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.