Excitement! Adventure!!

Well the past two days have been full of adventure! Yesterday morning, Ray and I went with a bunch of his friends to a little town nearby to recreate our own live action Mario Cart video! This is what my husband's friends do with their spare time, and I'm totally okay with it.

We got hooked up with a go-cart place that said as long as we promote their facility on the video (because it'll be posted on YouTube) and they can post it on their Facebook Page, then we got to use the place for free. Pretty sweet eh! Well all those involved were way excited and on top of that, the owners pretty much just let us do our own thing. I could see how excited everyone was to be able to go around a go-cart track and not have any rules they had to follow. haha.

I, being pregnant and all, wasn't involved in the actual driving of the go-carts, but I was definitely given my own role to fulfil. I was given the necessary job of being the Cloud Guy. The one that holds the stop/go lights on the end of his fishing pole and saves the carts when they drive off the edge of the track. haha! It was perfect. Our costumes were all amazing too.

As you can see, we had everyone covered. I'm at the far left as Cloud Guy, and Ray is beside me as Yoshi, there's Donkey Kong, Toadstool, Mario (complete with an authentic mustache which was painted black with mascara), Princess Peach, Luigi and Bowzer. The kids belong to the person that was running the go-cart place. They were fascinated by us all. I don't blame them. Clearly we're awesome.

We were there for a good three hours or so. It was ridiculously windy and super sunny. If it wasn't for the wind, I'm pretty sure I would have melted. Instead I got a slight sunburn on my forearms. My face was saved by my daily moisturizer! haha! Take that sun!!!

I was wiped afterwards though. Pretty sure that was due to the 4 hours of sleep the night before, being pregnant, and being in the crazy Colorado sun for an extended length of time. But the day wasn't over yet. Ray's family was having a little Memorial Day family barbecue, so we headed right off to that when we were done with the go-carting.

The barbecue was... awkward... I didn't know the extended family at all, which is to be expected, but I think I just felt out of place or something. I dunno... Maybe that was because there was some obvious tension in the air between people which I just didn't understand and wasn't in the loop about either. But that's a whole other train of thought for later.

Finally after that, I was completely exhausted and Ray was too, so we just spent the rest of the night watching a movie together and we ended up going to bed at 8:00. haha. It felt really good, and I even got out of bed this morning at a decent hour as a result! I've actually been waking up at a decent time the whole time I've been here. I'm proud of myself.

Today the incredible sunshine continued with a less severe wind and a perfect temperature, so obviously we had to take advantage of it.

But first I got my nails done. haha. We literally live across the street from a nail salon, so I took advantage of that too. I got my toes painted a nice bright pink for summer, and I got my fingernails done all pretty with french tips. Not fake ones. Fake nails are too high maintenance for me. I like them and all, but I don't have the funds to maintain them right now. haha.

When I was done with that, Ray and I went and picked up Ray's little twin sisters, Katie and Dharma, and off we went to this beautiful canyon. There was a creek that we went to where Ray and his sisters started building a dam. It was pretty fun to watch them. Stuff like that is totally Ray's thing, so he was happy as a clam. The girls ended up accidentally getting their feet wet and took the "when in Rome" mentality and just ran with it, totally walking up and down the creek in their shoes helping get rocks for the little dam they were building. Ray was able to keep his feet dry though. Good for him eh? They all had a good time.

Dharma

Katie

 The longer we were there, I guess the more adventure the girls wanted. So Dharma decided that she wanted to sit in the creek instead of just wading in it, but Ray told her that it was an all or nothing deal. Either she went all in the water, head and everything, or she just kept her feet in only. It took her a while, but she definitely ended up doing it. Here's the video. It's 5 minutes long, but it's also hilarious.

So that was that. Ray had some business stuff to do tonight, so I spent the evening watching So You Think You Can Dance online, and writing this out. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Again. Life in Colorado is amazing and I feel like I'm home. Bliss!!!

Road Trip!

I totally forgot about our road trip last week! Ray had to go to a small town in the middle of the Colorado mountains to pick up a car his friend bought at a police auction... haha. Random, yes, but that's just how Ray is sometimes.

Right outside of Colorado Springs is NORAD. I don't really follow military stuff too much, so I was only vaguely familiar with what it actually was. Ray filled me in though and helped me understand that it's basically where they focus on aerospace control/defence/security. Oh and it's also inside a mountain. Plus, if you take one of the NORAD exits off the highway, then a scary guy with a big gun will interrogate you and make you turn around. And if the scary dude feels you're a threat at any point, he totally has the right to shoot you... Ick.... But I basically concluded myself that if this place is so elite and top secret enough to have to be built INSIDE a mountain with ridiculously heavy surrounding security, they MUST be hiding something cool in there. Decepticons. That's what they're hiding in there. Transformers really DO exist!!

On the way there, we drove along the Arkansas River, which was sweet because it's the closest I've come to Arkansas since I left it. haha. It was kinda comforting to think that it flows all the way back there to the South, so I felt slightly connected again and we took a picture. haha.

We stayed the night at Ray's aunt and uncle's place and left early in the morning with the car in tow. The drive was beautiful! Any drive you take through the mountains is totally worth it. This one was no exception. We drove alongside two different rivers, and since one was on one side of the Continental Divide and the other river was on the other side of the Divide, they both flowed different directions. That  always fascinates me.

Driving through Monarch Pass was kinda scary though. The roads were all curvy, on the edge of a cliff with either a rushing body of water at the bottom, or just a whole lot of rocks... There wasn't always a guard rail along the edge either. Slightly unsettling... I couldn't get over how high the elevation climb was though! 11000 feet!!!!! That's a third of the way up to where a plane flies!!

Thankfully, because of Ray's awesome driving skills, we made it back safely. Not before we got pulled over by the State Trooper though. It's not a road trip with Ray unless we get pulled over. I'm baffled at the amount of times he's gotten pulled over. What's more impressive is that most of the time he doesn't even get a ticket!! This particular time he was pulled over because the car dolly that was being used to tow the car didn't have proper tags or plates or whatever. The State Trooper was really nice about it though, since we didn't know that it was necessary. He didn't even give us a warning. It was like he just wanted to pull him over to educate him or something. Whatever the case may be, I'm way glad there wasn't a ticket to be paid as a result.

Finally we made it back to the Springs, and we were both really grateful we took the time to do this drive together. It gave us some quality husband/wife time together.

Life Is Awesome

So being in Colorado has basically been the best thing ever, and it's not even half way till I have to go back to Canada! So much more fun is in store.

This past week the Air Force Academy had their graduation and I guess Ray's family has a tradition to go watch the Air Force Thunderbirds do their mini air show as part of the graduation celebrations. Ray's mom came and picked me up so that I could be part of the celebrations this year. Stunt flyers are amazing. I don't understand how they have the stomach to do what they do, but I'm glad they do because it's really fun to watch.

This weekend has already been amazing. My good friend from my mission, Michelle Page, got married yesterday! She's from Colorado Springs, so my being with Ray has given Michelle and I opportunities to hang out before and it's been good times. Since it's her wedding and all, some other friends from our mission came in to town to celebrate too! Woot!! So for the first time in over a year I got to see Costley (now Ashley Bird) and her husband, Jeremy (our Zone Leader) and Sister Campbell (Cheri)! It was awesome to see them! They all drove in together from Salt Lake City.

Michelle had a pre-wedding dinner the night before and so all of us mission buddies were there. It was awesome to catch up with them. After the dinner, they all came over to our apartment and we chatted for a long time. It was a late night. haha.

The next day was the actual wedding in the Denver Temple which Ashley and her husband and Cheri were going to. Ray and I were planning on going to the temple anyways, so we just planned to be finished in time to see Michelle and her new husband come out of the temple as a married couple. It worked out pretty well. Ray and I laughed because we ended up in their group pictures. We kinda felt like we just kind of appeared out of nowhere, but we were entertained.

We took a few pictures for ourselves. This one is my absolute favorite!

I think Ray enjoys me being pregnant. He gets excited whenever he feels our little one kicking. I was pretty excited to be able to go back to the Denver Temple though, because I haven't been there since we were actually married. So it was kind of a neat experience to go there a year later and pregnant.

Ashley also wanted to take some pictures to send to our beloved Betty Pyper in Hot Springs, AR. She's a long time member of the Church and we visited her every week when Ashley and I were serving together there. Betty is originally from Wales, in her 80's and a total character. You can't help but love her. So we got some pictures together to send to her.

Michelle's wedding reception was beautiful. It was totally traditional and awesome. I love seeing newlyweds. It's always so apparent how ridiculously happy they are. This was no exception.

CONGRATS MICHELLE!!!!!!!!

Here's our Arkansas group. Minus Michelle. She was obviously otherwise occupied... haha.

I look so pregnant....

The send off of the couple was pretty cute too. We were all given bubbles and were blowing them as they ran off together... into a minivan... haha! Classy eh?? Too bad nobody did anything to the van though.

Afterwards the five of us went back to the hotel Ashley, Jeremy and Cheri were staying at and had tons of fun in the swimming pool there. It was awesome. I love swimming! Ray doesn't love swimming so much, but I was so proud of him for embracing the moment and in the end he really had a lot of fun too.

The past couple days have really been amazing. I love seeing friends that I don't get a chance to see so often. I really look forward to living here and being able to find friends that we can do things with and really feel like my life is settled again. This time here in Colorado has been an amazing foreshadow of my upcoming permanency here.

I'm so excited to find out what else this month in Colorado has in store! I'm so happy here!!

Home Sweet Home

After an extensive cleaning, our apartment is finally presentable. Well... All except the second bedroom... But we've still got time to work on that. haha. So here's what it looks like!

So awesome. I love it here!

Greetings From Colorado!!!

So i'm FINALLY with my husband again!! Mind you, it's only for a month, but that's besides the point. What really matters is that everything is right in the world again because my man is at my side. Basically... bliss...

The flight was first thing in the morning and my Dad was kind enough to drive me to the airport at 5:00 AM. I made sure to be there extra ridiculously early so that I had ample time to make it through border patrol. We aren't the best of friends, so I was kinda nervous about that. But I made sure to come extra prepared with a stack of papers showing that I'm not trying to enter the US and never come back to Canada. I'm too noble to do anything illegal, but they never seem to want to give me the benefit of the doubt. Yeesh.

Obviously it went well since I'm in Colorado, so thank goodness for that. The flight was direct, but it was still long. Three hours long... and it was cloudy the whole way so I couldn't even look out the window and see anything really cool. I had my trusty Tennis Shoes book though, so I read chapter after chapter of that. Finally I got tired of it and was getting stir crazy and wanted to know what time it was. Just as I was searching to find something to tell me the time, the pilot came on the speaker to say that we were beginning the decent and we'd be on the ground in half an hour. WOOT!!! After that I had things to look out of the window at and I was quite content.

The plane ended up stopping at the furthest possible gate from the baggage claim, so it took me a good 20 minutes to walk to the train thing that took me there. I had to pee too so poor Ray was waiting even longer for me. I'm pregnant though. When I gotta go, I gotta go.

I saw Ray waiting for me at the baggage claim where he had already picked up my bag for me. What a sweetheart. It was obviously a joyous reunion. haha. We hugged and kissed and it was awesome. It felt like I was actually home and that I belonged somewhere. What a blessing.

Since then I've been able to check out the awesome apartment that he got for us. It was kind of in disarray when I first got here, but with some team work we got stuff organized, and while he's been at work, I've been a dutiful wife and have made this place a presentable home. haha.

I've really really really missed being a wife. Staying at home in Canada with my parents is a bummer. My mom takes care of everything for dad, and I'm basically just a stow away with no real purpose or direction. My real home is where my husband is, and since being here I really have never felt more at home and at peace. It just reinforces how much I love my husband and how we belong together. We've both just been so happy.

I even find myself more confident in my pregnant body with him around. I think mostly because it shows that we're in this together and that we're happy together. As my best friend Monie so eloquently put it... "it's a literal manifestation of your love". So true. Having Ray with me shows that I'm not just knocked up, but that I'm actually in love. hahaha...

Ray also has been able to feel our little boy kick! I love when Ray holds my belly. haha. At first he didn't believe that it was actually the baby moving. He thought it was me just flexing, but I assured him that it's not my doing, so now Ray's convinced that we have a soccer player on our hands. haha. Fine by me.

So basically, everything is amazing. I love my husband and it amazing me to realize how happy he makes me. My home really is where he is.

My Sunday Project

Yesterday I had a genius idea. It came about because Church ended up being a lot about missionaries. First, in Sacrament meeting, there was a recent return missionary from our Stake that spoke. He was called to serve in the Provo Utah Mission, and when they split the mission in two, he was assigned to the St George Mission part. Since that's where my little brother is serving, my thoughts obviously went to wondering if this guy had met my brother.

He must have been reading my mind because his next sentence after saying where he served was about how he was aware that there was a missionary serving in that mission from our ward, and that he in fact did know him, and assured us that he was doing very well. haha. So. Pretty awesome. It's nice to have little connections like that to my little brother. I miss that kid a lot.

My mom and I talked to this return missionary after the meeting and it turns out that they had gone on exchanges with one another, and that he had made sure it happened because he wanted the opportunity to meet Ian since they're from the same Stake. So it was neat to find out that he had actually spent a whole day with my little brother and saw him in his full missionary glory. haha.

The Relief Society lesson was also about missionary work. The lesson was taught by my mom's best friend, who is an amazing teacher and I really appreciate her lessons. It was an interesting take on the lesson too. Our ward has a bunch of return Sister missionaries, and she took advantage of that and asked a couple of them to talk about their experiences leading up to going and how they decided to continue being missionaries once they got home. I'm really proud of myself for serving my mission. It really was a defining event in my life that helped me shape who I am going to be for the rest of my life. I love the perspective it gave me, and the understanding of how simple it really can be to be a member missionary. I learned how to teach the gospel simply, and that's a skill that will sustain me for the rest of my life. So I guess while some people dread lessons on missionary work, for me, it kind of makes me sit up straighter and remember that there's always something I can do.

So with all these thoughts running through my head about missionaries and my own mission, I started thinking about what ever happened to all those emails that I had sent home every P-Day. Well, mom and dad kept them on the family computer, so I had full access to them, which was exciting to me. Every time my little brother sends home an email, I post it on a blog I created for him and post it to his Facebook page so his friends can catch up on his weekly happenings. I decided that I wanted something like that for myself. Not so much to share with friends, because those events have come and gone, but more for myself because I wanted to have that record of my mission from the perspective I gave to my loved ones. Since I'm a chronic detail writer, my weekly emails turned out to be pretty long and full of lots of details. I figured if I put it on a blog, I would always have that record that wouldn't ever have to be packed up in a box of books and moved somewhere. This option gave all my letters a more permanent and completely accessible home.

That was my Sunday project. I spent all afternoon copying and pasting my emails onto this new blog. My next step is to read through them all and attach the associated pictures from that week onto that weeks post, so it'll be a full visual recount of my mission.

I'm pretty dang proud of it already, and I'm really excited to go through all my mission pictures again. Like I said, my mission was a hugely defining event in my life, so revisiting it is a privilege. I'm still in awe that I even made it through.

My mom asked me yesterday where I think my life would have gone if I hadn't have served my mission. Quite frankly, that thought scares me. I know I wouldn't have been near as spiritually prepared for life, and I'd have missed out on experiences that helped me gain confidence in what I know to be true. Not only that, but I definitely would have never been blessed to have meet Ray and have him in my life. So my response to my mom's question was repeating what Elder Jeffrey R Holland says about his mission.

Everything good in my life has come as a direct result of my serving a mission.

I really believe that. I am where I am because of my mission, and I wouldn't have been able to get here any other way.

So here's the link to all my missionary emails. I'm really excited about this...

http://sisterdyeralrm.blogspot.com

Comic Book Movies

Today I saw Thor. It was awesome. I really do love comic book movies. They make me happy. Especially the Marvel comic book movies. They always have little teasers at the end of the credits, and this movie was no exception.

I also enjoy how they're making individual movies about all the "Avengers" and then making a movie with all of them together. Seriously. As silly as I think the movie people can be, this was a genius move on their part. haha. 

Thank you Marvel for enhancing my movie going experiences. haha!

My Awesome Anniversary

As I mentioned previously, it was my first anniversary with Ray on Sunday. Since we're stuck in this silly situation where I'm in Canada and he's in the US, I wasn't really expecting much to celebrate. Especially since I'll be seeing him so soon. I guess I just figured that we'd be able to celebrate when I got to go see him. Boy was I wrong. 

Family dinner was just winding down that night, and the house was kinda chaotic just because Ian had just called us. Mom was already crying because that's just what she does when her missionary children call her. haha. Then Dad called to me and told me that someone was at the back door for me and I was so confused. I don't really have people showing up for me out of the blue.

I went to the back door and I saw three of my friends all standing there. Kaleena was right in the middle holding a poster board with a red heart drawn on it. Allison was standing to the right holding a phone and recording me, and Janelle was on the left recording Kaleena. Then they hand me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and start playing a song on a computer that they placed on the ground. haha. I was pretty confused until they started playing the song, which totally cleared things up for me that Ray set it up. We have a song... haha. We're just cute like that. So this is where I started crying. haha.

Anyways.

As the song played, Kaleena went through all the posters in her hands which had the lyrics of the song written out and then at the end there was a message for me from him. It was amazing. Then they handed me brownies and ice cream. Yum!! 

So Ray had totally been conspiring with my friends the whole last week to set this up. I had no idea that it was coming. He's pretty good at setting up surprises like this, and I like it. :)

This is what it all looked like.

Basically... Amazing. I love my husband.

Holy Moly

Ask and you shall receive. Yeesh. I've been complaining about how bored I've been, and these last couple days I've been way busy. It's been amazing!

Sunday was ridiculous because of Mother's Day and family dinner. I made a cake for it. I was really proud of myself. I made a chocolate cake from scratch and my Grandma LOVED it. To impress her with anything edible is the hugest compliment EVER. She had a huge piece of cake and ate it all. I'm quite proud of myself if I do say so myself.

See?? Doesn't it look delicious??? I'm proud of me.

Yesterday I was gone all day with my best friend, Monie. She's rededicated herself to getting her drivers license, so she needs more practice before she goes off and does her actual test. Apparently the task falls on me then to be the "teacher"... Initially I thought it would be fine... until she started driving and we saw this HUGE car accident right in front of us!!!!! It was terrifying!!! A dude in a van was turning left, and a girl coming the other way suddenly switched into the other lane that was otherwise clear at the same moment the guy decided the road was clear to turn left and they hit each other hard and both cars did full 360's, and the van ended up wedged under a semi truck and the car ended up smashed into a pole... Oh. My. Gosh. We were both completely stunned that all of this just happened and we had a front row seat. Thankfully, being totally uninvolved in the crash, we were fine. So we just pulled over and waited around to make sure everyone was okay (which surprisingly they were) and for the cops to come so we would give our witness statements. An hour later, and we were free to go.

We met up with a couple of my other awesome friends for Bubble Tea. I LOVE BUBBLE TEA. That just needs to be understood. Dream Tea House is the greatest place ever, and Bubble Tea has totally made my life better. haha.

Anyways... We stayed and chatted for like 2 hours. It was awesome. I was really glad to be able to hang out with friends and laugh and enjoy myself like that again.

When we parted ways, Monie and I continued her driving adventure which was thankfully uneventful... traffic wise... But as much as I love that girl, sometimes I wonder how the crap we are such good friends. haha. After that car accident, she was SOOOOO paranoid!!! I mean... She's paranoid already, but that didn't help the situation at all. And the thing you need to understand about Monie is that she'll ask tons of questions, but she doesn't care about the answer. If you do answer, she'll defend the opposite of what you just said to the death, and so basically it's useless to answer her at all. But then if you don't answer her, she doubts herself. So you basically have to answer so she has something to fight against...???... Yeah... That's my best friend. So. All day of this. Whether it was in regards to driving questions/decisions, what to buy at the store, something about her boyfriend. Oh man... Seriously... I love her, but yesterday was exhausting. haha...

So. That was yesterday.

Today... well... I can't say because it's supposed to be a surprise. But after that, I pretty much drove around the entire city getting quotes from body shops to get the front bumper of my car fixed... Which is apparently gonna be around $1000 no matter where I go... ugh... That's more than I was hoping it would be. I dislike that my car was put through hell this last winter (not by me) and now I have to pay to get it fixed... Slightly bitter...

Anyways... After that was done, I was voluntold to get a pizza and deliver it to the Elders tonight. So I did that, then I went to the mall to see if I could find some summer maternity shirts and sandals. Today it was 21 degrees (Celsius) and I realized I'm gonna be my biggest in my pregnancy for the whole summer. Cool clothes are a must. Unfortunately I didn't find anything. That might have been because I wasn't in a full blown shopping mood. So I left the mall empty handed. Not to worry. I'm going out again with Monie and Jessie tomorrow to the mall. I'm glad Jessie will be there, because then Monie's paranoia will be diffused between the two of us. haha.

So now I'm back at home and I have lots of laundry to catch up with. I'm gonna grab a piece of my awesome cake, then I have to fold the laundry.

I'm gonna get to that. Tomorrow's another busy day and I need to not stay up all night for no reason tonight. haha.. Good luck to me with that...

Oh yeah... I still have to write about what Ray did for me for our anniversary... haha. I'll do that later.

Kind Of A Big Deal

Okay. So today is a big day.

1) Because it's Mother's Day, and not only do I get to celebrate my own Mother and Grandmother's awesomeness, but I also get to celebrate my own ALMOST being a mother-ness... haha.

2) I get to talk to my little missionary brother! But not until later this evening, which is kind of lame, but I guess I understand with him serving in Utah and everything. They keep those missionaries way busy ESPECIALLY on Sunday. I'm pretty excited. Each week in his emails, he sounds more and more like a responsible grown up, so it'll be interesting to have an actual real-time conversation with him.

However... We're having a big extended family dinner tonight, so there's gonna be lots of fighting over the phone, taking away from the intimacy of a private conversation. I guess I should be thankful that an extended family dinner only means an extra five people. haha...

He's the one with the glasses.. Just in case you didn't know...

3) But most importantly...   It's my FIRST Anniversary!!!!!


That's right. I've been married to my wonderful husband for a WHOLE YEAR now!! At precisely this time last year I was at the Temple in Denver, wearing my pretty wedding dress and was (still am really) ridiculously happy. I had a perma-grin to prove it.

Thank you for making this last year the most wonderful my handsome. The first of many many more to come! I love you MUCHO!!!