O-H-I-O

This has been a really great week. I drove last Sunday from Provo to Vegas to spend a week with my mom. I spent a lot of that time working on sorting through my grandma's genealogy. It was interesting all the really great things I found. And I'm nowhere close to finished. But, I mainly drove down this week because I was flying out of Vegas to Ohio for my dear little Emily's wedding!

Thursday night, my dad flew into Vegas, so I picked him up, and he dropped me off at the airport (after a quick food run). I got into the airport only to realize that I left my wallet in the car! Of course I would. Fortunately my dad was only at the end of passenger drop-off and answered his phone. Hooray! Disaster averted. My flight left at 1am Friday morning. Early morning. We flew into Minneapolis first, which seemed a little out of the way to me, but I guess that's just how it goes. Then finally in Columbus. I got in... too early and drove to my cousin's in West Virginia. So in the course of a day, I was in three states I had never been to before.

My cousin has just the cutest family. And the craziest cats. But it was fun, and very nice of them to have me. I know driving 2+ hours out of my way seems ridiculous, but it saved me a bunch of money not having to get a hotel in addition to a car. Yeah, there's the gas to consider, but it was still less expensive this way...plus, I got to hang out with my cousin and his family. So that really made the driving time worth it.

I must say, Ohio and West Virginia are BEAUTIFUL!

It is SO green out here. And the weather was just perfect! You couldn't ask for better wedding weather.

My cousin was telling me how dull the drive would be because there's "nothing". In Illinois, you have a lot of wheat and soy fields, but not here. It's just miles and miles of trees and green. I've seen a lot of wildlife. Mostly deer. I think most of them were deer. Sometimes it's hard to tell when it's just a pile of skin on the side of the road. No joke. My favorite was just the big red splat on the road... and a head several yards later. Good thing blood and guts doesn't gross me out like it did before. Still makes me sad, but not nauseous. I've never seen so much roadkill in my life. In two days, I saw at least 50 dead deer.

Anyway, back to what you really wanted to hear about... EMILY & PATRICK!


I'll start this story off by telling you that on the plane I realized, just like I forget everything, my camera included, I left my temple recommend in Provo. Dumb. So I called everyone I could to try to next day it to me. But since my cousin lives in, apparently the middle of nowhere, according to the post office, they couldn't guarantee its arrival until Monday... two days too late.



I was eventually able to call and get everything worked out with the temple and my bishop and could go to the sealing. I've never cried at a sealing like I did here. Yeah, I've only been to a few, but still... Emily has such a special place in my heart. And I'm so happy/excited for her. It also made me so excited for my own wedding.



I had a few hours to kill before the reception, so of course I went here:



Culver's is one of my favorite food joints from my mission. I was SO excited when I found one in Columbus. I figured they'd have one or two since they're all over the Chicago area, but I didn't want to get my hopes up either. They have some of the BEST frozen custard. So this was my meal...my "usual" I suppose:



Yum! And it only cost about $7! That's what I love about Culver's. It's great food... a lot of great food, and reasonably priced! And did you see those beautifully golden crinkle-cut fries??? I'm drooling again just thinking about it.

Not only did I go to Culver's but I took a drive around downtown Columbus. It was so beautiful and I loved all the old architecture against the new.



There were about a million churches on this one street. They were all gorgeous. Remember how I told you I forgot my camera? Yeah, well, all my pictures are off my phone. Don't worry, I didn't take any while I was driving. I was stopped.

Emily and Patrick's reception was beautiful and I got some GREAT ideas for Cory and my wedding. I'm SO glad I got to come out. It was SO worth all the money and the time. I love Emily and Patrick and wish them all the love in the world. They are such beautiful people and an even more beautiful couple.

To finish off the weekend, my sister, Kelli, finally gave birth to her twins! I was waiting all night last night for the news. Baby boy is Spencer Avery at 6lbs 13oz, baby girl is Leah Joy at 6lbs 10oz. Goodness! Almost 14lbs of baby!!! Kelli is a wonderful mother, and I know that 8 is a handful, especially with 2 at once, but if anyone can do it, she can.

What a great weekend!

Now I can't wait to get back home to my man. I miss him.

For the Win

Cory entered us into a contest to win $10k, which would be really awesome to win because, even after half of it is taken in taxes, it would pay off all our debt, and most of our school debt (which is different than regular debt). Woohoo! It would really be nice to be mostly out of debt by the time we go to grad school, or get established when we get there. You need a facebook account and you can vote once a day until June 6th. So if you have it in your heart, and a little less than a minute a day, please, vote for us. Maybe we'll take you out to lunch if we win. Or we'll throw a giant party and invite you. I'll cook delicious food.

Here's the link:



Thank you!!!

This Is Your Birthday Song, It Isn't Very Long

Yeah, Sunday was my birthday. I was really looking forward to it. Being home. Spending time with my mom and sister. Reading my book. Well, Lauren's book.

I got home Sunday afternoon and no one was home. I was kind of hoping that my mom would be back from church already, but she text me on my way down saying she had to stay for ward choir. So at least I knew when I got there that no one would be there for a while. My mom ended up coming home early, which was really nice.

One of our family traditions... at one point in time... was that we had our pick of dinner and dessert. So when I found out Sunday night that I no choice in either of these things, no one even asked me, I won't lie, I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't ungrateful. And I have to say that the key lime cupcakes that my sister made for my birthday were just divine! I probably would have picked them had I known how delicious they were! My mom gave Cailee one of them right when she finished dinner... no song... no candles. It might be petty, but I felt like no one even realized it was my birthday. It was kind of sad. But, I got to eat yummy tacos and amazing cupcakes, got a couple cards (my nieces made cards for me... and my nephew gave me a penny for my birthday. Cute, I know), and a picture frame. The card my mom gave me said, "Be ready at 7 am, sharp!" 7am! Ready?! Oh boy. I haven't had to do that since fall semester. And that was mountain time! My birthday existed... it just didn't exactly feel like mine.

Anywho, I was selfish and ever so slightly disappointed. I didn't really even get to talk to my dad on the phone for more than a couple minutes.

Well, 6:30 am comes around Monday morning, so it's time to wake up. My mom takes the girls to school and my sister, Korrie, comes by. Mom comes back and the three of us load up in the car. My mom and Korrie are chatting away about something secretive. I'm in la la land. It's 7am. We pull up at Mimi's Cafe. Breakfast!!! And after breakfast, we head over to the spa for facials. Awesome! Okay, I know they were trying their best to keep everything a secret, but I kind of had a hunch that this is what was going on. I'm no dummy. But it was kind of fun with it trying to be a secret. And the facial was so nice. We even got our eyebrows waxed. I had never had my eyebrows waxed. I kind of liked it. It reminded me of my old roommate, Lauren, who can't stand getting her brows tweezed. It made me giggle thinking about her going through the waxing/stray tweezing process.

Right after the facial, we got home and I hopped in the shower. Took a quick, 5 minute shower, pulled my hair up, got a bunch of my stuff together, and headed over to my sister's house. At my sister's house, she did my hair and make-up, and helped me into my wedding dress. No small feat. Her husband, Kendall, who has a photography/videography business, just got a new camera he had been chomping at the bit to do a new project with. I happened to want to do some bridal shots while I was down with my mom. Perfect opportunity. So in my wedding best, I pulled the layers and layers of dress around me and packed into my sister's car, and we drove up to the newly landscaped temple grounds. It was a super fun photo shoot. As usual, the pictures I like best are those that I'm being an absolute goof in. Yeah, that's just me. The nice part was that I was also able to try out a few different head pieces. My sister has a head band and a veil she said she'd be happy to let me borrow if I wanted. Super nice. And my mom was able to come out to the shoot for a few minutes before she had to go back to work. Did I mention about a dozen people or so stopped to stare at me? Not too surprising I suppose.

I got home about an hour before my mom. I have to admit, it turned out to be an awesome birthday. But I still wish Cory were here. I sometimes wish I were 5 again, when the whole day was about me and I got my pick of everything. My dad would take me to toys'r'us and I got to pick out my own toy! (I'm sure it was easier than having to guess what would really make my eyes light up.) Within a budget, of course. I got to go to dinner where ever I wanted. I got my own birthday ice cream cake that we went and picked out together. I think part of it is that I miss having my dad around. I miss the traditions we used to have. Everything has changed. I'm older. The family dynamic has changed and probably will continue to change. The way things were when I was younger are so much different than they are with my mom and my nieces. It's not a bad different. Just different. I think deep down I'm still jealous they get her at the age I wanted her so badly I would cry myself to sleep. *sigh* Things are good though. Better than they ever have been with my mom. And next year I'll have a husband to spoil me on my birthday.

It has been a really great birthday. I feel spoiled. I'm grateful that I got to spend almost the whole day with my mom! She took a half day just for me. She has been so good to me. Same with my sister. Cory's birthday treat was really great too.

Well, that's that.

Happy birthday to ME!

It's My Party

Remember the days when I would blog at least every week... or a couple times a week? Apparently those times are over. Being out of school, and essentially out of work, has kept me kind of super busy. I've only worked 3 or 4 shifts in the past two weeks, which has done no good on my pocketbook. BUT, I started taking an online class two weeks ago (one of my last generals) and I'm already onto the material for the final. I'm grateful that each of the three midterms only has material from the previous section of material... not cumulative! That just makes it a breeze.

Let's not forget all the wedding planning/craziness I've been keeping busy with. We have most of the invitations sent. We're just trying to scramble for the last few addresses. The funny thing is, when we ordered invitations, we ordered 10 or 15 extra from what we knew we needed. Pretty smart, right?... We ended up with about 60 extra from what we needed... I'm not sure how, but we did... and now we have about 50 extra invitations we don't exactly know what to do with. Ordering the extra 10 turned out to be really smart because we used them. But what to do with 50?!? At least we didn't have to pay for them.

Oh! Last week Cory got tickets to see Seussical at the Hale! And he took ME!!!

I must say it was excellent! The Hale is a theater in the round, so it's always interesting to see how they adapt different shows for it. I've seen Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Drowsy Chaperone, and a few others there before, and I NEVER been disappointed. Here's the funny part to this story. His friend gave Cory the tickets because he couldn't go, only Cory didn't exactly know which show they were for. When he asked if I wanted to see a performance at the Hale, we had already purchased tickets to see the performance of Seussical at BYU for the next week! So I get a double dose of Dr. Seuss. I'm not complaining. I love the energy of performances directed at young audiences. Not too young though...

It will be interesting to see how this group (my boss secured a group from New York!) does Seussical on a regular stage compared to the Hale. We're going tonight for an early birthday celebration. That's right folks! I'll be a q-u-a-r-t-e-r-o-f-a-c-e-n-t-u-r-y-o-l-d tomorrow! It's just way cooler to say "quarter of a century" over "25" any day. That's what I will be. And after Seussical, a bunch of my friends are going out for ice cream... including Cory's grandparents. Beat that little girl who had 10 of her closest friends to Seussical last night for her birthday! Did you go get ice cream after???... probably.

So Sunday is my birthday. :)

Oh yes. This is, in fact, a picture of my first birthday. I was just going to pull a random picture of a cute little girl off the internet. Okay, I really did. But then I decided it would mean so much more if it were actually me. And hey! I have one of those. Lucky you!

How do I plan to celebrate? Other than Seussical and ice cream tonight with a few of my closest friends, I'm going to Las Vegas tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, it's because that's where I'm from. So I'm not going to Las Vegas to gamble, party, drink, get married (a common comment recently... yes, Cory and I can wait 7 more weeks...), etc. I'm going really because I promised my mom earlier this year that I would come down for a week and sort out all the genealogy that she inherited from her mom. It's just been sitting there for a few years and my mom wants to finally do something with it. So that's my job for a week. And, if my sister Kelli ends up having her babies in the next little while, I will stay in Vegas and watch Chloe and Cailee while my mom is up there. It would be super convenient if they decided to come this week since I can't stay longer than the 25th, but we'll let them come when they come. As long as they come healthy, that's all we really care about.

And I cannot forget that while I'm down in Las Vegas, next weekend I'm flying into Ohio for Emily's wedding!!! Emily is a convert of mine from the old mission. At 19, she was baptized against her family's wishes since they're all very, very devout Catholics. Emily was currently attending Loyola Univerisy (a Catholic school in Chicago). She had to write a report for a class on a religion different from her own. She knew a couple Mormons from high school that she was still close with and started interviewing one of them. Patrick, her Mormon friend, was happy to help and eventually convinced her to interview a set of missionaries there in Chicago. She finally gave in and found that the responses to her questions were identical!!!...something you don't see in most religions... She finished her report, went home for Christmas break, came back, and felt a desire to come to our church. One of the elders recognized her on her way to church (which, getting there was no easy feat) and he asked her if she was doing more research. She essentially said, "no, this is for me now" and began taking official missionary lessons. Not long thereafter, those missionaries were transferred out of the area, and Sister Harman and I were transferred in. It was my 7th week in the mission and our first lesson with Emily was on the law of chastity. Whew! Which she accepted and already lived, of course. She was baptized a short while later by Patrick. Then they started dating. Then he left on his mission in Chile. Then he came back. They started dating again. He proposed. She said yes. Now they're getting married in the Colombus, Ohio temple on May 21st! What a great story!!!! And I'm so excited for them. I really can't wait.



Not only do I get to see Emily and Patrick get sealed for time and eternity, but I get to stay with my cousin Christopher and his wife, whom I haven't seen in ages. It's going to be a quick trip, but I'm so excited to see everyone. I'm wondering how many other missionaries will be at Emily's wedding. I wouldn't miss it for the world! And she's coming to mine too!!! She'll even be one of my bridesmaids. I love her that much. No joke.

Okay, another long post, but I think it was long overdue. And did I mention the random people having a yard sale in my yard for the past 2 days?... no? Apparently they're friends of the landlord, but he didn't tell us...
And I did plant flowers like I said I would 2 weeks ago! They're starting to sprout! I hope they don't die while I'm gone... like my orchid is. Poor thing looks so sad. I just don't know what to do with it. And I finally saw Little Shop of Horrors last night with Cory. FUNNY!!!

Now I've got to run and make food for the next 10 days so my other employer doesn't die. Which means a shopping list and recipe hunt, not to mention cooking the food before tomorrow.... it's gonna be a crazy-great day!!!!!!!

One last little mention. You know how you have those people you love so much but can't stand living with them? Well, I've been really lucky with roommates. One of my old roommates, Ashley, and I have been spending a lot of time together since she got back from Spain. Well, we don't go out and do much, but it sure has been great. This has been a great 2 years for friends and roommates.

Thanks for sticking with me, y'all!

It's A Great Day to be Alive!

First off, it is so warm and beautiful outside today! It feels like spring. And hopefully I won't jinx it, but it's supposed to be warm all week!!!

Also, Cory and I went to Las Vegas last week to go pick up all my furniture from home. And all the rest of my boxes from the garage (there were only 4...). I have a bed, dresser, bookshelf, nightstand, cedar chest, and a couch. The couch my sister gave me. It's a beautiful, only a year old, chocolate brown, microfiber. Our apartment is a basement apartment. Our ceilings and doorways are low, and our entryway from outside in is small. The couch, full sized, was not an easy feat. We almost gave up a dozen times or so. But eventually, after taking off almost the entire back side and fabric and a little TLC/shoving, we got it in, nailed everything back together, and set it up. Brilliant. I can't even begin to tell you how attracted I was to Cory watching him work with tools and conquer this seemingly impossible task. Our landlord told us he tried fitting a full sized couch in before and it doesn't fit through the door. Apparently he didn't try 3 hours of disassembling and reassembling it.

We got everything in, and it's starting to feel like home.

Also, I feel so blessed to have the family and friends I have. They are all so wonderful.

A few other thoughts:
My birthday is in two weeks and Cory is taking me to see Suessical with some of my best friends.
I even get to go home for a week or so and hang out with my mom for a bit.

So before starting this post, I was thinking about all the different things I wanted to write about, but it seems they've all escaped me.

I think I'll go plant some flowers. :) Yay spring!