Garden in the study.

I grew up weeding and raking and picking fruits and vegetables out of the garden and off of the fruit bushes my parents carefully cultivated in our backyard. As a very picky eater, I'm sure Mom and Dad were happy to see me eating green beans off the vine, although I wouldn't touch the zucchini that was always far too plentiful. It was always amazing to me that Mom knew how to make all this food grow, and now that I've been researching it a bit, I'm even more impressed. 

                               
Brian was probably skeptical when I announced I wanted us to have a container garden because I had killed the already-grown ivy from Home Depot. (I'm actually not sure if it's dead or not, but it hasn't grown any new leaves in awhile...) I had also tried to grow oregano and thyme in some small clay pots we had gotten in a yard sale, to no avail. 

Dead ivy and clay pots...evidence of my brown thumb remain in a corner of the kitchen

Then last month, we had a stake Relief Society activity with a class on container gardening. The woman presenting, Barbara, works at Phipps Conservatory here in Pittsburgh (which I love going to with Mila). She explained how to start seedlings, which I thought rather ingenious.

Mila in the rainbow room at Phipps. The place is a huge network of greenhouses!

I'm here to say it works! Brian and I planted our seeds on the last day of March and they've thrived in the west-facing windows in our study (I can only hope these windows continue to provide enough sunlight). Here's a step-by-step for starting seeds:

Materials
cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil (to avoid rust)
plastic bread bag
twisty tie/elastic
egg carton (cardboard or styrofoam; if styrofoam, poke a few holes in the bottom of each egg compartment)
seed starting soil
seeds (make sure the seeds you pick are for varieties of vegetables that are meant to be in containers; these are usually smaller varieties. However, if you are going to transplant them outside, it shouldn't matter what type of seeds you use)

See egg carton resting on its lid. I got all of this from Home Depot (minus the cookie sheet). 

Take the top of the egg carton off and set it underneath the other half. Fill each egg compartment with loose soil. On top of the soil, place one seed--do not push the seed into the soil. Once all compartments have soil and a seed, place egg carton on the cookie sheet covered in foil. Pour water directly onto the cookie sheet, about a quarter inch thick. Leave for a few hours. After the cardboard has absorbed the water (there will probably be some left on the cookie sheet), place the egg carton into the plastic bread bag and secure the end with a twisty tie or an elastic. Put your mini-greenhouse in a sunny place and watch the miracle of seeds. 

My green beans need more space! (far left)

Here is a handy dandy little handout that Barbara gave us at the mini-class. It lets you know what seed varieties work well in containers, how big of containers each type of plant needs, how many you can plant in a container, and lots of other useful tips for novice container gardeners.

I ended up planting cucumbers, spinach, green beans, oregano, and thyme. After noticing my green beans were bursting from the bread bag, I made a trip to Home Depot and picked up some soil and plastic potting containers. 

I chose Miracle Gro potting soil because it has the nutrients my plants need for two months; after that, I'll have to start fertilizing them.

I gently ripped the egg compartments containing my little sprouts away from the rest of the egg carton and put them in their new home, cardboard and all. I left some seedlings in the greenhouse, partly because I ran out of potting soil, and partly because the thyme, some of the oregano, and one of the cukes were still too tiny. I really hope stage two of container gardening is as successful as the first!

The root of the spinach grew right through the cardboard!

Spinach, oregano, green  beans. 

Missing Ellen.

Ellen sort of epitomizes my BYU experience, probably because she made it the awesome four years that it was. Ever since moving to Pittsburgh, I've reflected often on my time in Provo. I wanted so bad to be done and get out, and now that I've left, I miss it like crazy. 

Disclaimer: I love my life and feel blessed beyond comprehension. But we all get down, right? 

Lately in particular, I'm not sure why, I have felt some acute Provo longings. But it's more than Provo, it's how things were two, three, four years ago. I miss living with Ellen, having her get me ready for fancy dances, going to church in a singles ward where the demographic was basically uniform (single students), sharing groceries, talking about random people we ran into during the day, sharing clothes, talking about the gospel. Doing spontaneous things like going to the hot springs or driving to LA for a three-day weekend. Crying from laughter for the most random things (hurricane? tornado? sleeping), or crying because the other was hurting so bad. Anticipating the future with whomever we would end up marrying. I wanted to get out of Provo because I was tired of the responsibilities that required 14-hour days to fulfill. Perhaps because I have spare time, I now really miss the fun times at BYU, usually made fun by Ellen and the ideal friendship she showed me. 

Freshman year, preference '20s dance.

Sophmores, going to General Conference for the Saturday sessions.

Junior year, trip to LA

However, I believe that such looking back can be detrimental to my motivation to move forward and accomplish things now. Matt gave a really good Sunday School lesson today that helped me realize a constructive way to remember the good times but not wish I were back in them. He quoted Elder Holland: "We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future." I can take those good times Ellen and I had and know that because of those memories and experiences, we will always be best friends! I miss her dearly, and instead of wishing I was her roommate again, I can be comforted in knowing that I have a friend for life! It will take some time to reformat how I think about my BYU times, but I'm looking forward with faith and know that God has great things in store for me and Brian. 

In other news, Brian and I went to his winter formal for engineer grad students. Disappointed in the food, but the Carnegie Music Hall was a beautiful venue! And it was fun to meet Brian's fellow student compadres. I missed having Ellen do my hair, although we did go out and buy me a fancy dress that I will wear on all future formal nights on cruises.

Brian and I with Subhro and his girlfriend

That's a wrap.

My life in a few words: Mila, running, 24, cooking, audio books, Brian, scouts, Relief Society. Pretty sweet, right?

Mila just turned six months, and we have a strange connection in that she was born the day I arrived in Pittsburgh. I didn't know how much more fun babies are the older they get! She can sit by herself (though she can't roll over at ALL), she hates tummy time, she just started eating baby food (mostly likes vegetables...odd), and she smiles non-stop. She finally has a more regular sleep schedule that has enabled me to watch the Olympics that her parents DVR for me (Brian thinks I'm obsessed with the Olympics--maybe true). My favorite times are just after she's eaten and I'm holding her to burp her and she is so smiley and talks to me in her little voice. She's starting a baby gym at the beginning of March, and her parents are buying a jogging stroller so I can go running with her! 

The pillow is there to catch her just in case she falls back.

Valentine's Day outfit. Kicks constantly on tummy time.
Her middle name is Valentina :)

Being married to Brian has gotten me into a few things that I wasn't into before: cooking, audio books, TV shows, and kind of running. I ran before, but since he runs everyday, now I feel extra motivation. We're running a half marathon in Pittsburgh in Boyce Park and we're following this running schedule (roughly):

Now that I have someone to cook for (and time to cook), I love it! This rice and bean salad was delicious, I cooked my first fish dish, and this chicken marinade is to die for. I also cook a lot of recipes out of the cookbooks I got for my wedding/Christmas. Cookbooks are the best. 

I never listened to audio books until Brian only listened to audio books. Sometimes it annoyed me: why can't we just read while snuggling instead of you having your earphones in? But now that I've listened to a couple, I always listen to something while doing the dishes, cleaning, or cooking. I kind of feel like I'm learning and getting things done, although I find I'm picky with the readers.

my first audio book. Brian's dad gave it and the sequel to us. 

TV shows: very hit or miss. Wowzers. We watched a couple first episodes of shows with really high reviews and thought they were SO DUMB. Agents of SHIELD--what happened?? Worst show ever. We watch Modern Family (hilarious), Merlin (kinda dumb), Firefly (LOVE), Continuum (first season only), and we just started 24. Although I close my eyes through half of it, I still dream about how to resolve all the cliffhangers. I never watched TV pre-marriage, but it's a good way to unwind after long, busy days.

Brian and I went to our favorite burger joint for Valentine's Day (I know, very romantic). It's a local Pittsburgh place called BRGR. Yum. 

Bad phone camera, but cute husband.

Church callings keep me busy! I got officially released as a den leader for cub scouts, but I'm hanging around until they call someone else. This is hard for me because it's a big time commitment and the boys can be pretty difficult to manage. But there are some special moments that make up for all the horrid ones :)

Relief Society is fun and also busy. I like knowing what service opportunities are available in the ward and then coordinating who does what. Lots of good people doing good things.

My bears! 

The two boys I drive every week. We went to a fire station a couple weeks ago!

In any other news, we visited Brian's family in Rochester last weekend for his mom's birthday, my cousin Ashley just had a baby, and we want to hike part of the Appalachian Trail for our anniversary in June! And that's a wrap.

To the future of #redswag.

To the lucky inheritor of the leadership mantle of the beloved teen group of CK BYU:

I have a few points of advice that may prove useful in the upcoming months before the eighth year of Camp Kesem BYU. Take them or leave them as you wish; I offer them as learned from experience. 

Plan everything as far in advance as possible. Most importantly, pick a campsite big enough for everyone to play together but still have privacy; ensure insured transportation can transport both kids and supplies; plan simple activities that encourage team-building. Think realistically about what food is needed and what is feasible on a camp-out. Make sure you or someone you know will let you borrow the necessary supplies: tents, grills, sleeping bags, water coolers, ice coolers, firewood. Brainstorm cabin chat questions, some funny and some serious. Try doing the hike before the week of to see how difficult it is, how long it takes, where it starts and ends. 

End formal letter. But really, most of that stuff I didn't do quite right. But where I fell so short, my counselors and teens made up for it (I feel like I'm bearing my testimony). Dang it, I forgot to think about cabin chat questions again, and here we are around the campfire, ready for cabin chat. Squirrel is all over it. Wait, Oboe and Reader just collided in the game of glow-in-the-dark capture the flag that results in injuries every year?? No worries, Hawkeye has the medical skills and Poseidon and Fisher take care of comforting. We're told we have to keep the rule of three even going to the bathroom and the teens are awesome at adjusting without complaining (unlike me). Oddish is falling behind on the hike, but oh look, DK is right there talking and encouraging. Hmm, I really don't want to drive back and start dinner. Good thing Baloo and Chowder offered to. How are we going to evacuate if the wildfire gets closer? Nobody could help with that, but luckily we didn't need to. I couldn't be everywhere and do everything, but I didn't need to be.

You have a lot of responsibility, future #redswag coordinator. You wear a watch and have the schedule of events and tell people when to be where and what to do. It might not seem as fun as last year when you were just a regular counselor and goofed off and went with the flow of things. But live in the moment! Yeah, you're going to be late regardless of how many times you radio your co and tell him/her to get their boys/girls to the meeting spot. (Oh, and having a radio is awesome.) But chill out. Be as prepared as you can before camp, and then go and have the best week of your life. Hint: even if you don't prepare that great, it's still amazing. Because it's the kids that make camp, not you. And even though you have no idea what you're doing, they love you so much, and you can't help but love them until it hurts. 

Give them my love,

Pepper

Some picture mementos:

I love the rainbow :)

The whole camp!!

Oboe and Mozzi at the playa

Cmer, Mozzi, and Skippy

Girls take pictures, boys play in water

Hot mazing, Fisher, Reader and Oboe. They're siblings, FYI

Why yes, we did see the lightning strike the knoll that set the entire hilltop ablaze.

Reader being Reader.

Firefly, Cmer (sisters), Skippy, Mozzi

Silly Squirel!

Mozzi always looks good, but especially on the ropes course.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE. Those are my teens!

What made up for my lack of activity planning...

Reader being Reader again.

All counselors! Best kids around.

My peeps. Minus Squirel. Gosh I can't say enough about them!!

#redswaggggg

hahahah the time I was the legs of a pregnant lady pretending to be more pregnant and I got a little wet.

really tiring counselor dance. 

Our home.

Here it is. In all its unkempt splendor. Including the two tables of clean dishes after making pumpkin whoopies, cookies, and butternut squash pasta with pumpkin sauce. And bonus: Brian in his natural habitat.

Walk  in the door and put your shoes in the black cupboards. I eventually (soon)
want to get little baskets for some cubbies to put mittens and hats in.

Hang a left and here's our living room full of craigslist furniture! I love the chest
myself. And the mirror. Grandpa's temple picture is hanging to the left. That blue
couch flips out into a bed, so come visit. Also, the leather couch reclines.

Through the doorway is the second-bedroom-turned-study! Diplomas hung
appropriately on the wall. Blackboard behind Brian. Brian hard at work.

Back out of the study you face the hearth. With no mantle. And my
favorite wedding pictures! And our Jack O'Lanterns.

Another left and you're in the kitchen! Trash is ready to be taken out. Through that doorway and...

bedroom! Bed made. Every day. Seriously.

Back into the kitchen and we see our five-dollar yard-sale clock and my ivy and
pots that are trying to grow oregano and thyme. We also have a SWEET table
with a leaf that you can hide in the table. 

We just put up that spice rack. I love it.

On the way out, here's the bathroom right across from the black cubbies!
Come again!

What would you do?

I just made a really hard decision. Perhaps as you read this, you'll think I'm naive and inexperienced in life's choices, and that's probably true. It doesn't negate the fact that this was really hard for me.

As most of you know, Brian and I moved to Pittsburgh about a month ago. I just graduated from BYU in August, and my major (International Relations) isn't very employable unless I have a Master's (and honestly, even then I don't know what I'd do). My minor is slightly more employable, and ideally I would have found a job in Pittsburgh that included an editing role. The past month involved applying for too many jobs to count, and most were jobs that someone without a college degree could perform, which was humbling and frustrating. I finally got asked to interview at the Everest Institute in downtown Pittsburgh. My understanding is that they're basically a trade school: students of all ages pick what they want to do from a list of programs (massage therapy, paralegal, pharmacy technician, etc) and they receive specific training to successfully perform job requirements. Many students are the first generation of college goers in their family and come from difficult home situations and did not do well in high school. It would be my job to contact the high school demographic of potential students and inform them about the programs and, if interested, get them to commit to Everest for the fall. I would then follow up with them, give them tours of the campus, and help them (albeit in a minor role) until they graduated nine months later. The man who was my liaison with the school was very up front with me: despite the official job title of high school admissions representative, I'd be a sales rep. I was selling the school to these high school kids, and I could make upwards of 200 phone calls a day. I'd live on the phone while I was at work. He had done the same job before, and he said it was really hard. What really impressed me about him and everyone else I talked to at Everest was their passion for helping people. It was energizing and empowering. My hours would be 8-5 M and W, 11-8 T and Th, and half days F and S. I would get paid $38.5k and have benefits. I would drive the twenty minutes to a parking lot outside of downtown, pay the $5/day to park there, take a free bus into downtown, and work in the middle of bustling Pittsburgh, on the 12th floor of a building off of Forbes.

Right after my final interview with Everest, I received an email from one of the nannying jobs I had applied for. I would nanny for a sweet six-week-old infant girl named Mila, whose parents lived about a mile from my house on a street right next to Highland Park, where I run to almost every morning. The parents were extremely welcoming and, despite my lack of documented or formal experience with infants, thought I was the perfect fit for their family. I would help sleep train the baby and was welcome to any and all of the food in the house. A cute little dog named Atea would accompany Mila and I on walks around the park. I would get paid $13/hr ($2 more than the average for nannys in the area), have paid vacation time, and would work M-Th either 8-5 or 9-5 depending on the mom's schedule. Having Fridays off would enable me to much more vigorously pursue freelance editing, which would result in income while Brian and I were in Portugal in a couple of years.

Maybe you already know which one you would pick. My purpose in looking for a job was to supplement our family's income and allow us to save for our future family and expenses. I also really wanted a job where I could help people, which is a vague way to make up for what I don't always get out of editing. Editing is great and I love it, but the results are less obviously bettering people's lives than other careers, such as a teacher. Both jobs wanted me to start this week.

What would you do?

Our day.

I woke up too early. But really, it's completely excusable taking into account what day it was. Just my wedding day, no big deal. No wait, very big deal. Biggest deal of my life to date.

I stared at the ceiling. It was already light out and the sun cast cool shadows from the lacy curtains on the ceiling and wall. I didn't really think about anything--just basked in knowing what was coming so soon. It was a surface basking. Nothing had still quite sunk in yet. I wasn't used to Brian and I being in the same country yet, so the fact we were actually finally getting married today certainly hadn't sunk in. But time moves on whether you're ready or not.

Ellen didn't have to do too much to my hair again except pin it back up. The natural-toned makeup was quickly and lightly applied, and the fake eyelashes once again glued on. I felt exactly the way I dreamed of feeling on my wedding day: beautiful.

We drove to Boston, me and Mom and Corinne and Dulce and Brian. Given the earliness of the hour, most people caught a little shut eye. I just held Brian's hand.

Brian and I got to sit for awhile in the celestial room. Awhile is relative; I have no idea how long it actually was, but I felt like it had been the perfect amount of time when we were asked if we were ready to go to the sealing room.

From here on out, I admit, details are a bit fleeting. Walking into the sealing room, I saw Ellen and Ashley, which triggered the tears that turned into a continuous stream until I returned the the bridal room after the ceremony. Ellen had forgotten her temple recommend (same as me at her wedding!) and Ashley had been really sick the day before, so to see them both there, along with my other sisters and parents and extended family and Brian's family, was really emotional. This was my eternal family in this room! I didn't need to believe the plan of salvation was true; in that moment, in that sealing room, I knew it. I knew I could be with my family forever. I knew that Brian and I could be together forever if we kept the covenants we were about to make. The tears in Brian's eyes signaled to me that he felt it, too. And so I cried, fairly hard, during my grandfather's words that bound us together, while I said, "Yes," and especially while my family and his family walked by and hugged us on their way out.

I had the bridal room to myself. Mom helped me into my dress, Ellen fixed me up again (thank goodness), and Grandma positioned Brian at the end of the hall so he could see me right when I walked out. Of course, he couldn't just watch me walk down the hall to him; he quickly came by my side and escorted me out of the temple, where cheers and camera flashes awaited our first official kiss as husband and wife.

And the rest is history. After a lot of pictures and subway at the luncheon and final goodbyes to loved ones, we got dropped off as husband and wife at the cruise terminal. I'm not sure when it will sink in that I'm finally married to Brian. It's been three months, and I still get sad every morning when he leaves at 7:30 and excited every night around 7 anticipating his return from school. I even catch myself admiring my ring like I just got engaged. I suppose I thought eventually I would be accustomed to being Brian's wife. It's the status quo now, and I usually adjust quickly. But not this time, and I don't mind a bit! While every day isn't roses and gumdrops, every day is an opportunity to serve and love my other half, and I can't imagine being happier. Except maybe if we had a kitchen table and chairs.