I forgot one thing....we're getting married!

After writing that last blog, I came to the realization that I had not shared Andrew's and my exciting news. We'll be sealed together for time and all eternity in the St. Louis, Missouri Temple on November 1, 2008. A few blogs ago, it was technically "unofficial" as we had talked about it and decided that it was the right thing for us to do, and we looked at rings, but I didn't, and don't, yet have a ring. So we were going to wait to share the news but, our happiness and excitement, mine mostly, escaped me, and I shared with family and friends! So, that's it, we're getting married in 2 1/2 months. We're both obviously very excited and hoping that you'll all be able to be there on our special day!

Moving forward...and time passing very slowly...

Time IS passing slowly. Which is good on one hand, and bad on the other. While I need lots more time to plan this wedding, I just want the day to be here already! It's only been a few weeks since we became "engaged," but it feels like forever. And I'm just waiting in anticipation! We can't wait to be sealed together forever in the St. Louis Temple!

The condo is really coming together. Andrew did a really great job in picking out the new sofa, since he bought it before we were engaged. We've quickly been accumulating artwork and furniture to furnish the place. He includes me in all of it, thankfully, since we'll both be living there in a few short months.

Brent visited this weekend. Andrew gave him the opportunity to get out and try to sell some alarms for extra money for BYU. Brent was able to sell 2 to people that he taught while he was here on his mission! We went to the flea marked on Saturday morning and just spent time together. It was nice to see him again. I'm glad that he's close enough now that it's much easier to travel to visit one another. Andrew and I are planning on going up to Salt Lake for conference in October so we'll get to visit him there also.

Wedding plans have already begun to make me somewhat crazy! And in all honesty, I feel like I haven't really done that much! I just keep thinking about all that needs to be done and it stresses me. And I think Andrew is more picky than I am about pretty much everything. Kinda strange... We're flying out to Cleveland next weekend to spend more time with my family and so that mom and I can get some wedding planning done.

More and more craziness.

Life is crazy right now. Without giving too much away...there's a lot of planning going on right now....

Andrew and I flew up to Missouri last weekend to visit his family. While it was my first time spending time with them, I felt like I fit right in and was very comfortable with everyone. His family is great. I felt like a part of the family right away.

We did so much while were were there... We visited Nauvoo where we watched the pageant, which was great. It's a new pageant and their family had never seen it either. It was a great excursion but was a lot of driving for a 1.5 hour long play. I can't complain though.. I wasn't the one having to keep my eyelids open to drive home. It was a great mini-trip. Saturday we visited the arch and went around the city and saw more sites. We ate at one of Andrew's favorite deli's and had world famous "Ted Drew's" ice cream. It was delicious. Sunday we went to church and visited with family over dinner. Andrew and I rode into the city with his grandparents and saw more of the city and just spend some quality time together. It was so great to be with him and away from work phone calls and the demands of our every day lives. Monday we spend more quality time together. We saw a movie at the IMAX about the Alps, walked aroudnd the Science Center and went to the zoo. Then we went to dinner and to the mall. We decided to intentionally miss our flight in order to get a little bit more time in with his family. It was well worth it. All in all, it was a great trip. It's great to finally have seen where Andrew comes from and the family that's raised him. And what a wonderful family they are. I can't wait to visit St. Louis again.

We're finally moving Andrew into his new place this afternoon. I'm so excited! I never thought I'd say this but, we can finally start eating in! I'm actually tired of eating out so much. It will be nice to have a home cooked meal. It's really strange to say that.... His new place is much farther from my house now but, I think it will be worth it. It looks really nice...from the outside. I still haven't seen the inside yet.

Brent is leaving for Utah this week and he's supposedly going to come visit me for a few days this weekend. I'm excited about that. He needs to pick up all of the boxes that I babysat for him during the course of his mission! They're taking up so much space at my house.

So much to catch up on!

It's been much, much too long! So much has happened since the last time I posted.

I've done a lot of traveling and just being with friends.

In May, a group of about 20 friends and I went to San Diego for Memorial Day. We had a great time! I have a friend who used to work at Progressive with me that now lives there. I got to visit her. It had been much too long. She showed me around the city. We went the Children's Pool and saw the Sea Lion's, went to the beach and we ate a lot.

At the beginning of June, 3 friends and I hiked Havasupai, which is part of the Grand Canyon. It's about a 4 hour drive from Phoenix, then a 10 mile hike into the canyon, plus several miles to each waterfall you want to visit. The falls were absolutely amazing. So beautiful. There was some "drama" that weekend though. one of my old roommate's sisters was there with her husband. She fell off a cliff and broke her leg. They sent a helicopter to get her out but we were so far out that they didn't have enough fuel to get her out so she spent the night with her husband and a medic on a cliff in the middle of the Grand Canyon. Poor Alisa! We totalled up our walked miles on the way out and came to the grand total of............36! Whew!

Mom and dad and Brent and Cole flew to Arizona en route to California for their high school reunion and a visit with family. They toured Brent's mission but agreed to come a day early to tour my life....we went to the temple, my work, my house, and to dinner with my boyfriend....the first meet. I think it went well....
Then I headed to Cincinnati for Sara Clayton's wedding. I was one of 5 bridesmaids. It was such an honor to be a part of one of my best friend's from college's weddings. The wedding was beatiful and a lot of fun. I stayed with Abby for a few nights. We visited Ashley, another old college friend, at the salon that she works at and she did our hair for the wedding. Then Sarah L. and Abby and I all got our nails done. A relaxing day leading up to the chaos...
Sunday I visited the Lynch family and then went to the Waldmann's where I got to meet their new little one, Madden. He's adorable and such a good baby. I wasn't sure I'd ever see the day that Bryan was a father. He's a great one though.

After 3 full days in Cincinnati, I hopped a flight to Merced where I spent almost a week with family there including mom, dad and Brent and Cole. It was great to see all the cousins and aunts. I so wish that more family was able to be there all at once but, I suppose that we have to be happy with what we can get as far as family time goes. I know that everyone is very busy and has their own lives to plan out and around. We went to Great America and had a bbq and just spend time with one another. It was wonderful to have time away from work and to just be.

I've been home for the last two weeks now and am looking forward to my next trip...to St. Louis, Missouri. Andrew and I have been dating for almost three months now and he asked me to fly out there with him and meet his family. I'm really excited about it and actually, not nervous at all. We're planning on going to Nauvoo to see the pageant one day. And he's really excited about showing me aroudn the city and taking me to all of his favorite restaurants. We're doing well. Things are good. Ask me sometime how we met....funny story.

Work is good. Busier than ever. Most days are the same. Although, people keep quitting and it increases everyone elses workload. Every day is an uphill battle at work. But I'm sure that everyone knows what that's like. We just do what we can to get through each day and look VERY forward to the weekends.

Until next time........

Crazy Life... some things NEVER change.

Life is just as crazy as it ever was. Even though now I'm not in school and not playing a sport every day. As a matter of fact, things are probably busier. I've taken on a job as an assistant varsity basketball coach for a charter school. The team is small, only 11 girls. And they don't come from a lot of background so it's a little bit more of a challenge. But a very welcome challenge. I'm so excited to be teaching such an amazing game to older young women. We had our first scrimmage on Friday and they did really well. Our first game is this Thursday.
We all went camping in Sedona last weekend. It was absolutely beautiful up there. However, the nights were miserable. Camping during the winter is fun during the day and not so fun during the night. We squeezed as many people as possible into a tent for warmth. The second night some people left so there wasn't very much warmth!
My mom and dad decided a few weeks ago to let Tace come out to visit me before his mission. We had a great long weekend together. Brent's mission president even let us drive out to take him and his companion to lunch. It was so great to see him again and for the three of us to be together. Tace and I did quite a bit in the short amount of time he was here. We went on a double date the first night, went to the temple, went out with a bunch of my friends and went to a western dinner out in the middle of the desert. We had a lot of fun.
I was called a few weeks ago to be the ward athletics co-chair. I'm really excited about it. We're planning for basketball coming up in February as we just finished softball season. I'm hoping I can beg enough women to sign up to play. We didn't have enough who were interested last year to actually have our own ward team. We had to dissolve into another team.
Work is still going well. They've given me a lot of responsibility and handed me the whole state of Nevada to handle! It feels great though to have so much responsibility. I feel needed at work for once! Some days are busy and I get 4-6 claims, and sometimes I go for 2 or 3 days without getting any. I'm on the holiday planning committee and will probably be starting up the work environment committee. I'm really excited about the growth that we're beginning to show. I'm also really hoping that I'll be ready to be in the running for the team leader position that will be opening up in June.
Unfortunately, I won't be going home for Thanksgiving but, I'm looking very forward to going home for Christmas. It's going to be really strange though. There were only be two of the four of us kids at home this year. I'm still in awe at that. In about two weeks, I'll have two brothers on missions! One 45 minutes away from me, and the other 45 million miles. Well, not that far but, it may as well be. Well, that's my update for now. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! And an early Merry Christmas!

I bought my first car about two weeks ago. I love it! I bought a Hyundai Tuscon. It was well past time to finally do it. I'd been psyching myself up for about a year to do it.
I'm loving my new job. I feel appreciated for the first time. And like I'm really doing well at what I do. It's a great feeling.
I went on a triple date to the Rascal Flatts concert. It was a lot of fun. There was a couple in front of us though who couldn't keep they're hands off eachother and stood even when everyone else was sitting. Needless to say, we saw more of them than we did of the band...
My friend Kaidi and I went to Vegas last weekend to play in a volleyball tournament. It was somewhat miserable. We didn't make it into town until 4 am because we had a softball game Friday night. By the time we got done with dinner on Saturday night, we didn't ahve enough energy to see the city. It was my first time there. And I saw just about nothing.
Tace got his mission call on Friday. He waited about two weeks. He has been called to serve a mission in the Jarkarta, Indonesia mission. He reports to the MTC on December 12, 2007. Just three days after his birthday. I'm so proud of him and excited for the adventure that he's about to embark on.
By the time Tace and Brent get back from their missions, we will not have all been together in almost 4 years. That's kind of sad. At the same time, they're both going and doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Ohio, a new job, and camping

Just got back from a trip to Ohio last week. I spent a week there including one night in Cincinnati where I experienced the break down of a vehicle which resulted in more drama for the night.... It was great to see my family again. It had been eight months. Much too long. Sara C. asked Sarah L. Abby and I to be bridesmaids in her wedding in June. We all went to try on dresses while I was in town. It was a great reunion. It was wonderful to sit and not worry about anything really. Even about not having a job...... Which at that particular moment in time, I sort of didn't have. I quit my job with Progressive a few weeks ago. I was offered a job by Gainsco Auto Ins. They're a high risk, minimum liability insurance company. I accepted the position and put in my two weeks at Progressive. Knowing Progressive's standard regarding this, I was fairly cetrain I would be "escorted out" that same day. And I was. I jumped a plane that night. I started my new job last Wenesday. So far so good. I haven't taken my first claim yet as I don't know the claim software as of yet. I'm told that I will get my first one on Tuesday. The crew went camping this Labor Day weekend. We had a lot of fun. We went up Friday night and came back today, Sunday. We did some hiking, some shooting, and a lot of sitting around. We all attempted to stay up for a once-every-fifty-year-meteor-shower. I didn't make it. Only a few did.