grams

i am blogging today in honor of my two beautiful grandmas who both have february birthdays.

they have taught me so many things, from how to set the table and have proper etiquette to all kinds of gardening tricks and how to build up food storage. they are both two classy ladies who shower all of their children and grandchildren with much appreciated love. 

i am so lucky to have had access to my sweet grandma hart's closet,
and she let me pick out of few things of hers to keep. (they fit perfectly!) i absolutely had to break out this 

amazing bubblegum pink suit 

for valentine's day and in honor of her birthday. i absolutely loved telling everyone that my suit was worn by my very own grandma. that's true vintage! it is so fun to have some of my grandma's things, and this suit is truly special. i felt so honored to wear something that my grandma wore and loved. 

my grandma hart wore this classy suit to President Nixon's first inaguration. woah!

here i am wearing this very same suit forty three years later.

 i decided to go all out and did my hair in a little victory roll.

it might have been a little much, but i rocked it with pride. 

my grandma hart always looks put together from top to bottom, so i had to follow suit!

 it is amazing how beautifully this suit has lasted. 

clothes were just made better back then.

like i said, i loved having a little piece of my grandma with me. 

 thank you grandma! i sure love you.

and happy, happy birthday.

 aren't grandmas the best?

it seems i have a thing for pink grandma outfits..

 (this one belongs to grandma hawes)

let's talk about love

i love valentine's day because i love love.

it is fun to dedicate one day of the year to all things lovey, dovey, mushy and gushy,

and our february 14, 2013 didn't disappoint. 

fancy dinner, pretty flowers, matchy outfits, so many desserts!

it really was perfect. but it was most perfect because i have the most perfect guy to share it with.

he really is perfect for me: 

 thoughtful, easy going, optimistic, sweet, adorable, appreciative and so much fun. 

exhibit A: thoughtful

anj knows i love a caprese salad. in fact, he knows it is my favorite. so he checked the reveiws of all the italian places in town and made sure to find one that had my fave dish. not only did they have it, they made it heart shaped for valentine's day.

exhibit B: optimistic

we get to the restaurant, like every other restaurant in provo on the fourteenth, and found a line out the door and an hour and a half wait. did that get anj down? nope! we'd wait it out because we knew it would be worth it. and we have scramble with friends on our smart phones.

exhibit C: easy going

when the hostess came back asking for three couples to sit with each other at a round table for six, anj was willing and quick to jump on it, and i was definitely on board! sitting with randoms meant skipping the wait, and we were all about that. it also made for a fun, funny, memorable date. how many people can say that had a valentine's dinner with four other random strangers? (and enjoyed it!)

exhibit D: sweet 

right after i wondered why anj was taking the long way home and waiting at a red light (unusual), he turned and pulled right up to the cocoa bean. two cupcakes to go please? this guy knows the way to my heart! 

exhibit E: adorable

he instagrammed the "cute" things i did for him throughout the day. he appreciates the "cute" things i do for him. he even calls them "cute!" he really knows the way to my heart. 

exhibit F: appreciative

anj was all about continuing the love with a candlelit dinner tonight. i made meatballs, spaghetti and garlic bread in the shape of the heart. i love that anj always compliments my cooking. he even gave me a round of applause. even though it was a simple meal, sharing it with him made it romantic.

if all that isn't love, i don't know what is! but, i must say one of my favorite things about us is that we have so much fun. every minute i am with anj i am having fun, no matter what we are doing. whether eating out or dining in, waiting an hour for dinner or dining with random couples on valentine's day.. life with anj is fun. 

love is fun.

i really couldn't ask for anything more.

happy love day to you all. 

xoxo


p.s. i've had this quote about love in my wallet since my mom gave it to me for valentine's in 2006, and it is one of my favorites. i'd like to share it with you,

"Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy; Love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful; Love is never glad when others go wrong; Love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, always hopeful, always patient. Love never disappears." 
- 1 Corinthians 13, James Moffat translation

honduras.

once upon a time my little sister grew up.

see that white envelope right there? 

it's kind of a big deal.

kind of a really big deal.

from the day we latter-day saint children are small we begin singing,

 "i hope they call me on a mission, when i have grown a foot or two"

now, though jenn has been taller than me since day one, it has been so neat to watch her go through the process of deciding to go on a mission.

missions are really cool things. 

(click the link for more details)

latter-day saint youth dedicate a year and a half or two years of their lives to go and serve the people of wherever the Lord may call them. they take an eighteen month or two year break from phone calls, television, music, and regular life and spend each day sharing a message of good news with anyone and everyone they meet. 

whether or not you believe in God, whether or not you claim a religion, missions are awesome.

our missionaries and members serve by teaching english, helping people move, and showing love.

when one decides to go on a mission, you fill out papers and do the necessary work, and then you wait.

you wait for your call.

currently there are 

"52,000 missionaries are currently serving in 350 missions around the world. " (mormon.org)

and you can be called anywhere.

we believe, we know, it is an inspired decision, one that comes from God.

a white envelope comes to your door, and in that envelope you discover where you are going, when you leave, and what language you will speak.

that's why this white envelope is such a big deal!

before october 2012, boys usually went on missions at 19, and girls were allowed to go on missions at 21. jenn figured she had years to think about a mission!

in october 2012, our church leaders announced that boys could now go at 18 and girls at 19.

all of a sudden, jenn had a grand decision on her hands.

  deciding to dedicate a year and a half of her life to the lord should be taken seriously!

after much thought and discussion and prayer, jenn made the decision to go.

wow.

she filled out the papers and forms, and then she waited...

on january 25, that envelope arrived.

friends and family gathered to hear the exciting news!

thank heavens for technology...

the time came for her to open it.

there is a very specific way to open the envelope and flip it just right so you don't spoil where you are going too soon. 

and then she read, as all future missionaries do,

"Dear Sister Bodine, 

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission. Reporting to the 

Guatemala Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, June 12, 2013...."

(please note the AWESOME facial expressions in all following photos)

 as soon as she read HONDURAS we all screamed because, of course, that is where anj had guessed she was going! and honduras is just a pretty wild place in general...

 he was pretty pumped.

and so was everyone else!

the tears flowed, the joy was felt.

it truly was SUCH an exciting moment.

 it's still hard to believe that my adorable, little sister is going on a mission.

 i am so proud of her, and i am so excited for her.

we all are.

 i love seeing and hearing how excited she is.

the people of honduras will be lucky to have her, and i know she will be blessed while she is there.

 j, i really can't say it enough how proud i am. 

i'm so amazed that you are making this huge decision and sacrifice,

that you are going to go to honduras, that you are going to eat chicken feet and walk everywhere you go. you will learn so much, and it will be such an amazing opportunity.

and that's the story. come june 12, we'll say goodbye to our sweet j for 18 months...

and i couldn't be more excited about it!

aren't you proud of her too?

to see a cute video of jenn talking about this exciting day, click here!

sure love you j.

a little last bit of island love.

yep. i'm still blogging about hawaii. 

when you take 1000 pictures you have to post a good chunk right?

and as of an update on my life: 

full time job + husband studying for the mcat + netflix = nothing too exciting is happening right now. 

sometimes in life you have successes, 
and sometimes you might fail. 

on my last day in sunny HI, we had both:

we saw some of my efy kids from summer 2011. they both go to BYU-H. it was great to see 'em all grown up! they are surfin' their way through school, and that sounds like the life. jealous.
we used them to take a picture of us in front of the temple. 

success.

then the sister missionaries took one of all of us.

success.

next, we drove down the coast to a beyond gorgeous beach with the finest, softest, powdered sugary sand. it's called lanikai. it even sounds pretty!

success.

it was a perfect day for a sand man. 

success.

who knew you could make these? new found skill.

we wanted to snorkel and convinced some good old mormon folk we found on the beach to lend us their gear, but their twenty minute excursion turned into two hours... and we had other things to do!

fail.

like show off our fake tattoos...

 and take lots of pics.

such a perfect day!

success

pretty things.

one of my favorite things about hawaii has to be the plumeria. it's beautiful, and it smells divine.

we decided to drive the quick five miles over to sea life park.

mindy has a free pass to get in because she works at the pcc.

seems like a success.

well that five mile drive turned into a fifty minute drive, so when we got there it was basically closed.

fail.

they still let us in, but all we saw were a bunch of run down tanks and sleeping animals. 

we did get to see this off-duty trainer in action... so maybe we could call it

partial success.

after that fail, we drove around the coast and took random stops.

at this particular stop there was a sign that says it's a great place to see whales, and then there were lots of tourists with cameras pointing. we thought for sure it was a whale!

turns out it was actually just a geyser that spouted very similarly to a whale. 

so we ended up just taking windy pictures.

double fail. 

our next stop was hamuana bay! though the famous snorkeling was done for the day, 

we did chase chickens,

take lots of pictures,

pose with these cool trees,

and hear the life guard say "please get outta da wah-ter, you need to get outta da wah-ter" about 300 times in the craziest monotonous voice. so i would definitely say the bay was a 

success.

we had just enough time to get some dinner in honolulu before i headed back to the mainland,

so we went to the cheesecake factory 

we ordered to go so we could avoid the 1 hour and 45 minute line.

success.

it was also just really good. red velvet and peanut butter dream cheesecake?

double success.

then it was airport time. red-eye style.

mind surprised me with a beautiful lei to take the spirit of aloha home with me!

success.

though saying goodbye is never fun, 

the trip was definitely the ultimate

success!

thanks mind for being a wonderful host and a best friend.
some of the best times were laughing and chatting til the wee hours of the night!
sly. dct.


also, my mom came to meet me for my three hour layover at 4 AM in good ole san fran. she rocks.
success.

and coming home to this guy?

always and forever a success.

here's to blogging about things other than hawaii. next time.

shaka.