Wedding and things

This last weekend we got to go to my wonderful friend Heather's wedding. I had never been to a civil wedding ceremony so this was quite the experience. Luckily, the ceremony was short and sweet (it was like 110 degrees outside and ants were all over the ground) :). It was followed by a full course meal and some yummy appetizers. I was SO grateful to just enjoy some relaxation and time with my hubby and close friends. The wedding was held at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Congratulations Heather and Chris, Heather, I will miss you!

This week has been really difficult as far as schooling goes. I had a killer hard exam last week in Neuro communications which I landed the lowest grade I have ever gotten in grad school on a test. I had a full blown 4 essay question exam with multiple parts to write this last weekend, and I have an Aphasia exam tomorrow. Let me just say my one relief is that I get to go clothes shopping with David (he's getting new tennis shoes) after I am done, and I haven't been shopping in a LONG LONG time. If you know me, I used to go clothes shopping a couple times a month back when I could afford it and had the time :)

I am so excited for Halloween this year. Last year I made a last minute t-shirt that said "Go Edward" for my costume...lame i know. Seeing everyone else dress up made me realize how much more fun I would have if I did that too. I was thinking about having my mom make me the blue dress off of Disney's "Enchanted" and being Giselle....Any other thoughts as to what I should be? I find it so difficult to find any costumes in stores that weren't made specifically for hookers so time is of the essence. And....we got to decorate my speech room with Halloween-y things today, it is SO cute! Here are pictures of the wedding!

These pictures are all courtesy of Kimberly Jarman, Heather's Photographer...I can find her information for you if you are interested.

And these are my pictures, not nearly as good.....

Some random thoughts:

1. This week has gone much better. I think that last week when I put up my post about friends, I honestly was having a difficult week. ALL week people, including my sweet hubby were just grouchy and stressed. I'm thankful for fresh starts!

2. We purchased tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera at Gammage (ASU) in November and are SO excited! We loved seeing Wicked and how amazing the music is.

3. I am thinking more and more about doing foster care once David and I start having our own children. At one of the places I work, I saw one of my kiddies sitting outside the school office. Mind you this little one is in first grade and it was close to thirty minutes after school had gotten out...he was waiting for his bus that never came. This little boy was just transferred to "his new family" this week, away from his little 3rd grade foster brother (who just got adopted a few days ago) who so tenderly made sure he was taken care of. Working in my field I have seen and heard of so many children going through the system who have just had HORRIBLE lives and they still survive and keep pushing forward. My heart goes out to these little ones and I want to badly to take care of them and let them know they are safe and loved.

4. My ward had their supersaturday this past weekend and I made some 12*12 wooden square with the word BE in the middle and the word prayerful, humble, grateful, etc. around the edges. If I weren't lazy i'd post a picture, but they tured out really good. I learned not to press down wet modge podge scrapbook paper and then pull your fingers up, it will tear the paper!

5. My mom and I ordered a basket from bountifulbaskets.org and we got 3/4 full of a laundry basket full of fresh fruit and veggies for only 15$. You should try it!

A new season

This week has been an odd emotional week for both David and I. We are learning new things about each other and trying to figure out how to meet each other's needs and wants along with our new schedule. We are stressed. We are tired. We are having fun with old friends. And we are still trying to figure out the married thing.

In my last post I mentioned that I went to a really good friends bridal shower last Friday...and it REALLY made me realize just how much I miss being with friends who share my interests, friends I can talk to about our husbands, our dreams, our sorrows...and know that I won't be judged. I miss friends that I can just be downright silly with, because they are downright silly too. And I think its because once I got married, my perspectives on life and who I associated with changed...drastically. Many of my friends are still single, and while that is fine....we are on different wavelengths. I don't find myself talking about the cute boy in institute, or joking about immature little things. I have had to grow up in a certain way (this is a good thing...I love my husband to death). However, this has distanced me from some of my best friends. I am in a ward that I love and I've made some good friends in, but none I feel i can just invite over to scrapbook or watch movies with or share my feelings. David is wonderful, girls just need good girlfriends.

As I have said in the past, we are heavily considering buying a house when are lease ends in february/march. And while I love my ward, perhaps this will be the start of a new season. Perhaps David and I will be able to move into a ward where there are people like us...similiar in age with similiar interests. I think this is something we both really need, because we have a small gap in our lives as most of our friends are either out of stayed or single and have lost common ground.

The girls and two boys in year 2 of my masters program all drink....and so while they have built friendships over drinking at bars and being drunk, I have been left behind because I don't attend those functions.

I used to despise change, and part of me is still afraid of change because of its uncertainty. But I know it gives growth and opportunity. I really like this quote: "If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living."-Gail Sheehy

The birthday cake that my visiting teacher made me full of brownies!!
This last Thursday was my birthday and I turned 23! Everyone asks me what my age is and I always have to think awhile.....I don't have alzheimers, its just that many of my peers are either just older or just younger than me and it seems like I should be their age. David's cousin Michael also shares my same birthday he is just a year older than me. So below are some pictures of us at Michaels house on our birthday. Michael's little sister and I got eaten alive by ants when we stepped on the edge of the grass and cement so we quickly jumped into the cooler of water balloons to save ourselves. I told Jen to give me her most painful looking face but it ended up looking like a smile!



My birthday present from David was a bike rack that attaches to the car....no more walking a mile plus to get to my car in the middle of summer at ASU!! Wohoo!
Friday was one of my really really good friend's-Heather-bridal showers. A bunch of us girls got together at Macayo's for some yummy food, games and opening presents. I was working diligently to win one of the games which was to come up with as many words as possible with the words "Christopher & Heather".....I even gave up some of my eating time and was sure I would win. However, Heathers sister had 120 words....I guess I wasn't working as diligent as I should have been. It was SO nice to hang out with a group of girls, some of which I haven't seen since I graduated high school 6 years ago!

Goofy Golfing and Friend Goodbyes

As usual, we had another very busy weekend. Last weekend, I had to do my defensive driving class which went well and was fairly quick and then rushed to my parents to do laundry and by 4p.m. we were on our way out to Canyon Lake to go fishing with my brother, his wife and kids, and then my husbands brother and his wife. I had forgotten just how nice and relaxing it is to be away from the city. The temperatures by the lake were very nice and cool suprisingly. I think we've decided that we need to go fishing more since it is so close and its a nice little retreat. My brother and Sarah (sister in law) caught one tiny blue gill each and then released them. Hope we have better luck next time :)

This weekend I got to buy some piano and vocal duet sheet music from Milano's. I have been wanting for quite some time to get new piano music and the duet book is something that David and I can sing in harmony to while I play the piano---we just have to practice....but shhhh don't tell anyone in the ward we are doing this (I have been successful so far in letting very few people know of my piano abilities---and I Love the calling I have so...)

David and I also went to see the Joseph Smith movie at the visitors center and if we didn't have friends with us I would have cried. This movie with its accompanying music just really brings to light all the things the early saints, most especially Joseph and Emma Smith went through to bring for the gospel, and even through the tarring and feathering, being driven from their homes, hundreds of family deaths...they still had the faith to cross the plains! We also said goodbye to the friends that went with us as they are moving back home to Missouri on Tuesday. Below is a picture of us with them at the visitors center.

Right after that, we went goofy golfing with some of David's high school friends, and outside of the terrible humidity, what a BLAST we had! Some of us lowered our numbers a little :/ because...well...on some holes we just didn't do so well. It was funny because by the end of the night, everyones numbers were just about the same :) I have had a really good time with David's friends. As time has passed, the majority (not all) of my high school friends have slipped into their routines and I have found more and more that we lack common ground. Shar, you are not one of those :)....So I am very thankful for the good friends David has. They have such strong morals, values, and drive to finish a college education. Below are some pictures of the fun evening!

Haircut and Primary

For a long time, I have desperately been needing to get my haircut. My dilemma was that my hairdresser's husband joined the military at the beginning of the year and so it was time back in May for him to transfer to a more stable area and his wife left to join him. I am not fond of hair cutting stores because I've never had a good experience. After searching for awhile, I remembered my friend Shaunna from high school cuts hair and I know several of my friends go to her. She did a GREAT job. I took some before and after shots and I am sorry my hair isn't down all the way in the after shots to show you just how great of a job she did......

BEFORE:

AFTER:

As mentioned before, David got called to be a primary teacher and here are the cute kids he gets to teach every Sunday!

On another note, school starts back this week which also means I begin working as a SLP-A in the gilbert school district. I am not sure I am ready to start back yet as I have been working 40+ hours the last month or so, so I really haven't had any summer....There is always so much to learn and classes at ASU will start up shortly. And so it is with life....

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

–Walt Disney

Birthdays

This month and last month have been FULL of birthdays...in the month of July was my brother, sisters, and father in laws. Tomorrow will be my oldest sister Stacey's birthday, the 19th is my moms birthday, and my birthday is the 27th!

For my Father in laws birthday, we went to organ stop pizza and celebrated. My littelest nieces were absolutely thrilled with the little kitten puppets that came out during the Alley Cat song, and were perplexed as to where they ran away to when the curtains went down :) Below are some pictures of the fun evening.

We have decided to hold off on looking for a house until december/january which will give us a little more time to save some money. We are just hoping and praying that the government extends the tax credit for first time homebuyers into the next year, or at least that interest rates stay down. If anyone has housing advice we'd be happy to hear it.

On another note, David started teaching primary today for the first time and it was so cute how hard he tried. I think he was pretty nervous as he seemed so serious the whole time. I tried to elaborate on what he was saying and get the kids excited with just my tone of voice. HOpefully they get David a co-teacher soon so that I can get back to relief society. I love the kids and they are so cute, but relief society is the only time I get to spend with the women and actually feel part of the ward as I teach sunday school to the 13-14 year olds.

Nieces and Nephew

Fawn, Aunt Jill, Uncle Loren

The birthday boy is in the center(gray/purple shirt)

The little girls dancing away to the organ's music

Fishing!

Well, I believe it was Monday or Tuesday night when the gigantic thunderstorm rolled through Mesa. The thunder was so loud that it shook our apartment around 4a.m. I told David that even though it kept us up for what felt like the entire night, its not something we get to hear and see often so its worth it! David woke up around 5 and I said, you need to tell Ryan you are NOT going fishing in this weather...there is lightening everywhere and thunder like crazy. Needless to say David, Ryan (his brother) and Ryan's three girls went anyways and for the most part had clear skies. They were not able to catch much but tiny little fish which they ended up just throwing back into Canyon Lake.

David begged me when we went to the grocery store, if he could buy some fish since he didn't get to eat any of what he caught. I told him that he'd half to wait until the next week to get some (I don't care for fish anyways lol)....So I wish have to live up to my promise this week. Hope it turns out well-we are not much fish cookers!

On another note, I have had some pretty crazy dreams this week, some of which were very urgent and very realistic. The one I had earlier this week, I dreamed that the world was being destroyed and my family was trying to grab as much food as we had in our house and get to a safer place. Well, there wasn't any food, or enough to sustain us for more than a day. In my dream I was crying and I just kept saying to myself "If I had only gotten our seventy two hour kits put together, we would have been ok, and because I am not prepared, my family is going to suffer". Our bishop has asked us for the last two years to get a food storage going and to get our 72 hour kit going. I finally got as much food storage together as our little apartment will hold but we need to work on the 72 hour kits. I don't know why I have the urgency to get this done, but I had the same feeling right before I started packing away on the food storage.

I forgot to mention on my last post that I got a speeding ticket from one of the lovely photo radar vans in Mesa and now have to find a defensive driving course to get rid of the ticket and points with it. Suprisingly they now have online classes and you just have to take the final exam in the presence of a notary!

Lastly, one of the supervisors at my work backed into my corolla and then sped off. He left a few scratch marks and that was it. But i was told I really should take the chance to use the cash he is offering and just get the minor scratches fixed as our car is a 2007 but is only a year old to us. My time is very limited so we'll see what happens! :)

David and I enjoyed watching the play Wicked at Gammage a week and a half ago. The music and the acting were phenomenal. The play is a spin off of the Wizard of Oz, going back before the movies time to describe what happened to the witches Glenda and Elphaba (the green witch). Glenda is a total blonde in every way and Elphaba is shunned because she's green and a witch and was born to non-witch parents. Apparently her mother had a fling with the Wizard of Oz, and thus Elphaba was created. Anyways, the play made me truly sympathize with Elphaba who really was a great witch and tried hard to use magic for the good, but when she would not do as the Wizard asked, he turned all of Emerald City against her and told them she was "wicked".....



This past friday we also went to Hale Theater in Gilbert to watch Beauty and the Beast. Compared to Wicked it wasn't that great at all....the performers had great voices but the acting was very poor and the actual instrument music was pre-recorded. We were a little disappointed...then again we saw Wicked first and nothing compares to that.



My sweet sister in law Fawn also bought me one of her stakes cook books and suprised me with that. I absolutely love cooking and now I have a book full of recipes women have actually tried out before. Thank you Thank you Fawn!

Saturday morning I got to go out to Ihop with some band friends from high school and it felt SO good to see them and get caught since none of us have really been out together since High School. One friend, Krystal Dickensen is moving to Las Vegas and so this was like her farewell breakfast.


I am about to start another 46 hour work week with working as a secretary, childrcare worker, and babysitting......Sometimes I wonder what the heck I am doing and then I say to myself, its just for another year and a half, and i'm doing this for my family...so we can get through school and get a house and start our family. I must be crazy tho..... :)

The Price of Freedom

This Fourth of July has been really hard on me emotionally. It is the second year celebrating Independence day at my in-laws house. They have a great view from their backyard, to see fireworks at Rockin'R Ranch. We invited my family over there this year because we were told that there would be no fireworks in Mesa. My family came and a harsh comment was made to them that them by one of my husbands aunts that because of all the "extra" people that came this year, that there would not be enough homemade ice cream. Needless to say, my family left shortly after because they didn't want to be the cause of david's family not getting enough ice cream, even due to my pleading that there would be enough. Not only that, my in-laws big family is EXTREMELY competitive at games and some comments were again thrown at my family how terrible they were in a round about way. I was hurt. I hadn't spent the last two fourths with my family and they were leaving because of a several harsh comments. I was upset all night and told my sister repeatedly how sorry I was for what happened. Emotionally I was a wreck and that carried on to the Sabbath

In church today, the relief society teacher told us this story: In 1868 the British were at odds and ends with America and had captured several patriots. Francis Scott Key, as a lawyer, was asked to negotiate to get our patriots back, which he successfully did. Shortly after, a British man came to him and said "our warships will be here in two hours and they are bringing the entire fleet. You can save yourself if you lower your flag at Fort Henry, thereby telling us that you have surrendered". Francis said "you don't understand, Fort Henry is being used as refuge for our wives and children" The ships arrived, and still the flag was not lowered. Francis heard the previously captured patriots praying amidst the bombing. In the morning, Francis looked at Fort Henry, and saw the flag was still there, the pole was bent and the flag shredded, but it still stood. He wondered why the flag was bent and not fully fallen down. Inside Fort Henry, he saw that men and women, dead, were piled around the flag. When one had fallen, another patriot replaced him, trying to protect the flag until they were all killed. However, there weren't enough bodies and so the flag bent to the side. Francis Scott Key, shortly thereafter wrote the Star Spangled Banner.

This story brought me to tears...I was still emotional. It suddendly dawned on me that not ONCE yesterday, had I or anyone else except my dad mentioned one thing about freedom, about those Saintly Patriots that DIED to keep us free. Who piled their bodies next to the flag to preserve that symbol (the flag) of our freedom, and yet mine and my extended family were too involved in eating ice cream, in playing games, in satisfying ourselves--being selfish, to realize that yesterday was the day that so many of our forefathers loved their country and their children and future Americans for decade to come, that they DIED to preserve out freedom. I haven't heard the Star Spangled Banner for two years now, and how sad it is that Americans, including myself, don't Breathe or pause for a little while on this day, to quietly and thankfully observe this day. Amidst the bombs, the patriots still prayed for their wives and children. How much do we love our families to talk to them about our forefathers, to say prayers of gratitude for allowing us to be free from tyranny, to be free to believe and practice what we want, to be free to express our gratitude for our government and military, and most especially to be free to worship and thank our Heavenly Father for preserving our freedom. What can we change so that our families and children understand the great service performed on our behalf on this Independence Day every year? What is the price we personally are willing to pay for freedom?

If we understood how blessed we are, would we be a little kinder to those around us? Would we make sure to see others needs are placed before our own? Would we thank those around us for the small acts of charity they do for us?

So what did the Bunzell's do after a long stressful week? Well, we worked 8 hours on Saturday and then got to see this movie.....
The Proposal.....
Let me tell you that that was one of the most hilarious movies I have seen in a long long time, not to mention it was a romance. Needless to say, I loved it. It had a few parts that I shied away from due to its crudeness but overall it was great.

Skipping back to Friday night, David and I got to go to his cousin Diana's wedding. How beautiful everything was. I was so excited for her, we are alike in the fact that both of us are going to school to become Speech Language Pathologists! Unfortunately Diana is moving to Colorado with her new husband, and we will miss her so much! Here are some pictures from the night....Grandma and Hailey

Giving Aaron the look like "Ah! you're going a little far!"

Michael was the lucky winner of the garter toss! You know what that means....... :)