As embarrassing as this might be to admit... I started mentally composing a "one year anniversary" post WEEKS before our one year anniversary...but unfortunately the time to write it came and went while every nook and cranny of my brain was (and is) filled with "the 6th grade thoughts" and all previously meditated drafts of this post are nowhere to be found.

However, I would STILL like to share just a few reasons why this past year (+ ~1 month) has been THE BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE -- all thanks to that guy who I met one fateful morning five (!!!) years ago.

Here are some of my favorite memories from this past year: (SIDE NOTE: Some/many of these will probably be "you had to be there" moments I am posting more for our future benefit than anyone else's. Feel free to read about them, but by no means feel obligated to think they are as funny as we do ;))

+ One day I was talking to Stephen about macaroons. I asked him if he'd ever had one and I showed him this picture because he wasn't sure what I was talking about. He glanced at the picture and exclaimed, "Those look like tiny hamburgers!" 

+One night we were laughing so hard and we couldn't fall asleep. Finally I said, "We REALLY need to go to sleep!" After a few minutes I said, "Are you sleepy?" and Stephen said faintly, "nooo...buut if I talk in my sleeeeepy voice I miiiight be able to convince myself that I'm sleeeeepy...." 

+I honestly can't remember how it started, but at some point I started saying, "I love yo' mind and yo' body and yo' souuul." Now Stephen says it too and I think it's hilarious.

+When we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the waiter came over THREE different times to ask if we had chosen what cheesecake we wanted for dessert. After he left each time we would start talking and forget we were supposed to be choosing a cheesecake. I loved that we would rather continue our conversation than choose (and consequently EAT) cheesecake. ;) (But don't worry, we eventually decided on a cheesecake, and eat cheesecake we DID!)

+One day I was scratching Stephen's head when he said, "Ya...I'll DEFINITELY pay our future children to do this." (This is particularly funny if you realize that my dad used to pay us kids a quarter for every hour we would scratch his head. hahhaa. I don't remember if that was exactly the ratio but it was something equally as ridiculous ;))

+Stephen and I are somewhat infamous in our family for our extremely memorable (and highly skilled ;)) renditions of Happy Birthday that we often film and send to people. Hopefully those videos are promptly deleted and not kept for future blackmail purposes...

+A few weeks after we got married, we were getting ready to go to sleep and Stephen said, "We need to say prayers." Almost instinctively we both called out, "PRAYERS!" at exactly the same time. We were laughing so hard we silently agreed to make this a tradition. We probably do this 2-3 times a week now and even though we've done it well over 100 times, we still think it's hilarious. 

+When Stephen walked into my classroom to meet my class a couple of weeks ago, all of the boys exclaimed excitedly (almost in unison), "WOAH!!! He IS buff!!!!" HAHAH. It was seriously the best. One of the students in my class asked him, "How many times a day do you work out?" (Nothin' like 6th graders to boost your ego, huh? I'm pretty sure Stephen is rethinking his career path ;)) Having Stephen in my classroom for just that couple of minutes was SO much fun. I wish he could come to school with me everyday. :)

I know there are MANY MANY more instances that illustrate how much fun we've had this past year, but I'm afraid if I try to write them all...I'll never finish this post! 

Stephen is without a doubt one of the funniest, kindest, most intelligent, patient and caring men I've ever met and I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER at the notion of spending not only "til death do we part" but wayyy after that, too! 

Here's to forever with my best friend by my side! 

I'm so glad I married happy ;)

Getting behind in blogging really is bad news. It is so daunting trying to get caught up because there are constantly new things to document!! This is precisely the reason I've never been a good journal writer. Whenever I did write in my journal growing up, I would spend so much time catching up I never got to record things that were going on AT THE TIME. With that being said...here is installment number three of the "catch-up" blog series.

August 16th was my birthday! I'm not typically what I would consider a "birthday diva" but this year on my birthday when Stephen asked what I wanted on my sandwich for lunch...I told him I wanted fresh tomatoes. He made a look of silent protest when I said it, so I suggested that he sing happy birthday to me over and over again while cutting the tomatoes and putting them on the sandwich. (Does that scream DIVA or what?) To my delight he took my suggestion. HAHAHA. It was actually hilarious and I laughed almost the entire time. (He pretended like he hated it, but I know deep down he actually loved it ;) I think tomatoes are growing on him. HA!) [not really]

My second diva-ish act of the day was when I forced Stephen to help me get ready for the first week of school. (I know, I'm the worst.) Luckily I didn't have to go into my classroom, but I did have PLENTYYY of things that still needed to get done (with school starting in just a few short days) and he was gracious enough to assist me in little projects for almost 2 hours!

Mid-afternoon we headed up to Salt Lake, when diva-act number 3 appeared. I hadn't been able to sleep in that morning as much as I had hoped, so I slept the whole way to Salt Lake! Poor Stephen was so bored! He didn't even want to turn the radio on because he didn't want to disturb my sleep. 

Once we arrived in Salt Lake, we went to the Salt Lake Temple and did sealings. We had the wonderful opportunity to stand proxy for others so they could be sealed to their husband/wife for time and all eternity -- just as we had been able to do, 364 days previous. It was a joyous and powerful experience. I don't think either of us could have wiped the smiles off of our faces if we'd tried! I'm so lucky to be married to Stephen. (I'll save the sappy stuff for my next post about our 1 year anniversary. ;))

After the temple, we wandered around City Creek Mall for a bit and then went to dinner at the Cheesecake factory. It did not disappoint! 

I'm so grateful to everyone who called, texted, wished me a happy birthday on Facebook, and/or sent me a birthday card! I'm especially grateful to Stephen for making it such a great day :)

Oh how I love my life!