life lately.

Lately, life for us has consisted of a lot of work. Miles is experiencing his first busy season which means he worked 63 hours last week! Whoa. I'm super proud of him for how hard he works. I literally couldn't do it! Just witnessing him do it makes me tired.

My job is going great. We fix peoples teeth and I meet interesting people every day, I love it! Here is my lovely "view" from my window at work. Beautiful, isn't it?

Oh bad news, I got my 3rd parking ticket in the last 3 months last week. I'm am learning all the parking laws the hard way I tell ya!

 On Friday Miles got off work a little earlier than usual so we headed into the city for a fun date. We went to a restaurant that my Mom had seen on Food Network and had suggested to us. She clearly didn't know where it was located though, we found ourselves in the heart of the sketchy part of the city. Somehow that area has all the good food! Showdogs was worth the scary walk through the Tenderloin!

We had a polish corn dog which we watched them batter and fry right in front of us, parmasean garlic fries, and an amazing fried chicken sandwich. It was all fried and salty and they had great sauces, so I literally can't think of anything I would love more!

On the walk back to the car we were offered weed by a scary fellow. Proud to say that the DARE program worked for Miles and I, we kindly declined. Ha!

^ my mouth is watering just looking at this.

After dinner we went rock climbing at Chrissy Field. It is a great climbing gym located right next to the Golden Gate Bridge...AND Mia Thermopolis works there in The Princess Diaries. Rad. It was  a good time and reminded us how much we love and miss rock climbing.

 Saturday Miles had to work all day, so I met him in the city at his office that night. I walk into the office to find this: the coolest view (seriously! whoa!) and my face on three computer monitors. I was embarrassed and secretly flattered that his coworkers see that every day.

We spent the evening in the city with some friends from our ward and waiting two hours at a restaurant for the worlds best pizza. Once again, worth it!

Sunday was great. One of our favorite things about living here is getting to know the missionaries and being able to work with them. We love having them for dinner and teaching with them. It brings back so many memories of the awkwardness and joy of being a missionary! Last night we had the Sister Missionaries over for dinner, they really brought a spirit into our home that I need and love so much. We are so lucky we get to spend time with them! 

Something I have been thinking a lot about lately is the Sabbath day. Our church leaders have been reminding us and urging us so strongly lately to remember that the Sabbath day must be different from the rest of the week and it must be holy. 

I have always enjoyed Sunday and the rest and spiritual rejuvenation it can bring me, but it never seemed like that big of a deal to me in the past. I have wondered why our church leaders have been making a such a big deal about it. Lately though, I have gained a special appreciation for the Sabbath Day. I am so far from perfect, but I have been trying to make small changes to make my Sunday a special day set apart from the world, and it has made all the difference. Especially living in this crazy busy city with a billion things to do and see, it is so nice that Heavenly Father gave us a commandment to rest, think, ponder and strive to reconnect with him and our families again. I can't imagine a life without the sabbath. It truly is a delight!

Miles and I listened to this talk about the sabbath day the other night and loved it, so I thought I would share. It put the power and seriousness of keeping the Sabbath Day holy into a new light.

Listen or read it HERE. 

Now on to a fresh new week. I'll finish this off with a quote from Miles' little brother Trevor who is on his mission, 

"We have almost survived another January, glory halleljuah."

:)

MLKJ DAY EVE

Back in High School, Jenna and I started a tradition. On the eve of MLKJ Day we would make cupcakes and share them with people we love. We have done it for 5 years strong, minus the year I was on my mission. 

This year we are states apart, but the tradition had to live on! Miles and I made some delicious lemon cream cheese cupcakes, and honestly they were from a box, but still turned out so delicious! 

We licked the beaters and Miles had an excuse to wear his awesome MLK shirt, so it was a great night!

Excuse my awful "i just woke up from a 4 hour Sunday nap" hair.

PS- In case anyone is wondering. Busy season for accountants is a real thing. 

happy friday.

After a couple weeks, the sun came out this afternoon! 

I got off of work early, took a nap in the sun at Golden Gate Park, picked up a delicious bahnmi sandwich and took it home to eat it on our back yard.

I love our little yard. I think it's beautiful in it's own middle of the city way.

new succulents we got for Christmas! ^

Hooray for the weekend!

music journal.

Spotify is the best thing that has ever happened to my music listening life. Paying $10 a month for an unlimited amount of music is totally worth it to me. Back in May of last year I started a little music journal on Spotify. Each month I make a playlist and add all the music I discover, re-discover, or that I am in the mood for that month & play it all month long. Now that I have been doing it for over 6 months, it has been really fun to go back and listen to the past month's playlists. It's amazing to me how strongly music brings back memories. When I listen to my May playlist I am back 'living' in that weird apartment in Provo. June's playlist reminds me of the beginning stages of Miles and I starting to date. Septembers playlist brings me back to wedding planning. November brings back our first month in SF, etc etc. It's fun and since I am awful at journaling, I am calling it a form of journaling and plan to keep at it!

I'm always so glad when people share the music they love with me, so I want to do the same. Here are some current favorites that you should give a listen! 

 

dear january...

I made a list of reasons I like you. Honestly I didn't think very hard, but one thing came to mind....

..Grapefruit

Miles has been working really late nights lately. By the time he gets home from work, it's time for us to go to bed. We have fallen into a nightly routine where we sit at the kitchen table and eat a grapefruit together before bed. We share with each other the "peak and pit" of our day. It's our time to catch up and talk, and it's my favorite time of the day. 

A huge thank you to our delicious grapefruits for brightening up our January!

2016 goal.

A couple years ago I realized that I have never made a new year's resolution and actually achieved it. Although I think setting goals is great and essential to being a productive human, new years resolutions just weren't working for me. New years resolutions left me feeling like a failure! 

I came up with a solution. Every year I will be making one new years goal. Just one awesome, random, very achievable goal that I can accomplish in one day and feel awesome after. 

In 2014 I realized that I had never owned anything cheetah print, so I decided in 2014 my goal would be to change that. In November of 2014 I was a missionary in Franklin, TN and realized I still didn't have anything cheetah print, so on a p-day Sister West and I went to Target and picked out a nice cheetah print wallet for me to buy. A miracle happened as we stood in line, a member from the ward was also at Target and offered to buy us our things. I felt a little embarrassed to have her buy me a clearly unnecessary cheetah print wallet, but she insisted! 2014 was a great year.

In 2015 I thought about the scene from Thor when he tosses that huge table. (You can watch it here)

I'm not an angry person, I just thought it would be funny and exhilarating to flip a table like that. In July, Matt Miles and I had just begun dating and he insisted that we make my 2015 dream come true. After a trip to the DI for dishes and the help of Jenna and Chase filming we ended up with some great footage of my 2015 goal coming to pass. Do yourself a favor and watch. I'm really proud and embarrassed by that thing.

We posted the video on Facebook and I was really worried that Matt's friends and family who don't know me would watch and be terrified of this girl he was dating. Months later when I met some of them they were like, "Oh wow, you are the girl from that video??" Yikes. Worth it.

2016 has arrived and after thinking long and hard, I have chosen a goal.

DRUMROLL.

I will be sailing a sail boat under the Golden Gate Bridge at some point in 2016. It don't know when or how, but it will happen. Mark my words!

i'm homesick and grateful.

Since moving to San Francisco in October, this has been my first week of being home sick. 

I think the Monday after Christmas/New Year break is the hardest Monday of the year. January can be a somewhat depressing month, and the realization that there are no real holidays in sight is kind of a daunting feeling. Monday morning rolled around and my morning went a little bit like this....

Miles left for work. I was packing my lunch for work when I saw someone pull into my driveway. An old Asian man got out of his car and started looking around our yard (our yard is like 5x8 ft by the way.) It was a little weird so I ran upstairs to get some shoes so I could go ask him what he was doing in my yard. When I got outside to talk to him, he was gone, but his car sure wasn't. At this point I was already a couple minutes late for leaving to work, the problem was I couldn't just leave because my car was parked in the garage trapped in behind his car!! Ahhhh. So I walked up and down the street looking for that tricky little man, but he was nowhere to be found. I called the police, they said they couldn't do anything until the afternoon...awesome. I was forced to take the train to work which apparently is too hard for me because I ended up on the wrong stop in a way sketchy neighborhood. It was raining (of course) I'm already 40 minutes late for work. I called Miles and cried. He told me to get an Uber (like a taxi), so I did. A really nice Afghani man picked me up and asked me how my morning was going, I cried. I finally got to work and hour late which left us an hour behind schedule alll dayy. It was the most Monday morning that there ever was. It's actually pretty funny now, but in the moment I was cursing our city living.

So this week I have been homesick for Utah's wide roads, my Mom's home cooked dinners, Taco Amigo, the familiarity of home, and so much more.

I'm done complaining now. 

In the midst of my homesickness, I realized how grateful I am to be here at this time of my life and in the beginning of our marriage. We are in San Francisco, but not permanently. We are far enough away that I can't run home to my Mom on a hard day, but close enough that we can visit somewhat frequently. Miles and I are the minority everywhere we go except for church. We really don't know anyone outside of work or church yet, so often times it feels like we are very alone and all we have is each other. There are days that my heart aches thinking of the family dinners that we miss, or the cute things our nephews do that I don't see. Those moments with family are the greatest blessing and are something that we look forward to when we make our way back, but for now I think there is something great about it being just us. Matt Miles has become my loving husband, my best friend, my therapist, my Gilmore Girls watching partner, the one I have dance parties with in the kitchen, the person I tell everything to, really he is everything. In many ways, we have been forced to rely solely on each other. I'm a firm believer that Heavenly Father had his hand in all of this, that he placed us here at this time together but alone. It's exhilarating to be able to start our marriage off fresh in a new place. It's hard but I know that it is forging our marriage into what it needs to be for the future and all the adventures that we have ahead of us.

So, this week I am homesick and very grateful for it. 

10.23.15 // the reception

My Mother is amazing. Here is a little proof...our wedding reception!

We got engaged on September 19th and were married on October 23rd. That's 4 weeks to plan a wedding (are we crazy? Maybe!) My angel mother didn't even mind, she put together a wedding reception better than I could have dreamed of!

 We snagged my dress online through bhldn, on clearance even! My Mom and her friend Karen spent hours taking it apart and putting together a little more modest. It was the perfect dress for me. I love the detail, elegance, and unique style.

Our reception was held at Waddley Farms in Lindon just down the road from my parents house. I love it there. It was the perfect location, and oh so charming.

My awesome Mother-in-law made my pinterest dreams come true by making a fun photo booth backdrop for all the guests to take photos at. A couple friends took the photos and my sister Melanie brought the props. I'm so glad we did the photo booth, the photos are so cute and hilarious. Check them out HERE. 

We had a hard time deciding what to have as refreshments. Miles love donuts more than the average person, so it seemed fitting to have donuts from our favorite little PG donut shop, Daylight Donuts. My mom suggested that we have Gosner's flavored milk cartons to go with the donuts and my initial thought was "Um no. That's not wedding material." Then we thought about it more and decided WHO CARES, GIVE THE PEOPLE MILK. 

Miles and I didn't get to try any of it, but we heard it was delicious!

Mile's step-mom Natalie is an interior designer. She made the tables, sitting area, and luncheon look beautiful! We were sure glad to have her around!

Our lifelong family friend Patti Call was so sweet to offer to make our cake. I think it turned out so beautiful, and it even tasted good too :) My Dad told us to not shove the cake into each others faces...so we didn't. Where did this tradition even come from?

Pam's Floral Design in Highland did the flowers. They were exactly what we wanted, it's just heartbreaking they don't last forever!!

This is my friend Zetta. She lived at Fort Campbell while I was a missionary there. She caught to bouquet and was so excited about it! 

Then, we danced. Miles and I aren't into the whole slow dancing thing...so we skipped that and went straight to the fun dancing. 

Miles is lucky to have had the same group of friends since middle school. They have a tradition to dance to Shout (inspired by Animal House) They did it at all their high school dances, and now at everyone's weddings. Apparently something always went wrong with the sound or the dance at everyone else's wedding....but finally the stars aligned and they were able to dance and shout their little hearts out at ours. It was one of my favorite parts of the night. 

& then we were off to Midway for our honeymoon!

I am so grateful to everyone who put so much work into our reception. So many people helped that I didn't mention, and so many people helped that I am sure I don't even know about. So, thank you thank you thank you for making October 23rd, 2015 a magical and perfect day for us.

Marriage is so much fun!

10.23.15 // The wedding party

We were so grateful for all the family and friends who were able to come celebrate our wedding with us. It wouldn't have been the same without everyone! We are surrounded by the greatest people!

My sweet mother-in-law!

This picture is one of my very favorites. My nephew Logan knows how to melt my heart!

Some of the most influential people in my life, some of my mission companions. 

Sisters!

Mom & Dad

4 of our 5 nephews. We are obsessed with them!

Grandma & Grandpa Brenchley

Grandma Smith

Mom & Syd

My gwirls.

The girls of apt #29. We all lived across the hall from Miles our freshman year.

The guys.

Marie Zinkand, one of my great friends from my mission, who flew all the way from California for the wedding.

Julia, one of my best friends since Kindergarten!

Best buds!