3 days!!!

Ok, so I realize that my countdown is probably getting slightly annoying to readers, but you guys will have to get over it. I can't believe we're so close to the big day!!

Oh, and good news. After multiple attempts, I have finally finished our wedding reception video! I was having issues with Windows Movie Maker and getting the timing just right. It kept skipping huge chunks of music on the disc, which was completely unacceptable. But after burning 3 separate DVD's, it's finally RIGHT! And it's stinkin' cute. Not gonna lie, we're gonna have darling kids. I dunno if anyone else knows this, but we were absolutely adorable when we were little. And now we're just hands down amazing looking. In fact, Riley was worried we'd have a problem getting our marriage license today since the world can't possibly handle more cute children, but we got it!!

I haven't posted in a few days, because I've been understandably busy. I can't help that I did school this semester and Riley suckered me into marrying him so close to midterms! I've been busting my butt to get all my homework done and tests studied for. I even have to take a test just a few short hours before our family and friend's dinner on Thursday! But it was either take it on Thursday, or take it Saturday morning. Screw. That.

This weekend we carved pumpkins and scared Baker's parents to death. A little explanation for those two things. So on Saturday night, Ryan Newbold, my friend Jocelyn, Jared, Sammie, and Riley and I decided to trek to Wal Mart to buy ourselves some pumpkins. I wanted to just steal some from a local patch, but they said since I'd been through the temple earlier that day that probably wasn't a good idea....yikes...who knew...So we went and bought some instead. The pickings at WalMart were slim, but we found some decent ones! Riley carved a happy face, mine had a skull and crossbones, Ryan's had a "Y" for BYU (In memoriam of their incredibly humiliating loss to TCU), and Jocelyn's...well...she's a little special when it comes to carving pumpkins, so she took hers home without finishing and hopefully it'll be turned into a masterpiece by her little brothers.

On Sunday we went and met with Riley's stake president. Luckily he decided we were a pretty good match and agreed to sign Riley's living ordinance recommend. PHEW. Anyways, later that night, after watching the Amazing Race (of course), we went with Riley's mom, dad, and sister to drop off the cardboard cutout his mom made at Baker's house. She had it made so he could be in some of the pictures from our wedding, at least in spirit. He's still way bummed out that he's missing the wedding, so this was a small gesture (along with shipping him a piece of wedding cake overnight) to compensate for him having to miss out on the festivities. We stood the cutout, which is basically his head taped on Mitt Romney's body, on his front porch and rang the doorbell and hid. His dad just laughed and thought it was great. Unfortunately his mom wasn't home at the time, so we had to wait for her to get there to see her reaction. Baker is such a great kid! We're probably not the best of influences on him what with sending him packages full of mountain dew to the MTC, but oh well. What are awesome friends for?! Riley's FedEx job gets him like 75% off FedExGround shipments, so we can send him whatever we want for pretty cheap! Sweet!!

Yesterday was kind of a rough day for me. With Riley working 12 hour days, I don't get to see him as much as I'd like. Plus I was getting weighed down with all the stresses of the reception, school, and work, and I guess you could say I kinda crashed. I slept for like 10 hours and laid in bed while I had a billion other things I could be doing. I'm just lucky I haven't gotten physically sick from all the outside stressors. But Riley knows me better than I know myself, and picked up on the fact that I'd kind of hit a wall. So when he got off work, he baked me cookies, rented Aliens vs. Monsters, and brought them up to my house and enjoyed them with me. What a nice gesture, I love him :) Can't wait to spend the next week in Lake Tahoe with him and relax from our apartment and everything else! Hopefully when we get back it'll be totally ready to move into. We're keeping our fingers crossed!!

We have a shower!!!

Good news! Our shower got finished yesterday! We still don't have carpet, or all the walls painted, or the tile done in the kitchen and bathroom, or a fridge, or light fixtures, a nice lock on the front door, etc...but...WE HAVE A SHOWER! Riley's dad finished tiling it, and it has officially gotten my stamp of approval. It looks great! Things are starting to come together, and even though all it really has is some of the paint, it's starting to look like it'll be fit to live in here pretty quick! Looking more and more like an actual apartment rather than an empty space every day.

Yesterday involved my mom, my grandma, Carter, and I dropping our engagement pictures and my bridals off to Frameworks to be framed. 24 hour turnover, doesn't get better than that. The frames we found were gorgeous, and the funny lady that helped us knew just what frames would look best with what pictures. We were really pleased. We then had lunch at Maddox and sat in our cars in the Staples parking lot since there weren't any places to sit outside. I went in to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick out another zen waterfall fountain since the one I ordered online doesn't light up, OR trickle water! Dumb.

BUT! After that, I got to meet up with a great friend of mine from high school later that day! It was so much fun to sit and chat for hours with her. We've both gotten really busy and I hadn't seen her since August we figured! But it didn't seem to matter, because we just happily chattered about all the goings-on in life. I'm grateful to have such awesome friends that I know will always be there for me. It kinda makes me feel bad when I drive past Davis and see all the high school kids going out with their friends to lunch, because it makes me miss my own high school years. We skipped out on one too many classes, ditched every assembly, snuck out past dark, went to Albertsons, Quiznos, home, and STARBUCKS nearly every day for lunch, and did completely random, crazy things one too many times; but I have NO regrets. I had TONS of fun, and wouldn't trade high school for the world. In fact, in lieu of reminiscing on all the crazy adventures we had, I'm just going to post some pictures so everyone else can enjoy our awesomeness. I love where I am today, and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my amazing friends. Thanks!

Still remodeling...

The last couple of days have been centered around the condo. It seems like someone is always there working, whether it's me, my dad, Riley, or his dad. Which is a good thing, because we're making some significant progress! Riley's dad has been really good to help us with the tile that will be in the kitchen and the bathroom. He's also re-tiling our bathtub/shower area, which desperately needed it! It'll be SO nice once it's finished! The second bedroom has been where the wet tile cutter has been stationed, so we haven't been able to get in there to paint, but we DID finish the master bedroom! Riley and my dad taped it off, and Riley's friend Ryan Newbold and I painted it. Ryan is way more experienced than me, so he did most of the cutting in around the edges, but I wasn't half shabby with the paint roller! I dripped a few times, but I didn't get any on the white ceiling *hint hint* *cough cough*. But seriously. We were way lucky Ryan volunteered to help us, it was way nice of him. I was forced to listen to some oldies radio station with the three guys, and it reinforced my love for Supertramp, Elton John, and a few others. Definitely made the work go by faster! On Tuesday before class, my dad and I painted the living room and that's almost done now, too.

The carpet guys are three days out, so when Riley's dad gets close to finished with the tile, we'll be giving them a call to come and install our carpet. That'll cut down on a whole lot of noise. I really hope our neighbors don't hate us before we even move in. That could get ugly!

On a different note, I just want it to be recorded somewhere that I got 98% on my first Western Civ test. All my studying paid off, but now let's just hope that I can pull it together to take two other tests before the wedding so I won't have to stress about it when we're in Lake Tahoe. I refuse to take ANY sort of homework with me. It'd just take up space, and chances are it'll bever get unpacked, who would I be kidding?

Yesterday I went and picked up my finished bridal shots from Chris, as well as our guest sign in book! Everything turned out great, we're still pleased. If any of the readers are getting married here soon, we'd STRONGLY recommend Robert Wood photo.

Here are a few of the pictures from before we started ripping apart the condo, as well as a couple of Riley and Ryan busy working.

Take note that the seventies called.... and they want their bathroom countertop back.

Less than 2 weeks to go!

Time is starting to zoom right by. Not that it went by slow before, but it seems to pass more quickly now that we only have 11 days till we're married! I'm starting to look at things in a different way. Every time I wake up I think, "This is one of the last days I'll be here in this room!" or when I get food from the fridge "This is one of the last times I can mooch off my parents!". It's really starting to come down to the wire!

On Friday me, Riley, Jared, Sammie, and Cody went and saw Paranormal Activity and let me tell you...it's pretty crazy! We started off the night with having good intentions to make progress on the paint in the condo, but we ended up just buying the paint for the baseboard, the ceiling, and the doors, dropped it off at the condo, and went to the movie instead. The next day my friend Sarah threw a bridal shower for me at her house and invited a few of our other friends. It was such a fun time! I really loved being able to sit and talk with a bunch of friends from high school, as well as other ones I've met along the way. I posted a bunch of those pictures on my Facebook page, but when I get a chance I'll post them on here, too. We had a blast just sitting and giggling, and talking about random things. Exactly what I needed! A girls day!

After that, I went and picked up Subway sandwiches for my family, along with Riley and my dad who had been at the condo all morning and were starving. I went down and helped paint the doors since they had already finished all the trim along the baseboards. They made fun of me that I was a slow painter, but I just wanted to do it right! They they stole my fun paint stick thing so they could paint the ceiling. We bought special ceiling paint that goes on a pink color, but dries white so you can see where you've painted. It was a sickly pink color to start out with, and I could sense the concern in their voices when they didn't know if it would actually dry white. But it did, and all is well! That night we hung out with Jordan and his new FIANCE Alyssa! They got engaged on Saturday! We're excited to have another married couple to hang out with!!! Jordan has been Riley's best friend throughout almost their entire lives, so I'm sure they'll be hanging out when they need time away from us ;) Not that THAT will ever happen! We went and got frosty's and food from Wendy's, sat in Riley's car and talked in the park, then finished off the night watching the latest episode of The Office. Awesome evening.

Then on Sunday we met with Riley's bishop. Riley told him how Jordan had gotten engaged, and said it was necessary he announce it over the pulpit in Sacrament meeting, since Jordan had done the same to us at a ward party! Karma!! We were pretty much obligated to stay for his sacrament meeting and see the humiliation take place. After Sacrament, I went home and tried to finish our wedding video that will play at the reception. I made some considerable progress, and now I just have to add the music! We were STINKIN' cute as kids...just throwin' that out there.... We also booked the Anniversary Inn for the 30th and the 31st since our condo probably isn't going to be done in time for us to stay there before the honeymoon. We're pretty excited about that, it should be a fun place to stay!

We ended our Sunday night watching the Amazing Race with his family, but the recording got interrupted so we didn't get to see if anyone got eliminated! Thank goodness for Hulu. We'll be watching the last 15 minutes of that episode online when it gets loaded. Stay tuned for pictures of the bridal shower!!!

Bathing Benny

As per tradition, Benny was the "happy" recipient of a bath today. There are many reasons for this every other week occurence, namely; the family dog Cooper insists on peeing on the same bush as Benny. Sometimes this happens while Benny is in the act, and I'm pretty sure he gets hit every once and awhile with a few drops. Happy and exciting? I know. Also, Benny thinks it's the greatest thing in the world to just stick his head in the trash can and push it (and its contents) around the house. Not sure how often everyone else checks out the bottom of trash cans, but it's completely unacceptable material to be shoving your face in day after day. So for these reasons, PLUS he sleeps in my bed, Benny gets bathed quite often.
Usually Riley helps me with the process, but he was at the condo prepping it for paint tonight, so I got to do it all by myself. As a bit of background on Benny, he's the nicest, happiest little dog ever. We (well...I) rescued him from the shelter in Salt Lake. He was a hardcore gangster dog roaming the streets of West Valley as a vagabond when he was picked up. That's how I envision it happening. However, I'm sure it went a little more like the dog catcher was perusing the streets and he willingly came up to him to be pet and to receive a treat. I like to think he's a bit more hardcore than that...but...he's not. He's a seven pound spoiled brat.
I really should have taken a picture of him while he was sitting in the bathtub, but it's hard enough using one hand to wash him, and the other to keep him securely in the bathtub to prevent him prematurely jumping out or shaking off. Besides, a picture like that would have been pathetic anyways. He just looks like this dinky little wet rat when he's in the tub.
He doesn't mind sitting in the tub and getting shampooed and conditioned, and he especially loves jumping out into a towel to be dried. But he absolutely HATES getting brushed, and tolerates getting blow dryed. I let him get away without a brushing, but he smells like a wet dog for hours if I don't blow dry him. That process usually involves cornering him and shooting him straight in the face with air. I found myself reasoning with him, which I do all the time, but this time imparticular I really got thinking about what I was doing. I realized I was saying things like "If you don't get blow dryed you won't get to sleep in the bed tonight!", or "Don't bite me or you'll have to sleep in your crate all alone". This got me thinking...are these phrases really meant for the dog? Or am I subconsciously prepping myself for phrases that will be said to Riley in the future? Not word for word exactly, but empty threats nonetheless? We'll see! In the meantime, here are some pictures of our sweet/devil dog.

Trying to get the water out of his ears after his bath tonight

He likes playing with Riley!

What a hard life...

Temple Clothes

My mom, my grandma and I went today to search for a temple dress for me. It was a fun experience to go to the Distribution Center with them and find something for me to wear. I've said all along through our engagement that the church aspects of our wedding have been so simple! Calling and scheduling the temple for our wedding date was as easy as one five minute conversation with a darling older temple worker. Finding my temple clothes was as easy as a 45 minute visit to the distrubution center. It's been all the worldly "extras" that have caused all the headaches! The reception center, the dress, the flowers, the candy bar, etc etc! I think that's a sign, if nothing else, that the church has a great thing going.

After finding my temple dress we went to lunch at Boston's Market in Layton, and ended up making a mandatory trip to DSW while we were in the area. Found a darling pair of boots, couldn't bring myself to spend the $60 bucks on them, so I went to Forever Young on my way to work today and found myself TWO pairs for 50 bucks for the both of them!! SWEET! That was the highlight of my entire day. They're darling boots, and a lot more reasonably priced! I'm going to have to start saving and stop splurging when we get married! But for now it's my money, and my separate bank account, so I feel obligated to buy myself a few things before I have to save for the both of us ;)

Worked a great shift tonight! I still absolutely LOVE my job and I hope I'll be able to continue working here after my time as a "student" is up. We've run into a few snags with the church's hiring freeze and promoting me to a member of the support staff may prove to be tricky. But they're short handed and seem to like me well enough, I love the job, and it'd work out for the best of both parties if I'm able to stay. I've already turned down another job offer because I enjoy my environment here so much. It'd be a hard transition somewhere else because I adore the people I work with and it'd keep me in the right field for when I graduate! I've had some great experiences here so hopefully I'll be able to stay!

Apple Pie!!!!.....?

So yesterday Brianna, Sammie, and I had a novel and brilliant idea!! Since they're in season we decided to go to a local farmer's market type thing and buy a bunch of apples to make apple pie! Awesome, right?! Right! We had a ton of fun! We went and picked out our apples and ended up with 13 lbs of them! The lady was nice and gave us a good discount on them, which was cool of her. We drove in my dad's truck, and that was an adventure (see previous post...) but we made it there and back safely! We came back to my house to make our pie! We made absolutely EVERYTHING from scratch! We peeled the apples, we made the filling, and we also slaved away on making the crust just perfect. Let me tell you. They were award winning pies. Brianna ended up having to leave early to make it back down to Provo for a study group, but Sammie and I baked ours in the oven for the appropriate 50 mins just like the recipe said. After they were done and removed from the oven, we set them on top of the oven to cool down. We were both starving, so we made a trip to Wendy's for some food.

Upon coming back...we were greeted with a horrific scene. Sammie's audible gasp made me quickly realize what had gone awry. Cooper (my family's golden doodle) had gotten into our pies! He had obviously stood up and tried to get at them, because both of our pies were dented and hers had two perfect paw print markings on one half. Luckily he didn't actually eat them, as our pictures demonstrate, but he definitely tried. We think we've narrowed it down to two possible scenarios. Either the pie was too hot and he didn't want to eat it, or we got home right as he jumped up, because the pies were still very much there where normally I think he would've just consumed the entirety of them. Needless to say, Sammie and I both plan on still eating the pies, as well as serving them to our boys. Jared will never know the difference, and I don't plan on telling Riley until AFTER he eats his piece. Aren't they lucky guys?! First and last time WE try to be all domestic!!

This is Sammie being angry with Cooper

As a side note, if anyone was wondering how Jared and Sammie talk to eachother over text? It goes a little something like this...

"Dear Shnookums,

I cherish the passion we share for eachother. I miss my sweet Teddy bear every time we're apart. Love waits for only one thing, the right moment. Soul meets soul on lover's lips.

My little cabbage, your eyes make me swim through them. Oh object of my affection, every day I love you more and more. My smoochy dumpling butt, how much I care for you. You are the Don Juan of my heart, my casanova you.

Love,

Sammie"

My poor car...

So my post today is all about my poor little car. It's a black, 2000 Nissan Altima with leather seats. And a sunroof. Yep. Those were all the details that were important to me when I was in the car market around this time last year. I wanted something black, with leather seats and a sunroof. I was ecstatic when I finally found a car that was in my price range that had everything I'd ever wanted!! It's cute and gets fairly good gas mileage (anywhere between 23 and 26 mpg, it's sporatic to say the least). Anyways, when I bought it I had to replace the windshield. No big deal, right? It had a crack in it, and I got a new one. Easy as that, problem solved.

After driving it for awhile, it started having more problems. I had to replace the intake manifold gasket (that's why it's getting not as good of gas mileage as it should, they said). Then more recently, there was a leak in the radiator, so while driving home from work one day, the engine started smoking and I had to wait in a parking lot somewhere off the 2600 S exit for my dad to come save me. He poured some coolant in it, and followed me home in the slow lane, with his hazard lights on, because if I got going faster than about 40, the radiator would start overheating and blow smoke on and off. That was an experience.

Then the other day, as I was driving home from the condo, I smell something burning. I disregarded it for a minute thinking it was a smell coming from the big diesel truck that was in front of me on the freeway. I was content with this reasoning until I looked down at my steering wheel that was blowing smoke. Yep. Who knew THAT happened? So I called Riley who was still down at the condo, and the conversation went as follows:

Me: "Hey...uhm...hypothetically speaking...if my car was blowing smoke from the steering wheel, what would that mean?"

Riley: "Haha! Well, remember that car you saw on the side of the road the other day that was on fire?"

Me: "Yeah...?"

Riley: "Well, I'd strongly suggest pulling over or getting home ASAP, because that's going to be you"

Me: *pause* "Awesome"

Apparently he thought I was joking, because that smoke effect rarely happens. It's an indicator that there's an electrical short somewhere, and that's definitely not something you want to mess with. So needless to say, I got home, parked the car, and haven't gotten in it for anything but my sunglasses since.

So what have I been driving instead, one might ask? Well, it's a little thing called my dad's 1997 Ford F350 Powerstroke diesel truck. With a chip and a crew cab, longbed. Yes.

Here's a picture of what it looks like:

Quite a bit transition from my car! This thing is MASSIVE. It's like driving a freaking bus. My mom had some errands to run and couldn't let me take her car to work yesterday, so I drove the truck. I work downtown, so you can imagine the looks I got driving it through the city. But that I could deal with. It was getting the dang thing into my parking garage that proved to be a struggle. Not only did I have to make like a 50 point turn to even get close to the place where I swipe my ID card, but after I got through, I didn't think it'd make it under the clearance sign!!! Thankfully it did, with about an inch and a half to spare. I should have taken a picture of it in there with all the other little commuter cars, but I didn't have my camera with me. The antenna got a little beat up, because there's no way to lower it. And it didn't clear the top of the garage. But all in all, the truck is still in one piece, I'm seemingly still in one piece, so it was a success!

The weekend has come and gone...

Wow! What a fun, crazy weekend we had!

Saturday we started tearing up the apartment. Literally. It was completely unrecognizable within an hour or so of getting started on the work. We ripped out the old carpet and got that thrown away, all the light switch covers were unscrewed and removed, along with all the doors and hinges. The vents were taken off and laid in the living room, the washer and dryer were unhooked, and the range and refridgerator were removed as well. Everything is currently sitting in the living room area. We have an ad up on KSL giving away the range, so if anybody wants it, speak now! It's pretty old (seriously probably original to the apartment), and REALLY grungy, but we think it works! It just needs some TLC...and a good flame torching.

Riley told me the only part about this remodeling process he was dreading was ripping out the old linoleum. We found out there were TWO layers of it in the kitchen, which was going to be a huge pain to get off. However, Carter was more than happy to take the job. His ego was patted quite a bit when Riley let him use a few power tools, so he was up for anything. We gave him a crowbar and let him go to town with the linoleum. He got it all removed and disposed of incredibly quick! Everyone was really impressed! We were grateful for his willingness to help.

I had to leave the remodeling project for my bridal shower, and showed up with I'm sure what was lots of dust in my hair. But it wasn't terrible, and the bridal shower was so much fun! My Aunt Julie volunteered to throw it for me, and it turned out great. We had a great turnout, the food was great and the atmosphere was a blast. Thanks to everyone for coming and showing your support, and a special thanks to Julie for throwing it! We had so much fun! (Stay tuned for pictures from this as well, I left my brand new camera with Riley at the remodeling project while I was at the shower...what was I thinking? So I'm waiting for copies of the pictures from my aunt and grandma) I also got a picture with one of my favorite cousins, Alex!!! Well...a cardboard cutout of him at least. He's currently serving a mission in Seoul, but my aunt and uncle have a life size cutout of his face pasted over George Bush's body sitting on their staircase. So it was good to "see" him!!

(PS-I stole these pictures from Julie's blog, but they were just so fun, I couldn't resist. I hope that doesn't offend anyone!!)

Later that night, Riley's entire family came to see the progress we had made on the condo. Brother, sisters, nieces and nephews, EVERYONE. After a few knocks on the wall from the neighbors, the kids finally got over the echoes their voices made in the empty space. The sooner we get carpet in, the better! Talk about loud!! We also painted a small section of each room with the paint we chose, in order to give us a better idea about whether we loved it or not. The master bedroom is going to be a really pretty light blue color, the second bedroom a sage green, and the kitchen will be a fun yellow tone. Undecided on the living room, but we'll probably go with something really neutral. We also carved our initials in the ceiling! Sshh, don't tell! No one will probably be able to find them anyways. It's kind've an old tradition with me and paintings ceilings...ask my grandma who may or may not have my initials carved somewhere above her living room...

Sunday was nice to have a day to relax. We went to Riley's home ward, and he got a little emotional seeing as it was his last Fast Sunday being a member there. When you're in the same ward your entire life, you get a little attached to the people in it! We skipped out a bit early to meet with my Stake President, and had a good talk with him. He's a nice guy, and gave us some great advice!

To finish off the evening, we watched another one of our favorite shows!! The Amazing Race!!! We watch it every Sunday with his family! Lesson learned from this week's episode? Don't misplace your passport!!! Riley knows a little about that...something about his ID getting stuck in his check in bag and him sleeping at the JFK airport alone? What?

Bridal Shoot Take 2, and Random J&S fun!

Good news!! My second try at bridals was INFINETELY better than the first. My hair cooperated, thank heavens, because I messed around with it for almost 2 hours previous to the appointment. My aunt, grandma, and mom all came with me for my shoot and waited in the studio while I went with the photographer around and redid all the photos. The second they came up on the computer, we all knew they were a million times better than the previous ones. My appointment was at four, and we were done shooting AND choosing the keepers by six. Our guest sign in book will be done within a few days, so we're excited to pick that up, too!After the shoot, my mom and I went to dinner at the Royal Jade and had Chinese food. Yummy! Then we went shopping and she made me pick out what I wanted for a gift at the family bridal shower today. Talk about sucking the fun out of a surprise! But it's alright, I'm grateful she's willing to help us get started.

My mom dropped me off at Riley's after we were done shopping, and Jared and Sammie came over! We went to Blockbuster and picked out a movie, and then showed Jared, Sammie, Jordan, and Alyssa our new condo! Jordan and Alyssa decided to ditch out on Dee's because they'd had a long day, but the four of us still went. Sammie ordered a hot chocolate with "extra" whipped cream. "I'm pretty sure they're mocking me at this point...but I'm OK with it..."

All in all, we had a successful evening!!!

Bridals...?

So...yesterday was a bit hectic to say the least! I went and had my normal hairstylist do my hair for my bridal pictures. The appointment was at one o'clock, and my bridals were scheduled for 3pm. She finished my hair, after trying out a few different styles, and I was on my way to the Victorian by 2:15. It was absolutely POURING rain in Ogden, and I was really worried the storm was heading south and would ruin my appointment. Oh, did I mention as I was driving from Ogden to Layton, I wore my headpiece jewelry type thing AND my veil? I'm sure if anyone noticed, they thought I was crazy. So I made it to the Victorian just a few minutes before my grandma and aunt showed up, so I decided to start putting on makeup in the car. Bad decision. My bronzer chipped off in a few places and fell onto the leather seats of my car, and I had bronzer stuck all over the butt of my jeans when I got out. Anyways, I hurried and rushed to put on the rest of my makeup, and got all the bridals shot. Luckily it didn't rain, and the weather was beautiful. I wish I could say the same for the pictures though! My hair looked absolutely terrible, but the photography was great. We're still very impressed with our photographer (Chris Wood). After looking over the pictures, we decided that we needed to reshoot the bridals another time. So an appointment was made for the next day (today actually) and I'm going to just do my hair myself. Hopefully they'll turn out better the second time around. The photographer assured us that they reshoot bridals quite often because of the hair, so I didn't feel quite as bad.

Couldn't bring myself to make it to my anthropology class last night as I was still a bit down in the dumps about the pictures. So I e-mailed the professor my assignment and sat home and watched Spongebob, ate pringles, and then also took a bath instead. It was a nice break. To finish off the night, I got to watch the Office with Riley after he got off work. Made my entire night 100% better to see Jim and Pam FINALLY GET MARRIED!!!!

Stay tuned to see how take two of the bridals go today. I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed that everything works out!

A few more wedding plans down...only waiting to go!

Today we made a trip down to the Salt Lake Flower Patch to finalize our flower order for the wedding. Our group consisted of me, Riley, my mom and grandma, as well as Riley's mom. We actually ended up picking up a bouquet "prototype" of sorts to be used in my bridals tomorrowand it turned out absolutely gorgeous. We're using callalilies as our main flower, along with accent alstromerias. As filler we have baby's breath, and Queen Anne's Lace. We're having Riley's cute cousin Sarah do all of our flowers and so far we've both been really impressed with her work! She pulled together my bouquet in less than half an hour and it looks great! So currently, my bouquet is sitting in a vase of water at home, and I'm sitting at work praying none of the flowers die or wilt before tomorrow. Everyone assured us they're pretty hearty and should be fine, but we'll keep our fingers crossed just in case!

Riley got a phone call from a guy in his ward offering him a second job! Even though I think he's still a little bummed that Clear Bra went under, these new jobs will be great for him! FedEx keeps him busy at night, and his training for his new job will start tomorrow. I know I personally feel blessed to have Riley's excellent work ethic proceed him. He's had a total of four jobs offered to him when he hasn't even applied, and I know he's going to do a great in this new endeavor. We've been told by multiple sources we're lucky to both have jobs in this economy, but now Riley has two! He'll end up working 12 hour days, but he's confident he can handle it, so we'll see how everything plays out!

After picking up the bouquet, Riley and I went and met with the realtor at our new condo to make sure the heater and AC worked. Something we completely spaced checking into earlier, so it was good we remembered. Luckily both of them work great, and we won't be freezing this winter or baking in the summer! Riley took off to work and I went in with my mom to the title company to get everything squared away with our condo. I signed all the necessary paperwork, and was told by the cute broker "Congratulations, you've just purchased your first house!!" What a crazy feeling!! I still think I may be in denial at how rapidly life has progressed over the last few months, but when I look back at it, they've all been changes for the better. I'm so excited to be going through all these life steps with my best friend!

My kitchen table is currently cluttered with a billion things including multiple carpet samples, paint swatches, and tile ideas. Everything remodeling wise seems to be coming together well, and we'll be meeting again with the realtor on Friday for him to give us a set of keys to our new place. Sitting next to all the house upgrades, are boxes of shoes my mom purchased for the wedding. Not sure how many she's planning to wear in just one night, but hopefully she'll have it narrowed down to one (maybe two?) in the next few days!

My next project is to personalize and decorate a popcorn bowl for our new house. Growing up, we always had one with members of our family illustrated on it, so I figure Riley and I need one to represent our own little family. I'm adding Benny on it no matter what complaints I may get from Riley ;) Currently way excited for my bridals tomorrow, and for the bridal shower my Aunt Julie is throwing for me on Saturday. I can't wait to see all my family and have a chance to spend some time with them as well as get to know Riley's female relatives a little better, too.

First blog post ever!!

This is my very first post as a virgin blogger! I got peer pressured into it, simply because I feel creepy keeping tabs on my friends through their blogs and not having one of my own. Plus, the countdown to the wedding is getting smaller and smaller, and blogs seem to be the popular thing to have once you're married. I'll start off with writing about the last couple days, and end with today! Saturday night was a hectic one!! Riley and I got kidnapped by Jared and Sammie at 11:30 pm to head out to Nightmare on 13th! We BARELY made it through the garage at 11:59 before the midnight closing time, and were some of the last people going through. We had a blast!!! Jared bravely led the way through most of the haunted house, followed closely by Sammie, me, then Riley took up the rear. We finished off the night with slurpees/hot chocolate, and watched the latest episode of The Office. We love our friends!!!

Riley and I decided to take a drive on Sunday to have a few minutes to get out and see the changing colors and to talk. It seems with all the wedding plans going on lately that we hadn't had much time for eachother, so it was nice to have a few hours to ourselves. We drove up Weber Canyon and around Trappers Loop, stopped off at Snow Basin to see the resort and lodge, and then came back down Ogden Canyon. The colors were GORGEOUS. There was snow on the top of the mountains, as well as greens, yellows, oranges, and reds in the leaves.

Monday consisted of me working a full day down in Salt Lake, and Riley working a night shift at his new job at Fed Ex. He seems to be getting a good workout every night, and he enjoys the work as well. Looks like we'll both benefit from this in the end ;) While I was at work, Riley and our dads went and took measurements for our new condo! We close on it on Wednesday, and we couldn't be more excited. I'm grateful that Riley has a knowledge of tiling and other handiwork because it'll come in handy for our place of residence. It needs some work, so over the next few weeks we'll be spending a lot of time putting in brand new paint, carpet, light fixtures, countertops, and pretty much everything else. Thank heavens for the first time homebuyers tax credit that is helping us fund quite a bit of these upgrades!

Thursday is my bridal shoot! We picked up the dress yesterday and it was RIGHT this time. The colors matched, and it's beautiful. I stressed about it all week so it was a huge relief to try it on and have it be perfect.

Today was our last day to spend with Baker...he's going to be such a great missionary! We had fun sitting in Riley's kitchen joking and laughing with him before his appointment to get set apart later today. What a good kid! See ya in two, Bake!