Marriage is not a noun, it's a verb: tips for dating your spouse!

So, my cousins Kristen and Bridget are part of a writing team for a new blog: Dating Divas! Check it out for creative, cheap ideas for dating your spouse, marriage tips, and gift ideas.

Some other great blogs I've discovered lately (or have been following for a while) that have tons of creative tips about life and love are listed below:

The Idea Room - crafts, cooking, organization

It's a Girl Thing - Crafts

Pocket Full of Posies - Meal planning, crafts, other fun ideas

Love Actually - Dating ideas

Somewhat Simple - crafts, other fun ideas

Let Me Count the Ways - Valentine's for the ones we love

Cowboy Phraseology - Home decoration, cheap and easy furniture re-finishing

Nesting Place - Home decorating and inspiration

Loving You - love and romance inspiration

My sister, the princess

Sam did awesome at the Miss Spanish Fork pageant on Saturday night! I wanted to take pictures during her performances, but of course my camera had no battery in it. She rocked her piano piece and was very poised during everything else she did on stage - plus, she looked stunning in each of her four outfits and hair-do's! She finished as a runner-up which means she gets to do the floats this summer, gets a crown, scholarship, etc., but she doesn't have to come all the way back to Spanish Fork next year from Southern Utah University for ribbon-cutting ceremonies, meetings, small-town festivals etc. that the winner has to do. She's an awesome girl and a wonderful example to me of friendship, love, faith, living life with happiness and energy and of pure joy. She's a ray of sunshine in our family. I love you Sam!

Sam's platform was understanding people with disabilities. Her Little Miss that got to walk with her on stage was this cute girl.

L to R: Kip (aka: Kathryn), Sammie, Miss Utah 2009, and Sam's best friend Aubray

With last year's winner and the other finalists

The fam :)

New look

So, I decided I was in the mood for a page re-design. What do you think?? I love it! Christian thinks it's a little femme, but when the girls are the bloggers/decorators/designers, what do you expect? No, he actually likes it. I got the background (SO many cute backgrounds, wow) and other things at:

http://shabbyblogs.com/index.html

Speaking of things that are sugar and spice and everything nice, I'm on my way to my little sister Samantha's debut at the Miss Spanish Fork Contest! I'll take pics and post soon :)

Sweet sweet weekend

I can't believe another week is almost over, it's crazy - almost a week since Valentine's Day! Well, last weekend was amazingly sweet. Every Valentine's Day growing up my mom and dad would get us a little gift or make a fancy dinner for us, or even surprise us with balloons and flowers at school - a tradition that is special to me. However, it's no replacement to having a special someone once you hit dating years. Last year was my first year to have that special someone in my life. Valentine's Day was a week before we got engaged and we were happy and giddy in love. This year, however, it means so much more because our relationship is so much deeper -I'm starting to understand more and more each day what love really is.

The weekend started off with an Olympics opening ceremonies party with my fam. We spent the night so we could wake up and celebrate a birthday breakfast with my sis Sam. Eighteen this year!! Can you believe it?? Then off to my Film Maker's Workshop I put together at work. Read more about it in the Salt Lake Tribune (they only mention my last name once, they must have put my first name and more info about me in the beginning but then took it out later....disappointing but whatev)

Valentine's weekend really got started that evening when we went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill and went to Comedy Sportz!! Oh man, i LOVE that place. SO funny and they keep it relatively clean. I love improv and went on YouTube one time to watch old clips of "Whose Line Is It Anyways" but there was SO much innuendo! I had forgotten and as a kid a lot of it goes over your head.

On Sunday we had our share of surprise flowers, cards, and heart attacks. That afternoon we got together with Christian's brother Richard, his girlfriend Amy, Sarah, and Wes Marriott and played some mean games of Boggle and the face-drawing game - one of my favorites. Then off to dinner club with more of my favorite people! I usually leave d-club drained from laughing so much. The weekend wasn't over yet. A beautiful three-day weekend (and paid holiday!) wrapped up Monday. The d-club boys decided to surprise the girls with a delicious and beautifully-decorated (thank you Christian) dinner back up at the Sundance cabin.

Whew! Another wonderful weekend. Christian and I were talking the other day about how good our lives really are. We have such good friends and family so close - we can't take it for granted.

Here are some pics of dinner and our beautiful drawings of each other :)

The daily routine

So, what's a day in the life of Stephanie Bennion like?

1. Wake up and run or sleep in a little longer if it's at all possible

2. Drop Christian off at school and go to work or have him drop me off if it's his work day

3. Busy busy busy at work. Phone calls, emails, managing websites, getting Hispanic teens motivated to enter a YouTube video contest (the winner gets $1000 people! spread the word by going HERE), getting work sites to implement tobacco policies, getting docs and dentists to counsel people to quit smoking, trainings, more emails, coordinating meetings between universities and the health dept., printing and delivering posters and fliers to schools all over the county, teaching classes, coordinating a rape prevention campaign, updating student internship and volunteer opportunities, counseling students on opportunities in public health, attending conferences, writing grants, coming up with ideas, reading research.....the list goes on and on. Don't worry it's not all in one day...though sometimes it almost is. And I really do love it :)

4. HOME. This is a great part of the day. Start my news-watching routine, make dinner, read, watch one of my addicting reality shows (take your pick: Bachelor, American Idol, and now...Survivor. We'll see if I have the energy for that. And don't forget The Office)

5. Christian comes home!! Usually in the mix of events mentioned above he gets home from school. I feel extremely extremely blessed that he's in my life and incredibly lucky that he chose me.

6. Bedtime.

Then it all begins again.

The weekends though really make fulfilling - packed with friends, family, religion, and maintaining order in the home. Don't think we could survive without it. And it really is crazy how life goes on day in, day out in such a routine. It makes you think, "so this is life?" but this wise quote puts it all into perspective:

"Anyone who images that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed.

Most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high level of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.

Life is like an old-time rail journey - delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

Saturday is a Special Day...

...it's the day we are insanely busy!

Here is Christian and my itinerary from Saturday:

1. 9 AM - 12 PM Last session of my RAD class for women (Rape Aggression Defense)...sounded corny but I definitely don't regret it - especially since I'm working on a rape prevention program at work that will focus on the college community. All you gotta know is that you better not mess with me now.
The red guy is wearing the actual suit our instructor wore on the last day when we got to beat him up. Add those crazy transformer-man pads to the fact that he's at least 6'3'', very large, and says scary things to you as he's grabbing you and throwing you to the floor. Intimidating? Yes. Did I get away? Yes.


2. 12:45 - 1:25; Ran. It's so nice to run in the daylight! The rest of the week I choose 6 am cold darkness :(
3. 2-4:30; Play at BYU, Tartuffe. A quirky, modernized French comedy from the 1600s. We got free tickets from Christian's sister Sarah and we couldn't refuse. I love BYU performances.
4. 5-6; Temple. A beautiful blessing in our lives


5. 7:00; BYU vs. Utah basketball game!! We got free tickets on Friday afternoon from my awesome intern Lindsee. It was SO loud and SO fun.
6. After the game: Magleby's for free cake.
7. 10:00 pm THE END. We were exhausted

...Last but not least...exciting announcement!!

My dad was called as Stake President in a brand new stake: The Spanish Fork River Stake!! We are so happy and excited for him. He is a good good man and although it's gonna be a lot of work to organize this new stake, the Lord will bless him and he has some awesome counselors - men I look up to even though I haven't known them very long or well. He'll also be there as they build a new stake center and new temple in Payson. Exciting stuff.