rushley & crew

Did I say I'd be back  "later this week" ? Well of course I actually meant I'd be back "sometime." Can't commit to this blog worth anything lately! Anywho, I'm finally back to talk about things that I liked and didn't like about my birthday bucket list, as well as what I plan to do this year.  What I Liked Life is busy. It is full of tasks that we have to do every day (laundry, cleaning, work, cooking dinner, etc.) and it becomes really easy to forget to do anything else outside our required routines. Now don't get me wrong, I love having a routine. However, at the end of a year, I don't want to look back and say, "Well this year, I did a lot of laundry." That's one reason that I loved having this bucket list: I can say that there are 17 defined things that I accomplished in the last year. I can even say there are a few more that I worked on but didn't quite fulfill. Some of my tasks were more serious, some were mo...

If you've been anywhere near my blog in the past year, you probably noticed a very prominent topic: my 23 before 23 bucket list. In fact, for several months now, it's been about the only thing I've posted about because completing the tasks was taking up a lot of my time and energy. So this will be my last "23 before 23" post, but I couldn't let list just die without a little recap of all the things I did and accomplished in the last year :) Go to at least three different national parks or monuments  { Dinosaur National Monument } { Zion National Park } { Mesa Verde National Park } . . . In all of these cases, I had to plan or at least participate in a weekend trip. I really am not much of a planner, so unless I have to plan something, I'll often end up being boring and watching TV or something. Since I had this goal, I had to make the effort, and the effort was always worth it. I had a lot of fun with Russ and other family on these weekend trips. ...

If you follow me on instagram , you may have noticed that we moved last weekend! We've been kickin' it in a one-bedroom apartment for the first three years of our marriage, and we were ready for an upgrade :) Though it was a stressful process to actually find our dream house, we did, and I gotta say, so far we're loving it! :)  But I also loved our apartment while we were there . . . it was, after all, our first real home together (I guess I don't count those first two months of marriage living in a mansion for $500/month. True story.)  It's where we celebrated our first Christmas , hosted a Halloween party , and  had birthday fun . It's also where we had nightly cuddling, ate way too much mac'n'cheese, and watched a lotttttt of Netflix :)  And when the couple that will be taking over the apartment in August came through to check it out, you should have heard the girl; she thought our place was so adorable! Because really, it is. I believe in  ...

So my birthday has now come and gone and my 23 before 23 goals are supposed to be complete. I only finished 17, but I still feel good about that. I have a whole other post planned to talk more about the actual list , but I still have three tasks to post about, so I'll do one today: Do work in all the temples in Utah. I don't always talk about my faith in blog posts, but it is definitely a big part of my life. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , informally known as the Mormon church. We believe in God and we believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. We believe in the eternal nature of families--that is, we believe that families can be together forever, even after death. We believe in loving and serving others. And really, we believe in a lot of great things, so if you want to learn more, feel free to ask me any questions or visit the FAQ section on  mormon.org .  One thing that sets my church apart from many other churches are the temples . We ...