Forever Starts Now: November 23-29

Thanksgiving break is coming up and we are both so excited to have a break, take a trip together and see family who lives far away.

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We celebrated more of Mark's birthday on Sunday with a family dinner at our house. Some of his favorite things that I've made for him: French dip sandwiches and chicken alfredo. Yum! Julia bright some fruit and we had Michelle and Jeremy, Lucy and Max there. After dinner I went visiting teaching and then returned home. I like seeing the girls I visit and my companion! I think visiting teaching is such an important and wonderful system in the church. Everyone in the Relief Society (women's group) is assigned a companion and a couple girls to visit each month and basically make sure they're doing ok, and reach out to them. It gives everyone a responsibility as well as a way to make sure no one will be forgotten. My girls are a blessing in my life and are becoming if not already friends. :) Then, Seth and I had tithing settlement at the church. It is cold now in Provo!

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I worked Monday and it was a challenging class. It's tough sometimes because I expect respect from them, even though obviously I haven't established a relationship with them. As a substitute, I'm just a stranger to them for a day. But I still expect them to be good for me. Some days I'm just really not pleased with how some of these kids act. Sethy had a take home test that he worked on over the weekend and a lot on Monday. Total it took him about 14 hours. Wow, I'm impressed with his work ethic and how dedicated he is to school. I'm so glad to have married a hardworking man. In my life, my dad has always been a role model for working hard and I'm so blessed that I found Seth whom I also look up to for that :)

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Having decided to not work Tuesday, I did some cleaning and other stuff. Seth got done much earlier than usual and we got to spend the afternoon and the rest of the day together. I zonked out on the couch lol but oh well. We finished packing for our trip, got some dinner and watched Revenge. Then did some baking!!! Chocolate chip cookies and banana bread!!!

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Driving

For 9 hours.

Even though I offered, Seth drove the whole entire time! I slept a bunch... Haha wow. I'm lazy. But I'm thankful for the opportunity to relax. Seth got pulled over. He didn't mean to speed, but the area was slower out of the canyon or something. Anyway, the cop was so nice! I'm so glad!!! I feel like I haven't talked to a cop that nice in forever. On the drive down, we saw a thousand cops. They were everywhere...

We went down through Utah, in Colorado, and finally to New Mexico! Eli and Kelsey live in Albuquerque. We ended up getting there in the afternoon and went to their house, and hung out wih Kelsey for awhile. So glad to be out of the car! Eli was working for the night, but Joe and Morgan and kids showed up eventually and we had some Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner (Japaneze Sundaes in my family). Seth and I did some last-minute shopping for Thanksgiving stuff and came back, hung out and I went to bed. Seth played games with his brother.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was a pretty relaxing day. Preparing food, hanging out, blah blah blah. Seth and the men went and played at the park with the kids. I contributed to the day by making some appetizers- stuffed mushrooms and sausage stars. Then for the dinner I made a sweet potato casserole :) We ended up eating at about 5:30. Then went to Target at about 6 ;) Seth and I found a video game, Christmas presents and more :)

Here's what I'm thankful for the most right now.....

My job last year- for money that's saved for this year!

Being happy

Being married to Seth and how wonderful he is to me

Marriage and all the lovely things that comes with that

Children

Laughing

Supportive and loving family

Forgiveness

Atonement

Friends

My home

Books

Delicious food!

Dates with Seth!

Our beautiful world that God made for us :)

Electricity

Plumbing

Heat

Easy access to anything we need- like from stores and the internet

Cars

Phones

Dishwasher

Washing machine/dryer

Vacuum (basically things that make our life easier)

Netflix!!! Tv shows, movies

Prayer

Temple

And here is Seth's list:

Taylor

Parents

Brothers and sisters

Temples

Great dinners from my beautiful wife

Date night

Adventures

My work experience

Taylor's sense of humor

A working car

A nice apartment that's decorated

Playing with brothers

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Friday---

Black Friday! Ahhhh! We went to a movie- Madagascar 3 with everyone and then went shopping to an outdoor mall. We got a lot of christmas shopping done :) later that day, Seth and I got some Tbell and went home. He caught up on some sleep and then we hung out and relaxed that night. We talked for awhile after the kids went to bed. It was so fun! Hearing stories from the Harris childhood and Joe an Eli was so funny. Especially the ones about Seth. It makes me wonder what our children will be like. Hallie is so different than Joe and Morgan's kids, but they're all so cute! And Seth sounds like just the cutest funniest kid. He did so many funny things. I love hearing about it. We are having Seth join my family's plan, and we got a deal and got a phone for $1!

I think Seth is the cutest most adorable and sexy thing on the planet when he's sleeping!!! :)

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Saturday: we basically got ready, said our goodbyes and left!

Got back around 8.

Special things about the drive to and from New Mexico:

Seeing a lot of crosses on the side of he road--- and graves. So many.

People waking- hitchhikers or maybe drunks just walking home.

Teepees

Casinos

Trashy towns

Lots of laundromats

Dominos.

Desert

Sage brush

Moab

We both drive home. Me first, Seth second.

Seth finishing up the drive- and becoming more and more delirious. It's pretty entertaining to watch him right now. Singing and talking and talking and talking.

Seth eating a million sunflower seeds, pickle flavor.

Seth was being so funny... lol yes that is him under the blanket.