My little friend... Lindsey

This post is dedicated to my dear little friend, Lindsey! Lindsey loves the color pink, has blue eyes, loves the movies Tangled, Sleeping Beauty and Cars, and likes to blow bubbles outside. She is almost 3 years old. For the last two semesters I have spent my Friday afternoons with Lindsey, playing games, making crafts, going to the park, and visiting museums, while her mom and dad go to work. Though I watch her for free, I feel that I have gained so much by spending this little time with such a wonderful 2 year old. It has been such a rewarding experience to take part in helping Lindsey learn her letters, colors, shapes, songs and just about everything else you can think of! She is so smart! She makes me laugh all the time! For the first few months I watched her she would always refer to herself in third person ("oh man, Lindsey took a long nap, she's tired" or "Lindsey loves playing with dinosaur Rex"), she doesn't do that so much anymore. We loved doing everything together! She would often ask me to paint her fingernails or make cookies. She loved taking things home at the end of the day to show her mom and dad. Her parents are great, they have raised her so well. She has wonderful manners. Lindsey says thank you for everything! And when I say everything, I really mean everything. On my last Friday watching her, I was painting her fingernails and she quietly said, "Josalyn, I love you." That was one of the most precious moments I have ever experienced.

When I first told people I watched a little girl for 8 hours every Friday without being paid, they thought I was crazy! What about school, they would ask me? I truly believe that the Lord has played a major part in this. This semester, through some large miracle, I earned a 4.0 at BYU. I know that this was because the Lord blessed me for serving his little child and blessing their families lives.

I have to be honest, a few tears have been shed since that last Friday. When Friday rolls around I get ready to see Lindsey pull up to my house, run to the door and throw her arms around me saying, "Josalyn! You're my friend." I will never forget Lindsey and the impact she has had on my life. I love that little girl, and I'm not ashamed to say that one of my best friends, is a toddler :)

Weddings, School, Flowers and Cakes

I can't believe that it is almost March! Where has this year gone? Since the holidays I feel that life has been one big amazing blur! The days and weeks have flown by! I apologize for being so behind on the blog (for those of you who follow anyway). Well here is my update, I'll try not to make it sound too much like a travel log :)

January- Another school year began and I quickly decided that 17 credits was too much for me and dropped one of my classes to bring me down to 14. I think that this semester will be just great, lot of work, but not overwhelming. I wish I could say the same for Alex. I am amazed at that man and I am so lucky to have married such a hard worker. When I'm not studying myself, I try to do anything I can to make life a little easier for Alex. There are many many days when he leaves at 6:45 for his 7am class and I don't see him again until after 9pm. I suppose a schedule like this will get us ready for Medical School in no time! Alex has done very well in his classes though and he is getting more nervous each day to take the MCAT in spring and apply for medical school. Like I said, he is amazing and I know that any school who takes him will be lucky! I am sure there will be many more posts about medical school this summer!

We had the chance to get away for a weekend to Daniel's (Alex's older brother) wedding. It was so fun to be with family and support him and his new bride, Svetlana. It was my first Russian wedding and it was great! I just wish that I understood the language. Alex was nice enough to translate a lot of it for me. Below is a picture of the happy couple and us! Hopefully this summer we'll be able to get together with the Doroshkin's and I can get to know my new sister-in-law better!




February- For Valentine's day I decided to do gifts a little differently. I was so excited when I found out that Jennie, Chelsea, my Mom and Grandma all decided to do it as well. I called it the 14 days of Valentine. Each day Alex got a small valentine with a note attached to it. For example, one day I gave him a bag of gummy bears and the note attached said "life would be un"bear"able without you!" Alex loved them and returned the favor by taking me out for a beautiful lunch and roses on Valentine's Day. That weekend we ran off to Boise for the chocolate dipping party! It is always so fun to see family! We learned a new game, Mow, haha we were all laughing so hard, mainly because I didn't quite understand the mysterious rule and made a complete fool of myself :) Alex found out some great news! He is going to be able to shadow the head neurologist here in Provo until summer. It will be great experience for him to really apply what he is learning in his degree and to make sure being a doctor is really what he wants.

Other than the usual work and school our lives are fantastic. I fall more in love with Alex each day and we are better friends than ever! We thought the first year was great, and are finding out the second is only getting better. This spring and summer will be busy, but I still love the times when I get to see Alex for a quick 20 min. lunch, or even 5 min to trade the car. We are learning more and more to depend on the Savior. We are so lucky to have the gospel in our lives and have knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to succeed in this life. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and His atonement that allow me to change and be better through His mercy. We love you all and love to hear all about you as well! Keep in touch!

oh p.s. I have started two new hobbies, that I am loving! 1. Flowers! I am in a floral design class and I LOVE learning about the different flowers and putting together arrangements. I taught Alex the trick about picking out roses and it works because the roses he got me for Valentines are still blooming and beautiful!(The flowers below are an arrangement I made for my boss when her father died) 2. Cakes! I wanted to learn how to do fondant cakes and I have! It's difficult but dooable. I just need lots more practice! I'll post pictures when I get to it!

The Start of New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! We had a great Christmas Break but wish it could last just a little longer. Four days before Christmas we were able to escape for an anniversary get away! We went to the Salt Lake Temple and ate lunch at our favorite place, PF Changs! (delicious!). After that we started off to Logan and had to brave the canyon in snow. Why is it that whenever we want to go somewhere it always snows, but when we stay home, it looks and feels like spring? Not fair. After a white knuckle drive we made is safely to our adorable room at anniversary inn. It was so nice to spend time with one another and not have anything else to worry about. The car ride was nice to just have pleasant conversation and catch up on things other than our schedules. It has been a wonderful year and we are so grateful to be married to each other and look forward to many more anniversaries!

Just a quick 3 days later Christmas was upon us! Alex was a last minute Christmas Eve shopper and I got all the groceries to make dinner the next day. I was able to spend some time with my Chelsea, Charlie and two nieces. I always love seeing them. We ate dinner that night at Goodwood and it was good! We watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas and the nativity story, read in Luke and went to sleep. Alex got a new Lamborghini, a remote control one that is :) and I got new hot rollers for my hair. My brother and sister got us an awesome George Foreman which we have been wanting to get for a while now. My parents spoiled us and got us a new memory foam mattress topper. We felt very blessed  this Christmas. We were able to take Christmas dinner to a couple in our ward who just have their first baby. We spent about an hour over there just talking and admiring this beautiful baby. We were happy to have the opportunity to give service, as I'm sure that is the best gift we can give anyways.

My parents and little sisters came into town for New Years and we squeezed a bunch of fun into just a tiny amount of time! I got to play hairdresser and do Kaitlyn's and my mom's hair. We went to the movies and had a great party on New Year's Eve. Amber and Adam came and joined in the fun! We felt bad for being so loud at midnight when we realized our landlords had gone to bed before midnight and saw them staring out their window at us. I just assumed everyone stayed up on New Years! We reminisced on 2011 and made some predictions/goals for 2012! It was a fun night but we were exhausted when we finally went to bed that night!

School started yesterday. This semester will prove to be our hardest yet! I will be taking 17 credits and Alex will have a full load with the addition of an MCAT prep course. He will take the MCAT in spring and turn in his medical school applications by July 1st. While I know that our schedules will be extremely busy this semester I know it will be a good one! The Lord has always looked out for us and has blessed us as we have been faithful. We will have to make a conscious effort to attend the temple regularly and keep up with our scripture study. I know if we can do those things, we'll be just fine.

We wish all of our friends and family the best of luck for the New Year! We love you all and we'll update soon!!!

 This is the picture on this year's Christmas card! We decided to get a real tree! We should have done a better job watering it and maybe it wouldn't have gotten so crunchy!

 Christmas dinner! We had ham, potatoes and gravy, salad and homemade rolls :) They turned out pretty good!

 This  is our BYU gingerbread house! My mom made all the ginger bread and we decorated it! I think this is the start of a Christmas day tradition!

5 wonderful events in less than a month!!! (almost)

Between the last of November and the end of December we enjoy celebrating some of our favorite occasions! Only 2 have happened so far, and the other three will happen in the next two weeks. I will tell a little of each below!

1. Happy Thanksgiving! I have always loved Thanksgiving! Not only is it a perfect lead into the Christmas season but it is such a great day to be thankful for all that you have, spend time with family and eat delicious food! Alex and I went down to Brigham City Utah for the holiday and spent time with the Mecham side! It was one big crazy party! The food was phenomenal and we ate way too much (but that's what you're supposed to do right?). My grandparents took us all bowling after and we were the only ones there! It was great! I think that I got the 4th highest score out of all the adults (not bad eh?).That night we enjoyed searching the adds only to find that we really didn't want anything. I had to go (it's tradition) and ended up getting a few little gifts. I think I only spent about $10. That's what I call Black Friday shopping :) We did stand in line at ShopKo for more than an hour, only to find out that we read the ad wrong and the item was almost double what we thought. We sadly put it back and walked out of the store empty handed. What a bummer! But Alex was a trooper for saving our spot in line for such a long time!

2. Happy Birthday Alex! Alex's birthday was on the 26th. He is the big 24! He had to work in the morning and so I made a quick Breakfast in Bed before he left. I made the manliest omelet you have ever seen! Complete with eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, onions and mushrooms (with cheese on top). It was pretty delicious!  After work I let him open up his gifts. I gave him three practical gifts, Pj's, wallet and umbrella, and one not so practical, Wii Smashbrothers Brawl ( I think that is what it's called). He enjoyed playing his game all afternoon. We made a quick drive down to Ogden for a wedding open house and then enjoyed a hearty meal at Texas Roadhouse with my parents and siblings, who were still in town from Thanksgiving. It was a fun night had by all!

It was a fantastic weekend with plenty of memories made! I love Alex and I love celebrating with him! We also love our family and are so grateful for them! We wish we could have been with the Doroshkins too, that will have to wait till January when we head to Sacramento for Daniel's wedding.

Number 3, 4 and 5 are the end of the semester (which is Friday, if we survive finals), Our one year anniversary on the 21st and Christmas. It is a fun filled couple of months and I am looking forward to the next three events on the list! For now we are studying like crazy, finishing up projects, decorating for Christmas (I even got to be in the Provo Lights Parade as a Christmas tree- see pictures below) and a slew of other things! We will try to keep up better with our blog! Have a wonderful week!

Quick trip to Cali and ready for the Holidays!

We had an amazing time heading out to Livermore California last week to watch my best friend, Amber, get married! It was an awesome weekend and Adam and Amber make a beautiful couple! They were sealed in the Oakland Temple. Eternal marriage is such a blessing and being in the temple with close friends reminded Alex and I of our own special day and how excited we were to be married. We still love being married and tomorrow is our 11 month anniversary! Our year mark is just around the corner! Alex almost didn't make it to California though! I got a call about an hour and a half before his flight left letting me know that he was just leaving Provo. I figured that was enough time to get him there but after a couple mishaps Alex ended up running to his flight! Thank goodness the SLC airport isn't very busy and there was no security line! I drove to the airport in Oakland all by myself to get him, that was my first time driving in California, not too bad! We also almost missed our flight coming back to SLC. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get there and we were just sitting in this little cafe enjoying small talk when we heard over the loudspeaker, "last call for Alex and Josalyn Doroshkin!" That got us up nice and quick! We did get seats next to each other but it was on the very back of the plane! Oh well! It was a very exciting and memorable trip!

Now, we can hardly wait for the holidays! We will enjoy a quick trip down to Brigham City for Thanksgiving with the Mecham side. We both have to work Friday so we'll be back in Provo and then on Saturday we will enjoy the day celebrating the birth of Alex! He will be 24 years old! I love him so much and I can't wait till I see his face with all the surprises I have up my sleeve :) Have a great week! Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time to be thankful for what you have! I know that Alex and I live the life of a poor college married couple but we feel very richly blessed to be getting an education and to have jobs to support us through! Our prayers go out to all our friends and family, particularly my cousins Andrew and Kyler. Andrew broke his back 2 weeks ago and has a long road of recovery ahead! We pray that he will gain the use of his legs again! And Kyler is a die hard sports man and has trouble with black outs. We love you! I'll post pictures of Thanksgiving and birthday next Sunday!

A little bit of this and that

So much has happened in the last two weeks! Where do we start? Happy Halloween? We had our first Halloween together! Our neighbor said that kids wouldn't come trick-or-treating because they do a trunk or treat at the church across the street. This was sad news to us because we had gotten special candy to hand out to all the cute little kids! Well we decided to try our luck, we put out our pumpkins and left our porch light on (hoping to attract some families). It worked! We actually had to turn out our light at about 8:30 because we ran out of candy! There were some very creative costumes, but I think our favorite was the the family with 7 kids. The Mom dressed up as Snow White and the kids all dressed up like the 7 dwarfs. The Dad was of course prince charming! We can't wait till we have a little one of our own that we can take trick-or-treating!

This week was a very crazy week! I had three tests and Alex had two! Not to mention we were both trying to submit scholarship applications, get other projects and assignments done, and just find time to eat lunch! We got through it (barely :) As I was picking up Alex from his last class on Friday night, our car broke down! I think that the Lord is trying to teach us patience! We got it towed to our house and tomorrow we will take it up to the shop to get a diagnostic done. Hopefully it is an easy fix that won't take too long to work out (or too expensive!)

My best friend Amber get's married this Friday on 11/11/11 at 11:00am in Oakland California! I fly out on Wednesday and Alex will join me on Thursday. It will be nice to get out of Provo for a few days and celebrate the new Mr. and Mrs. Johnson!

As for today, it was a wonderful day! We had stake conference and there were some wonderful talks given! They all tied together and I truly feel inspired to be a little better and to follow their suggestions. There were talks given on daily prayer, scripture study, honoring the Priesthood in the home, showing and expressing love to your spouse, attending the temple, family home evening and keeping our entertainment and media clean. These are all important things that make such a difference. I hope that we can continue to get better and be patient with ourselves in the process. I am so thankful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is a crazy world we live in and the standards and principles of the Gospel are the way to return to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to be married to such a wonderful man (Hunk :) and to have been sealed for eternity in the temple so that we can have an eternal family. If you have any questions about the church and what we believe please don't hesitate to ask, or go to www.lds.org. Stay safe this week! We'll write soon!

p.s. I made bread today, it turned out okay, it was a little thick in the middle...

P-90 X and a week of fun!

This week has been another great week! Last Sunday our ward had our Primary program. I am in the presidency and absolutely adore all the children in our ward! They are actually all nursery age kids and so we had the 5 of them standing on chairs (because they were too short to be seen otherwise). Some of them said their lines, and sang, others just stood there smiling as big as can be. I was able to give a short talk and be part of a musical number. It was very fun!

On Monday we  tried out our first day of P-90 X. Jennie and Derek let us borrow it. We weighed ourselves and took all our of our measurements and pre-tests. It will be fun to get in shape and just be more conscientious of our health. We are really going to try and keep it up and find time to work out in our busy schedule. Our shopping trip this week included a lot more vegetables and we officially have no sweets in our home (much to my dismay when I get a sweet tooth :)

At work I have a new assignment. I am teaching a Pre-Natal water aerobics class. It has been so fun to meet expecting mothers and help them stretch and have a low impact workout in the water. My favorite part is hearing them discuss what's going on in their pregnancies and asking each other questions. I feel that I am learning a ton about pregnancy, hopefully that will help me when my times comes.

On Saturday night Alex and I went on a date to the 1$ theater and saw Harry Potter 7 part 2. I love Harry Potter and I could probably see that movie again and again! When I was singing a hymn in church the word diadem was in the text. I didn't actually know that was a real word outside the life of Hogwarts, I was also writing a paper a few weeks ago and almost used the word 'aparate' hehe :)

I always enjoy watching the mormon ads. Today I was watching the ones about family: isn't it about time? I hope that I can remember this important lesson! I know that I love spending time with my family (Alex :) and I wish there was more time to spend together.  I hope you enjoy watching it and have a great week!