August- almost married

Sometime in June, (I'm not sure when), Karl and i were talking about what i would do for a job after we got married. He was planning to go to school full time to start the Accounting Junior Core, and i knew that i would be the one bringing home the bacon until he finished school. 

That had always been the plan, and i was excited about it. 

I'd applied to about one million jobs in Provo and had heard back from 3, all of them wanting me to start immediately, but when i explained i was getting married in mid-August and would need 2 weeks off, they all peaced out. 

totally understandable. 

One day, At Six Peaks, my friend Rachel O said, "you know, you should look for some kind of RA job. Like a live-in married RA position."

I thought that was a good idea, but figured i'd have to know someone. I looked on the internet that night anyway, to no avail. I mentioned all this to Karl and he thought it sounded perfect. we both did. 

The next evening, a mutual friend of ours posted on Facebook about a live-in assistant manager position for the complex both Karl and I were still living in!

long story short, we expressed interest, interviewed, and got the job against large odds, all in a whirlwind of about a week. 

I was completely shocked. 

we started working immediately, and it was hard, because we A) weren't married yet and B) We were both working full-time already. My job was 24h a day, 5 days a week, so Karl had to do everything during the weekday, and then we'd both do stuff on the weekends. 

bless his heart for that, because thats the only reason we got the job. 

We were officially the live-in Cleaning Check managers at our favorite apartment complex in Provo!

Here are some pictures that belong to my last Sports Camp post, but i forgot them:

waitin' for an Erin in the rain, in the rain. waitin' for an Erin in the rain. 

FEASTING 

that's not soda, btw, it's a bunch of different juices mixed together, haha

I am intrigued by children's Art Therapy. It is a far-away dream of mine to own and operate an art therapy preschool. Karl and i have already decided that after we've moved away from Provo with a couple kids to wherever he'll be settling down for work, i'll start a higher degree online in child psychology. Then once all of our kids are in school (like, when my youngest starts kindergarten) I'll go back to an actual, physical school for a higher degree in Art therapy from whichever university we live closest to. I'm already excited, haha. And i plan on making my future children little test subjects along the way so that i have plenty of material to draw from. 

Anyway, i've been doing "Art Therapy Thursday" with myself for a little under a year now. I've been researching a lot of adult methods, but honestly i can only learn so much on the internet. I need some books in my life, but i have no time for recreational reading right now. sad. 

ANYWAY. 

a method i've been wanting to try is foil-masking. There are a several projected benefits that i won't go into. 

long story short i mostly just wanted to see how difficult/unnerving it was for me, to know if i could try it with a child. 

So naturally, Karl was my fellow guinea pig. 

okay despite our awful faces, it was fun.

(ps we bought matching shirts at Macy's for $2.00 that day and immediately changed into them because we thought we were cool. ahahaha)

Karl kept making the masks kiss when i was trying to take pictures. hahaha. 

Karlitos

y mi, 

ALSO KNOWN AS GIANT FOREHEAD

consensus: I would NOT do this to a child. 

MAYBE an older child could handle doing it to themselves, but having foil pressed over your mouth and nose is unnerving, and for a child could be frightening, haha. It was a fun date, and had i done it alone i probably would have enjoyed the full range of projected emotions that supposedly come from foil masks.

(If you ARE looking for art therapy ideas for your young children, or even yourselves, i have a bunch of techniques/ideas. Also, i love this blog: "Love that Max"  The author is an art therapist who is the mother of a boy with special needs, and it is FULL of ideas for (mostly) developmentally appropriate art activities.

FLAG UPDATE:

we decided that in addition to the family flag that i would sew, we wanted a painting for both our sons and our daughters to hang in their bedrooms. 

(YES, I KNOW THIS IS YEARS AWAY. It will be at LEAST five years before i have a child who is close to reading anything at all. I know they won't be able t read the motto we hang in their room. I am a firm believer that if you make a decision before the question comes, it is easier to stand with your convictions. Karl shares this belief, and we hope that our future children will come to know it's truth as well. We want t help them in every way we can, so we think a painting of our family's motto hung in their room in a simple, unobtrusive way of reminding them who they are. We feel good about having made this decision far far far in advance. love me.)

Of the sketches below we chose the gradient mountains for our future Sons

and this floral one for our daughters

I drew these all while on hospital duty one day. We were in the waiting room for like 4 hours, but i didn't even notice. 

I don't know if i've posted this picture already, but Jonathan left this note in my scriptures and i thought it was really sweet :)

One weekend when i came home from Sports Camps, i literally opened the door to find a tower of presents with my name on it. 

OH, my roommates. We had a great time last summer. This summer it was all the same girls, and one new one, and i don't know if it was the fact that i was engaged, the fact that i worked more, or what, but things were different this year. hahaha. Leah still rocked, though. 

I HATE BEING HOT. it is gross. you can only take off so many layers! You can literally have zero clothing on, and still be miserably warm. 

I'd much prefer to put ON layers in the cold and control my temperature. 

my roommates liked it HOT

one night i sent Karl this picture on Snapchat to summarize my annoyance. 

seriously though, folks, this was early August. WHY IN THE WORLD WAS THE FLIPPING HEATER ON. WHY DO YOU NEED IT TO BE EIGHTY DEGREES RIGHT NOW, I CAN'T BREEEEEEEAVE. 

I love a lot of things about Karl, but my absolute favorite thing is that his faith in God is literally his top priority. While we were just dating, i remember him telling me one night, "You're not my top priority. God is the most important thing to me. If He wasn't, i wouldn't be a very good husband and father." 

It took me a few minutes to let that sink in and be appreciated. At first i was a little stung, to be honest. But after a minute or so, i just felt grateful for a man so devoted to what he knows to be true. 

August 7th was the anniversary of our first official date!

Karl, the expert re-creator, was at it again. He took me BACK to JDawgs and Rita's. He wanted to park and sit in the same places, but there were a lot of people out that night, so we didn't exACTly replicate it. I still thought the effort was cute :)

He was so excited!

He got Smores.which is chocolate custard on top of marshmallow gellati on top of graham crackers. it was delicious. 

I got Swedish fish gellati with vanilla custard on top, and IT WAS THE BOMB. 

we sat in the same place that we did the first time :)

we were being super goofy, and we both talk with our hands a lot, even when we're not signing, haha. there was an old man in his adorable truck to our right. we saw him, Karl made a remark about loving old people, but that was it. we didn't think anything of him. about half way through our dessert the old man got out of his truck, walked up to our table and handed me a $2 bill. He said, "get another treat. you two are so sweet."

ADORABLE.

slash what?

we really do love old people. 

On August 8th, 2015, i received my Temple Endowment. 

That experience will get its own post. 

I didn't want to post this without referencing that one, because it was the best thing I've ever done.

I didn't want it to go unsaid.