His Presence

I have to admit, I cried today.  My heart was broken by the thoughts of the reality of what the world is really coming to.  I can only imagine the reunion that each person received today as they crossed over to the other side of the veil to meet again with our Savior and our Heavenly Father.  I have no doubt in my mind that those children are in their comforting arms.  I chose to become a teacher, for many reasons, but one of the main reasons was because I love the presence of children in my life.  They are so pure and precious, it really is so hard to not to love them. I could not imagine being a teacher in that school in CT today!  11 days from today is Christmas, a day of gathering with family and others who we love.  The day we celebrate the birth of our Savior.  As I thought of all those families today who had bought Christmas presents for those children who they lost, I then couldn't help but remember the true meaning of why we celebrate Christmas.  It's not about the presents or the candies or any of the other worldly things which come along with the holiday, but it's about His presence.  It's about recognizing things which we need to change in our life, to be able to be more worthy to have that presence with us all year round.  With His spirit, comes eternal comfort and the feeling of pure hope which is what is much needed in the world today.  I hope as I continue on through this time of year, I will all remember the true meaning of Christmas, and strive to share His Spirit this Christmas! Because of a babe born in a manger, all those families who have lost loved ones will see their babes again.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Some where only we know...

I always get super excited when Kyle and I get to go to Anchorage, even if it is only for 24 hours.  Yesterday, an old friend and mission companion of mine had an open house in Anchorage, and Kyle and I decided to go and make a weekend of it.  As we were driving to Anchorage, I just kept thinking about how excited I was go to, and I was thinking about why I was so excited to go, then I realized all the things I was excited about were just things to do in Anchorage that really I could do anywhere.  Then, the thought came into my mind, "Why do I love Anchorage so much?"  And this is my conclusion...   There is no one else in the world that I would rather steal all of their attention than Kyle's!  I want him to be giving me his attention all the time, because I always want to be giving him my attention.  I don't want to have to worry about this or that, I just want to spend my time worrying about, "how can I make Kyle laugh?" or "What would be the best angle to take this picture of us from?" or "What time is snuggle time?"...I love Anchorage, because that's our place!

:)

Alaska really is so beautiful...the whole state!  No matter where you go!

All the waterfalls freeze on the side of the rocks through the pass

Christmas lights in Anchorage!

To Never Looking Back....

I am never looking back to what I weigh today!  I joined weight watchers!  I am going to do it, and I am going to give it 100%!! Putting this on my blog helps me to feel as though I have something/one to be accountable towards!  I want to be healthy for my future!

I Dare You!

As of lately I have been reflecting a lot about the my life and how I am living it.  I always find myself saying, I know I can do better.  How do I know?  Because I've done better in the past. While today I was doing more reflecting I came across a Mormon Message  with our dear prophet, and he talked about standing alone.  Which is so hard to do, but really, we're all doing it one way or another.  Each of us are going through things that we can't find anyone to relate to, except for our beautiful Savior, of course.  But we are all standing alone, fighting our own demons, developing our own testimonies, the list could go on and on.  None of which are easy, but are much more easily done when we have a purpose and a desire to what is right, and to rely on the God Head.  I am never alone!  I can do hard things!

"Dare to be a Mormon

Dare to stand alone

Dare to have a purpose firm

Dare to make it known"

                                               -- Thomas S. Monson 

AL-CAN 2012

We did it!  We made the long haul from Paul, ID to Homer, AK.  Google Maps said it would take us around 62 hours, but it really isn't that long, it was only 58 (3,114 miles or 5011 KM)!  Four 12 hour days and then one 9 hour day.  and ironically, the 9 hour day was the LONGEST!  Probably because it was the last!  I do have to admit, I am really glad I made the drive, but really hope I never have to again!  It was absolutely beautiful, and my wonderful husband made it a very fun trip!  I really believe the pictures are what are going to do the best explaining...
Day 1: Paul, ID to Calgary, Alberta

Day 2: Calgary, Alberta to Grande Prairie, Alberta

Day 3: Grande Prairie, AB to Watson Lake, BC

Day 4: Watson Lake, BC to Tok, Alaska

Day 5: Tok, Alaska to Homer, Alaska!

The animal count throughout the drive:

• Moose: 4       
• Caribou: 2     
• Deer: 2 
• Fox: 3
• Mountain Sheep: 11
• Porcupine: 1
• Buffalo: 112
• Mosquito: 1 million  
•  Wild horses: 3
• Black Bear: 1

               It really was a fantastic time and honestly, these pictures don't do any justice to how beautiful it really was!! And the best part is, my husband still loves me after it was all over!! :)

Leaving Utah...what a curse!

For the last 4 months Kyle and I have been living in Utah so I could finish my education and do my student teaching down there!  We found a great place to live, we had a pretty good ward, Kyle had a great job, and we lived very close to my older sissy Shawna and close to our sweet Patey family members.  We were loving it!  Everything was so smooth, until we decided it was time for us to leave and head off to the great north, Alaska.  

   One huge problems we had was Connie!  Who is Connie?  Connie is one of the kid's cars that we had purchased years ago.  The beautiful 1994 Crown Victoria.  We were desperate to sell her, because my dad said Kyle and I could have the cash and use it as some traveling money as we drive to Alaska.  HUGE BLESSING! But Heavenly Father was not going to give it to us that easily!  We got a lot of offers on the car, but never real promising ones that were dependable.  So we ended up take her to CarMax to try and sell her there.  Well, all we had was a title which said my dad sold the car to us, and we needed to have a bill of sale or Title saying we were the official owners.  This whole thing went down on a Saturday, when nothing was open.  Frustrating!

                                                                            Connie

   Another huge problem was, the saying, "we really don't have a lot of stuff!"  Everyone has a lot of stuff, and when you get married, you have a lot more stuff than when you were just packing for one!  I started two days before we planned to take off, granted, everything got finished, but it wouldn't have without a few mental/stress breakdowns and my sister Shawna and her roommate Lisa!  They were angels!!  We had so much stuff and packing was a nightmare!!!  I should have started the day I ended my student teaching!

                                                                           Stuff!!!

                                                          The two who saved my life!!!

   One other problem is our blasted apartment!!  I could scream at the management!  Okay, so, the shortest lease you can buy through our apartment complex is seven months.  We knew from the very beginning we were not going to be there that long, but figured because we were buying our contract from some friends of ours who were looking to leave the place, we'd be able to do the same.....WRONG!!  Apparently, they got in some huge trouble doing that in the short four months we lived there and they will not work on you anyway, at all to sell your contract!  Therefore Kyle and I for the next few months, will be paying for a place we wont be living in, but some one else probably will!!  You're welcome Farmgate Apartments!

    The last problem and probably the biggest of all was my husband!  No, he didn't say anything or do anything bad, in fact, he was doing what I had asked him to do when it all began!  

  Me: Kyle, will you take out the trash?

  Kyle: Sure.

  Me: Thank you, it's already sitting outside. (**Thought--Should I tell him there is glass in the bag?  No, he'll hear it and figure it out!)

  Kyle: ah!  Babe?

  Me: Yeah, what happened?  (**Thought--Did he just kind of scream?)  

I then go outside to see my husband crouched over our conversation continues...

 Me: What's wrong do you need something?...**I got closer and my eyes widen!

  Kyle: Yeah, I need the first aide kit, can you find it for me!

I was then speechless because he has this huge 5.5 inch gash in his leg that he's trying to hold together and he's hoping the butterfly band aide in our first aid kit will hold it together!  I then look at him, and said, "You need a Dr. and stitches"  The glass in the bag, that I felt to warn him about, had very much cut his leg!

  Thank goodness Shawna was there!  She ran and got her car, I ran and found the most similiar thing to a band aide we have: duct tape and paper towels (keep in mind we are moving!) and wrap him up, he hobbles to the car and off to the instacare we roll!  Kyle ended up getting two layers of stitches, 25 on the first and then 39 on the second.  Which left me with a husband who was in a lot of pain and was unable to lift heavy things...Like I had said, Shawna and Lisa were angels!!

  Even as challenging as it was for us to start our new adventure, we really do feel the way which we are going is the way we need to go, and we are definitely excited to start a new chapter and we feel extremely blessed that we have each other.  What would I do without my favorite person!?

Ahh!!

Nothing like graduating from college!!!

3 hours...no key...no phone...no neighbors!

Lately, I've really wanted to start working out again and getting into shape, which is so stinking hard to do!!!!  My mom and sisters and I have all decided this year we are going to do a 5K because I have come to the conclusion that working out to get healthy is not motivation enough!  Therefore, I decided to put a little of a competition to it!  And yesterday I said, today I'm going to start, we all need to start somewhere and I'm going to here!  So I went and drove 3 miles because that was my goal for the day to do 3 miles...go find it, come home, get ready and go!!  I get my iPod, and then my apartment key (living in the city freaks my out, I must lock my door!)  Well, I go, completely convinced I am going to give up like a million times, but I did, I went actually four miles, I went over what I had set to do!  I was really proud of myself, I know for a lot of folks that's not very far, but I felt accomplished.  I go to grab my key, because I was just dreaming about the bath I was going to come home and take, when I realize.....I DON'T HAVE MY KEY!!!!!!  I tell myself, don't worry my sister Shawna who happens to be my neighbor, her car is home, so I can just run over there and well, as fate would have it...she wasn't even home!!!   I know of many ward members who live in this apartment complex, but I have no idea which apartment anyone lives in...then...It dawns on me!!  There is a hid-a-key on the car...so I go in the carport and I am seriously rolling underneath the car looking for it!  It was awful, I only cried on the curb for like two minutes before I decided I needed to go and walk my jog and look for my apartment key...so I walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked....and cried a little bit when I got to where I know my key wouldn't be any further by this time it's like 8:30, I've freezing, and I realized I had no where to go....and then finally around nine Shawna was home!  her roommate Lisa opened the door and I about passed out I was so freakin' excited! and I breathlessly exclaimed, "I'm so glad you're home!!" hahaha  And then around 11:00 p.m. my prince charming came to my rescue as usual and unlocked my door!

   I know Heavenly Father intended me to learn something, maybe he's just reminding me of His amazing sense of humor!  Or that people work better in pairs!!

p.s. I spelled going wrong every time while typing this post!!

LOL

Today, was just one of those days that I have wanted to laugh out loud all day.  I love to laugh and I wish that while I was in my classroom I could laugh more, but I knew if I did some children would be offended! Here is a couple of examples

#1.  Today one of my students was raising their hand becuase they needed some help with the assignment they were working on.  If you knew this student, it would probably be a lot more funnier, but you'll just have to make do with what he said to me when I bent down to be eye level with him and answer his question...he said, "how come you can bend down and you're an adult?"  

LOL

#2.  Yesterday this dancing group from BYU came, they were called Kinnect, and they were teaching our class a small dance to a poem by Shel Silverstien, anyways!  They were asking their names and one of our little boys was so excited that they were there and they were about to learn a dance, and when they asked for his name he quickly responded, before they could even finish their question....FABIO F-A-B-I-O!!!  LOL

#3  The class was getting ready to leave for library.  This particular student is quite the trouble maker and most of the time he refuses to do his homework.  So, the class was lining up and he didn't one dang problem on his paper, so I made him stay until he finished the worksheet.  Which was seriously 5 questions and he answered them in about 2 minutes, but while I was bent over (and yes I can bend over even though I am an adult) and helping him with his assignment, he stopped and gave a stare, and if stares could kill, I'd be dead.  But he stared at me, and then he started blowing hard out of his nose and well let's just say, a look like and with breathing like that, I definitely wanted to 

LOL

#4.  the other day we were playing kickball with another class.  And well two boys who happen to be BFF's were in batting line one after another.  The first boy kicked the ball, and then the second boy kicked the ball.  Well after the second boy kicked the ball, the first boy was talking to the other student who was playing first base and didn't run as soon as the ball was kick causing the second kid to hesitate and he got out.  About two minutes later I see boy one running out into the middle of the field, I go over to see if he's okay and he starts crying saying, "I've ruined the whole game, we're going to love because of me!!!" then boy two comes running and says, "I don't know how many times I need to tell you that I'm sorry, I am so sorry that I love my temper!!" Boy 1 "No, I know I ruined it for you!  I am so sorry I ruined the game!!"...so the argument went on and all I wanted to do was 

LOL

#5. Last but not least, I have a story about my sweet sweet husband, who I love so so so so so so much!! This morning I was running around crazy trying to find things and get stuff put together for school...and so I asked him to pack my lunch, and of course because he's a great big sweetheart, he did.  Later, I go to lunch open my lunch box and see a hot pocket and a plum (like I said to put in there) and then there were two packages of gummy snacks, a ho ho, a bag of chocolate covered raisins, and then pop tarts.  The lunch of a champion.  When I went through my lunch pack, I really wanted to 

LOL

I love laughing and I am so grateful I am given reason to LOL everyday, I just wish I was able to really LOL instead of having to LOL in my head, but either way I don't mind!  I just love to laugh!!

Settled

        No, I'm not talking about my husband...He's exceptional!  But we have finally settled here in Herriman, UT!  Heard of it?  Kind of a random place to be, but right now we're happy!  After we got married we got to live the dream in Jackson Hole, WY.  Honestly not even a care in the world!  Then we moved to our lovely home in Rigby, ID!  The great and beautiful, South Fork Inn!  They gave us the handicapped room, they claimed it would be better.  LIARS.  I walked by the cleaning lady one day while she was cleaning a room, and it wasn't long before I realize, it was much larger than our room.  Oh well, we survived!  Quite the adventure actually!          
       Kyle has found some work (thank heavens) down in Payson, UT...it takes about an hour or so to get there.  So far, it's been great.  He loves working, and getting his hands dirty! He's been pulling some pretty long hours, therefore giving me plenty of time to get things done, but he's been happy! I have an amazing husband!
      I have started my student teaching here and I am in third grade!  The kids are fantastic and my cooperating teacher is amazing!  She has many strategies I wish I could implement in my own classroom.  It's been great!    
     We were able to attend our church services on Easter Sunday, and our Bishop was really on top of things, right after sacrament meeting he was right there inviting us into his office.  I feel completely out of place, because I don't really know how to relate to a person who has five children, a husband and soccer games every other night.  But I am sure Heavenly Father will bless me with the ability to relate to them and to get to know them.  Kyle and I are only here for a very short amount of time, and I have a feeling it will go very quickly!  Before we know it, we'll be feeding moose in our backyard in Alaska!  The great and forty ninth state!
     Today, marks three weeks Kyle and I have been married.  Since I was alone, I celebrated by calling my sister and ordering pizza! :)  Neato right?  I finally wrote all of my thank you cards, it is so hard to get the motivation to do that one!  Glad I got it done, Kyle and I have many people to thank for help us as we start our lives together and as we get on our own two feet!
     We're happy with the direction which things are going.  Whenever I prayed about getting married, or finding work, or things going smoothly for student teaching, in my own carnal mind I was extremely worried, but the spirit was always quick to relieve my heart of stress and worry and to remind me of the eternal perspective.  This life isn't the reward, it's the test and one day we'll all receive that state of complete happiness we're all busy searching for.

Ode to the Wise

There is a Mormon Message which I love, I was introduced to it years ago, and to this day I still listen to it often, it is called Advice from Elder Busche. Today, as I was sitting here cleaning out my inbox I found the link to it and decided to watch it again. At the very end of it he says,

"When you are compelled to give up something , or when things that are dear to you are withdrawn from you, know that this is your lesson to be learned right now, but know also, that as you are learning this lesson, God wants to give you something better!"

One year ago, I listen to that same message. One year ago I returned home from my mission. It was extremely difficult. Something which was very dear to me was withdrawn from me. I was no longer in the service of my Heavenly Father as a full time missionary. I was now obligated to turn my thoughts towards other things which were important to my eternal progression, such as school, marriage, work, etc. Things which I had not worried about for 18 months. I remember this because I wrote it on a note card and taped it to my mirror which sat in my room. I was not fully prepared to let that chapter end, and I wasn't willing to enter into the next chapter. But I did the very best I could, and I knew Heavenly Father would take care of the rest. Six weeks after I returned home from my mission, I met the a boy, who would eventually become my husband. Today, as I re-listened and reflected on the message from Elder Busche, I realize that statement was a full filled prophecy for me. I was compelled to give something great up, people who I loved and desired to spend all my time with were withdrawn from me, and then Heavenly Father did give me something better. He gave me my eternal companion. Being a wife has been an amazing experience. Not the easiest of transitions, but one that I wouldn't trade for anything. I cannot even begin to describe how my love for Kyle has grown, in only ten days. I feel so blessed, and am so grateful for the lessons which I have be taught by my Father in Heaven, and for the better things which I have received because of these lessons.

Only Six More Days...

Time really is a flying by! I cannot believe in six days I am getting hitched! Weather predicts it's going to be partly sunny with a high of 55, I hope they are a smidgen wrong and we can get up to sixty please!! Everything I believe is all ready! We've got the cake, flowers, dress, suits, wedding decorator, photographer, family, hotel, honeymoon, etc. But I still feel as if I am forgetting something! Hopefully I'm not, but only Friday will be able to tell. I've been really grateful for my momma and the big help that she's been. She's been on top of everything every step of the way. I really haven't had to worry about anything, which I really cannot say how nice it has been. School has been crazy and I've barely been keeping my head above water, I'm sure that Kyle feels the same way. We've been very grateful for everyone who has been so great, and we are so excited to start this next chapter of our life!

My love and I

Browning Girls Know How to Have All the Fun!

The best thing about having sisters, is they are your bestest of all best friends! Best thing about a mom, is she too is a bestest of all best friends! People always feel bad for my dad because I come from a family of all girls, but he is so spoiled! I wish I could say this blog was about how we spoil our dad, but it's not! It about the weekend that he spoiled all six of his fine ladies! Around Christmas time I got engaged, and then a few weeks later my little sister received her mission call to Columbia, So. Carolina. Times a changing! Which is really crazy to think about. Therefore, my sisters thought it would be fun to have a party down in SLC for the weekend for one lasthooray of Browning Girls. We rented a hotel room at the Grand America with an amazing bathroom which included a huge bathtub! (if you know the Browning girls at all you know we lot to take baths!), ate lots of junk food, shopped until our feet were completely swollen from walking so much, swam in our make shift swimming suits, and we slept!!! OH we slept! It really was a marvelous weekend! I had the greatest time! Kyle was more than convinced that there was no way he was going to make it through the weekend without me, and of course I proved him wrong. He was fine!

Families are the greatest gift which we have, and I'm so grateful for the wonderful relationships which I have with my family! My sisters and my mom are seriously some of the most wonderful women which I know, and they are also the girls who I always have the most fun with! Not sure how they do it, But they rock!

P.-A.-R.-T.-Y? CUZ WE GOT TO!

SO, I have this fiance, and he asked me about my blog, and I had to tell him...I have not posted in a while! In that while, lots and lots has happened! Tomorrow, my class has been cancelled, therefore, I will stay up late to blog! The thing that I feel that I love the most about blogging, is I feel like I'm talking to myself. As I sit here and try and decide what to blog about, I talk about situations going on in my life, and I feel that I get a lot of them figured out!!

LIFE is going by WAY too quickly! I cannot believe that we are approaching the middle of March! Kyle and I get married six weeks from today folks! YAY!!! I feel like we have done SO much but yet, have done nothing. Hopefully, I'll find out my score on the Praxis, because that determines whether we move to UT or not! and then if we do, then where will we live for 10 days while we're still in Rexburg? Suggestions? Hotel is our best option right now! Fabulous! As a 10 year old, living in a hotel would only be a dream...now that it's going to become reality, not too sure how I feel about it! I am sure that it'll make for great stories to tell our children when we're the weird parents! ;) & Woah! I have been home from my mission for 10 months, and some of the really young ones when I left, are getting ready to come home! I got to see my beautiful friend Jaymee Thurston this last week! She's just one of those friends, that every time I see her, it'll be like we see each other every day! She's fantastic! I love that she's home! and Love even more that she's from MY hometown!! :) Yay for Mini-Cassia Area!! Miss Bailee comes home very soon! well, 19 days to be exact!!!!

LAST weekend Kyle and I took engagement pictures. Our photographer, Carli Hobson, did a great job! I had been feeling under the weather that whole day, and was probably a little more on the drugged up side while we were taking photos, but she made sure that Kyle and I had a really fun time, we're excited to see how they all turn out! I will post those as they come along!

FOURTH grade, in case you are wondering, is the best grade in the world! They have the best content and the students are learning to be independent and they are just at a super fun age. You can kind of tease with them and they understand that you are, and they don't get offended! They love trying to convince me I told them we could play dodgeball in P.E. class, I never did and I never will! Tuesday is Valentine's day and I wish so badly that I was going to be there for that one! This is also the age where they are starting to develop real crushes on each other, and to an adult, they are totally obvious, but they think they are being anonymous. They love to make up songs, right now the favorite tune is to "I'm sexy and I know it.." they make up songs about Harry Potter to that tune, or snakes being deadly...interesting! I love the fourth grade class that I'm in right now. They really are a great great class! I honestly will probably never see a class like this again in my lifetime! They are a one in a million class! No behavior problems, all pretty much on the same page of understanding, all come from really great home and family lives...this is a very odd...BUT I'm not complaining!

WELL, I'm grateful and happy the way things are! I still have to say, I really do live the most perfect life!

I just felt like blogging...

Here it is, about one in the morning, and I am up blogging, why am I up blogging? Great question! All week I just complain about how tired I am, and then when I have the opportunity to sleep, I stay awake and I blog! Don't worry I confuse myself! But I've still got people who love me!
This week was a good one! I got the best calling in the whole wide world! I get to be the mission prep teacher! Could it get any better? I really think not! I spent a year a half serving my Heavenly Father, and I don't think that I fully realized how amazing that kind of a chance is, until you no longer have the chance to do it. Now, I get the opportunity to help other who desire to give up some time and dedicate it to the Lord, and go and preach about Him and His true gospel on the earth again. I about cried when my Bishop asked me to do this! Really really excited!!! All week my mind has just been flowing with ideas of ways that I want this class to go. Grateful for the spirit which teaches us things which we should do. What a gift! So many of us fall apart when we have to make a decision, worrying about if it's the right one, and one thing that I've come to realize, is that there can be a million right ones. There is always going to be a right ONE specifically!! Then we get all worked up about what exactly we should be doing, degrading the fact that we have been given knowledge to choose. Heavenly Father will prompt us through the Spirit on the crucial things, but it's things that pertain to our salvation is where we're really going to feel those strong impressions from the spirit guiding and directing us to the place where we need to be. His purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man... Small tangent, and something I've been thinking a lot about!

Another thing which I have been thinking a lot about is...WEDDING!!! Um...this is crazy! Who knew how many SMALL and not so small details went into planning a wedding!! This has been nuts! Sometimes fun, and sometimes stressful, and sometimes exciting! None the less, it's getting done. Just one small thing at a time! This week we made lots of decisions, we decided on what we want to serve at the dinner, we decided on what type of flowers we wanted, we decided on what everyone will be wearing, we decided on a honeymoon destination...those are to name just a few. Today, we actually got the best news ever! So, Kyle is from AK...yeah, it's far away! His family weren't sure if they were all going to be able to make it down here, but today I talked to Kyle's mom and Kyle talked to his brother Dean, and Kyle's whole family is going to be able to be here for the wedding. Kyle and I were so excited! What a neat surprise! It really does mean a lot to us to have them there. Family really is everything and then a little more!!!

Okay, so it's 1:23...ha! and I think I'd better get some sleep! :)

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!!

I had great intentions with this whole blogging thing, and it isn't really going the way that I had hoped that it would. But I will continue to blog, even though I'm not too consistent!
I had a great Christmas. I have to first mention that I have the world's greatest parents and they made this Christmas an amazing one! Me and all of my sisters were home for the holidays. It had been a few years, and I think it'll be a few more before it gets to happen again. It was absolutely magical! Poor Holli didn't know what to do when we all came home, and then she got used to us and now she probably doesn't know what to do now that we are all gone again.
There were a few more things that made this last Christmas vacation a great one, and because I am a person who loves to make list, I am going to list the things that made the Christmas Vacation marvelous! It's going to be my surprise list because that is what they all were, surprises...
Surprise #1---
Christmas Eve was fun! We went to have our annual Christmas with the Stockings party. We had soup, played embarrassing games, sang songs, basketball, the usually family gathering type things minus any fights! Then we come home, and of course the first thing that I want to do is talk to Kyle and then watch The Grinch! I'm talking to Kyle on the phone and thinking, "I can't wait to see you in two days!" and then I hear a knock on the door, but yet at the same time Kyle is knocking on someone's door. He was going to his aunts house that day. Staci then comes frantically running down the hall and says, "Heidi, come here!" So, I go up there thinking that some one from the ward decided to play Santa Clause and was bringing us some candy canes, but then low and behold guess what I see... The face that I had been missing so much for the past four months...KYLE'S!!! I couldn't believe that he was there! I didn't ever think in 100 years that he was going to come before Christmas! Grateful for his mom for letting him come down here a few days early to spend Christmas with my family and I. He really was the best Christmas Present, and a wonderful wonderful surprise! I was so shocked when I saw him that all I could mutter out was..."WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"...Grateful he stuck around after my very welcoming comment ;)
Surprise #2---
One thing that Kyle has never seen before is Temple square with all of it's Christmas lights, and when he said that I thought, oh my heck! How is that even possible? So, when he told me that we had to go down to Utah for his cousin's wedding reception, I told him one stipulation was that we had to go to Temple Square at night and see the lights. Christmas lights are probably one of my favorite things about Christmas, just everything they represent it's fantastic!! Therefore, Kyle and I go ring shopping all day in hopes to find the perfect ring. Although, no girl really wants to say, "Oh! I want that one!" because it'll probably end up being like 10 grand, way more than you imply for them to spend. All day, I was stressing out and I just kept telling Kyle, please just pick a ring and I promise you, I'll love it! Little did I know, that Kyle had already bought a ring about a month ago, and was leading me on the whole day. (Although, I do have to say that I got semi even because I kept changing my mind the whole day about the shape of the stone that I had wanted...making Kyle sweat a little;) ) So we shop all day long, and by this time it's about 6:00p.m. and we are meeting his sister at 7:00 in Riverton...I'm getting really nervous thinking that we don't really have time to go to temple square, but I tell him we can only do it in about 15 minutes and then we've gotta get on the road. So we are walking through temple square, I am about three steps in front of Kyle the whole time, pulling him through everything, not stopping at anything, just passing and glancing, because I hate being late! We go over to the north side of the temple trying to avoid the crowds and Kyle starts acting a little funny. He keeps going back and touching the temple, stopping trying to hold me, but I am so worried about being late that I was having a difficult time, just enjoying the moment! Kyle then says, "Heidi, I want to look at the temple from over here..." and in my mind I'm thinking, we really do not have time. That time Kyle is probably figuring, if he's doing to do anything, he'd better act quick, because I'm moving! Kyle then looks me in the eye and smiles and tells me how much he loves me, gets on one knee and ask me to marry him! I DIDN'T WANT IT TO END!!! So, I asked him how long I could make him stay there, it was then that he nervously said, "Heidi..." and I said yes! It was a magical SURPRISE!!
All in all it was a great weekend and I'm very happy for the future, and all the other wonderful things Heavenly Father is going to throw my way!


p.s. it took me 2.5 weeks to finish this post! Maybe I don't have time for blogging ;)