Pictureless

Sorry, no pictures, but we finally got moved into our apartment. Well, ok, it's just my apartment for now, but we got all of Jessica's things moved in too, which is good because her stuff ROCKS! Anyways, it feels like we've been moving for like a solid month but I think we finally have everything in. We had a washer and dryer moved in today, I'm impressed they could pull them up the stairs because they are stacked so they had to pull BOTH of them up at the same time. Now, to unstack them... hmmmm..... thanks google! It really is amazing how well things are going, we really feel so blessed. We are so grateful for each of you. I know you're probably getting tired of hearing about the wedding etc, but let's face it.. it's the biggest bestest thing that's ever happened to me... and there's only 30 days left!!! :O Crazy I know! Things are great. I've lost somewhere's near 10 lbs by cutting a lot of fat out of my diet. Hopefully I can lose a bit more, like.... 40 more.... but all in good time. I don't really have anything to blog about, just that I love Jessica and I'm so glad we are getting married. It feels like we're married already sometimes, we've set up a budget and everything already. She's amazing at being on top of things like that. Bachellor party this Friday for anyone that wants to come with us. I won't say where on here, but if you'd like to come call Danny, Russ or me. Can't wait for this summer. Bear Lake should be awesome! Wedding, cruise, meteor shower in august, getting to know and be a part of an entirely new family, and we get to see Mark and fam too. What a great summer already!

Swimmingly

Well, the wedding plans are progressing nicely. We now have a venue: the old meeting house on highland. The lady was super helpful and the place looks really nice. Jessica picked out and purchased a dress this morning, the second one she tried on and it looks fabulous! We have a lead on invitations and the reception center provides a cake. We're looking at photographers this afternoon and should have one booked by the end of the day. All we have left is flowers, a honeymoon and a place to live after we're married. Piece of cake. I think we've decided on a cruise, which one doesn't really matter to me. If you've been on one that you really liked, let us know, or if there are cruise lines to avoid, that would be good to know too. Last I heard, Mark and fam is going to be able to make it for the wedding as well, so we are excited about that. Just seems like everything is fitting together swimmingly. On that note, I have a bunch of movies that I'm looking to get rid of. I'll include a list of them below. If you would like any of them, let me know, they're free as i'll just be throwing them away soon.

aviator, alex and emma, chasing liberty, charlies angels, casino royale, die another day, employee of the month, 50 first dates, fantastic 4, finding forrester, hancock, hot shots, hitch, just married, jaws, kickin it old school, liar liar, memoirs of a geisha, mask of zorro, mr and mrs smith, meet the fockers, quantum of solace, robin hood men in tights, roxanne, rush hour 3, starsky and hutch, so i married an axe murderer, talladega nights, taken, 21, 2 fast 2 furious, tomb raider, wedding singer, what women want.

Wedding

So, you've all heard that I'm getting married!! June 30th.... Draper temple. Set the date. So here's our story.
Jessica Clark and I have been in the same ward for around 2 years. She noticed me first, in fact, she "stalked" me for a year before we ever went out. Not the creepy kind of stalk, just that she noticed me in the ward. Anyways, last spring she got put in the relief society presidency as the secretary and so it was part of her job to track attendance etc and text the numbers to the assistant ward clerk.... aka me. This went on for a few months until July when our bishop announced a WAM (women ask men) event to be held at his house on the 1st of August. Well, after a LOT of coaxing from a few of her friends she finally called me and left a message (I think I was walking around walmart when she called and didn't feel it vibrate in my pocket) anyways, so she asked me out in the message and I called her back, got her voicemail so I accepted in a message and eventually she called me back (awkward) and anyways, both of us thought about calling it off, making up some excuse, but we didn't. The dinner was awkward to say the least. We didn't know each other, we didn't know really many people there. just a lot of people in a very little space. We went home early, but I had a good feeling about it. We just kinda got along. Anyways, I asked her to some other thing a week or so later, and she couldn't go, and I eventually asked her to a Bees game which she agreed to. It was kinda awkward at times (thanks kayla) but she broke the touch barrier and everything just felt natural. After that she asked me to walk around murray park with her one sunday and we've been dating ever since. We used to just walk for like 1.5 hours, just talking about everything and anything. It has been amazing as we've gotten to know each other how much we have in common and every time we've moved forward in the relationship we've both been on the same page.
I have never felt this way with anyone before. From way early on I think we both knew that we would be getting married. In fact, as a way to prove to the Lord that I was willing to move forward and take a leap of faith I decided to go look at rings one day at the shaneco.. and it turns out that Jessica, that same day, without any communication between the two of us, was also looking at rings online! And since then I've known that it was meant to be.
So a week ago we had another WAM event in the ward and I thought it would be a good time to propose, so I got her to think that I couldn't afford the ring until later, and went and paid it off last saturday. She and I went to the jordan river temple and I had the ring with me but was mostly looking for confirmation that I should propose. We went out to dinner after and went for a drive. We parked at a park and were talking about our families and getting to know each other better and I asked her to marry me. And without hesitation she said yes, and of course. So that's when I pulled out the ring she didn't know I had. She FREAKED OUT!! Like she had just seen david copperfield make a jet disappear!
I'm so grateful for her. I can't imagine someone that would complete me more fully or love me more completely. She helps me be a better me. She's helped me be a me I have never known I could be. She's given me confidence. She's given me someone I can rely on and someone I can trust completely. I'm looking forward to you all getting to know her better and also getting to know her better myself. She truly is amazing! Thank you all for supporting me and for accepting her. We look forward to seeing you all there.

5 word poem 2

Well, I finally came up with something. This one was tough!! words: (cleric, respectably, magnifying glass, expeditionary force, swine)


A cleric, once, I knew him well
respectably at Kent did dwell
and once with magnifying glass
did stumble on a bonnie lass.
No expeditionary force
nor swine, nor bull, nor palace horse
no rushing wind or fire's ray
could make him turn his eyes away.

I know. Not much. But, they're all in there. Words for the next one are taken out of James Patterson's "Lifeguard": beating, investment,including, jumped and muttered.
If you would like to write a poem with these words feel free or find your own words randomly from any book (dictionaries work well. For other books take the nearest "not normal" word to the one your finger points to, otherwise you end up with "and, for, then, with, the etc etc") Happy hunting!

I'm charging each of you a penny for these thoughts

Well, my room is FINALLY clean! I know! Crazy! I ended up throwing out 5 bags of trash, somewhere around 7 empty boxes, a bag of clothes and a ton of other stuff. I combined all of my small boxes into two tubs that now sit waterproofly in my closet. I shredded like 5 gallons of papers. Hopefully I can keep it this way. It's weird walking into my room.... no like literally being able to walk into my room.
Other news, I got new glasses on Saturday (thanks Jess). They should be here this week I hope. I got contacts too, and they called and told me the contacts are in already. I'm also trying to update my look, not necessarily for every day, but just some dressier clothes. Also, I finally got my ingrown toenail sorta cut out. He numbed it (most of the way the first time, and eventually all the way after I screamed) and cut out the part that was causing the problem. It feels much much better. I go back in on Friday to see how it's doing and to schedule a time to get the root cut out so it won't keep coming back. It's nice to be able to put on shoes though.
I wonder how I should go about telling a girl that I know that I can't imagine her ending up with any type of guy. I've pondered it a lot, and she finally asked about it on her blog and facebook so I feel like this is my chance.... but I don't know how to tell her. Trust me, I've thought about it. As she is... I don't think such a man exists.... if she were to change some key things then it's possible. She's the same girl that I blogged about before that had a list of like 100+ things she was looking for in a guy. I'm sorry, but if you've dated 80+ guys.... it's not them.... it's you.
Well, I think that's it. Still haven't written my second 5 random word poem. It's giving me grief. Till next time.

5 Random Word Poetry

Well, spring cleaning is well under way. I've thrown out 4 garbage bags full of stuff, I've sorted through every box and shredded everything that needed to be shredded. My room is still a mess, but I think one more day will do it. Ps. I love heated mattress pads, especially on a cold night like tonight. MMmmm warm!
If you recall one of my goals this year is to blog more, but only slightly less known is this: to write more poetry. So I've come up with a creative way to get the juices flowing. :O Happy Groundhog day!!!! Just had to say that! =) Best Holiday EVER!! Ok, where was I? Oh, right, creativity. So I've started writing poems starting with 5 random words from a book. My first poem comes from 5 words from the first Harry Potter book. The words were speech, behind, don't, my and over. The goal isn't to create a masterpiece, it's just to tie the words together in some sort of rhyming...thing. So here is my first attempt

(I think I'll call it..) Jessica Potter

I gave a speech without my mouth
But only with my actions
Behind the words my body spoke
Were all of my reactions
Don't listen to the words I say
For when my words are over
The things I've done or tried to do
Will show how much I love her

Tadaa! This one was considerably easier than the next one I get to write. For that one I picked 5 random words from my spanish dictionary (from the english-spanish half of the book) The words are cleric, respectably, magnifying glass, expeditionary force and swine.
:-/ I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with those yet (not even exactly sure what all of them mean) but it should be fun to try. Stay tuned for that post. Peace.

Actual Writing Contest

So..... my roomie came up with a brilliant idea for promoting his website promotethegood dot com. He's having a writing contest AND you can vote for your favorites by "liking" it on the website through facebook AND the winner of the contest gets 100 BUCKS AND he'll donate another 100 bucks to a charity you can choose from a list also on the website. SO, if you would like to win 100 bucks and know how to write go to his website, register, submit and VOTE :D yay! There are a few catches.... first.. at least 30 people have to enter the contest, second, the contest ends saturday at midnight, and third, as in contests like this he gets the rights to the work, but it would be the same if you submitted it to the ensign or where ever else. The topic is something, I don't remember how he phrased it (it's probably on the website) but something like the inseperable connection between virtue and happiness. So write write write.
In other news, things are going well. I took a half sick day today because I was afraid I was getting whatever Dan and Danny have had, and as long as I don't move it's ok but still feel a little sick. I've started my spring cleaning early this year (Thanks, Jessica, for your help in getting started and motivated.) I went to Walmart and bought some plastic tubs to put all my stuff in (plastic tubs are more waterproof than cardboard boxes) and I also got a paper shredder and a clothes hamper and a garbage can that I can keep in my room to keep the clutter off the floor. OH, and an accordian file folder to sort papers in. So far I've filled two garbage bags, gone through all of my "important papers" and sorted out anything that needed shredding, been through half of my boxes to throw away anything I don't actually use/need/want, and cut up and thrown away all of my old garments. I need to create a DI pile too, get rid of all those old clothes that haven't fit me for 40 lbs or so. It has been fun. I'm glad to finally have something tangible to see progress in and to have a process for storing and keeping track of all my junk.
I've also started reading a new book. My therapist recommended it and Jessica checked it out of the library and let me borrow it when she was done. It is called "How to avoid marrying a jerk: the foolproof way to follow your heart without losing your mind" by John Van Epp. It has been an amazing read so far. Just the things that I have learned about my needs and wants and behaviors etc has been great! And reading it I wanted to get some feedback from you all: What would you say are the top 3 things you wish you had learned about your spouse before you got married? Or, what 3 things are you glad you learned about your spouse before you got married? What would you say are the top 3 stresses on your marriage right now? (nothing specific, obviously, but be honest) I'm trying to get a feel for how you all make your marriages work and how you felt you knew your spouse well enough to make that big leap. Anyways, any help in this would be much appreciated. I think that's a long enough post for now, so remember - write an entry for that contest, and answer the marriage questions. Peace.