The Wonnacott's!

Our First Valentines Day

2012-02-22T12:49:00.002-07:00

So we just had a first Valentines Day together as a married couple. We've had 1 together as a dating couple, and 1 as an engaged couple both of which were wonderful. But this year was different. I unfortunately had to work on Valentines Day, but we were able to get some one on one time together. I made Jared's gift this year, it was a book made from playing cards that was titled "52 Reasons Why I Love You." This took me some time to put together, but I think he really loved it. Along with the book I got him new sunglasses, a cute little stuffed bear, and gummies (Jared absolutely loves gummy stuff). Jared woke up with me at 4:30, and went down to scrape my car windows for me which is not something he does for me. He also came by before he went to school and put a CD in my car that I would listen to when I got off. Totally surprised me. It started with our song "Then" by Brad Paisley, followed by music he knew I wanted and songs that make him think of me. So cute! He also sent me a single red rose which arrived after I got home from work. He also made us a calendar with pictures we have taken since we got together with all the birthdays and other important events of the year on it.
That day Jared got a dent in the slide in his trombone, so he skipped 2 classes so we could get it repaired ASAP. He had concerts and other performances so it needed to be repaired quickly. So we drove to St George and dropped the trombone off to be repaired. While we waited we went to the visitors center at the St George Temple and walked around the temple grounds. We would have done a session or something, but the temple is closed for maintenance and what not. It was nice to just hold hands and be near the temple, where we had thought about getting married at one point. It was also nice to listen to music and hold hands in the car on the way down.
When we got home, we put the lasagna in the oven and ran to the grocery store to get some garlic bread. We ate dinner and watched "Friends with Benefits" and went off to bed.
It was just so nice to spend time together and show our love to one another. It was a great Valentines Day.
Our 1 Year Anniversary is in a few weeks so we'll have another excuse to show how much we love each other all over again.

Christmas Eve Pictures

2012-01-10T17:43:00.002-07:00

So I decided to share pictures from our Christmas Eve.

Us Christmas Eve in our Santa Hats of course

Jared cooked our honey glazed ham

Our Christmas Eve Dinner

Jared made wonderful egg nog which we had in our snowflake goblets

Our yummy dinner

We had a great Christmas and are looking forward to many more.

Birthday

2012-01-08T16:28:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was Jared's birthday. I unfortunately had to work yesterday from 8 am to 4 pm, so we played on Friday a little to make up for it. On Friday we went to the new Sherlock Holmes movie, with popcorn, soda, and candy. Yesterday we went out to dinner at the Hong Kong Buffet here in town. We came home stuffed. After dinner we watched a movie. Jared got all kinds of great presents. His mom/family gave him 2 cans of food to add to our food storage and a 72 hour kit, so now we have 3 kits which is really nice. From my family he got 4 musicals and some Sean Connery 007 movies. And from me... I gave him Wii Sports, the first season of The Fresh Prince of Belaire, and new hair clippers (which he really did need.) Oh and he got cards from me, our bishop, my grandma Hall, and our insurance I think. He says he had a great birthday. Now we both are 24, and it will be the first age where we started it married. I love Jared, and I am so glad he had a good birthday.

9 Months!!!!

2011-12-15T17:30:00.002-07:00

On Monday was our 9 month anniversary. CRAZY! I can't believe it sometimes. Sometimes it's like our wedding day was just yesterday. At other times, it seems like we have been married forever. I love Jared so much more today than I did on our wedding day, and I loved him a lot on our wedding day. We've been married long enough that if we had gotten pregnant right off the bat we'd be welcoming a new baby into our lives right now. Crazy! (And no we aren't pregnant and are not sure when we will either).
We have had our share of ups and downs these past 9 months, but I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. I love Jared, and am so glad that he took me to the temple 9 months ago. I am so grateful that we have the promise of being together FOREVER, so long as we keep those covenants we made that day as well as the others we have made. I can't imagine not having this knowledge, and not being with my sweetheart forever. I am looking forward to the many more months and years with Jared and the many more adventures we will have together. I love him so very much.

Compromise...

2011-12-01T19:25:00.002-07:00

We have come to realize that a happy marriage requires compromise. In other words both people have to give up something in order to settle a difference.
Like today we had a little situation. We only had one car and we both had things going on throughout the day. I had work from 10-6. Jared had class at 8, 10, 1 and a meeting at 5:30. So we compromised. Jared would be able to have the truck all day to get to the things he had to, but he had to drop me off at work at 10. As for his meeting we decided that if it were possible I would try to get off at 5:15 so he could be there for the whole meeting, but if I was unable to he would come pick me up when I was done and leave the meeting early or go late. I also said that if that wasn't going to work I would walk home, or maybe try to get a ride from a coworker. I ended up not finishing work until 5:45 and so Jared ended up leaving early and picking me up. I gave up having my own vehicle today and Jared gave up being able to stay at his meeting the whole time.
I don't know how we'd get along without compromising.
The best part of it is, that even though it feels like we're giving up what we might want at the time, I would gladly give up so much more for the closeness that comes as we sacrifice for each other.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T10:44:00.001-07:00

We spent Thanksgiving with the Davenport family and Grandma Davenport's extended family. They asked us to bring a salad so I decided to make my layered Jell-o salad, and to make it in the cornucopia mold I have. It turned our beautiful.

We stayed in St George at the Days Inn with our family, and had a ton of fun.

Our First Halloween

2011-11-02T10:25:00.012-06:00

For our first Halloween together, we dressed up as Ghostbusters. On Friday we went to a Halloween institute dance. Our costumes were a big hit. They even played the Ghostbusters theme song. It was a blast. On Saturday we went to our ward Halloween party. Our costumes were a hit again. We had dinner (soup, rolls, and desserts) and then carved pumpkins. Jared made one into the ghostbusters logo, and I had one say "hi". Yeah Jared is the creative one not me. They both turned out pretty great though. On Halloween I dressed up for work. After Jared was home from school we frosted cookies and then put together goodie plates for some of our friends. We put our costumes on and delivered our treats, and went to Papa Murphey's to get a Jack-o-Lantern pizza along with cheese bread and cookie dough. While we ate pizza we watched "Donnie Darko" and turned off all the lights and lit some candles and plugged in our pumpkin lights. I have been sick with a nasty cold and worked at 4 am, so at 10:30 I was exhausted, even though I wanted to stay up and watch more movies.
Here are some pictures of us:

We ended up buying some candy just to make sure we had something in case we got trick-or-treaters, but no one showed. I also went to Walmart and bought the 50% off candy so we have TONS.

It was a good Halloween. And looking forward to the many ahead.

6 MONTHS!!!

2011-09-12T10:20:00.002-06:00

Today is our 6 month anniversary. This morning I have been thinking a lot about that special day in the temple. 6 months ago I met Jared at the Salt Lake Temple at 10 am. He walked through the doors to the lobby and my already super excited self got even more excited and happy. We gave each other a kiss, and my mom and I went to get me ready. All the temple workers just made me feel so calm and like a princess. After getting into my temple dress my mom left to be with the rest of our guests but not before saying "take your time" I sat in the dressing room listing to my heart beat in my ears. Finally a worker came and took me to meet Jared. We were taken to the Celestial room where we sat together. There is something special about that room. I will never forget how I felt with my wonderful husband for as long as I live. At 11:00 we spoke with our sealer before going into that beautiful sealing room. After entering that wonderful room we received such wonderful advice that I wont ever forget, and then Jared and I were married and sealed together for all eternity.

That day was the most wonderful day of my life. And I cannot believe that I am lucky enough to be married to my best friend and have the promise that we can be together forever if we keep our covenants that we made 6 months ago.

2011-09-08T19:40:00.002-06:00

Well, Marisa keeps saying I'm going to post something, so I guess it's time I actually did.

School started a couple weeks ago. As always, I'm enrolled in mostly music classes. This semester, I'm finally finishing my theory courses, which I've been enrolled in almost every semester thus far. The last one is called 20th century theory and history, which includes studying the compositions of people like Schoenberg, Hindemith, and Cage. So, if you ever wondered what the musical equivalent is to Picasso and Escher and such, look up those guys. It's interesting, but not all the music is exactly pleasant to listen to. I'm also taking instrumental methods, which teaches me how to be a teacher, or more specifically, a band director. I'm taking Woodwinds and learning to play the clarinet. In Fundamentals of Conducting, I'm learning...the fundamentals of conducting! What a shock! I'm taking band and jazz and I've apparently been recruited to the orchestra as well. On top of all that playing, I'm in Brass studio and I'm taking private lessons, and trying to get in two hours of practice a day. Just so I don't have a overly musical schedule (yeah right) I'm also taking Education Psychology. That's a nice break. We read our assignment, the professor shows us a slide show that is word for word out of the book, then, if that wasn't enough monotony, the slides are all on-line so we can review them whenever we want. The best part is a lot of it is common sense. I usually just do homework for other classes when I'm there, but at least it's something non-musical in my schedule.

Outside of school, I'm currently employed by two different departments at the school and Vector Marketing. Holding three jobs is fairly easy when you only have a few hours a week. My most recent new job is with the school's Convocation Series, a series of lectures, motivational speakers, and performers that come every Tuesday at SUU. I work for two hours as an usher. It's surprisingly fun and I've so far met Senator Harry Reid and I'll get to meet a couple other cool speakers this year. My other job with the school is as a janitor. I'm just on call for any jobs that someone can't make it in to work. Right now it's slow, but once the weather and the homework load picks up, it'll pick up. The last job I have is as a knife salesman. It's pretty self explanatory. I find people that might like great knives, and I show them what I've got, and people buy them. So, if you want some knives, you know who to call. I also do bridal registries. Anyways, my other source of income is scholarships and such. I actually got paid this semester to go to school, between a pell grant and a music scholarship, I got a dollar and twenty five cents back, that of course went towards books.
One cool discovery we had a week or so ago was the T. H. Bell Teaching Incentive Loan. It's basically where the program gives education majors money while they're in school, and instead of paying back this loan, all you have to do is teach in Utah for as many semesters as you received funding for. I applied and was approved for one of the 8 positions available in the SUU education department. So, now I'm getting a couple extra grand a semester and I'm officially staying in Utah after graduation for at least a couple years.
Anyways, that's my classes and jobs and such. It's looking like a good semester, and it'll be the best semester ever simply because I'll be with Marisa from the start. I'm looking forward to a semester where I have a beautiful, amazing, wonderful friend to share all the ups and downs with. Hopefully it mostly ups, but we'll see.

Quick Update....

2011-09-07T14:34:00.002-06:00

Jared started school 3 weeks ago. He's taking 16 credits this semester, which is less than what he was taking while we were engaged and newly married. Jared will be posting on how school is going and such things soon... I hope... :)

I recently cut my hair, and I absolutely love it. It is way short now, and is very low maintenance which is perfect for me. A very quick brush through is all it needs most days now. It's great, especially with my new position at work. I no longer am what they called the "prep girl". I now am opening and cooking breakfast most days of the week. This means getting to work by 4 am. On the plus side I am home at noon and pretty much have the rest of my day to do whatever, which usually includes lots of time with Jared. YAY!!! It also means that I get every other Sunday off.

Jared applied for this Terrell H Bell Teaching Incentive Loan, and....... WE GOT IT! Jared knows more about the details of it than I do so I will make sure he includes that. But basically we are getting money if he teaches in Utah after he graduates. It is going to be such a blessing. I know I am very grateful for it.

Nothing else has really happened in our lives that I can think of at the moment. But we are doing well and are still very much in love with each other and so VERY happy. :)

News

2011-07-20T16:51:00.002-06:00

Well about 2 weeks ago we purchased a new vehicle. Grandpa and Grandma Wonnacott moved into an active adult community (assisted living center) and were needing to start getting rid of some of their possessions that they will no longer be needing. One of the many things was their 2001 Ford F-150 pickup. Jared has driven that truck more than grandpa has most likely. Jared drove that truck while he lived with them last summer, and frequently borrowed it so he could come see me while we were dating. We looked at our finances and budget and decided that it would be a good investment, and something we could do. So we will be making payments for the next like 20 months on the truck. This way grandma and grandpa will be able to get a little bit of an income every month, and we get another vehicle. We also wont have to put it on our insurance until October, and wont have to register it until March.

This last weekend was a fabulous weekend for us. We went to St. George Friday and came home Saturday night. We helped move grandpa and grandma into their new place most of Friday afternoon. We met with Uncle Doug (Jared's uncle on his mom's side) and did a knife demonstration. Jared is still doing the job with Cutco, and doing fairly well with it. (I will try and get Jared to post sometime about how the job is going.) We then dropped off our things at Grandma and Grandpa Davenport's (Jared's mom's parent's) and let them know our plan for the night. We then went on a shopping spree to Kohl's and Bed Bath & Beyond. After shopping we went to Red Lobster for dinner. They have this great deal going on through the end of July, you get a 4 course meal for $15. It was so delicious. After dinner we went to the park that is really close to the St George Temple. We walked over to the gazebo/pavilion and talked. (Jared can be so romantic sometimes.) We walked through the park some more, then drove back to the grandparent's. Saturday we woke up and went to see if the Wonnacott's (not us obviously) needed anymore help moving, but everything was all done so we just visited. We then went to the temple, which was amazing as always. we love going to the temple together. After we got done at the temple, we hurried and changed then went to see Harry Potter after stopping to get some pizza from our stake. The movie was AWESOME! Overall it was a wonderful weekend.

This week has been a big week for Jared. It's push week with Cutco and so he is trying to get as many appointments as he can. There is a conference next Tuesday and Wednesday in Pocatello Idaho, and he will be gone overnight. We both aren't looking forward to our first night away from each other since we have been married. It's funny we spend over a year not sleeping with each other, and now we can't imagine not sleeping next to each other.

Next weekend we will be heading up to Salt Lake. I am looking forward to going "home" and being able to see my dogs again. I'm going through withdraws. Plus we will be going to an old friend of mine's wedding reception. He and his new wife both go to SUU and will be living here in Cedar. It will be nice to have some more married friends.

As for me, I am working 35+ hours a week at Maverik. I finally am able to make it to my church meetings. They had been making me work Sunday's 6-2, but now I will be working 4-10. I will still have to work Sunday's but I can make it to my meetings most if not every week. Every week I have Friday and Saturday off, so I get one full day to spend with Jared. I am going to start working out. I have unfortunately gained some weight and am going to work on slimming back down.

Basically, we are doing great and loving our life together.

2011-06-21T18:41:00.001-06:00

Thinking of how different things could have been, if I hadn't made the decisions I had, specifically the decision I made to marry my husband in the house of the lord. Anyone who knows me/us, knows we were engaged for nearly 8 months before we were married (not the typical length of an engagement for a LDS couple). (The details of why it took so long do not matter, thanks to the atonement) However, we could have been married civilly in November, on a date that we had talked about getting married, making it a 3 month engagement and then be sealed 1 year later. But, we decided that we wanted to be sealed in the temple no matter how long it took us to get there. We didn't want to take the chance of something happening to one of us before we were sealed or having a child not born in the covenant.
We both had and currently have strong testimonies of the sealing power and of the temple in general. We knew we needed our family to be sealed right from the start, and that it was either the temple or not at all. A lot of my testimony of the temple was because of events in my life where it was questionable whether the family would be together after this life. And that scared me to death. Hence why I wasn't going to end up anywhere but the temple. I'm not sure of the details of Jared's testimony but I KNOW he had a strong testimony of it and heartily agreed that the only place we would marry would be the temple.
We had lots of people ask and wonder why we had/were having such a long engagement, but it didn't matter to me what people said or thought. I knew we were doing the right thing by doing it right the first time.
Thankfully through the help of family, friends, and church leaders as well as leaning on each other for support we made it to the temple. I can't imagine having done it any other way. And I am so very grateful that we made it despite the challenges we had to overcome to get there. It was SO worth it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Because of that one decision, I know that Jared will be by my side even after death. I have also received SO many blessings, especially from being able to attend the temple.

2 months and still goin

2011-05-12T12:23:00.000-06:00

Today is our 2 month anniversary! And these past 2 months have flown by. In these past 2 months we have experienced the joys of living together(the good and the bad), we've had some people stay with us in our little apartment overnight, and have pretty much stayed in Cedar City.
Jared's in training today until 7 p.m. (by the way I don't enjoy working for Vector - sales is NOT my thing) but I am hoping that we can do something somewhat special tonight. Maybe a nice candle light dinner?

Post 1

2011-04-26T12:41:00.002-06:00

Welcome! Well... where to begin... I guess with an introduction to the 2 of us, although if you don't know us then why are you even reading this!? HA HA!
Anyway... Well I am from South Jordan, Utah and Jared is from Ridgecrest, California. Jared and I met on September 18 2009. It was at a dodge ball tournament with the LDS Institute between all the wards in the University. We both were in the Cedar City University 26th ward, and both attending school at Southern Utah University (GO T-BIRDS!!!) We played our first game, which we lost, and had to wait over an hour before our 2nd game (it was double elimination). We each had decided that we would just hang out in the PE Building until we played again. We sat down on the gym floor and just started talking. Talked about our families, what we were doing in school, his mission, and the other basic "getting to you know you" stuff. After that day we started talking more and more and became good friends. Jared asked my roommate out and oddly enough it brought us closer. I guess because I helped him move past wanting a relationship with a freshman and realizing the joys of being unattached. However, in December he finally asked me out and he showed me the joys of being attached. Go figure. For our first date on December 3rd he took me to ring the bell at Wal-mart (which was freezing) then off to dinner at Panda Express and then to see "The Forgotten Carrol's." All our conversation just flowed and wasn't awkward or strained, which was a first for both of us. After the performance we went back to my apartment and watched a movie or 2 and had hot chocolate. The best first date either of us had ever been on. It was about this time that Jared realized that I was graduating at the end of that semester and I would be moving back to South Jordan the next week. So he did everything he could to spend as much time with me as possible. We had a wonderful week together. He helped me pack up my things and put them in my tiny Geo Metro, and I headed home. We continued to text each other non-stop for about a week, realizing how much we meant to each other. We started talking on the phone nightly not too long after that. We became "facebook official" on December 19th, after deciding that we would give this a shot. We weren't sure how to really make a long distance relationship work but made the jump anyway. After Christmas he decided to get a ride up to Provo and come visit me all the way from Ridgecrest California. Oh, did I mention that we hadn't even kissed yet? Well we spent the end of his Christmas break together and continued to make trips to and from Southern Utah just to be together. We talked every night on the phone and would do so for hours. We eventually met each others family. Jared went to Raleigh, North Carolina to sell pest control for the summer. We eventually got webcams to make the distance bearable. Jared returned to Utah earlier than expected in July instead of August. On August 14th Jared surprised me by driving up from St George to have a talk with my dad while I was at work. He asked permission from my dad to marry me. What exactly was said I have no idea. I got home from work and then Jared knocked on my bedroom door. I was totally surprised. He said he came to ask my dad a question. I played dumb, but knew exactly what that question was. We had been talking about getting married for almost 6 months. He then got down on one knee, right there in my parent's basement, and asked me "Marisa Hall, will you marry me?" I of course said "Yes!" We then planned our wedding and all the stuff that goes with that. We were sealed together for time and all eternity on March 12, 2011. We both married our best friend that day, and it was the happiest day of our lives.
We currently live in Cedar City, Utah in a one bedroom apartment not to far from the SUU campus. We both will be working for Vector Marketing. I start my training with them tomorrow and Jared will start his after his finals are over.
That should give you the basic jist of our life together so far.