Highlights of Christmas Break

Yeah, we're cool. We know. Especially with penguins...

Crazy, creepy nativity scene with weird angel. Yeah, they all moved.

The mechanical toys in the garage. They made strange, creepy "scary movie" noises

A small glimpse of the penguin house

Our cute dog Cosmo in his cute shirt from Shayla. He's not really our dog....karissa's parents.

Us with Cosmo in front of the penguin house

Here are our Christmas Break Highlights:

-Finishing finals, selling our apt and moving into a duplex all in a week
-Receiving a breadmaker from Karissa's parents!
-Receiving a food storage starter kit from Scott's parents!
-Flying to Kansas to spend over a week with Karissa's family
-Sleeping in a little Christmas morning (7:30am)
-Playing Guitar Hero World Tour on Wii non-stop (family gift)
-Making Christmas goodies to give to other people...then forgetting to take them, so eating them ourselves instead
-Enjoying 65 degree weather for a day!
-Waking up to an almost tornado that night...(70-80 mph straightline wind)
-Cheesecake Factory!
-Choosing wedding pictures, finally
-Staying up late and sleeping in late
-Watching Twilight
-Watching The Dark Knight
-Playing Skip-Bo with the fam during breakfast, lunch and dinner too
-Not having to work!
-Finding amazing shoes at DSW after Christmas
-Enjoying two, over 50 degree days
-I guess you could actually say we've almost experienced all four seasons in a week: cold, snow, ice, wind, sun, 65 degrees and humid, 50 degrees and sunny, a big thunderstorm, rain and a snowstorm. Yep, that happens in Kansas
-Seeing the Penguin House (a house overloaded with the air-pumped penguin things that are lit up...yeah, they call the path around their house "Happy Feet")
-Seeing the "Falmouth House". Essentially crazy people who put up hundreds of moving machine toy things and too many decorations. A bit creepy actually...


-The best highlight has been the blessing of spending time with family we haven't seen in about 4 months. It's been a great vacation and we've had a lot of fun. Tomorrow we leave Kansas and head back to Utah for a short family reunion with Scott's family. Then we get to settle in our new place and try to get ready for school.

We are so grateful for our overwhelming amount of blessings and the love we feel from family and friends each day. Thank you everyone who has been there to love us and support us! We love you all! Happy holidays :-)

We're Moving!

Everything is official. We sold our apartment last night and we are planning on being completely moved out by Dec. 22, which is next Monday. However, amidst the moving, we still have a great load of finals to take and work to not miss. It is definitely going to be a crazy week! We're excited to move into the house and have some more room and other stuff.

Only one week and then we'll be flying to Kansas! I cannot even hardly stand it I'm so excited. It's actually pretty surreal. This is the longest I've gone without seeing my family - 4 months. We've seen Scott's family at least once a month since we've gotten married so I'm glad to finally have my turn. :-) It should be a really fun Christmas at home, and then New Years in Aspen Grove and then we'll come back to a mess. Joy. That's the only thing I'm not excited for at all. We'll have about 3 days or less to try and organize it before school starts. Life is crazy!

One more year until we're graduated and can do (almost) whatever we want :-) Happy happy joy joy!

Too much rambling...

Sometimes I wish I was a really funny person. Like, maybe it'd be cool to write really funny posts that people laugh about. Sometimes I think I'm funny, but I'm not sure if anyone else thinks the same thing. I definitely know I make funny faces. Scott usually tries to imitate them and then we both start laughing. Our most recent face joke is "Oh, that's a really really good frown. Yeah, frown just like that. That's a good good frown." You say it with your face and lips all scrunched up. He does it really well...I laugh every time :-)

Our workout plans are going pretty well. Not doing quite as good as I want, but oh well. I could launch into a huge explanation why, because my week has been more busy than any other week ever, but I think it might be boring to tears. So I won't. Basically, it's really hard to work and go to school.

Ooh, the other night we babysat for a friend of ours. Her girl is 5 years old and has more energy than an energizer battery. After an hour and a half I was begging Scott to take over. He kept telling me "you think she has lots of energy? just you wait til we have kids..." Haha. I guess our kids are gonna be crazier than Becky's...not sure if that's possible. Although, I wouldn't mind. Becky's kids are like, the craziest, most independent, cutest, funniest kids ever. I think they're awesome and she has definitely parented them exactly how she needed to: lots of independence!

I'm excited for school to be over so I can breathe for a couple weeks. I have a feeling it'll be a stressful break. Wait. Not stressful, full of lots of crazy adventures and things that need to get done. Such as sending out thank you cards. Yeah, I started writing them on the plane 3 days after the wedding, but have I sent them? Nope. Plus, I ran out of cards. And stamps. And I still haven't sent the ones I have done. Weird. And I haven't picked out wedding pictures yet. I promised when I got married I'd have stuff like that done right away....it's crazy how things like LIFE get in the way....

We're excited to move in January! We need to sell our contract, but we're excited to be in a bigger place with more room and potential to be nicer. For once I'll be able to do my make-up while Scott does his hair at the same time. :-) I'm bummed about leaving the ward, I loooove it, but we'll hopefully be in another good ward. I've never lived in a place longer than a year since Freshman year. This is the time! I don't think we'll be there longer than a year and a half, but who knows. We'd like to get out of Utah, but it depends on what kind of job Scott gets. One more year of school.

You wanna know something Ironic?

I'm so excited to be done with school because I'm sick of homework, tests, assignments, etc and school in general. BUT, I'm going to school to be a teacher...in school. I'm gonna be in school all my life until I stop teaching forever. Am I crazy? I'm going to school to go to school... At least teaching is super rewarding and awesome! I'm so excited for Practicum next semester :-)

I ramble too much....

The strangest thing

The strangest thing happened today on the way to school. I told Scott I really wanted it to snow, and that I wish it would if it was gonna be colder. And not kidding, 2 minutes later it was snowing. Not a ton, just the pretty little snow that doesn't stick or do much but looks cool. It made me so happy!

Normally, I wouldn't be wishing for snow because normally we'd already be under about 4 inches or so. However, I find myself wishing that since it's December now, and Christmas is soon, I really want to see some snow! Weird, I know. And I want a puppy. Still. I'm anticipating that being my graduation present :-) Now only to convincing Kim and Jim... ;-) hehe

Scott and I made some good goals last night. We decided we want to start eating more healthy and working out. We're both feeling pretty out of shape, which is no fun, and especially no fun as dancers. So hopefully our goals will work. If we reach 90% of what we wrote down in the next 16 weeks, we'll HOPEFULLY have money to buy a Wii. That would be awesome! Anyway, enough rambling. I'm off to work in the schools now. ciao!

k

Are Women Cursed with Bad Car Karma?

Today was quite the adventure, however, it started out as a perfectly normal day. We woke up, went to school, Scott went to work and we had plans to meet and go get lunch. Well, as I got in the car after class to head over to his work, about a mile away, I noticed something was terribly wrong with the steering. Then I started feeling something in the tire. Then I heard squeaking. Then I felt metal against asphalt. Then I realized I was driving on a completely flat tire. As soon as I got to his work, Scott came out and we assessed the damage. After deliberating for several minutes, we decided it would be best to try to change the tire.

Wrong.

It was absolutely impossible to get the bolts unscrewed. They we insanely way too tight. So we attempted the next plausible solution: pump up the tire and drive to "Big-O Tires." Scott got his boss and used his truck for the cigarette adapter thing to turn the little pump on. Because, of course, the one in our car is broken.

After about 10 minutes, our little pump started smoking and the tire was still flat. We turned it off and luckily, Scott's boss (Mike) was just turning the corner with a big air pump. We filled the tire and drove carefully to Big-O. They fixed everything in about 20 minutes (while we finally ate our lunch) and we were off. This whole "lunch break" was supposed to be about 30 minutes but it took about an hour and a half...actually, about 2 hours. And now I"m home.

I present the question "Are women cursed with bad car karma?" because this is the second time I've had car troubles when I've been driving BY MYSELF. Of course, our car NEVER has issues with Scott. Just me. Last time it completely died and I had to walk 3 blocks to get home and find a ride to campus. However, Scott was able to quite quickly get it started and running just fine.

Now as I reflect upon this afternoon, a phrase keeps coming to mind "When it rains, it pours". At first I thought that was the case today, but I decided it is actually not. I decided to count my blessings and be grateful for what could have happened but didn't:

1. The tire could have been completely slashed (they're brand new, great tires)
2. The rim could have been completely destroyed.
3. The tire could have exploded, and caused an accident
4. The rim could have sparked and caused more damage
5. We could have had nobody to help us, or worse, I could have been stranded without a phone and way to get ahold of Scott.
6. We could have had to pay lots of money to replace the tire instead of a free patch job included in the previous owners purchase of lifetime tire service.
7. I could have had school, work, and other commitments all day, when in fact I had absolutely nothing scheduled until 5:00 tonight.

So essentially, today it just rained. It didn't pour. And we have alot to be grateful for. I find that each trial Scott and I have (which has been a seemingly large amount since our marriage), we grow closer together and our trust and love builds. So it's a good thing, right?

Yes. But I'm content with this not ever happening again. :-)

Happy Holidays

I'm so excited for the Holidays! I love this time of the year, it's so wonderful. Last night we were eating dinner and Scott asked what it's like at the Gille home for Christmas. So I told him all the little things we do and what it's like. Then he told me all about the Dodds home. It was so cool! I got so excited for Christmas!

And I can't wait for Thanksgiving! I love seeing family, eating super good food and just hanging out. I think it'll be lots of fun. Mostly I think I'm stoked to be able to spend all the Holidays with Scott. And maybe I'm just a little excited for it to get all snowy... :-) But I dunno when that's gonna happen.

Anyway, school has calmed down a little I think, at least I've tried not to get too stressed. And, one of my friends on dance team is pregnant! ah! It was crazy when she told us all. Especially for me and Scott cuz we're married and it could happen. It's so happy though, she was so excited.

Well, that's all folks!

Things I've learned this week

Things I have learned:

1. Procrastination = big problems. (waiting until the last week possible to do a 12 hour project, then you come to find you don't actually have 12 hours worth of time possible to complete the project)
2. Inviting people over = a clean house! (make sure you call before you come...)
3. Dance = money.
4. Christmas = more money.
5. Time to do/finish/work on "insert phrase here" = impossible (especially while going to school, working, dancing and trying to figure out how to be a good wife and homemaker)

I can't think of anything else real clever right now. All I know is I'm exhausted and I'm not entirely sure why. I'm normally tired, but maybe it was just dancesport this weekend. It was alot of fun, and lots of work. Scott made semi-finals in his class Standard. I made semi-finals in Novice Latin, quarter-finals in Pre-Champ Latin, and one round of class Latin. Overall, I felt really good about how we did. I've been dancing with my partner only since September and we just finished our routines about a week before Dancesport, so we did relatively well. Now I just gotta figure out how to pay for and sew on fringe onto my dress as well as purchase an excessive amount of rhinestones. Gotta love ballroom!

I cannot wait until Thanksgiving when I can finally have a bit of a much needed break. (and enjoy good food and family!) Then I'm even more excited for Christmas break to be home again and spend time with my side of the family. Maybe I'll get pictures from our wedding picked out, thank-you cards finished, and pictures printed for our apartment.... who knows.

If anyone hears of any job opportunities in Provo, particularly in an office (secretarial, receptionist, assistant, etc) that pays $9-10/hour, let me know! I'm in desperate need of a new job. I'm not happy where I'm at, and it's causing negativity in other aspects of life.

In other news, Dancesport this weekend. About 20 minutes of dancing split between two days that all our time and money have disappeared for. Oh, and I'm in the process of making a latin dress, and my coach wanted to see it today, so I showed her. Her reaction? "Oh. You shouldn't even bother putting rhinestones on it or fixing the skirt right away because it just doesn't have that flair it needs. We need to find you something else for this weekend." Yeah, shot through the heart. Oh well, not much I can do. I guess the dance world is extremely subjective, so maybe one day it will work out.

The best thing about being married is playing hooky from work and spending 5 hours with your hubby shopping, cleaning and enjoying each others company on a cold, rainy day.

Election '08

So it's finally Election Day, and honestly, I'm a bit nervous and unsettled. I'm praying for a miracle today. If Obama is put in as President, oh man we got some awful times coming I think. It makes me sick to think how many people are voting for him because they want "change" but they have NO idea what kinda "change" he's for. They just think he's cool. But they're completely blind. Our media has made us U.S. citizens blind to what's happened in our own nation. A teacher in one of my classes said our nation is "as a severed artery on life support that's bleeding and someone is trying to hold it to get it to stop." But we all know that holding a severed artery won't get it to stop, it just helps alleviate it for a short moment.

Do we really want a President that nobody is really sure if he was actually born in the U.S.?
Do we really want a President that helps pass a government grant to a hospital his wife works at so she receives a 160% pay raise?
Do we really want a President who has very little experience with politics as opposed to another candidate who's been in politics for years?
Do we really want a President who is very liberal with gay marriages, and other like issues?
Do we really want a President who could turn our country from freedom to socialism?

I sure don't.

On another note, I can finally breathe from school. Half my classes are done for the month of November, thank goodness. Unfortunately, I still have a ton of work to do and not much time to do it in. And I'm getting ready for ballroom competitions. My first one is this Saturday. We just barely got our Rumba routine today! AHH! Talk about scary! And it is by FAR the most difficult routine I have ever done. And it's not because it's flashy, it's because the stretching and partnering involved, as well as timing. It's gonna take a heck of a lot of work. Good thing I love to dance!

I can't wait for Thanksgiving! Wahoo! Love y'all!

k

Halloween Fun!

So tonight was pretty awesome. I had a very stressful day, and will have a very stressful week. Scott was so sweet and picked me up from school with a pizza for dinner. When we got home, there was a sweet note on the door from him, as well as this beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table. Then in the fridge, there was pumpkin pie cheesecake that I had been craving from Olive Garden. Plus, he had cleaned the whole house and done the dishes. It was so sweet! I am so lucky and totally have the best husband in the world!!

After dinner we went and bought a pumpkin and got to work carving it. Here's some pics from the fun night! :-)


Our cute Halloween window with our sweet pumpkin lights.

Making the first cut. Scooping the goop out.

Working on the masterpiece.


Concentrating hard.Giving "Casper" a bath.

The finished product!

BOOOOOO!!! Happy Halloween :-)

Honeymoon, Apartment, etc

Alright, so here's a bunch of kinda old pictures we haven't done anything with. They're a little out of order, but kinda fun. Enjoy :-)

This was at David and Gretchen's wedding, we were waiting for them to come out.

This was our first picture on our Honeymoon, I think. We were in Park City walking to the outlet mall.

Shoes size 15 1/2 or something ridiculous.


We played miniature golf in Park City. I almost won, but Scott came through in the end.


Pretending to Luge at Olympic Park.


Showing love to the moose in downtown Park City.


Our apartment! It's hard to get a good picture.

This is our horrible, yet awesome, $20 couch before the cover.

The most incredible hotel room we stayed at in Kansas City, compliments and gift from my sister Jasmine. She's amazing! We loved it there. Chateau Avalon

One side of the car we drove that our cool brothers and sisters decorated. It was on all sides and it stayed there for about 3 days.

Three cheers for Scott for posting pictures! Wahoo! I've been meaning to do that, but I haven't. He snuck them on while I was laying incapacitated on the couch. Yeah, I got really sick again Monday night. I think it was a combination of bumping my head on team again (not that hard though, just enough to jarr things) and coming down with some "viral thing" as the doctor said which is blessing me with the infamous stuffy, runny, sneezy, nose, cough and just overall cold/flu miserableness. It's not so fun. I'm feeling better now, but I still got the cold weather icky's. I think Scott might be catching them too...not sure though.

Anyway, life is getting crazy. It's smack dab midterm time for me. Luckily Scott had all his last week. I got three between Monday and Wednesday, not to mention 6 more projects due on Monday (that's an exaggeration...kinda). After this next week, I have half my classes finished for the month of November, which will be a very welcome break, however I will still have a million and ten things to do during that "break." If we can just make it through this semester, I'll feel better. And it seems almost over.

We're still awaiting news about Scott's internship. We've decided it would be a huge blessing for us if he lands a spot. And I guess I wouldn't mind Wisconsin, it'd be a new change and new adventure.

As for dance, Jive is a killer. I've never done Jive before, and it's super fast and pretty hard. I'm still trying to figure out how to move my feet and legs correctly. At least I still got a little time. We have our first performance in a week, just a showcase of one number (mambo) at the social dance lab. Then we have an actual big show the 2nd week in November. And competitions are coming up in about 2 weeks as well. It's crazy! I don't feel quite ready, but usually I never do completely.

Anyway, this is long and it's hard to read long posts, plus I have a billion things to do in the next hour and a half, so sayonara!

Well I had been looking at some of the family blogs today and I realize that Karissa and I really need to get on the ball or something. We are a little slow at letting the family know what is up with us and with some pictures from the wedding. Many of you were there but some were not and so you were not able to see how beautiful my bride looked. I was so happy I just could not believe that happiness could be so great. I am still so happy to be married to such a wonderful person. Karissa and I are doing just great. School is rough and we are doing our best to find time to spend with each other. We love being married and being able to be with each other all of the time. Karissa is sick again. We think it is because of the concussion that she got, but she will improve because she is tough. I am doing good just going to school, and working as much as I can. I interviewed with a company for a summer internship. It is with Kohl's department store working in their corporate office. I would definitely love to work there and be apart of a good store. It is actually one of my favorite places to get clothes. The only part that Karissa and I don't like a whole lot is that it is in Wisconsin and the winters would be really cold. But the things that I read about the company and how it is growing and becoming stronger all of the time makes me excited and really anxious that I will get the job. If I get called back for a final interview than I will fly to Milwaukee on the 6th of November and visit the company. I should find out this week or the next. It will be a very nerve racking time. But other than all this life is great. Below are some pictures that we had taken at the wedding. Hope everyone is doing well. We love you all.

This is my favorite shot that was caught on film

We're pretty in love

I swept her right off her feet.

The classic ring bouquet shot.

Karissa and her bridesmaids.

Behind us is a little water fountain at
the Bountiful temple it is gorgeous.

Baby? Not for awhile...

So I'm sitting here in class listening to my professor and classmates talk about babies, more specifically about what you need to buy before and after you have a baby and how much it costs. Ugh. I'm so glad I'm not pregnant. Maybe in a couple years... A couple weeks ago we watched birthing videos. Ugh again. I think this class (infant development) is a good thing for me to take right now to prolong the desire for kids. Don't get me wrong, I'm soooo excited to have kids, just not quite yet. Okay, he just made a funny (my professor) His wife was using a breast pump and she was sitting there just going "moo....moo..moo" hahaha. It was funny.

Anyways, Scott and I are great. Life is great. School is very demanding, Scott is very loving, and dance is very enjoyable. I can't ever stop saying enough how much I love being married! Especially to Scott. I couldn't ask for a better husband.

A couple weeks ago I cut Scott's hair for the first time. I've never cut a guy's hair before. It was quite an adventure. After about 3 weeks of him begging, 20 minutes of watching a semi-useless video, and over an hour of trying to figure out how the heck to cut hair, I did it. And it actually doesn't look too bad! I was pleased, and I think he was too.

Other than that I can't really think of anything super crazy or exciting fun to say. Life just keeps going on. It's still enjoyable. (except for waking up around 5:20 am every morning) The only thing I wish I had was more time to spend with Scott.

...I should post pictures some day...

I wish it would rain...Post Concussion Syndrome

UPDATE*****

So you can still read the bottom and see what it says, but things have changed. I actually do not have the flu, but I did in fact get a concussion from dance (I was hit in the head pretty hard) and I'm suffering from Post Concussion Syndrome. Basically it means I got a concussion and I'm feeling symptoms later. The area I was hit is really sensitive and the nerves are connected to the GI tract which explains the extreme nausea and stomach troubles. And the concussion explains the never ending headache from Monday. So yeah. As long as I'm careful and I don't do too much I should get better eventually. We just have to watch out and make sure I eat bland foods, don't elevate my heart rate/blood pressure and just take it easy. If I suddenly have a drastic mood change and turn into a monster, then it's very possible there's internal bleeding and I'll need surgery. So yeah. Kind of a serious issue if it doesn't heal. But at least I don't have the flu! Haha. Scott's been awesome. I seriously cannot express enough gratitude for him. Gosh I love that man. :-)

****



Alright, so I decided it's high time to write a new post. I'm still not sure who reads this, but who really cares, right?

This week has been interesting. It started out great with a long Monday (as usual) with class til 7 pm. We had dinner (I absolutely love cooking!) and FHE and went to bed. Not too shabby. Tuesday morning I woke up for class and was so sick to my stomach I could hardly stand it. I threw up and went back to bed and unfortunately, it didn't end there. I missed class and stayed in bed all day throwing up and feeling ache-y all over. We're still not sure what's wrong, probably the flu or something, but we know I'm not pregnant. (thank goodness!...at least for now) So I spent the entire day miserable with the best husband ever trying his best to take care of me. Though there's not much you can do for your spouse when they're lying incapacitated on the couch... hehe. He was great. Anyway, today is better, I'm feeling better but still pretty miserable. And my schedule does not allow any room for sickness!

Other than that, life has been great. Scott's birthday was so much fun. It was absolutely wonderful to see the family and hang out at Becky and Robert's. Their house is GORGEOUS! I can't wait til one day we have a cool house :-) We also went to Tucano's to celebrate, and it was pretty fun. It's nice to get out and go out to eat.

Work is going pretty decent, I'm ready to start making real money. Right now I'm making hardly anything and it's bugging me alot because I'm used to serving at a better resteraunt and bringing in big bucks. So yeah. That's been quite frustrating. Hopefully it'll get better soon. I love all my classes at school. This semester is actually really fun. I have all my core classes for the Early Childhood Major and I'm definitely starting to get way excited about teaching! Next semester I'll be in the cohort, and shortly after I'll be graduated. yahoo! Dance is great too. I love it.

So, life as newlywed's is still wonderful. Everyday I wish I could spend more time with Scott than I actually get to. At least we're blessed with Sunday's and occasional slow weekends. He really is the best and he treats me like gold. Married life rocks! :-)

-k

p.s. I think Utah is too sunny. I wish there was more clouds and rain :-) Yep, I grew up in the midwest, can you tell?

We're married

Well everybody I know it has been a while since we have written on our blog and since I had a break between classes I thought this a perfect opportunity to write on the blog. So we are married now for almost three weeks already and life is great. We are still in love which is always a good thing. It is going to be a little bit different now that we have to start school and get jobs and things. I am currently looking for a job. I really need one. Karissa just got a job last week and she starts her training today. She is going to work at Brick Oven (pizza place). She will do great and it will be nice to get the extra income as soon as possible. School is going to be good I hope. I go to class every day from 8 to 11. I am not doing the Ballroom team this year. It just wouldn't have worked out with the schedule and everything, but it is okay because Karissa is doing team and so I will have a part of it that way.
Anyway I just wanted to let you know that we are happily married and we are so glad that we did get married. I would suggest it to anyone that is not married yet. Karissa is the best and has made our apartment into a home already. It actually looks pretty good for only living there for a week. Well that is our life currently, hope everyone is doing well.

Well, life is crazy. Today I've been working all morning on our basement. My mom is teaching seminary again, so we had to move everything out of the big room and do some major cleaning. There's so much dust, bugs, dirty tools and tons of junk down there. It's taken awhile, but it's almost done! Wahoo. One day we'll get it finished...today is not that day.

Tomorrow we leave for Utah! Yay! I cannot believe the summer is basically over and we're leaving for Utah. It came so stinkin fast. It's also hard to believe Scott & I have been engaged for almost 5 months. And we're playing laser tag on the Monday before the wedding, just like the night when we got engaged.

Anyways, I'm being summoned to do more cleaning and working and all that "fun" stuff.

2 weeks!

Alright, so it's been a couple weeks since we posted anything and I decided it was time....after reading someone else's blog and thinking how cool it was.

So, updates around here. Well, we have 2 weeks and 1/2 a day until we're married. Crazy! I get to be with Scott again, finally!, in one week and 1/2 a day, and I can't wait. This time, I finally get to see him and be with him and NOT have to leave eachother! I'm definitely looking forward to that. I'm tired of being seperated so much.

Sometimes, I just get these excited, happy, joyful, love surges about Scott and I feel all bubbly and happy and that just happened. hehe. He's so wonderful. I have no idea how he puts up with my crud.

The temple a couple weeks ago was amazing. I was really overwhelmed by the end, but still felt wonderful. The spirit was incredible. I'm still working on writing everything I felt down in a journal. It was the best experience so far as an engaged couple to see eachother inside the temple. Wow. I loved it. Overall, the trip to Nauvoo was amazing and I so enjoyed being with Scott. And he was so cool about my inability to stay awake in the car :-)

Wedding plans are down to the details. I can't wait for all of that to be over, honestly. I'm sick of lists, phone calls, disappointments, appointments, consultations, etc etc. It's a never ending To-Do list, but it's almost over! Everything seriously is gonna be perfect. I can't wait. Ah!

Also, all our insurance stuff, honeymoon plans, phone plan, and apartment is totally working out! Scott and I, mostly Scott, have been stressed with those details, but they're starting to fall into place. Now only if we could suddenly inherit several million dollars... :-)

The best news? I can fit in my wedding dress finally! Haha. I bought it a little tight with plans of losing weight (please laugh now) and it hasn't happened until this past week. I tried it on and it was almost perfect. I think I'm moving toward that new stress level of NOT eating...it's the next step up from stressful eating.

And this is definitely way too long, but I honestly don't think anyone reads it anyways. So who really cares? lol. Maybe I should test it out by asking some question to see if we do have any readers....

What are the most important pieces of furniture for a new apartment? And how much should you spend to furnish the first time?

Tha-tha-that's all folks!

Karissa and Scott

How many people does it take to find Karissa and Scott an Apartment?

It takes 7 people to find Karissa and Scott an apartment!


Which means....we found one! Wahoo!

I basically wrote this same post on the Dodds' blog, so I won't completely re-post it. Life is wonderful. We have an apartment (which could be an entire post by itself), Scott's here for the weekend and we're going to Nauvoo tomorrow to go through the temple. It'll definitely be a wonderful weekend!

Basically, I've said it once and I'll say it a billion more times. Scott is incredible! I don't know what I would do without him. Seeing him again and being with him again felt like we hadn't ever been apart. i mean, it did, but not really. It's pretty neat. He's definitely my better half! 4 weeks from today. Wow! :-)

Restaurants

Okay, so I had a bad night and I just wanna say this for the record.

When you go out to eat, please take your server into consideration. Sit down, order, eat, pay, leave. Especially on a busy Friday night. Please do not sit down at 6:00, wait an hour to order, take an hour to eat, and talk for another 2 hours before leaving at 10:25pm, leaving your server without a table the entire shift and only leaving $13 as the tip. If you want to stay for four hours, consider that your server typically makes at least $5-8 bucks per table per hour and leave at least $30-40 if you plan to stay for 4 hours. Otherwise, you will ruin somebody's night. Guaranteed.

...not that perhaps I had that experience tonight... :-(

That's all.

I love Scott!

I don't know how to use blogspot.com

Okay, so how do you make the list of friends/friends' blogs in the sidebar? I apparently can't figure it out...nor can I fall asleep. :-)

5 weeks from today! (thursday, the 9th) wahoo!

Operation Wedding Dress

So today I'm starting Operation Wedding Dress. Basically, I found the perfect dress I love and can't live without, the only problem is it's like, 5 pounds too tight. So, today is the day I'm really gonna start being good and try to trim down so I don't have to pay to have it altered. That's the plan, we'll see how it goes. I got 38 days (I think). Wahoo!

This morning I got off to a great start with a 10+ mile bike ride with my mom. I managed to swallow a bug, make it up the killer hill without walking, and ride through a sprinkler. It was great! I love kansas. Then we started the Belly Fat Blaster dvd, but had too many distractions. We'll get back to it later. I'm also gonna (try) swear off soda and bread while working at Bravo and not eat the delicious berry dumpcake calling my name this second....

...life is great :-)

I came up with a dilemma the other day...how do you spell and pronounce a plural Dodds? Doddses, Dodds's, Dodds', Doddses's? I posted on the Dodds family blogs and got some hilarious comments. If anyone else feels the need to comment too, that'd be appreciated. Maybe we should build our fan base first though....hmmm

"I just want to quit life and be with you nonstop" -Scott (isn't he cute?) :-)

I wish I had a cool picture to post....

I don't have a good title...

So I decided that it's been far too long since I've posted something on here, so I decided I should write something. I'm pretty sure that was rhetorical? Anyways, life is still good in Kansas. I'm missing Scott like crazy all the time though. Only a couple more weeks til I get to see him again!

Today was kinda rough. I found out that a close family friend family is having their wedding reception the same night we are here in Kansas. I wouldn't mind if we didn't have the same friends, but we have alot of the same friends, so I"m bummed. Not too mention we've already printed 800 invitations so we can't really change much. Whatever. I was really upset and Scott did a great job of calming me down. I love him :-)

Other than that, I dunno what else is cool that's going on. Wedding planning is still plugging on. Sometimes are harder than others, but it's okay. It'll all work out. Plus, nobody ever said it was easy, they just said it'd be worth it.

I wanna go to the lake....with Scott. Mostly I'm just excited to see him again. It was so wonderful to spend time together in Utah and see Emily get married. She was gorgeous! It was definitely the highlight of my summer...so far. :-) Here's a couple pics from the weekend...

Thanks Angie and Becky for the awesome photography!

47 days? I think :-)

love!

Away from Karissa again

I can't believe it. I really can't. I saw Karissa and it wasn't a dream. She is everything and more than any dream could ever be. We spent the weekend in Utah because my sister got married in Salt Lake and so we went and then worked out some details in the whole getting married thing. But once again I am away from her and once again we are forced to text and telephone each other dozens of times a day. It is okay though because this time we only have to go just over four weeks to see each other unlike the six last time. And by the time we see each other again it will only be four weeks until we get married. It is so exciting.

The weekend was a good one. We looked for some housing for the fall and we found some stuff but nothing really yet that we are convinced is for us, but we know that we'll find it. We also went and looked at some tuxedos for our wedding. We definitely found some pretty awesome ones and so that is good. And then we of course just really enjoyed ourselves. It was absolutely wonderful. I am so glad that I was able to see each other and I look forward to seeing her again very soon.

Excitement, joy, happiness!

Soo, it's about 12:49 am here in Kansas and I'm almost done packing. I leave early in the morning for Utah! I'm so excited! I finally get to see my baby after 6 freakin long weeks. Plus, I get to see the whole fam damily (as grandpa would say) for Emily's wedding. It's definitely gonna be an amazing weekend! Wahoo! I'll update when I get back

au revoir!
k

Wedding Website!

Hey!!!

I created a much better, cooler, awesomer wedding website today. There's still a ton of fun stuff I'm gonna do, but there's alot more fun information there than here. Go check it out!

www.karissaandscott.com

Yep, we got our own domain name :-) We'll still keep this updated, but use it as more of what it's supposed to be, a blog, than a wedding website. Enjoy!

-k

My summer

So this summer I am just working at home in Idaho. I am working really hard so that Karissa and I can go to school and do all that we need without taking out a billion student loans or anything. I am working three jobs and sometimes it gets pretty tiring but I know that it will all be worth it when we are together again. I am working at the bank, a pizza place, and for my dad doing yard stuff. It is going well. I really like the bank a lot. I am a teller in a local community bank and it is really good. My grandpa was the president of the bank and now my uncle is the CFO. I make the least money from there which is unfortunate because it is where I spend most of my time. I am enjoying it though. I miss Karissa a lot everyday but I will see her soon. She is definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me. I thank my Heavenly Father every day for what he has given me. He truly has blessed my life. Anyway I thought that I would write this because Karissa would like me to.

Lightning, thunder, rain

So I've been thinking about being a meteorologist. I'm always super fascinated with weather and have always been. Whenever storms are forcasted I'm always checking out the radar and what the tv people say and stuff. Not to mention looking outside every 2 minutes. It's crazy. I have yet to see a tornado. I'm not sure if I wanna see one though. Anyway...

So this summer is pretty good. Working and making money. Resteraunts are so unpredictable. Oh well. Scott's working hard too. He's awesome. Tonight I was sent home after working for a couple hours on the patio because it started lightning and storming. It was pretty fun.

8 days until I get to see Scott! Wahoo :-)

Welcome!

Hey everyone!

So this is our new blog about US! Basically, I'm not sure what to write here today, but I'll think of something. The purpose of this fantastic new blog is for everyone to learn a little more about each of us and gather information about our wedding. We will be posting times, locations, reception information etc and update whenever something changes. I'm sooo excited to get marred and I know Scott is too! He's amazing and I love him, and I can't wait to spend eternity together :-)

karissa