The night the shower curtain fell down.

I love my husband.

But sometimes he gets on my nerves.

The feeling is mutual.

The other night, as I was removing a used towel from the shower rod, the rod fell down.

I made a distressed call and sweet G came to my aid.

He struggled for a long time with that shower rod.

I watched him. He scrunched up his face. He grunted. He clenched his jaw.

I thought of the scene in the movie adaptation of Les Misérables when Jean Valjean lifts the MASSIVE flag pole off the ground and carries it.

Valjean made the same facial expressions and noises that G was making with the 2 pound SHOWER ROD.

I wondered what it would be like to be married to Jean Valjean.

Probably way different.

I snapped out of my little daydream and I began helping Giuseppe. We quickly became frustrated with each other.

Then we both stopped, simultaneously.

I said, "this can be a team building exercise!"

He agreed enthusiastically, and in no time we successfully attached the rod securely to the wall.

"We make a good team," he said.

I wrapped my arms around his body and kissed him for a looooong time.

I like my team.

Our Story: Part One

Our Story: Part One

(How we met and came to be)

February 2015

It all starts with a mysterious Mexican man on the shady Provo River trail.
My roommate at the time Kylie came into the apartment one cold February night with grocery bags on her arms. She told of us of an encounter she'd had:
As she was struggling with her grocery cart on the rocky river trail path (yes- we were car-less and often had to push our groceries home in a shopping cart) she was stopped by a young man who asked if she needed help. They introduced themselves, he helped her with the grocery cart, they exchanged numbers and then they parted. Kylie told us, “I forgot his name. It started with a G... It was some Mexican name that I couldn’t pronounce.”

What was really going on: Giuseppe, being the cute, adorable social person that he is, was on the hunt for some friends. He had just moved from Orange County to Provo. He was about to start his new job in the state licensing department for Vivint, hadn't yet attended the singles ward, and was ready to make some friends.

On Saturday, February 28th, Kylie invited/asked him to give us a ride to the stake 50’s dance. He of course said yes.

My roommates and I spent an hour blasting music, perfecting our makeup, borrowing clothes, ratting our hair, and talking about our love interests at the time. (Unfortunately for Giuseppe, Kylie was only fixated on her now-husband Corey haha).

Then Giuseppe came up to the apartment. Somebody let him inside, and they all started chatting with him. I finished up my hair, walked into the living room and saw a tall, thin guy with perfect hair and adorable eyes. We introduced ourselves, figured out pretty quickly that he was just about as Mexican as I am (literally. We are both ¼ Mexican), and headed out to the dance. My amazing friend Emily Cortopassi was having a sleepover with me that night, but she was exhausted from work that day and decided to stay in.

Later that evening at the dance, Megan and I went into the bathroom to fix our lipstick. Kylie came in and told us that everyone was partnered up to learn a dance from the instructors, and Giuseppe didn’t have a partner!

I don’t know why I was so adamant that he dance with me and not Megan, but I ran into the gym and approached him. He asked me to dance, and I nonchalantly agreed.

We had fun dancing together. I remember thinking, “what if I married this guy?” and I spent some time wondering what it would be like. (I pretty much did that with everyone though, is that weird??)

We were having a really good time and then the dumb dance instructor told us we needed to switch partners. Before I could even do anything, a new guy asked me to dance and we learned the rest of the steps together. This guy was the worst, he was like a professional ballroom dancer and he had no patience with me. He took it waaaaaaay too seriously. Luckily, I didn’t have to be with him for too long before it was time for freestyle dancing. I broke away from him as fast as I could and met up with the roomies and Giuseppe. We danced wildly for about an hour, then Kylie wanted to leave to meet up with her sister for a bonfire.

Giuseppe drove us back, and came up to our apartment with us. While my roommates were changing into bonfire clothes, I turned on my favorite song- Style- and blasted it. Giuseppe and I danced around the kitchen crazily while singing along. It was the best. In that moment I knew that we had some kind of a connection.

Emily and I joined everyone for the bonfire for just a little bit. I talked to Giuseppe about his new life in Utah, as well as his mission in Italy. He told me he was going to start at LDS Business College in the fall, which of course grabbed my attention. In high school I wanted to go there so badly, but it just wasn’t right for me.

Emily and I left early, and we pulled my mattress into the living room. We were acting kinda psycho, making weird videos of each other and laughing about everything and reminiscing on the old days, and you know, all around college girl shenanigans.

Everyone (including Giuseppe) came back into the apartment and hung out in the kitchen. Emily and I ignored them, we had a grand old time with each other.

When Giuseppe left, I asked him to tell us goodnight in Italian. He did, and then he left.

The next day (Sunday) I started talking to him at ward prayer (haha oh the singles ward…). As we were chatting, another guy I was friends with came up to talk to me. Giuseppe started inching away. I don’t remember doing this, but apparently I leaned over and stepped on his foot, asking him to stay. He was thrilled by this.

We sat together on the bean bag, and he told me animatedly about his experience skydiving. Then he mentioned there were some people from his work going swing dancing in Salt Lake, and he invited me. Of course I said yes, and then we exchanged numbers. Just then, Bishop Redd came up and crouched down next to us to chat. He said, “well look at you two…” all matchmaker-like. Haha.

The next day at FHE, Bishop Redd and I were talking as I was on the sidelines during the dodgeball game. (Of course). We had this conversation:

“So Katrina, are you still going to go on a mission?”

“What?! Of course! Why would you ask that?”

“I saw you with Giuseppe last night! I think you might be planning a wedding soon…”

“What?! No way! We just met, and I am for sure going on a mission.”

“Okay….."

March 2015

Our first date was SO GOOD! I had been on quite a few first dates during my six months in Provo, and the majority of them were blaaaaaaah. NOT this one. During the car ride he showed me some of his favorite songs, then I showed him some of mine. I asked personal questions about his life, made him uncomfortable, lightened things up and then we were there! (Okay, so far this sounds kind of blah but it wasn't. It was wonderful.)

We had so much fun at the dance. We went absolutely crazy- he was lifting me up and swinging me around and throwing me in the air and it was just insane. We have never been able to replicate what we did that night!

After dancing for an amazing hour, we were exhausted and he mentioned something about IHOP having free pancakes that day.

Yum… ;)

We drove to the nearest IHOP only to discover that the promotion had ended an hour ago. So he just drove away.

I remember thinking that was so weird, no food on a date?! He must be really cheap.

Nevertheless, he still left a really good impression on me.

We went on another date the next week. His State Farm agent had given him tickets to a jazz game. I don’t like basketball at all but I was excited to spend the evening with him. At the game I discovered he didn’t really care for basketball either!

I asked him about other sports and discovered he didn’t care much about ANY sports.

I loved him.

Haha just kidding, but it was a verrrry appealing quality. --He has since changed, watching late night football games with my dad and brothers whenever we are at my parent’s house and constantly checking his fantasy football app. Thanks, dad :(

Anyway, we had a really fun time at the game talking and laughing, and he even took me out for dinner afterwards!

We went to his evening institute class together for our third date. He made lots of comments and sat really close to me and he smelled divine. That’s all I remember. I took him to my favorite sushi restaurant afterwards!

We hung out a lot between these dates, movie nights with people from the ward, me bringing treats over to his apartment, him giving me rides places, hanging out at church activities, etc. We were constantly texting and trying to spend time with each other. It was pretty apparent something was going on between the two of us.

One Saturday at the end of March, I was in Heber, having just had another sleepover with Emily Cortopassi. Emily had gone to work, and I sat at my parent’s house wondering what I was going to do for the next five hours before they would take me to Provo. I decided to text Giuseppe, asking him to come hang out with me.

45 minutes later, he showed up at the house. I introduced him to my mom, felt horribly awkward, grabbed Giuseppe’s arm and yanked him out of the house. We decided to go on a drive through the mountains.

We ended up at a gorgeous, scenic cliff above the whole valley, and he put his arm around me.

Suddenly he said, “Katrina, I really like you.”

The first thing that popped out of my mouth was, “oh.”

Awkward silence.

His arm felt so heavy around my body.

“...I like you too.” But it was too late. The moment was gone.

We got back into the car, Giuseppe looking defeated. I felt awful.

We drove to Salt Lake to pick up my cousins and bring them to my apartment for a sleepover that evening. I lightened up the mood in the car, and then I reached over and held his hand. I had a lot to make up for haha.

We picked up Romney, Reagan, and Sophie and the five of us talked and laughed until we reached my apartment.

I felt soooo stupid for what I had said earlier, so I kissed him on the cheek before he drove away that night, hoping he would interpret it as an I’m-an-idiot-please-don’t-give-up-on-me kind of kiss.

ANYWAY long story short, he kissed me the next day. And then the day after that we had our infamous conversation…

K: About that kiss last night… You were going way too fast.

G: Oh. I’m sorry, maybe we are moving too fast. I’m really sorry, I-

K: No, no, no we’re not moving too fast, your mouth was moving way too fast! I didn’t like it.

G: Oh. Haha. Well, we can try it again? I’ll go slower.

K: Please.

And then all was well.

We spent the next week together, and I couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted to be his girlfriend or not. On March 30th, we finally had the discussion.

He sat on my couch and put his hands on my shoulders. Looking me right in the eye he asked if I could be his girlfriend. And I just decided to go for it!

April 2015

That first month was SO GREAT. We spent every second together, and it was a blast.

Obviously, it was a good call.

Soon, another call came: my mission call. I was SO excited. You don't even know. People were always questioning me like, "don't you have a real serious boyfriend? are you really excited for this??" Um, yes. I was.

I opened my call at the end of April. Giuseppe couldn't be there because he had a paint ball tournament in Vegas that weekend. I was secretly glad, I didn't want to mix the two at all.

I was called to the BULGARIA, SOFIA mission.

I was stoked. I wanted to learn a language SO BAD. And such an obscure one?! Yes please!

Even better, I wouldn't be leaving until August 26th! The second I read "Bulgaria" on my call, I jumped a few lines down to see when I'd be leaving. I wanted to have a lot of time you see...

Anyway, I told Giuseppe that late that night when he came home. His reaction wasn't as screamy-excited as all of my friends and family, but he was happy for me and excited that I would be going to Europe.

May 2015

The next few weeks of our relationship were amazing- we of course spent every second together and became more and more obsessed with each other.

Then I started worrying that he was going to tell me he loved me.

Oh gosh. That would mean things would really be serious!

I remember the first time he called me ‘babe’. I ran to my roommates as soon as I got home and told them of the weird thing that had just happened. I didn’t like it at all. It sounded so cheesy. I mean I wasn’t a babe. Ew.

Little did I know that I would soon become overly obsessed with terms of endearment.

Pretty soon we were babe-ing each other like it was the most casual thing in the world- and it was.

(I was such a jerk to my sweet baby! The worst.)

Anyway, back to the first “I love you.”

We had just gotten out of his evening institute class together. We were sitting in the parking lot of the Branbury. It was raining really hard, so of course I blasted Taylor’s “Sad Beautiful Tragic” in his car. I didn’t let him speak during the song.

(The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to Liz right after):

Then later on my porch we were just sort of staring at each other and these are the exact words he said, "So... I need to tell you something. I've been wanting to tell you for a couple weeks now and I'm not really good with words, but... I love you. Like, a lot a lot."

AH, right?!

I giggled or something dumb and told him I loved him too. He told me how to say it in Italian, I told him how to say it in French.

I really started to love him after that point. Not only was I having a blast with him but our lives were meshing into each others and it felt so perfect.

The only problem? My mission….

Turn It Down

To my faithful blog readers,


A lot of you have told me that this blog is enjoyable to you, and I'm glad that this shenanigans can bring entertainment to your life, because it sure is fun for me to write about :)

I am a blog stalker. I love reading about people's lives, even people I don't know. I also love reading autobiographies. It is just a weird interest that I have.

I especially love reading the blogs of people who have horribly difficult things thrust into their lives and they share how they overcome these things- or at least live with them.

One of my favorites is Emily Meyers. Just, please... Go check this girl out.

Giuseppe just thinks I'm "obsessed with other people's sad lives", but he doesn't get it.

Reading about other people's lives is like making new friends. And who doesn't like that??

Anyway, I really would like to post more on this blog. Not for your sake at all, but as a little online journal for myself. :) I'd like to remember the small moments and what it was like to be a newlywed living in Salt Lake with my adorable husband.

So, here is a random moment in the life of the Hess'.

One afternoon I accidentally took a very long nap (don't you HATE that??), which subsequently led to me having a hard time falling asleep that night. My restlessness and whispered questions were really getting on Giuseppe’s nerves, so I decided to distance myself from the exhausted boy and listen to my new favorite song, Still Falling For You on my headphones.

I told Giuseppe my plan, but he told me that would be even more annoying because the light from the phone and the faint sound from the headphones would REALLY bother him. Even worse, he said, I had already listened to that song 10 times that evening and he couldn’t stand to hear it one more time.

Is it just me, or is a new Ellie Goulding song impossible to listen to only once?? I told G that if I used his beats he wouldn’t hear any sound, and that the light on my phone would be very brief. He told me I wasn’t allowed to use his beats for this purpose, but I decided to go find them anyway. After searching noisily (not on purpose) around in the pitch black bedroom for the headphones, I finally found them and I got back in bed. I could feel Giuseppe’s (loving) annoyance in the air.

I then proceed to choose my song and make sure it was set to repeat. As the song began, it was really loud so I turned down the volume.

Giuseppe complained, “I can hear it!! It is SO LOUD.” So I turned it down some more.

“It is still SO LOUD.” I turned it down even more, but at that point I couldn’t even hear it.

“Honey, TURN IT OFF. IT'S WAAAAAY TOO LOUD!”

“Are you kidding? I can’t even hear it!!”

“It’s the loudest thing I have ever heard!”

“Oh my gosh it’s like not even on!! I need to turn it on.”

“No!! How am I supposed to sleep?”

And that’s when I realized I hadn’t plugged the headphones into my phone and the music was playing out of the iPhone speaker. :/

That outside noise-reducing feature on the beats headphones really works!

Anyway, I will bring this long and pointless story to a close and inform you that Giuseppe wasn’t able to hear my music once I had the headphones plugged in, and I was able to fall asleep after a few rounds of Ellie.

And that was that.

***

A Day In The Life: Random Shenanigans

This post will consist of me going through photos on my phone and telling about random moments in our life.

1. Laundry Shenanigans

Giuseppe thought he could save some quarters by putting ALL of our laundry in one lil' dryer. He became very distraught when all of our things came out very damp. It was rough.


2. French Quarter Shenanigans

On a biz trip to Nola. I thought these guys were pretty good.


3. Vegas Shenanigans

Blurry pic in this horrid city before our flight.


4. Jefferson Parish Shenanigans

A morning of background checks, fingerprints, paperwork, and waiting around. Giuseppe just wanted to hit the doors!


5. Ray Ban Roadtrip Shenanigans

He looked a lot cooler before I told him to look cool for the camera.


6. Valentine Shenanigans

Classic adult-head-sized sugar cookies from mom.


7. Vietnamese Shenanigans

After touring the beautiful Provo City Center Temple, we dined at a Pho restaurant downtown. This is the only picture we got of the evening, sadly.


8. Ava & Grayson Shenanigans

They stole G's phone.



9. Opera Shenanigans

Before we got married, we discussed our sleeping habits so we knew what to expect. G claimed he was a totally quiet sleeper, but I told him that I imagined him sleep-singing, particularly to this opera-ish song that we like. In this video, he is pretending to sleep-sing. The fangs have nothing to do with it, he just happened to be wearing the. (We were at our cute nephew's birthday party).


10. Singles Ward Shenanigans

Yeah, this was taken a few months ago but whatevs! G was leading the hymn in Sunday School VERY enthusiastically.

Well that about sums us up.

Ciao!

Culturing My Husband

I have this random fetish for dance recitals, so when I heard about a ballet performance going on at the U, I insisted to Giuseppe that we go.

We went to a ballet (Aladdin) together back in May, but it was cut short due to a fire drill. He's been to a couple of his niece's dance recitals, but he's never really experienced REAL ballet.

The show had lots of diversity- there was classical ballet, Eastern European ballet (Bulgaria was represented!!), and MODERN ballet, which is always the most fun to watch.

The modern ballet section was quite long and very silent and very dark and very dramatic. It was fascinating. Giuseppe kept clearing his nose, but it sounded like he was stifling laughter, so that was kind of embarrassing. 

Here are the only pictures I got that night, us sharing a delicious rainbow lollipop. 

Go art!

Happy birthday to somebody out there

G texted me during my shift on Saturday night asking what I wanted for dinner when I came home. I told him, "Birthday cake!", but then half an hour later I wrote back, "jk we can just have leftover tacos." 

Anyway, G being the total babe that he is actually MADE ME A CAKE!

We made the frosting together when I got home out of makeshift ingredients we had lying around.

Because we don't have a beater or a kitchen aid (so sad), the process involved us taking turns whipping the liquid in the bowl as fast as we could for as long as we could before screaming in pain and dropping to the floor and letting the other person take the next shift. 

Eventually, we had mediocre frosting to put on his homemade cake!

I love this cutie.

First Look

I'm sure you're familiar with the trend of "first look photos", where a photographer captures the groom's face when he first lays eyes on his bride in her dress with her hair and makeup all done. Here are a couple of examples I've pulled from Pinterest:

As you can tell, it's supposed to be a very emotional moment. Crying, gasping, hands over the mouth, etc.

We decided not to do "first look photos" simply because I knew I would feel extremely awkward and pressured!

Because there are no photographs of my moment, I will describe to you what it was like...

It was hilarious! I am almost peeing my pants right now thinking about it. 

Here's how it went down....

Date: Monday, December 28th.

Time: Around 2:15 PM

Location: Fifth East Hall Bed & Breakfast, hallway by the maintenance closet.

Alone in the dressing room, I looked at myself in the mirror; wearing my dress and veil. And I got completely freaked out. 

*What the heck am I doing?* 

*I'm getting married?!* 

*Whoa... whoa... Is this actually going to happen?*

*Giuseppe's out there waiting...*

*Okay, whatever Katrina, let's just go.*

So I opened the french doors, and standing right in front of me was my fiancé.

The look on his face was PRICELESS!

I have never seen so much fear packed into one facial expression. 

He looked terrified. 

Absolutely horror-stricken.

He'll deny it, but I'm pretty sure he was thinking something along the lines of,

*What the heck am I doing?*

*I'm getting married?!*

*Whoa... Whoa.... This is actually happening.*

*Katrina's just standing there*

*Okay, whatever Giuseppe, let's do this!*

Then he smiled, and we both relaxed, and all was well. :) 

Cold, But Thrifty

Last week we were driving Cora back from my parent's house when she started sputtering pretty badly, as well as flashing her check engine light. 

We took her in to the only mechanic that was open. The mechanic was named Daniel, and he spoke little English. I'll spare you the story of what was wrong with the car, because I think it's boring to write about and boring to read about!

The cost was high, but definitely doable. Daniel said it would only take an hour. He told us that if we wanted to pay in cash, he wouldn't charge us tax.... We immediately agreed. Anything to save money, right?

I searched on my phone and found that the nearest credit union ATM was a little over a mile away. Without a car, we were left to walk there. Unfortunately it was FREEZING and we were inadequately dressed. It was deathly. When we were about halfway there, the shoveled sidewalk ended, so we had to switch off between running through 2 feet of snow and walking on the side of the slushy road, trying not to get wet by the passing cars.

Although Giuseppe was not accustomed to such frigid temperatures (this is his first real winter in Utah), he was a total gentleman and switched coats with me after I complained that because I didn't have a hood, the cold was giving me a terrible earache. 

As we skipped/walked/ran/stumbled back to the shop, we made up weird songs and cuddled at crosswalk waits. We made it back to the shop just after it was finished. 

I love my cute future husband and I'm so grateful that he makes not-so-fun things adventurous and memorable!

I am going to start a blog.

In the midst of wedding planning, apartment searching, school applying, work, church, and being in love, I've decided to start a blog!

In one month I will be married to the love of my life, Giuseppe!

July 2015- PC: Kylie Crosby

I am so excited for our life together, and I figure I'd better start recording it.

The goal is to post pictures, stories, and updates on our life. 

I also want to share scriptures, talks, articles, music, videos, and other media that I've found inspirational.

So for today, here's an article from the Liahona that Giuseppe had to read for his religion class in October. I read it with him (okay, more like for him...) and I loved it so much that I texted him, "I want to print this out, frame it, and hang it on the wall next to our family pictures!"

Cause it really is that good!

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2015/04/it-isnt-a-sin-to-be-weak?lang=eng

Isn't it motivating? And comforting? 

I am so grateful for this probationary state on Earth where I can prepare to enter Christ's presence!