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?