Our Last ND Home Game as Students

Well, its the end of a certain era for us.  We have been there through every single home game for football.  We have endured the heat, the cold, and the rain.  Every single game has been completely worth it.  Here are some pictures that we took from the day.  There are more this game than any other!!  Please forgive me that they are not in order, the computer just loads them that way, nothing I can do about it.

Excited on our way!!

Waiting for the Trumpets for the last time!!

Catching a pass on the field!

Waiting for the big game to begin! Supporting Manti with the flowers!

Sad its all coming to an end

Throwing a pass on the field!

Sealing the season with a kiss!

Blimp... because Zack loves Blimps.  He says you know its big time when there is a blimp

Game faces! In front of the famous tunnel!

Zack Martin with us! 

Zack IN the famous tunnel

Just after the game! 

Waiting for Trumpets again!

Starting the season off right!

Four years ago today, I kissed the lips of the last man I would ever kiss.  As a celebration, I am posting about our first kiss.  Warning: it will be sappy.

Well, to start off, I should make sure that it is known that Zack and I had very different views on our relationship at this point.  Over Thanksgiving break, I told my whole family that I had a man in Utah and that we were pretty serious.  In the mean time, Zack was up in Kaysville going out to his friends weddings.  We had never even kissed, so I don't blame him for taking dates.  In fact, it was my plot to have him go home and go to all those weddings and realize that he loved me and he wanted to be next.

This being said, we hung out pretty much every day just the two of us at his place, and we never even got close enough to kiss. Believe me, I tried.  I didn't lean in and get denied or anything, but I was plenty flirtacious and hinted to him all the time that it was ok.  However, it was to no prevail.  He held strong and didn't kiss me. It killed me.

Then, I knew that he was coming back from break, so I was eagerly watching outside my window for his car to pull up and go into his apartment.  When I saw it, I ran outside and gave him a big hug! (If I could give myself some advice at that point, I would have told myself not to seem so desperate!)  He invited me over to watch the movie Elf, and I gladly accepted!  We got a blanket and watched it with his roommate and his girl at the time.  Under the blanket... wait for it... we held hands.  Yes, I know.  It was a big step.  Well after the movie, we found ourselves all alone on the couch in the front room.  Before I knew it, our lips were locked in a beautiful kiss.  When he pulled away, we both looked at eachother, and I knew it was love.  I cannot tell you how badly I wanted to tell him I loved him right in that moment, but I held it back.  He held my gaze for quite a while, as if he knew what I was thinking, and he was thinking it too.  It is probably in my head, but it felt as though we had made an unspoken promise that we both knew this secret and yet neither of us wanted to tell.  I mean, we hadn't even had our "DTR"  yet, we couldn't love eachother, could we?

Well later on in our relationship, when we were talking about our first kidd, he revealed to me that he did indeed feel that he wanted to say he loved me,  but thought it was just too crazy to be in love so fast.  In deed, it is crazy.  And who knows, maybe it wasn't love just yet.  Maybe it was hormones mixed with hope of a new relationship filled with lots of really great kissing.  That being said, I choose to believe that it was just a little bit of inspiration from our Father in Heaven that we were indeed meant to be.  It still took us a month and a half after this kiss to officially declare our relationship status, but four years ago today, I knew it was the start of something beautiful.  How right I was.  I am on lucky lady!

To celebrate this special anniversary, we will watch Elf tonight and I will hope and pray that I will get a kiss as beautiful as I did four years ago!  And maybe if I'm lucky I might get two kisses.. or maybe even......... three!

It is wonderful and weird and amazing to think about how far our love has come and how dependent we are on eachother. I could not be more grateful for the man that he has become and the love that we share.  Here are some old pictures from those early days of our relationship!

Our first official date! In December

Our first Christmas!  Yes, those are Batman boxers. He loved them. Inside joke.

So in love!

My Birthday dinner 2009!

Our first Valentines Day date. 2009

I had to do it... Politics

Well, with the upcoming election tomorrow, I just had to write a little bit down about my thoughts about politics. I named my post so that anyone who doesn't want to read it doesn't have to.  But here are my thoughts.

This will be my first time voting.  I was only 19 during the last election and honestly care less.  Now I see the problem with that, but then, I honestly just did not care at all.  But with this being my first election, and with a Mormon and a black man running for President, I guess you could say I got curious.  The funny thing is, I REALLY hesitated to give any support to Mitt Romney BECAUSE he is Mormon.  I didn't know anything about Mitt and I just got very nervous that having a Mormon man in the lime light could potentially be really bad for us, especially if he were to pull some idiot moves, which by the way, every President has done.  I just was nervous of what the effects would be for me religiously if he were elected.  This whole mind set of mine did not make my husband too happy.  He is happy that I think for myself, but he is just better, I think at knowing more about what he wants and who each of these men are.  To make a long story short, through much much research and in talking to current Obama fans, people who used to be Obama supporters and now are not, and people who know a lot about Romney, I will cast my vote tomorrow supporting Romney.  Not because he is Mormon, but because, in my humble opinion, he is the man for the job.

That being said, I think it is important for me to say that I think that Obama is a great man who is doing the best with his current knowledge to push our country in the right direction.  I believe that he truly does want the best for our country and is constantly fighting for our good.  I think both men, whether elected or not,will definitely do their best to help our country.  I just happen to agree more with the way Romney is going about it.  I wish that people could disagree more without being so mean or ugly.  And I am saying that about BOTH sides of the ballot.  I have been impressed as well as disappointed by both candidates. 

In the end, I trust God.  It says that on our money, just in case you are wondering.  "In God We Trust".  No matter who gets elected, it is part of a plan made by a loving Heavenly Father who loves us and is molding us for something so much greater than we can imagine now.  We need to do our part to make this country and world to be a better place, and in the end, we just need to trust Him and know that he is taking care of us.

Marriage.

Marriage is a delicate thing. A delicate thing at which, most days, I fail miserably.  A delicate thing at which my husband keeps together for us.  I do not deserve him.  I am moody and get tired rather easily and get headaches and want all of his attention when his attention needs to be elsewhere.  I do my very best to keep up with him,  but by the time I get around to starting laundry or loading or unloading the dishwasher or anything like that, he has beat me to it.  I try to make dinners and the cleanest, neatest wife around, but then I get a little behind, and I feel so overwhelmed.  Who is ALWAYS there to pick up the slack? Zack.  No matter how much he has on his plate, he is there for me and working to make my life better.

I don't want to paint a picture that I am some bad wife or something, because I really do try my very best.  I know that Zack needs me and is grateful for me and everything, I just am so overly grateful for him today that it makes me want to shout it from the roof tops!  I know that I have a TON of work to do in order to be the wife that he deserves, and I definitely try hard, but I am just so grateful for the atonement that makes it possible for me to work up to his level.  I know that he has his own things to work on, but he does too! He works on himself constantly and I am so grateful to have him as a husband.  That is all.

ND game with the Olsens and Bensons!

Well, I know it is almost a month later, but I need to write about the wonderful time that we had when the Olsens and Bensons visited!  I think I have been putting it all off because I am scared to think about the memories because they were so good that every time I think about it I start to cry because I miss everyone so much!  I mean, don't get me wrong, we LOVE life out here! We both just really miss our family life back home.    Well, I have to start off  by how the whole weekend started, Thursday night Mike and Debi came over to see us! And while I was sad that they didn't bring their kids, it was amazing to have some time to just hang out with our amazing friends and just talk.  So we showed them our cute little pace and chatted for a while and then they went back to the Brennans place because it was time for sleep. The men had an early Tee time!

So that is what the guys did, they went to play some golf, then they went to the football luncheon, and then they went to the bookstore with the one and only Billy Casper, because he was doing a book signing there, and obviously Mike knows everyone famous so they were there for a while.  In fact, that is where we met up with the guys! But before that, Debi came over to my house, looking all pretty and stuff, and we chatted for a little bit, went to lunch, went for pedicures, and then shopped around the mall for a while!  We got all of the kids' Christmas outfits purchased (and got a total steal on them if you ask me)!! I was proud of that!  Then we met up at the bookstore with the men and did some shopping, got some autographs.  Not to name drop, ok, well maybe just a little since it was pretty cool, but we got Billy Casper's book and got his, James Parkinson's , and Lee Benson's autographs.  I thought it was pretty cool.  But then we had to separate from the Bensons because they had other things planned, (sad) and meet up with the Olsens (YAY!!).  So we met at our house, changed fast and went off to the pep rally.  That was shorter than we had expected, but again, a BLAST!  And obviously so good to be able to do that with family.  Then we went to dinner at Chilli's and then back to the bookstore to do, you guessed it, more shopping!  I think that day we spent a total of like 5 hours in the bookstore.  It was a good time.

Well we were so exhausted after all of those festivities that we ended up just going to bed and the waking up in time to do a little more shopping before the pre-game festivities!!  We did the player walk and the trumpets in the dome and then we were off to the game!!  The rest is a complete secret because illegal things may or may not have happened.  Just kidding, everything was completely legal.  We all separated and had a blast at the game.

After the game it was so fun to hear all of the wonderful stories that everyone had to share about their own experience at the game.  I hope this doesn't make anyone feel like they are not being given credit, because there are so many people that we would not be here without, but after the game, looking at everyone's smiles and hearing their happy stories reiterated to me how lucky I am to be married to the man that I am married to.  Everyone gets to have those memories now and forever because my husband had the guts to step up and shoot for something bigger than he thought was possible.  We are here. And we are so lucky.  I know that I didn't know Papa for long before he died, and the only part of him that I knew was pretty sick, but I could really feel him with us after the game.  He loved this school, and his family was here.  Even if he wasn't necessarily there, I think everyone was thinking about him, which brought about a special spirit.  It was great.

Well we got to meet up with the Bensons one more time before they had to leave, but then we had to say goodbye... :(  We went back to the house with the Olsens, we all went to bed, and then in the morning we woke up, went to church, and then it was time to say goodbye to the Olsens.  It was an absolute whirlwind of a weekend, but man was it worth it.  We miss them like crazy!  Anyways, here are some pictures to keep you interested!  Enjoy!

Til next time!

Our 1st ND FOOTBALL GAME!

Hello again!  What a weekend it has been for us!! First of all, as always, we have been super busy with school and what not.  Zack has been really stepping up his game on networking and researching different companies to find the perfect fit for a career for him.  It has been good because it has really helped us to start thinking about our future, but it has also been hard because it is very time consuming for him.  I told him the other day that I wished I was a computer so that he would stare at me all day.  Really though, he is such a hard worker and I am so lucky to be his wife.

My schedule is a little less hectic than his, but it is still crazy.  I am still working part-time as a nanny as well as doing my student teaching.  This means lots of early mornings!  Which sucks because that means I have to go to bed early, which means that I don't get to go to bed at the same time as my sweetheart.  I know, thats not a big trial, but I still just don't like it.  There is something special about laying next to the one you love and cuddling before you fall asleep.  Even though it takes me a little longer to fall asleep when he is there, I also find that I sleep better when he actually comes to bed at the same time as me.  But otherwise, things are really wonderful!  Especially since its.... FOOTBALL SEASON!!!

So if you knew me growing up, you know, I was never really a sports fan.  I mean I loved gymnastics, but as far as like basketball and football and other ESPN type sports go... count me out!  But this has become my favorite time of year!  I'm not sure if its because the weather cools off a bit, which of course means cuter clothes and more cuddling!!!  Or if it is the yummy smell of cinnamon and pumpkin that is everywhere or if it is just the wonderful sport of football that has become a huge part of my life over the past 3 years.  Regardless of the reason, this weekend was a BLAST!

We started out our Saturday by going and taking Zack in to work a concessions stand on campus.  I figured, it over was 4 hours before kick off, so I would have plenty of time to find a parking spot on campus and hang out til Zack's 1 hour shift was over.  Boy were we wrong!!  You have to have a special hang tag to park on campus, and by the way, even if we had one, the spots were filled up! Four HOURS before kick off!  So I searched for parking elsewhere, but everyone is charging like 20-40 bucks to park in their parking lots!  It was Bonkers!!  But finally I found a grocery store that was about 2 miles from campus that I could park at.  I parked, walked to campus (the whole way there is was like one big ND tailgate!) and got there about 15 minutes before Zack's shift ended.  We went to the MBA tailgate and had some lunch and met some wonderful people, and then we were off to watch the football players walk from the library (Touch-Down Jesus) to the stadium.  It was pretty cool! Especially when we saw Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson from less than 10 feet away!  :)

After the Player walk it off to the Golden Dome to listen to the "Trumpets in the Dome".  This is a pre-game tradition where all the trumpet players from the band line the beautiful spiral walk way up to the dome and play ND music.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but grown men were literally crying because of the pride they have in this school.  It was beautiful music and really just united all the people who were there watching and participating.

After that it was Game time!   We found our seats and sat in them for about 5 minutes until that game started , at which time we stood up because the student section is so cool that we don't sit down!  Thats how supportive we are!  The game was amazing and we brought home the W!!  It was a fun, exciting, and exhausting day!  We cannot wait until next time!  Two weeks! Then we will be sharing the experience with the Olsens!! WOOHOO!!!

Below are some pictures of our fun experience!

Til next time!

This picture is really funny to me and has nothing to do with my post but apparently Zack thought he was sooo funny looking like he is licking me.  So I posted it. Jokes on him!

This is the 5 minutes in which we were sitting down! Very beloved 5 minutes.

Another picture that doesn't have much to do with my post.  Just to show how lucky I am to have the husband that I do.  He had this one morning on the front door when I had to leave to teach.  I am one lucky woman!

This is the Players walk thing.  You see the blank part on the sidewalk?  Thats where the players walk.  There were literally thousands of people there!

Lovin this view! This was about an hour til kick off!  Give this picture another 30 minutes and there wasn't an empty seat in the house!

The Golden dome!  This is where the trumpet players line up to play.  So So So cool.

This was right before the player walk.  Where we saw Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.. Should I name drop again? Ok I will.. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.  I could have touched them. 

I know its hard to believe, but in this picture is Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.  See the guy in a black jacket, blue cap, and blonde hair hanging out of his hat?  Owen Wilson.  The guy right behind him in the same clothes but with dark hair? Vince Vaughn. Watching the game

This is a picture of the trumpets in the dome!

Just a picture of all the freaking people.  And this is just in one section outside of the stadium.  It was seriously so crazy! And so much fun! We can't wait for next home game to have the Bensons and Olsens come with us!!

Random good happenings!

So our lives have gone from Zack being super busy to both of us being insanely crazy busy in pretty much no time at all.  Here are the things that we have been up to:

• Bensons came
• We had 2 weeks for homework,  good housework, homework, some rest, school, homework and work. (all the homework was Zacks and all the rest was mine)
• Zack's parents came to visit the day his school got out and stayed for a couple of days. (see blog about it!)
• After Zack's parents left, we had 4 days to literally do nothing/whatever we wanted.  It was SO amazing!! 
• Monday of last week was Zack's first day of school, but it was only 1 class and super easy.  Also this marks the day that we became 2012 Notre Dame season football ticket holders!  Such a joyous occasion.
• Tuesday Zack had his first real day of classes and I had what was supposed to be an hour long breakfast meeting at the school I am student teaching at, but it turned into an all day event, well until about 3 because I had visiting teaching. 
• Wednesday I started my Student teaching!  I was not supposed to start until this coming week, but at the meeting on Tuesday, they asked me to start, so I did! It has been so much fun getting to know all of the kids that I am teaching and all of their little personalities!  Lets just say, I think I was born to teach.  It is just the most wonderful thing ever.  SO exhausting. SO SO exhausting. In fact, a funny fact about me is that when I was little, my mom always told me that whoever I married and had to sleep next to at night, she felt sorry for, because I am a crazy sleeper. However I have recently discovered, actually Zack discovered,  that I'm not too bad of a sleeper when I am well rested, however, when I am exhausted, I become hilarious.  I have not been too crazy since we got married, only a few occasions have I talked in my sleep or slept in odd positions, but apparently the last few nights I have been a little crazy.  I felt really bad about it because I can sometimes keep Zack up when he really needs his sleep, but then he told me that he eggs me on!  Like for example, I guess the other night I sat up in my sleep and said in a panic, "No! You need to go first, I'll go second."  So, naturally, Zack said in a panic, only he was completely awake, "No, Bailey, you can't go second. Please don't go second."  I have no idea why he egged me on, but apparently I got mad at him and I don't remember any of it.  Well actually, I do remember him being really annoying during the night, but I couldn't remember why.  That must have been it.
• Thursday and Friday were a blur of teaching and school and early mornings and late nights.  
• That brings us to the weekend where we got lots of rest and went to a beautiful baptism and really enjoyed ourselves.  So now it is back to the grind!

Below are some pictures depicting some of the fun we have had.  Hope you enjoy! Til next time...

Holding our season tickets!  With our great friends Brian and Carolyn Esplin!!

I hurt my shoulder lifting with Zack one day and didn't want to do my hair, so Zack did it for me.  This was the finished product.  Needless to say, my arm got better REAL fast.

ND soccer!!!!  Not half as fun as football, but it was still a blast!

This is our pseudo pet Frogger.  We named him Frogger like the game because he lives outside and every time we see him he is crossing the sidewalk.  We see him always at nights and I give him water.  We really do love him.

So, it had been about a week since I had seen Frogger, and I was literally getting worried about him.  The lawn had been mowed, and I was afraid that he had gotten chopped up or eaten my a nearby cat that Zack saw.  However.... He lives!!!  We saw him just last night at I was so excited that I literally got teary eyed.  Why do I care so much for this toad?! 

Its Time for Mike and Steph!

Wow! What a whirlwind of weeks! We were so grateful to have a visit from the Olsens!!! Seriously it was so good to have family around.  I hope that when I say this, I do not offend anyone, because it is not meant to be offensive.  But when we lived in Utah, don't get me wrong, I always loved seeing family and having them around, and we didn't get to see them much, so it was still great whenever we saw them, but I guess I never really appreciated how much they did for us.  When we were only a couple of hours or less away, it was easy to give us a freezer full of meat, or left overs from dinner that would make a few lunches for us.  Or when Zack got hurt, it was so nice that his parents were able to give him this ice machine thing.  I mean, I was always grateful for the help, but I don't think that I realized how nice it was to just be able to go home.  And the funny thing is, "going home" could be used for when we went to Toquerville or Kaysville.  Both Zack and I felt at home in both places. 

But back to what I was saying before, I never really appreciated the perks of having family all around.  Yes, the left overs, or pumpkin bread from Grandee (my grandma) or going out to dinner with Nana, (Zack's Grandma), or getting left overs or meat or whatever it might be, was wonderful, but the best part was being surrounded with love.  We are surrounded with love here in South Bend, our ward and friends are so wonderful, but being surrounded with loving family is something that is irreplaceable.  That was really brought to my mind when Mike and Steph were here.  They are so incredibly willing to help us both physically and emotionally.

I am grateful that even though we live far away, I know that families can be together forever.  Not just for this life, but for eternity!  It gives me comfort every single day. (to learn more about my beliefs visit www.mormon.org )
 
 Below are some pictures of all the fun times that we had together while here!!  I hope you enjoy! til next time...

Mike and Steph in front of the Football stadium!  First time being to campus, and I think they really loved it!  It was different than they expected, and I think it was the same for Zack and I.  You expect it to look so... old I guess, and really it all looks pretty new.  But regardless it was fun to be there and walk around campus.

Steph and I at this really great beach only about an hour from us!  It was so hot! We wished that we brought our bathing suits. :(  I would have gone in but we had to drive home in the car.  But we did all get our feet in! (besides party pooper Zack, he didn't want to have to take his socks off and get them all sandy)

This is a beautiful picture that Zack took while we walked around a lake on campus.  It was such a beautiful night for a walk.

White Sox game!  Loving time with the parents!

Zack and I on the pier at Silver Beach.  Like I said before, so beautiful!

Walking around Chicago on the first day with the  Olsens. So fun! and a really cool piece of art.  The funny thing was how HOT it was up by it! That sun just reflected off it and it was like 10 degrees hotter when you got up by it.

Visit from the Bensons!!

What an amazing week!!!  I had the week off of work, Zack had an easier week of school, and... drumroll please..... THE BENSONS CAME!  Well, most of them.  Mike and Truman were spending some much needed father son time, but Debi, Tatum, and Talmage came and stayed with us for an entire week!! I seriously cannot describe how much fun that was for us!  It was a lot of work, having 5 people living with 1 bathroom, 2 small bedrooms, and a tiny rest of the house, but man oh man was it worth it! 

On the way to the airport, we saw a plane land, which might have been theirs.  I was so excited for them to land that I may or may not have rolled down the car window and screamed at the top of my lungs, "Hello Debi! Hello Tatum! Hello Talmage!!!".  I may have, or I may not have.  I will let you decide what you think.

The first day they got here late in the evening so after they got here we got them all settled in their little room and basically put them to bed.  The next day, we all slept... a LOT! I was so happy to have some sleep that day and get some rest to gear up for the rest of the week!  I would go into details about all the crazy fun things we did, but honestly, I'm not sure it would sound all that fun to anyone but us.  We went to a soft ball game of Zack's, we went to the pool, out to dinner, out for ice cream, cleaned/re-finished my couches, and just enjoyed each other.  I know that might not sound like a crazy fun week, but man oh man, I cannot tell you how much I absolutely enjoyed it.  I honestly don't know if I can express how much this sweet family means to Zack and I.  We have been with them since Talmage was 3 months old.  They have taught us so much about parenthood and relationships and how to overcome obstacles.  They have helped both Zack and I mature and treat each other more fairly and overcome those little petty immature arguments.  These kids quickly stole our hearts and then we grew closer to their amazing parents.  If it weren't for them, we would not even be attending school at Notre Dame.  They have believed us and pushed us forward and inspired us to become something more than we had originally planned.  However, even more than that, they have become our best friends.  It was such an amazing week that I cannot even describe.  I took lots of video, but for some reason all of my videos from my phone, no matter what way they were filmed, are loading side ways.  There is one below that you can watch because it was too good to leave out, but here are some pictures! Please note that Tatum took over 100 pictures on my phone of herself.  I believe that when she did this she got crap on my lens.  Because of that, Hardly any pictures that I took turned out until I figured it out and cleaned it off.  I know it looks like we love Talmage more, but it is absolutely not true! We love all of our kids the same! We just have more pictures that turned out with Talmage in them.  Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Til next time!

Surprising the Olsens!

So, a couple of weeks ago, Zack and I get a text from his dad saying, Hey I need to talk to one of you ASAP.  My first thought? Oh great, who died?!  Don't worry, nobody died.  He just had a plan.  He wanted to surprise everyone and fly Zack and I out to Kaysville to go to Jace's ordination. (He was ordained an elder!)  It took a little bit of work, but we were able to nail down a time that we could make it to Chicago to make a flight to Kaysville, stay for one day, and then fly right on back.  We woke up at 4 am on Saturday to drive 2 hours to the airport. It was an EARLY morning to say the least, but we barely made it on time! 

When we got to the Salt Lake airport Zack's dad was there to pick us up.  He had told his wife he needed to go put gas in his truck.  Just in case you were wondering, it takes 20 minutes to get to the airport from Zack's house, so by the time he left for the airport, really got gas, and returned, it was well over an hour.  I thought his cover up would not be good enough.  However this was not the case, he pulled off the surprise just perfectly.

Steph, please don't kill me, but I am posting the video of the surprise.  It was the greatest thing, and it needed to be shared.  The good news is, it is side ways, and I was not a good recorder, so it is hard to see.  Also it makes a big fool out of me.  I am very much like my mother in the fact that I am absolutely horrible at surprises.  You can tell I am shaking with excitement, and my stupid goofy laugh is just ridiculous.  But it was priceless.

The day went well! we went to Kaden's baseball game, then had a fun dinner around the fire, then woke up and went to Jace's ordination, hurried home to scarf down some dinner, and then were off on our way to the airport.  With such a whirlwind of a weekend, I only got one picture, but you can see it below!

Til next time!