1 year in the Making

So its almost been 1 year since I met Dan. Last summer was one of the lowest points of my life. Dan met me at the same time I was at the downward motion of hitting rock bottom.

I met Daniel on the fourth of July. I could have been many places that night. That day alone I had wandered from friend to friend and group to group never finding much solace other than in the presence of my dear friend Allyson. Meeting Dan when I did was not planned and had it not been for other events prior that had occurred that week and even that day I don't think it would have ever happened!

Anyway to say the least I met this wonderful, young, handsome, tall guy that I found to be cute and charming yet due to the unforeseen depressive attitudes of the summer of 2007 I didn't pick up on his intentions and when he finally told me flat out what he wanted I still kinda kept him at an arms length and kept playing the woe is me song in my head.

Thanks to a sane and surprisingly logical friend, Brent Jr., I took the chance on contacting Dan after a small hiatus in communication due to a broken phone and fear. I cowardly text messaged Dan late mid august. Not expecting much in return I just texted him something random that I hoped maybe he would remember me. In response, he had deleted my phone number (because I stopped talking to him) and didn't know who exactly I was. I simply wrote back the word "nevermind" and decided that was it I tried and failed. I was not upset or mad at him for not remembering or for having deleted me... I just figured it was not meant to be.

Due to Daniel's personality he put the pieces together quickly and figured out who I was without any help from me. Finally I responded and it is all history now... We spent the next 3 weeks talking all the time but it was not till September 25th that I finally agreed to go out with him. He had been asking me out for the entire month. Never in my life had I had someone who truly wanted to be around me like that. Even past boyfriends were not like that.

Our first date was "not a date" at least thats what I kept telling myself. I went over to his home in Orem and later we went to Los Hermanos and then came back to his house to watch some Arrested Development that I had brought with me. Our date ended abruptly when my ex-whatever he was called to tell me about my other ex-whatever he was. I got flustered and left. I really wish I had not left that night. But I guess the ending of this story is not a tragic one...

On our second date I told him every tragic thing that I could think of and about all the horrid guys I had dated. Keep in mind the depressive attitude I was trying to get out of at the time but was still in... I sound like a psycho. In my head however I figured, I better run him off now because he will be like everyone else and let me down and it will end.

All he said when I was done talking for what seemed like 3 hours straight was "I am glad you told me because it helps me know that I need to earn your trust and go slow." It was so sweet and I couldn't stand it.

On our third date I met his parents. I remember thinking... "this is taking it slow?"

I kissed him within the first week of our first date. I took charge on that one and drove up to a park called Big Springs. Its one of my favorite hiking spots in Provo. We were listening to Elliott Smith and I told him I was "going to be brave." The thought going through my head was, I am not kissing another jerk... He has to be the last person I kiss. Must have been a charm or something.

He told me he loved me first. I remember the moment, not the day. I can't remember if I said it back even. I just know when he said it, he actually meant it.

How we got engaged a little more than a month later, I have no idea, I guess due to all the previous events! We started talking about marriage in October and I was like holy moly ok but we must be crazy! We said that we would get engaged in December and married in May. Well we got engaged on Halloween and are getting married June 28th.

I am so thankful for the way things have turned out for us. I am thankful that we don't have pushy parents that try and force us to do things their way. I knew getting married in December was way too soon for us and I am glad I listened to that prompting. I don't know how I would have managed the first month of marriage with my pseudotumor and health problems like they were.

So now on our honeymoon we will be celebrating lots of things:
1) Our Marriage
2) The end of our 8 month engagement!
3) My birthday
4) Our 1 year anniversary of knowing each other (and Independence Day)

It will be a great week and I can't wait till we are on our honeymoon and away from my general daily worries! I have realized with my wedding that it doesn't matter if I lose weight or not (because every bride wants to), it doesn't matter if everything appears to be perfect... All that matters is that I am committing my life and love to Daniel and he is committing his life and love to me!

12 Days to Go

I am not nervous for one second to marry Daniel! I am not nervous about our future or our ability to live together and love each other everyday! I am however nervous for wedding itself. Its not going to be perfect, something will happen and hopefully for the most part it will go by and be an enjoyable couple of days!

4 Dollar Walmart Find

Ok I usually don't "brag" about a 4 dollar walmart find... It makes me feel kinda like a "crazy" or something but who is to say I'm not...

Anyway, if you are at all like me you will appreciate this! I have had this ring for almost 9 months now and because of my own choosing the ring is not a thin band, its a very thick wide band that shows off every scratch and scuff and dirt mark... I have not been able to find a great way to clean my ring, even though know I know they are out there. I was going to breakdown and buy whatever they sell at my jewelers in some big bottle to clean my ring but while in Walmart I mentioned this "problem" to my roommate Mary and her being a connoisseur of jewelry recommended this 4 dollar cloth!

To my brilliant surprise it shined my ring up better than anything else, it was quick, fast, cheap and no mess!

This is my rant for today!

Finished our Annoucements

I am not sure what the final count ended up being but I somehow pulled the last 20 our of no where tonight! Anyway they are done, this is a scanned image of one, I played with the color but I got tired and didn't fix the names on the scanned copy (the invites look normal lol)... Arizona's and random states went out Tuesday I think and we are holding onto Utah ones for a little while longer...

My Wedding Dress is Almost finished!

Update

I am way to busy for my own good...

Lately I have:

1) Been planning our wedding
2) Making invitations
3) Being sick
4) Losing things
5) Skipping work due to illness, stress, anxiety, looming death
6) Trying to do one Spring class
7) Painting in my spare time (pottery, canvas)
8) Scrapbooking

Ok I totally don't have time for those last two but I really enjoy doing them.

Anyway I need to get my new debit card, I need to organize my wedding budget, I need to organize my personal budget...

This is hardly a new post... but simply a check list of things I need to or do not need to do!

Things not to do: Do NOT do other crap that distracts me from a) School b) Work or c) Wedding... (all though I like to do those three things in the order of Wedding, Work, School

39 more FREAKING DAYS then I get a vacation, and I get married, and then I turn 22!!!!

ps buy double A's for wireless mouse

Engagement Photos

Here is a very very brief sample of some of our engagement photos... We took about a million and ended up with close to 100 fantastic shots! These are just some I quickly pulled out, not even including all of my favorites!

Wedding Planning

Yay for wedding planning. Today I got the chance to run a bunch of errands... We got:

1) The food ordered
2) The cake ordered
3) The flowers for the cake topper ordered
4) Took a swatch of red fabric to the florist for Gerbera Daisies
5) Met with Kirsten at the Secret Garden and planned out the reception layout as well as the wedding layout.
6) Got some fabric like Allyson had for her food table to use on ours because it was so cute!

Hair color

Dyed my hair before engagement photos this weekend... Its a little darker than I thought it would be but I like it. YA

Spring Classes

Although they are only approximately 7 weeks they are especially hard (for me) because it means I am sitting in class till almost 8:30 on Tuesday and Thursday.

Today was especially hard after slamming my head (accidentally) into a door. It hurt a lot. It was very loud. My manager that I don't like was sitting about 15 feet away in his cubicle and failed to acknowledge or ask what the very loud crash was. I picked my self up, got through the door and doubled over in the hallway in pain. It was fun.

ARIZONA in 4 days!!!

I am so excited to go home on Friday because I get to:

1) See my family!
2) Meet adorable JACE!
3) Go to Allyson and Jons FABULOUS wedding!
4) Get my and Daniels Engagement photos taken by the amazing Kate Lane!
5) See my friends and extended family!
6) Meet with Cake Lady, Flower Lady, and Caterer!
7) See my dog!
8) Sleep in my bed!
9) HAVE BAHAMA BUCKS (Seriously my favorite thing ever is there kalua coffee shaved ice... I will probably be getting it daily!)
10) We get to fly on a plane and NOT drive 10 hours!
11) Dan gets to have in and out... not that exciting for me but he is super excited about it.

PS I love Daniel

As a counter act of the last post I think it would be good for me to talk about the blessings in my life (just to name a few):

1) I have an amazing and strong mother who has done so much for me and my brothers.

2) I am marrying my best friend who loves me, trusts me, lifts me up, makes me better, and so much more.

3) I have a very giving father who has been so good to me despite my often expressions of stress and bratty behavior.

4) I am marrying into an amazing family. I could not be more blessed that Dan's parents and siblings are honest genuine interesting and loving people!

5) I am so lucky my brothers have decided to be with AMAZING women! My sister in laws (and Kirsten!) have been such helps to me and I appreciate them so much. Its also so nice to have girls to talk to my wedding stuff about and help out so much!

6) I have amazing friends! New and old! I have gotten a great opportunity to live with an old roommate and co worker Mary before I get married these last 2 months and she is fantastic! Also all of my friends I have known for most of my life who are so supportive and sweet to me!

7) I get to graduate from BYU in less than a year!

8) I have a loving and understanding bishop as well as great professors who did not hold it against me that I could not attend school for the first month of the semester!

9) Finally I am thankful for my sight and my health. After what happened to me at the end of last year/start of this year I have been faced with some very scary health issues that at one point left me in the blurry cross eyed dark. I am doing better and have regained my sight and hope for continued health!