90 degrees - that has been the minimum high temperature every day for the past month at least. A million degrees - that's the temperature my body gets when I sleep. I don't like being hot, and I'm still not sure why, but we chose to move into an apartment without an air conditioning. But after too many months of trying to endure the heat, Jeff and I caved in and decided to buy a window AC unit! Woohoo! Within 15 minutes, our bedroom was already bearable to hang out in. It's seriously the best. 

Here's something interesting... Before us, my cousin and her husband lived in the apartment. When they moved in, there was no dishwasher. So they found a portable dishwasher at an indoor garage sale (I think?) that you hook up to the sink to run. So from the past two tenants, the apartment has gained a dishwasher and an AC unit. But let me tell you, these two things have made all the difference!

This week, I was reminded how thankful I am to have Jeff as my husband. I swear that this week was the craziest week of my summer. It feels like I'm in the middle of midterms in a semester, but I'm not even taking classes this summer, I'm just working up 20-30 hours a week. But this week was much different than my typical relaxing summer week.

Monday morning started a 6-day conference at work. I had to be there at 7am and didn't get home until after 4pm.  I worked 9 hours, then came home and started dinner. I was making this yummy butternut squash mac & cheese and curly fries. It was going great. I was going to work on it for half an hour before picking Jeff up from work at 5pm. 4:50 came, I was peeling the butternut squash, and slice, I peeled the top of my finger, including half my fingernail, right off. Within 3 seconds, it was bleeding more than I have bled since 1st grade when I cut my ankle and rushed to the emergency room. Jeff wasn't home, so I tried not to get blood everywhere and wrapped it with paper towels. 30 seconds later, I had bled through the paper towels and had to grab 4 more to wrap it so I could go pick up Jeff from work. Luckily I had Jeff's car so I didn't have to drive stick-shift with only one hand, so I was able to get to Jeff's work. We returned home and Jeff had to finish dinner. I tried to help but I couldn't really do anything more than stir things with my still-useable hand. As soon as dinner made it into the oven, Jeff ran to the grocery store to by bandaids and gauze - we didn't have a single bandaid in our apartment! We were able to wrap it up. I have realized that it is really hard to do things without a thumb. Because it hurts so bad, I can't use it to do anything, and it has been really inconvenient. For the rest of the week, dinner has been hard to prepare and moving stuff around at work has been difficult due to the lack of a functioning thumb.

Every day I have worked 8-9 hours at work and get home at 4 to try and make dinner for Jeff. Meanwhile, we have had errands to run, cleaning to do, thank you cards to write, phone calls to make, laundry to fold, decisions to be made, and dishes to do. To top it off, we got our gym pass this week so we have been cutting out an hour of our evening to be able to work out.

This week would have been really hard without Jeff. He has been so helpful with dinner, dishes, laundry, and especially helpful with wrapping my finger up for me. I didn't think this week would be so stressful, but when it became so stressful I had a wonderful husband by my side to help me get through it.

I'm including a wedding photo because I'm especially grateful for this man who is by my side and loves my weirdness and helps my through my stressful weeks.

love,

SK

In the LDS church we have something called Relief Society, that is basically what we call the group of adult women. During the 3rd hour of our weekly church meeting on Sunday, the Relief Society meets to discuss gospel principles, our life, and my personal favorite, be a support system for the other women there with us. In my opinion, the Relief Society is just that, a society that provides relief for one another, and I love it and I love the women in it.

Anyways, in Relief Society this week the incredible woman, Kenzi, who was teaching the lesson stood up and after a few sentences, said "It's Okay to be You", and I knew right away that this lesson was going to hit close to home.

Women struggle, a lot. We compare ourselves to what we see on the internet, to the other women around us, our friends, and we hold ourselves to a really high standard that sometimes makes us feel like we aren't good enough. And like Kenzi said, it is something that we women need to hear.

Women, social media can destroy someone. It can destroy you if you let it. Those other moms or wives don't post a picture of themselves with their hair in a bun, wearing sweatpants, no makeup, with baby spit-up spilled all the way down their 10-year-old t-shirt. Instead, they will climb into bed and post a picture on Instagram of themselves during those 30 seconds 2 weeks ago that they looked great and had their life together. But we see those pictures and compare our messy lives to what appears to be their perfect life. However, I'm willing to put money on the fact that you could go knock on their door and their baby would be screaming, the dishes wouldn't be done, and they probably haven't showered for the day. Their lives aren't perfect, and if we sit and believe that it is, we will never be okay with ourselves.

Sometimes, we are in those shoes. I have so been there. A day goes terribly wrong, so I post a picture from my wedding on Instagram, or write a fun blog post to make people thing that I've got it all together. But you can believe that I ate 4 bowls of ice cream that day and watched one too many episodes on Netflix (I've included a picture below to prove that this is real, and me and Madison and I do this all the time). My day wasn't perfect, and neither was yours, and that's okay.

We don't need to have our crap together every single day. We don't even need to have it all together one day. But try something - in the morning when you wake up, give yourself one thing that you want to do. It could be showering, it could be making the bed, it could be cleaning the dishes, whatever you want. And when you have completed that one thing, be happy. You can go to bed that night knowing that you completed your one task, and you can be so proud of yourself, and okay to be you. 

I smile when I see other women in the grocery store that are in sweats, because it reminds me that I'm not the only one struggling to get things done every day. I mean lets be honest, if I had time to go to the grocery store, I didn't have time to get dressed that morning, haha! You can't have it all!

I've probably said enough for one post, but women I plead with you, stop thinking that you aren't good enough. You are great, you are irreplaceable, and you are you. You is absolutely outstanding, no matter how much makeup you put on or if top ramen is for dinner tonight. You are loved, just the same. 

It's okay to be you.

love,

SK

This weekend, my Jensen side of the family had a reunion/birthday party for my grandpa up here in Utah. It was the first time in a while that we had (almost) everyone together. The only people missing were some of my siblings and my mom, but other than that every member of my extended family on my dad's side was there.

This year, grandpa turned 20! We were so proud of him for finally getting out of his teens. Okay actually he is 80, but has only had 20 birthdays since he has a leap year birthday. So we always make fun of him for being so young. 

The weekend was filled with games, food, laughing, and lots of ear wiggling. For as long as I can remember, my grandpa wiggled his ears at us. So as a surprise to my grandpa, I recorded a few seconds of every person in the extended family (even those who were not present at the reunion) wiggling or at least trying to wiggle their ears. Even though if you are reading this you probably don't know the people in it, it is still hilarious to watch, so go for it.

The reunion took place up in Provo Canyon at my family's cabin. While I didn't really get anything done that was on my to-do list, I have to admit that it was really relaxing being up there in the middle of trees and mountains able to sit down and relax. The long weekend gave me time to do things with Jeff. This was so valuable to me because this past month Jeff has been super busy and I haven't seen him as much as I would like to.

I'm so glad that all of my extended family was able to travel to Utah and come together for a few days to celebrate my grandpa.

love,

SK

Jeff and I have been married for ONE MONTH! Woohoo! It's been the absolute best. I love being able do everything with him.  For the most part, we don't see each other during the day due to work and other things, so our prime time together is in the evening or even sometimes after 9pm when Jeff gets home. That's a little rough. But at the end of the month that will change and Jeff should be home around 5 every day.

But anyways... 

This month has been a new adventure that I have loved and also realizing/discovering a few new things. Some of these things are:

Marriage is wonderful, and I highly recommend it :)

love,

SK

For our honeymoon, Jeff took me to Cancun! It was - for the most part - an amazing week filled with delicious (and free) foods, wonderful weather, and listening to Jeff attractively speak Spanish to everyone. I had been to Mexico, but never Cancun, and Jeff had never been to Mexico, so everything we saw was new and an adventure. 

Free Perks of being on your Honeymoon: When we arrived Sunday night, they upgraded our room and somehow knew that we were on our honeymoon, so our bed was decorated with rose petals, and kissing towel animals. We ordered room service for dinner and they brought a complimentary plate of strawberries with warm chocolate to dip in, as well as a full bottle of champagne (that went to waste due to us not drinking alcohol, but it was a very nice gesture). 

Two days later at dinner, they brought us a free dessert as well as glasses of champagne. This one was funny because they sat there waiting for us to drink the champagne before they would bring us the bill so after sitting there for quite some time, we poured it into our water cups so they would think we drank it! Then, the brought the check right away.

The next day at dinner, we once again got a free dessert, and a nice couple that we had been talking with and knew we were on our honeymoon actually paid for our whole meal! They were so incredibly nice and also from California, and so generous to pay for our meal. 

Also for lunch one day by the pool, we got a free chips & salsa with our meal.

The Sort-of Disastrous Day: Jeff & I really wanted to go see Chichen Itza (aka "Chicken Pizza" according to our tour guide), so we set up an excursion with the hotel's travel agent with a specific tour group and that we thought was only doing 2 activities then returning back to the hotel. Well... the morning of the excursion we were greeted by a very small white van that had no leg room, and didn't get back to the hotel until 12 hours later! Yes, you read that right, 12 hours. It was 100 degrees outside, the hottest day of the week, and the air conditioning in the van didn't work! It was miserable! We did get to see some cool sights, but we were so miserable that I honestly didn't enjoy them as much as I could have. 

The Wonderfully Adventurous Day: Another day excursion we went on turned out fantastic. We started out by snorkeling in a Turtle sanctuary. If you know me, you know that I love turtles so this was filled with squealing through my snorkel mask and not wanted to get out of the water. Next, we went swimming in a "cenote", or an underwater cave that was filled with freezing cold, natural mineral water. Finally, we went 4-wheeling through the very rocky jungle. So we got to see 3 different aspects of Mexico and enjoy authentic Mexican food, all while being transported on a bus that had leg space and air conditioning that actually worked!

Jeff & I really had a great time and it was so relaxing to have a week away from work and school and any responsibilities. Thank you Mom & Dad Witt for a week of honeymooning in such a beautiful place!

love, SK

Every girl dreams of their wedding from a young age. Except back when we were 5, it was our favorite Disney prince or our neighbor down the street who saw us in our underwear one too many times. But regardless, I always dreamed of my wedding. And my wedding went exactly as dreamed, perfectly.

First off, I want to thank my parents. My mom put so much hard work into this special day and making it exactly how I wanted it, and my dad, of course, worked so that they could pay for it. As far as the planning went, I can promise you my dad stayed as far away from it as possible!

A summary of getting ready... I woke up and ate a good breakfast (this is very rare for me), my wonderful sister Jessica did my makeup, and my darling friend Hailey did my hair. Also, as a side note, for those who know me, they know I love bows. I veto-ed the traditional veil with my dress and went for a bow. Then, I was off to be married.. But meanwhile, I found out that Jeff went to the beach! While I was antsy and excited and going a bit crazy, Jeff was calm and collected, enjoying his time in Newport Beach. This kinda shows the type of guy I married... haha!

At 11:00am, Jeff & I were sealed, or married for time and all eternity, in the Newport Beach LDS Temple. The weather outside was beautiful, and pretty warm - there wasn't a cloud in the sky. This was a blessing because in the days leading up to the wedding, the weather forecast had been telling us rain for Saturday.
Following the temple, we went back to my house along with our families and out of town relatives and friends and ate lunch and relaxed for a little bit. It was nice to have a few hours to sit down and get to visit with a lot of people.

Later in the afternoon, we went over to my best friend Sarah Flanigan's home. Sarah passed away my freshman year of college, but her home has amazing gardens. Since Sarah couldn't physically be with me for my wedding, I wanted to include my memories with her by taking pictures in the gardens at her home. Her dad, Preston, and her mom, Beth, welcomed Jeff & I as well as some family and our bridal party into their home and gardens. The photos (the ones I have seen so far) have turned out incredible. It meant so much to me that I was able to take the photos there and give Jeff a glimpse of what my youth was like, running around in the huge and beautiful gardens with my best friend, Sarah.
Following the pictures, we went to the reception venue, which was a business office in Irvine that belongs to the company Masimo. It is hard to describe, so I have included pictures. When I walked in, everything looked exactly how I had wanted it to, and it all felt like a dream come true. For the reception, we had Italian food. Macaroni Grill catered Chicken Alfredo with salad and rolls, and we had 3 flavors of gelato (which was a huge hit).
Our first dance had a glitch with the music, but it was still great. We did the father-daughter/mother-son dance, bouquet toss, garter throw, cake cutting, all that wedding jazz. Our wedding favor was Oreo balls, a treat that Jeff and I made often when we first started dating. We ended the night with a sparkler exit, which was so fun! A town car took us to a hotel near LAX to start our honeymoon (which was amazing and more details will come soon in another post).

Spotlight on the Bridal Party:
Bridesmaids: Madison (best friend/partner-in-crime/gym-buddy/fellow ice cream lover/maid-of-honor), Nicole (childhood friend/freshman roommate & huge reason I made it through freshman year/constant comedian), Hadley (cousin/basically we are the same person), and my sisters Elisabeth, Anna, & Jessica.
Groomsmen: Jeff's Brothers Spencer & Rob, my brother Nathan, Cameron (my brother-in-law/Jeff's freshman roommate/best friend), & Matt and Chris (Jeff's good friends/Cameron's brothers).

I want to put a plug in for my amazing photographer. Her name is Janet Wheeland and she was fantastic to work with and has produced amazing photos so far. 

My wedding was everything I had hoped for, and more. So many people put so much work into it and I cannot tell you how thankful I am for all of those people and for those who traveled to see me marry the man of my dreams.

Now what? Well, Jeff has dental school ahead of him and both of us still have a year or two at BYU. But enough about that, wedding pictures are much more interesting ;)

love, SK