Make me cry

Many of you may know that Adam and I have been trying for a couple of years to have a family. (That little statement has SO many emotional strings attached to it..... Why us? What can we do differently? Are we not good enough? etc, etc, etc. It goes on and on....:) Through these times, we have always had such wonderful support from friends and family. The heartache is still there, but a little while ago Adam and I decided we were not going to let this bring us down. We wanted to be able to look at the good things that were still going on in our lives. Through this mind set, I truly feel we have been able to find the millions of blessings that still flood into our lives every day. When you go through a trial, it is SO comforting to see the Lord give you a multitude of other blessings in a totally different way.

Through this mind set and several wonderful priesthood blessings, we have felt watched over and protected. Amidst this content though, I still felt like part of our reason for not having children, was because I would be such a horrible mother. (Don't mock the emotional trials of this! It is a valid concern..... Does He not trust me?....)

Anyway, Friday was a usual school day with the usual variety of craziness. At the end of the day, I had a student waiting around for her parents to get out of a meeting. She usually sticks around to help me file papers or sort things, so I wasn't thinking too much about what she was doing, until she turned around and looked right at me and said, "Mrs. Crawford, I wish you were my parent." I just froze. I seriously thought I was going to start sobbing like a little girl! ;) Now, I know her parents and I have met them a million times.....they always help out with parties, field trips, etc, so I know they are fabulous parents. All I could do was look at her and say, "If that were the case, I wouldn't mind it." She innocently asked me, "Why?" I had to laugh and responded, "Because you are a pretty great kid."

This simple statement shook me up so much, because if this 9 year old little girl wanted me as a parent, maybe I wouldn't do such a bad job. ;) These students see me 8 hours a day, through the grumpy days and the snowy days...... It was a huge compliment, which is yet another amazing blessing.....

Valentine's

Any holiday in our household, has to be discussed and planned out before any plans are set in motion. During our first year of marriage, we stumbled around trying to figure out what the other one had experienced the first 25 years of their lives. ;) So we decided we would set budgets and go from there. (Yes, very practical and boring, but it has helped us enjoy every holiday! No disappointment when the holiday does arrive. Especially when my crazy husband is not a fan of the Easter Bunny! Seriously, isn't that Un-American or something?;)

So, this Valentines Day weekend started out fairly regular with us getting up before work and wishing each other a "Happy Valentines Day." I went to school as happy as a kid on Christmas morning, because there was the class party that afternoon. I honestly feel like such a little kid during these school parties! How can you not feel their excitement? I always feel so special receiving those cute little valentines, and having them give me a huge hug! I truly enjoy the parties! So anyway, I was in the middle of the class party, and I heard some students start squealing. I looked up, and in walks my adorable husband with the biggest balloon I have ever seen! It seriously was hard for him to walk through the door! It was so sweet to see him walking into the classroom with the balloon and flowers, and to hear the students go wild! I turned bright red and was teased about that for 10 minutes.

The next day, we were able to have a totally chill morning followed by a nice lunch at our favorite restaurant (Iggy's is the place to go people;) We then got to go to a friend's house for a really great dinner, which ended a perfect day. I know that holidays like this stress the guys out, but how can you not like a holiday that helps you to remember how much you love each other? (Granted it's not that fun when you are alone.... ;) All in all, a wonderful and relaxing day.

Adventures in January ;)

Nothing terribly fun or exciting has been going on these past couple of weeks, and so I ask myself, "Why would anyone even WANT me to blog?" ;) We have been pretty uneventful around here, but a lot of really weird things have happened.....

The first one being a death at Adam's school. He does his practicum work down in Brigham City each week with one day at an elementary school and one day at a middle school. His week was going along just fine and we were enjoying a ballgame of Kalee's, when he got a phone call telling him one of his students had been killed. Talk about a shock! How can you prepare for something like that? The boy was 13 and there was an accident with a gun..... Adam was then dealing with group therapy for the next week. His practicum advisor said he was amazing and I could only agree with her. Adam was able to help and give advice to over 100 students. He has such a compassionate heart and has had to deal with a variety of tragedies in his life, so he is truly able to understand their shock and pain.

Another random moment came in the form of a wedding. Is it weird to explain that I went "to my grandfather's wedding?" Well it was weird to say! But the event really turned out great and I was happy to see him smile again. He had been so torn up since my grandmother had died that it was nice to see him so happy. He was able to marry one of my grandma's best friends (before my grandma died, she told him to remarry and that he should look at her friend Gail). Well, 6 months later we are sitting at their wedding ;) They've known each other for 75 years, so I don't think there will be any skeleton's in the closet ;) I am glad he is able to joke around again and find such happiness.

There were a million other little adventures, but I won't jump into each and every one. Needless to say, our family is never boring! We have had a lot of events, but a lot of blessings have come our way as well. I have been reminded again, however, that this life is so short. It makes one stop and think about the important things.... To find the happiness in the blessings our Heavenly Father sends to us. I am so grateful for my life and the people I get to share it with. Thank you to all those who have influenced my life with so much good! I love you dearly (you know who you are ;)

3rd Anniversary

So much happened over Christmas break, that I have struggled finding the desire to catch up on all of the details! But the one event that was really special was our 3rd Anniversary on the 29th of December. With the timing of our Anniversary, it's always an adventure to try and figure out what we can do within the boundaries of family Christmas celebrations and family New Year's celebrations. This year I called my Grandpa Whipple (AKA Mormon Mafia Boss! He always has a connection for someplace to stay ;) and asked him if he knew of any great deals or anyplace we could go. He ended up finding and then paying (the turkey!) for us to go to a timeshare in Mesquite, NV. I thought to myself "Mesquite?", but it ended up being a really nice place and it was really cool to get away for awhile and spend time catching up. For our special day ;), I bought Rock-Band to go with our WII for Adam. He absolutely loves it! I love it when I get him a present and he truly wants it. So anyway, we were able to play Rock-Band on our huge TV and generally just enjoy spending time with each other. Because of our busy schedules, we don't get to spend endless hours just being able to talk and play Rock-Band everyday!

I can't believe I have known this kid now for 4 years...... Being married to my best friend has been the greatest time in my life. I don't know what I have done in life to be by his side, but I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for bringing him into my life. He is truly my knight in shining armor AND he does the dishes;) I love this guy dearly and I look forward to the next 70 years and beyond.

Christmas

This Christmas was a nice peaceful event with Adam's mom visiting us from sunny New Mexico. Bev. showed up Christmas Eve which kicked off our Christmas extravaganza! We had such a good time and we truly enjoyed the entire 3 days we were able to have with her. Christmas Eve found us driving around looking at Christmas lights, then curling up in front of the TV with a hot cup of coco to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" (That movie always makes me cry!) I might have gained a few years, but I still believe that night is so magical and it was really great to spend it with a few of the people I love.

Adam and I even felt a little mischievous as we were able to play Santa Clause and stuff all the stockings. In the middle of the scramble to be quiet and fill these little socks, I all of a sudden realized that I had gotten stocking stuffers for everyone but myself. I was a little bummed, but figured I really couldn't do anything about this, so I continued to dig around getting everything together. I grabbed my stocking to stuff an orange in it, and realized that Adam had slipped a present into my stocking while I had been gathering all of the candy! Seriously, could the guy be any sweeter?! I started to cry (realizing, once again, what a stinking great husband I have) and I'm sure Adam thought I had lost my marbles. It was just so cute that he remembered to get me a stocking stuffer, even when I was too scatter brained to remember myself.

So we woke up the next morning and had a great time opening our presents and generally just enjoying each other's company. Then we made our way into the kitchen and attempted to make our first Christmas Feast ever.... It was a wild success! I hate to brag, but this turkey turned out really soft and tender.

Adam had been marinating it for 12 hours in honey and salt (a recipe stolen from my dad;) Soooo good and I was actually pretty proud that we were able to pull it off! That night we had plans to go down to Salt Lake to see Temple Square and all of it's beautiful lights, but a storm socked us in up here and we changed our plans to include a movie. We went and saw "Marley and Me" and seriously cried our way through the movie! Yes, you are going to say we must be a bunch of pansies, but it is a must see movie if you have ever owned even one pet. While we were tearing up inside, outside it dropped another 8 inches of snow..... Geesh, we have had A LOT of snow! It's hard to complain though, because the snow pack was really low..... it helps us all in the summertime!

Anyway, the next day we went out and had a lot of fun taking pictures and enjoying the new white blanket that covered the whole valley. We then strolled along Main Street shopping and enjoying a local restaurant that is almost a hundred years old. We wrapped up the day with a rousing game of Dominoes and hot chocolate. We had such a wonderful time with Bev. Our time always goes too fast when we are with family and I hope she will come back again soon!

Friends and Good Games

It has been years since I have sat down to a good game of Balderdash, but Sunday was the perfect excuse. Celeste Maloy, one of my friends from high school, was in town this weekend and we were able to have quite the jolly 'ole time lying our butts off! Celeste brought a couple of friends, combine Adam and I and my sister Tasha and her husband, and you have a great recipe for gut rumbling laughter. It was a great Sunday dinner and was wonderful to reminisce about the "good 'ole days".
I don't think I realized until Sunday that we graduated 10 years ago!! Since Adam and I are the same age, we are both hitting that magical 10 year mark and I wonder to myself "Where has all the time gone?" In so many ways I feel like it was just yesterday that we all stepped into that great, big, crazy world. But then again I don't even feel like the same person that received that diploma. I truly feel like my Heavenly Father has been guiding me through so many life events that I have started to change and develop into a completely different Shari.
I am truly grateful for my Father in Heaven/God and the love I feel from him during all trials and high spots in my life. I will forever be grateful for the pure knowledge I have in Him and His son Jesus Christ. I love this time of year and the time we can take to reflect on the Life of Christ. What a special time it can be.

Good 'ole Thanksgiving

We started our Thanksgiving break off with a great basketball game in Salt Lake. The Utes were playing Lousiville who was ranked #8 in the nation. Being the ultimate Ute/Kalee Whipple fans, we had to go! The game was good and it was great to hang out with all millions of Whipples that showed up. The girls played a dang good game and we had a blast (For anyone who doesn't know, we LOVE watching Ms. Whipple play and we generally go to several of her games throughout the season ;)

We decided to stay that night with my parents in a hotel room, instead of traveling 7 hours after the game got over at 10:00pm ;) So we ended up in wonderful Nevada on Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves over the Thanksgiving weekend. I was super excited to go home for Thanksgiving this year, because it had been 7 years since I had been able to go home or even relax for more than 12 hours on "Turkey Day". It was so relaxing and I was able to eat WAY too much great food!

The day after Thanksgiving is the honorary "Christmas Tree Hunting Day" in my family, so we packed up the cars and the coolers full of lunch fixin's and headed on out. Basically it's just an excuse to run around the mountains and play on the four wheelers, but isn't that why all good traditions are made? ;)

We spent a wonderful time this past weekend playing with family and catching up with those we haven't seen in WAY too long. I love my family dearly and I am so grateful for the time I had growing up with them (Isn't it funny how we never realize the good times when we are younger?). I love that we can still have good times together..... I am truly blessed.