My husband plays the guitar.

 For the past couple of days I've been feeling down in the dumps. I miss my family. Especially with it being Christmas season. Not being able to go to Temple square and see all of the beautiful lights, missing out on all of the fun Christmas parties, and basically everything else that comes along with the holiday. Not to mention my body hasn't been very nice to me for the past week as well. The one thing that has helped me through this rough week is my husband! He is so sweet. Have I ever mentioned he plays the guitar? And he sings too! The combination of my hunk, a beautiful voice, and a guitar is just wonderful!  He has written many songs for me, most are from when we were dating. My favorite one though is his recent accomplishment. He was going to sing it at our wedding but then chickened out last second! Ugh, I know! But thats okay, because I get to hear it all the time. :) When he sings and starts to strum on the strings of his guitar, it takes all of my worries away, and brings me back into the moment. I love it. I think I can speak for all girls when I say a man with a guitar and a beautiful voice is a gift from God. :) At least I think my husband is anyway. Here is a rap my husband made up for me back when we were dating. 

'Come gather round and ill tell you a story

Of a girl so fly, she da opposite of boring

theres no arguing here she is simply the best

if she was the gold rush id be headin west

Im telling you dude she the finest of the female

if shes was a cup then shed be the holy grail

if her brain had a name then it would be steller

if karlie was a book  would be a bestseller

listen up

if she was a guitar she’d be a takamine

if she was car she’d be a lambragini

if she was a magician she’d be Houdini

if she was linguine- chicken fricken fettuccine

if she was a fish then she’d be a beauty

and xbox game she’d be call of duty

if she was girl shed be a cutie

oh wait she is a girl, ha ha, brain tootie

if she was Chinese she be panda express

if she was a school subject she’d be recess

if she was a flower shed be a daisy

KFC she is potatoes and gravy.

 In all seriousness tho

Karlie your my girl

You mean more to me

Than anything in this world

I don’t think you could ever understand

What I feel for you. But I hope you can.

its hard to describe someone that blows your mind

you’ve got my heart and stomach all intertwined

No amount of words are ever going to do you justice

I want you to know, that to me your perfect

I know that I might be just fool with a dream 

but impossible as it seems

im gonna shoot for the stars and

Hope that you discover me in your heart

Cause I cant stay grounded and live

That’s just the way that it is.

Id completely understand if you wanted nothing more to do with this.

Before you go you should know

that I will never stop tryin

to make you laugh and keep you from cryin

I just want you to know how much you mean to me.

I just hope that you know how much you mean to me.'

-Jake Jessop-

He is a cheese ball I know, but that is one of the many reasons why I love his so much!

Mother Dear

For the past week or two I have been thinking a lot about my mom. She is such a beautiful person all around. For those of you that have met her, you know what I'm talking about. Whenever I introduce myself to someone, and let them know who my parents are, I almost always get a response of ' Oh I know Paulie! You look just like her. I love your mom, she is so sweet.' I'm not even kidding, almost those words exactly. There is probably not one person out there that can say one bad thing about my mom. She is so very beautiful, graceful, sweet, feminine, loving, and one of the most giving people I know. My grandma's up there too. That is probably where she gets it from. :) Growing up my mom always taught me to always care. Care about having things nice. Care about doing things the right way. For example, wrapping Christmas presents. My mom would show me how to wrap the corners right, so that they would look nice. Or, there was a time when my mom sat me down to practice my signature. She had taken me to the bank to cash a check, and my signature was unreadable, so she showed me a couple of different ways to write my name in cursive nicely. Just before I got married I walked into my moms room before bed to visit with her. She had asked me if I had any pajamas that matched. I looked down and said 'no, not really.' (I had collected high school t shirts and sweats for pj's) She responded with 'don't you want to look pretty going to bed?' I chuckled in response, 'we will just be sleeping mom.' Later that week she took me and bought me some very feminine and 'pretty' pajamas to wear for when I got married.  Growing up I loved to watch my mom put on her make-up and do her hair. I now realize I was learning while watching her, and I now do some of the same things. Through out the years I always just thought ' Oh whatever Mom, its silly to care that much about stuff.' Now that I have a house for myself to take care of, I find myself repeating something my mom would always say to me, "It's good to have things nice, you will never regret making things nice.' That is my motivation for having a clean house for my husband to come home to. Making the bed every morning when I get out of it. Decorating our apartment. Or simply getting ready for the day. I say those words in my head. I also say them to Jake as he helps me to make our bed on the weekends. His idea is to throw the covers up and call it good. I on the other hand want to make it 'nice.' My mom has been such a wonderful example to me. I look to her example when I'am trying to figure out the task at hand, or how to act in a stressful situation. My mom is my best friend, and I honestly don't know what I would do without her. I love my Mom!

My mom and my grandma!

It's been a crazy wonderful month!

So I know it has been about a month since my last post. I've been on the go, and trying to get back into my normal routine. Now that I've been home for a week, I've started to get back into the swing of things. It's sooo nice being home. Sleeping in our own bed. Pulling a drawer full of clean, nicely folded clothes open, without having to rummage through a suitcase. I was living out of a suitcase for over a month! Its not as bad as it sounds though. Here is a quick update on what Jake and I have been up to, and how our Thanksgiving went!

I left my parents house and flew up to North Dakota to be with Jake for the last week that he was working out of town. Let me tell you, it is COLD up there. And living in a motel room for a week, I was about ready to go insane! It helped that I was finally with my husband. It was hard being away from him for so long, so I was grateful to finally be with him. After that week was over Jake and I drove back to Rapid City after he got off work. It was about a 6 hour drive, and we made 2 different stops on the way back to catch up with some friends! We got back around 3 in the morning. Woke up later that morning, paid the bills, cleaned out a STINKY fridge, caught up on some much needed laundry, re-packed and headed off to Montana to spend Thanksgiving with his family. We were only home for just over 12 hours, it was hard to leave again so soon. BUT, we were going to be with family and celebrate the holiday! :)

Thanksgiving was great! I love my in-laws. Its always so nice going to see them and catch up. Not to mention we were celebrating Thanksgiving and there was tons of yummy food! Double win! While I was there I made Cranberry Salsa. If you haven't tried Cranberry Salsa you have to! It is delicious! And my in-laws loved it too. Whoo! Here's the recipe!

Cranberry Salsa

12ounce bag of cranberry's 

3 jalapeños 

4-5 green onions

A handful of cilantro (I always estimate on this one)

2 limes squeezed

1 cup if sugar

A dash of salt

Mix all together and put over a brick of cream cheese and enjoy with crackers!! YUM!

After all of the laughs, fun games, and much needed family time Jake and I headed home. It was so nice to walk through our front door knowing we wouldn't have to leave again so soon. So we've been home now for just over a week. I've been having fun decorating for our first Christmas together as a married couple. Making yummy holiday treats, and doing plenty of Christmas shopping. We are looking foward to going back to my parents house for Christmas and New Years in just a few weeks!

This is Jake and I last year around Christmas time. Crazy how fast time flies! It has been a great year to say the least. :)