Mawwiage... Mawwiage is What Bwings Us Togeva... Tooday.

I don't really have anything at all to blog about... other than what I blogged about last time. Coming to the states basically :) We leave in ten days in case you were wondering, and are a little too excited :) One of my favorite parts about coming home is the scene at the airport. Since we travel for 20+ hours, that refreshing moment of WHY I have been traveling for so long comes true!!! It is zee best.
Side note... when my family flew to Sweden for the wedding last summer, I was late coming to the airport because one car broke down (or something along those lines) and it broke my heart not being there on time for my family!! Because I know how much it means to me I suppose. I still feel so bad about that, haha.

Joel and I celebrated our first anniversary last Friday!! Been married a whole year, quite awesome!! We got some gifts for each other, went out to dinner, and rented some movies! We love spending time together, fo realz.
So.... I know people say the first year of marriage is the hardest. Seriously, I don't know who says that but our first year was amazing. From only spending 8 weeks physically together before we got married, and 10 long months of skype, I would say we have a healthy marriage. But. That does NOT mean it has been easy necessarily. I have been homesick. We have both been unemployed at one point, not knowing how we could eat let alone pay for rent... and there are more instances of course. I look back at the winter season and realize how hard it really was! Trying to help each other out of the darkness (LITERALLY. It was dark here ALL the time. Rare sun rays) and we made it and helped each other through it. Sure we have had disagreements... actually, our first one was if we should get a cat or not. Hehe I won that one ;) Joel has never been a big animal person, but promised me once we moved out of our one room apartment we could get a cat to close the door off to our super nice bed. I thought that was a good compromise!
We look back at our relationship and are grateful for those ten months we had away from each other. All we could do was communicate. Our relationship is really based off of that, I believe... and I will always be grateful for that. We still haven't fought, and any disagreement we have had we have figured out together, respecting each others opinions.
I look back to when we were engaged and it feels like we barely knew each other!!!! Sometimes I think, "How on earth did we get married, we barely knew each other??!" But we must have known a little bit ;)
I also love living with a man. Best. Roommate. Ever.

You know this picture? Yep. I laugh at all his farts. I don't know why, but I find them so comical. Usually when he farts in the morning he has to look over at my face to see how I react... Oh the joys of living with a man :)

Also, this is one of my new favorite pictures!! We are completely obsessed and in love with this little cat... who woulda thought?? We had some friends taking Cheeto while we are in the states, and they wanted  to test out their allergies one night, and have her stay at their house! She was away from us for maaaaybe six hours, and we were dying. We missed her like CRAZY. It was ridiculous. We are way too obsessed... I don't know what we are going to do for six weeks. Joel started making cat noises pretending she was here.

Well. That is all I can think about... See ya in 10 days Utah!!!! :)

3.5 Weeks Until??...

WE COME TO THE UNITED STATES!!!!!! For 6 whole weeks. You can say I am beyond excited. My cute lil sis is getting married July 27th, so we will be there a whole month before the wedding! SO STOKED. I thank her everyday for getting married this summer, so I have a (legit) reason to come home!! We leave Sweden June 27th... Right after all the holidays here! Perfect timing that we didn't even think about haha. I have slowly been compiling a list of things we need to bring over, and things we need to buy! Thank goodness for google drive :) I would say my #1 thing that I would just love to buy is a niiiice camera. Sure, we take pictures with our phones.. but I want to really document our lives. One of my favorite bloggers (who is a professional photographer, but still) really inspired me. She is CONSTANTLY putting up pictures of her kids, and I just love it. Sure, it might seem over the top to some (and me sometimes haha) but I love how she captures moments. So. That is my new goal- learning about all that fun stuff :) Even when I sit on the bus I am thinking and looking how I could take different pictures! Possible new obsession?
Yesterday was my year mark of living in Sweden! Crazy, eh?? For your enjoyment, here are some pictures of us meeting at the airport, and me meeting my in-laws for the first time... two weeks before we got married ;)

We were SO NERVOUS to meet again!! We hadn't seen each other since January, and this picture was taken June 1st!! 6 whole months of being engaged and not being able to hold each other when the other was having a hard day.. the worst and hardest thing about long distance for sure.

Meeting my sweet mother-in-"love" for the first time! Yes we had "met" over skype, but this was the first face to face meeting :)

After leaving the airport, we really wanted to be together. Thus resulting in Joel taking me on a walk, and I guess showing me some horses?..

He thinks he is funny..

Gratefulness and Blessings

I just got done reading a blog post about The Disease Called "Perfection". It was interesting, and I believe had a good point to it. By the time I was done reading it, I had such a weird feeling... a mixture of gratefulness and also sadness. I felt grateful, realizing all that I have and seeing what other people struggle with (from what the commenters said on the blog)... from over eating, being lazy, not feeling good enough to take care of their kids, and cheating on a spouse... to depression, being over weight, and addictions. I felt so much sadness, realizing how much everyone is going through in the world today attempting to be 'perfect' on the outside. What I have come to realize is that most people that look 'perfect' on the outside, are struggling on the inside.

If you wish to read this blog post, you can read it HERE.

Thinking about this post, and after reading the comments on his blog post.. I have been trying to decide how I feel about it. Like I said, it made me feel grateful and sad. I made the decision to look at the positive side of this and not focus on the negatives, which was what everyone that commented on this post was doing. Sure I could list the negatives that I struggle with on the inside, but that would be terribly depressing!! Thus resulting in me wanting to look at the positives in my life :)

Here is the list of things I have been reflecting on that I am grateful for:
- my healthy marriage
- my husband loves and respects me
- we have never gone hungry
- we are not in debt
- we help eachother up, not push eachother down
- we communicate well
- we have public transportation to get around, so we didn't have pressure of needing a car right away
- we have such a lovely apartment. the guy that lived here before us was a painter, and redid everything
- we are (mainly, we try haha) healthy
- we have a wonderful support system of family and friends on both continents
- THANK GOODNESS FOR AIRPLANES so we can travel back and forth!!!!
- we have plates to eat on, and silverware to eat with
- we both have jobs
- we live in a clean country
- technology.. geez, where would we be without it??
- good friends


Basically, this list can go on and on... hopefully you get the point ;) What are you grateful for?
Happy Sunday everyone!!

What's On My Mind??

ever get that feeling when you want to blog, but have nothing really to say? yup. that is me right about now.  lets see.. where to start.......

- i love our kitty. she is the most idealistic cat you would ever want
- Joel got me some red roses, and i am looooving them
- i love our apartment, it finally feels like a home, and complete
- i love free/cheap things
- Joel is working late. not a fan
- i hate facebook. despise it actually. i am so close to deleting my account
- i love instagram and wish more people used it so i could stalk more people
- i love technology, and that i can call/text my family anytime i want
- i love staying in contact with people
- i get really sad when i get out of touch with people
- i love that my sister is getting married, so we have a good reason to come home
- i miss coldstone
- speaking of ice cream... i ate too much today... BUT IT WAS SOOOO GOOD, OK??
- i want to paint more, and i get sad that i don't
- http://sethadamsmith.com/2012/05/17/the-empty-jar-temple-sealings/
- i love weeding
- every time i need to feel better, i watch Tangled. Joel and i laugh and giggle through it every time
- i wish i was a good photographer
- every time i call my mom, someone calls her and ends our call
- i love living in Gothenburg, but miss the comfort of Utah. a lot.
- Cheetos favorite place to sleep is my underwear drawer. in fact, she is there now. uhhh.......
- i want to go on a bunch of hikes this summer
- my husband is so dedicated to his work, and i am incredibly proud of him
- in the 11.5 months i have lived in Sweden, i can count on one hand how many times i have straightened and curled my hair
- i wish Android had the Vine app
- we leave for Utah in 5.5 weeks. exciting? yes.
- Joel and i LOVE meat, especially bacon

Ok. That's all for now... Bye :)

Hello there long lost friends.

Well, I don't really know where to start haha.

Life has been the busiest it has been in a long time. Not that I don't like it, I just wish I could spend more time with Joel! I guess a good term to call us would be "workaholics". We literally come home from our activities every night and just crash because we are exhausted.

When I first moved to Sweden with no job and nothing to do while Joel was at work, this was my thought process, "Life will only get busier and busier so I need to take advantage of this time now!"

Now that I look back on it, I wish I was busier. I would lay in bed until noon or one because I didn't have anything else better to do. Eventually I would get up, move to the computer, get on the world wide web and rotate between facebook, instagram, and pinterest of course. In my mind I knew I should make the bed, do the dishes, workout/shower, and get the apartment all cute before Joel got home around 5... because I didn't have a job or anything yet, I felt like that was my "job".

Then came study time. I started studying Swedish For Immigrants, or SFI in September. So, from July-September I had nothing to do. Thankfully I started studying Swedish to meet other immigrants and to realize we are all going through the same thing. But. I hated Swedish. Then I didn't want to go to class. I didn't understand a single thing. My teachers would ask me questions in Swedish, and I felt like a deer in the headlights because I didn't know the answer. I kept pushing myself to go.. that was the right thing to do, right?? Sometimes I was lucky to go to class once a week.

THANKFULLY Christmas time came, and saved me. Sure it was dark and cold... This was the time when people would put up lights in their windows. The Christmas spirit was there, AND I had a two week vacation from school. Finally I didn't feel guilty for missing school because it was vacation time :)

I feel like that was the changing time for me, when I started liking Swedish more. That first Monday back to class.. amazing. I sat there in class, and I could understand at least 50% what was going on, versus the 5% before the holidays. Something cool switched in my brain over Christmas break, and I felt 100% better. I have no idea how it happened, but my brain had finally reached the first step of learning a language.

Another thing I have a hard time with... comparing myself to others. Believe it or not, I am really hard on myself on the inside. A whole lot of guilty thoughts like this for example, "They learned Swedish so much faster than me. I wish I studied as much as them. They just got into the class, and already picked up Swedish faster than me." Aaaaand, my negative thoughts haven't made learning Swedish any easier. I still have a hard time in class, knowing how hard learning Swedish has been for me. I feel like when I first arrived in Sweden, a lot of people had high expectations of me. I had people tell me, "Oh! You will learn Swedish in no time." "I bet you will have it down in months!" etc.... Lets just say, it has been a lot harder than I thought!



Well, enough of the vent session and back to being busy. Since I have started working, I go to my SFI class once a week, and I feel great. I enjoy going to class, I LOVE going to work, and I am enjoying life. I have found I like to be busy (to a point of course haha!), unlike what I had imagined in my head when we were first married. Joel has this saying, "If you want something to get done, give it to a busy person." Oh boy, is that true!! When I had nothing to do when we were first married, I hardly got anything done. How weird is that?? You would think I would with all that time on my hands! Funny how it turns out to be the opposite.

Happy Friday everyone :)

Recent Distractions

Today I was on the bus just like any other day. When I go to work, I ride a bus for about 22 minutes, then hop off at the central station and jump on a train for 25 minutes. I then find another bus that will take me to my in-laws house, but thankfully that bus ride is only 10 minutes long. Door to door.. it takes about an hour and a half. Because there is a looot of walking involved. I use to hate it. Now that my body has adjusted to walking everywhere, I love it. If I were to drive to my in-laws it would only take 30 minutes! So crazy.

Anyways, as I was sitting on the bus home I was trying to relax after the busy day I had, by listening to music and looking at my phone. Like every other Swede does. I am not a Swede of course, but that part has definitely rubbed off on me. NO ONE talks to each other on the bus/train/tram. Unless you are with a friend of course! When Joel and I are together I feel so loud even whispering.

Sorry, that was another tangent.. I was on the bus just trying to get home, because who likes public transportation? When I suddenly realized how absorbed I was in technology. I was literally going back and forth between facebook, instagram, the blogs I follow, and the game Draw Something (thanks goes out to my sisters and my mom for always drawing something for me!)... and repeating the process. Does anyone else get so caught up in technology?? It kills me sometimes how addicted I am... how I can't go to bed without checking instagram. Joel makes fun of me aaall the time. Isn't that sad though? I don't know what I would do without my phone. I wonder how much happier I would be if we had less technology and distractions? If we had to pay for less, and how much stress that would release.

While I was sitting on the bus I realized all of this.. because I was so absorbed in technology I didn't realize there was an old and frail lady standing up, and everyone was too distracted to notice how unstable and frail she was. No one had given up a seat for this poor lady! By the time this all registered in my mind, a girl moved and offered her seat thankfully. It really stressed me out realizing how everyone was so into their phones, and myself included. Me... A healthy 22 year old girl too distracted by dumb technology to help an old lady out.

So, I stood up anyways because I didn't feel like sitting anymore, and I started to look at the people surrounding me. I saw a girl looking straight ahead and was smiling to herself, and I was so impressed because everyone else was frowning looking down at their phones.. and it really got me thinking, "I wonder what she is thinking about that makes her look so happy!" Then I started thinking about trials and hardships that everyone has in their lives. For some it might be death, money, drugs.. whatever the reason, everyone has something tough going on in their lives, as well as good things. Maybe this girl just got kissed by the man she loves? Who knows! All I know is we don't know what people are going through, and maybe that old lady was having a hard day! Then someone gave her their seat, and life got a bit better! Maybe that move made her day, because she really could have fallen at any moment and broken something.. she was that frail. So, maybe that person saved a life today?? ;) All I know is how determined I will be to pay more attention to others, because you never know what others are going through in their life.

That Awkward Moment When Your Cat Shoves Her Nose Up Your Nasal Passage

I am in the middle of attempting to watch Vampire Diaries, and it is taking foreverrrr to load. So, I thought why not write a blog post??

Now after the whole BYU application is done (for now hehe), our lives have slowed down a whole lot! Not too much going on that I can blog about, so sorry if I ramble or go off on random thoughts :)

So, I don't know if any of you know this... but I don't really cook haha. Joel usually does, because he likes it! Plus I get overwhelmed with everything in Swedish, so I let him work his magic. I LOVE everything Joel cooks! Well, except for one thing. Not too bad, eh? Only one thing I haven't liked, and we have been married almost 9 months! It works out great. He cooks, then I do dishes and clean up after everything! I am usually not in the mood to do dishes (who is, haha!) but it keeps me going knowing I have a loving husband that likes to cook. How many women can say that??!

Anyways, my mom and I are starting up this thing where we will cook together on skype! We tried once, and it was really fun actually. From going back and forth to, "Is this a small onion??" and trying to awkwardly show her over skype... and then comparing our bouillon sizes. Since this is an american recipe, it was also hard to convert everything to the wonderful metric system. In the past when my mom tried teaching me something about cooking, I always tried to avoid it because I wanted to procrastinate learning how to cook as long as possible, and now I am regretting it. (you were right mom!)
She taught me how to make Sweet Potato Soup. And it was DELICIOUS. I did burn the onions the first time I tried, but hey! I learned from my mistake.. Which my mom said, "Is sometimes the hardest way to learn!" This is the recipe, if anyone is interested :)

It took me a LOT longer to prep the food, just because I am so new at this! So it took me an hour and a half...

I also only had curry powder at home, so I didn't use cumin and it turned out just fine!

Sjuk

Ya know that morning where you wake up and your head says, "Don't get up or I will hurt you." Because you wake up sick. And your head still decides to hurt you no matter what, even if you lay still.

Yep. That was me this morning. Waking up sick is the worst.. or being sick at all! I was so looking forward to having a nice weekend, but my brain won't let me concentrate on more than one thing. If it lets me think of one thing at all. 

So we don't let Cheeto sleep in our room for obvious reasons.. Hair, noise, discomfort etc... And every morning she can sense when we are awake, even if we don't make any noise at all. She cries. And cries. And cries. Oh, did I mention she cries? And it kills me for two reasons: 1) because it is cute to hear her little half cries/meows and 2) it is kind of hilarious. How in the crap does she know we are awake??! But she loves us, and loves being with us. I think she misses us a lot during the night! Joel decided if Cheeto were to have a "love language", hers would be physical touch. She HAS to be touching us when she is asleep and when she wants to sit and relax. It is nice feeling loved by a sweet little kitty that can't really meow yet! Her poor little face when we have to close the door on her when saying goodnight... So sad :(

Video of cute Cheeto crying for us!

I have been reading a friend of mine's blog today, and she is good at keeping it updated about her family, house, baby etc... So, that got me in the mood to blog. And since I don't have a baby yet, I thought I would share those updates on Cheeto, since she is the closest thing to a baby right now haha!

Also, another fact about Cheeto. She is a girl kitty, and an orange tabby which is super rare! Usually a male is orange. A lady in church told me she told her mom that we had a girl orange tabby, and her mom said, "No way. That is impossible. She can't be a girl cat, that is absolutely impossible." I guess her mom works on a farm and knows her cats really well? Buuuut Cheeto is a girl, we promise. And can send pictures if she wants proof, haha!!

I looked it up on the internet... and it says this, "Orange tabbies are far more likely to be male, with an average ratio of 80 males to 20 females. The gene for red is carried on the X chromosome. Males have one X chromosome, while females have two. A male needs only one red gene to be an orange tabby. A female must inherit two red genes, one for each of her two X chromosomes."

Soooo I guess Cheeto is a rare kitty! Kinda cool :)

Also, one last thing I love that Cheeto does. Usually Joel gets home a little after me, and I have noticed she can tell when we are coming home. In our apartment building we have the outside door, then we walk up the stairs and our apartment is right there on the second floor. When she hears that door open downstairs, she freaks out because she knows someone is coming home. She sits up, and waits to hear for the key to open the door to our apartment. If she doesn't hear that key within a few minutes, she plops back down, usually on my Chest or lap. 
Now for a billion pictures, if you'd like to see our cute kitty.

Our first picture of baby Cheeto!

Watching us play Lego Star Wars ON Joel's foot

Her normal seat

My stalker

The time Cheeto was obsessed with the toilet. She jumped in before Joel could flush or close the toilet seat. Joel yells to me, "MOLLIE!!!! CHEETO JUMPED IN THE TOILET! And I didn't flush..." She only got her legs wet, so this pic was taken after we gave her a bath...

How most of my skype conversations go.

Caught in the act!!

Cheeto learned the hard way about playing with fire by burning off a bunch of her whiskers!

Curious lil buggar 

My stalker.. the usual

We call this stance the "creeper walk" where she arches her back like this and hops or runs toward us. 

She does THIS once in a while too.

Oh hello.

Joel making sure she gets strong. 

Creepin

And that everyone (who actually looked through all the pictures) is our cat in a nutshell. 

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 :)

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.