Zac's Graduation, Mother's Day, and Sam's Dream

Zac Graduated!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

So, our floor is a bit hard and we were doing abs.....haha!

Ever since I met Sam his dream was to have a recording studio--well, a month ago his dream came true!! He saved up and got his Focusrite audio interface, a mic and stand, a pop filter and headphones.

He is one talented artist!

237

You'd think that seeing the same three digit number randomly would be slim... but Sam seems to notice "237" everywhere. all the time. randomly.

So I asked Sam to start taking pictures of it-- after a short period of time, this is what he came up with:

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Random Hobbies

Time of Day happens all of the time:

This one was just hilarious...

72-Hour Kit Essentials

  











This year for Christmas we decided to get stuff for a 72-Hour Kit. I talked about doing his before here. We only got the essentials. We figured we could buy more stuff once we have a bigger family. This will at least get us through a natural disaster or other emergency. There is more stuff than just in the pictures because we utilized some things we already had around the house like toiletry items and a whistle. 

We went to Smith and Edwards up in Ogden. Camille told us this would be the cheapest place to get everything-- as well as most convenient, it's all in one stop. We went when we were already up in Kaysville so it wasn't that far of a drive. When we pulled up, Sam didn't realize it was a Cowboy/Country place. He was being hilarious! I wish I would have taken a picture of his facial expressions!! "We just entered cowboy-ville" "Sorry Missy I didn't drive my truck or wear my cowboy hat." --None of which we own, which made it even funnier. 

One purchase that I was proud of was the radio/flashlight that is a hand crank and solar powered that is also equipped with a USB so you can charge your cell phone or other similar devise:) 

Thanksgiving Highlights

For the past several years my brother RaVell (Bo) has hosted a thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before thanksgiving with our dad. This year, things are a little more complicated... so my sister Camille suggested we go out to eat. I was just lucky enough to get the flu that day and I didn't feel good (or look good) and so Court kept asking me if I was pregnant ( :P ).

Three very memorable experiences I am going to highlight:

1- Jenny and I talked as if we hadn't skipped a beat since the last time we visited. I love her! Not many people can ask for a wonderful-fun-loving-hip step-sister that is just less than a year older than you! :D 

2- When the meal was over my other brother Syd was telling the waitress how the checks would be divided up:

1) My family (the only one with kids)

2) The soon-to-be-parents (for those of you who don't know-- Cami is pregnant! :D )

3) The cowboy (my dad)

4) The couple-that-got-married-too-young (Sam and I)

5) The homeless (my other brother Zac)

6) The convict (RaVell)

7) The poor college students (my half-sister Courtney and step-sister Jenny)

3- When Camille wanted to make the big announcement to Courtney and Jenny she wanted me to get their attention/tell them. It was all spontaneous. So I quickly thought of two cleaver things to say:

"I am not the one that is pregnant" 

Or

"She is the only one that is pregnant"

Now, put these two phrases together + one really sick girl = I accidentally said:

"I am not the only one that is pregnant"

{Luckily the whole table didn't hear me. And no, Sam and I aren't trying to start a family yet}

Let me tell you, the look on my husbands face was priceless-- he couldn't believe I accidentally said such a thing! Jenny was just staring at me with wide eyes and Courtney was all up in the air. Once I realized what I actually said, I corrected myself and it was all good. But we sure did get a good laugh out of it! :D 

Emergency Preparedness

Since it was the 5th Sunday lesson, we had combined RS and Priesthood. Our bishop decided to talk about emergency preparedness. One of the things that he did was show what he and his wife have in their 72-hour kits. The list that they gave us included radio, space blanket, solar/winding flashlight... none of which we own. 

So on our way home I said to Sam: I think we should put put together a 72-hour kit soon. 

I love how diligent my husband is: "I think we should do a 144-hour kit!" 

I thought to myself... You want more food?...

Yes. 

I think they say "72 hours" because after 3 days then most people are able to get where they need to go or other help arrives.

"Yeah, but I want to be luxurious... I want 2 bags of craisins in case I eat the first one too fast."

Oh, how I love my husband! He makes me laugh! :D 

Moments

The past couple weeks I have been making notes of different random moments that i'd like to remember. 

Baby Hungry Moment: 
      I was telling Sam some of the things that I learned in my socialization class. Namely, when babies/toddlers get really happy they "chirp" from excitement and JOY; and at about 9 months babies are very responsive and parents can "emotionally dance" with there kids. So if the parents "practice" the baby will move their limbs at the rate of your voice, and will actually change the rate of there body movement with your voice rate. It's really cute. The cuter part was Sam's reaction: Sam got SO excited for the day when we are blessed to bring kids into this world!!

Hobby Moment: 
       I love to Organize. Honestly. I am pretty tolerant when things aren't organized so it took me awhile to realize that I really DO like  to organize {the tolerance actually helps me to enjoy it and not feel obligated to do it :)}. I also LOVE preparing for the future and planning. Sam and I went through our important papers and updated our filing system {aka my old filing system from 3 years ago that is no longer working}. I decided that my life is pretty busy to try and keep maintaining things. So under {Housing} I added a file for "Mortgage" and under {Insurances} we added "Life Insurance" :) We also made a binder for our important legal documents {S.S. card, Birth certificates, wedding announcement :) }. I actually wanted to do this last summer but I ran out of time.

GRE Moment: GRE accepted my petition!! :)

Scrapbooking Moment: 
      I asked Sam if he could go through all of my several crazy locations of scrapbook stuff and pull things that I could use for my easter testimony book {It's a final project I am doing for one of my classes-- to make a religious object}. I started to show Sam examples of what to pull and then he said: I think it would be easier for me to organize your stuff and so you can find/access it quicker when you need it. I thought this was a great idea! I have been wanting to organize all of my scrapbook papers/stamps/paper-sewing machine/tools/instruments(as Sam calls them) etc... for years and years now! I just haven't had the time. As we went through one of the big boxes that had idea books, stampin-up books and paper I finally found my box with all of my medals and trophies!!! I had been so worried I had lost them and Sam had never seen all of them. :) So as most organizing/going through boxes projects go, you stumble upon random papers that need to be sorted through.

When this project was winding down I said:
"Sam, this is so great! Now, I only have 1.5 junk boxes to go through!" 
"Yeah, now I have all this useless information of where everything is! ;)"

{Note: when I got married a year-ago I had about 8 "junk" boxes- who knew a 20-year-old could have so much stuff? Something else that is funny is after I asked Sam where he thought I got some of these things he basically replied that after box two he stopped questioning where I got some of the things and why I have some things :p it was funny}

My Family of Origin Mottos

For part of an assignment we had to state what we thought our family motto was. For those of you who don't know, a family motto is something that helps the family focus on ideologies, it's a statement of belief, it is what families fall back on to help them out during crisis. 

One specific family motto didn't come to my mind. I feel our family spans many areas. I of course love to hear my families wide range of answers and reactions with things like this so I decided to text my family and ask them what they thought our family motto was. Just like with the car advice, I began to see some personality creep through each text.

Brittany: "Good, better, best, never let it rest until your good is your better and your better is your best!" 
- My sister really does try her hardest to do what is best; and might I add she is succeeding wonderfully. :)

Mom: "If you leave our home hungry it is your own fault"
- My mom has really learned what it means to sacrifice for other people. One of the main ways my mother shows this is by opening up her home and inviting people to come in and eat and so she can share her love.

RaVell: "I Quit!"
- This is Sam's favorite because it made him laugh; but, as RaVell taught me, us Lott's are all quitters... anything we start out to do we will all quit eventually. The key is to just quit doing bad. Like quit getting bad grades.

Zac: "Vi veri vniversum vivus vici"
- I had to google this one and I found out that it means: By the power of truth, I while living have conquered the universe. After a moment thinking about this I realized that there is a lot of wisdom in this. Our family needs truth, we run on truth. And because of the truth that we have received we have "conquered the universe" and have overcome so many things.  

Syd: "Marry up :-)"
- It's the most important decision we make!

Camille: ____
It took me awhile to get something out of her but she said her and Justin's is: "Pain is only temporary but VICTORY is forever"
- Cami is definitely good at seeing her goal and going for it-- nothing is going to stop her from reaching it!!

Weekly Delights

* Sam calling me "You sillys"

* Having amazing and long conversations with Sam about parenting and how we are going to approach some parenting topics {how to exactly apply being authoritative through examples}.

* Going to an awards banquet and being recognized for my accomplishments {It felt great to be applauded by the president of BYU and Deans of colleges}

* Falling asleep snuggling {Sam always goes to bed with me and then gets back up to finish his homework}
* A hard-working husband

* Seeing blessing after blessing come to Sam during his {most likely} busiest college week yet.

* Having a luncheon with the donors of my scholarship and their kids, two donor liaisons  and the director of the School of Family Life. {More on this to come later}

* Finding out I was in a picture for an advertisement for a department on campus. 

* The warm weather and sunshine

* Having an awesome talk about ideologies with Sam

* Date night with Sam using our Texas Roadhouse gift card

* Giving advise

*Having a conversation with my big brother Syd {see below}. 

* Having my mother remind me of how rare of opportunities that I have had in my life {like the Heisman winner and state finalist}

* Talking to my lil' sis Courtney for 2 hours

* Rediscovering every day why Sam is so perfectly made for me

* Watching Sam's intramural team win their game!! It was tied the second half. With 20 seconds to go the other team scored {2} and then with 11 seconds to go we scored {3}. It was exciting!!

* Feeling soooo much love my heart and soul feel like they are going to burst

Sam's Interview

The night of Camille's reception my family decided to take a break from cleaning up and "get to know" Sam a little better. My oldest brother Syd interviews (aka scrutinizes) his little sister's potential boyfriends to see if they are worthy enough to date us. Most guys run away, cry, or never come back to the house before/after the interview.

Sam was lucky enough to not only have Syd, but my whole family there. When the interview began Alex and Brittany agreed with Sam's answers and Syd got disgruntled that they were cheering Sam while he was trying hard to not to show that he was also impressed. Sam "passed" with flying colors because the key to getting the approval was being honest and not just trying to impress the family. Looking back it was such a fun and exciting bonding time with my family; Full of laughter and Joy, especially when Syd pulled out the sword.

Oh how I love my Family!!