The Little Things

I'm really lucky to have the relationship that I have. I know I'm such a cheesy blogger but isn't that what happens when you're a newlywed?

I decided to stop comparing my marriage to other marriages. Everyone's relationship is so different. and just because someone posts on social media that "their husband is amazing because he sent me flowers" or the husband posts a cute picture on Instagram telling his wife he loves her, doesn't mean their relationship is perfect. No one's relationship is perfect, everyone has ups and downs.

But their relationship is perfect to them. And my relationship is perfect to me. He might not send me flowers, or post cute things on social media, or buy me new things. But he does so many other things and its about time I appreciate those things; focus on only those things instead of what other husbands do. Because lets face it, I did marry the best man out there.

Like when he gets home from work, he gives me a huge kiss and picks me up like a baby and cuddles me on the couch. even if I'm awnry from a long day at school.
Or when I get in the shower and come out and he's cleaning the whole kitchen. like reeeeally cleaning it. Clorox and all.

But lately I've been really grateful for mornings. Shawn just started school and is going full time plus working full time. So he has to be up at 5:30 and out of the house by 6:20 to get to school at 7am. And even though I'm barely awake when his alarm goes off, he always kisses me good morning. Then he takes a shower, eats breakfast, gets ready, makes lunch, and then right before he leaves, he comes in our room to wake me up just to tell me he loves me and kisses me again.

It really is the best way to start my morning. Remember when we were just dating and I complained about leaving him at night, or waiting all day to just even see him? Well no more of that. I start and end my day with him, my best friend.

We've been married 2 months and 5 days now, and I fall more and more in love with him everyday. 

Too Cool For School

First day of school! First day of school! 

Last night I told Shawn that I had to take a picture of him on his first day of school and he just started laughing at me thinking I was such an idiot. But HEY! It's what you do right? I always had pictures on my first day of school, so I thought it would be cute. Shawn's going to SLCC (Salt Lake Community College) because he needs to finish up his generals and then he's going to head over to the University of Utah. and then.. Med School. 

and then and then and then. hahaha. We have a lot of school ahead of us! School is so fun (rolling eyes now). 

So here's my hot husband guys. 

Oh and Go check out my Beauty tab at the top. I finally uploaded something. Follow it to see my passion. Hair.

I love what I do. I'm terrible at remembering pictures but I'm going to start doing a lot better. I want to show off my work. 

Married Campers

All summer long, I just wanted to go camping. It's not summer if you don't go camping atleast once right? Well, Wednesday I got home from the Salon and Shawn had the cutest smile on his face. You know, the one with a secret; the one like he really wants to tell me something. I immediately asked him what he was thinking and he asked, "You get home from the Salon tomorrow at what time?" and I thought, I get home the same time every day why is he asking me this question. Then the conversation sounded something like this

"Why??"-me
"Ohhhhh just because"-him.

Over and over.
Finally I got it out of him. He wanted to go camping! Hi, so not a big deal to you guys, but as a blogger and a follower of many others, I always complain to Shawn that we are so boring and never do anything fun. All I wanted was to do something fun before school started for him. So this is fun. and I really wanted to go camping. So even better.

So now Thursday:

It's like, 7am and Shawn still hasn't gotten up for work. I'm half awake as the time keeps dragging but I don't want to wake him up. I just want to snuggle all day right? So I pretend I'm asleep. He then gets out of bed-dang it-and goes to the bathroom. I'm thinking, alright he's going to work. Then he comes running into our bedroom and jumps on me and says "Surprise, I already got work taken off. I'm going to lay here and cuddle you". K cutest husband EVER.

so he spent the day getting ready for our mini vaca while I went to the Salon.

We finally left around 5 and headed up Farmington Canyon.

And if any of you actually know me, you know that I haaaate that canyon. I've been up half way a couple times and always make the person turn around because I'm such a wuss. I scare myself too much. And if you haven't been up there.. its a skinny road that fits one car and a huge cliff off the side and if another car is coming... well figure it out.

SCARY.

So the whole way up I'm scared, tense, anxiety is kicking in bad but I'm staying calm for Shawn. I mean, who wants to be married to a wimpy girl right? I still gotta be cool for him. ;) But inside I'm freaking out. So I play Candy Crush to get my mind off it.

We drove aaaaaaaall the way to the top! You know where the Radar Towers are? or if you live in Utah, the 'balls' at the top of the mountain? yeah. we went UP THERE! Soo high, and so beautiful.


That would be me, scared out of my mind.
It's fine, clearly I survived.

\

How pretty is this view ehh?

and this view??

K he's mine.

And now I can say we kissed on top of a mountain.

Ewwww Grossss!! We're kissing!!!

Lunchables on the mountain. :)

And then we got to our camp spot. It was nice to get away for a day. No cell phones, no outside world. Just us. It was so quiet and so peaceful. I love camping.

Trunk Tent.

Cool huh!

My attempt to winking...

                                                                 FAIL!

                                                                       

And then we roasted mellows :) Huge mellows.

And then we fell more in love.

Split Second

I'm going to apologize ahead of time for this sappy post but it's been on my mind for the past two days and I really just want to let it out.

Being married is the best. It really is. When I was just dating Shawn, and I watched a lot of my friends get married it got me really excited but of course, I had no idea it would be this great. I was told all the time from friends how much fun it is, 'Married life is the best'. So obviously it got me more and more excited. It really is great. Want to know what I love so much about marriage? A lot of things. 

I love waking up to him every morning and starting my day with a kiss. I love coming home to him every day after a long day at the salon. I love having a best friend to spend every single day with. I love getting in arguments and watching him try to make me laugh by sitting on me and tickling me until I'm done being 'awnry'. I love making him dinner and then hearing him tell me how yummy it is. (I'm just starting to cook so that's a big deal to me) or saying thank you for the littlest things, like putting away the groceries. I love watching 'our shows' together on Netflix every night. I love going to the gym every night and watching him lift weights and him watching me try to lift weights. 

The list goes on and on.

But how about other things like;

Talking about our future together. What we are going to be like in 10+ years, what we are going to look like, what cars we want to drive, what house we want to build. Planning our kids names and how cute we I am going to dress them. Where we want to live when he goes through Med School, our future careers. 

Newlyweds do that. We think about the future. Growing up I always dream't about my wedding day and I was so giddy about it. But I never thought that something else would make me happier than my wedding day. What makes me SO happy and SO giddy, is knowing I get an eternity with my best friend and imagining all the fun and exciting things we will do together.

Where am I going with this? 

I hope I'm warming up your heart before I continue..

Now what if, what if all that, in a split second- disappeared. Think about it. Everything you've ever wanted, just disappears. It'll never happen with that one person you want it to happen with. Everything you ever planned with your spouse just... won't happen. In a split second everything changed and you never, in a million years, thought it would happen to you. 

Yesterday at the Salon, my friends and I were talking about a very sad story that recently happened to a girl my friend knows. She just got married a couple months ago and on a trip to Lake Powell, she was boating with her husband and some friends/family. The water in Lake Powell is very shallow right now and her husband was on a tube. The tube hit a rock and he flew off. My friend wasn't quite sure when she was telling the story, but she was pretty sure that he got ran over by the boat. (and if someone knows this story better than I, I'm sorry if I'm getting the details wrong) Long story short, he died. They've been married only 4 months and everything they wanted, was gone in a split second. 

I couldn't help but tear up when I heard this story. Nothing scares me more than the thought of not spending the rest of my life with Shawn. 

When I heard this story, I ran home to my husband to give him a big kiss and wrap my arms around him because you never know when someone you love so much is gone. There are a few things in marriage we take for granted. The little things. and no more will I ever take anything for granted.  

Now, whoever is reading this. Go wrap your arms around something you love very much. Husband, wife, siblings, mom, dad, a best friend, kids. Anyone you can think of. Because life is short and precious. It's too short to hold grudges, or throw it away by doing stupid things. 

and to my husband;

I love you more than you will ever know. Thank you-for everything.

My heart goes out to the wife, family, and friends for their loss. And they are definitely in my prayers.

The welcome home video-

This morning I was on pinterest, and someone repinned a picture of a girl hugging her missionary at the airport. And it got me thinking about when Shawn was on his mission. So, I wanted to watch the video that my friend made at the airport.

WATCH IT HERE:

http://vimeo.com/57047681#

It's so obvious in this video how much we love each other! 

And while I was watching it, I got a little teary eyed thinking about the fact that I actually waited for him. That those two people in that video, hugging at the airport after not seeing each other for 2 years, are now married! I knew when I was sixteen that I was going to marry him. And I remember before he went on his mission, we talked about me waiting day after day after day. What I'd do while he was serving, planning our letters, planning our future when he got back, and now it's all happened. It's amazing to me to see how far we've come. I love looking back at old pictures and seeing how little we look, and even in that video we look so young! Even when Shawn was on his mission, there were so many people that doubted us but I told them time after time that I was going to be with Shawn. Now look at us, we are married and couldn't' be happier! But then again, we become happier and more in love every single day! 

Mrs. Boring

I've seriously just been staring at my screen thinking about what I should blog about. All morning I've been reading blogs, and I realized something. I'm so boring! Or maybe I just come off boring. I've been married for a month and it seems like we already are that boring old couple. That needs to change pronto! Summer is almost over and our schedules are going to become so hectic, so it's time to live-it-up; go on adventures; take more pictures. 

Another thing on my mind that kinda-sorta relates, I'm having a love/hate relationship with money. I love money, but I hate it because I don't have any! There's only 2 things (at the moment) that I really want;

new clothes

and a nice camera.

Most of the blogs that I follow are fashion blogs and photography pages. And if they're not photographers, most of my friends have super nice cameras and post the cutest pictures. I want to capture life's beautiful moments. Moments I spend with Shawn, adventures we are about to go on, future babies (don't worry, not any time soon), and who knows what else. but I've always dream't of being a photographer and I know that it's super late to start because most photographers start like when they are in high school, but I'd seriously love it. 

Another thing on my mind is that I'm sick of this blog being just a page of ramble. I feel like it's turned too much into a 'diary' and not a page to share with the world things I love. That's why I created those tabs at the top. But as you can tell, they are not done, but especially the beauty tab. I love doing hair. It's my passion and I'm terrible at taking before and after pictures but it's about time I start. 

So coming from Mrs. Boring over here, don't mind me if my posts are still snoozers. I'll work harder on that, but I'm going to start posting new things. Shawn and I are YOUNG! We need to live life more. And even though we are poor newlyweds, there's so much we could do. We don't need to travel the world (right now), I don't need a million dollars (even though that'd be nice), we just need each other.

Spend a little more time creating memories

& a little less time catching up on One Tree Hill. 

Here I go!

I have been avoiding this post for a long time. I think mainly because I didn't want to announce it and then fail. I always thought, if I just keep it to myself and close friends then it'll be easier. But it wasn't. It's something I've wanted for a long time but didn't have enough motivation to do it. You all are probably thinking, 'what is she talking about?' so here's what I'm talking about:

Getting in shape, losing weight, and being happy with myself.

While Shawn was on his mission, and while we were engaged, I was 'dieting' and 'working out' for him. Not like he wanted me to, but I wanted to be that hot bride for him. But for some reason, I didn't care that much. Especially when he came home and I realized he loves me no matter what!! He really does. So then I gave up. Food is great. We loved going out to eat and eating like crap. I mean, who doesn't like a huge bowl of ice cream and Red Robin?!

Then I realized I wasn't completely happy with myself. It's sucky being a girl and comparing yourself to everyone around you. Especially because I go to beauty school.

NOW LISTEN.
I don't want you to think I'm depressed and hate myself. I love myself. I've been comfortable in my skin for a long time. But I've definitely put on some weight. So it's time for a change.

You're probably all wondering what makes this time different than all the times I've tried before. All the other times before, I did it for other people. I thought I needed to be super skinny and a six pack for Shawn. I thought in order to go swimming with my friends, I needed to wear a cute bikini and be skinny or they'll judge me.  And maybe for some of you, that's a good reason to work out and get in shape. But for me, it wasn't motivating. Especially when everyone was trying to get ''summer skinny'' and results weren't coming quick to me. (okay I'll admit, I'm a terrible dieter haha)

So what makes this time different, is that I'm doing it for myself! My friends love me no matter what, Shawn loves me no matter what, and my family loves me no matter what. So why would I need to change for them? That's just silly. But knowing that I'm doing it for myself, makes it so much more exciting. I am so excited to go into Fall being happy with my body. I'm excited to go hot tubbing and not be insecure about my body. I'm excited to love myself and wear cute tight clothes. I'm excited to get healthy and feel healthy.

So there ya go people! I've finally announced it. I feel like sharing it with the public will make it more motivating to get in shape. I'm excited to post results and share with you while I go through this journey. I've taken a before picture and can't wait to take an after.

I've talked to Shawn about my goal and even though he thinks I'm skinny and perfect, he's agreed to help me and support me 110%. We've made it a goal by October 1st that I'll lose the weight I want and be the pant size I want. And if I reach my goal, he's taking me on a shopping spree :) What a great reward right?

So here I go. Day 1 has been a success so far. The real test will be going to a wedding tonight and avoiding the sweets ;) hahaha.

I'm really SO excited!

If any of you have suggestions on what I should do, I'm all ears!


NO MORE negative body thoughts
NO MORE "I'll do it tomorrow"
NO MORE sitting and wishing to be more fit
NO MORE eating because I'm bored
NO MORE waiting for this to be easier
NO MORE muffin top or love handles
NO MORE "Buts..."
NO MORE "I can't..."
NO MORE "I'm too tired"
NO MORE "It's too hard"
NO MORE EXCUSES!

See ya in 2!

See ya in 2 Elder Elkins. You will be missed. I love you! 

Follow his blog:

www.elderelkins.blogspot.com 

Farewell-

Okay, weird. Today was my brothers farewell. Seriously, it's weird. Didn't Shawn just have his farewell and leave me for 2 years? Yeah well now that's my 18 year old brother. WEIRD. He did so good on his talk. SO good. We all bawled when he said his 'Thank You's' to each one of his siblings, brother in law, cousins, grandparents, grandparents that passed away, to my parents, and so we all cried. Especially Tyson. For those of you who don't know Tyson, he's my 8 year old brother. Broke my heart to see Ty cry so hard. Like-the ugly cry. :(

Now we are dropping him off on Wednesday at the MTC which will suck. I didn't drop Shawn off because it's way too hard. So now here we go, dropping off my little brother! CRAZY! I'm so excited for him to serve tho. Watching Shawn go through everything was incredible and I'm so excited for my brother to go through it all. He's going to love his mission. Especially the Netherlands. Beautiful!

Now I'm blogging his whole mission. So if you want to follow that one too, you should. I'll make it a fun blog to follow.

www.elderelkins.blogspot.com :)

Thanks Lauren Conrad

K this is going to sound completely silly but all morning I've been watching The Hills. I absolutely love the show and it's totally got me thinking. I watch all these girls dating and having so many problems with guys, especially Heidi and Spencer. (poor girl) and Poor Lauren, Such a sweet girl but all these guys treat her like crap. After I watch all these shows, I'm suuuuper grateful for my marriage.

I was watching an episode where Lauren really likes this guy named Brody but one of her friends, Jen, hooks up with him thanks to Laurens so-called-best-friend Heidi. And they get in a huge fight and Lauren now hates Jen and blah blah blah. Quality TV right? And for some odd reason it got me thinking about kissing Shawn. And that led to our first kiss. I was laying on my couch thinking about our first kiss and out of no where I just started laughing to myself because the story is so cheesy. Sometimes I wish my life was on TV. It would be super entertaining to people.

The First Kiss

So I was a junior in High School and Shawn was a senior. I asked Shawn to the Christmas Dance and I was super nervous. Before the dance we hung out a couple times and there was a definite connection. I totally had the hots for him but I wasn't so sure what he was thinking. He's a guy. Do they even know what they are thinking? -haha- The night before the dance, Shawn and I, including the other people in our group, went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. We went on a carriage ride and walked around in the cold. I mean I can hardly remember details but of course I remember the best part. It was time to leave and so I grabbed Shawns hand and said, "K lets go!" (and I started leading him to the group ahead of us to catch up) and he pulled me back and said "Not yet". He pulled me in closer to him and hugged me. A really long hug. and I kept saying "Shawn, lets go! They are leaving!" but he would not let go of me. But to be honest, I didn't care. I loved being in his arms. After what seemed like forever, I said "Are you ready to go now?" and he said "No." and I said "Why?" and then he lifted my chin and kissed me. Then said, "That's why." We caught up to the group and we were both smiling SO big and everyone knew we totally kissed. 

Now I'm sitting here thinking, Wow I'm married to that cute boy who was so nervous to kiss me. I love thinking back to our dating years in high school and how adorable of a boyfriend he was. I was so lucky to have him in high school. Having a boyfriend like him was so rare. People always asked me, "Are you going to regret having a boyfriend all through high school?" and I always said NO. Because I knew I was going to marry him someday and this was just the start of the memories. I absolutely love that I married my high school sweetheart!  He's amazing in so many ways. 

I love being married to him and I love days like today when I think back to so many great memories.