November Update

December is already half over and I still need to catch up on November. Rex has been studying hard and as of today he is done with 3 of the 8 finals he has to take. Pray for him next week! Here are a few things that we (mostly me) have been doing lately...

We finally hung something up on the wall after having lived here almost a year. It feels so much more homey now. I guess I should have done it sooner.

I went to see Twilight with about 30 women from my ward. Here we are waiting in line with a bunch of high school girls to get into the theater. It was the best ladies night ever! (Thanks for letting me steal pictures from your blogs.)

Don't Alice (aka Karen) and Britney look awesome? Watch out humans!

I've been busy babysitting, teaching Cubscouts on Tuesdays, and teaching a primary class on Sundays. Last Sunday some prophets came to talk to us. The kids LOVED it! Our new primary presidency is the greatest.

This pictures explains itself. I have been cooking and baking a lot! This was the first time I tried the Italian sandwich, the broccoli and cheese chowder and the rolls. The rolls turned out mini because our house was freezing cold and they wouldn't rise (or because it was about 11pm and I didn't want to stay up and wait for them). They all tasted yummy, but now I am seeing the negative consequences...does anyone need a running buddy?

We flew to Las Vegas to visit my family for Thanksgiving. I cut Rex's hair about a week before we left and told him I wanted him to grow a beard. Doesn't it look good? I think he looks hot but it is a bit scratchy. Anyway, we had fun with my family in Nevada. Steve cooked our turkey in a deep fryer. This was the first time we have tried it that way and it was DELICIOUS. If you haven't tried it before you need to at least once. We had fun eating, playing a little football, helping mom put up the Christmas lights and the tree, and playing Ticket to Ride. We also got to hike to some hot springs with our cousins.

We found one hot spring that was hot enough to get in but we decided not too. We didn't want to be wet and cold on the hike back to the car. We saw some pretty waterfalls and pools and enjoyed one another's company. By the end we got a pretty good workout. There was a lot of rock climbing involved in the hike. Thanks guys it was fun!

One More Angel

Susan Mortensen Turley
May 7, 1983-December 5, 2008

There is one more angel in heaven today...my friend Susan passed away last night. She was my friend and visiting teacher in Arizona while I was engaged to Rex. She also got engaged during that time and married her husband Justin in January. She found out that she had colon cancer in the beginning of July and has been dealing with everything that that entails since then. She was so strong and optimistic throughout her battle with cancer and she kept a blog of her thoughts along the way. What an amazing woman!

Although I am very sad to hear the news, I'm glad to know that now she isn't in anymore pain. At times like this I have always been comforted to know the Plan of Salvation and that families can be together forever. I am so grateful for my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Having gotten married so close together, Susan's situation has greatly humbled me at times when I am impatient and selfish in my marriage. I've been reminded that I have to try harder to not let little things bother me and that I need to be happy now and live life to the fullest. Thanks Susan for your friendship and example. I will miss you!

Love Notes

The other day I found a little love note from Rex under the fruit bowl. Of course I loved that and thanked him right away. He told me that he had hidden another note and that it would be harder to find. I didn't think about it for awhile and then I found it. It really wasn't another note. Rex took a picture of the first note he wrote and I saw it when I was downloading the pictures off of my camera.

I also found this picture....

Rex wanted some proof that I hog the covers!
(I needed some extra warmth because Rex was staying up late to study.)

Voting and Proposition 8

I have a confession to make. This is the first election I have voted in! My excuses are that in the 2000 election I wasn't 18 yet when everyone was registering to vote during senior year. In 2004 I was on my mission in Canada. I know I could have voted by mail but I felt like I didn't feel informed enough to really vote. Rex and I have tried to do our best to follow the church's council "to study the issues and candidates carefully and prayerfully, and then to vote for and actively support those [we] believe will most nearly carry out [our] ideas of good government." So we figured out what we wanted to do and then we went and voted on Saturday at the courthouse. Rex has class almost all day on Tuesday so we decided to go and get it over with.


Although we haven't actively supported certain candidates we have been supporting Proposition 8. This topic has been one of concern, especially here in Berkeley. I attended a special church broadcast in October that urged church members to do everything they can to help support this cause. I have friends that deal with same gender attraction, I love them and believe that God loves us all equally. After attending the church broadcast I read an article called The Divine Institution of Marriage that I already posted about here. I also read an interview done with Elder Oaks and Elder Wickman on the issue of same-sex attraction. Both of these articles helped me greatly in understanding this important issue.


One of Elder Wickman's quotes that really stood out to me was this, "For openers, marriage is neither a matter of politics, nor is it a matter of social policy. Marriage is defined by the Lord Himself. It's the one institution that is ceremoniously performed by priesthood authority in the temple [and] transcends this world. It is of such profound importance… such a core doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of the very purpose of the creation of this earth. One hardly can get past the first page of Genesis without seeing that very clearly. It is not an institution to be tampered with by mankind, and certainly not to be tampered with by those who are doing so simply for their own purposes. There is no such thing in the Lord's eyes as something called same-gender marriage."

Rex and I believe this and feel that it is worth standing up for. On Saturday morning some of our friends that live in Oakland called and asked us if we wanted to help by holding signs at a big intersection in Oakland. Although we got soaked to the bone by the rain and got many mean glances and words, we also saw others who were in support of our cause. I've never done something like that before and I have to admit that I was a bit upset when we drove by an hour later and all of the signs we put up were taken down (isn't that illegal?). However, I am glad I did it!

We talked with a couple of the No supporters that were there and I really wished I had a picture of our friend Derek sharing his umbrella with one of the No supporters. Seeing them stand there together, each with their opposite campaign signs gave me hope that no matter what happens that we can all treat one another with respect and love.

Happy Halloween

We didn't have enough time to get our great costume idea together so we decided to save it for next year. Instead of going to Rex's school party we decided to carve our pumpkin and watch a scary movie. Rex carved the witch pumpkin while I made some yummy pumpkin seeds. I made the little bat pumpkin the week before. We ended up watching the movie Fire in the Sky (the first scary movie Rex ever saw). I don't like super scary movies so that one was perfect.

Busy Weekend

I went to Utah last weekend for two major reasons, the first was my friend Catharine's wedding and the second was the first Roylance Family Reunion (well, at least for the younger generation). Did I take my camera to either of these events? No! I hate it when I do that!

Anyway, other than the fact that Rex didn't get to come with me I had a great time seeing my family and my best friends/roommates/mission companions. I flew in on Thursday night and stayed with my cousin Lindsay and her cute family. Thanks for letting me crash on your couch! She has a funny recent blog post for all of you mom's out there. Check it out here.

I realized on Thursday at about midnight that I forgot to bring my temple recommend for the wedding. So I called and woke up my bishop in CA super early to make sure I had the right number. When I got to the temple they said that they didn't need to call him because they can just check it on the computer with the new bar code. Sweet!

The wedding was beautiful and my friend Catharine looked gorgeous. It happened to be the first snow in Utah this weekend and it was freezing. Luckily Catharine was smart and had a cute red velvet jacket to wear with her dress. (All the other freezing brides were jealous of her I'm sure). I had fun with Kat and Laura at the luncheon and then we went and bought a wedding gift together.

All three of my siblings go to BYU and my mom and Steve drove up from Vegas for the weekend. That night I met up with them for dinner and got to see my brother's stitches. He went to one of those trampoline places where you bounce into foam pits. He jumped too far and hit his head on the carpeted edge of the pit. He got 40 stitches in his head and now he will have a Harry Potter scar!

Me and Brandon posing for a scar picture

Friday night I spent the night at my friend Jenni Mae's house. Her husband is gone for an internship in Washington D.C. for the semester so we got to stay up late and chat. On Saturday morning I got to go to breakfast with my friend Melanie and eat some yummy french toast. Then my sister took me to get my haircut which was long overdue. I was really excited about it but she didn't cut off enough (I asked her to cut 6 inches). So now I'm a bit disappointed. I was going to post before and after pics but you can hardly tell a difference. Darn!

Then we headed off to the family reunion where we had lunch and played some games. The highlight of the afternoon was the broom hockey game. My uncle bought about 20 brooms from the dollar store and every broom broke after the first or second whack at the ball. It was pretty funny to watch. Hopefully I'll get some pics or video of it soon.

After the reunion everyone headed off to the BYU football game against New Mexico. It brought back fond memories of my BYU days. They won the game, but sadly their undefeated streak is over after this past week. We still love you...GO COUGARS!

Me and Crystal

On Sunday I went with my sister to her BYU single's ward because it was the same one I lived in before I met and married Rex. It was fun to see the few people that were still there. After church I went to visit my friend Crystal who was in town from Arkansas. We were roommates at the Y four years ago and we finally go to see eachother again. After a yummy dinner and card games with family that night I was exhausted. What a great weekend!

The Divine Institution of Marriage

If you haven't read the church's article on marriage I highly recommend it! Click here to read it.
I know I am long overdue for a post. More to come tomorrow...