Newness

I bought a blue beach cruiser today. And I love it.

The Early Bird Gets an Extra Shift at Work

I am not a morning person. Ever. If you know me at all, you know that I don't do classes before 9 a.m. and I really struggled to be at work by 8 a.m. everyday the last few semesters. This semester has been glorious in terms of my sleeping schedule: class at 10 a.m., work at 11 a.m. everyday. Woot! Today, I decided to cover a morning shift for one of my co-workers. So, what time did I get up? 6 a.m. I showered, made chocolate chip waffles for my roommates and myself, and then got to work by 7:30. Not bad, huh? True, I'm really tired and I have a ridiculously long day ahead of me but it's okay! I get to see my mom, my aunts, and my cousin this afternoon. I also get to meet my Step-Grandma this afternoon. Step-Grandma. That sounds so strange. But I've heard that she's a lovely person and makes my Grandpa happy so I'm sure I'll love her. In other news, today, Tyson and I have been engaged for two months! Only four more to go! Sigh...that's forever. It's alright though. Tonight we're going to BYU's White Tie Ball and I'm excited to get all gussied up and go dancing with him. I love to dance with Tyson. I love to do lots of things with him. But dancing is something that is super fun and we both love to do it. We're going to be 80 and still swing dancing and all the young whipper-snappers will look at us and think "Aww, cute! I want to be like that when I'm 80!" Or, at least, that's what I thought when I saw cute old people at the dances. Precious! Anyhow, happy Friday!

Sugar Free Weeks

As part of my push to be healthier, I have given up eating sugar during the week. Do you have any idea just how hard this is?! Gah! Well, I was given some recipes by the folks at BYU's Y-Be-Fit and Tyson and I decided to try one this afternoon. The first recipe we tried was "Apple Oatmeal Cookies." No sugar. Honey, yes. But pure, granulated sugar? No. We were pretty skeptical about the yumminess of no-sugar cookies that have apple in them but we pressed forward with faith. Once we got past the weirdness of the honey-egg-butter-vanilla mixture, we added the whole wheat flour-cinnamon-baking soda homogeneous solution* and then the apple pieces and voila! Tyson was willing to take one for the team and tried the dough. LOVED IT! So besides smelling like homemade oatmeal with apple slices, it actually tastes good! Okay, so the dough tastes good. But what about the finished product? Delicious! Success on a Tuesday afternoon. In Tyson's words: "This whole sugar-free thing may not be so bad after-all."

*I described the dry mixture as a homogeneous solution because I could not think of another synonym for mixture and Tyson and Edwin (our friend who is also a chemical engineering major) decided that homogeneous solution was the perfect term. There you have it.

A Little Gershwin to Start the Week

Today in Editing, we were discussing parallelism. The OED lists "parallelism" as "The quality or character of being parallel or analogous; correspondence or similarity between two or more things."
Example: I love to dance, swing, and play piano. But not: I love dancing, to swim, and playing the piano.
Anyway, so we're discussing parallelism and my teacher pulls up some lyrics to I've Got Rhythm by George Gershwin. He then proceeds to ask "Okay, who'll sing it for us? Hmm? Anyone?" Of course, no one says anything. He keeps asking and it's clear that the lecture will not continue until someone gives in and sings the four lines up on the PowerPoint. So, from the back of the room, I bust out with "I've got rhythm, I've got music, I've got my man -- Who could ask for anything more?"
My teacher and peers applaud (my teacher out of enthusiasm, my peers from relief that they didn't have to sing in class) and then my teacher says "Your fiancé is a lucky man!" Awkward. But I love Brother Gardner. Sweet, old man.
If you are unfamiliar with the song, click here to see the original cast perform I've Got Rhythm from Crazy for You. The main character, Polly Baker, is played by Jodi Benson who also happens to be the voice of Ariel in Disney'sThe Little Mermaid.

Weekend Vacation

I love going to visit Tyson's family on the weekends. It's a great distraction from the stresses of life. I also seem to do a better job at doing my homework when I'm here rather than stuck in my apartment. I also enjoy playing games, eating food, and being loud with his family. They are wonderful people and I'm thrilled to be a part of their family. In other news, Am went to prom tonight. She looked absolutely stunning in her gorgeous peach formal dress. Lovely! She and her date looked ultra-precious together and I'm sure they'll have a great time. Also, Tyson went to run errands for his parents and left me to finish my homework. When he came back, he gifted me a beautiful yellow rose (yellow is my favorite) and a box of Junior Mints. I love that boy. He is my favorite.

100

I've been putting off writing this blog post because, as the title hints, this is my 100th blog post. Now, that may seem like a lot but when I compare my blogging frequency to those like Katie or my aunt, Laura, I appear to be a slacker. So, here's what has been going on/on my mind the past few weeks:
1) Tyson has started to recover. He has been healed of his flu symptoms but the pneumonia is still hanging out in his lungs.
2) I am starting to feel the "end-of-semester" noose begin its ominous tightening. Suddenly, I have a hundred million things to do and not enough time or energy to get anything done. Therefore, my room has suffered. I've done my best to keep my stuff in check but it seems that no matter what I do, things stay relatively cluttered.
3) I came to the startling realization that I have been in school, straight, for almost two years now. I cannot express how sick of school I really am. This is absurd. My brain and body can't handle this for much longer. The good news is that I'm not going to do ANYTHING school related during summer term. I'm going to get married, travel to a foreign country, and work. That's it. NO SCHOOL. I only have spring term, fall semester, and winter semester left. I must keep motivating myself "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."
4) Tyson and I are still looking for a place to live in July. I sold my housing contract and I'm going to live with my grandparent's until I get married. That should be good because it will keep me from staying up too late, not focusing on my school work, and I'll be able to get all my laundry done. Yay! I'm so grateful that my grandparents are willing to let me live with them for a few months.
5) One year ago I was getting ready to attend my study abroad in the UK. And now I'm preparing to get married. Last year I would have never guessed that I'd be getting married this summer. I'm so excited!!
6) I'm super grateful that my future in-laws love me and that I love them. They are wonderful people and have really made me a part of their family. I appreciate their love and comfort and am thrilled to become a part of their family. My brothers and sisters-in-law are awesome too. Whenever Tyson and I go to his family's house for the weekend, we always have a great time playing games and being loud with his siblings. They're an amazing family and I'm so lucky to know them.
7) I still love editing.
8) ASL is a blast! I'm learning so much from that class and really enjoy my homework and practicing that I do. It's awesome getting my tests back with A's instead of the C's I was used to getting in my Spanish courses.
So there you have it. My 100th post. It's not amazing or anything but I felt that it needed some recognition.

164 Days

So I'm not getting married until July 16. Instead of 60 something days I now have 100 extra days to wait to be sealed to my love. Turns out that by not taking classes this spring, I wouldn't be able to graduate next April. LAME. In an attempt to be more academic, finish school, get a real job, and support Tyson through the next four years of pain and suffering (aka the Chemical Engineering major) we decided that I must take Spring classes. What does this mean? No May wedding. And June didn't work for anybody. What does that leave us? July. We're getting married 11 days before Tyson's birthday. I was kind of upset about that because I happen to adore birthdays, especially my own. But sweet Tyson isn't as attached to his birthday as I am to mine. I was feeling pretty down about this whole move-the-wedding thing when Tyson's mom listed some fun perks to being married in July.

1) It's not on Mother's Day!

2) Our pictures will not be filled with nature-killing snow and coldness!

3) She gets to take a vacation to California! Woot!

In other news, I'm still trying to figure out where Tyson has planned for us to go on our honeymoon. This is what I know:

1) The plane ride is at least 12 hours long.

2) It is not Southern England.

3) It is not London.

4) We will not have to worry about communicating with the local people.

I'm trying to guess but it's basically killing me to not know. Gah.

Other excitement: I learned how to do wings in my tap class. Don't know what wings are? Click here. Mind you, I'm not nearly as good as this lady but I can get all three sounds! Don't think they look that hard? Then YOU try them. They're hard. Trust me.

Also, Tyson's brother had surgery yesterday for appendicitis. Scary! All went well and they expect to only keep him in the hospital over-night and possibly tomorrow. (A, I'm glad you're alive!!)

Well, that's all for now. More pics to come. Promise.