February 18th 2012

I know that this post is late coming, but I just got married and have been a little busy. ;)

If you look to the right side on our blog you will find a column called "Tender Words of the Heart" these are text messages that I have received over that past year from the man of my dreams, my best friend and my sole mate.

February 18th 2011

"You are the most wonderful and beautiful girl that I know and I love more than anything!"


A year ago this was sent to my phone. I loved it then as much as I love it now. Brendan Owen has changed my life for the better.

The morning of... Mom woke me up around 6, I got up and got ready, showered, hair, dressed, make up...Wait no make up that was left in Brendan's car the night before. My mom and I left the house late as usual (no offense mom).

 I called Brendan around 7 to ask him if we could meet him in Preston so that I could get my make up.

While we are driving we almost missed our exit. I see the exit our car is in the left side lane and the semi behind us is in the right lane almost in front of the exit's entrance. I know that if we miss the exit then we will be more late then we already are. I swerve in front of the semi and make it on the exit with no accidents. YEAH!!!

When we got to Preston I expected Brendan and his parents to already be there so that I could do my make up and we could get going again to the temple but they weren't. I called Brendan it went straight to his voicemail, I called Patti ring and ring and then voicemail, I call Emmi and Voicemail, I call Maci Voicemail, try calling Brendan again hmm voicemail. Yes I am freaking out by now. Call Bren again yup still voicemail. Call Patti one more time and she answers tells me that they are almost there and then they arrived. (why do I worry?)

We got to the temple just in time!

The temple is an amazing place. A year long engagement is not an easy thing but it is worth it when you finally walk out of the temple doors holding hands for the first time as husband and wife infront of all of your family and friends.

This was sent to me the morning of exactly 1 year ago from the first text that I shared with you.

February 18th 2012:

"I love you more than anything beautiful!" "Thank you for being my best friend" 

I love my husband more than anything he is my hero, my best friend, and my everything. 

 

FINALLY!!!

After one year and fourteen days Brendan and I will finally be sealed for time and all eternity in the Logan Utah LDS Temple on February 18th 2012. A day that we have been waiting for, for a very long time. This has been a time of tears, heartbreak, rejoicing, celebration, let downs, lift ups, lessons, patience, and most of all blessings. We have learned to work though the trial and find the Lord's hand in the end.

A very good friend of mine told me that the Lord gives trials for a reason. Maybe it is to teach us something  for us to learn now or maybe it is to prepare us for something that we will need for the future. Whatever it may be its not easy, but when we realize what the blessing will be in the end it would have been worth it to go through the trial. The night after my friend gave me this wonderful advice I decided that I was going to just flat out ask the Lord what I needed to learn. I knelt down and said Lord help me understand what I am suppose to learn from this trial. My answer never came. So I continued to pray every night. I don't know if I received the full lesson or not but what I do know is that I learned patience, I learned trust in the Lord, I learned that I can't tell the Lord what I want or what I think I can handle. I am grateful for these things that I learned they have brought me closer to my Heavenly Father and have helped me understand more fully of the love he has for me. 

I can't wait for this Saturday it is going to be the best day of my life. I will be sealed to my best friend and nothing else makes me more happy than that. 

I love you Brendan Owen. 

Work in Progress

So today the blog is actually a present to my(Brendan) parents. After being through so many things with me throughout my life they have never given up and I have realized that we are all works in progress in this grand scheme of things. I have throughout the last month and a half been spending alot of time sitting at my table here at my apartment working on a gift for my parents to show my appreciation. When I was young my mom taught me how to cross stitch and through the years I have done many projects, but when I was in high school I begged my mom to buy a kit for me of a picture by Greg Olsen titled Lost No More. I worked on it for a short time before I gave up and put it aside because I think I ran out of some of the thread that I needed. I always told myself that I would get back to it. When I got home from my mission two years ago I bought a new kit online and it has sat around due to lack of time, patience and motivation. I decided though, that during this time of struggles in my life working on a picture of Christ would be the extra thing that I was needing. So here is my Work in Progress(I've spent a couple hundred hours on it so far)...

I still have a long way to go, but I figured that a couple hundred hours of work was worth a christmas present... we'll see how much birthdays and such are worth... I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!

Trials

When I was still in Young Woman's at a Night of Excellence the leaders had the Grandmothers or however was close to the new beehives right them a letter of love and guidance. I wasn't a new beehive but I was new to the ward so I received this letter from my Grandma Joy. There was something written in this letter that has always stayed with me through out my life. Every time a trial comes my way I think back to this letter. my Grandma Joy wrote.

" You have also been blessed with trials. You have watched your family struggle and have experience great heartaches in your young life. Use these heartaches and trials as stepping stones to eternal exaltation! They will become your greatest strength as you learn how to overcome the pain and still love those who make unwise choices."

The past two weeks have tried my faith to the max it feels like. I feel as if I have gone through so much heartache and pain that I can't go on. But then I remember my Grandmas words and I keep going. I take every trial and every heartache and I learn from it.

I know that my Heavenly Father lives. I know that he loves me and that he knows who I am. I know that he sends his angels to watch over me and protect me from things that I cannot handle on my own. I know that the words that my Grandma wrote to me all those years ago are true and if I listen to her words and live by that then I will have eternal life with the one I love. I know that my elder brother Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for me. He did it for me so when I am going through a trial I have someone who I can turn to in faith and he will have been there and can help me through it. I know that Christ died on a cross to take away my sins. He died there to save me. I am forever in debt to him. I know that trials are given to us to make us stronger and that there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel and all though it may be hard to take that first step into the darkness it will all be worth it in the end.  I know that there is a lesson to be learn from every trial that I have recently been through, am going through, and will go through. I may not know what the answer is now or what the answer will be later, but I know that there is one. I walk by faith. I wake up every morning and I live by faith.  Faith that I will make it thought the day, faith that my wrong doings  will be washed away. I love the Lord with all my heart. and I know that he is there for me always if I just stretch out my arm to his. I say these things in the name of my Savior Jesus Christ Amen.

Drawn for me by one of my best friends Jodee at a time when I needed it most 

 

I've Got A Real Nose!!!

So I don't have a great picture of my nose before, but my left nostril was smaller than the right which made it really hard to breath. Especially if I was sick. The picture above doesn't show the difference but it does show the knot that was there.

Tuesday November 15th I walked in to Mountain View Hospital scared but super excited at the same time. They first gave me this spray to shoot up my nose... First time I have ever sprayed anything up my nose before. I did a horrible job. I ended up swallowing it and then it made my throat burn and I was miserable. 

They then had me change into those hospital night gowns that don't have a back. I got on the bed/ table and they put the IV in my arm. Lucky for me I have had one before so this didn't hurt much. Then the nurse left and I was left in the room with my mother. Maybe about 10-15 min later the Anesthesiologist came in and talked to me about the possibility that I might not ever wake up again after they put me to sleep but that I didn't need to worry (How do you not worry about that kinda stuff) and then he left. I don't know if the stuff that was coming through my IV was suppose to make me tired or if I was just super bored but I ended up falling asleep and then when the Anesthesiologist came back in I remember him telling my mom that if I stayed asleep he wouldn't even be needed. He then wheeled me into the room where they would do the surgery and then asked me what I did for my job I was explaining it to him and then next thing I know I was in the recovery room. 

First thing I did when I woke up was feel my nose to make sure it was still there (Brendan told me they were going to cut it off and just leave slits there so that I would look like Voldemort). When the nurse came in she gave me some crackers and a cup of water and then told me that if I couldn't eat it right away to not worry but to try to slowly eat it why she went and got my mom. When my mom came in I was eating the crackers but couldn't reach the water because of the IV and where she had put it. The nurse then left again and told me that when I am feeling up to it I could get dressed and go home. I was feeling up to it then so I went to get up but couldn't because of all they stuff they had me hooked up to. My mom then called her back in. They unhooked me from all the machines and I got dressed and we went home. 

This is what I looked like that night. 

I look pretty good right for just having surgery but it still hurts like crazy. I wont bore you with the rest of the horrible details but I will share pictures and what day they were taken 

Wednesday 16th 

Little bit worse right haha

Thursday 17th 

I didn't take a picture Friday 18th but this is Saturday 19th 

Looking good huh :) I can smile but man does it hurt to laugh or yawn or anything else. 

I didn't take a picture Sunday either. 

Today Monday 21st I went back to the doctors to have him take the splints out of my nose. 

I went in and the nurse greeted me at the door and said come back here. So I went back to the room and I sat down. She then grabbed the flashlight and some scissors and tweezers things, told me to tip my head back, and then she grabbed my nostril and pulled. I flinched and pulled away. She then said, "If you don't hold still I'll never get these things out of there." I'm crying by now cause not only did it hurt but I was mad at her. My mom then came over and held my hand while the nurse proceeded to take the splints out of my nose. When she was finally done this is what I found in the bucket I was holding on to.

Huge huh? yup those things were up my nose. The nurse then told me to go make an appointment to meet with the doctor the next week for a follow up. 

Now a little side note. I have a strong dislike for that nurse right now. If she would have told me what she was doing before she just decided to pull on my nostril then I wouldn't have flinched and I would have been able to hold still and it wouldn't have been that bad for those things to be pulled out of my nose but because she was a jerk and didn't tell me what was going on I did end up crying and am very mad at the nurse and when I go back in next week I will let that doctor know how things went during today's appointment. 

P.S. That nurse is lucky I didn't break her nose or bite her. 

  

Brendan's Poems ( I love them so much)

For those of you who don't know Brendan writes poems they are amazing!!! I love them so so so much! These are the ones he has written for me they are no in order from when he gave them to me but they are still so good. I hope you enjoy :) 

A Testimony (Sent to me on Skype)

A testimony for my wife,

The Lord and Savior gave his life,

Each day as we gather for prayer,

Surely you can know he is there,

Talking us through the hardest day,

I know he will show us the way,

Making the path narrow and straight,

Open passage when we are eight,

Now TOGETHER we follow true,

Years on the path our Savior drew.

Owen (While we were Skyping one night)

Once there was a girl

Who sent me on a whirl

Each day she treats me right

Now she'll be dressed in white

Poem For You (after I had begged him forever to write me another poem)

Pondering on your beautiful smile 

Only one, for which I'd walk a mile

Eager to see the glee in your eyes

Making me warm like the summer skies

Freeing me from the pain in my past 

Opening up a love that will last 

Ready I am to promise to you 

Years upon years of unending blue 

Open your eyes and there we will see 

Unending blue smiling back with Glee 

If Only They Knew (Sent of facebook, I believe this one is the first one he wrote me)

I've begun to see the light 

From the darkness of the night

Opened my eyes, cracked a smile 

Now I'm sure it'll stay awhile 

Looking forward instead of back 

You my girl, you have the knack'

To bring light into my life

Haul away the strain and the strife

Even out a harder day 

You my girl, you have the way 

Keep you close I always will 

Now the world it seems so still

Every day, I'll say it's true 

Witney, (I truly) love you 

            Lasley, I 

I Can't Sleep  (Sent to me through a text one of those nights that I really needed a pick me up)  

In a perfect world of love 

Cheering angels from above

Aid heartbroken, lonely, sad

Normal people for our dad

Teaching those who need a hand

Stepping near us in the sand 

Lord, our Savior, knows the path 

Easing us from daily wrath 

Eager to give, help and hold 

Pulling us in from the cold.

A Girl Named Witney


I once met a girl named Witney
and then one day it just hit me
I'd love her for life
I'd make her my wife
I'd forever have her with me

The Only One 

As I continue day by day
there's only one to whom I'd say
I love you I forever will
I'll love you in heaven still

Beauty 



Beauty stems from heaven above
Emanated by your love
And assured by your bright smile
Unending like the river Nile
Teaching me to always want
Your beauty’s eternal font

Yes


You soon will be
Eternally
Sealed to me!

Witney


Where has the time gone?
 It seems like the dawn
The start of your life
Now that you're my wife
Extends to the past
Yet ever will last

I Think I'll Keep My Day Job

So Brendan always writes me poems so today I thought to myself... Self, I will write Brendan a poem today... here its is.


Love me tender love me right
All I want is for you to hold me tight
I will always love you with all my might
And hug you and kiss you all night
And when we go to the park and fly a kite
I promise I will try not to bite
Promise to never want to fight
And I will bring some light
To a marriage that will always seem bright
Because we want to do it right

Yeah I think I will keep my day job