Today I feel...

Remember these?

You know, I've always wanted one of these... I feel like there's something relieving in such a direct, concise statement about your internal state of being. Maybe this is a manifestation of some subconscious need I have for expression or something. (Can you tell I'm an ex-psych major? With any luck I'll sneak out of BYU with a minor before it's all said and done. And by "luck" I mean hard work and grit.)

Anyway, a few months ago about I wrote about "Today I feel" boards that had songs instead of adjectives. (Check it out if you're interested.)

Well today, I feel these. Particularly the second track.

Disclaimer: Life is good. Always.

Twenty-three Thousand Words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... In this case I'd say that number is definitely an underestimate. In either case, here are a few pictures from the last 3 months or so.

August 11, 2011 -- Mt. Timpanogas Temple
Where the story of Mr. and Mrs. Hull begins.

The next few pictures are a few from our honeymoon.
Blake took care of all the arrangements so it was a complete surprise for me!
Thanks, Blake!

We played at Temple Square,

...went to my first live session in the Salt Lake Temple,

...before boarding a plane and flying to...

...San Diego!

Here we are at the U.S.S. Midway

Man, I didn't know I loved beaches so much!
I wouldn't mind going back again. Soon. :)

Wow. If you've never done a session in the San Diego Temple ("the Mormon Castle on the side of the freeway"), please put it on your bucket list! I'd say that was a definite highlight for me. We got to do a session and several sealings, which was even more special since we'd been sealed so recently ourselves. It was a truly amazing and humbling feeling to be able to give someone else something that we are still only beginning to realize the power and magnitude of. I'm so grateful for the gospel, for temples, for the sealing power, and that the friendships and partnerships we create in marriage can be forever.

Once we got home, it was time for "real life," as Blake's Dad calls it.

Behold: the oh-so-glamorous lifestyle of newlyweds! :) The first morning in our little apartment, I snuck out before Blake woke up to get some milk and cereal so we'd at least have something for breakfast. But there was no helping the fact that we had exactly one bowl and no table or chairs to speak of. So there we are... Cold cereal on our living room floor with Blake eating out of a saucepan. Good times!

And the adventures continue... Here was the first football game. Against U of U. ... On a happier note, we have had lots of fun going to games with Beth and meeting up with Dan, Aaron, and the kids at half time. Cougars for life!

Beth and I have had so much fun this year!! We're taking a Humanities class together, (if you have to take it, better take it with a friend, right?) we eat lunch on campus together, walk home together, go grocery shopping together, and she even comes over and helps me with dinner on occasion. What a peach!
Here we are in our BYU hats. (This picture was taken specifically for you, Dad.)

One of the several meals I've made in the last few months. Blake was so proud that he wanted to take a picture of our well-set little table. Notice that by this point we have a Lifetime table (courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa), some padded folding chairs, a blue towel up in the window to keep the sunlight out and the apartment a little cooler (no A/C), and a domestic little table cloth thanks to my dear Mom! (At this point we still don't have a full set of dishes... Blake enjoyed eating off of a Pyrex pie dish for several weeks. You'd be amazed at how much more food you can fit on your plate when you have walls built up on the side.)

My goodness... This was a real adventure. This is the first time I cut Blake's hair. We didn't really have anything to put down under him or anywhere that would be convenient to clean up the mess, so we put a chair in the shower and cut the hair into the tub. I wouldn't really recommend that--it ended up being quite a mess. The good news is, his hair cut looked pretty dang good when it was all said and done. Give it up for the rookie! :)

I teased Blake that I was going to leave his hair in this very stylish buzz cut. *GarrRauw*

This, my friends, is among my more brilliant date ideas. Blake was quite skeptical, but I convinced him that it would be fun and that no artistic talent was needed in order to finger paint. Was it a masterpiece?--of course! Would it sell for very much at auction?--only if our grandma were bidding... But we had a lot of fun!

I'm sure you can guess who started this...

...And how it ended.
All in all, it was a pretty fun little date. Thanks for being a good sport, Blake!

A few weekends ago, we had all of Blake's siblings over (minus Quinton on a mission) for a sleepover in our little apartment. (!) We got Little Caesar's Pizza, went on an awesome BYU scavenger hunt all over campus (the first clue was "from Cosmo" inside the pizza box), and had brownies and ice cream back in our apartment while watching Star Wars. Chocolate Chip Pancakes for breakfast and church with us in our eighty-five year old church building made for a fun adventure. I hope we can do it one more time before Blake and I move in December!

The final destination for the scavenger hunt was my little car. We'd parked it earlier in the day in the parking lot across from the duck pond, with the most coveted prizes in the world hidden in the back seat. The kids spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out how in the world Cosmo got a hold of my car!... Jace concluded that Cosmo must have had some sort of inside connection: Beth must have been in on the scheme with Cosmo. :)

Here we are with our brownies, ice cream, piles of blankets and pillows, and Star Wars. (Notice the artistic masterpiece on the wall.)

This is just a picture I caught one day when Blake (who is also "Quinton" or "Wesley" depending on which shirt he wears that day...) got home from work. Someday when we're done with school, he'll probably come home from work in a suit and tie and I'll find myself looking back fondly on the days when he'd come home dirty head to toe with smudges all over his face and smelling like grease and rubber. I love so many things about our life, and this picture that I see every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday is one of them. Life is so good. :)

Well, that's all for this post--hope you've enjoyed seeing a little chunk of our life in Autumn Apartment #7! I've tried to be good about taking pictures of our first little apartment. We'll be moving out in a little over a month and I don't want to only have memories of our first home together! After finals, we'll be moving into Blake's grandparents' house in Orem--they're leaving on a mission in a few weeks and have asked us to house-sit for them while they're gone. It's such a financial blessing for us and a whole new adventure is on the horizon!

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!

Oh Syllabi...

I would enjoy getting paid to edit professors' syllabi. Honestly! Dear Professor, I don't expect you to be perfect, but if you demand that you be addressed as "Dr." in accordance with your hard-earned doctorate degree, please take the time to review your syllabus (or have some underling do it for you) in order to present a professional overview of the class that appropriately reflects your title. Thank you, Dr. [Smith]!

Sincerely,
Appreciator of grammatically correct syllabi

New Titles

Okay, we've got a few new reportable titles. Number one: Now presenting... Mrs. Annie Hull! (I feel like somewhere, a few blocks away, a pretty girl with short blonde hair(s) and lovely earballs very stately rapped the bottom of a broom on the kitchen "tile"...)

Number two: this blog. I know it's a mouthful, and it won't stick around long, but sometimes Blake just gets me on these lovely Spanish kicks. Today is one of those days. Me gusta! So anyway, enjoy the much-too-long-and-wordy-non-English title for a few days. Actually with any luck -[determination]- I'll get so busy and so productive that this title will last forever because what girl in her right mind with school and whatnot has the time to be fooling around with this sort of business??

Okay readers... this is a call to action from whatever blog stalking you've currently been up to. (I'm just as guilty!) Let's go be productive!

Mindless time break concluded. Back to humanities*.

* Random endearing roommate tribute: "Oh the huge manitee!"

Livin' the Dream

I know it's been ages since I posted and anyone who knows anything about my life is aware that I have a TON to update you on, but I just wanted to write out this quick post while the thoughts and feelings are fresh. I'll get to an update later. :)

I had a wonderful dream last night. Actually, like most dream nights, I had several dreams. One was weird (mechanical tyrannosaurus rex and barracudas??), one was pretty exciting (one of those good guys vs. the bad guys)--it'd make a great movie--and one was just wonderful. I won't overwhelm you with the details. Dreams are often hard to explain anyway--kind of one of those "you had to be there" deals. But I just wanted to say that I've been in a good mood all day and I've listened to O My Father about 20 times. I didn't have a vision or anything, but just was so grateful for our families and that we can have them forever.

Isn't life great?

Long-time-in-coming Update

We're coming up on two months since I've last posted. Whoa! Life goes by (and comes at you!) at break neck speed and a lot of living is about learning to love running fast enough to keep up with it. I feel like as of late, I've really been enjoying the run for the most part. It's great when you've got good running buddies. :) Okay, I'll abandon the analogies for now and talk like a normal person.

I started a few posts through May and June, but none of them made it off the press. Oh well! There is a lot I could say, but I'll just kind of update you for what's currently going on and what's on the horizon.

• I successfully made it through Winter Semester! My roommate works for the college of Family, Home, and Social Sciences and came home one day with the news that she'd mailed a Dean's List letter to my parents. Such a happy day. I love school. (Usually.) I love BYU. (Always.)
  
• Some of my roommates are fans of making paper chains for big occasions. I whimsically took the opportunity to make two of them one night when I was sick of studying for finals. One is for me at school and the other is for my family at home and as of today, each has 43 links. Hermana Briggs is on the home stretch!
• I took a pretty hefty load of classes Spring Semester which for the most part were successful. (I'm not particularly stoked about one of my grades, but I did learn a lot in the class and that's more important I guess.) I took Floral Design to fulfill a GE and I came away with way more than I expected to. I love feeling confident doing something as girly and domestic as arranging beautiful flowers. Am I an expert? Definitely not. Could I fool the untrained eye? Yeah, I like to think so. :)
• I made some new friends. Meet the Hull Family. :)
  

Kyndal, Courtney, Sydney (this picture is a poor likeness of her--she's got one of the best, happiest smiles I think I've ever seen. I love it!), Brynn, Blake, Me, and Jace. (Quinton is currently on a mission.)

• So it turns out I really like this Mr. Hull. And his family. A LOT. It'd be interesting to calculate the number of hours (within BYU curfew) I've spent with Blake in the last few months. Maybe THAT'S why I haven't posted in so long. ;) There are lots of stories there, but here's the most recent: yesterday, we decided we both needed to get out of Provo for a while and go on an adventure. After I took a final online, we headed up the canyon and hiked Timpanogas Caves. I hadn't been there for probably at least ten years! Some divine sandwiches (no, seriously... SO GOOD.), two BYU shirts, a trip to the Timpanogas Temple, and The Sound of Music in Highland made for just about a perfect day. You know, I think I could get used to this! ;)
  
• The recent holidays have been great. General Conference was amazing. (I know, not a holiday, but it practically feels like one.) Easter and Mother's Day were some of the best ones I can remember. I had a great extended weekend with my family over Memorial Day, and I'm really looking forward to going home for Father's Day on Sunday. I'm also looking forward to a 12 hour car ride to Washington for the 4th of July with the entire Packard Family. (Blake's Mom's side.) Confession: I won't particularly miss watching surrounding city fireworks from the seat of a tractor.
  
• After weighing all of my options and after much deliberation, I decided not to do EFY this summer. I'm going to be taking classes through the summer and I'll be starting an internship at a local assisted living center in a week or so. Ready or not, here we go!

Well, I think that about covers my bases. I was going through my binder today and found some notes that Mom gave me when we trekked up to Rexburg for my EFY interview:

"The Lord will try us until He knows what He can do with us. He tried His son, Jesus, thousands of years before He came upon the earth. The Father had watched His course and knew that He could depend upon Him when the salvation of worlds should be at stake. So He will continue to try us in order that He may place us in the highest positions in life and put upon us the most sacred responsibilities." -Lorenzo Snow

In Return to Me, Grace's Grandpa says to her, "It is the character that is the strongest that God gives the most challenges to. I would take that as a compliment." Whatever life is up to for you, be flattered that the Lord has decided you can handle whatever it is that comes your way. Whom the Lord calls, he qualifies.

There's a lot more on that, but I'll save it for another post. Bottom line: thank goodness for Moms. Thank goodness for perspective. Thank goodness for challenges overcome, insights gained, and lessons learned. Thank goodness for a good life! We've all got one!


P.S. Thanks, Jake, for reading and commenting. It made me smile to think of you reading the sometimes aimless musings of a silly little sister. :) Carry on. {The General}