Our New Home

We just moved back into the neighborhood where Sterling and I met each other.  Romantic, eh?  It really is, though.  Every day I can walk by my old house and be reminded of the awesome doorstep scenes we had at my old house while we were dating.  (I don't think the lady across the street appreciated them very much, though!  She would always turn her porch light on and off as if to signal us that it was time for us to go our separate ways.)  Aside from being nostalgic, our new place is great for so many reasons.  Ready?  These are the reasons:

1) WAY cheaper than our old place,
2) a yard,
3) a covered porch outside of our bedroom big enough for a table, couch, and grill,
4) close to our friends,
5) walking distance from the metro,
6) tons of storage space, and
7) a good decorating challenge!

The first thing we did when we moved in was take down the hideous valance and scrape the wallpaper off in the kitchen.  Sick me out!

This was the biggest mess.  Not only one, but two layers of extremely ugly wallpaper!

Sterling hard at work.

These cool cabinets left by the previous tenants were also covered in wallpaper.  Who thought this was a good idea?  It is obviously not.  I am smiling because I am happy to be looking at Sterling (who was taking the photo), not because of the wallpaper!

Yay!  They got clean. (And Sterling's photos above)

How did we get so much stuff?  We have only been married a year...

So much better.  Ahh......  We need another accent color.  Gray maybe?

We love it here.  I mean, it is a bit smaller and we don't absolutely love the wood paneling in the living room that the landlady won't let us paint, but it is home.  It's where we make a life together.  And THAT is pretty wonderful.  Come visit us.  You can sleep on the couch.

Going Under (the water that is!)

Yuri, Sterling, and myself at the Yuri's baptism August 20, 2011

We met Yuri through the Mormon missionaries serving in the Arlington area.  After receiving the missionary lessons for less than two months, Yuri made the decision to get baptized.  I don't think that I have ever met anyone more sincere and humble in his desires to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Knowing Yuri has inspired me to be a better member of the Church.  I was blown away by his ability to feast on the scriptures.  If he has a question about something, you can be sure that he will go home and read everything he can find in the Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, Preach My Gospel (the manual for missionaries), and the Gospel Principles lesson manual.  He has downloaded every app the Church makes for his iPhone and uses them during the lessons.  He is making plans to watch the General Conference of the Church. He came to choir the other week.  He frequently requests scripture references from us and the missionaries about what was covered in church.  I know that Sterling and I have been blessed to feel the Spirit in the lessons with the missionaries when Yuri has born his testimony about God's love, and the truthfulness of the scriptures.  Yuri's mother was Christian, but he wasn't raised with the faith.  When he was taught the commandments, he committed to keeping them with full faith.  He has made difficult changes in his habits, but he has such faith that God would make it possible for him to accomplish the things that were asked of him.  It made me look at my own testimony and motivations for keeping commandments like the the Sabbath Day, the Word of Wisdom, and daily prayer/scripture study.  After the baptism, Yuri was invited to share his testimony with those in attendance.  He talked beautifully about how the scriptures resonate with him.  I feel that I have had similar experiences.  Sterling and I were asked to speak about baptism and the Holy Ghost at the service.  I know that Yuri's choice to be baptized will bring him unimaginable happiness.  Being a member has given me more peace and joy than any other thing.  I strongly believe that and am so grateful to Yuri for his example, testimony, and friendship.  We wish him the best as he begins his life as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We will miss him when moves back to Tokyo at the end of this month.

What if I get thirsty?!

Sterling took this picture of my nightstand and made slight mockery of my compulsive obsession with water!  I have this irrational fear of waking up in the middle of the night thirsty and having to get out of bed to get a drink of water.  Ironically, drinking a lot of water requires me to still have to get out of bed and stumble to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  Lame.  Note:  Sterling has adopted the nocturnal drinking behavior and I have sighted not just one glass of water, but two, on his side of the bed!  What now?!  Imitation is the best form of flattery...

The Newest Form of Entertainment

Last night Sterling and I stayed up past our bedtime watching these mormon.org profile videos.  The LDS Church is going around the world making short little videos about Mormons and amazing things they are doing.  There clips about artists, musicians, rockstar mothers and fathers, karate champions, NFL stars, business powerhouses, surfers, and former homeless teenage boys. They are only about 2-3 minutes long and super addicting.  They made us super happy.  We went to bed feeling all inspired and passionate about life.  Who doesn't want that?  Some of my favorites are Raine, Shawni, Allen, and Paris. http://mormon.org/people/

And here we are.

Blogging.  Blog. Blog. Blog.  The word itself is a bit ridiculous.  But!  Here we are, embarking into this new adventure of posting our life for the world to see.  Quite honestly, this blog is more a journal for ourselves and our families.  Living in Arlington, VA is simply something I never imagined doing, but right now it's hard to imagine doing anything else.  We love it here.  Like thousands of other young, newlywed, Mormon couples, we are excited to post recipes we make up, art projects found on other blogs, links to restaurants hundreds of miles away from you, and music we think that everyone else should love as much as we do.  It's going to be so much fun.