happy anniversary

It's been a whole year since Chris and I said I do.. Okay we said yes.

Let me just tell ya, they weren't kidding when they say the first year is the hardest. Especailly when you don't exactly know the guy you're going to marry.
Chris and I met through our wonderful brother and sister in law, Kai and Amy.
Kai brought Chris' younger brother Ryan to a Stake Dance and that was when I had first heard of Chris.
He told me his cool older brother was serving a mission and that's when it all started.. 
Later that week Amy and I had joked about getting his mission address so I could write him.
Then she gave it to me and I just couldn't resist.  Our first letter went a little like this..

February 16, 2010

Hello Elder Hendrickson,
 Amy sent me part of your e-mail about you hoping it wont be weird for me to write to some complete stranger, and it's totally not. I'm just writing to a missionary.. that I've never met before. haha so..
How are you? How is the mission going? Amy told me your in the Kennewick, Washington Mission. I use to live in Oregon so I know about the constant pouring rain. Hopefully you have an umbrella.. :)   
To start off, my name is Sarah Petersen, I'm from a little village in Nevada, also known as Mesquite. I am a senior in High School and I'm going to graduate this June, the 2nd to be exact.And I am so excited! 
Amy and Ryan both told me your into swimming and water polo..That's awesome! I have been swimming since I was about nine, and I have been on several softball and volleyball teams. Just giving you some background I guess. haha Wow, Im so boring, umm. I have lived in just about every state on the West Coast; Cali, Oregon, Utah, Idaho and Nevada. This year has kinda been a total bummer, my freshman and sophomore year my school didn't have a swim team so I played softball. Then my Junior year they started a swim team and the very first day of the season I injured my shoulder which required surgery. So I pretty much missed my whole junior year of swimming and my whole senior year of volleyball. We even went to state in volleyball and I got to sit the bench and watch. BUT.. I don't hate life, things are great. 
Kai and Amy have been trying to talk me into going to BYU-Hawaii.. I think when I said i would pray about it, they came up with the idea of this "arranged marriage" haha I just laughed and Amy was truly serious.. uhh? 
Let's see, I'm trying to think of other things to tell ya.. and hopefully this isn't wasting your time! Oh, I am the oldest in my family, I have two amazing sisters and one stud of a brother. I think Amy told you already but, my dad is the Bishop and his time is hopefully almost up. 
Okay, well I hope your doing well and I would love to hear back from ya! I really hope you don't think I'm some weirdo haha anyways.. I would love to hear about the mission!! 
Sincerely Sarah 

His response..

Hi Sarah,

  Well, its nice to hear from you. When Amy told me two weeks ago that she had arranged a marriage for me I was pretty shocked. I knew nothing about it. I'm glad she is looking out for me. I'm glad I get to hear about you from you too, though.

  You sound like quite the athlete! And you swim, that's awesome. I'm sorry to that you had to have surgery and miss out on so much playing time. That's a bummer.

 It sounds like you have a great family. I have a stud brother too. You met him, I call him whiteballer, but you know him as Ryan.

  Hawaii is definitely an awesome school. I love it, but its not for everyone. I think you would enjoy it though.

  Anyways, thanks for writing me. I'm sorry for not writing more, I dont have very much time. I love my mission. Its the best!

I'll talk to you later.

Elder Hendrickson

How cute. Oh I love these.. then we exchanged some pictures.

 My missionary flying home.

That's about how the letters went. I talked and he wrote a few sentences back. (I was a senior in 

High School when this was going on). 

He got home April 20th and we met May 1st. Out very first awkward meeting. Amy wanted me to meet him so she and Kai took me, along with the kids, to go to my now nieces baptism in Vegas. We got out of the car and the only word that comes to mind when trying to describe the moment is awkward. Here we are, suppose to "marry" one another and he is fresh off the mission. Won't hardly even look at me. 

He ended up coming home with us to Mesquite. We tried to "hang out" but it was just too weird. He was way more interested in my adorable nephew. (I don't blame him, I kept saying, Well, this is awkward".)

He left for home after a week and then called. We would stay up talking and listening to him and Ryan goof around for hours. There was something so different about this guy, he was so interesting.

I was going to say "long story short" but the story is quite short itself.

June came next and Chris and Ryan came up for my graduation on June 2nd and stayed a couple days then drove home. Chris came up on the 9th and had lunch with my dad. The 10th we were engaged. 

July was full short but very fun visits in-between work. 

Thanks to my mom, my mother and sister in law, the wedding was planned. I was too busy being on cloud nine. If it wasn't for them, it wouldn't have happened. 

We decided we would be married on August 21st in the St. George Temple. 

Always a goal of mine to find a man who would take me there.

We were married without exactly knowing who each other was. But for some strange reason it felt so right.  Almost like if we didn't get married something bad would happen. 

I remember walking into the sealing room with my soon to be husband, asking myself if I really loved him. 

I didn't. How could I? 

After walking in that room with everyone I loved, kneeling across from him, I knew it was meant to be. 

My wedding day was the most beautiful and special experience I have ever had. 

Chris and I have been through a lot  in one little year. We have been through many things that have brought us closer. I cannot see myself with anyone else. I love this man with all of my heart. Happy Anniversary babe, I love you! 

its decided

I have really learned to love Hawaii. Truly. It grows on you. Yes I know, I swore to myself and everyone else that it wouldn't, but it did. It isn't hard to let the good people get to you. It isn't hard to let the "Hawaii" laid back time get to you. (It's worse that "mormon standard" by the way).

We love the sun, the sand and everything else that comes with living here. But...

If we stayed here to finish school, Chris wouldnt be able to graduate for another year and a half to two years.

So we have prayed and pondered and prayed some more. We've looked into other schools and we keep coming up with Provo.

So when it comes to paying a third of the rent and also being able to afford tasty food.. I think we can handle that. :) Being in the cold weather will take some getting use to. 

 Chris will be able to finish within a year and then start applying for med school.

We just thought, why not get school done faster and cheaper and closer to family while we're doing it? So we are! It is decided, we will be moving to Utah around December ish.. and I can't wait.

And I will be able to go to school along with Chris and Ryan. My goal is to do Interior Design. There are so many more options there than there are here.

Don't get me wrong, I will miss Hawaii and the friends we leave behind. But it will be nice to have family around. 

the 2nd best chocolate chip cookies in the world!!

My friend Ashley found an amazingly yummy chocolate chip cookie recipe. I know there are billions out there but I swear to you, these are the worlds second best. Mom's come first. Sorry. Nothing can beat those. But these come close. Try it out. You'll see.  

So here's the recipe

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter (cut into cubes)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup dark brown sugar  (I did 1 1/2 cup light brown sugar and 1 tbsp molasses)

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp corn starch

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. In bowl mix butter, sugars and molasses

3. Add eggs, one at a time

4. Add dry ingredients

Should not be sticky, if it is then add flour

5. Add chocolate chips

6. Let them cook for 11 or 12 minutes

7. Take out and let them dry on cookie sheet, then remove. 

and eat! They are so yummy! And easy!

fail

My cake did not turn out. Like, at all. It was a horrible, huge mess.

Thank you humidity. (Without AC)

I will try something new suppose. 

I couldn't even take a picture because it wouldn't stand up long enough for one. 

Ruffle Tower Cake

Here is the cake I am aiming for. I can do it.

Beautiful. 

an epiphany

I know I have done a lot of complaining since I've been here. 

(This is not another post of that). 

I think I have finally realized what's going on. 

The problem is not Hawaii. It's me. 

I went to see my awesome bishop and after our two hour session we came to the agreement that I have a problem. A big problem. 

He asked me lots of questions. He asked me what I see when I look in the mirror.. I told him acne. 

He asked again. I said love-handles. Although he laughed. He didn't like my answers. I didn't like my answers. 

We decided that I need to do better things to make me feel good about myself. I think everyone have this problem. Especially women. We see the size two girl and think "Wow, I'm so much bigger than her" or "Dang I need to loose weight". And thanks to the world, a size 10 is now considered "plus size". 

Satan has been a lot harder on me this year. Normally he woks pretty hard to make me feel like crap but this year he is on a roll. As you know, many things have happened to me. Moving, marriage, sickness, friend drama, loneliness, depression, the list goes on. All this time I have been blaming it on Hawaii. It seemed normal. 

After meeting with Bishop he told me to forget about the little things and focus on myself. He told me to ignore the friends with drama and be with the ones that make me happy. To ignore the little things Chris forgets to do and focus on how much he does do for me. 

So, Hawaii is not of the devil. It is actually a great and beautiful place to live. An even better place to vacation but I have found things to love out here. When we leave (in December) I will be sad. I'm so grateful I finally found out why I am suppose to be here at this time, in this ward, with this bishop. I love being here with Chris. I love Chris with everything I have. I am so glad we were married in the temple. I'm so grateful for my family. I miss them so much and I'm grateful for an end date. I'm grateful for the family I married into. I have not shown it but I will get better. I am grateful for this church and the plan it has for us. I love this gospel and I love being here. 

Now that I have taken a year to figure out who I am and what I am here to do, I am going to do just that. Be a happy person. Make good long lasting friends, even if I have to move go through a few to find the good ones. Spend time with family and eventually, have one of my own some day. 

That was my epiphany. 

Now on to baking. 

caribbean sea

Yesterday my sister in law Amy called and asked if I would be her partner in a new craft blog. I love doing crafts so of course I said yes!

The blog is called the The Craft Bucket. Check it out!

All the crafts are so easy and cheap. You don't have to have a degree in decor to be able to do this. My favorite kind of crafts!

I soon started a new craft. Since I can't paint my walls here, I decided I would paint my furniture. My coffee table to be exact. 

I have a black dresser, two black bookshelves, a black tv stand, and more black shelves. I'm sick of black. 

So I picked the coolest pattern and the cutest color and went at it. 

I used a lot of tape and only a little paint. If you want the tutorial check it out here:

tutorial.

It look so awesome. I love it!! Reached my goal: Added some color!

randoms

I have put up a few posts lately and I can't keep track of which pictures I posted and which ones I haven't. So.. if there is a copy. Sorry. 

Thursday was a sad day. That was the day we dropped Ryan off at the airport. We were all dreading it. Ryan most of all. He did everything as slow as possible as if to postpone what was going to happen. We stopped by Jack before we took him in. I couldn't resist getting some last pictures. 

On the way to the airport. 

I said these were random.. This was the day before Ryan left. We went to the East side. The view was amazing. 

Then there was another hike. We had told Ryan about this cool hike and at the end there is a rope swing into a river. So one day we went. Well, the boys went. We got there, parked, I got out of the car and within five minutes I had three bites. So I stayed in the car. We would meet up in a half an hour. I met up with them a half hour later. They both got in the car and we started driving away. I asked how it went and I got "interesting" back. Chris then said "Ry you can stretch your leg out if you want". I'm thinking what? Why? Why does he need to stretch it out?  This is what I saw next. 

I guess Chris forgot to tell him that there are huge concrete slabs in the murky water. 

It was bound to happen though. Every time Ryan is with us he gets hurt. Like, really hurt. 

Sorry Ry. 

trouble

Our family (all Hendricksons and Petersens) know that when Chris and Ryan get together.. there is trouble. 

LIke I said before, we went on a few hikes while Ryan was here. Of course there are places not allowed to hikers. I'm pretty sure Ryan found all of them. 

It was a fun trip.