Flirting

Ryan just came into my room as I sit here at my computer and slowly hit me in the back with a pillow and said in a very monotonous voice, "That was my way of flirting. Consider yourself flirted. I'm sure it got you all hot and bothered." And walked out.

And yep, that's the Beatles. I wanted a pillow fight picture and this was the only one that wasn't girls in little-to-no clothing.

"Can Ben come over and play?"

As of late, Ryan and I's time together consists of him sitting in my living room and possibly doing his little bit of homework that is required, but mostly watching ESPN, while I sit at my desk in my bedroom spending hours on homework. Even though it's not quality time, it's nice to even be in the same apartment as one another when we need a small break. It's obviously not enough for him, however. Yesterday, he peeked his head into my doorway and sheepishly asked, "Can Ben come over and play after choir practice tonight?" Knowing he needs more attention than I can give, I gladly obliged only to find out that he had already asked Ben to come over. If our children ever do that, they will be in big trouble! He then left to go run some errands when I get a knock on my front door and find my co-worker, Rob, and his roommate, Troy. As I answer, Rob begins speaking and says, "We know Ryan's not here. You can keep doing homework, we'll wait here in the living room for him." So the night went on. I left Rob and Troy in my room as I had to go get some homework help and then rehearse for the Christmas Program on Sunday. Ryan eventually returned home and the three of them played two of Ryan's favorite games, "Ticket to Ride" and "Monopoly Deal." After rehearsal, Ben and I then both headed to my apartment where they played more games and Rob and I went to RA meeting. At least someone around here gets to have some fun!

Engagement Photos!

After the very saddening loss to Texas last night, Ryan and I received a most glorious text informing us that some of our engagement pictures are posted online! Our photographer puts up a few of her favorites on facebook so we can see before she sends us the entire CD. For now there are only 18 photos, with many more to come. When I finally get my CD, or maybe when she's done putting up her favorites, I'll post some on here. But for all you facebook friends, take a look. I LOVE THEM!

Young at Heart

My life is as crazy as ever but I thought I'd take a few minutes to give a quick update. I cannot believe the incredible amount of stress I'm under these days. If I thought the last few years were bad, this puts them all to shame! The two jobs and grad school keeps me busy enough but trying to find time for Ryan and wedding plans and everything else makes me absolutely love having a color-coded planner. I really struggled a few weeks ago with looking way too far into the future and getting completely overwhelmed. I'm trying that whole "one-day-at-a-time" thing and it seems to be working so far. So far being the key words!

I do have a lot of little pleasures in life and a lot of daily laughter. I'm so grateful for those people I can always count on to put a smile on my face. I sure hope this next picture puts a smile on your face because I sure do laugh every time I see it. About a month ago we had a "Turkey Trot" Sadie Hawkins church activity. To everyone's surprise, I asked Ryan and we found these two beautiful identical size XL sweaters at Goodwill. We realized we were one Holiday too early, but who's really counting. My lovely mother told me that Ryan and I look like two children who just escaped from a mental hospital. I love you, Mom. :)

The following week was our Stake Conference. I was asked to direct a Stake YSA choir for the Sunday session and was excited to find out that Elder Oaks would be there! I have the best choir and they worked so hard and even showed up to extra practices (even when I forgot the music and Ryan had to drive 40 minutes round-trip to get it). I got to shake Elder Oaks' hand and when I sat down after directing the first piece he mouthed the words, "Thank you, that was beautiful." That's a once in a lifetime experience, I tell you what!!

For Thanksgiving Ryan and I headed west to Utah. He was able to meet both sets of my grandparents and we did dinner with some of his old mission buddies as well as the missionary who taught him during his ridiculously long 2.5 years of investigating. As you can see in the picture, there is some definite Elder love going on. SIDE NOTE: My iTunes just started playing the Disney Princess collection which is definitely the first cassette tape I owned and used to listen to on our long drives to Utah as a child! Continuing... I was able to see Ashley, Shelby, and Whitney as we went wedding dress shopping in Salt Lake. After all our efforts I ended up finding the one I love when I stopped somewhere all by myself. We sure did have fun jamming to my Glee CD, though.

On Wednesday we froze our little tush's off as we took our engagement pictures near an old abandoned train car and graffiti's power plant near the Great Salt Lake. I cannot wait to see them!! It was after that we stopped at Grandpa Hyer's and made sure to buy the best chocolate donuts - Dan's Donuts before heading south to visit a friend in Orem and then Ashley in Payson. We continued on and ended up in St. George with Ryan's "adopted" family. He's totally one of the family and even has a corner on their table which they cover with glass and put pictures underneath. It's just precious. There were 12 of us in a tiny house which made for some good times, I tell you what. We ate a lot, played a lot of games, and just enjoyed being in a home environment.

I fell in love with the city of Beaver, Utah. Actually just with the gas station. The attendants are so nice and come and wash your windows, or help with whatever you need, there's a big rocking chair, the "Eager Beaver" car wash, and the best candy selection I've ever seen! Ryan has been talking about Zots probably since the day I met him. It's this hard candy with a fizzy center. He's darn lucky I listen when he talks because as he was using the potty I glanced down at the candy and low and behold, there they were! With a grin on his face like a child on Christmas morning, he stocked up and we also found Dad's red Certs that we used to always buy him as kids.

Now I'm back in Omaha trying not to freak out. Two of my classes are done and I just have one more class and my nightmare-ish thesis. We've been praying and fasting for a breakthrough because if something doesn't happen soon I might have to start something new at semester.... but we're not thinking about that! One day at a time. :)

Oh, and Ryan got an interview at one of the PT Schools up on Long Island, so that's exciting news!

ALSO, is anyone else having problems with their pictures? I used to be able to click on it and change the size or drag it to the location that I want and I can't seem to do that anymore... thoughts?

Bling

Everyone's already heard, but I thought I'd inform the entire blog world that I'm officially getting hitched to Ryan Scott Sweeney on June 12, 2010 (Exactly one year after we met!) I had no idea that there was someone out there so perfect for me. In retrospect, this was truly a match made in heaven. Not only with how well we get along, but the timing with so many things was truly set up by our loving Heavenly Father. I am so excited to spend the rest of my time here on earth and the eternities with him! And to have the most beautiful blue eyed, curly blond-haired babies (but not for a few years).

In other news...

The fire alarm went off for about 30 minutes last night so I was up from 2:30-3:30 and then got a call at 4:30 a.m.

Draft #2 of my thesis is due next Friday.

I'm slowly going blonde again.

I made Dad's homemade chocolate cake and frosting on Monday. It was moistly wonderful.

I want to go see Michael Jackson's new movie.

I run into a wall with my shoulder, elbow, hip, knee, head, etc. at least once a day.

I keep finding random bruises. (correlation?)

I now have 4 matching wheel covers on The Lawn Mower (my car).

I'm addicted to Glee.

Beer?

Or maybe just IBC.

Weekly Routine

I never talk about what I do on a day-to-day basis so here you go. I've more or less finally gotten into a routine and here it is:

Monday

7-11a.m. Work at the Army Corps of Engineers

12:00-1:15p.m. Class: Professional Practice I (Accounting Principles)

1:30p.m. Lunch with Rob to discuss the weekly RA meeting

2:30p.m.- Discipline meetings, random errands, avoidance of homework with the final buckling down of homework (and now a lot will be thesis research instead of normal homework)

10:00-11:00p.m. RA meeting

11:00p.m. Finally see Ryan until I'm so exhausted that I normally pass out on the couch

Tuesday

8-10a.m. Attempt to use the morning wisely by maybe getting to school to work

10:30-11:45a.m. Class: HVAC III

12:00-1:00p.m. Lunch

1:30-2:45p.m. Class: Indoor Air Quality

3:00-5:00p.m. Usually more discipline meetings with an attempt at homework

5:00p.m. Dinner with Rob

7:00-8:30p.m. Institute (Preach my Gospel)

8:30- Once again attempt homework, RD work, hang out with Ryan, etc.

Wednesday

Repeat Monday except I meet with Rob and JO (my boss) on Wednesdays and we don't have the RA meeting at night

Thursday

Repeat Tuesday except replace institute with going out with the missionaries. Ryan and I last week went to see an investigator named Richard and we're going again this week. I've never gone out with the missionaries even though I've wanted to. It's nice to have them there and Ryan there for support as I practice sharing my testimony because I'm still not super comfortable doing it with nonmembers.

Friday

7:00-12:00p.m. Work at the Corps

12:00p.m.- Waste as much time as possible being completely unproductive after a long week.

So there you have it. I've been really exhausted lately so in those big breaks lately I've been taking 1-3 hour naps because I fall asleep and cannot wake up for the life of me! I'd like to blame the mono, but I don't know if I still have that as a cop-out.

I did get my new thesis topic approved. I will be researching portable classrooms and their indoor quality and thermal comfort. I'm in the process of contacting schools in Omaha (hopefully high schools) that have them and I will survey the students and teachers to see if they notice any problems with the portables. I'll then go into the classroom and do actual measurements and compare them to the industry codes and standards to see if they are acceptable. It's then my job to give any recommendations for improvement. Draft #1 is due in 2 weeks and it is the literature review part of the thesis so I'm currently reading through past research and design requirements. As much as I am not a fan of engineering these days this does interest me because of the actual field work I will be able to do. I'm excited to really get in there and see how the systems perform. That's enough of that. I'm sure I'm boring you to tears.

Here's a few pictures from the past few weekends. Last Saturday I had breakfast with Schuster and then Ryan and I went down to Nebraska City for the annual "Apple Jack Festival" but the only thing apple related we did was drink some cider. We hung out with Rob and his family while they bashed a car to raise money for cancer research. They invited us over to their house for the depressing Husker/VT game. We then drove to Council-tucky for the birthday part of Tommy's dad. (Tommy is Ryan's friend that he's living with). From there we were supposed to have date night and go out to a nice dinner but I was exhausted and passed out.

Just this weekend we went to an annual YSA fireside and dance. A few years ago Josh Pryor and I decided to make it a western theme and it's very slowly spread over the years. On Saturday morning Schuster's boyfriend was in town so instead of just the two of us having breakfast, the boys joined us as well. I made coffee cake and scrambled eggs while Schuster made bacon. Mmmm I love our family's coffee cake! I've eaten way too much of it. I spent the day working on RD stuff and made a valid effort to cross all the random things off of my to-do list. That night was the R.S. Broadcast so I went with a few friends (Pearl and Maegan) and then we were joined by another friend (Chelsea) and went to see the movie Fame. Sunday was Ward Conference and the choir sang and I just realized this entry has no personality and for that I apologize and am ending it now that it's back to Monday. THE END.