November {Q&A Answers--Finally!}

October seriously flew by. It was filled with falling leaves, cool weather, scarves, tights, and Halloween! It was a wonderful month! And now November begins. The month of gratitude. I am looking forward to this month so much! My goal for the month is to try and write something I am grateful for every day on my blog. So check up on me and make sure I'm keeping to that! I will be writing about other things as well. For example, today I am FINALLY responding to all of your questions from this post! Excited? I hope so! I am!

Number 1. So, you  have two blogs now? Jessica of Live Laugh Love
I do have two blogs! I have this one that is all about Race and I and our newlywed lives. Then I have a blog that I co-write with two of my sisters-in-law! It's called Thrifty {Modest} Threads and we write a little about fashion, crafting, sewing, and any other things that catch our fancies! It's a fun blog so you should definitely all go and check it out! {And here's a little secret--I may be having a double giveaway soon! One on this blog and one on Thrifty {Modest} Threads!} I do most of my outfit posts over there but I think I'm going to start to split it evenly between the two because I miss having cute outfits featured on this blog...not that I did it that much before but...you know!

Number 2. What is the story of your wedding dress? Jamie of Shehan and Jamie: Two Lovebirdies

I have actually answered this question before here. But I will answer it again because I LOVE talking about my wedding dress! My wedding dress was my mom's wedding dress. She was married in 1984 so it was a super 80s style dress. Poofy sleeves, weird high neckline, looong sleeves {just google 1980s wedding dresses--you'll get the idea}. I had tried it on right after I got engaged and it fit perfect but I didn't think much of it because of the out of date style. But, my mom is a pro seamstress and started thinking of all the ways we could change it up. She took out the high neckline and the poofy sleeves. Then my sister-in-law/best friend had the wonderful idea of making a huge lace skirt to go over the bottom half of the dress {I wasn't a big fan of the fabric on the bottom}. So we made a skirt out of lace and then a belt out of some tulle-like fabric {I don't know what it's actually called}. Oh, and a good family friend made the sleeves shorter for me and lined them. So basically my dress is lots of different layers with the main body being my mother's wedding dress. I love that I got to wear her dress and I love how unique it turned out. Take-home-message: You can make weird styles look awesome and super unique. And wearing your mom's wedding dress is really special. I hope that wasn't a way too long answer! If you aren't bored of that yet then you can look at the post mentioned above for more information!

Number 3. When will you have kids? Ashley of Sloanbook
I am not going to say much about this one! But, ever since this General Conference talk Race and I have definitely been praying about starting a family. Does that help? Haha. I do LOVE babies though and will be incredibly happy whenever we do get pregnant!

See photo below {and photos in basically every post} for proof that I absolutely adore all babies! 

Number 4. What is your favorite roommate memory? Kylie of Love Always.
This is a hard one! We had some good memories in Apt. 96! I think that one of my very favorite memories is of the night that we all took turns sliding down our stair railing! I need to find those videos! Also, I loved that we did that little talent show reenacting this video in our footie PJs! I'll link up to our video but I'm not sure if it will work...Try to go here. Good times were had in Apt. 96! :] What's your favorite memory Kylie?!

One of the ONLY photos of all of the roommates together!

Number 5. Did Race go on a mission? If so- how have those experiences impacted your relationship? Trinkets and Talmud
Race did go on a mission. He served in the Chicago Illinois South Mission- Spanish Speaking. I'm going to be honest. This is a really hard question. Especially since I haven't gone on a mission. It makes it kind of hard to distinguish between what things Race learned from his mission and what things are just his personality. I'm going to write my answer and then I'm going to share Race's point of view on this.

Here are some things that I think Race gained from serving a mission and how I think they impact our relationship.

• Strong testimony of the gospel. Race knows that the church is true. And he knows the importance of following the teachings. He has learned these things for himself while teaching about them to others. This has really strengthened our relationship because when we struggle with attending our meetings regularly, or saying our prayers and reading our scriptures together we are both able to help each other do these things because of our personal testimonies of the importance of them. 
• A strong work ethic. After spending two years walking around a city in all kinds of weather for hours every day you build quite the work ethic. I know that Race will work his  butt off in school and with his current and future jobs to support our family. When we graduate and he starts looking for a job I know that he will not give up in finding one and that he will be willing to work however many awful jobs as he needs to just to take care of me. That is super reassuring. {And it is a work ethic that I definitely need to gain!}
• Finally, I would say that Race learned to pray on his mission. Ever since the first prayer I heard Race say {sometime early on in our dating life} I knew that he had a good relationship with his Heavenly Father. He knows that Heavenly Father is listening to, and knows him personally. His prayers have taught me so much and definitely strengthened our relationship. Praying together has strengthened both of our testimonies and brought us closer to God as a couple. 

Now here is what Race said: 

First off he said that when he went on a mission he knew that he was obeying a commandment. And with obedience to commandments come blessings. He hasn't recognized all of them yet although he is sure they have and will continue to come. Some of the ones he has recognized are these: 

• He learned how to work with another person and to not run away when things get hard. On a mission you are with your companion 24/7 and you really can't run away. So he learned how to stay and work things out rather than just leave. This definitely helps in any relationship because running away should not be an option. 
• He also learned the importance of prayer and scripture reading. I talked about these a little bit above so I'm not going to go into that too much more but he did say that he learned how important it will be to teach our children to read their scriptures and say their prayers. 
• And finally he said that he learned the importance of being brave. This has impacted our relationship because Race does a lot of things that I'm too scared to do. It works out pretty well for me. :] It is also good because he is teaching me to be brave in a lot of ways. 

There are so many other things but I already took forever answering that question. I loved thinking about how important it is that Race served a mission for two years. It really has impacted our relationship for good!

I'll leave you with those pictures and say that today I am grateful that Race served a worthy mission and then came home and married me! :] Happy November everyone!

{P.S. If you have any more questions just let me know! I will either email you back or write a post about it if it's just that good!! 

P.P.S. Today is your last chance to enter the My Memories Giveaway! I will be announcing the winner tomorrow! Thanks to everyone who has entered so far!

P.P.P.S. Go here to enter TONS of wonderful giveaways!! One of them is even something made by yours truly!

P.P.P.P.S. If anyone is interested in being Swap Sponsors please e-mail me at emsmilesss {at} gmail {dot} com! I will be introducing my Swap Sponsors sometime next week!}