Natalie & Ryan: Refreshed

Yesterday was, well, to sum it up, refreshing! Kevin and Jan offered to come down to watch Lilly so that Ryan and I could have a date night. When Ryan asked me what I wanted to do, I "pulled a Ryan," and said "eh, I don't care. Surprise me!" I know that we have no money right now, so I wanted Mr. Frugal to plan a cheap, possibly free date night. He didn't upset!

Before our date night could begin, I spent the day cleaning. Our floors so desperately needed to be mopped. Lilly was having a no nap day, so I had to attempt mopping with her around. I usually wait for her to nap before I do. She thought dipping the mop into the bucket and splashing the water was so fun! She didn't care much for pushing it around the floor, and you better believe she had the tantrum of the century when I took it away from her. Oh well. My floors are free of the juice stains, and once again free to start collecting whatever my sweet Lilly can spill.

Kevin and Jan arrived at around 3, and our first stage of date night was the temple. We raced to get to the 4:00 session at the Timpanogos Temple, but first we had to endure a few rounds of "Natalie is the world's worst navigator." I simply typed "LDS Timpanogos Temple" into Google Maps on my phone, and then trusted the first one that popped up. It wasn't until we were basically scaling the mountain that I realized maybe it was just taking us to a normal church house. And that's exactly what it was doing. Ryan was, let's just say, annoyed at me, and took over navigating. We made it to the temple less than 5 minutes later, and with only 15 minutes until the next session. We're really used to this being the case, and are pro at getting ready quickly. We sat down with about 3 minutes to spare. Phew!

I hate to say it, but it had been OVER a year since our last trip to the temple. I keep a little notebook for my temple trips. I write down the date, the temple, the person's name who I did the session for, and where they were from. My mom told me that it was a good way to remember all of the people that would be waiting for me on the other side, to say thank you. Well, sadly, the last entry was from August of last year, when we went to the Manti Temple. So, I guess you could say we were overdue for a session. I didn't realize how easy it was to let life scoot in and push out some of our top priorities.

I had no idea how badly I needed this visit to the temple. First, I want to note that I have lost 100 lbs since the last time I was in my temple clothes, so my dress, instead of being uncomfortably tight and on the verge of ripping down the back every time I moved my arms, was more like a moo-moo, yet VERY comfortable. I was able to fit in the chairs with room to spare, too! When we sat down for the session, I realized how much I love the temple. It was so quiet and peaceful. I don't know how, but I manage to leave all my negative emotions at the door of the temple, and I'm left with the happy, uplifting thoughts that I so desire during my week. I really was in awe at how much better I felt, just by simply sitting in the temple. It made me realize that no matter how bad I think I'm doing as a person or mother, or how much better I think I should be doing in my life, going to the temple means that we can refresh our spirits and start over. It gave me motivation to be better, and I was so thankful to be sitting there. Just that thought brought tears to my eyes, and the session hadn't even started yet!! I bet the women next to me thought I was crazy for crying and dabbing my eyes before anything even happened. The first thing I said to Ryan when we entered the Celestial Room was "we so need to do this more often."

After the temple, as is tradition, we stopped real quick to take a picture out front. Apparently we looked more desperate than we thought. We were shuffling around, trying to fit us and the temple in the picture, when a cute old man, who happened to be the officiator of our session, offered to take it for us. Stage 2 of date night was supposed to be dinner, followed by Stage 3, which was to be a movie. We only had an hour until the movie, and still wanted to have a nice, sit-down dinner. We agreed that we'd rather have a nice dinner, over a quick bite to eat before the movie, and opted to see the movie another time. Heck, we technically just saw a movie at the temple! Ha! Again, I deferred to Ryan and let him pick where we ate. He chose Red Lobster. I'd never been, so a new experience sounded fun. I'm not huge on seafood, but I was able to find a few things that I liked. It didn't really matter, since my salad filled me up, only allowing me literally 2 bites of my fish. Leftovers!!

Dinner was a blast. It started when the waiter came to take our orders and I ended up just ordering for both of us. Ryan thought it was funny that I did that. We started talking about how we know each other so well, and how we should be on that game show where they ask the couple a question about one of them, and they both have to give the same answer. So, we spent all of dinner asking questions about ourselves. Ryan's first questions was "what's my favorite condiment?" To which I replied "ranch!! No, bacon!!" It was awesome to see, not only how well we knew each other, but to see how simple Ryan is and how complicated I am. Ryan knew his answers without a doubt, but when I asked my questions, I couldn't decide on an answer, or I had an answer so complicated, Ryan would never be able to get it right. For instance, I asked him what my favorite ice cream was. When asked the same question, I knew the answer for Ryan was "vanilla." Simple. Easy. Mine was "Rocky road with caramel...no, wait....I like cookie dough...but it depends where we go, because I like to put stuff in my ice cream." See what I mean? I couldn't simplify my answer and we both just chuckled when ALL of my answers were complicated and indecisive. It was a really fun dinner, and it actually felt like we were dating again.

Thanks, Kevin and Jan, for providing the evening for us to refresh our spirits and our love for each other!