the day. farm boy had been milking cows in idaho that morning since 1 am, and as soon as he knew i was up feeding calves he sent me a desperate text asking that i head to idaho as soon as possible to help him for the day. i had to work on campus though so i hesitated, but he pleaded saying he was swamped with so much to do, so i emailed my boss explaining there was an "emergency" i needed to attend to in idaho and would not be in the office for the day. luckily my boss is the coolest, and there was no problem, so as i finished my calf feeding i headed to idaho for what i thought would be a normal day, but little did i know that there was a whole slew of sneakiness going on behind my back.

to be continued...



Thursday, October 24, 2013

a night of emotions

sometimes i am a full on emotional women and have one of those crazy spur of the moment, where-the-heck-did-this-come-from kind of emotional explosions. when i was single i would just drowned my sorrows in ice cream, chinese food, and some gilmore girl episodes, but i'm married now. this means that my poor unassuming husband gets hit with a tidal wave of emotions from he's usually sweet loving wife.

well, the other night i sent out one of those tidal waves of just pure crazy emotions (with full on ugly tears everywhere) and farm boy was the sole victim. you see i just had one of those days where i get into deep thought about a subject and it doesn't quite sit well and then i finally explode with all my feelings in the worst way.

maybe one day i can get put together all the right words to explain all my bizarre feelings i had that night, but until then it all just makes me realize how lucky i got to marry this boy.

he knows exactly how to pull me in, and catch all my crazy emotions. i love how he doesn't just sugar coat everything and tell me all will be okay (even though in the moment of craziness that's all i think i want or need), but that he is straight up honest and tells me the good hard truth. and how i need to buck up and be stronger. he may not always understand all my emotions, but he is always there to talk me through it and remind me that we're a team...no matter what.

and that is what i thank my Heavenly Father for every morning and night. that i was able to find such a strong, kind man to be my partner in this crazy thing we call life. and it doesn't hurt that he is easy on the eye either. 
  


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

little things lately

sometimes it takes a little bit of a scare to make you appreciate the little things that make life so darn easy. 

you see friday farm boy and i went to the field house (the exercise facility on campus) to get our workout in for the day. all was well while we sweated it out on the machines, but as we prepared to head home i started to get that awful feeling in my stomach as i realized i had lost our keys. farm boy handed them to me as soon as we left our apartment since he had no room to hold them, and clearly that wasn't the best idea. we frantically searched the facility and talked with the workers, but our keys were still nowhere to be found. 

we made a very somber walk home as the feeling in my stomach got worse and worse, especially when we realized the key ring not only had our apartment key on it, but also our mail key, one of our car keys, and the car clicker with an automatic starter on it. paying a lockout fee of $1 was not a fun way to start our your friday and weekend at all.

after a long weekend of wondering where our keys were, calculating the $80 replacement cost for them all (which doesn't really fit into our little newlywed budget right now), calling USU police to see if any keys were turned it and saying many many prayers for help from the Lord to find them, i woke up early monday morning and headed to the fieldhouse to ask one last time if they had been turned in. and hallelujah! they were there! i was beyond excited when the worker was handing them to me, and she didn't seem to care much which i don't blame her, but man i sure was happy to get that set of keys back. 

losing those keys and going through a weekend of worrying reminded me of how greatly blessed we are. we have a home to live in, although we may be too poor to heat it, and every single wall consists of cinder blocks, and there is a constant smell of curry and nonstop stomping from our neighbors upstairs, it's our little home for the school year. our car is key to get us in between work, school, and play every day! so grateful we have it to make our crazy schedules just a little more manageable and having two keys means we can leave the car somewhere for the other to get to fast after a class or work. so even though within an hour of "losing" our keys we had a game plan of what we would do to get it all fixed (i.e. ask his dad to make a spare car key, forget about automatic starter for awhile, and break down our hard earned money to replace the others) it sure was nice to get them back monday morning and remember how lucky we are for the little things that make our everyday life so much easier. and we made sure to thank our Heavenly Father for that last night!  

i know i'll be keeper a lot closer eye on those keys from now on. 

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

weekend recap...and farm boy's mission

why is it i never get around to recapping our weekend until a new weekend is about to start? i'm too busy or just think i'm too busy, but we have too many great weekends to not recap them. and this past weekend was definitely a great one.

we started out with a trip down south to provo. now provo is home of the unspeakable university that we don't like to give any time of day to, but every once and awhile we grace "the bubble", as is it often referred to, with our presence (and then we quickly leave and get back to God's Country in cache valley). so as all the crazy cougars made their way north for the big football game we headed to their turf for pretty darn good reason if you ask me.

you see at the young age of 19 my amazing farm boy slash husband devoted two years of his life to spreading the gospel in the san bernadino area of california. in the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints it is often called serving a mission and many young men and women leave their home every year to completely give of themselves to the Lord. actually in our church conference this past weekend it was reported that the number of missionaries serving is currently 80,333 compared to 58,500 just one year ago. how incredible and exciting! for the duration of their mission they are wholeheartedly focused on spreading the word of the Lord with no contact with friends or families other than letters, emails, and two phone calls a year (those calls always happen on mothers day, and christmas day). men serve for two years, while women serve for 18 months. this past friday was farm boy's mission renunion. it was the first one he has ever attended and i'm so glad he went and that i got to go along of course.

farm boy served his two year mission from may of 2008 to may 2010, and only says the best about his experiences from those two years. him and i didn't meet until the spring of 2011, which means i wasn't around close to his mission days, but i have heard so so much in the past two and half years. i love love love to hear all about his experiences walking through the streets of cali, eating so much authentic hispanic food he thought he would die, and preaching the true gospel in what he calls the "celestial" language of spanish. he goes on to tell me all about the crazy times he had serving with other young men, but his eyes really light up when he is telling all the details of the amazing people he met. he has nothing but absolute love and adoration for those people of the san bernadino mission, and i love to hear him reminisce about it all.

he often says that serving his mission was the best decision he ever made (besides marrying me, of course), and i will have to agree with him. his mission is not only the best experiences of his life, but i know that is the best addition to our lives as well as our children.

i have been lucky enough to meet some the amazing people from his mission by returning to the san bernadino area with him, which is a whole another post in and of itself, but this past weekend i was able to meet his mission president and fellow missionaries from those two years. the mission itself was casual and low key with local hispanic food, a pinata and a get to know you game for the dates/spouses. i played along with all of the above (especially the food of course), after a little encouragement from sister sanchez (mission president's wife) for the pinata and game. the pinata was much tougher than i imagined and i had not luck, but the young feisty children did. i gladly joined in grabbing the scattered pieces of candy on the floor though. i can never turn down sugar in any form.

while i was worried about grabbing candy to satisfy my sweet tooth, farm boy enjoyed reminicsing with all his buddies about their good ole days in their slang title of "san b". they hooped. they hollered. they asked how so-and-so was, and when they had been back to the mission last. and at the end of the night everyone parted their ways, but what a great night is was to remember the past, catch up on the present, and look towards the future of not only the missionaries that were there, but also all the people back in san b that have been touched by such humble, selfless and dedicated men and women.


and what deep deep love i have for this nineteen year old boy that spent two years of his life to serve the Lord and truly fell in love with the hispanic people of southern california. his face lit up all night friday while he relived the days of san b with his close mission friends, and i couldn't help but light up with excitement, love, and laughter as well.

that fun filled friday night was just the start to a spectacular weekend. we made the long drive home that night and got a good nights sleep before heading to preston the next morning. saturday and sunday consisted of watching our church conference that was nothing short of amazing and i hope to pick out my favorite parts to show on this here blog. when the conference wasn't airing we were cooking up delicious meals, running or walking around the beautiful country side of idaho, and just spending time with farm boy's little brother. oh, and we fit in a pumpkin pie shake from big j's, preston's local fast food joint. i was skeptical at first, but man it was just another great addition to our weekend.

it's hump day already and the weekend is fast approaching. can't wait for another fun weekend with the farm boy!

alas! the day of change

"alas" seems like such a funny word when you think about it, but it was the first word that came to my mind when i thought of this post. so attention everyone...big news! i actually gotten myself out of bed early this past week and completed some workouts! yeah buddy! (that's my favorite saying when i get all happy...it may or may not appear on this blog frequently.)

to be honest i first wake up most morning at 3:50 am. yep i said that right 3:50 am. don't all wives wake up at this time to take their husband to work? nope? i guess it's just me because i'm crazy in love with that boy, and if he asks i can't possibly say no (and he knows that).

once he is dropped off at work i get home and jump right back in bed, and usually never want to wake back up. i finally found some determination and will power though and have woke up with enough time to work out in the mornings which is so much nicer than exercising after work when all i want to do is cook dinner and hang out with my farm boy. him and i have enjoyed some great evening runs together lately though. i absolutely love just getting outside and enjoying the fresh air with him! hopefully cache valley will keep the cool weather around a little longer so we can keep spending great quality time outside together.

and all these runs have another great reasoning behind them! somehow my farm boy has gotten the itch to become and runner. and he isn't aiming small when it comes to his goals. he has his eyes set on running a marathon! i was a crazy person once and ran the top of utah marathon last year in september, with barely any training at all.


farm boy wants to do it right though so we are going to keep running and over time work our way up to a marathon. our first rung in the marathon climbing ladder is a 5K and what better time to do a 5K than on thanksgiving day when they are commonly called a turkey trot. 

and it is official! we are running the holiday turkey trot in smithfield this thanksgiving day! let the training begin!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

almost time to "feast upon the words of christ"

it's only tuesday, but i am already pumped for this weekend! and not just for the usual reason of no work, but because it's one of the two weekends during the year we get to here from our beloved prophets and apostles. you see in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or LDS Church), we have "General Conference" twice a year that is broadcast across the world for anyone and everyone to see. or if you're lucky you can go straight to the source and watch it live in the conference center in salt lake city.


i remember as a little kid i was just excited to be able to stay home and lay around the living room in my pajamas and eat one heck of a meal in between the two different sessions. and now as an adult, i am beyond ready and willing to "feast upon the words of Christ" as it councils in 2 Nephi chapter 32, verse 3. it's time to get my moral compass on track and listen to the desired council from these inspired men. 

both saturday and sunday have two sessions each. you can watch or listen to it live or anytime after here.