Today marks the one year anniversary of... (dun dun dun) THE CAR ACCIDENT.
The car accident was both a good and bad thing (that's being optimistic).
It's not ideal to be faced with a car accident right after getting married, but it provided us newly-weds with some great opportunities to learn and grow together. For example, we had to buy a car together. Through that, we learned about managing our finances together, and also discussing, agreeing, and compromising on ideas. That was only a minor part, but it was good (and the new car was worth less, so payments were cheaper and it's already paid off!!!). The bad stuff was of course my back injury, dealing with insurance, having piles of medical bills sitting in a box in our apartment, my head injury and emotional trauma from that, falling behind in school, and the list could go on. However, all that "bad stuff" was also good. It's funny how you can look back on what you thought was a horrible experience and see what good has come from it. We have learned patience and compromise. We have truly learned what it means to love. We have seen each other at our worst, and we still love each other. We have gotten to heal together and grow closer to each other and God. We have both developed a new talent in swimming (the fact that we can swim multiple laps is a talent in my opinion). We have learned to analyze situations. We have learned to serve each other--along with others around us. We have learned to manage time. THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD THAT COMES FROM A BAD EXPERIENCE! No matter what the experience. We are able to look back on many experiences and see what God has been trying to teach us. And we are still learning every day :) The most important thing we have learned through it all is to have faith in God and in each other. God has promised us some wonderful things, things that are way to personal to share. But I want everyone to know that I truly believe in God and that He knows each and every one of us and that Jesus Christ has felt our exact pain for every situation. I have been very, very blessed this year, despite the fact that I was in that awful car accident :)
Now, it's a year later and my back and neck are still struggling. I went to a different chiropractor, got new x-rays and an evaluation from him, and we learned that I really haven't made much progress in the past year. It's sad, but now we have a goal. With this new chiropractor, we have set the goal for 30 visits and are aiming to reach my maximum healing potential. That's going to be approximately 4-5 months. I might even be able to run a full mile by next weekend (not sure. We still need to discuss that). One of my life goals is to run a marathon. I got to a point where I realized this year that I will probably never do that. I got really down on myself and thought I would not even be able to run a full mile ever again. But now I have hope, and that is why I am sharing this with you all. Dr. Erickson has told me that after a year, I should have progressed a lot more than I have. He says that after our 30 treatments I should be able to do whatever I want. We are giving him a 6 week trial and doing x-rays again to see if I'm making progress like he says I should. If I am, we are sticking with him until I reach my potential. And I'M GOING TO RUN A MARATHON ONE DAY. I'm also going to do a triathlon. So, if there are any of you in the Provo area who want to experience this joy with me and eventually run and train with me, let's do it :) I'll probably do a few small races next summer and maybe a sprint triathlon. Then work up from there.
And now I really want to thank everyone who has stood by us this year. You know who are you are. You have helped us get through hard times. We love you!
Ben and Kilee
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
One year!
I can hardly believe we have been married for one whole year! It has gone by so fast. I still go through flashes where I can hardly believe we're married. Haha. It's so crazy!
To celebrate our first anniversary, we did quite a few awesome things! First of all, we went on a cruise. Yes, we survived the hurricane (we didn't even touch it) in the Bahamas. Our cruise was AWESOME! Here is a brief recap of our adventures:
Monday: Nothing super exciting happened because it was the first day on board. We played two games of horse. We each won one, and then stopped. We get a little competitive, so we needed to stop at a tie ;) We also just explored our ship. We were very tired because we had a red-eye flight coming in and basically no sleep, so we went to bed around 10. This is where our day gets exciting. Around 10:30 I wake up all confused (Ben is still OUT) because there is this rattling noise at the door. I couldn't figure it out at first, but then I woke Ben up. "Someone is trying to break into our room." He, being my knight in shining armor, looked at the door then fell back asleep. Then someone starts pounding and shouting, "Let me in!" So, me being the brave one (I love you, Ben) got up and opened the door just a crack to see this very large black, drunk, woman who was beating down our door but looked flabbergasted to see that she had the wrong room.
Tuesday: Ben got stung by a jellyfish. And we went snorkeling. With sharks! Luckily, out of the three Bahamian ports, the one we actually got to go to was Nassau, the only port we had booked an excursion. We went snorkeling to three different spots (the first two being Hollywood film areas), and the last spot we went to was out in the ocean. It was full of reef sharks. They dropped down this bait box for the sharks to attack, and we got to carefully slide into the water and watch them 25 feet below us. It was very cool. We know you are all jealous.
Wednesday: We had an unplanned day at sea in our efforts to stay away from Hurricane Irene. It was awesome nonetheless. The best things were us getting to see about fifteen dolphins swimming alongside our ship for 15 minutes. We were running around the track, and then stopped because we saw a little group of dolphins. As we watched them, we saw so many more just swimming along. It was one of my favorite parts of our vacation. It was just so peaceful to watch them, and it made me grateful for the beauty that God has created. The other cool thing was learning to salsa dance... :D I loved every minute of it. Ben loved me loving it.
Thursday: We went to Key West and hung around the beach. It wasn't really exciting except for when a homeless man tried to bum money off us. We really didn't have anything to give him. We left it on the ship. But I'll admit, he was one of the pushiest homeless men I have ever met, and the situation made me a little scared. But Ben handled it with class, and we are still here to tell the story.
So the cruise was a week before our anniversary, and yesterday was the real day! Ben planned the whole day, and he did a marvelous job! First, we did sealings at the temple. Then we went to Color Me Mine and made somewhat matching ice cream dishes for fun, went to dinner at a sushi place, and yes we did see the important part of the BYU football game. The last part was the big surprise... dun dun dun... BEN SURPRISED ME WITH TICKETS TO SEE JON SCHMIDT AT THANKSGIVING POINT! I'm such a winner. For those of you who don't know, Jon Schmidt is my piano playing idol. He is amazing. I have seen him live once before, but Ben hadn't, and it was just so great. Ben loved it, and I did too.
So basically we have been married for one year now and are still crazy in love. He is definitely the hugest blessing in my life, and I'm pretty sure I am in his as well ;)
To celebrate our first anniversary, we did quite a few awesome things! First of all, we went on a cruise. Yes, we survived the hurricane (we didn't even touch it) in the Bahamas. Our cruise was AWESOME! Here is a brief recap of our adventures:
Monday: Nothing super exciting happened because it was the first day on board. We played two games of horse. We each won one, and then stopped. We get a little competitive, so we needed to stop at a tie ;) We also just explored our ship. We were very tired because we had a red-eye flight coming in and basically no sleep, so we went to bed around 10. This is where our day gets exciting. Around 10:30 I wake up all confused (Ben is still OUT) because there is this rattling noise at the door. I couldn't figure it out at first, but then I woke Ben up. "Someone is trying to break into our room." He, being my knight in shining armor, looked at the door then fell back asleep. Then someone starts pounding and shouting, "Let me in!" So, me being the brave one (I love you, Ben) got up and opened the door just a crack to see this very large black, drunk, woman who was beating down our door but looked flabbergasted to see that she had the wrong room.
Tuesday: Ben got stung by a jellyfish. And we went snorkeling. With sharks! Luckily, out of the three Bahamian ports, the one we actually got to go to was Nassau, the only port we had booked an excursion. We went snorkeling to three different spots (the first two being Hollywood film areas), and the last spot we went to was out in the ocean. It was full of reef sharks. They dropped down this bait box for the sharks to attack, and we got to carefully slide into the water and watch them 25 feet below us. It was very cool. We know you are all jealous.
Wednesday: We had an unplanned day at sea in our efforts to stay away from Hurricane Irene. It was awesome nonetheless. The best things were us getting to see about fifteen dolphins swimming alongside our ship for 15 minutes. We were running around the track, and then stopped because we saw a little group of dolphins. As we watched them, we saw so many more just swimming along. It was one of my favorite parts of our vacation. It was just so peaceful to watch them, and it made me grateful for the beauty that God has created. The other cool thing was learning to salsa dance... :D I loved every minute of it. Ben loved me loving it.
Thursday: We went to Key West and hung around the beach. It wasn't really exciting except for when a homeless man tried to bum money off us. We really didn't have anything to give him. We left it on the ship. But I'll admit, he was one of the pushiest homeless men I have ever met, and the situation made me a little scared. But Ben handled it with class, and we are still here to tell the story.
So the cruise was a week before our anniversary, and yesterday was the real day! Ben planned the whole day, and he did a marvelous job! First, we did sealings at the temple. Then we went to Color Me Mine and made somewhat matching ice cream dishes for fun, went to dinner at a sushi place, and yes we did see the important part of the BYU football game. The last part was the big surprise... dun dun dun... BEN SURPRISED ME WITH TICKETS TO SEE JON SCHMIDT AT THANKSGIVING POINT! I'm such a winner. For those of you who don't know, Jon Schmidt is my piano playing idol. He is amazing. I have seen him live once before, but Ben hadn't, and it was just so great. Ben loved it, and I did too.
So basically we have been married for one year now and are still crazy in love. He is definitely the hugest blessing in my life, and I'm pretty sure I am in his as well ;)
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