Busy Bumblebee

Well, here is the update.  Planning a wedding is stressful! I give mad props to the people who plan a wedding while attending school because I have thought more than once that there is no possible way I would still be sane right now if I had been planning this wedding during the school year.  Thank goodness for summer weddings.

Since I was always hoping Derick and I would be getting married this summer I was stressing about time when May rolled around and there was still no proposal.  I thought we would be so rushed for time that the second we got engaged the wedding planning began. -- I refused to be one of those couples who was planning a wedding before there was a ring on my finger, but lets be real here.. thanks to pinterest I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted my wedding to look like :) Getting engaged just meant running the ideas through with Derick.

I am so glad we jumped into the wedding planning as quickly as we did! Week 1 we managed to:
-Decide on our colors
-Find my dress
-Find a photographer
-Book an appointment in the Temple
-Find our reception Venue (after looking at every possible place in the valley)
-Plan our honeymoon
-Find Derick's suit
-Register for our gifts
-Look for decorations
and many, many other things that are all a blur because of how crazy the week was.  On top of that we were both working at our jobs full time.

Things still haven't slowed down! We went through a couple of dead weeks were there was absolutely no wedding planning being done, but we are back into the swing of things.  We have most of the big things out of the way.  Now all that is left is finalizing decorations, getting bridals taken, making a play list, ordering announcements, and having my bridal showers.

Earlier this week we found our first home! It is perfect for us and exactly what we were looking for.  I was getting discouraged because I had been looking for apartments in our price range for sometime now on KSL and all of them looked like places I would have to settle on, just because we couldn't afford anything better.  I hoped when we actually started looking at apartments in person we would find somewhere.  We went out early morning to begin our adventure of finding our home.  All the apartments we looked at were either:
-Too small
-Too old
-Sketchy locations
-Very high end of our budget
-Flat out ugly
To be honest.. all the apartments we looked at were all of the above.   Each one didn't have a bedroom big enough to even fit our bed let alone our dresser & nightstands.  The kitchens were obviously from the 70's, appliances and all. And they all had a funky smell to them.  There were even a couple of places we drove to but we didn't even bother getting out to look because of the neighbors standing outside.  Scary looking people.   I hated being so picky.  I knew that being a newly wed would mean I'd have to make some sacrifices, and I felt bad.. Shouldn't anywhere be fine as long as I was coming home to Derick at the end of the day?  All I knew was I wanted a place I would feel comfortable living in.  I didn't want to give up but I had to go to work so we would have to continue our search later.   I have a friend who just recently got married who, in passing, had told me what she was spending on rent a month, which was within me and Derick's budget. She did say, though, she was getting a good deal because the landlord is neighbors with her in-laws. We decided to check it out anyway--  I have another friend who lived in the exact same duplex awhile back and from what I could remember they were very reasonable on the inside.  Derick contacted my friend who gave him her landlords number.  When I got off work we went and met up with him and he gave us keys to 3 different town homes to look at.  The first one was too good to be true! It had brand new carpet, a master bedroom that would fit all of our furniture, a second bedroom, laundry room, you name it.  It had everything we were looking for.  We checked out the second town home. It had a very similar lay out but we didn't like the carpet as much, and there were a couple of other little things that we liked less than the one we had just seen.  We decided to cross that one off our list.  The 3rd one was a tie with the first one.  Both of the town homes had different pros and cons from another.  Dericked loved the 3rd one because there was a stream in the back yard.  I had to remind him we really should focus on what was on the inside.  After a couple of days of thinking on it decided to go with the first one.  We are more than thrilled and can't wait to move in!  We were so blessed to be able to find a home that was more than what we could have hoped for.  We are also blessed to go to a place with a landlord who was more than willing to work with our budget.  If it were anyone else we simply would not have been able to afford it.  We are moving into a place 100 x's better than any of the other apartments/condos we had looked at for a better price than most of them.  Life is good. 


Since we found our perfect home we couldn't risk not getting it right then and there.  We aren't getting married until August but we decided it would be best if I move in a month early so that way we can mostly be settled into our home by the time we get married, and we could secure our place. I'll start the moving in process this upcoming week.

I Don't have any pictures of it yet but I can't wait to take them, and I cannot wait to start decorating! I have been spending lots of time on pinterest the past couple of days looking for cute decoration ideas:)


I am 21! My 21st birthday was perfect.  Considering the circumstances.  The day before my birthday I woke up sick.  It wasn't too bad so I went about my day and began my birthday activities.  I had a really chill day with Derick, we went to summerfest, went and took a nap at first dam, and we went to see Madagascar.  Such a cute funny movie.  Then we went to the miniature golf course for my Cox family birthday party.  It was so much fun and I am so happy to be marrying into a family that is so compassionate and caring for me.  They went above and beyond with their party for me and it was more than I would have even hoped for.

Later I invited my friend McKell to come hang out with me.  By this point I was feeling flat out miserable but I tried to continue having fun.  It wasn't until I allowed myself to lie down that my sickness got the best of me.  McKell left and I laid there until Derick said he was going to bed.  I didn't want to move but I knew I should go home.  I eventually got up, said bye to Derick, and drove home.  On the drive home I became extremely emotional.  Derick had such a fun birthday for me planned the next day and I knew I was too sick  to go along with it.  I decided to call him, sobbing, and told him I was so sorry but I didn't think I could have a fun birthday like he was planning. He told me not to worry, it was my day so he would do whatever I thought sounded good.  I still felt horrible though.  I got into bed and half an hour later Derick called me to see if I was doing alright.  He then told me he was actually right outside my house and asked if he could come in.  I went and unlocked the door for him and he made me herbal tea while I laid in bed, and he tickled my back until I fell asleep.  He is so good to me!! The next morning I slept in pretty late and around noon Derick showed up to my house with a bag full of goodies.  Soup, juice, rolls, ice cream, medicine, and a couple of birthday gifts.

We laid in my bed and watched a movie.  I mostly slept, and poor Derick didn't even like the movie I chose but he sat there and watched it, while I slept with, with no complaints.
By mid afternoon I was feeling quite a bit better so I got ready for the day and we went shopping with some of the birthday money I got.  Afterwards we met up with a few of my friends for birthday dinner at Chili's.  It was a perfect dinner.

And then we went to our friend's band's concert, which was a lot of fun.  After that we went to Derick's parents house to watch another movie.  No complaints I really wanted to take it easy.  Then the day was done.  It wasn't the birthday I had planned and hoped for but it actually ended up being better.  It's a bummer I had to be sick for my birthday but it all worked out just fine:) The next day (Sunday) my family had a combined birthday/ father's day celebration.  I love spending time with my family.  We always have such crazy schedules but we never fail to get together on sundays, and since this sunday we were celebrating two things it was a lot more fun.  We decided to pull out the home video of when I came home from the hospital.   We haven't seen our home videos in forever because they were all on VHS and the VCR would eat them.  For our parents Christmas gift me and my sister's started the very long process of converting all of them to DVDs.  Such a great gift, but it is extremely time consuming.  We only got to the tape where I came home from the hospital.  Which was perfect.  I was born on Father's day, so it was a little reminiscing from 21 years back.  It was weird to watch the video and look at the itty bitty 4 lb baby and think That is me! I can't believe I was sooo small.  I am so glad I was born on Father's day because now more than anything every father's day I am reminded of what a great dad I have.  I came into this earth on that day for a reason.  I was such a good Father's day present and he was such a good birthday present :) It was also fun to watch the videos because Derick has not watched any of my home videos.  He has hardly even seen pictures of me from when I was little.  I think seeing me as a baby made him a little excited for us to start a family of our own :).  Not for a few more years, of course, but as long as he is excited for it!

Today I have quite the hefty to do list.  So hefty I am wondering why I am taking the time to sit here and write out such a long blog.   I guess it was much needed.  I have a lot happening in my life, and these are the times I want to remember but I am so busy that I will be lucky coming out with any memories what so ever.