Friday, October 29, 2010

Sneak Peak

Last night: 
Suz: "Where did this brown blanket come from?"
Ben: "From Target."
Suz: "Why?"
Ben: "I needed a blanket, and it matches the couch."
Suz: "The brown couch."
Ben: "Right."
Suz: "The point of an accent is to accent!"
Ben: "Like dis...." (imitating a French accent)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Reason #6 to get married

He is willing to go to the grocery store twice for supplies
 when you get sick, and stays home from work 
the next day to take care of you. 


Ben made me a lunch of chicken noodle soup, soda crackers, and gingerale. He ate a very delicious-looking bagel sandwich.  Ugh. 


He also spends a long time to sweep out the 2 in. of standing water
that flood your basement/office TWICE after 2 days of rain.


On the same day. 

Ben, 
You're my hero. 
Love,
Suz

Friday, October 22, 2010

The most embarrassing thing just happened.

Seriously. 

It may surprise some of you, but I get embarrassed really easily, and usually hate being the center of attention. Giving talks or being in plays is different, for some reason, it's expected.  But times like my surprise lingerie wedding shower....? I about fainted. Multiple times. 

In the words of my older, wiser sister that night: "Wow, Suz has really changed."

It doesn't take a lot to embarrass me. 

Current story: 

I love to sing, and Ben often prompts a song from me by making simple statements. When you have a large music repertoire it's easy to pull one out with a line or two about what's being said. I'm sort of strangely proud of that, actually. 

When we were in Norway we went on a boat ride across the fjord to a really old, historic church.  Ben and I each wore sweaters for the boat ride, but once we got to land the sun was shining and we didn't need them. 


Ben: "It's hot out here. I'm gonna leave my sweater." 
Suz: "It's getting hot in here... so take off all your clothes... " (Oh come on, you know the song!)


Ben: "You made that up." 
Suz: "I couldn't have made that up!"


Today I remembered that exchange and wanted to prove to Ben that it is, in fact, a real song and that he is the only person over 6 who doesn't know it (including Cambodian orphans!). He told me he hasn't felt like himself lately, so I thought getting this video would be a little pick-me-up for him today (let's face it... the song is hysterical.)

So I searched for the song and found the video on YouTube  and was watching it in our living room to see if it was the edited version or not.  Meaning the volume was up pretty high. 

All of a sudden I hear our doorbell ring.  

It's 9:30 am, I'm in my bathrobe, listening to a ridiculous Nelly song, and someone is standing about 10 feet away just outside our door. 

To make matters worse, my laptop is HUGE and it took me a while to register what was going on and get the mouse over to the mute button! I was horrified, and the person at the door could tell. As I made my way to the door I heard him shuffling off, leaving our package at the door. 


Ben, your passport just arrived. 


Really? He had to show up during the most embarrassing 3 min. of my day?! 

Welcome to my world. 

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Lessons I Learned as a Boy



One of my church responsibilities is to send out a weekly e-mail with announcements and a spiritual message to the women of our Relief Society. I was on www.lds.org looking for a special message to share in this week's e-mail when I saw a few Mormon Messages videos featured. I watched this video and was so touched! I sent it out in our e-mail, and wanted to share it here, too.

Please take a few minutes to watch this short video. It will really get your day off on the right foot!


There are people in need all around us.

Is there anyone YOU can help today?

Monday, October 18, 2010

I bet you had no idea...

My Mom came to visit this past weekend, which really cheered me up since Ben was gone this past week for work. 

How could THIS not cheer you up?

Something that my mom loves and passed on to me is ANTIQUING! 
I L-O-V-E to go antiquing, and stop at any antique store I find while driving through new cities. Luckily, there are a TON in our area!

Ben always busies himself when I get the itch, but I have been begging my mom to come visit so I can tour the stores with someone who appreciates a good treasure hunt with me.

Her obsession is hand-crafted quilts. I don't know much about quilts, and can't sew at all, but what I did learn I learned from her!

One of my passions is unique jewelry. I love the boxes of mixed-up earrings, charms, etc. at the front of each store. I will poke through them for a long time finding great pieces I can turn into necklaces, brooches, etc!

 These places are usually chock-full of really cool, unique things that can be pretty inexpensive and perfect for decorating (with just a little creativity and some patience to go through it all)

How cool is this vintage pram?! I will be buying tons of solidly-made rocking horses, high chairs, etc. (to refinish and cute-up a bit, of course) when we start having children!

I also love looking at funky linens. Friday I found three silk vintage neck scarves for $3/ each :)

You never know what you'll find... But there is probably someone out there for everything!

I'll post later about some of the antique treasures I've refinished and LOVE in our new home! 



Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Let's Talk About BOOKS

One of the reasons I wanted the house we're renting is because it has an entire wall of built-in bookshelves. 
Home is where the books are.

Ben and I both love to read (which is great... we always have something interesting to talk about), and, between the two of us, we already filled up about half of the bookshelf space. 

But then this amazing thing happened: the used bookstore I found and frequented in Hickory was going out of business (that part isn't so amazing) so all their books were $1. 

In 20 mins. I had two baskets of books. 

I really like to read. 


I feel like I've finished a reading marathon, in fact (10K, not a wimpy 5K).  Within the last couple months I've finished 8 books, including Villette, a huge novel by Charlotte Bronte, and one of my new favorites, Ana Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, that is quite a literary achievement. Take my word for it.  (And I'm D-Y-I-N-G to talk about it, if anyone reading this has read it and has a few hours to spare). 

Ben is great, he always asks how my current book is going, but its no secret that he doesn't really enjoy my detailed descriptions. 

All the books he picked out from the book store sale were Cliff's Notes. 

I love Ben, and I know he loves to read, but if the book isn't nonfiction or in audio/ebook/podcast format he won't go there. Even his scriptures are electronic. 

After looking for friends with similar interests, a wonderful thing happened. 

I was invited to join a super exclusive book club sponsored by women from my church! 

Tonight was our first meeting, an annual dinner they hold to pitch and pick the books to be read the next calender year. I thought about which books I would pitch for weeks.  I decided on The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and The Stranger by Albert Camus. 

The group read The Book Thief last year, but guess what... of all the books pitched, The Stranger was chosen as one of our six books for the next year! 

I am so excited about this group.  


I have to share some details from our dinner:

"There's some questionable parts, but nothing sexual." 
"Then I don't want to read it!" 

"So you're the one who didn't vote for Mere Christianity!"
"Nope. And I admit it. It sounded too much like a church book."
"This ain't yo momma's church book club..."


"What's the group's website?"
"It's r-a-e-ink.net forward slash..... oh ask Rachael the rest."


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Happy 6-month-iversary!

We celebrated our 6-month anniversary this past weekend, on Oct. 2.  Yay!!!! Of course we spent the day going to conference, so we celebrated our *AMAZING* marriage the weekend before by doing one of Ben's favorite things: CAMPING!

We went to Table Rock mountain in Linville Gorge, NC. It is a place Ben has been rock climbing before, and had discovered a beautiful camping spot for us.

The beautiful campsite and view he took me to


It  was really secluded-- we had to go off the hiking trail and climb across some major boulders to get there.  But good things happen when you go off the beaten path!

It was a pretty small area, just large enough for one adventurous little family... like ours :) 

Building and maintaining a fire is one of my FAVORITE parts of camping!

There is a mountain formation nearby called "Grandfather Mt" because the shape resembles the profile of an old man. This one did, too. Interesting....

After pitching our tent we hiked higher up the mountain for the sunset and made it just in time to capture the last few sec. on the camera.  Not so zen, but I'm glad we have the memory. 



I always say Ben hasn't really "been" somewhere until he's done a backflip there, but please, Don't jump!


 Our "Outward Bound" marriage-strengthening activity was rock climbing. Ben is an awesome climber (really, really quick), but I've only climbed in indoor rock centers. It was enough to get me excited, but it is TOTALLY DIFFERENT climbing in the elements! We were there on a very windy day, and the area we climbed at was at the edge of the gorge, so all you saw looking down was the gorge, not the landing. I belayed Ben while he went up and down the 5.7 a few times, then I wanted to try. I went half-way up, then got too nervous and came back down. Ben went a few more times, and I decided to try again. 

It was hard for me to do-- logically I knew the rope was safe and Ben was experienced enough to keep me safe, and that I had enough talent to make the climb, but in that moment logic never really set in for me.  I was terrified! I couldn't look down, and couldn't really see up, either, so I had to completely trust and rely on Ben to tell me where the best holds were and which side of the wall I should climb around. I trusted the advice from my husband on the ground, since he had more experience and perspective than I, and I knew he loves me and won't lead me astray.

 I would take one step, stop and catch my breath for a while, and decide to take another step with his coaching. Every few feet I would freeze and yell down, "You still have me?! Am I really tight?!" But Ben was always patient, and, step by step, I made it up the wall. 

What an amazing, amazing thing to do while newlyweds! I had had no idea it would turn out to be such a strengthening experience! Ben said he was so proud of me for facing my fear and going back to conquer the wall after giving up once (and with a recently twisted ankle), and I was proud of myself for trusting my life to someone else while pushing my body to new limits. I love that I can learn new things from Ben, and vice versa. Hopefully we will always be able to grow together. 


The view down... WHOA.


The last thing we did on our trip was revisit the little waterfall we found on our New Years trip to Blowing Rock, before we were engaged or thought of moving to N.C. 

You may remember this picture from that trip in January.... 
THEN

NOW!
Don't we look soooooo happy? (Rhetorical question. I finish know the answer.)


Yay for the Blue Ridge Mountains!

Happy 6-month-iversary, sweetheart! I love you so much!

Friday, October 1, 2010

I promised I'd add the video of US BUNGEE JUMPING IN COSTA RICA!!!!!

We bungee jumped in Costa Rica on the first full day of our honeymoon.  Crazy, right? But what an awesome way to start a marriage: with adventure, trust, pride, and a rush of emotion to see the person you love after thinking you might die.

I promised to upload this video, and finally have! I know it's long (didn't realize they would film straight from my jump to Ben's...) but it is hilarious.

Some things to look out for:
1. I do everything I can to stay on the platform, including leaning back and holding on to Ben.
2. Ben pushes me off!
3. I don't scream.
4. I DO yell and clap my hands for joy and pride that I actually DID that!
5. It takes a few mins. to get Ben into the harness, he doesn't start jumping until 7:00
6. Even though it was Ben's first time, they let him run off the platform!
7. He DOES scream.
8. I was attached at the feet, Ben is attached at the waist (sitting)



It was terrifying.