Happy 12

Ben and I were asked to be in a marriage "panel" for a relief society activity last night.

I went with this attitude:

There were us and two other couples. One of the couples have some teenagers and young kids and are some friends of ours. They had some great perspectives and I truly admire them and their relationship.

The other couple is the relief society stake president and her husband. They each were married before and both of their spouses passed away and now they have been married for 9 years.  They assured me  after they were just an average couple, but they are actually an incredible couple of people.

We must have been the couple to let everyone else know normal marriages are okay:)!

They asked us to bring a wedding picture - I brought our engagement one since it's the closest I could find:)

When I showed Mackayla I asked her if I looked different and her dramatic emphatic yes let me know 12 years is actually a long time to be married.

We were given a list of questions before hand and had an MC asking questions.

One of the questions - thankfully I didn't have to answer - that was asked was this:

"When your spouses' quirks start to annoy you (as we know we all have them), how do you choose not to let them bother you?" 

Now before I tell you the best answer ever I might add Ben and I are super quirky. 

Just really really quirky. 

And we both know it.

Our relief society stake president, who was married for 25 years and her first husband died of a sudden heart attack, said 

those things that are quirky about your spouse, 

the things that make them unique and who they are, 

those are the things that you would miss the most if you lost that person.

Beautiful.

(Us on our anniversary this year, looking goood.)

So our extra quirks will give us that many more things to love about each other.

I truly love Ben.

I also shared exactly how I felt about things and I'm glad I stayed true to myself

because I don't think as many people there are in the same position as we are in life.

But I went with this attitude:

As in, Comparison is the thief of Joy.

I'm grateful for so many people surrounding us in our ward that are solid, great examples, and unique in their own ways.

Now...switching gears...here are some random things I have loved this last week:

Raw Beets in Hawaiian Haystacks are yummy!

I added apple juice to make a smoothie out of ours:

And this happened yesterday...caused quite a stir. The swat team, dozens of cops, multiple fire trucks and dozens of firemen, a sniper, a helicopter circling overhead for hours.

Just down the street from us.

A man started throwing things out his windows and threatening to commit suicide and then started his house on fire. Domestic dispute. Thankfully no one was hurt and he eventually surrendered. This poor family.