Our first Sunday

June 14 was our first real actual Sunday as a married couple! We had been married for two Sundays, but the first was during our honeymoon and the second was in XXXXX when we were out of town for my former roommate's wedding. So, last weekend was our first real one, in our real actual married ward! Woo! Here's a journal entry of sorts of our goings-on on that day.

We started the day out right by waking up ten minutes before church started. Oops. Luckily, we literally (literally) live a 60-second walk away from our church building, so it was alright; we were only kinda late. Plus, our church blocks are backward, with Relief Society/Elder's Quorum first, then Sunday School, then Sacrament meeting, so at least we didn't walk in late in front of everybody.

Then we made tacos for lunch! We had fasted our breakfast and dinner earlier in preparation for dedicating our apartment. It was a nice little thing to do to help make our new place our home.

Then we used our brand-spanking-new crockpot to prepare Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas. Delicious.

Then we made Four-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies (which, incidentally, I just found out were gluten-free*) and stuck some dark chocolate Hershey's kisses (which are not gluten-free, apparently) that were leftover favors from our wedding. I'm not sure people new that we had favors at our wedding. There were a lot left over. Anyone need any Hershey's kisses?

Then El-ahrairah and I enjoyed a rousing game of Bananagrams, a wedding gift from Genuine Article and D.A.R.E.! Thanks guys! I'm really glad we put that on our registry. El-ahrairah won EXCEPT he used the word "dobs," which come to find out is not, in actuality, a word (at least not in any language I know), so the victory was turned over to me.

We spent some relazing time writing in our journals and reading scriptures, then emailed/called our families. We also went on a walk around our apartment complex and made out for a bit :) and finally tidied up our apartment before going to bed.

I wanted to write out all those things we did because, at the end of the day, it seemed really impressive that we did all of those things on a Sunday--which usually turn out to be pretty lazy days for me. I think being married helps me to be more productive. That's an awesome plus.

-Owlet

*I eat gluten, but I keep my eyes out for gluten-free recipes in case I ever need to cook or bake for any of my gluten-free friends.

Avatar: The Last Wallbender

Last night The Wall hosted an Avatar: The Last Airbender-themed event. I was totally all over it. We had had other plans for our date that week, but we changed our plans as soon as we saw the poster.

Image from the event page on Heyevent.

And with an admission fee of $1, how could we resist? A:TLA is one of the greatest memories of my childhood, watching all three seasons on Netflix repeatedly with my little brother. I showed the show to El while we were dating and was so excited to see him get into it, too. If you like family-friendly shows with surprisingly dynamic characters, tons of adventure, and great art to boot, you have to check it out. (But don't watch the Shyamalan movie. It stinks.)

This shows their personalities so well. I love these characters!

There were about 25 people in attendance, and we had a blast. We were each assigned a nation—El and I got put in Fire Nation, which was lame at first but we ended up with a lot of national pride and got to joke about "hotman" and fireflakes and honor and stuff. We some Avatar-themed "minute to win it" games like blowing bubbles across space through a hula hoop (water), blowing ping pong balls off a table (air), bouncing bouncy balls into buckets (fire), and lifting plastic cups with a rubber band  to build a pyramid (earth).

Sadly, our team didn't even come close to winning, but we did have a fun time hanging out and eating milkshakes and fries afterward.

I wanted to wear my Katara costume, but it's stored at my family house in XXXXX right now, so that will have to wait ... until they host the event again in the fall!

Also, shout out to Maven and Mr. Maven for sending us season 3 (book 3) on DVD as a wedding gift! It also came with such an adorable note. Thanks so much for your support, guys! El-ahrairah and I are so excited to start watching it again. Definitely one of our favorite gifts.

-Owlet

Date: Croquet and pie shakes

It's important for El-ahrairah and I to have a date every week. One Saturday, we went with a couple friends to the Provo Beach Resort (an indoor fun center with laser tag and arcade games and an artificial surfing thing). We played miniature croquet! I had never played croquet before, let alone miniature croquet. It was pretty cool.

Turns out, El-ahrairah is a croquet master. He's played with his family before, so I guess his years of experience helped him to win by a landslide with 35 points. But I got second place!

Then we went to Zeek's, where they make PIE SHAKES!!! If you've never been there (which would be really a shame), you should know that they literally (and I mean actually literally) put a piece of pie and some ice cream in a cup and then blend it together. Mmmm. El-ahrairah got chocolate cream Oreo pie, and I got apple cobbler. Also fries. You guys, this is the life.

-Owlet

We like big books and we cannot lie

Some of the very first conversations we had together were about books. We love them. Sometimes we'll choose a book to read aloud to each other; we've had one or two dates where we go to the library and read our favorite children's books to each other. Speaking of favorites...

Owlet's favorite books:

 

                 


Owlet's favorite quotes from books:

“Everyone has something he checks out. Dad’s interested in cars. Mom notices babies. Ever since Kyle got a Rolex watch from his rich grandfather last year, he’s always looking at people’s wrists. Patrick knows every brand and style of sneaker. The way he walks around gazing at feet, he’s going to end up with a bent neck.
As for me, if I see anyone carrying a book, I try to spot the title and author. It’s always nice when someone’s reading something you like.” Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

 “…as far as I am concerned, there is no need to employ any more words in describing her beauty, worth and understanding, for knowledge of her reading alone is enough to make me confirm her as the most beautiful and intelligent woman in the world.” Don Quixote

“…remember, boy, that a kind act can sometimes be as powerful as a sword. As a mortal, I was never a great fighter or athlete or poet…The people in my village laughed at me. They said I would never amount to anything. Look at me now. Sometimes small things can become very large indeed.” The Battle of the Labyrinth

“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.” Ender's Game

"‘Winning isn’t the only reason to do something,’ Milo pointed out.
‘But it makes no sense to try to do something impossible,’ she retorted.
‘It’s too bad you feel that way. You’ve really missed out.’ ”  Freshman for President

“You must never give up, even if you’re falling off a cliff. You never know what might happen on the way down.” The Islands of the Blessed

“Don’t be gettin’ into any of them foolish ways boys has of gettin’ too big to mind their mothers. Tell ye what, Mas’r George, the Lord gives good many things twice over; but he don’t give ye a mother but once. Ye’ll never see sich another woman, Mas’r George, if ye live to be a hundred years old.” Uncle Tom's Cabin 

El-ahrairah's favorite books:

       

A true love story

Here's the true love story of Owlet and El-ahrairah, written in awkward third-person/first-person plural. (Some of this can be found on the Board too.) Huzzah!

The two of us met on the cross-country (long distance running) team in high school. We became good friends, talking about books during lunch and cheering each other on at meets.

Owlet almost asked El-ahrairah to the girl's choice dance that winter, but chickened out; ironically, it was at that dance that El-ahrairah realized he really needed to take Owlet on a date sometime.
We soon went on a double date to El-ahrairah's sister's ballet recital, after which we played some video games that El-ahrairah let Owlet win because he didn't want her to feel bad...and then Owlet smashed him at all the subsequent games. That spring, we attended prom together and had a dandy time.

After writing to each other during El-ahrairah's mission in Australia, we met up again at BYU.

When we first started dating, Owlet showed El-ahrairah this awesome music video of a love song in American Sign Language. Owlet has been studying ASL for years and it's a big part of her life and career goals.

"Oh, Darling" in ASL

Another big part of her life is her family—such as her younger sister and younger brother, serving missions in Place 1 and Place 2, respectively. With all these elements in mind, El-ahrairah planned what started out to be a normal yet creative date.

We went to a Place-2-related restaurant for dinner, and then had a lovely walk to a nearby firepit to roast marshmallows and sing campfire songs. El-ahrairah then turned to Owlet and said, "I have a song I'd like to sing to you." Owlet was delighted when he began singing and signing "Oh Darling," the love song that she had shared with him a year before. He changed the last part of the lyrics, though, to "So I've got to ask you, I can't be afraid...Owlet, will you marry me?" and presented the ringbox on one knee. (Um, except he didn't really call me "Owlet." That would have been somewhat less romantic.)

We celebrated with Place-2-related dessert, of course, to bring it all together.

-El-ahrairah and Owlet