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So here we are on our one year anniversary, Sunday January 4, 2009. Before we talk about the day of our anniversary we MUST share a story with you. It starts with an event that took place back in early December. One morning I woke up to Kurtis moaning and groaning about his back hurting. After
about three hours of trying to comfort him with meds, back massages, making him soak in a warm bath, there was still no progress made in the direction of relief. So we ended up calling Stef and Randal and they came over at 3 am to pick up Kurtis and I and take him to the hospital. We were there for two hours and Kurtis ended up having to get a x-ray done. He had a 2 mm kidney stone. OUCH! This is considered a small one though so the doctor wasn't really too worried about it. He gave Kurtis some drugs (a pain killer and a drug to help him if the pain killer made him nauseous). He told Kurtis to drink 8 to 10 cups of water a day and to walk around if the pain starts to come back because that helps. So we went home and slept for a few hours and then we got up and went to Church. Well, here comes the fun part.

The day before our anniversary, Jan 3, we ended up going back to the hospital. But this time it was for me! I had gone temporarily blind. You see Kurtis wanted to give me something really special for our anniversary and he wanted to go on a date that we could always remember. Well, his gift ended up causing me to go blind. What was this CRAZY gift you ask? A blind date! What a CRAZY CHILD I married! It was great.
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He blindfolded me and took me for a somewhat scary walk around icy Rexburg Idaho and we ended up eating lunch at the Madison Memorial Hospital. It was actually pretty good and it is definitely a date that we will remember, not to  mention it makes for a fun story! Me still unsure of where we were, where were going, and obviously still "blind".

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Here is a picture of Kurtis at the hospital as we are sitting waiting for our order to be up.

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So for our anniversary dinner we used our very fragile, very beautiful China ware that we were given for our wedding from Cliff and Claudia Whetton. (Thank you!) And we used the
candle that Charisse gave us for Christmas and a few other candles to make it a "candle light" dinner.

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We made our own sparkling cider by mixing sprite and apple juice together and we had Kurtis' favorite meal, chicken enchiladas with homemade guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and peas. It lasted us three more meals.

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For desert we had "Strawberry Whipped Sensation". It was good! This also lasted us a while because it was so rich and we would only eat a tiny portion at a time. Even after we had Stef, Randal, Kiel, Mack, and Connie over Monday night to help us eat this awesome desert, it still lasted us another three weeks!

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After dinner and desert were over, Kurtis washed the dishes so that I would have a few minutes to call my family and talk to them. (We usually only get to call them on Sundays) After that we played games and then called it a night because Kurtis had to get up early the next morning to go to work.

All in All it was a wonderful, different, but definitely wonderful celebration of the end of our first year together and the beginning of our second and many, many more. So many that they cannot be counted. How blessed I am to have been able to marry such an amazing, awesome, wonderful man who has an amazing, awesome, wonderful family (just like mine is). But we are still yet more blessed because of the covenants and promises we made with our Heavenly Father almost thirteen months ago in one of His Holy Houses (see picture below) which allow us to be sealed for, not just this life, but for time and ALL ETERNITY.
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Here is a picture of us on our wedding day in the Mesa AZ Temple Visitor's Center. We are standing in front of a statue of Christ (the Christus). You cannot see it in this picture but on the palms of His hands, His wrists, and His feet are marks representing the marks that the nails from His crucifixion left in those three places. The walls and ceiling of this room we are in are painted in representation of the creation of earth and the rest of the universe.

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Here is Kurtis and I outside of the Temple.

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This is the Mesa, AZ Temple. It is one of some 126? Temples around the world. For more
information on Temples and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints you can go to
www.lds.org or www.mormon.org or you can call (801) 240-1000