My Man

I am so incredibly blessed to be marrying such a wonderful man (in less than 2 days!) So many little things today have reminded me of how incredible he is. And oh, how I love to brag about him. So here is my very short (it's too late to write a long list tonight, although I'd love to) list of things I love about my Kam.

1. He likes to be a gentleman and open the door for me in the car (even though our new car has keyless entry! Ah! New car!).
2. He likes to make me laugh.
3. He leads with the power of the Priesthood.
4. He thinks I'm cute when I make weird noises.
5. He's willing to make changes for me, like changing his habits on Sundays so we can spend more time together enjoying the Sabbath.
6. He remembers little things about me, like that I'm afraid of post offices.
7. He's very patient when he knows I need help, and even puts up with my pride.
8. He happily respects my requests without complaining or questioning (like driving me to Walgreen's at 8 am in morning).
9. He challenges me to become a better person with love, and without putting me down.
10. He's proud to call me his wife (even though I'm technically not yet).

And for now, ten is a good enough small number, because I must go to bed.

I hope no one minds all my bragging. I mean, of course you really should be jealous. But maybe I shouldn't be rubbing it in so much... ;)

Freakin' Out

Before I was getting married, my beautiful roommate, Chelsea, was getting married. And I remember seeing her really upset one day about 3 or 4 days before her wedding. And I thought, Oh, crap. What's wrong?! And I figured it had to be a big deal, because usually, she was so freaking happy!

Nope. (Chuck Testa)

It was all fine and she married the wonderful Brett Hurst and they are currently in the process of living happily ever after.

But on that one day when Chelsea seemed pretty upset, I was really concerned. So I mentioned it to my friend, Lauren, while we were at work. And she kind of laughed at me and said girls always cry the week before they get married. For no reason. They're just freaking out, so they cry a lot.

She was right.

I sure don't like feeling like a bridezilla, or an overly emotional package of hormones, but Lauren made it sound like a rite of passage into matrimony, so in that case...

I did it, you guys! I'm officially a freaked out bride. Whoohoo!!!

Man, wouldn't it be great if we always had an excuse to celebrate crying?
(I guess depending on how you look at it, we women might get that about 12 times each year.)

Over and out.

We Can Live!!!

So this may sound like a very boring blog post to you, but it's super exciting to me. Because that box you see coming up a little later on in this post is actually a picture of what it looks like to not be living in a box all winter!

That's right. We have an apartment. And although it is in Wymount, I'm pretty convinced it's perfect. Despite the cinder block walls.

Just a few of the many wonders of a Wymount apartment:

• Cozy (read "small")
• Affordable (read "ok that it's small")
• Close to campus
• Plenty of storage space
• Beautifully kept grounds
• Very clean
• Becomes available on the very day we can move in!
• Month to month contract
• Nice balconies
• Furniture rental
• On the ground floor
• Gas stoves
• BYU employed maintenance (I've had relatively good experiences with them)

And... Yeah. That's pretty good. (For Kam's benefit: "It's actually a really good little house.")

One of the most curious benefits of this apartment is the storage room attached to the bedroom. I guess that's really all it was made for, because I don't know how else they would have justified that space.

I feel like it's a little creepy to post a full floor map on here.
Not sure why. You could always just look it up on the
Wymount website if you're really curious.

I mean, storage space is great. And probably necessary. But when there are already two and a half other closets in your one bedroom apartment, you tend to get a little more creative with the "storage space."

So, just picture us. Mapping out our little floor plan and imagining in our furniture. And we're having a pretty good time. It's an exciting thing to have a tiny little house! I mean, of course I wanted everything to look all nice and follow all those unwritten rules of decorating (...as far as I know, which is very little!), and Kam is being all practical about where outlets are, and how many feet across is the counter top, and getting in the way of all my imagination!

Which is probably pretty good. Since this apartment is real and not imaginary. But it feels pretty imaginary right now.

So yeah. Despite my tendencies to overimagine (I made that word up), we were having a good time.

But when it came to the storage space, we both got pretty imaginative! "Four feet by nine feet! That's huge!" Ok. We never said that. But we did toss around the idea of an office. Actually, this is kind of what the conversation sounded like.

Kam: Hmm, we could use that for something.

Chloe: Yeah, like an office.

Kam: Or a man cave.

Chloe: That's like the same thing.

Kam: No, it's not.

I decided not to say anything after that. If those are not the same thing, I'm slightly concerned about what the difference is. Anyway, I think someone knocked on the door and distracted us then. Which is ok, because we agreed on where to put the TV and the couch, and that's a lot of work when you're playing house with real... imaginary... pieces.

Success!

Kam indulged me this weekend, and he and I went to the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake! I really wanted a chance to go enjoy the lights just the two of us before our big day, and this was the best time to fit it in before school picks up again. The only problem was that we had to go on opening night, so it was PACKED. Which wasn't ideal for the sentimental stroll I had imagined, but it was still a good time.

It was crazy to walk with the love of my life (surrounded by a million strangers) around the temple I knew we'd be sealed in in just three weeks! It still doesn't quite seem real. Probably just because it all seems so simple, and part of me thinks, shouldn't I feel like this is crazy? Like, "AHHHH! I'm getting married?!!" (Which, ok. Sometimes, I do.) But that night, and in general, things just feel right, and like they make sense. And it's just pretty awesome.

There was one thing about it though that didn't quite go according to plan. We were a little pressed for time, so we planned to grab some drive thru just before we got on the next trax. When we pulled through chick-fil-a they offered us a free shake, and we were so excited! (Or at least I was.) But of course, as I put my sandwich together, the shake I was holding between my legs exploded all over me! So, I hurried and grabbed yesterday's jeans out of my backpack and changed in the back of the car. Then I put my sandwich together, and that dripped all over my new pair of pants! By that time, we were running late for the trax, so we just gathered all our stuff together and ran for it. Kam ran to the ticket booth and I ran to the doors to see if I could stall (which has become a bit of a standard for us. I have a gift for stalling since I'm cute). But no luck. The trax took off before I could even make it to the door. So when I walked back to the ticket booth to meet Kam, I noticed our fries and shake sitting at the top of the trash can. Which made sense, since we weren't going to have time to eat them, but now we had another 20 minutes before the next train, and they sounded so good! I was even tempted to pull them out of the trash can! But I didn't; don't worry. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't pull that devil shake back out. It'd probably only give me more trouble.

But we made it to Salt Lake just fine and had just enough time to see the lights without our toes freezing off. We even had time to go to my favorite hot chocolate place, and didn't even have to wait in line! And Kam ran into an old friend whose address we had lost, so we were still able to give her family an invitation to the wedding! Definitely a successful trip, despite my clumsiness.

Speaking of successes, Kam and I made a pumpkin pie! Actually, two! For Thanksgiving. And they were definitely a hit. Much thanks to my beautiful and talented roommate, Tianna, and her mom who decided I couldn't get married until she taught me how to make a pie. I now know why. It makes an impressive contribution to Thanksgiving with the in-laws!

This isn't a picture of our pie, but it sure looks nice, doesn't it? I didn't take a picture of ours, because I knew Kam would tease me about instagramming my food. And really, I don't know why you'd want to see a picture of ours. It just looked like a normal pumpkin pie. So if you want to be impressed, here's an impressive picture of a pie we didn't make. :)

But it did taste impressive! At least, I thought so, and everyone acted like it did. We had a couple people waiting in the kitchen for more, so if they were just trying to make me feel good about myself, they did a dang good job.

Well, that is one sufficiently long blog post! I hope everyone had as successful of a Thanksgiving as we did. :)

A Lot of Sucky Analogies; A Lot of Good News

What kind of a family blog would this be if I didn't post a gratitude post at Thanksgiving time?

But really, this post deserves to be written.

I am amazed at what my Heavenly Father has done for me in the past year. Understatement of the year. But seriously, I feel like if you could look down on me in a petri dish a year ago and write out hypotheses about the path I would take ceteris paribus (that means "all else equal;" Hoo hoo! Fancy word!) it would be like... well, it would be really far away from where I am now, but it would be really obvious, and this petri dish analogy isn't working anymore because petri dishes are small and bacteria grow in them. Maybe rats in mazes would be a better analogy, but I don't like rats.

Point is! I was going down my little road like nobody's business, and all on my own, you know, maybe I'd be alright. But then Heavenly Father dropped a boulder on my path! (A well-chiseled boulder. Ha ha. Does anyone get it?) And occasionally in the past I've felt like, "What the heck? That was my path! You can't just put a boulder in my path!" But, ohhoho, He can. Because... and...

I suck at analogies.

I love Kam. That's what I'm really getting at. And I'm really glad he's going to be my husband. Actually, glad is like, a super lame word. I'm... mind-blown that he's going to be my husband. Whoohoo! And I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for knowing better than me what I want and need. One last metaphor, because I don't know how else to say this. I feel like I'm on an entirely different plane than I was before. Like, my path before was good and fine. But it doesn't even compare. Heavenly Father picked me up out of where I felt comfortable and put me in a place I never would have found on my own.

As if that wasn't already enough. I whined and worried, and He guided me anyway. I took my gifts for granted, and He continued to bless me anyway. I pridefully doubted His plan, and He comforted me anyway. And even at times like right now when I think I'm starting to understand how much He's done for me, I know I'm actually just seeing a glimpse of it.

But probably the coolest thing about this whole experience so far is that I can want something soooo much, and my Heavenly Father wants me to have it just as much! How awesome is that? I can remember so many instances where I've felt nervous or scared about something that I really wanted and realized that probably means it's not good for me. But whenever I get nervous or scared about marrying Kam (It happens. Eternity is a long time, even to spend with the most awesome person I've ever known.), all I have to do is take those fears to the Lord and He dispels them. And I know it's right. And then I just feel so excited, and I feel like He's excited for me, too. And it makes me want to party.

So it's a good thing we're having a wedding! Because after this post I just want to dance!

Whoohoo!!! We're Not Dead Yet!

Today marks just a month left until we're married, so I figure I might as well start the infamous family blog now.

I know it's a little silly, but it's my thing. I feel like every girl has something that they've just always thought, "That's just what you do." And I think for most girls it's something about weddings, or houses, or... I don't know what most girls think. But for me it was, "When you get married, you have a family blog." So you don't get completely cut off from the rest of the world. Or die. Other silly marriage "That's just what you do"-ism: when you get married you die. And fall off the edge of the earth.

So good news! We're not dead yet! And we're also not married yet. So I'll have to keep you posted about how that goes after the next month is over. Give us a couple weeks to get acclimated to married life before you worry though. If you don't get a blog post from us by then, you'll know we've probably been dead for two weeks. ...Or we're just busy.

New plan. If we do die, I'll let you know. Until then, assume we're not dead.

Over and out.