Mother Knows Best

People ask all the time to hear about mine and Tanner's story, so I figured that instead of having to tell it over and over again that I'd just write it down here and make everyone else do all the work and look it up. Because I'm lazy. I'll try to not make it too sappy or cheesy or love-y dove-y for you...no promises though.

I think the first time I really paid any attention to Tanner was our sophomore year of high school in Mrs. Walker's English class. Tanner and his friends were a bunch of hoodlums, always finding ways to torture our poor teacher. But of course during the annoying teenage stage of life where adults are awful, I thought he was the funniest person I had ever met. We eventually started hanging out and developed the same group of friends. A little while later I finally decided to get courageous and asked Tanner to the girl's choice Sadie Hawkins dance our Junior year of high school. And look! Lucky for us our first date is forever documented thanks to the bloody awful tradition known as dance pictures. 

Let's hope this isn't an indication of how our marriage is going to be.

Looking back now, I have absolutely no recollection of what we did for our day date or exactly what happened during that dance, but I do remember that by the end of the night I was suddenly crazy about this boy. Thankfully, he felt the same way and we ended up dating our whole Junior year. And yes, that does mean that we went to our Junior Prom together and got to get ANOTHER adorable picture taken. 

Awwwwww

Shortly after that following summer began, I decided that I didn't want to date Tanner anymore and ended up breaking things off. My mom was crushed after I told her the news and kept telling me how much she liked Tanner and blah blah blah. I was not having it. What did she know anyway? Mothers....

Senior year came and went. Whether we were forced to because we had the same friends or by choice, Tanner and I stayed close friends throughout that year. Tanner left to serve an LDS mission in Argentina a few months after graduation  (he would tell you he left as a "free agent" with no one waiting for him) and I stuck around for school. Fast forward 2 years and all my friends started coming back from missions. As Tanner's homecoming date inched closer and closer my mom kept bringing him up and not so subtly hinting at me to date him again. I think her exact words were actually "You know Tanner's coming home soon. I've always liked Tanner....you should ask him out." Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever, Mom.  

Tanner got back the end of February of this year. I just so happened to be living with his twin sister Tiffani and I just so happened to be single. I swear if I didn't know any better I would have said that my mom had planned this from the beginning. I saw him a few days after he came back and a couple of weeks later he was nice enough to give me another shot and asked me on our first date in years (sadly this time I don't have a cheesily posed picture of it. Sorry). Things started getting a little serious and so I threatened that I was going to go on a mission after I graduated in December. It ended up being a very empty threat. We got engaged on June 26th, 2013. 

Which leads me to the next story that everyone asks me about. How did he propose?! Well...we went on a hike up to the Wind Caves here in Logan Canyon with my brother Mason and his wife along with Tiffani and her boyfriend. I had no idea what was going on so I cheerily booked it up the mountain. Red faced and sweaty, we were told to go take a picture at the top. Tanner pulled out a bouquet of gerber daisies. On it he had written "A Few Reasons I Want to Spend Eternity With You" with a reason attached to the stem of each flower. *heart melt* And that's when--red faced and sweaty--Tanner proposed. And I said yes.

Moral of the story: Mother really does know best. The big day is October 18th, 2013. You are all welcome to come feast on cheesecake and candy with us. 

March Madness

No, this isn't a post about basketball, although it has been dominating my life for the past couple weeks.....I'll just go ahead and get it all out of the way right from the beginning and say Wichita State, Florida Gulf Coast, KEVIN WARE'S FREAKING LEG!! Amirite?! Anyway...March has been insanely busy for me over in little old Logan thanks to school coming closer to ending and final projects beginning to pile up, so I haven't gotten around to blogging. And since you´re all sooo interested, here is the recap of what happened last month.

We'll start out with the best highlight of March and prove that my claim from my last post is true and talk about Disneyland. Ohhhh my goodness you guys. AMAZING! Seriously one of the best trips that I've taken. And look! No more fear of costumed people.

Some other highlights from the trip included Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, beach time in Longbeach, Dole Whips and the Tiki Room, World of Color, and of course James getting food poisoning the second night we were there. Just for any people out there planning future trips, do not, I repeat, DO NOT eat Popeye's Chicken at 10 in the morning from the airport. Your stomach will thank you. Despite Popeye's best effort however, we all managed to have a fantastic time and experience the wonder that is Disneyland. 

As I mentioned before, March brought with it a slew of tests and midterms, so that was...fun. Thankfully Tracie had the best remedy for test stress with a little thing we like to call House Dancing. That´s right, Tracie, James, Tiffani and I all went to house dance workshop a few weeks ago up on campus. Please look at the video below and try to imagine me doing any of these moves.

Oh, did I mention that James, Tiffani and I were the only ones who weren´t on the USU dance team that were there? Not to mention I managed to get my gum plastered to my head and had to rip it out. Hahaha....incredibly fun, but incredibly difficult. Would do again. 

That´s about the last thing worth mentioning about March. School is slowing down just a titch, Walking Dead is over now (if any of you watched the finale, come see me later and we can discuss it), and Spring is finally here, so hopefully I´ll be able to be more on top of this blogging thing and post something a little more entertaining. I hope everyone had a lovely Easter! Love you all!

(Just because I had so much fun in Cali, here´s some more pictures for you to look at)

Disneyland and Masklophobia

Guess what's coming up? Spring Break! Just one more week between me and The Happiest Place on Earth. That's right, I'm going to Disneyland this year!!! I can hardly wait to board that plane with 5 of my closest friends and spend a few days where wishes come true. Let's take a second to reflect on my past trips to this heavenly place shall we?

Trip #1: Dumbo ride and Teacups were my freaking jam!!

Sword in the Stone with my thuggin bros

Trip #2: Face of pure ecstasy. Also, my unibrow is better than yours 

Disney visor and glow in the dark Tink shirt. 90s for life.

While I've been to both Disneyland and Disney World before, I realized that this year my trip is going to be different. Why? This year will be the first year I'll be able to go without the irrational fear that a person dressed up in a costume is going to kill me. Notice that none of the above pictures are of me with any Disney character. That's because they don't exist.  If you've known me long enough, you know that I used to refuse going anywhere near anyone in a costume including Mickey Mouse and Snow White, so obviously the happiness factor was a bit hindered seeing as the whole reason why you take your children to Disneyland is so they can meet their childhood heroes and favorite princesses. It may have taken me a solid 14 years to get over, but I've been fear free for 7 years now and I'll finally get to meet all my favorite people!! Mickey, prepare to be bear hugged by a grown woman. See ya in one week Disneyland!

Bringing Sexy Back

You know who's aged well? This guy:

I have been in love with this beautiful man and his angelic voice ever since I first laid eyes on him after I stole my brother's NSync CD in fifth grade--even when he had an awful excuse for a hair style on top of his head. Look at this picture and tell me he doesn't look like he's Mugatu's son. 

Like father, like son. Amirite?

So bad...but you can't blame him. The 90s were cruel to most of us when it came to fashion. I'd give you an example and post a picture of what I looked like back then, but we'll save you from having to thoroughly scrub your eyes after and move on to what I'm really trying to get at with this post. JT has been pretty incognito for a while now when it comes to music, but he's FINALLY coming back to us this March and giving us more of his beautiful falsetto with his newest CD. Praise the heavens, there is a god!! And to make it even better, he's releasing a few of his songs early. JUST. FOR. US!! It's like opening the world's greatest Christmas present each time one is released. So sit back and allow Justin's sultry voice take you back to revisit some of your fondest memories.

 Oh JT....welcome back, dear friend. Welcome back. 

An Ode to Liz Lemon

The final episode of one of the best shows on television is coming in just two days. Two more days before my world will be left empty without the beautiful quirks of Liz Lemon and the TGS crew. It's a sad day, yes, but I'd like to take this time and look back at some of my favorite highlights these past 7 years and remember just how good we've had it.

We'll start right from the top with one of my favorite moments from Season 1. We see here just how brilliant Lemon is with comebacks as she slams some stranger on the phone. Highlight #1: They're From Your Mom 

Season 2 was just as good as the first and--dare I say--it got even better. This next clip is one that I think really captures the passion that Liz Lemon possesses. Highlight #2: Sandwich Day. 

Lemon gets down every now and then throughout the show, but my favorite dance sequence she does is in Season 3. Highlight #3: Flu Shot.

I'm gonna go ahead and do another one from Season 3 because it's waayyyy too good to pass up. Highlight #4: Dark Secrets.

Alright, back on track with seasons. This next one is definitely one of my favorite Liz quotes in Season 4. Highlight #5: Liz Lemon Party: Mandatory.

This is one of the moments from Season 5 that always makes me laugh no matter how many times I've already watched it. Highlight #6: The World's Worst Hooker. Side note: I'd definitely take her home.

Season 6 is where Liz's hunger for a baby really shines. Highlight #7: Liz and Planty 4evr

And finally we'll end with the weirdest and most uncomfortable moments in 30 Rock's history from this season. Highlight #8: Sexy Office Supplies.

Oh Liz Lemon...I'm going to miss you. Thursday's episode will be bittersweet. Thank you for 7 of the best years of my life. Please bless the brilliant mind of Tina Fey with health and happiness. 

Resolutions and Adulthood

I know the New Year celebrations came and went and that talking about resolutions is old news, but I'd just like to announce that this year I'm actually going to finish mine. Granted I only made one actual resolution, but I found out today that it's actually going to happen. How do I know you ask? Two words: Psychic Hotline. The lady I talked to seemed pretty credible; said she'd been doing this for 30 years so I'm trusting her on this one. Haha nah I'm just kidding. Can you imagine? What really happened is I met with my advisor here on campus about how on track I am for graduating and what would happen if I took a summer semester, and guess what I found out? I'M GRADUATING IN DECEMBER!!! I thought I was going to have to wait until next May, but nope. Graduation is a measly 11 months away. By the skin of my teeth I'm actually going to reach my goal to graduate before 2013 ends.

Excitement abounds!!

Needless to say, I'm pretty stoked about finally graduating, but with my 21st birthday right around the corner and graduation more in reach than ever, real adulthood is coming way faster than I anticipated, so if any of you would like to suggest something for me to do after I'm done making school my life I'd greatly appreciate it. Who knows, maybe I'll prolong my life as a lowly student and shoot for a Master's instead of jumping into the real world with a real job and real responsibilities. Heck I'm only 21 (it's two days away. I'm counting it). Two or three more years of school wouldn't hurt me too bad right? Side note: if any of you would like to donate to my cause of becoming a real adult I prefer cash and checks, however I do take Visa.

Phresh

In case you've somehow gotten lucky and missed all the posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram about how the new semester of school has started up and such, I'll go ahead and do the honors of telling you in the most annoying yet college-esque way I can think up. Ready?

OMG!! First day of new classes!!!! Wish me luck! :) Sooooo excited for this semester!!! #college #usu #firstdayjitters #newschooloutfit <3 <3 

Oh man. I even find myself annoying. I think I nailed it though. But really, my new semester has started and can I say I'm so thankful for the chance I have to go to school and learn?! I can't imagine how my life would be if I didn't have the means or opportunity to do what I'm doing now. And although the life of a poor college student can be pretty unglamorous and at times pretty sketchy (you aren't a real student if you don't risk eating expired food every now and then or live in a shady apartment complex at least once), there is no way I'd go back to being a bratty high school student living in my parents' basement. I'm living, I'm learning, I'm having the time of my life. Who could ask for more? This life is phresh.