L is for.....

LOVE!

I love love. It's inspiring me today! I read this blog by a girl who writes in such a simple but really perfect way. I wish I could say things so simply but perfectly. But I am grateful for the much needed perspective reading through some of her thoughts gave me. It may not have been exactly what she said, just how much she writes about her love for life. I forget how wonderful life is sometimes. We have a precious amount of time to make the most of what we've been given. I tend to run scared. Life gives me amazing opportunities to learn and grow, and lately all I do is panick, panick, panick, end up not reaching the potential I hoped to, then get upset at myself and all my issues. I think choosing happiness for me is directly connected to love. The more love I share with others, the more I love what I'm doing.

I love the ability we have to choose. I'm a day dreamer if you will. I love to imagine where Karl and I will end up in the next five years or even what life will be like in a couple months. I dream about what I imagine us doing, but I haven't totally believed I have the ability to make those dreams happen. I'm learning that God does take our wants and desires into account. He loves us, and simply because of that pure love He cares about the things we want. I love that fact.

I particularly love this guy:


He is the cheese to my Macaroni. He is the reason I love most days. He is hilarious!

Karl: "I love the way you cook vegetables"

Tara: "Does it make you go weak at the knees?"

Karl: "Not only the knees. The elbows go to."

Man I love this guy:)

Nothing quite brightens up the middle of the day like a lunch date to Rumbi's and Twizzlebery accompanied by only the most important of topics:

Karl: "Do you ever create your own music video for a song in your head?"

Tara: "Sure do"

Karl: "What would it look like for this song? (Australia-the Shins)"

Tara: "People playing on the beach all day!"

Karl: "I'd say 60's rock band. Lead singer has hair like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. On the beach of course."

Tara: "Oh! And Dolphin's will sing the Lalala's!"

I think we thought up a winner:)

(Last summer playing golf for my Dad's b-day)

I love good friends I've been able to keep in touch with. I fell of the map after highschool and kind of felt weird dealing with all the changes. If anybody reads this blog, and you are one of the many that has gotten an awkward 'hi' from me followed by a hurried 'see you later', I'm very sorry. I think in a way when I came to college I became more secluded and lost a little of me. I'm more grounded now and content with where I'm at. So I'm loving this blogging thing and the chance to catch up with some of you! I had amazing friends in highschool that taught me a lot and I've met some awesome people here in Logan that have been incredible. I still care about ya'll:)

I love my ward. The concept of a ward family is so wonderful! Karl and I have been blessed to gain such awesome friends in our ward. I feel a connection to this ward that I haven't felt since my Centerville ward I lived in all growing up. I love how the gospel links us together and provides us with people who help watch out for us.

Basically, love makes everything better. I'm grateful for people who help me see that. You know who you are:) I want to try harder to tell the people I love how much I love them. I want to take each new day as a new start and love the new opportunities that may come my way. I guess one belated new year's resolution I have is to love more. I think that's a pretty good one.

New Title

*Warning, sappy lovey dovey ness below. Read at your own risk.

So I changed the title of my blog to something a little more descriptive of life at the moment.

"Livin' On Love"

This is a fun time of life for us Beckerts, but a challenging time to. We're working hard to provide for our little family, and sometimes, we fall a little short, but it's all good, you know why.....

Because we're livin' on love!

The things that make me smile are waking up every morning next to the man that makes every day a good day no matter what happens, and right now while we are working to help each other progress, that's all that matters.

We like to dream about what life will be like for us over the next five years. We are dreaming about both being done with school by then, living in a neighborhood we love, having a cute little town home or home we decorate all cute-like together, hopefully at least one little kiddo running around to make us smile, and to look back on this time and smile because of all the things we are helping each other accomplish.

And believe you me, we are having a blast livin' on love.

In fact.....

Last Saturday we celebrated our 1 Year Anniversary!

We consider ourselves veterans at this point:) Maybe, ish, nah we're still rookies but we're learning a lot! Just think how much marital wisdom we will gain over the next eternity we get to spend together forever!

Anyways.... Here's how we celebrated year 1 together!

-A trip to the Logan temple. It was fun to do a session together and remember our sealing together:)

-We ate lunch/dinner at Firehouse and remembered fun dates we had there when we were dating, engaged, and then married. We like firehouse almost as much as Chili's which we frequent often.

-We rented Zoo Keeper (Karl humored me) and really liked it! Even Karl laughed and it was a movie with talking animals which is a movie element that renders the movie unwatchable by Karl's standards usually.

-Got Wendy's and had a picnic in our living room.

-Karl watched the Arizona State game whilst I fell asleep by his side. He is very patient with my uncanny ability to fall asleep any time any where!

-We laughed to our heart's content and just appreciated the fact that we get to be together forever! The fun never has to end, and in fact, will just keep getting better.

I love you so much Karl! Thanks for putting up with my inability to stop a project once I've started, for all my tears and stressing about everything from the serious to the down right ridiculous, for the fact that I tickle you even though you don't like it, and all my other weird quarks

And

thank you for always making me laugh when I'm sad, for holding me when I see a commercial that scares me and for never taking me to see a scary movie, for saying what I need to hear when I need to hear it at the most perfect moments, for being the kind of man I can depend on no matter the situation, for having a testimony of the gospel that has helped strengthen mine, and most of all.....

Thanks for picking me to spend forever with.

I love livin' on love with you!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was very fun for Karl and I!

We both joke that this is the first year we wouldn't have a traumatic or awkward Valentine's experience. Karl has a very entertaining story about last Valentine's day involving cheez-its and a 6 hour car ride:) I'll spare him and not tell the details, but both of us were very glad to get to spend the day with our eternal Valentine.

Karl picked me up after I got off work and then we headed to the Blue Bird for dinner, which just happened to be where we went to dinner on our first official date. The Bluebird was hopping with a slightly more 'mature' crowd. I saw that the Blue Bird was having a Valentine's Buffet in place of taking orders. Well, my husband wasn't to thrilled with that idea so after we were seated we decided to call over to Chili's and eat there instead. We were in a lazy mood and wanted to be served instead of serve ourselves. Plus, that Chili's chips and salsa is super super super delicious and I started craving those chips as soon as we thought of Chili's as plan B.

So we sneakily left the Blue Bird, which still served the purpose of fulfilling our sentimental mood, and headed to Chili's where we had a delicious dinner. Then, we were going to go to the store and buy apples for our treat because I am addicted to fruit and on the date that I broke up with Karl on (longish story, but it was actually one of the most fun dates we have been on. I had some issues.) I asked him if we could have fruit for the treat, but since being married I have grown a gynormous sweet tooth so we went to Lee's and got a big tub of vanilla ice cream, hard shell chocolate sauce, frozen strawberries, and ice cream cones instead. Eating that ice cream while watching episodes of The West Wing at home was so delicious and relaxing.

All in all, it was a funny, relaxing, great day with the man I love. He helps me laugh at life and at myself. He has taught me so much about working hard for the things that matter most. And I can't get over that light in his eyes when he smiles or talks about the things he believes and wants to accomplish with me. I am crazy about the guy so sorry about my mushiness, or not so sorry. It's mushy, sentimental, and most importantly the way I feel so there ya have it.

I hope you guys enjoyed a day of love and laughter with the people you care about! Here is an awesome talk by Elder Holland that made me have a better understanding of Christ Like love called How Do I Love Thee? I'm posting the video so you can all watch. It is a wonderful talk all about the love of our Savior. I hope you all enjoy and happy Valentine's week!

Communication

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts and measure words, but to pour them out just as they are-chaff and grain together-knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."
-Anonymous

Yes, I have been wasting approximately the past, oh 2 and a 1/2 hours blog stalking people (my new favorite past time) and I found this quote which I instantly loved!

I have been learning that sometimes breakdowns are very therapeutic.

I like to keep things inside, and cry about it later, but it's been very nice to have people I love around me helping me know that it's ok to breakdown.

Karl has helped me a lot with this.

Even though I know how frustrating it is for him that I can't just let things out, he is patient.

I cried in front of him for the first time a few weeks ago and he just held me and let me cry.

I could probably count the people I've cried in front of (for matters not pertaining to things of a spiritual nature) on one hand.

I am thankful that I have him:)

He is becoming the person this quote describes for me and I love that! I am trying to do the same for him. (I'm a work in progress)

In other news....

My family is coming today!

Yep, the Anderson clan will be all together for the first time in quite awhile.

I AM PUMPED!

Yay for Friday!

I love you Mom!

Today is Mother's Day and I for sure have a fantastic Mother who I am so thankful for!
I was reading talk given this past general conference by Elder Ballard about mother's and daughters and I couldn't help but think of how much my mom has blessed my life.

She has been an incredible example to me. My parents have dealt with a lot of challenges this year, but they have faced each challenge with countless leaps of faith and prayer. They have been an incredible example to me of trusting in the Lord and living gospel principles.

I think my mom became my best friend my senior year of high school when I started talking to my mom about everything. My mom seems to understand how I work better than anybody else, so talking to her helped me understand myself better. She helped me realize that I am a Daughter of God and my worth is set in stone. Nothing that I or anybody else says or does has any affect on my worth because my Heavenly Father loves me perfectly despite that.

Through her example, her counsel, and her patience, my mom has taught me how to be comfortable being myself, how to make goals and accomplish them, and sooo many other countless things that have meant the world to me.

I love you mom! Thank you for putting up with my bad attitudes, laziness, whining, emotional ridiculousness, etc. Thank you for laughing with me during ridiculous movies, going on walks with me, supporting my piano and singing aspirations, dealing with my cat because you love me, sharing funny jokes with me (at least by my standards) etc. And most of all.......

Thank you for being my mom!