My FAVORITE Marriage Talk

 

I wanted to share my favorite marriage talk that I try my very best to read once a week. I love every single word of it, especially the last half- and if the last paragraph doesn't bring a tear to your eye you're lying. I LOVE how personal Richard G. Scott gets. I LOVE how much he loves his wife. I LOVE how it reminds me of the power of my own marriage and the blessings that come from it. I LOVE my church. Where would I be without these comforting words and a marriage that lasts beyond this life?

 

This is the entire talk, but I am going to share my favorite part here:

 

Do you tell your wife often how very much you love her? It will bring her great happiness. I’ve heard men tell me when I say that, “Oh, she knows.” You need to tell her. A woman grows and is greatly blessed by that reassurance. Express gratitude for what your spouse does for you. Express that love and gratitude often. That will make life far richer and more pleasant and purposeful. Don’t withhold those natural expressions of love. And it works a lot better if you are holding her close while you tell her.

 

I learned from my wife the importance of expressions of love. Early in our marriage, often I would open my scriptures to give a message in a meeting, and I would find an affectionate, supportive note Jeanene had slipped into the pages. Sometimes they were so tender that I could hardly talk. Those precious notes from a loving wife were and continue to be a priceless treasure of comfort and inspiration.

 

I began to do the same thing with her, not realizing how much it truly meant to her. I remember one year we didn’t have the resources for me to give her a valentine, so I decided to paint a watercolor on the front of the refrigerator. I did the best I could; only I made one mistake. It was enamel paint, not watercolor. She never let me try to remove that permanent paint from the refrigerator.

 

I remember one day I took some of those little round paper circles that form when you punch holes in paper, and I wrote on them the numbers 1 to 100. I turned each over and wrote her a message, one word on each circle. Then I scooped them up and put them in an envelope. I thought she would get a good laugh.

 

When she passed away, I found in her private things how much she appreciated the simple messages that we shared with each other. I noted that she had carefully pasted every one of those circles on a piece of paper. She not only kept my notes to her, but she protected them with plastic coverings as if they were a valuable treasure. There is only one that she didn’t put with the others. It is still behind the glass in our kitchen clock. It reads, “Jeanene, it is time to tell you I love you.” It remains there and reminds me of that exceptional daughter of Father in Heaven.

 

As I have thought back over our life together, I realize how blessed we’ve been. We have not had arguments in our home or unkind words between us. Now I realize that blessing came because of her. It resulted from her willingness to give, to share, and to never think of herself. In our later life together, I tried to emulate her example. I suggest that as husband and wife you do the same in your home.

 

Pure love is an incomparable, potent power for good. Righteous love is the foundation of a successful marriage. It is the primary cause of contented, well-developed children. Who can justly measure the righteous influence of a mother’s love? What enduring fruits result from the seeds of truth that a mother carefully plants and lovingly cultivates in the fertile soil of a child’s trusting mind and heart? As a mother you have been given divine instincts to help you sense your child’s special talents and unique capacities. With your husband you can nurture, strengthen, and cause those traits to flower.

 

It is so rewarding to be married. Marriage is wonderful. In time you begin to think alike and have the same ideas and impressions. You have times when you are extremely happy, times of testing, and times of trial, but the Lord guides you through all of those growth experiences together.

 

One night our little son Richard, who had a heart problem, awoke crying. The two of us heard it. Normally my wife always got up to take care of a crying baby, but this time I said, “I’ll take care of him.”

 

Because of his problem, when he began to cry, his little heart would pound very rapidly. He would throw up and soil the bed clothing. That night I held him very close to try to calm his racing heart and stop his crying as I changed his clothes and put on new bedsheets. I held him until he went to sleep. I didn’t know then that just a few months later he would pass away. I will always remember holding him in my arms in the middle of that night.

 

I remember well the day he passed away. As Jeanene and I drove from the hospital, we pulled over to the side of the road. I held her in my arms. Each of us cried some, but we realized that we would have him beyond the veil because of the covenants we had made in the temple. That made his loss somewhat easier to accept.

 

Jeanene’s kindness taught me so many valuable things. I was so immature, and she was so disciplined and so spiritual. Marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered. I think one of the reasons that we are counseled to get married early in life is to avoid developing inappropriate character traits that are hard to change.

 

I feel sorry for any man who hasn’t yet made the choice to seek an eternal companion, and my heart weeps for the sisters who haven’t had the opportunity to marry. Some of you may feel lonely and unappreciated and cannot see how it will be possible for you to have the blessings of marriage and children or your own family. All things are possible to the Lord, and He keeps the promises He inspires His prophets to declare. Eternity is a long time. Have faith in those promises and live to be worthy of them so that in His time the Lord can make them come true in your life. With certainty, you will receive every promised blessing for which you are worthy.

 

Please pardon me for speaking of my precious wife, Jeanene, but we are an eternal family. She was always joyously happy, and much of it came from service to others. Even while very ill, in her morning prayer she would ask her Father in Heaven to lead her to someone she could help. That sincere supplication was answered time and again. The burdens of many were eased; their lives were brightened. She was blessed continually for being an instrument directed by the Lord.

 

I know what it is to love a daughter of Father in Heaven who with grace and devotion lived the full feminine splendor of her righteous womanhood. I am confident that when, in our future, I see her again beyond the veil, we will recognize that we have become even more deeply in love. We will appreciate each other even more, having spent this time separated by the veil. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

A Roaring Halloween

Last night we had a Gregory Halloween party and it's safe to say it was a FUN night- anything involving Katy is! I even watched the Katy Perry movie as I got ready to get into character (I know, I'm very weird). Also, how about a round of applause for Bren? He is such a good sport and never fought me once on this idea.

@ashkae

Katy Perry & Kitty Purry...my favorite duo.

And now for the best part of Halloween every year...seeing our niece and nephews' costumes!

A werewolf, police officer, china girl, and Luke the Lion- could they get any cuter?!

And we can't forget the newest Greg... 

naturally.

Funny story- last night after eating soup out of pumpkin bread bowls and homeade tres leches ((I have the cutest mother in law) for Kennan's birthday, Bren and I were reading a book to Ezra about witches. In the book it said that witches cook barnacles and tentacles for dinner and Bren said to Ez, "I'm so glad grandma doesn't cook that for dinner!" and he replied "who cawes" (cares) and we could not stop laughing. I guess that's his favorite saying as of late, that little punk.

You know it's weird, I used to not be the biggest Halloween fan, but I decided this year that from now on I am going to love it and embrace it! Isn't it so cool you can change your mind about things? I think so.

Hope you are having the happiest HalloWEEK!

xoxo



Catch Up

October has been so busy and so fun. If I could freeze time during any month of the year, this would be it.

 

Last week I headed down to Provo for a much needed sista-sista time with Ari. Brennan has the guy that owns The Slab insured so I told Ar we HAD to eat there and it was some of the best pizza I have ever had. The possibilites are literally endless- chicken cordon bleu pizza and chicken enchilada pizza... just to name a few. See what I mean?

 

denim jacket: Target
flannel: J. Crew Factory
jeans: Top Shop (BEST JEANS EVER!)

 

Ari is growing up to be the most amazing girl. She moved to Provo by herself, lives with random roommates, and is loving it. She is so mature for her age and says the wisest things. She always knows what to say to make me feel better. I would like to think I was as cool as her when I was her age, but I just wasn't.

 

Last weekend I also had the last minute idea to have a Saturday afternoon picnic in the mountains! I'm trying to soak up all this fall weather before it's gone, and thankfully our favorite friends Timmy & Grace and Chase & Nakita were in too! We got Jimmy John's and headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

 

Grace made her famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and as you can see, Timmy was loving his sandwich. HA!

 

The only downside of the whole afternoon was that THE LEAVES ARE ALREADY FALLING OFF THE TREES. So book it up there now if you want to see the last bit of fall.

 

That night we watched the royal children, Jayda and Cruz. Jayda kept begging me to get in the bath with her so we could blow bubbles together.

 

It is crazy how happy these kids make me! I jump for joy everytime Jess texts me asking if we can babysit.

 

Which brings me to some exciting news: starting the first of November, I will be nannying these two dream boats every Friday! Dreams really do come true guys.

 

The next morning Bren drove me to the airport for a long awaited work trip. It's the biggest convention for our company and this year it was in Vegas! Even though it was only for 3 days, this is how we felt:

 

(Also please notice his mustache he was excited to grow while I was gone...big LOL)

 

Just being a suga-mamma!

button up: H&M, old
pants: H&M (on sale for $8!)
shoes: J. Crew, old

 

Also PLEASE NOTICE that I packed in a carry on...that was a first and yes I did pat myself on the back.

 

 

Bench all to myself, lucky day.

 

 

 

 

Why I am married to the best kid in the world,

 

and the happiest place on earth, in my opinion. Too bad I still can't justify paying even the Tory outlet prices, right? But such a nice break from being stuck inside a convention center all day.

 

My work trip also made me grateful that Bren's job doesn't require travel (except for a one time training this January but we don't talk about that to avoid tears), because let's be honest, we're babies when it comes to being apart. The first night I was in Vegas, my phone died at around 3 and I worked until 10. Bren was worried sick, called Mandalay Bay searching for me, and was about to drive down there. Now if that's not true love I don't know what is. (And Bren if you are reading this I also learned to ask to use someone's phone to call you.) Ha!

 

xoxo 

 

 

 

 

A (literal) trip down memory lane & why I never cook...

On Saturday we saw Meet the Mormons with our friends. Afterwards, we went and saw their cute new place in Sugarhouse. As we pulled up we realized it was just a few streets over from the house that Brennan and I MET at and had our FIRST KISS at! It's a special little house for us, so after we left our friends' at 1 am I had Bren drive us over there so I could take this super high quality photo. Then we reminisced about everything that happened in that house the whole way home. Then do you want to know what we did when we got home? Turned on an episode of Breaking Bad. TV-series-addiction is a real thing, guys, and we are willingly giving up our sleep for it.

 

Fast forward to yesterday. I felt guilty that I hadn't made dinner in a while and was in a good wife mood, so on my lunch break I went to the store, spent $25 on just this one meal, and went home and put it all in the crockpot so it would be ready for dinner. I get back to work and get a text from Bren telling me we got invited to the Jazz game that night...Not mad, trust me, Jazz games trump all other plans, but this is why I never cook. We'll revisit this cooking every night thing in a few years.

 

xoxo

Our Weekend in 5 Pictures

 

Brennan worked until almost NINE PM on FRIDAY NIGHT. During the day he ran a booth at an expo, then ran home at 5 and changed into comfortable clothes and headed straight back to the office to work up all the quotes he got. I guess that's how it goes when you're a one man show. I'm hoping we look back on this one day, maybe even kind of laughing, and say that his long work hours for small pay ended up being so worth it.  

 

I finally picked him up and forced him to go get something to eat with me. We decided on Spitz downtown because Bren went there with his buddies a few weeks ago and has not stopped talking about it since.  

 

I have a few things to say about this restaurant:

First- THE FRIES. Yes, you eat them with a fork, and yes, they will rock your world. There is nothing else like them.

Second- The wraps were AMAZING. Their salads looked awesome too. I didn't even fully understand their menu, but just ordered their most popular thing, the Doner Kebab.

Third- I am a little stressed out about the fact that NO ONE is leaving that place with good breath. It's just not possible. So remember the mints and gum.

 

Hat: Bohme, Sweater: Old Navy

 

Saturday was for conference watching and deep cleaning our condo. That night, Bren went to Priesthood and I went to dinner at Twigs and shopping with the girls at Station Park. We were too busy loving all the girls night out sales to take any pictures. After that, Bren and I met back up at his parents to watch the Utah game, and then stayed and chatted way too late. As we were finally leaving, we realized we needed groceries BAD- so off to Smith's for a little middle of the night grocery shopping. When we finally walked in the door, so ready for bed, we realized our sheets we washed that day were still in the dryer...we could have either laughed or cried about it, and I'm glad we laughed.

 

Conference Sundays- my favorite Sundays of the year! I thought it was so cool that Elder Bednar gave a talk for nonmembers. SO well put too!

 

That night we went to my parents for dinner and my $11 Halloween costume came- HA. Now the hard part will be convincing Bren to be what I need him to be so we coordinate ha ha ha...wish me luck.

 

I am in complete AWE at how beautiful this October has been so far! I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful days. Two thumbs up for you, fall, and a perfect low key weekend.

 

xoxo

 

 

 

Glad It's Today

 

We're just so glad it's this Wednesday today and not last Wednesday.

 

That was a rough day.

 

And we're even more glad our little York is ok.

 

Don't let his little size fool you, he is a FIGHTER.

 

Proud to call you my nephew bud.

 

xoxo