the mr. asked me a question....three years ago

three years ago today the mr. came and picked me up (but he wasn't the mr yet). he told me we were headed north for the weekend. it was conference weekend.

i had just finished an interview. and didn't really feel like dressing up. i wasn't expecting a ring. at least not for another 4 weeks. so i packed my bags and ran out the door.

so my nails weren't painted. and i thought i had 4 weeks to stop bitting (dang that habit....).

mr. told me we were running early. so we had a few mins to go explore our favorite place. i put on flip flops because again i didn't think it was anything special. i didn't want to dig around in the truck for my cute shoes.

we walked around. hand in hand. and then the surprises started. i didn't see it coming. but it came. and it was perfect.

he knelt down on one knee. he asked.

and i said yes.

still to this day i wish i had done my hair. and painted my nails. and worn my cutest outfit. but then again i don't. the mr.'s proposal was simple, it was perfect, it was us. so maybe i looked like a mess. and i think that makes the memory all that sweeter.

best decision we ever made was on april 2 2010. we decided to become mr. and mrs.

you can read the whole story here

oh kissing the lipless

(i so love my brothers. i think i'm the luckiest girl to have grown up with two big brothers to take care of me. be jealous!)

today i listened to the shins for about 4 hours straight. i took me back to sophomore year. my big brother would drive me to school. i'm sure he hated it. but he would put the shins on and we would jam out.

here is the thing. my brother has the best taste in music. i guess it helps that he makes his own music (super talented when it comes to anything musical). i felt cool listening to his music. he was the senior, super cool, had cute friends and really just older and wiser. music was one of those things that really bonded us in high school.

i texted brother that i was listening to the shins. we chatted a bit. he mentioned that things were easier back then. i agreed.

it's funny how when you are younger all you want to do is grow up. but when you grow up all you want to do is be younger. i wish i could tell my sophomore self to calm down. don't ache to grow up too fast. enjoy each drive with brother because there will come a day when you wish you could be there again. just hanging out with your brother, listening to the shins.

so today this is for you brother. let's go for a drive and forget we ever grew up!

the packing begins

so last night marked the first day of "clean and organize the b. family life"
i decided to start with sydney's history. which is basically everything important to me stored at my parents house from age 4-23. yes, i decided to start with that (it's still a mystery to me why i choose that task).

i found a few gems hidden in that hold closet of mine. i made spencer endure a couple hours of "hey babe check out this picture" or "oh my  gosh i can't believe i wore that" "ahh we look so little". yes picture after picture. i was in heaven.

at one point of the night spence had had enough and i was left to myself and my memories. to be honest it was a little more emotional than i thought putting things away. every piece of memory had a story. i had kept things for a reason. my first pointe shoes, my graduation ropes, my 6th grade officer t-shirt, love letters from boys in high school and so on.

i finally got to a point where my entire life history (well at least till my little 23 years of age) was boxed away in two large rubbermaids. so lets be honest i didn't really cut things down. i tried :-)

as i was about to put the boxes in storage spence came across my jr. high and high school officer sweaters. of course he had to put them on.

sometimes i wish spence had been the boy i feel in love with in jr. high. always looked up to and secretly crushed on until high school. then in high school we would have dated, gone to dances together and fallen in love. after two years of beautiful letters he would return and we could get married and have all our memories together.

but then i remember how fun it has been to share stories with each other. on long drives he'll tell me a story about a time in high school. i realize i never heard that story but now i've just learned something new about my husband of (almost) two years. and then i get happy because i am now a part of that memory. and i share stories with him. i love sharing my stories with him. if spence had been there from the beginning i wouldn't have any good stories to tell!

so here is the point.
going through memories is hard but yet still fun.
and i was able to share all those memories and the things that make me sydney b. with my husband.
and i love him even more for still loving me after some of these jr. high pictures

mrs. and her memories

i walk into the kennedy center to get my nytimes and saw a poster saying mr. hayat was speaking at byu today...

mr. hayat is the program director at the jerusalem center. seeing his name brought back a flood of beautiful memories. 

before i met my mr. i had another love of my life....

jerusalem.
april-august 2009 i was able to live in jerusalem, if you didn't already know check out my older posts....i posted my experiences.

anyways. thinking about jerusalem made me smile, here is why

april 2009 i left for jerusalem

i was a little broken, slightly lost, and very confused.

four months in the holy land

i returned no longer broken, knowing the direction of my life, and happier than ever. 

jerusalem will always have a place in my heart.
i met some of my best friends there. like jbod and so many others

sometimes (a lot of times) i wish i could live in jerusalem for the rest of my life.
i would be more than happy living the rest of my days in jerusalem, raising my family in jerusalem.
yep thats how much i love jerusalem.

sadly i know  that living in jerusalem isn't a reality but...
one day (in a long long time) when the mr. and i have a little more money than we have now we'll take our family to jerusalem

then i can show spence my first love
and we can share in the love of the holy land together.

so today i am left with my memories and some pictures. which bring me nothing but smiles.

 yep its official....i want to go back to my "home"

what are you remembering today???