Sitting in an apartment without air conditioning in Florida is a cruel and unusual punishment. I'll wait to see if I can survive til Wednesday when the repairman drops by to spruce things up. Just like Graham said: how would I have been a pioneer? Easy answer! I wouldn't of.

    In the meantime, I'm going to kick it with my man in his new ride, 2012 baby blue Hyundai Sonata, with the AC on blast.

WASHINGTON DC

    WASHINGTON DC. If you're going for a minute less than 10 days be prepared to feel rushed or skip entirely over half of the things you planned to do. That aside, be ready for a monumental time! (Puny, right? Come on, y'all!) Beware, I am completely prepared to be full of spoilers and my personal tips.

    Wow! Graham and I celebrated our anniversary in style, let me tell you. Of course we booked with our favorite hotel chain: The Omni (Shoreham). The always make us feel like high-class aristocrats, I always feel the need to don a ball gown as we shimmy under the vibrant chandeliers! Graham told our concierge that we were celebrating and had always have a wonderful experience with Omni Properties! That was well received and guess what they did free of charge? We were placed on the top floor, with a great view, voucher for free drinks every morning and they even sent up chocolate covered strawberries for the occasion. Seriously, book with the Omni; they'll never do you wrong.

    So I have been bursting at the seams to share everything we have even going through! It has been very fun, with lots of hectic moments followed by tender mercies. 

    I was completely surprised to find out what a tourist location it was. There was many, many languages spoken on every corner. There was always a huge variety of museums, monuments and shops to amble around. The best part is that almost everything is free! Yippee! I did a collaboration of dances upon discovering that fact. +1 for the Alexander's.

Now that we've got that out of the way, here's my suggestions if you're up for visiting this grandiose town.

    

TRAVEL:

- Easy enough, use the Metro! Assuming you're on a leisure trip this cheap underground route will get you just about anywhere you need to go. Grab a map and ask locals until you get the hang of it, after a few go around it's simple. This recommendation saved us the price of a rental car, and each trip took approximately $.50- $3.00 per person, depending on where you want to go.

If you have more time/money I would also suggest taking a tour bus, this eliminates wasted time and some are guided. We rode The Big Bus, we were huge fans of the guided night tour, but being the most popular bus it was known to get crowded. 

FOOD:

-The temptation to eat at the convent hot-dog stands or room service is overwhelming when you haven't taken the time to break from your sightseeing. The best route we found was to snag up reasonably priced things at stores like CVS and carry them to cut down on price. We actually ran have starved to a quick service counted and bought  two hot dogs and a drink for $14. I nearly passed out. 

SIGHTS:

This one is the hardest since it depends on where your interests lie. Nearly everything in DC is historical, so my initial suggestions would be:

-Lincoln Monument

-Washington Monument (if open)

-Natural History Museum

-Air and Space Museum 

-American History Museum

-National Cathedral 

-Holocaust Museum

-Arlington Cemetery

  Each of those are popular but I would say to just pick a few in you're on a time constraint. Graham and I desperately wanted to see the National Archives and National Zoo, alas everything is so great that you'll need plenty of one to explore. So just pick what you like and go from there!


All in all, DC, you're a 10.

Adventure Bound

    Right this very minute I am en route to the capital of the United States. Yes, the home of Presidents, free monuments and hopefully the best first anniversary vacation spot ever. 

    Y'all, I am just so excited. Graham and I both work very hard at all we do: our jobs, our callings, trying to better ourselves... I'm just so grateful that we can also have plenty of fun in between all of that. 

     At the same time I also think how scary it can be! I was raised in a super conservative, controlled environment- we had tons of experiences but they didn't vie off course too much. Does that make sense? In other terms, I grew comfortable with my surroundings, fearful of unfamiliar things. (Just a quick for-instance: moving! Everyone who follows this blog knows I still dwell on that one.) Considering the fact that I took my first plane trip (the entire trip took 4 different airplanes), I though as our plane prepared to take off that I'd be as cool as a cucumber- nope. My heart was racing, and finally a little girl voiced my feelings to a tee, "I'm scared."

    But I actually had to get mad at myself and remember that sometimes we have to have our fears in lieu of better things. Our takeoff was great, the clouds enshrouded us and turbulence was to a minimum- see? No reason to fret! (Note to self: remember that.) As I write down these thoughts now I feel so content. I'm drinking cran-apple, headed to our vacation and I'm actually above North Carolina; let me share my view. :)

    Lesson of the day: enjoy life, without fear there wouldn't be any elation. Quit missing out when adventure is out there, man. Speaking of- Washington DC, we're coming for you! 

    ("I can do this!")

YEAR ONE.

   One year ago today I knelt across an alter and pledged to join my life with Graham Scott Alexander for all eternity. It was a beautiful sunny day in Orlando; I wore my bridal gown and he wore a pink bow tie. It was the most magical day of my life.





Graham,
I love you.
I love your wisdom.
I love your upbeat attitude.
I love your very handsome face.
I love your dedication to the gospel.
I love being your wife.

Thicker than Water

    There are few people that I love as much my siblings. I absolutely hound them, but I could not have asked for a more special, well- rounded group of individuals to pair up with. It's weird how "old" everyone is getting. This Monday Listi will turn 19, and eleven days after that Acey will turn 17. Not to mention that my "baby" brother turned 14 in February! Ugh! All I can think about is camping trips, staying up on Christmas Eve and spending more time dredged up in sand castles; I'm not prepared for dating or moving out from them, I'm just not ready yet.

    So I cherish the times they want to spend the night with me or enjoy going on new adventures with us. I'm just grateful they want to be close to me, still. This weekend they piled up in a car with Graham and I to go more south than we had before experienced, Fort Lauderdale (and a last minute trip to Miami). I love them so much more than they will ever know. 

    This trip have been SO much more exciting that I ever thought, enjoy :)

And another one gone, another one gone...

    Another week bites the dust! So there has been lots of new things going on! 

#1.

Listi and I have become a lot closer. I don't know why? But suddenly we have been on the phone for an hour at a time, texted continually throughout the day and even become "bestfriends" on snap chat. And to think it has only taken 19 years. 

(I look like a crazed lady.)

#2.

Wednesday, my Faith in God girls, with the help of Sister Markesia, had a wonderful time making soap! To go along with the activity we discussed the "cleansing" of baptism, as well as our own baptismal covenants, and after that they all wrote down their testimony. We made our own personal confetti soap, looked&smelled the soap Sister Markeisa brought and even got to pick their own out! A huge thank you to our honored guest for sharing her talent. It was such a neat experience, the girls had a wonderful time. These girls are so free spirited and fun... I love growing in abundance with them! 

#3.

Kellan has been looking as beautiful as ever! This little gorgeous baby is constantly in need of my hugs and kisses :) I am so glad to be in his life!

(This picture!!! I can not stand it!!)

#4.

I am anxiously waiting for Friday! My three siblings are going to go down with Graham and I to Fort Lauderdale! We plan to visit the open house of the new temple as well as the beach! None of us, besides Graham, have ever seen this at south so it's going to be awesome! Time to reunite!

#5.

This past Monday Graham officially became a Merrill Lynch employee! Everyone that sees him please congratulate him on a job well done! That just goes to show how hard work and perseverance will pay off. I am so proud of him! 

Along with this, he had to get a photo identification card for this new position. It was here that a problem arose. See, I am a huge fan of the missionary-cut, but Graham had went several weeks without getting his hair cut. So at 10:30 on Subday night he asked me to cut his hair. Now I have cut hair many times, unfortunately it's never been for anyone besides my brothers and daddy. So anyways, here I am terrified that I am going to haw him looking like a skint-headed ragamuffin for work, when e finally tells me "c'mon it's been an hour! Just finish it!" So I take the plunge and finish it! I'm very shocked/pleased that he trusted me with the job :)

(Before)

(After)

#6.

Today marks an official two and a half years that Graham and I have been together. I really really want to share this experience.

As we were en route to Douglas, Graham's first time ever, we were in my car. Somehow we had fadangled the idea of leaving Graham's car in Waycross, which was fair because it took Graham 4 hoes to make the 2.5 hour trip because he winded up in Brunswick of all places. So this was woke 3rd time meeting up, 2nd date and 1sr time alone. The conversation came up about some subject involving saying so:

L: "Well if we ever start dating each other, we---" (interrupted)

G: "Why don't we date each other?"

L: "You haven't asked me."

G: "What do I need to ask you?"

L: "You'd need to ask me to be your girlfriend."

G: "Okay."

L: "No, you need to ask me! Like, 'Lacey, will you be my girlfriend.'"

G: "Lacey, will you be my girlfriend?"

L: "Yes!"

Sometimes I still can't believe that I fell in love with a man with an Afro! 

April Showers Bring May Flowers

    It's finally APRIL.

    After October, this is my second favorite month of the year. Throughout this month I'll be...



All of April
-Enjoying the springtime, with warmer weather.

April 6-7
-General Conference! Can't wait to hear the inspired words of God's anointed.

April 13
-Slapping down the notion I can't survive year one as a married lady. It's true, I have nearly conquered it, and still love it.

April 14
-Celebrating my sister Listi's 19th (really where has the time gone?) birthday.

April 17
-Flying out to Washington DC for a pretty sporadic trip with my boy. I am so ready to explore like crazy over there!

April 25
-Celebrating my brother Acey's 17th (unbelievable, man) birthday.


    This is a good month, all around. Too, I've been thinking about me, you know, an inward personal kind of thing. I'm really dissatisfied with myself in a lot of areas, I have tons of room for improvement. During Institute, basically a weekly scripture study for young adults, I really felt inspired to make some changes, particularly early-morning changes. I have decided to publicly discuss what I felt prompted to, just to be able to encourage myself and stay accountable. This is what I plan to do for the next 30 days, before reviewing the results, to see if I can recognize a difference.

1. Quit sleeping in every day. Those are wasted hours which I can be rejuvenating my mind, body and spirit.

2. Stop Facebooking to wake myself up. This is a horrid habit, simply because it enables me to stay online all day. Social media can be a great and powerful tool, I love using it to keep up to date with my family, but it also has so many draining negatives.

3. Make a priority to go for a daily run or walk. So often these days I feel sluggish! I'm 22 years old, I'm in my prime! Unacceptable. I'm not really the type to go bananas at a gym, but I figure there are ways around that.

4. Most importantly, I felt an overwhelming feeling that I should devote a consistent, allotted time that will be singularly devoted to my reading of the scriptures. I have a testimony of their truthfulness, I love using it's strength in my life... But I have found that there are many, many excuses that can arise to take the place of it. And I'm just not going to do that anymore. I recognize that this is a crucial step to my day which I'm unwilling to skip out on.

    So there you have it folks. I'm going to try my best to do it all. This April will hopefully be filled with stress-free, exciting times. I can hardly stand it!