So excited for the holidays!

I am so so so so so SO excited for the holidays! Especially Christmas. And not just because I'm getting married close to Christmas (that is what everyone says to me when I say I am excited). Last weekend Shaun and I figured out where we're going to live. We are going to stay in the apartment he is in right now. So that means we can set up a Christmas tree this year and still have time to enjoy it! YAY! I started listening to Christmas music today. Not entirely on purpose, but I love it!!!! I probably will try not to again till at least closer to Thanksgiving because it is getting me way too excited!

5 1/2 weeks down, 8 to go

We already have so much planned I don't know what I'm going to do with myself for the next 8 weeks! It's a good thing I have two jobs. They definitely keep me busy. Especially on Tuesday and Thursday. I have to pack lunch and dinner on those days. No wonder I don't eat healthy. I am glad the holidays are coming up. Hopefully that will keep my mind occupied. Winter is also busy season for the treadmill-making plant Shaun works for, so he is scheduled 60 hours a week. Sunday is the only full day we get to spend together. I'm not sure if that's making things easier or harder. It sucks for sure. One of the biggest things we've crossed off our list is pictures!! Here are a few.

One more hurdle crossed

Today I tackled the flowers. I never knew dark purple would be such a hard color to work with. There are so many shades and hues and who knows what. Like reddish purple and bluish purple and bright purple.... and they all clash way badly. Anyway, after an hour and a half with my florist I decided to take a chance on calla lillies, so let's hope they look good! They're basically the most expensive flower, so I hope I like them. I'm not even aiming for matching anymore, I'm more just hoping they don't look disgusting, lol. The only thing they really have to match is Shaun's vest.

Not so sure about the bride thing

I cannot tell you how many times in the past 3 1/2 weeks I have heard the phrase, "You're the bride." It usually comes after telling someone they can choose, or asking what works best for them. Then they say, "Well, you're the bride," and make me decide. Some things I'm really not that picky about and wish people would just help me out. While meeting with my florist she said, "You just have to decide what you want" about 20 times. I thought I was going to cry. I didn't know what I wanted. I wanted to yell, "YOU'RE the florist, you should be telling me what will look good!" This is just too much decision making for me! I don't like this much attention, and it is giving me major anxiety issues having so much planning revolved around me, such as people getting off work for our wedding, planning bridal shower dates, etc. I guess I need to learn to enjoy it since you're only a bride once, but this is way out of my comfort zone!

Engaged :-)

I have been engaged for over two weeks now! Crazy! I wasn't really expecting it. I had accidentally found out he'd been ring shopping, but I had no idea he'd already bought one - he never even asked me what kind I like! It was so fun to be surprised. On Sept. 19 my mom and Brooke came up to go to the USU Bridal Faire with me. I felt kind of weird going since I didn't have a ring or a date or anything. The whole time I kept saying stuff to my mom like, "I probably shouldn't be here - I am going to jinx myself and not end up getting engaged" or "This would be a lot more fun if I had a wedding date and could actually start planning stuff." Little did I know, they both knew all day that I would be getting engaged that night! When we were done at the bridal faire they handed me an envelope that said, "Don't open till 3:30." Shaun had sneakily given it to them earlier. I had picked up a shift at work at 5 and didn't tell Shaun till around 1. So he had texted my mom and asked her to have me open the envelope early. So at 2:30 I opened the first clue to a scavenger hunt. It used pictures and coordinates to take me around to places all over Cache Valley that we had memories... our first date, fun stuff we did this summer, the place we met, etc. I had to use my GPS at each place to find the next clue. It took me almost 2 hours! Finally it ended at Bluebird where he was waiting. He knelt to the ground out on the sidewalk and asked me!! And I LOVE the ring! He picked it out himself - no help! We went inside to quickly have dessert before I had to go to work. All the waitresses were glad to see me. He'd been waiting there the whole two hours and they were wondering if I'd show. ;) One of the waitresses brought me out BEAUTIFUL flowers Shaun had delivered earlier. It was AMAZING and so is he!!! I can't wait for December 22!!

Fall! My favorite season!

I have to be to work in 12 minutes, but I haven't blogged for so long I just have to write a quick one. It is SO COLD! Tuesday it was 80 degrees, and overnight that night it snowed! I like this weather, I just have to get used to wearing a coat!

Just Some Summer Fun

On my birthday I floated the canal up Logan Canyon with

Shaun, my roommate Megan, and her friend Trisha.

We had quite an adventure! Much more so than usual.

There wasn't a lot of room in the car!




Halfway down the canal Trish and Megan's tube popped - so we had to reorganize rides! ha ha

Brooke and I playing with glowsticks while waiting for fireworks to start!


Watermelon eating contest on the 4th! Becky, Me, Shaun



Carly and I practicing our shooting skills :)


My prize-winning pickle

I was an EFY counselor for a week. It was tiring but so much fun! I never went
when I was younger, so it was my first experience. My girls are all so cute!

HELP

Does anyone know why my blog looks like a combination of two different backgrounds? Can anyone help me fix it?

San Diego

At the beginning of June I got to go on a work trip to San Diego! It was so much fun. I just got to take Judy on vacation. We went to Sea World, the zoo, and the beach! I was a little nervous about going on a trip and being the one in charge. I've traveled alone, and I've traveled with friends, but I've never had to be responsible for someone other than myself. Everything went well though, and Judy and I both had a great trip.

Judy was so excited to ride on the airplane! She is a great traveler.

The Sea Lions were my favorite! They are so cute and put on such good shows.

Sea World - about to see the manatees.

This is my favorite picture! This river hippo was so cool and he was just chilling right by the glass so everyone could get great pictures with him!


I only missed Shaun a little. :) It was weird - like we were switching
places. For the past two years he was in California, and this time I
was. But this time we could talk on the phone every day!


I was so excited to go to the beach! Judy wasn't a big fan
though. So I laid out for about half an hour. We didn't even swim. :(

My 2 Favorite Shows this Summer

There are two shows I LOVE this summer! I don't have time to watch them during my busy weeks of course ;) but luckily, we have DVR at work, and my co-workers also love the same shows, so when I work my graves I catch up on my shows for the week.





Royal Pains is a new show on USA network and it is so good! You should all check it out. You can watch all the episodes that have come out so far on royalpains.usanetwork.com




So You Think You Can Dance is amazing. All of the dancers are awesome this year, especially the girls. Mary Murphy used to annoy me, but now I just think she is hilarious. Here are some of my favorite couples:





Randy and Evan
Kayla and Kupono

Poor But Happy

Apparently people still read my blog. Thanks guys! So I will post more now that I know it's not for nothing. This summer has been so fun! I stay so busy. I am always so worn out because I just can't stand to "waste" a day. I always have something planned! Some weeks I only work one or two days a week, and Shaun doesn't have a job yet, so we have been doing lots of fun stuff! We have to find very inexpensive things to do though...

Today is the first day in awhile I am just staying home and doing laundry, cleaning, catching up on Royal Pains, etc. Then tonight I am headed to Elwood for a bridal shower for Jamie. Her wedding is in less than three weeks! I am excited, but sad for her and Russ to move to Provo. What are they thinking?? LOL. It will be sad though - Shaun and I hang out with them often.

AGGHHH!!!

Okay, i lied. I am not going to totally update today. I just uploaded like, 7 pictures and wrote about them and then lost it!!!! But one big update: My missionary is home! He's been home for two months and still gets called my "missionary" constantly. Maybe oneday he'll finally earn the title of "boyfriend" again, ha ha. Here is a pic from Bear Lake last week. He hasn't found a job yet and I only work weekends, so we play A LOT!



Notice the missionary tanlines - ha ha. He is SO WHITE!

My Blogging Theory

Most of us have a hard time blogging on a regular basis, right? Well, here is my theory why. When I am bored and have time to blog, I have nothing interesting to blog about. When I am out doing fun and exciting things that would make a good post, I am not concerned about blogging and don't want to take the time! But I have some spare time right now, and I have had a fun summer so far, so I will catch up today.

8 Things Tag

My Top 8 Favorite Restaurants

1.Olive Garden
2.Costa Vida
3. Angie's
4. Fredrico's
5. Appleby's
6. Sizzler
7. Arby's
8. Wendy's

My Top 8 Favorite TV Shows
1. King of Queens
2. Full House
3. Hannah Montana
4. John and Kate Plus 8
5. My Big Redneck Wedding
6. Suite Life of Zack and Cody (no point in lying)
7. What I Like about You
8. The Big Bang Theory

8 Quirks About Me
1. I judge how close things I'm looking forward to by the expiration date on my milk... if it is closer than that, it must be getting close!
2. I go to the gym more when I have lots of homework, because it's one thing I feel a little bit justified about putting my homework off for awhile to do instead.
3. The only time I don't get bored during a movie is if I have a boy to cuddle with.
4. I only smile with the right side of my mouth unless I put a lot of effort into it.
5.I love to paint my toenails (they're always painted) but not my fingernails.
6. I still make paper chains sometimes.... right now there's one in my room counting down till graduation and when Shaun gets home.
7. I wash all my laundry together..... I NEVER sort any of it.
8. I love tofu - especially tofu corndogs.

8 Random Things I Did Yesterday
1. wore pajamas to the school where I'm student teaching
2. jogged the track at the Fieldhouse while the guys were playing shirts and skins
3. ate 3 s'mores
4. went to Taco Time
5. went to the Book Table
6. avoided doing a bit of homework
7. 100 crunches
8. spent a lot of time on Facebook

8 Things On My Wish List
1. a dance floor in my house
2. a double walk-in closet
3. a library in my house
4. dressing room mirrors in my walk-in closet
5. to be a mom and do the cooking, cleaning, even laundry, and not have to go to work
6. a big pickup truck
7. a ski boat
8. to see more of Europe

8 Things That I Look Forward To
1. graduating from college
2. Shaun coming hoome
3. summer and good weather
4. Jamie's wedding
5. Spring Break and Carly coming to stay with me
6. working more over the summer so I have extra money to spend on shoes
7. being able to go jogging without worrying about whether it's SNOWING!
8. having two spare seconds of time

Jessie in Wonderland

So I was watching Alice in Wonderland at work the other day. While Alice is lost in the forest she sings a song that has the line,

"I give myself very good advice
But I very seldom follow it."

Sometimes I really feel like that!

Thank you Kanye!

So the other day I was driving to school and I was so frustrated with everything. Teaching is hard! And student teaching is even harder. I have 7 weeks left. That's all I have to make it through to graduate. But some days I just want to give up. Anyway, this one morning I was listening to a mix CD and Kanye West's song "Stronger" came on and it gave me that extra push I needed to make it trough the week. :)

3 Reasons

I am majorly excited for summer this year.
More than usual. Here are my 3 main reasons:

I will be graduated!

Warm weather!

Shaun will be home!

Non-extreme Home Makeover

So I have lived in my current apartment for 6 months now, and our living room has been barer than bare. I decided enough was enough. So yesterday I had my first Saturday off work in a long time. I dragged Jamie along and after WalMart, Hobby Lobby, and a little dumpster diving (okay, it was really just a cardboard recycling bin) I was ready to go to work! I only spent $15 and it only took me about 4 hours with a little help from one of my roommates. I love it! I'm so excited about my new living room!

These are just squares of cardboard covered in fabric.

This is all cardboard painted soley with my fingers :)

This is just a few yards of fabric hung up with thumb tacks.

This is just scrapbook paper hung up with double-sided tape!

Keyboards

I have decided that keyboards are the grossest thing in the world. The other day at school I was watching my students type, and this one boy repeatedly wiped the snot running down his face, and then went right back to typing. I wanted to throw up. So I was completely disgusted when I went the the computer lab on campus yesterday. I hope college kids are a little more hygenic than that, but you never know. Plus, a ton more people file throught the computer labs on campus than at my little middle school. Yuck. Maybe I'll turn into one of those people who carry around Lysol and hand santizer and stuff.....

A Few of my Favorites

Has anyone else seen the new show The Big Bang Theory? I think it's hilarious. It would probably be even funnier if I was a huge nerd and understood all the jokes... but I understand enough for it to be funny and still feel good about myself.

I think Kevin James is hilarious. Hitch, Mall Cop, and best of all.... King of Queens. I watch reruns of that show almost daily. I think his humor fits my sense of humor or something. I quite enjoy his shows.

This weekend I saw Confession of a Shopaholic. I found some new eyecandy. Apparently he's not that new, because my sisters knew all about him.... but I thought I'd discovered something exciting. His name is Hugh Dancy if anyone else is as behind as I am.

Keep At It

This is some advice I heard today, and I really like it. Not every day is going to be wonderful. But we can still be happy. And we always know it will get better. Just KEEP AT IT!

Done my Time

So I am sick of waiting for my missionary. I want him home right now. And technically, I've already been waiting over 2 years. He moved to Germany in Dec. 2006 and lived there for a few months before he left. So I've done my time! He gets home 4 days after I graduate. I cannot wait until that day! No more school, no more waiting.... YAY! 92 days to go! (In my defense, I did not start counting days until it was down to 100).

Not a Fan of 6th graders

Just in case anyone is wondering, this is how I feel about student teaching right now. If you know any middle schoolers, tell them to be good at school! Teaching IS NOT EASY! Or maybe it's just not for me.... crap! I'm graduating, and just realizing that I chose the wrong major......

Addicted to Life

I have found a new love: Life cereal. My old roommate Cami used to eat it all the time, but I never tried in until recently. Now I'm addicted! It's the best cereal ever! And it's just as good dry as with milk, which is unusual for cereals. I went on a cereal strike for a couple of years; for some reason I just didn't like it. But then I realized it's one of the cheapest and healthier things I can eat, so now I eat it all the time. Cinnamon Life is the best!

I Love Friendly People

So after a tough day of student teaching today I was feeling a little grouchy. I had a big frown on as I went out to my car, but people kept smiling and waving to me. People I didn't even know. It made me so happy. I wish I was that friendly. I think I will make it a new goal.