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!

Maunawili Falls

Last Saturday Wolfgang, Janelle and I went with my ward to Maunawili Falls. It's a hike that we've been wanting to do for some time now, and so it was perfect timing that my ward planned to go. The hike was great, not too easy and not too strenuous, so it was a nice little work out while enjoying the scenery. It was definitely a nice change compared to the last hike we did ages ago, which was Laie Falls, which is HIGHLY OVERRATED. Anyone who reads this in Laie that has not done that hike yet- don't waste your time!

Anyway...

We drove to the hike with a member of the bishopric, Brother Cannon, who also use to be my chemistry teacher. We all agreed that it was great time because we got to see the fun side of him that we've been waiting to see. He even was the first out of our group to jump off the high rocks into the pool of water! ( Even I myself jumped off, I was so proud! Although it was the smallest ledge...) Also, not to mention, on our way back from the trip, he generously bought us all food at Jack in the Box, he DEFINTELY won us over that day :) I would say that we were inspired to hop into his car...

Here are some pictures of our trip! Although sometimes the pictures don't do it justice.

The water was a bit cold...