On Being a Supportive Wife

When I graduated high school I had my heart set on Utah State University, actually I knew I wanted to go there for years before that. And I held my head high and proudly said I was going to major in print journalism and write for a magazine like in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days .

During my first year of college my father, bless his heart, would email me news articles about how news is dying out (that sounds totally ironic). He would remind me that journalists don't get paid anything and my chances of actually writing what I want are incredibly slim.

Now, to say that it was my dad that led me to change my major is false. It's not his fault I have such a fickle mind and can't make and stick to decisions (or maybe it is, I do have his genes...). However I'd be lying if I said the emails he sent didn't have an influence on my decision. While I know both my parents would never discourage me from living my dreams, this was one instance that I didn't feel entirely supported. (But I still love my dad, and seriously he supports me in everything so I'm in no way trying to criticize or say he's a bad dad, because he's the greatest.)

As fate would have it, I would end up marrying a print journalism major and the emails that my father sent still sometimes pop into my head as Chris is talking about his dreams of being a journalist. But I never say a thing.

As Chris's wife it isn't my job to tell Chris that his dreams can't be achieved. It's my job to support him no matter what he does and help him to achieve all his goals. 

We are currently going through big changes in our marriage. Our one year anniversary is this Sunday, we both have full-time jobs (his being more than full-time, basically an all-the-time-except-sleep kind of job), we're figuring out our futures in college, we've moved to Texas and away from our families, and we're continually growing and maturing together. Things are crazy and I will support Chris through all of it!

Lately Chris has been discouraged with this new job. He's in sales and he doesn't get paid unless he sells, which after three days he hasn't yet. He's feeling upset and downhearted.

So every night I make him a nice meal to come home to (something I pretty much haven't done in our entire year of marriage (yep, I'm the worst)), I focus on him and his need before my own, and I tell him positive thoughts and let him know I'm rooting for him and I'll always support him.

It's not my job to tell him to do better. It's not my job to ask him what he's doing wrong. It's not my job to leave him feeling discouraged. No! That's all wrong! It's my job to make him feel good about himself and to think positively. It's my job to encourage him. It's my job to continually support him throughout all of our marriage.

I'm not saying we have a perfect marriage, I mean it's only been one year! What do we know about marriage? But if I've learned one thing in the last year, it's that if you support your spouse 100% in all their dreams, they will always support you back, even if your new goal is kind of crazy and risky. Love is about putting their needs before your own, that's what support means, giving all you have to help your spouses dreams come true.

I will always support Chris in his future endeavors and I know he will always support me. That's love. And I love Chris with all my heart. 

Amy Bennion Photography

Now Coming to You From Texas

Hello blogging world! I am now coming to you from the hot land of Texas. And honestly going from cold Logan straight to Texas heat is a big change for me. It's hot! But last night when we got here and the sun was setting, the weather felt so good! I love warm nights. :)

This post is me just rambling about what's been going on recently with our move. It may not be the most exciting post, but it's informative. Ha ha.

I wasn't able to get into the apartment until today at about noon, but our apartment is really nice and most our stuff is already put away because we only brought what fit in our car, so we don't have much. Because of this, though, it still hasn't really sunk in that I'm living in Texas now. I mean, the majority of my stuff is still in Logan and our families are in Utah. When it finally sinks in that I live here now, I'll let you know.

Chris has been working his new job all day. He's so great! For anyone new or unaware, we moved here because Chris got a summer sales job selling pest control. And as of this morning, I now work as a receptionist for the same company! Yay! That's the easiest I've ever gotten a job before and I'm so happy about it! I loved my last receptionist job and it's something I've been wanting to do again.

We don't have internet in our apartment yet so I'm in the apartment's office area, which is super nice. Here is my current view:

(Except now there's a girl in that chair, and yes, my husband has a Liverpool screen saver on his laptop, what did you expect?? And if you're wondering why I'm not using my laptop, here's why.) 

We came in this morning and they were so kind and immediately offered us coffee, which we don't drink but we appreciated the kind gesture. The staff here has been incredibly kind through the abnormally long process of getting our apartment, and since Chris left for work it was all me.

Here's a few more pictures of our apartment:

Funny story, our GPS app had the slight wrong address so we were passing by these buildings and Chris says, "Those are nice, I wish we were living there." And he mentioned that from a distance they looked like cow spots (which obviously made me love them). And when we figured out the correct address we were super happy to be living here! The above is the building we are in. We have a small apartment with a living room, bedroom, big bathroom with massive tub, big closet, and a lovely kitchen:

This apartment is so incredibly nice compared to our last one! I love it! I'm sure Chris loves in too but he hasn't actually been in our apartment yet so we can't be sure.

Since we arrived last night, we had to sleep on the floor of Chris's coworker's apartment, which is right next door to ours. We had couch cushions under us and I actually slept really well. We met many of Chris's coworkers last night and watched Frozen together (which I realized I really do like, I had only seen it once before so I was still on the fence about it). I got to meet two more wives that are along on the journey, they are super nice and today they helped me carry everything from the car to the apartment, since all the men were gone.

Since I've been feeling friend-less for a long time, last night was crazy when the two girls were asking me all these questions about what I like to do and getting my phone number and texting me today. I'm honestly not used to it. I haven't had anyone meet me and try to be my friend in a long time, it was slightly overwhelming because it all happened so fast but I'm so happy we're friends and they've already been so helpful and I know we'll have a great summer together.

One of them was supposed to do the receptionist job but decided she didn't really want to and she had other job opportunities, so she passed it on to me and I'm so so grateful because I really wanted to find a job here soon and I didn't have to do any work to get it and I already have one and start on Wednesday. I feel so incredibly blessed already!

The drive to Texas was a long one. We left on Friday and we got a much later start than we thought we would, so we didn't make it to our reserved hotel. Instead we drove until we were tired and found a different hotel, which happened to be cheaper. The next day we did the same, we just drove until we were tired and found a hotel.

That second night we were using one of my apps to find hotels and we came across a cheap one, but when were were searching for it, the address led us to one of the scariest most ghetto places I've ever seen and honestly, I was freaked out. So I was upset so Chris drove us to the nicer area of town and we paid a little extra for a nice, and safe hotel.

Then on Sunday we drove the rest of the way to San Antonio. Chris decided he wants to live in Texas; they play country music on all the radio stations, they put gravy on everything, the fishing is good and they sell fish at a lot of restaurants, and he absolutely loves big cities. I don't know if I'm completely sold on living in Texas forever, but for now it's been really great.

Oh! So on Saturday during the drive I begin to tell Chris that tornados are one of my new biggest fears. They freak me out. And that night I turn on the TV and it has a show on about tornados! So I leave it on because it has lots of information and tips on what to do in a tornado, thinking it will help me overcome my fear, but it doesn't really. And then we wake up the next day and as I'm driving I see in the distance a mini sand tornado! It was just sand and it wasn't that powerful, but neither of us had seen anything like it before in real life so it was kind of crazy! And it went over the road right in front of us. Chris tried to record it for me, but he apparently doesn't know how to use my phone.

During the trip I recorded some fun moments. I'm hoping to make a special video montage at some point but there is a great possibility that it'll never happen. So don't get your hopes up. Just know that we had a supremely long but fun drive and we enjoyed each other's company.

Speaking of us being together, this Sunday is our one year anniversary!! Can you believe I've been married a year? I sure can't! It's been a weird and crazy year and while people say your first year of marriage is the easiest, I believe that things are going to be changing for the better this next year, the best is yet to come! We've already been seeing changes for the better with this Texas move! And we are both so excited for what is to come.

This is an exciting new change in our lives and that's why this post is so long, because there is just so much changing and there is just so much to tell! But I do apologize if you found this post super boring... but no one was forcing you to read it.

Don't forget about my Book Club starting back up this month!!! There are two books this month and you don't have to read both but you're more than welcome to. Also don't forget to donate and help spread the word about this month's Charity of the Month, the Make a Wish Foundation. Thank you all so much for reading and I know I'll have a lot more stories about living in Texas soon!!

Oh! And one last picture, starting out our road trip to Texas:

Originally posted on my Instagram, feel free to follow me!! 

Charity of the Month: Make a Wish

Today I'm moving to Texas, I wrote this post a week ago so I can't tell you how stressful today probably is for me, but I know how stressed I am now. So this post is going to be short and sweet. Hopefully.

I'm sure many of you have already heard of the Make a Wish Foundation which raised money to help kid's dreams come true. I believe this is an incredible organization and I am proud to support them this month! So here to show you just how awesome Make a Wish can be is one of my most favorite stories ever, the Batkid!

As I said this post is short, but I hope it helps motivate you to spread the word about the Make a Wish Foundation and maybe make a donation of your own. Donations can be make online on their website found HERE. Also be sure to explore their website for other ways to help this foundation.

Sorry this post is so short, I may right up another post this month about Make a Wish, we'll see, depends on when we can get wi-fi in our new place. Ha ha.

Book Club May 2014!!!

Book Club is back!! I'm so incredibly happy school is over and I have time to read for fun! Because I am once again unemployed and have a long car ride ahead of me tomorrow, I am putting two book for Book Club this month! One is exciting the other is potentially boring. Or they might both be boring, I don't know I haven't read them yet.

Book 1: The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich by David Bach

This last semester I was supposed to take a class called Family Finance, but my schedule got all messed up and they dropped the class for me (super lame, it made me have to pay a larger tuition and I had already bought the book which I couldn't return). This book was one of the text books for the class and regardless of not being able to take the class, I still really want to read it.

Looking at our track record, Chris and I aren't too good at making money and keeping it. We tend to find ourselves in financial trouble and it's really hard sometimes. This summer we're hoping Chris makes lots of money with his new job but we're also hoping to learn how to manage our money better. I truly think this book will be a big help to us, which is why I want to read it for Book Club. You can read a summary HERE (also, this link takes you to Good Reads and this Book Club is on Good Reads, be sure to join in HERE).

This is the more boring book of the two. I'm not usually one to read non-fiction, but I really am excited for this book and believe I can learn a lot from it.

Book 2: Insurgent (Divergent Series) by Veronica Roth

This is the second book in the Divergent Series, you can read my review of the first book HERE. If you have not read the first book DO NOT read the second one. Don't skip!! If you want to substitute this book for Divergent I highly recommend it. Please don't skip straight to this book.

That being said, I'm including this book for Book Club in case you really don't want to read the first book, which I totally understand. I bought Insurgent two months ago but have been too busy to read it so I'm super excited I finally get my chance! I loved the first book, and we saw the movie last week and I can't stop thinking about it and just want to see it again!! Soooooo good!!!

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As always (but it's been four-ish months so you may have forgotten) around the 20th of this month I will post a Discussion Post where you can leave comments about the book and we can discuss it together. Sometimes I include questions about the posts that we can answer and discuss together (this is part of my former English teaching major (that I never achieved) kicking in). You can also join in on the discussion on Good Reads.

So welcome back to book club and if you're new, welcome as well! I hope to continue this club (no more breaks) and meet new friends who love reading like I do. Welcome to the Club!