Kathleen's blog: August 2011

So...I don't know if this whole blog thing is working out... I'm not very good or consistent at it.I actually wrote this post close to two weeks ago and now I'm finally going to post it. So much of this might not make entire sense since it happened a bit ago. But I'm not a quitter therefore I will just try harder from this point on. So again a lot has happened in my life since my last post! Alan and I got married just over a month ago in the Salt Lake Temple. Nothing is more amazing than promising someone your heart, whole life, and eternity and not being the slightest bit afraid that they are going to crush it. Alan is the most incredible and intriguing person I know and I love unfolding each new day with him. He is so patient and kind to me always even though I know with me it isn't easy...He listens to me and remembers things that I don't recall ever telling him. He is always doing what's right and is never the one to be lazy. He has taught me to be more proactive. I could really go on all day about him. After we were sealed in the temple we were greeted by friends and family outside and took hours of pictures. People never tell you that your marriage day isn't happy every second because I was running on three hours of sleep( I had a sibling sleepover the night before at the parents house) and I was tired and it was hot.All those pictures of newly wed couples smiling..most of them are forced. Of course cute Alan was encouraging and held my dress up as we walked around the grounds. We were both STARVING but pushed ourselves through because we knew we'd regret not taking the pictures in the future. Our photographer and videographer were wonderful and nudged us through it all. We got done with pictures at about two thirty, we got married at TEN. So I think that is a bit longer than average but what do I know? We hustled and went straight to my favorite restaurant Olive Garden. Unlimited bread sticks and cheese plus my Alfredo chicken pizza. After that meal we were both good to go for the reception. It's true when they tell you that you don't eat the food at your own wedding.We kept on getting compliments on the cookies and other goodies and all we could say is "yeah they are delicious aren't they?". My sisters Megan and Ash were angels and went and got me a diet coke that they would bring by every so often for me to sip on. The last hour was dancing and our favorite part. The CD we'd burned didn't work for the music so my brother, Ben was the dj. I was really stressed at the start but nothing ever goes perfectly and it's how one deals with the imperfection that you remember. My sister KayCee even choreographed a dance to Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" song that started out as the "sister dance" but then we taught the guests the moves that were just a repeat (kind of like the macerana idea). The night went by so fast and before we knew it we were driving away on our riding lawn mower and getting into our limo for a night at the Anniversary Inn. Alan's sister, Holly(my new sis) picked us up and drove us to the airport.Both Alan and I thought that having either set of parents pick us up from our "first night" together may be slightly awkward. Then we had a full day of travel to Puerto Rico. While there we toured the old San Juan and old forts from the wars, we went on a rain forest adventure(highlight of the trip), and of course lounged on the beach. While we were there we learned quite a bit. Puerto Rico is owned by the U.S. but by no means are they patriotic...and they shouldn't be. Yet they still celebrate the fourth of July with a three minute firework show and eighty percent of the people know english pretty well, although Alan's spanish came in very handy numerous times. It just makes me sad that the U.S. owns places...it's weird to me. When they applied for statehood they got rejected even when there are Puerto Ricans in the service...kind of odd? Soldiers fighting for a country that they are owned by? Anyway, the country is beautiful and one benefit is that you don't need a passport to go there. The trip of course was too short, the week went by so fast. I can say that I was excited to come home and start a "reality life" with Alan. Our first week of marriage was quite a test and pretty welcoming to the world of marriage. It all started with our broken water heater which consisted of two minutes of warm water and then transitioned to the shower from hell. It was so cold. We couldn't do our wash and so we had to turn to the charity of our parents... the very same day Alan's car starter broke and so we had to share my car in getting to both our jobs and running errands. What a blessing it is to have two cars. Then mid week I became sick and found out after going to the doctor that I had laryngitis. I sounded like I had been a chain smoker for years and was infected with lung cancer. In short I just sounded ugly. So my first week back from a week vacation I had to take half of the week off. haha. As I was getting better Alan started to get sick so I combated whatever was infecting him with some vitamin c and lots of meds. It has been really fun starting our new little home together and cooking dinner for Alan, and explaining home decor to him. We just bought our comforter for our bed and it took me about twenty minutes to educate him on a pillow sham. He didn't understand why there was a pillow on the bed that he didn't use. Before we got married he had a pillowcase on his pillow and then put the pillow sham over it and slept on that. His pillow was as flat as a board and had never really slept on anything different. we got him a "big boy" pillow that he loves and now he is a pro when it comes to making a bed pretty. We've loved having visitors over that have been mostly our family so far who have helped us through our married life very nicely so far. Chad, my brother in law, fixed Al's car and then his uncle Dave and cousin Tyler installed a new water heater. It's nice to have handy men in the family... That's all I have for now but I'll be checking in again soon.
xoxo Kathlen H.Harris
p.s. here are some pics!