Just A Moment, Please

I just want to take a moment and brag about Joe :) If you have a weak stomach or aren't a fan of bragging, don't read any further! The last few weeks I have been overwhelmed to the max with finals, projects, papers, and everything else teachers love to pile on the last two weeks of class. Just my luck,in the midst of making hundreds of flashcards, editing final drafts of papers, and wanting to stab my eyeballs out over Kinesiology, I got horribly sick. Confession time: I am not one to suck it up and get over it quickly or quietly. I am a full on baby about it. In hopes of justifying my ridiculous behavior let me ask you this: how would you feel if you had tonsillitis the week before finals and two weeks before you leave for tour with your dance company to Texas? S.T.R.E.S.S.E.D. 

Partially justified, right?

Of course, Joe had been sick the week before as well, but handled it like a champ.  We have seen each other through pretty much everything, being sick was not one of those. Anyone who knows me and has seen me sick is probably thinking, "Wow, he is still going to marry her?" Yeah, I was surprised too. He was so amazing and patient with me every time I'd cry or complain (which was a lot of the time) He made sure I went to bed early and was taking my medicine at the right times and would call every chance he could at work to make sure I was doing okay.  These may seem silly and mundane to some of you reading, but it wasn't what Joe did it was how he did it.  It was all out of complete love and consideration for me.  Even though he was still just as sick as I was, he made sure I was comfortable first and had everything I needed or wanted.  He could have just said, "Well I'm sick too, I can't take care of you" he made sure to do everything he could to make me happy, which is quite the task when I'm sick. It might sound weird, but I fell more in love with Joe during that time. Seeing him be as selfless as possible was so amazing, he is definitely an example to me of everything I need to improve on!

It's not like I'm counting or anything, but 168 days until we get married! Woot woot! :)

 

Our Weekend Away

Last weekend Joe and I were able to go see his family in Bozeman, Montana!  His parents live in Coeur d' Alene along with his oldest brother Jake,his wife Kim and their adorable little boy Mason.  His other brother, Bryan and his wife Nicole and their four ridiculously cute girls live in Billings, Montana and were able to come down to Bozeman to be with the family for a fun filled weekend! I love Joe's family, everyone is hilarious and easy going.  I have only met his family three times and I already feel right at home with them!  We stayed at a cute hotel called the C'mon Inn, catchy huh? 

 

 

The inside of the hotel

 

 We had a blast swimming, hot tubbing, and eating way too much (definitely a family-vaca must!) On Saturday we went to the Museum of the Rockies...definitely as exciting as it sounds ha-ha just kidding, (sort of) all of the kids had a blast so that's all that matters. 

Those cute lil froggies weren't so cute once we found out they are poisonous enough to kill 10 people! 

I didn't notice the sign until AFTER I took the picture...whoops! 

Getting restless...

I felt really cool, because I could identify the bony landmarks on the spine of a friggin' dinosaur! Booya! 

Dinner at Famous Dave's

 

My little buddies for the weekend.I'm holding Kayla and Kamery is holding my hand :)

Bryan and Nicole. Cutest family ever! Kinley, Haleigh, Kamery, and Kayla

Joe's parents and all the grand kids

Joe's oldest brother, Jake and his wife Kim and their son Mason. Adorable!

These girls are going to be heart breakers!

 

It was so nice to get out of Rexburg for the weekend and to spend some quality time with Joe's family. One downside to the weekend was that I got sick right after we got home! I don't want to hate on my future sister-in-law, but she was sick that weekend so I blame her! :) Actually, that isn't fair, Joe was sick and my roommate was horribly sick as well so I was just bound to get infected. We have a busy week ahead with finals and Dance Alliance going to Texas for two weeks woot woot!

Nothing Is as Constant as Change

After much procrastination, I have finally decided to post a real update.  Not that any of my other blog posts weren't real, I just figured I needed to make an  announcement formally (not that a blog is formal ha ha). As per the many phone calls, text messages, and awkward conversations with old friends I have had recently, I decided that I should let everyone know that Joe and I have changed our wedding date.  There have been lots of rumors flying around campus (and when I say "lots" I mean a ridiculous amount of made up viciousness.) Although, I am not going to air for the whole blog world to read the reasoning behind our date change,I will inform you it is NOT what you are (most likely) thinking. There isn't anything bad that has happened between us that typically happens to engaged LDS couples, so stop thinkin' that way, sheesh!  

I apologize to those of you who I blantatly lied to whenever I was asked about our wedding (cut me some slack, no one is perfect)  I so desperately wanted to hold onto our original wedding date and not have to go into why we changed the date and/or endure the judgment that comes with explaining any sort of blemish in a relationship. 

I apologize to those of you who thought you were invited and have yet to see an invitation, we obviously have not sent them out yet. I promise that everyone who wants an invite will get one! 

I apologize for keeping this to myself for as long as I have and not allowing anyone to help me.  I am a very stubborn person and I like to do things on my own, and this situation was very personal and difficult to get through that I wanted only close family and a few very dear friends involved.  Don't worry, I learned my lesson, the next time a trial makes its way into my life I will definitely lean on my family and friends a lot more. (prepare yourself now!) 

Although, I hear a lot of "wow, how could you wait that long to get married?" (just a word of caution, I will turn away and stop talking to anyone who makes those comments, trust me I know it's a long time.)  both Joe and I know that this decision was personal and it was made with the help of the Lord and we know that we are doing the right thing by waiting. I still get insanely jealous whenever I hear about people getting married before me, but I know that our wedding day will be all the more special because of the hard work and effort we had to put into getting there.  

I know without a shadow of a doubt that Joe is the man for me, even though these last few months have been rough and we have been faced with things that most couples will never experience, I know that we were meant for each other. We have seen the darkest of dark times, and the happiest, most beautiful times together.  These experiences have shaped and redefined our relationship, and we have grown and fallen more and more in love.  I never knew that through a trial I could grow to love more.  Not only has my love for Joe grown, but my love of life and the beauty and joy I find in the small things has overwhelmed me and changed my perspective to that of a more grateful one.  I love life and I am eternally grateful for this trial and the positive effects it has had in both our lives.  There is no where else to go, but up! Things get better and better every day and I am so lucky to have the life I have- it may not be perfect, but I am a happy girl. 

If anyone has any questions or concerns with anything I've written I'd really appreciate it if you would refrain from contacting my mommy and just call or message me! :) Even if you try and call my mommy, good luck trying to get her to budge on details she's the best mama bear anyone could ask for! <3 

Joe and I will be sealed for time and all eternity in the Mount Timpanogos Temple on September 23, 2011! Put it on your calendar, you can rest assured that this date will not change! :) Just a little side note, my wedding will be waaaaay better planned and put together and not to mention outrageously more beautiful  than any other wedding, just sayin'...(I'm not tryin' to hate on anyone's wedding, I just need a little self-encouragement ha ha)

September 23, 2011

A Slow Leak

Two weekends ago I was fortunate enough to have my sister, McKenna and my mommy come up and see me perform in Extravadance! It was so much fun to have them here and to see all the hard work Dance Alliance had done to create our wonderfully, fantastic show! We had such a blast together, even though my mom was only here until Sunday, we managed to make it an eventful weekend together! There really isn't a whole lot to do in Rexburg, especially in the winter, but we did find plenty of things to laugh at and have fun with.  My mom came up with the idea to go try on my wedding dress (it's still so weird that I'm getting married! A good weird, don't worry) because McKenna had never seen it in person! It was so much fun to finally see my dress and to see how beautiful it looked on (don't mind me while I brag a little) I would post a picture of it, but I don't want to ruin the surprise quite yet :) We then bought way too many Girl Scout Cookies (Thin Mints holla!)  and my mom's favorite, Robin Eggs- they are truly to die for! Go buy them along with some peeps and thank me later.

Since college life is anything but lavish, McKenna and I decided it'd be best to have her sleep on an air mattress and not crammed in my cozy twin bed.  We tried that one summer she came to visit me and trust me, it was not a pretty sight.  Joe had an air mattress and agreed to let her borrow it.  My mommy bought her an electric blanket and sheets and we set up the mattress, which fit perfectly in my little room! (we won't go into the details on how big of a disaster it was for me to set up, I'd like to keep my dignity in tack, thank you) Low and behold, it had a hidden leak in it! We don't know when it happened, probably shortly after she fell asleep, but the air mattress slowly deflated until poor McKenna was sleeping on the ground. We tried everything to keep that dang mattress inflated; I would wake up periodically throughout the night to pump it up, in hopes of somehow keeping her off the floor, but no matter what she always woke up on the ground with bubbles of air mattress surrounding her.  She was such a trooper and didn't complain at all, I really don't know how we're related! :) I guess anything is better than sharing a bed with me! 

This is love

Rockin' her hat

Making tacos :)

Disaster much?

They will both disagree, but I DID help with dinner!

Make a Wish and Do As Dreamers Do

First things first, these past few weeks have been insanely busy (nothing too abnormal these days) but this time is has been busy with Dance Alliance rehearsal's. We had our show, EXTRAVADANCE this weekend and it has been absolutely amazing! Opening night was beautiful and Friday and Saturday were equally as fabulous. Thank you to everyone who came and supported me! Joe saw all 3 shows AND sat through dress rehearsal, he loved it all!

Shockingly, I have a few extra minutes to blog and I thought I'd share one of the date's Joe and I recently went on.  Joe and I rarely fight or argue with one another, but when we do it is usually about what dates we're going to go on (I'm fully aware of how lame that sounds). I expect Joe to plan wonderfully romantic evenings every date night we have, but he doesn't like to do that.  Not that Joe isn't a romantic, he just wants to plan something with me to ensure total satisfaction on my end, since I can tend to be a little high maintenance. Okay, I can be a lot high maintenance (bless his heart). I decided to switch things up and ask Joe out on date! I asked him out over the weekend for Tuesday and quickly scrambled to plan something that would exceed his expectations. I never knew how stressful planning a date could be, and I felt really bad when studying and homework postponed our date until Thursday. (Secretly, I knew Joe was loving seeing me squirm over this date. I was finally getting a taste of what he has to goes through!) Thursday arrived way too fast and I still didn't have anything finalized for our date, and Joe's excitement and anticipation upped the pressure even more. All in all, I think I pulled off a pretty fantastic date. We kicked off the night with a classy dinner at IHOP and ate way too many pancakes and eggs. 

 

This might sound weird to some, but I hate pennies.  I think they are pointless and really annoying, and whenever my wallet accumulates an excess amount of pennies, I usually throw them away. So horrible, and ridiculously weird but whatever, don't judge. Lately, I've been putting them in a container Joe keeps in his truck for spare change (horkley's money, duh!)  I decided to sift out all the pennies from his truck and use them towards our date, no I didn't pay for IHOP in pennies, although that would have been funny to see the look on our grouchy server's face. I took him to a river in Idaho Falls and found and nice spot to make wishes with our pennies. Some might think it sounds like a lame date, but we had a blast together! We decided to make wishes and make promises to each other. Most were silly and really funny and others were ridiculously sweet and heart warming; Joe always has a way with words and can speak so eloquently. Me on the other hand...not so much. We were freezing and I think people thought we were strange for throwing pennies in a half frozen river at night time. I think I did a pretty dang good job! I don't want to plan any dates for a while, but I know Joe appreciated it and hopefully he had a wonderful time :)

    

Warm Fuzzies

I love looking through our engagement pictures, hopefully you enjoy them as much as I do! :) 

 

Homeward Bound

Life has been crazy lately, and when I say crazy that is an understatement.  I have had the darkest of dark times and the brightest and most hopeful of times, sometimes all of which have happened in the same day. (talk about stressful!) I have been thinking a lot lately about the trials we face and how we are required to figure them out and endure to the end. I have been trying to figure out why. Such an infamous question, right? Why are we faced with such sorrowful and tumultuous problems? Why does it seem like every single person around us has it so much better and easier? Why can't I just ever catch a break? (Seriously though, why?!) Trust me, all of these thoughts and more have flooded my mind these last few weeks. I don't have all the answers to any of those questions, but I have gained a better understanding of the Lord's plan throughout the most recent trial I have been faced with. Throughout each trial I have endured I have been drawn down to my knees to plead for help and guidance and comfort. I feel like I am closest to my loving Heavenly Father during the trying times and if it weren't for that specific trial I wouldn't be able to grow closer to Him or gain the knowledge I needed to progress.  At this moment in time, I feel completely lost and a little scared.  The only thing that gets me through it is the fact that I have enough faith that there is a plan and purpose behind everything, and I have a God who loves me enough to give me trials and hard times to yield greater results down the road. 

My amazing little sister, McKenna told me of a talk to read that has inspired me and lifted my spirits.  It is entitled, "Fear Not" and it was written by Tad R. Callister. He talks about how each problem we face, there is always a divinely inspired solution and reason behind it.  I love that! It provided me with an amazing amount of peace and comfort to know that the things that are happening aren't just happening for fun, rather I am being shaped and molded into the person my Heavenly Father desires me to be. How lucky are we?! 

I have the amazing opportunity to be apart of the touring dance company here at BYU-Idaho and what a blessing and privilege it has been to me. There are 32 of us on this team and they all have become like family to me, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. The strength and happiness they have provided me in my life wasn't apparent until recently and I know that there was a reason for me to be on this team. I had a deeply profound spiritual experience at rehearsal today, all of which is too personal to share, but I do want to share what provoked this experience. Our closing piece is absolutely stunning I may be slightly biased :)  The song is from the Mormon Tabernacle and it is called "Homeward Bound" and it is simply beautiful and will forever hold a special place in my heart. The song basically talks about our journey here on earth and how at times it might be difficult, but we have a focus and a goal to reach. I love this journey I have been given to experience. Although, I get angry and frustrated at times (a lot of the times actually) and think all hope is lost I can rest assured that I know in my heart that, "I'll be homeward bound in time..."

I am so grateful for Joe and his love and the trials that we have faced together.  They haven't been easy, but I know that there is an answer behind all that has happened.  I am so grateful for this gospel and the light it provides in my life, without it all of the pain and joyous times would hold no meaning.