Saturday, December 27, 2008

A few more pics...

My dad took these with his camera so it took a little extra work to get these up but here are a couple of the two of us the night we got engaged!


Tuesday, December 23, 2008

BIG news!

Boy do I have A LOT to blog about! Sometimes I can’t think of a single thing to write about and other times (like right now) I have so many things I want to write about I can barely begin to decide what to blog about first! This post however isn’t going to be difficult to choose what to blog about first because the topic completely out does any other topic that I might ever write about. Curious?

Well this last Friday I got asked a VERY SPECIAL question. My answer to that question: YES! I don’t think it takes Sherlock Holmes to figure out what that means but in case you are a little slower I will spell it out for you. S.O. (now to be referred to as fiancé) proposed to me on Friday! Now I am sure you all are wondering how the lovely affair occurred so I will tell you!

The story actually begins on Thursday night when I received a phone call from my visiting teachee who called to see if I would be able to take her to the airport Saturday morning. Now this normally wouldn’t be a problem but I was planning on going home to Kaysville to spend the weekend with my family and fiancé. I told her that if she didn’t have any other options that I would be happy to take her. My phone conversation with fiancé afterwards went a little something like this:

Me: So I have to take my visiting teachee to the airport Saturday morning.
Fiancé: Ok
Me: So we can either hang in SLC (we had plans to go see the lights at Temple Square) and then come back to Provo or we can go home to Kaysville and then drive back in the morning. What would you like to do?

Fiancé: Ummm. Can I think about it and I will get back to you tomorrow?

Me: Yeah (thinking “what the heck?” this isn’t that big of a decision. Not really understanding why this is requiring so much extra thought my girl instinct kicks in and says “He is so planning something and I have a hunch that it might be a proposal!)

Needless to say I was totally onto fiancé and so even when an intense blizzard hit I made a special effort to get home anyway. I luckily was able to leave the office early (it was closed so that everyone could get home safely before the roads got too bad). I began my trek back to Kaysville at 3:00. Arrival time in Kaysville 6:00. It took me 3 hours to make a normally one hour drive. It was brutal and for those of you who know me well know that I have an intense phobia of driving (not to the point that I can’t drive but I really really just don’t like it and I especially hate driving in bad weather.) It stresses me out. Thankfully all of this was well worth my time ONCE I got home.

After having dinner fiancé asked if I wanted to go test drive his new car. I agreed only because I figured he was up to something otherwise there was no way I was getting back into a car! We began driving towards his house as he showed me all the features of his new car. Then he said in order to show me the last feature of his car I needed to close my eyes. I was a little reluctant at first thinking that he was going to do a donut in the middle of the road and give me a heart attack. Finally I consented and from there he kept me from opening my eyes by asking ridiculously hard questions that I would have no way of knowing the answers to (the condition was that if I answered the question correctly I could open my eyes) .

The next time I opened my eyes I was standing on a beautiful snow covered bridge overlooking a partially iced over pond at the park where fiancé and I have often met. It is something of a middle point for the both of us.

He had written me a sweet letter that I read by flashlight, which was followed by the giving of a few of my favorite things (chocolate, carmex, etc.) and then after a few more sweet words he knelt down on one knee and pulled out the ring. The ring box was inside of another box (see pictures below) that looked like a present. Probably one of the cutest things of the whole thing was the fact that he just threw the other box pieces behind him and opening the ring box as he asked me if I would marry him. Without any hesitation I said “Yes!” It was adorable, sweet, special and perfect!

We quickly retreated to the car because we were FREEZING! It was so cold! We returned to my house where we shared the story with my family and spent the rest of the evening enjoying each others company. It was so wonderful!

I can’t even begin to express my joy and excitement as I look to being the wife of such an incredible young man who I love so much!

P.S. It has been so difficult not to blog about my wedding thoughts…so beware they are going to be unloaded here very soon.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Sneezing Malfunction

I had a sneezing mishap the other day. I felt a sneeze coming on and I could tell that it was going to be a loud one. You know how you can tell when your sneeze is either going to go barely noticed and when it is going to make everyone in the office jump. This was a make people jump sneeze.

In an effort to not disturb my co-workers I tried to do the quiet sneeze. You know the kind. The kind where you tightly press your lips together, forcing most of the pressure out of your nose, decreasing noise but not really making your nose feel all that great.

Well the monster of the sneeze came. I tried for the quiet sneeze and FAILED. Instead of a tightly pressed upper lip both of my lips went a flapping which ended up making a REALLY LOUD spitting noise. Yeah that is right a spitting noise. Like when you play with a baby and you vibrate your lips to make the baby smile [I have come to the conclusion that the baby smiles not because of the sound but because WE look like complete idiots when we do it] anywho…I totally made this noise when I sneezed and it was loud and subsequently spit went everywhere. Don’t worry I was alone in my cubicle so I only showered my desk and surrounding office supplies. It’s my cubicle. It’s my spit. No big deal.

The part that was a big deal was the fact that not only did a make my whole office jump at the sound but I sounded like an idiot who didn’t know how to sneeze. I am sure everyone was wondering why my sneeze had malfunctioned. Answer: attempting to do the quiet sneeze. Lesson Learned: You sound much less like an idiot when you just let em fly!

BIG decisions

S.O. and I were talking the other night about some of the BIG decisions that we [more him than me because now my life consists of working five days a week and then attempting to have a life on the weekends] have to make in the near future. S.O. is looking to buy a car, deciding where to do an internship, and what direction he wants to go once he goes to law school and I’m well…yeah so I am not making any big decisions right now.

In talking about these things and S.O. sharing his thoughts on how he is going to make these decisions and me putting in my two bits [like I always do] I came to the realization that S.O. and I make decisions differently. Shocker huh?

I know it sounds silly but it hadn’t ever really crossed my mind that someone might go about making a decision the same way I do. When you start to get to know another person much more intimately you begin to notice these differences. Differences that you never would have noticed if you hadn’t been having that “deep conversation.”

I am learning that I need to be better about NOT pushing my thoughts and my processes on others. They have their own process and I am sure they would tell me that it has been working great for them for years! Just because an individual goes about making decisions differently doesn’t mean that those decisions aren’t good ones.

I completely trust S.O. to make wise decisions and I realized that when I push my process onto him I am sending the message that I don’t trust him doing it his way. Which is totally false.

First step recognition. Second step change. I am moving onto step two.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

This is she...

For some reason I am on an "informing" kick right now. I feel the need to "inform" people of various things. Today it has do do with proper grammar.

Many times when people call they ask "Is this so and so?" and many times this is the response that I hear "This is her/him."

This is not correct grammar. My mom took the liberty of drilling this into my head. Every time I answered the phone using "This is her" she would say "This is she." At first it sounded so weird! It wasn't natural. After many times of getting it wrong and subsequently having my mom correct me I finally started to catch on and started saying it right.

Now I cringe when people say it wrong. It sounds so "hill billy." No offense to anyone who uses the "This is her/him" answer. Don't worry you can still change your grammatically incorrect ways.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Life after college...

I would like to clear up a few myths about life after college so that everyone understands exactly what expect once you are finished with assignments, papers and finals.

Myth #1 Now that you work full time and have begun your "career" you're instantly made of money. It actually is quite the opposite. In my case I have less money than when I was in school. Your income increases but your expenses double. Graduates are still in the "have to think twice about whether you can afford going to the cheap movie theater" boat.

Myth #2 You have oodles of time to do all those things that you kept saying you would do once you got out of school. There isn't a working person that believes this because it isn't true. Most of the time you don't leave the office until after 5:00 putting you home around 6:00, once you have had dinner and sufficiently unwound from the day it is at least 8:00. If you are like me then you are lucky if you have energy to do anything else and you are ready to go to bed by 9:00. So your oodles of time consist of the weekend. Sound familiar? That is right it is just like when you were in school except when I was in school I had more time during the week to do things. Oh and by the time you get off work everything is closed anyway!

Myth #3 Your job will be everything that you ever dreamed of. If your like me you have great visions of being a professional, working in the field and making a difference. As much as I am sure that this is true at SOME POINT in your career it doesn't always occur right off the bat. Most of the time your job is not very glamorous and sometimes going to work isn't fun.

I hope that I haven't shattered too many dreams but this is reality people. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of great things about being done with school (particularly no homework or tests) and I really am happy, I just wish someone would have warned me that I was going to be just as broke as I was before, I wouldn't have any extra time, and that I wasn't going to be ruling the board room. Be informed. Share the truth.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Simple Pleasures

I don’t know if you have noticed my list of simple pleasures over here to the right but I would like to take a moment to highlight the simple things in life that bring me so much happiness.

1. Sleeping in. I do get a lot of happiness out of just plain sleeping but getting to sleep longer then what you normally do is probably one of the best feelings ever! I never want to get to the point where my body won’t let me sleep in because boy would I be missing out on such satisfaction.

2. Drinking sugary milk after a bowl of sugary cereal such as Fruit Loops. This is just plain tasty. Nice cold milk with and extra dose of sugar. If the cereal was Fruit Loops then your milk will probably be a pretty color too!

3. New pair of shoes. Pretty much I have a fetish and obsession with shoes. I wish that my budget supported this obsession a little better. Needless to say a pair of new shoes can make me one happy girl for weeks! Every time I wear them it makes the day just that much better.

4. 5:00 p.m. Who doesn’t like this hour? This hour means you are free! Done for the day! Now instead of sitting on your butt at work doing things that you are forced to do you can sit on your butt at home and do things that you want to do! Like blog for instance : )

5. Mail. What normal person doesn’t like to get something in the mail? I love it because it proves that someone thought of you long enough to write something, put it in an envelope, address it, put a stamp on it, and then walk it to the mail box. I love knowing people thought about me.

6. Carmex. This has got to be the most addictive but wonderful substance on the planet! My lips crave it (probably because there is something in it that makes you need it and nothing else). I love the way it feels and the way it looks (not a big fan of the taste factor but nothing can be perfect). Love my carmex.

7. Phone call from a friend. This is another one of those “someone thought of you” moments. They thought about you long enough to feel moved to call you AND be willing to take the time to talk. I love it when you get a phone call and it is a good friend that you are just plain excited to hear their voice.

8. Hot showers. These just feel good. So relaxing. I love feeling clean, fresh and warm!

9. Clean sheets. Oh how I love this. My favorite ritual is to wash my sheets, dry with TWO dryer sheets for extra softness and good smell. Once the sheets are clean I take a hot shower. Then clean me climbs into my clean sheets and I just inhale the freshness and it feels SO good!

10. Chocolate. Now of course I saved the best for last. This goodness is so wonderful and makes me so happy! There is nothing like a little bit of chocolate to make me feel better or simply to have some just for the sake of indulgence.

What are the simple pleasures in your life that make you happy?

The sun shines in the winter?

Honestly because my past three winters have been spent in Idaho I really had the realization (now that I am not in Idaho) that the sun does occasionally shine in the winter time.

I worked at the counseling center on the BYU-Idaho campus while I was in school and one of the most common things that people would come in for was for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Not lying this was a really prevalent disorder in Rexburg because of the lack of sunshine during the winter months which basically begins the end of October until the beginning of April.

I think that I suffered from SAD. The depression I felt in the winter was crazy! I literally craved sunshine! My body just needs it. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t seeing a counselor or taking drugs but there was a definite damper on things because of the lack of sunshine.

Now that I live in Provo I am amazed that the sun still shines even when it is winter time! I wake up in the morning and on my drive to work I still have to pull out my sunglasses. It is such a weird sensation to put your sunglasses on when it is cold outside. Who woulda thought you would still have need of sunglasses in the winter.

The point, I LOVE that I can still see the sun in the winter even when my most recent winter experiences have taught me otherwise.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I wasn't asking you out...

You know when you get placed in one of those awkward situations where you are either going to have to lie to save from making someone feel stupid or tell the truth so as to keep yourself from having to deal with the issue in the future, well I was placed in one of those situations today.

I got a random text message from, now get this...from a past boyfriends trainer from the mission. Yeah I know crazy connection but nonetheless we know each other and he texted me.

He said "Hey Marisa! How are you? It's been a long time, and I just thought about ya : )"

Are you thinking what I am thinking...because if you are then you know that this is headed right to the asking out question. You can totally tell.

Anywho...we proceeded to have small talk back and forth over text messaging and then came "the question."

He said "What are you doing tomorrow night?"

This is the part where I panic because I know he is going to ask me to do something, obviously, but I am VERY much dating someone and I have no desire to go out, even if it is just as friends. Unfortunately I totally am torn on what response to give.

My thoughts: "Well I can't just tell him that I am dating someone because that is being pretty presumptuous in assuming that he is asking me out because he is interested." At the same time we aren't good friends so this isn't like old pals catching up. I am 99.99% sure that he is interest. If I lie and say I am busy then I may have to deal with the whole thing later. I will also probably have to explain that I am dating someone and I am sure he will wonder why I didn't just tell him that in the first place."

I thought about it. Talked to my mom (she is the source of all wisdom and I pretty much consult her on everything difficult in my life.) Thought about it some more and this is what I said...

"You know I am actually dating someone pretty seriously and I know it sounds lame but I think he might be really bothered if I went. Sorry." (Totally put the blame on S.O. but it was the only way to make me not feel like I was hurting his feelings. Hope you're ok with that S.O.)

Overall I think I handled it pretty well. I was truthful but I didn't have to say "I don't want to go out with you." His response was classic. He said...

"Ha ha ha! Well it's not a date!! (Of course it would be a date that is what a date is, two people that go out together. But go ahead and tell yourself that if it makes you feel better) But I understand... (now he is trying to soften the blow of him basically telling me that it was an absurd idea that I would think he wanted to take me out on a date! How did I ever get such an idea!?) I mean I am pretty attractive...it might be complicated if you started to fall in love, I guess I understand : )" (Now he is building back his self esteem because I totally shot him down. I am proud of the boy. Picking himself up by his bootstraps and not an ounce of confidence lost...or so he lets on)

I most definitely chuckled to myself. I tried to give back some of the confidence that he didn't ever lose because he wasn't asking me out so how could he couldn't possibly have just gotten shot down? I said this...

"Yeah that would be bad news if I started to fall in love with you. Thanks for being understanding."

The fact that he didn't text me back just confirms the fact that he indeed WAS asking me out because if he wasn't he would have been able to muster a "Well it was good to chat with you." or something like that but I got nothin.

My advice for these situations...tell the truth. Things always work out better when you do plus an interesting dialogue might come of it.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Dichotomy

I realized that I often have somewhat of a dichotomy (props to S.O. for teaching me this word. yeah he is a smarty pants) when it comes to social events.

We were chatting at our office pot luck lunch about our different needs when it comes to alone time, unwinding from work etc. I expressed that I most definitely need my alone time. It doesn’t matter who it is but if I haven’t had a sufficient amount of alone time I don’t want to be around you. That is just the plain simple truth of it.

This leads me to the dichotomy I experience when I am invited to a social event. Most likely my initial reaction is that I don't want to go, I want some alone time. This mostly occurs when it is going to be a bit out of my comfort zone (doing something I don't normally do, going with people I don't know very well, I am intimidated by the people that are going, etc.) This is when the dichotomy occurs because I realize that I am being anti social and that I really should go out. I also know that I usually end up having a good time and that it is totally worth my while. This however does not make the decision easy. I am literally fighting against my natural response to want to sit at home in my jammies and spend some quality time with my lap top to get myself to go out and socialize like a "normal" 21 year old.

So after going back and forth and agonizing over the decision for probably a couple hours I finally make a decision. Most times it ends up being the jammies and quality lap top time but occasionally I break out of the comfort zone and do something social. Usually I come back feeling so proud of myself and really having had a good time. You would think that this would help diminish the dichotomy from occurring in the future but it doesn't and I go through the whole process every time I get a social invite. Is this weird? Am I the only one out there who sometimes struggles to be the "social butterfly?"

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Flaunting Feathers

I have recently joined a gym, only because now that I am no longer a student and don't have access to a school gym anymore. I have never really been a big fan of gyms mostly because I am not a big fan of working out in front of a bunch of people.

I am not particularly bothered by people seeing me sweat or get all red (because I do both when I work out) but it is more the fact that I am in public and with being in public comes certain rules that should be followed. On that note many of the people at the gym do not follow these rules of public conduct and frankly it makes being at the gym a not so pleasant experience.

For one I don't know what it is about working out that gives people the idea that it is ok to show an uncomfortable amount skin. There are most definitely people there that should NOT be wearing what they are wearing. Just because you're working out doesn't all of the sudden make it ok to wear things that a super model or a body builder would wear.

Watching all this parading around makes me think of peacocks. You know how peacocks fan out their feathers and stick out their chests. This is what I think of when I am at the gym. I see a bunch of little peacocks walking around fanning their feathers and trying to look as good as they possibly can. However this little peacock isn't all that excited to show off my feathers (not saying that I have any to show off) so all this feather fanning makes me a little uncomfortable which causes my dislike of the gym.

[Some of that might also be the fact that working out is PAINFUL but I am pretty sure it is the uncomfortable feeling. Getting to the gym isn't hard for me at all...I am pretty much UNLIKE every other person in the world who usually struggles to have the motivation to go work out. I practically live for going to get some good exercise!] *Note if you did not catch the sarcasm there know that pretty much every day is a struggle for me to get to the gym. Don't start feeling bad about yourself because it is hard for you too.

In an ideal world I would love to have that whole place to myself...but seeing as how that is probably never going to happen I guess I will just have to get more into one of the shows on one of the 6 T.V.s as an attempt to try and distract myself from the parade of feathers going on around me.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Random Thoughts

I have this horrible dilemma. When I don't get a chance to blog all my ideas build up and my little sticky notes with my blog ideas start to over take my desk. I can't just throw them out though because I really want to write about them but usually by time I get around to actually writing about each of the items on my list they either aren't "timely" as we say in PR or I would just will feel stupid posting like 10 posts all at once. To solve this problem I decided to just do a post with all my random thoughts. Cover all my ideas on my list and then I can move on! So here we go...

1. I was mentioned on Holly's blog and that is BIG! This girl has a following and she is probably one of the best bloggers I know. So the fact that she said MY name on HER blog pretty much made my day...no my week...no pretty much my whole blogging life.

2. I don't understand why everyone thinks I am such a Grinch for refusing to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I started playing Christmas music (because it is after Thanksgiving) and I keep getting comments like this "Oh so now it is ok to listen to Christmas music." Yeah, NOW it is ok. It is just my little way of giving Thanksgiving the proper attention that it deserves after that I am ALL about the Christmas music. I'm not a Christmas music hater I'm a Christmas music lover.

3. Totally worked on my budget the other day and I am BLOWN away by how quickly my money goes. You would think I would have more savings by now but I don't and really I am wondering where all my money keeps going. I think someone is eating it...

4. Apparently there are still pirates out on the open waters. After reading this article I wasn't all that excited to go hop on a ship anytime soon.

5. Got up at 6:00 a.m. ...yeah that is right 6:00 A.M. to work out. Miracle. Yes.