The Blessings of Mexican Literature

One of my least favorite classes this semester is SPA 429, Mexican Literature, NOT to be confused with my favorite class this semester, SPA 485, Mexican-American Literature. Although it is not stimulating and I really just browse Pinterest the entire hour and fifteen minutes, I have witnessed two blessings tied to that class, JUST THIS WEEK. Who knows what blessings may come in the remaining months of the semester!

1. El Huevo (The egg)

On Tuesday we began our class with the most dreaded phrase: POP QUIZ. The quiz was on a certain literary work called "La repuesta a Sor Filotea", which I DID read, but in July for a different class. So, of course I didn't waste my time and read all million pages again, and relied on my almost perfect memory to see me through. Our professor announced that there would only be one question because the purpose was to make sure that we were actually reading: What does Sor Juana hold in her hand as she discusses how she was able to learn philosophy from her kitchen? Ummmmmmmmmm....? My mind totally drew a blank. I could remember that scene and what she was talking about what couldn't remember what she was holding. So I thought and thought and thought, and kept thinking egg, but not with an A-Ha assurance, just a, hmmm maybe it was an egg kind of thought. Well, that thought kept coming and I ending up putting, un huevo, an egg, as my answer. After all of the papers were collected our professor announced that the correct answer was indeed an egg. Without holding back I said yesssssssss and did a little victory dance, while my fellow classmates all groaned and discussed what their incorrect answers were. After my little party for one another thought came to my mind, it was actually a quote that is found in the missionary manual, Preach My Gospel, and was something I had read often when I was a missionary. I don't remember what it says exactly but basically the Holy Ghost cannot remind me of something I haven't studied. If I had not read that assignment already over the summer the Holy Ghost would not have reminded me, "Hey...the answer is egg". BUT because I had read it, the Holy Ghost was able to remind me and teach me that Heavenly Father is not only concerned with our spiritual needs but also our earthly needs, such as needing to graduate. Man, it was such a cool experience! 

2. "Do you interpret?"

As I was leaving class today I was talking to another student about what spanish ward she attends and which one I attend, it was nice to realize there was another member in my class. This sister commented, "Oh you go to a spanish branch? That is why your spanish is so good." Oh well, if you insist....I guess my spanish is pretty good... :D Another student was behind us and overheard and asked me, "Hey do you interpret anywhere?" and I said, well in church I translate from spanish to english for a few people who don't speak spanish in my congregation, but other than that, nooooo. She proceeded to tell me that she works for a company that contracts interpreters and that she would bring me a card next week because she thought I might enjoy working there. I seriously almost started crying. I felt so aware that my Heavenly Father is guiding my steps and is putting me in places to find a good job after I graduate. I still am really nervous about finding someone good enough that we can maybe move into a house, get another car for Abe, put Abe through college...it's a lot of responsibility but I want to be able to do it. I know that I will be blessed with a good job and that many opportunities will present themselves and I will have to choose. Which is the hardest thing for me, I am not a good decision-maker haha. What a great day, I am feeling a-maz-ing. 

I love spanish....just saying. haha.

Adventures in Family Home Evening...

Family Home Evening...or Noche de Hogar, as we call it in our very bilingual home :), has been something that we have had to learn and adjust to doing since entering the world of wedded bliss. Abraham and I were both baptized into the church when we were 18, therefore we have no idea what Family Home Evening looks like in real life. We know how its SUPPOSED to look, and have a somewhat unrealistic idea of what it is...but FHE on a weekly basis, with all its imperfections and variations? No clue. I am so grateful that in Relief Society we talked about what kind of things can go on during FHE and we made these super cute things to put FHE "assignments" on....

This has actually really helped us to REMEMBER to have FHE on monday, because we are so busy and usually after work and school is over all we want to do is lay in bed and watch Cake Boss. We have talked several times about how important it is that we get this routine down BEFORE we have kids, so that we can be ready when that time comes and all you-know-what breaks lose haha (think about how crazy our kids will be...THAT is why we are starting to prepare now). Even though we don't have any kids yet, and who knows when we will feel prompted to attempt parenthood, so don't ask if we are pregnant, it has been a huge blessing to set aside time every week to put our focus on what is most important. Sometimes FHE seems to be the ONLY time where we gets to focus on our companionship and our goals, etc.

This week we had a GREAT lesson, conducted by my wonderful husband, on being "one". He started it out with a goooood 'ol companionship inventory, just like we had to do as missionaries once upon a time. We started by talking about what habits each of us has that just bug the heck out of the other one, or what things we think need to improve on in our marriage. Thank goodness we ended it with the positives: what things we just love about each other and what things we are doing right in our marriage. If you don't do this with your spouse I highly suggest it. We have done it a few times, and it has been a huge blessing to our relationship.

He ended the lesson quoting a talk by Elder Holland called "Standing Together for the Cause of Christ". In the article Elder Holland talks about the unity between the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and says that they are, "one in spirit, one in strength, one in purpose, one in voice, one in glory, one in will, one in goodness, and one in grace." I wasn't quite sure where Abe was going with this until he said, "We should be this united." Wow. I had never thought that before, that the unity between husband and wife should be similar to the unity that exists within the Godhead. That quote hasn't left my thoughts since this monday, and I have been constantly pondering how we can be that united. Time will certainly be a huge factor, because we are no where near that kind of unity, but the important thing is that we have a goal and we are working towards it. 

Gosh, my husband is amazing. What a great lesson. Our family nights are getting better and better every week. BUT if you have any ideas on what we can do for FHE as a newlywed childless couple, PLEASE let me know :) We our open to suggestions.

Pinterest Project {numero two}

Since the beginning of this year I have become a muy big fan of Pinterest. It pretty much planned my wedding for me. I found my cake, flowers, centerpieces, everything on Pinterest, and then made everything myself. Way to go me for saving a crap ton of money :) Pinterest has also become my loyal companion during reallllly boring classes. This last Christmas I wanted to make something inexpensive for my roomies, because I love them so, and decided to take on a Pinterest project: Chicken Wire Bulletin Boards. Like this...
I would say they were a success, and I had a lot of fun searching through all of the Goodwills and D.I.'s for old, cheap, yet cool looking frames. This morning, on a total whim, I decided to attempt another project: The Paint-Chip Dry Erase Board
Now this person obviously put a lot more effort into theirs because the squares line up perfectly and the frame has been antiqued, but I do not have the luxury of time, so I did mine in about 30 minutes, with the help of my husband's mom, Olivia. Even though my squares are a wee bit crooked and the frame I found at good will is pretty boring, it suits its function and I am pleased with the outcome :)

I have strategically placed it right next to the fridge with that hope that my husband will at least glance at it. He is always asking, "What time do you work today?" or "Do we have plans tomorrow?" and for awhile I was using a planner that we can both see on our phones but that only lasted a few months and now neither of us uses it really. SO this is my second attempt at informing my husband on current and future events that involve him. 

Now to decide what my next project will be....

The Hang-Up-Able Scrabble Game?

The Wedding Photo To Wood Transfer?

orrrrrrr

DIY bean bag chair?

....The possibilities are endless, and the amount of free space, whether it be floor or wall, in our itty bitty living space, is certainly about to end. Thus exists the need to chooooooose wisely.

2 months

So, I have definitely neglected the blog, BUT I totally have an excuse. The last two weeks I have been working two jobs, one during the day and one at night, in addition to my two summer school classes and volunteering in the temple. Thank goodness I am back to just one job for the next two weeks.

A lot has happened this last month, including our weekend in Vegas touring Abraham's mission for his birthday, but I think I'll cover that in a separate post.

Yesterday we hit or two month mark as two old married fogeys and it just keeps getting better. Lessons learned after two months:
1. My husband can be entertained for hours with videos of people crashing, falling, becoming injured, etc. on YouTube. He laughs hysterically while I watch on for about ten minutes because I just don't get what is so funny.

2. Bribery is the only way to get him to clean the house on days when I an just too exhausted from work.

3. Family home evening isn't just for families that include children. My husband prepared a great lesson this Monday and the spirit was felt in our home in such a powerful way that I was brought to tears. For a small moment I wasn't thinking about homework, bills, laundry, the lack of air conditioning in my car, or dirty dishes. For a small moment Abraham and I could simply relax and enjoy a sweet feeling of peace, knowing that our Heavenly Father loves us and guides us. For a small moment I was able to remember that my afflictions "shall be but a small moment".

4. One of the greatest feelings is waking up early before we leave for work to just be in each other's arms, not needing to say anything at all.

I love my life. It is no where near easy, nor perfect, but it is shared with a man who has been prepared since before birth to be my eternal companion.

Oh wedded bliss :)
Madison

Feliz Mes

Who knew this day would come so fast!

Abraham and I have now been married for an entire month!

Even though it snuck up on us we felt that we have been married much longer with all of the things we have learned since we said "Sí". I wanted to be a good little wife so after I got home from work I picked up this little beauty from Frys and hid it in the back of the fridge. (It says "Feliz Mes" which translates to "Happy Month" and is entirely incorrect grammatically speaking. Do I care that it doesn't actually make sense? No. Did my husband laugh at it? Yes. Was it delicious? Yes, and has been delicious every morning that I have eaten it for breakfast since Monday.)

As soon as the hubby got home he got himself cleaned up and took me out to dinner. I drove, but he told me how to get where we were going. We ended up at a the Lonestar Steakhouse off of Camelback and the 51, but Abraham was very disappointed because he thought it was a Texas Roadhouse and wanted to surprise me with a little flashback of my missionary service in Texas. I love him. I told  him it was okay because Texas is the Lonestar state and it will be basically the same thing, and he accepted that with a not so happy look on his face. Dinner was delicious, regardless of the fact that it wasn't where he had planned to take me.

Once we got home he got comfortable on the couch and put in our Red Box movie, while I prepared the surprise "Happy Month" cake. I lit the candle and told him to come into the kitchen and yelled SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! To which he responded, "Madison, what the heck is that?" Haha. After a good laugh we tried several times to blow the candle out together, but had to keep re-lighting it and blowing it out again because one of us always had to be a stinker and blow it out at the count of 2 instead of 3. 

This month has been crazy. It has been quite the adjustment for both of us, and has been a roller coaster ride of moments when I can't help but cry because I am so happy and ones where I just want to knock him out. Haha, not really, I am not a violent person, and Abraham hasn't done anything that deserves domestic violence. But, we have learned a TON together. Such as:

1. What burnt plastic smells like. AND that no one is perfect in the kitchen. Including my husband who looks like ratatouille whenever he cooks. The following tupperware meets stovetop incident was NOT me, surprisingly, and was a good reminder that everyone makes mistakes and sometimes we just need to laugh about it...and then hang it on your kitchen wall for everyone to see ;)

2. Abraham does NOT like to be hot. I mean temperature hot, of course he acknowledges and loves the fact that he is muy caliente ;) But, he does not like to be hot, ever. He does not use a blanket or sheets when he sleeps and like the fan on high. He takes cold showers. He gets a smidge frustrated when the AC goes out in my car and we end up drenched in sweat. And finally, he does not understand why people like the hot tub. "Madison, you want me to go in there?! It's freakin' hot!" Yes, and it's always freakin' amazing. He says he is training himself to like hot water in preparation for the hot tub by making his showers just a littttttle bit hotter each time. Haha, isn't he sweet? That's what I call love. 

3. When I was single I could easily do laundry once a week. That does not fly anymore. I feel like every time I look at the dirty clothes hamper it is overflowing, even though I JUST did laundry like an hour ago. How does this happen? I don't understand. But, I feel like I am constantly doing laundry. 

4. Being married suddenly makes you fall asleep during movies and have to be in bed by 10:00 PM. When we were engaged we would stay up as late as possible just so we wouldn't have to say goodbye, which usually was around midnight or one in the morning. Now that we are married we are usually asleep by 11:00 and if we aren't we are sleeping somewhere else, such as our couch, my mom's couch, his mom's couch, the floor, etc. Twice now we have fallen asleep on my mom's couch after dinner and haven't woken up for hours.

5. I never fell in love with my husband. I started falling in love with him the day I met him and keep falling for him a little bit more each day. Some days I look at him and cannot believe that I married someone so perfect for me that I was sure that he couldn't possibly exist. 

Oh wedded bliss :)

Madison

Family Picnic

Once a year my work has a Family Picnic for all of the associates and their families. This year they rented out Big Surf for the Arizona associates and it was so much fun. This was like my 5th company picnic, but I have never enjoyed it as much as I did this year. Probably because I didn't have Abraham with me in all of the previous ones :)

I will say this is NOT an attractive picture of either of us...at all. We were at a water park...what do you expect? And who knows why my husband's face looks...I don't even know, just not like his face. BUT we are both independently chose to rock soccer jerseys, his is the Chivas from Guadalajara, Mexico and mine is from the Mexico Selection. We are so cool ;)

It was so fun to have Abraham there because he had never been to an water park before. We approached one of the slides and he said to me, "Madison, we are going to jump from up there? What if I break my leg? Or drown? I can't swim!" I reminded him that yes, he can swim, he chose to go swimming just hours after our sealing in the temple. So, we climbed lots of stairs to the top and rode a double tube down the slide. He screamed all the way down, it was so cute. After we crash landed into the water at the end of the slide I asked him if he liked it and his response was, "LET'S DO IT AGAIN!!!!!" I love my little foreigner. Everything is an adventure with him. Even things that I have been doing for years, like going to the water park, are new and exciting with him. 

I hope life continues to be this exciting and we can continue to appreciate the simple things, such as:

Screaming all the way down the tube slide

The way your stomach feels when you drop straight down the tall slide without a tube

Learning how to mount a raft in the wave pool

The moment you realize the pool is only 5 feet deep and you can stand easily and jump on the raft

Returning to the tube slide hours after the first experience and finding your hat, still floating in the water at the bottom

Realizing you lost the hat in the first place

Not winning anything at the raffle, again

Eating way too much free burgers, chili dogs and watermelon

Just being together and not needing anything else

I love my husband so much it's ridiculous. I know we are still in the honeymoon stage, but I want things to stay like this forever. Well, not exactly. I want thing to be like this except I will be graduated and won't have to work, and maybe there will be kids involved...but LATER, much later. For now we will keep enjoying the simple things of being married. 

Love, Madison

Mormon Misconceptions

One of my favorite things about being Mormon, and one of my least favorite things at the same time, are all of the crazy misconceptions that exist concerning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (yes, that is what the church is actually called, not mormon church) and it's members. I bring this up because this week at work I was blessed with THREE misconceptions about what I can and cannot do as a member of the church. Frankly, they were hilarious, and that is why I want to share them. :)

1. While waiting for a shift to start on Wednesday I sat in the backroom and chatted with some of my co-workers. We all were talking about who won things at the raffle that was held at the annual company picnic the previous day. One of the new hires at our store said the following, more or less:

"I was really hoping to win that portable DVD player at the raffle! My room is like totally old school Mormon style. No T.V., no radio, nothing electronic whatsoever."

I looked at her and asked, "Now, why does that have anything to do with Mormons?"

Her reply was something like, "Oh, well I am no sure but I don't think they can use electricity."

Very Interesting. I informed her that yes, in fact, we can. I just so happen to have a lovely little flat screen in my living room, a laptop, AND a DVD player. Just to name a few of the things in our home that use electricity. I ended by announcing to those co-workers who were my witnesses that "this is why missionaries have to knock on doors all day long, because so many people confuse us with the Amish."

It was super funny. I made sure she knew I wasn't upset and confessed that I too though Mormons were Amish before the missionaries started teaching me 5 years ago. ;) 

2. Today at work I was minding my own people, making some bomb burgers, of course, when one of my co-workers asked, "Madison, can you drink coke?"

I told her yes, I can drink soft drinks. She responded, "I know that, but can you have Coca-Cola products? I heard that because Pepsi is owned by Mormons you are only allowed to drink Pepsi products." 

I laughed out loud at this one. I didn't even know that Pepsi was owned by members of the church. So, if drinking Coke is against the doctrine of the church then no one informed me and they should probably address this scandal at General Conference. 

3. After the Pepsi question and my obvious laughter at the topic, my co-worker, who I love dearly despite her lack of knowledge on the topic, told me that she realllllly knows nothing about the church and that when she first moved to Arizona from the East Coast and saw biking missionaries she thought they were members of Best Buy's Geek Squad.

Today we had both sets of the Elders serving in our Branch over for dinner and we all laughed about the comments of my co-workers. One Elder said that every time they go grocery shopping on Preparation Day they are asked where certain items are located in the store. Oh, how I miss those days of going to Walmart and being constantly asked those kinds of questions. Can you not read the name tag? It does not says Walmart. It has a muuuuuuch longer name, and the name of the Savior. Unless there is a Walmart of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that I am not aware of I do not understand how missionaries are so often confused for Walmart associates. And I have to add that the missionaries dress much nicer than they do as well. 

In conclusion, if you suffer from ignorance or misinformation and think that the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint are Amish-computer-nerd-only-Coke-drinkers then please see http://mormon.org

Here's a video from the website just for funsies, and because I love these things. This one gets me teary-eyed every time I watch it.

Adjusting to Wifehood

Everytime I start blogging again it is because of one person: Katie Devey. This time she claims to be having dreams about my blogs being updated. Well Katie, this one's for you ;)

The transition to wifehood is something I would compare to the transition of becoming a missionary. The weeks prior to my mission I was so excited, yet nervous at the same time, knowing that my mission would be the greatest thing I would ever do, yet having absolutely no idea why or what it would entail. Marriage was something I knew I wanted to do, yet I had no idea what it would entail, what challenges we would face or how much joy I could possibly experience in one single moment. I know that marriage is a mission, that is will require sacrifice, hard work, prayer, repentance, and will be the hardest most rewarding thing I ever experience, just like my mission.

Anyways, let me introduce you to my super-guapo husband

Yep, he is a total dork and I love him for it. 

His name is Abraham.

He is 21 years old and fresh off of his mission in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He was born in Oaxaca, Mexico.

He works at a company that makes super-fancy sinks and is the sink waxer/baker (I don't really like the fact that he comes home with burns on his arms but its whatevs. It's a temporary job).

He wants to attend the LDS Business College next spring to study in their medical program.

He loves Mexican food. And hates American food. "Sandwich? That's not food! That's like....a snack!"

Hence, a perfect introduction to my biggest adjustment as an esposa. I cannot cook without recipes. Mexican food....no recipes. Thank goodness for my amazing mother in law who doesn't tease me when I call and ask, "Mom, how do you make rice?" Yep, that happened. I will admit, I never cooked while I was single, not even as a missionary, but I can bake like nobody's business. So, with help from the mom in law and from my husband, I have been learning the basics of Mexican cuisine. This week I learned how to make pico de gallo, salsa verde, enchiladas, and tinga. I would say they all turned out successful...but I am an American attempted authentic Mexican food...so who knows haha.

Please pray for me, my kitchen, and my husband's stomach lining, that will cease to exist if I "keep putting so much chile in our dinner"

Love, Madison