Some Mother-Daughter Time

As I mentioned in the graduation post earlier, Anthon, together with my in-laws, flew my mom out to Provo and surprised me.

We both really, really enjoyed spending a couple of weeks together alone. Anthon had already moved to DC with a big truck, so it was great for me to have somebody around me to not feel too lonely.

The Spencer and Stephanie Magleby, most generous as always, let us live in their basement until I was done with spring term.

Although I didn't have a ton of free time, because spring term started just a few days after Anthon's graduation and I was taking 8 credits during that term, we still managed to spend a lot of time with each other.


On one weekend, we went to my favorite city- Las Vegas! That was probably the highlight of our time together.

My mom had only seen a little bit of Vegas, so I HAD to take her there and show her the strip, go to the "Wicked Spoon" buffet and watch a couple of Bellagio fountain shows.

Of course, I also had to let her try the 16 different Coke product flavors from all around the world. One our favorite thing to do with guests.



After a looong stay at the Ross on the strip (one of my favorite stores!), we walked some more on the strip, watched another Bellagio fountain show and went to Caesar's palace for dessert.

Dessert at Max Brenner- our absolute favorite Chocolate Restaurant and a must when you visit Vegas.

There is a neat fish tank close to Max Brenners. I had never seen fish like this one before...pretty funny.

Mission fulfilled: I successfully converted my mom to a Vegas-Lover *yeah*

Back in Provo, I couldn't believe when my mom told me that she had never gone bowling in her life....so.... we HAD to go bowling.
We invited one of our ex-sister missionaries that served in Augsburg many years ago, Marian Paller. But before we went, my mom cooked some delicious Wiener Schnitzel and made her famous Northern German potato salad....yumm!

We had so much fun going bowling! My mom was actually pretty good for her first time. In the second round, she got, I think, 2 or 3 strikes in a row.... I still don't believe she had never gone bowling before.


We also went to one of my favorite places in the area- Welfare Square! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures...
I loved going back and showing my mom this place. I served at Welfare Square for 6 weeks during my mission and I absolutely loved it. What a remarkable welfare system!
A trip to DI afterwards, was a must, too, of course ;-)

I"m not exactly sure when we did that, but we also met up with Bob (who baptized my mom) and Cherry Reed and had some delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory together. My mom had never been there and I HAD to introduce her to their amazing cheesecakes *sooo dangerously good!*

On another occasion, we went to the Salt Lake Temple and did several ordinances for some of our very close relatives. We had a wonderful, spiritual and uplifting time there!
In the evening, we did endowments together with the Jeff Price, who played an important role in my mom's conversion to the church, which was really neat. Missions never end, right?

I'm so grateful that my mom got to be here for Anthon's graduation and that we could spend some time together. With my parents living so far away, we never know when we get to see them the next time. We thought that we would see them again when we have our first baby or so (that means a looooong time!), so I'm really glad that at least my mom got to fly over the lil' pond and spend some mother-daughter time with me.

Thanks to those who made this possible!!!

Some random pictures from Vegas, my photographer's paradise...

Amazing, huh?

The most stylish H&M I've ever seen... 

Graduation!!!!

No....not mine, unfortunately.

But, Anthon finally graduated from BYU this April!

I have no idea how he survived this last semester! He worked at the Church Office Building up in Salt Lake 2x a week and in addition worked as a TA.... oh, and I forgot the 16 or so credits he took, mainly business classes.

This kid has way too much energy, but I'm glad he does :-)

Anthon's graduation was the first graduation I had ever attended and it was pretty neat to watch the ceremonies with all the robes, marching, musical numbers, speeches, and handing out the certificates.

Yep, that's Elder Oaks in the red cloak.

But what made this event even greater was that we had family around! Dad Petty came from Colorado, Mom Petty from Italy, Frank and lil' Katie from Maryland, the Bergs from Switzerland, Grandma Petty from Brigham City....and my mom from Germany! Crazy!

The airlines get rich with families like ours! :-D

Because Anthon is too sneaky and too smart, we knew that the Bergs would be there, too and surprise us. We actually thought of surprising them in Heber, but we didn't know for sure when they would be at home....and we were in the middle of finals, so we ended up not doing that. That would have been so funny, though! ...maybe next time ;-)










As many of you know, I had absolutely NO idea, however, that my mom would come, too! I have no idea how Anthon and my mom could keep the secret...but they did. I was totally overwhelmed when I openend the door expecting Anthon to come home, and then saw my mom (and Anthon).

Although things were crazy with finishing up the semester, having family there, moving to DC, and attending the ceremonies, we really, really loved and enjoyed spending some time with our families (Emily, we missed you!). Kind of sad that we all live so far away from each other! Luckily, since we moved to Northern Virginia, we now have Frank & Emily closer to us- yeah!

So, what has Anthon been doing since his graduation?

Anthon was so excited about starting his job with the Department of State, that he didn't even want to take a break after graduation.
We had never been on a "real" vacation together (where just the two of you fly somewhere, stay at a hotel for a week or two, relax, see things,...), so we always talked about doing a cruise after graduation. But looking at our budget and thinking that Anthon could start working 2 weeks earlier (and earn money), Anthon decided to just start working.

Right after graduation, we packed our moving boxes, loaded a huge truck and Anthon moved to DC on his own. I stayed for spring term to get some more credits in and to keep working for a professor from the German department.

Anthon first lived with Frank and Emily for a couple of weeks, then moved to an apartment in Northern Virginia. One or two (?) weeks later, he found out that he would be sent to Haiti and work at the embassy for a month.
A few days before Anthon flew back to DC, I drove out to DC with our Honda and tried to get as much done around the apartment as possible, so that the apartment was ready for his return.
Just a little over a week after Anthon's return from Haiti, he found out (with a 2-day notice before his flight left) that he would be going to Amman, Jordan for a month. Crazy!
Luckily, I'm not going to school this summer, so I could come with him and experience what life in the State Department is like.

Anthon is always super busy, but he loves how fast the day goes by. He really likes the people he's working with, goes out to eat with them during lunch break and tries to get to know them as much as possible. He really, really loves what he is doing and we think that we really want to try to get into the "real" State Department thing where you move from country to country every 2-3 years.


More details about our time in Jordan to follow ;-)

2 Years...

Yep- it's already been that long!

2 years ago, on May 1st 2010, Anthon and I got married at the Salt Lake Temple. It feels like we have been married for so much longer because of the many things that have happened during this short period of time.

We can truly say that the last two years have been really great for us.

During the last 2 years, we moved from Provo to Arlington, from Arlington to Springfield (VA), from Springfield to Provo, from Provo to Las Vegas, from Las Vegas back to Provo, from Provo to Arlington...and now we are in Jordan for a month! That's an average of moving every 4 months- Crazy life!

                                

Of course, we have developed some hobbies together in that time, besides packing and moving....

In our free time, we love to cuddle! Oftentimes, I put my head on his belly, he wraps his arm around me and then we talk about God and the world...sometimes for a loooong time. I love that we still treat each other, cuddle and flirt like newly weds. We both need that so much and it has helped us a lot bringing harmony, understanding, and more love into our relationship.

We also enjoy just walking around in malls (mostly window shopping), Las Vegas' strip or in nature. Going on a walk with your partner is like a vitamin gummy bear for the relationship.

We also enjoy going grocery shopping together- there have been only a few times when we didn't go together, because Anthon insists on coming with me. He claims he wants to spend more time with me, but I think he actually just wants to control what I'm buying... :-D

When you compare our wedding picture with how we look now, you can tell that we love eating out.
In our case, it's not about not cooking and having to do the dishes, but we love trying out different kinds of foods. For me, eating out is very inspiring because I don't enjoy cooking and eating the same things again and again. I like reading the menus and read about food and spice combinations. When we get our food, we normally talk about it a lot and try to find out how they cook/bake things. Before we even go to a restaurant, we normally do some research to make sure we get a good value. So, eating out is really more than just being too lazy to cook. However, we don't go out to eat that often because we try to honor our holy budget. But when we do, it's something very special.

I'm glad that Anthon's taste buds are pretty refined for a guy and that he enjoys good food so much.
We also love to visit new places. Because most our travel money goes to visiting my/or parts of Anthon's family in Europe, we haven't travelled to any foreign places together (except now for Anthon's work), but we do a lot of 1-day or weekend trips. Our absolute favorite city to visit is Las Vegas- and if you don't like Vegas, you have probably not been there enough...or you had kids with you.














One of our latest hobbies is going fishing- it's soooo addictive!

 

I really love being married! It's really like adding two good halves to each other. There are so many things that Anthon is great at, and I'm not, and there are things that I'm better at. I have no idea how Uncle John and my mom (who set us up) could know that Anthon and I would complement each other soooo well.

Anthon is amazing at financial, electronic and car stuff! He LOVES creating budgets, looking at our financial status, and finding ways to save even more money. We have become pretty good at controlling each other's wants and needs, but sometimes it's still easy for me to say "I need...", when I could probably survive without it. However, I really believe that couples (who talk about their wants and needs) spend way less money than single people.
Another strength of his is his almost endless energy. I have no idea where he gets all that energy from, but Anthon can work like a crazy person. Taking 16 credits, being TA and working 2 full days a week- no problem for Anthon.
Most times, when he comes home from work, he still smiles, gives me a huge hug, wants to help me finishing up what I'm cooking, and wants to go somewhere after dinner. Amazing!

I'm sure that Anthon is going to be an amazing dad when we have kids, especially with all of his energy! We are both really looking forward to starting a family one day, but nothing's in the oven yet and probably won't be for another couple of years ;-) But we're excited for our future kids to come into a stable family where mommy and daddy truly love each other and have a strong foundation because of the gospel.
The other day, Anthon went on a website called makemebabies.com to "find out" what our kids are gonna look like. I'm 100% sure that our boy will NOT look like that, but it was cute to see how excited Anthon was about it...and that he, as a guy, even went on such a website. Anthon is so freaking cute!

Hahaha...this picture cracked me up! This kid does not look like us at all, not even close... :-D

So yeah... that's our married life so far. We're excited for the years to come...

We feel soooo blessed! Not sure what we did to get all these blessings, but Heavenly Father is taking good care of us. During our two years of marriage, when we saw that plans were falling apart, we always learned that Heavenly Father had other, better plans and experiences in store for us. 

Of course, we are also grateful for our families and friends that supported us in every possible way. 

Thanks for all your love, support, encouragement, time and for everything you've done for us in the last two years!

Anthon & Melissa

Typical scenes from our daily life.... :-)

Yep, that's us!