I can see Clearly now

Guess who joined the many thousands of contact wearers? This girl! That's right, I can finally see clearly all the time. Let me tell you, that is a fantastic thing. In all honesty, I probably should've been wearing contacts or my glasses all the time a while ago.

It's been an adjustment that's for sure. I can totally feel something in my eye but it's only bothering my lower eyelid. And let's not talk about putting my contacts in. Holy cow that's hard! I have absolutely no problem touching my eyes, but coming straight at my eye is kind of freaky. I think it took 2 or 3 times just to get my contacts in before church today.

In other news, we went to the temple this weekend and did some sealings, and guess who we saw? My old roommate Cassie Gardner (Hancock now) and her husband! Super random because I haven't seen her in over 3 years! It was a fun surprise!

Back to homework now. New week and more homework than I have time for. Should be fun :]

Cool little happening of the day

Dan and some of the other salesman took their lunch break and went to do Initiatories at the temple today. Well on their way out, guess who they saw....Jimmer Fredette and his beautiful new bride taking pictures. Too cool. He even said that one of them got to hold some of the flowers while they were setting up for some pictures. Cool cool cool.

Oh...and one of my great friends Megan Haymore got married to Marcus Fenn today too. What a wonderful day for wedded-ness! That's not even a word, whatever. Oh and to top off all this wedded bliss, I'm going to a reception tonight for another friend here in Denver.

Bring on the sunshine and bring on the good times...and the weddings!

Dumpage

So don't mind my absentee blog writerness. Let's just say school has been slightly challenging, I started a new job that I really do enjoy, and life is just peachy keen. But...here's some picture's that have just been itching to get off my phone. Enjoy. 

Dan went on a manager's retreat a couple of month's ago that was in Heber. They stayed at this legit cabin and the company had rented the cabin through Saturday night, so Dan came home, picked me up, and we stayed Saturday night at the cabin with Allister and Maria and their boys and Nate and Brayden. It was pretty entertaining and a nice little getaway from Provo for the night. We drove around a little bit on Sunday morning and saw these deer up on the hill! It was pretty exciting!!

Arizona trip President's day weekend. Finally home again, to the place where I belong. I've missed this place and getting to see it all the time. Never thought I'd miss that one horse town, but all it took was to see that temple rolling into town and I was home again.

Two favorite boys on their birthday with yellow cake cupcakes and chocolate frosting per Dan's request. Love them both. (PS. just in case anyone is confused...this is  my nephew)

We watch Kason every Wednesday night, and a couple of weeks ago it was just he and I. Dan was in Idaho. So Kason took my phone and was taking pictures of everything in his house. Then I started taking pictures of him making faces. This one is a personal fav of mine. Definitely going to miss this little spit fire when they move to Germany.

AZ trip: Ben and Tassy's wedding reception. They lit off Chinese lanterns! Just like in Tangled!! It looked so cool. Camera's just can't quite capture what the human eye can see.

December ish...our floor was leaking water. When the toilet would flush. SICK!!! It took almost a week to fix. Thankfully, it's fixed...and has been for quite some time. It was super weird when we figured it out and then to try and explain it to any plumber we called...yeah that was fun too.

More toilet water disgustingness. PS. This was leaking into our kitchen. SICK!!!! I think I went through a whole thing of bleach cleaning the kitchen.

I think this is the perfect shampoo for me! Straightener...you have met your match!

Valentine's Day Dinner. Love my honey. He was so sweet and surprised me with a bear at work and then had this romantic dinner all prepared when I got home from work. <3

He's so cute!

I got this note today when I came home from work. I absolutely love him a lot a lot a lot.

Buffalo Wild Wings for Dan's birthday. We waited an hour and a half before we even sat down! The line was RIDICULOUS!! I can't even believe we honestly waited that long...for WINGS!!!!!

I still can't decide if this was a good decision or not. Haha the color is growing on me more and more.

Mid-hole pulling through. Dan was so good to pull my hairs through.

The blonde mess....I looked like white trash. Ghettooooo fabulous. I think it's toned down a lot from then. But then again, maybe I'm just getting used to it. Oh dear.

One thing I WISH I could have gotten a picture of...so my birth control prescription jumped from $25 a month to $85, and let's be real, who can afford that? Certainly not me. So I did the only thing a BYU college student with ghetto fabulous hair trying not to get pregnant can do...I went to planned parenthood and got me a new prescription...and for $18 a month!! Woot woot. But there was this awkward clear uterus that was in the exam room to advertise/display/I'm not really sure for nuva ring. I wish I could have taken a picture of that. But...alas some things are just not meant for photographs.

It's been an interesting...and fun couple of months. 6 weeks left of school and then off to Denver!!! I'm so so excited for the summer. I'll have time for the gym, time to lay out poolside, oh...and time to blog. That's always a good thing to write my life out, at least somewhat.

2011...what you were all about

January: I went back to school at EA to start my last semester there. I had no idea where I was going to go after that, but I knew I was graduating that semester.

February: Things got pretty serious between Dan and I. We knew we were going to get married, just not when or any of those other minor details. I also applied to BYU. It was pretty much the only option I had left. ASU's nursing program was just a numbers game, and I couldn't count on that. So I applied.

March: We got engaged!!! That's right! We were getting married. Then commenced the insufferable wedding planning. Just kidding, it really wasn't bad, mostly because I didn't care. Sorry Mom!! We went wedding dress shopping over spring break and found the perfect dress!

April: I found out I got into BYU...so after Texas we were headed to Provo. School was winding down for the semester, and I think it finally started to hit me that I would really miss Thatcher.

May: I went through the temple for my own endownments. That was such a special day for both of us. I loved every minute of it. Actually I was pretty violently sick 3 days before...like throwing up and peeing out my bum (sorry for the visual). So I didn't really eat anything and my mom was all freaked out I would pass out during the temple ceremony.
Oh...and we got married...and moved to Texas, where it's hotter than Satan's balls....and gradumacated from EAC. Woot woot!!

June: May was pretty busy, and June was a nice month of relaxation. I got to be great friends with Jaynee, and I'm so grateful that we did become friends. Oh and I got a wicked tan. I guess that Texas sun and heat is good for something.

July: Fourth of July bbq with Edge, and more of Dan selling door to door. Still had a wicked tan. It was awesome.

August: Jaynee left Texas so she could hang out in Pima, and LEAVE ME...but mostly so that Izzee girl could come whenever she decided to. The A/C went out in the car. We were sweating our little hineys off anywhere we went. We had to replace an engine mount on the car...and then everything worked perfectly!! Seriously, we found the best mechanic that fixed our car for a screamin deal!! But on the brighter side of things, we did get GREAT gas mileage while the A/C was out. I left to come to Provo and started school the last week in August.

September: You sucked. I was alone. It was awful. But on the brighter side (again) I started watching Kason once a week while Jami was at institute, and that was actually pretty fun. He definitely kept me on my toes. I also had class with Caitlin twice a week, and that was always entertaining. Then Dan came home!!! Woo hoo!! HAPPY HAPPY DAY!!!

October: General Conference was awesome! Loved it. Halloween was awesome at Jeni's house! Oh and I found out I got into the nursing program at BYU!!

November: Thanksgiving!! It was so good to see my family again. They came up for Thanksgiving and we had it with the Kimball side of the family. Black Friday shopping...at 10am. So much better than 4am.

December: The long (actually short) haul to finals. Finals. Shoot me. School's out!! And our very first Christmas together. I still have to blog about that. It was awesome though. I love it. And tonight is New Years Eve. Pretty excited about that!!

2011 has been wonderful. I learned a lot about myself as a person, and as a friend, especially adapting to the marriage relationship. It's been a learning experience, but an enjoyable and exciting one. And it can only up from here.

The Devirgination Vacation

The much needed update. The title is for Abbie. It's all her fault I even thought of calling this blog post that. Anyway, back on point.

Finished school and finals, like an absolute crazy person, and was all moved out and packed out of my apartment and driving home at 7 am Wednesday morning. Needless to say, I was pretty much a zombie. I ran a bunch of errands with my mom, picking up/out odds and ends for decorating and getting the flowers and such. And of course the manicure/pedicure! So relaxing and much needed! Dan got to my house later that night and we got a few things together before hitting the sack.

We had to be up by 4 and out the door by 430 on Thursday to be out in south Gilbert to take bridals/wedding pictures. I didn't want to take a million pictures the day of the wedding around the temple and stuff so we did all of it the day before. Now, when I don't get enough sleep I'm super hyper and usually in a pretty good mood, so picture taking was so fun! And my photographer (BrieAnna, Four Six photography--totally recommend her! She's awesome and so fun and talented!!) was absolutely hilarious. She even had a mountain dew for me!

The first place we started at was with a horse in an alfalfa field at literally the crack of dawn. The guy whose property it was thought we were getting married that day (small lie...doesn't hurt anyone right?) and that BrieAnna and I were sisters. Too funny. But anyway he was way chill and let us take pictures with his horse Jack, who was gorgeous! Side note: I was honestly slightly terrified of Jack. Mostly because he's HUGE and because if anything should go wrong, well I can't exactly out run a horse and especially not in a freaking wedding dress! But the pictures came out beautiful.

Then we went just around the corner to a fancy shmancy custom homes development. The back fence wasn't quite finished so we walked in and there's a grove of trees that were all in rows and it was pretty much beautiful! Especially for Arizona!

We went to the front of the development and the little office type thing that would have a security guard or something in it was so awesome!!

Then it was off to the temple and we took some more there and then headed to Denny's for breakfast afterwards.

We went back to my house and started setting up the tables and chairs for the reception. I was seriously so excited and relieved that it was almost over. Then maybe life wouldn't be so crazy anymore.

Friday morning, I woke up around 6, took a shower and blow dried my hair then headed out to get my hair done at 745. The lady that did my hair said she was so surprised I was on time because most brides are like a half hour late and they expect to still leave on time. Well I told her I didn't have time to be late so I made sure I was on time, haha. Then my parents and I headed out to the temple to be there by 1015.

We walked in and sat in a little waiting room waiting for Dan to get there. We had gotten there probably 10 minutes early, but he was 20 minutes late!! I was getting progressively more and more upset as the minutes ticked by. Eventually he came around the corner and I was so happy he was there but so peeved that he was late at the same time--a very complicated emotional time. Anyway, everything went great and we were both grinning from ear to ear. The sealing was absolutely wonderful! Everyone there was smiling, though I'm sure none of them were as happy as Dan and I were. As we walked out, I felt like I could finally breathe. We'd made it. We'd finally made it. Granted we have a LONG road ahead of us, but we'd made it to the most important moment of our lives up to that point. It took 3 tries to actually walk out of the temple doors, but we walked out, and took a huge group picture and then headed over to the luncheon.

It was so fun to see all our friends that had come to Phoenix to be there for us and support us. After the luncheon we headed back to the hotel and killed probably 3 hours and took a nap! Seriously, no sleep in the last week and it was killing us!! The reception was absolutely beautiful and it was perfect. There wasn't anything I would have changed. I danced with my daddy, and then my husband, and then through the bouquet. Then all of us (our group of friends) were all dancing to the different songs that were playing. It was so fun. We left for the hotel that night through a tunnel of SPARKLERS!!! I can't wait to see what those pictures turned out like! We left, then realized we didn't have any food so we drove around the corner and back to my house, grabbed some food, and then left.

The night was ours. And it was beautiful, and absolutely worth waiting for.

The next day, we went back to my house for brunch, opened up all our presents, separated what we were keeping and returns, then packed up the car and headed down to Sierra Vista. Well the Phoenix reception went off pretty well, not too many problems, but let's just say Sierra Vista just went not as planned. As soon as everyone was there, it was totally fine, but we left a little late, and then my parents left even later and then got stuck behind an accident!! Dan and I both felt sick after we got there and its probably because we hadn't eaten an honest meal in 3 days, but you do what you've gotta do.

So we showed up to the reception 5 minutes before it started and so did my parents. So that worked out conveniently. The food was absolutely delicious! Teriyaki sticks, kalua pig and rice. So delicious. We danced to the Hawaiian wedding song, which was beautiful. I met so many people who kept telling me what a great guy he is, and it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who thinks so! His auntie danced the hula for us, and seriously I cannot move my hips that well at all. Like it's practically a sin how well she can move!

There were more friends that came to the Sierra Vista reception and it was so great to see them too! We took lots of pictures and it made me sad just because we're all going separate ways. After being together for two years, we're moving on and in different directions. They're the friends that you hope so desperately you stay friends with forever. They're that awesome and that special. We've already planned a 5 year reunion back in good ole Thatcher. Hopefully that works out.

Saturday night we stayed in Bisbee at the Copper Queen Hotel. Seriously old hotel, but super cool. We had breakfast the next morning there and then drove around Bisbee for a few minutes, got quite a siteful of the hippies, and then headed back to Sierra Vista and opened all our presents, ate some more lunch/breakfast.

We left Sierra Vista and headed off on the long road to Texas. We stayed in Van Horn over night then headed out to Austin. Oh and side note for anyone traveling to Texas, they're 2 hours ahead. Yeah, so we got in around 1 am. This time zone thing is still throwing me a little bit and I have to be careful when I text my sister or call my mom and make sure its not 6 am or something crazy like that!

Anyway, we made it to Texas on Monday and then found out we didn't have furniture. Well it's okay for the first night right? Try the first four nights. I was pissed. Then we finally got furniture and our apartment actually felt like home. And so far, things are great. Definitely getting a job though. I get way too bored just hanging out all day long!

But I love it. It's absolutely beautiful. It's so green and lush and there's actually trees! The humidity isn't too bad either. And basically, I love being married!!

CHECK IT OFF THE LIST

YESSIREE!! I FINALLY DID IT! I registered for classes at BYU. Seriously, I've been putting it off forever and mostly because I didn't want to and I couldn't figure out their dang website! I was cursing BYU for the last week and a half because their registration website is so anti-user friendly. It's awful. Like, they should probably consider writing an instruction manual to navigate it. Don't worry though, I figured it out. And now I'm all registered. Hollaaa!!

So...back when I said I was cursing BYU, I wasn't joking. Haha I told my parents this weekend that in retaliation, I was going to walk around campus in a University of Utah shirt.

They think it's quite possibly suicide. I like to live life dangerously. Bahaha.

So I met with Bishop today and now have a legit temple recommend!! Oh snap! Now it's just on to the stake president's interview and then to the temple!! Wahoo I'm soo excited!

Oh and Abbie finally came home from a forever long weekend!! We even had a welcome home party for her and we each had cute little signs with nice things written on them about her. Pretty much, she was scared to death and the look on her face was hilarious when we all yelled surprise as she opened the door. HIL-A-RI-OUS!

ANDDDD...on and even GREATER note: Dan got new glasses today. Let's just say he looks HOT. Oh man! Good thing we're getting married.