My Shelf!

So Kristen and I have been married for just over 3 months now.  As part of our daily routine, we go to school at ASU and then I go to work, while Kristen stays at home and does her job from our apartment.  I usually get home around 9:30 or 9:45 at night which is when we eat dinner and then get ready for bed and spend the evening snuggling and watching "Lost", movies, or T.V.

Our bed is situated in such a way that it is up against the north wall and the head-board is against the east wall.  Kristen who regularly uses the bathroom during the night has the side of the bed that is accessable to get in and out of easily.  This also means that she can put drinks or pens and papers or whatever she might need on the dresser by the bed.  But it means that I have to ask her to pass me things or reach over and get things if she is already asleep.  It's not horrible, but a few weeks back I started thinking how cool it would be to have my own little shelf right on the wall that I sleep next to.  A shelf for my glass of water, eye-glasses, pens, and maybe the DirecTV remote.  So yesterday we went to Target and I purchased a small black shelf about 12" x 4".  I installed it using my handy cordless drill and now I have the perfect little shelf which has already proved to be very useful in the 2 days that I have had it up.  :)

"Jaimie's Mission Call" or "How we won $5.07"

So two days ago on the 27th of August, Kristen's friend Jaimie Hamelwright recieved her mission call!  We were invited over at 10:00 for the grand opening!  Upon arrival everyone wrote down there guess and put it into the big fish bowl, the winner would be presented with the prize of $5.07. Her brother in law Charles finally got there at 10:30 which is when Jaimie opened her call.

As she began to read the call all eyes were focused on her, and the tension was through the roof..."Dear Sister Hamelwright you are hereby called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the Ohio Columbus mission."  With that her father took off up the stairs and came down putting a hat on Jaimies head and presenting her with a t-shirt, both of which read "Ohio State".

"So who guessed Ohio", Jaimie's sister yelled.  "No one did", said someone else.  "Well I guess that whoever guessed Nauvoo, should be the winner since that's the closest to Ohio", said another.  As the winner was found, I began to think to myself "you know, I tied with the winner."  I had guessed the Iowa Des Moines Mission since that is where I served my best 2 years, but I remember that a few months after ending my 2 years, the mission boundaries were adjusted to now include Nauvoo.  We were close by Heather and Seth, to whom I commented about this interesting predicament.  Several minutes later after many had hugged and congratulated Sister Hamelwright, she made her way over to us and I told her about this(not caring at all about the $5.07 reward, but just wanting the bragging rights of being the closest), she said "well I think Whitney guessed Nauvoo, but she left without collecting the reward".  So Jaimie walked over and got the $5.07 and attempted handing it to me.  "Oh no I said, I couldn't accept that.  Just give it to my wife!" So she laughed and handed the reward to my wife.  And that folks is how we won $5.07! :)

3 month's of marriage

So today marks Kristen and I being married for 3 solid months!

Maybe for some of you that isn't a long time, but for us we are just happy to have a reason to celebrate!

Yesterday to celebrate we went to the Mesa Temple and did Sealings, and then we went out to eat at Chili's!

Here is a pic of us after we got full!  Me with my delicious bacon burger and Kristen with her Chicken crispers!

Delicious!!!! :)

Back to School Blessings!

Going back to school brings lots of stresses and new difficulties along with all the joys and happy moments of renewed learning and seeing long lost friends again.  

It's always nice to have a lot of blessings and help and that's why it's nice to get a back to school priesthood blessing.  My father gave me one on Sunday and yesterday for Family Home Evening I had the opportunity to give my beautiful wife a blessing!  And it was awesome!  :)  I love having the priesthood and being able to exercise it to bless others lives!

Just some Memories!

So it has been a busy weekend, but well worth it!  Yesterday we went and got amado's breakfast burritos which have become something like a saturday tradition for us since we first got them last week!
They were deliscious but come on, they charged us a dollar more per burrito just because we added sausage!!!
How inappropriate!

Jack in Captivity 

So since we started watching "Lost" way back before we were even married, we are now partway through season 3!  So nobody tell us what happens to Jack, he is currently in captivity with the Others!  If you haven't watched the show you probably have no idea what I'm talking about but please know that you are missing out on the best TV show ever made.  "So You Think You Can Dance" doesn't hold a candle to it!

Well yesterday during prayer, my fancypants wife was saying how she wants Esther and J.R. to bring their kids to church(Esther has been off and on sick, and same with Barbara her 2 year old daughter.  And J.R. can't really tend the kids during sacrament meeting alone because he has to help with the sacrament and such since he is in young mens.), so anyways my wonderful wife said "Please bless J.R. to bring Barbara to church so she doesn't go in-active!" lol  It was hilarious and I don't think I stopped laughing for quite some time!

Another funny incident happened today at church.  We were sharing a bench with a Mom and her 2 kids(possibly adopted...there is definitely a racial difference there).  The one little boy was going crazy and running back and forth in the aisle and ran up to the sacrament table and back all the while sucking on his hand and looking innocently at the congregation.  Then he came down to the bench and the mom finally snatched him up and drug him outside the chapel.  So then it was just Kristen and I and the little girl: Samantha.  Well right about this time, Kristen pulled a stick of gum out of her purse and gave me one too.  I could see Samantha looking longingly at the gum, but I didn't offer her one, I wasn't sure if her mom would approve, since Samantha might get it all over herself and her hair or worse.  Anyways Samantha then took out a snack of cheese and crackers and I looked longingly at it and then whispered into Kristen's ear "I'm jealous!"

Samantha must have heard me and she sure was sly how she buttered us up.  After eating a few crackers herself, she then offered one to me, to which I accepted and surprised as I was, I ate the morsel gratefully.  Then a few moments later, she offered me the last one, I said "No thankyou", so she offered it to my wife.  Kristen also declined, to which the girl tilted her head to the side as if to say "oh really??, I'm not buying it, you better accept my gift!"  Then after a few moments the girl politely tapped Kristen and said "Can I have a piece of gum?"  lol! Here I was thinking this girl was just acting out of the kindness of her heart, when in all reality she had her own scheme worked out to get a hold of some gum!  I'm in sales, and I didn't even see that one coming!
I take my hat off to that one!
So that's my latest blog and I hope you enjoyed!

School starts soon!

Well Kristen and I will be returning to Arizona State University next week. Classes start on thursday. So we will be back to the daily grind with work and school soon. The summer sure has been fun though! Here is a list of all that we did:
May 22-We got Married
May 23-29th we went on a cruise to Mexico! Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta
May 29th-31st-we toured Hollywood with my great aunt Judy, went to 6 Flags "Magic Mountain", and did an endowment sesssion in the Newport Beach Temple.

July 2,3, and 4th we went camping outside of Globe and in the White Mountains. Then we saw the fireworks in Payson before heading home.

July 15-18-We drove to Utah, toured Temple Square, went to Lagoon, and attended the homecoming of my Mission President and his wife "President and Sister Talbot"


We also had plenty of get-togethers, and went to the farewells of my friend Adan Banda, and brothers in law: Stephen and Robert Erickson!
We also saw many movies: Toy Story 3, Eclipse, and Inception.

And we will celebrate the 3rd month anniversary of our marriage here in about a week! It's been a good summer and now it's time to get back to the books!

We both have classes tuesday/thursday and then a few online classes. It will be busy that's for sure, but also worth it in every way!

Facebook

So I must say that facebook is the best thing out there period! And I feel bad for whoever has not taken the time to become addicted to it! It really is the best social networking site, and not just that but it's the best thing to keep in touch with all of your old acquaintances. I have about 100 friends from the Scout Camp I used to work at when I was younger, I have numerous friends and acquaintances from the 3 states, and 10 homes I have lived in! And I have hundreds of friends, family, and acquaintances from my mission. Not to mention all of the family on both sides and the people I meet each and every day!
That's a lot of people to keep track of, and I frankly don't have the desire to write letters to all of those people, or the minutes to call them on my cell phone. Yet on facebook as long as they have accepted my friend request I can drop in and say hello, leave a nice or funny comment/joke and then I'm on my way, and it took only 20 seconds of my day!
Everyone should have a facebook! No exceptions! And they should give it a chance to see how they are going to grow to love it! I just spent a few minutes chatting with the missionary who I trained, and who I love and care about deeply. Im sure both of us will have a more uplifted day now just because of that little interaction done over facebook!
I'm just sayin' if you don't have a facebook...GET ONE!

Goodbye Elder Erickson and Elder Erickson

So Today we got up at 4:50 am! Very early for us! But it was because we went to see Kristen's brothers: Rob and Stephen, leave for the mission! Rob is going to Uruguay for his mission and so he flew out this morning to arrive in Buenos Aires, Argentina and attend the MTC down there! Stephen is going to Buenos Aires, Argentina for his mission but they assigned him to the Provo MTC before they send him down there. Kind of interesting, but it all works out in the end I'm sure. We got there on time and found the family and helped the two of them get their luggage all taken care of and then took some great family pictures and saw them off. The most heart-whelming moment was probabally when Steve and Robert shared their last hug! The two of them in suits, two more Elder Ericksons to go out and preach the gospel for two years! They will be missed, but prob not as much as those whom they teach and preach to will miss them when they have to wave goodbye and return home!

Best of Luck you two! May God always be with you! You are in our prayers!

Tuscon

So we went down to Tuscon or more specifically Sahuarita over the weekend. It was McKayla's birthday party and it turned out to be quite the adventure. First off we were driving in crazy rain! Like it was a solid down pour out there! Unfortunately my windshield wiper didn't work so well on the passenger side(which my mother in law was so quick to point out lol), so we relied on the drivers side wiper to carry us through the storm!

We arrived safely in Sahuarita and had a moment to relax and play with Bella and the children, but when Daniel arrived he told us that one of my tires was flat. So we went out to look and sure enough it was flat! Thank goodness that it wasn't one of the tires recently replaced on our trip to utah! So we had to all carpool in other vehicles to go to the pool and enjoy the other festivities there. After the pool I had to swap out the tire for the spare, and then we drove to Walmart to see if it could be repaired. They informed us that they could not repair it and that it would have to be replaced. Well since there was only 1 old tire yet I said "oh what the heck, just replace the 2 of them so I have all new tires!"

So $200 later and after getting a bite to eat at denny's we were headed home to Mesa!
What an adventure indeed!

Im grateful we were protected though and glad that we got to enjoy the weekend with family!