new marriage, new year, new blog!

Kevin and I talked about starting a new blog as a married couple and today I finally found the time to make it happen. So if you want to keep following us and our new life together, head on over to inlovewithourlove.blogspot.com.
Thank you all for your love and support!

the start of our happily ever after

Once upon a time I got married.
It's been 10 days and "wedded bliss" is now a term that I understand quite well.
Kevin is so good to me.
I love him so much.
Being married to him has been the greatest blessing of my life.
Since we got married we stayed at two different hotels, spent a few nights at our apartment and loved the fact that when I fell asleep watching a movie, Kevin didn't have to wake me up and take me home, but just to bed. We celebrated a quiet Christmas together, and saw Les Miserables. We flew out to Georgia and have been spending the week with Kevin's family. I got an ear infection, sinusitis, bronchitis and just felt miserable. We went to Mississippi for a day and had a reception there and stayed at another hotel. We've fallen more and more in love with each other every day.

Happy marriage. :)

armed with power

T-5 days people.

Now that I've gone through the temple and understand a little better about the covenants and everything, I am so unbelievably excited.

I love the temple. So so much. I can't wait to go back to be sealed to Kevin.

What a great feeling.

so much to do, so little time

Well.
The last day of classes as come and gone.
I have one more big paper to write.
Four finals to take.
One apartment to move out of.
One apartment to move into.
One wedding to finish preparing for.
One big day to live through.

Two weeks.
I can't wait for Kevin to become my one true love, for the rest of eternity.

december has become my favorite month

So here's the thing.
The only thing that I ever want to blog about is my upcoming wedding.
But then I'm like "seriously, I have to write about something else! People don't want to keep reading about how in love I am and how excited I am to get married and how there's only 21 one days til our wedding (there's only TWENTY ONE DAYS LEFT!!!!) and how I'm so excited for the semester to end so we can get married."
And so what happens is that I don't blog.
But good grief, this is my blog, I can talk about whatever the heck I want and if anyone would rather not hear about all that mushy wedding love stuff, they are perfectly free to stop reading.

So here's a bunch of wedding/love/Kevin/exciting stuff.
In bullet format:

• Kevin and I FINALLY found an apartment. This has been the biggest struggle of preparing to get married. We searched for forever and things kept falling through and it was getting so frustrating and I was halfway convinced that we were going to have to live out of Kevin's car. But this week we got our apartment, and the best part is that it is the apartment that we wanted so badly but thought we hadn't gotten! Two bedroom, nice and spacey, cheaper than we were planning for, great location, awesome kitchen and living room. I can't think of a better place to have for our first home together and I am THRILLED. Twenty more days and it will be all ours. :)
• Christmas expectations have been a little bit ambiguous this year. Kevin and I are getting married three days before Christmas and we are sticking around Provo so we run into the issue of, do we spend the day with family? Do we sequester ourselves away from the rest of the world for as long as we can? And related to that, how do we do gifts? We are waiting to open our wedding presents until Christmas Day so we have things to open, but do we get big things for each other?
• Speaking of Christmas presents, I actually have gotten Kevin a little something. And it's been kind of a funny story. We signed up for Amazon Prime which means that we get free two day shipping. So I found a fantastic trilogy on Amazon for under 11$ and I bought it, but Kevin figured it out because he's smart and I had to use his email address to order it. But I was the one who told him that I bought the whole trilogy, he thought I had just bought Return of the King. Fail Amberly.
• Here's a story. My Women's Health class meets once a week and because of Thanksgiving and stuff it had been a while since we'd had class. My teacher asked if we had any good news and I raised my hand and said that I was getting married in three weeks. When my teacher found out what day we were getting married she got really critical that it was right before Christmas. She asked if we were going on a honeymoon and I said that we were just staying here. She got really upset and me and told me that I had to go on a honeymoon! I tried to explain our situation but she wouldn't let me get two words out, she just continued to criticize the way the Kevin and I are doing things. Some of the already married girls joined in and voiced their less than positive comments. It was a very frustrating experience and I was disappointed in my teacher. She went so far as to tell me to tell my fiance that he had to take me on a honeymoon or I wouldn't get a good grade in my class. It was really inappropriate and made me wish I had never said anything. I don't like to be criticized for the decisions that my fiance and I have made. We are doing this our way, and that's how it is. The end.
• I have my second bridal shower today. :) I'm really excited. My first one was a huge success and I'm looking forward to this one.
• Also, my best fran Ashley and I are having a girls night after the shower. We are going shopping...for things...:) It will be a party. I shaved my legs and everything.
• Kevin and I just realized that in exactly three weeks, to the hour, we will be kneeling in the sealing room. :) Now that is happy.
• I had a little date with my grandma this week, getting all of my temple clothes and dress. I'm going through in two weeks! 
• I am so excited to marry Kevin. I get more and more excited every day. I love him. :)

This is the end of my mushy marriage post. I hope that if you read it, you gleaned that I love Kevin and I can't wait for the next three weeks to fly by so we can be married and moved into our new home together. So excited!!!!

the countdown has begun

This week I have a paper due every day.
Two papers due on Thursday.
This week I get to go temple dress shopping with my grandma.
This week I am having another bridal shower.

Next week I only have one paper due.
Only four days of classes.
Then we transition into finals week.

I have one final per day to take.
Then I pack.
And clean.
And move home.

Then I go through the temple.
Then we scramble like crazy to get this reception ready.
Then I get married for time and all eternity.

That is the best feeling ever.

26 days.
Less than 4 weeks.

As long as I don't think about all of the things that need to get done in that time, I feel very, very excited. :)

hooray for the holidays

The day of Thanksgiving I:

• Slept in.
• Had a wonderful (big) breakfast of waffles and eggs with my fiance.
• Cuddled on the Siesta Sac
• Had a surprise Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's house.
• Ate way too much at said Thanksgiving dinner.
• Went to work to get something for my dad.
• Kissed my fiance.
• Celebrated that we would be getting married in exactly one month.
• Had ANOTHER awesome Thanksgiving dinner with the other side of the family.
• Ate way too much at that dinner as well.
• Watched How I Met Your Mother with my fiance.
• Cuddled him on the couch.
• Said goodbye. :(

The day after Thanksgiving I:

• Woke up to a delightful stomach bug!
• Spent the majority of the morning on the toilet.
• Had my first bridal shower and loved it.
• Got some AWESOME presents from my mom's side of the family.
• Finally got to see my sweet fiance when he came to pie day.
• Kissed him.
• Didn't get to eat any pie because of said stomach bug. :(
• Hung out with awesome family for as long as I could stand.
• Watched How I Met Your Mother for 6 hours.
• Fell asleep on the couch.
• Said goodnight.

thankful

Sometimes I feel like it's cliche to write a thankful post on Thanksgiving. I give myself this lecture that, "I should be thankful all the time, not just on Thanksgiving." But, you know what? Thanksgiving is a day dedicated to gratitude when all of those feelings should be expressed. So that's what I'm going to do.

I am thankful for Kevin (obviously). I am so thankful that he came into my life when he did, I'm thankful for the love and respect he has shown me throughout our whole process of falling in love, I'm thankful that four months ago he asked me to be his forever. I am so thankful that he is the one that I'm going to spend my eternity with. I am the luckiest girl in the world.

I am incredibly thankful that our engagement has one month (exactly) left. The past four months have felt like they've been at least a year.

I am thankful for my family and friends. Living away from home has given me a different perspective about what is truly important. My family has stuck around even when others have decided to take themselves out of my life, and the friends that really mattered have kept in contact and stuck around. I'm a blessed girl to have such a wonderful support system.

I am thankful for Kevin's family--my future in laws. They are such awesome people and I really admire them. I'm thankful that his parents raised such an amazing man and that his family gave him the environment to grow into the person he grew into. I am so excited to get to know them more in the years to come.

I am thankful for school and the opportunity to get a higher education. I can't lie to you, school has become a huge struggle for me lately, especially since I started going to BYU, and especially since I got engaged. I never thought I would have this problem, but a huge part of me wants to drop out after we get married so I can start popping out babies. So I'm thankful that my parents have explicitly and implicitly stressed getting an education so much and planted in me that burning desire to have my degree before we start our family. I'm so grateful that I will have a safety net and backup plan if anything happens to Kevin. Education is so important, and even though it's been really hard lately, I know that education is key to so many of this worlds issues.

I am thankful that in three weeks I'll be able to move out of this apartment and never have to live with roommates again. I can't wait for Kevin to be my only roommate.

I am thankful for my healthy body. It gives me grief sometimes, but I am healthy and strong and can mostly do all the things I want to do. When I take care of it, it treats me really well.

I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the Atonement that makes it possible for me to repent when I fall short, to always come back and try to be better. I'm thankful for the love of our Heavenly Father and the interest He takes in His children.

I am so thankful for the temple. I'm thankful that Kevin and I are going to be sealed for time and all eternity in the temple and that I get to go through the temple to make my own covenants in just three weeks. I am thankful for the blessings that the temple provides.

I am thankful for my job and that I can support myself. Going to school and working have been really hard, but these past two semesters have been liberating to be able to make an income, budget and live within that budget. My job is wonderful and definitely better than any on campus job I could hope to find. I'm thankful for a great boss who is willing to work with my school schedule and for an understanding supervisor when I am really struggling to get to work on time.

My list of gratitude could go on and on, but too many words and not enough pictures makes this blog a dull story. ;) Happy Thanksgiving all.

our life makes the movies jealous

Tomorrow is our four month anniversary of when Kevin and I got engaged. For the record, it feels like we've been engaged for A LOT longer than that.

The purpose of this post is simple. I have been reflecting over the past couple of days about some of my favorite stories about Kevin and mine's experience falling in love. And I realized that these stories weren't really important enough to make it onto my blog or into my journal, but I never want to forget some of them.

So, settle in. It's story time.

Once upon a time we were invited by my wonderful friend and old roommate Merrie to one of her performances. Kevin and I had been dating for about 3 or 4 weeks...there had been no "L bombs" dropped or anything like that, but we were going strong. That song by Christina Perri came on the radio, the one about loving you for a thousand years, I'll love you for a thousand more, you know that one? And without thinking I said, "Isn't it great that we can be in love for much longer than a thousand years? We can be in love for eternity." Then I realized that I sounded like an idiot and tried to explain that I had been talking about in the church when any couple gets married in the temple, that I hadn't meant Kevin and me specifically and finally just trickled into embarrassment. Kevin just laughed and squeezed my hand. We were talking about this story just last night and I asked Kevin if he had been in love with me at that point already and he said he thought he had. :) So basically he's the sweetest ever.

Next story.

Once upon a time, around the same time as this first story, my friend Kristen had just had a baby boy. He was only like 4 days old and we went to visit them. I held her newborn baby for about an hour, and didn't want to share, and I only let Kevin hold him for like five minutes. He knew I was antsy to have another turn and he was very gracious about letting me hold the baby forever. We couldn't stay too long and when we left I just got so upset and emotional and I tried my hardest to explain to Kevin how I was feeling. "Kevin, it's like, I have this physiological response to babies. When I see one, or when I have to stop holding one, my heart just aches. My arms just feel so empty and I want to fill them with babies!" I then started bawling. Any normal boy probably would have run as fast as he could in the other direction, but Kevin just held me and wiped away my hysterical tears and thought I was adorable instead of psycho.

Okay, I probably shouldn't overwhelm this blog with millions of stories all at once, but there is just one more that I want to share.

This past Sunday night we were chilling in my apartment reading President Hinkley's Biography. I had my head in Kevin's lap and he was reading out loud. I fell asleep within, probably 7ish minutes. I wasn't completely out, and I could still hear Kevin reading and I just felt so loved and safe and content. Suddenly I noticed that Kevin had stopped reading. He started chuckling and asked if I was asleep and if he was going to have to re-read what he had already read. I tried to respond but my whole body was so heavy and sleepy. After a short pause, Kevin started stroking my forehead and said, "You're beautiful, you know that?" And then said a bunch of other insanely sweet things that just melted my heart to a puddle of mush.

My wonderful Kevin makes me feel so good, words can't describe it. I fall more and more in love with him every single day. He is more than I ever wanted, because I didn't know that such a person could even exist.
Thank you for making my whole life Kev. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Simple things

Today, Kevin got me a surprise. It was peanut butter M&Ms. I love him. He's so good about doing those little things to show me he's thinking about me and that he cares.

When I told Kevin that I had gone to the store and would come back to pick him up from class he said "thank you so much honey." He's so good about showing appreciation for me and letting me know he is grateful for the things I do.

Dang I love that boy so much. Don't you agree that I've got me a good one? I sure think so. :)

catching up via iphone pictures

Do you want to know what we've been up to lately in our neck of the woods?

 Eating like college students. Typical.

Loving spending time at the temple doing baptisms for family names and celebrating the fact that I'm going through in 5 weeks!!!

 

 Working hard to get announcements sent out! Look for your invitation to our wedding coming soon!

Going on spontaneous dates to Outback, Kevin's favorite restaurant. Thank you Wavetronix for the giftcard...

Discovering just how fine we look with mustaches.

Holing up during the first snowstorm of the season, in which our power was out in our whole apartment complex for a few hours.

Not documented:
Kevin continues to be the sweetest boy I've ever met, showering me with love and kisses and buying me popcorn when we go to the movies.
Dreaming, scheming and planning our trip to somewhere warm and tropical. Costa Rica? I think yes.
Chipping away at the neverending iceburg of homework and wedding plans.
Counting down the days til our wedding! Only 6 more weeks!
Going to my cousin's high school production of Les Miserables in which she starred as Eponine and did an amazing job! This has put us on a Les Mis high and gotten us so excited to see the movie when it comes out during our honeymoon! I also discovered tonight that the WHOLE ENTIRE 25th Anniversary Concert is on youtube. We are planning to watch it tonight after the football game.

Dang. One more full week of school til Thanksgiving break! Two more weeks after that of classes, one week of finals, one highly anticipated temple trip, and the small matter of a wedding and I will be a married woman! I can't wait to be married to the most amazing boy I have ever met and share the rest of my life with him. I love you Kevin!

autocorrect

Because I'm tired of all of the political everything, I'm going to share the latest texting conversation that Kevin and I just had.

Me: I'm so tired!!!
Kevin: Sowee. It doesn't help to be in a boring class like stats either
Me: Frisky.
Kevin: ?
Me: That was supposed to say seriously...and ended up describing exactly how I'm feeling right now.
       ;)
       Just kidding. I'm not feeling frisky.
Kevin: Haha

i could see that being useful.

Oh goodness. Daylight Savings does a number on my body.

It is 8:30 at night and I am in bed. Exhausted.

It probably didn't help that today was fast Sunday.

No joke, after church I spent an hour pinning over 50 delicious looking recipes. The pictures were making me drool.

I emailed a bunch of pictures from Kevin's phone to myself, but I am far too tired to download, sort and then upload all of them to my blog. So for now, here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago date night when we went on a spontaneous excursion to the Dollar Store.

Lovely isn't it? :) 

And now, I'm off to bed.

Flashback

Wednesday May 9, 2012

Dear Journal,

       So...There's this guy in my ward named Kevin...I saw him the first day I was here and thought he was cute. I saw him playing the piano in church my first Sunday and he got even cuter. We've played ultimate Frisbee twice on the same team and there's been some harmless flirting. Plus some intense water fight flirting.

       The gist of this story is that I really want him to ask me out.

       And that's all I have to say about that.

       Love,

     Amberly 

Because I'm bored in my class

Last night, Kevin and I got to go to a fancy presidents dinner in the skyroom. I have such a snazzy fiancé.
I registered for winter semester classes last week. I'm very excited to kiss this semester goodbye. Come winter, I'll be taking marriage enhancement, strengthening marriage and family, and other lovely classes. Oh, and I'll be the wife of the most handsome boy I've ever met.
My living situation is getting a little ridiculous. My apartment looks like a tornado hit it. I'm looking forward to making and cleaning up after my own messes in my own apartment.
I'm glad that daylight savings is happening this weekend. It's hard for me to get to work on time when the stars are still out.
I get more and more excited for December 22 every single day.
Happy Friday. :)

it's fine.

We are over half way through the semester.
We are getting married in less than 2 months.
Tomorrow is Halloween.
After that we only have one major holiday to get through before our wedding.
I am experiencing some major mid-semester blues.
Homework and studying are a constant battle.
Waking up in the morning is dreadful.
After going through a summer where I always made it work on time, 7:00 on the dot and usually early, I am consistently late. Last week I went 40 minutes late on Tuesday and an hour late on Wednesday. I did have a legitimate excuse, but still.
At the beginning of the semester, we were super great about eating good meals for dinner every night.
Now we are lucky if we have one good meal a week. Last night Kevin and I had a bowl of cereal at 9:00 at night.

I have to admit, sometimes I have a really hard time enjoying the moment of life that I'm in. As of right now I am always fighting against feelings such as:
"In 8 more loads of laundry, I won't have to kiss Kevin goodbye anymore, I can just kiss him goodnight."
"After I've had 2 more periods, Kevin and I will be married."
"In 6 more FHE's, I'll never have to go to a singles ward FHE again."
"In 6 1/2 weeks I move out and never have to live with random strangers again."

And I keep up a running mantra of "it'll be better once we're married," "I can live with silly roommate issues for a little while longer," "This is going to end soon," "Our wedding will be here before I know it."
I know that this is a problem. I know that we are supposed to "find joy in the journey." I know that it is always better to find happiness in the moment and love where we are at and not wish away our present. But honestly, this present is a little on the crappy side, and I'm glad that I have something to look forward to and that I have an understanding that things won't be this way for much longer.

Yes. There are awesome things about the stage of life that I'm in that I'm going to miss when Kevin and I get married. And things that I am going to realize that I took for granted and wish I had enjoyed more when I had the chance. And I really am trying to enjoy where we are at right now, because I know that I will never be engaged again. I do love it. I swear I do. But on days like today, and in weeks like this week and honestly in months like this past month, I welcome the change that is coming up when this semester is over. I'm ready to bid goodbye to single life and I will probably be more happy than sad to see it go.

But until then, I will do what I can to be happy now and try not to be too anxious for December 22.

attention, we have a winner

Reason I love Kevin number 485.

Even when he is crazy busy studying for his Ochem midterm, he lets me sit on his lap and cry in an empty classroom when I am feeling sick. And he makes me feel like there is nothing better he could be doing in his whole entire life than holding and making me feel better. Even though he is crazy busy and has a freaking hard midterm to take that day.

For the record, the number 485 was just random. I don't actually have a list of reasons why I love Kevin. But if I did, you can bet there would be more than 485 points on it.

brace yourselves. i had a lot to say.

Today has been a sick day.
I went to the doctor yesterday and had a procedure done that has left me feeling really achy and crampy.
I made it through 3 1/2 hours of work today, but after taking two doses of two different painkillers in 3 hours with no relief, I decided to go home. I've been laying around with my warm rice bag watching 17 Again and wishing I could be cuddling with my handsome fiance.

Speaking of him, the rest of this post is going to be dedicated to bragging about what an amazing man I am marrying (in 58 days but who's counting?).

Kevin takes such good care of me. Today when I was being incredibly whiny and texting him at work about how miserable I was he said, "Oh honey I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?" (he's also incredibly sweet, obviously). Of course I responded that he should buy me lots of chocolate to which he said "Done. :)" Last night when I came home late from spending the afternoon at the doctor and at my parent's house, he rubbed my back and kissed my face and loved me which was exactly the treatment I needed. He's so good about doing that.

Kevin is such a hard worker. Seriously. He makes me feel like the laziest bum of them all while he works his behind off in all of his classes and his job. And then when I apologize for being such a loser he is quick to make me feel worthwhile. He never does or says anything to make me feel like he's better than me (even though he really is).  Yesterday Kevin took a 3 hour math midterm and got a great score. Then he gave a presentation on a group project that he has been working SO HARD on for weeks. Seriously, our days consist of this: We wake up at 5:30, meet at my car at 6:30 and I drive Kevin to school then go to work. Kevin works all morning on his homework and/or his job, goes to his classes, does more homework, and then more homework, then when I get out of class at 5:15 we both go home and have dinner and then he does MORE homework until 9:00 when he takes me home and then he usually stays up even later doing more work. I am so grateful for how hard my Kevin works. He is doing it so that he can provide for me and our family and I appreciate it so much.

Kevin is the sweetest, cutest, most cheesy boy I have ever met. He LOVES making those sweet comments that some people might gag on but that I just melt for. He tells me loves me at least 6 times a day, usually much more, he brings me chocolate ALL THE TIME. Seriously he just whips it out of nowhere. He is also constantly telling me that I am beautiful, even when I just got out of the gym and I'm a sweaty mess. He is constantly making this sweet gestures that just get me every time.

Kevin would do anything for me. I'm serious. If I ever asked him for anything, the answer would be yes (unless it was inappropriate or dangerous or something). And he does. He rearranges his schedule when I beg him to please please please come to women's health class because I desperately want him to be there with me when we are talking about fertility. He was planning on going to the doctor with me and wait in the waiting room so that he could drive me home, and would gladly miss his classes. And he would have if he hadn't had those darn midterms. Whenever I approach him with any idea, he listens to every detail, asks a few questions, and if he can see that it is important to me, the answer is always yes.

Kevin loves to cook and he is the cleanest boy I've ever met. We have had many a date at home, making homemade pizza or a nice dinner. I love it. He teaches me all sorts of things and doesn't mind that my best dish is spaghetti and that we eat hamburger helper once a week.

Kevin loves family. He adores his family and I know he misses them, being so far away. He has slid right into the dynamics of my family and he truly loves spending time with them. It makes him so happy to go to grandma's house for dinner or dessert and he will eat thirds and fourths because he knows that it makes my grandma happy. He teases my sisters and talks to my brother about his interests. Family is so important to him and we both very much want to make family a priority in our lives.

Kevin loves me and he shows me how much he loves me. He treats me like the daughter of God that I am. He has never ever raised his voice to me, except to yell across the parking lot "I LOVE AMBERLY HURST!" He has so much respect for me and he would do anything to avoid making me unhappy or disrespecting me in any way.

Kevin puts up with my crazy, hormonal, emotional moments. He chuckles at me when I ask him to bring me anything and everything to eat. He happily brings me 5 otter pops and makes sure that I don't get the purple or red ones. When I start bawling because I'm on my period and watching a movie about a woman who gets stuck in Iran he doesn't make me feel like an idiot for becoming paranoid but calmly promises that he won't turn into a crazy Iranian after we get married and he won't make us move to the middle east. He understands why I am upset when I'm that way and he's learning really fast what to do when, and what NOT to when. He works so hard to keep me happy and content and he does a really wonderful job.

I have a million and a half more reasons why I am so crazy in love with Kevin. But unfortunately, I really need to go to class. I can't really justify missing more school, and plus, Kevin is taking time out of his busy day to come to class with me. I have so missed his handsome face and I can't wait to feel his arms around me.

I love Kevin Stevens. I want the whole world to know it and to vomit in their mouth at how over the top cheesy and adorable we are. I am so that girl, and we are so that couple. And I plan to continue to be for the rest of forever, the end.

in case you were wondering.

I love my fiance Kevin.

And I have a whole host of reasons why which I will be happy to tell you.

Just not right now because it's time for me to go to work.

But before I go to work, I get to take Kevin to school.

Those 15 minutes we get to spend together every morning are the highlight of my day.

I just love him.

we are survivors

This week has been hard. Midterms. Homework. Busy. Announcements. Work.
We are surviving over here.
I'm trying to collect addresses so we can start sending out announcements right when they get here.
So if you want an invitation and you haven't done it already, go to our facebook event called "Kevin and Amberly's Wedding" and click on the link for the google.doc right at the top of the event. Then you can easily fill out the document with your name and address and it will be completely private for you. Kevin and I will be the only ones who can see it.

Wish me luck on my marriage prep midterm tomorrow.
I'm off to bed.