Remote for the Weekends!

So I really wish I owned a remote that controlled time.  That way I could fast forward through the week and play the weekend in slow motion. Then rewind back to Friday and play through Sunday a couple times before fast forwarding through the next week! :)  But really my weeks aren’t that bad and I’m grateful for the experiences I have (even the bad times) because then I have something to compare the awesome moments to!  This past weekend John and I had some grand adventures.

My friends and I try to hang out at least once a month to stay connected, So on Friday night we were able to go over to my friend Casey and her husband John’s house for dinner and games. We decided to have an Italian Potluck dinner, to which I said I would bring dessert.  The plan was to bring some delicious homemade DuPaix family dessert….. but we ended up bringing Fun-dip candy (that we had received as a wedding gift) and store bought cookie dough (leftover from the honeymoon).  So much for being prepared, but people seemed to enjoy it!   After dinner we played “The Game of Things.” In the game a card is read saying something like “Things you shouldn’t do with glue.”  Next everyone writes down their answer anonymously and then one person reads the answers and everyone takes turns guessing who said what.  Well the game is great for small groups, but it turned out to be a little bit hectic with so many people there.  So after a couple rounds of playing the regular way, we decided to just change the rules and vote on which response was the most hilarious.  After the game was over John, Brittany, Jared, and I kept quoting Megamind and talking about how funny it was.  So since we were just kind of chillin’ eating gummy bears and cookies we decided that we should just go buy the movie and watch it.  Some of you may be skeptical because it is an animated movie, but John and I laughed so much during it.  I highly recommend it. So go watch it. Tonight.  Oh one other thing that happened that I was super impressed with was the fact that my friend Meagan drove up to IDAHO to pick up our other friend Patience and her husband Corey so that they could come to the get-together.  One day I hope to be as self-less as that girl!  Way to go Meg! :)     

On Saturday, John had to work early in the morning, but I had the glorious privilege of sleeping in till 9.  When John got home we woke up my little brother Stephen and went down to American Fork to help move my brother Joe and his family to their new house.  I felt kind of bad because we got there later than everyone else, so we kind of just helped with the tail end of things.  While we moved things from the first house to the next we tried to listen to as much as possible of the BYU vs SDSU basketball game.  Ever since Sloan and Williams left the Jazz, John has kind of abandoned the NBA and put all his interest into the NCAA and BYU aka Jimmer Fever.  Anyway, we ended up listening to most of the game, but we were able to watch the last 5 minutes at my house.  After the game we babysat some of the nieces and nephews for a while and then just relaxed at home.  Sometimes it’s good to just do nothing.  Later that night we went over to John’s Dad’s house and got some Panda Express before going to watch his little brother Kyle’s basketball game.  The game was pretty good. Kyle played well and their team won.  However, the game was pretty intense with some of the calls the ref’s were making.  I for one am not a big fan of confrontation, so when the parents started yelling I just got all of these knots in my stomach… even when I knew the parents were right.  But really near the end of the game there really were some ridiculous calls.  There was one call where the boy from the other team basically tackled one of Kyle’s teammates and as they fell to the ground the ball the only call the referee made was that the ball went out of bounds due to the other team.  John pretty much lost it after that call.  Good times.  All I can say is I’m glad Kyle’s team won, or else some of those parents would have gone crazy! 

After church on Sunday we went up to John’s sister Jenny’s house for dinner.  Her and her husband made some delicious twice-baked potatoes and meatballs and we had some good times.  After dinner we went up to Bountiful to sing at a fireside for This Is The Place.  We did two songs, “Nearer my God to Thee” and “God be with you till we meet again.” Things went well and it was fun seeing some of the singers we haven’t seen for a couple months.  Overall it was a great weekend and it makes me excited for the next one!    

So blogging is going to help make me start taking more pictures which is a good thing, but unfortunately I guess I haven’t learned that quite yet…. But lucky for you we received our wedding pictures from our photographer, so here are a couple of them if you haven’t seen them on facebook yet :)

   

Time to Blog?

For the past couple years I noticed this pattern that when my friends would get married they would generally start up a blog.  Because of this I kind of told myself that once I was married I would do the same... So here I am, blogging :)

To start things out, I wanted to type out the history of John and I.... which is kind of long.  I'm not going to lie, it's probably more for our records rather than an entertaining post for everyone else so sorry if this is long and boring haha!

John and I met back in 2006 at Snow College.  The first time I noticed John was when I was trying to finish up some Music History homework during our A cappella choir class.  I was hiding behind the second to last row in choir madly scribbling notes to be turned in when John (who was sitting in the back row) got my attention and asked me who I was and what I was doing.  After I told him the situation he began teasing me and telling me that the choir director was walking up the center aisle and was about to catch me.  John teased me throughout the entire class, but luckily I was able to finish in time.  Our friendship grew and a couple weeks after that experience I began sitting next to John in the back row of A cappella every day!  We were basically rebels and would do things like play Monopoly instead of practice the songs.  After a couple of months we began dating.

In the summer of 2007 John left to serve a mission in Riverside, California.  I promised him I would write, but we agreed that we weren't going to "wait" for one another or anything like that.  That Fall I transferred up to Utah State to start my degree in Music Therapy.  John and I wrote letters, sent pictures, and exchanged tapes throughout his mission, but definitely more frequently the second year than the first (which he likes to give me a hard time about).

When John returned home in 2009, he decided to finish up his Associates of Science Degree in Ephraim and I still had a year left of school up at Utah State in Logan.  So after discussing different options we decided to pick up were we left off and try our hand in having a long distance relationship.  In my opinion going through that long distance relationship was 10 times harder than our engagement.  However we were able to talk on the phone everyday and enjoyed spending as many weekends as possible together.

By the summer of 2010, with the exception of John doing a semester down at UVU, we were able to start seeing each other daily.  We both worked up at This Is The Place heritage park so that was a good opportunity to hang out together while also earning money!  That Fall I started my Music Therapy internship at Hartvigsen school and John started working on his Nursing Pre-Reqs at SLCC.

On September 30, 2010 John proposed to me and what a joyful day that was!  I had no idea John even had the ring so I was very surprised.  Throughout our courtship I explained to John that when he proposed he had to do it in an exciting way so I could tell people an awesome story when they asked... The awesome story goes as follows:
The Monday before John proposed he asked me if I wanted to go on a double date in Provo.  The plan was to drive down and meet up with his friend Jeff, so we left Salt Lake around 4:00 p.m.  As we were driving, we talked about what we did that day and tried to make some plans for the weekend so our conversation was pretty normal, but one thing John was sure to discuss was that he wanted to go visit our Alma Mater some time before we got married (while he still knew people down there).
As we got closer to Provo, John stated that he should probably call Jeff and see where they wanted to meet up and it was a good thing he did.  It turned out that Jeff's teacher had assigned him a "huge project" that was to be done for the following day and he didn't think he would be able to make it on the date.  John tried to convince Jeff to come anyway, but after he hung up he explained to me that we could do what we were planning on doing without Jeff and his date.  John's brother also lived in Provo at the time, so we decided to call him and see if he could hang out since Jeff had "bailed" on us.  When Brian answered the phone he had "bad reception" and could barely understand what John was saying.  After John was yelling and trying to get the message across, Brian told us he had choir stuff and was pretty much booked for the night, but if we tried to call back later he might be able to fit us into his schedule.  So we left it at that and continued driving.  As we got closer to Provo John "missed" our exit.  I pointed it out and we laughed and he said he was spacing out and we could catch the next one.  I agreed, but then after half a minute John said "Or should we just go to Ephraim tonight?"  I looked at the clock and since it was only 4:30 I agreed that we had the time, we should just do it.  So we drove to Ephraim instead of Provo!
With the exception of our detour, John was still acting pretty "normal."  When we got to Ephraim we decided to start off my going to Fat Jacks and getting some delicious Pizza and Fat Sticks (cheesy breadsticks aka best things ever).  While we ate, there was a basketball game playing on the TV in the corner of the restaurant so instead of doing something romantic like reminiscing about all our fond college memories, we sat next to each other and watched the game. (Which, don't get me wrong, I was totally ok with this and it helped add to the element of surprise.)  After dinner I wanted to go to the music building, but John had been trying to get a hold of his roommate Spencer, so we decided to go find him first.  We started out by checking out the brand new library.  As we explored, there was no sign of Spencer, but there was another boy that John recognized that we talked to for a bit before continuing on our search.  After we left the library, John got a txt from telling him where he and Spencer could meet up.  So we then made our way to one of Residence Halls where some of John's friends from his last year's Ultimate Frisbee team were living.  A couple of people were all there eating some pizza, so we stayed around and they reminisced about the good times of last year and different experiences, including the time that a girl knocked out her tooth by hitting John's elbow... different story....  Anyway after we talked with them for a while, it was starting to get later, so we decided to head out to the music building for our last event in Ephraim.  When we got there we realized that there was some sort of play or show going on in the theater side, nevertheless we decided to explore the building and reminisce.  As we walked around we decided to see if the door was open to get on the roof.  So one thing led to another and we sneakingly went to the basement of the building.  It was kind of a frightening journey because we were afraid of backstage people from the show, but we figured that was the reason all the doors were open to get on to the roof.  However the final door to get up there was wide open so before we went up we got nervous that someone was up there already.  But we went for it anyway!!!
John went up first and looked around, but no one was there, so he told me to hurry and come up.  When I got up there I turned around to go look out over the edge, but john pulled me back, kneeled down on one knee, held up the ring and asked if I would marry him!  I was so shocked!!  I kept repeating "Really?  Are you Serious? Are you Serious?"  Finally after a minute of repeating that, I realized that I needed to give him an answer.  It was pitch black on the roof, so after I helped John figure out which finger to put the ring on I hugged him and said "Yes, Yes, Yes!" and we lived Happily Ever After.            

John and I were married on February 5th, 2011.  We had a perfect wedding and our first 2 weeks of marriage have been fabulous!

Congrats on making it through our first post, I guarantee my posts won't all be this long :)