Letter to Charly

Dear Charly,

How are you? I love starting letters off with that phrase. It's so overused that it makes it fun to use it more. This is a letter in a blog! Yay. Remember when I wrote you an actual letter? If that isn't true love than I don't know what is because you know how I hate stamps. The good news is that I don't have to buy stamps anymore to write you real letters. I can just write them and then hide them under your pillow or something.

You want to know what is fun? When we skip class together and watch movies. I really love spending time with you like that.

Also, can we make a green smoothie sometime soon? I feel like we haven't done that in a while and I miss them.

I hope you know how much I love you because... I love you. I'm so glad that I married you. I'm going to try my hardest to keep you happy your whole life because I love to see you smile.

I'll see you soon, really soon because I'm sitting right next to you right now.

Love, Ben.

P.S. This is the end of the letter.

Dear Benjamin,

I hope you know that you are my whole world; you mean everything to me. I am so glad to be married to you. 

Thank you for doing the dishes when I don't. 

Thank you for driving me to dance when I didn't have my glasses. 

Thank you for making such an effort to make date night special. 

Thank you for getting Subway for me that one day. 

Thank you for making me oatmeal in the mornings. 

I know I don't always do the best at showing you that I notice and appreciate the effort you put into our marriage. I want you to know that I do notice. I know that you are committed to us and I want to show you always that I am too. I will love you forever. 

Thank you for being so patient with me, all the time. You always treat me like I'm the best thing that ever happened to you. I love you so much for it. 

Love Eternally, 
Charly 

Burritos for the Homeless

On our honeymoon, Charly and I went to Ensenada Mexico.

While we were there we decided to get some food so we sat down at a little restaurant and ordered a couple burritos and a bottle of water to share. Little did we know, we should have ordered a couple bottles of water and a burrito to share... When they brought out the burritos I thought I was going to die. Charly and I shared a look. Each burrito was the size  of a loaf of bread! almost, maybe not quite that large but they were HUGE.

"I'm not going to be able to eat all of this," Charly said.

We started eating. Not only were the burritos huge but they were also very caliente and so the one bottle of water didn't seem like enough. I figure they were trying to get us to order more water.

When Charly and I both stopped eating we still had a half a burrito each and a little left over water.

We paid for our meals and left with the leftovers in a carryout bag. We soon ran into a homeless guy that only had one leg. We decided to give him our leftover burritos. It was cool because he thanked us and we felt good about our choice. We also had a passing Mexican tell us that they thought what we did was really cool. It made us feel even better.

Before we got to far away though we realized that that poor homeless guy was going to die of the super spicy burritos if we didn't give him our leftover water so we ran back and gave that too him as well.

Ben and I almost killed a homeless man.

For our honeymoon, Benjamin and I went on a cruise that stopped in Mexico for the day. To get the whole experience, we decided to stop for lunch. 

Our server was very eager to please and very eager to sell. "Can I bring you some beers?"

We declined, of course. 

"A coke? A rootbeer?" 

We declined again, asking for a bottle of water. Then we each ordered a burrito. 

It wasn't until they brought the burritos out that we realized we should have gotten one to share. The burrito was HUGE. It was seriously the size of four burritos put into one. 

We both managed to eat half of our burrito. It was probably the spiciest burrito I have ever eaten. We joked that they were trying to get us to buy more water from them, it was that hot. 

We wrapped up our left overs and left, but we knew we couldn't take it back on our cruise ship. We passed a homeless guy sitting on a bench and decided we would offer them to him. He was happy to take the extra food off our hands. 

As we started to walk away, I said to Ben, "Those burritos are really hot, we'd better give him our extra water too." 

Before we turned and ran back, Ben said to me, "Otherwise those burritos might kill him."

The Moment I Decided to Marry Charly

I remember exactly what I was doing the day I decided to marry Charly.

Charly and I had been talking again through Facebook, texting, and even Skype. She had sent me a book that told the story of the things she had been doing since our breakup.

I was at my sister Melissa's house and I was reading the book she sent me. Something about the book captivated me. I couldn't put it down. I read it from start to finish with almost no interruptions. The book made me realize how much I missed Charly and even how much she had grown. I felt the Spirit very strongly and I knew that I wanted to marry her.

That night I prayed about it.

"Dear Father in Heaven," I started, "I want to marry Charly. What do ya say?"

After asking the question I was filled with a sense of peace and I knew that Charly was a great choice for me and that God approved. I could almost imagine Him saying, "Go for it Ben!"

It was a special moment for me and I will never forget it. I know without a shadow of a doubt that Charly and I will have a happy marriage and that I made the right choice when I decided to marry her. It won't always be easy but it will always be worth it and I know that as long as we choose, God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost will help us in our lives and marriage.

The Moment I Decided to Marry my Husband

This one is tricky for me. Have you ever tried to pinpoint a moment that gradually grew into being?

I remember a couple months after we went on our first date, we were at my cousin's house together. I was sitting on the couch and he was rolling around on the floor with my seven-year-old cousin, playing some sort of game with her. As I sat watching, I knew that Benjamin was the sort of guy I could marry, the sort of man I wanted as the father of my children. 

It wasn't until later that I decided Benjamin was the one for me. I think it happened before we were officially dating; I knew that Ben had all the qualities that I was looking for in a spouse. 

I remember after we were dating, I was so sure Benjamin and I would end up together. We were in love and I knew that, so I didn't foresee anything coming between us. I would pray to Heavenly Father at night and say, "Heavenly Father, Benjamin is the one I want. I want to marry him." I felt so good afterwards, every time, I was sure that meant that I just had to be patient because eventually, my wish would come true.

Then we broke up. 

That put a damper in all my plans. It was hard for me because it had been a done deal in my mind. I felt that I was giving up on Benjamin and that it wasn't right to fall in love with someone else when I had been so in love with Ben before. 

Luckily for me, Benjamin later decided that I was the one he wanted to marry. 

Luckily for him, I hadn't changed my mind. 

Half an Angel Food Cake and Balloon Surfing

My favorite dessert? desert?.. is angel food cake. I usually ask for it for my birthday.

Charly has never made an angel food cake before and she decided to make it for me for my birthday. Now if you want to hear the more interesting side of this story you better go read Charly's blog because she had quite the adventure.

Now my side of the story is that when I got home from doing eight hours of physics homework there was angel food cake, and a super cute wife waiting for me.

The cake was a little interesting to look at. There was a little bit of candle wax melted into it, and the entire bottom half of the cake was... unique... BUT the top part of the cake tasted great and I loved it. It was perfect for me. I am super thankful to have a wife that thinks of me so much and works so hard to make me happy. I have so much to learn still and I have a good example to learn from.

One of the other things that I got to do was balloon surf. There were enough balloons to cover the entire floor and so I got on top of them. They held up my weight just fine. Charly thought I was crazy I'm sure but I loved it. Balloon surfing is fun.

Benjamin's Birthday Cake. Ahem. Sort of.

Every year for Ben's birthday, he has his mom make Angel Food Cake. It's his favorite cake. This last week, I was asking him what he wanted me to make for his birthday dinner. 

"I don't care what we have for dinner," Ben said. "But I do love Angel Food cake ..." It was not a subtle hint at all. If you have any background knowledge of my cooking skills, you'll know why I was more than a little nervous for that particular request. 

The morning of his birthday, we both had to leave for class around the same time. I got home around eleven in the morning, the house empty. I pulled out my mom's recipe for the first time and felt my stomach sink. 

I didn't have cake flour. 

Or cream of tartar. 

Or a tube pan. 

I thought maybe I could do it without those, but I wanted to wait and ask my mom. I decorated our kitchen with streamers and blew up 174 balloons (hours of entertainment for Benjamin) until my mom was home from work. I called her and told her my dilemma. 

"So, can I make it without those?" I asked. 

"Well, I'm afraid not," she said. "Definitely not without the right pan, or cream of tartar. You might be able to get away with using something other than cake flour, but it just won't work as well." 

"Okay," I said, my heart sinking. What was I going to do? I really wanted to make the cake, since it was Benjamin's favorite. Plus, I'd already bought candles for it. "I'll see what I can do." 

After my mom wished me luck, I hung up and decided to head to Wal Mart--despite my time limitations and the floods of rain that were coming down outside. 

I went to the pan section first. I found a round pan, with a bottom that came out. I wasn't sure if it was the right one, but I couldn't see any others that might work. Unfortunately, I had left my phone at home so I couldn't call my mom to make sure i was right. If you know anything about Angel Food cakes, you know how this is going to end. 

I finished my shopping and hurried home. I started mixing the cake, following the recipe exactly. I was very worried I was going to mess something up and was being very careful not to do so. There was one part of the recipe I wasn't quite sure of, so I called my mom. While I already had her on the phone, I told her the kind of pan I had gotten. 

"That'll work, right?" I said. I expected her to assure me it would. 

She told me it wouldn't. I guess because the cake batter is made up primarily of egg whites and sugar, the cake can't support itself in the middle while it's baking. That's why angel food cake pans have a smooth tube in the center and the batter cooks itself around it. 

Well, I was determined to make this cake, especially since I'd already started to. Realizing that Wal Mart hadn't had what I needed, I decided to go door to door on our street trying to find a pan I could borrow. We have plenty of older ladies in the ward and I figured somebody had to have them. I went to four different houses with no luck; the fourth house, though, the lady introduced herself as Shelby. She told me that she did not have one, but she knew her mother, the bishop's wife, had one. 

It was a miracle. Except that her mother wasn't home; she was at parent-teacher-conferences, as a teacher. Shelby took me over there and looked everywhere she could think. Her 8-year-old son was with us and was convinced that "Papa" would know where to look. He ran and got the Bishop, who had no idea what a tube pan even was. 

To make a long story short, I went home without a pan, my time before Benjamin got home dwindling. Still wondering what in the world I was going to do, I looked up online if there were ways to make an angel food cake in a different pan. And I found one! 

Following the instructions, I emptied a can of peaches and washed it out. Then I took some shortening and spread it on the bottom of the can to seal it to the middle of my pan. It made an interesting makeshift pan. I then poured the batter into the pan and put it in the oven with a sigh of relief. I thought my cake nightmare was over. 

THEN, about five minutes after putting it in the oven, I smell burning. I open the oven and the cake batter is DRIPPING OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF MY BRAND NEW PAN. I wanted to cry. I pulled the pan out and tried to scrape the burnt cake off the bottom of my oven. It was too late, of course, to stop the burnt smell from filling my entire house. 

I didn't really know how to fix the pan, so I set it on a cookie sheet and put the cake back into the oven to finish cooking. When it was done, I took it out and flipped the whole pan upside down (exactly how you are supposed to). As soon as it was upside down, the entire bottom of the pan decided to come apart from the rest of the pan and flop onto the counter, cake first. 

At this point, I was so done with the cake. I didn't even try to get the bottom (which, by the way, was covered in melted shortening from my "sealed can") of the cake off the pan. I set the entire pan bottom on a plate and stuck the candles in that. 

Ben got home and the first words out of my mouth were, "You do not know what I went through to make you this cake today."

It was worth it. We ate the entire top of the cake off. And it was delicious. 

My New Black Friends!

I was just getting off the frontrunner from work on Saturday when a tall black man and a shorter black woman approached me.

"Can I borrow your cell phone to make a phone call?" The tall man asked me. Dang, I thought, I hate it when people ask me that and I don't have my phone.

"I would let you borrow it but I left it at my friends house," I replied. "My wife is coming to pick me up here soon though and you can use hers."

"That works," The tall one said again. The three of us started walking over the the frontrunner parking lot.

"What brings you two out here to West Jordan?" I asked.

"My mom's boyfriend is getting baptized today," The tall one responded again.

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed, "I love baptisms. They are always so cool."

"Yeah," He said. "I'm a convert to the church. I was baptized when I was 16 and I was the first one in my family to join the church."

"Wow!" I said. "That must have been hard. You were the pioneer of your family."

"Yup," He said.

About then Charly, her mom, and Luke pulled up in her mom's little white Honda Civic. Charly got out and I asked her if my new friends could use her phone. Of course she said yes and handed the phone to man.

"What are your names?" I asked.

The girl spoke, "My name is Mia," She said, "And this is Wallace." Wallace grinned at me. He was on the phone with his mom.

"My name is Benjamin and this is Charly," I said, introducing us.

After calling, Wallace and Mia found that they would have to wait a while in the parking lot for Wallace's mom to pick them up. We ended up offering them a ride.

"I don't know how well the four of us are going to fit in the back of this little Honda..." I said. "How tall are you Wallace?"

"I'm 6' 6''," He said grinning again.

We all squeezed in. Charly sat on my lap which work out pretty well for me. We were able to get them to the right place and as far as I know they made it to the baptism with their mom.

Both Charly and I love it when we get opportunities to serve other people. I know that we will be blessed for it even if the things we do are small sometimes. I always enjoy making new friends as well and it's not every day that I get to make new black friends! Unfortunately there just aren't as many in Utah as there are in Brazil.

6'6" Makes Any Car Seem Small.

Ben and I went down to West Jordan this weekend. While we were down there, my parents wanted to take us out to dinner for our birthdays on Saturday night. Since I had dance in the morning, I was already down there; Ben had to take the train from his work to meet up with us. We were going to pick him up from the station and then head straight to dinner.

We took my mom's car, since it's the nicest. Luckily, it's also the roomiest. My mom was driving with Luke in the front passenger seat. That left the back for Ben and I. 

When we pulled into the station, we found Ben right away, talking with a couple of people. I got out of the car, to signal Ben and get a we've-been-apart-all-day hug. He ran over to me to get my phone for the guy he was talking with to borrow. We waited while the guy, Wallace, talked to his mom. 

When he hung up, Ben asked him, "So you have someone coming?"

"Why?" Wallace answered. "You offering us a ride?"

Ben looked at the car, back at Wallace and Mia, then back at the car and laughed. "If we had room, I definitely would be. I don't think we have room." 

We said our goodbyes and climbed into the car. As my mom started driving out of the parking lot, we told her the story, laughing. 

"Well," my mom said, "where are they headed?" 

"West Jordan somewhere." 

"That's the way we're headed," she said. "If we could squeeze them in, I don't see why we couldn't drop them off on the way." We turned around and Ben ran after the couple. Ben opened the door for them, then walked around to the other side. He slid in, closed the door, then pulled me up on his lap. I bent over, leaning my head on the seat in front of me. Even still, we were squeezed in pretty tight. Poor Wallace still had to bend his head down to fit.

It was quite the adventure. It was nice to be able to help them out and Ben and I always love meeting new people.  

Aeropostale Date: Does Aeropostale have scarves?

Charly likes to plan dates and I like to improvise on dates. It works well for us that way.

Back when Charly and I were dating we went on a date to the Gateway mall in SLC. The date was fun. I think we ate at Tucanos which was cool for me because it's a Brazilian restaurant.

After that we were wandering around the mall when we saw a cloths store... It might have been Hollister... I don't remember for sure but there were some couches in the front so we sat down. People that came in the store would stare at us so I decided to start welcoming them to the store.

"Welcome to Hollister!" I said as a person walked in. They gave me a strange look.

I looked over at Charly. "We should go do this for real at a store!" I said.

"Ok," She replied.

We found an Aeropostale and went inside. "Can we talk to the manager?" I asked one of the workers. "Sure," the worker said.

When the manager came up to us I started my lie.

"Hey, we are doing some volunteer work because it is so close to Christmas and we were wondering if we could stand at your entrance and welcome people in to the store?"

The manager brightened right up at my words. "Of course!" She said. "You can even give them our pitch!"

After she explained the pitch to us Charly and I went to the front of the store and started welcoming people in. We were having tones of fun for some reason and so I'm sure we were smiling really well when we welcomed new customers. We even had a customer ask us where a scarf was which was a big deal because when I went to answer I realized that I didn't know if Aeropostale even sold scarfs so I turned to look back in the store to see...

Needless to say it was one of the funnest dates I've been on just because it was so different. If you ever need something to do on a date I would highly recommend fake volunteering to be a greater at a store.

"Welcome to Aeropostale!"

About a month before Ben and I started to officially and exclusively date each other, we met up at the Gateway to spend the day together. We spent the first part of the date playing silly games and eating lunch at Tucanos. Then we started going store to store, talking and laughing and having fun doing absolutely nothing. 

We were in Hollister, sitting in the big, poufy arm chairs in the front of thei store when Ben had the brilliant idea to start welcoming people as they entered. I agreed, though I was more self-conscious about it than he was. 

Then Ben had even more of a brilliant idea. 

"Charly, let's walk down and find another store to do this at!" He was very excited. 

"Okay," I agreed, more because of the funny looks we were getting at Hollister than out of actual desire to do it. 

As we walked along the stores, looking for the perfect one, Ben got me more excited about the idea. We decided on Aeropostale, but we wanted to be more legit than before. We walked into the store, right up to the cashier. 

"We were wondering if we could talk to your manager?" Benjamin asked, in his most polite voice. The cashier disappeared for a moment, then reappeared with a professional looking lady close behind her. 

I tried to keep a straight face as Ben explained to the manager what it was we wanted to do. "We are here today doing service, for the Christmas season, as we were wondering if we could stand in front of your store as volunteer door greeters?" I wondered if he had thought this speech out beforehand or if he was just making it up on the spot. I couldn't tell. 

The manager got almost as excited about it as Benjamin, after her initial surprise. She was happy to let us do it. 

We stood there for probably half hour. Every customer who came in recieved a "Welcome to Aeropostale!" from either Ben or I, and everyone who went out left with "Happy holidays!" or "Thanks for coming in!" trailing behind them. 

We were so legit, too. There were customers passing by who asked us about sales going on or if the store carried certain items. It was a fun activity to do together; we still look back at it with laughter. 

I can always count on Benjamin to come up with an activity that I am both embarrassed by and love at the same time. That's what husbands are for, I suppose. 

Favorite Parts of Disneyland/California!

(These are not necessarily in order)

Charly and I were lucky enough to be able to spend the night in St. George with Quinn Balhorn's aunt and uncle. Their names are brother and sister Calder. We originally met them when our car broke down on our St. George trip to see the St. George temple. They are awesome people and it was fun to see them again and have breakfast with them.

Swimming in the ocean has got to be one of my favorites as well. The water was pretty cold but that made it fun walking out into the deeper water. I was nervous for sure the deeper we got... I have this issue with swimming in water that has creatures larger than me that can eat me... I did fine though and now I really want to try surfing.

I loved being able to stay with Kim and Dan's family. I know for a fact that Charly and I wouldn't have gone if it wasn't with them... in fact we probably shouldn't have gone anyway but we did and we had a blast!

The rides were great! Some of my favorites to go on were Soaring, Tower of Terror, Screaming, Indiana Jones, and Radiator Springs Racers. I also really enjoyed World of Color and the Aladdin show.

The last thing that I thought was really fun was the Animation Academy. It was just a simple little "how to draw" with some Disney characters but Charly really loved it and of course I loved it because I love art. I guess it was just really cool for me to see Charly take an interest in art because art is such a major part of my life. Charly did really well too! Here is a picture she drew of Mickey Mouse.

My Top 5 of California!

1. Staying with Brother and Sister Calder when we stopped in St. George Friday night. 

2. The many times Ben and I went on the California Screamin' roller coaster!

3. Animation Academy--a cute little place Ben and I found, where they teach you how to draw Disney characters for 15 minutes at a time. Ben says I found my hidden talent there, so now I can become a Disney artist. It was really fun, despite Ben's teasing. 

4. The audio book Ben and I listened to during our long drives. 

5. Just being with Ben. No matter where we go or what we do together, I can't help but feel grateful that we're together. We've almost been married nine months, and I still feel grateful everyday to be married to him. 

2013 Hightlights!

January - My birthday! I'm sure other things happened but it's too long ago to remember.

February - I wrote Charly a letter telling her I still loved her.

March - I moved out to Orem. I was very blessed to get a place to stay for the first little while and Charly and I were once again blessed when we found our apartment.

April - I'm not sure... did anything big happened in April?... Oh yeah! I married Charly. I'm the luckiest guy in the world!

May - Charly started school at BYU! Sometime around here we started doing our blog. I'm so glad we do. I love writing and our blog is a good way for me to write without taking up too much of my time.

June - We spent all our money... hahaha.

July - We spent the 4th of July with Charly's family. There was a huge water party at her Grandma and Grandpa's house.

August - I Quit Wells Fargo and Started School at UVU. My major is Computer Science and I love it! It take quite a bit of time though.

September - I started working at Kynetx sometime around here. I work as a web developer and it is practically my dream job! I learn new things every day and I don't ever want to leave.

October - We literally did nothing on Halloween... I don't think Charly was too happy about it haha.

November - We spent thanksgiving in Vernal! We also got stranded in St. George! It was fun. The St. George story could be an entire blog in itself but I won't go too much into that. If you want more details ask me in person.

December - Jeremy Troff got home, Charly's had her birthday, and we spent Christmas with both families! Christmas was super fun because of the gifts that we got for the people in our family. We also got some great gifts in return.

2013 Year in Review

January: I went on my first ever road trip! Jon and Kwinn and I went to Monticello temple, then drove to Vernal. We went to the temple there with Ben (which was awkward at the time, as the first time we had seen each other since breaking up) and then went to the Manti temple with Ashley. It was a blast! 

February: The highlight of this month was such a good day. On that day, I got the letter from Ben, the one telling me that he wanted to marry me (whether I went on a mission or not) and my acceptance letter from BYU. It was my dream-come-true-day. 

March: I was preparing like crazy for my wedding. We got married really fast from when we decided to get married, mostly because of school and some of my family's schedules. 

April: Ben and I got married! Marrying Ben was the best thing I've ever done. He treats me so well, I don't know how I got so lucky to deserve his love. We also went on our honeymoon, which was huge for me because I have not been very many places. Now I have also traveled down the coast of California and into Mexico on our cruise. 

May: I started at BYU! I have not made the folk dance team yet, but I love BYU. We also moved into our cute little apartment. 

June: Ben and I spent June super spoiled. We did basically whatever we wanted and had a blast being newly weds. It was a fun, uneventful month. 

July: I got my job at Response. I didn't stay there long, but I really liked it when I got it. 

August: Ben and I ran five miles together, from Oquirrh Mountain Temple to Jordan River Temple. We didn't train for it, so it was really hard for us, but we ran the whole way. That's the furthest I have run without stopping and I was proud of it. 

September: I switched majors from Psychology to FACS Ed to my current major--family life, emphasis family studies. I love my major and I love all the classes I need to take for it so far. I'm really glad I found it, because it is perfect for me. 

October: I sold my little red car--without any accidents or tickets in it (a first)! I also learned to drive stick shift, so I could drive Ben's little car, Toothless, to school everyday. I was also very proud of that. 

November: Ben, Jon, Ashley, Kwinn, and I all went on a roadtrip down to St. George and got stranded when our car broke down. It turned into quite the adventure, with us carrying all our stuff across roads under construction and to church, finally staying with Kwinn's aunt and uncle, who became close friends. It was really fun. 

December: This month was huge. Jeremy, my best friend, got home from his mission in Finland. I finished off the semester with all A's and A-'s (even in my math class!)). Ben and I spent our first Christmas together. I turned 21. 

This year had a few ups and downs, but I loved it. I was so very blessed during it. I once asked Jon why I had so many blessings in my life. He told me that it was so I could use them to bless other people. This next year, I want to remember that and live up to my Heavenly Father's expectations of me. 

2014 is going to be another great year.