Yesterday, I was visiting with my family and my mother asked me if I was glad that I married Mitch. It was an interesting question, to say the least. She didn't sound concerned, but with my mother, you never know what she is thinking when she brings something like that up. She is very worried about me being so young and married - especially because I'm so baby hungry.

Then I remembered, on Father's Day, I had called my grandpa to tell him I loved him and that I was thinking of him, when he asked me if I was happy being married at 19. He thought I was getting married because I was pregnant or because I was just interested in having kids soon. He chalked it up to "those Mormons always have kids early." 

In my classes, people will ask me if I regret getting married so soon, if I regret marrying who I married, and if I am still happy. They comment on how they don't think they could get married so young and that I was crazy for doing it myself.

Yesterday, my younger sister told me, "I sometimes think it's so weird that you are married. You're like, Alex. I can't get over the fact that you're already married."

In high school, I had dated a boy quite seriously and for a very long time. I was so sure that I was going to marry him, I didn't even think about opening myself up to the possibilities of other options. We had dated for almost 3 years and I already had a diamond necklace, home goods for our first place together, and his family treated me like I was their daughter-in-law. What I failed to realize about that relationship at the time was that I was not happy, I was just complacent. I was fine where I was, but I wasn't progressing, I wasn't getting happier, and it got to the point where I thought that was completely fine. I thought that was just what marriage was supposed to be like; happy enough that you didn't consider leaving, but not always fulfilling. I was willing to accept that and I was willing to accept the fact that I would probably never go to church again, I would settle and maybe have one or two children, and I would pretty much be complacent the rest of my life. 

Can I take a minute to tell you how blessed I was when that relationship finally ended?! I thought it was the end of my world, but what I failed to realize was that it was the best learning and growing experience of my young life. I recognized what I didn't want in my life and what I wasn't willing to settle for, which was an amazing lesson to get as an 18 year old.

While I received this lesson early, it still didn't completely prepare me to get married. In fact, after that relationship, I told myself that I wouldn't get married until after college - I even tried telling myself to not date steadily until I was in college and just live life single. That sort of worked. I went on dates and dated around, always keeping in mind my "sworn-off-men" mentality. It actually wasn't until I met Mitch and profusely told him (even on our first date), "I know you're an RM, but I'm not interested in getting married anytime soon," that I realized I liked him way more than I thought I did.

... I even told him that I loved him first... and he didn't reply... for two weeks...

...And I was married before my first semester of college even started. So much for swearing off men, right?

This week, Rexburg experienced what I would have thought was just a small storm, but in fact it was actually the makings of a flood! I was out around town looking for a slip for a new skirt I had bought and when I finally got out my phone, I was greeted with 6 missed calls!

Rexburg was flooding and basement apartments everywhere were taking the brunt of it. Thankfully no one at my apartment complex was really affected, but a Sister in my ward had her entire apartment filled in a matter of minutes. She lost just about everything in her home.

I am her visiting teacher and her husband is in the guard with Mitch, meaning he is also gone for the month. She couldn't get a hold of her husband and had no man-power to help her, so I got a group of people rounded up hoping that we could go and just bucket out water. In the short 5 minutes it took for me to get a group together and drive over to her apartment, the entire thing was submerged. A window shattered inward from pressure and her apartment filled up in no time. 

This is the stairwell leading into her apartment when we got there. Thankfully she was able to get her laptops and xbox out of the apartment, but her TV, furniture, clothing, food, disks, appliances, shoes, books, everything was ruined and submerged for over 15 hours. 

Going into her apartment after it was mostly pumped out was horrifying. It was like a third world country when you went down into it. Her furniture had 15 hours to float around and we found her refridgerator precariously balanced on the kitchen counter and the kitchen table with all of the food spilled out. Her bed and dressers had all been smashed into the bedroom door and we had to physically rip the door in half in order to get into that room. The only thing that stayed dry was a set of sheets in their original packaging. Everything else was completely water-logged.

There was one good thing about this flood and it was the fact that I got to see the amazing service people in Rexburg can provide. When there are bad drivers, jay-walkers, and idiots on campus, it was amazing to see the self-less service people were willing to provide.

Because I had sort of spear-headed everything, I got an in-depth look at this service. I collected laundry baskets to help us move everything from the apartment and sort them. People were giving me laundry baskets, food, money, and whatever else they could donate as I came by. A girl who I am not entirely close with and who isn't even in the ward to know Emily donated 3 laundry baskets, a box of food, and $20. It was that donation that left me feeling very emotional. I remember thinking, "Here you are, preparing to move in 3 days, soothing a crying baby, and selflessly giving what others wouldn't dare get involved in." It gave me a new respect for her that I had not taken the time to develop earlier.

I put together a group of people to help try and save as much clothing as possible. We pulled everything we could find out of the apartment including purses, shoes, belts, and general clothing and used the back of my truck as a sorting area.

I drove around town with this in the bed of my truck to deliver baskets to those in our ward who had volunteered to wash some laundry for me. I honestly looked like someone living during the Great Depression that had put every single thing I owned in my truck. We thankfully got about 10 people in our ward to clean a basket or two of laundry. It wasn't much in retrospect, but to Emily, it saved her about 3 days worth of laundry and hundreds of pieces of clothing that would have otherwise molded.

In all, this flood was incredible. What was a tiny storm turned into a life-changing event. There were so many people that were affected and I am so grateful to still have my apartment and my things perfectly chaotic but dry. It is a double sided coin, really. I am grateful to have experienced the flood and to have seen my "hardly unified ward" become unified in a common cause, but I am also so gracious that nothing of mine was destroyed. Emily has been a complete champion this entire week. She has kept her head held high and has had the most positive outlook, she should be a spokesperson!

Sayonara, Rexburg Flood of 2014

- Alex

I came across this picture of my dad and uncle recently when helping my parents move. It was stashed away in a baby book. It's so interesting to find little things like this - I love looking at old pictures of my parents, especially during the era when my dad had a perm, ha! But isn't he so handsome? Little did he know, Bill Cosby probably owned that same sweater. If he had just held on to it, I could definitely rock the hipster look or quite possibly sell it to a hipster since its totes vintage.

It's funny to think about it, but now I realize that they are probably about the same age as me in this picture. Early 20's, maybe 24 and 22.

I miss you, pop pop,

- Love your little Axskull

You know when you get to that point in the semester where you start to calculate what your grades would be if you just didn't show up for the final? Yeah, I'm at that point right now, except for it's the thought process of "What would my grades be if I just didn't do any more homework this entire semester and watched chick flicks on Netflix all day?"

It's a legitimate problem at this point. 

This semester has been a huge struggle. I'm not really enjoying my classes and they are so time consuming! Whoever said college was easy was more than likely wasted for the better half of it. I had a class that I was absolutely enjoying, but now that summer school has started, it's quickly turned into as much busy work as possible, just to fill up time.

I think I'd rather do P90X - and that is how you know there is a serious problem, ladies and gentlemen.

Boo, homework.

- Alex