Da Big Island

So here I am, finally giving a recap on our Thanksgiving break on the Big Island. Wolfgang and I had been talking since at least the beginning of last semester that we both really wanted to go to the temple on the Big Island, and so we came up with the idea that going during the Thanksgiving break would be perfect! So Wolfgang mentioned it to a co-worker to see if her and her husband wanted to go, and in no time they were game.

I don't want this post to be painfully long so all in all, it was a lot of fun and the Big Island is TOTALLY different from Oahu, but we really enjoyed it! I made a little picture slide show below, and I added some commentary to the pictures, so don't forget that part while looking at the pictures.

Enjoy!

Oahu X (obviously)
Maui X
Big Island X
Kauai ...next destination!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope that so far you've had a wonderful Christmas, and that you continue to enjoy it. Here at the Dudley house it's been great, in fact it couldn't get any better. I feel truly blessed to be with my family during this Christmas season, and it's exciting to spend my first Christmas with the hubby ;)

It's funny how different Christmas is when you are "big kids" because instead of us, the kids, waking up my parents at the break of dawn, they now have to wake US up to open presents. Needless to say, Wolfgang and I woke up to Jessie coming into our room, standing on our bed, and jumping; it reminded me of old times when she use to do that and I would get SO mad at her. Also usually as soon as we wake up we open presents, but this year we even ate BEFORE presents! That's unheard of.

Another fun thing about this Christmas is that our cousin Danielle and her dog Bassie are spending time with the crazy Dudleys. Wolfgang and I always have "discussions" about whether later in life we'll get a dog (or cat) or not, and I'm always for a big YES and Wolfgang is a big NO. Growing up I always had dogs (Golden Retrievers to be exact) and Wolfgang never did, I guess it's not a big thing in Europe, or other reasons.

Anyway, so I was curious when I found out that Bassie was going to join us, to see how Wolfgang would react. He was a little iffy about it at first, but then guess who pet her a ton last night while watching a movie? Guess who's been playing around with her with a big smile on their face? Guess who is playing with her currently?

I rest my case. He still 'claims' that he doesn't want a dog, but we'll see about that...

DONE!

As of yesterday, Wolfgang and I are DONE with finals!! What a wonderful relief it is! I'm so so glad we now get to relax and have no school stress. Monday we start our journey home, and get there Tuesday afternoon! We are really really excited about it. Just to give you an idea, here are just some of the reasons we are excited to come home for a bit:

1. To see the fam, duh
2. Not listen to crying babies at night
3. Not listen to other noises from neighbors at night...
4. To get away from our jobs
5. To finally enjoy the Christmas season

Can't wait!

Eddie Aikau 2009

This is what we sadly missed today because of class/test/work/lack of vehicle.








Sigh.

'Eddie would go'...even if he had a test to take. what was I thinking?!

Courtesy of http://b4tea.com/fun/days/quicksilver-eddie-aikau-2009-photos

wow.

The following text definitely falls into my personal category of best texts of the year:

"This Korean girl was bearing her testimony and started doing the loud awkward ugly cry, and she said she was so sad that she didn't get a chance to marry a Tongan."

to be continued...

Due to school, work, and especially finals (gag), I think I will be abandoning my blog for the next 2 1/2 weeks or so, or at least for the more lengthy and important ones like:

1. Our awesome Thanksgiving break on the Big Island, and
2. Finally a recap in pictures of our adventurous and amazing honeymoon in Europe.

So I just wanted to apologize in advance for the abandonment, but also to not give up hope, because I promise to blog about all of that over Christmas break! Can't it just be break time, right now?? I can't wait.

This is why

This is why I don't keep a journal:

Journal Found in back PCC (by BYUH) parking lot
Journal was discreetly checked for any identifying information. Owner of journal either served a mission under or was released by a President Tautua’a. Please call 675.3446 to identify or come by the President’s Office reception area to identify and pick up.

This little blurb was in our student bulletin email today. Do you REALLY think that it was "discreetly checked"?? Maybe they're telling the truth, but it's a little sketchy. How does the person who lost it know that some guy before the guy who found it didn't read it thoroughly, and out loud? All I know, is that if I kept a journal, something like that would probably happen: lost, found, read, posted all over the university.

And this is why, I don't bother, and why I blog to all of you as a justification, of course.

Near heart attack

So tonight we had a sorta close call. I had two loads of laundry in our little TVA community laundry facility, and as I went to go take our two loads out of the washer and place them in the dryer, both were missing. I started to panic a little and starting searching and found...only one of the loads sitting out on the counter.

Equation:

impatient people + broken washers/dryers (lots a people and not so many working machines)
= your laundry sitting out out on the counter= irritated Jaimie.

heaven forbid I was 5 minutes late getting my laundry out of the washer! anyway, moving on...

so I start to panic more as I realize that our color load of laundry is completely missing, and that someone had already put their laundry into the washing machines I was using. I go to the TVA office to tell them what happened and asked if they have security cameras in the laundry room, and they say no. Hm, funny thing because all the other laundry facilities on campus have cameras, but you. So the best thing they can tell me is to put signs up on the windows and also on the washing machine itself. Thanks.

So that's what I do, I put a sign on the washing machine and pleaded for them to please return our laundry, gave our info, yada yada yada. It doesn't seem like THAT big of a deal, but it was to me, because we are poor college students and can't really just go and by all the new clothes that we were missing! :)

By this time I'm just praying that hopefully the impatient (dumb) person that took out our laundry just made a mistake and re-washed ours, but I made sure to come back right as the load was done, just in case I needed to confront the thief and threaten his/her life with my very intimidating stature and reliable dryer sheet.

Low and behold, that's EXACTLY what happened! I opened the washer and let out a sigh of relief to see our, now super clean, laundry in there. The person who did it didn't come while I was there, but I wonder now if he/she will stress out now, thinking someone stole THEIR laundry.

And that's the story.

Where the rich people stay

This Saturday was fun, I was able to tag along with Wolfgang and the Hospitality and Tourism Club to check out the 3 Starwood Hotels down in Waikiki (Honolulu area). I'm not in the club myself, but it was an excuse to get out of town and hang out with my euro man. It was fun and also I think a good experience for Wolfgang and the other hospitality and tourism management majors to get them re-energized and pumped for their major.

The properties were pretty dang nice, all fancy schmancy and right on the beach. We were a little disappointed that the lady showing us around didn't show us their fancy pants rooms, but they fed us for free, so we can't complain. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, but I took pictures on my phone. They are pretty bad quality, but I hope you can get the idea.


fancy little shelter things that you can rent for the day, although in my opinion it wouldn't be as glamorous and it seems, because it right next to several others, and a walk way is right behind you and the restaurant. But who am I to act like I know what I'm talking about?




I don't know if you can tell, but there is a pool that leads to the ocean, and the pool was called "the edge." pretty cool illusion.

This picture was taken from one of their fancy restaurant called "twist and hanohano (which means magnificent)" which is 30 floors up. it was an AMAZING view! I could of sit there all afternoon and just gazed into the never-ending ocean.

These two pictures are better quality which were taken by someone else in our crew

wait for it...

I'm currently planning on what I'm getting Jess for her 30th birthday comin up...It's going to be good...

Mwah ha ha ha ha HA!

:)

you real funny, Jim.

As Ben has already mentioned in his blog, the other day (ok, so maybe twice now, but don't judge us) we have decided to go on youtube and share funny videos that we know of, or to try and find new ones. Some of our favorites are "Charlie bit me," "German coast guard," and etc. But I do have to say, one that I shared that is one of my personal favorites, is of Jim Gaffigan talking about "Hot Pockets." A roommate of mine a couple of years ago shared it with me, and I just thought it was the funniest thing. I shared it with Wolfgang and Ben that night blessed night of youtube, and seriously laughed so hard, I cried. It's such a good feeling to laugh so hard, that you cry.

Anyway, so then began the search, so that night I watched at least 5 more from Jim and laughed to myself with my earphones on while Wolfgang was trying to do homework. One of them I came across was his "Camping" comedy, and once again I think I cried laughing. I thought I would share a little blurb from that segment for your enjoyment.

Forgive me if you don't think it's funny, but I guess that just means your sense of humor sucks. just kidding. :)



I bet you are going to go waste time on youtube now, aren't you?

oh, and here is the one about hot pockets in case you were curious



Enjoy.

Part 3

...of TVA. update:

-boys throwing rocks at our window, because Wolfgang told them to stop talking about, and making noises of, inappropriate things right outside our window were everyone can hear them.

-Currently, TVA smells like SEWAGE.

And there's your update.

Round 2

Flash flood warning starting tonight until Thursday. Let the fun begin...

This is what it looked like last fall when they warned us. I'll be happy if it only floods right around now so I don't have to miss my flight home after the semester like I did last year, luckily Hawaiian Airlines had sympathy on me and let me get on the next day at no charge



Thank goodness we live on the 2nd floor just in case!

Great einglishe

There's never a dull moment when you have a husband whose second language is English. Quote of the day (when referring to a woman in our ward who is having a baby tomorrow):

"She's going to take out her baby tomorrow."

Crush

Besides the fact that I have a MAJOR crush in this guy



and a secret crush on this guy too

(Bob from the Biggest Loser, duh)

I also have a crush on short hair.

I don't know what it is, I just LOVE short hair; I've been having hair ADD lately and I'm really tempted to cut my hair short, really short.




I found these pictures and they have inspired me/tempted me to cut my hair short again, but then again Hawaii humidity I think would destroy it.

I'm torn...

...But curious, which hairstyle do you like the best? Just for kicks, pick one of the 9 hairstyles #1 starting with the top left-hand corner, moving to the right, then the second row and third row in the same order. I hope that makes sense! After you take your vote, please comment on the post and tell me which one you picked so I can enjoy your answers. I hope you don't think I'm lame, but I think it'll be fun. I'll put it up for...a week or so? we'll see.

(thanks Ben for inspiring me to put a poll on my blog! ;)

p.s., the poll is on the right hand side bar, thing.

Da BIG island

It's official...

We are going to the Big Island (island of Hawaii) for Thanksgiving!! We're pretty excited about it, we haven't been there before. We will be going with our friends Regina and Joey, and we'll have the great privilege to go to the temple there, which we are especially excited for because Wolfgang and I have not been to the temple together yet, minus when we got married, obviously. We are also pretty excited to do some sight seeing, and it'll be interesting to go to an island that is quite different than Oahu.

We can't wait!!
If you are curious about LDS temples and want to learn more, please click here.

What we love about living in the Rabbit Hutches

...title inspired by Jess, and it perfectly describes our living arrangements. After telling her about our 'eventful' night about two weeks ago, she thought it was hilarious and said I should blog about it, so here I am. warning: this may be too much information for some.

So here it goes,

Why we love about living in the rabbit hutches:

1. living in VERY close quarters with our neighbors (much like rabbits in a hutch, not much privacy for the poor creatures.)

2. Over populated 'community' with way too many crying offspring

3. Having to listen to our neighbors getting it on

4. Hearing our neighbors alarm clocks at 6am that they cannot wake up to

5. Listening to the crying, as mentioned above, at 3am for an hour

'nuff said. Oh, and not to mention, numbers 3-5 happened all in one night. it was the worst night of our lives. I wanted to pierce my ear drums. That night I was SO mad and annoyed by not getting enough sleep, that when the alarm clock went off at 6am for several minutes on a Sunday morning I yelled out the window, "Turn..it..OOOOFFF!!!!"

needless to say, they did.

Funny, eh? I know, immature, but I like telling that part of the story cause it makes people laugh, and we are now able to laugh about it too.

There are other things that have been ridiculous about living here, but it would be rude of us if we didn't admit that we really are grateful to be living here...because it is heck of a lot cheaper to live here, and also because it is so close to campus, (well, technically on campus, really.)

P.S. Do you want to know what happened tonight? Heaven forbid that we had some friends over, and we would be a little loud, (c'mon, it's Halloween night!) Well, when our friends were on their way out the door, apparently (I was inside and didn't see it happen) the wife next door came storming out of her apt, glared at our friends, so one of them asked nicely, "were we being loud?" Her reply was "Um...YES." then she rolled her eyes, marched back to her apt, and slamed the door behind her.

Real cool. How old are we?

A polite confrontation would of worked just fine for us. (You know, I'm a pro, because I'm studying stuff like this...)

Things like that are just annoying, especially since we are always so quiet and considerate. I would understand if we were loud and obnoxious all the time, but whatever.

UGH.

Ok, enough of our sob story and complaining

So there you have it, Part 2 of, "A day in the life of living in TVA housing."

"Welcome to the U.S.!!... now give us your money."

The other day when I went to go open our fridge, I looked at our "to do" or "honey do" list and realized it is a little different than most. I don't think that very many people can say that they have this listed on their to do list:


I love my little 'immigrant'. :)

Birthday Recap

As I mentioned in the last post, Wolfgang turned the big 23 yesterday. It was a good day, which started off with opening up the awesome present from my parents, chacos!



Finally he has a pair of shoes for work that won't give him blisters and that will last for more than 3 months, and most importantly, awesome shoes to do more hikes in! yay!

About a week before his birthday, I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he replied, "Um...brownies. Brownies with...snicker pieces." Pretty random I thought, but went through with it, and it turned out great! Even if it didn't look the most appetizing

We invited some friends over to join us on the goodness, and just relaxed and had a good time "talkin' story." Sorry, I failed once again to take pictures.

One other thing we are really proud of, is our new addition to our living room, which we are super happy about, because it makes it a lot more homey and less cinder block-y.


We got this steal of a deal on craigslist (actually, my mom found it, she goes on a hunt when I happen to mention things we are on the hunt for. Thanks mom!) and it actually ended up being from our neighbors 3 doors down! can't get any better than that. Do the decorations look familiar to anyone??...

And that's the scoop.

Here are also some pics from my birthday too that I never got around to posting (keep in mind, it was also national 'talk like a pirate' day. Decorations provided by Jess. thanks!)



Blind piRate


good lookin piRate crew

and the most threathening of all, the blond angry piRate

23

Happy Birthday to the best husband ever! Wolfgang turned the big 23 today.

I love you Wolfgang and I'm glad I get to spend this first birthday with you as your WIFE!

Tonight we are having friends over to celebrate. Pictures and update later!

Let down

So I realized in my last post that I may have hyped up for this post, but now I don't have much to show for it, sorry! But in case you were wondering what the hints were leading to, it was

Dave and Busters.

Apparently my hints lead to thinking I was pregnant? The answer to that is no. Thank goodness.

I unfortunately didn't bring my camera, so therefore this is potentially a really boring post, but I left you hanging last time so I thought I had to blog about it anyway.

It was our friend JM's birthday yesterday, so we were invited by her and her husband to Dave and Busters down in Honolulu on Saturday. We thankfully caught a ride from our friends (married friends #3 I think, we are improving!) who were also going. So we gorged ourselves on some food, then headed on over to the arcade area.

I'm not the best at these kind of things, but it was still a lot of fun. My favorite game though, is skee ball
That looks like a can of black beans to me in that picture. hmm...

I don't know what it is about this game, but to me, it's fun, not to mention I'm also horrible at it. I played it probably 3 times and got a total of probably 6 tickets. Needless to say by "the end of the day" (an hour later) I didn't have a ton of tickets to account for, but it's not a big deal, all the prizes are lame anyway, unless you spend $9483475 and get 10,000 tickets for something semi-cool.

All in all it was a fun day and nice to get out of Laie, and it helped Wolfgang and I to get out and be more "social." Definitely a one time thing though. Too much money in a 2 hour time period.

fresh

Wolfgang and I scored at the BYUH (mini) farmer's market that happens every other Friday (the school and PCC's payday...tricky tricky) As you can tell, we bought a beautiful pineapple (one of my personal favorites) and a bag full of yummy "Japanese" cucumbers. It was our first time today and we barely made it before they closed up. We'll for sure be going again! Boo for expensive Foodland! It was a nice way to end a hecktic week for us at school.

And a few hints for our next post,
food, becoming like kids again, and tickets...

From me and the gecko that just barked at me from outside...

Aloha!
Good night!
Gute Nacht!

my entertainment weakness.

Since I can hear my neighbors watching this past week's episode of the best tv show ever, (clearly The Office), I thought I would blog about it.

I know pathetic, but this past week's episode was so great! Jim and Pam got married! Wolfgang and I watched it last night online, and it was hilarious as usual, not to mention I may or may not have almost cried twice during it too.

Don't judge me.

Anyway, I'm just glad they finally got married, and I thought it was hilarious that they incorporated the youtube video of that couple that got married and had everyone walk down the isle, with a little help from Chris Brown. Don't know what I'm talking about? watch here...


Why didn't we think of that? Although I don't quite think the temple would have approved.

Confession to make: I also really like that song 'Forever' by Chris Brown. Shameful you may think, but it's actually very catchy and enjoyable to listen and dance to, or when you are running and not feeling motivated.

Ok, so enough of the randomness. If you feel up to it, you can watch The office episode I'm talking about here

dancing, and seeing double...?

No, this has nothing to do with the fact that currently Wolfgang is listening to techno music and dancing around our apt.

Every semester, BYUH offers numerous culture and special interest clubs that you can join. This semester I was determined to join a club again, after having a lot of fun with the swing club in the winter of 08 with Wolfgang. So this semester I gave in, and I joined the Tahitian club! Not to mention, I signed Wolfgang up too. Yesterday we went for the first time to the Tahitian dancing workshop, and although it kicked our trash, it was actually a lot of fun. Needless to say, we are a little sore today. On our way to the tahitian dancing though, low and behold, we passed Wolfgang's twin. What do you think?

I passed his long-lost brother the other day on campus, and it totally threw me off, I had to do a double take. As we can see from the picture, they are clearly twins: both are super tall (his twin is even a few inches taller than him) they both apparently like American Eagle striped shirts, and I even found a picture of the twin (we'll not disclose his real name, I think download pictures of him from facebook and publicizing it on my blog is un ethical enough) with the same "open mouth smile" I like to call, that Wolfgang also whips out every once in a while. The twin has also even been cited with Wolfgang's cousin

After talking to him and his girlfriend for a few minutes, we found out that the twin has been called Wolfgang multiple times already, and when seeing him with his girlfriend, according to her, a few people have even said, "Wolfgang! What are you doing?! (with another girl!)"

I was glad that we could cherish the tender moment last night of brothers finally uniting once again. Wolfgang has been wondering about this strange figure since people have been telling him several times over the last week or so, "Wolfgang, you have a twin on campus!!" But I reassured Wolfgang that his is, indeed, the better looking one ;)

So there you have it, and doesn't it just make you wonder, "where is my twin?..."

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today I just wanted to give a shout out to my mom, because it's her birthday! We won't go into details how old she is though... ;) (just kidding mom)

My mom is pretty much the greatest, of course because she is the source of the "Cooper girl genes" (thanks mom! Wolfgang loves you too...) and my amazing sense of humor...
She has always been there for me through my difficult times, crying fests, and feelings of inadequacy and lack of confidence, she has always been there for me to bear me up. Her patience and charity is far beyond anything I have obtained, and her creativity is priceless.

I have more to say, but I think I would only embarrass her...so
Hau'oli lā hānau Mom!

I love you!

Love,
The Favorite

close one

Wolfgang and I were so incredibly grateful for our pell grant this school year, that we (probably me) threw it in the trash. Yeah. We were desperately looking around our whole apartment when I finally resorted to looking in the full load of trash that we hadn't quite taken all the way to the dumpster yet. But low and behold, our prayers were answered :) but whew! that was a close one!

P.s., quick shout out to our US government, we love you, even if the world doesn't, most of the time. you aren't perfect, but who is? We tight, yo.

One hip kid

If only all the TVA babies were more like this...
This kid has better moves than I do! Shameful.

When we should be doing homework...

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New kids on the block

Now that it has been about a week and a half, Wolfgang and I are finally (mostly) settled in to our new apt at "TVA" aka "temple view apartments" aka married student ('on-campus') housing aka "baby factory," which is not an understatement. It's fun to have our first ever own place to live, but I forgot what it was like to live in a complex. Depending on what end of apt you are, and your neighbors are in the same area of their house, you can hear each others' conversations.

Another thing I can hear a lot of, are them:




Unhappy babies. I'm either privileged in waking up with them crying and screaming at 4am or anytime during the day, sometimes continuously for an hour or more. My heart goes out to the parents, but also secretly in the back of my mind I also think, COME ON!

Obviously I don't know what it's like raising children, and I'm just being truly insensitive. There, I said it for you. All I have to say, that it's good birth control for right now, not that I wanted to rush into having children anytime soon anyway.

So there you have it, the day in the life of a TVA newlywed with no kids.

Of course

so I just tested the first slide show on the post below, and it was giving me a hard time and not showing some of the pictures, or stopping...I'm sorry if it does that to you, let me know if it does.

My gift to you

On this honorable, blessed, remarkable and glorious day (my birthday, duh) I've decided that my birthday gift to you, is to finally blog about the wedding, because it's about time, right?

Well, where do we begin, without making this such a novel. I think I'll do my best to just skim the surface, cause all you really care is about the pictures anyways...you can't fool me. In fact, you might have already skipped this part and moved on to the pictures! I know how you work.

Anyway, the wedding turned out wonderful, and the reception was gorgeous. The day before the wedding was the first time I had seen Wolfgang in 2 1/2 months, and we met at the courthouse to get our marriage license. I was so excited and relieved to see him, and to know that I was marrying him the next day! There are so many emotions that go along with getting ready for the wedding, and I may or may not have turned into a slight bridezilla a few brief times...
I apologize to those who had to witness those moments of weakness, and you know I mean well. ;)

The wedding day turned out really well, regardless of the few ticks here and there that are expected...one of them being me forgetting the marriage license in the hotel room when we arrived to the temple...luckily Jess was on that in a flash ...and another being that I told Wolfgang's family the wrong time of how early they had to be at the temple before the ceremony and then them only having 20 minutes to be at the temple. What a great impression on the in-laws, eh? No good.

The marriage ceremony was beautiful, and we were sealed for time and all eternity by an old bishop of mine when I was little, which was a bit of a surprise for us, and we were glad he was able to do it.

After the marriage ceremony we were greeted outside of the temple by more family and friends, and we got some group shots by the beautiful St. George Utah temple in the blazing 100 + degree weather. After some more family shots in the shade, it was a quick change and pack up back in the hotel and off to Page for my poor family and friends who had to get things ready for the reception that night.

Their hard work paid off because when Wolfgang and I arrived at the reception, it was absolutely stunning. I know I am biased, but I can honestly say that I had never been to a more beautiful reception. With the hard work of family and very supportive friends, they pulled off a very classy set up. It's amazing what you can do with a beautiful backyard like The Gardner's and a little bit of decorations!

Many friends and family came to join us that night in celebration of our wedding, and it was a lot of fun. We had music playing in the background, the wedding dvd going, the cake cutting, the bouquet and garter toss...the works! It was so great to see so many people show up that we love.

Well, I hope that was a brief enough description of everything. It was a beautiful time and truly the happiest day of my life. Now I am blessed the have the privilege of being with Wolfgang for eternity, and I am so incredibly grateful every day for that. I'm so lucky that he didn't give up on me! :)

So now it's finally time for what you've all been waiting for...the PICTURES! I'm still waiting for the reception pictures to come in the mail from my mom, but I'll be sure to post them soon. enjoy!

Oh, and the honeymoon report will come somewhat soon...I've got to find the time to sort through 700 pictures...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

2 Weeks!

It's been 2 weeks since we've been THE BRUNNERS. It's still crazy for us, but we are enjoying every minute of it. Europe has been great and absolutely gorgeous. So far we have been to Salzburg, Venice, and today we arrived in Vienna. I'm sorry we still don't have any pictures to show, but I promise there will be some soon! Free internet is sparse so we do what we can, that's why we are currently in starbucks and using their wireless service. Btw, the strawberries and creme frap is a lot different here in Vienna, and as Wolfgang puts it, "pretty much crap." Funny how you can probably hear him saying that, huh? That's when you know you know him. And I'm MARRIED to him, but I'm not sad about it. :)

More later from the lovey dovey newly weds.

We're married! Yep, it's true, it finally came to pass, and it's GREAT!...yet weird at the same time. Wolfgang and I keep telling each other, "we're married!" which is usually followed by an "oh my gosh," "weird!" giggling like little girls, or anything to that effect. The wedding was beautiful and all went well, but it was definitely hecktic up until the ceremony. I'll have to blog more later, but I just wanted to let you know that we are currently in Philly and on our way to Europe (fly into Munich) in about an hour! More details later when we can find time and free internet.

Guten Tag! viel spass! :)

sharing is caring

For a while now I've been thinking about how I really need to blog about my very short but sweet trip to Utah a few weeks ago, but quite honestly I really can't take the time anymore to full out blog about it, so if you're interested read about it here on my sister's blog. I hope she doesn't care, thanks Jess! It'll make yourself useful, being the "maid of honor" and all... ;)

I will say though that it was a great trip and it's too bad that it wasn't longer. I was blessed to share that important step in my life with my family! Thank goodness for the knowledge I have of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the beautiful plan of happiness, and how much more I have to learn! It makes it a fun and curious learning process that I can enjoy forever.

And in case you forgot.... 6 more days to go! :)

Love is in the air...

So as you can tell, I changed my blog background. It's nothing too exciting, but I thought it would be fun because they are our wedding colors. Call me pathetic, I know, it happens to the best of us.

You know what else happens to the best of us? LOVE. Yep, I said it, love! Yes I know I'm all mushy and googly because I'm getting married in 10 days, but no matter how hard you try to fight it or pridefully say you can do without a significant other, it will right out of the blue come right back to you and bite you in the butt, real hard too. (trust me, you don't want to say things like that too loud...) AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. ha! So stop acting like you are all 'independent' and junk. ;)

Anyway, so I've just been noticing in the last few weeks that there is some severe cupid action going on lately. I had one friend from my home town just get married, three other friends of mine are getting married in the next few weeks, and a few others here-and- there that are just down right severely twiterpated, and it's adorable. Tis the season I guess! I go from hardly anyone remotely close to me getting married, to now what seems to be a hoard of people getting the painful bite from the love bug.

So for those of you getting married or soon to be... (I know who you are!! :) ) CONGRATS! And for those of you who are single... play hard.

One last crazy thought... by next weekend Wolfgang and I will be a married couple! woah...

Absolutely nothing.

Ugh! I have the need to blog but I don't want to all at the same time. Doesn't make sense eh? oh well. Lately I have been crazy busy with wedding stuff and crazy busy ends up = to driving you crazy sometimes. I'm definitely at that point. The invites have ended up being a bigger chore than I would of imagined, but good thing they are dang cute! Thanks again to my very talented cousin Mandy, it's always a good thing to have talent in the family :)

I'm just so grateful for good people who have helped me out. Yesterday my friend Lindsey helped me out a lot and also took me to Wal-mart to pick out some cute picture frames, then she painted the mattings and they turned out SO CUTE! Once again, thank goodness for talented crafty people who help out not-so-crafty-people, like myself.

Well, that's all the energy I have to blog about right now. Soon I'll write about my great, yet short 'n sweet trip to Utah! until then....

I'm out.

19 days and counting...

Days off are great

Good things about today:

1. Went to the lake with some friends
2. Quickly found another photographer
3. Ordered fun (and very cheap!) lanterns for the reception
4. Put together more of the never-ending (yet awesome) invites
5. Made finishing touches on wedding website

It's been a good day! I hope its been a great Saturday for you all. :)

quickie

Just a real quick one before I go to bed...

Wolfgang and I are getting married in ONE month from today! whoo hooo!

:)

I'm not the only one who knows what they are talking about!

So we are taught to "love everyone," which is good and true. BUT, there's just something about French tourists that rub me the wrong way. Maybe it's because a large majority of the 1,000,000+ people that visit Lake Powell, are French. I think it's also the way they treat those of us being nice and helping them. I don't blame most of them for not knowing very much English, because we don't have any right to force that upon them or expect that. Although, I've even been in a situation where two French men were standing right in front of me and a co-worker (which they didn't know she spoke French) and were saying such rude, derogatory, and sexist comments right in front of us. After working out at the lake for several years now, I've definitely had my fair share in dealing with the French. Don't get me wrong, they are our brothers and sisters too, and I'm sure they have a sweet spirit too...but they are the ones that don't visit Lake Powell.

So today I came across this great article put on by msn.com and all I have to say is...

AMEN!!

read on, dear friends.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31827905/?GT1=43001

Disclaimer: I'm not a hateful person. Don't judge me. k thanks bye :)

The real deal

As I have mentioned in a post before, there are times when the wedding planning isn't the most pleasant, but that hasn't been the case these last few days! On Tuesday I ordered Wolfgang's wedding ring, and the pathetic thing is, is that was way too exciting for me! :) I guess it's just the fact when you work on the little details like that, it finally makes me feel the reality of it, which makes it so exciting. I hope that makes sense. Anyway...

Also today my incredibly talented cousin (well, second cousin that is) Mandy showed me what she came up with for our wedding invitations! It looks absolutely amazing, she did a great job on it! So THAT just adds even more to the excitement.

So you may think this post was pointless, but I guess I just wanted to share with you my excitement. :)

Weekend re-cap

My new job with the National Park Service so far is going well. Regardless of the fact that they still don't know what they are hiring me as (it's currently a mystery how much I'm getting paid) or what kind of schedule I will have, it's still a great job to have and it opens up a lot of opportunities for the future.
Here's a picture of the uniform that I now have to wear, but there is no way in hades that you can get me to take a picture of myself in the uniform, especially considering the lovely shorts are about 3-4 sizes too big for me.
Having me start work a little over a week before the 4th of July weekend was bad timing, especially in the Natural Resource department, with the zebra mussel prevention. My poor boss has been running around like a maniac, but everyone's efforts have been great and it's good to be around people who actually care about their job and want to make a difference and preserve such a beautiful place.

With that said, I have been nice when it comes to not having a truly defined job title, and just have been taking a day at a time. Although if I don't know in the next fews days, I'm going to have to crack the whip.
A couple of days I've been the office...bit-...helper, and for the hecktic weekend I was on the boat launch ramps helping with the zebra mussel prevention. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, but I was still happy not to have to work the weekend, and still got paid over-time on friday. YES! I LOVE government holidays! :)

So for the weekend, my best friend Khrista's mom, Kay, rented a nice boat from a company in townI secretly wished I would of been able to drive a little, I miss my boat-driving days of being a boat instructor!

We packed all of our junk and 8 of us into it and it was great. The first thing I did was go on the tube with Khrista and it was great fun...until that last final moment when you know you are about to eat it hard, and I even heard my neck crack about 5 times, and maybe even saw a few stars after I hit the water...I guess Khrista and I just have way too much fun when we go water tubbing together, because the last time we went tubbing together, I got a concussion...

Needless to say I wouldn't let that get in the way, and we hopped back on the tub for another spin, but told my dad to go a little lighter on us that time. We also wake boarded, and it always reminds me of how I really need to do more strength training, and yes every muscle in my body is sore today. The price you pay to have a good time! But as we all know "all good things must come to an end"...
A couple hours later, unfortunately we weren't being careful about the rope tied to the boat and tube, and it got sucked into the jet propeler. If it would of been a regular prop, it would of been easy to cut and untangle, but this type of jet propeler is a lot more complicated and further under the boat. After many attempts by my dad and Khrista's boyfriend Brent to get it out, we were out of luck, and we lucked out and were blessed that some other family of ours were on the lake, so they had to tow us in. Our fun day was cut short! But it was good that we had fun while it lasted!
Today ended the great weekend by seeing a lot of family on the Dudley side that we hadn't seen in quite a while. There are so many to keep track of on that side of the family, but they are all great people and enjoyable to be around. Every time I see my (great) uncle I think of how my dad is almost a spitten image of him, and that I know my dad will almost look identical to him in a couple of years!

As you can see it has been a great weekend, and now it's time to go back to work tomorrow. Maybe if I'm lucky, by the end of the week I'll have a normal work schedule and every work day won't have to be a surprise!

red white and blue...baby!

Regardless of our country's faults, imperfections, etc (nothing's perfect, right?) I'm PROUD to be an American!!!

Happy 4th!

The sweet side of things

So I have to admit, planning for a wedding/reception isn't always the most fun thing to do in the world. There are so many little details that you don't even think of! It's easy to have the weak moments that make you more stressed than necessary. But yesterday was actually NOT one of those days, because it was CAKE day!

A local lady that we know has made a ton of cakes, and has her own little out-of-home business. I personally have never had any of her cakes before, but my mom and several others have mentioned that they are divine, and she doesn't even use that foundant junk, which I'm really excited about. In fact she refuses to use it, because she says it would mess up her delicious cakes.

So my mom and I met up with her yesterday, and she showed me pictures of the ones she has done in the past, and she really does have a great talent for it. She gave me a list of her cake and filling flavors, and it makes my mouth melt just looking at it. Wolfgang and I have gone over the choices and will make a decision soon, and I will be choosing the decoration of it. :)

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to crossing off another thing of the seemingly endless list of things to do.

pretty, pretty rocks

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/7535277_TctFj/1/496546217_T9TKB#486663335_JMoXL

Beautiful photography like this is a simple little reminder of how beauty isn't just green like Hawaii or Oregon, and reminds me of my gratitude for the beautiful area that I call home.

(Thanks dad for the link!)

Home

I'm officially now home in Page, as of a few hours ago. My stay in Oregon with my sister was great, and I was a baby on the plane when I had to leave. Flying to Phoenix was good too, and it was great to see my parents again, and also my "second mom" Kathy and my best friend Khrista. It was a jam packed weekend with wedding stuff but...I got my wedding dress!!! After going to a couple of different places between Oregon and Arizona, I found several dresses that were absolutely beautiful that I really liked on, but it was difficult because they were all strapless, and for those of you that may not know, I need a dress with sleeves, because we are getting married in a LDS temple.

There were different options to altering the dress so that it had sleeves, but some of them were down right hideous, and the other options you didn't know whether or not it would turn out looking decent, after dishing out all that money to alter it.

But luckily they have more sleeve options in the Mesa area, and I found my dress, and it was made already with sleeves! It actually worked out great, because it fit perfectly and they only had to do the basic alteratings of the bustle in the back and a little on the bottom of the skirt. I'm sorry I won't be sharing pictures though, because Wolfgang can't see it quite yet :) It's such a relief to get the dress out of the way, even though there is a lot more left to do. The hard part about being from a small town though, is that we'll have to take a couple trips to St. George between now and the wedding. In fact, my mom and I already have planned to go this weekend...I have a feeling that so much traveling will get old real fast, although I am already so appreciative of my family and close friends who have helped thus far, and I know there will be more to come, and I am grateful beyond words for that.

Ok, this is getting too long! I'll report about Oregon adventures soon.

Now on the BIG island

No, I didn't go island hopping to THE "Big Island" of Hawaii, but the BIGGER island of the Mainland. Last night I flew into Portland to visit my sister Jessie for about a week. Pictures will soon follow. So far we have walked around part of downtown Portland and got doughnuts at "Voodoo Doughnuts," and it must of been drag night yesterday because we saw more cross dressers than I've seen my whole lifetime...well, ok maybe that's exaggerating, but there was a lot.
This morning I picked up Jess from her 20 mile run! Now THAT'S something to celebrate for! She's training for a marathon for the end of the month. Glad it's her and not me. I proudly picked her up in Civi (which is stick by the way, and I did amazing, might I add...) who I now know is potentially expected to blow up, quite literally, if she feels the need. The drive over to her was incredibly beautiful, so so green, yet completely different than Hawaii green, it was a nice transition. More to come!

Done!

I'm done with finals! whoo hoo! That's always such a weird, but wonderful feeling. What's even more great, is that I get a 3 month break! That's the longest break I've had from school since... I think sometime in 2007. I leave this Friday, which is bitter-sweet, because I don't look forward at all to leaving Wolfgang until the day before our wedding. ugh. I promise I won't be too much of a drama queen about it though, because there really is no need to be, because he'll be my roommate when I return ;)

Now that school is over, it's time to play, play, play for the next 1 1/2... actually, a lot of that will probably be packing and cleaning, YUCK! It takes me forever to pack, but my goal is to try to get it done decently fast, so that I can enjoy my last few moments in Hawaii with no responsibilities to worry about. It shouldn't be too hard though, because luckily I'll be able to keep a lot of my stuff with Wolfgang.

P.S., for those of you that knew I applied for the Zebra Mussel job and initially turned me down...they changed their minds and I got the job!!! They approached my mom at work and said they looked at my resume and saw that I was over-qualified for the other NPS job I applied for, and qualified for the zebra mussel prevention job. This is SUCH a blessing because it pays a lot better than any job I would of gotten out at the lake, and it'll look great on my resume, which is always a plus.

To celebrate, here's my zebra mussel dance from a report that I did for an environmental biology class at BYUI. Notice the uncontrollable laughing from the DJ (Jessie) and laughing/weezing in the background from my mom... enjoy.

sorry, the majority of the video is turned to the side

Baby steps

As many of you reading this probably know, the whole wedding/reception planning is a pretty big process, even if you try to make it reasonably simple and not outta control. I haven't gotten into the full swing of planning it all, because I wanted to focus on school and not fail my classes, cause I know I would abandon my work if I started getting carried away in the planning; I even vowed to not buy ANY bridal magazines until the day of my flight to Oregon to see Jess.

So yesterday was a baby step towards getting it all done for Wolfgang and I, because we took our engagement photos! Our very talented friend Ben took them for us, and did an awesome job. It was also a nice excuse just to hang out with him again. I'm sorry, but I don't have proof of the pictures yet, but it's for a good reason, because Ben is being so kind enough to photoshop some of them for us. Thanks Ben!

Not gunna lie, at first it was hard to do, because we felt awkward and cheesy, but after a while we got past that, and Ben acted like a pro.

So needless to say, I'm excited to see how they turn out. We looked through all of them, and there are definitely some good ones that are going to work out great! All I have to say is, thank goodness for digital cameras! We took a ton of pictures. It'll be fun for Wolfgang and I to pick out the ones that we really like that we want to use for our invites. I'll be sure to post them when they're available.

There is a slight chance that we may take a few more before I leave next Friday, and I've been truly inspired by some of these engagement photos for some ideas...


One last thing... only 3 more days left of school! whoo hooo!