Happy forth of July!

Its been a great forth of July celebration thus far! Last night we went over to our friend's house for a little pre forth of july celebration and it was awesome. We watched an awesome firework show, ate some good snacks, and talked with lots of awesome friends. I had class in Salt Lake in the evening so I met up with Taylor and the rest of the party after class around 8 pm.

My favorite part of the party was the firework show. It was AWESOME!!! I got so excited during the fireworks and so over come with emotion that I literally started crying haha! I just couldn't stop thinking about how awesome our lives are and how many amazing blessings Heavenly Father has bestowed upon us. Last forth of July, I was in Europe, Italy to be exact. My parents and older sister came to Portugal to pick me up from my mission! We had traveled to Italy together once we left Portugal and it was awesome, too. The year before that, I was in portugal and I can vividly remember walking down a little road on the island of madeira, thinking about my family and what they were doing for that forth of July and now, two years later, Im back in the states, been home for a year, and married for two months.

I guess I just want to take a moment and express how grateful I am for life!!! For my amazing family and our friends and for all of the happiness they bring into my life! I am so grateful for taylor!! I love him and I am so thankful that we are together and married for time and all eternity. I am so beyond grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It means EVERYTHING to me, Every bit of happiness I feel and all of the hope inside of my heart stems from my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the lives we are blessed to live and I am so happy to be alive!!!!!

Learning to handel Stress

So, things have been great lately. Life is still awesome, but sometimes I can feel things building up and then out of no where, my stress levels seem to be soaring out of the roof. I am so thankful for where taylor and I are right now. I am glad we are in utah learning together and experiencing these first few months of marriage on our own, even though sometimes they can be a little stressful!

So, I don't know what it is about me, but I feel like I get stressed out very easily. Ever since Getting home from my mission, I have been  more that way. For example, at work last pay period, I got super lucky and had 56 sales which brought in great money. Now I am putting pressure on myself to sell at least 55 sales per pay period or else I will feel financially stressed! Some callers were a bit more rude today and I ended with only 2 sales rather than 5 so I left work feeling irritated and bugged. my car has been making weird movements and noises so I went to take it in where I found out I have to replace 2 tires and get work done on the breaks.... more money to spend :/ I ran into a lady today who is my friend and found out she lost her job and is looking for work, I told her about progression, and now I need to make sure I get her the info so she can start asap. I am trying to get a great grade in my Stats and Mcom class because I am on academic warning, but I feel overwhelmed and like I am not doing a great job. I came home from work and taylor could tell i was stressed and when he asked me what was wrong, i could just feel more stress and irritation piling up.... WHY AM I STRESSED? haha or why does stress build up for me so quickly?

I did some research and read a few articles on the church website. I will share the links to what I read. https://www.lds.org/ensign/1990/02/dealing-with-stress-and-discouragement?lang=eng 

After reading this article, something I have decided I need to work on to help me manage stress is my PATIENCE! Patience with myself, patience with taylor, patience with life. So what, my car needs new tires and work done, I will pay for it and then work harder. So what, I only got two sales today, I will work harder and be happy with the two! So what, I don't always see eye to eye with taylor, I can take deep breathes, choose to listen, and try to serve him.

I am really going to try and pray for the ability to manage my stress. One way I know I can be happier is coming home from school or work with a happy attitude. Maybe when I am tired or feel like I have a ton on my plate, before going inside to taylor, I can say a prayer for peace and the ability to be patient with myself and my life.  Things will all work out! I think I will keep blogging about my desire to overcome by stress and talk about the progress I am having with choosing to Respond to the circumstances differently and remaining in control of my emotions, rather than letting the circumstances controlling me and loosing control of my mind.

Summer ActivitiesWev

Our summer so far has been such a blast. For the first 5 weeks or so, I wasn't in school so we just worked and played in the afternoons. It was awesome haha! It still is awesome its just busier now that I have started up summer school. The weather in Utah is SO nice and its been so much fun for me to get to do so many different things with Taylor. I hope this blog doesn't get annoying. I will talk about the other things too, I just want to remember these memories and look back smiling at all of the fun things life has allowed us to do! Here are a few pics from some past experiences!

We went to Mona Reservoir with some friends from home and from work. It was SO pretty! There were a ton go high school kids there just making a scene which actually made it more fun because they're hilarious. 

Look at those back muscles! What up!  So, there are 4 different rope swings there. Only taylor went I didn't go. He went to go from this super high one (not this one... I just posted this pic because I think its hilarious) and when we went to go off of it, he apparently jumped and fell in the shallow end! Because he jumped, it his weight pulled him down and it jerked his hands from holding onto the rope. It was scary at first but hilarious once we knew he was okay!

This is my brother Seth and sister in law Dani. I LOVE THEM and I miss them so much in AZ. They came out for a weekend and it was so fun. Seth was as obnoxious and hilarious as ever. we went to comedy sports, hiking, watched movies, and ate whatever we wanted. I miss them so much. They are amazing.

Did some laser tagging.... that was pretty fun.

We've been to quite a few weddings. This wedding was particularly fun because Taylor danced with me and it was so hilarious! He isn't a huge dancer but I love it, so whenever he dances, Its so great!!

We have been fishing 3 or 4 times in parson and its always a blast and amazingly beautiful.

We were able to attend my old teammate and dear friend's sealing in the SLC temple! it was awesome. She got baptized when I was on my mission, i had no idea! Then i found out she was getting sealed and we were able to see each other after years. It was so special. 

Another fishing trip... absolutely NO luck at first but still a blast. Jordan and whit, baby boy Nixon, Jeff, Matt and Marybeth and Ryan Felton. I love them all.

He is the best baby. I hope our kids look like Nixon!

One month later and we still love eachother!

Wahoo! Happy four weeks of marriage to us! haha

It went by so so fast its crazy! We went on our honey moon to Ensenada, Mexico and Catalina Island, California. We had a total blast. We drove back to Utah with our two cars full of awesome wedding gifts and started back at our new jobs. We are working for a call center called progression and we both really like it. Shout out to taylor btw, he is employee of the month! He deserves it! We moved into a new apartment, and its great! We used a bunch of our target gift cards and bought a new tv and groceries and together we are loving the newly wed life.

On our month anniversary, we went to church and came home to eat lasagna that I made! It was pretty good! Aubri gave me the recipe so I was pretty excited it turned out well. Then, after dinner, we drove up to Vivian park and drank fake champagne and laughed our butts off haha. We talked about how we felt our marriage was going and decided we wanted to set some serious goals. I am happy to say that we have been sticking to them ever since we set them.These are a few of the goals we set together: 1. weekly family home evening together 2. family prayer and scripture study 3. save x- amount of money each month 4. Plan to go to Nicaragua by May of 2015 5. Set time aside each day to spend time with each other.  Things are going great and Im still loving my life!

Blogging Assignment

Hello to anyone who is reading this! If no one is reading this, it's fine, I will print these entries out and use them as a journal for my life as Whitney Wilde Whatcott.  I am in a new class at BYU and for one of our assignments, we were asked to choose a topic or a general subject and blog about it for the semester. Each week I will be blogging around 2 times to keep up with the assignment. The subject I have chosen to blog about is my life! My life as a newly wed and a wife haha! It's gonna be great! I actually saw a friends blog and she did this same kind of thing throughout her marriage and eventually created books out of all of her blog entires to keep for years down the road. I think thats a great idea and one I am planning to copy.

So, to give you a little summary of whats going on in life right now, Taylor and I got married on April 26, 2014.  We met when we were 17 and 18 years old and attending high school back in arizona. I saw him in the stands at one of my volleyball tournaments and my teammate give him my number. We was my first boyfriend, first love, first kiss, first everything. We dated a year at Byu and I wrote him diligently throughout his 2 year mission in Managua, Nicaragua. The day that he finished his mission and came home to the states was the same exact day I left the MTC and started my full time service as a missionary in Lisbon, Portugal. While serving my mission, we wrote, but it was not the same kind of writing or really even the same relationship as it had been previously. As time moved forward, the only thing that we both had to hold onto was the memories we had shared together... the feelings he'd begun to fade out, but we continued to correspond.

By the end of my mission, I really didn't know what to expect. I was scared and unsure about what would happen between us. When I arrived home to Arizona, Taylor picked me up (I WAS SO NERVOUS) about an hour after I had been set apart and we went to dinner. It was the greatest dinner. Although I was pretty awkward and didn't know what I should say,  Taylor was so kind and his company was so wonderful that being reunited with him after 3.5 years was truly perfect. 

We dated for about 2 months and he finally sat me down and told me to admit that I was in love with him and was going to marry him. After much prayer and faith, I knew he was right and we decided to get married. He moved up to Utah with me so I could finish my schooling at BYU. We continued to get to know each other. He took great care of me when I tore my ACL/MCL/PCL/MENISCUS and when I broke my nose (haha it was rough), and we became even better of friends. On Novemeber 9th, my 23rd Birthday, he proposed and on April 26th, 2014, we got married.

Our marriage day was truly the most blissful, wonderful, exciting, thrilling, happy, and loving day of my life. I wish I could re-live it over and over again, but luckily I have pictures to remember and eternity to feel those similar feelings with Taylor.

I'm loving life right now, learning so much, and feeing so grateful for taylor and everything we are experiencing together! Here are some pictures from our big day. Enjoy!