"Even Crazy Dreams Come True"

So it was brought to my attention that I haven't updated this blog for months, and it turns out that quite a few things have happened this year! 

1. I married my best friend in the entire world on March 8th, 2012 in the Salt Lake temple.  This was without a doubt the most wonderful, perfect day of my life so far!  I couldn't believe how many people came out to celebrate with us!  It was a beautiful day- first we were sealed at 11- I thought that was a pretty great time.  Not too early, but we still had time to take some pictures before our lunch at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Matt's parents arranged that whole thing and it was just perfect- his mom made the cute centerpieces and his dad made our slide show which I just loved (there are some pretty cute pictures of Matt- if you didn't get to see it, come over and I'll show it to you ;) ).  Matt's dad had a microphone and opened it up for people to come up and say something- I was surprised when both my brothers and my sister went up to say something.  They were so sweet, I started bawling. 

After the lunch, we went to our reception at Heritage Gardens.  Everyone made that so perfect!  Annie picked up our centerpieces so those were already set up and ready to go, our cake was gorgeous (thanks to Rebekah Poppleton- I can give you her card- she's amazing!) and delicious... I've been looking for an excuse to get another ever since.  We had the most fun DJ ever- he even got the dads and brothers and Matt to dance while ridiculously dressed- if you missed that, you'll have to check out the pictures.  A BIG thank you to everyone that helped with everything for the wedding and to everyone who came.  :)  Best day ever!

2. Tomorrow I am graduating from the University of Utah with two of my best buds- Melissa and Torri.  I couldn't have made it without these girls.  They definitely got me through.  Sadly, Torri is now moving to Colorado so her husband can go to pharmacy school and she can do a program to be an ultrasound tech- pretty cool.  Good thing I still get to hang out with Melissa- in fact, Matt and I moved to Bountiful so I get to run with Melissa every week which leads to the upcoming third thing:

3. Melissa and I are doing the Ogden Marathon on May 19- Melissa's birthday.  Crazy girl- who wants to spend 4-5 hours running on their birthday, right?  Well let me tell ya- this girl.  She is hard core and it was one of her goals to run a marathon by the time she turned 22... so she's doing it ON her 22nd birthday.  What a rockstar!  I am sure I would have quit by now if it hadn't been for her making me keep going on those long runs.  We've gotten up to 18 miles and will be running 20 this Saturday. 

4. I somehow got admitted to the grad program for Speech Pathology at the University of Utah, so I will be starting that in August.  In the meantime, Matt and I are planning on going to Hawaii and St. George and hopefully Disneyland this summer- to have as much fun together while we can. 

5. I somehow got Matt to agree to start running even though he hates it.  We did his first 5k- Color Me Rad- this past Saturday.  Emma Kofoed- my favorite 10-year-old, did it with us as well.  It was a blast and made us all want to do more races.  As a result, Matt and I are going to be doing Wasatch Back Ragnar next month AND Vegas Ragnar in November.  I'm also trying to talk him into trying a half marathon at the end of the summer, so stay tuned for that. :) 

Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted on the adventures of Matt and Charisse trying to learn how to be responsible (if you look at all the faces we made on our wedding day, you'll appreciate the challenge that must be) and figure out married life in Boutiful, Utah.  Also- I'll have pictures for graduation and the marathon, etc. coming soon!

"Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you"

So back in about May last year, I met this incredibly sweet, good-looking guy named Matt Wright. Unfortunately, it was on a double date, and he was not my date. Ha. But we talked to each other quite a bit on the date and had a lot of fun. But then I didn’t see much more of him other than seeing him across the room in church or once at Smokey Mountain Pizza when I went in to buy cheese bread (he worked there).
Well then in July, I moved downtown so I could be closer to work and school. For those of you who don’t know, I work doing IT support over the phone for the LDS Church. One day in September, I was at work and I heard someone come up behind me and say “Hey Charisse.” I turned around and saw Matt standing there. I asked what he was doing there and he said he had just been hired and was now going to be on the hardware team- my team. Well he ended up sitting in the cubicle next to me, so we started talking all day every day. At the end of October, I finally got him to ask me out. We went to the Odyssey dance production of Thriller at Kingsbury Hall. Prior to this, I had been frustrated with myself and with dating and had been praying about it and told Heavenly Father that I have commitment issues and that He would probably have to make it pretty obvious when I met the person He wanted me to marry if that was ever going to happen.
Anyway, so Matt and I went to Thriller and just really hit it off. We had been talking so much prior to our first date that it was completely comfortable the whole time. He brought me flowers and he held my hand during the performance and I got big time butterflies. It was pretty fantastic. Well then, the next day we decided to go to the Witch Hunt at Gardner Village and on the way we were talking about how crazy it was that we both ended up working together and were talking about how it seemed like the whole “us dating” thing was kinda meant to be. He said “Charisse, do you even know how I got this job?” He then proceeded to tell me that he hadn’t even applied at the Global Service Center, but that our boss, Bob, found his resume on the internet and called him to offer him the job. When he told me that, I got this little voice in my head that said, “Can I make it any more obvious for you?” I got goosebumps. Pretty cool eh?
Well, Matt and I kept dating… a lot. In fact, we haven’t had a day since our first date that we haven’t spent together. I just feel like he’s become my best friend and I just can’t get enough of him. So we started talking about getting married and all that jazz because even though I thought the “When it’s right, it’s right” mindset was a little crazy and I was always against getting married super fast.
So for Christmas, Matt got me a gift certificate to take scuba lessons, because that was the top thing on my bucket list. So last night, we had our appointment to go to Dive Addicts in Draper for our class. We went and got in our gear and started the class- there were two other people in the class with us. So we would go under the water and the instructor would show us how to do a particular skill and then he would point to each of us, one at a time, and we would do the skill. We went through the class to the last skill we were going to do- hovering in the deep end of the pool. So we went down to the deep end and the other two people we were with did their hovering, and then I went. Well, Matt was the only one left and suddenly our instructor’s equipment malfunctioned and he had to go up (this freaked Matt out a lot but he didn’t tell me that until later). Well he fixed it and we went back down. He had all of us line up along the wall opposite Matt so he could do his hovering skill. Well suddenly, as Matt was swimming there, this sign came floating down that said “Charisse will you marry me?” and Matt swam over and grabbed my hand and put a ring on my finger. I was super shocked and couldn’t say anything cause we were under water! Haha. Well we all played around at the bottom for a little while and then it was time to go. So we got out of the pool and I still hadn’t really said anything. So Matt walked me out to his car and we drove to the Draper temple. He made me get out and walk over to the front of the temple. I was in a towel and my swim suit this whole time- keep in mind (we definitely got some weird looks!). So when we got to the front, he gave me a bouquet of lilies- my favorite flowers- and knelt down and said something to the effect of “Charisse Elizabeth Horne, you are my best friend and I want to spend all of time and eternity with you- will you marry me?” So I said “of course!” and we jumped back in the car to go tell our families. The ring was perfect- I really like it. I helped pick out the setting and he got the diamond.
I am ridiculously spoiled and feel like the luckiest girl in the world to get to spend the rest of forever with my best friend. We are still trying to work out the wedding date with school stuff, so stay tuned.

"Lights Will Guide You Home"

Last Tuesday, my uncle Scott- my mom's sister Valeri's husband- passed away unexpectedly. Over the past week, all three of my mom's 3 brothers and my cousins all flew out here to help out and to be here for the funeral. It was really neat to see how everyone came together to support my aunt Valeri and her family through this time. It was really nice for us all to be together again- I haven't seen them all together since my grandpa's funeral 5 years ago. The weekend was filled with hugs and tears and some laughs as well just because my family is amazing. I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the opportunity we have to be comforted by someone that understands perfectly what we are going through. I am really sad for my cousins who just lost their dad. Two of them, Scotty and Shauni, spoke at the funeral and did an awesome job. It was a really nice service. Scotty and his cute wife, Aleese, sang my all time favorite song "Count, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." It was so awesome. I was bawling through the whole thing. I was impressed that they made it to the last verse before breaking down. The whole day was very bittersweet. I can't imagine going to a funeral not believing that we can see our loved ones again. It's hard enough doing without them for just a little while here on earth. I came away from this whole thing just grateful for the gospel though. I don't have a doubt that we will all see the people we love again and I am so grateful for that knowledge and the peace it brings during tough times like this. The gospel is true! :)

(Our family is tough- we can get through anything!)

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=scott-edward-stewart&pid=154553801&refsvce=facebook#.Tr0-5Kmh2pY.facebook

"I Just Wanna Run..."

So last week was a little crazy. On the 16th, my cousin Crystal and I ran "The Other Half" in Moab. That was a pretty fun time in spite of our detour that took us somehow into Colorado due to my cousin's instructions that "it's a straight shot".... We just wanted to take the scenic route I guess. I liked the course though. There were a couple hills, but a lot was fairly flat or downhill. At about mile 10, my IT band started bothering me a lot and I slowed way down. I was still able to beat my time from my last half though and finished in 2:14:20. Next time I do one I'm shooting for 2 hours or less, like my amazing cousin did this time. We'll see how that goes. The best part was that we got lost on the way home as well, so it ended up taking us about an extra hour and a half. We're not the best with directions...

Well then this past weekend, I got to go to Las Vegas to run the Vegas Ragnar. I'm not gonna lie, I did it for the super cool medal. You get a really neat one for doing two Ragnars in the same year. So I got to be on a team full of people I didn't know.

Driving down there to even start the race was a mess. There was so much traffic and construction that it took my mom and me 8 hours to get to Vegas from Salt Lake, and on the way we managed to have a piece of something flip up and dent the hood of the rental car and crack the windshield. Not cool. By the time we got there, we were both frustrated and starving and bawling. Ha not a good way to start a two day race. It ended up being ok though. We got to our hotel and made it the next morning in time for me to meet my team and go to breakfast with them. They were all way fun and super cool people. Mostly from California but one from Vegas and one from Washington.

We ended up having one of our team members drop out due to an injury and we almost weren't able to finish the race, but somehow we got through and finished Saturday night around 6:30. It was definitely an adventure.

It's funny how the harder things are, the more you appreciate being done and the better you feel about your accomplishments. I also really appreciated my parents going down with me and being so supportive of what I wanted to do. I am pretty dang lucky. :)

"Everybody needs inspiration; Everybody needs a song..."

I realized a very long time ago that music means more to me than it does to a lot of people, but today I realized something else. I went to choir today- which lately has been one of the few things keeping me going- and the girl that was giving the thought for the day mentioned how the Savior can be our best friend. That wasn't the focus of what she was saying, but she said it. Well, it got me thinking that I'm definitely not to that point, and I want to be. Then I started thinking about why that's hard for me. If we have Him available to us and He is perfect, why would we not take advantage of it? Well, sometimes it's hard to think of your best friend as someone you can't see there. My mind then took me back to a conversation I had with one of my favorite mission companions. We were talking about prayer and she said, "Sometimes I feel like I just can't quite get through to Him." I think I feel like that a lot. Like I'll be praying and just pouring my heart out and trying so hard to feel like someone's listening, but I feel instead like I'm just talking to the wall. But then yesterday in choir we were singing this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70kdwGBv8fQ (it's good- you should check it out!)

As soon as we started singing, I just got this overwhelming feeling of peace and love and I knew Heavenly Father had been listening. "Just talk to your Father in Heaven. He hears every prayer and answers in His way. In time, He will answer. He will not fail us." -Richard G. Scott. (http://lds.org/new-era-2003-08-recognizing-answers-to-prayer?lang=eng&query=answers+prayers -Great talk!)

Anyway, I know that Heavenly Father hears us and I'm so grateful for that. We just need to learn to recognize the way He talks back. I am definitely going to work on that and on depending on Him instead of other people- even though sometimes that feels harder since we can't see Him. But He's always there, and that is pretty incredible.

"Livin on Dreams and Spaghettios, Wonderin Where Your Life is Gonna Go..."

So I guess a pretty important thing to add on here is I finally got moved out again and am now living downtown right inbetween work and school. It pretty much couldn't be more perfect. I am now living with Jana (that beautiful girl in the picture on the left) and our other roommate Cassidy. They are both very cute girls and we get along great, although we rarely see each other.

Jana is currently working on her PhD at the U in Pharmacology and Toxicology (what a little smarty!) Life has been throwing her some curveballs lately (as it so often seems to like to do) and the future is kinda up in the air.

I guess I feel like I can relate to not knowing where my life is going right now. I feel like so much has been changing lately... I am doing everything I can to try to get into the grad program at the U, but honestly I have no idea what I'll do if that doesn't happen. I am typically the kind of girl that loves adventure and taking chances and going new places... but lately nothing like that feels right. The problem is, I don't know what does. Life is crazy. Nothing is stable. Nothing goes as planned.

With all this uncertainty and all these "unknowns" in the near future, I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately on what I want out of life and who I want to be. My number one goal can be summarized well in the words of President Hinckley: "We are not here on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much of a difference we can make in the lives of others." What I want most, is for the lives of people that know me to be better because they did know me. I want to do anything I can to make the world and the people around me better. I feel like I have been focusing on the wrong things and not doing this very well lately. Time to refocus on this and make the changes I need to in order to become this kind of a person.

Another thing I have realized is that I have a whole lot of passion for the field I am going into. I want to do speech-language pathology and I want to do it well. I want to learn everything I can and be able to contribute something to this relatively new and growing field. The more I learn, the more I love it!

The last thing I'll mention that I've been thinking about is how grateful I am that we all have more potential than we are currently living up to. That means we can become better. Doesn't that give you a brighter hope for this world? It does for me. We don't have to settle for where we are, or even where we've been. It's possible to change.... and the possibilities are limitless. Each of us can become whoever we want to be. So the question is, who do you want to be?

"You are not you. You are greater than you." -Spencer V. Jones