If I Had Three Wishes...

If I had three wishes (and I wasn't allowed to wish for more of course) I think I'd wish for the following:

1. A free ticket to the Celestial Kingdom with my family, all-inclusive. Okay, we're going to assume that is against the rules, too, and at any rate, I wouldn't want to cheat my way in--I'd want to earn it of course. So my real number one is: 

1. A comfortable home on the lake or ocean with enough space for my six or seven children and for guests. And if it can be included in the same wish, a car and a boat that fit all of us. All I want is to be surrounded by family in a place I love. The very idea fills me with happiness!

2. The ability to apparate/disapparate. This would be really convenient so that I could live where I want but pop in on family members at their request. Obviously I'd also be able to side-along apparate so Dalin and Tenley can come with me. We could have breakfast with my family in New Hampshire then apparate to Idaho for dinner with my in-laws. Plus, plane tickets and long car-rides for vacations and visits would be a thing of the past. Darn, why can't this be real?

3. Money sufficient for our needs (and that of others). I know it is selfish of me to wish that we didn't have to work, but I would like nothing more than to spend all day with Dalin and our children. Sorry that going to work gets in the way of that...but the only other reason I would wish for money is because I would love to have the means to secretly help families and people in need. I would want to do it all in secret so people wouldn't specifically only be thankful to us but to God. Also, people wouldn't try to mooch off of us. Still, we would be very generous. Nobody has ever gotten poor from giving too much. 

As nice as some of these things would be, I'm incredibly grateful for what I have now and wouldn't give it up under any circumstances. 

What is something you would wish for? (I want to hear your personal wishes, not world peace and whatnot, though that of course would be wonderful.)

Good Things Are Happening

Life is wonderful right now. It is always wonderful, but particularly now.

Dalin and I both are just about done with school this semester to start--that is certainly a good thing. 

But there are many other reasons life is grand. 

My mom will be here this Wednesday! She will only be here for a week but it will be lovely to have her here before Christmas and know that she can help me with gifts and housework and I can't wait to do some of the crafts from Pinterest that we love (it's gonna be so great!!!!). 

I wish Dad, Payson, Donovan, and Butterscotch could come too, but it looks like that won't be happening this year. Thanks to my job, we won't be seeing any family for Christmas (which is a huge bummer because Dalin doesn't need to work during Christmas vacation) but we are planning on visiting Dalin's parents and sisters in Boise for New Years. 

We will be driving up there for once in our new Camry! We finally got a new car! It is a 2012 silver Toyota Camry and it had--get this--40 miles on it when we got it! 40 miles EVER. I couldn't believe it. Anyway it's gorgeous and sleek and it rides smooth. And my parents first car together--also a silver Toyota Camry--was the car that they brought me and then Payson home from the hospital in. When my mom told me that, it almost made me cry. 

I am so looking forward to the end of finals...just 3 left for me and 4 for Dalin. So exciting! Lots of exciting things coming up...more news later ;)

Hope everyone is having a lovely Sabbath day! We certainly are! 

Our beautiful, stupendous Idaho family

Last weekend, we took a long-anticipated (and very much needed) trip up to Caldwell to visit with Dalin's family for the weekend. The drive is long, but I am starting to get used to the six-hour car-ride. Being from New Hampshire, where you can drive to any of the three surrounding states within an hour, this is kind of a big deal. That used to be a long drive for me. Now, it's nothing. 

I will say, though, that it is a much easier drive on the way up--heading home is another story because we usually dread returning to Provo and (essentially) "real life".

Anyway, it was a terrific short weekend trip. We left Friday, immediately following my Spanish class. We picked up Shaina's boyfriend Layton (Shaina had flown up to Boise earlier in the week, lucky duck) as a surprise for her, then the three of us got on our way. The traffic in Salt Lake was horrendous. Who knew there would be so many people leaving work at 4pm on a Friday night? (I did.) We made our traditional stop in Burley for gas and some treats--I always get treats--then we made our way up to Boise in the dark. I hate the signs that read: 230 miles to Boise. That just sounds like such a long ways...but it tends to go by alright. It was very dark in the valley as we continued up to Caldwell but I love being in town there and seeing all of the familiar landmarks (including the Boise temple which looks much, much better on the outside). 

After reuniting with all of our family members and giving lots of hugs, we went to bed fairly early (considering our past visits) because we knew we'd be getting up around 7 or 8am to begin preparing to leave for pictures at 9am. 

Well, fail on that front because I slept through my STUPID alarm (set for 7am) for an hour. I thought I was doomed. If you have ever experienced my hair in person, you know it is completely impossible to curl it all in an hour. But somehow--somehow--I got by and made it satisfactory for photos. I think it was because of Dalin. As I was panicking upon waking up at 8am, he cheered me on, saying, "You can do it, lovie." Let's just say, it's a miracle that I do not look exhausted or totally ruffled in these pictures. In fact, I was pleasantly shocked to find I liked almost all of them. 

Here are some of my favorites! Which do you like?

The cropping here was an accident but then I kind of liked it

LOVE the suitcases and LOVE the four men standing behind us four attractive women and baby.

The family: Jensen, Shaina, Olivia, Dalin, JeNeale (Mom), Brent (Dad), Shay, Cassie, and Maddox

Our additional family member, Layton ;)

Staring deeply into each other's eyes...trying not to laugh ;)

One of my most favorite pictures of us :) Plus I love that antique chair!

Hold me tight

How did I get so lucky?! :)

How attractive is my husband and his family??

visits

dalin is coming up to rexburg to visit me this weekend! hopefully i will see him tonight before curfew. i have missed him terribly. it is incredibly hard to be apart from someone you want to be with for eternity. thank goodness there are only SIXTY-TWO days left on the countdown. i'm gonna die.

today i learned the difference between fiance and fiancee. i think i had already heard this before, but i had forgotten. according to wikipedia, fiance refers to an engaged man, and fiancee refers to an engaged woman. that seemed fairly obvious...but i thought i would share that for those of you who are ignorant like i was ten minutes ago.

dalin should be in rexburg in a little over an hour! i am so excited to see him!!!!!!

our plans for the weekend include, but are not limited to: temporary engagement pictures (for our invitations), a possible service project, a double date, church, lots of eating (grilled pineapple...hopefully), lots of love, lots of spending time together. i will just be overjoyed to see him!