I remember very vividly coming home from school in the 7th grade, with a note from friends of mine, telling me that they didn’t think the friendship was working out. I ran off the bus after a horrifying 20 minute ride with those very friends. I sat further up in the front than we normally did, away from the gang. I listening to music and sat by someone I knew from my neighborhood, that wasn’t in that particular friend group. I didn’t talk, just put in some headphones and silently counted the blocks and familiar landmarks that lead to my house.

I jumped off the bus at my stop and ran towards my house. I walked in the front door crying. My dad was home from work earlier than normal, and he was vacuuming the house while my mom mopped. They both asked me quickly what was going on. I produced the note, and the crying continued.

My parents were both furious. And looking back now, they weren’t furious for the same reasons I was. They were so sad that I was having to go through that. They told me it was ridiculous, they told me that those friends of mine weren’t really my friends, they went through the list with me of other friends that I had to spend time with. They told me I didn’t have to go to a ward activity that evening where some of those friends might be. I remember my dad saying “That is just…aght…” and shaking his head. I remember my mom getting very serious and saying “You know what, those girls don’t have any idea what friendship is. So what if you don’t all like exactly the same things? That’s ridiculous.”

I remember having late night conversations on the stairs with my parents about this group of friends as I went back and forth with them for the next two years.

But I’ll never forget how they never brushed off my feelings, no matter how irrational. They let me cry, and be embarrassed and hurt.

They let me feel.

They also loved me enough to let me fix things in my own way. No phone calls to parents. No party throwing to try to woo them back. They knew eventually I would figure out the right path, the right choices, and make them. They just let me be sad, and vent, and work it out in my own head while they gently gave guidance and assurance.

They loved me enough to let me feel.

And I will always be so grateful for that.

Sometimes we don’t want the people we love to feel pain. We don’t want them to hurt. That’s a factor of love. But loving is also understanding that feeling is living. That it’s a part of this life, and that sometimes we need to let the people we love, feel. We need to be by their side while they feel instead of asking or willing them to stop.

Love is being yourself because you know no matter how you are feeling, the people who love you will understand and be OK with it. It’s laughing as loud as you want, crying as much as you need to, venting more than necessary, and smiling for no reason at all.

Love is being raw, emotional, passionate.

Love is feeling.

[Love day 8]

love is never static.

I’ve heard a few times how junior high kids and teenagers aren’t capable of love. They say the words, and have no idea what it really means.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Even tiny kids with a crush, feel that as intensely as they can.

I fell in love with Randy as a 17 year old girl. It’s not even close to the same love I have for him now. It’s not even the same kind of love I had for him when I was 19, or 20, or 21. It won’t be the same love I feel for him when we have kids, grandkids, and more.

Love is always moving, never static, ever changing.

As a 17 year old girl, that love I felt for Randy was real. It was the love I could feel at that time in my life. And I will keep striving every day to love Randy, my family, and my friends, with all the capability of my heart. As we grow, experience things, learn, and progress in our lives we learn to love even more. To love deeper and stronger.

I’m so glad that I had crushes, glimpses, and moments of love. I’m glad that I still am learning how to love better, stronger, and more. I hope my love never becomes static.

Whoa. I’m behind now friends.

So here’s the love days six and seven coming at ya!

[day of love 6]

Love is a forever family. I have the best family in the universe. I can’t get over how lucky I am! And, I also am so lucky to know that my family can be together FOREVER (said in the Sandlot voice. you know. FOR-EV-ER).

But really. Why would I not want to be with these guys for eternity?

Walking through the Provo City Center temple with my family just resonated that again and again to me. We have the chance to live in perfect happiness, together, all of us, forever. I don’t want to be the one who isn’t there because I messed it up. No empty chairs in heaven.

Love is knowing that even though we’re not all perfect, we love each other and are excited for forever because we all will be perfect, and it will be perfect to be together.

[day of love 7]

Love is finding the little things that make you smile. Whether it’s a football game, some nachos, little smokies, or in my case buying adorable things at Target for Valentine’s gifts. Finding the little things every day that make you happy is finding the love in your life, and relishing in it. This life is tough, and it would be super easy to find all the bad things and never see tiny moments where you can absolutely love your life. It would be way to easy to do that. Instead, we have to fight to find the moments full of love and laughter, and hold on to them.

Trials and tribulations are mandatory. Misery is optional.

So find the little pieces of love and hold on to them!

Due to some unforseen complications, I wasn’t able to post love day 4 yesterday.

That means – TWO DAYS OF LOVE FOR THE PRICE OF ONE.

Should be pretty good:)

Love Day 4:

Love is forgiving. People aren’t perfect, even those we love. And sometimes, the people that we love the very most are the people we take for granted the most often. The people that we love spend the most time with us, so we sometimes don’t recognize their needs, or understand that by being concerned about how others view us or how we can help others, we are neglecting those loved ones who need us most.

I read a blog post a while ago where the blogger said she wanted to put her husband first. I thought “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?” She went on to explain even more, saying that she always tried to put him before herself, but that didn’t always mean she was putting him before everyone else. When their friends would ask if they wanted to do this, or eat with them there, she would want to be easy going and helpful for them, and respond “We can do whatever!” She explained how she recognized that often she was putting other people before her husband, because she wanted to be helpful to others.

That kind of hit me, and one of my New Year’s Resolutions this year is to always put Randy first. I’m not always good at this, and so I’m very lucky that Randy is forgiving.

Love is recognizing the weaknesses in those around you, and not using those weaknesses against them. Not using those weaknesses to bring them down, or even pointing them out in any way other than in complete kindness.

Love is forgiving someone when they don’t say they’re sorry, and forgiving them without expecting them to. This can be so incredibly hard.

But that forgiveness is the true character of love.

Love Day 5:

Love is laughter. Nobody makes me laugh or smile as much as Randy Low, my family, and my friends. Randy especially just makes me giggle all the time. Love is learning not to take life so seriously, and recognizing that there are hard times as well as wonderful, fun times. It’s about embracing those times, making memories, and learning to laugh through all the hard times too.

I’m so thankful that I have family and friends, and most of all a wonderful husband, who help me learn not to take everything so seriously. It’s so good for me to relax, and just spend some time laughing with the people that I love.

Love is patient.

I was reminded of this today when I got to have a chat with a cute girl, who had a boy she was dating leave on a mission today.

It can be so hard to be far away from people we love.

It can be hard to trust in the Lord and in His timing. Sometimes it seems like it would be easier if things would work out the way we want them to, when we want them to. Which is usually right now.

I got a lot of flack for writing Randy when he was on his mission. People who didn’t even really know me or Randy were telling me that I was distracting, that he couldn’t possibly be a good missionary while I was writing him, and other things.

That taught me another aspect of love being patient – being patient with others who weren’t sure that I was making the right decisions.

Love is all about understanding that timing is everything, and that sometimes being patient is what will help it work out. Randy sure was patient when we were in junior high and high school, waiting for me to figure it out. Then it was my turn to be patient. And now, every day we try to be patient with each other while we navigate our tricky lives.

Happy love day three everyone:)

A year ago, my life changed drastically.

A year ago what I thought was a night out with one of my best girlfriends, turned into a forever night with the ultimate best friend, and the love of my life.

Today the love bug bite is all about remembering when we decided to spend our life together.

Check out the full engagement story

It was the easiest “yes” of my life, and the most important answer I had ever given.

Deciding to marry my high school sweetheart, my missionary, my best friend – it was easy.

The road up to making sure it was the right decision wasn’t always easy, but that night I knew I had never been more sure about anything.

Love is learning about someone else. Love is seeing the best and worst sides of someone. Love is thinking and weighing and choosing. Love is taking the risk when you have no idea what the future will hold. And love is confidence in that no matter what the future holds, you want to experience it together.

I remember waking up the next day and looking down at the ring on my finger. It seemed completely surreal.

I used to really believe in the idea of soulmates. And then as I got older I found out that the Church doesn’t really teach that. And that kind of bothered me.

Until I figured out something.

There’s a lot of good people in this world, and two people who are putting God first in their lives and who are working hard at it, can make a marriage work.

Obviously there are types of people who work best together, who enjoy the company of each other the most, who have the most fun together, who have chemistry.

But arranged marriages have worked for hundreds of years, and many people say they’re extremely happy.

Two people can make a marriage work.

So it’s not about finding the only person who you can hack it with, because there are probably a few different people you could hack it with.

It’s about choosing.

I chose to make Randy my soulmate, and he chose to make me his. We chose each other – fully realizing we could keep on looking, keep on dating, etc.

We chose each other, and we chose us.

And we keep choosing that every day.

On the hard days, on the bad days, on the sick days, and on the wonderful and happy days.

We choose our love, our marriage, and each other.

Love is a choice.

That’s the sentiment today. And a year ago, I chose to say YES.

Happy anniversary of our engagement my love.

And happy love day 2 to the rest of you!

Also – check out advice to my engaged friends

Friends, I have been a savage.

I haven’t taken any pictures for such a long time.

I look at my photo album to know what to blog about – and YIKES. Nothing there.

So here’s a quick catch up – and then a bigger and better kick-off.

This weekend held dinner with friends, relaxing, cleaning our house, grocery shopping, heading to Kaysville to spend time with Randy’s family and then my family, seeing Bethany perform in the One Act Play festival at Davis (she was absolutely incredible. That girl can act my friends) games with the fam, then Sunday Randy was pretty sick, so I ran over to teach my class and then we lazed around. Some of our Sunday School kids came to say hello which was a party, and then we had friends over in the evening for a treat which was wonderful.

Randy and I have these crazy decisions and it’s hard. But I don’t want to dwell on these big life changing things that are ahead for us. I want to dwell on FEBRUARY which is one of my favorite months!

I have a cute pillow and a cute sign, and a cute candle holder allll decked out in hearts. I think it’s so perfect that we have a month where the major holiday is all about love.

Some people ha-rumph and wrinkle their nose at Valentine’s Day. But I happen to love it (and I still loved it when I was single folks!)

So I have officially been bitten by the Love Bug.

And I’m going to be posting about things that I love/definitions of love/stories of love/etc. for the next few weeks.

Get excited.

So today, let’s start with something that I talked to my Sunday School class about yesterday.

Our lesson was about learning about our Heavenly Father from the scriptures.

We talked about His characteristics and how to learn more about Him, and how to get to know Him on a personal level.

At the end, I asked the kids to think of a relationship that’s very important to them, or one that they wish would be better. I then talked to them about how if they would put their relationship with God FIRST, the other relationships would get better and stronger.

That’s why my marriage to Randy works. Because both of us put God first, and know that the other person is going to do the same.

That’s real love my friends. I know I come second in Randy’s life, because Heavenly Father will always come first. And that’s how it should be.

Loving our Heavenly Father, and recognizing His love for us. is the most important love we will have in this life. Because if we love Him, we will try to keep His commandments. And because He loves us perfectly, we can entirely rely and trust in Him.

Happy love month my friends:)