the orchardist

i was so grateful for conference this past weekend.  i had so many questions, and my conclusion from this weekend is trust God more.  i feel like i'm always needing to be reminded to trust God.  which is silly because i know these words from president uchtdorf are true:

"you are loved.  you are dear to your heavenly parents.  the infinite and eternal creator of light and life knows you!  he is mindful of you...more than you could ever imagine, he wants you to achieve your destiny -to return to your heavenly home in honor...trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ.  I promise that as you do so you will discover your best self-your real self."

 for whatever reason, i cannot maintain that mindset of letting someone else lead my life for very long.  but i'm learning, and those subtle reminders he gives me are helpful (though painful, at times).  

also this weekend i got way spoiled with brennan time.  like from 3 p.m. on friday to 6:50 a.m. on monday we were together.  and i loved it.  the more time i spend with that man the more i love him and realize what a wise decision i made in marrying him.

brennan has been wanting to get in touch with his inner transcendentalist, so on friday he took me on a date to lynd fruit farms.  we picked 28 apples and raced through the trees and kissed behind the trunks.  

he also told me that if i ever wanted an orchard he wouldn't be opposed.  he knows all the right words, i tell ya.

when we drove in to the orchard, the guy handing out the bags told us "eat as many apples as you want while you're in there".  i think we ate more than we wanted.

i love the look on brennan's face.  he is so pleased with himself.

                         

after eating ourselves sick on apples, we visited the market across the street where we found those huge watermelons (i want to eat them all), some amish frye pies, and every size and color of pumpkin that exists.  i brought home a pie pumpkin (alicia, i'll need you to remind me how to make it into a pie).  we made some delicious homemade apple cider and still have about a dozen apples left.

it rained all that day, but it's like the clouds parted for us just long enough for us to have our outdoor adventure..then as we were driving away we got to watch some pretty ominous clouds roll in - it was beautiful.

- this link is the recipe i used for the cider.  it was so easy and so good, but i would definitely add white sugar...none of this optional brown sugar stuff.  i did at least one cup of white sugar after it was finished and i'd separated the apples and the cider.  

- also, have you ever heard of the book the orchardist?  my sister-in-law gave it to me for christmas last year.  it's an exciting story and sounds like a beautiful place (and further fueled my desire to have an orchard)

leprechaun carpet

last week i started to feel a little homesick with all the pictures friends and family were posting of my beloved mountains and the changing leaves.  it's true, my heart will always reel me back to the mountains...but for now, i am soaking in all the beauty the midwest has to offer.

on wednesday night, brennan and i got to go out to gahanna for dinner at a physicians house.  they had a huge yard and goats!  and chickens and ducks.  i think i almost have brennan convinced we need a mini-farm someday.  i mean, what's better than a horse to get around town and fresh eggs every day?  we'd probably save tons of money with the amount of baking i do around here.  

what can i say?  goats love me.

and now for some shameless columbus promoting.

before we moved to ohio, brennan told me that when he landed in columbus as a missionary 5 years ago, all the green reminded him of ireland.  unfortunately i've never been to ireland, and i don't have a really nice camera to take cool pictures of all the green, but with these pictures and a little imagination, you can get a pretty good idea.  it is green.

green in the water

green on the trees

green on the rocks

green on the ground

green in the air.

there are other colors, too. 

 

last thing...ohio has a lot of corn and a lot of sky.  and i love it.

the fiddle leaf fig.

this is a fiddle leaf fig tree.

it's a pretty nice looking tree, don't you think?

that's what i thought, too, when i opened up the package from briana, brennan's sister. it was her family's wedding gift to us...a living tree.  i love trees and our house needed a plant, so i was very thankful. then briana told us why they gave us this particular tree.

when we got married in the beautiful salt lake temple, brianna recognized fiddle leaf fig trees in a few different places inside the temple.  she wanted us to have a little piece of that holy place in our home.

and now i love this tree that much more, because it will remind me of that perfect day when i was married to this amazing man for all eternity.  (you can read about that perfect day here)

i'm not going to name the tree, but i'll admit, i did move it from our office to the kitchen today while i did homework to keep myself company...i guess i'm already pretty attached so i really hope i can keep it alive longer than i can keep a camera from getting stolen. (i've had 4 stolen in my lifetime)

peace+love

a trolls paradise.

the craziest things seem to happen in the middle of the night when i am deeply sleeping.

like last night...well, this morning, i guess.

it was about 4:30 a.m. when i woke up to brennan thrashing around hitting his leg and moving both legs up and down like he was either trying to get rid of a bug or a charlie horse.  then he sat up in bed and started rubbing his calf.  then he stood up at the foot of the bed and started jumping around like he was dancing.  i asked him what was wrong and if he was okay, but he just kept dancing around.  finally, he got out, "yea, it's just a giant spider"   

"you had a spider on your leg?"

"no"

"then what was it?"  

he stuck his hand out with his fingers up like he was trying to describe a dead spider to me...

"i don't know...it was one of those huge spiders.  they're really friendly and they live forever."

"yeaaaa...you're not really awake"

i kissed him on the forehead and rolled over to try and fall asleep again.  which was made difficult by me laughing and feeling slightly paranoid about the possibility of there being a spider in our bed.  

man, i wish i had a video of this whole thing.  i laugh every time i remember it.

anyway, we got to spend saturday exploring hocking hills.

and, boy am i glad we did.

that expression was pretty much glued to my face the entire time.

it was not like hiking in utah.

there were no big climbs.

practically no elevation gain.

but it was unlike anything i'd ever seen.

trees grow on rocks

everything is covered in moss

a soft mist hangs above every body of water

and the humidity invites all kinds of critters

 

i could get used to this ohio thing.

don't mind the crappy phone pictures.  someday i'll own a nice camera.  if you know my history with nice cameras, that will probably happen once i prove i can keep another human alive.

and the thunder rolls...

last night i was awaken by thunder.
thunder out here is not like in the west...you know the phrase "rolling thunder"?  well, the midwest thunder really does roll.  immediately following the first roll of thunder, i heard our printer in the other room start beeping and acting like it was going to print something...creeeeeeeeeeepy.  so naturally i woke my husband up to go check it out.  then in my mind i decided we really need to keep the baseball bat in our bedroom.  

anyway, it's been almost a month since leaving the 801, and we've decided columbus is a pretty cool city.  we love living in a bicycle friendly city and our date nights usually consist of riding our bikes into downtown to find somewhere to eat or check out some event (like the festival latino, woot woot!).  

               

one of our favorite places to eat is the North Market.  it's basically just a bunch of local restaurants in a warehouse, and on saturdays there is a small farmers market outside.  but the most awesome thing is that it's right off the olentangy river trail, so we ride our bikes and eat delicious food.  win.

        

just a few blocks down the road is columbus commons which might be the coolest park downtown.  they have fitness classes, concerts, an interactive game thing, a carousel, a food truck rally, and who knows what else!

   

korean bbq in a burrito.  everything tastes better in a tortilla

if we don't want to go downtown, there are some pretty awesome things right in our backyard.

like Antrim Park, complete with a quarried lake and jogging trail around the lake.  or in the opposite direction there's the Park of Roses -- 13 acres with three different rose gardens and 400+ different kinds of roses.  both of these parks are about a 10 minute bike ride from our apartment.  did i mention there is a park just about every half mile along the river trail?

there's also lots of free concerts, delicious bbq, one of the best ranked zoos in the world, the best ice cream you'll ever eat, and cool people (aka us), so now that you know how awesome columbus is, come visit!

true love

it's almost valentine's day!  i won't lie..i'm pretty darn stoked.  this year, i'll trade in my ski goggles for sun glasses and head to sunny san diego with my main squeeze. 

with love on my mind i've been listening to lots of cheesy love songs, and found one that i especially love.  sometimes when i listen to love songs i like to think that jesus is singing them to me.  corny, i know.  but i love it.  that's a lot of love right there, folks.  so here you go, my favorite love lyrics for this lovely, sunny, monday!

cause all of me

loves all of you

love your curves and all your edges

all your perfect imperfections

give your all to me

i'll give my all to you

you're my end and my beginning

-all of me by john legend

here's the whole thing

peace+love

a very white glow fish in a black pond.

word.  i am in mexico in case you didn't already figure that out.  here's what it's like:
-today i realized i almost feel like i'm on another mission.  except that i get to go out of the mtc walls (menos mal), get online whenever i want, and talk to this stud everyday

(i miss him a little bit a lot.  good thing my 2 roommates are engaged and almost engaged so they can't get sick of me talking about him)

-but other than that i spend most of my day studying the scriptures and teaching missionaries.  22 of them.  20 of which are male, 18 years old, 2013 high school graduates.  yes, it is exhausting.  good thing i don't have to wake up at 6:30 every morning.
-speaking of my roommates, i could not ask for better ones.  in our house there are 5 bedrooms.  3 of those bedrooms have one person in them (and 4 beds).  but we choose to share the three of us to one room anyway.  seriously, God knows us and cares about our needs.

amanda (engaged), me, sydnee (practically engaged)

-i stick out like a sore thumb.  in chile i felt like i could blend in a little better.  between the 25 extra pounds i had and all the german-descendants in chile i passed for a chilean or argentine pretty often.  no one doubted my ability to speak spanish.  it is not the same story here.  everyone is brown.  sometimes it works, though.  like the other day when we went out to the city and i had to go to the bathroom.  i didn't realize you had to buy a ticket at the front so i just went right in.  there was this little woman at the door trying to get my attention, but i didn't notice (she was really small).  then she turned to this guy and said, "oh, ella no habla.  ya, pase."  free bathroom for the gringa!

-i do not know how mexicans get all their nutrients.  they do not eat nearly enough vegetables.  i've resorted to taking multivitamins everyday.  but, their tortillas, tacos, and frijoles really are better.  churros, to die for.

-outside of la ciudad de mexico, it's actually really pretty.  but mexico d.f. is really pretty ugly.

mmmmm....this is not d.f.  this is an hour north in teotihuacan.

-people here drive worse than chileans.  waaaaaay worse.  our taxi driver yesterday decided to create his own lane in between a bus and another car.  

mexico is crazy, but i'm growing to love it more everyday.  and even though it's hard to be far away from home, i have already grown in a way i could not have if i were home in my comfortable environment with my classes, apartment, my main man, my bike, working 20 hours a week, doing my normal routine.  and that makes it all worth it.

picture overload!

this is what you look like when you get caught in a monsoon.  which happens every single day.

i think the sixtine chapel needs these.  mirrors so you don't have to crane your neck to look at the ceiling.

this weekend is independence day.  hence the flags.

                           

los templos de teotihuacan.  i can't tell you how many stairs we climbed that day, but it was a lot.

the teotihuacanos made 260 human sacrifices right behind where we're sitting.  back in the year 200.

el templo de la luna behind us

this is the position they would be in for the human sacrifices.

would you really expect anything else?

just one more for good measure...

p.s.  it's okay to be jealous.  next weekend i'm going to see lucha libre.  nacho libre in real life!