Becoming Seth and Julie: 9 years

Today is the day! 9 years. Some days I can't believe how fast it has gone and other days I can't believe we were ever two separate beings. The best thing about eternal marriage is that no matter how long we are married we can't make a dent in it. It would be hard to celebrate another year together if it meant we were getting closer to our hourglass running out, but it is still full. It will always be full. No matter how many anniversaries we are blessed to celebrate in mortality, we will always have infinite anniversaries to look forward to in eternity.

Today was pretty much just a regular old day. Seth went to work and my kids ran me ragged all day. So romantic! Every day with Seth is a gift though, not just this one. If I only thanked God for him once a year I would be ungrateful indeed. On our previous anniversaries we have gone out but today we went to say goodbye to our friends who are moving instead (I will be crying about that on the blog tomorrow). I don't feel like we missed an opportunity though because I know that real LOVE doesn't care what date is on the calendar.

And to Seth: Thanks for letting me share our story with the world and moreover for letting me live it. For once, I am without words.


This is a picture Alyssa took of us today. Now I know what they mean by "for better, or for worse". This is definitely not our best showing. I am sporting the tired, stay at home mom look with hair in full frizz mode. And apparently no one has told Seth that no shave November is over! We look like 30 something Midwesterners. Heaven help us.

Anyhow, I am sorry today's episode was so short but it is my anniversary. You didn't honestly think I would sit at this computer all night, did you?

Becoming Seth and Julie: A Family

We are approaching our 4 year mark here in Wisconsin. When we came we weren't sure how long we would be here but we decided to make it home until it was time to move on. I hate when people are just waiting for that next big move. Any place can be home because the things that make a home are portable. Seth, and the kids, and love. They all seem to come with me wherever I go.

When we first got here I was so nervous. I do not like to step out of my comfort zone and my comfort zone is not very vast. When we moved here Seth teased me and said my comfort zone was no bigger than the house we lived in and he would buy me a new one to hide in in Wisconsin. I am a serious homebody. But somehow I have become more comfortable and at home here than I have ever been in my whole life.

I am positive that we were supposed to move here. I thought it was for a job opportunity but I quickly realized that was just the vessel Heavenly Father used to get us here. After our missions we always struggled with church. We never got to know anyone there and we got so sick of going. We had testimonies of the gospel but not of church. The only problem with that is that the more you skip church the more you start to question everything you once knew with so much conviction. When we came here we decided to go check out the ward, selfishly at first, I am afraid. We were lonely and didn't know where to meet people.

Problem solved. The people here were amazing. When we walked in to the church (late, of course) our friend Ryan, who was then a stranger, was in the hall with his daughter who had the wiggles. He came over and chatted with us. He was so friendly and immediately he started making plans for all of us to hang out. He introduced us to more people and before we knew it we had more friends than we have ever had as a couple. I felt so guilty praying for friends when I moved here because I have never been very good at reaching out to others but Heavenly Father heard me and answered.

We were also put to work right away at church. When we got here I had been home from my mission for 5 years but I still couldn't figure out how to merge church with my real life. I am an all or nothing person and I felt like if I couldn't study and serve the way I did on a mission then I might as well not even try. I finally learned to balance my temporal responsibilities and my spirituality. We are at church SO much now that if we get in the car after dinner the kids ask, "are we going to church?" I love that we turned into "that family". We are not the super achiever Mormon family that every ward has but our testimonies and love for the Savior have grown so much.

Life has not been picture perfect here in Wisconsin but we have been blessed to see and appreciate our blessings more fully. Our perspective has broadened. When we got here I was mad because we lost money when we sold our house in Utah so we couldn't buy the house I wanted here. I have learned that we are so blessed to be warm and happy and safe. Our home is beautiful to me. We may not be able to swim in our tub anymore but our house is full of love and life.

I have also learned here how much Heavenly Father loves us and how aware he is of every thing in our lives. He cared whether or not I had friends, He cared about my testimony and He has cared for us financially. Every time Seth has been promoted here it has been at exactly the right time...when gas prices went up, when we had to start preschool, when another baby came, etc. I am so aware that there is a God and that he loves The Johnsons. My problems are so globally insignificant but I matter to Him and that amazes me.

Another amazing experience we have had here was the completion of our family (please let me be right about that this time) with the arrival of Chloe. When I got pregnant with Chloe I was not happy. I felt like the timing was horrible and we needed to focus on the two little monsters we already had. I acted like a spoiled brat up until right before she was born. I learned so much about how to be a parent during that time from my Heavely Father. No matter how many fits I had He loved me and helped me to understand His will for me. I learned to be more patient with my kids when they act like spoiled brats, after all they got it from me. I felt like I was not a good enough mom to have 3 kids. I had tried to be supermom for so long and it had taken its toll. During my pregnancy with Chloe I finally got the answer I had prayed so long for. All my Heavenly Father wanted me to do is love these children and teach them the gospel. The rest is just gravy.

So, I really feel like Chloe was sent to me as an angel to help me focus. I am a better mom with 3 than I was with 2. I value my children more fully and understand who they are eternally. I love my little Wisconsin born monster. If you are wondering why you don't get her birth story it is because her birthday is the 28th so it will be coming soon.

So what do all of these experiences have to do with me and Seth? That is our life in Wisconsin. This is who we are right now. It no longer feels like we are playing house. We are a FAMILY! We stress out together, we pray together, we all sit around the table and eat together, we have established traditions here, we have a home and even a mini-van, and we still LOVE, LOVE, LOVE each other. This is what it is all about. I want nothing more than to stay right here in my ordinary life, blessed by extraordinary love.

About a year and a half ago I told Seth how much I love being a family and I said something about how I don't get butterflies in my stomach anymore when he calls or comes home and how awesome that is. He misunderstood me because he went on a quest to bring back the butterflies. I used to work at home and when I would go down to the computer in the morning I would find butterflies flying around my computer screen with a note that said, "Do you have butterflies yet?" or there would be hearts all over the screen and it would say, "How about now?" Once I even had a bag of dark chocolate truffles waiting for me on my chair. That almost gave me butterflies.

When I said I didn't get butterflies anymore, I meant it as a good thing. I meant that I have never felt so safe. I love being so at ease with someone that I can say or do anything. I love being so comfortable in someone's arms that it feels like they were custom made for me. I love being so comfortable that I don't even worry about closing the bathroom door, although Seth probably wouldn't mind if we took our comfort level down a notch where that is concerned. Butterflies were fun when I was in junior high but this is so much better. In the words of Collin Raye, That was a river, this is the ocean.

Tomorrow is the big day! Our little story here will end but thankfully there is still so much more to be written. 9 years is really just the beginning.

And here are some very random pictures of the Wisconsin years. I downloaded about 100 and then decided that was way too many so here are just a few.

I hated snow until I saw how much fun it is for my kids.

Alex on top of Sears tower

Lyssa reading to Alex

Seth and Alyssa at the USC pep rally in Chicago

Me and fat Al

Lake Michigan

Christmas kisses

Al and Chloe

First day of Kindergarten

Alyssa at Navy Pier with her great grandparents who she calls Grandma Grandma and Grandpa Grandpa

Kelly and Lyssa playing in the fountains in Chicago

Ferris wheel at Navy Pier in Chicago

For 6 months I worked overnight at a hotel on the weekends and I was so tired on Sunday nights that I would just crash early with the kids

Daddy/Daughter Dance at church

Alyssa with her cousins Cedar and Aspen who came out the first Christmas we were here

My kids with their cousin Luke when Val brought him out to meet Chloe

All my moms kids, except for Steven who still has never been here

Playing at the beach

Seth and Alex in USC hats

Chloe's blessing day. Yes, Seth seriously wore that untrimmed beard to the blessing. Don't ask.

Chloe's birthday. I had some problems after her delivery and in this picture I still did not have enough strength to hold her. It was about 5 hours after she was born and I wanted to hold her so badly!

Me and Chloe after her blessing.

Seth and Chloe on her birthday. Proud Papa x3

Becoming Seth and Julie: And then there were babies

So, getting pregnant the first time was a bit of a shock. Not as big of a shock as the second time and not even close to as surprising as the third time. As you can tell, none of our three children were planned. Before we had Alyssa my doctor said he thought I would need fertility drugs to get pregnant. Three unplanned babies later I would say he was a bit mistaken.

When I suspected I might be pregnant with Alyssa I took a few home pregnancy tests. I could see the faintest blue line appear in the result window. It was so faint that I truly believed I was imagining it. I called the EPT 1-800 number on the package and they told me any line at all was positive. If you know me, then you know I am a huge skeptic so I dragged Seth down to the hospital to get another test and this time I wanted a blood test to be 100% sure it was accurate. After they drew my blood they told me I could call for results in 3 hours...

So, we went to Dairy Queen for lunch where we didn't really know what to talk about and then we went home and watched the clock, still not knowing what to talk about. Finally, when the allotted time had elapsed I called the hospital. Even after 3 positive tests I was still in total disbelief. I wasn't exactly ready for a baby but I was so relieved that we didn't have to go through years of heartache and difficulty to get pregnant. I was also really excited! I am not a kid person and I thought I wasn't really the type that needed to have a baby but I was overcome with joy at the idea of creating life.

The first time you are pregnant it completely takes over your life, or it did for me. That is all I ever talked about or thought about. Luckily I had some very patient co-workers who listened to every detail from every doctor visit and even stopped what they were doing every time I told them the baby was moving. I loved being pregnant. I felt great and I never got tired of feeling my little creature somersault around. Seth was just as excited as I was. He had to fill out a getting to know you survey at church once and he listed his favorite thing to do as: sleeping with my hand on Julie's tummy so I can feel our baby.

When it got close to the big day I think Seth was more antsy than I was. The doctor, who had been in the business forever, said he had never seen a man more excited to be a dad.

With just a week left before my due date my blood pressure went up so they decided to induce me the next day. How can you eat or sleep when you know that everything changes in the morning? I couldn't. We went into the hospital on July 2, 2002 and they broke my water at about 8:45 AM. I was already dilated 4 cm so things got moving pretty quickly at that point. Then they started pitocin, which I am so glad I never had to have with the other two babies. My contractions were (no lie) 6 minutes long with only 30 second breaks in between. I got my epidural at about 12:30 and they stopped the pitocin induced 6 minute contractions. Then 2 hours later...

There SHE was! I know people have babies every day but I really felt like this was the most amazing miracle ever. A beautiful little girl. She was me and she was Seth. She tied us together in a way that marriage alone never could. We were no longer just Seth and Julie, we were parents. Although I had wanted the name Victoria and Seth was set on Cassidy, when we saw her we quickly agreed on Alyssa Corrine.

Alyssa was the prettiest baby. As people would come to the hospital they would tell us how pretty she was followed by, "she doesn't look anything like you guys," or "that is not what I thought your baby would look like." I guess me and Seth are ugly and no one wanted to tell us. Oh well, the joke was on them because our child was the cutest!

Seth was the proudest daddy. They stamped Alyssa's footprint on Seth's hand at the hospital and he washed around it for at least a week so that he could preserve it to show to everyone he encountered. We both adored our little girl. We would hold her all day and night. We took turns letting her sleep on our chests during the night, which is why she didn't sleep through the night until she was one. Don't worry we realized what we had done wrong and then proceeded to make the exact same mistake with our subsequent offspring.

Looking back I think it is funny how much we obsessed over our baby. I see other first timers doing the same thing and I just laugh. I realize now that no one cared about every single diaper, smile, laugh, hiccup, new tooth, and new word but we were so enamored by her that we just couldn't help but share every little detail.

Since Alyssa came unexpectedly, Seth was still in school and so I still needed to work part time. I worked early in the morning and Seth worked from 12:30-9:00 PM. I didn't love doing opposite shifts but I did love that it gave each of us time to be with Alyssa. Seth got to do the stay at home dad thing part day and he became the best daddy. He has always been a hands on, change diapers, clean up puke, bath time, bed time dad. We started parenting as a team and we are still a team.

Even though that was a great experience we knew that we didn't want to do the opposite schedule thing forever. Seth was trying to get through school so that he could get a day job and I could stay home. So imagine our surprise when his VP at Discover card suggested his name for a job at Corporate headquarters. He didn't have his degree yet and we didn't think we had a chance but we decided to apply anyhow since his VP was endorsing him. After a series of interviews we were offered a job, in the Midwest. The timing was perfect since I was 8 months pregnant with Alex, and I was so ready to quit working. We would be moving as soon as the baby was born.

Alex came in November (you can read all about that in last months birthday post) and we packed up our growing family on January 1, 2005 and became the Johnsons in Wisconsin.

Seth becomes a daddy

Sleeping with an angel

Our family (Alyssa 14 months)

Us in Vegas (Alyssa 4 1/2 months)

Our little man

When Alex joined the family


Don't worry about Chloe, she joins us tomorrow along with another new arrival. When Alyssa turned 1 we got a digital camera which means I don't have to scan anymore pictures. YAY!

Becoming Seth and Julie: Newlyweds

Adjusting to being married was bizarre for me. I felt like I was living someone else's life. It took me 8 months to change my name because I felt like my whole identity had changed already. I was also still trying to adjust to life after a mission. I hadn't gone to church for very long before leaving on a mission so I couldn't figure out how to be Mormon without it being my 24/7 job.

Luckily, I had Seth. He was the one thing that I recognized in my new life. I was so emotional that whole first year as our relationship evolved. I remember having a pit in my stomach and not being able to sleep if I even thought Seth was mad at me. I felt so insecure and so afraid, which was tough for me because I had never felt that way with Seth. I think the magnitude of forever was just so overwhelming to me.

Don't get me wrong. I have NEVER regretted or second guessed marrying Seth, EVER! I was just so scared as I would think about our whole life together and I wanted so desperately to hold on to the magic that we shared forever. I didn't want us to become that couple that just got used to each other. I wanted to be in love with him every day of my life. (so far it's working)

We were so silly back then. We talked in ridiculous baby talk. We were always touching. We even planned our schedule so that we could go to school together in the morning, meet up between all of our classes and then we worked together. We looked for separate jobs at first but we knew we wanted to be together more so we both worked at Discover card. Then we would get home and stay up almost all night. As you probably know, we are not big sleepers in this family.

Thankfully during that first year as I suffered from temporary (no comments to the contrary, please) insanity, Seth was still Seth. He has amazed me from the day that I met him. After we had only been on one date he saw me at work. I was just getting there and he was just leaving. He asked what I was doing after work. I mentioned that I had to stop and get gas and then we could hang out. He didn't want me to go fill up my car so late at night so he took it and filled it up and brought it back to work for me. When my shift was over I went out to a tank full of gas and found that he had also left the money that I gave him to fill it up, tucked into the ashtray.

If that is who he was after one date, imagine what it was like to be married to him. He reminded me, not just in words, every day that he loved me. Seth is the master of special surprises and he is so good at letting the people around him know that they are important to him. Sometimes I would come home to find a new movie that was just released that day that Seth knew I wanted. Other times I discovered Godiva chocolates and red roses for no reason. Seth has always thought of me first. When we were dating he even gave me his bed (I didn't have one) and then he slept on a mattress on his floor. I know that should have been in a previous chapter but I am just trying illustrate who he is.

My insecurities quickly began to fade. I fell in love with Seth so many times in that first year. I bet you are all in love with him now too. He never believes me when I say this but I truly believe that I got first dibs on husbands or something because I have never known a better man than Seth.

For our first anniversary Seth surprised me by taking me to Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City. When I got there he had put out candles and roses and a brand new super cozy bathrobe for me, which I still wear. I was just as excited and happy that day as I had been on our wedding day and luckily this time no one got sick.

By the end of that first year I finally felt completely married. And what's funny is that even though we were not as silly or cute as we had once been, we were something better. Something more real. I felt like we had always been together. It seemed like Seth was even a part of my memories that happened before I ever met him.

During our second year of marriage, Seth and I made our first "real life" decision. We decided to buy a house. We had so much fun house shopping and we finally found a town home that we were in love with. It was a total newlywed house. We were up on South Mountain so we had a view that I still miss to this day and our Master bedroom had a loft above it with a bathtub that we could have learned to swim in. It was the perfect house for us, for about 5 years and then we would sell it to start a family.

Of course, everything went exactly as planned just as it always does, right? Wrong again. Two months after we moved in I was pregnant!

Becoming Seth and Julie: Or should I say Mr. and Mrs. Johnson

Before we even left on our missions we decided that we would get married on December 18, 1999. Don't worry we didn't talk about it or make plans, aside from our moms scheduling the temple, until we got home. None of the people I taught on my mission ever knew I had a boyfriend. Seth told people because Elders always get asked if they have a girlfriend at home but no one ever asks the Sister missionaries, so I never brought it up.

I came home on August 18th and Seth was supposed to come home in September but they extended him until October 28th so we got married just 7 weeks after he got home. We were running around like crazy during those 7 weeks so I don't remember much but I do remember the day Seth came home.

The night before Seth got home a lady that he had taught and baptised called me and told me in pretty broken English (Seth was a Spanish speaking missionary) that "Elder Johnson" had recorded a message for me. She played me a recording and Seth was talking about how excited he was to see me in the morning. I could not believe it was really truly time to reunite. I don't think I slept that night and I paced around like a maniac the next morning.

When it was time to go pick Seth up I went over to the airport with his family and promised his mom that she could hug him first. However, when I saw him coming out of the tunnel I practically jumped over the ropes to get to him. He just stared at me like I was from another planet for the rest of that day. Later that evening we went to the Stake presidents office to get him released and were counseled not to jump in and get married too quickly. We didn't tell the Stake President that the date was already set.

After Seth was officially released he drove to the house I had lived in before my mission. Why? Because that is where we had our second first kiss...remember, the one that broke him and his girlfriend up. We stood in front of the house and he gave me a ring. Not an engagement ring though, just a ring that a woman he taught gave him because she was touched by our story. And then of course, we kissed (our third first kiss). I have never been shaking so hard or had such intense butterflies in my stomach as I did right then and luckily I was still so in love with this man even after I hadn't seen him for 20 months.

We got engaged, or should I say I got my ring, since we were already half way to the altar, on November 18th, Seth's 22nd birthday. He just proposed to me at home since he knows me and if he'd done anything public or theatrical I would have said NO. One month later was the big day!

We got married on December 18, 1999 in the LDS temple in San Diego, California. It was 80 degrees out and the sky was perfectly blue with just a few puffy clouds. When I pulled up to the temple Seth was out front waiting for me. The ceremony itself was pretty funny because the Sealer (man who married us) kept asking Seth questions and then telling Seth his answers were wrong. His answers were right actually and who wants to be quizzed when they are getting married. Whatever, all I cared about was hearing the words I had waited so long to hear...TIME AND ALL ETERNITY. It was official. Seth was mine, and not just until death but FOREVER.

After the wedding we all had to head back to LA since our reception was there. The reception was beautiful. I am blessed to have extremely creative parents and they made everything look so amazing. My architect dad even had blueprints of how he wanted everything set up. Our colors were black and white (which everyone made fun of at first and then copied later) with tons of red roses. There were also white lights everywhere. It was magical.

We had so much fun celebrating with everyone. You know how every wedding has some big glitch? Well ours didn't. Oh wait, yes it did, in the form of Josh and Corey. Seth had two best men because he grew up with two best friends. When it came time for the toast, Josh and Corey just started rambling. I think they confused a toast with a roast. They were talking about how they met each other, which didn't even involve Seth, and then talking about girls Seth dated. It went on forever and there we were with our glasses raised and a spotlight on us. I was so humiliated. The photographer captured the horrified look on my face and it is in my wedding album for all future generations to see. The toast seriously went on so long that my dad had to walk over and tell them to stop. Don't worry boys, I am not mad. That is one of the best stories from my wedding day and one that we retell often so thanks for the material.

Other than the toast, everything was really spectacular. I got annihilated by the cake feeding thing but even that was fun. My favorite moment was probably dancing with Seth. I hate to be in the spotlight with everyone looking at me but as I danced with Seth, I was so proud that I didn't care who was looking. We danced to In This Life by Collin Raye and the words rang so true. I then danced with my dad and he told me, "You don't have to be a King anymore, because Seth has made you a Queen." If you wondered why I was cheesy, now you know and actually my mom is cheesier than me or my dad.

After our beautiful wedding day I am pretty sure we did not leave our room until after the New Year. Why, you ask? Are you really that nosy? It was because we were....

SICK!!!!

I got sick on our honeymoon and then when we went up to Wyoming for our open house Seth got so sick that he couldn't even stand up to greet our guests. He even ended up in the ER. It may not have been as romantic as we might have scripted it but it was perfect, nonetheless, and we survived the whole "in sickness and in health" test.

Forgive the pictures. I scanned them from my wedding album. All this picture scanning is making me really grateful for a digital camera.

Our announcement picture

Outside the temple

At the photgrapher's studio

The infamous toast. Look how happy the best men look and how horrified I look.

Sorry I cut our heads on one of these but the other two pics are some of my favorites.

Becoming Seth and Julie: The Mission Years

Alma 17:13
And it came to pass when they had arrived in the borders of the land of the Lamanites, that they separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken.


By the time my mission call arrived I was so torn. I wasn't even sure I wanted to open it. I told Seth that it was up to him and that if he asked me to stay I would. Of course, one of the reasons I love Seth so much is because he would never try to make such an important decision for me.

It was the toughest decision I have ever had to make. I would pray about marrying Seth and the answer was yes and then I would pray about the mission and the answer was yes. Now I fully understand that the answer was...you can do both, but at the time I was so confused.

So as I held the call in my hands I was trembling. As I read the words and learned that I was called to the New York Rochester Mission with the special assignment to serve part time at the Historical sites, I knew immediately that I had to go. This call was not issued randomly.

The following is a cool story about getting my mission call but it is unrelated to my relationship with Seth so you can move past it if you like.

Right before I got my mission call I met a girl named Amy at work. She had recently had to come home early from her mission due to illness. She missed it terribly and always wished she was still there finishing her mission, although I feel that what happened next was part of her mission. One day I asked Amy to bring in her mission call. I had never seen one and I wanted to know where it said where you would be going so that when I opened mine I could skip right to the good stuff. She brought her call which was in the front of her mission scrapbook so I got to look through the whole book. As I looked through her book I could feel the Spirit so strong. I loved the people in these pictures who I had never met. I could see myself living in the apartments she lived in and taking pictures in the same places she did. I told her that if I could be called there I wouldn't be so confused. Where did she serve? Of course, in the New York Rochester mission at the Historical sites.

So, I was really leaving, and in only 6 weeks. I was so scared and so sad but also so excited about my call. I kept telling Seth that everything would be perfect if he could just come with me. They let older couples go together, why not us? Then one morning he came over and said that he knew what he was supposed to do...come with me!!! He was going back to the mission field. He had previously served in New York City for 6 months during the time that we were broken up. (long story, and that one is his to tell so I will leave it for him to post if he chooses) That is where he gained a testimony and he had been trying to decide if he should go back. I was so thrilled when he got his answer. So, we were both off to New York.

As we got ready to go on our missions we spent every available moment together. We were actually really excited to get out in the mission field but we still wanted to be together as much as possible. He came to California with me for Christmas and we dressed in matching clothes and went to Disneyland and saw Titanic 6 times in the theater and all the other totally dorky stuff that people in love do. I wanted that 6 weeks to last forever but inevitably the day came when I had to report to the MTC.

I think I cried the entire 5 weeks that I was in the MTC but once we were out in the mission field doing real missionary work, it was awesome. We loved being missionaries. We made tapes for each other each week on P-day and I was always amazed at how similar our weeks were. We had so many of the same challenges and successes at the same times. We also read together every day. We made a schedule of what we would read each morning and then we would write about it in a journal. This way we read all the scriptures (every word of every book) and the entire missionary library, even the footnotes on Jesus the Christ. We even talked on the phone on Christmas and Mothers Day, for about 10 hours.

Going on missions was the best decision we ever made. We grew so close to each other spiritually. It was such an amazing and unique experience to be able to share our missions. As hard as it was to leave on a mission, coming home was so much harder. Thankfully I already knew what would come next in my life so I had something new to get excited about.

Did I mention that the temple was already reserved for our wedding before we even got home, thanks to our moms. We said I love you on December 16th, got my call on December 17th, so of course we had to get married on December 18th, right?

More about that tomorrow, but for now here are some pictures of Elder Johnson and Sister King

Right after I arrived in New York, President Hinckley came out and dedicated the Joseph Smith log home and the Grandin buliding (where the Book of Mormon was published)

City girl milking a cow

Just being immature as usual

Me and my friend Amy...the same Amy that had gone on her mission to Rochester. She came back to be in the Hill Cumorah pageant.

In front of the Sacred Grove, which was pretty much my backyard for a few months of my mission

Small town Wyoming boy goes to the big city

Seth loved to ask strangers to pose with him. Once he laid down in the street with a drunk man that had passed out.

Seth's lady for 2 years. Notice the frog in all his pics? I gave him that and froggy went everywhere Seth went in NYC.

Becoming Seth and Julie: Falling in Love

Warning: The title of today's episode should clue you in that you may be in for some cheese. Continue at your own risk.

So we left off with a broken up, but friendly, Seth and Julie. At first we still talked occasionally and then, as is the case with most break-ups we ceased to talk at all. During the broken up months lots of things changed. That is a story all in itself. But the most important change that took place was that both me and Seth gained testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You may think that is irrelevant, but I know that because of this change we were ready to be what Heavenly Father intended us to be when we met up again.

When Seth reentered my life I was a bit surprised. I really did not expect to ever see him again. I know I am leaving a lot out but it really is a very long story.

When Seth contacted me again we decided to be friends. We hung out A LOT but we really were not a couple. No one believed us and we had people telling us all the time that we were meant to be together. I loved hanging out with Seth but he was dating someone else and I had decided to go on a mission so it was really best to just stay friends, right?

That is what I thought but one day when Seth was over and we were chatting he just stops and says, all casually, "You know I am going to marry you someday." I have witnesses to this because my roommates were in the next room and overheard it. I laughed at first but then he told me he was serious and held my hand. No big deal, we held hands all the time (which is one of the reasons no one believed we weren't dating) but something felt different this time. Perhaps it was the marriage proposal still fresh in the air.

Anyhow, that same night when I walked Seth to his car, I gave him a hug. Again that was very normal for us but what came next was a bit out of the ordinary. He kissed me. He will say that I kissed him but who is going to believe that when he had just told me he wanted to marry me. He definitely kissed me. Did I kiss him back? Sure. It wasn't our first kiss but we consider it to be because this time around we were ready.

Of course there was one small matter of business to take care of. The girlfriend. After we kissed I stepped back and said, "I thought you had a girlfriend." Seth responded, "I think we just broke up." I know that is so cruel but that is one of my all time favorite Seth lines. Did I mention this kid was cocky?

After he informed the other party of their break-up, Seth and I became inseparable. With me getting ready to go on a mission we knew that our time was short so we never even slept. If we weren't together we were on the phone. About a month after we got back together was my 22nd birthday and Seth gave me a very sweet card trying to explain his feelings for me. As I read it I knew I was somewhere I had never been before.

Just a few weeks later we went up to Wyoming to see Seth's mom and visit his home town. Before that trip I did not think that we would stay together during the mission but after that trip I knew that Seth was permanent. I remember just sitting by the fire in his mom's basement and talking all weekend and I knew that there was no longer a Julie without Seth. I can't give you words for what I felt because those words have not been given to us in mortality.

On December 16, 1997 Seth told me that he loved me and although those words may not be strong enough, they were the strongest words we knew. I was so nervous. I couldn't say anything for probably 20 minutes (Have you ever seen me speechless?). I am not an "I love you" kind of person so that was big for me. Finally I said, with the shakiest voice ever, "Guess what?" When Seth said, "What?", I somehow made the words come out, "I love you." Everything was perfect, right? Almost, except that the next day when I went to the mailbox, there it was....

THE MISSION CALL!!!

Just an update

I will return to the Seth and Julie saga later today, if and when Chloe naps but I wanted to quickly tell you all that I FOUND MY RING!!!!

When I opened the dryer this morning it fell out on to the floor. I have done about 15 loads of laundry since I lost it and I have searched through every article of clothing in the house a million times but somehow it got washed and dried without me seeing it. The funny thing is that nothing in that load of laundry was mine. It was all kids clothes.

I could specualte all day about how it got there but I don't care....I am just glad it is back.

Becoming Seth and Julie: How we met.

Since my anniversary is a week from today I thought I would take the next week to tell you some of me and Seth's story. How we met, fell in love, got married, you know, all the usual cheese. So enjoy it if you are a voyeur like me and love to know every body's business. If not, then just skip it.

Late Summer 1996
Just a little background to set the stage. I started working at Directv one week before Seth so we were both in training together but in different classes. After training he was going to work days and I was going to work nights so we may not have ever met without fate (in the form of vomiting) stepping in. My last week of training I got really sick. If you know me then you know I don't miss work even when I am sick so I kept trying to drag myself into work but each day I would come in and the vomiting would start. I never throw up but that was the only thing that was going to keep me from work so I have always believed a higher power had a hand in all of this. After a few days my trainers suggested that I just stay home for the rest of the week and then join the training class that was a week behind us the next Monday.

The day before I joined Seth's training class my friend Michelle, who also worked there, met Seth. She came home and said, "I met your eternal companion and he is going to be in your new training class." We both laughed because eternal was not what I was looking for. She just thought I would like him because he was young and cocky. So imagine how hard it was for me not to laugh when he was the first person I met in my new class.

It went like this...I walked in on Monday and was just looking around at my new class and trying to decide where to sit when I heard, "You're sitting right here." I looked and Seth was speaking to me and indicating the chair next to him. I was caught off guard but I love when guys are confident so I sat. In a few moments I discovered that he was Seth, the guy my roommate had told me about. Of course he didn't know that part of the story until much later.

As the week went on we talked a lot as we worked and sometimes sat together on lunch break. He asked me out every day. He also kept trying to give me a ride to my car after work. The trainees were supposed to park down the street and take a shuttle to their cars. I guess this rule did not apply to Seth because he always parked right in front of the building.

Day after day I declined his offer to go out as well as his offer to drive me to my car, yet day after day he asked again. I found this intriguing because, I told you, I like confident guys. I just wasn't sure I was interested because he looked like he was 5 minutes out of high school (although in reality it had been closer to 10 minutes) and I also hated starting new relationships.

Then the last day of training came and at the end of our shift we all filed out of the class. After that we would all go to our separate teams. We all walked to the elevator and a group of people got on, including Seth. He waved goodbye to me as the doors closed. He didn't wait for me and he didn't ask me out. What??? I was so confused but that is what finally made me interested. Aren't women fun?

So, I quickly decided to take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator to come back up. That way I would get downstairs and be leaving the building at about the same time as Seth. It worked perfectly. I was heading for the front door of the building when I heard the elevator door open behind me and, as if on cue, Seth called for me to wait for him. When he caught up to me he asked, of course, if he could drive me to my car so I willingly agreed, although I tried to look like I didn't really care either way.

We drove the whole 3 minutes to my car and when we got there I started to get out when Seth said, "What are you doing Monday night?" I truthfully replied, "Nothing", which Seth immediately followed with, "Good, then I'll pick you up at 7:00." He told me to write down my address and phone number and Monday at 7:00 there he was on my porch.

We went on to date for a few months and then we broke up. It was the friendliest breakup ever and I still really cared about Seth but we were just not right for each other, actually just not ready for each other...yet. If you want to know what happens next, tune in tomorrow. Just a little spoiler: We do get back together. I bet that was a shocker. I hope I didn't ruin the rest of the story.

Is it really gone?

With just 9 days until my 9th wedding anniversary I seem to have lost my wedding ring. I misplace it all the time (shame on me) but this time I am afraid it is really gone.

The last time I remember seeing it was last Monday, so 8 days ago now. I wish I could just leave it on my finger but I can't stand to wear it when I shower, put on lotion or cook so it gets removed a lot.

Usually if I can't find it, Seth can. But we have turned the house upside down two nights in a row and we still can't find it. We have emptied every drawer in the house, every cupboard and even went through the toys, over and over and over...

Seth keeps saying we will find it but I am getting worried. I am not big into "things". I am attached to very few material things, mostly because I can't stand clutter so I don't hang on to anything just for sentimental reasons. I think my ring and pictures are the only non-living things I would just hate to lose. Everything else can be replaced.

I know you can replace a wedding ring, sort of. Lots of people change rings as the years go on but I have always been kind of bugged by that. The ring I got when I got married is my wedding ring. How can you upgrade or improve on the original. A new ring would just be an impostor. A new ring hasn't been here for 9 years, 3 kids, 5 homes...

I am starting to think Santa snatched it. (hee hee)

Thursday Journal Jar

Write a letter to Santa.

Feel free to call me Grinch or Scrooge, but I am not a big Santa fan. I have lots of reasons but I will try to be brief. Excuse me while I get up on my soapbox.

First of all, I am a BIG fan of make believe. Some of my friends' kids even look at me like I am nuts because I love to play pretend, but I like all the players involved to know it is pretend. I think that when you try to convince some of the participants that the make believe is true, it becomes lying. I have never told my kids that Santa is real and I never will.

Another reason I have issues with Santa is because he is consistently more generous with the rich kids. They already have mom and dad who buy them everything and then Santa brings them a Wii, complete with all the extras. He never brings that to the poor kids.

Yet another beef that I have with Santa is that he totally steals the spotlight at Christmas time. Kids, even my own kids, think of Santa and presents when they think of Christmas and Jesus is often an afterthought if he gets any thought at all. They behave when they are threatened that Santa won't come rather than out of love for God and their parents.

Santa also makes kids greedy. When I told Alyssa she couldn't have a dog she said, "I thought you'd say no so I'll just ask Santa."

We want too much and give too little. We are all out trying to get the biggest and best toys. We are so obsessed with it that we are willing to trample workers at Wal-Mart on black Friday to make sure no one gets what we think is OURS.

I know that Santa is "all in good fun" but he is a huge distraction from the true meaning of Christmas. So, I am sorry that I can not ask him for anything. All of my requests go to the "other big man". You know, the one that lives North of the North Pole. The only thing I want from Santa is for him to take a back seat to Jesus this year.

That said, I am sure you will all call me a hypocrite when you see pictures of Christmas morning. My kids get way too much for Christmas!!! I, like most people, want my kids to have the best of everything but ultimately it is most important to me that they know and love their Savior.

And Seth's letter to Santa. Well, he told me to just direct Santa to his bucket list.

If you are an insomniac

DON'T MARRY ONE!!!

Sure, it is fun when you are dating to have someone who will stay on the phone with you all night.

And when you are newly married you can stay up all night playing Monopoly, or whatever else you like to do in the middle of the night...

But, the only problem is...

1 insomniac + 1 insomniac = 3 children who NEVER sleep!!!

Thanksgiving Week

I feel so far behind after only one week off of blogging. Here are lots of pictures from the week of Thanksgiving. Seth's sister Sarah (say that 3 times fast) and her family came up from Tennessee for a week and Grandma Ann and Grandpa Tony came out for a few days as well. We had lots of fun and the cousins loved spending time together.

These pictures are from 3 different cameras and I did not feel like organizing them so I am sorry if they are a bit jumbled.

Boys night at the hotel with Grandma (Alyssa, Olive and Aspen had their turn at the hotel the next night but I don't think we have a picture)

Riding the Trolley

The kids eating at Trolley Dog

Ann and Chloe

Who gave that baby chocolate cake?

Ann and Tony on the train with Chloe

Riding the Jelly Belly train

Alex, Alyssa, Aspen, Chloe, Cedar and Olive

On Monday morning there was snow and all of the cousins were so excited to take Alyssa out to the bus so they could play in it.

Seth and Chloe

Seth and Alex -please excuse the beard...it is no shave November according to Seth

Tony and Alex

Aspen and Alyssa

Getting ready to grub!

Monday Alyssa ran in the house after school screaming with excitement because she won a Webkinz in a contest at school (that makes 5 Webkinz now)

Chloe bunked with me and Seth and she never slept...don't be fooled by that smile!

The boys wanted to sleep on the floor

Who wouldn't be thankful for this?