Kissing Jacob and getting crafty

Wow, it's been a while since I last updated. You want to know why? School. School is the monster and I am the victim. Finals are just around the corner and I've been forced to procrastinating, watching America's Next Top Model and start prepping.

Before this whole end of the semester thing really hit, I did have a chance to do some really fun things. A couple of weeks ago, I got to host a bachelorette party for one of my greatest friends, Heather Lee Miller (Flint). She is getting married next month and I am super excited for her. Anyway, we got most of The Elms gang back together for the party and it was great! We enjoyed great food, played games, embarrassed Heather, and laughed a ton.

Roommate reunion! 

Heather and I in our sexy, silk robes, lipstick, and  sweet bling.

Heather!

We played "kiss the hottie." We all chose lipsticks randomly out of a bag and then took turns trying to kiss Jacob with our eyes blindfolded. Yep, those are my lips right on his cheek. Man, I'm good.

And then last weekend Christian and I went home for General Conference. The talks were amazing and exactly what I needed to hear. I had such a great time hanging with the fam, listening to the prophet and apostles, and lounging in pajamas for three straight days. 

While Dad, Michael, and Christian were at priesthood, Mom and I decided to do a little shopping. We went to a couple of different craft stores and were very successful!

I finally made myself a spring wreath for our front door!

Some more Easter decorations :)

And as soon as I'm done blogging, we get to go home to sojo again :) Hooray for weekends!

Happy Easter everyone!

Our house

I thought I should record a little bit about our first home as a married couple. When we found this little basement apartment, it didn't look like much. It's part of an old brick house that was built back in the 40's. 

Despite this place being older than my parents, there were some major perks far better than other places we had seen. For one, the carpet had just been replaced. Number two, the kitchen was five times bigger than any other place we had looked at. Number three, the bathroom was a decent size with a cute pedestal sink. Number four, it is two blocks south of campus -- it takes me literally ten minutes to walk to my classes in the Brimhall. And finally, we could afford it :)

There are obvious downsides to living in an basement apartment that was around during WWII times -- temperature issues, bugs, not a ton of natural light, etc. Plus we have these ceiling pipes that are exposed in every single room. Oh, and we have exactly one door. Okay, we have two if you count the front door. It's basically a straight shot from the front door to the end of the apartment. You enter the living room, go straight into our bedroom, which leads to the kitchen, which leads to the bathroom.

Despite these odd quirks, we found a way to make it our own. My amazing family helped us revamp the whole place before we moved in. We painted every room, added our own stuff and were pleasantly surprised to how it turned out. 


Now we have a red and gold themed living room:

A white and green bedroom:

A yellow kitchen with blue and green accents:

And a purple and white bathroom:

Yes, our apartment is old, it's quirky, but it's ours :)

A conservative, baby hungry, bubble-dwelling girl

This post is inspired by a visit from an old friend. The purpose of this is to give a glimpse into the reasoning behind why I choose to live my life the way I do.

I'm from Utah.
I was born and raised in Utah -- South Jordan, Provo -- that's pretty much it. Some may think, "Wow Stace. You've lived in the Utah bubble your whole life." They'd be right. I have lived in a bubble my whole life -- it's the only thing I've ever known. But you know what? I'm okay with that. In fact, I'm more than okay with it. Utah, with its conservative people and highly infused Mormon culture, and I are the perfect match. I love being surrounded by people who share my values and beliefs. I love living in a place where I feel safe. I love living near my family. I love that I grew up in the only city in the world to have two LDS temples. I love that Provo, the city I now call home, will soon join South Jordan as a two temple city. I love the memories I have here. Memories, safety, family, religion. Why would I ever want to leave?

I attend Brigham Young University.
I come from a long generation of BYU Cougars. I knew the words to our fight song long before I understood what "alma mater" meant. Besides family tradition, what does BYU have to offer me? Oh I don't know...maybe a killer deal for a stellar education, a beautiful, clean campus... Campus isn't the only thing around here that is clean. We also have clean shaven men, and and overall moral standard of awesomeness. I love that we have an Honor Code to help better protect me from things I am morally opposed to. I love that I CAN mix my education with my religion. Now I know BYU isn't for everyone, but it certainly fits me perfectly.

I married young.
It's true. Christian and I were both 21 years old when we were married. Some may think, "But you're so young! You haven't experienced life yet. You're too young to make that kind of life-long commitment." To them I say, it's not a life-long commitment. When I signed up for married life, I made an eternal commitment. I know perfectly well what I got myself into. Sure marriage is tough, but it would be tough whether I married at age 21, age 35 or 56.

I want a big family.
I've wanted to be a mom longer than I've wanted anything in my life. I started making a list of baby names at the age of 10 and have been adding to my list ever since. Needless to say, Christian and I already have all our future kids' names picked out. I honestly believe that being a mother is the absolute greatest thing I could ever do with my life. Motherhood is noble calling and I can't wait to experience that.

I am a Latter-day Saint.
I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God and it was translated by the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that Thomas S. Monson is God's prophet today. I know that temples are the house of the Lord. I know that through His plan, families can be together forever. I know that I will see my loved ones again after death. I know that my Savior lived and died for me and that He lives again. I know that His atonement is real and that through Him, I can receive eternal life. I am a daughter of God. I am a Mormon.

I guess you could say I am the epitome of the stereotypical Utah, Mormon girl. I've never lived outside of Utah, I endorse Mitt Romney, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, I married young, my greatest ambition is to be a mother, I own a crock-pot, and hey, I'm even blonde. And you know what? I wouldn't change a thing. I'm exactly who I want to be.

The Stephanie Complex

People usually don't believe me when I tell them I have three sisters named Stephanie.

The original Stephanie, and my biological sister is 18 months older than me. When my oldest brother James married a Stephanie, we thought it was some weird coincidence. Then my other big brother Matt married a Stephanie as well. See? Three Stephanie Purcells.

Then there's me. I am the only Purcell daughter not named Stephanie. Things can get pretty confusing when we all get together, so naturally, we came up with some nicknames. I call Steph the original, Steph. James' wife we call Stephie Lynne. Matt's wife is Stephanie Cami. Even with the nicknames, things can get confusing. Needless to say, I get called "Stephanie" a lot.

It's kind of like a curse. Sometimes when I tell others about my name curse, I think they think I'm exaggerating the situation. Really, I'm not. Calling me by the wrong name has been going on since as long as I can remember. Sure it's understandable for people to confuse me with my sister. Siblings get mixed up all the time. Add two more Stephanie's to the family and well, the problem grew. 

Grandpa: "So, you breastfeeding that baby of yours?"

Me: "Grandpa, I'm Stacie. I don't have a baby."

But the crazy thing is, it's not just family members who slip up. I've had teachers, ward members, friends, roommates, acquaintances, all who have never even met my sisters, who can't remember my name.

Ward members: "That song was beautiful! You are so talented!"

Me: "Why thank you, but I think you meant to talk to my sister Steph. She's the singer."

Christian's old roommate: "Hey guys, how's it going? How are you Stephanie?"

Christian: ......*fidgeting awkwardly*

Me: "It's Stacie..."

And just this week, I was interviewing a professor for my job and about halfway through the interview, he forgot my name. "Stephanie, was it?" he asks.

Stephie Lynne, Stacie, Steph, Stephanie Cami

Case in point.

Sometimes it can be quite frustrating. But having lived with my curse for years now, I've sort of learned to laugh it off. I try to look at the bright side. At least when I get called "Stephanie" I'm being confused with one of my three beautiful, talented, awesome sisters.

My Superman

What's the point of having a blog if you can't brag about your family a little?

Isn't he cute?

WARNING: If you are sick of hearing girls go on and on and on about how great their husbands are...stop reading now.

Things I never have to do because I married Christian Carnley:

• Laundry: I don't know exactly how it happened, but Christian is the laundry guy. When there are bags of clothes to be hauled to the wash room, he does it. When the timer goes off and it's time to switch loads, he jumps into action. Folding? Yeah, that's mostly him too. 
• Reach for things: Christian is taller than me. Now that I'm married, I don't have to use a chair to get that bowl out of the top cabinet or jump around on my tippy-toes to get a box of cereal at the grocery store.
• Kill bugs: We live in a basement. In an OLD basement. So naturally we get little visitors with lots of legs every once in a while. Spiders are the worst. I can't go near them because they totally freak me out. Christian is an arachnid's worst nightmare.
• Take out the garbage: Even when Christian and I were first dating, he'd take out the garbage. We'd be at Home Base in sojo and if the garbage can needed emptying, he'd just do it, without being asked.
• Drive: For those of you who know me, it will come as no surprise that driving is one of my least favorite things. It's not that I can't drive, I just don't like to. Christian is like my personal chauffeur, and has been pretty much since high school. 
• Math: Numbers are not my forte. So anytime there is a task involving numbers (comparing prices at the grocery store, balancing money stuff, etc.) Christian thankfully steps in.
• Open doors: Chivalry is not dead when it comes to Christian. He is so quick to grab the car door, front door, or whatever it may be and hold it open for me.
• Grate cheese: I despise grating cheese. Maybe it's our grater, but I've sliced my fingers far too many times. Bloody cheese does not a good quesadilla make.
• Make the bed: I'm not the best at making my bed. Despite my parent's best efforts, it never really stuck (former roommates can attest to this). Christian on the other hand, cares more about things being neat and tidy than I do. Thus, every morning, he makes the bed while I'm straightening my hair or something.
• Set an alarm: Christian sleeps on the side of the bed nearest to our bookshelves/our charging phones. So naturally, when our alarm sounds in the early a.m. hours, he takes care of it. And on those days when I have class later than him, I still don't set my alarm. He takes a break at work and gives me a call to make sure I'm up. 
• Pack my backpack: Like almost every morning, I take longer to get ready than Christian. So while I'm in the bathroom messing with my hair, he lovingly listens to my list of what I need for the day and adds my phone, lunch, textbooks, etc. to my bag.

So you may be wondering what the heck I do around the house. Well, I cook, clean...look pretty...but then again, Christian does all that too.  

In the beginning...

It all started back in 8th grade. Christian and I were both students at good ole' South Jordan Middle School. I was shy. Christian was...well..he was a 14 year old boy :) Once upon a time we had U.S. History class together. (Our teacher was Mrs. Abercrombie. She brought delicious little pastry snacks called "Zingers" for us to eat and made us watch a super long show called "Roots.")

Anyway, there was this one week in sojo middle that all of us 8th graders were making spaghetti noodle bridges. We had to design a structure that could hold so much weight, blah, blah. So for that whole week, kids were taking handfuls of dried spaghetti noodles out of the science lab and making a mess everywhere else in the school. Christian was one of these people. He and his friend Quinton decided to spice up history class with said noodles. Unfortunately for me, I sat in front of the two rowdy red-heads. They were super impressed with themselves as they flipped spaghetti pieces into my hair. (the tiny pieces of noodles pretty much matched my blonde hair perfectly. So imagine my surprise when i touched my head only to feel crunchy.) So yeah, Christian thought flipping spaghetti was the coolest idea ever. Apparently a 14 year old boy's mentality is that if you tease and bother a cute girl enough, she'll start paying attention to you. Good news for Christian, because well, it worked.

Fast forward to high school. My best friend, Alyssa, and I had some social issues. We would only hang out with each other and even when we did that, our time was spent making grape smashers and felt finger puppets of impeached U.S. presidents. Luckily for us, we sort of fell into the most epic group of friends ever. Christian was among this group. One thing lead to another and pretty soon Christian and I attended almost all the school dances together and started to date.

Homecoming 2006 

Upon graduating from high school, Christian and I were both accepted to the best gosh darn school in the state -- Brigham Young University. I suggested that as we were going to college, we try to break out of our "exclusiveness" and date some other people. Christian agreed. Then we made the terrible mistake to move into the same freshman ward. This time period is known as: Christian & Stacie -- the hard days. I dated, he got jealous. He dated, I got jealous. It was rough. We had our fair share of fights and misunderstandings but finally talked it out and we parted with good feelings as Christian left to serve an LDS mission in Atlanta, Georgia (North).

I wrote him every week for two years, but made it very clear I wasn't going to sit around "waiting" for him. While he was hitting up the pavement and preaching the gospel in GA, I was scoring free meals and dating a TON. I met some amazing guys and honestly thought Christian and I would never be anything more than just  friends. Little did I know...

The day of Christian's homecoming talk

In December of 2010, Christian returned from serving an honorable, full-time mission. I was super stoked to see him, it was great to have my best bud back in town. We both returned to school for winter semester and spent quite a bit of time together. On Feb. 14th, we decided to officially start dating again. Two months and two days later, he proposed at the site of our very first date waaaay back in high school. For those who were versed in the Christian/Stacie history, our engagement was no surprise. For some of my college friends/wardies though, they thought I was crazy to get engaged after only two months of dating!! Relax guys, I've known Christian Carnley for 8 years, this was a long time coming :)

We were married in the Jordan River Temple on July 1, 2011 and tomorrow, will be celebrating 8 months of a totally awesome marriage.

There you have it. The story behind how Stacie Purcell and Christian Dallen Irie Carnley hooked up.