Easter Morn

Easter went a little like this for the Jenkins couple.

I currently work as a nurse on a maternity floor in the hospital and I had to work a graveyard shift the night before Easter Sunday. Being a nurse has many great perks to it, but working graveyard shifts is not one of them.  I really liked them at first and thought I would like them for a while, but the recovery period after the shift is just brutal.  I find myself having minor medical issues like pain under my ribcage after I work too many night shifts.  Plus spending my time the next day sleeping when I want to be awake spending time with Cody instead is really hard.  Luckily my job lets me do half day shifts and half night shifts so I do get my break from night shifts.

Anyways.  Easter.  I got home around 8:00 am and set out some an Easter basket and candy for Cody.  It took him forever to leave the bedroom or bathroom and see it in the kitchen, but it was a good little surprise for him.  Cody's mother was always so good about doing cute little things for Cody that you would think only little kids got from their mom, so I had to step up to the plate.

Next, we got ready for church.  I know, that sounds crazy because I had just worked all through the night.  But Cody and I hadn't been to church in so long because of the wedding and honeymoon and we wanted to get to our new ward.  So instead of sleeping, I went to our new ward.  Oh, the difference a family ward is from a single's ward.  It's noisy.  It's messy.  And there's pretty much no one mine or Cody's age.  Not to mention, that ward is FULL of terrible singers.  But it's okay, I will get over it.  The bishop seems really nice and it will be good for us to get into a ward where we can stay for a little bit.  Sacrament went nicely, but you better believe my head was bobbing BADLY after a little while.  There's only so much quiet reverence a person who has been up for 24 hours can take.

We left church after sacrament so that I didn't pass out on the spot and I came home and slept until about 4:30.  Then Cody drops the law school bomb on me (which will be explained later in this post).  We went to Cody's grandparent's house where we ate good food, got showered with more candy, and listened to Cody's grandma's cute Easter story presentation.  Once we were done there, we went to my parents house and got even more candy.  My mom is also in this cupcake making phase where she makes these ridiculously yummy candy filled cupcakes that rot your teeth instantly.  So we got a second plate of those (she brought us a different plate a week ago) and came home to watch a movie together for the first time as a married couple- The Lucky One, typical chick flick that I loved and Cody made fun of.  It was a great first Easter together and we had fun spending time with both of our families.  It's still weird and exciting getting used to the idea that we are married, but it's the best thing to remember!  Being married is by far the best thing in the world.

Law School Bomb:  Originally, Cody and I had our hearts set on Cody going to law school at Arizona State and us moving to Phoenix.  I think we were both pretty thrilled with the idea of wonderful weather and a much lower cost of living.  But after a few different eye opening experiences, our plans have changed fast.  Cody has already been accepted to the University of Utah law school and given a $14,000 scholarship for the first year.  Arizona, we are still waiting to hear from.  Cody has to make a decision about the Utah scholarship by Friday.  After those eye opening experiences, we think we are going to stay here in  Utah.  We've realized in the long run it will be cheaper, I will be able to stay at my job I just started and get some solid experience as a nurse, it will be nice staying by family- especially when little babies come into the picture in a few years, and it means we can buy a townhome that has a small backyard and we can get out of a stuffy apartment with two big dogs.  We still have some things to think about and plan to go to the temple and do a lot of praying, but as for now, Utah is the decision.  Maybe we will get our out-of-Utah experience some time later in life.  But for now, I feel very content with this decision and I think Cody does too.  So my Utah friends, that means you are still stuck with the Jenkins. For now.  :)

Our Easter cavities waiting to happen.  Plus a few other fun things.

You know you own a husky when you have been at work for 8 hours already and find a hair like this on your water cup.  Geez.



Oh, just pictures of our rings we take during church.



Temple Week vs. Party Week

This last week was a big week for both Cody and I.  Firstly, I was able to receive my endowments through the Jordan River temple on March 1st.  It was such an amazing experience, and I am still today taking it all in.  Also, Cody's mother was also able to receive her endowments the day before I went through.  She has had a lot in her life that she has needed to overcome in order to make it to the temple.  She worked so unbelieveably hard to be able to do the things she needed to to be worthy to be there for our wedding.  And Cody and I are both so proud of her that she did it!  It will be such an added blessing to be able to see her in the temple on our wedding day!

This week was filled with  parties.  I had a bachelorette party with some good friends first and it was so much fun.  We played some funny little games that turned out to be way more funny than I'm sure they were intended to be.  It was so great catching up with some friends I haven't seen in a while and visiting with ones I do see more often.  Then later in the week I had two bridal showers, one with my home ward and one with family and close friends.  Bridal showers are always a little awkward because they are kind of like "watch me open gifts you bought me" parties.  Weird.  But I'm really grateful for the gifts Cody and I received because you wouldn't believe how much we need those things.  You would be embarressed to see what I have been cooking things in.  Ya.  It's that bad.  Cody also had a little bachelor party this week with a lot of his friends.  They went to dinner and went bowling and I'm sure Cody got the bachelor treatment he deserved (minus the naked women part...!).  He was quite excited for this little shin dig, he was bugging me about it ALL the time! Some times I think they put so much emphasis on the bride during weddings that the groom gets left out a little bit, so I'm glad Cody got his spotlight party.  Goodness knows Cody is the kind of guy that enjoys that kind of thing.  That's what makes him so much fun though.  He's a total goof and I love it.

We get married in T-4 days!  4 days.  This engagement went by so quickly.  I feel like it was yesterday we were picking out rings. (Which took me like 6 months because I seem to like everything that sparkles, which poses a problem in a really awesome jewlery store.)  Speaking of rings, I got Cody's ring a few days ago.  It's so different than I think both he and I thought he would have picked. But I really do love it.  I think it fits really well with my ring.  I think we have everything planned for the wedding.  You would hope by now we do.  There's still so much we need to do though.  Like move all of Cody's stuff into the apartment!! Oh heck, I'm stressing myself out just thinking about it.  That carribbean cruise is sounding real nice right now instead.  I can't wait to get married.  It's going to be my perfect fairy tale, even if everything you can think of goes wrong.  As long as Cody is there, it's perfect for me.  (Cheesball queen right here.)  But really though, as beautiful and exciting as the whole wedding day experience is, Cody is all I'm looking to get out of it. Things are so perfect.  In love and marriage, in work and my lack of school due to graduation, in family and relationships, in spirituality and the church, and everything else I could possibly think of.  Life doesn't get better than right now.

(Ya, I totally hate blog posts that have no pictures also, so I promise after the wedding I will be overloading this page with so many pictures you won't know where to look first.)