Derek and Jennifer

Last Saturday Paul and I had the priviledge of going to my oldest sisters wedding. I was so grateful to be there in the temple with her. It was a beautiful ceremony, I don't think there was a dry eye in the room....except Paul who I call the emotional stone. Someday I'll catch him in the act and it will go down in the history books. Until then I do most of the emotionalizing around here if any. I am proud to say that I was the one to set up the first blind date between Derek and Jenn I truly loved Derek from the moment I met him. I believe everything happens for a reason and as a result I am grateful for my job at the time and being able to meet Dereks nephew which ultimately led to my meeting Derek. A true testimony that the Lord knows who we are individually, because there could not be a more perfect match for Jenn. As for the day, it was freezing!!! Jenn promised that we would keep the pictures down to a minimum considering the 10 degree weather...yeah, that didn't happen. However, we did get some good pictures and amazing memories. We look forward to their reception at the end of this week. More pictures to come!!!

Sierra

School is finally over (for two weeks) and all I have to do is…nothing. It’s great. I can sleep in—wait a sec, no I can’t! Our niece is visiting for the holidays and as much as I love her and her three year old humor, sometimes I just wish she would let us sleep. She’s still suffering from a bit of jet lag and thinks that 5:30 am is really 7:30 am. We live in the basement apartment which has a locked door to separate us from the upstairs. When no one wants to play with her at 5:30 in the morning, she bangs on our door until we come out. “Unc Paul … At Emily! Unc Paul…At Emily! Wake up!) So when I do finally go to the door and ask, “Hey Sierra. What can I do for you?” Where At Emily? Where she at?” “She’s asleep.” “Go get her, she my friend. I need her.” “I can’t Sierra, she’s asleep.” “But…but she my friend, I need her.” As cute as it was, I don’t think that Emily would have appreciated it much. I finally just said, “I think your mom needs you, hurry up stairs. Hurry… Hurry!

Paul

Photography

Everyone knows how hard it is to come by a good photographer. My friend Brittany Andersen has just gotten her website up and running and her pictures are Fabulous!!! In honor of her website being lanuched she is giving away a full portrait session including all images (size 4x6) on a high-resolution cd (a $150 value), and a $25 gift card to California Pizza Kitchen. Please visit her blog for details
http://www.brittanyandersenphotography.blogspot.com/

Love You All!!!

I'm A Survivor

I feel like I am drowning...no I think I'm beyond that point. There's this little demon in my head that tells me everyday that I should just quit going to school if it causes me this much stress. Despite how appealing that might sound I keep willing myself to endure the end well. I truly enjoy what I do but not when I have deadlines, and so much pressure. Paul and I probably won't say so much as three words to each other aside from Thanksgiving day till the end of a semester. I'm at the piano and he is endlessly at our kitchen table doing something that I won't even try to understand. Not to mention the endless headache that accompanies such work. So I decided in my efforts to minimize my anxiety I would get everything down on paper so to speak. It's better there than in my head where it causes so much pain.

You may at this point wonder why I posted this picture. Probably because it makes me happy. It reminds me of a semester void of stress and having endless time with Paul. I embrace the thought of Christmas break!!!

On a happier note some of you may have heard about Paul's intership. After many interviews and resume work Paul was offered an internship in Texas. I am so proud of him and all the work he has done, and I couldn't be happier to take a semester or two off to enjoy the sun and the beautiful area of Houston.

Hero

On a daily basis my table looks like this. Paul is usually sitting intently over his homework with his hand on his head and saying something like....No, No, No, whoda sheeka mahda! I'm not even sure how to spell the things that come from his mouth. As time passes I'll usually ask him if he's ok to make sure the pile of books he's sitting over hasn't turned his mind into melting sludge.

So different from the way I do homework.... My philosophy has always been pleasure before pain. I truly should learn from my perfect husband, but I continue to procrastinate. I think the problem is that I do so much better under pressure. As a result I have developed hobbies that have continued to take up my time until the very last minute. Last week I was reading Breaking Dawn as I analyzed Bach's Concerto in A Major. I'm not sure the habit of multi-tasking I have developed is healthy at this point, but these are the things that keep me sane. Paul and I honestly don't have a ton in common, but while he's so different from me there could never be anyone more perfect for me. Love you Babe!

You're So Vain

The Battle of the Universities I just want to know if anyone has had a similar experience to this. A few months ago I was visiting with a girlfriend and we were discussing what was going on in our lives. At the time Paul had recently transferred to another local univiersity (the Y) and I was telling her that we were so busy with school a homework that we didn't have much time to spend together. She replied with, "Well Emily, He has to understand that he's at the Y now." I think that I was so caught off guard that I didn't say anything! I remember having a similar experience in High School with one of my friends that said the same sort of thing to me. She insisted that the college I was attending was a glorifed high school and that I would never be able to relate to her university experience. I just want to put this out there for the kind of people who think like this. Can you honestly say that you ever taken a class from the UV that wasn't Dance 101, or Communications 1010? I constantly hear...."Well I'm a the Lord's University!" Well I'm sure the Lord appreciates how humble you are about it too! I'm not trying to degrade this Private University, I have complete respect for the professors and the school itself. Just don't try to give me any less credit than I deserve for getting my education at a University other than yours!

What Hurts The Most

As most of you know I am a vocal performance major. I'm finally ready to admit that it's kind of ironic. I love to sing I always have, but there is something in me physically that does agree with my mind. There is nothing that makes me happier than to sing in front of people. I have those dreams everyone does of singing on stage in front of a million people, and I hope one day to do it without my nerves following close behind. I suppose it will come with more time. I can already feel a difference from semester to semester. Tonight I had a recital which I tried desperately not to stress about and still I found myself at work with restless leg syndrome and a serious case of hyperventilation. Yes, I can panic attack with the best of them folks! So I prepared all I could and I can honestly say it went really well. I am finally a senior and I have learned a lot. I wouldn't give away the opportunity I have had to go to college for the world.
I have finally given in to the people who have asked and decided to teach voice this fall. I'm really excited for what is to come and I am so blessed to be where I am right now in my life.

Colors Of The Wind

Paul and I have had some interesting experiences with smells this week. A couple of days ago we opened the fridge and there was this foul oder coming from it. I looked around and couldn't see anything. So I started moving a few things around, and there was this bag of rice hanging from one of the shelves and I am not joking it was purple. It was the most crazy color I have ever seen. Then today I was going to make potato salad and I went to retrieve the sack of potatoes that I left in the back room. This strange smell seemed to follow me out of the room. I got up to the bag of pototaoes real close and took a big whiff. I figured that's all it could be. Sure enough I had to hold my gag reflex....whew. Wow, what a powerful knock you off your feet smell. Then I proceeded to go through the potatoes one by one till I found the culprit. Gushing yellow and white I extracted the potatoes from the bag and made Paul take them to the trash. I'm not sure if Iwill ever look at a potato the same.

Beautiful Disaster

It was Paul's birthday a few weeks ago. I was determined to make the day some sort of spectacular event so I started planning months in advance. I decided to have a perfect birthday there had to be an element of surprise so he knew absolutely nothing about the day from start to finish. Months earlier I had spotted Paul's model airplanes in his Dad's office. Paul used to do a lot of building and flying airplanes before his mission and I knew it was something he enjoyed. He hadn't been flying since he had gotten home from Spain so I asked his Dad if he could arrange that for me on Paul's birthday.That morning when Paul got home from class I took him to his parents house and required that he close his eyes our whole trip. When we got to the air strip and pulled him out of the car he was pleasantly surprised. I haven't seen him smile like that since we were in high school. I had achieved my purpose and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Then we spent some time with his parents and went out to lunch. After lunch I had another surprise for him. I drove him out the Lake to meet my sister with two wave runners to spend a couple hours in the sun. I think he had a great time carving up those waves.When we got home I had him blow out his candles and open his gifts. I made dinner and we sat down to watch "Rambo." It was a busy day and I think I wore him out, so we laid down for a few minutes and all of the sudden an alarm starts beeping. Paul started running around the apartment trying to find the smoke detector that had gone dead. That's when we noticed that it was our carbon monoxide detector which Paul's Dad had bought us just a year earlier.We both ran outside and sat on our front porch as we called the police non emergency number. About a half hour later an ambulance and fire engine show up and ask us to explain what happened, then pulled out their gear and moved into the house. After a few minutes they came out and told us we had a positive reading of 130 ppm, and proceeded to tell us the comforting news that if we had of gone to sleep that night we may have not woken up. After a couple hours and Mr. Questar they came to the conclusion that it was our water heater which had gotten plugged and was pushing CO back out. So they turned off our water heater, opened our windows, made sure it was safe, and told us to keep everything open that night. After it was all said and done we both escaped with minor headaches but we had a blast. Definitely a Birthday we will remember for years to come.