2012

Keith and I have come to the conclusion that I say really strange/ confusing/ just plain idiotic things late at night while lying in bed. Yet they always end up being hilarious, so I guess it's all good. This is one of our latest conversations:

Keith was talking about how in 2012 there are going to be these solar flares, and there are going to be all these horrible results. Blah blah blah, cell phones don't work, yadda yadda yadda. Apparently he read all this stuff after some crazy man posted it online? I don't remember. I was sleepy.

Me: Well it IS going to be 2012. Isn't that supposedly "the end of the world? Again?"
Keith: *Laughs* Yeah, whatever. Have you ever seen that movie?
Me: 2012? No. All I remember is seeing the trailers for it. There was a lot of ice, some cave men, and a prehistoric lion? What's that thing called again?
Keith: ......... What are you talking about?
Me: A sabertooth something something?
Keith: ........Julie........?
Me: .....OH! We're talking about the movie 2012! Not 10,000 BC... duh...

I was only 12,012 years off... Great...

Christmas!!!

Christmas has come and gone.  It was a good Christmas, even if it was fairly different from previous years.  First of all, I'm married.  Yeah, that's different, but really, really awesome too!  Julie's parents are really cool.  They were willing to fly both of us out there for Christmas, but since I had to work all of last week, Julie is the only one that went.  I don't know everything that went on, but I do know that Julie had an amazing time and barely slept all week long.

Lucky for me, we had a few friends stay in the area over break.  There was only one day that I didn't spend at least a little bit of time with someone else here in Provo while Julie was gone.  I was lucky enough to get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after off work, so I got a 3 day weekend, and I didn't even lose any hours either!  I worked a full 40 hours last week, and I get 40 hours this week too!  Anyway, Julie got back in town the morning of Christmas Eve, so I went and picked her up (Thanks Jeremy for letting use use your car all break!)  As soon as she got home, she crashed for a good 3 hour nap.  Julie NEVER takes naps.  She was TIRED.  We still didn't have anything to put in our stockings, so we went to Walmart only to find that it was stripped bare.  It was crazy.  It actually wasn't as busy as on Monday when we went back to grab some groceries (the return line went half way across the store).  But we had a nice Christmas Eve just being together.  Before we went to bed, we read Luke 2 by candle light.  This is, more or less, what our Christmas looked like:

We didn't get a tree.  We were going to put lights on the dragon, but the only lights we could find on Saturday were icicle lights or net lights...  Yeah...  So instead, we had... swords...  Whatever.  We'll do something better than this next year, for sure.  One of our friends that Julie met her freshmen year here at BYU is from Orem, so we ended up spending most of Christmas evening there at his mom's house. In short, it was just a really simple Christmas, but it was fun.

Because I had Monday off as well, we decided that we were going to make some yummy food!  I used the recipes from the Chinese food cookbook that I got last year for Christmas, and we made Broccoli Beef and Chinese Dumplings.  It was so good!  I think that the dumplings turned out better than the other dish, but it was still a lot of fun.

After making and eating dinner, we went to the dollar theater to watch Real Steel.  If you haven't seen it yet, go see it!  It was such a good movie!  Both of us really loved it.  We went with Michael, the same friend who we spent Christmas day with.  It was just a really nice, relaxing day.  But come Tuesday, my three day weekend was over, and I had to go back to work.  Work has been okay, nothing special.  But that has also left Julie home alone all day :-( NO FUN.  We just remembered yesterday that we got her some Zumba DVD's a month or so ago, so she's going to keep herself busy doing Zumba.  On top of that, we are having a good friend from study abroad over tonight.  Geneva is one of the happiest people you will ever meet!  We're excited to have dinner with her.  Then tomorrow night, we are having a small party at our place with some friends and family who are still in Provo for New Years.  We're going to make pizza, play games and just have fun.  Perhaps we'll actually have some more pictures after the party (but don't hold your breath, neither of us ever take pictures...)

Only Hope

So, I forgot this blog existed... I think Keith did as well, seeing as neither of us have posted anything in the past three months...

Anywho, life is swell! I absolutely love being married! Except for the fact that we have no money... and my husband is at work all day while I sit at home bored out of my mind...
but other than that, it's fantastic!!!

I am so happy I married my cute boy. He is seriously the most amazing guy in the world. He always tells me I'm beautiful, and he laughs at my stupid jokes. He deals with my blunt straightforwardness, and he NEVER gets upset or impatient with me. I've never seen him angry. I'm glad that's not his style. He knows how stressed I've been with homework and finals over the past few weeks, and he does everything possible to try and lighten my load. He makes me yummy food for dinner, does the yucky chores around the house, and is willing to just sit and relax with me when the night is finally through. He does goofy things that make me laugh CONSTANTLY and doesn't judge me for the random phobias that seem to control my life. He has gotten to know my best friends and loves them almost as much as I do. He respects and appreciates the things that I enjoy, even if he doesn't particularly care for them himself. He surprises me with things like candy and cheesecake. HE KNOWS ME WELL! He loves his family and tries to learn more about mine.

Speaking of family, I wish he could visit home with me! I'm going home to visit my family next weekend, and Keith can't come because he has to work all that week. It makes me SO SAD! Keith hasn't had many opportunities to interact with my family. By the time they finally started opening up to him, it was the day we were leaving after our wedding! At least he got to have fun with them for a few hours. Though I will be sad to part with my cute boy for a week, I am SO JAZZED to see my family again. I miss them like crazy and think about them every day. My brother Josh is going on a mission in January, so that's the main reason I'm going home. Mom thought it would be good for me to spend a little more time with him. Who knows where I'll be when he gets home in two years?! I'll be back on the morning of Christmas Eve, so I'll still get to spend that time with Keith. (Didn't think it'd be a great idea to spend our first Christmas as a married couple 2000 miles away from each other. Imagine that.)

Anyway, life is grand. Yesterday was the last day of classes for this semester, and I sadly realized that it was my last day of classes at BYU period! Next semester is just student teaching! I'm so close to graduation, and to be honest, I'm terrified about actually moving on to a new phase of life next year, but at least I'll have my best friend with me, and we can do it together. I love Keith so much and can't wait to find out what the future has in store for us. :)

P.S. In case anyone was wondering what the title was all about, I've been re-living my childhood for the past few days, and I thought of the movie A Walk to Remember. The song Only Hope (the one Mandy Moore sings in the play) was one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES! I love Switchfoot's original, but Mandy Moore's cover is SO good, and it's all because of the cello part. (I'm slightly obsessed with the cello. I think it's the most beautiful instrument in the world.) Anyway, it was always one of my dreams to play this song as a duet with someone else on piano, and I decided today that it was actually going to happen haha. Ordering the music now.

Listen/watch HERE if you don't know what song I'm talking about. SO beautiful. :)

Books

I love reading.  I enjoy movies as well, but reading has so much more potential to suck you into the world that the author crated than movies will ever have.  Sure, there are times when I'd rather just watch a movie and be wow'd by the visual effects and how the director took the world in his mind and made it visual for everyone else to see.  But that's always someone else's idea of how it looked, how the story played out.  When you watch a movie made from a book you've previously read, you will inevitably be disappointed because this character didn't look the way you imagined them, or that character wasn't played the way that they should have been, or this place wasn't as fantastic as you had imagined it.  Even if all you have is a vague idea in your head of what something should have been, a movie will disappoint.  One of the beauties of books is that even with all of the description an author puts in, each person who reads will still interpret the characters slightly differently.  The "movie" playing in your head as you read the book will be different from person to person, and even from one time you read the book to another.

The one thing I dislike about books, however, comes directly from their ability to engulf you in their world.  After you finish a book, the world is over.  You can no longer continue to explore the world as the character. Yes, you can go back and reread the book, and you'll probably catch things a second time that make the book new again.  Or if you haven't read the book in a while, it will become new as you try to remember specifics about the characters or plots and rediscover them.  But in the end, after you finish, you're thrust back into reality where the world you were so much a part of is just a story.  There is one way around this: reading a book that is part of a series.  I loved Harry Potter, with each book you read, you get to know the characters even better.  You get to continue to explore their universe with them.  The story doesn't end.  Ok, so it eventually does end, but it lasts so much longer than just a single book!  The same happened when I read  The Chronicles of Narnia.  As amazing as those books were and as great as it was to continue to live in the universe that the authors created, I still got to the end of the series and had to leave their world.

One of my all time favorite books is Ender's Game.  If you haven't read it, you should.  It is such a great book!  I just finished reading the last book that follows Ender's life.  Children of the Mind.  Even with having to go to work, I still was able to finish the entire book in just over 3 days.  It really love how it ended.  It really was just a continuation of the 3rd book Xenocide.  I could hardly put the book down (just ask Julie).  But even though I finished a story line from the Enderverse, I'm not done.  I still have the entire Shadow series, which starts off with one of the best books in the entire Enderverse: Ender's Shadow.  Man I'm excited!  So, even though I got to the end of one of the story lines, I can still throw myself into that same universe for a while longer and enjoy the brilliant characters Orson Scott Card created.  Again, if you haven't read them, all of the books in the Enderverse come highly recommended from me!

PS. I know I'm horrible about posting on here and in all honesty, should have probably posted something about our wedding or any of the other more significant things that have happened over the past few months, but a post about a book is better than nothing, right?  But I really do love being married to Julie.  It really is the best thing that has ever happened to me.  Perhaps I'll post something of a little bit more meaning later, but I wouldn't hold your breath ;-)

Or Not...

Well, this was going to be a post about how awesome it is to have the key to our apartment and have a lot of my stuff moved in...  But when I went to get the key to the apartment yesterday, the day that they told me to come by to get it, the office was closed.  Ya, really cool huh?  I was planning on having all the big stuff moved in today so I could have time to organize everything and clean what I need to in my old place before I check out.  Well, looks like I'm just going to be really busy this week with moving and cleaning and organizing.  Oh well.  I'll survive.

Among the obvious reasons why I'm so excited to move into our new apartment, there is one reason that most of you don't know about...

(Thank you Google for auto-save...  I tried dragging and dropping this picture

 and instead of adding it where I wanted it, it went away from this page and 

opened the picture up instead.  Again, thank you Google for auto-save.)

No, my house isn't infested with tons of flies...  Just two.  Two flies (I thought it was just one for a while, but was proven wrong when they decided to tag team me) have been terrorizing me in my apartment for the past few weeks.  They're pretty slow, but just fast enough that I can't catch them.  They like to hang out where ever I am.  If I'm making myself some food, they'll come taunt me right beside my plate or the sink or on the cupboard door (Thanks again Google for voice search!  When spell check fails to read my mind, at least you can understand what I'm saying...).  Or I'll be hanging out on the couch and they'll just land right next to my feet and start walking on them...  Ya, that's obnoxious!  Or my head, they seem to like that too.  Like I said, they have been tormenting me for far too long and I'm so ready to be rid of them!  Yes yes yes, I know...  I should just go get a fly swatter.  Two things: One, I'm lazy. Two, I never think about it when I'm not at home and the flys aren't teasing me.  Now, what I need are one of those electric bug zapper/fly swatters that everyone seemed to have in Taiwan.  When I was on my mission, I was sure that you wouldn't ever be able to buy them in America because, well, let's face it, it's a bunch of exposed wires with electricity going through them!  But low and behold, Amazon has them for sale for $12.99!  Not that I'm going to buy one...  Anyway, good riddance to those stupid flys!

I love the dentist

So yesterday morning I had a dentist appointment. Just a regular exam, the kind you get every 6 months or so. A while ago, I decided I really love the dentist. He's always able to get the yucky stuff off my teeth that I somehow can't get myself. He also compliments me. I love compliments. :)

Yesterday he said, "Julie, you have beautiful teeth! I think you're the best we've seen all day."

I actually talked about this with my brother a few days ago. I told him how the dentist compliments me on my nice teeth every time I go see him. My brother claimed that he says that to everyone, just to be nice. So after my dentist told me that my teeth were beautiful I asked, "Are they really? Or do you just say that to everybody?"

He laughed and then said, "NO! I think you've got the best set we're going to see today, and I would totally rank you in the top 10 for the week."

So at least for now, I once again absolutely love my dentist. He tells me I have pretty teeth :)

Holiness to the Lord. The House of the Lord

Today was going to be an epic day. I was going to go to the distribution center in DC to pick out my special LDS underwear. Hooray! Though I wasn't feeling too hot and had a lot of other things on my mind, my mommy and I started our trek to Washington.

Definitely wasn't an exciting trip though. We had to take my dad's truck, which doesn't have air conditioning. In case anyone doesn't know, it's been over 100 degrees out here every day for the past week. IT. IS. HAWT! Starting at 3 in the afternoon, we made the 2 hour drive to DC. Mere minutes away, we find out that the bridge we usually take to get there is closed. We have NO IDEA how to get there now. And we forgot the GPS... cool. Luckily my mom and I see this woman walking down some residential road, and we stop to ask her for directions. She turned out to be LDS. Blessing #1. She told us how to get there, and we got there quickly. I am VERY thankful for this lady. When you get lost in DC, you can EASILY waste an hour trying to find your way. We couldn't afford to lose this time because the distribution center was going to close at 5:30. We got lost at 5. Bad news. But we found it and got my special unders just in time.

Speaking of those, I didn't know it was going to be so stinking hard just to choose what kind I wanted! I walked out of there with a billion different styles, cuts, and fabrics. I hate trial and error shopping. I would much rather buy something I KNOW will fit and that I'll like. But I'll get over it I suppose. Does anyone have any suggestions by the way?

Man alive, I'm just like Keith. This thing could easily turn into a manuscript...

To make a long story somewhat shorter? My mom surprised me by telling me we were going to stay in DC a while longer. The youth were coming to do baptisms at 7:30. We were going to stay. Not going to lie, but after driving around in that freaking hot car for 2 hours and getting a bit lost, I was NOT in the mood to waste 2 hours in DC and then stay for baptisms which always take FOREVER! We were all going into the baptistry, and I just wasn't in the mood to be there. I waited until the end of the line, still hoping that somehow I wouldn't have to go inside and I could magically transport home? One of the YW leaders actually forgot her recommend, and the entire time, I was hoping that she wouldn't be able to go in. That way, I would have an excuse to go out and do something with her. (STUPID! I KNOW! GRRR...)

They ended up getting everything with her straightened out, so I had to do the baptisms. As soon as the man scanned my recommend and I walked inside, I was overwhelmed with this feeling of love. The very second I stepped inside the baptistry doors, one of my friends was there to meet me. She squeezed my arm and said, "I'm happy you're here." I started bawling. I think I'm a little stressed? I was so ashamed of myself. I couldn't believe that just a few seconds earlier I had been so selfish. Why in the world would I not be "in the mood" to go to the temple?! It's not like it's going to do me any harm! I had forgotten what kind of work goes on inside those hallowed walls. It is the work of the Lord. The temple is His house. I was served a piece of humble pie to the face, while still feeling the Lord's love for me. (It's crazy how He can do that!) I needed to forget myself and my stresses and just do some service for a while! It made SUCH a huge difference in my attitude the rest of the night.

Basically, I love the temple. And even though I prefer to start my temple trips in a better mood, sometimes you really just need to walk in the doors anyway. I felt so peaceful, and after a few minutes of crying, I was totally happy. I also loved the fact that I was there with my 12 year old sister. I realize that we don't spend much time together. I loved doing her hair after we were baptized and her telling me how beautiful mine was. She is SO FUNNY, and I absolutely ADORE her.

I can't wait until the next time I get to go. I'm sure I'll be a bit more excited seeing as I'll be with my fiancee! And the next day we'll go again, and he'll become my HUSBAND! For time and all eternity. Incredible work really does go on in there. Holiness to the Lord.

Bridal Shower

I had my bridal shower this morning, and it was a blast!

My good friend Amy threw it for me. In all honesty, I think she has done more to plan/prepare for my wedding than I have. I couldn't thank her enough for everything she's doing for me. She's ordering the flowers, arranging them and taking care of decorating the venue (which needs a LOT of help) I love her and her family to death and am inexplicably grateful for their help.

Anyway, my bridal shower was at her house this morning. It was a brunch, so we went, socialized, talked about the new harry potter movie (which most of us saw at midnight of course), and ate delicious food. After a while, she decided to play a game called how well do you know the bride and groom. Everyone got paper and pencils and had to answer questions about Keith and I such as where/how we met, what our first official date was, what we're studying, etc... I am proud to announce that I am the only one who got all of the questions correct. A lot of my close friends only missed one or two.

After that was over, Amy pulled out a package of napkins. She split everyone into 3 groups and announced that they would be making me a wedding dress out of said napkins. One group was to make a skirt, another a bodice, and the last group was supposed to make a veil. It was SO funny to watch everyone try to put the pieces together. After all of the pieces were assembled, it was then time to actually put them on me! Not gonna lie, I've never seen a better looking napkin dress in my life! Seriously, my friends were super creative and really got into this. My waterfall style skirt has a train covered in roses, I have a braided napkin belt across the bodice, and a rose on the front of my veil to tie the whole piece together. Not to mention, I had some rockin shoulder pads as well. Here are some pictures. Let me know what you think!




Next was the gifts. I got some great recipes I'm looking forward to trying out when I finally marry my cute boy (3 weeks from today! AHHH!) I got mostly gift cards because everyone knows we won't have much space when we move back to Utah, but there were some other surprises thrown in there as well. ;-)

Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who made an appearance in person or in spirit. The love I have for you is immeasurable.

True Friends

Disclaimer: I am rather wordy, if you don't want to read my ramblings, just skip to the bottom for the gist of this post.


This summer has been a very different than other summers I have had.  Not even close to the worst summer I have had, that's for sure....  But this summer, all of my best friends are gone.  I do still have other friends that are here still, just none of my really close friends.  Aubrey graduated and moved back home. Nancyann was going to come back with me after the family reunion, but after being home she realized how much she missed it and decided to stay home all summer.  And Julie is gone for the summer as well.  Those three girls have been my best friends for a while now.  Marshall had been out here, but he went back home at Christmas and is now in basic training. Phill and Crystal Littlewood left at the beginning of last school year for Massachusetts and Chris Hills transferred up to BYU-I last semester. Until just this week, Josh Foster and his wife Christie had been out here as well, but they just left to go back to Missouri for a pit stop before heading to Georgia for grad school.  With my work schedule, I don't usually get to do much socializing outside of Sunday's, which is ok I guess.  At least I have some time that I get to interact with people not on the computer or the phone.  But my birthday was this past week.  The past two birthdays have been lots of fun.  When I turned 24, I finally had a group of close friends out here at school for the first time (aside from when I was in China) and so we had lots of fun.  Last year we did a fun camping trip with everyone that was here, and since it was just after Marshall and Nancyann got out here, it was a blast!  Like I said, I do have some friends out here still.  So I figured I would invite a bunch of people to go to the tumble gym with me and have a party there.  I sent out like 30-40 invites in facebook (which I know isn't exactly a sure bet to getting people to show up)  I texted a few friends as well.  The only solid 'yes' I got was from Josh.  There were a few of my better friends who had valid reasons for not showing up, being out of town, work, etc.  But it end up just being Josh, Christie, their little girl and Josh's little brother who's been out here all summer and I there at the tumble gym.  At first I was kind of disappointed that no one else showed up, but then I started thinking about how much fun I was having with Josh and his crew.  I have long known that I would rather hang out in boring ole' Provo with a group of people I love than travel the world alone.  But I also realized that I would much rather spend the day with one really close friend than with a large group of friendly people who I'm not very close with.  Later that night there was a group of people in my ward playing signs who invited me to come play with them, which ended up being a lot of fun.  But like I said I have come to really appreciate the value of even just one close friend.

So, basically what I'm saying is I am so grateful for the awesome friends that I have, especially those that are closest to me.  When I went to Massachusetts over Christmas break, I got to see Phill and Crystal and we had almost our whole tight group of friends back together from the previous year.  Even though it had been a few months since we had seen each other, it was as if no time had passed.  Those are the types of friends that you can't replace.  I have been so blessed to make some really close friends and even though I don't see them very often (especially this summer) I'm still so glad that I have them as friends.

Announcements!

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to let you all know that Julie and I are getting our announcements printed right now.  We should have them by Wednesday of next week or so.  I know that some of you have already given us your information, but if you would like to make sure you get an announcement, please fill this form out!  We will put an announcement up on here, but if you would like one emailed to you or a printed copy of it, just make sure you fill out that form.  We have it set up so when you fill it out, it will populate a spreadsheet for us, thus making it TONS easier to organize all of the names and address of people who want an announcement.

Also, I apologize for being such a horrible blogger...  I have been having a pretty good summer so far, in case you were wondering.  It would, obviously, be better if Julie were here, but there are only 43 days left till we're married!  I'll try to post some overdue updates soon...  But I have found that instead of being overly productive, I've just come to wish that the summer would end and Julie and I could just get married already.  I have been reading a lot of books lately.  Lots of good books too.  I'm not sure if I'm enjoying the books themselves or the escape from being alone out here more.  Whichever one it is, it has been nice to read so many good books.  And I still have some I need to read.  Thanks Mom and Dad for the book!  Oh, and thanks Riss for the cook book!  I'm sure I'll be using it lots...  Mmmmm....

Anyway, I think I'll wrap this up before I start rambling on about nothing and taking up pages and pages with nothing interesting to report.  :-D  Hopefully I'll update you soon!

Curse those Irish and their awesome dancing

I think some of you have heard some rumors, and I'm here to put those rumors to rest.

First of all, yes. I did in fact break my toe. It happened a week ago now. I called on Friday to schedule an appointment with a doctor because this was no ordinary stubbed toe. There was something seriously wrong with it, and it sported shades of black and blue I didn't know existed. The earliest they could get me in was Monday, so I took it. Now this is something I've always struggled with when it comes to doctors. I like to think there's a reason behind their asking where it hurts, but every time I tell them, they feel the need to poke it, pull it, squeeze it, anything they can do to make the hurt area feel worse. Why can't they just believe me when I tell them what's wrong without having to see for themselves?! I think they just enjoy seeing others' pain. I mean, they are doctors after all. Anywho, I had some x-rays done, and then it was time to leave. However, as we were leaving, my mom wanted to schedule an appointment with the actual family physician to solve another problem that has been going on for a while now. We somehow managed to snag a slot for the next day! That never happens!

So I went back in today. And somehow, my x-rays hadn't been checked yet. When I had them done yesterday, the nurse said that someone would read them and let me know the results within the hour. I, however, heard no results. So today we made them read them while we were there, and the doctor said that he might have seen a fracture but that it was a bit unclear, so he wanted one more x-ray. After my scheduled appointment, I went and had another x-ray done. The nurse then said someone would read them right away and we could just sit in the waiting room until they told us what was up. After 45 minutes, we concluded that they must have forgotten about us again. But me being me, and my mom being my mom, we couldn't just leave with no results after waiting for that long. So we walked up to the desk and demanded our results. Neither of us appreciated being told to wait for a "few minutes" and then wasting an hour of our day. We got the guy on the phone and talked about my x-ray results.

It turns out I have a non-displaced fracture. In other words, I broke my toe. However, it hasn't moved out of place or become crooked. It's still aligned properly, so healing shouldn't be too much of a problem. It's a good thing too! The other night I had a nightmare that I wouldn't be able to wear heels at my wedding! LAME! So yeah, hopefully this thing fixes itself in the next two months. Otherwise, I'll be very upset, but the only thing I can do for it is tape it to its neighboring toe. That provides a support or splint. Then we keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Either way, I can't walk, which is super annoying, or get my toe into shoes. So now that my toes are taped, I look especially ridiculous limping around in my flip flops.

The next rumor I would like to explain is HOW exactly I managed to break my big toe. Well, I had a lot of energy last Wednesday night, so I decided to let some of it out by doing one of the Irish dance routines I learned in my Irish dance class last year. Irish dance really works you, so I thought that would solve my problems in a jiffy. My favorite routine was a hard shoe dance like the clogging done in Riverdance. However, I was so excited to dance that I forgot to go put hard shoes on. I tried doing the routine bear foot. Let me just say, NOT a good idea. I didn't even make it five seconds before I kicked the floor and heard a LOUD crack. So yes, I broke my toe while dancing in my living room. Everyone agrees though. If I were going to break a toe, that's how I would do it. Something completely idiotic and avoidable. Typical...

I have another appointment in 3 weeks to get the results from today's procedure and then see how the toe is healing. Wish me luck!

Every teardrop is a waterfall

Just for kicks and giggles, I've decided to update you all on the love of my life.

Coldplay.

I am SO happy right now. They released a new single yesterday!!! I think I've listened to it close to 50 times already. Yeah, I have no life. I know. Actually, not true. I do have a life. Obviously, hence the whole living thing. I just enjoy having music in it. :)

Anyway, so this song is awesome. It's called 'Every teardrop is a waterfall.' It has a bit of a techno feel to it. Definitely different from the slow, acoustic stuff they started their careers with and then the most recent viva la vida style, but I still really enjoy it.

The point is, you should all listen. now. here. Thanks :)

Announcement!

Hey everyone! So we just made a spreadsheet in order to efficiently get everyone's mailing information for our announcements (which honestly won't be made for a while still, but hey! why wait when we can actually get something done now?). But yeah, just click on this link and fill out the needed information if you want one. Thanks!

GUESS WHAT

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!

Yeah, sure most of you knew about that already, but I just wanted to inform those who didn't. I have the most beautiful ring in the world, and my cute boy is just that. He's absolutely adorable. I might as well explain how he did it so that all of you can hear my side of the story, but beware. I practically wrote a book. Maybe I'm spending too much time around Keith. ;)

On Wednesdays, Keith "supposedly" has class until about 7 pm. I, however, am done at noon. We always meet up and chat for a few minutes before I go home. We talked about how he was going to be home late and how we should do something fun for a date to celebrate the last day of class. It sounded good to me, and I started walking home. Now, I knew that I was going to be getting engaged in the VERY recent future. I was about 98% sure it was going to happen on Wednesday. I just didn't know how or when. Anyway, I went home, got my computer, and made myself at home on my couch. I needed to write two more papers, but I just couldn't concentrate. I texted my roommate Sarah and told her to come over after she got out of class because I was so bored. Lucky for me, she wasn't going to be out of class until 4:00. So I managed to waste four hours of my life laying on my couch and watching House. Cool eh?

Eventually, Sarah came over with a sandwich and some chips. We sat in my living room talking, and it was almost 5:00, the time Keith's last class starts. Sarah finished her lunch and told me she was going to go put her stuff away and that she'd be back in about five minutes. Sarah left and I went back to aimlessly wasting time on my computer. A few minutes later, I hear the door open. I figure it was Sarah, so I didn't turn around to check.

Next thing I know, there's a scarf in front of my face, and I'm being blindfolded. Of course, since I knew it was coming, I wasn't that surprised. I felt the scarf and knew I was getting engaged! HOORAY!!! Anyway, someone takes my computer off of my lap, and then someone tries picking me up off the couch. THAT is when I start freaking out. I have this thing about being picked up; I don't like it. So I start yelling for him to put me down, not because I'm terrified of being abducted by a bunch of people I couldn't see, but because I have a fear of being picked up. Anyway, my captors attempt to get me off the couch and take me away, but I was thinking ahead. I didn't have any shoes on. So I plop back down on the couch and call for my shoes which just so happened to be sitting right next to the couch. Suddenly both of my shoes are being put on my feet, and then they take me again. I'm led outside of my apartment, to the parking lot of my complex, and put into a car. One of my captors was even kind enough to buckle me in when I got in the car. The really awkward part about all of this though, is that no one is talking. No one says a single word even when I would ask them questions. I could tell exactly who my captors were though, even without hearing their voices, Sarah, Debbie, and Ben. I know my roommates and their boyfriends well. :)

Anyway, after I get in the car, I ask the driver if we're allowed to talk. He also decides not to say a word. I wanted to see who the driver was, so I decide it would be alright for me to just reach over and practically grope the man. Lucky for me, it was Keith. He starts playing cheesy songs and whatnot, and we start driving. After a few minutes, he stops the car and helps me out. He puts a bunch of flowers in my hand and tells me to take off the blindfold. I open my eyes and I'm standing on the side of a mountain, over looking Utah. My cute boy is down on his knee in front of me holding the most beautiful ring I've ever seen. Then he simply says, "Julie Peiffer, will you marry me?" No nonsense or suspense. Straight to the point. I immediately say yes and make him get up so I can give him a great big hug. After that's all over, he puts the ring on my finger. Then we stood there for a while admiring its sparkle in the sunlight, and man alive, does that thing ever sparkle!!!

So yeah, that's the story of how Keith proposed. We were also lucky enough to have my friend Chris brought in on the action right before I was abducted. Apparently he filmed the entirety of it until I got put in the car, though neither Keith nor I have seen this video footage. Maybe we can put that up here sometime in case any of our faithful followers want to see part of the action. Then we came back home and told a bunch of people. We called our family members and stuff, and then I was absolutely starving. We decided to celebrate by going to Olive Garden, but I kind of wanted it to be a social event, so we invited all of my roommates and their boyfriends to come with us. How sweet is it that we are ALL dating or engaged?! Sarah and Evan couldn't come though because Evan was at work and Sarah had a lot of homework to do. But the rest of us had a complete blast and stuffed ourselves to the rafters! Another side note, the reason this entire engagement was a bit unexpected at the time was because I thought Keith was going to be in class. It turns out the class was just a review for the final, and he had a friend get the notes for him. Apparently he had better things to do.

Anyway, the bottom line is, Keith is adorable. We are finally and officially engaged, I love him to death, and I cannot wait to marry him. :)

Hey!

I've been invited to post on the blog. Pretty cool eh?

FYI, I'm really happy... and am losing a lot of sleep because of how jittery I am, which is pretty annoying. But still, I'd rather be happy and jittery than terrified and jittery! Can't wait to make this engagement official! The end. :)

Christmas Around the World, Finally!!!

Here's the dance I did for Christmas Around the World back in December.  Sorry for the wait.  I just got my computer back today and I had to reload everything because they had to replace my hard drive for whatever reason.  I'll copy the DVD and either mail it home or just send it home with Mom and Dad after they come out for my graduation for those of you interested in watching the entire performance, not just my dance.  But at any rate, here's the video!

Conference

I feel like general conference was trying to tell me something...

It was Julie! Julie's on the other side of the planet! Hey miracles can happen!

So, I love Julie.  I really do.  She's absolutely amazing.  She apparently really likes it when I update my blog.  I guess it's not enough for her to be with me every second of every day ;-).  Not that I mind, by all means!  Please don't get me wrong!  I LOVE being around Julie too!  And those of you who have met her know why, she's just so much fun and I'm always smiling and laughing when I'm with her.  Anyway, like I said, she likes it when I update my blog because she just likes to see what I'm thinking.  I guess it is a different perspective when I'm writing to the blogosphere as opposed to talking to her directly.  Anyway, We've been having a lazy Saturday, just hanging out.  We played frisbee with some friends earlier today.  We haven't played frisbee in a long time, like all year, and she's kind of missed it.  A lot.  Julie's obsession with frisbee is akin to my obsession with China, if that puts things in perspective a little bit.  It was lots of fun.

Well, we're kind of just chilling right now.  Julie was trying to convince Steven, my room mate, that he should let her cut his hair.  He was almost going to do it, but then he decided against it for some reason.  He needs a hair cut though, he's kind of getting to the 'mop head' stage.  So I guess that idea is out.  Perhaps we'll put a movie on.  We played some Uno and Phase 10, oh and we made some cookie dough and ate probably three fourths of it...  :-D.  I love cookie dough.  As I have said, Julie just really likes it when I update my blog, so I figured I'd spend this past few min doing that just for her.  She said she would have blogged about our trip to Garry's last weekend.  I would, but I don't really have any pictures of my own to put up.  Oh, one nice thing about being 25, I can rent a car and not have to pay an arm and a leg for 'underage' drivers fees and whatnot.  The insurance is still expensive because I don't have any car insurance of my own, but still, at least I don't have those extra fees attached to it.  It really was a wonderful weekend though.  I really love my family.  As I get older, I realize more and more how truly unique my family is.  Julie noticed it as well, that we can go months without seeing each other and as soon as we are together again, it's like we've been together the entire time.  It was a lot of fun to meet Jenessa (Marshall's girl) and her sister who came down with Julie, Nanc and I.  Also, I LOVE my nieces and nephews!  They're all so cute and so much fun!  I wish I could see them more often, but at least some of them are close enough to see every once in a while.  Like everyone else in my family, I am TOTALLY excited about the upcoming reunion this Summer!  And what makes it all even better is that Julie's dad said that if she would do whatever he asked her to do over the summer (weed, mow, other miscellaneous chores) then he would buy her plane ticket to go!  YAY!  Julie's going to be a the reunion as well!  It's going to be a BLAST!

One last random update before I get off:  Steven (the same one who needs a hair cut) said I could use his computer and one of his dvd's to copy my Christmas Around the World dvd to send home!  So I'll do that within the next few days and get it in the mail the first of next week.  So those of you who are interested and live close can go check it out at my parents place!

Ok, now I'm done.  I hope you're happy now Julie ;-).  Perhaps I will get better at blogging regularly.  Or maybe I'll be able to convince Julie to start a blog of her own!  Or maybe I'll just grant her access so that she can post on here as well...  Hum... now there's an idea.....  I'll take a poll:  Those of you reading this, would you rather Julie starts her own blog, starts posting here on my blog (thus making it our blog), or are you indifferent as to the blogging habits of the girl I love so much and care immensely about?  (hint: That last option should only be chosen if you don't even know who I am, in which case, why are you voting in this pole in the first place!?!?!)


還有一件事！我正在想取個名字給我美麗的女朋友。取好名字後就會跟大家分享！

Christmas Around the World DVD!

I FINALLY got my Christmas Around the World DVD!  Yay!  It's only 2 months late...  Whatever.  I would be putting up a video of my dance right now, except my computer decided to hate me a little bit more.  As soon as I get my computer back, I'll rip the section with my dance to my computer and put it up here.  I'll also make a copy of the DVD and send it home so those of you who don't have a fast enough computer can watch it as well.  You'll be able to watch the entire program as well if you would like.  I know Grandma Willis would really enjoy it and I'm sure that there are others of you that would enjoy it as well.  But like I said, my computer hates me again.  For those of you who haven't heard about this whole fiasco, about 6 months or so ago (maybe longer), my computer screen started acting up.  Everywhere that was supposed to be black had obnoxious red lines going through it.  It was rather abrasive to the eyes.  So I sent it in.  When I got it back, guess what, the white now was turning this bright blue color!  Oh, and the red was still there.  I kind of needed my laptop for school, so I just dealt with it till January.  I couldn't watch movies because the colors were crazy.  I could hardly even write a paper without my eyes getting sore from the obnoxious colors.  Anyway.  in January, I sent it back in to Asus to fix it.  When I got it back, they decided not to send my power cord with it....  Ya, that was really happy for me.  But I borrowed a friends power cord and found that there were still really thin lines all over the place, but only when my brightness was turned all the way up.  They told me that my power cord would come back with my computer after I sent it in again.  So I sent it in, and they fixed it.  Yay!  Still no power cord.  Grumpy!  So after chewing a few people out and talking to a manager, I ended up getting my cord almost 2 weeks later.  Everything was all fine and dandy.  My battery was even lasting a little bit longer.  Then after I get home from Garry's house last Sunday night, the backlight to the screen decided that it was going to give out on me.  Ya, really happy about that.  So I sent it in again and now don't have a computer again for another week and a half or so.  So there you have it, my computer hates me again.  At least I have a 2 year warrantee on it.  So if anything else decides to go out on it or freak out on me, it had better happen before December!  Anyway, within 2 weeks probably, I should be able to get a video of my performance up.  Heck, I may have a video of our Scottish dance we're doing next week by then as well!

Julie Ann Peiffer

Well, you all know who Julie is, and if you don't, here's a previous post catching you (mostly) up to speed.  Ok, now that we're all on the same page...  For those of you who do not have access to Facebook (if there are any of you) here is one of the pictures that I promised oh so long ago of Julie and I.

Awwww.... Isn't she gorgeous!?  There are more pictures of Julie and I here if you haven't seen them.  I know, neither of us take enough pictures.  And when we do, it takes us both so stinking long to get them put anywhere where other people can see them.  Well, I know that these next few pictures aren't exactly of people, but I figured that they are worth sharing anyway.  You see, I'm kind of in love with Julie and she (for some reason) seems to love me back.  Don't believe me?  Well, here is some proof:

This was from walking her home one night.  As we were walking through a parking lot, she decided she was going to write me a message.  So I sat there as she wrote that lovely note for me in the snow.

You'll probably have to zoom in on this one to see what it actually says.  I think I may have mentioned this before, but Julie got a hold of my computer one day when I had stepped out and left all of these wonderful notes on my desktop for me!  Sadly, when I sent my computer in to get it fixed, they closed all of the notes, but that's why I took a screen shot!  Now I won't ever forget how much she loves me!  :-D

Now this is what I found on my door the morning of Valentine's Day.  Again, isn't she so cute!  I have since taken all of the harts off of my door and transfered them into my bedroom.

These next pictures are from preference.  It was a Beauty and the Beast dance (thus the first picture).

 The beautiful dress my lovely date was wearing

 Not the best picture of me, but I love Julie's smile in this picture

Not only is she gorgeous, but she's funny too!

As you can see, we both love each other very much.  We have a tendency to spend any free moment we have together.  On top of that, pretty much all of our friends think that we are just a really adorable couple.  A while ago, Sarah, one of Julie's best friends since Freshmen year, made some sort of comment about if she had a quarter for ever time we did something cute...  Now every time we kiss or do anything that the group of friends thinks is cute, we will inevitably hear at least on person say, "Quarter!"  I find it rather funny, especially when Julie plays dumb and says that she doesn't know why insert cuteness here is cute.  There really are a ton of things that I love about Julie, but I won't go into those here.  I know that most of you reading this were directed here from Facebook, and are thus waiting for the story of how it happened.  Well, you're patience shall be rewarded!

Fridays are one of Julie's busy days.  She has 6 hours of class (comprised of only two classes) starting at 8 in the morning.  Disgusting, I know.  Some friends had invited Nancyann and us over to their place for a game night, so we figured it would be easier if Julie just came over to my place after she got out of class.  My only class on Friday's are my Folk Dance class at 2.  Julie gets out of her class just before 2.  So Julie headed over to my place just as I was leaving for my class.  I happened to have a test I had to take today, so I wasn't able to head directly home from dance.  I had a minute as I was walking over to the testing center, so I figured I would check my email/Facebook.  Low and behold, I had 8 emails from Facebook telling me that people had commented on my 'changed relationship status'.  Not knowing what the heck was going on, I got on Facebook myself, and sure enough, I had apparently gone from 'In a relationship' to 'Engaged' within the past hour without my knowledge and even without me actually proposing or asking any sort of question!  No sooner did I see the word 'engaged' than I got a phone call from my sister in law wondering what in the world was going on.  I explained to her that Julie was at my house, with my computer and therein lies the answer as to how I went from merely in a relationship to engaged without a single person in my family knowing about it before it was all over Facebook.  As soon as I hung up with Sheri, my mom called.  I didn't really give her a chance to say hardly anything before I went in on the explanation of what was going on.  It's probably a good thing too, she was apparently pretty ticked that I would get engaged and post it on Facebook without actually even calling home and telling her and dad first!  I can't blame her, that would be a pretty low/stupid thing to do.  I had to go take my test after I got off the phone with her, but now, not even 12 hours later, I have received countless notifications from Facebook about people liking and commenting on my 'engagement'.

At any rate, this is my way of telling all of you that I am, in fact, not engaged.  It was merely a prank that Julie pulled on not just me, but all of you as well.  I hope that you all aren't too horribly ticked off at us/her.  I, for one, find the entire situation rather hilarious!  If you were wondering how things are going between Julie and I, the answer is things are absolutely marvelous!  She really is a wonderful girl and I love her with all of my heart.  If that's not enough, well, just think about what this post was all about and think about what you know about my brother in laws (specifically shortly before they were my brother in laws).

Well, I think I have successfully put those crazy rumors to rest.  Though, I may have gotten some of you to thinking, potentially starting even more rumors :-D.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little fiasco at least half as much as I have!

Pictures and a Video

Well, I posted all of the pictures that Julie and I took on facebook, but there might be a few of you who don't have facebook, so here is a link to the album that they are in.

So, being an Elementary Education major, Julie often has random, somewhat odd projects that she has to do.  Her latest project was to make a video telling a story.  She decided to tell the story of The Princess and the Pea.  We enlisted the help of my room mates and a few of her friends to take the pictures then we compiled it all yesterday and made a video out of it.  In order to turn it in, she had to post it to youtube.  So that means you all have access to it as well!  Anyway, it was really fun to do and turned out to be rather cute.  I hope you all enjoy!

Roommates

So, I don't think I've told too many of you about my awesome roommates that I have.  Marshall knows them and so does Nanc and perhaps a few other people out here at BYU that happen to feel like stalking on my blog every once in a while.  But other than that, most of you are probably rather clueless as to who my roommates are.  Ok, well, after Marshall and I came back for this semester, I got a new roommate in my room.  His name is Dalan Brown.  He's really stinking cool.  Unfortunately, as some of you know, he was in a car accident a few weeks ago and was hurt pretty bad.  Broken scapula, broken rib, lost a lot of blood, gash across his chest, stressed artery coming right out of his heart, collapsed lung...  It was pretty stinkin bad.  But he's had surgery and things are looking up.  He should have a full recovery and is leaving the hospital in the next day or so.  I didn't have a lot of time to get to know him, but I really liked him.  He would have been a really cool roommate.  He's going back home to Idaho and will be back for the fall.  So we'll see if we end up being roommates then or not.  The other guy who is 'new' is David Howard.  He has technically 'lived' here since the beginning of Fall semester.  I say 'lived' because I think I can count the number of times he's actually slept here on two hands, possibly even just one.  He apparently is pretty serious with his girlfriend and depending on how things go there, he's either going to marry her and we'll never see him again, or it'll end and he'll actually move in.  Who knows what's going on with him...  I did talk to him for about 1 1/2 hours last night and he seems like a pretty cool guy.  Then we have Devon and Steven Janke.  They're brothers from Ohio.  Steven is the oldest.  He works at FedEx early Early mornings (as in, it's not unheard of him to leave for work before I go to bed).  This is his first time moving away from home and isn't exactly a social butterfly, but he's seriously just a really good guy.  He likes computers a lot and loves playing video games, but he's a really caring happy guy.  He's always more than willing to help with whatever you need and generally doesn't really care what other's opinions of him are, he's just going to be himself.  Devon is pretty cool too.  He has an amazing voice and is extremely talented with the piano.  I know he plays the guitar as well and is good at that too, but I don't hear that quite as often as I hear him playing the piano.  Last semester his classes kind of sucked the life out of him.  We had a dance party about half way through last semester that he helped with and it kind of took me and the others who didn't already know him there off guard when we realized how fun of a personality he has.  He can be just as goofy as the next guy and is also just a genuinely happy guy.  Then there's Chris Layton.  He's really stinking funny.  He's almost always smiling and laughing about something.  This guy can seriously take pretty much any situation and find humor in it.  He was actually in the accident with Dalan and when we went to visit him this past Sunday, everyone was laughing about all sorts of random stuff he was saying.  It's always a treat when you are around people with a sense of humor and thing that life should be enjoyed, not just endured.  You can ask anyone here, my roommates are all pretty sweet guys.  They're all just really chill and fun loving.  Julie just thinks that they are amazing and I'd have to agree.  I sure have been blessed with some amazing people around me.  Hopefully next year Devon will be on a mission, but him aside, I'd love to keep my roommates who they are.  Anyway, I figured you should all know how many cool people I'm surrounded by.  I'm sure that you would all like to know how things are going with Julie and I, because, well, let's face it, everyone's always interested in others dating lives.  But I'm going to have to leave you disappointed.  I will say that I should be able to actually post some pictures of us tomorrow.  Hopefully we get a few good ones that she won't despise and will let me put up here for the world to see how gorgeous she is.  But till then, you'll just have to wait.

P.S. Sorry I'm so longwinded.  I just can't really help myself some times...  :-D

Chinese 311

I added a Chinese conversation class last minute this semester.  This is one of those classes that is different every semester and could really go either way, depending on the people in the class and more than that who is teaching and how they decide to set the class up.  So yesterday was my first time attending the class, and from the looks of it I'm going to enjoy the class.  At the beginning of class, she asked me to introduce myself and as I'm introducing myself I say that I served my mission in Taiwan.  Before I continue, you must understand something about Chinese.  Well, for one, there are tons of dialects, which greatly affect your accent (for native speakers) when speaking Mandarin.  The accent that people in Taiwan have isn't exactly hard to understand, but because they don't curl their tongue when they should, it has a tendency to sound almost as if you have a lisp.  Some missionaries, in an attempt to sound more like the people they served with, over compensate for this and just sound ridiculous.  Even those who don't overcompensate have a tendency to pick up at least a little bit of the Taiwanese accent.  Ever since I started learning Chinese, I have wanted to have accurate Chinese.  Of course, there are some things that I say that are obviously the Taiwanese pronunciation and other things that show I clearly learned Chinese in Taiwan, but that isn't the accent I wanted to pick up.  So I have worked hard to have good, accurate Chinese.  Ok, back to my class.  When I said that I served in Taiwan, my teacher didn't quite believe me.  She said, "Really?  Then why don't you sound like someone from Taiwan?!"  I take that as a compliment, a big one.  Nothing against Taiwan or the Taiwanese people, but my goal is to have accurate standard Mandarin.  It really made my day.  The rest of the class went really well too.  There were multiple times when the teacher talked about some of those consistent mistakes in pronunciation people with a Taiwanese accent and how they really just bug the crap out of her, thus reinforcing how much I appreciated the compliment she gave me earlier.  There were some people who would intentionally say things the wrong way because they thought it was funny, I thought it was about as funny as my teacher did: Not at all.  It was just obnoxious.  Anyway, aside from that, the class is really going to be a lot of fun.  Our only homework is once every couple of classes we have to make a recording of ourselves talking telling a story or whatever using the vocabulary words from that day's lesson.  We will have a vocabulary quiz every once in a while as well, but basically, that's it.  Oh, and we have to do peer reviews of their recordings as well.  But I'm excited.  It's going to be a fun class.  I'm kind of going to be in Chinese mode a lot this semester, which is more than ok by me!  But I have 3 Chinese classes this semester and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Video Competition

My roommate is doing a video competition for a scholarship website and he had me and our other roommates and some friends help him.  It turned out really awesome.  He wrote the music for it and everything!  Anyway, watch it and click like.  The link is here.

Isn't She So Cute!?

I gave a talk in church yesterday, so Julie came to watch me.  I'm pretty sure I ended up putting half the congregation to sleep, but there were a few people that came up to tell me that they really appreciated my talk, so I guess it wasn't all bad.  Anyway, after church, Julie was just hanging out at my place.  We made baked potatoes and chicken for lunch with Nanc and it was good.  Mmm.... I love food.  Anyway, as we were making the food, I had to go home teaching.  When I got back and walked through the door, Julie was on my computer and she had a guilt look.  I knew she had been up to something, but it was food time.  I didn't get back on my computer for another few hours.  But when I did there were 10 notes on my screen from her, all telling me why she loves me.  Anyway, Julie is really adorable, isn't she?

The Joys of Being a Poor College Student

Well, it's a new year and we all know what that means...  Taxes!  Ok, ok, I know most people don't really worry about them for another 4 months, but I figure, I only had one job last year and it's really simple to file my taxes, so why not just do it now and get it over with and get my return ASAP?  So I go about filling out the forms online and everything and see that I paid about $100 for state taxes and $200 for federal taxes.  I expect I'll get it all back, being in college and everything, totaling just over $300.  Nice, I could use $300 about now.  I mean, when can you not use $300?  Well...  As I finish the form and am looking it over, I look at the bottom line.  My federal return is actually going to be right at about $1000!  If I thought I could use an extra $300, I sure as heck have no problem getting $800 more than I expected to get back!  Anyway, I'm just kind of excited about it right now and thought I would share the good news!