Date Night

Last night, Lester and I went on a date. Hooray! A few hours to just me and Lester? YES PLEASE! In the end, we didn't do anything to crazy or exciting-just your typical movie and then some game. But it was AWESOME! I felt like I got to stock up on our time together before today, when he had another 24 hour shift.

After dinner, we went and saw Cowboys & Aliens. For once, it was a movie we were BOTH interested in-him because of the guy action-ness of it, and me because lets face it, Harrison Ford is awesome. I think we were both a little apprehensive to be honest-while we both wanted to see it, we were worried it would be a little to over the top, as some people had told us. But we both actually liked it a lot! I was happy that there was actually a fairly solid storyline, and not just a bunch of dudes running around with guns and stuff with no point. It was a little weird, but a good weird. It was also nice to just spend some time not thinking about all the responsibilities that are typically on our minds-time to just let go and hold hands and be together. It was good.

We then stopped at the stadium [where the lights were still on] and thew the football around. It was actually really fun, and good to spend some time outside and running around, getting fresh air. It was good that we went at night to, because it was the right temperature for a bay area go-a little chilly w a nice breeze, but not completely freezing. It was lots of fun!

When we came home we ate some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and just talked and laughed for hours. It was the perfect date night. Which is great since it will have to tide me over while I go to bed alone tonight. Until tomorrow then.

Nice Little Ego Boost

As previously mentioned, things have been a bit slow for me around here and it has made me feel a bit purposeless and like I should have more to do-and that the things I actually DO do aren't good enough.

So, the other day when I finally indulged and made mint brownies, I was surprised when Lester then asked if he could bring the whole pan for his class the next day. I figured, what the heck, I can just re-do it tomorrow, or whatever. It felt good when he came home though, like the kid who brought birthday cupcakes to class or something, all smiley, saying everyone LOVED them, and the teacher told Lester how spoiled he was-especially when he saw the individual chicken pot pie I had made from scratch for Lester's lunch that day as well.

I also forced myself to go to our wards recipe club-like I said, I don't know anyone and its been a bit rocky, but I'm really glad I went. I got some good recipes, met some nice girls, and was able to contribute. I brought my Uncle Gil's lumpia recipe, and everybody sounded really excited that someone had brought 'ethnic' food and that I had experience to help [it was probably because they were almost all white haha, but there ya have it!]

So then this Saturday, when Lester had his long 24 hr shift, I made my weekly treat of these super naughty brownies I dreamed up. They were good, but REALLY rich, so Lester and I gave them to a bunch of our neighbors and some ward members. Because we didn't love them, I was surprised to get multiple texts back saying how amazing they were and could they have the recipe and stuff. One of the girls actually brought our plate by today, and I happened to be cooking dinner [one big pan of baked ziti for the two of us tonight, and one smaller one in the corning ware for Lester to bring to his hospital shift for dinner tomorrow] and she said, "wow you are just amazing-so you did culinary school then? " HAH. I wish.

I guess the reason I'm blogging about this is because while I feel a little lost in this strange limbo time, I am still me and I am still good at something and can contribute. I always knew I could cook and bake just fine, but I never thought much of it, because I always thought I paled in comparison to my Mom who is the pro, and that anyone who would actually decide to cook could do just as well as me. And while that may still be true, it just felt good to here the things I am doing ARE worthwhile to others, and that I'm good at something. Its like the Dad says in Princess and the Frog, "You know the thing about good food? It brings folks together from all walks of life. It warms them right up and it puts little smiles on their faces." As silly as this all sounds, I'm glad I can bring smiles to peoples faces through my food, and they to mine through this nice ego boost.

Love Really Does Come Softly

Yesterday Lester and I spent some much needed quality time together before his 24 hour shift today. We talked a lot about the things that we can anticipate will be a struggle this semester-among them time. According to some one of his teachers, careers in emergency services can be hard on marriages because often time, the husband spends more time with his co-workers then he does with his family, distancing the couple as they grow closer to others. This scares me and worries him, since we have already felt the strain that a bit since this semester has started. The good thing is that when we are apart the thing that remains no matter what the struggle is that we love and miss each other, and that we will be together forever; even if we miss each other for a while. This is just a season in our life, and an investment for us to be together later.

So as part of the night, Lester gave me a blessing of comfort and guidance. I have felt somewhat purposeless lately, and I needed to hear the words of someone who knows me and loves me better then myself. In it were exactly the words I needed to hear in my heart and mind, and I feel more purposed and better then I had. It was perfect. Because there were so many important things said in the blessing, Lester suggested that I write in down in a journal. I thought this was a good idea but I told him I didn't have one, and he suggested I use a red one that I hadn't written in for years. So I did. After recording these blessings, thoughts and feelings, I turned to the last entry, just to see who and where I was in life when I was last wrote. I laughed so hard, and maybe I teared up a bit to, but it was just another example of how the Lord is aware of me and how blessed I am to have Lester in my life. It said:

Nov. 7th 2004

Today is a good day. Yesterday was to. So much has happened since the last time I wrote. I don't know where I stopped writing though so ima try to focus on the here and now and catch you up.

Yesterday, Lester finally kissed me. It took him quite a while, but it was worth it...He is a good person. Im happy that he is mine.

I dont know how this all happened-all I know is that it was nice. I honestly hated him when I 1st met him. I dont even know how we became friends. Once again it just happened. I know there are so many girls who like him. I wonder why he chose me- why he likes me- it makes no sense. I guess its true what that movie my mom likes says. Love does come softly.

Obviously, I wasn't the deepest teen. But you know whats awesome? Both then AND now he CHOSE me and I CHOSE him. And that is what matters. We chose each other and we will continue to do that for the rest of our lives and eternities, in the easy times AND the hard.

But it was so fun being able to go back to my entry from that day and putting a PS to remind myself of how it worked out. It was like I wrote a letter to me, and now I could respond saying, "Don't worry Julia. Everything worked out-that boy you were talking about kissing? You guys got married. You actually graduated college. You are now looking for a job and preparing for what life will bring, be that time money, or best of all kids. You are happy and life is good."

He was the boy of my dreams then, and he is the man of my dreams now, even as I go to sleep without him tonight for the first time. Needless to say, I think I'm going to get back into journal writing.

Mi Casa

So a while back I promised pics of our new place...now bear in mind that I am not the best photographer, and Lester's still gone so he can't get all into it making the pics do our place justice. But here is a picture of our place currently, with all the furniture that we've accumulated over this first year of our marriage. My favorite is the couch and table, but you can be the judge of that.

The Living Room

The Office

The Hallway

Our Bedroom

The Comode

The Kitchen

[the tables cool, because it folds out if were having ppl over for dinner or cards or something. Right now were using it as a bar stool kinda thingy, since its typically just the two of us.]

So, if your ever in good old Idaho, don't hesitate to call. We will make you stuff you full, and you can have your very own room complete with an air mattress haha! Seriously tho..come visit if you can.

The Force Is With Me

OK this post was hard to name b/c there are so many options; like "Why I Know My Husband Loves Me" or "True Love" or "Nerd Alert" or "Best Day EVER" or "The Force is With Me." In the end, I just picked the Last One b/c it seemed to fit best.

As most of you know what with my last entry, things have been a little rough. The job market here in Rexburg is overly saturated, and although I will keep trying, most days this means while Lester is gone, I'm left with less then enough to do. Sometimes its hard, but it is slowly but surely starting to get better. Like today.

Lester happened to have a day off, with no school and no hospital shifts for once. So that in itself is a good day-but then we went to Walmart [who knew dreams could come true there!] and we saw signs for star wars stuff-saying that today of all days, all of them were coming out on blue ray. So while I'm thinking 'maybe if we save up I can get it for Christmas..' he holds it up and says, "Happy Early Birthday!" He knew I would want it that bad and so he'd been planning to get it for me. Which makes staying at home and cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, writing, submitting online job applications all while he's gone not seems so daunting anymore! HE IS THE BEST and HE KNOWS ME SO WELL!

While we walked out of the store with me holding my new 9 disk Star Wars set with over 40 hours of special features and 90 minutes of bloopers, it brought me back. Back to the days of eating nachos while watching A New Hope at Uncle Matt and Auntie Mayas, while I cried because my first crush was moving away. It brought me back to feelings of being a bratty hormonal teenager and thinking 'if Luke can handle Darth Vader being his Father, I can handle my dad grounding me!". It brought me back to when all my Hanaike cousins, Aunties and Uncles stood in line at the old Coronado theatre for hours waiting for the premier of the NEW star wars, dying of excitement. It brought me back to playing light saber wars with my very own Luke, and thinking how happy I was to have a brother. It brought me back to the times I tried to get Lester to sit and watch it with me, while he held my hand and I got over my crush on Hans Solo, b/c I had someone ten times better and cuter. So as stupid as this was, Star Wars and my amazing husband made everything better for the billionth time in my life, and I now feel more motivated and able to conquer this dark side of my life, just as the Jedi's did theirs.

Haha. I suppose now its out in the open what a closet nerd I am-but you know what. I don't care. I am who I am, and I am proud of that-may the force be with you guys as you conquer a new upcoming week.

What Matters Most

Well. This post is going to be the usual, with a few pictures and updates on what we've been up to lately. But before I start all that, I would like to share this video gem my friend Catherine showed me at FHE the other day. It meant a lot to me, considering the following. I feel like a wussie saying this, considering how blessed I have been, but this has been a really hard move for Lester and I. While our apartment is 10 times the size of our last one, and much nicer in every way, it just doesn't feel like home. I realize that this may change with time, and that home is wherever Lester is, but its just a little hard especially in that isn't able to be home a lot with his school schedule and hospital shifts. Like for example-every tuesday I pack him a lunch and dinner, because he is gone from 7:45 AM till 10:00 PM. I feel bad complaining, b/c I know that this is probably even harder for him, and he works so hard to make a good life for me. This was the case before, but at least then I had a teeny apartment that didn't have enough room to feel empty. I also was in school, had a calling and lots of friends. Now, I am not in school, am struggling to find a job, and although I can't believe I'm saying this I feel like I have no friends-or at least the ones I do are typically in school or busy. I feel like I used to be so good at making friends, but to be perfectly honest, both in our ward and complex I have been rejected multiple times already for friends, which has thrown me off and made me feel really alone. I know everything will work out-but I literally live for the moments when Lester gets home and I can feel loved and safe in his arms, and like the rest of the world doesn't matter. He's giving me a blessing later, and I know this will help, as has this video. Everything will work out-it will just take a little time and a little faith. My favorite part is when he says "Never let a problem to be solved become more important then a person to be loved." I just have to do what this message says-remember what matters most and let that feeling of purpose and love engulf me.

On another note, this last weekend we went to Utah for Lester's friends wedding. We got to Provo on Thursday night to hang out with Hillary and Andrew in their cute little apartment. We played a lot of monopoly deal, and ate the delicious dinner they made. The next day after sleeping in, we ate lunch on the beautiful BYU campus with some of my cousins, and took some cool tours of the school. Then after lunch, the four of us went swimming, and played a game of pool bb. It was a close match, but in the end Lester and I won! We spent some time in the hot tub, then watched Rio, played more monopoly deal and went to a stake BBQ. We finished the night baking and playing more monopoly deal. [For some reason, I only got pictures of us at us at the scripture exhibit at the school-but we were with Hillary and Andrew I promise haha!]

Saturday was the wedding day, so we were busy. Being there for their moment reminded me of how wonderful the blessing of marriage is, and how blessed I am to be married to the man of my dreams. After the wedding itself, Lester along with the rest of the wedding party took pictures for several hours-although they were interrupted by the rain for a while, they turned out beautiful. Later that night we attended their reception, which was very fun filled and beautiful. After leaving, we made a quick stop at WINCO, then made the long drive home to Idaho. We made it back at about 2AM, and still made it to our new ward the next day.

Anywho, that is what has been happening with us lately. Hopefully things are going well for you all. Thing always get better.

Why The UPS Man Is Scared Of Me

One thing that Luke and I find ourselves running into a lot is the whole 'I love you' competition. You know the one I'm talking about right? Where one person is constantly trying to top the other by saying, 'i love you' 'no i love you more' 'well i love you most..' and so on and so forth. We finally got to the point one day where we couldn't top the other by saying 'i love you and miss you most times infinity no returns.' That is the ultimate return. After this point, we both agreed whoever says it to the other person first wins. We made rules too, so that it isn't always super biased-like you can only say it once, because saying it twice will cancel it out or be cheating; another is that it has to be clear enough that the other person can hear you. This way you can't be tricky and say it quietly, and then tell the other person you already said it so you win.

All these have led to some pretty fun, creative responses. One of them was the other day. My mom and family were on their way home I heard the van pull up and thought this was the perfect opportunity to get Luke. Typically he runs up the steps, knocks on the door and comes in yelling it before I can get a word in edgewise. So I hid behind the door, and I heard a hard knock. I waited a second then I sprung the door open as quickly as I could and yelled my face off saying, "I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU MOST TIMES INFINITY NO RETURN!'...and there was nobody there. Thinking he was just hiding as he has done before, I jumped on the porch and continued to yell like a maniac into the street. After about two minutes of this tirade, I realized it wasn't Luke I was yelling at-but the very very scared and confused looking UPS man. Shocked, I immediately went into an awkward silence to which he said, sorry I was just dropping off your package, and I tried to explain what had happened...after this, he said he understood, laughed, and said to tell my brother that I won for the day!

....polite as he was, he hasn't come back since. And this is why I believe the UPS man is scared of me.

Right Now

Well, after a several tears on my part, we had a fairly pleasant 14 hour drive on Friday. We made it back to Rexburg at around 7:00 PM..not to shabby if you ask me! We walked straight into our brand empty apartment and immediately had guests-some of our friends who needed a place to stay at the last minute. They were a big help in the whole moving process, which involved lots of trips to storage, heavy lifting and some shopping. But now we are almost completely done with all that, and it is finally starting to feel like a home-we even have our very own couch [I will probably put pics of our new digs another time..].

It truly has been just all unpacking and moving in these past few days, with the occasional random fun thing-like today, I had a dental appointment. That's not fun, you are probably thinking? But remember I have an awesome dentist here in Idaho, and now I even have awesome insurance to cover it! So that was great-and then we were lucky enough to be invited for our friend Brittney's first time going through the temple. Her and Lester's old roommate/close friend Brian are getting married this Saturday in Salt Lake, for which we will be there. We also are already feeling tentatively positive about our ward-in RS, everybody seemed to just genuinely be happy; there was a lot of laughing, fun and spiritual moments so that was good. The building itself is even fun-its really old, and kind of funkily build. For example, the chapel has vaulted ceilings with spots of random wood panelling-but the crazy part is, it was on purpose! HAH! It is great!

So when it comes down to it, we are doing really well. There are moments where I feel extremely overwhelmed with all this change, and really worried for the lack of routine there is in my life right now, but then I look around and realize how incredibly wonderful my life is, and say 'Shame on you Julia!' because I need to appreciate it all more. Which I am going to go to do right now-by giving my husband a fat kiss!

Bittersweet

Our time in the bay area is quickly coming to an end. We leave on Friday [tomorrow], and it is bittersweet. On the one hand we are excited to move into our new apartment and get back into the busy swing of things, but we will also miss the weather here, the wonderful family time, and the food haha. Still, it is time.

Also possibly coming to an end it seems is the baseball season for our beloved Giants-while we are bummed, we are still proud of them for getting as far as they have what with all the injuries and what not we have endure this season. Bet the freakin Dodgers couldn't have! We actually got to go to a home game though, which was a blast-it curbed not only our desire for a game itself, but also our need for Gilroy garlic fries and Ghiradelli chocolate sundaes. And we actually won that game, with a lot of awesome twists and turns! There is just nothing like a Giants game.

We also got to spend some time in the city again with our friend's the Morco's and my family. Foggy-of course. But fun and delicious? Of course! Later that night we got to celebrate Lester's Mom's bday at this Mediterranean Restaurant in Half Moon Bay called Gibraltar. They had a very fun authentic atmosphere, and the food was so fun and exotic-they had everything from your basic steak, fish and chicken, to pheasant, rabbit and even bison. It was all SO good, and such a fun visit with Lester's family and siblings. We will miss them all. [Here's some pictures I got off their website so you can get an idea of what it was like...]

[you probably can't tell, but the seats off to the side were like just pillow seats and you sit crosslegged if you have a smaller group for dinner- it reminded me of Divination class in Harry Potter-haha ya I bet your nerd alert is going off right now. Whatever!]

The next day we headed over to Patterson, where my cousin Celeste and her sweet family have recently bought a home. Her sister also joined us, and we all enjoyed a fun filled day of games, dinner and snacks, and visiting. It is so fun now that we are all adults to see where life has taken us and to re-establish our relationships. I loved it and we look forward to hanging out with everyone again at Christmas time! I forgot my camera this time, so I didn't get any pictures. Next time I will make sure to!

Lastly tonight was Luke's scout award night-we all were so proud of Luke for earning a whopping 8 belt loops and had so much fun helping him do it. I still can't get over the fact that all these boys are so old now! What does that say about me?? Haha!

[I don't remember if I mentioned, but Lester passed his EMT certification a few weeks ago meaning he's official, and he can start moving up the ranks to paramedic and so on. But here he is in his uniform after teaching the boys some scout first aid/certification stuff.]

[and the finished product-now he has 17 in all! WOOT WOOT!]

Anywho-these are the dayyyys of ourrr livesssss. Hope your are as fun filled as ours have been these past few weeks! The next time you hear from me we will probably be back in the Burg. Until then, peace out!