So many blessings! Is something bad going to happen soon?

I am just overwhelmed lately with blessings. Here are a few of them:
1. Monte is awesome and got a half scholarship. There's $2000 we thought we'd have to have for school this year that just got handed to us.
2. I received grants totaling around $7800. What the? I really only needed like $2000, but whatev. Maybe they'll let me use it Spring and Summer, too.
3. I got offered my old job at Women's Services on campus. This was much needed considering I was stressed out about the car situation during school. Monte and I only have one car and since we both work at differing times in Orem we weren't sure how it was going to work out. Now I'll just ride the bus to BYU everyday and stay from 9-5. Easy.

Monte and I are joking (mostly) that all of these blessings are happening because something really bad is going to happen soon. We're kind of scared. Perhaps we should be more optimistic?

I just bought this gun

Don't give me any lip. Or else.

For those who care, it's a 9mm Ruger P95. It's really loud.

Fifth Water Hot Springs

So my coworker, Kjirsten, hikes a lot these days. I informed her that I like hiking and that I need to do it more often so I'll get out of the house more. She was kind enough to invite me to hike the Y with her on Thursday. It was freaking hot with the little shade that those pathetic bushes provide, but it was still fun. It was her first time making it to the Y, so it was pretty exciting.

We decided to do a hike today that was a bit more (a LOT more) scenic and shady: Fifth Water Hot Springs. They're up SF canyon (Diamond Fork). It was SO fun. Everything is beautiful up there. Plus, the trail goes right by the river the entire time. Once you get to the hot springs it's kind of stinky, but you get over it pretty quickly.

One time, on the worst (blind) date of my life, a group of us tried to hike to these hot springs from the "back door" (yes, it's really called that). Apparently the back door trail is half as long as the front door one. Good idea, since we were starting the hike at 10 p.m. BAD idea since we were starting the hike at 10 p.m.--it was dark! And we couldn't even be sure that we'd found the trailhead! Consequently, we never found the hot springs (although we could smell them). To make things worse, once we got back to the car we discovered that it had a flat tire. Awesome. OH. And I didn't get home til about 3 in the morning. On a Sunday. Nightmare, I tell you. Luckily, Micquel was there to make it a little better. Remember that time, Micquel?

I'm pretty bushed from the hike. It's not too difficult, but it was just kind of long...okay, it was only an hour each way, but when you're as out of shape as I am it seems like forever. Remember when I hiked Timp 2 summers ago and didn't find it to be unbearable? Oh yeah, I actually exercised back then. Dang, I need to start that again.

It was worth it though. Beautiful scenery and a cool river to relax in once we got to the hot springs. There was no way I was going to sit in those things when my forehead was sweating like crazy. I hear it's an even better winter/fall/cold weather hike. Perhaps I'll try it in the fall when all the leaves are changing. Who wants to come?

As Easy As 1 2 3

A- Attached or single: Attached. Good ol' Monte. I like him. A lot.
B- Best Friend: Monte. And all my girls. I have many.
C- Cake or Pie: Hummingbird Cake with cream cheese frosting! Strawberry rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream is also fabulous.
D- Day of choice: Saturday. I get to spend the whole day with Monte doing random stuff. It's great.
E- Essential Item: The Pill. If you know what I mean.
F- Favorite Color: I'm starting to like red more and more.
G- Gummi Bears or Gummi Worms: Squirmy worms, please.
H- Hometown: P-Town
I- Indulgence(s): Dr. Pepper
J- January or July: I agree with Dani--who the heck chooses gloomy, slushy, brown, dead January?
K- Kids: 3. Monte and I agree this has to be the absolute most. I'm a wuss. And he has always wanted a small family. There were 6 kids in his family and I think he resents that.
L- Life is Incomplete Without: rainbows, bike rides, family, music, The Word, cuddling...
M- Marriage Date: December 20, 2008. It was cold, folks.
N- Number of Siblings: 4. 3 sisters, 1 brother.
O- Oranges or Apples: Oranges, but only if they're the good ones.
P- Phobias or Fears: Monte dying before we grow old together. I know, I'm insane.
Q- Quotes: "Anaconda squeeeeeeeze!" -Nacho
R- Reason To Smile: The sun is out! And I'm not in school right now, so no homework!
S- Season: Spring. Those daffodils get me every time.
T- Tag Three: Tyree Der (my sis), Micquel (my cuz), Melanie (my cuz), and anyone else who wants to.
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I like doing the dishes. Unless my back hurts, then not so much.
V- Vegetarian or Meat Eater: I enjoy poultry and beef if they're well done. I also enjoy a good Gardenburger. Yum!
W- Worst Habit: Touching my mouth during conversations that make me nervous. I know, this is strange. Consequently, I am almost always touching my mouth when talking to my boss. Don't get me wrong, he's a really nice guy. It's just the fact that he's my boss that makes me nervous.
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I'm not answering this stupid question.
Y- Your Favorite Food: Here are a few: quesadillas, mashed potatoes & gravy, grilled chicken, caesar salad, fresh tomatoes from the garden, and homemade pizza.
Z- Zodiac: Pisces. Don't let that fool you. I'm terrified of large bodies of water and I can't really swim.

glimpses of the last few weeks

Memorial Day at Canyon View Park up Provo Canyon. That's where Monte proposed to me (the first time...); we went with my family.

Monte workin' the grill on Memorial Day. Man, those burgers were tasty.

Provo Farmer's Market at Pioneer Park on Center and 500 W. It's really great--I recommend going on Saturday morning/early afternoon. I think they shut down around 4 or 5 p.m.

Hiking the Y with Charlotte. Monte started to feel nauseous and I felt dizzy, so we only made it halfway up. Wussies.

Tomato plants in my garden!!!!

Poster of Dale that we shot with the .22 (note the shot right between the eyeballs).

Some (better) parts of the cruise

Enjoying the one sunny day...and Monte's huge sunglasses on me!
Being with my sweetie.
Cheesy formal nights (we had two).
Taking funny pictures while we were bored and just chillin' in our cabin.
Touring the oldest sailing ship in the world! This was in San Diego right next to Seaport Village and our ship (in the background).
Squishing ourselves through the tiny doorways of a WWII Russian submarine.
Trying to enjoy the cloudy/overcast day on Catalina Island.

The Bad News

Silly Mexicans and their pigs. Ruined our whole honeymoon. I'm selfish, aren't I? All I can think about is that our trip was ruined--of course, I don't care at all about the sick people. Typical Nikki. But really, it's just a flu. Get a shot and you're on your way to being better. It just seems like everyone has overreacted a bit.

Cruise itinerary due to the Swine Flu:

Day 1: at sea
Day 2: at sea (got all the way down to Cabo...already getting anxious to get off the stupid boat)
Day 3: at sea (Princess decides to turn around and not stop at all in Mexico because of the flu)
Day 4: at sea (find out that we will be stopping in San Diego as one of our ports...me thinking this is not what I paid for)
Day 5: at sea (they stopped in Ensenada for fuel and other crap, but wouldn't let us get off)
Day 6:San Diego (for about 7 hours...what the crap were we supposed to do? we'd already been there lots of times...just walked around and toured old boats)
Day 7: Catalina Island (this is an island, but it doesn't have ANY beaches. that's right: we never got to go to the beach...on our CRUISE!!!)

To top off this fine itinerary, the weather was crap and almost never sunny enough to swim outdoors. I guess that's my fault since I booked the cruise for the end of April, but it just added to the AWEsomeness of the whole week.

So, as most of you know I took Winter semester off because I was a crazy stressed out person and we also needed the extra money working full-time would provide us. I deferred Winter and planned to go back Spring term, which I thought started on Monday May 4th. HA.

Thinking we had between April 23rd and May 4th to go on our real honeymoon I planned our cruise for the 25th through the 2nd. Totally made sense to me. I even checked the BYU website and was really responsible. I guess that doesn't account for my lack of reading ability. Apparently Spring term starts THIS Tuesday, the 28th. What in the? Not even a week between finals and the beginning of the next classes. Lame.

Since it is pretty much impossible to cancel our flights and cruise, I decided I'm just going to go back to school Fall semester. Which is so like me, putting things (Calculus) off for as long as possible. But this means I can have the whole summer to work a lot and PARTY! I'm so relieved. I've been starting to have biweekly nightmares about that Spring Calculus class I was signed up for. Who wants to take a block Calculus class when the weather's great? Not me.

So here's what my spring/summer is going to consist of:

-CRUISE!
-going shooting every weekend
-going shopping with Hayley (she doesn't know this yet)
-going to Steph's reception in Idaho Falls
-hopefully going to Lava Hot Springs again with the Mena clan
-Lagoon (I'll have to talk Monte into this)
-working 40 hours/week and getting benefits!
-saving money for (stupid) tuition
-missing Debbie, Ali, Steph, Dani, and Missy
-hanging out with MEG
-camping at LEAST once a month

That's all I can think of for now, but you can see how amazing it is, I'm sure. Let me know if you have anymore ideas.

don't forget earplugs

So, Monte thinks we’re made of money or something. That’s the only excuse I can think of. And here’s why. He bought two guns. Not one, but TWO. That’s right.

Mind you, these aren’t little pistols. These are rifles. And he bought me my “own” gun, too. I did not ask for this. I think he just wanted to get me something easy to use so I’d be entertained when he wanted to go shooting (which he now wants to do almost every week).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think going shooting is great fun. I really like doing it. I’m the worst shot ever, just so you know. I’m even worse now that we put a scope on my gun. I don’t think it’s sighted in correctly. That’s the excuse I’m using, at least.

Here are some sample pictures that Google helped me find since I’m too lazy to upload pictures to my computer.

Exhibit A: My .22 (the black one at the top; I sometimes fantasize about having the pink one...)

I think it’s like a semi-automatic, or something like that, because you just load the clip with like 15 bullets and then you just shoot, shoot, shoot until they’re all gone. I think this is a good feature since I’m too impatient to reload after every shot. It’s really quite awesome. I like it a lot.

Exhibit B: Monte’s Soviet rifle

So, I guess the USSR, after WWII, had about a zillion of these laying around in warehouses, never having been used. They were a bit paranoid. Monte really likes the history around this gun, I think. The ammo’s kind of expensive, though, so he only shoots it like 4 times every time we go shooting. It has QUITE the kick to it. I have only shot it once and it almost took my arm out of it’s socket. That might be a slight exaggeration.

After the guns and ammo have been purchased and used multiple times, I really don’t have many complaints. It’s a fun activity that Monte and I like to do together and it gets us out into the middle of nowhere. My only complaints are 1) the bad weather and 2) the fact that we live so far away from areas where shooting is allowed. The weather issue will take care of itself in a few weeks, but we are getting so frustrated about finding places to go! If any of you have any suggestions (besides on the west side of the Lake, Provo rifle range, and Hobble Creek canyon), then please let us know. We heard there’s an okay place to go up by the entrance to American Fork canyon, but don’t know where it is. Maybe someone out there can enlighten us hick-folk. Ha.

HONEYMOON!

Monte and I are going on our honeymoon in April, finally. School always gets in the way of having fun. But we are going to have tons of fun April 25 - May 2. You bet your boots.

We're going on a cruise!!!

Itinerary

Departure Port	Date	Arrival Time	Departure Time
Los Angeles, California	04-25-2009		04:00 PM
AT SEA	04-26-2009
AT SEA	04-27-2009
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico	04-28-2009	10:00 AM	08:00 PM
Mazatlan, Mexico	04-29-2009	07:00 AM	05:00 PM
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico	04-30-2009	07:00 AM	02:00 PM
AT SEA	05-01-2009
Los Angeles, California	05-02-2009	07:00 AM

Doesn't that look like fun? We were planning on going to the Caribbean, but this one was cheaper, longer, and had a shorter/cheaper flight. We're super excited. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure/envy.

PUERTO VALLARTA:
MAZATLAN:CABO san LUCAS

Watch out!

My sister Tye is doing this, and I took the challenge. Hopefully some of my faithful readers will be brave enough to comment!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something handmade by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. But I promise that I will take time to think of something that seems right for me to send you! :)
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Me & Monte

How long did you date?
3 months, engaged for another 3 months.

Who eats more?
MONTE!

Who is taller?
Monte. He's got me by at least 3 inches.

Who is smarter?
We are both S-M-R-T in our own ways.

Whose temper is worse?
Usually mine. But man. He gets really quiet when he's mad and that can feel pretty harsh.

Who does the laundry?
Mostly me. I'm quicker.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
If you're looking at it from the bottom, Monte sleeps on the right.

Who pays the bills?
So far, I do. But Monte helps me remember.

Who cooks dinner?
Most times me. But Monte is really cute. He makes me dinner a lot. And sandwiches for lunch.

Who drives when you are together?
Definitely Monte. He doesn't like it when I drive. It scares him.

Who kissed who first?
Monte kissed me first. It was great. We were up Provo canyon looking at the stars and cuddling. He just went for it.

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?
I'm always right, so Monte.

Whose parents do you see the most?
Mine. They live about 7 minutes away. Monte's live about 4 hours away.

Who proposed?
Monte. Twice.

Who is more sensitive?
Me. I blame the birth control. Stupid hormones.

Who has more friends?
I have more close friends, Monte has more...friend friends. That he plays soccer with and stuff.

Who has more siblings?
Monte. He has 5, I have 4.

Who wears the pants in the family?
We usually both wear pants. Monte loves to wear shorts, though.

Do you have a song?
No. We've discussed this oddity before and decided we don't care.

melt in my mouth

I love all of the treats during the holiday season! Usually I'm baking up a storm during these months, but I was a bit busy this year. You know. With the wedding and stuff. Yeah.

So I finally got around to looking at some of the awesome recipes Becca emailed me a few weeks ago. Now all I want to do is bake! I love trying new cookie recipes. Perhaps I'll have time to try this tasty looking yumminesses before school starts.

Peppermint Snow Balls

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
• 10 starlight mints, crushed (heaping 1/4 cup)
• Red food coloring
• Confectioners' sugar for rolling

Directions

1.Heat oven to 400°F. In large bowl, with mixer on high, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla and salt. Reduce mixer speed to low, and beat in flour (dough will be very dry). Beat in oats, mints, and 12 drops of red food coloring. Shape heaping teaspoons of dough into balls, place on ungreased baking sheets 1/2 inch apart, and bake 15 to 18 minutes per batch.

2. Place confectioners' sugar in large bowl. Roll hot cookies in confectioners' sugar, let cool completely, and repeat.


Oh, and don't fret. I'll post a zillion wedding pictures later. When I have internet at my apartment. I'm gonna talk the neighbors into letting me use their wireless! Perhaps with a small fee... but at least I wouldn't have to get someone to come install it. All those fees! Pooey.

Also, sorry I got so busy I didn't post something everyday for the wedding countdown. There just wasn't time. Fun while it lasted.

All I want FOUR Christmas is you!

4 days to go

This is a picture of a four-legged duck. Scares me a little bit. I also don't like how the man (of course it's a man) in the background is holding it's neck. Be nice!
Here's a less in-yo-face picture. I love Connect Four. You never know what's going to happen. There are so many possibilities! And I always miss something important and lose. But it's still fun. Monte and I have played before and had a blast.

on the fifth day before my wedding I give you this image

I don't know if I agree with all of these, but I do agree that I'd rather do a lot of things before going to grad school. I'm just not motivated enough. Or smart enough. Perhaps I'll just work on my undergrad and then have some kids? Ha haha.

Six days and counting...

The hitchin' will take place THIS Saturday. Does that blow your mind? Kind of blows mine. This engagement went so fast, but so slow. It's been great, but I'll be honest and say that I'm definitely excited to move onto this next part of my life.

I'm also SO excited about all of the fun people who are coming to town this week! Tye comes in on Monday night, Shay will be here on Thursday, and tons of aunts and cousins will be over at my parents house on Thursday night for a family bridal shower. I'm pretty much bursting with joy!

So, for this last week I'm going to count down the days til the wedding by doing a google image search for the number of days left. For example, tonight I'll type "six" into the search box and see what it comes up with. Here goes:

This one's pretty typical, just a Roman numeral six.

I couldn't resist posting this one, however.
Apparently this is someone named Mr. Six? Whatev. It's better than all of the pictures of six-packs that showed up... awkward.

Don't you love the holidays?

So. Yesterday was Thanksgiving. I woke up at 6:30 a.m. to go to Kmart (why are they open on Thanksgiving? Do they hate their employees? Greedy retail stores...) to get Debbie's birthday present (you can bet it's the best thing you've ever seen), some oversize fleece blankets (I need blankets when I become independent/married!), and picture frames for the reception. Luckily my mother was awake putting the turkey in the oven and she happily agreed to accompany me, otherwise I'd be scared out of my mind by those crazy Kmart-goers...am I one of those now? Also, good thing she came because she bought be a really cool ring! I can't describe it--you'll just have to see it. Or I could post a picture of it later.

Besides early morning shopping Thanksgiving was pretty great. Until Monte had to work from 6 p.m. to midnight! Stupid. But at least he got paid time and a half. That's excellent news. I went in and filed...for an hour. I would have stayed longer but Regan and I decided we needed to watch August Rush, which I had never seen. Also, she's moving back to Oklahoma in like a week and I won't see her for a long, long time. And...I got some music from her. Which took about 2 hours to transfer over because her burner wasn't working and we only had a 512MB flash drive. Funny.

Anyways. This morning Monte was such a champ and he got up with me at 6:30 to go hit the Office Depot doorbuster sale. In which I bought an 8GB flash drive so none of those music fiascoes, like the one complained about above, will ever happen again! Yay!

Now I'm at work. That's right. I had to work at 8 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving. And no one has called or come into the office. Seems like a waste of time for me and a waste of money for Chrysalis. Whatev. I'm just writing this blog and making copies. Oh, AND listening to Christmas music since it's no longer before Thanksgiving. Bring on the Christmas cheer.

BEST NEWS OF THE DAY/WEEK/MONTH:
I have an apartment! After weeks and weeks of searching, filling out applications, going to see disgusting apartments, Maecy's old landlord called her back and we get to have her old apartment! The one next to the Cannon's house! And it's pretty cheap, which is marvelous. Also, it has two bedrooms. And is right next to a bus stop. I'm so grateful! All those hours of searching and praying paid off, I'm telling you. The gospel is true.

Sorry I've been away for like a month. Planning a wedding really is the most time consuming thing I've ever experienced. Only 5 more weeks to go! And only 4 til I get my endowments. ;)

So, just finished writing this stats term paper for Stat 332 and I think I'll probably get a C on it. That's pretty good for an engaged person, right? Here's a graph I included in it.Doesn't that just look fantastic? No, it doesn't. Whatev. We were doing an experiment with launching rubber balls from wooden catapults. Yeah, pretty awesome. I love stats because of all the random experiments we get to do. I hope I can afford to go to school next semester so I can take that 6 credit stats class... should be a lot of work, but hopefully fun, too!

I won't bore you with talk of wedding stuff, so I pretty much don't have anything left to say. Welp.

We'll get through it somehow...

Last night I was reading in 2 Nephi 19 (in the Book of Mormon) where Jacob is quoting Isaiah 9 and I was struck by this verse:

16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.

This verse seems so applicable to the time we're living in right now, especially with the upcoming election. I've heard so many foolish things come out of both of the main candidates' mouths (mostly Obama...). It's a scary time.

On the bright side, at least we have an amazing leader of the LDS church, President Thomas S. Monson! If only all of the leaders in our lives could be appointed by God...

it's sparkly

Here it is, folks.Also, here's the dress:
They'll take up the hem and take the waist out a bit so it actually fits me. Yay.

Here's the hairdo that I will probably be sporting on my wedding day: