NEWWW BLOG!

Hey everyone, most of you already know, but I started a new blog... you can find it here!

http://newfavoritememories.blogspot.com/

Love is still in the air :)

Second Valentine's Days with people are much better than firsts :)

This year me and Derek decided to celebrate Valentine's day a day early because on Tuesdays I don't get out of class until 6 and he has a class 6-9 so we treated the 13th like Valentine's Day. Soooo, can I just say that my fiance is the best! He called me and said that he would pick me up and we would go out to dinner at 6. So, I spent the afternoon getting ready, I looove excuses to get all dressed up to go out and this was the perfect excuse :). Anyywaysss, he picked me up and gave me a present(s). He had bought me some perfume and a necklace and wrote me the nicest card! Then he took me out to Texas Roadhouse which I had been wanting to go to for a while because everyone always talks about it and now I know why. Usually I eat small portions, even with food that I absolutely love but I ate 4 rolls, a side salad, a side of mashed potatoes and almost all of my 12 oz. steak. And the crazy thing is I could have kept going, I felt satisfied but I didn't feel over full like I usually do after eating at a restaurant. It was crazy! I think it's because I hadn't had lunch that day really and I don't know, just somehow I ate a ton haha. Oh I should mention that this restaurant is usually packed with people so Derek had called ahead but when we went in at 6 before he had even told them that we called ahead they seated us. So, we decided that if we are going to go out to dinner for Valentine's Day then we should go the night before because it's so much better haha. But after dinner it was still pretty early so we decided to go and see a movie, The Vow. It was sooo good. I love being able to go to a movie that I know I am going to cry in with a boy who will sit through the movie with me while I cry and even hold my hand after I wipe my eyes/nose with it. He's such a champ! Because this was all the day before Valentine's day, love was still in the air the next day, the 14th. It has just been a love filled week (and past year if you ask me) and I have just been loving it! I just enjoy so much seeing people so happy and doing nice things for each other. I feel like I have been listening to all sorts of lovey dovey songs and they are just so cute!

I love February...... but I'll probably love May more.

Technicalities

So... as much fun as the fun stuff is of wedding planning, the technicalities have been somewhat stressing me out. These technicalities being:

1. selling my contract

and

2. finding a place for us to live that is a good deal and livable

It is so stressful trying to sell my contract for my spring/summer portion but that's a whole different story. They finding a place to live is stressful because I don't want to wait until the last minute and all posts now are for apartments that are available now and the more married people I talk to the more I hear that they got their apartment a week or two weeks before the wedding! Anyone who knows me well enough knows that waiting that long and having that unsurety would make me crazy.... and sick probably too. Annyyywayss, I was looking on ksl the other day at apartments for rent while Derek was doing practice MCAT problems and having me time him (so I couldn't say anything to him to make him go slower). So, I was just minding my own business looking at apartments for rent, like I do every day multiple times a day to see if there was anything new that was not available now and was inexpensive. I came across one that was a good price, available April 23rd (which is perfect for us because Derek has to live there while I am in Florida before the wedding) and came fully furnished which would be super nice for us since we don't want to have to sell all of our furniture and then rebuy more wherever he goes to med school. It seemed too good to be true (it was small but it looked cute and we don't need big or fancy). Of course I wanted to tell him about it right away but I looked at my phone and Derek still have 8 minutes of time left. I felt like I just couldn't wait to tell him so I tried to busy myself doing other things until his time was up for that set of practice problems. I told him about the apartment and showed him some pictures and we decided that we wanted to go look at it so I went to put in the phone number listed in my phone to call him when I realized that the phone number was only 9 digits and it was missing the last one. Sooooo.... I did what any desperate person would do and started with one as the last number and then started just going through the numbers. Luckily his number ended in 3 so I only had two awkward phone conversations hahaha....

This was on Wednesday.... we set up a time to go and see the apartment today and we both just love it. It would just be perfect for us. The problem is, the guy living there now said that he had like 4 or 5 other people look at it too who really liked it and so he is sending the landlord all of our information and giving us all good recommendations and then the landlord will send us applications and then contact our employers/parents/other references i guess to help decide who he will sign on. Neither me nor Derek have ever not gotten a job that we interviewed for and so I'm hoping this is no different. We both talked about it and decided that if we get it then that is awesome but if not then we will just keep looking and somewhere will pop up. Secretly (and not so secretly anymore), I really want that apartment. But I get attached to things super easily and if we don't get it then I'm sure I'll eventually find a new apartment to obsess over. For now though, keep you fingers crossed and pray for us! Oh and if you get a call about it, then make us sound even more awesome and responsible and clean than we really are! haha

Engaged?? yeah sure :)

So as most of you already know... I'M ENGAGED! I know it's a little late... it's almost been 2 months.... but it's a new year and so I can start blogging again without too much flack(?) (I'm starting to doubt that's a real word but who cares, it's my blog and I do what I want). Anywayyss I figured I would take this time away from my homework to tell the story of how me and my wonderful fiance met and then the engagement story.... So it all started on August 28th of 2010. It was my second day back in Provo in a new apartment with my favorite girls and we decided to go to our ward opening social before we headed to the dollar theater for a roommate night to watch the second or third twilight movie, i can't remember but anyways, we went to this opening ward social and they had us do this get to know you game where the girls stood in a circle on the outside and the boys stood in a circle on the inside and then you rotated around and got to talk to each person (kinda like speed dating....) Anyways, I get around to where Derek is and being the smooth talker he is he tells me that I have nice eyes and that's all I remember, I'm sure he said other stuff about himself and asked me questions too but that's all I remember. Anyways the next Monday I think they invited us to go and play soccer with them and some other people in the ward so me and my roomie Megan decided we would go. I mention this part because I am terrible at soccer, it is probably my worst sport and Derek, though I didn't know it at the time, is very good at soccer. So this whole experience was just real embarrassing for me and I stayed on defense/goalie the entire time because I knew I would just embarrass myself otherwise haha. Then me and Megan became good friends with Derek and his roommate and were over at their apartment a lot watching movies and they would come over to ours to eat our baked goods. Me and my roommate Megan would stay up at night talking about and analyzing how they felt about us and if we were just friends or if they would ever ask us out on a date (probably like a lot of girls do). Derek did ask me out eventually to go to a BYU girls soccer game (have I mentioned this was probably my first soccer game I had ever been to?). Anyways then we went on a lot of dates and then went on a few breaks (a whole different story) but basically the breaks did us good because after this summer we both came back to BYU (well I came back, he had stayed here over the summer) and everything was just so different in a good way for us :) So that's our general story in a nutshell and here is the engagement story........

So we had been talking marriage for the past year maybe but in the few weeks before we got engaged we started to talk about it a lot and more seriously. We went to look at rings a couple times and we started talking about finances and things like that with each other. We went to Derek's aunt's house in Salt Lake the night before Halloween for dinner and they kept talking about how we were almost engaged so I informed Derek that I wanted it to be a surprise when he asked. Apparently this put a lot of pressure on him because he wanted to do something special but didn't want to give it away as soon as the proposal occasion started. Oops.... Annnyywayyss, I had been talking to my family and sisters and stuff and Chrissy made the comment that I had to dress cute everyday just in case the proposal happened that day (which I had already been trying to do) So, on Friday November 11th I woke and figured I was safe putting on just a t shirt and sweatshirt because I just had two morning classes and then could go home and change and get ready for work and for the rest of the day and because I knew Derek had work until noon and I would definitely be ready for the day by then. So I go to my english class and then to my history class which goes from 10-11 and halfway through my history class we had a little quiz and right when the quiz was over I hear someone say my name from the doorway and it's Derek so I gather my things and leave class to find Derek holding 11 roses for me and saying we are going to go on a picnic to celebrate 11/11/11. At this point I didn't know what was going to happen, in the back of my mind I was thinking engagement but then I didn't know when he would have had time to get the ring and things like that. So we go to this really pretty park that we had gone to last year a few times and we both love and he had brought a whole picnic for us. He kept saying that at 11:11 we were going to stand up and make a wish. So until then we were just eating and chatting about our days so far and I was asking him why he wasn't at work (he had a good response). Then at 11:11 we both stood up and he said that we should close our eyes and make a wish so i did and then when he said to open them he was on one knee proposing to me :). It was one of the happiest moments of my life. And I cried, I never thought I would but it just happened. And thenn we spent the next hour talking to family and telling them. Soooo, we are getting married on May 11, 2012. It was not planned for the 11th because we love the number but just because that is what worked :) I can't wait for everyone to know Derek like I do. He is just the very best. On December 11th he sent me a text at 11:11 saying something like one month ago was the best day. I just remember thinking that I am the luckiest girl to be marrying someone as great as him. I have had these two songs in my head for the past 2 months.... they just makes me happy.

Better late than never....

So I know, I know, it's been forever..... but at least I'm trying haha

Anyyywaayyss, life is so great right now. I am finishing up my last semester of generals in school and then it will all just be program classes and maybe some fun classes mixed in, like bowling (i need practice). So it was just General Conference weekend which, when I was younger, used to be my least favorite weekend because it meant that if I wanted to do anything fun on that Saturday then I wouldn't have a ride during most of the prime hours I would need one but also my favorite because on Sunday my family would have a big delicious breakfast and just relax and listen together as a family and it usually included everyone watching whoever the baby was at the time and laughing at whatever they were doing. Now, since I'm all mature and everything, General Conference weekend is my all around favorite weekend. This year was no different. I had 3 papers/assignments due on the Monday after conference, which I don't understand since it's BYU, but I tried really hard to get all of those done before Friday night(football game) so I didn't have to worry about it. I tried extra hard all week to get myself prepared for conference and it really made such a difference. I feel like I got so much more out of everything. On Saturday I had to wake up early since I had tickets to go to the Saturday morning session... sooo, Derek came to pick me up at 7:15 (he was right on time :)) and then we went to pick up Sarah's new "friend" Michael because it made more sense to pick him up before Sarah who we went to get next. We then made the drive to SLC and were finally in our seats for conference. See LOOK!

There is one of me and Derek too but he doesn't like it so I won't post it because I'm nice like that haha. So, we watched conference and it was so awesome! After the first session, Michael went home or something and me, Derek and Sarah met up with Stephie, Brad, Jackson, Alex, and Sarah Jayne for some lunch and then sat on the grass on Temple Square to listen to the 2nd session. Then Sunday was great too!

I should also mention that me and Derek got to go to the best basketball game I've ever been too, it was the Jimmer's All Stars game and it was basically a bunch of the top NBA draftees just playing an exhibition game against each other. It was so fun to watch! After we met up with Aimee and Colby and got a picture!

(I stole this picture from Aimee)

So I know this is waaaayyy out of order but BYU football played UCF a week and a half ago and I thought that was pretty cool being that UCF is in my HT! haha It was such a close and fun game to watch! I love sitting with my girlsssss because we go crazy :)

I love these girls sooo much! (I stole this picture from Michelle) Also, funny story about this picture... So my friend at work says to me that he saw a picture of me and my sister on facebook and we look exactly alike... so I asked which picture he was talking about and he said this one.... I then told him that these aren't my sisters (biologically) and he said that he thought that me and Aimee looked a lot like each other.... which is funny since last year our bishop would get us confused or people would ask us if we were sisters and I don't think we look that much alike for people to mistake us for sisters... i mean it's one thing to believe us if we tell you that but to actually ask us if we are or think we are is different haha ohhh well, I guess we look like sisters, and me and michelle look like bosom buddies (which we are).

I guess the last thing I will write today is that I didn't know my heart could feel so happy all the time and even though I'm with someone a lot, I can miss them for the short amounts of time we aren't together. :)

I just love this boy! I can't wait for my family to meet him :)

Reality is rough

I know it's been a while since my last post and I honestly wrote a whole long post a while ago and somehow accidentally deleted the entire thing.. pictures and all... after that experience I was mad at the system and have been holding a grudge against it. I guess I finally let that go haha

Anywayssss, my family all knows I'm a huuggee stresser, I stress about pretty much anything and everything. My mom even used to tell me when I was younger that I would probably have an ulcer by the time I was 20(I'm almost there and still haven't had one.. I guess I can count myself lucky ha). Over the years I've gotten much better at handling my stress but lately I think that the "handling" it has really just been hiding it. The past few days it has been real evident that the stress is still there, I just never share it with anyone because I don't want to bore people with my little stresses in life. Lately though, I've had a lot of things on my mind and it fills my brain at all hours of the day. I was sick earlier on in the week and was sooo tired but I could not fall asleep to take a nap because my brain goes through everything in it which leads me to think of other things and it is a never ending cycle. I keep thinking that these should be the care free(except school) years of my life and I'm realizing they are much the opposite. I think I've just been pretending to be care free(I'm actually pretty good at it) but whenever I sit to think or even just sit and then end up thinking, I go through lists in my head of things I need to do or things I'm worried about and I realize that my life is far from care free. There are just so many things to do it's hard to even find a day where I can sleep in and usually on those days I end up waking up early anyways and not being able to go back to sleep. It's an unending cycle that is beginning to drive me crazy.

All of this probably sounds depressing or is probably even stressing you out reading it.... Oh and by the way if there are typos it's because I'm not going to proofread this because if I did i'd have to think about it again... but I have come to find my solace in one thing.

1. sisters. Sisters are one of the best things in life. They are always there for you and rarely ever judge. They are some of the people that know me the best and know what to say to me. I'm lucky to have a lot of sisters and so I never feel shorted on feeling the love. I also have a sister who will go shoe shopping with me and love every second of it and who will write me the nicest of PAPER letters(Lizzie)

and a sister who is always down for a beach day and telling me the latest in her life and she makes me feel needed because she wants advice(Jenny)

and a sister who will always remind me of the most important things in life and put things in perspective for me and will always make me feel good about myself(Sarah)

and I'll always have a sister who will do crazy things with me like encrust glitter all over our faces and sing extra loud in the car just for fun(Stephie)

and I will always have a sister who will go and be fancy with me and listen while I talk on and on about my feelings or day or date I went on and will never judge anything I do or say(Chrissy).

my sisters are my solace.

I love my sistas!

I also love my brothers... but that's a different post.