Let’s play a quick game of catch up!

Since I last blogged we have:

worked, and gone to school and worked and gone to school and worked.

gone to a Jazz game with AMAZING seats thanks to my work! we saw lots of friends and ate Cupbop (Randy was on cloud nine) and had really interesting drunk cowboys to deal with and the Jazz WON. So it was a truly wonderful night.

we had Japanese food night where we made sushi (SO FUN) and ramen and had to call Randy’s mom for some sushi rolling tips.

we also went to Gardner Village which, let me tell you, was quite the adventure. lots of witches and not a lot of breathing room. still a really fun night!

we also played volleyball with a bunch of friends which was really fun.

and then we went to ihop wayyyy to late at night and had a blast and a half there.

i also taught Sunday School again and the class LOVES Randy. I don’t even need to show up hahaha.

and I also had a sick day. i couldn’t sleep much sunday night, woke up monday with a horrrrrible fever, and spent the day working from my bed. i was surprised how much i liked working from home; i got a lot of stuff done while just chilling in my PJs and watching the TV in the background.

so, things are just great, we are so stoked for Halloween and our 5 month of marriage anniversary.

life is good for the lows.

happy wednesday everyone!

SO. Randy and I are no experts at marriage. In fact, we really don’t know much at all with our 5 months of expertise. BUT, I have quite a few engaged friends who ask me questions here and there, so I want to share the few things I do know. Scrolling through instagram, you don’t get an accurate picture of what being newly married is like. You hear your parents and church leaders tell you this and that, but you don’t think that really applies to you guys. After all, you’re INCREDIBLY in love and you’ve never wanted anything more. And you KNOW it’s not going to be easy all the time, but probably most of the time, or it’ll be easy until you have kids, or once you get a job, or this or that.

So here’s a more accurate look on marriage based on my own experiences. Some of these things really may not apply to you, but most of them will. Every marriage is different and unique, but there are some things that I feel are universal. So take what you will, and laugh off the rest.

to my engaged friends.

congratulations!! this part is amazing and wonderful. but let’s talk about the parts coming up after the perfect day with the beautiful dress and all your friends. sure, picking out dresses is stressful, and making time for a date in between dozens of showers isn’t fun, but i think all of that is the easy part.

i wouldn’t say that marriage is hard. but it does take hard work. and a lot of it.

there are moments, hours, and days when you really, really, really don’t like the other person. at all. but you still love them. while disliking so many things about them.

you give the power, and are given the power, to utterly destroy the other person. with words, actions, and anything else. you have that power. and you also have that vulnerability. it’s an intensity of honesty that you probably have never felt before. it would be so easy for them to crush you, just as easy as it is for you to crush them. and in those ugly fights, you’ll want to pull out those words. and you’ll fight within yourself not to do it.

you will get to know their ugly. if you’re lucky, your spouse will still love that ugly side of you. you will know you made the right choice because you adore every side of them, even their ugly side. but it’s hard to see that in someone, and it’s hard to realize you’re showing it in yourself. not many people get to see your utter ugliness.

there will be so much stress. your stress is multiplied, because what’s mine is yours, and yours is mine. there will not be enough time for homework, jobs, families, friends, and each other. you will find yourself going to be some night realizing you didn’t really get to talk to your spouse. and they’re already asleep. you will find friends telling you how lucky you are, because your social life lives with you, and you’ll laugh and agree, and deep down you will feel so guilty because you haven’t spent quality time with your spouse in a while.

there will not be enough money to live like your friends on social media. you will see their trips and new cars, and you’ll wonder if you have enough to get gas to go to work. you will splurge on a slurpee or a single ice cream cone. you will come home with the weight of finances on your mind, and argue about budgets.

you will miss things. you will see your friends hanging out, and they don’t invite you. so you’ll invite people to things, and they won’t show. when you’re engaged you flake on things a lot; you just want some time with your fiance. and then once you are married, the people flake on you. keep in contact with your friends, and you’ll figure out very quickly who puts in effort for you. those are the ones to keep close. your spouse will be your best friend, but both of you need other friends to spend time with. don’t disregard your friends when you are engaged, and most of them won’t disregard you later. be present with them, and put out the effort now. then continue to put out the effort. some will fall by the wayside, and that’s ok.

compromise. you think you like the same kinds of everything when you’re engaged. and then, poof, you don’t. there are different movies you want to see, different foods you want to buy, different jobs you think you should or shouldn’t take, the list goes on and on. small and big compromises. all the time. but oddly, most of the time you won’t mind the compromises.

happily ever after doesn’t mean there isn’t sadness. you will be happier than you could have ever imagined, but there will be times when you are sad.

but then there will be times, early in the morning, when you wake up and see this person sleeping next to you. and your heart will be filled with more love than you ever understood. there will be nights of dancing in the kitchen, lazy days of cuddling and reading, surprises, clean houses and dinner on the table. there will be days when your spouse goes off to work or school, and you miss them. you miss this person who you spend all of your time with. there are moments when you find the giddy little girl with a crush thanks to a text or a note. there are deep talks about the future, ones where you are excited instead of scared. there are times spent on your knees, together when you feel you could never be closer. there are so many opportunities to serve, and you are excited to take them. there will be days when you glance over and your spouse driving, and your heart will stop, and you will be amazed that you ever lived without this person.

marriage is hard work. it is not something that is always easy.

but the things that take the most work, give you the most happiness.

so to my engaged friends, i am not perfect. my marriage isn’t perfect. few marriages are.

so here is what i am working on.

loving less selfishly.

apologizing and forgiving more easily.

serving with a smile.

putting him above myself, and everyone else.

happy engagement and happy marriage ahead!

So I feel like all I do is post about our weekends. I just don’t have time during the week to blog as much as I would like! BUT that is all alright.

So last week/weekend was filled with staying at our parents house and getting my sister off to Boston.

The weekend was filled with Randy being the biggest sweetheart ever. He ran and got me pho after the restaurant was already closed (not sure how he did it…), grocery shopped moved around furniture (and yes put our mattress out in the living room. it’s becoming a regular thing here.)

Saturday we went to a corn maze in Provo with my sister! It was a BLAST. And Randy kept the awesome husband thing rolling and swapped me socks when my kept falling off in my boots. There was a big corn box (it’s my favorite part of corn mazes), getting lost and trying to figure out what happened to Farmer Joe in the maze, and zombie paintball, which was awesome.

Sunday was filled with teaching (I LOVE teaching Sunday School to all those youths in my ward. they are so awesome and it is WAY too much fun), and then being lazy and eating yummy pancakes and homemade buttermilk syrup.

Guys work is crazy right now and I’m doing some freelance stuff on the side and life is BUSY. BUT it’s wonderful and I feel so so lucky, especially to have an amazing guy like Randy by my side.

Guys. It is like 80 degrees outside but it’s fall. THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR. The time of year when every single girl pulls out her boots and pumpkin hot cocoa and cookies and everyone drives up to see the leaves and IT IS MAGICAL.

So let’s do a quick catch up of our fall so far.

Baking. LOTS of baking.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and apple crisp. Two of my all time favorites.

Last weekend was just wonderful. I love getting to listen to General Conference.

Randy and I spent Saturday morning with some awesome friends watching the first session, then watched the second session at our house.

We then headed off to Kaysville for some family time with both sides of our family, and stayed down there for Sunday.

Let me just show you a few of my very favorite quotes:

Here it goes.

Once upon a time, Randy and I were 14 years old. We went to a party at Morgan Coles with a bunch of our Junior High friends. I remember Randy being there, but I don’t remember being introduced or anything. I think I knew of him, but hadn’t ever been introduced. I felt like I’d always know him. I remember Randy was telling a really funny story about his grandpa, and everyone was laughing. He has always been outgoing and funny and I just love that about him!

I remember meeting Maddy for the first time at Morgan’s party and instantly being attracted to her. I asked around to find out more about her. I wanted to impress her, but I didn’t want to freak her out. After asking around, I found out that Maddy was “going out” with another guy from our school and I was so disappointed. I started thinking that she was out of my league anyway, but pretty soon she started showing interest in me too! I was so excited!

Randy and I were friends after that, and I had no idea he had a crush on me. Like at all. Of course I was kind of dumb. I was “going out” (remember we were in junior high, so “going out” meant I talked to a boy at my locker and passed him notes for two weeks before we tragically “broke up”) with boys, and Randy was my good friend. Don’t get me wrong, every girl had a crush on Randy, including me, at some points during Junior High and High School, but Randy never showed interest at all! I always just thought Randy wasn’t going to admit to liking a girl during high school, and that was that. Nobody had a chance. Especially not me.

Fast forward to sophomore year of high school. Randy and I were still good friends, we had theater together which I really liked, and I asked him to the Sadie Hawkins dance. I was kind of dating a boy from a different school, and Randy was my good friend and I knew he would be a fun date to the dance. We had fun that night at the dance, and as I walked him up to his driveway he gave me a one-armed, side hug. I walked back to my car thinking, he didn’t have any fun at all did he!? But apparently he did.

Sadie Hawkins Dance!

When Maddy asked me to the Sadie Hawkins Dance, I was terrified. To make things worse, she was already dating another guy. She was dating him pretty seriously and at this point in time. She was my friend -one of my best friends, and I loved having her as such a great friend. I didn’t want to ruin anything so I tried to play it cool. We had a really awesome night! It was my first high school dance and I had so much fun. However, something felt off. The entire time, I felt like she would rather be with her boyfriend than me. Again, I didn’t want to ruin anything so I kept my distance, but I still had an awesome night.

Fast forward to March of our junior year. We’d just had an amazing year in Musical Productions and other classes together, and Randy was one of my very good friends. I had been dating guys off and on, and Randy was always there, being a great friend. One day a bunch of us went to Yogo Togo in Kaysville after school. A few of the boys had been stealing my car keys and driving my car around, thinking they were funny. I did NOT think they were funny. So when one of them stole my keys and ran out to my car, I wasn’t happy. I nudged the guy I was somewhat dating and asked him if he could go get my keys back from the boys. He shrugged, and said they were probably fine. I looked up just in time to see Randy jogging out the door, and standing behind my car so those boys couldn’t leave the parking lot. He then brought my keys back inside. I was SO impressed. Later that day I sent him a message on Facebook – thanking him for being such an amazing friend, for knowing when teasing was crossing a line, and for always looking out for me. I remember debating whether or not to write it, but wanted him to know how grateful I was.

The day that I went to Yogo Togo to meet up with Maddy was a rough one. Maddy and I were such great friends at that time. She always has had this ability to bring a smile to my face. On that day, I was having a really hard day. I was probably being a dramatic teenager, but I wasn’t in the best mood. After school, Maddy asked me if I would come hang out with her and a couple friends at Yogo Togo. At the time, I was sure that she wasn’t dating anyone. I knew that she had been off and on dating guys, but I was pretty positive that she was available at the time. It didn’t take a lot of convincing to get me to meet up with her there.

I went with a couple of my guy friends and we walked into Yogo Togo and Maddy was cuddling up with one of the guys she had dated previously. From the looks of it, she wasn’t as available as I thought. My heart sank and I felt like I was going to cry right there. I was having a bad enough day, and I thought that Maddy was inviting me because she was interested in me. I felt stupid for thinking that she would ever be interested in me. I quietly sat in the circle of our friends and didn’t really say much. 

During this time, my guy friends thought it was funny to steal Maddy’s keys and drive it. They were really good guys and I knew that they wouldn’t hurt her car our do anything serious, but a car is an expensive thing to be messing with. The guys snatched Maddy’s keys and took off outside. She told them to stop, but they wanted to mess with her. She turned to her boyfriend and asked if he would stop them and he didn’t! I could tell it was bothering her so I got up and chased after them. They had just gotten into the car and were planning on driving it. I ran and got behind so they couldn’t go anywhere and convinced them to give me the keys.

I was mostly annoyed. I didn’t want anyone to think that though. In fact, I was doing a very good job of concealing that. I didn’t show any frustration or anger to anyone. Then I took the keys back to Maddy and she said thanks. That made me want to scream. The thing I wanted more than anything was to be the guy that got to take care of her. I wanted to be the guy that she turned to for help and the guy she was turning to wasn’t doing anything! So I left. After I gave Maddy the keys I left Yogo Togo and went home and felt bad for myself. After all, I was an emotional teenager. I sat at home and told myself that I was going to stop wasting my time chasing after Maddy Richards. She didn’t even see me! I didn’t even know why she invited me to Yogo Togo in the first place. 

I know I was dramatic, but this was a serious thing for me. I wanted to date her SO bad. After I had felt bad for myself for a couple of hours, I got onto Facebook to kill time and I saw that Maddy had messaged me. This is what the message said:

Randy–just so you know i love you quite a lot. thanks for being such a gentleman today! and every day….i know the other guys are just kidding and its fun, but i’m happy to know that randy will always be nice:) so thanks!



Pretty normal message, right? Well……it killed me. I started crying. I didn’t know what to do with myself. She was always with some other guy, but she did see me. I was something special to her. That night, I convinced myself that I was going to date her. I was going to go for her until she told me that she wasn’t interested or until she was married to some other guy (keep in mind that we were like 17 years old)


Fast forward again to just a few weeks later. It was summer, and it was a great summer. Randy and I started hanging out more and more, made some runs to get Frosty’s at Wendy’s and talk about the next year of Musical Productions, summer, and everything else. I had just said goodbye to another guy who was off on a mission, (I know, I know. I was horrible) and was kind of not super interested in that guy. I wanted to go on dates and have fun that summer. And Randy was my great friend who was super fun to spend time with. I was starting to bug him about who he liked. I had asked him off and on during our friendship, and his answer was always the same…no one. I didn’t buy it. So I kept asking. I was bugging him about who he liked alllll the time. I was starting to like him, and I wanted to know if the feeling was mutual! So he started giving me hints. I narrowed it down, and finally announced who I thought it was. I didn’t know, but he thought I would narrow it down to only myself. And I didn’t. So he assumed I didn’t want it to be me, and that he shouldn’t tell me it was me. So, he agreed that it was this other girl. And I was sad, but I had to get over it

I continued to hang out with Maddy every once in a while. She was very interested in finding out who I liked. I was afraid she would find out that it was her that I liked. I didn’t want her to think I was creepy and I certainly didn’t want to ruin our awesome friendship so I generally avoided the subject. 

One day, she asked me if the girl was in one of the classes that Maddy and I were taking together. I honestly answered yes. Then she asked if the girl was dating someone at the time. I said yes (because Maddy had just sent off another missionary and I assumed that classified him as her boyfriend). That only left two girls in the class that weren’t her. I realized that she didn’t consider herself in this group and assumed that she didn’t even think about us being together. I was in a tight spot and kinda tried to change the subject, but Maddy and decided that she knew who I liked and it wasn’t me.  

The rest of June and July passed with Randy and I hanging out a lot, him stopping by to visit me at work, me teasing him about wanting to be with this other girl, and me sort of dating another boy (yet again, so sorry Randy). On the 4th of July, Randy’s best friend called and asked me to go to the fireworks, as Randy’s date. I was so confused! Why hadn’t Randy just called me? He probably didn’t even want me to go. Randy got on the phone and we talked for a second, I was teasing him and telling him he didn’t have to take me on the date, that he could take that other girl that he liked, etc. Randy just insisted that he wanted to go with me, and they’d be there to pick me up later that night. We went to the fireworks and had an amazing time. For a split second during the show, I thought he was going to hold my hand. But he didn’t. We had an amazing time, but the whole night in the back of my mind I was wondering about this other girl.
The Fourth of July date was SOO FUN! I wasn’t planning on going on the date because I thought it was too soon to ask Maddy, but my best friend took over and called her for me. I had to summon the courage to ask her and then things kinda fell in to place.

Late July all the boys started talking about homecoming, and who they were going to ask. I told Randy that the girl that he’d told me he had a crush on had just broken up with her boyfriend, and he should ask her to the dance. “Maybe I will” he said. My heart sank. Randy and I went on trips to Orange Leaf and he came to Cherry Hill to visit lots, and our friendship got even stronger.

Then one July day, I was supposed to go to the movies with a boy. He had been blowing me off a lot, and on my way to the theater he called to tell me he wasn’t coming. I was disappointed and somehow the conversation evolved into us deciding not to see each other any more. I was so sad and wasn’t sure what to do. So of course, I called Randy. I was crying on the phone and was quite frankly a hot mess. But he told me to come over to Spencer’s and hit tennis balls with them, so I did. I cried to Randy for a little bit, and he was so comforting and just an awesome friend. I started realizing that day that I really liked him, but I was sure that he liked this other girl.

At this point, I was ready to be with Maddy. I had been waiting for a chance for so long and I finally had it. However, I had to be considerate and make sure that she was ok. She had just gone through a huge break-up so I just played it cool and made sure that she knew I was there for her. 

Just a few days later, Randy and I were at Orange Leaf and I was bugging him about the girl he liked. He told me he didn’t like her, and I was shocked! I said, “Well whoever you ask to homecoming, that’s the girl you like.” His response was “I don’t know….” and I kept bugging and bugging until he agreed he would ask the girl he had a crush on to homecoming. Later out of the blue, I got a text from Randy’s best friend. Spencer asked if I would ever want to go to homecoming with Randy. I knew I liked Randy and I thought that maybe, just maybe, I had a chance. So I told him, “Yes, I would die to go to homecoming with Randy.” That text changed everything.

Us right after we started dating

After a couple of days, Spencer texted me to ask me who I was going to take to Homecoming. I was still going to play it cool to make sure that I wasn’t too forward so I told him that I didn’t know who I was going to ask. Then he told me I should ask Maddy. I was shocked. I guess he knew all along. I told him that I wasn’t going to because I didn’t think she wanted to go with me. Then he forwarded a text to me from her. I still remember screaming in my pillow with excitement. I was on top of everything and now I just had to show her that I was worth it.

Another few days after that Spencer made a Facebook status that said “However many likes this gets, that’s how many girls Randy Low will kiss.” Randy was NOT happy. He was actually freaking out, a lot. Well, 118 likes later, they created a Facebook event for Randy to kiss 118 girls on a True Dart night. Randy was NOT having it. He would talk to me and be SO mad and worried about the whole thing.
 My best friend did this whole true dart thing and I had made the choice to avoid it. I was NOT going to go. Especially since I wanted to be with Maddy.

Well August 13th came. I was working and had decided after I got off that I would go to the True Dart night and see how it all went down. Randy came and saw me at work, and I asked him if he was going. He said NO WAY. And I said, oh bummer, I was planning on going. Well Randy changed his tune pretty quickly. We drove over to Davis and I was shaking. There were tons of people there for True Darting and I was sure that Randy was going to bail. But he didn’t. He walked right next to me, and we snuck up to the D. Randy walked through it and turned around. I distinctly remember everything about that moment. I looked up and saw Randy, he said “You ready?” and then he kissed me so fast that I almost missed it. He pulled me through the D and that was that. The beginning of the rest of our life. Randy only kissed one girl that night, and I was lucky enough to be her.

First picture of us together when we were actually dating

Randy and I held hands later that night, I guessed that he liked me during a guessing game a few days later (I was bugging him about who he liked and he told me to guess, I said I was scared to, then he said “if you’re scared to guess, you know who it is.”) He asked me to homecoming a few days after that, and then told me he loved me in a text a week into our senior year of high school.

Homecoming

This love story with Randy is my favorite thing in the whole world. It was a long and winding road to get there, but I have never regretted a single moment. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Thanks for being my crush, my high school sweetheart, my missionary, my boyfriend, my fiance, and now my husband. I love you Randy Low!

The days and weeks are just flying by! How is it we are in OCTOBER already?? Boy I can’t even believe it, but I LOVE fall so I’m pretty excited about this time of year!

Let’s do a little update, shall we?

Last weekend was study weekend! Randy and I pulled our mattress out to the living room, ate Cup O’ Noodles, binged on our favorite TV shows, and Randy spent the weekend studying while I read, cleaned, and relaxed. It was a pretty great weekend to say the least! We also got to see Caleb which is always a wonderful treat! I also may have broken out all things pumpkin with some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which were delightful if I do say so myself!