Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The Time Joel Applied to BYU

January was a crazy month for Joel and I. We had been tossing around the idea for him to go back to school, and we thought why not try BYU in Utah?? I heard the application was not so fun, but we decided to check it out anyways. Joel was suuuper overwhelmed with all the qualifications, thus resulting in us not looking at it again.

On Sunday the 27th, I was talking with a friend in church whose husband went to BYU tenish years ago. I decided to ask her what she thought about BYU, and any tips she would have for us. After that talk, I was determined to have Joel applying for the next semester. The deadline was February 1st. We had 5 nights.

In my mind, this was the PERFECT time to apply to BYU. The Freshman class were all going on missions so this would be the prime time to have him apply. Also, what if he could teach at the MTC? He is a native Swede, and since he served his mission in Norway he could also teach Norwegian. Perfect, right??

But oh boy was it tough.  Joel was born in the states and is a US citizen, but doesn't have a SSN. We went back and forth from Joel applying as an international student, and realizing he had to take an English test to prove his English is good enough. Folks, he corrects my English. Annnnd if he did have to take that test, that would mean he wouldn't be able to go this coming fall because they only offer this specific test a couple times a month up in Stockholm- 6 hours away.
We then realized he could apply as an American citizen, but that created other problems. For instance, he would have to take the ACT, a standardized American test that everyone and their dog hates. It doesn't make sense for Joel, who is not really an American, to take. Plus we didn't have time for that anyways. THEN the answer finally came to us. He went to IHM Business school in Gothenburg. Since he had 24+ credits there he didn't have to take the ACT, and he could register as an American citizen. Heck. Yes.

Monday night consisted of Skyping Aslak (the guy who went to BYU) for about three hours filling out all these little details. Without him, there was no way we could have accomplished it all. By the time we figured out we could register Joel as a transfer student, we had lots of questions for admissions. It would cost us 10 Swedish kronor a minute to call. After ten minutes of being on hold, we had spent 100kr, or about 16 dollars. Joel's case is so unique because he was born in the states.. so we had to talk to someone who knew what they were doing.

After a few nights and calling my mom on skype while she talked with admissions, we only had two more items to conquer on the application. His English test (he still had to take it because he has lived in Sweden for so long) and his grades from IHM Business School.

Aslak gave us a list of numbers to call in admissions, to see if they would waive his English test.

Joel calls the person he thinks he could pronounce their name the best, so he wouldn't mess up haha! This guy was super nice! Joel tells him all the reasons why he should have this test waived, but to our disappointment he keept on saying he isn't the right guy to talk to. He said he would try and transfer us to a lady bellow him on the admissions board, but luckily she wasn't in. Because he THEN transferred us to the head of admissions. The top dawg. I have never seen Joel so nervous. After talking to this mechanic-like-voice, he told Joel to email him with all his reasons and why his test should be waived... and that he would get back to us. When Joel got off the phone with him he said, "The last time I was this nervous was when I proposed to you!!!"

We were incredibly stoked that we were able to talk to him. We hurried and emailed him right away! Here was our list of reasons:
-Joel is married to an American and we speak English at home
-Joel's favorite class in High School was English
-In college, Joel also took English and was the highest in his class.

I believe there was more, but these were our top reasons.

That was on a Thursday, and the last possible day we could do much. We felt SO GOOD about how it was working out so well! At this point it seemed like he was meant to go. Mentally I was SO ready to move home, and nothing was stopping me.

We waited. And waited. And waited. And waited to hear back from Mr. Kirk Strong, the head of admissions. Finally after a week of waiting, we checked his application and IT WAS WAIVED. We were oh so giddy with excitement, we could hardly contain ourselves!!!! "This is really happening!" We said.

Since Joel went to IHM, it is an international school and we weren't worried about them accepting his grades. We had IHM send over his grades and such, so that was the last thing on the application that wasn't complete!! This was the point where we finally started telling people, and word got out about us moving in July, right before my sisters wedding.

We even found someone in the military, living in Germany, and moving to Colorado at the end of July that would bring our bed with them and have it shipped for free!



Now we knew we did all we could... all 110% of our effort to get into BYU. We felt content with that, and knew it would work out as it should. With all these little miracles happening, I was 99% positive it was right.. and that it was going to work out.

Then Joel got an email concerning his grades. At IHM their grading scale goes a bit like this: pass with distinction, pass, or fail grade. Don't worry though, he didn't get a fail ;) At BYU they have A, A-, B+, B, B- etc... and they needed us to "decode" his grades. There was a lot of calling and emailing all last week, trying to figure it all out. This past Saturday we got the last email saying his grades wouldn't work, and to apply the next semester. We were so heartbroken, because we wanted to go asap. I was bummed and tried not to cry about it all morning. Just the fact that EVERYTHING worked out so well, that pointed us in the direction that we were going to move.

Later that day we met with Joel's parents, talking about a possible job for me to be his dad's secretary, and help him sell his new book he just wrote. I would help him make contacts, get a web page up, make phone calls etc... Since he is a lawyer, he needed someone to help him with this anyways! It was killing two birds with one stone basically! I get a job that gets me into the system, and he gets help!

After his parents left I actually felt much better. We were playing the waiting game for soooo loooong and didn't know what our future was going to be. Now we finally had a direction. I will have a job, and I know where we will be. Everything in our apartment was put on hold because we thought, "Eh. We are moving. Why spend time and money in something when we are going to move??"

Now we almost feel relief that we aren't rushing into moving. We are planning on saving up and maybe (hopefully) moving in a year, year and a half. Right now Joel doesn't have a job, and that would have been hard to move with so little money. We have both prayed about it, and feel good about staying for now. Which is extremely comforting! That doesn't mean it will be easy though.. Living away from my family has been hard. I miss the comfort and the familiarity of home... playing games and staying up most the night with my mom and sisters. Especially my dad's sarcastic and dry humor that always makes me giggle. SO glad that AJ is getting married though, and we are coming to visit no matter what :)

Friday, February 22, 2013

Slumdog Millionaire

Tonight I REALLY wanted to write a blog post. I sat here forever trying to decide what exactly. I have these thoughts during the day that I want to write about, but when I sit down I can't remember a single thing. I then look around the apartment for ideas, and all I can really see is Cheeto. All you people that follow me on instagram know I am obsessed with her, because every other picture is of her.. and I really am sorry for all the cat pictures I post. She is just SO CUTE. Joel and I say that every day. Ok, maybe more than a few times a day. 

On July 27th my little sister will be getting sealed for all time and eternity in the Salt Lake temple to such an incredible young man, and I could not be more proud of them. I am also very glad she is getting married, so I have a good reason to come home!!! No matter what, I am coming home.. such a nice and comforting feeling to know and have a set date. Aj is such an amazing young woman, and since she has started dating Ryan, it has been amazing to see how they have grown and supported each other. I have seen my sister grown into a beautiful and spiritual woman, all because of him! I can not thank him enough for loving my little sister, and treating her like a queen.

Joel and I watched Slumdog Millionaire a few nights ago (me for the first time), and lets just say it was NOT what I was expecting. Not even sure what I was expecting, but not that. I was pretty overwhelmed the majority of the time, because we had the subtitles in Swedish, and they were speaking English with a SUPER thick accent. Annnnd they didn't have the option for English subtitles. Thus resulting in Joel having to translate a good chunk of the movie for me. The whole movie I was incredibly grateful I wasn't raised "in the slums" like the main characters. It broke my heart to see people living like that, and how much abuse was going on throughout the movie. I felt grateful to know I have a savior and a good, supportive religion. And I also know where I was before this life, and where I will be going.. and who I will be spending the rest of eternity with. 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Our Apartment

I don't know if any of you knew this... but we moved December first. It has taken a little while to get this new apartment fixed up and slightly presentable, but I believe it is ok now! Most of the people that view my blog live in the states and will probably never see our apartment, so I thought why not show them where I live?? :)






Our beautiful mint green bathroom from the 60's.


I plan on putting up more pictures around us, just FYI that is not finished ;)



My own painting studio ;)







Our cute old fashioned coat hanger... but you can't really see it, sorry :/

And that is our nice little apartment everyone!! It is so perfect for the two of us, and Cheeto (who had to be in every picture haha!)
The cool wallpaper was here when we moved in. Luckily, the guy that lived here before was a painter and redid EVERYTHING. We feel so lucky to have it look so nice for how old it is. It was built in the 60's! When you open the cupboards and such you can see how old it is. On the outside it looks nice at least!
"They" are planning on renovating this huge apartment complex actually. When we moved in in December, they told us they could promise us a year. Buuuut there is a lot of protesting going on (I guess, or so I have heard) so they haven't even started on the first buildings clear down at the other side. Everyone is protesting because the rent will go up once everything is renovated... Once they would start on the other end, it could take three years before they would even get to our end. So we aren't too worried with that :)

Other news, as of late:


Last week, this lovely woman and I had a girls night!!! Our first one with no baby or husbands. Neither of us have had one since before I got here... 8+ months!!! It was verrrry much needed. We had so many good snacks, watched The Notebook (Sissela had never seen it before, so I HAD to show her of course!!), and just enjoyed each others company :)

I am not a fan of how strong Cheeto's jaw is getting..



I called these Swedish Scones on insta, but Joel told me they are technically English scones. So simple yet so delicious. Posting these again make me want to make more hehe.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

He's Just Not That Into You

Currently I am sitting at the entrance of a YSA (young single adult) dance. Joel and I were asked to help out, since we are married folk. We have been helping with the admission and stuff. It is rather nice, since there are about 300+ people here, and Joel knows about 95% of them. Kinda overwhelming to meet all these people that somehow know Joel! But it has been a blast... seeing old faces and meeting new people! To help time go by faster, I have been painting my nails haha!

Joel and I have been cuddling all day and watching two movies, well.. kinda. I was determined to watch a chick flick, and Joel has a hard time with those. We are kinda opposite that way. I have a hard time watching intense action movies and basically crawl up Joel's arm because it is too intense for me. Joel has a hard time with girly movies. Mostly the parts where something dramatic is happening, and he can't STAND  knowing what is going to happen. If something is going to happen and someone is going to get caught for instance. He has a hard time with that certain kind of drama.

We were watching He's Just Not That Into You and he didn't even make it halfway through before he had to leave. I thought it was hilarious, and made me realize I will need my girl nights for sure. I have only really had one since coming here, and it was a huge breath of fresh air! I love Joel, but ya just gotta have your girl nights ya know?? It really hit me today that I will have a hard time watching certain movies with Joel, and need to reserve those certain movies for my girl friends... I think it is funny that Joel can watch it and not make fun of it, but during instances he can't stand the drama.
We then watched Click, and got to the part where he got suuuper fat before we had to leave for this YSA dance. I am dying during this dance thingy, because I don't know how it ends. I haven't seen it, and I think it came out in 2007ish?



PS- I have to be SUPER careful when I stalk people on intagram. Has anyone else noticed how easy it is to accidentally double tap a picture? The worst is when I don't even know the person, and I have to unlike it...  Maybe it isn't too big of a deal, but I hate getting caught stalking people haha!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Our Story

Fall 2010 I was talking with my best bud Heather at the library up at USU. We were supposed to be studying (that's what you do at the library, right??), but ended up talking about how nice it would be to go somewhere for a summer, just to the East coast somewhere. We just wanted to do SOMETHING. Once we had this idea, it kept growing and growing. There was no going back. (Keep in mind this is still at the library.. attempting to be quiet but getting SO EXCITED) When we decided we actually wanted to go through with this, we called her mom and presented our idea and our reasons why. Her mom actually had a negative experience nannying out East, and planted the idea in our minds to go to Sweden. "We totally know people there!! That way I know you would be with them, and you would be safe." She said. We were stunned. It felt good :)


We skyped the people we would eventually be staying with, to get on equal grounds about what to expect and such. Nothing too much happened after, just fantasising about going and wanting to go. In January it became a reality when my friend Alyssa told us about her parents sky miles. We planned it out, and decided they would buy all the tickets for us, and we would pay them back. We chose May 12th to depart from the states, and August 6th to return home. We found a SUPER good price on tickets. On January 17th we found tickets for 850 bucks for round trip. The offer couldn't be turned down.



(Little did we know that the two dates we chose was a miracle. 3 or 4 days before we left we found out we couldn't be in the country for more than 90 days. We were there for 87 I believe. Pushing the limits much? Yep!)



My mom told me my family could not me support money-wise to go and play in Sweden for three months. (She REALLY did not want me to go. Maybe because I was supposed to meet Joel?? Who knows ;))



Thus resulting in me dropping our of school for a semester and working two jobs from 10 a.m to 10 p.m, which did not make my mom very happy either. Haha and I don't blame her!



My three best friends and I saved up until we left in May. Little did I know how this trip would change my life.



I was dating a guy before I left for Sweden, and was determined to marry him and did not want to find love in Sweden. Isn't that when love usually happens? When you aren't looking for it?



We finally got to Sweden after the longest flight of my life, and after my feet stopped swelling. (they were BALLOONS.) (Sorry I am going into too much detail here... this is bringing back a whoooole lotta memories! :)



Once we were in Sweden, we had a blast. Meeting all these new people, going places, walking on the ancient cobble stone streets... I felt so cool.



After a week of being there, someone mentioned to us to go to a birthday party and meet some people our own age. (Since the only people we knew were the people we were staying with) we were SO NERVOUS (at least I was) and didn't know what to expect. We didn't even know the person whose birthday it was!! After getting there, it was refreshing to meet all those young folk. Seriously, we talked for hours and hours with a bunch of people having a blast.



We had been at this birthday party for a little while, when a friend of ours from our ward walks in!! It was another refreshing moment to see someone we knew. Little did I know my future husband would be walking in right after her. I was immediately drawn to him, and amazed at how handsome he was. I HAD to get know him. Those thoughts were cut short when I saw how close they were walking, and I was devastated. I thought they were dating. All these emotions within 3 seconds?? Ridiculous. What I didn't know was they had just come together, and were good friends and grew up together. I did not know that at the time, though ;)



I tried to keep tabs on him throughout the evening without much luck. (I also didn't know that he was into Thai boxing and that he had a fight coming up the next week. He was on a strict diet but this Saturday was his eating-day, so he shoved as much food from the birthday party as he could into his body, and was sick the whole night. Poor boy!)



After realizing how late it was, we didn't want to over stay our welcome and overwhelm our new friends too much. We left, and I didn't even get a chance to talk to Joel.




A week goes by, and we heard about this institute/seminary graduation taking place and there would be a dance after. Kelsey felt uncomfortable going because she was engaged, and Heather then felt uncomfortable going because she had a boyfriend back home. Thus resulting in Alyssa and I bravely going to this shindig together, without our whole group. We arrive to the church (late of course) and who do I get to sit next to on the back row??? Yup. Joel Herrey himself. All I remember was I was suuuuuper nervous to sit next to him. We introduced ourselves, nothing spectacular. When the congregation stood up to sing (in Swedish) Joel leans over to me and says, "If you want to pretend to you look like you are singing in Swedish (since I couldn't whatsoever), just mime 'watermelon' over and over again, and you should be fine." I decided to trust this attractive young man and take his advice.



Not much happened after this encounter.. but after the ceremony (when all the students received their diplomas), there was the dance - the dance as to why we were there in the first place. And oh dear was it awkward. It was called a 'family dance', and not at all what Alyssa and I were expecting. Just trust me when I say it was awkward, ok?



We had a hard time handling this awkwardness, so Alyssa and I ran into the bathroom only to walk in on a girl awkwardly wiping her sweaty armpits. More awkwardness, wherever we turned. We then had to awkwardly leave, and happily found the nursery, and started playing with the kid blocks. Finally safe. And we laughed, and laughed, and laughed about how funny this situation was, and how this was not how we imagined this dance turning out. At all. After a while someone found us and said the dance was a bit more enjoyable, so we decide to give it another try.



We actually had a lot of fun dancing with some of our friends! No more awkwardness, finally. All the while I watched Joel out of the corner of my eye, hoping he would come dance with us. It was then when I noticed who he was really after this other SUPER cute girl we had met earlier. He was completely oblivious to how obvious it was that he really wanted to date her. I had this all figured out within 15 minutes basically. While we were dancing, I was watching him watch her. Kinda creepy, but true. I saw how much he truly wanted to date her, and decided to put Joel Herrey on the back burner of my mind for now.



When I got home, I was confident enough to add him as a friend on facebook so I could at least stalk him and see how he was. To me, seeing how a person is over the internet can be a real deal breaker. While I was stalking him, I was impressed however. I noticed how involved he was on FB, he posted good things, and some funny things as well. Nothing bad :)




Lets see... that was at the end of May, and I don't think I had anymore contact with him until about mid July. Around this point was when the drama with this boy back home was finally ending. It took him forever to get skype so we could talk, and I missed him a lot. We talked on the phone a lot (and when I got home my phone bill ended up being $666 for just one month. Oops!) and came to the conclusion to put that on hold for a while. With him it was finally nice to get an answer. Either yes we were dating or no we weren't, so for me this was a breath of fresh air.



Joel at this point was tired of trying to date this one cute girl. She had turned him down multiple times and he had just about stopped looking for someone to date seriously.


Mid July my friends and I decided that we wanted to go to Family Home Evening to meet other young single adults at the Institute! We hitched a ride with some friends and headed to Gothenburg. While there we had a spiritual lesson, played a game, made pizza and talked with all the young single adults there, continuing to meet more people! Joel was there of course, and somehow we started talking about the differences and similarities between Sweden and the states.


I don't know what I said to him at that time, but when I got home I had an email from him on facebook saying, ""Hey! I don't have a phone number to reach you so I suppose Facebook is the way to go! What are you doing Saturday? I just came up with a great idea for a date! (If you let me take you out, that is..) So what do you say? Around noon-ish?" Good thing I added him on facebook a little while back, or who knows how he would have gotten a hold of me. And oh dear was I ecstatic.



Us on our first date

Our date was on July 17th, a Saturday. It was relaxing, fun, natural and happy. We laughed SO MUCH!!!! There was no drama, or any stupid dating games trying to play hard to get or anything. Since I was leaving for home in three weeks, we knew (or so we thought!) nothing could come out of this date. There was absolutely no pressure to impress the other, we could be ourselves. I was living in Alingsås at the time, a good hour and a half away from Joel in Gothenburg.



This picture was taken on our first date, and we already look like a couple...
I was so nervous to travel by myself into Gothenburg. Not nervous to be alone with Joel, but the fact of me having no sense of direction. (Good thing I didn't tell my mom about this, or she might have been a bit worried.) Plus I had never been to this part of Gothenburg, where he was having me go by myself. Eventually I got to Saltholmen, where the famous archipologas (is that how you spell it?..) islands are. I was so nervous from traveling and it was nice to finally meet up with him. Joel had the idea for our date to go swimming in the ocean and eat a nice lunch he had packed for us. I remember it being sunny and listening to Jack Johnson. We talked a lot about ourselves, just getting to know each other... and I also remember him asking me what my favorite music band was. I said, "Uh, September??" That was ALL I could think of, my mind was blank. I know like, 3 of her songs, and all the rest are super dirty haha!


Our date ended up being 9 hours long. A first date that long??! It went exceptionally well, and I didn't want to go home even after that. But, I was asked to give a talk in church for the next day so I had to go home and prepare for it.




In my mind it was a really good date, one of the best i have ever had. Joel was thinking something similar, but was nervous to ask me out again. At this point we were just good friends, and he didn't want to come across in the wrong way.



Our first date was on Saturday, and he asked me out for the coming Wednesday! I agreed, and oh what a good date it was. Similar to the first. Relaxing and again there was no pressure to be someone different. He made me dinner, and we went on a long walk to the ocean by his apartment. We were talking like crazy and were so busy taking pictures of the swan in the sunset in the water, only to realize that I had just missed the last train to get back home. We laughed for a good 30 minutes at this fact. What would we do now?? Thus resulting in us staying up all night at his apartment, watching kid history, (He had never seen them or heard of them! I have NEVER seen anyone laugh so much at them) and him playing the guitar. All night. You would think it would have been "dangerous" for us to stay up all night.. alone in his apartment. We hadn't hit that point in our relationship to even hold hands yet! All night we laughed and laughed like such good friends, and once it started getting brighter we decided to hike to the top of a hill and see the sunrise. Watching the sunrise together, Joel put his arm around me. At this very moment a spark ignited inside of me. We both felt the little magic stirring between us that morning :)




Yeah... this beauty came on our date!






On our second date we saw the sunset and the sunrise. Overall that date was 12 hours long. And we loved it.


Our sunrise
That weekend, after our second date, my friends and I had plans to travel up to Stockholm on Friday (about 6 hours away, depending on who drives), to go to the temple on Saturday, see the city on Monday, and do last minute tourist shopping before we went home to Utah in a few weeks. Ironically enough, Joel was headed to Stockholm to attend a boxing camp that same weekend. How funny. His boxing camp ended Sunday afternoon and we talked briefly on the phone just to check up on each other. When I told him that we were going shopping on Monday he boldly invited himself. And I agreed :) We all met up and shopped for 6 or 7 hours. He took it like a champ!! All day shopping we walked super close next to each other, and eventually he started putting his arm around me.


We made plans for him to ride with us to Festinord the next day (Festinord is a week long activity for the young single adults all over the Nordic countries in Europe), and as I hugged him goodbye he gave me a sweet kiss on my cheek. I was in heaven. As he left, my friends flocked around me and hugged me out of happiness at what just happened. Ya know, the typical girly things. Talking and going over every move he did to assure me he liked me, as if the kiss on the cheek wasn't enough.



RIGHT before he kissed me on the cheek!!!!

When we met up Tuesday to drive to a different city, I made sure there was an empty seat next to me. THAT was the one clue to him that I was interested in him, and that he could make the next step. Hehe.



Festinord. The "meat market". A place for young and single adults to hook up. A place where many others have met their spouse. When we got to Sweden, everrrryone asked us if we were going, because it is such a blast. It is similar to EFY, just not as spiritual if that makes sense. There are games all week long, hanging out, sports to play... you name it.



During Festinord...

When we got there, Joel was with us. Aaaand he never really left my side the whole week. He only did when either of us had to go to the bathroom, or sleep. Tuesday was the first day of Festinord, and that was the day he kissed me. Remember how long it had been since our first date? Almost two weeks people.



Every night during Festinord there is always a dance concluding the night (much better than my first dance experience in Sweden). Tuesday night we were dancing, when he told me he needed to go to an ATM machine to take out some money. As we turned to leave, I mentioned to my friends that "we are going to an ATM" wink wink ;) Hehe. But, he really did have to go to an ATM machine. On our long walk back, we noticed an outdoor pool area. It was fenced off because you had to pay to enter, and obviously closed because it was later in the night.



Like the rest of our dates, Joel decides to be adventurous and wants to hop the fence. Me, getting worried that we would get caught and wanting to follow the rules.. I hesitated for a minute. Then I decided to be adventurous and awkwardly hopped the fence. Joel followed swiftly after.



And oh boy was this romantic. As we walk towards the water, he snuck up behind, grabbed my sides and scared me, only to get a little closer to me. He then wrapped me in his arms and asked if it was okay for him to kiss me. I told him, "A kiss means a lot to me, and is a serious commitment." (Basically, in college I was used so many times. Boys kissed me and I thought everything was fine until I didn't hear from them ever again. I was tired of being used, and I wanted to say that so he knew where I stood.) He agreed with me, let me go and then we continued walking towards the pool and sat down.



We talked about who knows what. Eventually we laid down on the cold and stony concrete so that we could stretch out our arms and touch the water, only to get closer and closer together. It was starting to get a bit chilly, so of course we are going to cuddle. In the distance we could hear some kids jumping into the pool, probably from Festinord too. It was basically pitch black over on that side of the pool so we could barely see anyone, we just heard the shouts followed by a bunch of splashes. I could sense the romantic vibes going on and eventually we got closer together. He started by kissing my forehead.. then to my cheek.. and finally my lips.



When we first kissed I was blown away of how good it was. I realized I had never before had such a good first kiss, and I loved it. It just felt incredibly right, I can't describe it any other way.



As we head back to the dance, I felt so good. Content :)



That was how the rest of the week went. Meeting people, doing activities during the day, going to the dances at night and spending time together. Without Festinord, I don't know how else we could have gotten to know each other as well as we did. Basically, it was the perfect timing of everything.



During the "gala night"

During the week of Festinord you go to bed super late and wake up super early to participate in all the activities. Thus resulting in your immune system dropping like a rock and the week after the event is for many people a much needed recovery week. This was our last week in Sweden and Joel got sick. My friends and I had every day planned out to what we wanted to do to a T, to go swimming and having goodbye parties etc. Joel was finally feeling better, so we planned to have a date on Wednesday.



Now we were officially a couple, and we decided to go swimming one last time. It was a terrific date, just like the last ones.



Friday came and we had our goodbye party. Joel stayed up late to help me pack, and that is when I randomly told him I wanted to dance with him one last time. Thus turning into our tradition of dancing the night before we had to leave each other. We only got one hour of sleep by the time we were done packing, and headed to the airport.



Getting distracted while helping me pack ;)

At the airport I was numb of feelings, and had to leave him. So depressing, and glad I never have to do that again.




And after this we became quiiite familiar with skype and talked every single day. As soon as I came home to Utah and back to school, and when I started making my schedule for the semester, the first thing I put in was Skype time with him :) Surprisingly fast we decided that we wanted to get married. Later that fall he bought plane tickets to come over for Christmas and to meet my family, but most importantly, to propose. We got engaged on December 22nd at Temple Square, and married on June 14th that following summer of 2012.



I love you Joel, and I love living my life with you ♥

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Settle down, it'll all be clear


Today I went and got a facial!! So. Nice. Joel surprised me with one for Christmas! It was about to expire, so I had to use it soon. I have never really had one before, so I was suuuper nervous to go today for some reason! Yep. I am a 22 year old girl that has never had a facial. The language barrier is always there, whether they speak good English or not, it is still tough sometimes. I want to speak Swedish soooo bad, but it is a lot tougher than I thought!

Anyways, the last time I had a full body massage was nice. A woman that didn't speak any English had this little room down in her basement. She was good, a massage is a massage and still nice to me... but this place was legit though! I was impressed. I got such a nice massage and facial cleaning thing... I walked out of there so content. The thought kept on coming to me, "Why on earth did I not do this sooner??! I had three months to do this!"

For those of you that don't know... I am obsessed with smells. Every time I walk past someone that smells good, I am in heaven. I love the way our cat smells too, on the left side of her neck. TMI?.. I am also obsessed with Joel's smell. Not his cologne, but his natural musk. I think I tell him 100 times a day how good he smells. Even when we kiss he smells and tastes good. I am addicted to his smell. 

When I got my facial today, she put a mask on my face and this mask smelled GOOD. Like, I was in heaven. When I got home I told Joel he HAD to come and smell how good my face smelled. 

After a while it was ok, but then the smell of my face got in the way of me being able to smell his face. Make sense?? I couldn't smell his smell because my face was so strong. 

That was our day today. First world problem? Yep ;)

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Well folks...



Sorry I never finished the last week of my blog questions. I procrastinated writing them ahead of time, and we got suuuuuper busy this week. Plus I didn't really feel like answering those questions, so I didn't :) It was a lot of fun writing the questions I did answer, but that dwindled towards the end. I am proud of how much I did do, though!

This week has been ridiculous. Heading to bed late almost every night, and being so tired during the days I could hardly function. 

I would like to say WHY our week has been crazy, but I don't believe it is time to tell the world what we are going through. Our situation can be good, but also can be bad if it doesn't turn out the way we would like it to. We are waiting to hear back from some people... hopefully we will know towards the end of February, and I will be sure to tell all the deets by then.

Sorry this is so vague... just pray for us that our situation will end up well!