Die a Happy Man

For some reason I just love dates! I'm not talking about the kind of dates you go on with another person, I'm talking significant days of the year. I've always been one to remember dates, especially birthdays of all my friends and family. I can literally tell you the birthdays of my elementary friends from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.. Growing up I was SO good at remembering people's birthdays that sometimes it was a little bit creepy. Now that I'm getting older, my so-called "skill" is fading. That doesn't mean I don't love special dates when I remember them! I thought it'd be fun to just jot down a little timeline of the past year of all the special dates that mean something to Tanner and me. I think it'll be good to document now for when we are much older. I don't write or keep a personal journal to do that.

Our first date: November 25, 2015

Tanner's Birthday and also trip to Vegas with his fam/Las Vegas Bowl: Dec 18

We became official: Dec 21

Facebook official;): Jan 3

First said "I Love You": around Christmas time

Engaged: February 21, 2016

Wedding day!: May 14

Honeymoon in Mexico: May 21-28

Moved to England: July 11

Moved into our flat: July 26

Wasn't that fun? Wow, did everything happen so fast, or what? It's been 8 months since he proposed and I've been thinking about that day recently and wanted to write about.

How He Asked

For almost a month before he actually proposed, Tanner and I had been talking about getting married. We were set on it and already planning for this big day ahead of us! During that time we had scheduled a date for the wedding, booked a venue, booked our sealing in the temple, and picked out a ring. I was even there when T asked my dad for his blessing! Well, there's only so much you can plan for a wedding without telling anybody the news. I was definitely waiting with anticipation for the day that he was going to get on one knee. "Is he gonna do it in front of my family/friends or other people?" "I hope I am looking my best when it happens!" It was weird not knowing how it was gonna happen, but I'm sure glad that I didn't even have to plan something like that. No pressure for me! 

Valentine's Day came around and he took me on a nice date with another couple that are friends with us. I was really hoping he wouldn't propose that night because that's a typical day to be proposed to (not hating on any that have done that), but at the same time I wanted to be ready in case he did, so all night I'm sure that it was in the back of my head. It never happened. *Phew! The next weekend was when he asked. Was I expecting it? Not in the slightest! A few weeks before I had mentioned to him a couple times that we should attend "Music and the Spoken Word" one of these Sunday mornings. So he took me up on that on February 21. "Music and the Spoken Word" starts at 9am every Sunday I believe and so I had to wake up at like 7:30 (7:30 comes EARLY on a Sunday for me) and get ready and drive myself to Tanner's and he would take me to Temple Square to see the Music and the Spoken Word put on by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This whole thing. MY IDEA, right?

I remember being so tired as we drove to Temple Square. And I must have woken up late because my hair was greasy and it doesn't look like I was wearing any make up! Anyway, we parked the car just outside the square and started walking toward the Tabernacle. On the sidewalk was a guy playing some hymnals on his electric piano. Hmmm, that's cool. Tanner said something like this: "We have plenty of time before it starts, wanna just go listen to him for a sec?" "Sure!" We stood by the piano and listened for a bit. When the song was finished, Tanner asked him if he plays other stuff besides hymns. Tanner then asked if he knew how to play "Die a Happy Man". **Die a Happy Man is mine and Tanner's "song". The guy at the piano began trying to figure out the chords for the song and totally whipped it out perfectly and was even singing the words! I was so impressed and continued to listen and literally had no idea what was going on, haha. Mysterious guy at the piano: "Tanner, you got the last verse?" Haha, what?? How does he know his name?? Oh wait... haha good one, guys! I was finally able to put the pieces together as he said that, and next thing I know, Tanner turned to me and said some really cute things, my heart was racing, he got down on one knee and said those four words with a ring in his hand. My heart melted and I don't think I cried but was very close!

It was a perfect moment and I've very proud of Tanner for making it special. The "guy" at the piano is actually a friend of Tanner's, Chase Rice. Him and his fiancé at the time, Arianna, were there to help. Arianna was the one to take the candid photos! Talented people!! They helped make that day special. 

Thanks for reading!  :)

Sierra

Meet the Fredricksons!... Meet the Mormons ?

In my first post I mentioned briefly that we are Mormon. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a part of our lives. There's no way to go around it because it's who we are!  We love God and Jesus. I'm not sure if I'll ever be writing about religious topics on my blog, but since it is a big part of our lives, it will be mentioned here and there, things like church, our ward/congregation, the missionaries, church callings, and so on. We love our ward here in Birmingham! It's so great to be a part of a church organization that teaches the same gospel anywhere you go and we were able to make friends really fast because of it. This is the most diverse ward I've ever been in! We love how diverse it is in Birmingham city in general. So many different races and cultures. :)

Did you know that Tanner and I were both missionaries once? That's actually how we met. We both served in the Alabama Birmingham Mission! He had already been there for about a year when I got there (a full-time mission for boys is 2 years. 18 months for girls). He remembers me my first day at the transfer meeting. Him and his companion had offered to help me with my bags and I slightly remember meeting him that day haha. I was so new to everything and very tired from the flight and just in shock that I was there, so my memory of that day is not so great. He, on the other hand, can remember what dress I was wearing! Isn't that cute?


***Get this!! The first day we met was May 14, 2014 (the day of my first transfer meeting.
We got married on May 14, 2016! Not planned. We didn't even realize it was the same day until closer to the wedding. It's an extra special day to us now.***

Every six weeks in the mission there is a chance of being transferred or getting a new companion. After my first transfer, neither me nor my companion were being transferred, but there was an Elder also serving in our ward that was. He was replaced by Tanner (Elder Fredrickson)! And we got to know each other then, for the 6 or so weeks of serving in the same ward. For those of you that aren't familiar with Mormon missionaries, missionaries don't date or have relationships while serving a mission. That is all put on hold for after the mission. 

Tanner returned home from his 2 year mission 7 months before it was my time to come home. And 3 months before I came home, Tanner had started emailing me. We wrote on and off for the rest of my time in Alabama. I had invited him to my homecoming talk and he wasn't able to make it, so he made it up by taking me on a date! Before going out with him I didn't really even think of dating him, but I did think he was pretty attractive and charming. I thought he was too good for me! I think I fell in love with him after that first date 😍

That first date led to a second date, and then a third, fourth...  we spent nearly every day together and here we are now!! almost a year later and we've been married 5 months.🎉

 I am so happy with where I am today. I'm so grateful to have a loving husband by my side, someone that I can share life's beautiful moments with. :) 

Thanks for reading and following... More to come!

This was the day before transfers. Tanner's companion was being transferred and so we had to take one last pic of the four of us.

We obviously took another one. This one was at the transfer meeting. Nice photo bomb by Elder Smith;) Also, don't mind the dates on the pictures... They are not accurate. This was in August, 2014. 

I happened to be at his last transfer meeting right before he went home. April 15, 2015. Isn't this so precious? This is seriously SO FUN to look back on. Who knew we would end up together? Notice how his ties are matching my outfits in each of these pictures. Meant to be, right?

This is where we had our first date:) Yay for no more first dates! 

HOME.

Hey y'all! It's about time I started my blog! I got too caught up in settling in and doing online school that I never gave myself the time to start. But here it goes! 

Just to introduce us a little, Tanner and I are from northern Utah. We got married in May 2016. We are members of the LDS Church. We currently live in Birmingham, England. We were supposed to move to England in June for Tanner's work, but it took a little longer to get our visas than we expected, so JULY was the month we were able to leave America. July 11, 2016 we arrived in London-Heathrow. Luckily we had a driver to take us to Birmingham--I couldn't imagine taking our 6 total bags with the two of us getting around London on a tube to find a train to take us to Birmingham! We stayed at a hotel for a couple weeks until we found ourselves a place to call home for the next year or so. Yay! 

We were SO lucky to find the place that we did! It's an apartment, or a flat if you're a Brit. Two bed, two bath. We obviously don't need two bedrooms but it is nice to have the two bathrooms (and we can always use the second bedroom for guests and our luggage). Everything in England is SMALL! From houses, to cars, to food portions, everything is smaller here. I'm not saying it's a bad thing but it's just not what we are used too, haha. The other apartments we've looked at have had really small living space and small bathrooms and what-not, maybe a little too small for our liking, and that's why we totally scored with the place that we found! AND it's right in the middle of the city centre!! Super convenient location. Tanner's work is in the city centre, and we live right by a grocery store (that we go to like everyday), and one of the biggest train stations in the UK! It's so nice to be close to everything. We've even got a terrace with a cool view! We seriously have been so blessed. 

Tanner's work is about a 2 minute walk from where we live so he gets to come home for lunch most days, which is SO nice. I spend a lot of the day doing my homework and readings for my classes I'm taking online. If I'm not doing that then I'm either grocery shopping or cleaning and doing laundry. We are fortunate to have a washing machine as well as a dishwasher. The washing machine is also a dryer, but it is steamed dry so our clothes don't dry very well at all. So we hang dry EVERYTHING. The washing machine is pretty small too. 

Tanner and I spend our weekdays after work by going to workout a little bit, learning, watching our favorite Netflix series, and eating dinner together. Our evenings during the week are pretty chill. On the weekends we like to venture out, hang out with some friends we made at church, and eat lots of Indian food--our favorite. Or should I say favourite;)

Alright, enough boring talk.. We love our life here! I just wanted to record a little bit about our new home first. I'll be posting more here soon about our wedding and trips to London and Germany, etc. :) 

Cheers!

We love our view from the windows

Our little terrace

The train station that we live by

The new Apple store that just opened in City Centre. Everything is white,  and has beautiful attention to detail. 

A typical day in city centre