I am SOOO BAD! Forgive Me!

To our faithful friends who are interested in our lives... I am so completely sorry about my lack of responsibility to keeping this updated. Please forgive me! :) There really is no way I could sanely retrace everything that has happened over the months I last posited. So I will kind of focus on certain events that have recently occurred or will occur.

We have since moved as of August to a new place in Rexburg. We are now in a basement apartment of a house belonging to an elderly couple. It's more spacious even though it is technically like a Bat Cave. A unique part of the place is that our bathroom has metallic, floral decorated wallpaper. It's hilarious, also considering that comes with a pink bathtub and sink. :)

Ryan:

Currently in school for the Fall semester. Working part time at what is currently called "Teriyaki Express" and will soon be called something else soon. He has been working with the food and primarily the computer systems to make sure that everything is in working order.

He celebrated his 26th birthday on the 17 of this month. He is lucky to have such good friends who care about him. Thanks to Ariel Benham, he was able to have a nice "Stargate" themed cake. I was with her when we picked out the cake mix: Carrot cake.

Was is a delicious cake to eat? In the words of Teal'c: "Indeed".

We learned some weeks back that his brother Sean will be soon leaving in the beginning of January for a mission representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Oakland/San Francisco, California Mission. We will actually be departing Saturday afternoon for Salt Lake to be in town for his farewell on Sunday.

In his free-time Ryan has been enjoying playing Minecraft on the computer and I hope he will get to spend some time reading Inheritance, the last "Eragon" book, which is something I got him for his birthday.

Melissa:

Took the Fall semester off to work. I am currently employed at the Chevron/Burger King gas station just off the first Rexburg exit. I have been working since approx. September. The hardest thing about that job is that on most of my shifts I work in the morning which means I need to be there a quarter before 6. I work the Chevron side, so I work the convenience store and the gas pumps, to make sure that people are getting their gas and snacks (and unfortunately their tobacco and alcohol, for some).

My sister Aubrie had put in her mission call and she has been assigned to serve in the Mesa, Arizona mission, beginning January 4th. Ryan and I are so excited for her. And in addition to Aubrie serving a mission, my brother Scott also put his papers in and received his call to serve in the Los Angeles, California mission (Spanish speaking). He reports in the beginning of February. It's cool because Sean, Scott and Kurt (my other brother) have and will all have served California missions.

My parents decided that the Marrott family should spend at least one more time together for Christmas before Aubrie and Scott leave for missions. Ryan and I will fly out Christmas Eve and return the 5th of January to Rexburg. It will be a nice getaway. It will be bittersweet because I am not sure how much more I will be able to see of my parents and siblings over the next few years. Growing up really puts things into perspective.

Thanks for all the support. I hope to get more followers over time!

Until next time,

~Melissa

Long Time, No Post

It is the 19th of May and I neglected to post about Ryan's and my first Anniversary. I hope that I can catch up from there to what is happening now.

Highlights of our first Anniversary: Ryan and I went to the Rexburg Temple to do some Sealings. We had a good time and the people who helped out were great. They congratulated us on us being married for a year. I actually got to reunite with one of my former religion teachers on campus who now works as a Sealer at the Temple. Afterwards we went to dinner at Applebee's. However, when we finished eating, I drank too much lemonade and felt sick going out to the car. Ryan wondered if I needed to throw up, but I didn't think I needed to. We got to the car and I found that as soon as I sat down, I told Ryan to not move the car. I opened the car door and puked on the parking lot. I had three waves of it and then I was good. I had no further problems after that for the rest of the night. Other than that, we really enjoyed our special day.

School started on the 19th of April for the both of us. Things started off pretty well except for the fact that it took a while for me to get my financial aid in. Thankfully, I was able to get it.

We find that one of our new favorite places to go is Kiwi Loco for when we want frozen yogurt. What is also exciting is that Rexburg now has a frozen custard shop that sells burgers too called Nelson's Frozen Custard. I miss frozen custard from Missouri.

Our friend Perry had a boxing fight night at the gym he goes to. We were invited to go. I think he did well and from what he said, he was glad to feel like he got beaten around a little bit and that he was able to put up a good fight with his opponent.

Last weekend we went to Salt Lake to stay with Ryan's family. We were able to get Ryan a new pair of shoes that were badly needed. We also went with Emily, my mother in-law to lunch and she later took Ryan, Mandy, Jared and I to dinner at the pizza place where Marissa works. Marissa was able to join us for dinner too.

Ryan and I have been watching a show called Smallville, which is about the beginnings of Superman. The series finale was last Friday, which made Ryan's family and Perry both happy and sad. We need to finish up season 9 and go through season 10 in order to see the series finale.

We are now a month into the semester, and things are going quite well. Ryan is currently taking

16 credits and I am taking 12, but I hope that getting a job soon will be in my future.

Well that is it for me now. I hope to keep up with posting on this blog more often.

Take care everyone!

Melissa

The Perfect Opportunity

Hello to all,

So, Ryan and I had a few interesting days just recently. He and I made it down to Salt Lake for our scheduled trip to St. Louis for my brother Kurt's homecoming from his mission on Thursday the 27th. Our flight was scheduled for Monday, so we spent some time with Ryan's family for those days prior to the flight out to St. Louis.

Unfortunately, a storm blew through St. Louis from Monday through Tuesday. Ryan and I had to reschedule flights three times. The storm first started with freezing rain and then it turned into a blizzard. However, Ryan and I weren't the only ones affected by the storm. Elder Kurt Marrott's flight to Dallas and then to St. Louis was canceled on Tuesday and so he flew into Salt Lake. He waited to see if he was still good to fly to St. Louis then from Salt Lake, but that flight was also canceled on that day. So lucky us, we got to see Kurt and pick him up from the airport for him to stay at Ryan's family's house so we could then take him to the next flight out on Wednesday.

It was so good to see my brother. He seems to have grown spiritually and I respect that he has made that decision in his life to follow through with his calling. Although he isn't tall in stature, he is a spiritual giant now.

We got to play a game of Settlers of Catan with him, which was fun. That night, my Aunt Jen took us out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Ticci's. Aunt Jen was tickled to see Kurtis, Ryan and I.

Today (Wednesday) we dropped off Kurt at the airport for his flight in the morning. Ryan's and my flight leave today at 4:05. We will then be taken to the Chicago airport and then from there change planes and make our final trip to St. Louis.

I really look forward to seeing my family. I'm glad I had the chance to see Kurt first and have him meet Ryan and his family. I think that worked out well for the storm to allow for that chance to happen.

I will write again soon,

Melissa

Count Down

Hey everyone!

Melissa once more letting you guys know what is up with Ryan and me.

Well there are thirteen more days until Ryan and I fly out to Saint Louis to see my brother come home from off his mission in Roseville, California. I just read one of his last emails that he sends out weekly to give us an update on how he's been doing. First, we will go down to Salt Lake to prep for our flight to Saint Louis. I think we plan to go down a few days early just to see people around town and to make sure we are good for our flight on Monday the 31st. I want to make sure we take plenty of pictures when we are in Saint Louis. I just hope that the weather will cooperate when we travel.

So Ryan had been wanting to get a Playstation 2 so that he can get Kingdom Hearts. Well, we got a used one at a used game store plus Kingdom Hearts. We were able to get the system with two free games. Ryan already owned a Playstation game, so I was okay with it. It has been fairly fun playing, but I guess I am more interested in working on crocheting a blanket and reading.

Well, that is it for the time being.

Melissa out!

Back Home

Hello, Melissa here again.

We said our goodbyes to my in-laws on Friday (New Year's Eve), and would like to say that I am grateful to be related to some great people.

The drive back to Rexburg was fine, meaning the roads were clear enough for good travel. Luckily, before we left Salt Lake, we had purchased new tires for our Honda Accord that would be able to withstand the weather better. This allowed for better maneuverability around Rexburg, especially. Since the plow men around town here only plow during the night the roads don't get cleared that much.

Anyway, that isn't the point. :)

We arrived home to a not so pleasant sight. We left the apartment the way we left it, but it was a mess when we did. Ryan and I had left the living room, kitchen and bedroom in disorder. Our office looked as if it was run through by a tornado. I guess Ryan and I don't have the cleaning gene. However between Friday, Saturday and Sunday we got three of those rooms under control, for the most part. Friday, we managed to clean apartment for guests for a New Year's Eve party. We invited only a few friends, but it was still fun.

Ryan and our guests got to play our new Wii game, Super Mario Bros. It is fun, but kind of irritating when people get in your way or cause problems. We then watched Despicable Me (one of our Christmas presents) with Steve Carrell playing as the main character. I thought it was a cute and funny movie. I believe everyone should see it.

Today was a good day. Ryan and I went to church for an eleven o'clock meeting, which was nice because last year we went at nine to church. We also got to go early for they canceled Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society. It was nice spending more of my day with Ryan.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Ryan is going in to look for a job with a computer programming company to find work with them. I pray that he is able to get it. I would hate for him to go back to the survey call center he worked at before.

Well, ta-ta for now!

(Don't worry, Ryan will post something soon.)

~Melissa