Busy

My life is just busy. But I love it. And I love my husband. We are finally upgrading to a bigger place and things are just really good right now.

I also want to say, that I love that I have amazing friends and family.

Hope everyone is having a happy spring!

<3

Time

Dear Time,

I am 19 years old. I am married. I have been married for like ten months! (HoLy GoOdNeSs!!!!).

It is now 2010. I have been alive for almost 2 decades!---that makes me feel kind of old.

I am almost starting my Sophomore year of college. I still remember my Sophomore year of high school like it was yesterday-kind of. Sophomore year of college seems to have less drama but costs more....I haven't figured out which one I would rather live without.

And even though I have dead lines and I am always late because of TIME, I also have a lot of thanks that goes to TIME. (oh and because of no time, no one but James and my parents know what has been going on in my life....)

School is so crazy. Thank goodness for no homework Sundays that give me a break from the constant school demands. James and I both are either going to school or studying for school...and when we are not doing either of that we spend our time making a little money to help pay for school.

Since I have been so stretched for time I will give a quick summary of what has been going on in our lives lately:

-Let's start with December

*James and I finished our semester strong and very glad that it was over. We quickly

packed up the car and our suit cases and got in the car with James' sister Becky and drove to

Colorado. It was an ok drive- I strongly dislike driving- but I made it ok.

*James and I spent Christmas with his family and had a TON of fun. Sadly it wasn't a white Christmas

which we were all hoping for, but it was definitely cold and it was so good to be with family.

*For Christmas presents, we gave Kaeti and Gloria "new rooms". It was hard work but I think they really

like them. (I hope they do anyway...)

*James and I also got to spend some really good time with his grandparents. Although situations weren't

exactly ideal, we all came out stronger in the end.

*And probably one of the most important things about the trip was David's baptism. Way to go David! James got to baptize him and his dad did the confirmation. What a special moment for all three of them :)

*Our time in Colorado was short but sweet. But we had to come home quickly to get to two

really good friends' weddings. Both brides were beautiful and both grooms looked very happy. Congrats to

them both and thanks for letting us spend time with you on your special days.

-Happy New Year! (January)

*Shortly after we returned to Tucson from our holiday travels, James' family came down to visit us!

It's so fun to be with family and friends for holiday seasons and thankfully we got to be with both families

when we brought in the New Year

*Also during their stay here, we were able to throw a surprise party for James' dad where a lot

of Willcox friends came down. We all had a wonderful time and we actually managed to make it a real

surprise!

*Sadly all vacations have to come to an end...I had to go back to work, James had to go back

to school and our house needed to be cleaned really bad.

*School started up again and after that, time just seemed to fly....next thing we new, it was February!

-February

*Not too much happened in February...we spent countless hours working and going to school

and thankfully we got to play with friends on the weekends :)

*I am the Personal Progress leader in Young Womens and for the I was able to go to the temple

with the youth and be the leader for the first time. It was such a special experience. I can't remember how

many good temple trips I had while I was in Young Womens and I am so grateful to be able to be apart

of these girls lives and the experiences that they have at the temple.

*Valentines Day brought some fun events. Aro Hale (my mom's nephew) was baptized

and the whole family on my mom'sside had a family party. Also, James and I had a fun dinner

with some of our good friends. We also were able to see Becky, James' sister, shortly after

she was swept off her feet and agreed to marry her prince charming, Tyler. Yay!

Two weddings in row for James' family! James and I were able to spend a quiet night together-

he got me some nice bath salts and a chick flick that he agreed to watch with me (which is a HUGE deal!)

Over all, Valentine's Day was very, very good!

*The end of February brought my Dad's parents. I so LOVE when Nana and Papa come. They

were able to be here for the Candler's priesthood ordination. Candler, finally turned 12 and is officially a

Deacon. It was good to have all of the family together and to see Candler so happy.

*Along with Nana and Papa's visit, was a wonderful Family Home Evening lesson from Papa.

The told us all great stories form when he was a boy and things about his family that none of ever knew.

Thank you so much Papa for sharing your stories and also your testimony with us. And thank you both

Nana and Papa for coming and sharing your time with the family.

*Oh ya, and Becky has been so wonderful and has let me help her with some wedding plans.

So during Rodeo Break, Becky and I went to Mesa to look for a wedding dress. :) Found one! But I'll let her

do the showing of her special dress.

-Now...March

*One of my classes is ending (next week actually) and so my life is going into double time for a

week. Hopefully I will make it through...

*The week after next is Spring Break and James and I are going to IDAHO! ...ok sounds weird

but I am excited because we get to see Chase. My cousin who has been on a mission and he is finally coming

Home :) Oh and, we get to ride on and AIRPLANE! I may hate driving, but I love flying!

So I think that's about as good of an update as any...Time sucks sometimes but for the most part, I am thankful

for time. For the time I get to spend with James, my family and such great friends. For the time I have to learn

about good things and about the wonderful gospel.

Sorry for the forever long update but I hope you enjoy!

~Ness

Got a little catchin up to do....

October seemed to fly by without my permission. So many days just began and ended without even a blink..ok, I am exaggerating a little bit but not much...

We started out the month lovin on my new baby sister Miss Camri Abigail Whitaker. She is a doll and such a perfect little angel. We are so blessed to finally have her in our family. I still can't even believe she's here sometimes, but it feels good to have all of my direct siblings here with me. :) If you ask James, I was a little obsessive about her the first couple weeks, and then it was just obsessive the next couple weeks and now I have a calmed down to almost normal (I think...). Many people are askin if I am getting baby hungry and I am just puttin out there now: I want to be a mother really bad but I know that now is not the time for that. Right now I am livin and lovin every moment I get to spend with my sweet husband.


Speaking of that dear man. The weekend after we got home from Utah, he decides to take my dad up on the offer to go to San Diego for a BYU game. He would leave Thursday night after class and drive to Yuma. Friday they would get up early to drive the rest of the way to San Diego and go to Lego Land. Friday night would be the time to play at the beach. Saturday, get up, get all BYU Blued out and go to the game. After the game, drive all the way home. Quick trip and ALL BOYS. That's right, I stayed home. **My frist night alone since being married ** sniff, sniff...
But I was really glad that James got to go. It was all the boys: Dad, Braden , Candler, Mason, Bennett, and James. Alot of the cousins went too and Grandpa. It was a good break for all of them and they all had a blast.

I did get to spend some time with Becky, my mom, Kait, and Camri. Oh and I dyed my hair all brown. Well medium copper to be exact- but it looked really brown and dark. I was kind of scared what James would say...
It's lightened up, so he was ok with it :) It's been a fun change.

The next week was crazy with mid terms and work and cleaning the office every night and mutual to go to...the list can seriously go on lol.

But we made it through and ended it with a way good trip to the temple and then out to eat with my aunt Cari and our friend Brett. We got home pretty late but we had an awesome time at the temple and being with good friends.
Saturday was another road trip and party.

First was my mom's baby shower. She got tons of way cute clothes and things for Camri. It was good to see family and friends and kind of relax from a long week. Then later we got to go our friends wedding reception in Douglas. We had a great time and it was so good to see Johnny and Kisa so happy. :)


The last week of October was a rush of a ton of things going on. The semester is fast ending so teachers are piling everything on that they can. James and I are doing all we can to stay caught up and alert in class...Dang, real life is hard! But again we ended the week way fun. Since it was Halloween there were a lot of festive things going on.
Friday night we went to the institute dance with our friends Loni and JB. They had this way cool "Vortex of Doom" thing there that was extremely trippy to go through. We didn't stay at the dance for too long though. After, we went to Loni and JB's house and watched a movie. Although I think it only ended up being James and JB who watched, Loni and I kinda fell asleep after a little while...

Saturday was a very special day. Mason, my brother was baptized. James and I both have brothers who turned 8 this year and both were in October. But David, James' little brother isn't going to be baptized til Christmas time when James and I can be there.

Anyway- Mason's special day was on Halloween. What a cool day to get baptized! And he'll never forget the date, well I hope not at least lol.
Family and friends came and Mason was even a great missionary and invited two of his awesome friends from school to be there. Way to go Mas!
It was so fun to remember my baptism and how great that experience was and to watch Mason have that wonderful day of his own. How blessed we are to be apart of the true church and have these amazing experiences with the ones we love.
After the baptism was a luncheon with some very yummy food and some fantastic pumpkin bread that I made :) Jk, well kind of hehe.


For Halloween night James and I went to Loni and JB's house again to have dinner with a few other couple friends. We had dinner in a pumpkin which was so so good and ghost potatoes and pumpkin squash. It was way good and we had a lot of fun. After dinner we played a funny egg game and then Catch Phrase. It was a pretty intense game! After a while it's hard to come up with creative ways to describe things lol.
(Sadly I don't have any pictures from that night. But it was really fun :) )

Finally, it's November. I can't believe how fast this year has gone and how many things have happened. We are excited for the holidays and the family that we are going to get to see and the friends we will see on their special days :)

That's all for now :) ~Enjoy

Did I really just say that?

So there have been a few times that I have been really out of it and said something that has given James a pretty good laugh. James wanted to make them into a comic strip and call it "Sleeping with Jenessa". I am not sure if that will ever happen but I thought I would share some of them with you...

Somewhere around 1:00 AM

Ness: (suddenly sits straight up in bed) James! I know why your back hurts!

James: (noises that indicate he is waking up) What?

Ness: I know why your back hurts. We need to flip the mattress!

James: What?

Ness: (lying back down slowly) We um need to um flip the mattress....

James: Ness? Ness?

Ness: (breathing/ snoring soundly)

James didn't really like that one, it was funny but he said it took him forever to fall back to sleep.

8:00 PM--Doing homework

(Both James and Ness working on homework on the computer)

Ness: (Error screen pops up on computer that says "Connection Interrupted) James, you connected my interruption!

James: Haha, what? (smiling like he has a secret)

Ness: Oh wait, did I just say that backwards?

James: Ya....but I will connect your interruption anytime honey.

Same day but earlier

Ness: (talking to friends) You should text her and see if she has a brothered name David!

Ness: Oh my, did I really just say that? I meant, a brother named David....

I think I have dyslexia of the mouth.....

Ok last one for now....

3:00 AM

Ness: (awakened suddenly) James! Do you smell that?

James: (again noises that indicate he has been woken up) Smell what?

Ness: There is something cooking in the oven.

James: (Thinking, who would be cooking at this hour?!) Nothing is cooking Ness.

Ness: No James, really there is something in the oven. It smells familiar....

James: (noises that he heard me but he's not really wanting to stay awake)

Ness: It smells like chicken! Like chicken nuggets!

James: Are you serious?..... Ness?....

Ness: (Snoring/breathing steadily)

James: seriously?...

I hope this doesn't happen too often! ......Enjoy <3

Hey James, wanna go to Utah?

Thursday October 1, 2009. Apt 910, 10:30 pm

I am looking at my house with suitcases packed and cooler out wondering oh my goodness what have I gotten myself into.
The plan was this: Wake up in the morning, James would take off work to get the car ready and I would go to class to take a quiz. James would get the car serviced while I got some of my lecture notes from class. James would come pick me up, we would go pick up my brother and then head off to Utah. We would then drive pretty much all night to get to Utah.
I was excited yet somewhat nervous about leaving on such short notice when we had so much homework to do and other things to get done. But for some reason, none of that seemed to matter.....so we finished packing, got into bed later than I wanted to and tried to get some sleep even though both of us were really excited to be going to Utah.

Why would we do this crazy thing on such a spur of the moment? Well pretty much, it's because we can. And because I think we were meant to go....
My uncle called by some miracle and said that we could stay in his home, which meant that we didn't have to pay for a hotel. Such a blessing! My dad let us borrow his car we didn't have to worry about whether my car would make it or not. Another huge blessing! My brother Braden and James were able to go to the preisthood session in the conference center even thought neither of them had tickets when we went up there. That was an amazing thing for both of them and I am so glad they were able to go. I think the biggest blessing of it all was that we were able to see some of James' family.
James' sister Becky was traveling up to Utah with some friends and James' mom with 2 sisters and David were driving over from Colorado. Sadly we didn't get to see the entire family but being with the ones who were there was so wonderful.

Driving wasn't too terrible but I still hate sitting in cars for such long hours. Braden kept us company until he fell asleep...and for the rest of the drive we just talked. Even James and I had some great talks it was still such an amazing feeling to finally get to my uncles house and go to sleep.

Saturday we watched conference at the house and then got ready for the afternoon session (got all dressed up in church clothes) and went to Temple Square. We sat on the lawn by the visitor's center and listened to the 2nd session of conference. It was fun to just be surrounded by family and hear the wonderful words of the apostles and prophet.

After the session was over, we went into the visitor's center to look around a little, then over to the church history museum-- it's amazing what they have been able to preserve for so many years! I have always found it so fun to hear the church's history and all of the amazing people who were apart of it.

After the museums Braden and James went to the priesthood session and all of us girls and David went back home to change and make dinner.

I had so much sitting and talking with James' mom and sisters. We had an awesome time and I think that this trip will be something we will remember for a long time.

Another part of the trip was letting Braden see some of his friends from EFY. I took him over to one of the girl's house Saturday night while James and I went to the store to buy food for breakfast the next morning. He had a really good time :) If you want details....I'll tell you later ;)

Sunday morning, my friend Cortney, her roommates and her boy :) came over for breakfast before the first session. To keep up with tradition, I made biscuits and chocolate gravy. I also made regular sausage gravy and eggs and muffins for anyone who didn't want to eat the yummy chocolate. For my first year, I would say they turned out pretty good but mental note for next year: make the biscuits from scratch, not the ones that come in a tube that you keep in the fridge....

Braden's friend also came over that morning, to watch the first session with us. It was kind of sad that our trip was coming to an end really quickly but it was so awesome to be with James' family and feel of the spirit.

After a rushed effort to get everything packed and the house back in order we were all loaded up into the car and ready to go...Sadly....but we needed to get home, it was already getting to point where we would be arriving home pretty late. After hugs and kisses and last minute bathroom stops we were on our way. We had to drop Braden's friend off first, and bless her mom's heart, she made us a plate of goodies for the road. Then we stopped at my friend Marah's apartment to say a quick hello and have her finally meet James. We got back in the car and the second session was just starting so at least I had something fun to listen to on the way home :)


Aside from wind and a meeting with a handicap sign we had a pretty uneventful ride home. Wind slowed us down quite a bit sadly but we still made it in less than about 12 hours. The meeting with the handicap sign was not exactly the best thing but to make a long story short, a car rolled through a parking lot knocking over a handicap sign and wedged it under my car. Damage was minimal and the man who did it stuck around so we were able to get insurance things worked out.


Now finally home and back in the swing of things we are grateful for the opportunity we had to go and see conference and be with people we love. We had a great time and it helped to get us back on track in remembering what things are the most important in life.