Love Today & Everyday

happy valentine's day, dear bloggers!

 

Happiness!

Yes, I'M MARRIED!

I have SO MANY fun and happy details to share with you all!

But for now I will share this little tidbit of advice, designed by yours truly in the most fabulous font I've EVER beheld! :)

I'll be back REAL soon!

Photo by J. Taylor

Weekend's End

Someday, weekends will come to an end and he'll still be here.

And not in Provo.

In 26 DAYS to be exact!

Thank GOODNESS time is going by... however slowly.

Our Story - Part II

Y'all ready for this? :) Good, cause I'm so giddily excited to tell you all the fabulous details of how and when I realized that I wanted to spend forever with James and, of course, the way he finally proposed :)

I remember, before James was even my boyfriend...I think we had only been out 3 or 4 times aka he wasn't "sold" on me yet, I was sitting in Sunday School and he was teaching.

First of all, let me premise this by saying that, my future husband is an awesome teacher. He's had lots of cool experiences and opportunities to be a teacher throughout the past 5 years and, thus, he's pretty impressive up in front of a group (see photo below...I rest my case ;)

So, there I am, sitting inconspicuously in his Sunday School class and, frankly, daydreaming about "us"...the not-yet-existent "us", that is ;) I remember looking around the room at all of these impressive and gorgeous women in my ward and then up at James in all of his spiritual-awesomeness and silently (and selfishly) praying,

"Heavenly Father, if, out of all of the amazing women in this ward, James chose to date only me, I would feel like the luckiest girl on the planet..."

Well, maybe Heavenly Father took that little pathetic plea into consideration, but...BEHOLD, it came to pass! And, truly, I AM the luckiest girl on the planet to have James...forever! :D

Well, fast forward to July 30th, the night, after much discussion, prayer, fasting and thought, that James and I decided to GET MARRIED! Oh yes, that was a good night! :) We also happened to bake a pizza that night :) See how happy we look! Not too mention, how cute is James in that sparkly cloud apron I made in Junior High?

And thus commenced the awesome adventure of wedding planning and ring shopping...and more ring shopping...and more...and more. PHEW! But it was all worth it :) James is a "deal hunter"...the best I've ever seen, I might add...so, I let him do his thing.

Alright, this next part is an important segue into the fabulous proposal.

K, so, I love my family! Like, so much so, that, you may have noticed, I tend to talk about them 24/7! So, suffice it to say that from very early on in our relationship, James has known the names of my whole family (like sibs-in-law, n&ns, everyone), even before meeting all of them.

Thus, James had a feeling that they must be pretty important to me. He's right, by the way ;) They are.

So, Friday night, September 9th. I was busy bustling around my apartment cleaning, packing for Michigan...frankly flustered about all the things I needed to get done. James arrives. He had planned this whole backyard movie for us and set to work setting up a screen and a projector while I finished up some things. I figured it was just something nice for us to do before I left for Michigan for a week...I wasn't completely wrong.

So, we set out some blankets, a bazillion pillows, a sheet duct-taped to the side of my neighbors garage and a table with a projector & computer. I was indifferent about the movie selection so James picked one that he had brought - Harry Potter 2...or so I thought.

As we were trying to sync the computers with the projectors, James accidentally forwarded to halfway through the movie and suddenly I saw my brother John's face appear on the screen...

"What...? What was that?"

James was silent and kept on in his technological efforts.

"Why was John on your computer? Do you have videos from John on your computer? What was that?"

After a moment, James responded,

"He and I are making a business plan together."

I took that absurd excuse as a clue to stop asking questions.

Finally, we got the projectors to work and we sat down to watch..."Harry Potter 2." I have to admit, I was just waiting for John's face to appear on the screen at any moment...but Harry Potter went on.

Suddenly the movie turned into an Emergency Broadcast System Alert screen... then it went fuzzy and made all sorts of loud staticy sounds. All the while James was saying things like, "What's going on?" "What happened to the movie?"

Then, suddenly, James appeared... like, on the screen.

I was silent.

Screen James, we'll call him, stood in his presentation stance (yes, he has a presentation stance) and said something like, "By now you may have noticed that I'm not Harry Potter...Lindsay, there are a lot of people in your life who love you, so, before I take my turn, I think your family has something to say..."

One by one, each of my 8 siblings, their fabulous spouses and their beautiful children (my n&ns) came on the screen, each sharing their own segment of "Why We Love Lindsay." Truly, folks, I cried through the whole thing. Tears of love (yes, there are such things as 'tears of love'). My heart literally swelled with each of their sweet sentiments of love and appreciation. Lastly, was my parents. Oh how I love them! I think for the first two months of their mission I cried every time I talked to them on the phone. I've really missed them. So you can imagine how sweet it was to see them on the screen expressing their love in their own sweet way.

Finally, Screen James appeared again and expressed his own love for me. He expressed how his love has grown and how I've truly become his ideal "companion." Then, Screen James turned the time over to Real James by saying, "I think the James sitting next to you has something to say..."

Real James took my hand and politely asked me to stand. I sniffled, kissed his cheek, beaming, and stood. Immediately he put his hand in his pocket, produced the ring and dropped to his knee. Suddenly, my favorite opera duet, AND the most beautiful love duet of all time, I might add - Puccini's "O Soave Fanciulla", began to play in the background.

The tears were uncontrollable by this point. I just stood their laughing and crying and smiling and sniffling. He knelt there for a moment and attempted to regain control of his own emotions...then he spoke. Unfortunately, I wish I could remember everything he said, word for word, but by this point my heart and my head were racing each other a billion miles a minute. I remember it was the sweetest and most poetic thing I've ever heard and by the time he finished he had asked me to marry him! We exchanged kisses and hugs and somewhere in there I let out an "Of course, I will!" and then he put the most gorgeous ring ever on my giddy finger.

After more hugs and kisses and laughter and awesomeness, we sat down again for a moment and watched James' bloopers from the movie, which, by the way, were adorable. A favorite of mine is the beginning one...James walks on screen nervously, stands there, looks at the camera and says, "...Welp...here we go..." and walks off. Haha! They reminded me of the teenage boy practicing his, "Hey, Lindsay!..."Yo, Lindsay! What's up?!... Oh, uh...hello there, Lindsay!" in the mirror before calling a girl up for a date. My heart melted at the sheer cuteness of him :)

We went inside and took this series of photos minutes after the proposal.

Red-eyes, happy faces :) Gotta love it.

Yeah, yeah! Ew, GROSS! ;) I say that for my n&ns...and some of my siblings who may gasp and/or blush at the sight of that last photo. Haha.

Truly, he put his whole heart and soul into every sweet second of the proposal and made it the most romantic and beautiful moment of my life...thus far. I wish I would've thought to applaud him afterwards. Honestly, best chick flick I've ever seen ;) And the amazing thing is, it was for ME! I've never been so humbled by love. And, oh, what a Love I have, too ;)

(James handing me a dead rose he found on the beach in L.A. Haha!)

Good heavens, James dear! I love you!

LET'S GET MARRIED!

And they lived happily ever after...

To be continued...

FOREVER! :D

Our Story - Part I

Alright, all you patient people, here it is - James & my "once upon a time..."! So get comfortable and grab a box of tissues...or a box of chocolates, cause you're about to hear my favorite love story of all time! :)

It was March 27th, a Sunday, when I first saw James. He was visiting my ward with his sister Liz for Easter Sunday. Liz and I had been asked by Sister Larsen, the teacher of the Temple class, to share our testimonies, since we had both recently received our temple endowment. Thus, James was also in attendance in that class.

(Originally, my favorite picture of James to stalk on Facebook)

I remember seeing him and thinking, "That has to be Liz's brother! Wait a minute...Liz is awesome, I bet he's awesome, too... Hm, he's cute!" After Liz and I bore our testimonies and love of the temple, Sister Larsen opened it up for anyone else. James bore his own beautiful testimony of the temple and thus...my first impression of him was..."Spiritual? Check. RM? Check. Loves Gospel? Check." :) Not a bad way to start.

I found out later that I wasn't the only one running a secret "date inspection" in that Sunday school class. Liz apparently had mentioned to James that she wanted to set him up with me. In Sunday school she nudged him when I came in - "That's Lindsay." So, the next day Liz got my approval and my number to pass on to James and on Wednesday James called me. By week's end we had been on two dates and I was feeling great about "Liz's brother."

Well, let's just say that James wasn't as "gung ho" as early on in our relationship as I was. He took some convincing...some "chasing" if you will. I attribute it to the fact that, at BYU, where James goes to school, there is an abundance of beautiful, awesome and spiritually-founded young women to date (guys, too), and thus, unfortunately I feel like the general population have gotten fairly comfortable that there will always be someone "bigger and better". At least, James agrees, that this is the case with some, if not most.

So, that said, it wasn't till late May, when James got back from a tour in Russia with a BYU folk dance group, that James and I went out again. Though, I should mention that he called me the day after he got home and we went out that night ;)

(James and some of his friends from "Living Legends" - the folk dance group at BYU)

After some more casual dating on his end and some more casual chasing on my end, James invited me for a weekend at his friends' cabin with a bunch of his buddies. By this time it was June and I, frankly, was sick of this "casual" thing. I knew that I liked him, we had spent nearly 4 days a week every week with each other, and I was either wanting to move forward or to stop wasting each others time. I was never very bold in dating before, but I knew that with James I could and should be as open and honest as I he would be with me, so I basically said, "I can find happiness with or without you, but I need you to make a decision." I know. I surprised myself, too...but it worked ;)

The next night at ward FHE (Yes, I was lucky enough to have James in my ward for the whole Summer! Tender mercy!) I determined to just be me, not focus too much on James, and just enjoy everything and everyone. When the night was over, I left James with nothing but a brief and polite wave and a "see you later." He caught up to me in the parking lot and we talked...for two hours. He said he still wanted to date me, thought I was awesome, etc. which satisfied me enough that I decided to accompany him to his friends' cabin for the weekend.

(James and some of his friends at the cabin)

After that beautiful weekend of relaxation, games, laughter and fun with all of James' awesome friends and plenty of flirtation between James and me...he held my hand and asked me to be his girlfriend. And, you can guess that without any hesitation at all, I said yes.

Since that point James and I have been pretty into each other :) It was such a blessing to have the Summer together. Seeing each other nearly every day, our relationship was able to move along fairly quickly. A month later, we found ourselves sitting on his parents' front lawn in Nevada, looking at the stars on the Fourth of July and exchanging a first kiss and our first "I love you"s. Giddiness and butterflies and happiness, I tell you what :) Haha, ok, I promised myself I would limit the "mushy" stuff.

(James and I in his parents' front yard...and the spot where we smooched ;)

I can't even express how grateful I am and how blessed I feel that Heavenly Father would orchestrate such a beautiful relationship in my life and introduce me to such a remarkable young man. James and I find ourselves saying often, "Heavenly Father must really love me."

Not only have we found every crucial thing we've ever needed in a future spouse, but Heavenly Father has lovingly allowed us to have some of the "Would Like to Have's", too. For instance, James can cook, he can dance, he's  thoughtful and romantic, he supports my love for Harry Potter and allowed me to convert him and bring him to the pre-screening of the last movie, his smile makes me melt and he served an LDS mission in ITALY!! - thus he speaks Italian, shares my love for everything Italian and, best of all, he wants to take me there :) For James, well, he happens to love the fact that I can sing. In fact, I invited him to my vocal recital (where I sang in Italian, too) and he said that when he heard me sing he melted and realized a whole new depth to me that he really enjoys. So, guys and gals, it never hurts to magnify your talents ;)

(Harry Potter 7.2 prescreening with our friend Carrie)

Next up: The Proposal :) Stay tuned.

ShaBling-A-Ring-Ding

Last night, Mr. James Stubbs got down on a knee (detailed, adorably, romantically, awesome story coming soon...like tomorrow, k?) and asked me to be his wife for...forever :) It was seriously the most beautiful thing ever! Can't wait to tell y'all the genius plan of my genius FIANCE ;)

Oh, and the ring?

Tis the most gorgeous thing I've ever had on my finger!

What a great man :)

I mean, we all knew he had good taste. Right?

Ha, he's marrying me afterall ;)

(Yeah, yeah...just ignore my burnt fingers. Fight with the curling iron. Curling iron won.)

Tee hee!

Now I'm giddily spending the week in Lansing, MI with my awesome parentals.

That fabulous reunion story will come soon, too, with lots of fabulous pictures!

Michigan is gorgeous...and Jamesless :(

but it is SO good to see my Mom & Dad again, I tell you what!

Ok, I'll be back soon...

TTFN

NEWSFLASH!

So...remember that cute and fabulous boy named James that I love?

Well...I may or may not have some news for y'all.

CLICK ME!

Yes, sir.

I'M ENGAGED!!

In-depth story to come soon :D

P.S. Isn't Jalene Taylor an amazing photographer? :D I can't wait to see the rest of our pictures!

So, There's This Boy...

...his name is James.

And he's practically perfect.

He's extremely smart, funny, ambitious, attentive, adventurous, kind, non-judgemental, respectful, hard-working, driven, playful, contagiously happy, spiritually-centered, ticklish, honest, handsome, dances like nobody's business, speaks Spanish... & Italian... & English, has such a warm and loving family...

...and to top it all off, he happens to love me quite a bit.

As does Heavenly Father apparently, to have blessed my life with such a wonderfully fabulous young man for a boyfriend. The first, I might add ;)

OH...and did I mention that I love him quite a lot, too?

Cause, I do.

New Beginnings

Hello, dear friends :) I'd just like to take a post to say

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

Did you see General Conference this weekend? It changed my life...yet again. Really though, I very much needed that this past weekend. It is the most beautiful blessing I can think of to know that God lives and loves us and has sent a prophet to guide us today! Doesn't that just make you smile? I feel so fresh, renewed, full of energy and simply happy :) That's what makes life beautiful. Thank you, Joseph Smith

Speaking of Joseph Smith, look what the church put online! AWESOME!

ALSO, I'd like to say

HAPPY BIRTH.DAY

to my brand newest niece Sophie Mae (isn't that an adorable name?)

That is...as soon as she decides to get here.

My sister-in-law is at the hospital right now :) YAY for babies!

I love this month and the fact that Spring has finally decided to tell Winter to take a breather adds a lot of joy to my life! :) I love that the trees are starting to bud and that birds wake me up every morning with their happy songs and that my life is going in the right direction.

It's such a good feeling to know that everything will be ok. God lives. You are His child and He has a plan for you that is far more perfect than anything you may dream up for yourself. I've witnessed that SO many times in my life.

I know that things are not always sunshine and roses, but that's why Heavenly Father provided a Savior, Jesus Christ, who lovingly paid the price for all of our sorrows, sins and weaknesses. Nothing makes me want to better more than that fact, and nothing makes me happier than that knowledge. I know that my Redeemer lives and I love Him.

Keep smiling and moving forward with hope and happiness.

You are loved :)

Have You Lived Today?

What is something that we cry about for feeling so deeply,

Laugh about for receiving so joyfully,

And ache for wanting so considerably?

Something we can give and give and never run out of?

Something we can receive and receive and never get sick of?

Something we are richer for having and yet it is priceless?

It is LOVE.

And love is life.

Remember, Remember

I'm pretty sure I'm one of the happiest people on the planet right now.

Now, if you had asked me that this morning my response would've been a laugh...

Yeah, most likely a laugh. Like, "HA!" right in your face. Sorry...but it's true.

That's not to say I wasn't happy this morning, but my happiness was deep...really really deeply hidden under layers of inadequacy, nerves, and, to be honest, terror. Lack of faith, in short.

I've got a new calling. That's LDS-talk for a new assignment in my church.

An in depth description would be something like:

Calling: an assignment given by a bishop, through prayer and a confirmed belief that it is God's will as confirmed by the Spirit, to individuals within the church allowing them the opportunity to administer in various capacities within the church.

Too much?

Anyway...I've been thinking a lot about it and I've come up with many answers to the question that keeps popping into my head,

"What does Heavenly Father want me to learn?"

Love - check.

Service - check.

Hard work - check.

Collaboration - check.

How to delegate - check.

I mean, I think those are all inevitable if I do my best.

The thing that hit me the most was this:

I think God wants me to learn that I can rely on myself.

Like, I can do really hard things with His help.

Therefore, I should in no way be limited by fear of my own personal inadequacies IF what I really want to do is right for me.

I don't know why I do that. Why I limit myself. But I do. Perhaps too often.

Laziness kicks in. Satan says,

"Psh! You? Really? Have you seen your spiritual biceps? You can't handle that."

And unfortunately, an illogical, small, but no less present part of me sneaks past the "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on my brain...and agrees with that lier.

In some ways, that can be called humility, but in most ways that's called stupidity. Lack of perspective. Forgetfulness in the fact that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:13)

What it comes down to is faith in my Savior

And the enabling power of His atoning sacrifice for me.

The knowledge I have that He lives and that He truly did pay the price for my sins, imperfections, ailments, struggles, sicknesses, etc. etc. is what sustains me everyday and gives meaning and happiness to my life.

The kind of happiness that I feel right this very instant.

And, ya know, I didn't have to look hard for it, it was right in front of my face.

All I had to do was remember Him.

So, maybe that was all just a big rant to get some things off my mind and sorted into discernible thoughts and words...

...or maybe it was something more.

Whatever the case,

Just know that I know it's true

With all of my heart.

Love

Heartstrings of the Week: For Grandma

Welcome to today's episode of "When Music Makes Me Cry":

Alright, people. Here it is! My favorite aria of all time...Annnnd, it's story time! Pull up a comfy chair and mug of hot cocoa and here we go:

Once upon a time I had a voice teacher that, when she found out I was a soprano, hooked me up with every operatic aria and art song she could think of. Thus, began my love for opera.

Then, one day after a recital I overheard my dad talking with her about my grandma's love for Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly. "She used to sing it around the house and with her sister," he said, "She had a beautiful voice!" This touched me. My grandma passed away when I was 12 and yet suddenly there was the connection with her that I had longed for - opera. Someone once said,

"Music is what feelings sound like."

From that point on, I aspired to the point in my "vocal career" (if you can call it that) that I'd be able to at last sing, with confidence, THE aria from Madame Butterfly. Arguably, THE most passionate and heart-wrenching aria of all time - "Un Bel Di Vedremo"

Well, the time has come. I nearly cried the day my amazing voice teacher stated, "Oh, you're ready!" Ready to sing for grandma!

This opera is much like the musical Miss Saigon, neither of which I have seen, but I know the music from Madame Butterfly like I know how to breathe. Here is a brief synopsis:

Location: Nagasaki, Japan

Time: 1904

Cio-Cio-San is the heroine of the opera - "Madame Butterfly" to her American Lieutenant, B.F. Pinkerton. Pinkerton is in Japan at war (whatever war took place at that time?) and they fall in love and get married. Her family is completely against the idea and they disown her at her betrothal. Pinkerton then leaves to America but swears to return. Butterfly has his baby, a son, and three years go by. She is still intent on believing that he will return. When, at last, he does return he brings...his American wife with him and they come to take away "his" son. Butterfly realizes this when she sees him coming with his wife and is heartbroken times 10, so she says goodbye to her son and...kills herself.

Yeah, like I said, THE most heart-wrenching and passionate opera ever. This aria takes place as Butterfly is consoling her crying maid (and friend) who believes that Pinkerton will not return. With assurance in their long awaited reunion, Butterfly describes the whole beautiful scene that she's relived in her mind for the past 3 years. It's not everyday you get an aria that translates so poetically, so I encourage you to read this. It's beautiful! Poor, Butterfly.

Translation:

You're crying? Why?

Ah, faith is lacking in you!

Listen.

One beautiful day we will see

a thread of smoke rise

on the far horizon of the sea.

And then the ship appears.

Then the white ship enters the port,

roars its solute.

You see? He has come!

I will not go down to meet him - not I.

I will position myself there

on the edge of the hill

and wait a long time;

and the long wait

            will not be hard on me.

And…having emerged from the town crowd,

a man – a tiny speck –

sets out for the hill.

Who will it be?

And when he has arrived,

what will he say?

He will call Butterfly from the distance,

I, without giving answer,

will remain concealed from him –

a bit in play

and a bit so as not to die

at the first reunion.

And he, somewhat anxious will call:

“dear little wife”

“fragrance of verbena” –

the names he used to call me whenever he arrived

All this will happen, I promise you.

Persist in your fear;

I, with sure faith, await him!

I might cry when, at last, I perform this song... for grandma and at the thought of such a tragic tale, but I can't help but love this opera and I think you can see why.

Enjoy the passion!

GAH! Get's me right in the tear duct every time!

 P.S. Thanks to all of you cute people for you kind compliments on my aria video. I really appreciate your loving feedback. Thanks! :)