It’s been snowing nonstop for two days now. This recent snow piled onto the plentiful snow we already had on the ground now amounts to about two feet. It’s kind of exciting, but I wish we (Samuel) didn’t have to drive anywhere.
Here’s Samuel digging out our parking space.
Here’s a more distant view so you can see the huge piles of snow.
Here’s me standing just outside our front door. You can see the snow is up past my knees.
Look at this adorable Christmas picture! I feel weird calling myself adorable. Calling Samuel adorable is not so weird. Usually I say “cute” though.
Ahem.
Well this picture is from our church Christmas party a few weeks ago. The quality isn’t so good because we only got a small digital copy. So it’s kind of pixellated.
Check out this picture of us about two years ago:
Have we changed much?
What is his name? Samuel Tomas Shannon
How long have you been together? We met in September of 2006, dated from mid-October to January 4, which is the date we got engaged, and then we got married on May 5th, 2007. One year and seven months.
How long did you date? a little over three months
How old his he? 25
Who eats more? Samuel is a mighty eater!
Who said I love you first? One night I really wanted to say, “I think I’m falling in love with you,” but he took the words right out of my mouth! He also said “I love you” first, and then I said it too, and then we both cried a little because it was so powerful.
Who is taller? Samuel; 5′ 10 1/2″ -he is about four inches taller than me.
Who can sing better? I’d have to say me, but Samuel enjoys and does it more
Who is smarter? Samuel studies more than me, but I think we’re pretty equally matched (his grades are way better though)
Who does the laundry? Samuel usually does, because sometimes he is home all day and has no homework to do, ever. He also does the dishes. I feel guilty about this sometimes, but darnit, when I get home from school and work, I’m so tired, and then I have to do homework. 
Who pays the bills? I pay rent and health insurance, he pays electric and car insurance. We pay for whatever is in our name.
Who sleeps on the right side? From the position of lying in bed, Samuel is on the right side, so he can answer the bedside phone if it rings.
Who mows the lawn? Never had a lawn, but I hope Samuel will do it because I’ve never mown a lawn in my life.
Who cooks dinner? We usually cook together.
Who drives? Samuel always does, for the simple reason that he loves it and I hate it (driving).
Who is more stubborn? You know, I’m not sure! I don’t think either of us are particularly stubborn about most things.
Who kissed who first? Samuel asked permission to kiss me, after I wouldn’t stop hugging him one night to let him go home (because I wanted him to kiss me).
Who asked who out first? Samuel asked me out first, and second, then I asked him out for the third date.
Who proposed? Samuel. On a windswept hilltop in my prairie homeland. 
Who has more friends? I think we’re about equal. But he keeps in contact with his friends better.
Who is more sensitive? I think we’re both pretty sensitive when it comes to each other.
Who has more siblings? Me, up by two. 6-4=2.
Who wears the pants in the family? We consult each other and make decisions together about most things. But he does wear pants more often than I do, because he wears them all the time. I like dresses!
Samuel and I just got back from a short vacation to celebrate our anniversary.
We went to Salt Lake City and stayed in a hotel near Temple Square. We ate out a lot and visited Temple Square and Hogle Zoo and watched movies. We wanted to go to the temple today but discovered it is closed on Mondays. I got sick with a sore throat on our first day but luckily it didn’t get very bad and just kind of hovered at mildly sore.
I am indescribably thankful that we don’t have a cell phone because when we got home today there were three messages from Samuel’s workplace, begging him to come to work that weekend because of some trouble they were having. I hate how he is always the one who has to fill in like that. No one else is reliable enough, or if they are reliable they are female, and there can only be one female per shift because of the nature of the job (babysitting teenage male sex offenders). They are understaffed and such. Samuel’s been working there for almost a year and they have always been understaffed. I’m so glad we couldn’t be reached!
We had a nice time despite being sick and everything. We also got a message that Thora is in labor! She might already have her baby now as I’m typing this!
Edit: Now that Samuel is home to consult with, this list is being tweaked a bit.
Samuel and I were talking about baby names yesterday. It makes me happy to think about naming.
We came to the conclusion that our first son and first daughter will be named
Abraham Richard Shannon -brave powerful father of many!
and
Miriam Margaret Shannon -bitter or beloved pearl
unless I decide that I like the name Margaret so much that I want it for another daughter’s first name (which I might). Or, unless we change our minds.
Other possible sons’ names:
Peter Elias -stone + my god is Yahweh
Hyrum Calev -exalted brother dog
Benjamin -son of the right hand
Asahel or Asael (probably middle name) -creature of God
Alan (after my dad -probably a middle name) -little rock, or, handsome
Jeremiah -Yahweh has lifted
funny thing- we haven’t been able to agree on many non-biblical/Hebrew boy names. Or another way to phrase that sentence would be, “I don’t like many of the names of Aurthur’s knights”.
Daughters’ names:
Laura Elizabeth (really love this one) -laurel + my God is an oath
Catherine -pure
Caroline -warrior
Gail -gay
Rowena -fame and joy
Esther -star
Irene -peace
I just dropped Samuel off at work; he is going on a camping trip for four days. It’ll be so weird here without him. I have lots of stuff to do, though. Tests, papers, projects. I want to clean the house, too. He shouldn’t have to go on campouts for work, but they are always understaffed. If he hadn’t volunteered to go, they would have called him this morning, begging him to come because they don’t have enough people. That’s what happened last time, I think it was in January. We had lots of plans for his three days off, then they call and beg him to come, he packs in about ten minutes and suddenly he’s gone for three days. Sigh. I miss my Samuel. At least this time it was planned in advance, though.
On another note, I really wish I were done with school. I want to have a baby! I want to stay home all day and cook things and keep house and do crafts. But alas, I still have a year of school left. I really want to graduate. I think it totally appropriate for me to get a degree and put off having children for now, much as I would like to quit school. I know that if I quit I would be very disappointed in myself. I mean no disrespect to mothers who did quit school: I’m just talking about myself and my own life. However, I think it is really interesting how the church has changed slightly on this topic over the past couple decades.
When my mom was a newlywed, Pres. Benson was the prophet. He greatly emphasized having children as soon as possible. He gave that talk called “To the Mothers in Zion” or something. It basically says to stop everything and have children and raise them (I like the talk, though). But while I was a teenager and young adult, Pres. Hinckley was the prophet. I remember him emphasizing time and again how important it was for all of us to get as much education as we could. He said it over and over in the Young Women broadcasts while I was a teenager (he also emphasized the importance of motherhood). And so, here I am, doing not what my mother did. She and my dad had children right away, and when Pres. Benson gave that talk, she quit school (she is now doing BYU Independent Study and will graduate soon). I am intentionally putting off having a baby, so that I can finish school. Some women do both school and baby, but I just can’t see myself being a good mother if I have to go to school, too. Plus I think I would go crazy. When I’m a mother I want to have no other major responsibilities. Also, I think having a Humanities degree will help me homeschool my kids. Another reason is that I am only 21 and will graduate in a year -doesn’t seem worth it to quit and then try and spend more time and money to get a degree later. My mom was 24 when she had her first baby. So theoretically I’ll still have plenty of time to have lots of kids -my mom had seven. I think the degree is worth the year-long wait.
Women who read my blog -especially LDS women-, how did/do/would you juggle education and motherhood?
Oh dear, I started reading The House of the Seven Gables and it is soooo boring. Someone was even murdered within the first few pages and it is still sooo boring. Forgive me, Nathaniel. Can anyone encourage me? Leave a comment if you’ve read it and have something encouraging to say.
Speaking of American lit, I just recently cracked open Walden and it was such a blast from the past. That book is from my high school dropout/homeschool days. Those days still feel so firey to me, thinking back. I still feel that way about a lot of things but overall things are different. Having similar emotions for a real, live husband is … life-changing. Compared to my feelings for Samuel, everything else seems so shallow, or muted, or silly. Not enough to make me drop all those things entirely, it’s just that what is most valuable to me is very obvious. I could give up those things. But to give up Samuel would be impossible. People, if you find someone to love, marry them, and love them! Spend your life with them! It makes life so wonderful.
Music I heard with you was more than music
And bread I broke with you was more than bread.
-Conrad Aiken
*sigh* Now I am feeling all romantic and wistful.
If you have not seen “A Room with a View” please see it. It is now one of my top….three favorite films of all time. Incedentally it has quite a bit of (male) nudity in it, but it is not at all a sexual situation or anything offensive, in my opinion. In fact, it is one of the happiest, most charming moments in the film. Anyway. It is a beautiful film and the characters are so wonderful, the kind you can think about forever and see parts of them in you and your friends….George is probably my favorite character, or maybe his father.
“My father says there’s only one perfect view, that of the sky over our heads!”
Incidentally, Thoreau is mentioned a couple times in the movie, and that’s why I thought of it.
It is a very romantic movie
And the costumes are to die for. I think they won an award of some kind….
I made a smoking jacket for Samuel for his birthday. (It was his idea and I ran with it). So here it is. It is probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever made, and also my first piece of menswear. The reason it was difficult is because it is a tailored garment, and has lots of easing involved and shaping and such. It has some mistakes, but only the kind that I or someone really experienced with tailoring would notice. It was fun to make, but I don’t think I will be making normal men’s jackets or anything in the future. Though they are basically the same as this, they are kind of boring to me. And difficult. This jacket was exciting because of the fabric and because it is a Smoking Jacket. It isn’t really in the traditional colors (generally maroon or bottle-green, though there are certainly exceptions) and I was originally thinking of green. But Samuel likes blue, so I kept my eyes open, and when I could not find any green fabric that I liked (he likes green but not red), I found this lovely navy stuff. So that is why it is blue and gold. I made it all without Samuel seeing any of it, even the fabric, though he did know that I was making a smoking jacket for him. Today is his birthday, so he finally saw it and tried it on. It fits very well and I think he looks quite good in it. I used the Folkwear pattern “Le Smoking Jacket”.
My mother-in-law sent me four yards of sapphire dupioni silk and someday I am going to make my own version of this dress.
Soon I will be posting about my short cloak that I made with some beautiful wool fabric I got from my parents for Christmas. It is finished except for the closures. I wanted to make a cloak that did not look like a costume, and I think I succeeded. Sure, it does not look like what you see every day, but I like it. I personally am trying to make cloaks, shawls, and other drapey garments come back in style.
For Easter I am going to try and re-create this dress that Helena Bonham-Carter wears in Big Fish. I have the floral chiffon already, and a pattern I found on ebay is coming in the mail. I am quite scared of the chiffon, it is difficult to work with and I have never used it before. But I have almost a whole semester before Easter and I can ask people at work for advice if I have problems.
Christmas vacation means time for sewing!
You know, based on discussions with my husband, I feel it’s safe to say that if it wasn’t love at first sight, it was at least attraction.
I clearly remember the first time I saw him, and how I felt. It was intense!
I remember his face the most, but I even remember what tie he was wearing!
When I finally found out who he was, I wanted a chance to be near him so bad. Then I got one, we were in a group of three, and I couldn’t look at him, only the other person. He was feeling the same way about me, and was so sad when I wouldn’t look at him. My poor husband! I put him through so many moments like that one.
I remember after one of our first dates, at church, I could not look at him, I was avoiding his eyes. But I accidentally caught them (probably because he was looking at me every chance he got, silently begging me to tell him that I didn’t hate him) and it was like some magnet was holding our eyes together for a long, heavy moment (which was probably less than a second).
Even during our marriage ceremony I could not look him in the eyes! I was far too emotional.
He has such pretty eyes….
Forgive me, readers, I am currently writing a paper about Greek and Roman love poetry, and I have not seen my husband in twelve hours and will not for another two. Woe is me!
