Just Life

Sometimes I feel like I do really well at being married. Other times I feel like I'm no so great... But I'm a lucky girl: Blake's patient and encouraging and loves me through every kind of day, not just the great ones. What a champ!

For my benefit more than anyone who might read, here's a little chunk of life as of late. (Writing is such a healthy form of expression for me. Maybe I should more faithfully journal...)

Spanish update: For FHE last week, Blake gave a lesson about missionary work. We watched Elder Holland's talk from the priesthood session. (If you haven't watched it, I'd highly recommend it! I love how Elder Holland can so eloquently and masterfully lay down the smack-down. Check it out here.) We talked about missionary work together and he taught me how to pray in Spanish, just like they do in the MTC. (!) It was so fun for me--I love it.

This last week I would practice Spanish prayer phrases in my head as I walked to and from school, but I didn't do a whole lot of actual praying in Spanish because my vocabulary is so limited. But one day this week, Blake had gotten home from work, we were sitting up to dinner, and he said it was my turn for the prayer. He was so surprised when I said the whole prayer in Spanish!! It was slow and not very long (Dear loving Heavenly Father, we're thankful for the food. We're thankful for the day. We're thankful for the house. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.), but Blake said I didn't make any mistakes at all--even with any of the articles! I was pretty excited! So that was a small triumph for me this week. :) Ether 12:27 in action. So great.

On Friday as a part of date night, we went to Blake's soccer game... INCREDIBLE. I asked Blake to describe it and this is it: An "epic come from behind"/"start to kill them"/"barely hold on to the victory" kind of game. They were playing a team that was decidedly better than they were, Blake's team had no subs the entire game, and they were even one man down for the last 10 minutes. Somehow they managed to get several goals in succession (within a couple of minutes) and with 3 minutes left, we were up by 3 and thought we had the win in the bag. Then the other team scored two goals in about a minute or less! I was sitting on the sidelines about to wet my pants and watching the clock run down, hoping they'd hold on to their lead. They managed it and pulled off epic win for the underdogs! They're now faced with the dilemma of maybe being put in the top bracket for intramural (in which case they'd get dominated and eliminated from the tournament)--if they want to maximize their number of soccer games for their buck, they'd do well to start losing a few games. It's not in Blake's mental concept of life to give anything less than his all, and I think judging by the fire I saw on the field this last week I'd say none of his teammates are the type either. We'll see how it goes and I'll keep you posted.

After the game, we came home for Papa Murphy's, rootbeer, and a movie I'd picked up from redbox earlier as a surprise for Blake. I think he was a little worried that I'd gotten some sort of sappy/soggy film, but he was pleasantly surprised when we watched Invictus. Wow: an inspiring performance from Morgan Freeman, I love the music, and it afforded me a long-awaited understanding of the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henry. In ninth grade, it held virtually no meaning for me. Six years later, in the light of Nelson Mandela's life as well as the contexts I have since drawn from my own experience, the poem holds a much deeper meaning for me.

This clip won't mean as much if you haven't seen the whole movie or if you don't know the historical background, but you'll be able to get a sense of the depth behind the words. It's quite the movie; consider it the next time you're wanting to sit down to a movie.

A few thank yous:
Thanks, Karen, for the playlist on your blog. I love to leave it playing on the laptop because I love your taste in music.
Thank you, Courtney Anderson, for the Papa Murphy's gift card and for the fancy glasses that we used on our date.
Thanks, Christy for the rootbeer!
Thanks, Blake, for just about everything.

Have a good day!

P.S. I figured out how to do hyperlinks. Thus the link-happy post. Exciting!