I always feel a little helpless when I can tell that Howie isn't feeling well because he can't tell me what is bothering him and I have to guess and hope that whatever I decide to do helps him feel better. One thing I've learned as a puppy parent is that they're going to get sick every once and a while, no matter how much you do to keep them healthy.
One of the things that I've heard the most since starting to share our news with people is that if they were me, quite a few people wouldn't be announcing this early. I have been surprised by how many people are concerned that I publicly announced that I was pregnant just a few days shy of 16 weeks and that we let close friends and family know a little sooner, even though we shared a lot later than you normally see people announcing. Although I don't feel the need to justify my choice, I really wanted to share some of my thoughts throughout this pregnancy and the planning and decision making that went into sharing our excitement with everyone in our world.
For the last three months, I've been keeping a secret. I don't like keeping secrets so I'm really excited that this one is finally out in the open! Trying to balance school, work, a new house and the blog all while I've been sick and exhausted has been a fun little adventure, but I survived the worst of it (I hope) and my energy is back so I'm ready to finish off 2014 strong!! And I think it's obvious that 2015 is going to be one of the best years for us yet. We'll be settled into our new home and we get to welcome a sweet Joberly baby into our lives!
Lately, I've seen a lot of people on social media listing off a bunch of things that their friends and peers are doing and stating that those people are busy living their dreams while, "I'm just over here doing this and this and this." They say it as if their life has no meaning or excitement and any time I see status' or tweets to that affect, it makes me sad. We need to live in the here and now, stop wishing time away and enjoy where we are in life and what opportunities it has to offer us!
Hello lovelies, I'm Brooklyn from A Little Too Jolley. I blog about my faith, marriage, hair care, and healthy living. Today I'm sharing the 1 easy way you can make sure you serve your husband every day!
I am a HUGE fan of love notes in any form, paper, text, e-mail, whatever. It doesn't matter what your love language is, everyone appreciates a little note to let them know they're thought about and appreciated by the one that they love. For some people, writing a good love note may seem intimidating. How do you put all of those feelings you have into words? Love notes don't have to be letters, they can be as short and sweet as you want and they can take on any form. Get creative and have fun with them!
"Happily married couples know that it's better to have a difficult conversation about negative spending, eating or personal habits than it is to lie or try to conceal. A strong marriage can work through problems, but only if both parties know about them."
Knowing that I am getting my education without adding money to a large number that is constantly looming over my head, waiting to be paid off, is rewarding on its own. In our household, only one of us is going to college, and I'm sure that plays a huge role in the fact that we've been able to remain debt free, but I hope that these ideas will help you minimize the amount of debt that you're going to have to start paying off after you graduate or maybe you'll be able to find ways to avoid that kind of stress.
It all started, a couple years ago, with a cute ginger and a girl who didn't want to be tamed. With a little bit of time and patience, we were head over heels, falling for each other more every day, and officially boyfriend and girlfriend (as in facebook official ;) ). Thomas and I continued to date until we graduated college in December, where we were met with a dilemma. We lived 259 miles apart. That's four hours away!
Ever since he was a wee lad, Joe has been mowing lawns and making money. The passion that he has for the lawn care business and lawns in general is really impressive but can also seem a little silly at times. I can't even tell you how many times the state of someone's yard is discussed when we go on walks together. And if it's a lawn his company mows that we drive/walk past, he almost always comments, "That is one sexy lawn!"
We fondly refer to Howie as Mini Monster in our house and for a good reason. He is the sweetest, friendliest, most cuddly, furry creature you'll ever meet. But he also has a wild, crazy, hyper, sometimes naughty side that we can't help but love! It's really hard to say no to a sweet face like Howie's and he's just so darn cute, even when he is naughty, that it's hard to stay upset with him for long. If I could have even half of his energy, I'd get so much more accomplished every day.
Until then, my marriage had been this awesome perk in my life. It had been a sleepover every night. Zach and I faced every trial head on, side by side. We would use our individual gifts and talents to tackle whatever life threw our way--each pulling our fair share. And when things were good, we enjoyed those times side by side as well. We traveled, went on dates, and planned for the future with smiles on our faces.
Our timeline for trying to start a family has been ever changing throughout the three years we've been married with many contributing factors; school, living situation, income, job status, etc. But over the past six months, I've learned that no matter how perfectly planned I might think my baby timeline is, I don't have as much control over the situation as I would like to believe. It's ultimately up to the Lord and nothing we do can change that.
I know that when we have kids of our own, they will learn a lot from Joe. He makes whatever he's teaching seem so interesting and he is able to bring it down to the kids' level so that they are able to grasp even the more difficult concepts. From early on in our relationship, Joe has told me how he plans to teach our kids to be financially responsible, hard workers, and different life lessons and every single idea he has is great and I can't wait to see him implement them.
Whenever we start planning a weekend getaway, we always think about The Anniversary Inn first. I love their mission statement, "The Anniversary Inn exists to provide a place where couples can escape from the pressures of everyday life and share a time of peace and relaxation together, thereby creating positive memories which will strengthen their relationship" and I feel like this is exactly what we get every time we stay there.
We got married just after noon, which is actually pretty late for a Mormon wedding ceremony. It was the perfect time for us though! I was able to sleep in, get my hair done, do my makeup and I still had time to spare. Our ceremony was perfect and I was so happy to finally be married to the love of my life!
It shouldn't be a big secret that in marriage, you're going to have to compromise on a lot of things. You have to consider how different things are going to affect your spouse as well as yourself. You're a married couple, a team, and that means you can no longer be completely independent in everything you do. Sometimes this might mean sacrificing something for the betterment of your marriage or sacrificing a personal goal to achieve a goal that you've set as a couple.
While I realize that not everybody will combine their finances when they get married, I can't suggest it enough! Not viewing our money as 'his' and 'hers' makes budgeting easier, makes us feel like more of a team and makes our discussions about money a lot more pleasant! If combining your finances is something you've been considering, here are some things that you should keep in mind.
I've had a few people mention to me that they keep their finances and budgets separate because one of them makes more than the other or someone has lots of debt and the other person has none, etc. Having separate accounts gives them more freedom with their personal spending and their own income. A lot of them have told me that they still have a joint account and they both contribute money to it every month, which probably works out well but isn't how we've chosen to approach things!
When I was thinking about this series, I realized that I led you astray in the quote above because while we view our money as one, we don't necessarily have one large account. Today I wanted to discuss some of the questions people have asked me when they find out that while our finances may be combined, we still kept our different accounts and have never really combined them.
I love this quote, "Home... was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go."
I love what he said next! "This situation could have been as emotionally hazardous as our literal engine failure. Gratefully, after enduring the silent treatment for a reasonable amount of time, each of us believing the other person was at fault, we finally expressed the emotions that were churning beneath our heated outbursts. Shared feelings of love and fear for the other's safety kept the hazardous incident from proving fatal to our cherished marriage."
I love first look wedding photo shoots! My favorite is when the bride sneaks up on the groom, taps him on the shoulder and the photographer captures the groom's reaction to seeing his bride as he turns around. Joe got his "first look" at me in my dress when we took our bridal/groomal pictures about a month before our wedding. And while I would like to tell you that our first look was cute and happy, like this...
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I believe that marriages can last beyond this life and into the next. Our marriage ceremonies take place in beautiful temples around the world and although they are similar to other wedding ceremonies, there is one major difference. Instead of being married "until death do us part" we are told and we believe that we are "sealed for time and all eternity".
Hey everyone, I'm Howard aka Howie! You may recognize me from the millions of pictures my mom posts on Instagram (seriously, someone should tell that woman to stop it already, enough with the puppy pictures)! Mommy spends so much time on this computer "doing homework", I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. I've seen some of my blogger doggy friends take over their mom's blogs for a day so I thought it would be fun to give it a try.
This June, Joe and I will celebrate our three year anniversary! In a way, I feel like we are still newlyweds but other times I feel like the excitement and newness of our marriage has worn off. Keeping the spark alive is important to me; I don't ever want to feel like my husband and I are just roommates.
In our life, March came in like lion and went out like a llama. I say a llama because it is still sassy and a little wild, and not quite as calm as a lamb, but it's starting to get better and we've had happy things come our way! I am so lucky to have the husband that I do, someone to be there for me through the happy and the sad. Life wouldn't be the same without him. He encourages me to do things that I'm not sure I'd be capable of and he always keeps me laughing and positive about life. He's my everything!
A few weeks ago during a usual meltdown session brought on by my own actions, my husband asked me how he could help. I didn't know how he could, he was the reason I was crying. And it wasn't anything he had said or done. It was my own issues of self-worth I was battling, an ugly battle, with many casualties. Despite his pleas to tell me that he loved me, and that I'm a good wife to him, I still felt miserable. I felt inadequate.
The week we got engaged, I was really impatient and annoying because I just wanted it to be official and thought Joe had plenty of opportunities to propose before he actually did! On Friday he insisted we go to a dance together because he was sure I'd regret it if I didn't and he knew I really wanted to go. I told him I wasn't feeling the greatest and would be really happy if we stayed home and snuggled in front of a movie, but he was persistent so I thought something was up.
As part of this weekend's date night, it might be fun sit down with your spouse and set some boundaries. Maybe one of you absolutely hates to take out the garbage, and it becomes an argument every time so you might decide that the other person will always take out the garbage, as long as they don't ever have to clean the toilet. Be sure to also set boundaries that will protect your marriage from outside conflicts. I admire people who have a no electronics in the bedroom rule, (tv, phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) and I think it's the perfect boundary to guarantee quality time together, better sleep and a happier couple.
It's National Marriage Week, so I thought maybe I'd talk about marriage... like I'd talk about anything else, right?! ;) We were asked to answer some questions about our marriage for Joe's brother's school assignment and I thought they would be perfect to share here on the blog! It's convenient because I didn't have to torture Joe for an "interview", I just had to convince him to forward his responses to me. My brother-in-law said that his favorite part was how Joe responds in short, incomplete sentences and I go on for two or three. I loved that some of our responses were pretty similar but for different reasons.
This past weekend I hosted a hot chocolate party at our apartment for a few of our friends and convinced everyone that it would be fun to play the Not-So-Newlywed Game. Within a couple of minutes, we were all laughing hysterically! We've all been married for about two and a half years, and we all met our spouses around the same time as well. I think we thought it would be easy to answer all of the questions that were asked, but it wasn't. Joe and I lost the game, and I realized that we probably need to talk about the trivial details of our lives more often.
When I write my posts, I try to share the real story of our marriage, who we are and things we're trying to improve in our relationship, but I also never want to complain about my husband or share with the world the frustrations I sometimes feel toward him. That being said, today you're going to get a real view of some things from our marriage, and I hope it doesn't make you think any less of Joe, me or our marriage. You should probably just think we're extra awesome and down to earth or something.
Falling in love, twitterpation, infatuation, and butterflies; things that all hopeless romantics daydream about. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I fell head over heels for Joe and our relationship was the only thing I thought (and probably talked) about for quite a while. He was the greatest thing to ever happen to me and I couldn't have been happier.
One of the most common questions I get about my major is, "What do you plan to do with that, raise a family?" Yes, I'm learning a lot of great things that will help me be a better wife and future mother, but that's not really the reason I decided to go into Family Studies. To tell you the truth, I stumbled upon the degree by accident.
I never really wanted to go ring shopping, the whole process seemed overwhelming to me. While my best friend was ring shopping a couple of years before, I found a ring style that I really liked and I decided that I didn't need to look around for anything else. I shared the picture with Joe, told him a few specifications that I wanted and why and let him go for it on his own.