Best Moment of the Day

Derek and I watched the movie "Courageous" tonight with my family. It was good! I enjoyed the movie. There are definitely big moments full of cheesy acting, but it's a good movie.

After the movie was over, we had 15 minutes to get the DVD back to Redbox before my parents got charged for having it for three days. Yes, three days. They rented a movie at the wrong time... stupid power outage. So Derek and I offered to rush to the store to return it.

We made it to the Redbox by Walgreens at 8:59 pm and I jumped out and popped it into the machine. It was a close one.

Look at this fine young fellow with 99 problems.

As we were driving home and talking, I thought about my friend's status the other day. She quoted a song by Jay-Z called "99 problems" released in 2004. The most-often quoted line from that song is, "I got 99 problems but a (insert bad word here) ain't one!" Derek sings that line all the time, inserting different things instead of the bad word. For example:

I got 99 problems but a dog ain't one.

I got 99 problems but a test ain't one. (This was in celebration of the semester being over.)

I got 99 problems but a hoe ain't one.

I could go on, but I won't. Anyways, as I thought about my friend's status, I sang, "I got 99 problems but a bitz ain't one!"

Derek looked at me, smiled like he was about to say something really clever and also really mean, and said, "It is for me tonight!" With a smile that spread across his entire face, exuding pride at his joke, he started to laugh. I hit him on the arm and ever-so-cleverly replied, "Seriously?" 

I'm not that clever.

I continued, "First off, I am not your bitz. And second, I am not a problem! I am a blessing." Derek gave me a look like, "Psh, yeah right."

 I laughed and said, "Okay. So maybe, well probably, okay, I know that I'm in disguise." 

Get it? A blessing in disguise? 

*Bursts of raucous laughter erupt from the audience.* 

As I finish writing this post I realize it doesn't quite have that zing that I want it to have. 

It's definitely a, "you had to be there" kind of moment. "Ooo, geography joke!" -Michael Scott

And this post also makes my husband look terrible and makes it seem as if he doesn't love me. But don't let your heart be troubled, he loves me and I love him and we are incredibly happy together.

Fun fact for you, Jay-Z's song was placed at number 24 of the top 150 Best Songs Released in the last 15 years this last October. 

The Power of Power

So the title is a little cheesy... but just wait. I'll tie it into my post cleverly and thoughtfully later. 

I like snow. I really do. I just don't like:

1  Walking in snow without snow boots. (Which I currently lack because I left them in Rexburg thinking that Washington would just be rainy. Silly me.)

2  Driving in the snow. Not because I'm terrible at it, I do just fine. It's because there are a lot of people who are terrible at it and still choose to drive in the snow.

3  Staying out in the snow too long. Then my clothes get wet and my nose turns red and I'm instantly grumpy. And cold.

4  So much snow that it causes the whole Puget Sound area to lose power. Then I get cold, can't fix my hair so it's just poofy and wavy, and I have to take a flashlight with me into the bathroom. And that just scares me out of my mind because it brings back bad memories of being scared by that stupid game kids play at sleepovers called, "Bloody Mary." 

Yes, I am 21 years old and still scared by things like that. One of the many reasons I'm grateful I have a husband so that I can wash my hands super fast and run out and jump on him.

I think snow is pretty as it's falling. And if I am equipped with the proper snow clothing, I have a lot of fun playing in the snow. But this latest storm has not been my favorite. It caused us to lose power for two days. 

Not having power for that long made me feel like a cavewoman. And I was spending the majority of my day around Levi, so I was already speaking in broken sentences, which, as we all know, is the first step in becoming a cave man/woman. Take these two pieces of conversation for an example.

This is Levi with his coat on upside down.
He insisted on putting it on himself and wouldn't let
anyone fix it for him.

Me - "Levi, you hungry?"

Levi - "Eat dinner me?"

Me - "Okay. Eat dinner you."

Levi - "Tay Tay!"

Me - "What?"

Levi - "Want chocky milk!"

Me - "Levi want chocky milk?"

Levi - "Yes!"

Me - "Okay. You have chocky milk."

Levi - "Tanks, Tay Tay. Deuces."

He really did say deuces. And as he did, he gave me the peace sign and walked out of the kitchen. Love that kid.

Anyways, back to being a cave woman. I was grumpy, tired, bored, and restless. I felt like I could dress myself in a loin cloth and go bop a mountain lion over the head with a club and drag it home. 

And then today as Hunter, Colton, and I were playing chess we heard a loud buzzing sound and then the lights came on! We all ran to get our phones, DS's, etc. that we needed to charge and celebrated the fact that TV was back. 

I was just excited that I would be able to fix my hair. I instantly felt rejuvenated and like my old self again. No longer  cave woman Taylor. 

It's amazing really, the power of power.

Okay. That wasn't clever or thoughtful at all. It was stupid and cheesy.
But hey, give me a break, I've been a cave woman the last two days.

Oh, and Derek? He's been fine. Same old wonderful husband he's always been. Power outages don't affect Derek. He's a man.

My Crazy Dream

I was in high school and looking for a job. There was new store opening in the mall that I really wanted to apply at, so I gave them a call. After talking to the manager for a little while, she asked me to come in for an interview. So I agreed.

I got to the store and I guess before this I didn't realize it was a women's clothing store. But I felt really excited when I got there and was having my interview. I walked to the back office, found the manager, and sat down to talk with her. She hired me, and then she looked me straight in the eye and asked me this: "Taylor, do you feel comfortable working in an environment where you could in be danger?" I was shocked, and took a moment to think about it. When I answered, "Sure?" the manager was overjoyed. She led me out to the main store and showed me around, briefly gave me some training, and threw me a name tag and told me to get to work.

I was a success! The customers loved me and I was able to help every woman find an outfit that she felt beautiful in. It made me feel good, and by the end of the day the sales in the store were up by 34%. On one of my breaks I was talking with my coworker, and I asked her why this place was "dangerous." She answered that there used to be a girl who worked here that had a boyfriend. She broke up with him and he went psycho. Now, he stalked and sometimes taunted the girls who worked here at their homes, and called their cell phones leaving disconcerting voice mails. I instantly became wary of my job, and finished my shift. My friend Michelle came to pick me up and I told her all about it. She said that she had heard of this guy, and that the last two girls he had stalked from that store were now missing.

She dropped me off at my house and I called my dad right away to tell him I needed to change my number. 

The next day at work the manager was there and she wanted to know my contact information. When I walked into the back room to fill out the form that was sitting on her desk, the crazy-stalker-ex-boyfriend was sitting at the desk. He watched as I filled out the form. I automatically filled out my home address, but then scratched it out and made up an excuse about "just moved out of my parent's house into my own apartment" and made up an address that was on Zoolander Lane. 

I left the office in a hurry, ran out of the store, told my boss I was quitting my job, and then I ran to my car and started to drive home. But then I realized I was being followed by the crazy-stalker-ex-boyfriend-guy and so I ditched my car and hopped into an ice cream truck. I took the ice cream truck around so many neighborhoods, and actually sold ice cream, that the guy gave up and left. I ditched the ice cream truck and ran home.

When I got there I decided to take a shower. I showered and was going to open my closet doors to change when I saw something on my bed. It was a note from the crazy-stalker-ex-boyfriend-guy. As I realized what that meant, I heard the closet door open.

THE END

I seriously have messed up dreams. I woke up from that dream sitting up straight, and was breathing heavy. My heart was racing, and to make it worse the closet door in Marcie's room was open. I turned my back to it and snuggled as close to Derek as was physically possible. He woke up and I told him I had a bad dream, and he opened up his arms and let me fall asleep right next to him. 

That's saying something, because he isn't a big cuddle-sleeper. I love being married. It makes bad dreams not so bad.

What a Photographer

All day Levi has been walking around saying, "Cheese!!!" He has an old phone to play with, and he walks around pretending to take our pictures. However, this is his pose:

So he walks around with the phone pressed to his face yelling, "Cheese!" And he won't stop until you say cheese back.

This Week

This week Derek and I are babysitting Marcie's boys. Colton is seven, Hunter is four, and Levi is two. So far we are in our second day, and things are going pretty good! There is no school today, being MLK day, and luckily enough there is snow all over outside so Colton and Hunter are occupied outside with friends. Levi is a handful, but he's two. What two year old isn't somewhat crazy? However, Levi loves Mickey Mouse and is currently munching happily on some chicken nuggets. 

I am going to keep our blog updated this week with funny things that happen. I am sure that there will be plenty. 

These boys are going to give me and Derek a run for our money! Stay tuned.

Our Happily Ever After

We have all read those books, or seen those movies, where the couple falls madly in love because they have the perfect person. They just so happened to find that person while browsing a hole-in-the-wall used book store, sitting at a small cafe, or reading a philosophical book under a giant elm tree in the park. He loves and supports her in exactly the way she has always dreamed and needed, and she does the same for him. Life is beautiful, no wrong can be done, tra-la-la, birds sing, and the world is perfect. They go off and everything is happily ever after.

That is a load of crap.

Everyone wants to find that love. Everyone wants to find the perfect person who will be everything they have always dreamed. We all long to finally step into our perfect world. 

We all want our happily ever after.

However, I beg to argue that this will never spontaneously happen. Yes, people will fall in love. And yes, they may think for a time that the person they are dating is absolutely perfect. 

Yet over time the rose-colored lenses will fade or break, and once adorable quirks will become current frustrating habits. The imperfect nature of every one of us will become obvious to our significant other (wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever it may be) after a time. 

For some it may be years. 

For others, mere months.

But love is a funny thing. Everyone experiences it differently, and one person's love battles may be another person's victories. Let me share what I do and don't believe about love.

I don't believe that there is just one perfect person out in the world for all of us. 

I don't believe that they will always be exactly what you need, when you need it.

I don't believe in spontaneous storybook endings where perfection just exists.

I don't believe that pure happiness will always thrive in every minute.

But.

 I believe in falling in love. 

I believe in happily ever afters that can be as beautiful as the fairy tales painted them to be.

I believe in giving your whole heart to a person, and trusting them not to break it beyond mending. 

I believe in recognizing the joy in your life because of them.

I believe in the true, deep love that forms slowly over the years.

I believe in true friendship being the rock of the relationship.

I believe that, with a little effort and love from both people, the relationship can be beautiful. Thriving. Happy. Fulfilling. Rewarding.

I believe in marriage.

I also believe that I have the best husband ever. I realize that he is not perfect, and neither am I. 

I will most likely never be good enough at basketball to keep up with him on the court, but I can go to his games and support him. I will most likely never be able to understand exactly what it is about cars that fascinate him, but I can do my best to listen intently to him and find something about them that I am interested in. I will most likely never be able to accept the fact that he can be quiet and happy at the same time. But I can try to understand and hold myself back from pestering him, trying to get him to confess to some irritation or sadness that is causing his silence.

He will most likely never enjoy playing volleyball. But he has still joined in, multiple times, because he knew it was important to me. He will most likely never be the storybook romantic that melts my heart, but he is one of the sweetest guys I know, and the small gestures that he does or says mean the world to me. He will most likely never understand the compulsive need that I have to share with him every single thought that occurs to me, but he patiently listens. And more importantly, he remembers. 

On paper, we are not "perfect for each other." But when we are together, everything is right. Not perfect; just right. I feel like this quote sums up a lot of what I am feebly and awkwardly trying to express in this post.

Most idealists like to say that love is perfect. I have to disagree. Love is not perfect. It is frustrating, perplexing, and complicated. But as long as you are loving with your whole heart, with everything that you have, then what is meant to happen will.

I feel as if this post makes me seem cynical when it comes to love. Trust me, I am not. When you call someone a romantic, that applies to me through and through. However, I cherish the reality of love. 

I love it.

I love the frustrations, the perplexities, and the complications. 

I love my husband. We are not perfect. But we love each other with everything that we have, and that is how we will develop the true, deep love that you can see in the elderly couples holding hands in the grocery store. 

That is how we continually fall in love with one another. 

That is how we will hold on to our happily ever after.

Happy New Year! ...1 Hour and 55 Minutes Late

This is a New Year's Eve Letter instead of a Christmas Card. Yes, I'm lazy.

Hello wonderful family and friends! This past year has been good to us in many ways, and as Derek and I sit and think about all that has happened, the good with the bad, we feel happy and hopeful that this next year will be even better.

After getting married last December, we lived with my parents in Graham until the middle of April when we returned to Rexburg, ID! There, at BYU-I, we completed the Spring semester, had a wonderful summer vacation, and then went straight into the Fall. Derek had a great semester! Coming out at the end of the fall with his best GPA yet, he is proud of himself and made his wife very proud as well. His major in Accounting seems to suit him and he loves the things he is learning. Derek also played on the basketball team for our Married-Student Ward, and despite what he may say, he played rather well. 

This last semester also treated me well. My major is Exercise Physiology and requires a lot of biology and chemistry. I took my last chemistry class this last semester, and it was tough! I came out of the class with a good grade, and I am happy as ever to know that I am done with chemistry classes! I was called as the Ward Music Chairperson and enjoyed being the Ward Choir Director. It was a very fun calling. My favorite part about this last semester was babysitting my sweet niece and nephew every week. Abbie and Adam live just a few minutes away, so I got to help out when Abbie taught piano by watching the kids. Those couple of hours each week definitely made the stress of the semester easy to bear. 

We have a lot of good friends and family in Rexburg that we will miss as we spend the next few months in Washington living with my parents, but we are excited for the many exciting things that 2012 has to offer us! No matter what comes our way in life we are grateful for and reliant upon our testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ. We know that He knows us, loves us, and helps us in our time of need. We are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for His Atonement. We count ourselves blessed to have a knowledge of our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And we are always grateful for our friends, family, and for each other.

Happy New Year!

From, The Morgans

P.S. There would be a very nice picture of us where we look very put together and couple-ish. But, we stink at taking pictures. This will be one of our new year's resolutions.