so fitting...

love this movie

and this song is especially fitting.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!

i sure can't.

okay so maybe it's not perfectly applicable.
for one, i sure hope kolton is not chasing down all the women in London tonight, or at a brothel for that matter.
but we ARE getting married in the morning. and he had better be at the temple on time!!

p.s. sorry for the foreign language subtitles (spanish, maybe?)

baby it's cold outside

i love this song.

and this video is truly a treat.

enjoy!

weak sauce

I have a problem.

With onions.
I have gone my entire life wondering what people were talking about when they said cutting up onions makes them burst into tears.

I've just never understood that.

Then, last year I was making dinner with a friend when he asked if I would dice up the onions, "Unless", he added, "it makes your eyes water."

"Nope" I proudly announced. "Onions don't affect me one little bit."

About thirty seconds later I couldn't even see said onion because I had tears (and mascara!) streaming down my face.

Talk about putting your foot in your mouth.

Today, I had a similar experience.

I was helping amy with dinner and she asked if I would dice up the onions. Being prepared, I grabbed my glasses. (I don't exactly know what this was going to accomplish, maybe block the noxious fumes from my eyes)

Unfortunately, this attempt failed.

And I ended up with tears (and mascara!) again streaming down my face.

I am such weak sauce.


a sad day and surprise

Yesterday was my last day of classes here at BYU.

Talk about a sad day! I have loved it here so much and I'm going to miss it SO much. The last few weeks I have been trying to soak everything in. The walk up the hill to campus, the lovely weather, long hours at the library- I've even tried to enjoy nutty, demanding professors with silly assignments. I've tried to soak it all up so I can remember it all when i'm freezing my buns off in Rexburg, Idaho.

I'm not quite done here at BYU, however. I still have to take four finals before I'm home free and will no longer be a student here.

But don't you worry. I have already informed Kolton that we will be back to visit. For what, I'm not sure. We'll definitely think of something.

On to a happier subject.

Last night I took some Nyquil trying to kick the nasty cold that won't go away and it knocked me out. This morning I woke up to my roommate coming into my room. I sat up in bed to say good morning when I noticed that she was carrying a table. She was followed by my other roommate holding the other end of the table and the rest of my roommates filing into my room.

The table was all decked out with french toast, syrup, muffins, bacon, and orange juice.

We had ourselves a surprise breakfast-in-bed bridal shower!

Oh my heavens. it was so sweet of them, and I just love these girls.

We all sat down on my bed and enjoyed our delicious breakfast and just had a lovely time, with me sitting in amazement over the fact that they had completely surprised me. (I like to think i'm pretty intuitive, but I did not expect this one little bit)

After we finished off our delicious breakfast they gave me a gift. It was....

This lovely cookbook!

I saw it in the bookstore the other day and  have been raving about it ever since I discovered it.

so they went out and bought it for me. And it is chuck FULL of chocolate dessert recipes. Since dessert is my favorite thing to bake, I find it very fitting.

Holy cow, I love these girls.

I'm so sad to be leaving them in a few days because they are all so sweet and thoughtful and we have all just had a ball this semester staying up late at night talking, cooking together, goofing around, spouting off one-liners, and just all sorts of other fun girly things. I am going to miss them a ton. But, like I already said, we will be back to visit a lot. :)

And that's all I've got to say about that.

p.s. I get married in eleven days. ELEVEN!

girls weekend

I have always been a big fan of girl's nights, but girl's weekends are even better! This last weekend Wendy and her girls, Amber, Kenzie, and Nat and Madison came to Salt Lake to meet up with my Mom, Tylee, Addi, and I. We had such a lovely time!

I had met up with my family on Friday evening to go to the Jazz game, then on Saturday morning we sent the boys home and went to the mall with the cousins.

Oh my heavens, it was SO much fun! We went to Anthropologie in honor of my grandma and loved looking at all the funky trinkets and clothes and other wonderful things that we could never afford (one day....) things like:

and this:

and this:

And many, many more.

Holy cow, I love that store.

We also went to Music and the Spoken Word with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir which was splendid, and to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional that evening-which was also splendid. I love Christmas music and the talks were all so wonderful.

All in all, it was a great weekend with the girls and we're hoping to make it a long-lived tradition.

before i dash to class...

I gotta be quick lickety split on this story but I promised I would share and....a promise is a promise.

so.

When dear Kolton and I went to sign our marriage license we were all nervous and giddy and trying to sign our names just right and neatly (okay, so maybe that was just me) when a couple walks in behind us and sidles up to the desk right next to us.

"We're getting married!" the man announced. "We just talked to the judge, he said to sign us a marriage license and he'll marry us today." (all of this was said in a country twangy accent, by the way)

These folks must have been known in the county courthouse because there were congratulations all around. with comments of them needing to buy a big Thanksgiving table to fit all of their newfound family around it.

So the receptionist started to rustle up some papers and they got to signing.

I was peeking over Kolton's shoulder at this funny couple and noticed the soon to be bride just texting away (letting all her friends now she's getting married in about ten minutes, I'm guessing)

We left soon after that so we didn't get to see much more of this couple. But I'll have to admit.....I was a little jealous of them. As we walked out to the pickup I tried to convince Kolton to just let us go down to the courthouse and get married that afternoon.

But he was having none of that.

And I was kidding of course.....well, kinda.

Now don't anyone worry-We're not going to elope anytime soon. It sounds tempting, but we will resist. We already paid the decorator. (hee hee)

We'll just wait nineteen looong more days. (NINETEEN!!! holy mackerel!)

And we'll see ya on December 21st!

And now I'm off to interior design!

so it's been a while...

But let me just say, Thanksgiving break was fantastic!

We got a TON of wedding planning done, including signing a marriage license (story later) and addressing hundreds of envelopes for announcements.

We spent a lot of time with family and more importantly, ate lots of good food. (just kidding....kinda)

Kolton's mom and sisters threw me a bridal shower that was so fun! I got so many cute and useful things.

We signed the lease for our very first apartment!

"We're officially homeowners!" I told him, "Renters, actually" he replied.

Homeowner, renter-it's all the same to me. I'm just excited to have a roof over our heads (I was getting a little concerned) and a place to house all of our beautiful gifts from the above mentioned bridal shower.

I contracted a nasty cold/flu that I am still battling. don't worry-I've been guzzling Nyquil. I'm gonna kick this thing!

But most importantly of all....

we celebrated our

 Negative one month anniversary

annndd...

our first date anniversary.

 Okay, so maybe we didn't actually celebrate, but we did recognize the day.

Since we're on the topic, I'll tell ya a little bit about our first date. Kolton would probably not be happy but....let's not tell him.

Oo...over Thanksgiving break last year-wait-scratch that. a few weeks before Thanksgiving, Kolton had gone down to Mesquite riding motorbikes with a big group of men including my dad and uncle. The whole time they were down there, Kolton got teased incessantly about riding home with my dad and coming to visit me/formally meet me on their way back to Idaho.

For some reason, (I don't actually know that reason, hmmm...) he didn't end up with my dad. But a little tiny seed had been planted in his mind. 

Back to Thanksgiving break...

Over the break, Kolton's mom called my mom and asked if I would be busy that weekend. (Kolton claims  he had no idea she did this) my mom said I would probably be free, hung up the phone and called me (I was at the movies with some friends) I completely freaked out (a good freak out) did a little dance, and immediately told all my friends that Kolton Hansen might take me on a date that weekend. (give me a break-I'd only had a crush on him for what-half my life?) So pretty soon we were all freaking out and doing a little happy dance about my stroke of good luck.

Kolton called me a few days later. On my home phone (Yes, I did feel like I was in junior high again). and started asking me all these questions-"How's school? What's your major? How's your break been?"

I knew what he was getting at and was worried that if he asked too many more questions we wouldn't have anything to talk about. Finally he got to the one I was waiting for.

"Will you go on a date with me this Saturday?"

So Saturday rolled around and he came to pick me up.(Yes, my stomach was hosting some majorly huge butterflies, and performing flips worthy of any acrobat).

We were going paintballing with his family (I also drug Tylee along for the ride). So we went to a little corner of their farm that had huge sagebrush we could hide behind and started shooting away.

I'll just be straight with you. I'm not a good paintballer. Not at all. But I did provide some laughs at my expense, maybe that was a redeeming quality for my poor paintballing skills.

After we finished that embarrassment he took me home so I could shower and try looking decent before we went out on the town.

He came by an hour later and we headed into Rexburg to meet up with another couple. We went to Applebee's where I ordered their spinach and artichoke dip (Kolton thought i was crazy til he tried it. Now he's converted).Then we went to the movie Blind Side.

All in all, it was a success (obviously.) and I didn't even need to worry about finding things to talk about. We did just fine.

but then I had to head back to Provo. We talked on the phone a few times, but not very much at all, and then I came home for Christmas break. But that's a story for another day.

 Now we're just like...getting married in less than a month!

And that's about all I've got to say about that.

slouchy socks

Don't you hate slouchy socks? You know what I'm talking about-the kind that slip off your feet as you're walking and end up in a puddle at the toe of your shoes?

Well today since I'm out of all my other socks (it's definitely time to do some laundry) I had to wear some of these kind of socks. And they're mismatched to boot.

Anyway...so as I was walking up the hill to campus, I could feel my socks slipping lower and lower off of my foot. Of course I couldn't just reach down and yank 'em back up because I was wearing my tall, fluffy, boots with da fur. So as I reached the top of the hill, I sat on a bench to readjust myself.

So as I'm sitting there with one boot off and in one hand, and my other hand pulling up my sock, I hear the doors behind me open. And a guy walks out, turns around and comes right up to stand in front of me. I had my ipod in my ears so I yanked out the headphones and looked up at him.

He says to me, "I would just like to tell you that your hair looks beautiful today."

I smiled at him, said a polite, "Thank you" and he walked off.

I sat in shock for a minute,pulled on my boot, and went on my way.

thank you, random friendly stranger.

that is a random "socks" picture, but does anyone else remember wearing the frilly, lacy socks?

let's talk leaves

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've had anything to say. I've actually had about a bajillion things to say but I either a) couldn't find the time or b) couldn't find the right words. So I've been a little neglecting lately, but I promise, promise I will be better.

Today was a windy, cold, typical November day.

I love November a whole lot.

 My favorite things about November are: the anticipation of Christmas coming right around the corner, the crisp air, the smells, cider, scarves wound around chilly necks, hands shoved in coat pockets, the whole bit. However, my favorite thing about November would probably be all the colorful leaves that have left the treetops and are now just sitting on the sidewalks waiting to be crunched.

and I am always willing to oblige.

(how could you NOT enjoy something as beautiful as these!?)

The other day I was walking into a building on campus (I cannot for the LIFE of me remember which building it was) and I looked over and saw a girl walking not on the sidewalk but near a tree under which was a heaping pile of leaves. She was kicking the leaves up as she trudged through them and the pure look of joy on her face really got me thinking.

So today as I was crunching through leaves on my way home from campus I thought to myself, "self, why exactly do you so enjoy hearing the crunch of your boot-clad foot connecting with a leaf?"

I thought and thought, but really couldn't come up with a logical answer.

So instead I started analyzing the different types of leaves scattered on the sidewalk, deciding which ones gave the most satisfying crunch.

I decided that the brown really dried out ones do give a nice crunchy crunch, but they are not (as my interior design professor would say) "aesthetically pleasing", so they don't give me a whole lot of enjoyment.

I think red leaves are so beautiful looking so sometimes I feel kind of bad trodding them underfoot. and plus, they don't really give that great of a crunch. So it's not really quite worth it to step out of my way for them when I can just admire them from afar.

Yellow leaves are okay. I would probably go out of my way to step on one, but they are not quite as crunchy as I would prefer. But they are a fantastic color!

And finally, orange leaves are where it's at. Almost every single orange leaf that my foot found today gave a great, loud, crispy, satisfying crunch. I would definitely recommend these.

Just so ya know.

If you are concerned about my sanity right now, don't worry. I'm just feeling a little burned out (it's definitely time for Thanksgiving break!) and right now all I want to think about are inconsequential things like crunchy leaves. That's all.

obsession confession

I don't get fanatical about many things.

Really, truly, I don't.

But I do have one minor obsession that I am not ashamed of and that is.......

Taylor Swift

I

 l.o.v.e.

her

(a whole lot)

I went to her concert about three or four years ago back when she wasn't a big deal. The concert was in a little auditorium in Idaho Falls and I think I paid $12 for my ticket. It was a Tuesday night and I almost didn't go because iIhad mutual.

(can you believe that!)

But my cousin talked me into it and I went, had a fabulous time, and got my picture taken with her.

Anyway...today I made about the best purchase I've made in three months....

I'm a little obsessed.
And looking forward to my next drive home. 

blustery day quick fix

Yesterday was bit of a "blustery day"

I actually don't mind blustery days....but I have some conditions.

I like to have a fireplace nearby,

a good book to keep me occupied,

some cuddly clothes,

and a handsome fiance to cuddle with.

Yesterday, however, I had none of these things. My apartment is missing a fireplace, I have only textbooks to read, all my cozy clothes are still packed up at home, and my handsome fiance is approximately 300 miles away.

sigh...

Since none of these things were working out, I decided, during my freezy walk home from campus, that I could maybe add one more condition. this new condition is......

have something to munch on that warms you down to your toes.

So after a quick trip to the grocery store, I rolled up my sleeves, tied my apron, and got to cookin.

I found a recipe online (yes-that did make me a little nervous) for chicken tortilla soup.

With a lot of help from J.J. (my roommates boyfriend) we whipped up a delicious, warming, good smelling dinner for all us girls (and J.J. of course)

Holy cow, it really was SO good! And perfect for the blustery weather outside.

oh and p.s. yes, my hands are still smelly smelly from the garlic/onion cutting.

But the end was totally worth the means.

on growing up

I have been thinking a lot lately lately about "growing up" and what that actually means. I know that the reason I was supposed to come here to BYU was to help me in this growing up process. I had such a hard time deciding between here and BYU-I. When I think about it now, I don't regret my decision at all. Coming here was kind of my own little adventure that I really desperately needed.

When I decided to come here, I knew my roommate (kind of) and that's it. Really. I didn't have any family anywhere close, or really any good friends/acquaintances that I could count on. Through this experience I really learned to rely on myself and discovered that I'm a lot more capable than I had ever before thought I was.

I had to be responsible for myself. If I had a homework assignment due or a test coming up, my mom wasn't there nagging at me about it. 

If I wanted to eat dinner, I made it myself.

If my clothes were dirty, I did my own laundry.

Those are only the obvious things that come with living on your own.

I also learned that I don't have to have a buddy with me all the time-that I can do things by myself.

That was a hard thing to get used to.

I'm used to being surrounded by friends and people I know that I can call on to accompany me. However, being in the midst of about thirty thousand people, a very small fraction of which I know the names of, was a little intimidating. I walked by myself all around campus, I sat by myself during class, I attended a play by myself, and even got used to eating lunch by myself. I made some friends along the way, but most of the time it was just

me,

myself,

and I.

But now I have come to not mind being by myself. It's actually kinda nice to just do my own thing and get done what I need to.

And to tell ya the truth,

I kinda like it.

Another sign of my growing up is that I've been able to make phone calls and talk to professional people. This has always been real scary for me, but I've had to practice this a lot lately (especially with planning a wedding!) and it really doesn't bother me anymore. I have learned how to express myself clearly, and even though I still practice what I'm going to say before I make the call, I no longer stress about having to call this person, or talk to this person and it really doesn't bother me anymore.  

Along with that, another thing I have learned about growing up is not being intimidated by people. I have always been really bad at this, and it drives me crazy! However, as I've grown up, I've realized that I can appreciate other's strengths and not only see my own weaknesses in the shadows of their strengths.

For instance, the other day I ran into a friend that I have always been intimidated by. She is gorgeous girl, and is nice to boot! But for some reason, after every other encounter I've had with her, I walk away feeling like I can never in a million years measure up to her. And it's maybe caused me to resent her a little bit.

However, the other day when I ran into her we had a lovely conversation and I was able to walk away thinking about how nice she was and how happy I was to have seen her.

This was such a huge step for me, and the significance was not lost on me.

 So even though these may seem like minor examples, I guess the main idea of this very random post is that as I have grown up and been able to live on my own I have learned to accept myself just the way I am. I still make silly mistakes, and there's always room for improvement, but I really believe that I am doing okay.

I may not be perfect, but I'm working on it.

And I'm totally okay with that.



the scoop.

I have always been a bit of a romantic at heart. Maybe even more than a “bit”. You can always find me on a free night watching any of my collection of sappy, cutesy chick flicks.

Being the expert in all things chick flick-ish, I had often thought of my own “engagement story.” How would it happen? Would I be surprised? Would I cry? All of these questions were answered this past weekend. And my own “engagement story” went a little bit like this:

I was completely expecting it to happen this weekend. (so much for the element of surprise) We had talked dates, even discussed little details, but hadn’t really started “officially” planning anything yet. And I was NOT going to start planning anything until I had a ring on my finger! So when I arrived home on Friday night and Kolton suggested we do something fun the next day, like go for a four-wheeler ride, the little wheels in my head started turning. I was SO on to him.

So on Saturday afternoon, Kolton showed up to my house with a fourwheeler in the back of his truck and informed me that we were going up to Meadow Lake. (i.e. my FAVORITE place in the world, as I have informed him many, many times.) so we hopped into the pickup and went on our way.

As we were driving we noticed some ominous, dark rainclouds completely obscuring the mountains that we were headed towards. But we decided to press on and see if we could possibly miss the rain. Kolton mentioned that he didn’t even care where we went but we HAD to go on a fourwheeler ride. Once again, I just smiled a little secret smile to myself. I was SO onto him.

We finally made it up to the lake and immediately headed on a hike. I really love hikes, and this one was so beautiful. We came to a little bridge over a creek and I announced to kolton-semi-subtly- that I LOVED this place, and it could possibly be my favorite place in the world. He just nodded his head and kept walking.

Then we reached a little “mini-lake” (that’s how I refer to it anyway) we hopscotched on some rocks til we finally got to a big one that was out in the water. Once again, I mentioned to Kolton that I LOVED this place, and even glanced over my shoulder hoping to see him on one knee.

But no.

 Once again he just moved on without saying much of anything. Disappointed, I followed after him. We hiked for a bit longer, til we were both out of breath and then the weather started turning pretty nasty so we made our way down the mountain. We made it back to the pickup right as it started to rain. Now what? We kinda looked at each other knowing that the four-wheeler idea was out of the question and began to drive home.

As we were headed down the mountain we saw a little side road that I was positive was just for fourwheelers. Turns out, it was just a fourwheeler trail that was a bit larger and could possibly fit a pickup. If you were real careful. (kolton will disagree with that, but this is my story.) anyway…so as we're headed up this tiny trail with me to afraid to breathe too heavily for fear that we will tumble right down that mountainside, the trail suddenly opens up. We pull off to the side of the road and we can see the ENTIRE valley. (except for of course, the part the rainclouds are hiding) so we’re looking out at this amazing view just chatting about everything.

Pretty soon (after about an hour of me wondering what the heck we are still doing up here) Kolton gets all serious, turns to me and says, “Jayci, I have a sad story to tell you.” I look at him with a confused look on my face, and he starts into this big story about how he has been SEARCHING for a ring and can’t find anything. He mentions all the jewelers that we’ve gone to and how none of them have anything that he liked and how he’s been so busy at school and hasn’t had time to really seriously get looking and now he just doesn’t know what to do, but we probably need to start planning everything soon, so we’ll go ring shopping again another day. At the end of his spiel he finally says, “So…will you marry me?” I of course said “Yes” kind of confusedly. This was all wrong! What happened to the one knee, ring thing?!  So as we sit in silence for a second he says “Oh! I forgot to give ya something!” and pulls out of his pocket a long piece of  braided string with a bead on it.

a bead.

He said something like "this will have to do until we can find a ring." So he hands it over to me and I just kind of twirl it in my fingers just waiting and waiting for him to say “Just kidding!” and make this all better. Instead he says, “Hey, let’s put it on!” takes my hand and ties the string in a knot around my finger. Then he pulls his pocketknife out of his pocket (go figure) and cuts off the excess string.

I look at my hand and just want to cry. This was so NOT how I had always pictured it. I wasn’t really mad necessarily, just extremely, extremely disappointed. And there was no way we were going to tell people we were engaged. Not with a string on my finger. Now I know that this makes me sound like a little brat, but I just had my mind so set on what exactly I thought was going to happen and it just wasn’t happening. It took every ounce of self control to just shut my mouth and not say all the things I wanted to.

Such as:

Kolton! What are you thinking!

Are you kidding me!

You are NOT serious!

And…why didn’t we go ring shopping today! (actually…..i did say that one. But it was said in a nice tone)

No sir, instead I just shut my mouth before I said something I would regret later. Not knowing exactly how to handle my silence after I had been so bubbly and happy and hopeful ten minutes before, Kolton suggested that we just go on home.

So we did.

And I don’t think we said hardly two words the whole drive home.

I was trying to come to terms with my disappointment, telling myself I was just being stupid. A ring is just a dumb materialistic thing (that I really want) and what really matters is Kolton and getting married, and not silly things like beautiful, sparkly things that go on your finger. At the same time, I was also coming to terms that we were not going to be getting married in December like we had planned. Because really-there was no way I was going to start planning a wedding without a ring. i don’t know why, but that just did NOT sound appealing.

Just for the record…I did have a teensy little hope that maybe he was just kidding and had something else planned. It was very slim, and I didn’t dare think about it too much because if I was wrong then I would REALLY be crushed. So instead I was planning a cry session for when I got home.

Soon we turn on to the county line road and are headed towards his house when his dad calls. Kolton acted funny about the phone call so I started wondering if maybe a little something more was going on. We pulled up to his shop and unloaded the fourwheeler that hadn’t even been used. He was being very slow about everything and I was freezing so I was trying to hurry him up. Finally we got back into the pickup and pulled into his driveway. All the lights in the house were off , which was a little bit weird I thought. We walked into the house, took off our shoes, and he still didn’t turn the lights on.

And then I saw it.

Coming from the kitchen was a soft little glow that could only be from candles. He led me into the kitchen and sure enough, there was a beautiful little dinner all set up, complete with candlelight and that fancy fake champagne stuff. “Are you kidding me!” I asked him. We walked over to the table and I noticed that there was a fancy little box all wrapped up with a beautiful bow on top. I was instantly about ten billion times happier until he said

 “I knew you’d be disappointed, so I got you a present”

 My heart fell (again) and I just knew  that it was a necklace. (don’t ask me why) of course, he went to a jewelry store, couldn’t find a ring, and instead bought a necklace. It just makes sense, and the box was rectangular to boot.

So Kolton dished up our dinner and I just stared at this teasing little box by my plate. He brought our food and said I could probably open the box after we were finished eating. By this point I had been on such an up and down emotional ride that I just ate my food. Kolton scarfed his down and then watched me finish up my food. I was so shaky and all jumbled up that it was all I could do to put each forkful into my mouth. But somehow, I finally finished and Kolton calmly said

“Okay, I guess you can open it now” and hands the pretty little box to me.

Under the wrapping was a little white box. In that box was a little ring box. As soon as I saw that I’m sure I just got a big ole grin on my face.

And of course, when I opened up the little ring box, there was a

beautiful,

sparkling,

DIAMOND ring looking back at me.

FINALLY Kolton stood me up, got down on one knee, and gave me a REAL proposal. I again said YES (it was a little less confused this time) and we did the whole celebrating, putting the ring on, maybe kissing a little, thing.

and that's about all I've got. It's a doozy isn't it?

And now I just got this big ole ring on my finger, a handsome fiancé, and a date at the Idaho Falls temple.

December 21.

 Be there.

i played a mean trick.

On my poor missionary cousin about seven months ago.

I did. It's true.

When my cousin was on his mission, every single letter he wrote me ended with the phrase, "...And you can't get married till I get back, don't forget our little promise!"

After about a million of these reminders from him, I got to thinking I could really take advantage of this situation.

So last spring, my family went to visit my grandparents in St. George over Easter/Conference weekend. My family invited Kolton along (and I maybe wanted him to come too) so he drove himself down to Provo and since I had classes and had to go a day later than my family, he stayed the night and we drove down the next afternoon. We had a lovely time all weekend chillin with the family and such, but one night we decided we oughta get outta the house and go for a drive, so we decided to drive down to the St. George temple to have a little look-see.

When we finally made it to the temple, we just sat outside the gates in my car and chatted and had a lovely time before we drove home.

In my weekly letter to my cousin, however, the night was explained a little differently.

I thought it would be really funny if I wrote to him and told him that I was engaged. I only thought this because he had been such a freak about it and was so concerned about me getting married before he was home.

Instead of us just driving to the temple and staying in the car, he got the story that we had walked around the temple grounds and found a little bench where Kolton had gotten down on one knee and proposed. In the letter I explained that we didn't have a ring yet, but that we were super excited and all was well. At the end of the e-mail I wrote in fine print. "Austin, this is just a belated April fool's day joke. Don't freak out because I am just kidding!!"

However, that dear cousin of mine did not read the fine print. In his next e-mail that he sent to the whole family he talked about how I was getting married and that everyone probably knew already. His whole tone of his letter was just so sad and depressed and I felt so bad when I was reading it! Just a few minutes after he sent the first e-mail, he must have read through mine again because he sent out another one saying that I was just kidding and not really getting married.

Oh it was so embarrassing!! I had just been messing around and he had taken everything so seriously and was so sad. I felt awful!

So the next e-mail I sent him, I told him he was a freak and that I was just teasing him because he had been so worried about something that probably wasn't ever even going to happen.

Well.....this weekend when I had to call him (my now returned-missionary cousin) and tell him an important, kinda big, new development in my life, I was reminded of  this funny/mean little trick I played on him.

and I felt a little bad being so anti-climatic.

However, this weekend ended just a little differently

 Story to come.

things i love today.

-When they play the "Star Spangled Banner" over the intercom all across campus at exactly 5:27pm. Even though I was running late to class I just had to stop, put my hand over my heart, and enjoy it. Watching [almost] everyone else stop during their busy hustling to make it to class was neat. All of the sidewalks stopped for a minute while everyone did their patriotic thing. The only thing that could have made this better is if we ended this moment with all of us reciting The Pledge of Allegiance in unison. I miss that!

-The acorn that fell from the sky and just about conked me in the head. "The sky is falling!" as I barely dodged the unidentified flying object, I had a moment of panic. But then as it hit the ground I realized it was an acorn and started giggling to myself.

And lastly...

-The feeling that I had leaving my New Testament class. (L.O.V.E. that class) We had taken the last few minutes of class to quietly listen to "Come Thou Fount" sung by the BYU choir. It was so beautiful and I just had the most peaceful feeling leaving class. I had big plans to study flashcards on the way home but I just couldn't do it. I just enjoyed the walk home. The beautiful sunshine, the fall smells, crunching through the leaves, and thought about what we'd learned that day. It was such a wonderful feeling.

thoughts

-Note to self:

Never

ever

ever

never

never

ever

never

 Ever again wear those boots you love up to campus. Your tootsies will not be very happy with you and will require some ice and pampering once you finally do limp home.

-It rained today/has been raining all week. I love it. I don't, however, think the marching band practicing next door at the football stadium appreciates it very much. Poor marching band.

-And finally, this is the lovely sight the greets me each day as I walk to school. This isn't the greatest picture but in case you couldn't tell, those are beautiful rosebushes. With technicolor roses, red, yellow, pink, you name it. It sure brightens my day. 

And that's all I've got to say about that.

   

yikes!

You know those times when something happens and you say to yourself, "My mom really knew what she was talking about"?

I had one of those moments today.

FLASHBACK-to about  seven years ago: my mom warned me to be careful when using a cheese grater because according to her you could slice your hand off with that thing! (okay, so maybe she wasn't quite that dramatic, but she did emphasize the dangerous capacities of a cheese grater.)

PRESENT DAY-like two hours ago: I was cutting cheese for the grilled cheese sandwich i had been looking forward to all day using a cheese grater when my hand slipped and I totally sliced my hand off! (okay, so maybe it's just the knuckle of my right pointer finger)

And it hurt.

I looked down at my finger and saw almost clear to the bone! (okay, so maybe not. there was too much blood to see anything, but I'm sure the bone was visible)

I may have started hyperventilating and and freaking out just a little bit when my roommate Kelsee came to the rescue.

She ran out of her room, got her first aid kit, immediately ripped open the alcohol wipe package and started nursing me back to health. (a.k.a. swabbing my knuckle with the wipe and putting a band-aid on it)

And now i'm just starting the recovery process. I'm a little concerned how this injury may affect my test that I'm supposed to take tomorrow. Obviously I will not be in the right mindset to take the test, and my pointer finger may not be able to run the computer mouse. hmmmm....

We'll have to see how that one goes over.

(exaggeration, anyone?)

takin out the trash

Confession....

I HATE big stinky garbages.

hate hate hate.
More than almost anything in the world.

I hate when they are overflowing and trash is falling on the floor every time someone bumps it the wrong way,

I hate trying to tie the bag shut amid the above mentioned overflowing garbage (Especially on bags that don't have the drawstrings. Those things are so nifty!)

I hate trying to get the bag out of the garbage can when it's so full it'll hardly budge,

I hate tossing the bag over my shoulder to haul it to the dumpster,

But more than anything else, I hate, double hate, quadruple hate, ten bajillion times hate...

Trying to do all these things when the garbage is stinky.

Eww, sick, gag, guhh....

In fact I believe the only pleasant thing that ever came from a garbage can is....you guessed it...

Oscar the Grouch

and he's not actually that pleasant, so I hardly think he counts as a redeeming quality for a trashcan.

(but he sure is cute!)

why fail tomorrow....

Remember that test? The seventeen page review test? I took it. and holy cow that thing was huge!! It was for my interior design class, which may just sound like a "fluff" class, but let me tell you-it's not. To study for the test I went through every page of the review (there were seventeen of them, just in case you forgot) and made a flashcard for each term. I ended up with about a bajillion flashcards.

these are the above mentioned flashcards that i spent four days making

So I made all of these and then turned around and studied studied studied them. As I was busily doing all this studying and stressing about the exam (the first exam in each class is always the scariest. you don't know what to expect really or how specific everything is going to be...it's intimidating.) I remembered a little motto we came up with in  our pre-calculus class back in high school.

"Why fail tomorrow when you can fail today?"

(referring to conveniently being absent the day of the test in order to put off the failure for one more day. which I did quite often, by the way.)

So as I was studying studying studying, I finally decided that I had had enough of it and remembered this little motto. So I decided to give up the studying and stressing and made my way to the testing center. That building gives me a lot of stress. An hour later, I emerged from the building feeling like a new person. All the stress was lifted off my shoulders and I could finally feel like I could breathe again.

But you know what the best part was....?

I didn't fail

Not even close.

Isn't that great?! I sure thought so. The A- made my poor crampy hand and crammed little brain feel much better. Kolton (who came to see me this weekend. hooray!) and I even celebrated with some mint oreos.

I have a big thing with oreos. (and all other things that could be considered "junk food") and I sure like to eat em. Especially when I'm feeling like I have something to reward myself for.

Anyway....that's all I've got to say about that.

oh kelsee...

That's actually the lyrics of a song. But this story has to do with an actual Kelsee, who is my actual roommate. Last night I had just barely gone to bed when I heard some whimpering and giggling coming from outside my door. Of course I had to go check it out! So I jumped out of bed and opened my door to find my darling roommates KyLeigh and Amy standing outside the bathroom door. It didn't take me very long to put two and two together and come to the realization that our other darling roommate, Kelsee, was locked in the bathroom.

After giggling with the other two who were taunting kelsee that she was going to have to sleep in there for the night, I quickly jumped into action, peeled apart a bobby pin and started shoving it into the little hole in the doorknob. I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do with the said bobby pin shoved in the little hole, but I've seen others do it a million times, so I tried it out. After jabbing and jabbing for about thirty seconds, KyLeigh finally said to Kelsee (I thought she was kidding. I really did)

"Hey, how about you pull on the door instead of pushing on it."

I kind of snickered at this. I mean, of course Kelsee knows to pull on the door. We've lived here for what? a month?

Turns out...Kelsee didn't know.

Approximately .5 seconds after KyLeigh gave her this seemingly useless piece of advice, we heard the door unlock and out walked Kelsee. We all stared at her in shock for a minute and then just busted up laughing. I don't think she's gonna hear the end of that one anytime soon.

Oh Kelsee....

holy mackerel

This is gonna be a crazy week. I went home (again) this weekend which was just lovely, by the way. but when Sunday night came around and it was time to come home to p-town, I just couldn't do it. All afternoon I kept watching the clock and dreading coming home so......

I didn't.

And I don't even feel bad about it. (it's not necessarily that i dread coming back...it's just that I love Monteview and I love Provo-the four and a half hour (I timed it and it's exactly that) drive is what kills me!

Anyway.....so Monday morning I had to get up and drive clear down here. Then I ran off to class and barely made it on time. But I still made it. Then I was busy doing a bunch of little things all day (mainly grocery shopping. I was OUT of food!) that weren't really that big of a deal.

However.....today was not so lucky. I went running first thing this morning. got lapped by my roommate who is speedy quick and tough. But I also lapped somebody! so that was exciting. I think she was about.....sixty? and was walking the track. I'll take what i can get. After that super fun workout. (not really. running always makes my legs feel jello-y)  I dashed back to my apartment (on jello legs) and cleaned the yucky bathroom for cleaning checks. Not fun. But after THAT, I ran off to class and discovered I had a test this week.

Did not know that.
I don't know how I got so messed up, but I swear the test was next week. I don't have my head screwed on quite straight lately, I guess. So I ran home after my next class and have been busily studying (i.e. filling out a bajillion flashcards. the study guide is 17 pages long! Seventeen!) and then just finishing up some other random assignments due this week. 

I've barely started scaling the iceberg, so hopefully I can continue steadfastly and finish all I have to do this week. Wish me luck!

p.s. I say iceberg not because most of it's mass is underwater but because I'm hoping I don't lose my footing and slide all the way down the slippery slope. Just so ya know.