Family History and Temple Work

One of the things that I really missed while on vacation was the temple. We didn't go in July or August. For having a temple 5 minutes away from us, that's pretty horrible. While I was away, I kept on feeling that we had to go to the temple as soon as we got back. We went this past Thursday and were able to do some family names.

In June, we started doing some family names that my sister gave us. She is so awesome. Nobody in my family is great at genealogy (myself included). When my grandma was alive, she gave a lot of information to my sister. My grandfather had also started some of it several years ago. But Damaris has been the one to continue it. She is such a great example to me. So she does the hard part and let's us do the work in the temple since the nearest temple to her is 4 hours away. The names we did were Luisa Cruz Perez (from La Habana, Cuban - born in 1887) and Manual Armas Garcia (from the Canary Islands, Spain - born in 1881). I really don't even know exactly how they're related to me (I'll look it up in new.familysearch.org), but I felt a really strong connection with these people while we were at the temple. I was so happy when we left the temple. I knew that the joy I was experiencing was being experienced on the other side of the veil as well.

This Sunday our Relief Society class was on temple work. Classes on genealogy are usually boring, overwhelming and leave you feeling guilty. It's a hard task and one that requires a lot of work and dedication. I also feel that we don't really understand how important genealogy is. But this girl in Relief Society is such a marvelous teacher. Every time she teaches, I feel so motivated and spiritually uplifted. She made some great points that really changed my opinion on genealogy. She said that genealogy is the same as Facebook stalking. This is so hilarious but so true. I will not deny that I am a proficient Facebook-stalker. I know, sad. We look up people who are rarely important to us just for "fun." Next thing you know, you've wasted an hour or more looking up useless information about other people. When she put it that way, it sounded so ridiculous. Finding information about deceased people is a little harder but basically the same. With the technology and resources that are now available to us, we can definitely be successful in our search. She also made the point that these dead people loved and continue loving their families as much as we love our families now. I cannot imagine a life without my family. Luisa and Manuel surely had parents who taught them how to tie their shoes, a sister or brother who was their best friend, and a grandmother who cooked their favorite dishes. They also had husbands and wives who were their soul mates and raised children together. These family bonds that are so, so strong here on earth do not die when we leave. I felt a confirmation of that very strongly this week.

Blaine's mom, Eileen, is also so great at genealogy. She actually took a trip to Puerto Rico back in the 80's to dig up some of her family history. She has tons of notes with cool stories of the Sepulveda family. One of her ancestors was a wealthy mayor of Sabana Grande. He had a daughter who fell in love with a guy who wasn't of their social class. He disapproved of their desire to marry. The two lovebirds were like the Puerto-Rican Romeo and Juliet. They went to this little island and drank some poison to end their lives, since they couldn't be together. She has so much information and cool little stories that really bring you back to the time period that these people lived in. This makes genealogy much more interesting! I try to help as much as possible, translating some Spanish documents that she sends me into English. I wish we lived closer so that I could help even more. Eileen is also a great example to me of how important family history is!

So maybe those of you reading this already know this information but it was such an epiphany to me. I know that the work for the dead is extremely important and that it is doable! (1 Nephi 3:7). We still have several names to do. I hope that we can finish those as soon as possible and start searching for more family names! Living so close to a temple and in a place with so many Church resources, I feel that this is a great time in our lives where we can make temple attendance and family history a habit. The best part is that as we attend the temple and do work for others, we are also blessed with an increase of peace in our lives. And I, for one, am always needing some peace!

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ that allows families to be together forever. There is nothing in this world more important than family. Family truly is everything!

The Provo Temple

Hello Again...

So I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. We were gone for half the month of August, visiting both families on the east coast. There's so much to say so I'll be writing multiple posts of all our summer adventures.

Currently, we're back in school and getting used to reality. Blaine is taking 2 classes this semester due to some complications with the business school (long story) and I'm taking 4 classes. So far, I like all of them. Clinical Phonetics and Hearing Tests & Measurements are probably my hardest classes. My most enjoyable class is ASL 102. It's been a while but with just 2 weeks of class a lot of what I knew before is coming back to me. My teacher is a super sweet deaf Asian. He is a great teacher. He's funny, understanding, and his bright smile makes me feel more confident in my signing! My goal this semester is to due a temple session in ASL and feel comfortable with it.

Our ward now meets at 8:30 AM. It's a big difference from 2:30 PM. But I like it. We just have to get used to not going to sleep super late on Saturday nights. Blaine taught his first Sunday School lesson today. He was nervous but did a great job. A lot of commentary was given by the students and I definitely felt the Spirit while he was teaching. I love observing him in situations like these. It makes me feel so grateful for the gospel, the mission he served, the knowledge that he gained while he was serving, and the powerful priesthood that he holds. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Labor Day weekend was a fun one. We had Stace, Chris and the kids in town. Friday night we ate dinner together at Rumbi's (Provo's yummy Polynesian restaurant), went to the Creamery for some ice cream, and just hung out in our apartment. It was a neat experience having family visit us. We're the ones always traveling, being housed, fed and taken care of. Saturday night, Chris and Stace went to a friend's wedding in Salt Lake while we babysat. It was so much fun. We took Miles and Tyson to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza and games. Tyson used most of his tokens on a cute, little car while Miles wanted to ride everything he could possibly ride. At night, they got a little crazy but as soon as we got them in their pj's and started reading, they calmed down. I loved reading to them. The best part of it all is that they actually listen and have fun when they're being read to! We ended with a prayer and both kids were so good at folding their arms and being reverent. I have seen Stace and Chris teach them about prayer for a while now. It is so neat to see how, as young as they are, they are really learning the importance of prayer.

So Tyson got a little sad that Mommy and Daddy weren't "home." He was yelling "Mommy, Daddy - come home!" over and over until he passed out. Miles was a little excited that he was sleeping over our house, so it took him longer to go to sleep. One of his concerns was that there wasn't a smoke detector that he could see in the area he was sleeping in. We explained to him that our apartment is small and the smoke detector in our room is enough for the whole apartment. He seemed to accept our explanation but he still felt (in his own words) "unprotected." This a 3 year old that we're talking about here. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and felt bad that he didn't feel safe! He had a rough night, waking up several times, crying every once in a while. By some miracle, Tyson didn't wake up at all. By the 5th time Miles' woke up, we put him in our bed to sleep with us. It's amazing how much space a little 3 year old can take up! Blaine and I now understand why people have king-sized beds. Blaine was exhausted by 9:00 PM that night, after having worked since 6:00 AM. We finally went to sleep around 1:00 AM and woke up at 6:00 AM by cute kids asking for Mommy and Daddy. We got a glimpse of what parenthood was like and look forward to the day when we have our own kids. Cutest thing that Miles' said to Blaine was "Uncle Blaine, I want to keep your house." Blaine was a little confused by this and asked him some questions to see what he meant. Basically, he said that he wished he could take our house and put it in his house and then he can have us there forever. Seriously, this kid is so so sweet.

The next day we went to sacrament at our ward. It was obvious that Miles' had a rough night since he slept the whole time. I felt like a bad aunt and babysitter! After, we had a humble lunch at our place (I was so unprepared) and the Culvers' headed home. It was so nice to have them over. We had just seen them in Delaware that Tuesday but we can never get enough of family! Now I'm just counting down the days till Damaris visits us for General Conference :) I am so so excited!

After the Culver's left, we went over to visit Michele for her birthday. I made her some flan and we sang "happy birthday" to her. My mom would sometimes make me a flan instead of having a cake on my birthday - candles and all. That's how much I like it. Michele loves my mom's flan so I gave it a try but it wasn't the same. Hopefully with practice I'll get better. Monday, we went to Salt Lake City with Michele. We hung out at the Gateway, Blaine checked out iPad accessories, and we ate at our favorite Thai restaurant - Thai Lotus. It was nice having a little break to relax from the craziness of being back at school and vacation. Our next day off isn't until Thanksgiving break!

All in all, everything is going great. We got back into our routine of hanging out with our good friends, the Stevenson's, this weekend. Together, we watched the BYU football game that we unfortunately lost by 1 point. Next weekend, we play Utah and we better win!

Things That Make Me Happy

- Lab being over :) I took my lab final yesterday. I didn't do as well as I would've liked but it's done! Now for the lecture final on Wednesday...

- Homemade chocolate bundt cakes with creamy chocolate frosting. I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while. Aunt Jan gave it to me, and everybody knows that everything from Jan is heavenly. So after a long week of studying and tests, I made it. It was fun because I got to use my food processor to make the frosting. It was so good!

- Shower curtains. I haven't had a shower curtain till recently. We just had the liner. And it was driving me insane. But I just hadn't found the right shower curtain and I wasn't going to settle for less. Blaine picked this one out at Bed Bath & Beyond and convinced me that it'd look great. I loved the ruffles but wasn't sure about the green color. Once we put it up, I became obsessed with my shower curtain. It now matches with our bathroom and our bedroom. It ties the two together perfectly!


- Completed bedroom sets. We finally bought our bed and one more dresser from Ikea. Blaine picked it up with Matt while I was in class. I was so excited to come home and set everything up. We opened up the box with the bed and, surprise!, it's black -_- I was so so bummed.We had already moved our bed and our room was just a mess that night. We had to sleep on our futon! Anyway, we were able to build our tall dresser. So Blaine had to go back the next day, get the right color and realized that he was also given the wrong bed size. By the time I got home from work, I had a bed. He didn't tell me that he was going to get it that day. I love it when Blaine surprises me like that.

- Good books. I just finished reading The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister. It was such a great book. It got repetitive at times, but I feel that repetition with the Atonement isn't a bad thing. It really helped me learn more about this most important sacrifice. It expanded my knowledge and increased my gratitude for my Savior, Jesus Christ! Also, there was a time when I'd justify not reading for leisure because of school work. But I realized that as I read for fun, it was easier to read textbooks. It was a good balance for me.


- Flowers. My little morning glories bloomed. All of them. Unfortunately, they are not looking too hot right now. I won't have anybody to take care of them while I'm gone, so I knew they weren't going to last forever. I still have some seeds and more soil, so I'll have to try the whole thing again sometime! It was a neat experience to watch them grow. Blaine loved it too!

- Random smiley faces. So I was washing a huge pile of dishes and came across an unusual smiley face. I was having a pretty rough day and seeing this really brightened my day. Silly, but true.

- Getting compliments. I made my first homemade wreath the other day. It was an interesting experience. I saw this wreath on pinterest that looked easy and nice. I was absolutely sure that it would come out just like the picture. I followed all the instructions perfectly. When I finished, it wasn't what I expected (don't you hate it when that happens?!). I felt so craft-impaired for failing at such an easy wreath. I decided to hang it up anyway. I've been wanting a teal wreath for a long time and haven't found one. This would have to do. My best friend Michele came over just to hang out. Michele has been my lifelong friend. She's blunt, opinionated, crafty and she won't tell me something is nice just to make me feel better. When she said that my wreath was nice, I was the happiest person. The next day, my visiting teacher commented on it, too! I guess my failed wreath wasn't so bad after all.

   

 


- Promotions. Blaine was promoted in his jam job (I didn't even know that that was possible!). His boss recognized that Blaine has more to offer than just selling their product. He will now be like a financial assistant, helping with calculations and all that good stuff that he's learning in the business school. I'm really excited for him to put these things into practice

- Babies. On July 15th, Baby Jason became our newest nephew! He was born pretty early. We were afraid that he was going to be very tiny, but he ended up weighing 7.1 lbs! Jason has experienced a lot in his 3 weeks of life. He has been in the NICU all this time. He has been on ventilators, an ECMO machine (pretty crazy technology - check it out), and all kinds of medication. Kerri was able to hold him for the first time a couple of days ago. It was an answer to many prayers. We are very excited to meet Baby Jason in just a couple of weeks.

- Vacation. Less than a week left! I cannot wait!

Harry Potter

After eating some yummy Thai food, Blaine and I went to the see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 last Friday. We had to go all the way to SLC to find a showing that wasn't sold out! We didn't get to go to the midnight showing due to work and class (boo).  Regardless, we loved loved loved the movie! I wasn't disappointed at all! Blaine and I got Netflix in June just to watch all 7 movies before July 15th. Blaine hasn't read the books and was never really into Harry Potter. To my surprise, my efforts to convert him were successful! After the movie was over, he said he was sad because his Harry Potter stage lasted a month in comparison to the 11 years that I had. I thought that was so funny. Poor Blaine. I think going to Harry Potter World in December helped him be more open to Harry Potter. His mom read the first book to him but that's about it.

Blaine rarely reads. I have subscribed him to some magazines (Fortune 500 and Golf Digest) just so that he can read something. We've read some books together in the past. But there is no way that he will finish a book by himself voluntarily. I think the best thing that has happened to me because of Harry Potter is that Blaine said he wanted to read the books! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We're talking about a guy who has read a handful of books in his 23 years of life and who thinks any book over 100 pages is "huge." I can't wait till he sees the size of the Order of the Phoenix (870 pages!) hahaha. Anyway, he's pretty serious about this so we're going to have to buy a boxed set soon! I'm crossing my fingers that maybe, just maybe this will create the habit of reading in Blaine!

In The Daily Universe (BYU's newspaper), there was the cutest little cartoon of Harry Potter. It was simple and so accurate. It had two screens - one depicting little kids running into the theater with a sign that read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and the other showing those same kids all grown, (but with the same excitement) running into a theater showing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I'm not one to clip newspapers (unless I'm couponing haha) but I had to save that! I remember when the first book came out Damaris bought the book and read it super fast. She was hooked. She's not one for reading either (she's always been into numbers more). Anyway after I was done with it, I asked her if my best friend Daniela could borrow it. After much hesitation, Damaris said OK. Daniela returned the book and it was all beat up. To make matters worse, she didn't even like it. Damaris was so mad at me for lending her the book! I had to go buy another one for her. Every book after that, we'd have to fight to see who would get to read it first and we'd bother the other about ruining the end or complaining that she was taking too long. It was ridiculous. This happened even when we were in high school. The last book came out a year after my sister graduated and we still acted like little girls. Anyway, Harry Potter was a big part of our childhood. It is such a great series. I hope that one day my kids will be able to enjoy it half as much as I did! 

Blaine and I in front of the Three Broomsticks (12/2010).

Cricuting

I mentioned in previous posts that Stacey gave me one of her Cricuts. I haven't used it much because I've been crazy busy with school. But this past month, I was able to play around with it for the first time. At work, we have this bulletin board right outside of our office. We use it to put helpful information for students about off-campus housing. For spring/summer, we had a sea-themed board. The office manager, Garry, loves Cars, the movie. So when we were thinking about a theme for fall/winter, he suggested Cars since the new movie was coming out. I thought this would be hard but we do anything to please the boss. So a light bulb went on in my head and I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to familiarize myself with my Cricut! I knew that Stace had a Cars cartridge and asked her to send it to me. As soon as I got it in the mail, I brought my little Cricut to work and started to play! (It was awesome getting paid to craft...)

My first successful cut.

At first, I was a little frustrated because I didn't know how to work it 100%. I'd press buttons and it'd give me some messages that I didn't understand. I was about to give up when Chris, the only boy in our office, decided to give it a try. He was great at it! Once he got the hang of it, he explained to me how it worked and I was so happy! It was so much fun to see it cut with such detail. It really is an impressive machine. 

The final product.
(Don't mind the ugly handwriting on the upper right hand corner).

So I thought that the board would take about a week to make. But with the Cricut, it only took a day! I never want to cut anything with scissors again! We made a mountainous background with a winding road as the setting. After we assembled all the cars and little figures (my favorite were the traffic cones), I realized that the board was more decorative than informative! Oh well. Hopefully it will grasp students' attentions! 

I'm now really excited to work on my own projects. I have a couple of wall vinyls that I want to make, a scrapbook about Blaine's mission, and some cute wedding gift ideas. I probably won't start Blaine's mission scrapbook until we return from our summer vacation (we are going to get some mission memorabilia when we're in Delaware). But I do hope to do something before our summer is over! If you have any project ideas, please let me know! 

My Jam Man

Blaine got a second job as a sales rep/inventory manager for a local jam company called Cornaby's. Random, I know. But it's been pretty good. The only down side is that I'm alone on Saturdays. But thank goodness that I have the Stevenson's around to "babysit" (as Blaine calls it). They hang out with me and take me places! :) Well,  Blaine is in charge of making sure that 8 stores in Utah County are stocked with Cornaby's products. It's pretty flexible. He also does 2 demos each Saturday. If you see him in a store doing one, taste his stuff...or else!  I'm not a huge fruit, and therefore, jam person but all of our friends are surprised at how good and fresh the jam is! I trust their opinions... Also, I thought Blaine would be sick and tired of jam by now but he isn't! He has it on his waffles, ice cream, toast, and everything else you can put jam on.

Two Saturday's ago, Blaine conducted a demo at the Reams in Springville. They were having a sale on their  Dole strawberries - $0.62 a pound. He said that people were just lining up waiting for the strawberries to come in. They were gone in an hour. That day he was demoing Jam in a Jiffy. It's this sugar and modified food starch mix that makes jam in a jiffy! Ha. Literally, it takes 5 minutes. You chop up 2 lbs of fruit, mash it a little with a potato masher, mix in this sugar mix, let it sit for a minute and you have fresh jam. It's healthier than most jams just because it's made with real cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. The cool thing is that you can combine different fruits and make whatever flavor of jam you wish! When Blaine saw all these people buying an unreasonable amount of strawberries, he saw the perfect opportunity to get people hooked on Jam in a Jiffy. He was so convincing that he sold about 110 pouches in 45 minutes. That's recordbreaking!

Anyway, Blaine decided to take advantage of this crazy good strawberry sale and bought a whole flat. Yes. We had 8 lbs of strawberries in our fridge at one point in our lives. Ridiculous. So we gave some to the Stevenson's (as payment for their babysitting services) and still had a ton left over! I made chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry lemonade (twice), and we finally made some of our own Jam in a Jiffy. We now have strawberry jam in our freezer for a whole year. I don't know what we're going to do with it. If you ever crave or absolutely need strawberry jam, please come over. Please. ( I need my freezer back.)

Blaine knows his stuff. It's hilarious. He can talk to those intense, canning grandmas all day long about pectins and whatnot (those are his prime customers). At first I thought this was a little bit weird but he is learning a lot about sales, pushing a product, and how a business runs. It's a lot more challenging than it sounds and I love seeing him grow and progress. I'm really proud of my Jam Man! 

The Future

As the anxious person that I am, I worry a lot. I stay up at night thinking too much about the future. Most of the things I worry about are insignificant (really insignificant). Then there are the big things like school, family, finances, spirituality...etc. I think this is hereditary because my grandma was a big worrier. Anyway, sometimes it's silly to worry so much because everything always works out for our good in the end. We really are so blessed! I know that when we worry too much about the past, we become depressed. It's unhealthy! When we worry too much about the future, we experience anxiety. But when we live life in the present, doing what is right, we have peace of mind. But I believe that it's also motivating to have things to look forward to. There is this quote about the future and worries by former prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, that I just love. "Increase our faith to bridge the chasms of uncertainty and doubt. . . . Grant us faith to look beyond the problems of the moment to the miracles of the future. . . . Give us faith to do what is right and let the consequence follow.” So here are some of the miracles that I look forward to in our future! 

Passing summer semester: Human Anatomy is great. Love the class. Love the teacher. Love the material. Love learning off of the cadavers. But it's a super hard class! But I just recently took my first midterm exam and I am confident that I will do good in this class! 

Our summer vacation:  Seriously, how is this not a miracle? We were both able to get time off of work and, thanks to our loving family, have the finances to go on the cruise and for all of our flights! (Only 30 more days!)


Fall semester: After fall semester, I should only have about 11 classes left to graduate! AH!


Graduation: We are both SO excited to graduate. If everything goes as planned, we should graduate December 2012. Hopefully, we will be moving back to the East Coast (I'm crossing my fingers for Florida). The best part about all of this is that we will be graduating without any debt. Blaine has been blessed with supportive grandparents that value education. Poppy was a principal and Grandma Sepulveda was a teacher. They saved money to pay tuition for their grand kids. I have been blessed with jobs, scholarships, financial aid, and a supportive family that has helped pay tuition so far. Above all, we attend a university where our tuition is paid for by the Church so that it could be affordable for students. If this weren't the case, BYU would've never been a possibility for me! 


Having my own car: Having had a car since the age of 15 (my dad bought me a car before I could even drive!), it has been hard to share a car with Blaine. Our schedules don't always coincide so it can get tricky! It's harder to run errands and sometimes I'm just stuck at home because everything isn't at a walking distance. I miss my Mini Cooper but I probably won't get a Mini any time soon (I love the new Countryman). I just want a functioning, quality car! 


Moving: As much as Provo has been good to us, we are excited to move. Hopefully, we'll be closer to family and be in a bigger place! I just realized the other day that we don't have a hallway in our entire apartment! It's just so tiny. But I love it cause it's our first place, clean, and cute! I'm also looking forward to all those things that come with a house. More space, different types of rooms, more space to decorate, a garden, a garage. It's funny how I never cared for any of these things before. I never really appreciated them! Now I appreciate the simplest things, like a functioning can opener, a dishwasher, shower curtains, good internet, and mixing bowls! (All of these have stories to them. Ask if you'd like to hear :]) Also, I look forward to not paying rent! I'm glad that we have the money to pay rent to have a place to live but I would rather have that money go to a mortgage! 


Completion of the Fort Lauderdale Temple: I still remember when this temple was announced in the October 2009 General Conference. I cried, shouted and jumped for joy! It really was an answer to so many prayers and the deepest desire of so many faithful saints in South Florida! The groundbreaking was the 18th of June and it should be completed in 2-3 years! Damaris sent me a picture of the projection of how the temple is supposed to look when it's done. It looks so real that I framed it and put it in our room :) I have always wanted to go back home and live there but I didn't like that the closest temple was 4 hours away. Having a temple near has always been a priority of mine. Now that this will be 5-15 minutes away from the area I would like to live, my dreams can come true! :D


Parenthood: I don't know when this will be happening, but the more I think about it the greater of a miracle it seems to be! One of the first things that we studied in anatomy was fertilization and how babies are made! It is just so perfect and amazing. Also, it is just amazing to think that Heavenly Father trusts us enough to allow us to be parents! It's such a big responsibility. I am so excited for the day that I can be a mom and watch Blaine transform into a father. I know he will be the father that I've always wanted my kids to have. Since the very beginning, it was one of the things that I liked about Blaine the most! 


Anyway, these are just some of the beautiful things in life that I can't wait for! Life is great and it only gets better day by day. We're trying to make the right choices and let the consequences follow!