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!