Final Post

Well, I'm not sure how to say this, but this is my last post on this blog. As my old life has been replaced by a much, much better one with Stacie as my wife, so my blog will now be replaced with a much, much better that Stacie and I (mostly Stacie) will do together. Expect more regular, well-written and humorous posts with pictures! It's only been going since July but it already contains posts than my entire life-long blog! I'll be posting there from now on.

Home

Three years ago when I was single I bought a modest two-bedroom townhome. I was pretty excited and quickly outfitted it with a couch from the DI (then added another used one when a roommate moved it in but not out), a big picture of Zion National Park, satellite TV, various used kitchen items from the DI or donated by family members, boxes full of sports and camping equipment under the stairs. . . well you get the picture. Then I proceeded to not spend much time there due to residency, and for the past year, a wonderful girlfriend whose apartment was much more inviting and comfortable. Now things have changed incredibly for the better. Inspired by impending marriage to Stacie, I redid much of the kitchen, cleaned as much as I knew how, and then finally we moved Stacie’s nice stuff to what is now our home. Then she did some awesome womanly decorating and cleaning and now it’s an entirely different place, and I love it. It seems almost unreal that we live in a place that is such a home, and definitely blessed with a woman’s touch. It feels like I could spend a vacation just hanging out here. Among many other great improvement and changes, my office/bedroom is now the craft room/office, the living room is a coordinated set, the bookcase is not one I bought in a box from Walmart, the bathroom rug matches the shower curtain and the towels, the kitchen is always clean, the refrigerator has actual groceries in it, the pantry has food in it and is organized (as opposed to mix of camping gear, dozens of plastic grocery bags, etc., etc.) our bedroom is impeccable (and there are beautiful dresses hanging in the closet), there are decorations and pictures on the walls, and best of all, Stacie lives here! She may have felt some nostalgia and sadness at moving out of her apartment, but I was ecstatic to have her here with me! The old condo really doesn’t exist anymore. It’s now our home, complete with our wedding pictures on the walls. I love to just sit in the living room with Stacie and enjoy being there, and I’m grateful for this amazing change in my life.

Humor

Stacie has a phenomenal sense of humor. When I think of Stacie often its a picture of her laughing at something with a huge smile that makes me want to smile with her. Her beautiful eyes dance with joy and you can't help but be happy to be around her. When you're with her you can expect to laugh a lot as well. I could tell when I first met her that she had a great sense of humor, and we laughed a lot on our first date and I remember being delighted at her sense of humor. She likes to tease good-naturedly and we joked a lot about who was going to win at miniature golf. She also is very witty, and can quickly find something funny in any situation. For example, a few weeks ago when we made our date video she had us sliding down the kids slide but on the way down the camera guy got too close and she hit her head on the camera. She told me later that it hurt but she laughed about it with us, not wanting to miss the funny moment. Stacie doesn't miss the potential humor in situations--for example we went to get snow cones at our favorite stand today and we realized that we're becoming regular customers to the teenager who works there. Stacie joked that he was going to think I was bringing my homeless girlfriend since she had just played a soccer game (she actually looked spectacular by the way with an energetic glow from having just played that soccer game). She also likes to do funny things like jump up and down when shes excited or sing a fun song to bring a smile to peoples faces. When were at parties together she is definitely the life of the party, doing something funny or entertaining. Her family enjoys her humor too-this evening she called home to tell her mom that she had broken her leg at her soccer game, hoping to get a good reaction. Her brother answered, pretended to rekay the message, then told her that now all the nieces and nephews were crying. He was just kidding as well, which he told her after she got worried and told him to tell them it was a joke. I am definitely no as funny as Stacie, so I will hopefully absorb some of her great sense of humor over the years.

Family and Motherhood

nother thing I love about Stacie is the priority she places on family. She knows the Proclamation on the Family very thoroughly and has made sure we've read it together several times. Reading it with her has been a treat because she knows it so well and has good insights to point out. I can tell her testimony of the family as central to Gods plan is strong and deep. She talks about looking forward to being a mother often and really believes in the importance of motherhood. She tells me that as she was growing up her goal and greatest desire was to be a great mother. She has had a great nurturing role in the lives of her nieces and nephews, and when I see her with them I am excited about how great of a mother she'll be to our children. She is has so many great qualities that will make her an amazing mom-she is very spiritual and will teach the gospel and be a great example, as well as be able to seek and recieve personal revelation to guide her parenting. She is fun and will keep our kids active, outside, and athletic. She's really smart, has always done well in school and can teach our children how to succeed there as well. She is patient with kids and can be firm and keep them in line without having to get angry or yell. Finally, Stacie loves children and they love her. I am so blessed to be forming a family with Stacie this week!

Testimony

Stacie has an amazing testimony of the Savior and the power of the atonement. I don’t suppose I can really bear her testimony for her, but I want to write about what I see in her testimony and how it was affected me. Stacie’s testimony of the Gospel is grounded, solid and deep. I know she believes in the Savior and in his power to heal and bless our lives. She has shared with me great experiences when she’s had to rely on the Savior to get through tough times. I’m grateful that I’ll have her wisdom and experience to lean on when tough times come, as she’ll be able to make sure I’m relying on the Savior. I’m so grateful she’s stayed close to the Savior and relied on him during her life’s challenges that have sometimes been incredibly hard. I can tell that she loves him and has felt his strong love carrying her. She also understands the Savior’s central role in the temple and has in many ways built her life around the temple—living a block away, going there often for comfort and strength, and teaching about it in her church calling. She definitely points me there, and has helped me see how Savior is so central there. I’m grateful to have her influence and understanding in my life. As I wrote about last Sunday, Stacie is 100% devoted to the restored gospel, because her testimony of it is solid and sure. I know she believes in the restoration, the priesthood, and modern-day revelation. She has patterned her life after the gospel, living it, keeping the commandments, and staying true no matter what. I’m so grateful to have her as my companion and friend and soon my wife, and I love her with all my heart.

Running

Stacie loves to run! And the fact that I love to run is one of the things that interested her in me when we first met. I love running with Stacie and we have had some great experiences on the road together. Running together really encompasses many of the best things about our relationship. We support and encourage each other, we enjoy each other's company, we share and common interest and goal, we like being outside, we overcome adversity together and we have fun (sometimes!). And when we run Stacie impresses me with her beauty, her athleticism, her competitiveness, her incredible toughness and endurance, and her reliance on the Lord. And she's really fast! She was a top 800m runner in college and is still in great shape. She also ran on the team that won the Wasatch Back rely last month!

In December I decided to run the Ogden Marathon since I knew Stacie was running it as well. We decided to train for and run it together, which I was excited about. Our training started with running on adjacent treadmills in the gym when I was pretty out of shape. I remember Stacie would look over at my speed and try to secretly increase her speed above mine and hope I wouldn't notice so she could run farther. Eventually we were doing ten milers and more on Saturday mornings. In February we would have to research where we could do that long of a run and have the shoulder of the road be clear of snow. At one point the best option was to run along highway 89 between North Ogden and Brigham City. One day we even ran from Brigham City to Stacie's parents house in North Ogden! I get a warm feeling when I think of that road, simply because I spent so much time running along it with Stacie. I just love the feeling of running along with Stacie gliding smoothly and beautifully by my side, feeling her love for me. Those were some nice runs. I love to look over and see her running there--she looks so pretty, graceful and smooth running, I just have to stare at her sometimes. During our training there were also several runs when Stacie was injured but insisted we complete the run. I was amazed at her toughness and ability to gut it out--I would give her all the chances in the world to stop because I didn't like to see her hurting so much, but she would insist that we finish and I would be in awe at how strong she was. I went on a few runs by myself while training, and when I would pretend that Stacie was running with me I felt stronger and less tired, and more inspired. During the marathon I just felt blessed to have this great and beautiful woman to run with. And when I got dehydrated and almost couldn't finish, Stacie stuck with me and helped me make it through the last few miles. I just had to think about how touch she had been during our runs and feed off of that inspiration. I'b glad to be running the race of life with Stacie, and I love her deeply.

Caring

Tonight I want write about how Stacie does little and big things to take care of me. She is concerned about my welfare and always tries to make sure I'm comfortable, big events in my life are commemorated, and just generally cares for me. For example, the morning I had to drive down to salt lake to take my boards, Stacie woke up at 5:30 to cook me a breakfast of pancakes and eggs so I could stop by her place and eat on my way. That was exactly what I needed, better than the cold cereal I would have normally eaten. A few months ago she started doing my laundry for me. Its really nice to bring a weeks worth of clothes to her and pick them up clean and folded. Ive tried to get her to let me do it, but won't have it and acts like she'll feel bad if I don't let her. Also, back in January when I was on-call for my last month she came and visited me every 4th evening when I was in the hospital, even bringing me a milkshake on my last night of call ever. It was such atreat to see hera fter a long day and really gave me a boost for the long night ahead. There are many more examples, but you get the picture, I'm an incredibly blessed guy to have this amazing woman in my life.

Awesome Aunt

Another day, another thing I love about Stacie. Today I want to write about how Stacie is an incredible aunt to her cool nieces and nephews. I was reminded of this yesterday at our family picnic because Ella and Mia are taking to her as well, soon I may not be the "favorite cousin" anymore, we'll see. Stacie has 5 nieces and nephews, and they really love her, and she is crazy about them. This is one of the things I am most impressed with in Stacie. She really has her priorities straight in spending time and energy with these kids, and she seems to be inexhaustably full of love for them. She's known each of them and been involved in their lives since each was born! When we show up at her house, they come running and jump into her arms. This spring, Stacie and I spent many evenings and Saturday mornings going from soccer game to baseball game etc. trying to make it too as many of their things as we could, because they get really excited when their Aunt Stacie shows up! She goes to performances and dance recitals. She talks about them often when we're together, and knows their personalities and needs very well. She cares for and worries about them. She regularly holds an "Aunts Night" for them them at her house where she does a craft or other activity, gets something fun like pizza for dinner and has a treat. I love to see how Stacie interacts with them, complimenting often, being fun and teasing them (and they tease her back!), correcting lovingly as needed, and rarely is there a big discipline problem because she handles them so well. The kids are always asking when the next Aunts Night is. Recently Aunts Night was a sleepover, something the kids were really excited about, and Stacie showed her true dedication as an aunt by staying up until 1:00 am watching movies with them, then not sleeping too well after that as the kids woke up at various times and she attended to them. I know it sounds cheesy, but I really can't wait until this woman is our children's mother!

Tenderness

I was going to write tonights post on Stacie's toughness, because she is really tough, but it felt better to write tenderness, so that'll be the topic for tonight. It probably goes along with her thoughtfulness, as the reason she does so many things for others is that she has a tender heart and wants to see others be happy. And she is tender with me in many special ways. Sometimes just out of the blue she'll look at me with those beautiful eyes and say "Justin, I just love you," and her eyes will be a bit misty and I'll wonder how I managed to be engaged to such a wonderful woman. Tonight she planned a surprise picnic for me with my family To celebrate me taking my board exams today. Its not like she didnt have enough to do with the wedding in a week, so it meant a lot to me that she wanted to help me celebrate this. When we're at her parents house and a niece or nephew skins knee, it seems thatt its Stacie they turn too to clean it up and put a bandaid on it. It makes me happy to see her so tenderly take care of them because I know it will be our kids someday feeling so cared for. I see the care and concern in her eyes and my heart just melts. In fact I just realized when I first met Stacie and had a staring contest with her, one of the many wonderful things I saw in her eyes was her tenderness.

Adventurous

So its a bit late but never fear I still am doing this every day until the wedding. Today I want to write about how adventurous Stacie is. Our second date was a hike up in the canyon and it was great fun with Stacie. Here I am with this beautiful girl and she had no problem going way off the trail and struggling through bushes and across ravines when we had to detour around something. And she was just curious and excited about everything we came across. This winter we went snowshoing and she was just fine taking off into the woods with me just exploring around in the snow-in fact I think it was her idea to leave the trail and do our own exploring. We had a great time snowshoing. She's always up for some outdoor adventure and isnt afraid to do things she hasnt done before. She even encouraged me to by a rock climbing rope at REI recently so that we could start that out! One of the ultimate examples of this is the fact that she went skydiving with me when I proposed. When a girl will do that with you, theres something special! I cant wait to have this adventurous and beautiful woman with for eternity.

Fun!!

Fun-loving
Our first date involved miniature golfing, usually not the most exciting activity, but I never have had so much fun mini-golfing as I did on that date! Stacie is fun and fun-loving, and she made the night into a fun competition (that I remind her often that I won!) and just an overall fun time. My life has been much more fun-filled since I started dating her. She seems to easily bring out my less-serious side, which I love. Something as simple as going on a hike or eating dinner usually turns out to be really fun with Stacie around.

One delightful thing about Stacie that she may be a bit embarrassed that I’m mentioning is how much fun she has singing. I have several voice messages on my phone of her singing a message to me in a fun way that I just can’t bring myself to erase because they make me smile each time I listen. When Stacie’s in a good mood she just has to sing. She makes up fun rhyming verses and sings in a fun way, and it makes me happy to hear! She doesn’t think she has a good singing voice but really she does—one of these days I’ll convince her that she sounds good!

Stacie is competitive when she plays even simple games, but she does it mostly I think because it makes things more fun. Recently I lost horribly to her at croquet, and she was so excited, jumping up and down when she made a good shot, etc. that it was fun to watch. Afterward she said she had to take a break because she had too much of an adrenaline rush from it. Anyone who can get an adrenaline rush from croquet is someone you want to have around all the time I think!

She likes to eat meals sitting on the living room floor because she says it’s more fun that way—and it is!

Stacie gets very excited about holidays. She describes herself as a Christmas fanatic, and can’t get enough Christmas music, activities, and parties. She starts listening to the Christmas music station on the radio as soon as they start playing, and I know her radio will be on that station all season long. She also goes all out for Easter, Halloween, the Fourth of July, etc. I’m excited for a lifetime of really fun holidays with her.

Stacie loves to dress up in fun ways when going to activities with her friends. It’s pretty much expected in her ward that if an activity has a theme, they will show up in creative, coordinating outfits/costumes that are crazy and fun. I’m afraid that someday you’ll probably see a picture of me in some crazy Halloween costume or running a race in a silly outfit and it will be because of Stacie’s fun influence.

This woman loves to organize parties and make sure they’re fun. For the birthday party for her friend I mentioned under the thoughtfulness post she made sure we set up the Rock Band video game in the living room, and that turned out to be a big hit. And when she and her friends were the singers they sang all crazy and everyone laughed and clapped for them. If there’s laughter and a good time going on at a party or event, I can be sure that Stacie’s involved in it, if not the cause of it all!

Recently we made a fun video with our wedding video guy that shows us on a date to a park, and we had a blast just playing on the playground equipment, running races on the grass and otherwise messing around. I can’t wait for everyone to see it—we’ll be playing it at the wedding dinner. I’m excited to marry this wonderful, fun, beautiful woman, and I’m glad she brings out the fun side in me. I can be a bit too serious sometimes, but that’s hard to do around Stacie!

Dedication to the Gospel

Today being Sunday I want to write about how impressed I am with Stacie's dedication to the restored gospel and her love of the church. Early in our relationship I was impressed to see her scriptures open and left on her living room chair on multiple occasions when I would come to her apartment, an indication that has since been more than verified that she reads them regularly. She's also been a dedicated temple preparation class teacher in her ward, and I've loved attending her class and seeing her great testimony of the temple shine through as she teaches. She really knows the doctrine and leads a great class discussion. And she takes her visiting teaching responsibilities seriously, which is an example to me. Another thing that impresses me is that she often will recommend a book or a talk by a general authority that she's been reading. It's a good challenge for me to keep up on what she's been reading. I love that she is rock solid in the gospel.

Stacies values the priesthood, and she often talks about how she values and cherishes the inspired counsel she's recieved from priesthood blessings and from her priesthood leaders. I know she loves and relies on the priesthood, and I can't wait to share that with her in our home. I will grow from her love of the priesthood and her faith in it. She also takes General Conference seriously and really enjoys it. We watched all the sessions together this past April and it was a big deal to her. She prepared multiple treats, made sure the time was set aside, and took more notes than me. We had great discussions about the talks in between sessions. It was great to see how excited she was about hearing the church leaders speak. One big reason I'm grateful for her enthusiasm is that she'll pass this excitement for the Lord's words on to our children.

Thoughtfulness

Just a couple of days ago I visited Stacie at work (seemed like a great way to spend my time since I'm not working for a month until I start at the clinic) and it turns out that during lunch she was writing a poem to send to Janae along with a flower girl dress for the wedding. Even though she isn't able to come because of Camille being pregnant, Stacie wanted her to feel part of it somehow. She also plans on sending Tyler and Peter the orange ties that the other nephews are wearing. It seems like a great idea and I can imagine Janae's reaction when she gets that new dress. And its not something I would have ever thought of myself. I love how kind and thoughtful Stacie is. She always seems to think of an extra nice touch to make someone happy. She made sure we sent packages with valentines and some candy for all of my nieces and nephews. She planned a surprise party for her friends' birthday a few months ago, and it was a great success. She also cares for those she visit teaches-I know she has spent some time and energy pondering how to help some that struggle. She always takes care of me and has had something thoughtful and special for me for Christmas, Valentines and other holidays. In fact she blew me away when part of her Valentines gift to me was a decorated jar with 101 things she loves about me on slips of paper. I keep it on my desk and I love to pull out a few here and there to cheer me up. Often she'll even cheer up complete strangers as we're out running errands or on a date. She isnt shy about complimenting someone about their clothes or something, and it always seems to be something that means alot to that person. I love to see the resulting smile on their face and I tell Stacie "you just made their day," but she's modest about it and doesn't seem to think its a big deal. I also notice her doing that at church with her friends and acqaintances-she leaves a wake of more happy and cheerful people behind her it seems. I've also had the opportunity to give to people begging on the street, etc more often with Stacie. In fact one time she even felt like we should go back and find someone we had given a few dollars to and give him more, so we did. I love that she's so generous and always thinking of others and I hope some of that rubs off on me as we spend eternity together!

Great Family

Today I’m going to write about Stacie’s loving and fun family. I first met them when Stacie invited me over for Sunday dinner. Stacie’s mom Darcia had fixed a great dinner and the family was welcoming and warm. When I decided I wanted to ask Stacie to marry me, I met with Stacie’s dad to formally ask his permission. It was a bit stressful as you can imagine, and I was anxious about it, but Jerry was friendly and kind and assured me that he was happy to have me as a son-in-law if she decided to say yes, which she thankfully did! We had lunch and he took the opportunity to tell me how much he loved Stacie and some great things about her that I didn’t know. He is always friendly to me and I’ve heard from a lot of people about the good things he’s said to them about his future son-in-law, and I’m excited to have him as a father-in-law. I visited Stacie at her office recently and her dad took some time out of his day to hit some old golf balls with me into the field by the office. He even gave some pointers, and that meant a lot to me. He didn’t even give me a hard time when I shanked a good portion of the balls I hit, well at least not too much of a hard time. Stacie works with her dad and she always talks about how much she loves working with him, how much she loves her dad, and how well he takes care of her. It seems like when she gets stressed out he’s taking her to breakfast or to hit a bucket of balls or go on a drive to talk. It makes me happy that she has such a great relationship with her dad.

Stacie’s mom Darcia has been great as well. She’s always been very welcoming , she’s a nurse so I can talk shop with her, and she has great sense of humor. She also sold Stacie her awesome Audi convertible which I even get to drive sometimes! She does an amazing job being a grandma and mom to her family, which I admire. I really enjoy seeing her interacting with her husband, children and grandchildren. They all love her and she takes care of them, including cooking some amazing Sunday dinners that we’re always invited to! She’s even sent home dinners with Stacie for me when I’m working and can’t make it. I went to Stacie’s nephew’s baptism recently where Darcia gave a talk. It was so sweet to see her teaching her grandchildren about the Holy Ghost—she spoke to them from the heart and the Spirit was strong. Stacie really loves her mom. I can tell she really cherishes the time she’s had to spend with her mom doing the wedding planning and shopping and she’s relied on her a lot for support and guidance. She and her mom have a great time joking around and complimenting each other, it’s fun to watch.

Stacie’s brothers and sisters have been great as well. They’ve been fun to get to know, and her brothers even tease me about the dents in my truck, a sign I’m part of the family. It’s been great to get to know them all, they’re always making me feel included and comfortable when I’m there, and I look forward to being part of they’re family—really I already feel like I am.

Love of my life

Well today is two weeks from my wedding to Stacie Marietti, and I'm pretty excited. I haven't been much of a blogger, but at least for the next two weeks I'm going to be one. I plan on posting a thought about Stacie and why I love her so much each day until we're married. It really is an honor to be engaged to her and I want to share the amazing woman that she is with everyone. Yesterday we took her bridal pictures and did some advance pictures and video together at the temple with our photographer and videographer. So today I'm thinking about two things: how incredibly beautiful Stacie is, and her love of the temple. I saw her for the first time in her wedding dress yesterday and it blew me away. She is so gorgeous! Her eyes just sparkled, her dress was flowing and perfect, and I felt like the most blessed man alive! She had done her hair in these beautiful curls, had beautiful sparkling jewelry, and she just glowed. I just wanted to stare at her all evening. I'm not sure I can adequately describe how beautiful she looked. Let me tell you I was proud to be the man standing next to her on the temple grounds as people walked by.



Being at the temple reminded me of how Stacie has helped me come closer to and appreciate the temple more. She is often the one encouraging us to go to the temple together. Ward temple night is blocked off of her schedule. When we go I love to look over at her in her white clothing. Talking with her after the session is great because she always has some new insight she's gained while there, or has a thought-provoking question for us to ponder. I know the temple has been a big part of her life and a source of strength for her. That makes me feel good because I know staying close to the temple brings great blessings and I want that in my life, and know Stacie will help me have that much more than I would without her. She's been teaching the temple preparation sunday school class for a couple of years, which has given her some great insight into the temple. I love that she knows the key scriptures about the temple off the top of her head and refers to them often in our discussions. I look forward to a lifetime of worshipping in the temple with her, and learning from her while we're there.