Sunshine and Summertime

I am so excited for this summer. We have so much fun stuff planned. And my summer starts tomorrow! That's what life is like when you're finished with school! We're going to San Jose tomorrow for a wedding. Apparently it's shorts weather. Those are beautiful words to my frozen ears. I cannot imagine wearing shorts. I went and dug our summer clothes out today. They are beautiful. However, now I need to whip out the old razor and shave...

To give you a quick lowdown on the summer plans, after we come home from CA, we have Easters. Danny and I got our Easter buckets (yeah, we're pretty hard core and need buckets, not baskets), and we plan to fill them with fun stuff and hide them. My mom and grandparents are coming the week after that for Women's Conference. I'm way excited about that. We're going to do lots of fun stuff. I'm going to whip out my new "Our Best Bites" cookbook and serve up some culinary masterpieces. Yeah! Our next summer event...wait for it, wait for it... we are going to Disneyland!!! I've only been to Disneyworld, so I am way excited. My family is going out to tour Jaymes' mission and then they are hitting the land of Disney, so of course we are going to meet them out there. Then we're going to Brad Paisley/David Archuleta for the 4th of July! And Laurel and I just got tickets to Taylor Swift in September. The gist of this post if pretty much that Danny spoils me horribly! I love him.

I suppose I should update instead of just saying all these amazing things we're going to do. This past week was my big 2-3. It was a wonderful day... actually week. Danny got me a candle warmer, the OBB cookbook, a CTR ring, some shirts, we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and he just treated my like a queen...well, he always does that. I went with a few friends to get cupcakes (gotta love the Sweet Tooth Fairy). I love birthdays! Danny is trucking along in his school stuff. He loves finals. A lot. But only one more week! We're still waiting to hear if he is moving to the next seminary class. He loves teaching so much and of course he's really good at it.

Anyway, that's all from the Cranes.

We like goals!

Danny and I have been thinking a lot about our goals. We both know what we want long term, but lately it's been more of daily goals. There are areas where we can do better and so we are striving to do that. Goals just bring more of a balance to your day. One of my goals is to read the Book of Mormon before work everyday. I read it everyday, but usually right before we go to bed and that doesn't help me much. I want that spirit the whole day, not just the two minutes after I crawl in bed and drift off. Also, we need to eat better. I mean we don't eat crap, I'll give us that, but just better foods. We went to Sunflower Market on Saturday. That place is inspiring. I mean, I'm definitely not one of those organic freaks, but they just have really cool stuff. Like chips made out of beans that actually taste good. And calimari. Not that that is very cool. But stuff like that.

A lot of these goals have come as a result of us being in limbo. No, not the Inception limbo, thank goodness... but the limbo of waiting. We are waiting on lots of things right now. Waiting until May 1st when we can move into our new apartment, waiting to see about our jobs, about Danny's grants for school, waiting to see what furniture we will need, and stuff like that. I am not a patient person. Ask anyone. I hate to sit around and count down until the day. But that seems to be the game we're playing right now. And I have to live with it. Nothing I can do. It stinks. But lots of things have also been coming together for us and I'm so happy and thankful for that. We were able to find a cheaper apartment with a washer and dryer! We were able to sell our current contract 2 days later to someone we actually know. It is March (don't ask)! Those are exciting things that I'm happy to be done waiting for.

On Saturday we spent the whole day with Laurel and Randall. That was super fun. We went to Dickey's. It's this amazing bbq place. I think we'll be going back real soon. It was delicious! And cheap! The perfect place. Last night it was cold and snowy, so we made Chicken Noodle Soup, the good kind. Danny took the noodles and I did the soupy stuff. It was wonderful and warmed us right up. We had a free redbox so we got Inception because Danny fell asleep the first time we watched it and so of course he didn't get it. Needless to say, he liked it this time.

Oh, we're going to Stadium of Fire. That's all.

It's about that time...

Well, here we are again. Things have been going really good. We're both working a lot. Danny is a busy boy. He studies all the time (when he's not working that is). It's a good thing we have nerf guns to relieve the stress. Our neighbors probably think we fight a lot. Don't fret. We just like to shoot each other :) Danny has started taking seminary teaching classes. We hope that things work out there. He would be an awesome seminary teacher. Anyway, this week he had his first (out of 2) 10 minute teaching experience. He got a 50/50! Hard work (and a lot of stress) pays off!

Hopefully, this will be the first of many posts on here!

Wedded Bliss

We made it! Danny and I have successfully been married for over 2 months. Weird, right? Our apartment looks pretty good and we are finally settled... I think. Danny is going to school and working at the MTC. I work at Deseret Book. Things are good. Real good. Time is going by so fast. Jaymes comes home from his mission on January 11th. We were able to find really cheap tickets to go home for it (which I'm super excited about) so since we aren't going anywhere for Thanksgiving or Christmas, at least we'll be gone somewhere at some point in January. Well, that's the little update from the Cranes. Peace out.

"The Future is as Bright as Your Faith."

We are definitely into summer. I'm taking one class to round out my college career (Psychology of Gender), still working at the Clinic, and I also got a job at Deseret Book. Things can get kind of crazy. Danny works a lot, too, so we try to have lunch together and stuff. We're raking in the dough. Wedding plans are coming along nicely. I got my dress when my mom and grandma were here a couple of weeks ago. It's beautful, of course. I love it. We've been looking at invitations and I think we have some good choices. M'Lisa is going to take our pictures when she gets back from Texas so that'll be a big relief. We still need to find a place to live, though. That's kind of important. Anyway, just thought I would update. And I'm bored at work and don't want to do homework. Go figure. Peace out.

Fearless

Life is hard. There are so many choices, so many roads, so many ways to go. But there is also so much joy and happiness that can be found in every moment. Lately I've had to make some pretty interesting decisions. They aren't all made yet, but at least I made a dent. I paid $150 on my credit card today. That's a dent. Going along with this money stuff, I had a revelation on Sunday that I can't even think of moving forward with Danny until I get this debt paid off. That's not fair to him and it would cause a lot of unnecessary tension. So I have to hurry and get rid of it. May is my goal! I can do it! Speaking of Danny, what a cute, amazing, wonderful guy. I'm so stinkin' lucky. However, he's the main reason for all these choices I'm now having to make. I decided this week that I am going to graduate in August. What am I going to do in the fall you may ask? Well, I don't know either. I think tonight I will talk to Danny and just tell him, "Danny, I have some choices to make for my future. Do you want to be a part of those choices?" If it's a yes, we'll worry about that when it comes up. But if it's a no, adios my dear. I don't think it will be a no though. Today has been a "I want to make Melinda fat!" day. This morning I found a box of Strawberry Special-K on my shelf. He taped candy and notes all over it that said, "You are berry berry special to me!" Cute! And then when I was getting my backpack ready, I found a box of chocolates in it with a note saying, "You're so sweet!" The best so far is when I got to work. I came in and Aleks was really happy to see me. I looked on the counter and there was a ton of Valentine's stuff. I was like "Aleks, who gave you all of this?" She looked at me like I was stupid and then I realized that my name was on it. He left me a plate of cookies, a stuffed animal poopie (puppy), a bag of M&M's and a note. M: Magnificent, E: Entertaining, L: Linda (Spanish translation is pretty, beautiful), I: Intelligent, N: Nonchalant, D: Drop dead gorgeous, A: Awesome. Oh boy! He also left a bunch of paper cranes. It took me a little while to realize they were there because of his last name. I'm a quick one! Tonight we're going to dinner and then having some special dessert. He won't tell me because he doesn't want me to go home after the dinner...which is what I would normally do. Not really. So school is going well. I've been doing pretty well on tests, papers, and other assignments so far. I've also been studying probably more than I ever have. That's what you get when your boyfriend is a study fanatic. But that's a good thing. Oh, back to life being hard. It is hard, but I've learned that you just have to jump in and put all doubts aside. I know that God will watch over me and as long as I'm doing what I need to be doing, he will guide and direct me in little ways that I won't even be able to recognize. I just have to take that first step and lose all my doubts. Be fearless!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Be Where Your Feet Are

The past couple of days have been so hard. There are so many stresses in my life right now. Danny Boy, debt, school, money, family, my spirituality, my CALLING. Everything just seems to be piling up. While many of these things aren't stresses all the time, they do play a major role in my life. This week is Thanksgiving break and I should be looking forward to a relaxing time spent with family, but instead I get to stress out about the 6 papers that are due the week I come back. I love learning, but I don't exactly enjoy writing ridiculous amounts of papers. This semester it seems that I've been so caught up in everything that I haven't really enjoyed the moment. I haven't found joy in the journey. This semester, Cassandra Barney came and gave a lecture to WRI. In it she discussed this painting. It is titled "Be Where Your Feet Are." In the lecture, we talked about why it was important to enjoy the moment and take everything in. I need to remember that there is a time to be stressed and to work on papers, but there is also a time to enjoy being with others and having fun. I think I've been mixing the two and my fun has been miserable...or at least not as fun. I'm going to really try over the break to be where my feet are and to not be distracted by meaningless things. I need to be more like a child in that aspect. It is so easy for kids to forget and enjoy life. They don't carry around those stupid worries. They are just themselves. I can do it!