Dum dum da dum :)

Well, it's official! (as you all know by now) But Austin and I are engaged!! It has been completely wonderful and I am so excited :) Sorry for the week long delay but here is our story...
Last Friday, Austin and I both took a day off work and went up north, with the intent to hike near Show Low, have a picnic lunch and just get away. I have to admit, when Austin asked me to go I had a pretty good suspicision that this was why. But the day before we left, plans kept changing. We looked online and found that the forest we wanted to head to was closed seasonally and woudn't reopen til May.
So we modified a little and headed up early Friday morning for the Rim area. But alas, when we made it up to the turn off for the Rim Road Lakes, it was barred and locked. So...we were kindof at a loss. I gave up hope that he would be asking, because all the plans got frustrated.
We spent the day in various places, four wheeling for a while,

having lunch at Kolh's Ranch,
visiting Chrisopher Creek, but ultimately ended up deciding to head to ShowLow anyways.
On our way there, we saw the turn off for Snowflake, AZ. Austin said he'd never been to the temple there so I said, Well then let's go!
We wanted to stay until it got dark to look at stars (we have both taken astronomy and agreed that stargazing for class in the city is not as fun) So we had several hours to kill.
We arrived at the Snowflake Tempe at 3:30 and walked around for a while. We sat down on a granite bench behind the temple, overlooking the back fence and the rest of the city.

Austin then told me we should play a game. He was going to draw something in the dirt and I would guess what it was. And vice versa. So he sent me down the steps and around the other side of the temple while he drew.
After a few minutes of waiting, he came and got me. I walked to the back fence where he had drawn and started at the ground for a bit. Suddenly I realized what he had written.
I caught my breath and turned around. He was sitting behind me on the step, holding the ring.
>
> It was beauiful and so perfect. The whole day had been. And I was so relieved that he actually did ask!! :) He even suceeded in surprising me

I want to be Jack Bauer!

Ok, so I'm not a big TV person. I love the show Veronica Mars, but since it was cancelled 2 years ago, I haven't had any shows I watched regularly. Usually the Office, but that depend on the week.

However, my tune has changed. I am officially hooked on the show 24! It is so good! For years I have heard people talk about it, but I'd never watched it.

Austin and his mom love 24. They have watched several seasons and have some on DVD. So right before the season started, they caught me up a little and we started off with a 4 hour marathon of 24 season 8 (the last season, of course, because I finally jumped on board)

If you've never seen the show before, it is about a man named Jack Bauer, who is pretty amazing. He specializes in counter-terrorism tactics and is just plain good at doing the right thing. It's very intense and fast-paced which I love. The show runs in real time, each hour long episode makes up one part of the 24 hour day (one whole season covers one day)

I'm definitely addicted. It's become our Monday night tradition to go over to Austin's after FHE to watch the new episode. This week, however, we were gone Monday and Tuesday and so we just caught up last night.

And wouldn't you know it, this week's episode was a 2 hour special! IT WAS FANTASTIC!

I know I'm a total dork, but I was glued. It was so exciting!

I can't wait til next Monday! :) Must have 24!

Random Dancing!

Have you seen the Nick show iCarly? It's a silly show (although I have to admit I find it hilarious) about a girl named Carly who runs a web show with her 2 best friends. They have this segment on their show called "Random Dancing" where crazy music plays and everyone has to, obviously, dance.

Yesterday at work I decided to try it :) It was sooo cute! My kids love to dance, we do it alot, but yesterday was even better. I have made multiple CDs of kid friendly, yet popular and upbeat songs to use, but yesterday our boom box busted.

So I jumped on the computer in my classroom and used the projector speakers instead. I was looking for music online, but I had to avoid district firewalls so I ended up on this obscure but awesome website called televisiontunes.com. If you are looking for any TV theme song (and I mean ANY, recent or past) they will have it! It was a blast :)

Looks like we will be doing a lot more Random Dancing in the future :)

Unexpected

Six months ago, if you were to suggest that my life would be as it is now, I would have laughed and said definitely not.

Little did I know what was in store for me.

Things I never would have expected 6 months ago:

- moving out of my parents house

- living with great roommates

- meeting Austin :) and completely changing my relationship situation

- finding out that our house was foreclosing, quite a shock to us as tenants

- my hard drive crashing

- trying to live on as small a budget as possible

- helping Austin plan out school, now that he's chosen to become a pilot :)

- talking about and starting to plan a wedding at the end of the summer :)

Life has been crazy and nothing like I expected. But fortunately, I don't know everything about my life and I have been led to a completely different place. And I am so grateful!

Going Bananas!

Goodness it's March already. Life has been so crazy, and my blogging time has not been keeping up!

So here's a quick update:

Feb. 20 was Austin's birthday! :) in the middle of the night, my roommate Tarina and I went and decorated his car. We were really tired and like dead quiet, but a neighbor still noticed and came out to make sure we weren't stealing anything. Austin and I spent the day at church basketball and at home with his family.

Feb. 21 was Quinton's Eagle Court of Honor! He is a pretty amazing kid. Kyle got his eagle at 14, which was impressive. Logan beat him and got his at 13 :) so Q decided he needed to top them both and successfully finished all the requirements to become an eagle scout at age 12. That's about the fastest you can go. But that is Quinton. Always filled with energy and ready for a challenge, dressed perpetually with style, of course.

Feb. 25 was a scary day. Kyle and Logan were in a bad accident on their way to school. Both are doing alright now. Kyle was in the hospital for that morning, and will have a long road of recovery, but he is safe. Logan, miraculously, was not hurt. By all counts, he should have been. Our family is so grateful for the Divine protection my brothers and the other 2 students in the car were given. We have been so blessed that the injuries sustained were not any worse.

So now that the past few crazy weekends are over, I am looking forward to a low key one. I think I'll spend it making banana bread out of the 50 bananas that are currently sitting on my counter. They were for snack at work on Wednesday, but my kiddos were in a very non-banana-friendly mood. We had tons leftover! Good thing I don't mind a lot of monkey business ;)

He's a Keeper

This Valentine's Day weekend has definitely been one to remember. Austin is such a great guy :)

Friday night we went out to dinner at RigaTony's, one of my family's favorite restaurants. It looks like the Italian restaurant in "Return to Me." They even play Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. After that, we went to an institute Valentine's dance. I love dancing, and even though it's not Austin's favorite thing, he went along with it. We had a great time!

Saturday we spent the whole day together. He made french toast for breakfast, then we spent a few hours doing homework. Sounds boring, my brothers would say, but actually I loved it. I think out loud while doing homework or writing an article (whenever possible) and we had a good time just joking around with each other. Then (and this is a testament of what a good guy Austin really is) we cleaned my house. Almost the entire house is tiled (minus our bedrooms) and it needed swept and mopped badly. So we worked on that, we cleaned bathrooms and the kitchen. And then, because he knows how much it bugs me, Austin started cleaning off our very dirty stove top. This thing has never been cleaned. It had years worth of burned on messes. Each burner had black rings around it. I have tried tackling it before but never made a noticable difference. But Austin decided we could do it! We bought some Magic Erasers and with alot of elbow grease we got it sparkling clean!

He was willing to clean my stove! I love just spending time with him, no matter what it is. And I am so grateful that he is thoughtful enough to work on a hard, not-at-all-fun, grimy project on his Saturday.

After the stove we made some lunch (well it was practically dinner) and then saw went to the movies to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. We both really liked it. I had read the book and told Austin about it. He is a big fan of the Narnia movies and this is reminiscent.

Sunday he came over for breakfast. I made blueberry and banana nut pancakes. Then church, and dinner to celebrate his brother's birthday.
For Valentines, Austin gave me a Willow Tree statue. I collect them. It is beautiful, and he even sanded and repainted the figure to give her blonde hair :)

A wonderful guy and a wonderful weekend spent with him! I wish I could do it a thousand times over :)

99 Red Balloons

As you can tell, my life gets a little hairy while school is in session. I'm out the door by 6 or 7 each morning for a long block of classes and internship meetings, then onto work at Kids Express and home by 7. Between homework and Austin, my evenings get pretty booked as well! :) Hence the lack of postage on my blog here.
But so much has happened since I last posted! I'll catch things up in reverse chronology...
Sunday Feb. 7 - My 21st Birthday!!!! :) Finally! I'm a bit of an old soul but I look like a teenager. I may regret it in the future, but I always look forward to turning a year older. This year was good. I spent it at my parents house with Ausin and my family, making pizza and watching the Superbowl (not exactly my entertainment of choice, but hey. What are you gonna do?)
When I came home, I found my roommates had filled my room up with dozens balloons, streamers and a pet balloon cow. It was the cutest thing ever! My roommates are so sweet.
Last night, after attempting to write a few articles due for my internship, I finally popped all of them. My floor looked like a balloon battlefield, with gory bits of latex scattered here and there. I have a pile the size of a soccer ball with balloon pieces. It took almost 40 minutes to pop them all and get the candy out of the inside!
Friday Feb. 5 - Skiing in Telluride, Colorado. One of the great ski areas in the nation. Need I say more?
Saturday Jan. 30 - Sailing with my dad, Kyle, Quinton, Janie and Austin in San Diego. This was the first time I'd been sailing and I loved it! I even got to steer :) look out...
Austin and I walked around Seaport Village (one of my favorite places) after sailing and took some cool pictures.
late for class, but they will be posted later!