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.

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.

Vegan Chili with Beaf

So a few days ago Charly and I decided to have chili for dinner. I was excited because I like chili. This time was different though. Charly and I had some canned chili and I wanted to add some vegetables to it so I looked up a recipe online and completely ignored the instructions, using the picture as a reference.

"Charly do you want some vegetables in your chili?" I asked as I chopped up the sweet peppers and spinach. She looked over at my preparations and gave me her look.

"No thanks," She said.

"Come on!" I insisted.

"Nope," She answered again.

"Just try some," I said, holding out a chip with some chili on it.

"Ok," She said." Charly ate the chip with my chili on it.

"It's pretty good actually," She said with a smile.

"I know!" I answered excitedly. "I didn't make this one up like the corn soup Charly. I found a real vegan chili recipe online."

The excitement left my voice as I looked down into my bowl.

"Oh no! There is beef in this chili!" I exclaimed. "I made vegan chili with beef in it!"

Charly just laughed.

Ben's Version of Vegetarian Chili

This past week was finals, so I didn't make any elaborate dinners. When Ben got home from work and school on Tuesday, I had a can of Chili on the counter ready to make for dinner. Ben got really excited when he saw it. 

"I really want Chili for dinner," He said in the kitchen, I was putting something in the spare room. 

"Okay," I said. 

"Is that why you have the Chilli on the counter?"

"Yes," I said, walking back into the kitchen with a smile on my face. I sat down on the couch, opening my computer while Ben got the Chilli cooking. 

"Can I put peppers in it?" He asked. 

"No." 

"What?" Ben protested. "Why not? I found a real recipe, online. We could probably add spinach and it wouldn't make a difference."

I thought about spinach and peppers in the Chili and made a face. "How about you put them in your half and I'll just have normal Chili?" 

Ben pulled out the peppers and spinach, dicing them up. "I am so good at this," he said. "Chopping vegetables up really small." He scooped the vegetables into his Chili, ignoring the face I was giving him. 

"Want to try some?" He held out a chip loaded with Chili from his bowl. 

"No."

"Come on! Vegan Chili!" 

"Ben," I laughed. "This Chili has meat in it. You know that, right?" 

Ben shook his head and held out his chip again. "Vegan Chili ... with meat in it." 

I ate it. It actually tasted pretty good. 

90 Degrees

"Benjamin!" I called out from the bedroom. It was starting to get really warm in here. Ben was working on homework in the kitchen. "What do you have the thermostat on?" 

"Wha-at?" Benjamin asked in his I'm-picked-on-I-would-never-do-what-you-think-I-did voice. "I don't know." 

"Benjamin," I said again, this time with a laugh in my voice. "Is it on ninety?" 

"Of course not ..." Ben said, using the same voice. Not exactly reassuring. I jumped up and came into the living room to check. Ben has a habit of turning the thermostat on really high to warm the apartment up fast. Sometimes he turns it up without even looking to see what temperature it's at. 

It was at 75 degrees. I turned it down a little. 

"Was it on ninety?" Ben asked. 

"No," I said, ignoring his triumphant grin and "told you so" as I walked back to what I was doing before. 

The Christmas Present

"I bought some Christmas decorations from Wal-Mart," Charly said as I got home from work.

"Really?" I asked skeptically.

"Yup," she said, "Come look."

I followed Charly over into the living room. She was practically glowing with excitement.

"I bought these candles, and these window decorations, and these lights, oh, and look. I bought two kinds of wrapping. One color is for you and the other is for me. What one do you like the most?"

I looked down at the two colors. "I like the silver one," I said.

"Good, I like the white one more," she replied with a grin.

A week later and after Thanksgiving day, Charly and I were in the house. We had aquired a small Christmas tree from Charly's mom and decorated it. The tree looked really good. Charly had hand made a ton of small paper snowflakes, we had borrowed some hand made ornaments, and even made some on a date together. Charly walked over to the tree. She was holding a large box. To this day I'm still not sure what was in it.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's a Christmas gift," She answered.

"Is it for me?" I asked again.

"No silly, it's for both of us." She replied smiling.

At that moment I was struck with the realization that our brilliant plan in having two colors of wrapping paper, one for each of us, was flawed. My face fell and I looked at Charly with an expression of grave concern on my face, "If it's for both of us how are we suppose to wrap it?"

She just laughed at me.

A Christmas Present to Us

My mom has a Christmas tradition with Christmas presents that I love--every year, instead of writing the person's name on every single one of their presents, she has a specific wrapping paper for each individual person. It's really fun, because in the weeks leading up to Christmas, you can try to figure out which wrapping paper is yours. This is a tradition I wanted to continue in my own family, so I bought two different rolls of wrapping paper at Wal Mart. 

While I was Black Friday shopping, one of the few purchases I made was a ten dollar griddle. I decided to wrap it, so our cute little tree would have plenty of presents underneath it. This week, Ben grabbed the griddle and went to open it. 

"No, no!" I shouted, in my typical panicky voice. Ben says we have a good chance statistically of dying at the same time, since he's older and a guy but never stressed, while I'm younger and a girl but always stressed out. 

"What?" Ben asked in sincere innocence, not letting go of the griddle. 

"The griddle," I said, walking over and taking it away from him. "I'm going to wrap it."

"Oh," Ben said, giving me a puzzled look. "Who's it going to be for?"

"Us, of course," I laughed. 

"Both of us?" Ben asked. 

"Yes ..." I said, looking for the trick in the question. 

"But ..." Ben grinned his teasing-Charly smile. "What wrapping paper are you going to use?" 

I just rolled my eyes, though I couldn't help grinning along with Ben. 

The day my husband locked me out of the bathroom ...

After Ben and I got married, I learned that Ben always locks the door. Always. Normally, this is fine. This week, it proved to be slightly problematic. 

Tuesday morning I woke up very groggy. Ben and I had had a very late night Monday and I did not want to get up early to catch the bus. While I was at dance the night before, Ben had fixed our car and it was very tempting to sleep an extra hour and simply drive. 

"Ben," I asked, leaning across the bed. 

"Hmmm?" Benjamin asked, his eyebrows pinching together. That's his I'm-tired-why-are-you-talking face. He doesn't know he makes it. 

"Can I drive today?" 

"Why?" Ben didn't even open his eyes. 

"So I can sleep in a little." I said, a little impatiently. 

"Oh. Yeah, that's fine." Ben rolled over and fell back to sleep quickly. I rolled over too, but didn't find sleep as fast. I needed to go to the bathroom. 

With a sigh, I got up and found my way through our maze of clean and dirty clothes strewn around the room (I hate putting away laundry ...) and found the bathroom door shut. Ben likes to keep the doors closed in our apartment so it looks nicer. I turned the knob only ... it didn't turn. I turned it again, no luck. I fumbled back into the bedroom. 

Uh-oh, I thought. I went outside to get a broken piece of hanger, attempting to use it as a lock pick. No luck. 

I fumbled back into the room and said in a loud, half whisper, "Ben!" 

"What?" he asked, his voice slurring sleepily. 

As I answered, I knelt down next to the alarm we had set the night before. It was supposed to go off at 6:30. It was 6:23. "The bathroom door is locked." 

"Turn it really hard, sometimes it just gets jammed." At this point, Ben was probably mostly asleep still.

"Okay," I said, doubting it would work even as I agreed to it. "I'll try it, but I turned it hard before." 

After shutting off the alarm so it wouldn't wake Ben up, I went back to the door. and twisted the knob with all my strength. Once, twice, three times. It still wouldn't budge; I could tell it was locked. I knew I needed to get the door open so I could go to school ... I'm not the kind of girl who spends a ton of time in the bathroom, but there was no way I would go out in public without at least doing my hair first. I decided to take advice from Ever After and got a screwdriver out. 

I was trying to get the screws off, but it was tricky with how they were positioned when Ben came out of the bedroom, still half asleep. He must have heard my clumsy attempts with the screwdriver. He took over and had the door handle off and the door unlocked in less than five minutes. 

"Thanks Ben," I said, rewarding his efforts with a kiss. "And now that I'm awake, I can take the bus!" Ben just laughed and went back to bed. 

Soap in a Bottle

The other day Charly bought some soap that was... inexpensive. She bought it because I told her that I wasn't picky about my soap. Well, when I started using the soap I learned that I actually was kind of picky, at least I learned that I didn't like this soap.

It made my skin feel like rubber...

So I did what any other husband would do in this situation, I started using Charly's soap. Of course I was only going to use it until I could get some good soap for me to use. 

One day however. While I was using the soap I knocked it down into the tub. The was in a bottle and I noticed a price tag on the bottom of the bottle. The soap was like $12! For a tiny little bottle of soap! What does it have gold in it? Needless to say I started using the rubbery soap again.

Charly has since bought me soap that I like that wasn't $12.

11 Dollar Soap

Ben and I were in the bathroom one day when Benjamin grabbed my bottle of body wash out of the shower.

Holding it up to show me, he asked, "Was this really eleven dollars?" 

"What?" I asked. 

"I was using is before, until I saw this--" Ben pointed to the price tag on the back of the bottle, clearly labeled $11. 

I laughed. "Yes, it was eleven dollars, at Bath and Body Works. It was probably on some sort of sale though." 

Ben thought for a moment. "I'll just use the other soap." 

Drive-Thru Reception

This week my cousin Gavin got married in the temple. It was really cool and I was super excited that Charly and I got to drive to Vernal to see it. Out of all of my cousins I probably spent the most time with Gavin growing up.

Well, so on to the story. Charly and I also went to the reception. Before we went we were talking about how long we would be there and I said, "In and out." I mean, Gavin is a really close cousin to me but nobody likes receptions... I'm pretty sure Gavin doesn't anyway.

"I love receptions," Charly said.
"Of course she does." I thought to myself.

You see, my idea of a perfect reception is a drive-thru reception. I tried to get Charly to do this for our wedding but to no avail.

The ideas is that you have three tables... like this
 ___   ___   ___
|      |  |      | |      |

Impressive graphics right? Anyway... The first table will have a picture of you and your spouse... that way you don't have to be there, the second table will have a book for the family and friends to sign, and the last will be a nice big table for everyone to leave the gifts on. Each person will simply drive their car up and stop at each table for each action... It's perfect!

I guess most women don't like the idea though and I'm not sure why... Every guy that I have ever told this too has thought it was brilliant.

Aaaaand back to the original story. Charly and I teased back and forth a little about how long we would stay. We went to the reception and stayed for a little while. It was nice. I was able to visit with some family I hadn't seen in a while. Receptions aren't all that bad I guess. Maybe I'll even learn to like them being around Charly all the time.... I doubt it though.

Fast Sunday Breakfast!

Charly and I missed fast Sunday last month. We forgot it was fast Sunday and ate. In order to make sure that didn't happen again we reminded each other constantly over the course of this last week. Charly really wanted to remember and reminded me quite a bit.

When I woke up this morning (Fast Sunday) Charly was already awake. I was a little sleepy still and so I sort of stumbled out of the bedroom and into the kitchen.

To my surprise Charly was standing there beaming, and pointing and the wonderful breakfast she had made for me. It looked amazing and she had made my two favorite things to have for breakfast, German Pancakes and Fruit/Veggie Smoothies! Right when I saw it I remembered that it was fast Sunday...

"Oh boy," I thought.

I walked up to Charly and just hugged her. She of course wasn't sure how to take that because it was an odd time for a hug.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"I'm giving you comfort." I said. "It's fast Sunday."

"Dang it!" Charly exclaimed.

I just kept hugging her and then we started laughing about it.

"I guess we'll just have to fast next Sunday," She said through the laughing.

A List of Ben's Gifts and Talents

This will not be comprehensive or the list will never end. I'm serious; my husband does EVERYTHING. I've never met anyone so talented. 

1. Patience. Benjamin has this gift as no one else I know. There have been many times since we've gotten married when Ben has needed to patient with me. Those times come mostly when things don't go according to my plan and I get grumpy. Those are the times when, even though I don't show it, that I am most grateful for Ben and his patience with me. Our relationship thrives on his patience. 

2. Believing. Ben has a talent for helping others believe in themselves.  

3. Learning. Ben has the gift of learning. I attribute this in part to his home schooling and the way his mother taught him to learn. He isn't afraid to try new things, he is observant enough to pick up the tricks of how to do things, and he is just naturally good at new things. 

4. Love. Ben has the gift of love. He is always serving, always looking for ways to help others. There are so many times when I catch him thinking of others, especially his family, before himself and I don't think he even realizes it. 

5. Everything. This one might be cheating, but Ben seems to have the talent of being talented at everything. This probably is due to his ability to learn and his fearlessness in trying new things. If you know Ben, you know that Ben also really gets into things. He goes through phases, but during his "piano phase," he does piano all the time. When he goes through his "art phase," art is all he does. 

This is Not a Date.

Friday night is my favorite, because it is date night.And I am very pro-dating. 

Now, if you know me, you know that my definition of dating is different than most anyone else. It has to fit all the criteria for a date--planned for as a date, paid for by one person, and paired off.  On top of that, though, a date is only a date if it feels like a date. 

Lately, because of school and being sick and other obstacles, our date nights haven't exactly met my "date criteria." Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with Ben and, since we pretty much everything together just as a couple, we go on a lot of dates, in Ben's definition of a date. I was excited for our date this week, though, and had it planned out flawlessly. 

While I was at school in the morning, I stopped to buy tickets for BYU's Humor U performance that night. That's when everything started going wrong. 

Our one and only car wouldn't start for me after class. I just walked the hour and a half home. Then Ben got home late from work. That, on top of our need to figure out the car (as well as a paper that Ben needed to write for school) meant that we missed our already-paid-for-show. We spent the early evening with our Bishop, trying to get the car to start. 

We finally got it to start and drove home. On the way, Ben remarked, "Well, this was an interesting date." 

"This isn't a date." It had been a hard, stressful day for me and I was very disappointed that our date was, once again, turning into what I considered to not be a date. 

Luckily, we had a gift card to Coldstones Creamery. When we got home, I asked Ben if we could go  out for ice cream. He, of course, agreed. The Coldstones we ended up going to was in the same parking lot as the Provo dollar theater. Before we went inside, we noticed that Monster University was playing in the dollar theater. Neither of us had seen it yet, but we both wanted to, so we went to the 10:30 showing, getting a discount with our student ID's.

It started off as a really awful date for me. Nothing had been gong the way I had planned and I was frustrated. Things turned out perfectly, though, and it was a really great date night. I love my husband. He's not a huge planner and he and I might not agree on the definition of a date. When it's really important, though, Benjamin is so sweet. 

When I got married, I thought it was important to have a husband who would take me dancing and sing me songs on the guitar and plan romantic, fun dates. Those things are nice. I still enjoy listening to Ben play guitar, I love dancing whit him, and I wouldn't mind if he planned more dates. That's not what actually matters, though. 

It matters when I'm upset and he just holds me. 
It's important to me that he takes the lead in finding a way to fix, say, the car. 
I'm so grateful for his patience with me when I'm grumpy that something didn't work out. 
It is perfect that he doesn't get frustrated or stressed like I do. 
It's the little moments in everyday life that are important. And let me tell you, singing romantic songs on the guitar isn't what it's all about.  

My Favorite Picture of Benjamin

Adorable. My husband is adorable. 

When I Was Oblivious to Charly's Signals that She Wanted Me to Hold Her Hand.

I'm just an oblivious sort of guy. I know there were many times where Charly wanted me to hold her hand but I didn't. She probably gave me some sort of signal as well. I know all the signals now because she has told them to me. Before though, I had no clue.

I remember one night when we were at Charly's house and we were watching Robin Hood. During the movie I really wanted to kiss her. I don't think we were even dating at the time yet but I sure wanted to kiss her. I didn't though.

I remember another time when Charly and I were at the temple and I was showing her something on my iPod. She was holding the iPod so I used that as an excuse to put my hand under the hand she was using to hold the iPod. It was a small moment to everyone else but it was huge for me.

You see, I take any sort of physical statement very seriously. I feel that holding hands is something you should only do if you really like somebody. I know everyone will have different views on this but the fact is that most girls take physical attention as a sign of love and guys don't usually see it the same. There are exceptions to this but many times this is true. I think that men need to be careful. They might lead a girl on without even meaning to just because they don't see things the same way.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm actually a very physical person once I feel like I'm committed to a relationship but before that I'm very careful. I don't know if this is the best way to be while dating but it's the way I chose to be.

I know this was very frustrating for Charly but I didn't know this at the time... well, mostly. Charly has always been very patient with me and I love that about her. I know it drives her crazy sometimes. I guess when it comes to love crazy can be a good thing.

The Day We Met Brandon Sanderson (Our Favorite Author)

Once, about a month ago, Ben and I were (of course) at Barnes and Noble. While there, we saw a poster announcing a book signing with Brandon Sanderson for his newest release, Steelheart. Now, in case you don't know, Benjamin and I love Brandon Sanderson. 

We. Love. Brandon. Sanderson. 

We've read all his books.

We own almost all of his books. 

We've watched his lecture series on YouTube. 

When we were dating, his books were one of the many things that brought us together. 

We really, really love Brandon Sanderson. 

While we were at it, we had to buy a nice, hard copy of 

The Way of Kings for Brandon Sanderson to sign. 

So, we marked the day on our calendar and decided that even if we had to take work off or miss class (at the time, both our schedules were up in the air), that we would make sure we were there. 

The day approached. It was on Tuesday from 5:00 to 8:00. Sure enough, with how busy our schedules are, we both had conflicts. I had class until 5:30 and then I had work until 6:00. I was already planning on asking for work off because the SFLSA opening social was that same day from 6:00 to 7:30, which I wanted to attend. Ben had a class from 7:00-8:30. 

When I looked online to double check the time, hoping maybe we could work it out with our schedules, I saw that they were handing out wristbands on Monday morning starting at 9 AM. That was just awful timing for us, because Ben would be at work all day and I would be in class. 

We decided that night to stop by just to see if they had any wristbands left. They had plenty. We were 132 and 133 in line and we got the 94th copy of the book. 

We had decided it would be worth it to just to skip out on our other obligations to meet Brandon Sanderson. Then Ben remembered that he had a meeting with the Dean of the school as part of his responsibilities as the student rep for UVU's computer science department. It was at 6:00. Of course. 

I didn't want to miss it but I definitely did not want to go alone. I dragged my friend Janessa with me. It was crazy. There were quite a few people there and we had to wait for our number to be called out to pick up our copy of the book. Then we got to stand in line. For, practically forever. 

At 7:00, Janessa had to leave for a class. I waited in line for about an hour by myself. I made friends with the two girls in front of me--one of them is leaving in December to Charlotte, North Carolina! Ben and I were talking back and forth the whole time on Facebook and I convinced him to leave his class early to try to get to the store before I reached Brandon Sanderson. 

It was so close. I had probably five people in front of me when Ben arrived. It was close enough to make me sweat. Ben got there in time though, and we were even able to get a picture with our favorite author! 

Here we are, with Brandon Sanderson! 

Charly in One Word

Charly is determined.

"having made a firm decision and being resolved not to change it." - Google

I chose this word to describe Charly because it is the word that stands out to me most. Charly doesn't give up. She stands strong for what she believes. If there is something that needs to be done she will work until it gets done. If something isn't working out for her she will try multiple different ways of trying to get it to work. I see this as a glimpse of her faith.

One time on my mission I asked an investigator what the word "faith" meant to them. The investigator said, "faith was never giving up."

Charly is determined and she has that kind of faith.