The Beginning of All Things Ultimately Lame

Greetings fellow Bucket-eers.

If you check the countdown in my right hand side bar, you will see that I have just over 2 months before Hod and I will be married for eternity.  I am SO stinkin' excited.  I am also very attached.  Seriously.  Monday night, I had this horrible dream.  Hod died, and there was a bad man coming after me trying to do bad things.  It was no good and I woke up in a very foul mood.  Well, part of that was the dream, part of that was the fact that I was getting up so stinkin' early cause a girl at work quit, so I had to cover her shift, but it's also good, cause now Hod is working my shifts, and we get to work together, and now we may actually have enough money that some days we can eat food other than Ramen.  Uh... Yeah, I digress.

Because in my dream dear Hod died, I realized that I love this man more than I thought I could.  It's kind of crazy.  Really folks, this is some super lame, crazy intense kind of love.  Not like a creepy kind of crazy.  I haven't blown up pictures of him and taped his face to my teddy bear.  I just really love him.  I assume that all of you married friends understand what I'm saying.  As for the rest of you... just trust me.

Where was I going with this?  Yeah, I'm not sure either.  I guess to show my true devotion... or not really for that reason, here are some of our favorite engagements.  They were taken by L5.  She has some serious skills.

Oh The Wisdom

Hello fellow bucketteers.  Oh, I like that one.

So, I have a Mom.  She's pretty great.  She has taught me a lot of things.  I remember back in the day when I lived at home, that when she would run the dishwasher, she would never let it go through the dry cycle.  I never knew why.  I just assumed it was because that took a lot of energy and we were trying to save money where we could.  It made sense to me.  Maybe that really was the whole reason, but I wonder if there was something else involved.

You see, I live in an apartment with some pretty amazing girls.  (Hey, yo's!)  All of us have lived on our own for a large number of years, and we have mad skills at some pretty simple things.  For example, we can all load the dishwasher.  And yet, sometimes in my life, while living with girls with mad dishwasher loading skills, there has been a mishap.  During the great and powerful washing cycle, things shift just wrong and land on the heating coil. Then when it goes to dry, your house ends up smelling so bad you get a major headache and then stay up blogging instead of sleeping cause your head is spinning.  It's a total bummer.

Though, when I think about it, I don't remember this ever happening in my house growing up.  Not only does not using the power heat dry cycle save power, but if something does shift, it won't burn up, or melt down causing the worst smell known to man to take over every inch of the apartment, invading your nostrils and everything you thought to be good smelling and pretty.

The great wisdom of Mom's.

On other news, I spent today doing absolutely nothing.  Wedding plans are coming along great.  Though, with work and planning all day every day is super crazy booked for me.  So, dear Hod was willing to give up some of his time and do nothing with me today.  I think this is the first nothing day I have had in over a month. I am very aware that once I'm married nothing days will forever be gone, so I need to take advantage as I can.  Spending most of the day sitting in your pajamas, eating waffles, and watching Duck Tales.  What more could a girl ask for?  So, dear Hod, Thank you for spending the day doing nothing.  I could do nothing with you forever and be happy.  Ok, not true, I have to much ADD for that.  But for today, it was great.  I love you sir.  (Yes, I realize that is super lame.  No one forced you to read it..)

Romantic Words

So, I'm sick.  Or I have food poisoning.  I'm really not sure.  But I do know that last night during dinner, I became very nauseous, and Hod was perfectly fine.  I lay down for a bit trying to get my stomach to settle.  Hod was sitting close, but not too close, cause he knew I didn't feel well.  After fighting it for 2 hours, I suddenly stood up, walked towards the bathroom and told Hod that I was going to lose it.  It's pretty awkward.  I really didn't want him to see me like that.  There is nothing attractive about puking.  Anyway, on my way to the bathroom Hod asks, "Would you like me to hold your hair?"

My hair was in a pony tail, so I didn't need it.  Still, the fact that he would offer was sweet.  I don't think I would ever offer to hold someone else's hair.  I mean, really, that's gross.  I don't want to be there.

So, lame line of the week, that for some reason I find very cute and romantic:  "Would you like me to hold your hair?"  That's real love.  ;)

Work, Work, Work

My day today went something like this:

Only picture this with less chocolate, not nearly as cute outfits, and ice cream bars instead.  And they didn't go in my mouth, I just had to keep throwing them over my shoulder.  20 minutes into my shift.  It was a long day.

Life Changing Moments

Guess what dear friends!!  I'M ENGAGED!!!!

Here's the story:

Yesterday, (My birthday) I had to go the the large city that is my state capitol.  I had a wedding shower to go to.  Hod came with me, and he just distracted himself while I was partying with the girls.  He came to pick me up with flowers and a giant Slurpee!!  I was pretty happy about the Slurpee.  We drove to this pretty place downtown and then to a large area that is owned by my Church.  ... It's being really hard to be vague here.  I guess this is a big state, and you have no idea where I was driving from, so I'll just tell you.  We were in Salt Lake City at Temple Square.  We parked on one side, and then walked to the other.  Hod was in a big hurry.  There were lots of pretty flowers, and I was trying to take my time.  You know, stop and smell the roses (Ok, they were tulips) and all that.

Because of Hod's mad speed walking skills (He claims he was nervous) we quickly arrived at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  This is when things got a little bit special.  Hod sat me down in a chair, and then proceeded to blindfold me.  I really don't like being blindfolded, but I did play along.  I then found head phones being placed in my ears, and there was a great song playing.  It's called "I'm Doing Everything (for you)" by The Rocket Summer.  My favorite band.  I was then led through the lobby, dodging chairs, people and a giant piano into the elevator.  Did I mention I don't like being blindfolded?  A strange thing happens when you make me close my eyes.  Suddenly, I have no sense of balance.  The good news is, I had a very nice man holding my hand keeping me safe.  We rode the elevator to the 10th floor where they have really big windows so you can see the view.  We went to the east side of the building.  That is the side overlooking the city, not the temple.  The side overlooking the temple is cliche'.  He knelt down next to me, opened the ring box, and told me I could take off my blindfold and look at the view..  Here's the problem though, at this point, I knew he was proposing.  He positioned me so I was looking out the window, and he was just out of my line of vision.  So I'm standing there, looking at the city thinking, "What in the world am I supposed to be seeing??"  I was all sorts of confused.  Finally Hod says, "Um, the view's down here!" To which I turned to see him on one knee with a beautiful ring.  I jumped back in surprise, even though I knew it was coming.  Hod said some very cute things, that I can't really remember cause I was freaking out a lot, and he asked me to be his bride for eternity.  My brain was super fuzzy, and I just kept trying to say something in the affirmative.  My mouth was having issues.  As a result, what came out of my mouth was, "Uh... Yeah... Sure..."  I'm pretty sure I'm never going to live that down.

We then went to the Garden restaurant to celebrate.  It was an amazing day.

Here's the proof :)

The Green stones are Emeralds.  My birthstone :)

This is the side view.  Hod's favorite part is the side detail.  Oh, and Hod designed it.  The bottom is flat because I am hard on rings.  He did such an amazing job!  I Love him.  He's just so great!

Get Over Yourself

Hello friends!

Sorry that I've been gone so long.  I just... haven't had much to say.  As for my last post... I guess we're going with Hod.  Though it's not his favorite choice, but I think it will work just fine.  Things with Hod are going very well.  He's great.  But that's not the purpose of this post.

I'm in my local institute choir.  The easy one that doesn't involve any trying out.  My sister L5 is part of the auditioned choir.  That choir is led by one Bro. Halibut (Yes, L5 I'm aware that Bro. Halibut's real name has nothing to do with fish, but it's a common mistake others make, so we're going with it.)  People who know me, know that I am not really a fan of Bro. Halibut.  He's a good man, I just can't really stand to have a conversation with him.  That could be because every personal interaction I've had with him has been negative.  I know you're in charge, but really, I've been playing drums for 13 years, you may want to trust my judgement, because after going through 5 other steps, you're going to come to the same conclusion that I suggested to you.  Sorry, but I digress.

L5 and I are in a concert together this weekend.  It's actually the auditioned choir's concert, but they are letting the non-auditioned choir join in.  But really, it's still almost all about the auditioned choir.  Last night, by the time the performance had actually started, I was a little.... unhappy with things.  You know, things like how during our prayer, the speaker asked that we would be able to perform in a way to make Bro Halibut happy, and then he said and in a way to make the Lord happy... I'm thinking that order should have been switched.  Then the lady who was announcing things talked about how the auditioned choir was here to represent the institute and how cool they are, and all of us non-auditioned folks were just there to... twiddle our thumbs.  Ok, that last part wasn't said, but it sure felt like it.

Being as I already have issues with Bro. Halibut, and I'm not a big fan of how most of the auditioned choir acts like they are better than us non-auditioned people, I wasn't really in the best mood.  Well, that and Hod was supposed to be there with me, but then he got called into work, and thats just lame, cause life is always a bit more fun when you have a cute boy there.

This concert really is quite the production, with dancers in their many costumes, L5 being the rockin' awesome narrator and some great choreography.  The non-auditioned choir was placed in the fake mezzanines found on both sides of the stage.  We were up high.  Man did it get hot.  Oh well.  Seeing as I am fairly vertically challenged, I was on the front row.  No surprise there.  And I had a kind of cool experience.  Where I was sitting, I could see where the boys would stand while waiting to come on stage.  This mostly happened to the dancing boys between costume changes.  During one song, I saw one of the dancers standing there waiting.  He was behind a big screen thing so people couldn't see him.  He was far away from any of the microphones. And he was singing with his heart.  I could hear him, but I'm pretty sure that no one else could.  But he understood the purpose of things. Yes, he was there to perform, but mostly he was there to share his testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of our Savior Jesus Christ.

And there I was thinking about how this whole thing was lame, and I was hot, and my back hurt.  Then it hit me.  No, I'm never going to be Bro. Halibut's #1 fan.  But I love music, and I love the Lord.  Sometimes I just really need to get over myself.  I needed to understand the purpose of things.  It's not all about you, Paily!

A New Name

Dear Friends!

So... life's been interesting.  Here's the story.  I am officially 100% done with Scuttle.  We had a very nice chat yesterday, and we both had come to the same conclusion.  I truly hope that we can be dear friends, because I will always care about him.  He has some amazing qualities.

But on to the next part of life... I have a new friend now.  He is actually one of Scuttle's friends.  (Oh the scandal!)  We like each other and have decided to date.  He is such a good man.  He treats me like a queen, honors his Priesthood, and makes me laugh a lot.  Good times, yo.  The only problem is:  what do I call him?  Before Scuttle, I would talk about scuttles.  I thought that just making it a real name was a great idea.  But now what do I do?  Do I just pretend Scuttle the 1st never happened so I can call Scuttle the 2nd, Scuttle?  That just seems confusing.  And I don't really want to pretend Scuttle the 1st never happened, cause there were some great times.  But Scuttle the 2nd just takes too long.  So here are some options:

Brazier: it seems like a cool name... but it's also a way that I would probably try to spell an item of women's clothing.

Hod:  Simple, easy to spell, but makes me think of HUD.  That's a word that L7 got me saying that is kind of the equivalent of Blast... so it may be a bad idea.

Cask:  One of my favorite options, but it is usually used to hold alcoholic drinks.  That does put a damper on it.  So, what do you think?  Any good ideas?  I'm totally open to other suggestions.

Thanks, yo's.

Paily

I Love Cereal!

Greetings friends!

This is a short post.  There is a girl that I work with, who participated in a CRAZY cool project for her senior class.  I was able to go and see it, and I would like to share it with all of you.

This is the close up version.  Notice the nice dark, rich color of the Coco Dino Bites, and the contrasting paleness of the Tutti-Frutties, and the subtle accent of the Frosted Mini Wheat

Now, here is the whole picture.  Seriously.  That is the huge gym from my High School.  There is about 4000 lbs of cereal on that floor.  All donated by Malt-o-Meal.  This picture really doesn't do it justice.  Oddly enough, seeing a great masterpiece reproduced by breakfast cereal is quite awe inspiring.  (Really, click on it. Let it fill your screen, stand back, and tilt your head to the left.  Now do you get the full effect?)

Sometimes life really does have fun little surprises.