Cabin Fever

               I’ve been home sick with mono and other various nasty things, and today is my last (hopefully) day of house arrest.  I had a bit of cabin fever, so when I ran out to Target to spend some wedding gift money on groceries, I also got a few other things to work on!

                First off, I got some of our wedding pictures printed!  We got this awesome frame set, picture of the Mt. Timpanogos temple, and the ‘family’ plaque  as wedding presents, and I think they fill up the wall perfectly! So now we have our great wall art up!

                So we found these couches on craigslist for suuuper cheap- but they are suuuper ugly.  They’re also a weird oversized shape, so you can’t really find slipcovers to fit them. But our solution is cheaper, anyway; we got some flat sheets and today I sewed them together to cover the couches ourselves. We also had a sweet post-registry discount at Target and I found crazy inexpensive pillows. So there’s one more apartment thing taken care of!

                Somehow I have acquired a large number of headbands- especially plain white ones. One can’t really wear too many of those at a time, so I decided to do something with them!  I got the inspiration and instructions from Martha’s blog. So while I was at the store, I got some really inexpensive fabric to make fabric flowers! I already had the headbands, glue gun, and buttons, so I paid less than 50 cents each headband! I like them a lot! The only problem was that I somehow managed to burn the side of my foot with the glue gun.

a couple of my favourites

                If you click on the link to Martha’s blog that I posted above, you can find the instructions to make them yourself. They’re way easier than you may think (but don’t burn your foot).

...so he put a ring on it.

                The night that I got back to Utah from being home in Canada for the first half of summer, Sam and I became unofficially engaged.  There wasn’t a ring or anything, but it had been decided! I was so, so happy! But let me tell you- that week of not telling anyone besides our parents was total torture. I wanted to tell people so bad! We already had a date set at the temple, a reception venue booked, and my dress was picked out.  Thank goodness that my amazing mother-in-law was there to help us out! I would have gone nuts if I didn’t have her there! She has been so wonderful from day one.

just engaged! (do we look a little tired?)

                We had gone and looked around in Provo at some rings, but Sam said that he wanted to go to Salt Lake and buy one there. So that Saturday we were going to drive up and go on a date then look for a ring. We went out to eat, and then to walk around temple square. I was a bit suspicious because it was getting late and ring stores would be closing soon, but how could he have a ring if we were in Salt Lake for that reason? Plus, there was no way he could have one already because my fingers are so freakishly small. Anyway, we were walking around temple square and taking pictures and whatnot and just enjoying the nice evening.  We walked up to the pedestal at the end of the temple and Sam told me to stand on it with my arms in the air so he could take a picture. I thought that was weird, but I did it anyway. When he told me I could turn around, he was down on one knee with the most beautiful ring! That sneaky boy had gotten one in Provo after all! I was so, so happy that we were officially engaged and that I was going to be marrying my very best friend!

                We got to do a lot of really fun stuff while we were engaged. We went to Bear Lake with Sam’s (and now my) family, made a trip up to Canada to visit my family/have a bridal shower (that my great cousin Michelle and Auntie Lorna threw for me!), and various other great things! Even when we were just running boring errands, I loved being with him.  It wasn’t about what I was doing; it was who I was doing it with :)

japanese garden in lethbridge

                

                It was a crazy month and a half of trying to get everything ready for the wedding.  That probably sounds like a super short engagement, which maybe it is, but it felt like a plenty long wait, haha! Like I said before, I’m so thankful for everyone that helped us out so much to get everything done in time! We definitely wouldn’t have been able to pull it off ourselves. We’re so blessed to have such amazing family and friends!

How It Began

                Sam and I met while we were both living in Glenwood during Winter 2010 semester.  I was helping a mutual friend get ready for a costume dance, and Sam wasn’t doing too well with getting a costume together ;) I’m kind of a pro at that sort of thing, so my roommate and I helped him out.  The next day when he came by to return our stuff, I found myself wanting to get to know him better.

                The month after that was kind of interesting.  Not going to lie, I gave Sam a pretty hard time.  But you have to work for what you want, right?  There were some mistakes on my part, and definitely some indecision.  After a particularly dumb move on my part, I realized that I had messed up big time.  Oh man, if Sam was writing this, he sure could let me have it! Anyway, fortunately he forgave me (after some groveling), and we starting dating.

at april 2010 conference

                We only had just over a month before the end of the semester, and I was planning on going back to Canada for the summer. My sister was having a baby soon and I wanted to be there to see her and her family, my friends, and the rest of my family.  But as I spent more time with Sam, I started thinking about not going back for the full summer; just for half of it.  I was worried for a while about whether or not he would want me to come back early, but he continued to insist that he did.

                One really fun thing we did together while we were dating was go to California with my great former roommates Kelly and Megan. It was super fun!

                It was hard for me to say goodbye, but I knew it was the right thing to do.  When I got back to Canada, I found myself a job and had a blast with my friends and family. I was having a great time and it was nice to be back home. But once Sam and I got our Skype calls going, I started getting totally hooked on him.  That might sound silly, but it was actually really great- we talked a lot and really got to know each other better that way.

oh the pictures i could post... but he has worse of me, so i'll resist

                After a month and a half of talking on Skype, which had turned into a nightly thing, we agreed that the time apart had been a benefit, but we were super over being apart (especially with how sketchy my internet was. Having a bad connection was torturous). Thus my return to Utah was bumped forward to June 13^th from mid July. The closer we got to Utah, the more restless I got. I don’t always show my emotions, but I was pretty beside myself.  I actually screamed a little bit when I saw Sam. It was so, so wonderful to be back with him.  He was (and is) absolutely my best friend!

                Well, that’s about when we made the transition from dating to engaged, so I’ll stop there for now.  Right now I’m sick at home so I’m sure I’ll post again before many people have even seen this post, but maybe next time I’ll do… engagement stories!

I got sucked in.

Well, here I am, blogging away.  I'm not sure how this happened, but we'll see how it goes!  I guess some people kind of care what's going on, and since I don't get around to phone calls all that much, maybe this will help people stay a little caught up with what has been going on in our lives.
I'm planning on doing some updating on what has happened with us a while ago- dating stories, engagement stories, wedding pictures, how Sam thought I was trying to kill him when he did the Red Rock Relay with me... Hopefully you all won't be bored to tears! My life is pretty darn awesome- I'll just have to try to do it full justice ;)