Engagement Photos in the Cherry Blossoms

So Kevin and I went and took our engagement photos this morning, and since he's at the priesthood session of conference, I actually have time to update my blog. If I don't do this now, nobody will ever see these photos (except for those of you on Facebook or if you receive an invitation). So now is as good a time as any. It was so windy this morning, but we had to get it done this morning because the Cherry Blossom Festival is currently going on, and today was the big parade downtown and we needed to do it before the hoards of people came. I didn't put all the photos up, just a few of my favorites. We had a good time, even though I was freezing!

Murder in Margaritaland

So this past weekend my two roommates and Kevin all participated in a Murder Mystery Dinner hosted by one of our friends from church. It was titled Murder in Margaritaland. It was a lot of fun. Kevin was a wealthy old man named Thurston Howard III. He had a girl friend who he bought everything for, and tragically, that was me-Candy Cotton (does this sound like real life at all...?). My roommate Kathryn was Izzie Islander-a local girl in love with the bartender and Corinna was Sgt. Lord-the friend of the man who owned Margaritaland. We had a ton of fun. My character was cheating on Thurston with the bartender-who got murdered, and Kevin was a prime suspect seeing as how my infidelity was exposed. Alas, it was neither one of us but it was the life guard of the resort. Thank heavens I got to keep my Thurston (and also his money!).

The 4 of us: Izzie Islander, Candy Cotton, Thurston Howard III and Sgt. Lord

Candy Cotton

Candy Cotton and Thurston Howard III

Thurston Howard III

"Oh Thurston, I need you, I want you, oh baby oh baby"

What a cantankerous old man

Chatting it up with Kylie Cocktail

Hearing the final results



The entire group

I won for best costume. My prize: a margarita cup

Kevin's gettin' hitched

So it's now officially official. Kevin and I have a date. He called the temple today and set the date.

AUGUST 1st. Yay!!!!

We're getting married at 1 o'clock in the afternoon in the Washington DC temple. All are invited to come on out if you so desire. We'd love to have anyone and everyone.

There will be a reception afterwards with tons of dancing (and yes that includes Kevin!). Kevin knows that he has to dance, so with that said-watch out. Thank you all for all your support and love. Hope to see you there!!!!

Why is life so busy?

Why is it that I only seem to have time to blog once every 2-3 weeks? If it is even that often? My life is crazy busy and I don't even do that much. I work (granted I do work a ton-I'm gone from the house 11 hours Monday-Friday!) but then that's it. My church calling doesn't keep me busy, my school work doesn't keep me busy (because I don't have any yet), and yet-I still don't have time for anything. And now I'm trying to plan a wedding. Sheesh. Where does the time go? Life is crazy. But fun.

My Christmas Vacation

Christmas and New Years has come and gone. I've been so busy with things, that I haven't been able to catch everybody up on my life. Aside from the engagement that is. Kevin came home with me for Christmas this year, and we had a lot of fun. We spent three days with my mom, and three days with my dad. It was short, but sweet. Here are a few pictures of that trip.

Here is what Kevin did almost the entire 4 hour flight to Denver. He was awake for about the first and last 1/2 hour. I was bored.

Here is Kevin with two of my nephews, Tanner and Brayden.

My family decided to have a Sudoku tournament. It was with my dad, two of my brothers-Mo and Chris, and also me and Kevin. My dad kicked everybody's butts.

New Years Day I went to the temple in DC and low and behold, my best friend from college who is currently serving her mission in the Baltimore, Maryland mission was at the visitor's center!

Corinna, Celeste and Kathryn at the temple to see the beautiful lights.

Kevin and me in front of the temple

I have to live with a BOY

So it turns out that I'm engaged.

Kevin proposed to me Tuesday night the 30th-exactly 1 year after our meet cute. If that's what you'd like to call it. We met after church one Sunday-December 30, 2007-as it were. We hung out one night, three days later he asked me out, and the rest is history.

We don't know yet when we're getting married, or where, but we'll keep everyone updated as we know what's happening.

I'm so excited! I think actually Kevin's family was more excited than mine. At least that's the way they all sounded when we told them over the phone Tuesday night. Yeah for us!

I would post a picture of something, like us, or the ring or anything, but Kevin has all the pictures of the ring on his camera. I only have it on my phone.

(P.S. If you can name the show where my subject title comes from, we may name our first child after you...)

I went. To New York. Again

So I went to New York again. This time New York City. I went with Corinna and we had a blast. It was FREEZING!!! It was about 10 degrees colder than DC, and they also had the nasty wind attached to the cold which made it feel colder, but I survived. We were supposed to leave DC Friday night the 5th at 7:30, but our bus didn't show up until 8:20 which put us in NYC at 12:30 instead of 11:30. Oh well-right? We still made it. Then we got to our hostel in Harlem (I didn't actually tell anybody I stayed in Harlem until after I got back because I didn't want people to freak!) about 1:30. We checked in and the guy said to make sure we slept in our own beds because you get fined 10 bucks if you're not. My first reaction was "huh?" because I had only ever stayed in a hostel once before in Boston over the summer when we had our own room, and it didn't matter which bed we slept in. So we go upstairs to room 202 and bust open the door only to find 6 bunk beds mostly full of sleeping girls. One who snored! Oh man was she annoying.

Saturday morning we woke up and went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and looked around for about 2 hours or so. I was really interesting to all the different pieces there. Afterwards we wanted to go to lunch at a diner where the servers are all aspiring actors, but when we arrived, the line was out the door and around the corner, so we decided that we'd go after the show we saw that night for pie or something yummy. We headed across the street to get some pizza, and the place was PACKED! We couldn't find a seat anywhere and after having walked around the museum for 2 hours, all we wanted to do was sit and chill, but no luck. We ate at a counter. After lunch, since we were in Times Square, we decided to head over to the discount Broadway tickets booth to see if we would be able to tell which shows were 1/2 price that day, and when we got there (an hour and a half before they were to open the window) there was already a line forming, so we decided to hop in and wait. After about 1/2 hour we were practically freezing, so I ran across the street to grab a Caramel Apple Spiced Cider from Starbucks, but they were currently out (let me tell you how depressed I was because those things are GOOD!). I settled for hot chocolate, and we managed to get our tickets for the show we wanted to see.

After we finally got our tickets we decided we needed to go to the bathroom because we'd been standing in line for about 2 hours at that point, so we look across the street in Times Square to see if there's a place where we could go, and we see a sign that says Charmin Bathrooms on it. We head across the street, and the line is out the door, but we figure-hey, why not. They were handing out Charmin tissues that had aloe in them, and they felt really nice. I think I'll buy them next time I have a serious cold. Anyway-so we go in and go up the escalator, and there is a huge line for the bathroom, but there's an entertainer guy standing there talking to everybody asking how they are and what not. They had about 20 stalls in the room, and there was a worker that went in and cleaned each one after EVERY use so that when somebody went in, it was nice and fresh. They had your choice of toilet paper in there from nice and soft to sturdy and strong. It was hilarious. I tell people it was the best bathroom experience I've ever had.

After the Charmin bathrooms, we walked around a little bit, did a little shopping and stuff to kill time before it got dark so that we could go to Rockefeller Plaza to see the lights. We finally did that and it was so cool. It was seriously crowded and trying to cross the street right in front of the plaza was crazy. People pushing and shoving and getting upset that there were so many people. Whew! But we made it, took pictures, and got back outta there. We were headed down to the theater to see our show, and we stopped to ask a police man where we were going so that we knew we'd get there and not be late, and he was seriously the most unhelpful police man ever. He was not even interested at all in helping us. Oh well. We found it-no thanks to him.

We saw a musical called Rock of Ages that was a story line all set to '80's rock music. It was really cool and the people who sat in front of us were totally wasted and quite interesting to watch. It was just like being at a real 80's rock concert. Fun times. Afterwards we went to the StarDust Cafe where we were going to go earlier, and we got some hot wings and cheesecake, and watched all the waiters get up on the counter to dance and sing. It was pretty cool to watch them, and to see their talents. We made it back to the hostel, showered, and went to bed in our seriously uncomfortable beds with snory snorerson. Sunday morning we woke up and went to China town and went shopping! We stayed for a couple of hours, and I made one man so unhappy with me. I wanted to buy something, so we were discussing prices, and when I was about to leave, he kept lowering the price until I said ok, then he suddenly changed his mind. I told him I'd come back to get it, and I told him to remember me and my pink hat so that I could come and get the same good deal. When I did he claimed that he never told me that price and that I wouldn't be able to get that good of price anywhere. After haggling him for a few minutes, he finally sold it to me, and I left, after wishing him a Happy Halloween. He called me crazy and told me to get the hell out of his shop. He was so upset. But what's a girl to do when she's offered one price, then told she's not gonna get it?

We ate lunch in China town, then headed to the discount tickets booth again to catch a matinee before our bus left that night. We saw a musical called "13" which had a cast of all 13 year old kids. It was really cute, but I was a little discouraged to know that they all had better singing voices than me, and not only that but knowing that they were making tons more money than me. Oh well. I got over it. After that, we went back to Penn Station to catch our bus to head home. What a weekend. Full of fun and excitement, and we didn't even get mugged. Thank goodness!!! 

              

  Our waiter from StarDust Cafe singing, Rockefeller Christmas tree, me at the Charmin bathrooms, me in Times Square, and Corinna and I in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.