Family Photos

Lee's grandparents were visiting this last weekend and we thought it would be a great idea to get a couple of pictures with them. They are some truly wonderful people and I am blessed to be a part of their family!

What a wonderful thing it is to know such wonderful people! I love it!

Scarywood

Ugh. I really didn't care much for Scarywood. At all. It's an annual thing that Silverwood puts on for Halloween and my brother, Danyon, and Lee wanted to go. This was us before our "thrilling" night began.

You know those girls that scream their guts out at every turn or at every teeny thing that jumps out? Yeah...that was me. But we got some fun pictures out of it!

It was a fun evening for sure being with the boys. They had some of the normal rides running like the Super Round Up and Tremors (only they ran it backwards!). But...I probably will stick to going in the summer time like normal people :)

Photo Shoot

Yesterday Lee and I decided to go play around with his camera at Mirabeau Park in the valley. He picked out some new filters and a new lens for his birthday so we had to go check 'em out!

Time Flies!

Yep! I am officially the worst at blogging. It's just like journaling for me...I get on a kick of doing it and I'm all excited for a while and then it all just peters out because I get so stinkin' busy! That's life I suppose but here I am again. :)

One special thing that happened in our family is that we celebrated our one year anniversary a few weeks ago! I just can't believe how fast time goes by - especially when you are having so much fun! Lee and I have not only learned so much through this last year but we have grown so much closer together as a couple and more in love than ever.

He brings me so much joy and I am SO blessed to have him with me :) One of the greatest things is to go through life with the one you were meant to be with forever and that makes everything so much more wonderful.

I turned 26 on the 10th of July. My mom and brother came down to visit Lee and I in Idaho Falls and that was a fun time! This was my cake that Lee got for me:

A cheeseburger cake! Complete with fries! It was so random but so funny! I loved it!

And if you didn't already know, we're back in Spokane for good! We decided that Idaho Falls wasn't the place for us and some things with work and school didn't go quite as planned so we decided we'd might as well be closer to family and friends than be in a place where it's just us and it's been great! We love spending lots of time with family and our new apartment is so cute! I'll post pictures when everything is all set in place. We love being back!!! :)

How Does Our Garden Grow?

Hello! Yes, it has been a while and so much has been going on, but all is well and life is moving forward! I just wanted to share what we've been up to at the Durtschi residence!

We've been gardening! The weather has been lovely and I personally had an itch to plant and watch things grow. Lee is also very excited about this too. He goes outside every day to check the progress of our mini garden :) So cute! We have a nice little assortment of strawberries, jalapenos, green onions, chives (which are being stubborn and not growing)...

and radishes!

I love flowers too so I just had to plant some! The top pot is zinnias.

I love having a home of our own to do this fun stuff in!

Fast-Forward

I had such lovely thoughts today in church and I have been just itching to share them. There was a baby blessing today. Now, yes, I have seen/been to many baby blessings, but this one was a little different. As the father was giving his son a blessing and all the men in the family were up there in the circle, my mind instantly went to my own little future family. I imagined Lee walking to the front with our son in his arms, all of our family right behind him. I imagined the words he would speak as he addressed his Father in Heaven. My heart was so full as I thought of the joy I would feel as a new mother watching my husband exercise his priesthood for our family. I had an overwhelming sense of happiness, peace and joy in that moment because I knew that that will be ours to experience one day. I am truly thankful for the priesthood in my home and that Lee worthily uses it to bless us. I am so thankful for him and his diligence in trying to do what is right. He is such an example to me and I know he will lead our family in love and righteousness. I know that families are central to the Creator's plan and that they are forever! I love having that knowledge!

I love knowing that my family and I will be together forever!

My New Challenge Part 2

I have decided that this book is going to help me SO MUCH because I have only been through 2.5 chapters and I already feel a million times better.

Now, to clarify some things, the root of all my stress and worry comes from work. I work at JoAnn Fabric and Crafts here in Idaho Falls as the assistant manager (or merchandising team leader for those of you who know the titles at JoAnn's). Now, to most of you that probably doesn't sound very stressful by any means. It's a fabric store for crying out loud. But remember that I make things to be more complicated than they need to be. And it is a pretty intense job being in management anyway: making sure everything runs smoothly, fixing customer problems, resolving issues between employees, training, etc, etc. It's hard some days to really like my job and with being SO bogged down with worry and stress lately, those days come few and far between. I come home everyday from work and, out of habit, I continue to think about what happened at work, what I could have done to make the day better, what things I did/didn't do that day and what else I have to get done at certain times. That's how I go to bed too and why it's hard for me to get to sleep quickly. Whew! It gets pretty exhausting.

So in the latest chapters of the book that I have been reading, Dale Carnegie talks about a magic formula for solving worry situations. Here it is:

1. Ask yourself: "What is the worst that can possibly happen?"

2. Be prepared to accept it if you have to.

3. Then calmly proceed to improve on the worst.

Pretty self explanatory. But I think in my case, I get too overwhelmed with how to fix it RIGHT NOW instead of being calm and collected and following these steps in each situation. Somehow, my brain decided it's easier to deal with worry at maximum capacity then trying to solve it step by step. Ugh.

Then he talks about the effects worry has on the body. Did you know it can cause everything from tooth decay to diabetes? Not to mention ulcers and indigestion.

"Those who keep the peace of their inner selves in the midst of the tumult of the modern city are immune from nervous diseases." Dr. Alexis Carrel. Amen to that.

I had to close the store last night, which is normal and I don't mind doing it, but I also had to set a new ad and that potentially could have been pretty stressful. I won't bore you with the details but it's time consuming and not my favorite thing to do. I could have freaked out about only having an hour to set the entire store with new sale signs, but I chose not to. I knew that I would do my absolute best to get the job done, but then I thought to myself, "What's the worst that could happen?" Maybe I wouldn't get all my signs up, or I would go over my 40 hours for the week and get in lots of trouble...in any case, I knew I wouldn't lose my job or anything drastic like that. So I did the best I could. I stopped worrying that I wouldn't get anything done. Turns out I didn't have to worry about anything because we finished just in time. All of my signs got put up and everything was ok. And I didn't go over 40 hours.

I think the less time we spend worrying, the more time we have to get things done! Life is too short to be worried all the time and not any fun at all. I am determined to make that thinking process a habit so that I can be worry free!

I love that feeling :)

My New Challenge

Hello everyone! (Warning: this entry is not intended to be negative or full of "poor me's"...I'm just writing down some things happening in my life!) :)

I have a confession.

I am a worry wart. To the extreme.

Let me explain. I have had this problem of mine for as long as I can remember. I have made a lot of seemingly simple things in my life a lot more complicated because I worry too much. I always worry about things that hardly ever happen and then beat myself up inside for worrying over it when everything turns out ok. I internalize everything (I don't like people seeing my stress and frustration so I learned to hide it)...which has, on numerous occasions, made me physically ill. Every time I try to get some sleep, and I know I have a big day coming up the next day or that week, I immediately start thinking of everything I have to do and I make myself think I have to get it all done the next day, thus resulting in waking up no less than 4 times a night and not being able to fall asleep for two hours after I go to bed. Like I said, this is a problem I've had for quite some time and I know it's only going to get worse if I don't do something about it. Simply talking it out does not help because I keep thinking of everything I have to do and it makes me anxious and jittery.

SO, my loving husband, Lee, took it upon himself to help me to fix this problem of mine. He is an EXTREMELY patient man (thank heavens) and has helped me through many bad days and illnesses. He has been such a strength and an example to me as we have been married, and let me tell you, he is the greatest blessing I could ever receive in my life. Lee is the only one (besides my mom) that has truly been able to get through to me when I am struggling. He knows exactly what to say and how to help me feel better about anything, no matter the situation, every single time.

I think Heavenly Father knew what I needed and he sent me my Lee.

Now, having said all that, Lee introduced me to a book called, "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" by Dale Carnegie. This book, so far, is AWESOME. I am only through chapter one as of tonight but I know this book can help me. Lee has been reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by the same author and just loves the book. I already have learned so much about the simple fact that all we have is today, this very moment. Why waste our time worrying about what happened yesterday or what could happen tomorrow? There is a lovely poem that I enjoyed in the first chapter of my book, which sets the stage, I believe, for the rest:

Salutation To The Dawn

by Kalidasa (famous Indian dramatist)

Look to this day!

For it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course

Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:

The bliss of growth

The glory of action

The splendor of beauty,

For yesterday is but a dream

And tomorrow is only a vision,

But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness

And every tomorrow a vision of hope,

Look well, therefore, to this day!

Such is the salutation to the dawn.

So my challenge, to myself, is to take this book and apply it to the best of my ability to my everyday life so that I may finally conquer this problem. Of course, my Heavenly Father is heavily involved and will always be. Only through Him may I make my weaknesses become strengths.

I know I can master this. I want to be able to remember these years and tell my kids how happy I was!

I hope you'll go with me through this little journey!

Big Jud's

When you live in Rexburg/Idaho Falls, one of the famous sites to visit is Big Jud's restaurant. Home of the biggest burgers. Ever.

Lee has been wanting to go there and participate in the Big Jud's challenge, which is to down one of these bad boys.

Yep. Burgers as big as your dinner plate. Lee got through half of it. I was afraid he would gorge himself and make himself sick. So glad he didn't!

We all decided to finish the night off with a Hungry Heifer.

Who can pass this up? :)

Home Again, Home Again

Earlier this month, we finally got to go home to Spokane for a week! It was so good to see everyone again and even better - my younger brother came home from his mission in Florida! It was a wonderful experience to see him get off the plane and be back home again.

We had an awesome week filled with all kinds of activities including bowling,

and games,

and lots of eating out!

We went shopping too, and that is always an experience when you take Danyon along! :)

We had such a great time with our families and SO look forward to when we can see them again!

Our First Christmas

Yes, I know...I haven't been on here in, like, a month.But we finally got some internet so I'm here now!

This year, Lee and I got to celebrate our first Christmas together. It was a quiet one, but a special one. Anything is special when Lee is with you.

On Christmas Eve, we went to go see Tangled in the theater.

It was SO cute! We really enjoyed it!

We had some pretty interesting experiences...for example, I cooked my first turkey! It was gross cleaning it out but the finished product tasted yummy! :)