4th Day of Christmas....Hope

A couple of weeks ago, I was out at Whitney’s house watching a very important game of the OSU Beavers. It didn’t start off very well. The Beavers were doing absolutely horribly. Her dad and her brother were yelling at the TV every time they made a mistake, and I was sitting on the couch resigned to the fact that the Beavers just weren’t going to win. Whitney (and I should also say her mother) were criticizing the rest of us for giving up on them. For those of you who didn’t see it, the Beavers won in final seconds of the game.

Albeit this is a relatively unimportant example, it certainly is an example of Whitney’s ability to live her life full of hope. She always sees the best in every situation she faces. In addition, she always sees the best in people around her. That’s really good, because that means that she sees the best in me too!

5th Day of Christmas.....Faith

Today begins a triptych (plus one) of reasons why I love Whitney. As I started to make the list of reasons that I love her, I found that a great number of them related to three great qualities that we find listed in the scriptures: Faith, Hope, and Charity.

As I think back to the times when I realized how amazing Whitney was, it was when I heard her pray. She approaches her Heavenly Father with a real sense of humility and sincerity. You can tell by the way that she addresses Him that she knows that He is real and that He loves her. Even better is that she lives her life in a way that shows her love for Him and shows her faith in Him. It is wonderful to see as she faces difficult times and decisions that she turns to Him and puts her trust in His promptings. Her strong faith has been such a strength and support to me.

6th Day of Christmas....Long suffering

This picture is the "calm-whitney"

It’s really pretty difficult to get Whitney angry. That’s really lucky for me, because sometimes I can be pretty insensitive. I also tend to get angry about the simplest of things. Whitney, on the other hand, doesn’t really let things get to her. She can be working with the most frustrating people or placed in the most difficult situations, but she simply puts her head down and keeps on working, making the best she can out of any situation, and many times the situation gets even better because of her willingness to work with them.

Also, she has a great ability to calm other people down. When things around her are going absolutely crazy, she has the ability to think with a clear mind, calm everyone down, and get things done.

7th Day of Christmas...Courage

There's just one word to say about this: Sushi.


So....I decided after I saw this post go up that I just HAVE to tell the sushi story....Thank goodness for the ability to edit posts!

I really like sushi. A LOT. I really like fish. A LOT. Whitney doesn't like fish that much, she only likes the Salmon that her grandpa catches and cooks fresh.

Whitney decided (after much cajoling from me) to try sushi, at least try it. Now lets realize the string of complications here: first off, she doesn't like cooked fish very well, so making it raw is just making it more difficult.

I tried to find a cooked sushi, and I think that I did. I was also excited, because she LOVED crag rangoon that she tried earlier, so I got the crab and cream cheese one (forgot the name of the roll), thinking we were moving along similar lines here. The deal was that we would have plenty of other food for her to eat, just in case she couldn't handle the sushi.

She almost gagged on her first bite. Apparantly sushi isn't for her, which I was okay with. I was really proud of her, though, for not spitting it out. She kept on chewing and eventually swallowed it.

THEN!! She tries it again! I was absolutely amazed! She said that she thought she might like it better with the second bite. That is courage! Almost gagging on the first one, and then diving in and trying it again!

She would totally rock on Fear Factor!

8th Day of Christmas...Supportive

In a recent conversation with my Bishop out here in Illinois, he said “I just pray every day that all of you will make it through this difficult stage of your life, find good jobs, and get started with your families.” Through career decisions, the frustrations of school, financial worries, and family challenges, Whitney has been willing to support me and stand with me on all of them. I suppose that, to her, it probably doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but to me it means that instead of having to stand alone, trying to figure out what is the best decision, I know that I will have someone who will listen to me, even argue with me if necessary, but in the end make a decision with me and support me in that decision. And that means the world to me!

The great thing is that, when Whitney says she supports me, it means so much more than just agreeing with the decisions that I (or we) have made. It means that she does everything in her power to make sure that I’m successful. From helping me out with the projects I have to do, or just making dinner while I work on them, or simply telling me that it’ll all turn out okay. It means so much to me that she is willing to sacrifice so much for my success. I would like to hope that I do the same for her.

(PS....this picture is not of the two of us! Although Whitney did take it, along with most of the pictures in this series)

9th Day of Christmas...Her Voice

Well, while we are talking about it, we might as well discuss another one of the things that I find absolutely beautiful about Whitney, her voice. Whitney has two voices. Her first voice (even though its not the first one I heard) is her soprano/classical voice. She has an incredibly rich soprano voice and amazing talent for picking up a song really quickly (even though she doesn’t think so). Her second voice is the one that I fell in love with first. Its her “sultry” voice. If you haven’t heard her sing jazz, you would be absolutely amazed! It is so rich, low, and soulful! I was completely surprised that she was a soprano after I heard her sing like that!

What’s more important is that she loves music. That is something that is super important to me. She is singing all the time. I think its absolutely hysterical that she is already singing along to a song after she’s listened to for only 30 seconds! Who does that? She knows so much music and introducing me to so many different types of music. It certainly makes spending time with her wonderful!

10th Day of Christmas....An Eye for Beauty

On top of being beautiful, Whitney has always had a real eye for beauty. Several years ago, Elder Scott gave a fireside for the members of the BYU Choirs. One of the most memorable things that he said was, “You people should be the happiest people in the world, because you can find beauty in the simplest of things.” This perfectly defines Whitney! She’s recently acquired herself a camera and has been taking tons of photos. This picture was taken just a couple of weeks ago while we were out on the coast.

Isn’t it absolutely beautiful? The thing that I think is most interesting about her eye is that it usually doesn’t take the type of pictures that everybody else takes, but ones that are taken from an unusual perspective, or particularly close up. What she’ll tell you is that she’s trying to come up with a perspective that most people usually haven’t looked at before, or that she’s showing how beauty can be found in the most un-beautiful things (just take a look at her picture of my desk at school! It’s a ridiculously old, falling apart and MESSY desk, btw). It is inspiring to see how she can find such beautiful things in the most basic situations!

She can even make me look good!