Well, now you guys can all see why I like Dave so much!

Not only is he dang witty...He's dang cute! He's so cute, in fact, that he had acute appendicitis this weekend. (Admit it - you laughed. Puns are great!)

So, yeah, Dave really had acute appendicitis. I have to say, Dave really knows how to show a girl a good time. This weekend we got to do all of the normal things, like hang out with his family and go hiking (and take engagement pictures!). And we got to hang out in the hospital and eat their food, while playing pranks on the nurses by pushing the nurse call-button accidentally. :D

Appendicitis

Just so everyone knows, everything went okay,my appendix has been removed and it hadn't burst. Merry was super awesome and took care of me the whole time, the only thing that wasn't fun is that I had to come to school today (okay, the whole thing was pretty crappy). All I can say is that when our children are sick they will be well taken care of.

The long awaited Guest Post

Hi, I'm Dave, I like long walks on the beach and tight sweatshirts
(I'm using this picture under extreme duress)

Okay Team so here's how it all went down: 1) I told Merry that it would take a month to finish the ring (which was not the case = a very important detail), 2) I told her that I was going on a "man hike" on Saturday with my friends Isaac and Jason, that she and Isaac's wife should hang out while we were hiking (this served the dual role of giving me time to prepare and making sure I knew where Merry was when it was time), and 3) we didn't in fact go on a man hike, rather we assembled all the necessary ingredients to execute the proposal plan.

The first step in preparing was to place a clue inside a giant pickle inside a giant jar of pickles (anyone who knows Merry will know that she eats pickles like they're candy, pickle flavored candy that is). Next I borrowed a fancy shmancy car from my stock broker uncle, then I bought two bouquets of daisies (Merry likes daisies almost as much as she likes pickles, though if pickles could be put into a bouquet she would perhaps like that better, but I digress). Finally I went and procured a vintage 1960's Risk board game. Finally (the second time I did something finally, I know, but that's the way these sorts of things go) I wrote a bunch of clues and selected a great sappy poem for Merry to read.

Once Go Time(!) rolled around Isaac went to his house where Merry was hanging out and gave her the jar of pickles which had a note on it telling Merry to find the clue in the jar. I wouldn't have believed it but she ate every single pickle, there were like 50 of them (not really). Anyway, once Merry found the clue she went to the ice cream store I directed her to (we went there on one of our dates before we started dating, you know, like dating dating) where another of my friends was waiting with the next clue and the daisies. From there she went to the next location which was where we had our first (and only) kiss. At that time she was met by the fancy car and a driver (not me, but he was wearing a tuxedo, it's a good thing she didn't run away with him!).

Next Merry went to the next clue which was with the Risk board (we met playing Risk at the home of a mutual friend) which directed her to go to the place where we decided to start dating (since that was at the Empire State Building she had to take a plane, which I arranged for). Anyway, another friend of mine was there with a necklace and the poem. From there she went up to South Fork Canyon where I was waiting (finally! says Merry, I say that since we waited for 25 years, she could wait just a little longer). We hiked up to Big Springs which is where we went on our absolute first date all those years (err...make that months) ago. Once we got to the meadow all the right things happened blah blah blah and so now we're engaged (this is where all the female readers go, what! blah blah blah, he said blah blah blah for the most important part! I can only answer that this was one of the most special moments of my life and I for one would like to keep it to myself if you don't mind, geesh). Anyways, the rest they say is history and we are now in the belly of the wedding planning beast (my mother says, what! you're only giving three months to plan a wedding! only three months! I am so glad to be the mother of the groom).

Did Merry suspect? Not at first (remember the whole ring not ready for a month bit?); once she got the necklace she knew I was going to propose because the necklace had belonged to my Grandmother. The necklace originally had the diamond that is now the center stone in Merry's ring, when she got it on Saturday it had a ruby where the diamond was, so basically at that point she was wise to what was going on. I consider it a victory that I was able to keep Merry in the dark as long as I did.

Merry is the most wonderful girl ever (even when she smells like pickle juice, now you know why we've only kissed once!) and I am so happy that our relationship has grown to the point where I can be a guest blog poster, maybe someday I'll graduate to co-blog poster, it'll probably happen somewhere between now and our thirteenth child's birth, at least I can hope...

It's Finally Happened!

Several of you have alluded to this post (or the lack of it) in your comments. I have been kind of slow to get to this, but I'm really busy right now. And I promised myself at the beginning of my blogging career that I would never feel guilty or apologize for not doing something (blogging) that I was only doing for fun in the first place.

That having been said, I'm REALLY excited for this post! I've been thinking about it for a long time. Let me tell you how long:

In January, I discovered a blog. December and January were big blogging months for me, because I had just graduated from BYU and I was single, and I had a ton of time to read. I read on the 100 Hour Board quite frequently, and I would explore links to other blogs from blogs I already subscribed to. It was a very carefree time.

As I was saying, in January I discovered a specific blog: The Single Mormon Girl's Guide to Life. I thought it was fun. There was commentary on being single, on dealing with relatives and friends who make awkward/tactless comments about you being single, etc. I don't have a problem with being 25 and single, but it was still fun to read. I went back and read all the archived posts. And I found one post that I could really identify with. The author talks about a candy drawer in her family's house, and how everyone would leave the same old things in it, eating them only when they were desperate for sugar. She compared this to dating:

"I want someone new to come into my candy drawer ecosystem, open the drawer and see that banana flavored Laffy Taffy and say to themselves… ‘WOW. These are my FAVORITE! How did this get left in here? What dummy would leave a banana Laffy Taffy in the candy drawer? I’m so glad my favorite candy is in this candy drawer…what a lucky guy I am!’"

It's true! I really wanted someone to truly appreciate me while I was truly appreciating them. I wanted to find a guy (a piece of candy) that was my favorite, and think that I was the luckiest person in the world to get him before he was snatched up by someone else. And I wanted him to feel the same about me.

And it's finally happened! It started out when Dave and I had been dating not very long. I had read the Candy Drawer post, and I was going to write about it on my blog and comment about it. But something funny happened. Dave said to me one time, "You're my favorite!" I was shocked. This was exactly what I wanted someone to say to me! And it continued. We still say that to each other. So I decided to wait to comment on this post until things had progressed more with me and Dave.



Dave and I got engaged on Saturday! We're going to be married on August 15th, 2009, in the Snowflake Arizona Temple! And I can say that we are indeed each other's favorites. I'm so happy!

Guest post from Dave anyone???

Another Joke

This doesn't really follow along with the cow jokes theme I've had going, but I thought this joke was great! Who knows, maybe it really happened.



His request approved, the Fox News photographer quickly used his cell phone to call the local airport to charter a flight. He was told a twin engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.

Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane warming up outside a hanger. He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, 'Let's go.'

The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off. Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, 'Fly over the valley and make low passes so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.'

'Why?' asked the pilot.

'Because I'm a photographer for Fox Cable News,' he responded. 'And I need to get some close up shots.'

The pilot was strangely silent for a moment. Finally he stammered, 'So, what you're telling me is... you're NOT my flight instructor?'

It's about time I post something on my blog about my car.

That's right, I have a car. I bought my grandma's white Olsmobile Cutlass back in mid-February, and it's been wonderful to have some transportation! Especially since Dave was always coming down to see me in Provo and I could never go up to Salt Lake to see him. So now I've been able to make a few trips up there, and get around Provo easier. And it's great!

Here are a few pictures.

I wanted to call her Phlegm because of her license plate, but it was changed when I registered it.



So now I call her Eunice.



There's a car named Eunice?



Yeah...



So, the other day I went to put some gas into Eunice, and when she was full she wouldn't start. After several jump starts, and an embarrassing situation with my car stalled in the middle of University Parkway, I found out that Eunice needed the alternator replaced. And the battery. Fortunately, the battery could be replaced for free because it was still under warranty.

I'd really like to start calling her Burnsy, but I'll have to wait to do that until she does something really cool, like demonstrate her superb evasion skills. Oh wait! She did that a few Saturdays ago! This is a fun story. I was driving home from Emily's house, and Dave was following me because we had driven down to pick up his car, which I had left at Emily's that morning. As I was driving, I noticed a car ahead of me that looked just like mine turn right onto a side street. It was also a white Oldsmobile Cutlass. And as soon as I saw it turn, I knew that Dave would think that I had turned. Dave followed the decoy and we went by undetected! Until I blew our cover by calling Dave, that is. But you see now why she is worthy of being called Burnsy?

Women's Conference!

I went to Women's Conference today! It was great! I could only go to one day of it because of work, and I actually only had time today to go to two of the classes. But it was still way fun. Here are some thoughts from Julie B. Beck (General Relief Society President) that I'd like to share:

Her talk was called Nourishing and Protecting the Family. She spoke about the definition of the family, and why it was important; the problems that families face; and what we can do to protect our families.

One of her ideas about the importance of the family was a story about her own family. I loved this story. She said that her mother was an older woman when she got married. I'm not sure how old she meant, though. But she had already graduated from college and had a career. She had a lot of things that she enjoyed, like skis, a bowling ball, a racquetball racket. And then she met her husband. He was a widower with three children, and Sister Beck's mom said that all five of them fell in love at the same time! The mom had to decide to give up her career and BECOME a mom. Sister Beck emphasized the choice that she made to sacrifice so that she could have a family. And then on their honeymoon, the two parents talked about what kinds of things they wanted to include in their family. They talked about how they wanted their kids to be married in the temple. They talked about education and work. And Sister Beck's message was about how communication is a big part of preparing for problems.

Some of the problems that she talked about included the idea that the world puts forth, that children really aren't important or desirable. She also included pornography, financial strain, and other problems. She said to FIGHT for our families! And I don't think that that means to fight our families! When we're having problems that are caused by imperfections in our family members, fighting the problem doesn't mean fighting them. It means doing things that will change the circumstances and support our family members. It means creating an atmosphere that is conducive to change.

It was a great talk. Right now they don't have the transcripts for this year up, but sometime soon they will have the transcript of her talk on the Women's Conference web page, and you can find it here.