When Tyler Came and Rescued Me

At the end of September, the grueling internship finally came to an end. I stayed in UT to wrap some things up, then Tyler came the next weekend to take me home!!!!

HIGHLIGHTS

- Went to General Conference. Some nice girl I barely knew gave me her tickets b/c she knew I was trying to find some and she was already going to a session. Anyway, it was cool. And cool to sit next to Tyler again at church stuff. I missed the arm around me to fend off overactive air conditioning. :)

- Engagement pics with Sharon. Such a rip-roaring good time. And she did such a fabulous job. Oh, my talented friends!

- Mission reunions. So fun to meet each other's peeps and count how many times one of my Nauvoo grandparents said something like, "You've got yerself a good one here! You'd better take care of her!" Love them! :)

- The Philly Cheesesteaks at his reunion!

- Kissing Skype goodbye.

LOWLIGHTS

- The super lonely horse that insisted on being in as many pics as possible at the engagement shoot.

- Having to say bye to my girls (and their cute kiddos) in UT.

- The fact that even though I'm home, we still have to date 3 mths to get married. :(


Still learning where to look when taking pics on his iPod.




Watching conference at Sheena's. Miss them!




The drive home. Obviously.



Our new best friend.

Weekend o' Blair

One of my very dearest friends, Ms Blair Sidney Pettijohn, graced me with her presence this weekend. She is a true ray of sunshine in my life!

The other best thing was that a good portion of our old Sunnyside roommates live in UT at the moment so with Blair here, it meant serious good times.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Thurs night hung with Blair, Sheena, Teresa, Sharon, and Lila and Launi. Looked for wedding dresses (a great consultative team), then to food, then to milkshakes. Sharon and Sheena educated us about life on the other side of singlehood. Haha.

- Fri night: Salt Lake County Fair. Saw Boyz II Men in the flesh! Just a smooth as I remember them being.

- Sun night: True to form, we downed a whole thing of muddy buddies in an hour and talked til the wee hours about anything and everything.


LOWLIGHTS:

- The lady at the wedding dress place who kept calling me sweetie. Which may have been endearing had she not been in her 30's.

- Paying $3 to get our handwriting analyzed by the lady who wasn't very nice or very accurate. But in case you're wondering, she accepts tips.

- The fact that after a delightful weekend, I had to go back and drown in the workload of VRSII.


Lucy came with us to the fair. What a sport!


The cheap seats for Boyz II Men. And yes, Teresa does have 3 separate patches on her clothing. Love her.

The race from H***

Literally. This was the worst race I've ever run. To the point that it was funny. Apparently it was straight up a mountainside and really only for the hardest of hard-core. Both is these tidbits were unbeknownst to us, as is evident in our training plan (or lack thereof).

HIGHLIGHTS:

- I won shoes!!!! Of course, I wasn't there to collect them, as I was only halfway through the race.

- The last 3 miles were the delirium hit in and it was actually kind of fun.

- We survived.


LOWLIGHTS:

- So there was this competition for the best aid station. I heard this announced and I thought, "well that's great. I need some aid stations with some good food since I didn't really eat breakfast." But answer me this--how are you supposed to have a contest if all of the aid stations are serving the EXACT same thing. Gatorade and water. Hmph. I was so hungry by 11:00.

- Blair and I came in dead last. The consolation is that when we finished, they were expecting us, and even called us by name. The extra lowlight though, is that I cheered on the guy behind us cause I thought he was in the race. Really he was just the sweeper guy assigned to run behind the last place people.

- See elevation map below.




Blissfully unaware the day before. Perhaps if we hadn't been this optimistic, we would've trained.




Our pre-race dinner: 2 funnel cakes and ice cream in a waffle cone. Some call that carb loading.




I think this speaks for itself.

Home for the Weekend

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Night I flew in, chilled at the harbor with Typo, then went to In-n-Out with 3-dub (mom). So glad she waited up for us! :)

- RBHS class reunion. Awkward encounters, catching up with friends, screaming over the music, drunkenness & lampshades, the whole 9 yards. It was a blast!

- Getting ready with Becks (which of course entailed a trip to Target with her and my mom! :) Woohoo! Target is always a delight!) And the photoshoot with the piece of the freshman year float. (Pack rats prevail!!!!)

- Remembering just why I love Tyler P.


LOWLIGHTS:

- The food at the reunion. The only thing recognizable were the sliders, which a woman choked on, needing the Heimlich maneuver, thus supporting my eternal argument of why "slider" is such an awful name for a mini hamburger.

- Major flight delays both ways. I know, that inclement SD weather. Hah.

- Getting so little sleep that the day I got back, I took of my glasses instead of hanging up the phone.

- Having to say goodbye to Tyler for the 4th time this summer. But it's the last!


Us and the infamous float! :)




The back is what really makes it special in my opinion.




Becky and her senior standout pic. I know, she's practically famous!




Go for the Mormons winning the "Breeder's Cup" award at the reunion. (Actually we hear there's a kid out there with 4 kids, but he wasn't at the reunion. Prob couldn't get a bbsitter.)




Moments like these make me real happy.

Salt Flats Extravaganza

HIGHLIGHTS

- So stinkin cool!

- Everything was bright white and we could drive on it and get dirty and it crackled under your feel just so.

- I did my first donut!! Only one cause I love Sassy.

LOWLIGHTS

- We each suffered the loss of a pair of flip flops. Only I'm a devoted significant other so I retrieved his from the quicksand.

- Tried to find mine again, but you'd be surprised how many things on the salt flats look like thin, brown flip flops. And it's quite hard to have a sense of direction amongst a vast stretch of salt.








The salt was sparkly!


Last sighting of my flip flops. RIP.


Uh, we didn't mean to wear matching stripes. Just thought I should give that disclaimer. Although it does make for a pretty stylish photo shoot.




I know, ewww! But I figured I had to have at least one token kissing pic from a weekend o' engagement. Haha. So, forgive me.



Tyler post quicksand. He doesn't really like to be dirty so this didn't make him super happy. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop laughing.



Quite resourceful.



Making due with whatever footwear we had left.

Misc fun that weekend

HIGHLIGHTS

- One night we were taking a walk at Sheena's and it was the stinking RADDEST sky ever. All of it!

- Found a fun toy at a park that could be really effective in a gym.


LOWLIGHTS

- Tyler refused to be so tacky as so use a plastic baggy as a carry-on, so instead he stuffed his treats I gave him into his shoes in his backpack. Arguably tackier.

- Tried multiple times to take a jumping picture with the self-timer. Pathetic.



Super rad sky. Rad guy. That rhymes.






I get to be married to this mug. Soooo lucky.






Helping me up or pushing me off? You be the judge.




I don't think we could've done this good of a job if we'd tried.




Random pic Typo took just messing around, but you can kinda see the ring.



So classy.

The time I got proposed to.

HIGHLIGHTS

- Tyler Pond came and proposed to me. Pretty much a highlight in itself.

- He surprised me right after one of my interpreting jobs at like 9pm. He'd secretly been in SLC the whole day getting everything ready while I was at class and work. I'd just planned on going to bed early and having a lame weekend and instead we got to play for like 3 days.

- I was whisked off to this cool little park we found a while back with a little creek and green, green grass. He made a little picnic with sparkling cider and PB M&Ms. Then, yeah know, asked about that whole marrying him forever thing.

- He got me the ring I was in love with and it sparkles all the time.

LOWLIGHTS

- Spending the whole preceding 36 hrs thinking he was secretly coming, then deciding he wasn't. It was super depressing at the time and my roommates were totally over me wallowing in my self pity. But at least by the time he came, I was 100% surprised.

- When we got to the park, Tyler forgot a bottle-opener for the Martinelli's so proceeded to use a combination of his car keys and his knuckles.

- The ring sparkles most in the sunshine when I'm driving and in the bathroom mirror when I'm getting ready for bed. This means I have a lot of close calls on the road and a lot of wasted time watching myself brush my teeth.

- Finding out just how many people lied to me in order to keep the surprise.


These cups will be our first pieces of dishware. Fantastic!




We are a way cute couple.




I look haggard, but that's cause I was.




After the evening, Tyler and I both left with souvenirs on our hands. Mine is cooler, but his drew blood, which is also pretty cool.

A few recent adventures

HIGHLIGHTS

- My language mentor told me something about my "skill level." That means I have SOME level of skill. All right! I'll take it!

- I finished my antibiotics. No more mean pills!

- While we were lounging in the floating pool at Lagoon with our all-day passes, Carrie so aptly observed, "This is the best deaf event ever!!!"

- Getting to see Teresa Pinkal when she came through town! :)

LOWLIGHTS

- Every so often I eat at frozen yogurt at a place other than the YE. I do this to prove to myself that I am open-minded. It was just the mistake I predicted it would be. I'm so sorry, Jackie. I'll never do it again!

- Went to Provo, which inevitably meant I got a boot, which inevitably made Teresa and I late for our date with the all-you-can-eat French Toast at Kneaders. Sniff! (Ahh, Provo. How I hate you sometimes.)

- Listening to the recording at the Lagoon Water Park about not going in the water if you've had diarrhea in the past 2 weeks. Just listening to it made us feel dirty.

- Lynda and Emily shedding actual tears after the moderately tame roller coaster. Haha. Love them!


Down with imitation YE!


I tried to remind them that there were unattended 7-yr olds on the ride, but it was of little consolation.


Lagoon goodness.

The time I sat in bed for 4 days straight.

So here's the deal. I've been sick since Saturday. I thought it was an ear infection, but then I went to the doctor and she told me it was strep. What does she know? Then she made me look at the back of my throat with a flashlight. Guh-ross.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- I slept almost all day on Saturday. I felt so guilty, but it felt so right.

- My dear friend Jaynee here was also sick so we took a taxi together to Walgreens and bought ourselves all the medicine and comfort foods we needed. Gatorade. Alphabits cereal that was only $1. Life was good that day.

- I'm reading a book! I'm actually reading a book! (Only today it got too scary, so at the moment we're on a break.)

- I decorated my wall! (See??) I was nesting.

- Today (Tues) was my last day of being sick. I'm definitely on the mend. I wore three different sets of pajamas.


LOWLIGHTS:

- My roommates all woke up complaining about an obnoxious car alarm that went off 6 or 7 times in the night. It woke up everyone but me. Whoever owns that car is a moron. And a jerk. It went off again when I was home alone. Just out of curiosity, I pressed my clicker. It stopped.

- Going to class on Monday (unknowingly carrying a deadly virus, but knowingly hating life). One of the instructors was just oozing energy out her ears and giving some lecture on feelings. I paid little attention, instead plotting how to make myself pass out so I would get to go home.

- Eating a fudgesicle to soothe my pain but instead it just burned. :(

- So stagnant! I can't handle this life! I tried to coerce anyone I could to going on a walk with me tonight, but it was 11pm so I had no takers. Here I sit, rocking side to side, hoping that will do the trick.




The culprit. We talked it over today. She's sorry.


My prison. P.S. Hi Tyler!


Close-up of the nightstand. It's like that memory game. Quick, close your eyes and tell me everything that was on it.


Dreaming of the world beyond my window. Just tragically out of reach.


Tomorrow will be a better day.



P.S. I guess the final lowlight is how much time I spent today taking pictures of myself or inanimate objects. Eesh.

VRSII weeks 2-3

HIGHLIGHTS:

- My teacher from Palomar came up to teach us for 2 weeks. A little taste from home! :)

- Running into my roommate in Barnes & Noble. Keep in mind few of us ever leave the apts. Ever. And we were there to by almost the exact same books!! Meant to be.

- When I found a gob of PB down my shirt. Allegedly oozed out of my sandwich and turned into a little ball down my shirt.

- Succeeding in getting Earl Had to Die out of my head. It was there at least 2 weeks. Thanks Dixie Chicks. :P And thanks roommies for tolerating me!

LOWLIGHTS:

- Fruit flies in the apt. My nemesis.

- Realizing that when left to my own devices, I rely on Reese's Puffs as my primary source of nutrients. Whole grains and calcium guaranteed. Says so right on the box!

- Realizing later that the peanut butter ball was really actually just a PB chip from my granola bar.

- Fearing that Earl might be back.

Below: Dancing to Earl and cool pics of the capitol. All compliments of my roommie Emily.