Back After So Long!

   Hello again readers! I believe I left off with Matt and myself moving in to our adorable apartment in Brigham City! We moved in January of 2012. Moving in the winter time SUCKS! We were very blessed though to have help from our families! In this post I am going to highlight our family members so you can get to know them a little more. My family consists of two separate entities, my Mom's family and my Dads family.

    My parents  married when they were young. They loved each other very much, as most newlyweds do, however, they found out later that it wasn't meant to be. They divorced when I was three years old, just a toddler. I was young enough that I didn't understand when their marriage ended. I am actually glad it happened that way. I have always felt they were meant to make me, love each other for a time, then move on. Divorce is a heartbreaking thing, but if two people can make it work, it can mean bringing double the love into your child's life. It has actually made me a stronger person knowing that my parents can still love me without being with each other. I think a lot of children from split homes struggle with that, but I have to say, it hasn't been too much of an issue in my life.
     My mother remarried Doug Olsen on July 7, 2007, the year I graduated high school. It was great to be a teen and to be a witness at both of my parents weddings. I feel very lucky to have been there for those moments. Doug, or as I call him, Pa -or as others call him- Grizzly has been with my mom since I was eight years old. He was a strict father figure in my household but I wouldn't have had it any other way. He is a very intelligent, strong man inside and out and I'm so proud to call him my step father. He is always looking out for my mom and myself, and he is often heard saying "My girls deserve the best." He has three sons from previous marriages who are now my step-brothers; Dustin, Nate, and Nick. My dad married his sweetheart, Ricki, on June 20, 2008. My dad has been through the ringer with women and I am so glad he has found one who can "put up with his shit". Ricki is a very understanding, FUN, and loving person. I could talk to her about anything and she always makes me feel better about any situation at hand. I am proud to call her my step mom as well. She has two girls from a previous marriage; Nevada and Sierra.
      Matt's family consists of his Dad -also coincidentally named Doug- his mother, Cheryl, and his siblings; Marilyn, Benjamin, and Deborah. Matts father passed away when Matt was eighteen. I've never met his dad, but I have seen pictures and heard stories and it seems Matt takes after him a lot. So of course, I love him very much. Matt's mother is one of the most genuinely sweet people I have ever met. She also has the best hugs. I swear her hugs fix everything!

       Our families are who have made us who we are today, and we are so grateful that family is such a huge part of our lives. There have been new additions to the family recently, but I will save that for another post. Someday I hope to get caught up to where we actually are in life, happily married since July 2013!

Hello Friends!
So on the last post I left off at when Matt came home from Texas. It was a very VERY happy time! We had such a fun rest of the summer! Here are some pictures of us doing stuff together!

 This is a picture of my family's property at Sunridge, Utah. It's a GORGEOUS place and we always have so much fun when we go up there! There is no cell service, but it's nice to "get away from it all". There's some awesome wildlife up there too! My grandma feeds the ground squirrels anything and everything and they're so tame, we can pet them while they eat out of a peanut butter jar!

Here we are at the massive flower field that is right by Moose Lake up at the property! It's beautiful up there!

I love this picture Matt took! It really captures the serenity of Moose Lake!

   I'm so glad Matt was able to come home early last summer. We still had to work a lot but we were able to do lots of fun things together! In August, one of Matt's best friends, Chris Sekot, got married.

Here's Matt, Nate, Walker, and Chris at the wedding! I believe Alayna is peeking out the back there too!

   Something that we did this summer that wasn't exactly fun was we helped with a benefit variety show and auction for my friend, Shea Liston.

  When I found out Shea had colon cancer, and was given 18 months to live, I was so shocked. I grew up with Shea. We went to high school together and were in a theater troupe together. I have many fond memories of Shea, she is like an older sister to me. She also has one of the most AMAZING families. I call her mom and dad my "Palace Parents" because they always helped out with our high school theater troupe "Palace Playhouse". Her little brother, Brandon, is also someone I consider as one of my best friends and little brother.

   Even though I wasn't necessarily close friends with Shea anymore, we'd grown up and apart as friends often do, I wanted to help her family out in some way. So I donated my time and sold tickets to the variety show. I never knew I could cry so much in my life and still feel so much love in one room. There were so many people there to help the Liston family, and I will cherish that memory for the rest of my life. I love you Shea.

Here's all the Palace kids that were at the benefit, not so much kids anymore. It's awesome that we have such great friends that came together at a time like this. Out of all the pictures we took in Palace, and trust me there were a lot, I think this is my favorite. We weren't doing a show, we weren't on our way to Shakespeare competition, we were just there to show our love and devotion to our friend and her family.

    That summer was filled with fun times and not so fun times, Matt and I grew as people and our relationship grew. In October, we went on our first vacation together! We went to Las Vegas, Nevada with a group of friends!

 Here we are outside of a hotel waiting for a cab! In this picture is Walker and Roxy, our friend Corey, and another cute couple, Ryan and Amanda.

 We went to Penn and Teller's Show and got to stand next to and get pictures with them both! Isn't Penn freaking tall?! Matt's a tall guy and he towers over him!

 Everyone thinks Teller is so short because he's always standing next to Penn!

    In December I made the (bad) decision to sew pajama pants for everyone for Christmas gifts!

Also in December Matt and I decided to start looking for a place to live together. We found a cute two bedroom apartment here in Brigham and moved in! I have not regretted it since! I love living with Matt and waking up to his smiling face everyday! Over time we have decorated and made the place ours!

Here's our cute little canoe shelf in our living room! It is probably my favorite piece of furniture we own.

   Ok, so I just had a horrible realization! I have left a HUGE part of me and Matt's relationship out of this blog until now! And that's our adorable kitties, Coon Dewson and Archimedes Brian!

 This is our eldest baby, Cooner-doo! He is part EVERYTHING but he's mostly Calico and Maine Coon!

This is our baby kitten Archi after the old snip-snip! The vet said he was a sweet little guy! He is a Burmese.

 Here they are back at the girl's house chilling on the couch!

 They really are best friends now! I love these little fur balls soo much! Don't know what I'd do without them!

   Well, I think I will leave off there. Gotta leave on the cute cat note! lol

 

Dear Everybody,
Ahem. I gotta get used to this whole blogging thing. So I've been sitting here thinking to myself, Aubrey, you need to start writing in some form or another. Then I said, myself, blogging would be the best thing to do. So here I am! I've also thought about what I'm going to write about. So I chose my favorite subject in the whole wide world. My relationship! Boy do I love my boyfriend, Matthew Dickey. He's the bees knees!

    Alright so I look slightly drunk and a little angry in this picture, but there are better to come, I promise.
Well, I guess I'll start with how we met. Matt and I met on a cold winters day when a group of our friends decided to go over to his house to drink and be merry. Just let me tell you about the first few times I came to his house.
   Matt lived in the basement of his parent's house, and they had some pets. I love animals and this is not usually a problem for me, however, his two dogs were like the things you saw on "The Hulk" after some cute little canines bust into these green ravaging monsters! So, needless to say I was terrified of them at first. I didn't realize they were just trying to protect their family! I always had Matt come upstairs and escort me through the kitchen and down the stairs of his house.
     I had a lot of fun times in Matt's basement. It became the party place for most of my friends. We played Rock Band, Mario, Halo, and several card games. Most of these nights were quite fueled with alcohol seeing as how we were young and irresponsible.
     I have many memories of what a great friend Matt was. We hung out a lot with our group of friends and he became someone I could really talk to and connect with. Over the years my boyfriends came and go, but Matt stuck around, as my friend and now as my lover. I couldn't be happier where life has led us. It's the best feeling being in a relationship with your best friend. I never get tired of hanging out with him. In fact, I miss him when one of us is at work and can't come home for lunch.
   After several years of being friends, I developed feelings for Matt at a Linkin Park concert.

    Yeah, it's kind of a badly placed photo but that's us waiting in line for the concert with our friends, Walker and Nate. This concert was so much fun! Linkin Park is one of my favorite bands as well as Matt's and we rocked out pretty good! We're planning on going to another concert of theirs this year!
   It was a great concert and we were great friends! That's what I said to myself when the feelings started coming up because I was in a relationship at the time.
   Several months later my relationship ended, and I was crushed. I had been with Levi for three years and I had never really been single before. When Matt finally got the courage and came forward and told me his feelings for me, I returned the feelings, and we weren't exactly very sure where to go from there. I had just ended a long relationship and I wasn't sure I wanted Matt to just be the "rebound" guy. There was also the added pressure that he was going to leave soon for Texas to work at Vivint and install security systems. He was going to be gone for the whole summer! So, even though it broke both of our hearts, he left and I was left to clean up the mess I had made of my life.
Matt had a great summer with his boys! Here's a few pictures!

    I moved in with one of my best friends at the time, Cecilia, and a few months later our friend Roxy decided to join us. Man, we had some fun, crazy, alcohol filled nights. I think it was my way of feeling single and free for some time and I now feel so grateful that I did it. I don't think I could EVER do it again, because let me tell you something about myself: I am a serial monogamist. Before then, I had never gone a month without being in a relationship. Probably cuz I'm so hot? Haha Just kidding. But really, these girls helped me a lot during this lonely, confusing time in my life and they will forever be my friends because of it. Also, one of my besties, Mr Clay Conlon, helped me through SO much. He and I were at similar points in our life and I truly believe he needed me as much as I needed him. One night, I will share the picture of the beforehand shenanigans, we all ended up passed out in my bed together. Never mind that there were two other beds in the house, we just had to share mine that night.

 Clay, Roxy, Me, and Cecilia. One CRAZY night!

     During this summer, Matt and I would Skype quite a bit. It was June 21st, 2011, that we finally decided enough is enough and we want to be together. Well, not physically together, because we still had the whole summer to hurdle before we could see each other again. But I realized I didn't want to be lonely anymore when someone this WONDERFUL that cared for me so much was asking so patiently to love me.
   A great thing about this time in our relationship is we talked A LOT. We really got to know each other whereas I think if he had been home all this time, we wouldn't have talked so much and our relationship would have been built on other things, one of them being SEX. I am so grateful we took our time and really fell in love before sex became a part of our relationship.
   Something really cool was that my roommate, Roxy, was also dating a guy that went out to Texas for the summer with Matt. So Roxy would Skype with Walker, and I with Matt, and sometimes we'd share and talk to them both at once. It was so wonderful having another girl there going through the same thing as me in her relationship. We kept each other from missing them too much, and when we did, we'd talk about it. We'd talk about all the fun things we were going to do with them when they got home. So when Matt text me and said they were coming home early, I decided to surprise Roxy. The boys drove separately and Walker arrived at the house first. I will never forget the look on Roxy's face when she saw Walker for the first time after so long. She was so shocked she didn't know whether to hug him or slap him!
   It was about an hour later that Matt came home. It was a day in early July, but I can't remember the exact date. I didn't wait for him to come to the door, instead I threw myself at him as he was walking up the steps. We nearly fell over. I don't know if it was from the force of my body hitting his or (this is going to sound cheesy) the force of our happiness to see each other and the desire we had just to touch one another was unlike anything I had ever experienced before! It was an amazing and beautiful moment that I will forever cherish and remember fondly.

    Well, I think that's it for now. I'll save the rest for another blog!