Festivities of the Past Week

This week has been a little more crazy than usual, but we had some exciting things happen.

We took Jake to the dermatologist on Tuesday to finally get his moles looked at. He has a lot of moles on his body, and I was very relieved to discover they all looked normal. The dermatologist decided to take one off his back, and he used this little metal scraper thing to shave the mole off. It was disgusting. Jake will probably have a good scar there, but he likes scars so it was no big deal.

Alan and Jake went to the rest home here in Logan and performed some of their camp songs with other members of Alan's ward. It was pretty funny.

Jake and I drove down to my parent's house to stay the night because Jake's brother Jeff was coming home on Thursday. Jake was so excited and could hardly stand the wait that night! It was so great to visit my family. I miss watching my siblings grow up and do the funny things they do. It makes me sad sometimes at how far away I live. Jake tells me it's not far at all compared to Alabama, but I still feel like it's far away.

We drove up to Salt Lake on Thursday morning to attend Jake's sister-in-law, Ornela's, citizenship ceremony. She's from Albania and has been in the US for six years and is finally getting her citizenship. The ceremony was awful! I was so annoyed with how everything played out. The people around us were really disrespectful; letting their kids run wild and walking in front of the projector screen while we were trying to watch the program, talking, and most of them wouldn't even stand up when they were asked to. I hate people sometimes. The judge conducting the ceremony, and the speakers, talked to the people becoming citizens like they were five. The judge asked several people where they were from and how long it took them to become a citizen, and most said they had been in the country for 10 or 20 years, and this guy was trying to tell them how to be a citizen. It was ridiculous! I was really happy for Ornela though, it was a great day for her.

After the ceremony, we rushed over to the Salt Lake airport and made it just in time to see Jeff walk out. Everyone was so excited to see him. He looks a lot like Jake I think, and he was really nice. We all went to Sizzler for lunch and enjoyed each other's company. I love Jake's family. They are so sweet and fun! I especially love the younger members, and I love having nieces and nephews! Jake let Jeff drive our Rodeo back to his parent's house for practice, and I thought he did a really good job for being gone for two years.

The Bailey gang.

Jake's missionary badge has now been in three missions. He gave it to Alan and then Jeff to carry with them while they were on their missions.

We hung out with Jeff and Jake's sister Becky for the rest of the afternoon, and took him shopping that evening. Jake and I decided to head back to Logan Thursday night because everyone had school the next morning. It had been a fun day, and Jake was really glad he got to spend some time with Jeff. He was a little disappointed he and Jeff didn't get to watch the movie Hot Rod (which is a really dumb movie) or play Ghost Recon (a computer game).

I spent Saturday morning deep cleaning our apartment for school to start and also my family was coming up to see it. Jake had to work, so I took lunch up to him for a break. My family came up to visit, and we went Repelling up Logan Canyon. Everyone loved repelling.

We went and ate at Golden Corral, where I ate WAY too much food. Jake, dad, and I went to Walmart after to buy some jumper cables because the suburban had died in the canyon.

The Temple dedication was great. There were some really great talks given and hopefully I can remember to go to the temple to listen and receive the blessings of temple attendance. It reinforced my goal of going to the temple each week. My family came over to our apartment after the dedication and Jake fixed his famous steaks for lunch. My family was really impressed with our apartment and my mom called it very "homey". This was the highest form of a compliment for me, and I was very pleased.

This has been a great week! School starts tomorrow and I am so excited! Mostly to get on a schedule again. Jake is very unhappy. :-)

Sealed Forever

Jake and I went up to my cousin Drew Davis's sealing on Thursday night in Idaho Falls. It was interesting because we were originally going to get married on August 14th, but decided why wait? Idaho Falls has a beautiful temple, but awful streets. They were all named instead of numbered and Jake and I drove around for about an hour trying to find a Target and Chuck-A-Rama. By the time we found Chuck-A-Rama, it was about to close, so we had to drive around again and find some place else to eat. We ended up eating at Olive Garden, which was nice, but I detest Idaho Falls streets now!

We slept in a Hotel Thursday night and woke up bright and early to be to the sealing. I told Jake it was like we were getting married all over again as we walked down to breakfast and saw a lot of my extended family. The temple was beautiful, and it was so great to listen to my grandpa seal Drew and his fiance Whitney together. It helped me remember the covenants Jake and I made, and also to remember the counsel and instruction my grandpa gave us.

I am so grateful to have parents who taught me the right way to live so I could attend the temple and be sealed to Jake forever. He is such a good man; ambitious, hard working, loyal, honest, and kind. He is always trying to find ways to please me and do whatever I ask, even if he doesn't like the things I make him do. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect companion to go through life with.

Jake helping me vacuum one Saturday. He is quite the stud.

Oh How Time Flies

Wow time sure seems to fly by. It's already time for school to start again. I'm really excited, but Jake is less than enthused. I'm really glad we decided to get married in June. It gave us almost two months to get used to married life before school starts and life gets crazy. I guess I need to do a quick update on the happenings of the Jake and Shannon Bailey household.

Jake and I went back to Salem to stay with my family over the 24th of July. It was so fun to have Jake there to share one of my family traditions growing up. We went to Magleby's for breakfast, then sat on Spanish Fork main street to watch the parade. Jake fit right in with my dad and brother. All three of them hate parades, and the Spanish Fork parade is known to be super long! It had been going for about 2 hours by the time we decided to leave, and there was still about another hour left to go. Both my sisters were in the parade this year. Stephanie is the Miss Salem 1st attendant, and Melanie is on the Salem Hills drill team. I've been in the parade for both things before, and it was fun to see them follow in my footsteps. (They hate it when I tell them that. They like to think they're paving their own way. :-) After the parade we were invited over to my aunt Kristin Morley's house for lunch and to swim in her pool. I had never seen it before, and it was pretty amazing. They have a pretty big pool with a nice big hot tub next to it and a really tall ledge you can jump off into the water. Jake and Brandon just thought it was the greatest thing ever, and tried to do cool things off the edge. Jake really impressed all the little boy cousins with his front and back flips off the ledge. He was pretty proud of himself.

Jake and my dad chillin' at the pool.

Jake's front flip.

Jake's cool back flip.

Jake's throat started hurting him something terrible a few weeks back, and we decided to take him to a ear, nose, and throat doctor. The reason his throat was hurting was because he got hit square in the neck way back in March playing football. I made him go to the emergency room just to make sure there was nothing wrong. The dumb doctor didn't even look down his throat but made Jake feel he went there for nothing. Fast forward to the present, we went to the throat doctor, and the doctor looked down his throat and apparently Jake got a hematoma on his larynx and scar tissue had formed, causing some minor damage. Hopefully he’ll be 100% better in a few months.

We went on Jake’s family reunion this last weekend. It was a lot of fun! We met in Rexburg and went rock climbing first to kick things off. Jake, Alan, Rachel, and Jenny tried to race to the top. It was entertaining to watch. We went camping at this really pretty lake in Montana. It rained really hard the first night we were there, but cleared up the following morning. Jake begged me to make these chocolate cookie brownies that everyone loves, so we brought those and they were gone really fast. Jake also found this HUGE rope swing that he went off three times. His sister, Becky, also went off it once but almost hit the rocks. That was a stomach clencher. It was a really fun vacation, and I felt I got to know his family a lot better.

Jake tried to be a redneck. I thought he pulled it off pretty well don't you?

Just playing at the beach. Doesn't he look all muscled up? :-)

I thought this picture was really cute of Jake and little Logan laying by each other. He found a worm and we thought it would be funny to stick on Jake while he was sun bathing. Jake is such a good sport.

The rope swing Jake found. He went about 30 feet in the air before dropping into the water.

We babysat Cassie overnight a couple weeks ago, and Whitney instructed us to give her a nap in the morning after she had eaten. I gave the job to Jake so I could get ready, and when I came out of the bathroom this is what I found.

He is such a good uncle.

Jake really wanted to go to the demolition derby yesterday, and was so ecstatic when we got there. Looking around at all the men with their tongues hanging out, goggling over the cars bashing each other just made me laugh! Every man is just a little boy at heart.

Waiting for the demolition derby to start.