Ka-Ching

I feel like every day lately is just filled with some exciting news (though nothing tops the news of my dear nephew being born). Here are just a few things that have happened since my last post that have made the last couple days just fantastic:

*I finally got around to returning some of the few straggling wedding gifts that needed to be returned. We now have gift cards to just about any shop in town.

*We finally found a TV stand that we both love that will work for the size of TV we hope to get on Black Friday.

*The a fore mentioned TV stand is less than we were anticipating, so now we can use the remaining amount of gift cards to get a decent dresser. We've been using one that I got for cheap at D.I. It looks really cute, but it's barely functional. The drawers are a constant balancing act. I have had my toes smashed more than once because the drawers refuse to stay in. Thus- I am SO excited for a new dresser.

*This weekend is my weekend off of work. That in itself is really great...but my parents are heading to Michigan to meet that adorable little nephew of mine, so I get to go home and hang out with Camille and Tanner for the weekend. We are going to have a blast. It's definitely making this week drag by though! Can't wait to go home!

*We officially get to go home for Thanksgiving AND Christmas. We were both able to work it out so we have Thursday through Sunday off for Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas off. I really didn't think there was any way I could get more than a couple days off for Christmas. At one point it was even looking like I would have to work on Christmas Day, so I was really really pleased that my boss was able to work out the schedule so that I could have that week off.

*Our car is getting closer to fixed every day! My best friend's brother was able to take it into his work today to look at it and he's got it narrowed down to what he thinks it is. He fixed it up today and wants me to drive it around tomorrow to see if it runs like it's supposed to. If not, he knows for sure what it is and will be able to fix it pretty easily. The end of the car troubles is finally in sight!

*Along those same lines, my best friend happens to have an extra car right now that she is trying to sell. She was nice enough to let me use it until my car is fixed so Luke or I don't have to attempt riding a bike to work/school. She's a lifesaver!

*One of the guests staying at the hotel tonight decided to surprise me by bringing me back a steak and potatoes after he finished eating at Ruby Rivers. Mmmmm. So good. Some people are just so nice!

*We got our furnace fixed yesterday! This morning was heaven; waking up to a warm house instead of a freezing cold one. It's a lot easier to find the motivation to get out of bed when you are certain you can make it to the shower without freezing to death.

*Luke's mom and sister (and maybe aunt?) are coming into town tomorrow to take us to dinner. A girl that I work with was sweet enough to volunteer to cover for me for a couple of hours so that I can join them. :)

*I had Monday and Tuesday off and was able to find a place for every single box that we had out in the guest bedroom. Now there are officially NO boxes in site until you open up any of our closets. It actually feels like we have a second bedroom now!

*Okay---and now the final news, that I am SO SO SO excited for. It took a while to convince Luke to let me make this purchase. We were able to combine all of our Bed, Bath & Beyond gift cards and it ended up costing hardly anything once we used our 20% off coupon. Isn't it gorgeous?! I just love it so much. We ended up having to order it in because they didn't have it in stock, but it should be coming late this week or early next week. I have wanted one of these for SO long, I can't believe we will actually have one so soon! Man, I can't wait!


Needless to say, the last two days have been very busy, but SO great. I just love when the good things just keep piling on. It makes the stinky things a lot easier to deal with in a cheerful manner. It sure makes it a lot easier to count your blessings when they are more obvious than a slap in the face.

I'm Ashamed

Yes. I know. I have skipped right over blogging about some of the most important times of my life; preparing for my wedding, my actual wedding, the honeymoon, and getting used to married life. It was all so hectic and flew by so fast that I never even thought about blogging! But here's a brief (or not so brief) recap:

So our engagement was six months long. Everyone said it would drag by, and I guess in some ways it did, but for the most part it did not seem long enough! I am still amazed at the amount of planning that goes into weddings! I don't know how people that have to plan the actual ceremony on top of everything else do it! I'm sure I didn't even see half of the hard work that went into it either. I know my dad worked hard all spring and summer long to get the backyard looking great. I can't even begin to tell you how many hours him and the rest of my family put into putting flowers in, pulling weeds, cleaning things out, bringing things in, putting things up, pulling things down, and on and on. I know it was a huge sacrifice of time that went into this and I am incredibly grateful that I was blessed with a family that loves me enough to work that hard for me. My mom was especially amazing. I've never been very good at picturing things...so picking things out for the reception was really hard for me. Luckily, my mom is amazing at pulling all sorts of things together and making them look fantastic. My Aunt Debie, Aunt Tammi, and my cousins Larkin and Savannah also helped a ton! Debie and Savannah helped my mom a lot with the decorations at the reception and put a lot of work into making our shed not stick out like a sore thumb. Tammi and Larkin took on the HUGE job of the food at the reception. They made who knows how many cookies and delegated the making of even more to other family members. I've gotten so many compliments one how great the food was and how cute it was displayed. I seriously loved EVERYTHING about the reception. And there is no way it would have looked that good if I had been calling all the shots. My mother-in-law did a fantastic job at the luncheon as well. Texas Roadhouse catered, which is mine and Luke's very favorite place to eat, so that was great. She did a great job of making the gym into a perfect luncheon. Luke's older sister, Margaret, was our photography and did a really good job of capturing some priceless moments. Our pictures are seriously amazing. Luke's friend James did a really good job of putting together a picture slide show/video to show at the luncheon. I am so lucky to have such great family and friends that stepped in when they were needed and did all they could to make sure that my wedding day was perfect. Special shout-out to Camille and Tanner who helped my mom and my dad with all of the things they had to do to get ready for the wedding. I know things got a lot stressful at times but they were always (or almost always) happy to help and fun to be around. They're great.

One of my very favorite parts of the wedding was how much family was able to come! The family reunion for my Dad's side was the week before my wedding (which my parents were also in charge of! Talk about busy people!), so TONS of family were able to work out their schedule so that they could stay for the wedding. This meant so much to me. My family is the most important thing to me and my wedding day wouldn't have been nearly as great without having some of the most important people there with me. The sealing room was PACKED. Such a great reminder of how much Luke and I are loved. I have such a huge family that I don't get to talk to everyone as much as I would like, but I really love all of them and appreciate the sacrifices many made so that they could be there to support me.

I would be in the wrong to not mention mine and Luke's friends as well. They came from ALL over to be there. One even came up from California just so he could be there for our wedding day. We had another friend make a 2 hour detour from her trip home just so that she could be there for the sealing. I can't even begin to describe how much I love our friends. They are the greatest friends you can imagine. I know that neither one of us would be the people we are today without their support. They're not the kind of friends that I can ever imagine living without.

I know that I am failing to mention SO many people that did a great deal to help with the wedding. If I mentioned everyone that helped, this blog would be never ending. I really appreciate everyone's love and support. You all mean the world to me!

(At this point I would like to thank Blogger for automatically saving my drafts. I accidentally just exited out and about died until I realized this was all saved)

We went to Disneyland for our honeymoon. It was a surprise for me until we got up to the gate to get on. Luke knows me much too well. I LOVE rollercoasters...and warmth. We stayed at a Holiday Inn about a block away from the park, so we were able to walk there in about five minutes. It was perfect. The hotel gave us a free upgrade when they found out we were on our honeymoon and our room was AMAZING. The hotel staff was really great. It was the best week ever. Disneyland really does cast a magical spell. It was the perfect honeymoon. Luke did really good at getting things set up so that they would be perfect for us.

About a week before we left for Idaho, we FINALLY found an apartment that both of us loved. We had already had one apartment slip between our fingers, so we were so relieved when we got the final notice that the apartment was ours! It's a cute little 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment about a mile from campus. One of the main reasons that I have put off blogging since we got home from the honeymoon is because I wanted to post pictures of our place. Sadly, that is still not going to happen in this post. It's VERY close though. We actually were able to get everything unpacked and put away faster than I expected....but we still don't have a real tv stand or dresser. We are getting both of those this weekend (hopefully) so I will post pictures soon I promise!

Now for some very exciting news....I am an aunt :) I have the most adorable little nephew. Logan Bradley Couch. You can't even imagine how much I love him. I have watched every video that my mom has sent of him at least 5 times. He's SO cute. SO SO SO cute. He's so alert for a newborn! I've always felt like most newborns look a bit....squished and alien-y. Not this little guy though! He's got the cutest chubby cheeks and does not look even a little squished or alien-y. I'll admit I'm already mad for the little man and I haven't even met him yet. That's really the only downer about the whole thing is I don't get to meet him until Christmas time. But you bet I'll cherish every second that I get to be with him!

That is all for now. I'll try to be better about blogging more often. It might prove to be difficult. Married life is turning out to be incredibly busy, but I will try :)

The Heart of Life

I don't have a lot of time but wanted to give a few quick shout outs:

*First: Happy Anniversary to my mom and dad! Yay! Best parents a girl could ask for. They provided me with a great example growing up of the type of marriage that I want. Thanks for getting married and loving each other so much :)

*Second: Shout out to my wonderful fiance, Luke. Yes, I am cheesy....But he's great. He got the final approval on Sunday to be ordained an elder. I don't think I've ever seen anyone more excited for anything before. His enthusiasm and dedication towards working towards the temple constantly amazes me.

That's all I have time for today....Just thought that both of these were worth a quick blog.

Ramble On

I've decided that in a 2 1/2 hour class, the last hour is solely dedicated to being off task. The person on my left is playing games on his Ipad. The person in front of me is texting. The one on my right is facebooking. I am blogging....and this is one of my favorite classes! My conclusion? 2 1/2 hours is waaay too long.

This weekend Luke and I decided to go home for his friends mission report. The problem was that Luke worked until 3 on Saturday...but don't worry. That didn't stop us. We ended up pulling into town about 7:30pm on Saturday night and left around 6pm on Sunday evening. It was a quick trip, but semi-productive. My mom supplied me with an LDS 4-month checklist for the wedding. Really made me realize that we have a LOT that still needs to be done. No stress or anything though right?

I really don't have anything to say in this post. Really though....basically nothing. You should probably stop reading now since anything from here on out will be the bored ramblings of a hungry student. Here are some random thoughts I have.

*Moustache's are a funny thing. Some guys look weird without one, some look weird with them. It's just a strange occurance.

*My friend Quertis once wrote a blog about some confusion he had regarding the word 'Stache.' Some radio company or something was sponsoring some sort of a giveaway for the person that sent in a picture of the best game stash. My friend, having a moustache, assumed they meant 'stache' as in hair under your nose. Of course, the company meant stash as in 'collection of games.' So my friend sent in a picture of his moustache, feeling his chances of winning were pretty good. Only a while later did he realize what he had done. This story makes me laugh everytime I think about it.

*I really don't know why I'm thinking about moustache's right now. There is not anyone around me that has one.

*I can't remember if my class ends at 8 or 8:30. I'm hoping 8.

*This girl in class just said that she's never traveled further than 30 minutes away from her home that she's lived in all her life. Woooooow. How is that even possible?!

I won't bore you anymore with the rest of my thoughts. I'll just finish up with my smiles...

Straight smiles:
1) I've recently rediscovered my love for apples. They're so great
2) I got to see my family for a little bit this weekend.
3) One of my closest cousins is getting married on Saturday....I'm really quite happy for her.
4) I've seen one of my oldest friends 6 out of the last 7 days. I love friends
5) I got the closest parking spot possible to my class today

Sly smiles:
1) I have a ton to do for the wedding = means the wedding is getting closer!
2) Lots of homework and quizzes = the end of the semester is coming up!
3) Finals week is soon = summer is soon!
4) Lots of laundry to put away when I got back from Idaho = lots of new clothes to wear :)
5) My bananas are too old to eat = I can make banana bread

Won't Back Down

This won't even qualify as a real post...but I wanted to share this with everyone:

Apr 05 @ Lakers		Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4									TOTAL
	Jazz	20	14	23	29									86
	Lakers	24	16	17	28									85

Yeaaaah!

That's all :)

Check Yes or No

This weekend was simply fantastic. One of the best I've had in a long time.

It all started with the Jazz v. Lakers game on Friday night. My parents had gotten us tickets for Luke's birthday, which was pre the great Sloan and Williams debacle. Needless to say, I was wary of how entertaining the 'game' was going to be. Although the final score would not suggest it, the game was actually a really good one (up until halfway through the third quarter). The Jazz were actually winning the entire game, by quite a bit...but in classic Jazz fashion, lost the 12 point lead that they had maintained for the majority of the game in the fourth quarter. We ended up losing 85-96. We both still had a fun time though. It's always fun to go out and do something out of the ordinary on the weekends.

The best part of the entire game actually happened before the doors even opened. They say a picture says a thousand words. In that case, I'll say no more on this subject and simply share the two pictures that make me jump with joy every time I see them.




:):):) I know that I said I would say no more on the subject. I lied. These two were SO nice. They were both nice enough to stop and sign a couple autographs and snap a quick picture with us (yes, we got autographs as well). Needless to say, it was a pretty good start to our weekend.

My Uncle Bruce works security at the Energy Solutions Arena (which will always be the Delta Center to me). Before the game, we went to give him a quick hello. Since he was down on the floor, we got to sit front row to watch some players warm up. As much as I hate the Lakers, I do like Odom and Gasol. Because of this, I find this picture adorable:

We also snapped this picture of us before the game.



Due to the extreme classiness of the Lakers' fans (and admittedly the Jazz fans), after the game there were multiple fights breaking out. A complete stranger decided it was necessary to approach me as I was leaving the arena to say, 'Go on home baby girl. Your team sucks.' People these days...After the game, we headed to Luke's aunt's house. His mom and little sister were down for the weekend, and they were staying there as well. We all stayed up WAY too late Friday night, but had fun :)

Saturday morning/afternoon consisted of Luke and I going to Bed, Bath & Beyond to register. It took SO freaking long! We did a lot better than we had at Target (where we registered for a whopping 27 items). Bed, Bath, & Beyond was very helpful because they had a little list of suggestions for things to register for for each room in your house. It helped organize our thoughts better than I thought it would. I'm now in the process of comparing registries. I think we'll fill in the little things that we need but aren't registered for at either BB&B or Target when we go register at Walmart.

Saturday evening we went to the George Strait concert. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Loved him last time we saw him...loved him this time. He's great. We went with Luke's mom, his sister, his aunt, and his cousin. Words can't even describe how much fun it was. Luke's mom won some tickets that were a few rows closer than ours, so me and Luke's cousin went over and sat in them for the opening acts. The seats were nice there, but the company better in our other spot, so we headed back for George. There's really nothing else to say except for that he is amazing.

Overall, it was a really great weekend. This next weekend is going to have an awfully hard time matching it.



This weekends straight smiles:
1) Arby's turkey bacon club. Try it. You won't regret it.
2) Seeing my future mother-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt-in-law, and cousin-in-law. They're the best. So much fun to be around.
3) Got to see one of our good friends Tom for about 70 seconds before he caught his flight back to California.
4) Had a lot of fun and laughs registering with Luke :)
5) I feel like this one is too obvious and shouldn't count, but I'm counting it anyways. The concert and the game. I'll remember this weekend all my life, so I think it deserves to be one of the weekend's straight smiles.

This weekends sly smiles:
1) A girl tried to pick a fight with me at the Laker's game = Made me realize how easy it is for people (including myself) to get so caught up in something as silly as a game, that they forget what is really important. I was able to apply this to the little things in my life that I put importance in, when I should be focusing more on better things....like helping others.
2) Coming out of the concert only to be soaked by a terrible rain storm = Luke ended up running to go grab the car, which made it so I didn't have to walk the few blocks to get to it...and my feet were already hurting.
3) Forgetting to double check the tip-off time for the game, and arriving about an hour and a half before the doors opened = gave me and Luke a chance to go for a short walk and talk. One of my favorite parts of the weekend
4) Having to say goodbye to my future in-laws and their adorable little dog = I get to see them either this coming weekend or next!
5) I really don't have a fifth one. It was hard enough for me to think of four bad things that happened this weekend. Everything else was simply a straight smile :)

Something More

Lately I've felt that my days are too long and I have too much to do to really take time to be happy. Today I had more time to reflect and it struck me. I'm engaged to a man I love, I have an amazing family that I get to see pretty regularly, I have made some great new friends at work, I love my job, I love my major...So why don't I feel incredibly happy more often? The reason? Because I don't take the time to recognize my blessings. I think that during this time of my life when I should be happy, Satan is working really hard to pull me down. But no more! Be prepared for an optimistic blog!

I'm the worst blogger ever. I'm fully aware. I know you're all thinking it. I think, 'Well what have I done this week?" My answer is always, "School, work, same old." So I never blog. I've made a new vow. In church on Sunday, the first counselor in the relief society spoke. She talked about a new years resolution she had made to write down a good thing that has happened to her every day. She had a little red book that she used. I've decided to use this blog as my optimism tracker. In every blog, I'm going to try to find five good things that happen to me each day. I'll call these my 'Straight Smiles.' On top of these, I've decided to take five not so good things that happen to me each day, and list a way that these things are actually good things. I'll call these things my 'Sly Smiles.'

Today's Straight Smiles:
1. I got to use the new eyeliner I bought last night for the first time. The kind I've been using tends to flake out halfway through the day, ending in black specs all over my face. This new kind is fantastic!
2. While running an errand at the mall for Luke, I ran into Rue 21 for a quick glance. I found the perfect shirt to go with my outfit for the George Strait concert on Saturday. The best part? It was on sale for only $4!
3. Luke's roommate made up some of my favorite fries and accidentally made too many, and gave me the rest :)
4. A girl at work was cleaning out her closet and brought four bags of clothes into work. We're pretty close to the same size, so I scored 4 new pairs of pants, 3 new shirts, and 1 very comfy old sweater (this was actually yesterday, but it was so great that it deserves to carry over into today)
5. I found an unopened bag of chicken nuggets in the freezer that I had forgotten about. I tried them for the first time today...they were pretty dang delicious.


Because I had a very pessimistic week, today's list will have 10 Sly Smiles:

1. I can't afford a new book = Led me to set up an account at the library and now I can rent a new book every week!
2. I have to drive 45 minutes each way to work every day = Gives me an hour and a half each day to listen to new music quietly and to have my 'quiet time.'
3. My classes are hard = I'm finally in classes that challenge me and therefore cause me to learn new things
4. I can't see my family whenever I want = I enjoy the time I get to spend with them even more than before
5. Some of my classmates are hard to get along with = Gives me the opportunity to learn to love my 'enemies' and learn to develop a professional relationship with people I don't necessarily like.
6. I didn't do so great on a test = My professor included notes on my essay of things I can do to improve. Now I know exactly what I need to do to do better on the next one.
7. My friend was too busy to play tonight = Forced me to work on a paper that I need to finish up
8. One Tree Hill isn't on again for a couple more weeks = I've been able to go back and watch a couple old episodes, causing me to fall in love with it all over again
9. Gas is SO expensive = Forced me to set up a strict budget for myself, that I've stuck to pretty well, and I've been doing a LOT better at saving my money.
10. Only one speaker on my computer is working = forced me to stop listening to music which causes me to get distracted by focusing on lyrics, and made me focus on the assignment that I'm working on.

I Love You Because...

To begin, I want to apologize for the delayed-ness of this post. But, as they say, better late than never!

For those of you that haven't heard....On Christmas Eve, Luke asked me to marry him. And I said yes! By popular demand, here is the story:

On Christmas Eve, Luke came to pick me up for our Christmas date. We sat and talked with my family for a while before we took off. I thought this was rather strange, seeing as he was later than we had originally planned and I had a family dinner at my aunts house at five that we had to be at. I thought that Luke would want to leave soon so that we had more time for dinner and what not, but he didn't seem to be in a hurry at all. That should have been my first hint that something was up, but I am admittedly thick.

We left for dinner and ended up at our old trusty Texas Roadhouse. We both love it there, so we almost always end up eating there when we eat out....something that I am completely okay with. We had a great, but uneventful, dinner.

We finished up with dinner around 4:30. There was some discussion of going for a short walk, but due to the cold weather outside-we settled on a short drive instead. We drove up towards the windmills and talked about various things. Little did I know that the reason for this drive was that Luke was waiting for his friends to get into position at the spot where he planned to propose. After a short while, we ended up turning around and heading back into town. Seeing as it was about 4:50, I assumed that we would be heading to my Aunt Jackie's now. However, Luke proposed that we go for a short walk around the river. This was when I finally started to realize that something was going on. I still didn't have the slightest idea WHAT it was, but I knew it was something. Because of this, I agreed to a short walk, as long as it was very short. We pulled up to the river and got out. We have a spot down there that we visit fairly often, and Luke headed straight for that spot. At this point, I'm thinking he has an extra awesome Christmas present for me, but I still had no idea what was really going on.

We stood by the river for a while. I knew that something was coming, but I wasn't sure what. Meanwhile, Luke was stalling to make sure that his friends that were going to be taking pictures were in position...so the conversation was kind of strained. After a little while I mentioned that we should probably get going to my Aunt Jackie's. He said, "Alright, we can get going, but before we do, can you do me a favor?" And I said, "Yes." He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Obviously, I said yes again. We hugged and kissed and such and then he got down on one knee again to put the ring on my finger.

After the ring was on my finger, we walked back to his car. At this point we headed to my Aunt Jackie's and I called my sister and told her to bring my parents and siblings outside so we could all talk. To my surprise, ALL of my siblings knew about the proposal already. This explained Camille's insistence that we paint my nails nicely earlier that day. Everybody was very happy for us and there were hugs all around. We then went inside to show my ring to all of the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, etc.

After this we went to Luke's house to show his whole family. They all knew about it beforehand also, but were nevertheless very happy for us. We spent a while with them, ran to show a couple of our closest friends, then headed back to Luke's again.


All in all, it was the perfect proposal that I had hoped for...and he's the perfect guy for me! I couldn't be happier :). His friends were hiding in the bushes during the actual proposal, taking pictures and video. I'll post those as soon as I get them.

Thanks everybody for your congratulations! I'm extremely blessed to have such great friends and family, as well as an amazing fiance!

It's My Life

I decided it was about time for a new blog update. I was just reading through my last post and it's sorely outdated...

First things first. I do have a job. I have been working at Stampin' Up since August/September-ish. I work in the call center there. It's actually a pretty great job. I was a little leery about working in a call center, but the environment there is super positive! All of the girls/ladies that I work with are great and I love my bosses. The company is an awesome company to work for and the pay is good as well.

I was living in Herriman during my last post, but this has recently changed. Over Christmas break my dad, Robert, and Luke helped move me down to my new place in Orem. The room is smaller than I would have liked, but the area and the rest of the apartment is so nice that it makes up for the room size. I'll post some picture of my room for now, and we'll see if I one day get around to posting pictures of the rest of the place.

I finished up my first semester at UVU, and I loved it (for the most part)! I had a couple of classes that were not so pleasant, but the ones that applied directly to my major were great. This coming semester should be even better because all of my classes are geared directly towards my major. Classes start tomorrow, and I'll admit that I am pretty stinkin' excited! This semester I am taking Civil Litigation and Preparation, Legal Research in the Library, Criminal Law, Mediation & Negotiation, and Family Law. The two subjects that I'm really interested in are Criminal Law and Family Law, so I can't wait to jump into both of these classes! My school schedule worked out so that I have the bulk of my classes on Monday and Wednesday, one class on Tuesday evening, and none on Thursday and Friday. It was kinda a nightmare getting this worked out with my work schedule, but we finally were able to work it out! My only complaint about my school/work schedule is my Mondays. I will be going to class in the morning, then heading up to Riverton for work from 12:30-3:30 and then back down to Orem for class at 4:00. It's going to be interesting. Thank goodness I'm living down here on a permanent basis now or my Monday's would just be WAY too much.

Over the Christmas Break I got to see a lot of my favorite family members! Robert and Stacie came from Michigan! It was so great to see them again. I haven't seen either one of them since they moved out to Michigan, so it was great to sit and catch up with them. I also got to see Cody and Larkin for a couple nights between Utah and Arizona. They're always fun to have around! Tyler and Missy were in town as well. That little Jacoby is such a crack up! I wish we all got to see him more often :(. I briefly got to see Jordyn and her new boy. I think it's safe to say we were all impressed. On top of this, I got to see all of the Idaho Falls relatives as well as some of the Utah relatives I don't get to see as often. I'm sure there were more relatives that I didn't mention, but seeing EVERYONE was great. I always love being home, but even more so during the holidays! I was so blessed to be able to get work off for two full weeks and just enjoy being around those that I love.

The best news is yet to come....but I think it deserves a post of it's own. I'm sure there are some out there that don't want to read through all of these boring details to get to the main story. Stay posted, the big story is coming out within the hour.