Holy Places of Peace and Enjoyable Friends!

So in this weeks' issue of our life we have had a great week. Friday morning while i was home working on school work we got a text from an old friend that Daniel and I both knew. He was about 15 mins away visiting with family and wanted to know who in this town was available and so i was hoping to surprise Daniel by having him come over to our house later that night and join us for our group game night. Little did i know that he had text Daniel as well. So we were both inviting him over for the night at the same time. So he came and joined us for the game night and we had a huge crowd. We had 10 people at our place at a time and we had 12 people all together over. We all sat around our table and we had some friends bring some chairs over and snacks as well and we had music on as well so it was a party and we LOVED it! We loved having friends over and having fun! We try and do a game night just about every weekend! We have new games and have a wider variety of things to do for the nights. We are just waiting to get a couch so that we can do movie nights better. Then we could do game night, movie night, or rock band night and we have the ultimate group activities for college students with no money.

Work is work, school is school, life is love, and keeping busy is contentment with situations.

Saturday was the best day of the week. Daniel had a game that he went to and i had work. After those we met up at the Library and he had a group meeting while i sat and did my homework. Then we went to the temple together and we decided to do something different than what we normally do and we decided to do seelings. HOW DO I LOVE THEM!?! I was soooo happy being there with him next to me and being able to remember the day we went to get married our selves. I loved it because i felt the love and peace i felt on the day and the excitement level was down so i could concentrate better on it. There was also a couple there next to us who was from the bay area as well and they weren't far from where we were. We got to talk to the other couples and enjoy our time with the seeler who was doing our group. It was such a peaceful day and relaxing. I just loved it all and going to the temple to do what we did was the best part of the entire week! If you haven't gone to the temple and are wondering what i'm talking about, let me see if we can give you an image of this. Think of the most comforting, relaxing place you have gone to or imagined. Now double or even triple that comfort and relaxing feeling. All your worries literally melt away into the non existing world. You are there for the sole purpose of reconnecting yourself to your spiritual side and to help others come closer to God, as yourself also. You feel so light on your feet as you walk into the different areas. You hear only the quiet whispers of the air flowing through the space between you and each wall. If you go with someone you love, you have their warm soft hand holding yours, guiding you and walking next to you. The peace from them is flowing to you and you to them. There is the love connection and the spiritual connection that has you linked to that person. When you look up into their face, it's as if you are looking at them for the first time and being totally captivated by them. You feel like the most important person in the world to this person because they are looking at you with the same feelings you have for them. If you go to the temple with the right intentions there is absolutely no room for contention or any other feeling than love. If you are going by yourself you are not alone and you can feel the same feelings. You feel the guiding hand of the Lord and the comfort and closeness of love and someone being there with you through the spirit. Depending on your level of listening to your heart and paying attention to your intuition adds to your feelings and sensations. If you can't go i highly suggest that you find a way to change what is needed to be changed so that you can go and feel this amazing sensation and love!

I know that the temple is a place where only God can be. I know that i was meant to be a part of the wonderful activities that go on in the temples. I know that the truest feelings of caring for the world exist there. I know there is truth that is found if i only ask for it. I love the temple and am so absolutely blessed for making the choices i did to remain worthy and to be able to get married in the temple myself!

Hope that you all have an amazing week and feel a moment of love and comfort or peace when you need it most. Remember please that you are NEVER alone! Best wishes and Love from the Longs!

Which temples are these?

Issue 48 10-23-11

Comming Together on a Crips Autumn Morning!

Tis the season to be Spooky, Fala La La La, La La La La!

So here is a quick video of our place. It's not the best quality and it is FAST because if the video was any longer the media wouldn't fit on here for you all to see. But enjoy. Here are some other pictures to show the place in better detail as we are putting it all together.

This is our sitting situation in our front room at the moment. (below) and the picture is our guest signing frame from our SLC Party that my friends put together for us. This is hung up on the wall behind our door and we see it every time we are in the front room, open/close the door. We love it!(top right)











(left) is our dressers and collage wall.

(right) our shelving unit for towels and my jewelery boxes.

(left) when we get our couch this is what will be on the wall behind it.

(right) is our shelving unit for all our school work, books, and our dvd's/ cd's. The tv as you can see and then the desk that we got Daniel this week, that has part of our rock band set underneath it now.

(below) is the close up of the picture that you see hanging on the wall in the middle of everything.
Nothing really new went on this week. We just got the part in the mail that made it possible to get our shelving unit together that has been sitting on the floor in our front room for almost two months. The desk and rock band are the next things that are new for this week. The rest is simple history of the mundane life style for two, young, married, college, students, who work just as much as they are in school so that the bills can get paid.
Hope all is well with each of you and that you enjoy your day! Today is a nice bright, sunny, crisp day and ill be busy finishing up schoolwork so we can have fun with game night tonight with all our friends!
Best wishes, and prayers be with you! Love the Long's!



Issue 47 10-21-11

Wicked Awesomeness!!!

So we will get the news moving here... We are quickly learning that Chives has lived a deprived life as a turtle. The owners before us didn't have lights to keep her healthy and warm. They didn't have anything for her to do but swim back and forth in her tank with a very small amount of water. We are giving her a rock to climb up on to get her food every morning. She has to work out to get her food. and we have given her more water so she can swim and learn to stretch her muscles. We also have a filter for her to have clean water and she keeps attacking it and pulling all the rocks up in front of it. (btw all the wires you see are between the wall and the tank, NOT IN the tank!!! No innocent animals are being harmed in the making of this picture!)
So i admire when men show that soft side they have for nature and creatures. When we lived with my grandparents i was home everyday because i couldn't go to school or anything because of my sickness. We had two lizards and our 16 year old dog. He would often kneel on the couch, over the back part, looking out the window at Brandy, and he would talk to her. When he was out there in the back yard he would play with her and pet her. He would go into the computer room where the lizards were and he would talk to them as well and sit watching them for an hour or so. I thought it was sooooo cute! So then we got chives and Daniel was acting like "your going to be the one to take care of her" and the next day after dinner he was on all fours with his tush up in the air as he was leaning down talking to her and playing with her from the out side of the glass. He does this on a daily basis almost and its adorable. Tonight after dinner Daniel and I were laying on the floor next to the tank and he turned over and said " welcome to the family meeting Chives". We are like a little family and Daniel and i act like parents watching a new baby growing. We got all excited every time Chives would attempt to climb the floating rock to get food and would get closer and closer with each try. Now she does it with authority. haha She is on the floor next to our bedroom door and in the morning we can here here tapping against the tank and begging for food. When she gets the food in her mouth, the other day she started this thing where she like dives back into the tank. She was freaking out though and acting like she was in a race or something. It was soooo weird and funny at the same time.

So you want to see pics of our little place we call home! Well here are some pics of our place. We are waiting for part of our shelving unit to be mailed to us because it was broken. I called them today and they said because they don't have the part it needs to be made and it will take up to a month before they ship it out to us... so untill then we have this huge half built shelving unit on the floor in our living room.

We got an ottoman from Bed Bath & Beyond the other day that we just love. It fits all the blankets we use when we watch movies and it comes with trays on the top that are wood so we can eat on it or play games or what ever we want. It's super nice. We have a washer and dryer in our dinning room in our kitchen. The doors on the right side of the this picture here is where they are. We also have this adorable table that we got and can eat off of now. It is WELL used with dinners, homework, game nights, and everything else! I love having our own place and taking care of it. I love putting it all together and enjoying all the things we are putting in our place to make it our place of comfort and peace.

This is our kitchen. I love that we can put the empty boxes of things up on top. We have to use a stepping stool.... wait... let me rephrase that, I HAVE TO USE IT. Daniel is tall enough he just lifts his arms and can get what ever he wants with out even lifting up on his toes. Further proof i am WAY too short! Thank you everyone for helping us get this place into order and helping us get the things we need to function comfortably.

So with cooking, we have created some more interesting meals. On the white board you see in the picture of our kitchen we have our to do list for the week, grocery list, and our menu for the week. This week we are doing mexican food. We both love spicy food and we have plenty of cookbooks to try new things. There was this one that was grilled veggies with noodles and romano cheese. We did it and added spicey herb grilled chicken. We had a lot of veggies that started going bad and needed to be eaten and i love noodles so we did it and it was really good and rather fast. We are learning fast, easy, and tasty foods for dinner since we are now getting home from work or school after 7-8 every night!!!! IT SUCKS getting home that late after being gone for almost 12 hours in the same location. Anyway we are both learning how we want to work things out with dishes and in the kitchen. We are learning cool new ideas for food and really liking living on our own and learning cool new things.

So now for my greatest accomplishment this week! I have been wanting a hair cut for several months now because i just can't handle my hair being long anymore. I get headaches way too easily and it's just more of a hassle than an enjoyment because its just so much work to maintain. As you know i have a tender spot in my heart for dealing with donations that deal with cancer patients and i have a strong connection with this medical world that i was hoping to move on from and forget about. However with my life being so unpredictable and out of the ordinary i should expect to not expect unless it is the worse so i don't get my hopes up and when things work out for the better it's just a pleasant surprise. Anyway, my sister Brylee donates her hair every time she cuts it now because of me being sick. She did it for me the first time and does it now out of habit. I have wanted to do the same thing but haven't had the hair long enough to do it as well as having hair to keep me warm and looking like a normal female. Not that i would really mind being bald, i know i can pull it off and it was really enjoyable being bald because of the ease, i found it comfortable. (I did have times were i missed my hair and would cry because i looked like a freak (in my own demented world) and i felt out of place, but the general idea was positive and all good.) I waited to cut my hair till after the wedding so that i could feel like it was more perfect for pictures and what not. The timing for getting a hair cut couldn't have come at a better time for the sentimental factor. Two weeks ago i got a call from my mom about grandma being in the H and that the docs said it was most likely cancer. The next day, i found out from my last remaining friend from the H that he relapsed and was back in the H. He is only a few months older than me and we have become really really good friends over the years. I feel so helpless being here in Idaho and not able to help them find comfort or even just to play games in their rooms with them. I have been trying to think what i could do and feel like i did something and made a difference. It all clicked. "Cut your hair now, you have money to do it at a beauty school, you have the paper printed of the style you want, just DO IT!" So i did! I LOVE IT!

Before!












...... and the.......After!
If i could please have you all put my grandmother, and Luis's name in the nearest temple to you on the prayer roll. I have asked some friends already and know that they have been put in several temples around the country already, but all the help i can get the better chance they have at having happiness, comfort, and have a feeling of contemptness at the very least. They both need to have friends visit them and help keep them upbeat and happy to help them have the strength to fight this terrible disease. All prayers and help would be appreciated from my family as well as all those around them.

So, this is our week other than crazy mundane things that happen in our everyday stuff. Hope all of you are enjoying your week! And until we meet again may God be with you!

Issue 46 10-12-11

LONG awaited surprise.

For those of you who know me pretty well you know about my history and the fact that i can't have children of my own. You will also know that this is a very upsetting fact i still struggle with accepting. I fought so hard to beat my cancer because i was told i still had a chance to be a mother of my own children. I have only dreamed of that since i could speak. What little girl doesn't dream of being a mom someday? After my treatments i learned a cool fact. First off though i must tell you i had a fascination with turtles and liked them a lot. Now that i have learned these myths of turtles and the meanings that they have in some cultures i have a greater appreciation for them and i feel like i have a bond with them that they can understand me and i can feel peace and comfort in them. So one day i was looking online to find the origin of turtles and where they came from, this is a site i came across that i loved because of the story on it.

http://www.greatdreams.com/lessons/turtle.htm

TURTLE SYMBOLISM

Thousands of years ago, in many different cultures in different places on our planet, the Turtle was seen as a "medicine" for Fertility, associated with the power to heal female diseases.

In the Greco myth, Europe, as the feminine power of the waters, the Turtle was an emblem of Aphrodite - Fertility Goddess and the primal Mother of all on-going creation.

For American natives the thirteen patterns on the Turtle's shell are the thirteen cycles of the thirteen moons, the natural rhythms of the planet, the Fertility periods of females.

In Asia, according to the Hindu, the land on which they lived was the back of a huge "Mother Turtle", floating in a vast primal sea.

In W. Africa's tribes the Turtle originated ju-ju and appears in Fertility rites, representing the feminine to the serpent's masculine power.

Turtle symbolism: "Eternal Mother", "Divine Mother", "Womb of all", "Protector of Mature Wombs that turn into Life". Fertility mythological Goddesses were sitting on a Turtle in a childbirth position.

Turtle represents the feminine Energy of water. The magical spawn of sea Turtle is a mystery to science. Female sea Turtle returns to her birthplace after 15 years of wandering the seas.

The fertile Turtle (almost Turtle the Fertle by Dr. Seuss LOL) is also an image of determinedness, patience and ability to navigate through life. Turtle shell protects you like the protection of Mother Earth.

On the equinoxes, the Sun crosses a center point and makes an exact 90-degree angle directly over the Pyramid of Ku'Kulkan (El Castillo) at the sacred site of Chichen Itza on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula (a place that represents the turtle's head on the continent known as Turtle Island or North America).

The Zuni, as most Native Americans, know almost all regions of the earth as "Turtle Island". Therefore the turtle fetish is considered to represent the living spirit of Mother Earth herself. Legend has it that the turtle navigates in the water and on land through its psychic connections with Mother Earth. Symbolism: Longevity, Loyalty, Peace.

Turtles even today has a strong symbolism meaning longevity and strength. In the Hindu mythology the tortoise supports on its back an elephant which, in turn, supports the world.

Mohawk people say that the earth lies on a turtle's back, this is a symbol for the continent of North America, a continent that was at one time inhabited solely by native people.

So now you know the origin in some cultures of the turtle and why i love them so much. I have wanted a turtle for so long and have started my own little collection of turtle items...

The ceramic turtle on the top left, i had made that in a ceramics class in high school before i even got sick. I made it just for fun and little did i know that this would happen.

Every morning i get up and head to the bathroom, i pass the shelves that has this collection sitting on it and i get to see my little babies every time.

I have more turtle items that aren't pictured here and most of them i have gotten from my mother and Daniel.

So two nights ago i was searching online for a couch for our apartment because we are still with out a couch in our perfect little place. I was on the school bulletin board and while i was scrolling through the pages of junk that was being sold i came across a posting that caught my eye. This guy had a turtle he was wanting to pass to someone else because he couldn't handle taking care of it while he was doing his 18 credits of classes. He had gotten the turtle a few months ago as a help to a friend who was moving and couldn't take the turtle with him. This man who had the posting (Mitch) was willing to give the turtle, tank, food, and everything he had to take care of the turtle, for free. You just had to call and pick it up. Right there i knew i wanted it so i asked Daniel. He knew as well that there was no way he was going to win by not getting it. He kept asking me questions like "how will you take care of it? Do you know anything about turtles? Have you ever taken care of reptiles? Will you feed it? Will you clean the tank? Will you be the one doing all the work for this creature?" I kept assuring him i did and i would take care of it. Reminding him that i had taken care of animals most of my childhood.

I caught a lizard when i was 17 in grandma and grandpa's back yard and my sister Brylee and i named it ZoeJoe. We named it that because we didn't know if it was a boy or girl and we both wanted to give it a name. The two of us took care of it. Cleaned it's tank, fed it, played with it. We did what it needed to be taken care of.

I then started to use the price factor. The turtle i had seen at the pet store last semester when i went was over $100 and i told him that we were getting this one totally free. He couldn't argue. So i text Mitch back and asked when the best time to get the turtle was. I asked different questions like the name that was given, how often he fed the turtle, and so on... The next day after i dropped Daniel off at school i went over and picked up the material and the turtle! I drove home so slow in hopes as to not upset the water much and create splashing in the back seat. I got to the apartment and realized i had to walk up to the third floor with this tank that weighed probably 30-40lbs. It's a huge tank and so i called my neighbor and had her come out in the cold to help me carry this up to the place. I got the turtle all settled in and cleaned the water, filled it with warm water and fed it. This is our family's new addition. World, meet Chives (given name before me and i liked it), Chives meet the world!

Chives is feisty, i had tried to take her out of the tank yesterday so i could clean it and she kept attacking me with her claws and tried biting me (unable to reach granted). Then later once she was in the tank with warm water she would look at Daniel and swim around when he was around, sticking her head up over the water and looking at him. When i would come around she would turn away and hid in her shell in the corner. Now she has warmed up to me and is sitting on the floor staring at me right now in hopes that i will feed her again.

The night i found the posting i was so happy! Jumping up and down in my seat while i was trying to do my homework, singing "i'm getting a turtle, i'm getting a turtle..." I was soooo happy and just like a little kid in a candy store all excited!

The next morning excitement was in the air for everyone. The weather here has been just perfect fall weather and this last week we have had rain everyday. Yesterday after i dropped Chives off at home and had headed back to school, i was walking to my class and realized it was snowing! SNOW!!!! I haven't seen snow fall since i was living in Utah when i was 14. So the whole day was filled with snow and now today it looks like another day of snow. Nothing yet, but soon. The sky is dark and no sun is poking out. I have turned the heater on in the apartment to keep me and Chives warm for the day while i am home doing chores and homework. It is what i think Christmas is supposed to feel like and i have been fighting lately from singing Christmas songs. Yesterday when walking to a class i have with Daniel, he started singing Christmas songs... GREAT! Now i have my favorite holiday coming sooner and sooner and i can't enjoy the holidays before it like i want to because i'm in the Christmas spirit. That means no scary horror films this Halloween like i wanted...

Anyway i have spent too much time sleeping in :) and doing other things than homework and i want to get on top of it so i can have next week to play around. So i will leave you all with this update and hope all is well with you! Things are going fine and dandy here, enjoying the fact that today is Friday and we get to go to the Temple after Daniel gets off work, and after that date night!!!!!!! Tomorrow after we work and Daniel has his Frisbee game, we are going to do some shopping and then have a bunch of friends come over to play games for "game night" at our place. We love game nights every weekend! Best wishes and ENJOY!

Love the Longs!


issue 45 10-7-2011

So we got "YUM"! Do you?

So to start off today i would just like to brag and tell you that i have been married for one month today, and this whole month has been so crazy busy it's insane. OK, good, now that that is done and i have mentioned that i have the most amazing husband ever we can move on...

Maybe...

Yes, so have this mug Daniel got for me when we were in Chicago this summer. I LOVE IT! I pulled it out yesterday to use while we had some friends over for game night and the lady sitting next to me said " be careful it doesn't leak..." I had to think about it. Can you see what she was saying?

So then i realized what she was talking about. I needed to watch out for the utters leaking. So the cool thing about this mug, other than the fact that it is a cow... is that all the condensation falls to the bottom and ends up falling off of the utters onto the table so it is like it's truly leaking... hahahaha. ok so not that funny, but i thought it was cool.

NOW!!!! Since we have had a kitchen now, we can get back to making our own food instead of going out and getting pre-made food. So we got lots of cookbooks from our wedding which is great because i think we both secretly desire to cook, when there isn't school work to be done. So every night we have been testing out different things with different types of foods and let me tell you, i am quite proud of some of the creations we have come up with!

The other night we had pork tenderloins. So for this i beat them with our tenderizer till they got really big, then sprinkled them with Lawelry's seasoning salt. Then we had some veggies laying around and i thought it would be good to cook them up. So i chopped up in just simple circular shapes (like potato chip shape) and sauteed them in a pan with oil, ginger root chopped up real fine, onion diced, and we had yam, red potato, squash, zucchini. Then for another addition we got the fried rice rice-er-oni, and i smashed a few eggs in it as well. I meant to get a picture, but by the time i thought of it, the meal was almost gone.

Tonight we had this wonderful recipe....
Instead though we didn't add the blended tomatoes, the cayenne, or the cornstarch. Instead of garlic cloves we had chopped, dried garlic that we put in.

Then when it came to serving it up we just had cilantro, cheese, green onions, and sour cream and wrapped it all up in the burrito.

This meal was delish! I had three of them before my stomach was way too overfilled. They tasted SOOOOO GOOD. Daniel only had one. I thought that it was going to be way spicy, because it smelled spicy and when i was making it my eyes were burning. But it was really rather sweet and had flavor to it. I loved the cilantro in it. Daniel doesn't like it but i love it and so i put that on and i could taste just a hint of it over the sauce.


AWESOME WEATHER!!!! LOL so today i was sitting in the kitchen doing my homework at the table and all the sudden heard this noise like coins dropping in the closet against the water heater (water heater, washer, dryer are all in the dinning room/kitchen area). I was trying to think what it would be, because i hadn't run any water since my shower earlier this morning and so i went to the window and it was HAILING! There was sun and blue skies, a few fluffy white clouds i could see and it was hailing out of the clear blue. It stopped that fast as well. This happened about 3-4 times through out the day and at one point the hail was coming from all directions and looked like it was dime size. I love strange weather like that and i enjoyed being distracted from my homework day, by the weather.

Anyway as for what is going on with us, not much. Paid our first rent bill, got our first electric bill, and will be getting our first gas bill this week.
Update on grandma, she is home and doing fine, they still are unsure what is wrong and if it's cancer or not but she goes in on Friday to meet with her doctors again!

Anyways we are in the midst of homework city now that dinner is over and i have neglected it for far too long of a time so i must get back to it so i can get to bed before 12 tonight... Hopefully! Good night everyone!

Issue 45 10-3-2011