forever 21

Not only do I love shopping at Forever 21, but I understand the implications behind the name. At 21 you're young, but an adult; you have some schooling and experience, but the whole world is still before you; you are independent, but don't have all the responsibilities that come later in life. I have really enjoyed this last year- some of the best events of my life have happened to me at age 21 and I am so sad to leave 21 behind.

On my 21st birthday, I went to my first day of work as a BYU operator. This job has turned out to be the best I've ever had . . . totally beats working with ice cream or clothes (can you believe it?) and I love the hours and the regular raises . Yay! So although I had to get trained for 9 hours on my birthday, it was one of the good things that happened to me at 21.

Also at age 21 I was finally and completely in love, enough to tie the knot forever. I got engaged! The four months of our engagement were some of the most exciting this year . . . and probably of my life! I loved wedding planning! What girl doesn't? :) And I was so looking forward to being married! The engagement was so exciting and is still so fresh in my mind- I almost wish I could do it again at age 22!

Then in June, I had the perfect wedding and was married in the temple to Prince Raimo. <3 But later I realized that aside from all the fun of the wedding, I had completed one of my life goals that I set 10 years ago: being sealed in the temple! It was one of the most memorable days of my life. I remember going to the temple a few days before the wedding and thinking to myself how long I had waited and imagined about going to the temple and that that day had arrived so quickly! It was so wonderful.

21 also brought me married bliss. It has been 7 months now and we are having so much fun together. I love being married. I love having a husband and it's really fun doing wife-y things and cooking and having an apartment and going on vacation together. I love marital bliss- I'm planning on taking that with me to 22!

And for some reason, 21 was the year I did really well in school and my GPA shot up! Not that my grades were so terrible before, but I finally feel like I'm reaching my full potential, which has never happened before! Good grades has been on every one of my New Years resolutions lists, but it came to fruition because of dear 21!

Also, at 21 I did almost all my visiting teaching (this is an accomplishment for me). We joined a new ward and I decided I was not going to be shy or totally freaked about VT and did it anyway. I feel so good about that one! Also, I visited a long-lost friend, got to be a lot closer to some good friends, and made new friends!

21 also brought some new grown-up challenges, but the good overrides the bad. I think I am more appreciative of nice things and even simple things like getting to go out for fast-food! I am sorry to leave behind such a wonderful age.

22 has a lot to live up to! I am hoping that it will be the year I finally settle into a solid scripture-reading routine! And I'm hoping that Raimo and I will make all our goals for temple-going and filling our callings. I'm also hoping that it will be the year I will set aside more savings, maybe get my first 4.0 at BYU, and spend more time with Raimo!

xo Jessica

What will you do in 2009?

countdown

6 days till finals are over


7 days till we go ice skating


10 days till California


13 days till Christmas


22 days until my 22nd birthday! man, I'm getting old





. . . and here are some holiday pictures for your delight and pleasure

Our Christmas lights on the front porch

aforementioned nutcracker





lights on the window

living room

okay so these aren't ALL holiday pictures

Raimo with a cup of cheer in the kitchen

This movie has no sound, but you can get an idea of what our apartment looks like

the handyman

Some shots from the November Dancesport

Raimo being a math nerd

Merry Christmas!!!

Catching up!

We had a great time in Riverside last week. We visited this family:
and went to see this movie:

We liked it (hanging out with the family and also the movie). This was def. an exciting scene :)
The next day Raimo and I visited my grandma Joan and also grandma Green- we really enjoyed getting to talk with them and visiting for a while.

Then. . . we went here:
which was fun and then we ate this:
and it was aMAzIng. We spent a lot of time with my family and the Crowder family. We played bingo and won holiday prizes. We even played a game of:
We had a lot of fun getting to go out to dinner and seeing these movies:

Can you guess which movie was my favorite? Duhhh. Loved it.

We ate here 3 times:Raimo gets a 4x4 every time- he's a carnivore! I would definitely like one of these right now!!! We had a great long weekend!

Raimo made me dinner last night: lemon chicken and baked potatoes! It was so amazing! He picked me up from school and it was all ready when I got home. Yay! I have the best hubby.

We have had another busy week, doing lots of last minute practicing for the BYU competition this weekend! We compete Friday night around 9 and on Saturday at various times (I think we start at 3:30). I am nervous! But don't worry--it's going to be smokin' hott!

We bought our first Christmas decoration for our apartment--a nutcracker! I am so excited for the holidays!

Better Late Than Never

I took my bridals last Saturday! A few of my bridals are up on elmtreephotography.blogspot.com. They are so beautiful!

Ballroom competitions are just around the Corner...

1. thunderbowl event is on nov. 8th at hillcrest high.
2. BYU FALL DANCESPORT CLASSIC will be the following weekend I believe novemeber 15.

Jessica and I will dance in the gold bar latin class event, as well as the prechamp latin and possibly the amatuer latin. Depending on whether we have a jive or not.

Now that most of the leaves have turned their colors, this is a great time to just enjoy the fall and sip hot cocoa. Last sunday we were able to visit with my parents up in Sandy Utah and enjoy the evening events. Two of my older brothers were there; Risto with his girlfriend Le anne, and Mikko with his wife and their two lovely children Lil Mikko and Meredith. It was a great time to enjoy the Jones soda. and the wonderful meal provided by my mom. My favorite part was being able to spend my whole day with Jessica. She had on a tan skirt and a blue and white blouse. her hair looked spectacular. We had fun.

Question:

Do you ever just feel like doing something a little bit rebellious? I don't mean go out and do something that's against your moral standards, but maybe something slightly mischievous. . . out of character. . . out of the ordinary! It's exciting, keeps life fresh. . . I know you know what I'm talking about!

Well today Raimo and I were leaving our English class (which is the dreaded early morning class at 8 am) when I suddenly had the strongest desire to eat and to eat A LOT! Those of you who know me well know that I am NEVER hungry in the morning. Breakfast is definitely my least favorite thing and I save all my appetites for my favorite meal which is LUNCH, of course. Nothing can beat that mid-day, light but lovely meal! BUT, like I said, I was hungry. And Raimo, thinking aloud, said, "Wouldn't it be nice to go for a drive up the canyon and have breakfast in Heber?" I said, "Let's go." And so we threw caution to the wind and I, unabashedly, DITCHED class (wouldn't it be awful if my professor happened across this blog?!) and we took two hours to go out to breakfast!

It was a perfect, clear morning and the fall colors were beautiful in the canyon. We haven't driven through since September and it's amazing how quickly it's changed! The lake looked beautiful too--we were both imagining how fun it would be to have a house overlooking the water. In Heber, we ate at a really cute, little cafe-- there were only like six booths-- full of old people! I guess it kind of is an old person thing to do. We ordered a ham and cheese omelet, hash browns, pancakes, and scones! It was SO delicious and we had so much fun. It was great to be in sunny Heber for breakfast as opposed to Provo which stays in the shadows till about 11 o'clock!

However, acting on a whim always has its downsides. Without fail, I always feel so much guilt afterwards about not being my responsible self. It would be so much more rewarding to do something out of the ordinary and then bask in my rebelliousness afterwards. But even during breakfast I had the lingering worry that I would be late to my next class and not have enough time to finish my paper that was due for it. WELL we headed straight back to campus so I could finish and Raimo headed home to work on his economics. Boring.

The POINT is we had a GREAT morning! And we got to eat a meal together! I loved every minute. My question for you is. . . should we feel guilty or proud of our spontaneous morning? And what spontaneous things have you been doing?

UPDATE!!!

Raimo has great news! He made it into his program! He is officially in Communications Studies! Woohoo! That's my baby. . .

Pics of the Weekend

San Diego Temple

Reception

Famiglia

Toasting

Centerpiece: The picture doesn't do it justice

We Be Jivin

Jive. This seems to be the theme of our lives this weekend. Not only because we were jiving at a rockin' wedding this weekend. . . not only because we were jivin to get all the way down to CA and back in only three days. . . not only because we had to stay in Provo til Friday to learn a jive routine that we already know for team, when really we wanted to leave Thursday so we could spend more than 24 hours in CA. . . not only because we had to race back to Provo to be there by Monday so we could learn the rest of that same jive routine we already know. . . Jive is the theme for oh so many more reasons! We are just racing everywhere! For those of you inexperienced jivers, the jive is so rigorous and absolutely chaotic while you are dancing it, you wonder why the heck you're doing it. But as soon as it's over you think: "That was fun!!!" Literally and metaphorically, this is our life. Gotta love it.

So AndreaBrianToddWilliam's wedding was soo perfect. I adored the Spanish theme--it was so beautiful and stylish! Every single detail was taken into account and I loved that! The centerpieces and colors were wonderful, waiters circled our table and lowered our soup bowls all at once. THis was impressive. Those little details really made the night. Andrea and Todd were absolutely adorable and I am so happy for them to be married!

We had a lot of fun being in Riverside, staying at hotel Monica with the huge bed and huge ceiling, picnicing, and eating like rich people, drinking way more soda than we ever do. We wished it could have lasted longer! Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts was driving pretty much all weekend. It is fun to have so much time, just the two of us, to talk and read and go to In'nOut. (Yes, those three things are about on the same level of awesomeness). I love my husband more and more--I can't wait for him to get off of work tonight!

xoxo
Jessica

well gang it's friday the 26 of sep.
Jess told you about the sleep, to dance to school, to work, to home, to sleep. it is all true what she has said. it's a robust dance. I wanted to tell more of the story but I don't have the time. I'm taking Jess to Red Robin we've never eaten there togethor so I hope it will be exciting. and then we will go look for a new movie to buy hopefully we will be able to find the 3 season of lois & clarks superman. We finished the last season and it left it at a very dramatic moment. boy thats a good 90's series. yes we have both been sick this week. one right after the other, it was pretty terrible, hopefully that will be it for the week. My friend Matt Meads is engaged for the 31 of dec to married. and Greg and Heather got a Genuine scooter (it's black). thats about it.

I Live for Thursdays

We're three weeks into school already and I'm feeling like I'm drowning! I think Raimo feels the same. We just go in circles: from bed to dance to school to work to dance to bed. And then it starts all over again. Things always pick up on Thursdays though--you're getting close to the weekend, the majority of the work for the week is done, and you get to look forward to heavenly Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In fact, the anticipation might even be better than the actual thing.

That was not the case last week though! The anticipation was not as great as our weekend! We got to chill with LeAnne and Risto in our apartment on Friday night and on Saturday, we went to Ensign's peak where Brigham Young said the famous words, "THIS IS THE PLACE." We hiked to the top, took in the view, and read the first chapters of Twilight's fourth and final book. We're hoping it will be better than the third. That night we met Raimo's parents for burgers at Hire's Big H. YUM. It was a fun night. And Sundays are nice because we have time to watch tv or movies and I have time to make a real dinner.

Highlights of the Week:
- Raimo got a 90 on his math test this week. The quizzes hadn't been going so well so this was really awesome!!!
- I got to go get ice cream with Melanie
- Raimo washed my car (highlight for me only probably) and put gas in it
- I finally got a a package with the rest of my books for class from Amazon
- I made chicken divine
- The weather is still great!

Hope you are all doing great! And Reed: this was one poem I did for workshop this week. Of course there are a million things wrong with it. But here it is.

The Wizard of March

Gutters flooded,
dirty water runs
who knows where.
Puddle parade.
Reed jumps the stream,
splashes through pools--
dark pools like spilled ink,
deep as an iris--
on the cracked street.
His bright cheeks are smooth
ripe plums: soft, tight skin
warm, flecked with mud.
He smells of asphalt.
Mama's roses droop
along the walk.
Snails are out
leaving trails.
Reed salts one and watches
green ooze dissolve
like the Wicked Witch of the East--
bubbles and shrivels
until there is only house.
He grins.

*First Week of School*

It was a little scary as always. We had auditions for our ballroom classes and set up our schedules and spent all our hard-earned money on books. Let's start with the good news! Raimo and I made the very top class for Latin! We're in Gold Bar! It's totally exciting and totally a surprise. It's the best technique class for Latin ballroom and it will be so fun for us. So that is our only ballroom class. We are also both doing back-up team again; I had to quit Concert Choir (so sad). Now for classes. It's going to be tough, but we'll be okay I think. We're in an English writing class together that focuses on writing about the arts and humanities. I think that will be the easiest class for both of us, though it still requires a bit of homework and reading. I'm also in 3 other English classes. One is a poetry class, one is grammar, and one is American usage. They are all very interesting, but will require constant reading and projects and creativity! Raimo is taking the dreaded economics, which will take a lot of his time, and math 110, which is also a tough one. He is not looking forward to the classes, but is starting out well by doing his reading. YAY. We're totally freaked out, but it's only been a week.

Highlights of the week:

-making Gold Bar
-reading a whole book of contemporary poetry in the first week... of my choice (Natasha Saje) on the walk to and from school
-going to the Museum of Art as a homework assignment for English
-buying another chair for the apartment (total of 2 now.... and they look so cute in our little window nook)
-getting a beautiful print of an engagement photo from Mom
-getting more china in the mail from myself and a 4qt crockpot from the Fenns
-eating corn on the cob a ton since it's only 35 cents
-dancing again with Raimo

LOVE,
Jessica

Chapter 1

it's clear brisk autumn morning. in the faint light an alarm clock is ringing. beep beep beep beep... "what is that noise" thinks Raimo as he opens his eye's slowly. His eyes take a moment to adjust to the dark dry room, he is still trying to get his bearing on were he is. Slowly it comes back to him. today was the first day of college, and thats why the alarm is going off. It had only been about two weeks since he'd been home from his mission for his church in the "distant" land of washington state, and more particularily in the gig harbor area. the past few days he didn't really now what to think. "I'm starting college!" he says slowly under his breath as he gets ready in semi darkness. Raimo is living with his brother Risto who he hasn't seen for the past four years, and some other people he doesn't know. there's his other roommates hurrying to get ready, greg baker, arnold, rob, and some young freshman guy named steve. the apartment isn't much, and in fact, it isn't much of anything at all. it's really dingy dirty and hot. "well i'll see you guys later" raimo walks out the door. he heads to his first classes of the day. book of mormon, marriage prep, american heritage, bowling, and some dance classes. thinking to himself At least I have the silver latin class. I"m sure i'll do ok in that class. this would also be his first time on BYU's ballroom team. He had been put on the team just behind the back up touring team for ballroom. He didn't know a soul on any of the company there were five teams total, two begining, 1 intermediate, which he himself was on, and then back up and tour team. the day went by, the first week was a whir... and in the coming days, he got a little more comfortable with the thought of being in college. and thats when my silver latin proffesor Brent Keck, told me to stay after class. My heart did a few skips. Mr. keck though sorta skinny had an explosive energy about him. he is intense. He has a dark complexion with jet black hair, always slicked or cut in the roman style, very short. His passion for latin dancing moves most of us to always give our best. and he takes it very seriously when someone doesn't. So i was a little nervous . the bell sounds, and the students start leaving the classroom. I walk over to him slowly. "Raimo. you're really good.. do you have a class on mon wed, fri, at 8 am?" he asks me. I say no. he then asks if I'd like to be in his gold 1 latin class. I say yes before he can change his mind. "so will i be in both classes then. and he says ya I will. cool I"m feeling like the bomb, I just got moved up. so he reminded me that the upcoming monday I have class at 8 am in the KMB that building is the south eastern corner of byu campus. about 200 ft from my apartment complex. I was stoked.

Introduction

My name is Raimo, for those of you who've never heard that name before, thats ok. it's from Finland, and so are my parents. I'm the youngest of five boys, and we all played ice hockey, well that is until I switched over to ballroom... You could say if I wouldn't have listened to a girl down the street to try out for my highschool ballroom team, I wouldn't be blogging this right now. That small decision put me on a path that led me to Jessica. I served a mission and then came home. I went to byu, and thats where i saw her... At 8:00 a.m. gold one latin, Brents class... and that is where the story will begin...

The "Y" Goers

Raimo had never hiked the the Y before so we headed up last week.
We look so excited.

We got to watch the sunset on our way up...

It was beautiful! It was a perfect day to go.

The lights were awesome

and so was the view

The Y was all lit up with lights for graduation. It was cool.... You can see the outline of the Y behind us.

We love the Y !!!

my side

Once upon . . . Well I guess this summer. . .
I had found my queen, and now we have our own blog, I was assured that blogs are the way to go. much more mature than say myspace or facebook, it's the married couple way. now on to more important things. this is how it's going to go,

1. I will write a chapter of our life actually it will be my side of the story
2. the story will come one chapter at a time, so once a week you'll get the continued story
3. I might write other stuff as well.
4. why? because I have no idea what else to write about. maybe some fiction stories would be nice.
5. thats it...

Start at Home

Yesterday I was inspired by HGTV to "start at home" and decorate our apartment. I set off for BedBath and Target, gift cards in hand, determined to find the perfect accent candles and picture frames and sequined pillows. It was so much fun! I bought our first piece of sitting furniture: a chair! Yay! Until now we have been getting well acquainted with the floor in the family room. I also had to buy few new fall sweaters for Raimo and myself because they were just too cute. That night Raimo and I ate a great chicken-and-pasta combo with salad before the decorating fest began! Raimo helped out by giving excellent advice and holding pictures in various positions against the wall for long periods of time. I really love how it looks now! I'm going to try to figure out how to post pictures of the before and after. Dad, I love my nest!
<3>

From my darling

Our one month anniversary-
sitting on the couch/table

the bare bedroom

Our move-in was so messy! We had no place for all our junk!

Pictures of the new room are on the way