January and February

It's hard to believe it's already the end of February! This year is flying by!

I had surgery on my hip the beginning of January. I was on crutches for a month and took the month off of work to rest and get back on my feet. It was a looooong month. I had a lot of time to watch Netflix, read, color, and do other sedentary activities. I'll make a list of some of my Netflix and reading recommendations at the end of this blog post for anyone interested!

Overall my hip recovery is going really well. It feels great to be on my feet again. On the flip side, surgery can be a discouraging process. Some days I'll feel awesome and then the next day it's very painful again. It's hard to find a balance between feeling good and overdoing it. But I just need to be patient with my recovery. It will be about another month until everything in my hip joint is fully healed and then after that I'll just be focusing a lot on strengthening and stretching the joint until I get my full mobility back. In total it will be about a year process of recovery. This whole experience has been very humbling and it has made me so so so grateful to have a healthy body.

Other than that, life for Spencer and I just seems to be in Groundhogs day mode. Spencer is a full time student and has had a very busy and stressful semester as he is taking chemistry, biology (both with labs), and an economics class. He is doing all of the pre-reqs for medical school and it is A LOT of work. On top of that he works between 25-30 hours a week as a pharmacy tech. He works so hard and is so diligent in everything he does. He is a great example to me. Even with all this busy-ness and craziness, in January we attended a meeting where we were able to practice sutures on pigs feet! It was awesome! And Spencer was a pro! So in the unlikely event we are stuck somewhere and he needs to give me stitches, I know I can count on him haha!

I'm back in work mode as well. I am a registered behavior technician and I work with little kids who have Autism. Currently I work with three families and I go to their homes to do ABA therapy with their kids. I love my job so much and feel so blessed to work with these incredible kids. It is so fun and rewarding to see them progress. And because I work with the same kids in their homes multiple times a week I have developed friendships with each of the families that I work with. I just feel so blessed to have a job that has allowed me to connect with such incredible people.

One exciting event that mixed up our schedule was Valentines Day. Spencer and I went on a double date with my lifelong friend Alyssa and her husband Beau. We went to the Provo City Center Temple open house and it was AMAZING! The temple used to be a tabernacle used for church meetings and community meetings, but the building was destroyed in a fire a few years ago and only the outside walls survived. Over the past few years the foundation for the building has been completely redone and the inside was reconstructed. It is more amazing than ever! I feel like I'm having a hard time describing how incredible it was so I'll post a video that talks about it briefly and also shows what the inside looks like now.

Outside the Provo City Center Temple

I am so grateful for temples. Temples are sacred places that literally are the house of God here on earth. In temples we can make covenants with God and learn more about His plan for all of His children. In temples families can be sealed together for time and for all eternity. Attending the temple has brought so much peace to my life. I can really feel God's love for me and my family when I go there. It is such a peaceful place.

Anyway, life is good and I feel like I'm rambling on! So until next time!


Netflix Recommendations:
Heartland
Okay seriously. This has become one of my all time favorite shows. It is so uplifting and beautifully filmed. It is about a family who owns a horse ranch in Canada. Amy, a young woman, is a "miracle girl" when it comes to working with horses. It's much more complicated than that, but that's the very very brief one sentence synopsis. If you are looking for a show that is clean, entertaining, and inspiring this is a great option! When I watch this show I seriously just want to just pack up my things and go live off the land haha! Here is the opening credits! Enjoy!

Book Recommendations:
The Malediction Trilogy by Danielle L. Jensen
I loved these! There were definitely a candy read, but right up my alley. They had elements that reminded me of Phantom of the Opera, and if you know me at all you know that I LOVE PHANTOM!! I felt like these books were a good mix of adventure, romance, and explored topics of equality and political turmoil. There are two books out in the trilogy now and the third one comes out in May. I can't wait!

Okay I wont go in depth on the other ones as much but here's a list of the other books I read that I really enjoyed.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman
I lied, I will say something about this one. It's based on a true story and it was so beautiful and had me in tears throughout the book.

First Blog Post Ever! Christmas Season and New Year Happenings.

Wow! I'm writing a blog! This is so exciting!

I guess before I get all crazy writing about life and stuff, I wanted to explain why I'm even writing this blog. There are so many people from Colorado, my mission in New York, and just friends I've made over the years who I struggle to stay in contact with. I hope that this blog can be a small gesture of trying to still be part of each others lives even though we may be far from each other.

So I guess I will give a quick blurb about the last month of mine and Spencer's lives. As always, the Christmas season went by way too fast. So much happened in December. We both finished another semester of school. Spencer is studying public health administration at Utah Valley University. I finished my final semester at Brigham Young University! I am a college graduate! I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Family Studies: Emphasis in Human Development. I actually had to just look up what my major is actually called haha! I just tell people human development. I am really excited and proud of myself to be done with school! It was also kind of anticlimactic because I don't actually walk until April. But my diploma is on its way in the mail, so even though I don't have the graduation pictures to prove it, I have the diploma! Spencer still has a couple more years to complete his Bachelor's so we will still be in the Orem/Provo area for a couple more years. After that, who knows where we will end up!

So this Christmas season ended up being very special to me for a few reasons. First, I was able to spend my first Christmas in Utah with my in-laws. On Christmas eve Spencer and I spent the night in South Jordan with Spencer siblings, their families, and his parents. It was really fun because I felt like we got to experience the kid magic of Christmas one more time since we all slept over and woke up together on Christmas morning. We were spoiled rotten! It also snowed all day! It was so beautiful and magical. There really is nothing like a white Christmas. It was a great day spent with family.

The Christmas season was also a difficult one because my Grandpa Bonnes passed away on the morning of Christmas Eve. He had suffered a major stroke a little less than a week earlier. It was very difficult to not be close to that side of my family when all this happened, but thankfully Spencer and I were able to fly home to Colorado for his funeral the Wednesday after Christmas. It was a beautiful service and I was privileged to sing "The Wind Beneath My Wings." My Grandpa was a wonderful singer and guitar player. That song was one that he was known for singing at funerals. He also was famous for singing "Let There Be Peace On Earth." So at the end of his funeral my 9 cousins and I sang that song together. The last few weeks have been tearful ones, but it has been fun to reminisce with everyone about how awesome our Grandpa is. He was a goofy, kind, loud, loving cowboy. I still can't believe he has died, but I am grateful to know that because of our Savior Jesus Christ and His atonement I will see my Grandpa again. I know that families can be together forever.  

Grandma and Grandpa Bonnes

Our Christmas break continued to be busy after the funeral. Spencer's family had a family reunion planned all year, so after the funeral we flew from Colorado to Arizona where we met up with family in Wickenberg. It was the first time I met a lot of Spencer's cousins and aunts and uncles. We had a great couple days in Arizona. The weather was beautiful and it was fun to get to know everyone better. We went four wheeling through the desert, played tons of games, visited a ghost town, had a family home evening, and ate lots and lots of delicious food! It was a very fun couple of days and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone.

Wilkes Family Reunion

After the long drive home to Orem from Wickenberg the craziness didn't stop. Spencer started another semester of school. I worked Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday I had surgery on my hip. I had what's called a cam impingement, which is where the head of my femur is too big for the socket and so my bones grind. I also had a labral tear, which is where the cartilage surrounding the femur wears down or tears. So I went to the hospital Wednesday morning, had surgery, and got home around 7pm that night. The surgery went well! The doctor shaved part of my femur off so it wont grind anymore, and stitched up my torn labrum. The whole day is a blur to me. It was kind of fun to talk to Spencer about all the things that happened that day because I seriously had NO recollection of anything that happened. He was surprised because he said that I seemed very with it. Anesthesia is some crazy stuff.

The last few days after surgery have been very humbling. I'm on crutches for the next three weeks and then I'll continue doing physical therapy for the next three months. I've been sick on and off because of the anesthesia and other medicine I'm taking. Although the past few days have been very difficult because I've been feeling very sick and very sore, I've also felt so loved. I've had multiple family members and friends bring Spencer and I dinner, take me to physical therapy, and just come over to keep me company. It brings me to tears to think about how grateful I am for the family and friends that I have in my life. But more than anyone I've been so grateful for my husband Spencer. He has taken such good care of me the last few days and I just can't begin to express how much I love him. I am so lucky.