Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Memorial Day Weekend was Memorial - for different reasons

Ok - hopefully the bugs have worked out. After adjusting the template and checking and rechecking the blog I realized that our last "little story" was not so little. This post should hopefully be as hobbit sized as it's authors.

This is an account of our adventures this weekend and why after a restful weekend we are so tired.

"I should think so - in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"
The Hobbit, Chapter 1

To Begin our weekend, Sam was offered an extra 15 hours with the OIT office for Summer Semester beginning in July. And I was able to convince Mr. Sam to attend a baseball game with me.

We went to BYU's 2nd to last Home game against Gonzaga on Friday: it started moving quite quickly for a baseball game and then slowed and slowed and slowed again; by the 7th inning stretch we were losing. Disturbingly. They were 13 and we were 0. Needless to say - we left. But it was a lovely evening and we even spiced things up a bit by pretending we were on a first date; try it - it's fun to feel awkward sometimes and know that there will ALWAYS be a second date.

Saturday we attended our niece's baptism and it was beautiful. Yes, I cried - I always cry. Afterwards we got barbeque - courtesy of her parents - and when I say barbeque I mean A LOT of food! Hobbits like food. Especially hobbits in college.

You would think this brings us to Sunday - but hold your horses there is one last little story to share from Saturday - Mr. Sam received a call that evening from a bishopric member about meeting with us to extend a calling for me. Since Samwise works on Sunday mornings for BYU running the IT office for church meetings in the Wilkinson Center, he was unable to come with me the next morning to our interview so the caller told me my calling. I am to be the Primary Music Leader!

(I am extra excited because not only do we have the cutest little kids ever but I love music and my mom has this same calling at this very time!)

Sunday - we visited graves with members of Sam's family in honor of the coming Memorial Day and was otherwise uneventful.

Now comes the uncomfortable things - the reason we hobbits rarely have use for adventures. Yesterday I was scheduled to begin the lemonade diet, the "Master Cleanse", it was way too icky and I realized that it wasn't me to do something like that - again; HOBBITS LIKE FOOD! I like my dinner.

Secondly - Mr. Sam twisted funny getting out of bed and threw out his back - unable to move for most the day and unable to sleep most the following night. He is however feeling significantly better this morning and able to move on his own and resting on the couch. Rosie's orders. 

I know this post was supposed to be "little" but clearly I am no good at that and will need to continue working on that but at least it's a LITTLE shorter than the last "little story"

As you see - Hobbits are plain, quiet folk. We like our dinner. And just like Bilbo these hobbits take far too many adventures.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A Work in Progress

Well, it's official. Our family has joined the world of blogging. With the page under construction - let's be honest, I just don't know what I'm doing or the first thing about setting up a blog - we hope you'll forgive us for being well...a work in progress. I hope you'll also forgive me, as I am a work in progress myself - being an Emily Dickinson fan I use weird punctuation and A LOT of it. Deal with it. In the words of a wise and very cute old man, "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you." Pres. Uchtdorf.
Now a little about us.
This is Mr. Sam and I (Mrs. Rosie) during our engagement photo shoot by my talented Bro-in-law. I know we look like models but let's be honest here - we usually look like this. And this is on our good days.





Now back to our story. Mr. Sam and I met in our singles ward at BYU in Happy Valley last summer at a Harry Potter party (only the magic didn't begin there). It actually began when we were both called to be co-chairs of the Day of Service committee by our bishop who shortly after was released and being lost in the shuffle we were never sustained, set apart, or given an assignment; therefore - we never met up or did our duty. While we may be sinners for not fulfilling our calling our gracious Heavenly Father still found it in himself to get us together (in all reality we had no choice in the matter).


In the weeks following our oh-so-romantic meeting that went as so:
"oh hey, yeah you're my co-chair"
"oh yeah, hey we should talk and do that activity."
"yeah..."
(I know - we are chick-flick material.)

Mr. Sam and his chipper roommate were made my home teachers (for those of you who are not member of the LDS community, home teachers are assigned families or individuals to look out for and take care of, their job is to make sure that your temporal, spiritual, emotional welfare is taken care of. Being away at college I especially grew to love the support of home teachers because sometime you just need a big brother or fatherly influence in your life for hugs or to talk to or to give you unbiased advice and opinions. But more than that they teach you valuable lessons that you may not realize you needed). I digress.

Let's review shall we? First, Mr. Sam and I were called to be co-chairs and failed to even talk to each other let alone fall in love. Secondly, he became my home teacher to care for and love - this time IT WORKED! We became friends. Granted we weren't best friends, we didn't hang out every day and text each other random jokes we heard or really have much interest in doing so, but this was a step. A very important step.

For those of you who have been in a singles ward or are members of the LDS faith you will understand what I mean when I say I married my brother - thaaaat's right folks! As fall semester approached we were placed in the same Family Home Evening group. I know; it's a good thing he's so cute or I may have been annoyed to be thrown together so much.

Luckily all of these encounters gave me an opportunity to get to know Mr. Sam and the sweet spirit that he is so a few weeks later when my life felt like it was going to explode from the differing problems with roommates and boys being dumb I had a place I felt safe to go for a smile, a hug, and especially a laugh (his apartment is FUNNY). Later that night I received a text that changed my life, "You are special and deserve to be treated that way."

From that point forward I thought he was SOO cute and SOO sweet! So using my womanly wiles and the mad skills with which I am endowed I had his apartment (I didn't want to be obvious - but if you read my text messages, I WAS) over for dinner, I made them muffins, cookies, brownies, and basically every other baked good you can imagine.

After a long pursuit, which ended with me looking for a way to procrastinate (ignore) my reading assignment for the next day we went for a walk in the rain during which we held hands for the first time. The next day we went on our first date to the Creamery on 9th and got ice cream.

Again, listen to Pres. Uchtdorf's license plate - The day after our first date (Oct 5th, 2011) we defined the relationship and began dating. I know, that was fast, but after a month of baking I felt entitled to ask the question, "what are we?" Thankfully he liked me as much as I like him. And things snowballed from there.

Nearly 4 months later, Mr. Sam made a proposal and 3 months later we were married on April 28th, 2012.

Being newly married is wonderful but it also means that basically everything in our lives as a couple is a work in progress from unpacking to organizing to cleaning the apartment to learning how to sleep with someone else in the bed or remembering to do our scripture study at night or learning how to work around two different work schedules with one car. We're working on it.

We're also working on ourselves, trying to be the best that we can be and sometimes just trying to get by, we individually are all works of progress and we're getting better inch by pinch.

Feel free to take the journey with us,

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." 
Book 1, Chapter 3, Lord of the Rings