I love you

I'm still feeling the same love and enthusiasm as I did that day.

Except that I don't, because I love you even more.

Thank you for being my rock, my friend, my everything.

I miss you.

I love you.

The odd signs of love

Here is a text conversation that I recently had with Steven:

Steven: "Your so cool"

Me: "you mean *you're* ;) and thank you :)

Steven: "....."

Me: "you're killing me smalls! when you use an ellipsis (...) it's only three periods. Unless if it's at the end of a sentence, then it's four (ellipsis + period)

Steven: ..............sorry.............................

Now you may be thinking many things right now.

"Wow Amber, lighten up. It's only texting, jeeze."

Or maybe

"HAHAHA Steven is such a butt!!! Hilarious!"

Or maybe you're not thinking either of those things. The point is, his final response was a sign of love. YES, love. Boys are dumb. Trust me, I grew up with four of them and when they pick on you like that, it means that they love you. I'm so glad I speak "boy" (kinda).

Steven, I love you too! And two weeks is a long long long time to be away from you! (that rhymed :D)

ttfn

p.s. I'm not an english buff. Trust me. I just have annoying englishy pet peeves :)

I will never make fun of someone's religion. But my question for you is, what happens when Sunday rolls around and the rapture hasn't taken place? (the rapture is supposed to be when the righteous are beamed up to heaven) Do these people just quit their religion because they realized it was hogwash? Do their church leaders say, "oops, my bad" and choose another date 10 years from now to prepare for while they gather a new flock? Seriously, I'm just super curious as to what goes through their minds. Like I said, I'm not trying to make fun of them, I'm just genuinely interested.

Thoughts?

-Amber

One year down, eternity to go

Yesterday was our first year anniversary! It was the perfect day:

-We worked at the temple from 6:30 to 1:00 like every Saturday, but stayed an extra hour to help out the afternoon shift because they were short handed. Waking up at 5:30 was a little deja-vu-ish because I'm pretty sure I woke up around that same time on my wedding day. It was so neat to spend half of our anniversary at the temple. I got a little choked up while I was listening to the words of the sealing ceremony, and I'm so grateful that I'm married for eternity.

-After working at the temple we went to the Fort Worth Zoo. It was so much fun! They had a really cool Ape exhibit, and we also really liked the amphibian/reptile exhibit. My favorite animals to look at were the penguins, crocodiles and gorillas! I think Steven enjoyed the insect house and the amphibian/reptile exhibit the best (of course, what a guy!).

-We ended the day with a nice dinner together at a steak house called Bonnell's. It is seriously so so so delicious! My mouth is watering just thinking about it! After dinner we went home and crashed at 9:30 because we were in a food coma. And guess what? We didn't wake up until 9 this morning! Those 12 hours of sleep were amazing!

temple+zoo+food+sleep= best. day. ever.

ttfn! :)

7 things I like about you

So I'm going to be a little open and blunt about something that I have been thinking about lately. My mom and I share a pet peeve. I have a REALLY hard time tolerating people bashing on where ever they live at that moment in time. Unfortunately, all of these people have been women, and it really rubs me the wrong way. There are a few women in particular that stand out in my mind. One woman was one that I watched while I was growing up. She wasn't native to Arizona, and almost every time I was around her I would hear complaint after complaint about how much she didn't like Phoenix and wanted to just go away. Sadly, I met people like that at BYU. And sadly, the trend has continued here in Dallas.

I really don't think I'm better than anyone else. Truly, I don't think that. I have made many mistakes. I have many faults, but I can honestly say that I love Arizona, I love Utah, and I love Texas. I also have things that I don't like about each place, but I don't think anyone will find perfection until heaven, right?

With that said, I made a list of seven things that I like about Arizona, Utah and Texas. I made these lists at work because I was SUPER bored. Here it goes:

ARIZONA

1. I love the sound the cicadas make in the trees during the summer

2. I love african daisies

3. I lovelovelove the wide freeways. Seriously, people that have never lived outside of Arizona have no idea how good they have it. Five or six lanes going each way (except the I-17) is such a beautiful thing. I would kill to have that in DFW.

4. Monsoon season

5. The smell of the Arizona forests up north. I know, I'm weird, I swear it smells different than any other forest I've been in.

6. The saguaro cactus

7. And of course, it's my HOME.

UTAH

1. I LOVE BYU.

2. I love that there are temples everywhere

3. (this is specifically to Provo) I love that it is against the law to throw a snowball at someone without their consent. It's true! Look it up! It's a law!

4. Um, the mountains, duh.

5. Hiking, skiing, camping, rock climbing, hot springs, waterfalls, repelling. If you were like me (who played in the mountains all the time) it would be impossible to get out of shape living there.

6. I love that Utah has gorgeous seasons. Fall is absolutely spectacular!

7. The Prophet lives in Utah. That's pretty legit.

TEXAS

1. I love how gorgeous and huge the trees are in east Texas. And they are so so SO green :)

2. I absolutely adore the accent. I have met THE cutest people here.

3. Speaking of the people, everyone in Texas is so friendly!

4. Texas will completely shut down when it snows. It's hilarious. No school, no work, no nothing.

5. My kitty is a native Texan! And how could you not love that sweet furry face! (sorry, he was staring at me, I had to include a kitty plug)

6. Downtown Dallas is by far the coolest downtown that I have lived close to.

7. Texas is WARM :) and I like warm :)

I'll be honest, I think some people need to suck it up. People who are from Texas don't want to hear me complaining about all of things I don't like about it. Trust me, I definitely have some things I could complain about (BUGS!!!!) but no one here wants to hear it, and it would probably hurt their feelings. It hurt my feelings when people bashed about Arizona. And maybe I was being too sensitive, I don't know, but there are so many good things to out way the bad, don't you think?

Anyway, (ah! another pet peeve! it is "anyway" NOT "anyways". "anyways" is not proper usage) I'm done ranting. I don't even care if I'm yelled at for this post, it needs to be heard by others. We all need to learn how to bloom where we are planted. Life is too short to waste it away with complaints. God didn't create this world to have us hate it. I promise you, it IS possible to find beauty everywhere you go.

-Amber

Everything is bigger in Tejas...

After speaking to a few of my close friends, I have been urged to share an experience about an incident that happened to me last Monday.

Here it goes.

It was a typical Monday for me. I got up late because I didn't have to be into work until 10:30, showered, got ready, gave the hubby a kiss goodbye and went to make monotonous calls for 6 hours or so.

The 6 hours at work weren't bad. I actually ended up getting a ton of answering machines that day, so I was left to put updates in the system and proof. I love days that I just get answering machines. It's almost like I'm getting paid to do nothing. SWEET.

And then it was 5:00 pm. Quittin' time! I clock out, rush to my car, jump in, and start my 15 minute drive home.

So I'm driving, and totally just belting my lungs out to Taylor Swift which happens almost on a daily basis, and then I decide that I'd better switch lanes because this doofus in front of me is driving too slow.

And that's when I saw him y'all. (or maybe it was a her, I'm no expert on bug genitals and I never plan to be. ever.)

Oh yes my friends, this is no exaggeration.

I look over my left shoulder to check my blind spot and there this guy is, two inches from me, and about to eat my face off.

Let the screaming commence.

I screamed.

and screamed.

and SCREAMED.

I was FREAKING OUT. Hyperventilating.

How I pulled over to the side of the highway, I'm not sure, but it happened and it's all a blur in my memory now.

Oh, did I mention that it was 45 degrees last Monday, and it was a POURING rain!? Torrential you guys, seriously, SO COLD, SO WET. I was dripping wet like I had stepped into a shower within two seconds.

So after finding pieces of paper and my poor children's Book of Mormon stories that were in my car, I was able to fish that big sucker out. Of course, he (or she) thought it'd be funny to fall in that crevice between the driver's seat and the outside of your car.

Ya, that was fun.

So I finally get this bug out, and like I said, I am dripping wet. That's when my own water works started. I was bawling!! Like sobbing, and holding myself because I was so dang scared. I'm not kidding, I swear that thing was out to take my life. I could almost see it's gaping buggy of a mouth going for the kill!

And ya, that's pretty much my story. After I got back into the car and calmed myself down I was able to get home safe and sound.

But you can bet your bottom that my car has gotten the major bug inspection before I've driven it since.

Sweet dreams my friends :)

-Amber