Hard Working Husband

I am always extremely grateful for my husband, but today I cannot stop thinking about my gratitude for him and the hard worker he is.

 

Brady works for a company that installs sport netting at golf courses, baseball courses, land fills, etc. He puts in crazy hours each week, puts up with last minute scheduling, a very difficult boss, and yet still finds time to come home and make me a happy wife. 

 

The past three weeks, Brady has been working in another state or far enough from home that they stay near the site all week.  I would be lying if I said it was easy with him gone, but I'm so proud of him and all that he does for our little family! I don't know how I got so lucky!

 

An example of what Brady does.  This is one of the jobs that his company did

Photography

I've always had an interest in photography, but have never done anything with it because there are so many amazing photographers in this world.  My friend Kim asked me to take her engagement pictures, which I said no to and fought her on it. There was no way I was going to take such important pictures, pictures that would be used in her announcements, and pictures that need to be amazing quality.  She finally convinced me that they only needed one picture and it could be done with my phone for all they cared. 

Yesterday Shawn, Kim and I went down to Laguna Beach around sunset to take their engagements. I was a stress case! As laid back as Shawn and Kim are, I couldn't help but worry about how the pictures were going to turn out. I wish the colors of the sunset would have come out better, but I think the pictures turned out ok.

After 400 pictures and an hour later, I went home and told Brady I would love to take a photography class.  Of course my supportive husband told me he thought it would be a great idea and to start looking into classes.

Thanks Shawn and Kim for igniting that fire again and thanks to my amazing husband for supporting me in going to take a class or two!  Once I have some classes under my belt, I'll have to take their pictures again around sunset to see the difference in quality :)

 

Our Wedding Day

Our wedding day could not have been more perfect!!!  We were surrounded by a ton of very important friends and family!  I'll never forget walking into our sealing room and seeing a completely full room.  I was not emotional until I saw and felt the love in that room. 

Everyone who came to the Temple



Our parents

Some of our closest friends

My handsome hubby

 

Missing two of the groomsmen, but still love this picture

My amazing bridesmaids.  I'm so lucky to have such amazing friends!

The bridal party (missing two groomsmen who had to leave early)

The cultural hall turned out better than I could have ever imagined!! 



The entrance

My little sister made our cake.  It was exactly how I pictured it!  Thanks Mady!!

I adore my father!

Our first dance as husband and wife

Some of our HB/NB friends.  Love them all!

The Proposal

I always said I would date someone closer to a year before getting engaged.  Well, as I've learned a lot in my life, its not my plan, its the Lord's plan. 

Brady and I had been discussing getting married for a few weeks and I had gone with my mom and best friend, Katie to look at what kind of rings I liked, but I didn't think the proposal was happening anytime in the next month or so.  I mean, come on, we had only been dating for 7 weeks. :)


I was running the So Cal Ragnar Relay when Brady bought the ring.  I had a little suspicion that he was looking at rings while I was gone, but I was so busy with the race I didn't think about it that much.  The day after the race was Sunday and there was a big dinner with friends at my house.  While getting dinner ready I saw Brady pull one of my best friends, Greg out of the kitchen. I wondered what was going on, but had to get dinner made so left it alone.  Then Brady comes back and pulls another one of my best friends and my mind started wondering and I started getting curious. I started looking Brady and saw him out at his car talking with Justin.  THEN, my dad and Brady disappear for at least 30 minutes.  I now know exactly what is going on.  So much for being sneaky!  I run upstairs and tell my mom that Brady had the ring and I was so excited.  She questioned me and asked me how I knew.  I then told Greg I knew he was pulled outside because Brady had the ring.  He told he I reading into things and not to be too excited.  Of course, I knew both my mom and Greg were trying to cover for Brady.  I was on cloud 9 and was flying high that night.

The next morning I got a text from Brady asking if we could go ring shopping because he thought he knew what I liked, but when he went to the ring store he got confused and needed my opinion on a few things.  My heart sunk!  I was so excited the night before and I couldn't believe I was wrong!  That day I could tell Brady was bummed that he didn't have a ring yet because of his texts.  He came to my work that day and took me out to lunch.  He expressed to me how he wanted to have a ring by then and how sad he was that it would still take time to find something and get it ordered.  I told him we had only been dating 7 weeks so it was ok and we didn't have to rush things. LOL!  What was I talking about, our whole relationship was fast!

That night Brady, myself, and a few friends were going to be going to Disneyland.  I told Brady that maybe since we were going to be there and it was our first time back since we started dating, that we could take a picture in front of the Ballroom where it all started.  Little did I know, he wanted to propose in the Ballroom, but didn't know how he could get me there without making it obvious that he was going to propose.  Well, I set that one up nicely!  After lunch he ran home and text messaged everyone who would be going to Disneyland and told them to text me that they were going to be late.

As I arrived at Disneyland I had just gotten a text from both Greg and Amber that they were going to be late.  I hadn't heard from Kimberly so I didn't think she would be joining us that night.  Since everyone was running late I told Brady that we should just go into the park and enjoy some "us" time.  He told me he liked my idea earlier and that we should go take a picture in front of the Ballroom.  I fought back a little and told him we didn't need to, but he finally convinced me to go.  As we got to the Ballroom I stopped outside because I didn't know if there was an event going on or not and didn't know if we could actually be in the Ballroom.  I told him we could take our picture under the sign and then head to the Park.  He literally pulled me into the ballroom as I was pulling back because I was afraid of getting in trouble. 

Brady and I would always write letters to each other, so after he finally got me on the dance floor he asked me if he could read me a letter he wrote.  I'm still completely clueless as to what's going on at this point because I thought he was just being romantic and was writing me another letter.  Half way through him reading his letter to me I hear Forever Young playing over the speakers, which was the first song we slow danced to the night of the YSA Conference. Come to find out that it started playing as soon as we walked into the room, but I was so worried about getting in trouble that I didn't hear it until halfway through the proposal.  That's when I clued in to what was going on.  After he finished his very sweet letter, he got on one knee and proposed.  After I said yes, out of no where I see Greg, who had snuck up behind me and recorded the whole thing, Amber, Kimberly, and Mike who where all there to help with the proposal. I was in total shock!  

After all of the proposal excitement, a few people who couldn't make it in time for the proposal showed up to join us for dinner and then a night at Disneyland. It was a night that I will never forget!

Below is a long video of the proposal and a few pictures from that night.  I still get made fun of that I'm in my work sweatshirt and jeans.  That obviously shows that I was clueless because if I had known it was coming, I would have looked much cuter!  :)

 

Trial Of My Faith

Last week as I was hiking with a friend, we discussed an experience I had when I praying about marrying Brady and what I learned from the whole thing.  Right as I finished my story she said, "Please tell me you have that written in a journal." Of course I didn't, so she challenged me to write the story down somewhere. I think my experience, or roller coaster for emotions is kind of personal, but this blog has acted as my journal for the past few years, so this is the one place I thought it would be best to add it to.  As I look back at past posts, I'm so grateful for my over blogging in years past.  I hope to at least do half as well as I used to!

Brady and I met about 2.5 years ago through a mutual friend. We would occasionally see each other at different YSA activities, but that was it.  On February 21 I went to the Disneyland Hotel for a Southern California YSA event.  The only reason I went to this event was because I had a friend speaking.  If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have gone since I was no longer a YSA.  Going to this event was also a big deal for me because I was going by myself.  I normally don't do things like that alone.  If you would have told me that night that my life was about to change, I would have laughed in your face just like I laughed in my cousin's face when she told me "you never know, you might come home with a date."

I showed up at the hotel looking around for someone I knew.  I finally found my friend Brittney, who is the one who was speaking that night.  I couldn't sit at her table since it was for speakers only so she introduced me to a few people and I sat with them.  A few minutes later a familiar face walks up and sits down at my table.  It was Brady Marble, who I thought looked so handsome that night!   We talked a little throughout dinner, he offered me his jacket when he thought I was cold, we worked on a small service project together, and then danced the whole night away together.  When the dance first started there was a big group of us dancing together, but as the night progressed I didn't even notice that everyone had disappeared and it was just me and the Bradesters dancing.  As the night came to a close he walked me back to my seat to get my stuff and asked me on a date for the next night. 

My first date with Brady was like none I had ever been on.  We went for a walk on the beach and he asked me questions that I had never been asked before that early on in the dating game.  He tells me now he asked me those questions so I knew he was serious about getting to know me.  As he dropped me off after the date and gave me a hug and asked me out on a second date. He was going to be traveling for work so the date wouldn't be for almost another week.  During that week we talked nonstop.  Our relationship was on fast-forward from day one!

After 7 weeks of dating, which I said I would never do, I said yes to Brady. The decision to marry Brady was one of the hardest decisions of my life.  Not because I didn't love him, but because I tested throughout the whole decision making process. I knew after two weeks of dating Brady that he was the one I was supposed to marry.  I will never forget when I actually realized it.  I was sitting in my mom's room talking to her about Brady and she said "is this the one?"  I looked at her, teared up, and said "it is!!" I was so excited, yet a little scared at the same time.  Over the month and a half I had major doubts that really took a toll on me and my faith.  Every time I would tell myself that I could never find anyone else like Brady and he was the one for me, a thought then would cross my mind, "Are you sure?  Is he really the one for you?  This is a big decision, don't mess up. Did you really get an answer?  Do you trust your answer?"  I don't think I've ever been tested like I was over those seven weeks. It made me question myself and whether or not I was really getting the correct answer about marrying Brady or if I was making things up on my head. 

My mom prays about all of her children's spouses before they get married.  She has kept her answers to herself, but I knew she had done this with my siblings so I asked her what answer she had gotten with me and Brady. She told me she would not tell me her answer because I needed to make my decision and not have her answer change anything for me. A few weeks later I was out at dinner with my mom and some family friends.  At this point Brady had already proposed, but I still had a few doubts in my head about the whole thing.  Not enough to say no though.  At dinner we had been talking about my life with dating Brady, getting my answer to marry him, his proposal, and how all the wedding planning was going. Somehow, and I still don't remember how my mom told the story about how she prays for everyone and that she had gotten a yes on all of her children except for me and Brady.  With me and Brady it was "whatever Lindsay decides."  That was very hard for me to hear.

After being tried and tested as much as I could handle, we asked my dad to give both Brady and myself a blessing.  My dad sat down with both of us and gave us great counsel.  He then gave Brady a blessing, which was pretty amazing.  After giving Brady a blessing, he looked at both of us and said "I've had many chances to give you blessings and I will continue to have other chances.  Let's have your husband to be give you your blessing."  I think my dad was truly inspired that night.  Brady gave me a blessing and I honestly cannot remember one thing he said in the blessing other than we were making the right decision in getting married.  I heard that and was overcome with the Spirit.  I have never had one doubt or have questioned anything since that day. Marrying Brady was the BEST decision I have ever made and I'm so glad that even though I was being tested, I stuck to my gut and what I knew deep down inside me was right.

So what did I learn from all of this?  My mom was supposed to get the answer she got so that I could truly make the decision for myself and not rely on her answer.  I need to trust in the Spirit and the answers that I receive.  Satan is a very powerful man and will do anything to stop you from doing the right thing. I'm so glad that he lost that battle!!  Not only did I learn a lot from this experience, I grew myself, and Brady and I grew as a couple.

 

So Much For That....

So much for my 2014 blogging goal.  I failed miserably on that one!

I feel like January was just yesterday, yet we're already at the end of the year.  How in the world did that happen?

This year started off like no other year before.  It was probably one of my favorite New Years because of who I was spending it with. Right after midnight I looked at my best friend Greg and said"2015 is my year!" I was serious, but little did I know what this year had in store for me.  I never imagined that a month and a half later, my life would completely change for the better.