Marriage, Rome, Barcelona and other updates

I'm sitting in my cold little house in bed stealing internet from a neighbor. I don't know how long I'll have so I'll try to post as much as possible.

I'm married. The wedding was perfect and I love being married to Matthew. It's amazing how you can be so scared of something that is so blissfully wonderful. Matthew is a perfect husband, which makes it easy. After only 2.5 weeks, it's incredible how much more I love him than I did the day we got married. Here are some wedding photos:

We were married in the Oakland Temple which means that we did not take vows "until death do us part,"
 but we made eternal covenants. We will be married to each other forever. I think this is one of the more tender parts of my religion.

We were lucky enough to be able to go to Barcelona and Rome for our honeymoon. And we were especially lucky because we didn't get stuck in Heathrow like 10,000 other people did during that week.

Barcelona was beautiful. The whole city was a distinct mix of varied architectural styles and it was all very art-centered. We ate some amazing food there and bought almost 2 kilos of candy (all of which is gone already). We spent Christmas Eve at Midnight Mass. The people there were unbelievably kind and friendly and welcoming. They were beside themselves with excitement that we were there. The Priest himself came to us and said (more or less since neither of us speak Catalan) "It makes me so happy to see such young people attending church." I almost cried I was so touched. It was wonderful to feel the love of Christ and charity from these people, especially on Christmas.

Xurro and Xocolate (Catalan for "The best thing EVER!")

Sagrada Famili

This is a real thing. Part of the Christmas tradition is that there was one shepherd who missed the angels coming because he was off going poop (see image above). To be fair to the poor shepherd, whose only crime was obeying his bodily necessities, people add a pooping man to their nativities because it's not fair that he should be left out. Here is a giant effigy made to honor that man.

My husband, feeding pigeons. He then informed me that I would make him the happiest man alive if I bought him a pigeon as a present. No way.

Delicious paella. It was so good going down -much worse coming back up several hours later. Matthew was a good husband and stayed up with me until I could fall asleep again. We watched Catalan dubbed "Saddle Club".

Our next stop was Rome. We actually spent a disgusting amount of time in airports this trip. In SFO we sat in the airport for 4 hours. In Heathrow, 9 hours. In Barcelona, 5 hours. In Rome, 8 hours. Then in Heathrow again but we had to sprint across the entire airport. I thought I was going to pass out. I love traveling, but it is really comforting to know that I don't have to fly anywhere any time soon.

These photos are very out of order so bear with me. This is a photo inside St Peters Basilica early one morning.

Outside the Capitol building. It was built right next to the original Roman Forum in homage to its first capitol buildings.

St. Peter's Basilica -the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. Usually the line is 4-6 hours long (see photo a few down), but we woke up at 6.30 and we were the first in line. American's know how to wake up early to queue. We toured the Basilica with no more than 10 other people. It was incredible to be there as it was, but to be there alone made the Basilica even bigger. It was honestly an enormous structure. It was early enough that people were taking mass and we could hear some people chanting somewhere. 

My favorite thing was pointing our Papal Keys all over the city. There were EVERYWHERE. I loved it because of the clearly defined importance the Roman Catholic Church placed on keys of the kingdom while we have a very strong emphasis on keys in our religion. Little things like this remind me that the Gospel is true. 

Our favorite Gelati place. We went there every day (sometimes twice a day). Pistachio was THE BEST. Followed closely by Blood Orange.

Outside St. Peter's in the early morning. Rome really doesn't wake up until almost 9 am. 

Best pizza ever. Again, we came back almost every day. 

Rafael's tomb. Yes, Rafael. 

Here's the long line I was talking about. At its peak, it almost went all the way out of Vatican city.

No explanation needed. 

The man who made our delicious pizza.

Tiramisu. It was even better than I thought it would be. And it was absolutely worth 7 Euro.

Remus and Romulus. We bought one of these statues for our house.

Colloseum. There is too much to say about it. It is bigger than you can possibly imagine and the whole time we were there we wanted to watch Gladiator.

Pantheon

In the massive ruins of the ancient city Palantine we found an orange orchard. The oranges were so golden and beautiful and plump. They were, however, really gross.

We had an incredible trip to Europe. We're so blessed that we were able to go. I could really go for some pizza right now. We did throw coins into the Trevi Fountain (which means you're supposed to return to Rome in your lifetime) so hopefully we'll go back someday.

Married New Year

I am married now. It really doesn't feel any different from before except that I get to stay with Matt continuously. I love it. I'm at my in-laws house in Texas and today is our second reception.

When I am home in Provo with my camera and everyone's wedding photos then I'll post about my wedding, my honeymoon and the second reception.

Honeymooning in Rome and Barcelona was absolute perfection. I love Europe!

I get married in 3 hours.

There's not much more to say than that. Married. Me. Three Hours. To Matt. AH!

Through Hell and Back Again, A Roadtrip tale by Lana Pewitt

We are home in Redding. I don't know how we made it here alive -really.

We left Friday morning at 330 am. When we got into Nevada we hit fog -really bad fog. Nothing went wrong for a few hundred miles. We hit snow. We were stuck in a line of traffic in snow 15 miles out of Reno. We were stuck there for almost 2 hours. When we finally started moving we counted 8 crashes, half of which were flipped and crushed. Leaving Reno was a disaster and we were starving and we were battling snow in a city we didn't know and tensions were getting high. We ate at the Waldorf Saloon and then we left. We had to exit the freeway and turn around to buy chains, the pass we wanted to take was closed for snow. Also, did I mention that our windsheild wipers weren't working? We didn't put the chains on right away and I was driving so slowly. Everyone was falling asleep but I kept on in the tracks of the truck in front of us. Suddenly everyone was stopping, my car wasn't however. I veered off to the right and then I kept going and was slowly turning around and going backward...down an embankment. We barely missed a metal pole and a telephone pole. I started sobbing. I could have killed everyone. Not even a minute later a man pulled up in a truck with a chain and pulled us out. We put on the chains and Matt drove for a long time. We were driving through snow from before Reno until Shingletown. (170 miles) The chains started to break and were whipping the car with each rotation of the tires. Eventually we just had to take the chains off. One was frozen and wrapped around the inside of the tire. Seth was up to his elbow trying to pry it off. I drove the rest of the way home. As soon as we were out of the snow we hit fog -again. Then we hit really hard rain (remember the wipers weren't working). We did eventually make it into Redding after the 11 hour drive had been extended to nearly 17 hours. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I was worried the entire time we were driving and I was incredibly stressed.

We're here. We're getting married in 3 days. We're safe. We made it alive. I can hardly believe it.

Last Days

Today is my last day to get everything done before I leave Provo. I will be here tomorrow, but I'll be working all day so it doesn't really count. Today I need to:

Finish my Utah History final
Order my wedding flowers
Get an oil change
Fill my tires with air
Get my legs waxed
Get a pedicure with my dear friend Nicole
Grab the camera from Becky
Buy a photo album and print some of our engagement photos
Make special popcorn (a LOT of it) for the reception
Buy plates, forks, cups and spoons from Sams Club
Do laundry

I think that's it. Thats a long list... Good day. I'll be married in less than 6 days! Huzzah!

I've stopped looking at the countdown.

Is that odd? I've got too much to do. I'm really just one half-arsed whim away from saying "To Hell!" with my Family History project and taking a C in the class. I'm almost there.

Also, it may be because things are actually happening now. I'm going through the temple on Tuesday. I've got my flowers figured out and almost ordered, I'm almost done with school, I'm making money, etc. Things are happening so the countdown is irrelevant? I don't know. But 16 days isn't very far away.

Only one month to go now.

Yesterday our employers at Marvellous Catering threw us an engagement party. They made us sweet pulled pork enchiladas with fresh pico de gallo, caesar salad, artichoke dip, delicious cookies, and THE BEST popcorn in the world : white chocolate with candy pieces, and cinnamon roll popcorn. So good. We had so many leftover cookies that I brought them to my Sunday School class today.

We were so lucky that Marvellous Catering threw us a party and that we had so many wonderful friends who came to help us celebrate. We work for the best people. This little party was kind of like a rehearsal reception and it made us both really excited to get married. 

Matt and I made monster sugar cookies a few weeks ago. I never posted the photos. The best one is on the bottom left-hand corner where the bear is eating his own foot. Also the one on the top in the middle is my Robo-bear and I love it. Plus, they were delicious. The sugar cookie recipe courtesy of my sis Jaime.