While I have a minute

Please excuse me for being tragically behind on blogging.

It’s been a real treat to be alive lately. Overwhelming and wonderful and scary and a million other words, all at once.

Here’s a few simple updates for you.

Valentine’s day was fully of love love love. Working, new watches, my favorite restaurant, guitar serenading, movie, and lots of gush.

Then for Randy’s 21st birthday we hit The Garden, where 2 years ago Randy asked me on a date for two years in the future. Awe. 

I went to my last basketball game as a BYU Cougar this weekend. It’s a very surreal, bittersweet thing to have all these lasts. 
Excuse me while I spend President’s Day saying yes to the dress. Seriously, it was fate and the best thing ever, and I’m smitten with it!  

We had a killer birthday party for Randy last night, and it was so fun to be reunited with my girls from freshman year! It’s so crazy to think what we’ve all been doing for the past year and a half, but it’s even better that we got to chat the night away last night. XOXO.
Now my friends, a word on having it all figured out. I don’t have it all figured out. Randy and I don’t know where we’re going to be living, how we’re going to afford anything, I have no idea where I’ll get a job when I graduate, or IF I’ll get a job for that matter. There are these huge changes coming up, and I want to have a plan. I want to know where to get a mattress and magically have the money to buy one. I want to know where we’ll be living, where I’ll be working, I want to know how to get through these HUGE projects I have to finish before I graduate. I want to be a better friend and sister and daughter and fiance. And also I want to plan my wedding and figure out a honeymoon.
I constantly need reminding that there’s a plan, it’ll work out, I just have to have a little faith. And even if it’s not my plan, there’s an even better plan ahead. 
Happy Saturday everyone.

Happy Birthday Randy

21 years ago today, my life completely changed. And I had no idea.

21 years ago, the best thing to ever happen to me, was born.

Randy, thank you for being the sweetest, kindest, funniest, smartest, most Christ-like person I have ever met.

Thank you for giving me years of Chili’s dates, guitar singing, backstage kisses, notes in class, shopping trips, dances I’ll always remember, endless movie nights, Fro-Yo runs, letters across the ocean, singing in the car, hundreds of pictures, and a love to last a lifetime.

Anybody who knows Randy knows how absolutely wonderful he is. He has a heart that is pure gold.
Randy, thanks for letting me love you. Happy birthday my wonderful fiance!

And happy Wednesday everyone!

Lovey-Dovey Day

I’ve been hearing it all week…”I hate Valentine’s Day.”

People are entitled to their opinion. But…

I love this holiday!

And you should too!

What better chance do we have to tell all the people in our lives, just how much they mean to us.

I’ll be honest, Valentine’s Day was hard when Randy was on his mission. I wanted someone to send me flowers and take me out to dinner and hold my hand. But it also taught me that all kinds of love are important, and people need to know that you matter to them!

So I have so many people that I should shout-out to and tell them how much they mean to me. I don’t have time to do that, and you don’t have time to read it, so here’s my love letter to all of my dear friends on this lovey-dovey day.

To my lovely friends,

Thank you for supporting me, loving me, letting me be crazy and random and emotional. Thank you for showing me what friendship means. As you get older, it’s easy for friendships to fall apart, and it becomes obvious very quickly who your true friends are. Thank you for being there as I’ve figured out who will stick around. You mean the world to me.

To my family,

I lucked out, and got the best family known to man. Thank you for supporting me as I’m planning a wedding, loving me when I’m a pain, and always being ready to talk and listen. You all inspire me and make me want to be better. I am so happy I get to spend eternity playing Boggle and eating caramel corn with you all!

And to the love of my life,
Randy, every little girl wants to marry the prince and live happily ever after. Thank you for making every fairy tale, real. It’s a different type of fairy tale, neither of us are perfect and there are times we seriously drive each other crazy, but the best part of the fairy tale is that in spite of all of that, we stay together. You once said to me, “I love you for a million reasons, but I know I want to marry you because I love your ugly. I love the parts of you that nobody else gets to see, the vulnerable and sad, hurt, and upset parts.” Thank you for showing me what love really is.

Now enough sap, excuse me as I finish my work day looking at my new watch, and getting ready for date night in the city!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Spread the love.

To do once you get engaged:

Buy a Feyonce t-shirt. Obviously. 

Get the girls who will help you pick out every little detail, make you laugh, help you fix your hair, and everything in between. 

Spend lots of quality time with your fiance and his guitar. 

Keep studying, working, and anchoring even though all you want to do is pin.
And on the subject of pinning, I’m so sorry to all my Pinterest followers. All I do is pin wedding stuff and everyone is probably so sick of it!
More more more is coming!
XOXO
Happy Thursday everyone! 

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes

So I’m a little behind blogging. I’ve been a little busy, getting engaged! Oops:)

SO here’s the story. 100% unedited, ready for you to read. It’s a good one, super sappy, but super perfect. I’m going to tell my side of the story, and then Randy is actually going to type up his side of the story in a cute he said/she said. We’re thinking of moving my blog to a platform where we can both post regularly, so let me know what you think about that!

Ok, here we go:)

I swear this was us about ten minutes ago. Just reenacting one of our favorite art pieces (American Gothic) while performing in Fiddler on the Roof. Circa 2011.

She says: Randy and I had been seriously talking about getting married for a few weeks now. We’d been praying, going to the temple, spending time together and apart to figure out if it was right. And we both came to the conclusion that we were crazy about each other, and wanted to get married. It was the right decision. We went and looked at engagement rings and I pointed out several that I liked, and told Randy to make the final decision and surprise me. I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for him to propose. I knew he’d gone and talked to my dad, but I wasn’t sure if he had the ring, or when he was going to pop the question. I would bug him about it every day, whining and wondering when it was going to happen. He was stubborn and wouldn’t tell me a thing! Which is good because i would’ve been upset if he’d spoiled the surprise. Randy told me he was going to do grand gestures and crazy dates for the next few weeks so I would never knew when it was actually coming.

So Monday, February 2nd, my roommate and best friend Rachel texted me and asked if we could go get cheesecake in Salt Lake that night. We had both had a rough weekend, and she said she wanted to go have a girls night out. Randy had told me a few days earlier he was working Monday night, so I said of course! I came home after class and got all dolled up for our night out. We drove to Salt Lake and jammed to our favorite tunes. I was a little suspicious at first, but Randy was texting me from work, and Rachel had been in no rush to leave, and I figured if Randy was proposing he’d want me at a spot at a certain time.

We went and got our cheesecake, it was delightful.

We wandered around City Creek, again removing my suspicion that Randy was proposing, because I was sure he would have a specific plan with a specific time we needed to be there. 

We took some pictures, and then Rach asked if we could go to the Capitol building and take more pictures to document our date-night. Of course, I agreed. 
We got to the Capitol and I was telling Rachel all about Randy and I’s Senior Prom there, pointing to places where we danced, etc. We started walking up the huge staircase at the very front of the building. There are huge pillars near the front door, and we decided to go up there to take pictures. 
Then, Randy walked out front behind the pillars in a suit, with flowers. Rachel disappeared to who knows where! I was in shock, and I think I stammered out “Um….what are you doing here?” Then. It hit me. This was it. He was proposing here. Tonight. Right now.
The city was lit up behind us, you could see the temple and it was so perfect. Randy grabbed my hands, and said some sweet things about how much he loved me, how he had loved me when we had danced there at prom.
Then he got down on his knee, he was so nervous! 
Then he asked me to marry him.
And I said yes. 
I’ve had lots of wonderful and happy days in my life. But the day that I agreed to spend the rest of my life with my best friend,  my high school sweetheart, my returned missionary, and the ultimate love of my life, will go down as one of my very best days. I can’t wait to marry him on May 30th! 

He says: When I got home from my mission, it became very real that I wanted to marry Maddy. We had to start praying and being very serious about the question, but at the same time, I don’t feel like I ever had any doubts that it was the perfect choice. She’s my best friend and I don’t have any interest in searching for someone else. Why would I try to find a replacement for a perfect fit? She’s everything to me.
So I started talking to Maddy’s friends and figuring out how I wanted to ask her to marry me. I also talked to her father to receive his blessing. It was SO scary, but he gave me his blessing and then it was up to me to ask her. Rachel and I made plans to get her into Salt Lake City so I could ask her. I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be able to surprise her because we had talked so much about marriage and we had already made plans to get married. To keep the secret, we decided to tell Maddy that I was working on Monday night and have Rachel take Maddy to Salt Lake.
While Rachel was taking Maddy out to have a good time, I was preparing myself at the Capitol building. It was the place that Maddy and I had prom and one of our most romantic dates we’d gone on. It was the perfect place. I got my suit and some flowers and went to the Capitol and waited. I was pacing around and preparing what kind of things I wanted to say when I asked her to marry me.
I ended up waiting for about 2 hours. I started to get really anxious and nervous. Then Rachel texted me and told me that Maddy would be there in about a minute. I stood behind one of the pillars at the top of the main staircase and waited to hear her voice. I felt pretty confident and prepared. Then I heard her and stepped out to see her. She was dressed up nice with Rachel and looked so beautiful……and my hands started to shake uncontrollably. I forgot all the things I wanted to say to her. I just kinda spit out all the things that I was feeling and then got down on my knee, and asked her to marry me. She gave me a cute smile and said yes. 
It was the best night. It took more to prepare than anyone had ever told me it would be. It was scarier than anyone had ever told me, but it was also more exciting and happy than anyone had ever told me. I still can’t stop smiling. I walk around school with a stupid smile on my face and a little hop in my step. I’m so excited and I’ve never been so happy.

Don’t You Quit

Hello there friends! After a particularly rotten weekend, this has been running through my head today. I could list all the rotten things that happened this week, and this month for that matter. But instead I’m going to keep walking, keep trying.

One nice thing about this week was going to the game with Randy and Rach and Nick! It’s always a blast hanging out with these two, and even better when Rach gets us great seats to a great game!
And serious shout-out to Randy for being my rock. I’ve been sick and he’s been helping me get better, he’s helped me in a million ways and has been there for me as I’ve broken down. I’m not sure why he puts up with me, but I am so happy that he does. 
Happy Super Bowl today everyone! And happy Sunday!