I am an "and"

It's official. My husband and I are one. This is a big step. Bigger than the temple sealing. We have a joint blog.

No worries. We will never get a joint facebook account.

I may still post on my blog, but refer to this one from now on. Tim's pretty funny too, so be prepared to hear from him as well for a good laugh. He can also be serious though. We're great collaborators. It should be fun.

An honor code thought

Under "Live a Chaste and Virtuous Life"
a. Repeated stereotypical gender-based remarks

If this were enforced like facial hair, half of the student body would be ousted tomorrow.

Another letter....

Dear Baby Simon,

Please stay in your mom's uterus for nine more weeks, ok? You can't possibly be ready to come out after only 27 weeks. I'm sure it's real nice in there! I know you are eager to meet your cool siblings and parents, but you have eternity to be with them and by the time you're a teenager... well. You get my point. Please. Just a few more months. You need to get a little cuter.

Love,
Your favorite aunt Cay-Cay

Letters by Caitlin

Letters by Caitlin. (brought to you by Kayla and Thelma)


Dear 2.61% of Utah voters,

Why, oh why, did you vote for SUPERDELL for Governor of Utah? Besides the plethora of criminal charges that include paragliding over I-15 in rush hour traffic, he is also a ridiculously racist bigot. He called homosexuals faggots, once said a fictitious Native American tribe died out because they were not intellectual enough (and then "Schanze refused [to apologize] in an email sent to the entire company further disparaging Native Americans and stating that all Native Americans are adulterers due to the naming of the Bureau of Indian "Affairs"), and proclaimed the only reason his critics were still alive was by the grace of God and SUPERDELL. He was also banned from editing on Wikipedia (according to Wikipedia). Did you know ANYTHING before you went into that voting booth? ANYTHING?

Sincerely,
A very concerned citizen



Dear University towing company,

How come you towed my car Friday night during my hot date to the international cinema? Do you think your one little sign up in the corner on the side of the building is really adequate to let people know they cannot park in your large, usually empty, and practically deserted parking lot after the hour of 8 pm? You are jerks.

Sincerely,
Why is it always me?



Dear Prop 8 protestors,

I'm with you. But please do not call my prophet names. I respect your right to protest, and I agree with you on many accords, but that is just not right in my book.

Sincerely,
A faithful saint against Prop 8



Dear husband,

Why are you so dang hot? I like when you break the honor code. Facial hair looks great on you.

Sincerely,
Your adoring wife

My thoughts on this Friday:

1. I love that the Wilk now has plastics recycling.
2. I'm still kind of dumbfounded by the fact that I am married and can walk around naked in my apartment in front of a boy.
3. I love Michelle Obama. She is intelligent, beautiful, independent, supportive of her husband, and seems like a really great mother. And I liked her dress.


3.5. Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States. That. is. awesome. I have so much faith in him to fix our screwed-up country.



4. In half an hour, I get to go to an exclusive "department review" luncheon for 20 poli sci students. Free food.
5. The Pennyroyal Cafe opens tonight! Feeding real food to desperate vegetarians and vegans since 2008.
6. And this, from Charla: "but you found each other! huzzah for byu. bringing libs, dems, and independents together from necessity since its inception"

Prop 8 yet again

"Before it accepted the invitation to join broad-based coalitions for the amendments, the Church knew that some of its members would choose not to support its position. Voting choices by Latter-day Saints, like all other people, are influenced by their own unique experiences and circumstances. As we move forward from the election, Church members need to be understanding and accepting of each other and work together for a better society" (lds.org source).


Don't judge.

My lovely friend Weston says they are still talking about me in his religion class. I'm infamous!

Google Analytics rocks

The number four search engine keyword that goes to my blog is "yemeni girls naked".

I think the perverts will be sorely disappointed.

I can't sleep I'm so annoyed

While grateful that the American public had sense enough to vote the best man into the most important office, my happiness at an Obama presidency is overshadowed by my extreme annoyance at the narrow-minded voters of Utah County.

That's right. They elected this idiot over Claralyn. Please just read their bios on their respective websites. Then you will understand where I am coming from. However, Claralyn did get 42% of the votes in a very, VERY RED district so that's awesome. But. Chris Herrod, the skeezy, unethical, cheating loser is once again the representative for 62. There will be no happy concession speech here (by the way... Senator McCain's made me cry).

Oh, and it's seems like Prop 8 is going to pass? I have mixed feelings.
Prop 4 failed though. Phew. I can still have faith in California.

Famous voters

I witnessed Donny Osmond voting today. It was AWESOME. My mom would have died.

He walked in and there was just something about him that I couldn't put my finger on. The poll worker asked his name, and said Osmond (ohhhh) is the last name, and the poll worker asked him his first name and he said Donald (ahhhh). He struck up a conversation with me. He asked me if Nader was still on the ballot. I told him yes. He said good, I'm voting for Nader. So you have it folks.

T minus 10 hours

I am legit nervous about the election tomorrow. I have invested so much time, thought, and effort into Claralyn's campaign (though it doesn't touch the effort she put in...) and I can't believe it all is coming to an end. What will I do in the evenings when I don't have doors to knock or volunteers to call? I will probably catch back up on my school work and actually see my husband.

I will be sorely disappointed if the uninformed Utah Countyians elect Chris Herrod. Claralyn is clearly the better candidate, more informed, more intelligent, and WAY WAY more ethical. From the disappearing signs to the spies among us, Herrod's campaign has continually tried to sabotage Claralyn's, and I do not think that his constituents even realize who they are putting into office if they elect him simply because he's the Republican candidate. And I know Claralyn doesn't want power or prestige but is simply doing this to serve her community and listen to her constituents. She has dedicated her life to bettering the lives of those around her, and with this campaign she saw a need and chose to do something about it. And she is just really cool.

Polls open in 10 hours in Utah. Wish us luck!

Obama-Biden '08-- YEAHHHHH

On Saturday morning, we left for Grand Junction, Colorado with the BYU Democrats to campaign for Senator Obama. After a four hour drive and a little detour (Grand Junction is the most confusing city ever to navigate), we arrived at the Obama headquarters at 844 Grand Avenue. When we arrived, they were in the middle of a cook-out, so we got veggie burgers, potato salad, and as much dessert as we could hold. They then sent us to the canvassing location, where we got our assignments, and knocked doors for fours hours. Most everyone was pretty friendly; this area of Colorado is fairly conservative but there is a strong Obama base as well. I met two little boys, probably nine years old, who had quite the opinion about the candidates. The one was undecided over who to vote for because in his words, “Obama doesn't salute the flag.... but McCain wants to ban abortion and then if a little girl got raped, she would die.... so I just don't know”. Lucky for him, he does not have to decide like the rest of us. I also met an older lady, slightly cooky, who declared that I need to change my vote (good thing I voted early for Obama!) because he is an ISLAM. He's not a Christian. He doesn't believe in God (hmm... well, it's obvious he's Christian, and anyways, Muslims do believe in God? No?) I thanked her politely for her opinion and moved on.

After canvassing and dinner (they fed us so well!), we went back to find a home to sleep in for the night. When we walked to the back of main headquarters, we found everyone huddled around the phone because Senator Obama was getting ready to be on the line for a conference call!! We got to be there when he came on the line (for like 2 minutes), and it was SO NEAT. It was cool to hear him talk to us (and I use us very loosely), it was very inspirational. He told us not to be complacent even though we are ahead, and to keep working hard, not sleeping until after the election. I felt as if I were a part of history in that room, looking around at all of the volunteers who worked so hard to get this wonderful man elected. I love Barack Obama. I love Colorado.

We got our house assignment and spent the night on a futon, woke up early, headed to Church, and then canvassed more. After canvassing, we headed home so that we could make it in time for the fireside. It was a great weekend. And it was all paid for! Thanks Senator Obama (and everyone that donated to you... come to think of it, I guess the money that Tim donated to the campaign kind of evened out this weekend for us).

Colorado

We're going to Colorado this weekend to campaign for Obama!

The Women of Genesis series

I never thought I would fall in love with Orson Scott Card's writing. I always knew of books like Ender's Game, but never took the time to read them mostly because they just seemed like superficial Mormon literature at first glance. However, recently I have read all three of the Women of Genesis series (on Tim's recommendation and I love them! His writing style is captivating, they are very well-researched, and it's the Bible from the women's perspective.... what more could you need? I am highly impressed with his ability to get inside of these women's minds while knowing so little about their life stories except the basics in the Old Testament. Moreover, it's really humanized these faithful and brave women for me, especially as I go back and reread the passages in Genesis that talk about them. Sometimes, I get angry at the lack of representation of women in leadership positions within the Church, past and present. But then I think about those select women who have status, somewhat, and I delight in their accomplishments. I think our vision is skewed by the world. Women have been made invisible for so long, even by righteous peoples. I think Card did us all a favor by bringing their stories to life and making them visible, though it is only works of fiction. It's a start, and it gives me hope that somewhere there are lost manuscripts of women's experiences with divinity. The book of Sariah. Of Rachel. Of Vashti. Of the daughters of Zelophehad. Of Mary. There are so many righteous and brave feminist women in the Bible. I just wish we knew more about them.

And I hope Orson Scott Card and his family got the wedding invitation we sent them :)

WomanStats blog!

WomanStats has a blog! Hooray!

BYUSSR

BYU is brainwashing its students, once again. The campus devotional today was a subversive tool to support its position on Proposition 8. Not only was the speaker an ultra-conservative philosopher, he managed to slip the word "proposition" more times than normal.

The loveliness of life

Where is my husband? I do not know. Dinner is getting cold...

While I'm waiting for my love to get home from campus, I think I will blog. I am losing inspiration lately. There is not much going on besides school, work, work, work, campaign, campaign, campaign, and Parity, Parity, Parity with the occasional social outing. We are living the married life, and living it good. Tim is realizing what a terrible, but ambitious, chef I am. I am realizing that Tim is a lot cleaner than I thought he'd be. We are both realizing living together and being married is not as hard as everyone made it out to be. Disagreements are few and far between. Not to say it's blissful all the time, but comfortable and calm at the least. I really like it.

This past Saturday, we were lazy. LAZY. We laid out our hippie, South American style blanket that we got at Goodwill on James Island in SC, and made a picnic lunch (carried by Katy's beautiful basket.)




It was wonderful. The sun was shining, the shade was perfect, and the company was divine.



We laid out for hours reading and napping, finally ending the afternoon with a trip to the temple for proxy sealings (because getting married again is so cool!) After the temple we went to Emily and CB's reception, then over to Carl and Gloria's house for political discussions. It was a wonderful Saturday.

Pick your Spot

I took this quiz that told me the top 24 places I should live based on lifestyle and preference. My results included a lot of cities in Oregon (which is one state I've never been too) and a few other random ones.

1. Portland, OR
2. Eugene, OR
3. Little Rock, AR
4. New Haven, CT
5. Providence, RI
6. Honolulu, HI
7. Corvallis, OR
8. Salem, OR
9. Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
10. Hartford, CT
11. Santa Cruz, CA
12. Alexandria, LA
13. Medford, OR
14. Baton Rouge, LA
15. Valencia, CA
16. Baltimore, MD
17. Santa Barbara, CA
18. Danbury, CT
19. Ventura, CA
20. San Bernardino, CA
21. Fayetteville, AK
22. Boston, MA
23. Monroe, LA
24. Worcester, MA

Louisiana? I thought that was a little random. And rich-y places like Santa Barbara? Hmm... average house price is a million something. No thanks.

Mine's pretty similar to Austin's. This bodes well since our families will eventually live together one day.

So over the wedding posts...

So it's been a month. A month! I've been married a month. I can't get over how foreign that concept is to me. When I look back and think that just about four months ago I barely knew Tim it just blows my mind how everything has fallen into place so wonderfully. He is my best friend! He is so easy to talk to and we have so much fun together. He's hilarious. I love our pillow talk at night before we collapse into each other's arms exhausted. He makes me smile on a regular basis. I am happy.

But, the wedding is over. It was wonderful. I will no longer post about it :)

I also really want to make my blog cool. I don't know how. Will someone teach me? Are there websites with templates? Please assist my uncreative soul.

Speaking of uncreative, I hate referring to myself as that. I am not artistically gifted in most ways. But I am a creator. I went through a program last year called "The Artist's Way" with some friends of mine. Although I did not follow it as faithfully as I could have, it opened up my eyes to many areas of my life that are long neglected. While I do not have the capacity or the patience to create works of art on a canvas, I write. I love to write. I write amazing 15-page political science research papers. Maybe that does not seem like art to most, but at the end, when I read that finished product, I know I have accomplished something worthwhile. It is discouraging to have talents that are not quite as visible as "L"'s paintings or Ash Mae's creativity or John's violin-playing because they are oft forgotten by even myself, but I know that my creative talents are manifest in different ways. For example, I have an amazing photographic memory. I can remember phone numbers after dialing them once. I remember birthdays of long-lost friends. I read something once and it sticks with me forever. It is a very neat talent of mine. I like myself. I am creative. I just do not know how to make a cute blog.

The swanky reception

Pictures from our swanky reception at the Officers' Club on Fort Jackson in South Carolina. For more pictures, click here.

A few of my favorites (um, LOVE the one with Tim dancing with my cousin's little girl. And Tim and Ethan hugging. Love, love, love.)

Enough of all this serious talk.... our honeymoon!

We had a great honeymoon (minus the third-degree sunburn and tropical storm) in Charleston, SC. The first day of our honeymoon was actually spent at my parent's house, since they were all still in Utah and didn't check in to the hotel until 3 pm. We slept in their bed, woke up late, and lazily made our way to Charleston. Our hotel was part of this timeshare deal, and we were the only people there not in the AARP and Medicare. Nonetheless, our room was super nice (with a fireplace and all) and we had a good time walking around the city.




We went to the Aquarium... I was like a little kid playing in the touch exhibit, and Tim really liked this metal frog.



... we found random old houses to explore.




And we went to the beach before the tropical storm actually hit (it was so windy and cold though... tainting Tim's first experience with Carolina beaches).

Seriously??

There was also a letter to the editor today that compared Obama to Hitler because the writer's great-uncle got the same feeling from listening to Obama as he got from listening to Hitler, and this is why we should not vote for him.

"He told us he had a very distinct feeling of how evil Hitler was... and that he had the exact same feeling when he heard Obama speak... I'm not a hard-core Republican or anything, but since he received the same revelation for these two people, shouldn't we be doing something?"


I'm not going to judge. But COME ON! I bet he won't get hate mail and no one will question his faith.

Um, yes, I have a temple recommend

So, after my little rant was published today in the DU, I have received an onslaught of hate e-mails from fellow BYU students featuring a multitude of ad hominem attacks about my faith. I was told I need to be more in tune with the teachings of the Church, listen to the prophet a little harder, keep my temple covenants (because as one person wrote, "Some of us keep are temple covenants" by voting for a political issue!?) and actually, I kid you not, one person told me that I should not be allowed to call myself LDS.

And one other thing: I do in fact respect all of those out there in favor of Prop 8. Thank you for your input, and I welcome rousing political discussion on this blog. I respect everyone's opinion, especially those who have worked through the issue intellectually and aren't following our leaders blindly. I honestly do not think the prophet himself would want us to not question his positions. We are given our minds for a reason. I was simply expressing my thoughts about how narrow the fight on Prop 8 has been on our campus. And I think what scares me a little is how it is reminiscent of the position of the Church in the 1970s against the ERA. If you aren't familiar with that, it was the Equal Rights amendment, guaranteeing equality between the sexes. The Church also made a statement against that warning that it might "stifle many God-given feminine instincts" (as well other reasons, including the fact that it may turn people homosexual... go figure), but I think Church doctrine has changed considerably in three decades, and cannot imagine such a statement now.

What I'm trying to get at here is please, please, please don't attack my faith and things I truly do hold very dear to my heart. Thank you. I do listen to the prophet. I do love this Gospel. I just simply want more people to think before they vote, and see the adverse effects that Prop 8 could have on the Church.

Also, I want to express my belief in freedom of speech for all of those pro-Patriotism Sarah Palin types out there. Ok, and you must read this editorial. It's brilliant.

A veritable deluge of wedding pictures

Because it's hilarious....

My niece's reaction when she learned my sister was having another boy.

Go here.

Prop 8

I know I'm on a completely different page than practically everyone at BYU when it comes to the passage of Proposition 8 in California. And since I'm not a California resident, I have no ability to even vote on the matter. But I just take issue with the extent to which the Church is supporting and encouraging members to vote for Proposition 8 (for those who don't know, the initiative seeks to define marriage as between man and woman only, intending to trump the most recent California legislation allowing same-gender couples to marry). Frankly, I'm quite appalled that Church members are so gung-ho supportive of Prop 8. Personally, I am not supportive of gay "marriage". Yes, I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. However, when two consenting, responsible adults have a committed relationship for long periods of time, I do support their civil rights including hospital visitation, filing taxes jointly, sharing health insurance, etc. and if they want to call that marriage, who are we to tell them they cannot?

What will homosexual marriage do to you? Honestly? Is it going to ruin your life? Then why would you vote for a proposition that will in fact ruin someone else's? To me, it just does not seem very Christ-like. Same-sex attraction is very much a biologically-driven lifestyle, and for those without the Gospel, that lifestyle hurts no one. Research has proven that children raised by homosexual couples are just as well-adjusted, do just as well in school, and have no greater chance of being gay. There was a pamphlet being distributed to members of the Church from an anonymous source with many false and misleading statements regarding the consequences of Prop 8 not being passed. Professor Morris Thurston, a Harvard-educated law professor at BYU, wrote a response to the pamphlet. You can find it here.

Voting for Proposition 8 simply hurts the Church. It hurts those men and women within the Church who struggle with same-sex attraction. It hurts our image. It turns people against the Church. Joseph Smith once said that he teaches his people correct principles and allows them to govern themselves. We have been taught the correct principle regarding same-sex attraction and acting on those tendencies. Now let's try out a little agency and govern ourselves while allowing others to make their own decisions without the government interfering.

Beng married.

Two weeks in, I'm feeling pretty good about this whole getting married thing. We rearranged our apartment last night, and I'm feeling a lot better about it. We feng-shuied it and opened up the space a lot. We bought plastic Sterilite drawers for our clothes, so we no longer have the huge piles of clean/dirty clothes. Every night is like a sleepover with my best friend... it's great!

story of my life.

It is simply unethical to issue speeding citations to newly-married, incredibly poor, stressed out, late to class, crying students. Even if they are speeding down a hill going almost 20 over. URGH!

This story is too good to be left unblogged

Disclosure: If you are under 18 or are easily offended, do not read on.

On our wedding night we stayed at this sweet resort up at Snowbird in the canyon (ok, I digress: after the reception, Tim and I went to IHOP on the way to the hotel, wedding attire and all. We were hungry, people stared, it was awesome.) We get into our room and collapse into bed exhausted. About an hour or so later, we hear noises emitting from the room adjoining ours. The noises get louder and louder. They go on and on and on. It must have been for half an hour. The girl must have had about 8 orgasms. SERIOUSLY. It was out of control. And she was LOUD.

Talk about a memorable wedding night.

Tim and I awkwardly try to fall asleep. He looks at me all dejected and disappointed and asks "Is it supposed to sound like that?"

Ummmmm...... "eventually" I reply.

I'M MARRIED!

Yes it's true! I actually did it. Can you believe it?

It was wonderful. WONDERFUL. The most perfect day, right down to the torrential downpour as soon as we walked out of the temple. Our photographer, Mo, was awesome. The pictures turned out GREAT (my favorite thing: rather than taking pictures beside the reflection pond in front of the temple, we actually waded to the middle and shot pictures from there. We were famous. People all around temple square grabbed their cameras and started snapping shots... it was hilarious!). And the receptions were so fun! In Utah, the ice cream was great, the people were great, the live music was great. In South Carolina... um, holy cow did my Mom go ALL OUT. The cake-beautiful. The flowers-ridiculous. Opening wedding presents is Christmas on crack. It rocked.

The best part: TIM! Being sealed to the my most favorite person on earth. I love being married to him! The honeymoon was great... it was so nice to just lay in bed all day and bask in each other's presence. Being in love is wonderful! And we have so much fun together. And he's just SO freakin' attractive!

I am the luckiest. It's true. THE luckiest. Ever. I snagged the greatest guy on the planet. Sorry gals :)

Stephanie and Christian Nielson

I woke up this morning to the Daily Herald on the driveway of the shelter, pulled the rubberband off the immense bundle of Sunday news, and found the front page. As I began reading the cover story, my jaw absolutely dropped and my heart sank. Stephanie Nielson, a quite famous blogger and inspiration to all mothers and would-be mothers, was in a plane crash a little while back with her husband. The pilot died, while they are both in critical condition. I went to her blog immediately, and then linked to her sister's to read about what happened. They both suffered severe burns along with other injuries, and both are in very critical condition still. c jane's blogposts about the past few weeks are beautiful. She sees the opportunity for joy and learning and understanding arising from this tragedy (though she is inclined to say it is not a tragedy, as she witnesses how it has brought her family together, how real-friends and blog-friends have taken up the cause, and how Stephanie's spirit resides in each one of her children).

I loved reading her blog. I fell in love with her beautiful red-headed Jane, her spunky Claire, adorable Oliver, and funny little Nicholas. She has a passion for motherhood. She is crazy head-over-heels in love with her husband. She is an artsy vegetarian who is always taking her children on adventures and doing homemade crafts with them. As a person in the present and in the future as a mother, I hope I can be as good as Stephanie Nielson. She and Mr. Nielson have a long road of recovery ahead of them, so please pray with the thousands of others for their well-being and the well-being of their four beautiful children.

SINGLE DIGITS.

Oh man. I'm getting married in nine days. NINE DAYS. This is an incredibly surreal feeling. Right now, sitting in the library next to this cool kid, I just can't wait. Any last minute marital advice?

Back to school

Another year, another year. I love school so much, I love going to classes, I love being productive, I love my job on-campus and off. I love the fact I'm getting married in 12 days. So I'm supposed to keep a daily gratitude journal for my women's health class, and while I probably won't blog about what I'm grateful for every day, here's the first entry.

I am grateful for:
-All the food my mom bought us
-Our tiny studio apartment
-The deliciously soft bedsheets we bought
-My job at the women's shelter and what these women teach me everyday
-Reunions with wonderful friends
-Temples and the opportunity to be sealed
-Oh, and Tim, he rocks.


NOTE: I am NOT grateful for oral contraceptives (sorry Margaret Sanger, but they wreak havoc on a woman's body). How does natural family planning sound to everyone out there? We'll let you know how that works out for us... :)

Being back in school is great. However, I've lost my concentration and ability to focus in most classes, probably due to my impending nuptials. I'm sure once we get back from the honeymoon, we'll get in a nice groove. Right now, being engaged just feels so unnatural. I just know I am supposed to marry Tim, and any time spent not married just seems superfluous. I love planning our future together. And we plan on being very, very happy.

I LOVE BEING IN LOVE.

I'm sorry for gushing. But I couldn't help it after reading Becca's post. I just am so deliriously happy (besides the uncontrollable crying spells I've had the past week... stupid birth control) that I want the world to know and get sick to their stomachs over it! (sorry Katy!) It's just the coolest feeling in the world to look at this guy and know that he thinks about me so constantly, knows me so intimately, loves me so deeply. And I feel the same way about him! Every day, every time it just grows more and more intense (like the Native Americans). And I can't wait to be married to him and continue our lives together! I can't believe he's only been in my life just four short months... it feels like I've known him my whole life. And totally ditto Becca's sentiments-- we are SO perfect for each other. How could I or he have dated anybody else?? Silly silly silly. I'm through with ambiguous text messages and meaningless kisses and waiting by the phone and feeling miserable and unsure. I think we were on our second hang-out, sitting on the trunk of his car when Tim looked at me and said "ummm... I like you... a lot" and I said YEAH BABY! Then, two weeks later, sitting on a rock high up in the Wyoming Tetons, I was the first to utter those first three words that will carry us through it all.

Ok, enough of the cheese. We hiked through a swamp today (no gorgeous mountain hikes here)... it was hot and muggy and smelled wonderfully of rotten tree trunks. It was peaceful and serene and I could do it the rest of my life with Tim by my side.

[Insert adorable kissing picture here]

Nauvoo

On the way to South Carolina (yes, we were crazy enough to drive!) we stopped in Nauvoo and saw the sites. I hadn't been there in years, so it was neat to go through all of the little shops and houses again. We even went to the original Browning Arms shop, home of Tim's great-something grandfather! He got to sign the descendant book. I felt important.




I love this one! It was a statue, and the name of it was "Courtship for Eternity". I think that is so appropriate... and it sounds simply blissful.



On the banks of the Mississippi... Tim tried to teach me how to skip rocks, but I failed miserably!

We also had an opportunity to do baptisms in the Nauvoo temple. It was so cool to have Tim baptize me... I LOVE going to the temple with him. I think we will do it all the time!

Lake Powell

So, this post is the start of a succession of posts regarding prior occurrences I neglected to blog about-- and I haven't yet perfected that getting all of the pictures into one post thing with the little comments underneath... so multiple posts will have to suffice for now.

First, LAKE POWELL!

And really first-- THE DRIVE TO LAKE POWELL!
So, apparently Lake Powell is a lot bigger than Tim and I thought. Well, I really didn't even know it existed except for I vaguely remember driving over it on the way to a certain Grand Canyon vacation. We were going to be staying on Tim's friend's family's houseboat and it was going to rock. We arrive at the docks after an 8-hour drive through NOWHERE (Southern Utah is.... bleh). Only to find out an hour later that we've gone to the wrong dock... we though, alright, hey, another hour drive will get us around, right? Well too bad there are no roads that will take you around the lake. You have to go all the way back to the interstate, around, swiggle around some mountains, go through some insane canyon passes where it is literally straight cliffs on either side... and all of this in the middle of the night. It was QUITE the adventure. A nice couple at the wrong docks gave us 100 bucks to see us through the night in case we needed to stop anywhere and get a hotel. We ended up camping for a few hours when I was just too exhausted to keep my eyes open. It was worth it though, because we woke up in the most beautiful valley and drove all morning. We finally arrived at the lake, after ten more hours of driving.... and had a GREAT TIME! Brock's family was so awesome to us, and there were friends and cousins and it was a blast. I jumped off a cliff! And learned to wake-surf (kind of) and we rode Jetskis and did tons of other cool stuff. But I think both of us realized a few days in that lake trips aren't REALLY our thing so we headed home early so Tim could get back to work and I could get a bunch of stuff done before the real road trip.

Pictures:

Weddings weddings weddings!

Oh my! I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged... Well, wedding plans are well under way and invitations are out (if you'd like one, please do contact me as we have some extras). Other than planning a wedding and attending my brothers', the past few weeks have been surprisingly relaxing considering the amount of stress we've been under (oh no, it's begun. I'm already using "we" on my blog). I get to have my big bridal shower tomorrow, which I am very excited about!! Some women from my home ward are throwing it, so you know it'll be good. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited for kitchen gadgets.

Last weekend, my brother Devin got married to Hillary Tresnak in the Washington DC temple! It was so cool because Tim and I were able to attend the sealing in the temple, knowing that we will be the ones across the altar in TWENTY-FIVE DAYS. And the wedding reception... FABULOUS. I couldn't have done it better... I loved Hillary's dress, flowers (in fact, I'm totally stealing them), bridesmaid dresses (I AM stealing those)... everything! And now they are off honeymooning the Caribbean and we are beyond jealous.

They looked so beautiful and happy coming out of the temple:




And we had an awesome time together at the temple:






Ok. My fiance is HOT. That is all.