Graduation For Reals

Today is a monumental day...

Brian is done with college!!!!

Although he walked in April, he still had to take three more classes this Spring term before he was officially graduated, and today, Thursday, June 20th 2013 he had his last class of his college career!

This is a big step, and a closing to a wonderful chapter of our lives. We've both loved being students at BYU and have made such wonderful life-long friends along the way. Our little studio apartment has also become a home, and although it's only 25ft by 25ft it's been perfect for the married student chapter of our lives.

While we'll always look at these first two years of our lives together fondly, we're both so excited to be starting a new chapter in Virginia. 

Introducing The Bumble Bee

For those of you who don't know, Brian loves to build and fly model size airplanes. All of these planes he cuts and glues and builds from scratch. He decided he'd specifically make one for me that I could paint and design however I wanted, and thus The Bumble Bee was born.

When Brian first flew The Bumble Bee it wasn't as stable as he wanted so he knew before it would be ready for me to fly he'd have to add wing tips for stability. AKA I'm not super good at flying so he wanted to plane to be as stable as possible so I would only crash it the normal amount and not extra hard.

Brian let me come into the lab where he works as a TA, and cut  the wing tips out myself. To make cuts in the plane material, the lab has something that they call the guillotine, which sends an electric current down a wire to heat it up hot enough to cut though the material. Once the wing tips were cut they have to be covered in tape to make them both waterproof and aerodynamic, and of course so it could match the rest of my plane.

While we were there Brian showed me his desk where he works. I'm starting to think his job isn't really work.

After She was all taped up and ready to go we headed off to the park for my first flight of The Bumble Bee.

As you can tell I'm super good at flying.

And I'd never almost hit Brian as he was trying to take a picture of me.

All in all it was an awesome first time flying my plane, and I look forward to flying The Bumble Bee again in the near future.

How to Create String Word Art

Idea Credit

I feel like almost all of my ideas nowadays come from pinterest, and this one is no exception. When I was trying to think of a cute craft I could make for both my mother and mother-in-law for Christmas, pinterest once again inspired me with string word art. 

There are lots of different variations of string word art on pinterest, but my favorite tutorial is found on the Honey & Fitz blog which you can see by clicking on the link below. In it she uses cork board instead of wood.

Honey and Fitz Original String Word Art Post

Materials Needed

Home Improvement Store

• Piece of wood the size you desire (for mine I got a long thin piece of wood and had them cut it in half so I got two signs out of one piece of wood)
• Roughly 200 round headed nails (make sure they look nice since you'll see the tops in the finished product)
• Sample size can of wood stain (if you're going to stain your sign)

Craft Store

• Embroidery thread (for a three foot sign I used 8 packs)
• Acrylic Paint (if you're going to paint your sign)

Let's Get Started

You're going to want to print out your word in a cute font that you like. I downloaded a font called "Angel's Tears" which you can download here. To print your word large enough you'll have to print it one letter at a time in word and then tape the word together. 

Next, you'll want to prepare your wood with either paint or stain. If you're using acrylic paint, put in on in thin layers allowing time to dry between the layers. If you're staining follow the instructions on the can.

Once your wood is dry and ready to go tape on your word centered on your sign. Then hammer in the nails around your word. Try to place them close together so the curves in your letters look nice in the end.

This is the fun part! Grab your embroidery thread and make a plan of how you want them to blend together. Tie a double not onto one of the nails and start weaving back and forth. It's important to string from one side of the letter to the other, and not along the edges of the letter otherwise it'll make your word look blocky.

Final Product

This is Momma Marler's (Brian's Mom's) word art. I used the darkest wood stain I could find and just white thread. If you're worried about blending colors nicely this is a good way to go, because it's a little easier and it still looks great!

This is Momma Martin's (my Mom's) word art. This one took longer because I had to think about blending the colors. To blend colors smoothly do layers of the two different colored threads over top one another.

And So It Begins...

How We Met

It was the Saturday before our Junior Years of College. My good friend Tony wanted me to go ice skating in August so I could meet this girl he had been dating over the summer, named Cherish. Because it was still hot outside I didn't want to change out of my jean shorts into pants, but I knew I have to wear long socks when I go ice skating otherwise I get blisters. So I decided I didn't care what I looked like and donned a pair of striped knee-high socks with my jean shorts and went ice skating.

Turns out I should have cared how I look because the most handsome man I've ever seen grew up with Cherish and also came ice skating that day...Brian.

He walked in and headed straight over to our group, and I knew I had to play it super cool to make up for the fact that I looked ridiculous. We got to talking while everyone was skating around the rink and as fate would have it he really liked my socks, or at least the fact that I was confident enough to wear them in public.

The "L" Word

Two weeks into dating I knew he was the best guy I'd ever met. We were like puzzle pieces; we just fit. And the more I got to know him the more I fell in love. But of course I couldn't be the first one to say the "L" word. 

There would be times when he'd do something so wonderful and I'd start to say I love you, but I'd catch myself and turn it into:

"I lllllike you lots"

On a Sunday morning I woke up with a note and a red rose taped to my apartment door. It was a really sweet note Brian had left for me saying how much he enjoyed being with me, and all the things he liked about me, and saying that he had something he wanted to say that night.

When he came over to my apartment I was on pins and needles the whole night because I knew what was coming. Of course he waited until we were at his car saying goodbye, and it took me almost going back to my apartment three times before he worked up the courage to say it. But I knew when he said those three little words, that he had thought long and hard about it and that he meant them.

"I Love You"

Of course I said it immediately back to him, probably not even waiting for him to completely finish his sentence. I'm pretty sure I floated back to my apartment that night.

The Proposal

It was new years eve and his parents flew me out for the day to meet the family who were all gathered in Malibu. Brian, his mom, sister and cousins Gregory and Annie all came and picked me up at the airport, and headed over to his grandparent's house. Brian surprised me and told me that before I was bombarded with all the family, he wanted to go on a walk with me down the beach first.I didn't think anything of it at the time, we hadn't seen each other in two weeks due to Christmas vacation, so I was excited for some alone time.

We walked along the beach for about 30 minutes and I was just so happy to be next to him again. Then he turned to me and said really sweet things about how he wanted to spend the rest of forever with me, then he got down on one knee pulled out the ring box and asked me to marry him!

Unbeknownst to me, Brian had asked his Uncle Marc (who I hadn't met at that point) to follow us along the beach and take pictures. When I did meet him later that day he made fun of me for not even waiting to let Brian take a breath before I said yes. I guess I was just really excited to be with him forever, and to see my ring for the first time.

 The Big Day

 Brian and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Sacramento, California LDS Temple on May 7th, 2011.

That day was such a wonderful blur. One distinct part that I can remember is the moment when we were pronounced husband and wife. I looked across the altar at him and saw him looking right back at me, and I knew that I had just made the best decision of my life.

Now a little more than two years after our wedding day, I am still madly in love with my husband. I love how much fun we have together and how many adventures we have. And I know that as time goes on we'll just keep having more and more wonderful adventures as we walk side by side for time and all eternity.