Sean's 25th Birthday!

Today is Sean's 25th birthday! And we had a wonderful day!

We started out our morning by having breakfast at our favorite joint, The Antique Kitchen. And it turns out that when you go on your birthday, you get a discount off your meal! It was wonderful.

Then we opened up a few presents and had some alone time together before we headed out to Paw Paw for Sean's party. I had been planning his party for a few weeks, because Sean has never really had a birthday party with his friends before... or at least not that Sean could really remember. And me, being a person who loves to plan fun get-togethers just had to plan something.

We found out on December 15th that Sean was officially hired with Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (in other words he is going to be both a police officer and a fire fighter). We also found out that I got accepted to Western Michigan University for graduate school... it was a very exciting day, and the Lord blessed us greatly.

So back to planning Sean's party. I was able to convince him to have a few other people besides his family there if we celebrated his being hired with the city as well. We were able to have the Szekely, Skinner, Osbon, and Quantz families over to Sean's parents' home, as well as the Ulman family and most of the Koontz family. It was a wonderful celebration of Sean turning a quarter of a century old, and he and Ben being hired with the city.

Sean's party was Chicago Cubs themed since we were unable to make it to a game this summer, and Sean LOVES the Cubs. Katie Koontz made the most delicious cake I have ever had, and it looked like the old kiosk at Wrigley Stadium with a baseball that stuck out as if had been thrown into the cake!

Scott gave a toast to congratulate Sean and Ben for their accomplishments and looking forward to the kick off of an awesome career. Scott said some wonderful things, and gave advice that the boys will hopefully remember.

Happy birthday, Seanie! Hope this coming year will be full of as much love and exciting changes as this previous year has brought!

Thanksgiving 2010

This Thanksgiving was our first together as a married couple! We have decided that we are going to try to spend every other holiday with Sean's family, so Easter was with the Szekely's which meant that Thanksgiving was with the Davis family. My parents had originally decided to go to Syracuse to be with Peter and Erin for the holiday, but Peter wanted to come to MI. So my parents and Peter and Erin flew into Detroit and drove over to Kalamazoo the Tuesday before.

Wednesday was a fun-filled day of wrestling, shopping, getting nails done, and baking! Peter and Sean went to Paw Paw wrestling practice in the morning, then Erin, my mom, the Krenk girls, and I went to get our toes beautified! Then home to bake cookies, cheesecake, and these really yummy tarts!

Thursday I cooked the turkey all by myself! Sean had to work at Sear's in the morning, so before my family came over I set the table, made broccoli casserole, and made sure the rolls were rising properly. Then I met my family and Sean at Sweet Water's donuts (yes, they were actually open!) for a quick breakfast before dinner. The other things that we had were sauteed veggies, corn, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, Sean's yummy rolls, apple salad, and of course, TURKEY!! Then we went to Sean's parents' house for dessert!

Friday morning Sean needed to at Sear's by 3:30am!! He had a filling fall out, and he woke me up in a panic thinking it was part of his tooth. After that I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to do some Black Friday shopping. I got my first pair of snow boots for $15 at Burlington Coat Factory!! The women's sizes were too big, so I had to get the children's size, but hey it saved me $5 which I then used to buy some DVDs at Target where were on UBER sale! But I'm not going to post about Christmas presents here because they are a secret! I had to work Friday night at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum so the family came in to see the Race: Are we so different? exhibit, and see our Pink Floyd laser show. They got to see about 20 minutes of the laser show and then the cooling system in our planetarium broke so it wouldn't work anymore!

Saturday, Peter went to wrestling practice again, and then we chatted some at the hotel before the family headed back to Detroit.

It was a wonderful visit, and as Sean said, it was really nice but too short!

Pictures will be posted soon, or you can see them on Facebook, Sean and I are tagged in a few that my mom posted!

So I have been horrible with my new goal of writing something new about once a week... I haven't even posted once a month!

Anyways, Sean and I are very excited for Christmas which is just around the corner! It's been so fun figuring out what traditions we should have as a family! We have decided that we should make sugar cookies (which we will be doing with this super cute family that we have become friends with over the past month or so), and go caroling together. We have our Christmas cards almost finished, we're just waiting to hear back on some news before we officially print out the Christmas letter.

We have our home all decorated minus the tree because Skyler thinks that the tree is her personal jungle gym! And since we don't want all of our ornaments to get broken we just have lights. And I'm really mad at Target because they don't sell nativity sets in the store anymore, AND when I asked a worker about them she didn't even know what a nativity was!! I mean, what is this world coming too!!

We are excited for the Christmas concert that the KUB is putting on tomorrow night at 6:00. And this Sunday will be our last at the University Branch and we will be moving to the family ward (Kalamazoo First Ward).

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season, and that you are staying safe! Our next few posts will be about Thanksgiving dinner, and hopefully we'll know soon about the exciting news and we'll post about that too!!

New Goal!

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to let you all know about my new goal. I am always reading everyone else's blogs, and NEVER updating mine, and then when I do it's from things that are months ago and are super long. So here it is...

My new goal: to post more often (like once a week?? that might be too ambitious though) and have the posts be shorter!

Honeymoon

Our honeymoon was so much fun!! Sean and I really enjoyed being able to relax and spend some quality time alone together! We had not been able to spend too much quality time together because of my graduating and finishing up my last quarter at K.

Our favorite part I think was staying at Embassy Suites. We were there for 3 days before we left on our cruise. Our first day, I had a hard time walking from being in high heels all day the day before, so we just stayed in our room for most of the morning. Then we decided to check out the pool area. We then ate a late lunch at BJ's Pizza, and headed to the movie theater to see Toy Story 3. I had told Sean that we could see it during our honeymoon since Toy Story is one of his favorite movie series. Afterward, we wanted more Disney so we headed to Downtown Disney to listen to the different musicians play, and watch the fireworks.

Sunday was Father's day. Again, Sean and I slept in. We went to my parents' home to open up presents and have a Happy Father's Day lunch with the family. When we went back to our hotel, we realized that there was a NCIS marathon so we ordered pizza and stayed in cuddling and enjoying one of my favorite shows (and now it's one of Sean's favorites, too!)

Monday we left Embassy Suites after having a very yummy breakfast. We headed to my parents' place so that they could take us to the port for us to get on the cruise. I must admit that I was so nervous going on the cruise... I was terrified that a rogue wave would hit us and we would be killed. The cruise ended up being amazing. We loved the freedom to do whatever we wanted pretty much whenever we wanted.

Tuesday we ported at Catalina Island, which is a part of LA county. Everything there was so cute a miniature! They even had a miniature FedEx truck! We rented a golf cart and drove around the island on their scenic route that they have. Sean LOVES the Cubs, so of course we had to stop at the memorial there for him. We then ate at Cooney Island Hot Dogs just to compare to that of downtown Kalamazoo. I liked the hot dogs at Catalina Island better because they are bigger! After that we went on a semi-sub ride and we were able to see the kelp beds and all of these tropical fish. Sean especially loved that, and I was surprised at the knowledge that I have retained from my mom always telling me the things she learned in her marine biology class.

Wednesday we ported in Ensenada, Mexico. Sean and I both loved being in Mexico. Sean was able to use his Spanish - huge plus for him - and we went horse back riding! It was Sean's first time ever, and we were able to ride at the top of the bluffs and over look the ocean. It was so romantic! On our way up there, our bus drove on this high way that turns into I-5. And my house is off an exit from the 5. Then we went back to the ship to clean off from the dusty ride, and when shopping!! We got a few really cute souvenirs.

Thursday was a day at sea, in which it was raining the entire day! So we slept in, ordered breakfast to come to our room, and watched Alice in Wonderland. We then walked around the ship seeing any of the last minute things that we had missed already. We watched a wonderful Broadway type show, and turned in for the night!

On Friday, we flew to Chicago, and spent the night there. Saturday we ventured into the city some and drove back to Kalamazoo where we began our everyday life together.

Wedding Day!

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect!

Sean had been staying at my parents' home, and so we did see each other the morning before the wedding. We both woke up around 6:30 and stayed on opposite sides of the house, then my dad drove Sean to his parents' hotel so we could finish getting ready separately. But before he left I made him promise to be at the temple by 9:15, and NO LATER.

Around 7:10 Coco showed up and did my hair, which was exactly how I wanted it! While she was doing my hair, the kitchen sink broke and my family was running around trying to figure out what the problem was exactly and what was the best way for it to be fixed. I continued to do my hair and make sure I had all my things ready. Then when mom was ready, it was 9:20 when we left the house... oops! Sean and I were supposed to be at the Newport Beach Temple by 9:30 with our escorts. Mom and I didn't get there till 9:45.

Once we were to the temple and inside, everything happened very fast, and before we knew it the time was 11:00 am. The sealer came and got Sean and I from the celestial room, and was we walked in there were 30 people there who loved us, and were all smiling. During the actual sealing, Sean and I were so happy that we both were almost laughing -- ok, it was mostly me laughing and Sean seemed to be holding back tears, obviously we know who the more emotional one in the relationship is! One special side note, Bishop Reedman was working at the temple that day, and I was able to see him before and after the sealing. It was so special because he and I have had so many wonderful memories of girls' camp and other stake activities, and we would talk about my wedding day, and he was actually there!! It was amazing.

Then Sean needed to change back into his suit, and I needed to do some touch ups before going to meet our eager crowd! Then the pictures started... Sean and I took pictures at the temple, then at Balboa beach, and then at Chapman University. All of these pictures, of course, were taken before the reception started. But of the 29 that I have seen so far, they are the best pictures ever, and exactly what I wanted. Pictures will be posted once all of them are available to us.

The reception was so much fun!! It was great to introduce Sean to the loved ones in my life that he had not had the opportunity to meet yet, and to see the in laws interacting with everyone! Then we had Polynesian dancers come before dinner started, and I think everyone enjoyed them very much. Then it was time to eat the best dinner ever!

After dinner, everything went by so fast! The first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, cutting the cake, bouquet toss, guarder toss! Then more dancing!!! I was dancing the night away, having a blast with everyone who was there! By the time I paused to get some water, the room was mostly empty with my family and the servers there, and everyone else had left! And it was 9:30 pm!!

Sean and I decided that it was time to go start our honeymoon. We left the reception hall and headed for Embassy Suites, where we stayed for 3 days.

You all can check out our Wedding slideshow to our song that Colleen Bell put together for us!

Catching up!!

It has been a while since I have had time to post anything about what has been going on in our lives!

Since my busy weekend post:

• I have had two bridal showers in which I received the love and support from many beautiful women whom I have always looked up to.
• Strengthened my friendships with two wonderful young women who helped me get through the stresses of life at K College.
• Got called as 1st counselor in the Relief Society presidency at the Kalamazoo University Branch
• Passed Latin!!
• Graduated from Kalamazoo College
• and lastly, got married!!

More details on things in later posts!

Crazy busy weekend!

Things have been hectic for us ever since Sean has been in the branch presidency. We have decided that we need to be more social and actually spend time with people in the branch. Sean needs to be aware of the needs of our fellow brothers and sisters and how can he do that if we don't see them ever?? This has included dinner at Brian Gilbert's house (which was phenominal!), Friday Night Activities, and recently going to Applebee's with a few of my dear friends.

It has been really nice actually going out with other people. Usually, Sean and I just stick to ourselves whether we go out to Paw Paw for the night or just stay at my place and watch a movie or go out just the two of us. I didn't realize until the past few weeks that I really did miss going out with all my friends with Sean by my side. It seems like ever since this fall that either I've hung out with my friends or I've hung out with Sean... no cross over. I have been happier since we've made a conscious effort to go out at least once a week with others.

Also I have been spending more time with my "Latin girls" Liz and Amelia. We have been getting together about once a week and just chatting and either studying or doing something to de-stress from the week's schoolwork and such. They have been way awesome and it's nice to have a close support system at K, and it also helps that Latin class meets four times a week.

Sean and I are just starting to calm down from a crazy busy weekend, although to me it seems like everyday is just as crazy. Sunday I had my senior vocal recital, and my dad flew out Thursday (March 4) for that and left this morning. We did so many different things: community reflection, meeting Grandma and Grandpa Skinner, art hop, many yummy resturant made meals, rehearsal, Doppa meeting the Szekelys, getting ready for my concert, Sunday meetings, church, break-the-fast, my concert, dinner at the Szekely's and much much more!!!

I want to go more in depth with my recital. I opened my first section with I couldn't be Happier from Wicked.

The group of songs that was most challenging for me were the two spirituals that I sang. This is because my voice just doesn't have that type of sound. Below is an attempt of my singing Nobody knows de Trouble I've Seen and Wade in de Water.

I closed my concert with I could have Danced all Night from My Fair Lady.

All in all, it was a fun weekend, and I am glad that it went well and everything went smoothly!

Sean and I are now Uncle and Aunt!

Lillian brought home a bunny Monday afternoon. It is 8 weeks old, and (s)he is the cutest thing ever!

We find out what gender (s)he is in about 3 more weeks. Right now it's name is Optimus "Crawl the Warrior King" Prime. And here are some pictures!!

Sean and I were already Aunt and Uncle. Sean's sister Kalani has a super cute son who is 16 months named Kingston.

So we have a very cute family that we will have to spoil lots!! I just can't wait till Sean and I have really kids of our own one day. We still can't decide when exactly we want to start having children, we just know that we want them about two years apart.

Valentine's Day weekend/New calling

The first Sunday in February we all learned at the Kalamazoo University Branch that President Johnson and the rest of the branch presidency was going to be released. It was a horrible day for me. The Friday before Sister Huntington had called me to say that she was getting transfered, and I was sick, and I hadn't been doing so well in one of my classes so the saying good bye on Sunday was not a good thing for me.

All during the week following I would randomly start crying thinking about my Michigan parents not being there every week at church. Planning my last dance with them was a bittersweet experience. But also during the week, Jake called me wanting to know Sean's new phone number (he's had a new number since October and still hasn't been giving it out to people or changed it on his church records), apparently Brother Done or something like that wanted to get a hold of Sean because President Anderson wanted to meet with him.

Friday February 12th came and it was a crazy day.

There were many phone calls to many different people about dance things. Then during Sean's and my relaxation time before needing to decorate and help get dinner ready, President Anderson called Sean wanting to meet with him before church on Sunday. Knowing that we were going to be getting a new branch presidency on Sunday during sacrament meeting, I was hoping that Miguel had decided to have Sean be his secretary in the Elder's quorum presidency, which after talking to Miguel before the dance started I knew that President Anderson wasn't going to call Sean to be the EQ secretary, which only left second counselor... So President Anderson said he would arrive sometime during the dance. As we got ready for our wonderful evening I tried not to think about the implications of Sean being second counselor because we didn't even know yet why President Anderson wanted to talk with Sean.

About an hour into the dance P. Anderson arrived. What seemed like an eternity later, Sean came to find me to say that he was going to be the second counselor. I had to promise not to say anything to anyone, which was hard.

I had so many contradictory feelings:

1. With Sean being 2nd counselor, I would have to be totally ok with the fact that the Johnsons were leaving and going back to a family ward in order for me to fully sustain Sean. I needed to have more faith in our stake presidency and in how the Lord runs his kingdom here on earth.
2. I always thought of the women who were married/going to marry someone in the branch or ward presidency were some of the strongest women I have ever known, and I did not feel like I could be that support to Sean or to others in the branch
3. Sean and I were planning to go to a family ward after we got married because I miss seeing families on Sundays and having little children running around. But Sean and I have been praying if that was the right move for us and I guess this is a HUGE answer of we should stay in the branch.

To say the least, I was not enjoying the dance as much as I should have been because I was thinking too much... And I was grateful that I had cleared my schedule about a month ago to spend all Saturday at the temple with Sean to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Saturday was temple day.

The temple was AMAZING! I have been going through major temple withdrawals since being back in MI. We were going to the temple about once a week when we were in California. The spirit was so comforting and it was exactly what I needed.

It was our first trip to the temple that was just the two of us. I told Sean during our drive down there that I wanted to stay in the Celestial room as long as I needed to. And we discussed our feeling of what Sunday would be like. I did not leave the Celestial room until I felt like I could be OK with the fact that PJ and Sister J were going. We were in there for about an hour just talking about our future plans and things that would not be changing, etc.

Sunday the day of change.

During sacrament meeting, it was still hard to sit there and know that everything had just changed. Well not everything, I think my writing sounds more dramatic than what actually happened, but I was extremely emotional the entire day. I was so proud of my Seanie. I was sad. I was excited for the changes in the branch that are to come. I was overwhelmed with my new role as supportive almost-wife in the gospel, which is different form a supportive almost-wife while Sean was in the police academy. I am looking forward to working to become the type of woman I feel I should be in order to fill my new role.

I have had many great examples of women who I want to be more like, in regards to supporting my husband and still being strong in the gospel. My mother, Sister Johnson, Rudi, Monique, Donna Vizzard, Becca, Sister Brooks, and many many others. I am grateful for this opportunity that the Lord has given Sean and I to improve ourselves. I know that Sean and I already have been reading our scriptures more together as a couple, and we are appreciating each other in a different way than we ever have before. I know that the Lord will bless us in the next however long Sean will be second counselor. And I am grateful for the wonderful people that He has put in my life to help lead and guide me.

I also now feel very comfortable with the idea of a new branch presidency, and as I get to know President Doot and Brother Cammack and their wives better there is no doubt in my mind that this presidency has been called of God to lead us into the next phase of Branch history.

The Proposal

Over Labor Day weekend, Sean decided that it was going to be our weekend. I had suspected that he was going to propose sometime around then anyways. We had been thinking about marriage a lot, and we would set aside time to not be together so we could think about if getting married really was what we wanted to do.

During the summer, I had been in California doing research and spending time with my family. This meant that I had tons of time to reflect on the goals what I have set for myself, the direction I wanted my life to take, church talks that I had read, and what friends have told me about their marriage experience. I came back to Michigan with no doubt in my mind that I wanted to marry Sean.

Anyways, back to the story of the actual proposal (if you want to know more of the thoughts, feelings, soul-searching, etc that went on call me). Due to issues with moving in to my apartment, I was staying at Sean's house. He was going to the police academy and I was working a lot on my senior project... let me rephrase that, I was ONLY working on my senior project.

Sean's mother, Jo, asked me earlier in the week what Sean and I were planning to do over the weekend. I didn't really know except for going to South Haven -- Michigan claims that South Haven is their "Little piece of California." Jo, knowing that Sean had already purchased the ring over a week before, knew that that was where he was planning to propose to me. She had also been telling us since our first month of being together, "Why don't you two just get engaged already?" It's great to know that your future mother-in-law totally loves you and can't wait for you to be a part of the family. Then it was Friday of Labor Day Weekend, and Jo asked me if we were going to South Haven that night, and I said no because Sean was tired, and then she said, "Why doesn't he propose already? He's had the ring. I could have never waited this long if I were to propose to someone!" So then I knew that going to South Haven meant that I was going to be engaged.

Later that day Sean comes over after the academy and knowing that if I persuaded him enough that we would actually go out to the lake that night... All my cuteness and charm could not get that boy down to the beach that night, only later to find out that he still hadn't asked my parents' permission, which is really important. So later that night he calls my parents and they said yes.

Then Saturday morning my mom calls. She starts asking me all of these questions like "Do you want to marry Sean?" and "How do you think your life would be like if you married him?" and "Have you really thought about what you want?" So I knew that my parents were a little hesitant with letting their Christy-girl go. But after I reassured her of all the plans and everything that I had spent 3 months thinking about, she was happy for me, and said, "Can't wait to hear from you tonight!"

After the past 24 hours, I knew that something was going to happen that night. Sean took me to Clementine's which is a nice restaurant in South Haven, and then we walked down to watch the sunset. Once we found a part of the beach that we wanted to settle down on, Sean said something to the effect of "Let me take a picture of you with that beautiful sunset behind you." And me, loving the beach, was just looking over the landscape until Sean said that he got his camera out and was ready. When I turned around for the picture that he was supposed to take, he was on one knee with the most beautiful ring and asked me to marry him. I was rather embarrassed because he was almost the same height as me AND everyone around us was staring. I said yes, and it was amazing. We had both been super awkward on that date because I was trying to act like I didn't know what was going to happen that night and Sean was so nervous.

The drive home was amazing. We talked about our future children. plans. What lies in store for us. Then that night we both could not sleep because we were so excited, and we ended up watching at least 3 movies just holding each other tight the rest of the night. And we totally forgot to fast for testimony meeting the next day. But I think God understands.

The Beginning

Hello Everyone!

We decided that we should start a blog out together as a couple to keep people informed of what's going on in our lives. But first I think we should start at the beginning...

How we first met:

When I was on study abroad, Lillian (my best friend since starting college), suggested that Sean and I be friends on facebook. I sent the request and then realized that his last name looked very Hungarian -- for those of you who don't know Szekely means Transylvanian in Hungarian. Anyways, I sent him a message asking what origin is he is last name. Then we started messaging back and forth until I got to Michigan. On February 8, 2009, we met in person for the first time... it was a little awkward, but it was so nice to see each other face to face.

How we started dating:

Sean and I had been interested in each other since the time we first started messaging each other, but circumstances kept us apart. I had to go back to California for a month, and then I was so busy with school, and Sean was busy dating Lillian's roommate that we never really got to talk. Well, that all changed during a temple trip in April.

We were at the Chicago temple waiting to do baptisms. Sean sat right next to me, and we started reading the scriptures together (which lead to great conversation after the session was over). We were eying each other the whole time. I really admired how much he enjoyed being in the temple. He was a witness, and just seeing him smile the whole time... I was hooked! Sean says that he couldn't keep his eyes off me when I was in the waiting room sitting on a couch by myself.

Later that night we went to a pizza joint as a branch. I managed to get lost and arrive late, so all the seats around Sean were taken. By the end of the evening we were able to talk some and we decided that we should get together. He was supposed to call me and never did, but Lillian, being the awesome friend that she is, suggested I text him. We decided to go out later that week.

We went to Panera bread for what Sean calls our first date, I don't consider it that because HE specifically said he did not want our outing to be a date. We ended up talking for a LONG time. Then we went out later that week to a movie and the rest is history!! And we have now been dating for 10 months.