Day 5: 20 Reasons

As I've been finding blog topics for this 30 Day Challenge, I've been putting some twists or my uniqueness in them. I can't remember the real topic for this one. It was 20 reasons for something, but I thought doing a 20 Reasons or things you love about your spouse would be fun. Paul and I each wrote down a few things. To be honest I could've come up with a lot more, but wasn't wanting to go beyond 20 cause then I would never stop.

These are my 20 Reasons/Things I love about Paul:

1) He is ALWAYS there for me no matter what mood i'm in. (That's saying a lot)
2) His patience with me
3) His eyes. They have a sparkle to them. I love that they change colors at different times.
4) His smile. I love the crooked smile most.
5) The look I see in his eyes to let me know he loves me. I know he means it too.
6) Love of Family
7) He is able to take me to the temple
8) His Testimony
9) His interaction with kids
10) They way he can summarize the scriptures and lesson for our sunday school class, especially when I try teaching and still get nervous in a small group.
11) He's sexy
12)He is a kid at heart
13) Never makes life dull
14) Makes me feel safe, secure, and loved
15) Love of people
16) He is a good student and studies hard
17) His Kisses and Hugs
18) Excited for the holidays
19) Sense of Humor.
20) The way he loves me.

Pauls 20 Reasons/Things He loves me:

1) My Smile
2) My laugh/giggle
3) My kindness
4) My personality
5)My surprises
6) The way I get excited about things
7) The way I talk to our cat (when she's good and I'm not mad at her)
8) The way I try to make everyone happy
9) My spirit
10) My kisses
11) When I try to get grumpy, but i'm really happy
12) My love for holidays
13) My love of religion
14) My love of family
15) The way I sing/dance when I think nobody is around
16) My little notes I leave
17) The way I say " I love you"
18) The way I try to make him smile
19) My body
20) ME!

I'm thinking this would also be a fun journal topic. That way I can look back on things and know why I'm in love. I can come up with many other reasons.

Day 4: A Place We Have Been

Traveling is one of mine and Paul's favorite things to do together. One of our favorite places is going to California. For the most part, its because is warm, affordable, and DISNEYLANDS home. We love Disney! Thinking about this post though, I decided to post about a place that is memorable for us. We love going on Cruises and the very first ship we went on is Monarch of the Sea. This is why I chose pictures of the boat. We took the California coast Cruise for our honeymoon and it has been one of my FAVORITE vacations ever! This ship took us to Sandiego, Catalina Island, and Ensanda. We were able to enjoy many excursions with each stop. Sea World and Kayaking were my favorites. Paul like Kayaking the best. Next best place we have been together is DISNEYLAND.

Day 3: A Habit I Wish I Didn't Have

Thankgoodness I didn't really commit to be on this everyday. I'm glad to do this challenge, but I'm doing it my own way. Life is crazy busy but hopefully I won't let too many days go in between. I will commit to do 30 topics and what not. I know we all have many habits. I definitely have a few that come straight to mind, but the one that bugs me the worst is I pick at or bite my nails. When I'm way overwhelmed and stressed out or nervous about something my nails disappear. At one point I was getting my nails done regularly so I didn't have anything to bite. At that point I would tend to start picking but not wanting to ruin them was a big motivation. Getting my nails done regularly was a good habit to have just a little expensive. I know I have more but I don't really want to get into them. I would ask Paul to help with this one, but he is studying at the moment. I think his habit would be procrastination. I think if we both do better at that it would allow us more time together and maybe he would feel a little more prepared for a test. He says he doesn't feel prepared sometimes but you wouldn't know that by his grades. I'm very proud of my husband.

Day 2: Meaning behind the blogger name

I'm definitely not the most creative or most original person. I chose paulandkelcigardiner as our name because that is who we are. We are the Gardiners. I also wanted something I can remember as I give the site out to our family and friends. When I chose this there really wasn't a story or anything meaningful behind the name. I guess there still isn't.

Blogging Challenge Day 1: Meet the Gardiners, Our Story

I feel like blogging is a great way of keeping up with whats going on in my life. It could totally be used as a journal. Anyways I feel like life hasn't been that interesting lately and I havn't been blogging much. I would like to have something to say so I decided to do the 30-day challenge idea that i've seen some people do. I found a lot of topics to blog about, but I decided to kind of change some of them around and make it my own thing with my own style. I'm going to try to do it daily, but we all know life happens, AND if something news worthy comes up and doesn't relate to topic that won't stop me from somehow finding a way to put it in. Before I start the challenge of day one I want to give an update on whats been going on. I really can't believe summer is coming to an end. Ours was one of the most boring I can remember in a long time and a little interesting. Paul did summer school again so we didn't get to take our trip yet. We are planning on that for fall break. In June I got sick and ended up with kidney stones. It was also my first trip to the ER and Urgent Care, followed by 2 extra trips to the doctor. We also had a visit from my dad and his girlfriend. July brought me a new job. I got a month off before I actually started. I now work at Granger Medical Sleep Clinic. I enjoy it there and have been able to meet some awesome people. Paul finished summer semester with a 101% and now has a GPA of 3.97 something or other. I'm very proud of him and his hard work.

Day One of the challenge is to post 15 facts about us. When I asked Paul to do his part he reminded me that we did a Random fact thing a couple of years ago. When I looked at what we wrote down, most of it was the same stuff from that post. I know those of you who read this know us and all, but I thought I'd kind of change this around and introduce us again or whatever.
It also said to post a current picture of us. We had our pics done in July and this is a preview of it before I get my real copies back.

Paul and Kelci Gardiner: Our Story
Paul and I met our JR. year of Highschool. We had first period English together. I kind of had a crush on him but never said anything. I had a couple of crushes back then and one of them was known and I hate when people know things when I don't want them too, so I decided not to say anything about this one. Plus we had different groups of friends and all that stuff. Trust me that should never matter. Anyways near the end of the year he came up and asked me to smile because he saw me smile once and thought it was a great smile. I loved that he was easy to talk too. Come to find out years later he had a crush on me too. That was the end of JR. year. We had tried to get together to hang out that summer before I went to my dads but it just never worked out. Sr. Year I had work release and only two classes a day. I never really saw him. We actually saw each other at Sr. Dinner dance and talked forever and he FINALLY asked me to dance. I know I could have, but honestly that night I was determined to not ask anyone to dance. They had to ask me. I'm glad he kind of got a clue, much later on. :) After graduation we kind of stayed in touch that summer while I was gone. I came home and we started dating, even though at the time we were going to different colleges. We have been married for a little over six years. I work full time. Paul works full time and goes to school full time. I'm so excited because now he can start applying for grad school. He will have his bachelors in the Spring. I'm excited to see where life will take us. This will also (hopefully) get us a step closer to starting our family. We love to travel. We love cruises and going to DISNEYLAND. Paul likes to play video games to wind down, I like hot bubble baths and reading. Shopping is my therapy. We are U fans. (BYU to when not playing each other) I'm more the sports fan. I could prob go on and on now that i've started writing. I'll just stop here. Have a great night!

link to pics

Hello! We recently had our pics done. Here is the link. Go check them out!

www.mardelphotography.net/Photography/Kelci-Gardiner/18403611_4wrCnx/

I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to order. Let me know your faves! Thanks.

July's Highlights

Some of these may not fall under highlights, but I just wanted to share some things that have been going on this last month. I may or may not have mentioned these in recent posts, but this is kind of my reminder what we did and this was basically our month.

We celebrated the 4th of July as a weekend event. My mother-in-laws b-day is the 3rd so we did a family bbq on the 2nd and went to lunch with her on the 4th. We also had a bbq at my moms and Paul and I went to the West Jordan Firework show. We had never been to that one. It was fun. We also watched fireworks on the hill at my mom's house on the 2nd. I love the 4th of July. I love all the fireworks and am glad that they let them go pretty much through the 26th thanks to Pioneer day too.

My brother turned 21. We had a big dinner for him. It was a fun night.

I ended up back at the doctors. Luckily I didn't have to go to the ER again. Come to find out the pain pills they gave me caused issues with the other issues I was having so when stones tried to move they couldn't. They gave me more medication and got me on the right track for treatment. I really feel like we are headed for the road of recovery. I have had two good weeks without getting sick cause of the stones. I'm so thankful to have Paul by my side. I feel bad we havn't had as good of a summer as we could.

My sister-in-law was put of bed rest for rest of her pregnancy, so I've gone to visit her. Hopefully I can put in more time for visits next month. I feel way bad. I hope she can get through the next three months. I don't want the baby to come early and him not be healthy. I can't wait to meet my new nephew though.

Paul got an A on his second test for this semester. I'm happy he is enjoying this class a lot more than he did last summer. I guess its more interesting than regular statistics.

I got a gift card from a photography place, so Paul and I had our pictures done. I can't wait to get them back. They will for sure be posted.

We celebrated Pioneer Day. I love the month of July with all the fireworks.

The biggest thing this month is I got a new job! I'm so excited. I start in August. I'll have a few weeks off that I need to find stuff to do, but I'm so looking forward to something new. It really couldn't have come at a better time. Its full time, more pay, and benefits. Paul is looking to go part time for the next two semesters of school so he can graduate next spring and we can move wherever grad school will take us. I'm trying t help out by working full time and hoping to get through school faster so eventually I don't have to work and I can be a stay at home mom. I feel like we are in the right direction for my goals and dreams to come true too! I also feel like with out clinic moving downstairs and having to combine with others it would cause problems and I would come to not like my job. I can honestly say in the years I worked at the SMART Clinic I have never once dreaded work. I hope with this new job I will feel the same.

My dad's divorce is final too! He doesn't have to put up with his CRAZY ex anymore! Hope she will leave him alone.

This pretty much sums up our July. I hope everyone is enjoying the summer.