Eric and Gini

To begin the wedding month extravaganza, our first stop was Salt Lake for Eric and Gini's reception on Thursday night.

It was absolutely beautiful and there were about a billion people who came to share the love.

One of the highlights was getting to see Mallory again.
She's one of the lights of my life.

The happy couple getting tired of hugging everyone. :)

Mallory gettin' in the shot with the bride and groom.

Me and my mountain man.

First dance! Awww! :)

Look real close. This is really supposed to be a picture of Mallory.

So cute. Gini's eyes got a little misty. :)

Daddy-Daughter/Mommy-Son Dance. They danced to "My Girl." Solid choice.

It was such a fun reception and I loved (as always) being reunited with all the members of the Phillips family. :) Congratulations to the happy couple! :)

Countdown Update!!!

1 day until my temple recommend interview with the bishop

2 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS
3 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house

4 days until I go blonde

5 days until my first final of the semester

6 days until my temple recommend interview with the stake president

7 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
8 days until I take my LAST FINAL and we move to California
9 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
10 days until bridals/groomals
11 days until Sammy, Chase, Kelly, and Devin arrive in California
12 days until WE GET MARRIED!!!

The First Time

. . . we held hands. :) 

So awkward.

The countdown is getting shorter every day! 

Countdown Update!!!

1 days until my wedding dress fitting
2 days until Vance and Melissa's BIG DAY

3 days until we drive back to Utah

5 days until my temple recommend interview with the bishop

6 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS in my undergraduate career
7 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house

8 days until I go blonde

9 days until my first final of the semester

10 days until my temple recommend interview with the stake president

11 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
12 days until I take my LAST FINAL and we move to California
13 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
14 days until bridals/groomals
15 days until Sammy, Chase, Kelly, and Devin arrive in California
16 days until WE GET MARRIED!!!

I'm a Bachelorette!! . . . for now. :)

Kelly threw me the absolute BEST bachelorette party that ever was! It was so awesome! We played a necklace game, a word scramble game, a panty game, a quiz Becky and make her eat way too much gum game, ate sushi, and opened presents. It was so much fun!! And so many people came! I felt so loved and it was so good to see everyone! I wish I could hang out with all of my friends every day. They are just the best. Anyway, here are some highlights from the evening:

I had to guess which panties everyone brought me. Definitely one of my favorite games of the evening. 

Leave it to Quinn to not tell me that I'm the only one in my bachelorette party picture whose head is cut in half. 

The Los girls (well.. some of them anyway)

My bridesmaids minus one. :)

This is Quinn's bum as he crawled under the table looking for his camera case.

This is a good one.

Elise, Claire, and Mallory

Shani and Dani. It was so good to see them!

Megan and Sammy. They look kinda twinny. Two of my favorite roommates.

Lisa, Kate, and Leah. Three more of my favorite roommates. :)

We got a kick out of watching our poor server move around the pink onesie.

The night was a success! I loved it so much! Thanks to everyone who came and for all the presents and to Kelly and Mallory for planning the best night of my life... so far. :)

Countdown Update!!!

1 day until Eric and Gini's BIG DAY and Quinn and I drive to CA
2 days until my wedding dress fitting
3 days until Vance and Melissa's BIG DAY

4 days until we drive back to Utah

6 days until my temple recommend interview with the bishop

7 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS in my undergraduate career
8 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house

9 days until I go blonde

10 days until my first final of the semester

11 days until my temple recommend interview with the stake president

12 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
13 days until I take my LAST FINAL and we move to California
14 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
15 days until bridals/groomals
16 days until Sammy, Chase, Kelly, and Devin arrive in California
17 days until WE GET MARRIED!!!

It Has Begun

Sometimes I find a reason to blog just so I can update my countdown. No excuses today. I'm just excited!

Mal's here and I love this boy. :)

Bachelorette party tonight! Woohoo! :)

Countdown Update!!!

1 days until my two huge term projects are due
3 days until Eric and Gini's BIG DAY and Quinn and I drive to CA
4 days until my wedding dress fitting
5 days until Vance and Melissa's BIG DAY

6 days until we drive back to Utah

8 days until my temple recommend interview with the bishop

9 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS in my undergraduate career
10 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house

11 days until I go blonde

12 days until my first final of the semester

13 days until my temple recommend interview with the stake president

14 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
15 days until I take my LAST FINAL and move to California
16 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
17 days until bridals/groomals
18 days until Sammy, Chase, Kelly, and Devin arrive in California
19 days until the BIG DAY

A Little Anxious

Lately I've been getting nauseated for no apparent reason. It's really never been a problem for me until this year. I typically have a pretty strong constitution. But this sick-to-my-stomach feeling has been bothering me a lot lately. I know what you're thinking, and I'm not pregnant. Sometimes it happens when I'm really stressed out (which would explain why this problem chose now to grace me with its presence), but sometimes I'm really stressed out and it doesn't happen. I don't really know how to fix it except to try to relax and drink water, but even then it just kind of comes and goes when it pleases. It's kind of awful to feel like that when you're already busy and worried about things. Why does the body turn on you when you need it to function properly most? Well it doesn't always do that, but sometimes it seems that way. Like when you're trying to hold someone's hand for the first time and you get all sweaty or when you're trying to make a good impression and you get all shaky and fall over and spill limeade all over them. You'd think we'd be able to just will ourselves to be awesome when we need it, but that is unfortunately not the case at all. Very rarely have I been nervous about something and performed perfectly. It's just one of life's cruelties. But I guess the best we can do is try not to stress about things and when we do and fall on our faces, just learn to laugh about it. 

Countdown Update!!!

1 day until General Conference
2 days until Mallory arrives in Utah
3 days until my BACHELORETTE PARTY!!
4 days until my two huge term projects are due
6 days until Eric and Gini's BIG DAY and Quinn and I drive to CA
7 days until my wedding dress fitting
8 days until Vance and Melissa's BIG DAY

9 days until we drive back to Utah

11 days until my temple recommend interview with the bishop

12 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS in my undergraduate career
13 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house
14 days until I go blonde
15 days until my first final of the semester
16 days until my temple recommend interview with the stake president

17 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
18 days until I take my LAST FINAL (ever) and move to California
19 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
20 days until bridals/groomals
21 days until Sammy, Chase, Kelly, and Devin arrive in California
22 days until the BIG DAY

I Love Math

I absolutely love math. I think it's so fun! I know I'm crazy beans, but I would have loved to double major in English and math teaching. Too bad I've already taken so much time to finish one degree. But if I ever went back to school to get another bachelor's (not likely), it would definitely be in math education. I used to be so good at math! 

What inspired this post? Well, I observed a high school math class today and wished that I had math homework to do like those kids. Basically, for the first time in my life, I realized that the education that's free for us from age 5 to 18 is awesome! We get to learn so much! You'd think I would have learned that by now since I'll be providing that education to lots of people, and maybe I did already know it, but I was reminded of it today.

It's basically my life's dream to go back to Troy and teach English. I received such a good education there and I would love to be the one to pass that on to other students. Anyway, there are days when I question my career path, but today was one of those days that remind me of how much education really means and what a great profession I've chosen. Go teachers! Yay school! I might have a different attitude this weekend while I'm writing my two twenty-pagers, but for today, I love learning! I think I really will miss the constant progress that you experience when you're in school when I graduate, but hopefully I'll still get some of that from teaching.

Countdown Update!!!
1 days until March is over
2 days until General Conference
3 days until Mallory arrives in Utah
4 days until my BACHELORETTE PARTY!!
5 days until my two huge term projects are due
7 days until Eric and Gini's BIG DAY and Quinn and I drive to CA
8 days until my wedding dress fitting
9 days until Vance and Melissa's BIG DAY
10 days until we drive back to Utah
12 days until my temple recommend interview with the bishop

13 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS in my undergraduate career
14 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house
15 days until I go blonde
16 days until my first final of the semester
17 days until my temple recommend interview with the stake president

18 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
19 days until I take my LAST FINAL (ever) and move to California
20 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
21 days until bridals/groomals
22 days until Sammy, Chase, and Kelly (and Devin?) arrive in California
23 days until the BIG DAY

Live in the Now!

Oh, March. I have never been a big fan of March. It feels like the longest and least eventful month of the year. I suppose that if my birthday were in March or I loved college basketball or I had some kind of strange love of St. Patrick's Day, I would feel differently, but it seems that March just always drags on for me. This year, it was the worst. I've been counting the minutes until March is over because it's been a hard school month for me, but more importantly, we're getting married in April, so March just meant that there was at least a month left. But luckily, we're finally on the right side of a month away from the big day! It's pretty awesome. Sometimes it feels like we're not actually getting married in three and a half weeks and other times, it feels like we're already married. It's weird being engaged. I've been over it for a while, and I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. Almost everyone I've talked to has told me that being engaged wasn't really their favorite thing. It was fun getting engaged, but actually being engaged is just kind of a weird, less desirable time. But thanks to March being on its way out, our wait is also on its way out.

Quinn and I decided to adopt the moto of living in the now (originally from Wayne's World) a few weeks ago because we just found ourselves (mostly me) constantly counting down and wishing time would go faster. The moto really worked! I started having a much better attitude about everything and we had good days almost every day because if you're living in the now, you can't really have a bad day. We've been pretty good about continuing to live by our moto, but with the wedding so close, it's become increasingly tempting to slip back into the countdown mode (especially since every time I blog, I update my countdown--ha). But, starting today, I'm going to live in the now again! Oh, Garth. He's like the smartest man alive.

Countdown Update!!!
1 days until my last visit to the classroom this semester
2 days until March is over
3 days until General Conference
4 days until Mallory arrives in Utah
5 days until my BACHELORETTE PARTY!!
6 days until my two huge term projects are due
8 days until Eric and Gini's BIG DAY and Quinn and I drive to CA
9 days until my wedding dress fitting
10 days until Vance and Melissa's BIG DAY
11 days until we drive back to Utah
13 days until my temple recommend interview with the bishop

14 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS in my undergraduate career
15 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house
16 days until I go blonde
17 days until my first final of the semester
18 days until my temple recommend interview with the stake president

19 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
20 days until I take my LAST FINAL (ever) and move to California
21 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
22 days until bridals/groomals
23 days until Sammy, Chase, and Kelly (and Devin?) arrive in California
24 days until the BIG DAY

Road Trips

In the next month, we will travel from:
Provo to Fullerton (10 hours)
Fullerton to Provo (10 hours)
Provo to Fullerton (10 hours)
Fullerton to San Diego (2 hours)
San Diego to Fullerton (2 hours)
Fullerton to Fresno (4 hours)


Over the summer, I will travel from:
Fresno to Provo (11.5 hours)
Provo to Fresno (11.5 hours)
Fresno to Provo (11.5 hours)


My poor little car! 


I have quite a few road trips ahead of me, so if you know me well, you know that I'm a very happy girl. I love road trips! I'm not really sure why exactly, except that they mean I'm not in school or working and they usually mean fun and they usually make me feel like I'm exploring or like I'm alive or something. But whatever it is, it is. I just love them! Even though they can be boring and are hard on the car and cost money, there's something magical about a road trip. I never got sick of them, even last semester, when I was taking one at least every other weekend. I continue to look forward to road trips like most people look forward to Christmas. But anyway, the point of this post is not to tell you all how much I love road trips... which I do! It is actually to get some recommendations for making road trip CDs. It's my job, as usual, to come up with at least one new mix for the trips that we'll be taking, so hook me up with your favorite jams so I can make the most amazing road trip mix(es) known to man. Thanks!


Countdown Update!!!
3 days until my last visit to the classroom this semester
4 days until March is over
5 days until General Conference
6 days until Mallory arrives in Utah
7 days until my BACHELORETTE PARTY!!
8 days until my two huge term projects are due
10 days until Eric and Gini's BIG DAY and Quinn and I drive to CA
11 days until my wedding dress fitting
12 days until Vance and Melissa's BIG DAY
13 days until we drive back to Utah
15 days until my temple recommend interview with the bishop16 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS in my undergraduate career
17 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house
18 days until I go blonde19 days until my first final of the semester
20 days until my temple recommend interview with the stake president21 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
22 days until I take my LAST FINAL (ever) and move to California
23 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
24 days until bridals/groomals
25 days until Sammy, Chase, and Kelly (and Devin?) arrive in California
26 days until the BIG DAY

Bowling

My blog used to be a lot more witty and I truly apologize for the lack of wit lately. It's just that I've been preoccupied with wedding stuff and school and haven't had a lot of time to think of witty things to say. I know it seems like it wouldn't be hard, but according to the fictional Cheech from one of the latest episodes of The Simpons, "Comedy is hard work, man!" And since I'm not actually that funny, it's even harder for me. Unfortunately, I still have few to zero witty comments to share with you today, but I felt inspired to blog. Just kidding. I just felt like it because it's better than the alternative (which is what?--you'll never know). But anyway, I guess I can tell you the story of the bowling alley hottie that we met last night. She was cute and stuff and I'm sure she's lovely, but I think she found her destiny working at the bowling alley. She was sporting some pretty cool (I'm actually not being sarcastic) glow-in-the-dark lightning bolt earrings and greeted us with a "What's up?" instead of a "How can I help you tonight?" How do you answer that? "Uhhh.. I want to bowl?" She was cute though. She even spelled Quinn and Devin's names cute: "Mr, Green" and "Deven." I just wanted to put her in my pocket. But when I really knew it was her calling in life was when she started bowling in the lane next to us and she got so into it, she had to start shedding layers. I must say, I would probably bowl a few on my break too, but she was just bowling alley hardcore. I love the people we see and run into at the bowling alley. On another note, I have a new form for bowling. It's pretty intense. Let's just say I end up on the ground... and so do the pins.


Countdown Update!!!
1 day until the Festival of Colors!
6 days until my last visit to the classroom this semester
7 days until March is over
8 days until General Conference
9 days until Mallory arrives in Utah
10 days until my BACHELORETTE PARTY!!
11 days until my two huge term projects are due
13 days until Eric and Gini's BIG DAY and Quinn and I drive to CA
14 days until my wedding dress fitting
15 days until Vance and Melissa's BIG DAY
19 days until my LAST DAY OF CLASS in my undergraduate career
20 days until I pack up all my stuff and clear out of my house
22 days until my first final
24 days until Mallory arrives in California and my last day of work
25 days until I take my LAST FINAL (ever) and move to California
26 days until I go through the TEMPLE and my BRIDAL SHOWER
27 days until bridals/groomals
28 days until Sammy, Chase, and Kelly (and Devin?) arrive in California
29 days until the BIG DAY

Wedding Announcements, etc.

With one month left to go, wedding plans are coming right along. I had a long list of things to get on Saturday and I somehow managed to do all of them! It felt amazing, but I didn't get any homework done, so hopefully this weekend I can balance the two a little better. Anyway, I found a guest book that I'm going to pimp out with picture of me and Quinn so that it looks less boring. It's green, which doesn't really go with my colors, but it goes with my new name, so I think it works. :) I also found shoes for the big day and I really like them. I still need to grab some more comfy shoes for when my feet start to bleed, but these will do for pictures, etc. Then I found that rose that I'm either going to attach to a clip or just bobby pin in my hair and I found the garter at Hallmark and I'm going to glue gun a small metal skull on it because it's really the only thing that I can have a skull on for a wedding. I'm pretty excited about the garter... and the shoes... and the guestbook... and the flower... and getting married.... 

and the announcements! We finally got them finished and sent out on Monday! I think they turned out really well and I was able to meet my goal of making them about the same price as postage--stupid stamps are so expensive these days. But hopefully you'll be getting yours soon. If not, you'll have to give me your address so I can send you one. :)