An update of our life!

Hello family and friends! This is our life at the moment!  

     The calling as a Relief Society president was such a learning experience for Patrick and I and we're grateful for that opportunity to learn and grow as individuals and as a couple. If you are unfamiliar with Mormonism, Relief Society is a society for the women of the church where we have our own meeting on Sunday and learn the gospel and literally give relief to others that we know and those that we don't know who are in the community! 

    It was definitely humbling because I was made more aware of my weaknesses and how much I don't know. I loved serving the people in the ward and getting to know them. There were so many unique, fun, and loving people in our ward! And we already miss the people and Bishop and Sister Hendricks!

  In December we moved to Mesa, Arizona and are living with Patrick’s parents as we job search and eventually find an apartment! The trip down was pretty fun and it was the first big road trip that Patrick and I took together! I made a youtube video about it!

     After the road trip we spent Christmas with Patrick's family and then drove out to Anehiem for New Years with the Riley and Stubbs family! DISNEYLAND was so great! I'm going to make a video about it soon and then post it on here so stay tuned! Megan, my sister and fellow blogger posted lots of pictures HERE!

   As far as jobs go, Patrick was recently offered a job to work as a pizza delivery worker and has an interview for a new LA Fitness gym in Gilbert! Hopefully the second job will work out because it's indoors, has higher pay, and offers more hours! I am going to do respite care part-time and I’ve also been offered a well-paying job as a nanny of a child with Cerebral Palsy. We’ve been praying and hoping for an opportunity like this and we hope that it will work out, especially since the family seems so wonderful! After we have a steady income, we are planning to move to our own home and start online school in April! But for now we’re helping his parents do projects around the house and serving as primary teachers (children's Sunday school) at church.

   Having so much free time has proven to be somewhat toxic because it provides too much time to think and spiral in negative thinking! We were so use to a busy schedule with responsibilities and jobs and school work, that we had limited time to think about life. 

These are a few things that I've thought up with all of this spare time, both negative and positive! I'm sure you can relate to at least one of these!

- I've been seriously considering making a youtube channel and I think I'm going to go for it! I've thought of lots of ideas for videos already, so hopefully it goes well!

- I miss being in Oregon and the blissful and heavenly green that's all over the valley! Although it rains all the time, it's peaceful and seems to smell like fresh air constantly. The thing that I miss, more than the green, is family and friends! 

- I've been realizing how unimportant high school and even college friends become as you grow up and do your own thing. Everyone becomes preoccupied with their life and although you may try to keep in contact with everyone, there are only a select few that stay in touch and actually care about you and you genuinely care back! Thanks friends, you know who you are!

- There are people during middle school and high school that I tried to make friends with and try to gain popularity. I thought we'd always be 'close buddies'! But in the end, no one cares! In the end, only a few friends will be there for you. Which means I wasted 50% of high school.

- That being said, I realized that I have a legitimate fear of being forgotten and I'll never be asked to be a bridesmaid or that somehow, my closest friends will completely forget me, including family members. Life gets so crazy, and I understand that we all have priorities and people drift apart, but no one wants to feel neglected or forgotten, especially since you may care about them immensely.

- In high school, I was so insecure with my body and weight and always thought that I was too big but then I got married and gained weight with time and I've realized that I looked great! And I shouldn't have been so hard on myself and discouraged because I wasn't as skinny as other girls.

- I'm working on loosing weight now though, because according to BMI, I'm overweight. Opps. I've been making an effort to walk at least 175 miles over the whole year and I'm on mile 28! 

  Sooo, I know many of you wondered why we moved to Arizona. We were in Rexburg for only two years which isn't enough time to get a bachelors, right? Well, we felt that we needed to be closer to family to have a better support system. Brigham Young University- Idaho was so wonderful! But the weather and our apartment managers and a few other components made us question why we were there! We chose to move to Arizona rather than Oregon, because of the yearlong sunlight, especially since I've already proven to get seasonal depression. Both Arizona and Oregon have pros and cons! So it really came down to prayer and really deciding what pros and cons we were willing to live with. Sadly, I still miss being surrounded by familiarity, family, and friends! We’d like to plan a trip to Oregon as soon as finances will allow and we can't wait!

   But for now, Arizona has been absolutely awesome! Patrick's family is a dream. Everyone is so unique, kind, caring, strong, and hilarious. There is no contention contrary to what I've heard from friends about awkward and sad situations that they've experienced with the in-laws! The Duffs are the best anyone could ask for and we're grateful to be living close to them so that we can get to know each other better! Patrick has been away from them for a long time too, so it means a lot to be here to build relationships and make memories!

I know this post was long but I hope you've enjoyed reading about our life and a few thoughts of mine. Feel free to comment what you think or message me on facebook! We look forward to hearing from you!  

Much love from the both of us!

   

    Patrick and Tamsin