Just another week...

So the big news at our place is I passed my Music Therapy test last week!  It was pretty exciting :)  John also finished his last week of classes and now only has a couple finals to take.  So after about Wednesday, it's basically summer for us.   
     Other than school stuff and normal work, John and I have been doing some odd jobs for some of my siblings.  For the past couple weeks we were trying to sell my brothers iPhone on KSL, and after some creepy phone calls and bad offers, we finally got a decent price for it from a buyer who was willing to pay cash!  We also moved a bed from one of my brother's houses to another brother's house.  We thought the move wouldn't be a big deal seeing as we could just use John's dad's truck.  However once we got over to my first brother's house we realized that the bed they wanted us to move was Queen size with a giant head and foot board...  So with the shell on the back of John's truck, that wasn't going to happen.  My sister-in-law actually ended up calling some guy in her ward and we borrowed his truck for the move.  John and my brother tied everything down with an extension cord, and some other random rope, which made me pretty nervous about driving 70 on the freeway...  John said I was just super paranoid, but in my mind I just envisioned us hitting a bump, having the big head and foot boards slide out the side of the truck, and crash landing on some old guy's brand new mercedes.  But no worries, nothing that traumatic happened, and we delivered the bed safely.   
     On Saturday we had a training for This is the Place.  John and I have just agreed to help with treks and youth group stuff so that hopefully we can get most of our income from normal jobs.  At the meeting it was kind of fun because John and I knew everyone in the room from the trek crew last year and the Christmas choir.  So basically it was more of a reunion for us rather than a training.  
     This coming Sunday John and I have been asked to speak in church.  We were hoping that because it's Mothers Day that there had been a mistake in the assignment.  However after clarifying things again with the 1st counselor, we're still on.  Because of work, John hasn't been able to attend the full length of church on Sundays, but because we're speaking, he's getting work off! It'll be so nice to have him there the entire time.  I also got a new calling in the ward... it's actually a really random one.  Basically they want me to be an "on the spot" substitute teacher for the Primary.  I guess they've been having issues with the teachers not finding subs when they are unable to come to church, so we'll see how that goes. 


Sorry no pictures this week :( 

Birthdays, Babies, and Haircuts

Last week was John’s Birthday and with the help of his family we gave him a little surprise party the night before the big day.  Everyone got together at the Southwick’s house and John had no idea.  I felt like I almost ruined the surprise because I was the first to open the door and I didn’t realize he had turned to throw something away, but luckily he said it was fine and the nieces and nephews were smart enough to wait a minute before shouting surprise.  I wish I had taken pictures at the party, I didn’t even think about it.  We ate pizza, did presents, and I made better than sex cake.  It my first attempt at the dessert, but with my mom’s help it turned out really well!  On John’s birthday he was able to get work off and doesn’t have school on Tuesdays, so he was so excited to be able to sleep in.  After we finally got up, we went shopping for some new shirts for John.  He really wanted a red, plaid, short sleeve, button up shirt (it was very specific) and after going to the mall and different stores in Jordan Landing we finally found the perfect shirt at Old Navy.  Along with the perfect shirt he also got a blue t-shirt to wear with his summer shorts for only 5 bucks!  We’re big spenders :)

For the past couple years (well the years we’ve been together on our birthdays) we have made it a tradition to go to Wingers to celebrate.  Reason 1: because it’s delicious.  Reason 2: because they give their birthday guests free ice cream pie.  Reason 3: because usually they give each of us a piece of free pie because we’re both celebrating our birthdays.  So we went to Wingers for dinner and got our free desserts and basically I was so stuffed by the end I wanted to go pass out.  Anyway after dinner we went with John’s dad to buy him some new black Sunday Shoes (his old pair had a hole in the bottom).  He got a pair of Ecco’s on clearance, which he said were super comfortable and was excited about.  His dad thought they were a little too casual for church, but John promised that if he ever got called as Bishop he would buy a more formal pair.   

The last presents John got on his birthday were 3 awesome laundry baskets….  Yeah remember how I said we’re big spenders? Haha, really the reason I got them is because John LOVES the square laundry baskets at his Dad’s house, and lets face it with me doing my 40-hour a week internship he was doing the laundry for our family.  So I thought it would be a funny/useful gift.  John said he liked them… but I think he was probably hoping for something a little more exciting than laundry baskets from me.  Maybe next year...     

My older sister Jeannie just had her 4^th child.  His name is Eli and he was born on April 4^th.  Haha, 4^th on the 4^th… I just realized that.  Anyway the reason I’m telling you about it is because since she had the baby I’ve taken on some of her roles.  Basically I’m teaching her primary class every other Sunday and I’m being a substitute piano teacher for some of her students.  Things have gone pretty good.  I think I was most nervous about the piano part, but after the first week the nerves have settled down a lot.  I think the hardest part about being a substitute piano teacher is probably not knowing what boundaries to set with the students… mostly because I don’t want to conflict with what Jeannie has been focusing on.  Plus with the location change and different piano and all that, I feel like sometimes I go really easy on the students…. oh well, hopefully their still progressing somewhat!

Last but not least, I cut off 10 INCHES of my hair!  Most people I talk to really like it.  I waited to put the news on facebook and the blog for a while because I really like seeing people’s reactions.  So if you want I guess you can still tell me your reactions, unless you’re going to tell me I look like a 10-year-old like my sister Angi did. 

Right Before

One Week After

I wish I would have gotten better before shots, but I figure I already have plenty.  

Like this one!

Random Engagement Shot :)

Straight Hair!

My hair hasn’t been this short since probably… 2004-ish?  But I was ready for a change :)  The things I'm most excited about include:

1. All the dead, dry, ends are gone.
2. Taking the time to do my hair has decreased dramatically.
3. It's fresh and gives me a new start.
4. It still fits in a pony-tail.
5. It'll be really nice for the summer :)

Internship Excitement!

So these past couple weeks life have been INSANELY BUSY!  So lets recap some exciting things that have happened…. First things first:

I’M DONE WITH MY INTERNSHIP!!!!

(which might be obvious looking at this giant post)

Yes there were days when I thought it would never happen, and now that it has I can’t believe it!  The last couple days at school I ran all of the sessions (usually Alison, Meg, and I take turns)…. Which was a just a little bit tiresome, but definitely necessary for the situation.   My last session was a “goodbye session” in order to explain to everyone what was going on and why they wouldn’t be seeing me anymore.  Basically what I did was talked about the different emotions I was feeling (happy, sad, excited, proud, disbelieving, and curious) and we sang a song correlating with each one.   I also made paper faces to display what these emotions tend to look like when people are feeling them and talked about when the students might feel them in their normal school day. 

Finishing didn’t really feel like finishing… I think the reason behind that was because I was the only who was leaving.  Everyone else at school was just in their normal routine and all have to go back to school on Monday (tee, hee, hee).  One exciting thing that happened on my last day was one of the classes made me a big sign saying good luck and surprised me with cup cakes!  The ladies who help run that class are fantastic and really gave me my second wind for these last months.  They basically love me and are trying to get the principal to hire on a 2^nd Music Therapist in order to keep me on the staff…  and although that would be awesome, I highly doubt they have the funds for that position… but who knows, maybe I’ll get a call from them in the next couple weeks! 

On the last day of the internship I had to do a short presentation about the case study I’ve been working on for about 3 months (basically half my internship).  I was nervous to do the presentation because my client for the case study’s parents were coming to watch and I hadn’t practiced presenting very much because of everything else I had to do.  Before the presentation, the other therapists at the school were doing a pot-luck lunch, so I brought some lettuce for the sandwiches. Since the lunch was literally right before the presentation, I took my food to go, and headed back to the music therapy room where I could eat and practice the presentation alone. Anyway the presentation came and went with minimal flaws and I was pretty happy with how I did….  However after the day was over and I got in the car to drive home, I made an excited face in my rearview mirror to express the feeling of driving home from Hartvigsen one last time.  As soon as I did that however, I noticed that I had an ugly piece of romaine lettuce stuck in-between my top two front teeth!!  WHAT?  My co-workers let me do my presentation with that in there???  How Embarrassing….  Lesson learned, never let yourself be too nervous to do a presentation that you don’t first smile in a mirror.  Ugh, oh well… right?

So now what?  Well that’s the top asked question for one Sarah Southwick.  Things get uncertain from this point on.  The first official step is to apply to take the Certification Board for Music Therapists National Exam.  The second official step includes actually passing.  In the mean time my Internship Director, Alison Wendel, is going to be contacting the Utah State Developmental Center-USDC (her previous employment facility) in hopes of getting music therapy instigated down there again.  She had an amazing program set up down there when she left. That’s actually where I was going to do my internship in the first place, but when she got offered the job at Hartvigsen during massive budget cuts at USDC, she decided to make the change and asked me if I would be willing to follow her.  I obviously did and here we are.  I’m not sure what the chances are of me getting a job down there, but at least there’s a hope.   One thing that is on my side is apparently one of the big supervisors at USDC who didn’t support Music Therapy recently got fired… so Alison is really hopeful.  On the USDC website they also list that they offer Music Therapy services, which hasn’t been true since the end of August…. So hopefully I can help make that true again. 

Getting a job down there also has its pros and cons:

Pro: It would be a Job 

Con: It’s located in American Fork

Pro: I would be getting more Music Therapy experience under my belt

Con: It would probably be a contract position, not a full time gig…. Which I’m not what that all entails….

Anyway the list goes on, and maybe I’ll post more depending on how the next couple weeks pan out.  *Cross your fingers everyone*       

My birthday was also on Conference Sunday, so that was exciting.  The weekend was a little busy with conference, working on last minute internship stuff, and John working, but we did get some time to celebrate.  On Saturday night before the priesthood session we went out to eat at Café Rio.  It was delicious.  We weren’t the only ones who had the idea to eat out, as there were lots of guys in their shirts and ties eating there before priesthood session too!  Luckily we beat the rush, so that was nice.

On the morning of my birthday, John had to get up early to work and I was able to sleep in.  However at 8:00 I instantly woke up and realized we had left our laundry in the washing machine.  So I got up to switch it and I saw that John had left some flowers and chocolate on the table next to our bedroom door.

  

It made me happy and excited for him to get home.  We spent the morning watching conference with my family.  After, we had a waffle brunch and John and I tried out our new waffle iron.  Some of the family came over for waffles, so that was fun.  For the afternoon session we headed over to spend some time with the Southwick’s.  John had a hard time staying awake during the session, but he did wake up at 5:30 in the morning…  For my birthday dinner we had Navajo Taco’s and the Wades joined us.  Dinner was complete with Lemon Birthday Cake with glaze icing and chocolate Ice cream, Yum!  For my birthday John also got me some awesome Sandals!  I can’t wait for the sun to come out so I can wear them.      

Yesterday we went to Target and decided to look at the wallets.  I was long overdue for a new wallet.  A couple years ago around Christmas my sister Angi saw my current wallet and told me she would be embarrassed to see me use it in public…. And that was two years ago, haha.  So this is what the wallet looks like now… I think I got it back in 2005, but this picture was taken Sunday.

I’m really picky about wallets, which is part of the reason I haven’t gotten a new one in so long.  But we found this one and although I don’t absolutely love it, it’s 100 times better than the old one.

Yeah the comparison between the two is pretty bad :)

Funeral for a Friend

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend Jodi Bray's funeral.  Growing up our family was close with the Bray's as they lived in our ward.  I also spent countless hours at their house hanging out with Jayne, babysitting the little ones, and even doing the occasional house/dog sitting when the family went on vacations.  As they talked about Jodi's life and shared some of their stories about their beloved mother, sister, aunt, daughter, and friend at the funeral, I too thought of some of my fondest memories of Jodi.

When I was about 6 and first started going over to the Bray home, I remember that they had a POOL!  Jayne, Angi, Elle, Becca, and I (and I'm sure a bunch of other neighborhood kids) would swim in that thing for hours!  When we needed a snack after swimming so much, Jodi would slice up some green apples (which were always cold because she would keep them in the fridge) for us to eat.  Sometimes the apples would be accompanied with peanut butter, but usually not so much.

When I was about 7, Jayne and I had our first sleepover at her house.  Now when I was younger, waking up early on Saturday morning at my house meant that you could be the first to turn the TV on and therefore have control of it till Mom made you turn it off to do chores.  I fully enjoyed my Saturday Cartoons, so when I woke up early at the Bray's house, I (as quietly as I could) tip-toed to the TV in the family room and turned it on.  Well I wasn't very fast at turning the volume on the TV down, but I eventually got it to a lower level.  As I started searching for the cartoons Jodi walked into the living room and asked me what I was doing.  I promptly answered by telling her I was watching cartoons!  She then informed me that it was 4:00 a.m. and to go back to bed....   I remember feeling SO embarrassed.  I bet Jodi would laugh at that memory.

Throughout the years Jodi gave us many rides to and from school, dance lessons, Classic Skating, the mall, etc. in their big silver Expedition.  It was so fun riding in that car because Jodi was a "cool mom."  She would let us blast the music, roll down the windows when it was raining and have a freeze out, and stop on our way home to buy things like snow cones during the summer.  I remember thinking, I'm going to be a cool mom like Jodi when I grow up :)

When I was about 12 or so, I went swimming with the Bray's up at Cottonwood Heights.  Now it was here that they had those different level platforms that you could jump off into the pool.  There were 3 or 4 different levels to jump from, and I don't know if Jodi was just afraid of heights, or what not, but one thing led to another and she bet me $20 to jump off the highest platform.  Well I wasn't afraid of heights, so I did it, Jodi paid up, and Jayne and I fully enjoyed the nachos we purchased with the winnings.

Jodi will be missed.  They talked a lot about how she loved her music, loved to dance, loved her family, and gave unconditional love to all.  They had a beautiful service and the family seems to be doing well.

March MADNESS!!

Ok so I'm not really into the March Madness all that much, but John sure is :)  He's been keeping track of all the wins, stats, buzzer beaters, Jimmer show's and all that jazz....but not the Jazz. But yeah, these past couple weeks have been pretty crazy.  Last weekend we had the opportunity to go on a little Southwick family trip up in Heber.  While we were up there we played lots of games like pit, imagine if, and racko.  We watched the BYU games when the cable would cooperate.  We even did a missionary activity with all the returned missionaries in the family (and John's little brother who is leaving for Mexico at the end of the month) who did little presentations about unique aspects of their mission.  For food we took turns preparing meals.  John and I were so excited to make waffles for the family with our new waffle iron that we got for the wedding.  However, as soon as we got to the cabin we realized we totally left it at home :(  Luckily John's sister remembered to bring hers!!  Last but not least we also participated in a 5K.  Which was the first 5K John and I have ever done.

The Rex Lee run was located in Provo and we won... Just Kidding I mostly did interval running (walk a little run a little) and John was kind enough to stay with me.  We also ran with John's niece, so a lot of the time we let her set the pace.

 The run was supporting BYU's Cancer Awareness group.  So we ran in remembrance of John's Mom and wore pictures of her on the back of our shirts.

For the past two weeks John and I also spent some time working up at This Is the Place for their 2 week relief society program.  I had the opportunity to present on a sister named Emily Hill Woodmansee.  She wrote the lyrics to "As Sisters in Zion."  I would talk about her life and conversion to the gospel for about 10-15 minutes 2 to 4 times a night.  John helped by leading different wards of Relief Society ladies to the different presentations.  It was a good short term job, but it took up our evening time, so I'm glad it's over.  Life has also been busy with wrapping up my internship.  Luckily I have an ending date (April 8th).  Now I just need to be able to finish a couple case studies, an assessment, and a couple more sessions and I'll be home free with a degree :)

This last Friday we were able to hang out with some friends and eat good food, play smurf, play apples to apples, and meet my friend's fiance!  We also played ROCK BAND!!!  It had been so long since I played that game.  I was so excited to feel the smooth plastic keys of the guitar under my fingers.

We had a good time rockin' out in the basement.

Saturday was our last work day at This is the Place.  Along with work we watched some of the Jimmer Show with the family and attended our Finance class.  In class they talked about different marketing techniques, companies use to sell you stuff.  I'll be honest, I had heard of most of the techniques they talked about, but here are a couple things that did surprise me:

1. Did you know that they use cameras in the grocery store to analyze people's shopping routines so that they can design the store in a maze of sorts to keep you in there as long as possible?  Example: Food staples like milk, eggs, meat, and bread are usually located in the back of the store so you have to walk through the aisles in order to get there.  
2. The average American gets advertised to over 3,000 times a day (If I'm remembering right).  Examples: TV, Radio, Billboards, Newspaper, Magazines, Internet, etc.
3. There is a direct correlation between the amount of TV you watch and the amount of money you spend.  I can't remember the exact figures on this one, but it was something about you'll spend $200 more a year if you watch a lot of TV!  (It may not seem like a lot to some, but just think about 10 years of that.)

Sunday was John's little brother's farewell talk at church.  He gave an awesome talk about listening to the spirit.  After his talk, him and his friends plus John sang a musical number, "The Spirit of God."  It was a 6 part arrangement, so it was a pretty difficult song to master.  They've probably been practicing for around a month though, so it sounded really good, and John sounded the best.  After the song, John's dad was the next speaker.  That was funny because usually family members don't speak the same day at farewells anymore, but his dad is on High Council now and it just so happened that he was assigned to speak in his home ward ;)
After church we went over to the Southwick's for lunch.  John and I made Muddy Buddy's and fruit salad for the occasion and they both turned out alright.  However, next time I definitely need to either add more fruit to the salad (or less whip cream) because it seemed really coated.  Other than that there aren't any complaints from me.  We had a good time hanging out with the family and John spent most of the afternoon discussing March Madness brackets and games with everyone.  It was an excellent weekend.

Peace Out, Girl Scouts  

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 :)