Smashing Isn't it!

There's Spring in the air!
So we went to the Uvu ballroom competition, like Jessica said earlier last thursday we practiced the night before ( technically we were making up our Rumba for the competion for that thursday night). We both were spent from the previous day school at 7 a.m. - 3p.m. and then work for Jess, and lots of homework for me, till 7p.m. our comp didn't start till 9:30 or around that time. the first round the samba music was so slow, I wanted to move faster tahn the beat, then I overcorrected and went slower, it was silly, but the rumba went alright. the 2nd round our samba improved but still pretty shaky, and the rumba was going pretty well until I forgot to loop my partner and I instead punched my nose into her elbow. her elbow was pretty sore for a few days. the third round, we were both pretty tired but did better, my spins were really good in the rumba, by the final round I was tired (out of shape mostly with asthma, and my cold) that I couldn't even spin straight. but it was fun. and so thats how that went.
Friday night last week was so much fun. Jessica had agreed to teach some ballroom to a ward down in Santequin (If you don't know where that is, thats ok, it's south of payson, just a few miles) d Jessica and I assumed it would be a young womens theme activity, but when we got there all the girls were much younger than that. Jess would be teaching Achievement day girls, and most of them seemed to be about 8-9 years old, maybe one or two 11 year olds. They were all dressed in their sunday best, or nice spring dresses, and were excited about this. we had planned on teaching foxtrot and some cha cha cha. all the little girls were excited about Jessica's dance shows. and the dads, were all really good sports. and all were pretty good at the steps in the dancing. all of them really caught on with the foxtrot. the cha cha was a little too fast for the social setting.
Sat I worked from 9a.m. to 6p.m. so I don't really know what happened on that day besides what happened in the store I was at. but when I finally got off work, we would be going to the open house of the draper temple open house. it was fantastic! and very spiritual. hopefully if you're ever in the area, I suggest going to that temple to see it. There were a lot of people and we rode on the blue bus. The temple is on the mountainside so riding the bus was also an interesting experience. and we got a cookie for going too. as we were lining up to get back on our blue bus, Jessica and I broke away from the crowd and got a picture in front of the temple. We made it back in time before the bus took off. Sadly our camera is faithful but old so the picture is kind of dark, but our spirits are high and we had seen the temple.
With sunday a much needed 15 min power nap before home teaching, and when we stepped from our doorstep this morning we were surrounded by a herd of deer. well not really surrounded but there was a group of them right in front of our home, definatily a nice tranquil spot. and the air was warm. And when I say warm I mean 50 degrees or around that temperature. and thats it. we will be going to Russels later this evening, and will have a lovely time doing that.

There is sunshine in my soul today

It is so beautiful outside today! It's a shame I have to be indoors and miss this little sliver of spring! Raimo and I walked outside at 9:00 today in sweatshirts--maybe you don't realize it, but it has not been sweatshirt weather. It has been windbreaker/ski jacket weather. This is a major breakthrough!!! I hate how frumpy I feel all winter in bulky marshmallow coats! Today I finally get to wear my new hoodie I got for Christmas! I'm feeling pretty good about life overall.

Another great thing about today is I woke up with relatively straight hair! This NEVER happens. I always have to do some major styling after sleeping on it. It's a good day.

Also, I am sore from a majorly athletic day yesterday! I love that feeling. We had all our dance classes two days in a row this week (Tuesday we had Monday classes). We also had a performance last night and Raimo and I practiced afterwards too. We were so beat! It feels good to be active though.

Tonight we are competing, next weekend we are competing, the following weekend we are competing in Vegas, and the following week is Nationals! It is pretty busy! I'm just excited to get going so that it will be over! (and also because it's fun). We need to buy some self-tanner-- the hard thing is finding one that doesn't look natural. We need to have really fake-looking, orange tans! Any ideas???

My last bit of good news is Raimo is starting another new job (he'll still be working for Express). He's going to do sales and it is sounding like a perfect fit for him. It is door-to-door and he can work as many or as few hours as he wants. It was really disheartening for him to not get many hours in this year, so I'm really excited that he will have something to work on whenever he wants! I'm feeling really good about it--when I read the ad online I thought it sounded perfect. He's way overqualified with his experience in phone sales-I know he'll do great. And we won't have to go away for the summer--this branch is based here!

SO that is a huge relief for us! And it is a beautiful day! And we are about to embark on the busiest season of the year for us! And spring is coming! Who wants to barbeque!!!!? I sure do

Love Your Hubby Week!!!!!

Valentines Day has got to be my favorite holiday!! It may even top Christmas, which of course is hard to beat! This is a really fun holiday for us because we got engaged on February 13th (see picture above), we had our first kiss the year before on the 14th, and pretty much it's just a great excuse to go out to eat and buy chocolate and flowers!!! I was thinking about something some of my old roommates liked to do called "Love Week" (ahem . . Yooms and Lindsay and friends) and they had all these rules for love week: you had to wear only pink, purple, red, white . . . in honor of love week; you had to listen to only love music; the whole point of the week was love--love everyone and everything!!!

I never really got into it, but I think this week I'm gonna give my husband a love week of my own! He probably hasn't really caught on yet (and I'm sure he won't be reading the blog anytime soon)! Yesterday I reorganized ALL of his clothes in his drawers (it was impossible to find anything in them) and I left love notes in every single one! Today I think I'll make him chocolate pudding and give him his favorite thing ever: a great backrub. What else? I was thinking surprising him with a big bag of double cheeseburgers--I think they are so nasty, but he loves them because they are only 1$ at McDees and he feels justified in buying a bunch of them at once. Love him :)

I need some more ideas for tomorrow and Thursday!!!

I am so excited for Friday night! We are celebrating V-day a day early because we have a show in Salt Lake on Saturday. I don't even care so much what we do-- I am just excited about going out to dinner or going out anywhere with Raimo!

Don't forget to give me some love week suggestions!!! And don't forget to feel the love this week!

Loooooove.....
Mrs. Laitinen
xoxoxox

So 2009 started out pretty well. We bought this couch on New Year's Day and some other little things for our house. It really looks a lot better. And I did have a good birthday, and age 22 is turning out ok. What else? We got some exciting news that our ballroom team has been invited to perform in Nauvoo this summer. We will be there for two weeks and doing a ton of performing from June 8th to the 22nd.
Yay! This is quick... we have to go to dinner now.

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.