Our Morning at The Gateway...

Today's pictures are brought to you by the iPod.... my camera is being lame. Kim and Chris don't get to go out and see a lot of movies due to their pint size child. So they still hadn't seen Harry Potter and I couldn't deny her of that forever, so we offered to watch Cortney and chill at the Gateway while they partook of the final HP movie. (Tear). It was quite the adventure! First we say this license plate... on a car driven by a woman.... hmmmm. Okay. Then we taught Cortney about the art the is Ski ball. I love love love ski ball! I love playing it best at Circus Circus, but some random arcade with air conditioning at the Gateway will do. She wasn't very good at it, but she had fun. After working up an appetite with such games, we headed to the food court to east. All Cortney wanted was cookies, but she would not share! She only ate one then pushed the others aside. To Spencer this meant the other 2 cookies were free game.... no. Cortney got super sassy and took them away from him. Neither one was very happy about that. Then while I was getting Spencer and I food, he definitely got hit on by a dude. Apparently then shadow of a man sitting behind us in this picture, came up to him and told him he had "big muscles" with a lisp even. Spencer said he continued to try to talk to him, but that's when he walked away. That guy gave me the nastiest looks the rest of the day! Yes, we kept running into him! Coincidence? I think not! Anyway this is now my favorite phrase to say to Spencer. He kind of hates it. Then we also kept running into this person who we will call Cynthia... We know it was a man because we watched it go into the men's bathroom.... interesting. I think that this dude just needs to commit already. Remove the 5 o'clock shadow and be a woman. Otherwise it's just creepy. Also our poor future children! We went into Dick's because Cortney loves playing the in tents. Please take notice in this picture the difference in coloring between Spencer's arms and his legs... Awesome. Well we put her in a mummy bag and told her she couldn't move. She laid there very still for a really long time. She is glaring at me in that picture yes. These Asian people walked by and kept looking and laughing at her and saying things we couldn't understand... hopefully nothing about CPS. Cortney was also super funny because she is very concerned with the mannequins who are missing heads. It makes her extremely uncomfortable! It makes me laugh. She also made me laugh when she insisted on putting her frogs, which she won with her ski ball tickets, in this position repeatedly... Kim and Chris may have to have "the talk" with her soon... I love spending time with Spencer! He is AMAZING with Cortney and he is just do dang good looking! And I love that we have no shame in taking pictures of random people we see. That's just the kind of people we are. Thanks Kim and Chris for letting us hang out with your kid! She's pretty cool!

Spencer's BIrthday Trick

Happy BIrthday Spencer

So Spencer's birthday was on Friday the 29th... The reason it's taken me so long to get this up is because we have spent every waking minute together since that day, so I haven't had time to write about the awesomeness which is Spencer. And when I say every waking minute I mean it. He is over here before I am even awake and he leaves after I fall asleep. He is a good man... Either that or I sleep too much. Anyway we started off with a healthy breakfast of vanilla ice cream in cantaloupe. If you have never had this then you are missing out.... seriously! Minimal cleanup and it's delicious! Spencer could not hold off for presents so he opened them early. Yes I am too cheap to go buy wrapping paper, plus it is a waste of money, So I wrapper them in newspaper and even made a bow! In my family it's tradition to get Dad a tie for every holiday in which gifts are exchanged, so I started that with Spencer this year even though we're not technically family.... yet. He has been dying for a skinny black tie so I got him that and his favorite TV series, Seinfeld... collectors edition. Yes, I am the bomb thanks for asking. We headed over to the Red Iguana for lunch. If you haven't been there, just do it. Their nachos are AMAZING! Actually everything they have is AMAZING! While we were there my sunglasses broke... I paid $5.80 for those at Forever 21... you think they would last longer then a year. Spencer kept laughing at me because I continued to wear them for the remainder of the day, even though I have like 6 other pairs. On the way back to my house we stopped and got birthday soda. Weekends are our soda time... unfortunately that must come to an end soon, but we really love us some soda! I also got a gnarly sunburn.... not flashing you. A little later we headed over to my parents house for birthday cake and to see Panda Cortney. She has been super sassy lately, and I love it! After cake we went to play at the batting cages with some of Spencer's old friends who I love. Basically they are super cool people, even though we fell asleep on their couch before 11pm while watching a movie, they are awesome and I hope they don't judge us. Sorry old friends... I think you have been replaced. I'm kidding.... mostly. But I am pretty awesome at the batting cages... I even nailed the pole you see in the middle with my last hit. BAM!We did have some TCBY beforehand (I'm sorry Yogurtland... you are still my favorite) and Spencer did some tricks... the video I will also post.... but all in all I think it was a good day.

I love you Spencer and I am so excited to spend more birthdays with you. You are so funny, amazing, caring, supportive, and everything I could have ever wanted. I feel incredibly lucky to have you in my life and I am so excited for the future!!! 41 more days and then it's legal! I love you and happy birthday!

Date Night.... Cheap Style

What would you do for date night when you are 44 days away from getting married and trying to save money? Well Spencer and I choose Yogurtland, which has gone Hello Kitty by the way, first of all because it's soooooooooooooo good, every time, and second because it's ridiculously cheap! I cannot say enough good things about this place!!!! Plus there's this kid there named Taylor who loves his job! He is always so happy and I get so happy when I see him there! I love the energy he gives off. Employee of the YEAR! By the way I was obviously not in the mood for a real smile that night... so I give you the sassy look. Then we headed over to Michael's. I don't remember why we chose that store, but we had a great time. They already have Halloween stuff up which really bugged, but I did find this cool owl and I am just cool enough to take a picture with it while Spencer was in the restroom. Spencer enjoyed the paintbrushes...a little too much if you ask me, and I found some hippie art. We played catch for a while in the aisle and we walked out of the store without buying a single thing. Spencer also wowed me with a dozen red roses. I love how just when the flowers he last got me begin to die, and I start to think about throwing them out, he shows up with fresh ones. He is AMAZING! Also I have spent most of my free time stuffing wedding announcements.... This is hard work, especially when you have 500 of them and possibly more. And don't judge our announcement. The wording showed up a lot smaller and a lot lighter than it was supposed to. But we thought it was funny so we didn't return them. I love how on the same page we are about everything! By the way I hit over 10,000 views yesterday and I am in shock that people even read my blog. I just kinda write about whatever and I think it's a little boring, but thanks so much for reading! It really means so much to me. I feel special!!!!

Pioneer Day

Have you ever heard of this holiday if you don't live in Utah? Well it's a BIG deal here. You get off work for it! That's pretty legit. Any day off from work is AWESOME! There are fireworks and parades and sales and it's like Christmas, minus presents. Pioneer Day takes place July 24th, which happened to be a Sunday, and since I live in Utah everyone celebrated it on Monday. My family however, decided to set off fireworks (mainly for Cortney) on Sunday after our Sunday dinner of yummy sloppy joes!!! I could eat those things forever! The coolest part about the fireworks is that we decided to set them off when it was still light outside!!! How cool are we? I know... major jealousy! Check out Mom's preparedness with her broom (for what I don't know) and her bucket of warm water.... Haha! Safety first! It was fun though. Cortney just loved it and thought it was the best thing ever! Then I decided to plank on my Mom's car. It was very hot and I got very dirty. But Cortney then decided that she needed to plank also. I got in trouble from her Mom for letting her do it, but Cort's first planking experience was pretty sweet. She's basically awesome! It was a good day, and ended with a midnight Taco Bell run. Hooray for Pioneer Day!

WEDDING UPDATE: We have decided to head to San Diego for the Honeymoon. Any suggestions for things to do????

Ethics....

Okay so really I'm just putting off working out for a little while longer in order to write this post... It's just so dang hot! But I know it's important to look good on your wedding day.... geez. Why must I meet everyone's expectations all the time? It's okay, only 50 more days! Anyway, for a more serious post, I want to hit on the topic of Ethics. Wikipedia describes ethics as, " moral philosophy, a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice, etc." I think that this is something that we deal with everyday. I think that most of us make these decisions without even really thinking about them because we know, without a doubt, what the correct decision to make is. However, every now and then an ethical situation arises in which we take pause and really consider the best option. By making one decision or another, we may be sacrificing money, time, relationships, etc... But in my opinion, in my life, guilt overcomes everything. If I am put into a situation where I feel guilty, I have to get myself out and fast! I honestly don't even think about the consequences and just deal with them later. Guilt is my silent killer.... super annoying, but it's there for a reason.When I think of ethics I think of being honest. Not only with everyone else, but also with yourself. I taught a lesson at church last week about getting married and we discussed some of the questions that occur during a temple recommend interview (I apologize for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about). One asked if you were honest in your dealings with your fellow men. I want to be able to answer that question with a yes... and because of that I made a decision this week that has left me wondering why I would do such a thing, but I did it because I knew it was ethically the right thing for me to do. I do not like being an adult and making adult decisions.... Boo to that. I think that too many times people are afraid to make the right decision because they are worried about what others will think of them, or worried about petty worldly things. In my opinion that's straight up weak. You should not be a coward in your own life. If you don't stand up for yourself and what you believe in, then who the heck will?!?! I know I will be okay, and I don't feel anxious or upset about my decision, it was just a big decision. But I am 100% better off and I feel good about it. And that's all that matters! I am including a picture of Cortney deep in thought.... cause this has been the look on my face all week! PS - her eyes are gorgeous! So glad I'm marrying someone with blue eyes!!!! LOVE THEM! Off to kick my butt kicked by Jillian Michaels.... Don't be jealous!

SURPRISE!!!!

Spencer usually works out of town either Monday through late Thursday, or Tuesday through late Friday. "Out of town" means no cell service. Usually we don't get to talk on the phone at all during that time and it basically sucks! There have been a few times when they have needed to make a phone call so he will call me to say a quick hi, but nothing more than that. Last night he called me and said they needed to talk to their boss for a while so he was able to get a ride to the road to call me. We didn't talk for very long, and it was super hard to say goodbye. After we hung up I tried to go to sleep, but sleep wouldn't come. I turned on some One Tree Hill and sat in bed like a loser. Around 11:30 there was a knock on my front door. Since my room is closest to the front door and since it was so late, I knew it would be up to me to get it. But I'm afraid of rapist and it was late so I stayed put. A few minutes later there was a second knock. I figured it would be safe to look through the peep hole and then make the decision about opening the door or not. When I looked through, I was so excited! It was Spencer!!!! He was able to come home early!!! He does such a good job of surprising me! No one has ever been able to surprise me like he does and I love it! I love him! He brought with him a single rose and some drinks! He is basically amazing and I get to marry him in 51 days!!!!

ASIAN INVASION

If you read often you have heard me mention Asian Jason several times. He's a great guy who happens to be Spencer's best friend. When I say best friend, I mean boyfriend. Haha... they are great together and so much fun! Anyway, I love to read Jason's Blog (check it out here) and so I asked if he would write a little something for me. And because he's such a nice, caring, awesome guy he did it within a few hours. Thanks Jason! Enjoy!

Their Story Through My Eyes

I have been asked and given the honor and privilege of writing about 2 of my friends. First for those readers who don't know me, I am Vietnamese, and known as the Asian amongst my friends, cause the majority of them are white. I have lived in Utah all of my life and have created some of the best friendships ever. Here is the story of how two of those friends have come together to create an amazing relationship, now engagement, and soon to be marriage. Spencer Ahlstrom and Jennifer Kinville. I met Spencer Ahlstrom through my singles' ward nearly 3 and a half years ago. My first impression of him was not a great one, it was a testimony meeting and we had already gone 15 minutes after the hour, and him and another guy walked up to bear their testimonies. I was upset because it was my first Sunday and they were taking time out of Sunday School! We knew of each other, but rarely hung out in the same crowds. About a year and a half later, he invited me over to watch a movie with some friends at his place, and we started to hang out. Then we went on a road trip back to his mission in Alabama and Mississippi, this is the time we became brothers. We rarely party without each other, play pranks, stay up and watch movies, go out at 1 in the morning to eat 50 pieces of chicken nuggets, we did everything together, and then he moved into my home, it has been a great blessing to have him there, to be able to stay up super late and talk about life and dating and so forth. We would go to parties and try to meet girls, he would go hang out with some other friends and meet girls as well, we were always trying to meet girls. Before I go on, for those of you who don't know him reading this, I want to tell you that he is more than just some good looking guy, he is a very kind, genuine, loving, hard working, individual that if you become friends with, he will do everything in his power to help you be happy, and will speak his mind of the truth of things. If you give him all of your trust, he will gladly return it. Alright continuing... So he met some girls, and I would meet them and they would seem fun, but Spencer was always searching for something more. So in May this year our ward gets split up and we are reassigned to another ward. There was this activity called the Summit, where Jenn was in charge of and she came into our Priesthood class. I was at the piano, and she was talking, and came very close to saying out loud, (for those of you who know me, I am pretty loud) "the question is, are you (Jenn) going to be there?" But since it was a new ward and I was still new I didn't say anything. Well later that day Spencer and I were talking about our ward and we talked about how cute Jenn was. The next day was FHE, it was cold outside so we decided to go to a counselor's home to have ice cream, Spencer worked his magic and sat at the table were Jenn was looking like a damsel in distress. I came by a little later and sat next to Spencer and met Jenn and her roomie. I was introduced as the Asian, but Jenn was supposed to call me sexy Asian, I also remember making fun of everything she was saying and Spencer just trying to hold in his laughter. Driving off Jenn stopped me in my car and she said we're good right? And I said of course. I find Jenn's roomie on facebook and chat about getting together the 4 of us to hang out, and she was down for it. Jenn's roomie also got Spencer's number from me, asking to help move stuff. Then Spencer and I blog stalked Jenn, because I remembered her talking about her blog and that because we were over 25 we were menaces to society so her blog was easy to remember. Also that same night at FHE Spencer received a number from one of Jenn's guy friends to take out his sister and Spencer was a little excited, but secretly, he had a thing for Jenn. The following weekend we all hung out for my birthday going to the golf course to the driving range, then had some Leatherbys and hung out at our place. At this time Spencer was like "Jason, Jenn is sooo cool and pretty and has amazing hair!" The following weekend I went out of town to San Jose to visit my sister. This is where the magic really happened.. while I was gone. Jenn was having a super difficult time this week a lot of family drama that most of you readers know about. This is when Spencer worked his touch, he brought her flowers, and got her the Pie's cheese pull a parts, they also went out on their first date and kissed, all in that one weekend while I was gone. The day I come back, Spencer picks me up from the airport and gives me a huge hug and says that he has a girlfriend! Now Spencer hadn't had a girlfriend for a while, and even when he was with the last one she was a little wishy washy in the relationship. Spencer was beaming, because he finally found someone that was as crazy about him as he was her. The most wonderful thing about Jenn, is that she really cares about Spencer's wants and desires. She recognizes us as brothers and encourages us to spend time together. She loves seeing him happy, and she also makes him happy. Spencer in return gives all of his love. I want to go back to the week before I left for my trip to San Jose. Now Spencer tells me about all of his dates, and relationships. But for some reason before his date with Jenn that week, he called me up and asked me something he never asked before. He asked what I thought he was doing wrong in dating. Now I mentioned that me and Spencer are brothers, we think so much a like that it scares us sometimes. I told him that in dating that we seem to only try harder at the simple and small things that the Lord expects us to do when dating is going well, when it isn't going well, we slow down and forget the small and simple things. Lets do the things even if dating is going well or not, and he agreed. Now I am not saying that I am the one that caused him to change, but that it was an awesome coincidence. Spencer is truly an amazing man. In his relationship with Jenn, they began to read and pray with each other, this was really key in his decision making. I really saw an amazing change in him, a wanting to be better, because of Jenn. I love how he comes to me for advice and I go to him for advice as well, he has been my greatest confidant. In Spencer and Jenn's courtship, I honestly had not seen a happier couple. It is because the spirit and their minds and hearts lead them to each other, I know it! Now for my angle of the proposal!!! So Spencer and I were talking one night, and he said that Jenn mentioned that if he was smart, he would propose on the 4th of July. Now kissing under the fireworks has always been on Spencer's bucket list, and that was crossed off the week before July 4th at Taylorsville Dayzz!!! Anywho, the did go ring shopping and Jenn picked one out, but Spencer was all like, "I am not going to propose to you for a while." She had no idea that he went back and got the ring. He asked for permission on July 1st in the morning, he woke me up and asked me for permission.... jk he woke me up and said I am going to meet Jenn's dad right now!!! July 4th morning, Spencer puts on his shorts and puts the box with the ring in his shorts and asks if I could notice the box, and then I said let me give you a hug, and I said I could feel "it" (the box, you pervs) :) so he made me the bearer of the ring! So Jenn is a cheerleader coach and her team and school were in the West Jordan parade, Spencer's elaborate plan was to propose to her in the middle of the parade to the cheerleaders cheering to the song Hey baby! But to change the words to hey Jenn, he wants to know if you'll be his girl. We brought Jenn's camera along, I was also to be the camera man for this, she thought her camera was just to take pictures of the parade. Spencer organized the girls to stop almost in front of where we and Jenn's family was. And it went down perfectly and I was all up in their grill with the video camera, but it was amazing. By the way, the video is on youtube. Type in the search box, parade proposal.mov. She was genuinely surprised! I was so glad I got to be a part of that memorable moment.Now to see them getting their wedding ready is tiring, but at the same time super exciting. I have loved being able to witness these two fall in love, and now I get to witness them nurture it. I am very grateful to be called their friend. Jenn, Spencer found not just a gorgeous girl on the outside, but an even more amazing woman on the inside. Spencer, what can I say? Jenn's a sucker. JK! You are the most deserving ginger in the whole world, you are my brother forever. You both are marrying up, and more importantly in the temple. I am so excited for the both of you. I love you both so much. Thank you for always caring about me, and thank you for allowing me to write this for you.

One of My Favorite People....

I am so lucky! I am so lucky to be related (by blood) to this AMAZING woman named Julie. She married my Uncle Bill and there is no way he could've done any better! I can honestly say that I don't know who I would vent to, who even who I would be without her in my life. She is always there for me no matter what. Don't worry she has 4 kids and one on the way, but she still makes times for me no matter what. One of our favorite traditions is to meet up at Chili's for chips and salsa when we need to vent, or talk, or just get away from everything else. Tonight was one of those nights. We could seriously talk for hours! I love how she always expresses herself with complete honesty. I do that same thing, but I have learned that most people do not, so to me it's especially refreshing to have someone in my life who is upfront and direct with me. I do not have respect for people who beat around the bush. I love that after a tough break up she would text me randomly during the day, for months afterwards, and remind me what a jerk the guy is.... "jerk" was not always the word of choice, which adds to the awesomeness of the entire thing. She has seen me through my most serious relationships, and could not be more supportive of Spencer and my ring... speaking of which, let's check that out again... I am so in love with the uniqueness of it!!! Sometimes I can't believe that it's real... but luck for me, it's mine forever! Just like Spencer will be in 54 days!!! Not that I'm counting or excited by any means... Anyway back to my AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, AWESOME Aunt Julie... I couldn't ask for a better friend. Despite our age difference, I can go to her with anything. I know that she would never judge me, never tear me down, and never make me feel anything less then marvelous. She is a huge blessing in my life and I am so happy that she lives literally like 5 minutes from me. Plus... isn't she gorgeous???? I LOVE YOU JULIE!!!!! Thank you for everything!

Registering

So on Saturday it was decided that we needed to go register.... It wasn't as much fun as I had hoped it would be. Bed, Bath & Beyond definitely gets my vote though as far as friendly people and the SWAG... Target, not so much. In fact I would go as far to say that Target is rather lame when it comes to registering. I think that by the time we got to Target we were just over it, so we just started scanning everything... We may end up doing a lot of returns. Do people even get stuff that you register for anyway? I'm am like 75% sure that we won't get even close to half of that stuff. That's a pretty big let down you know. and I really don't like to be disappointed... oh well. When we finished at Bed, Bath & Beyond the lady was telling us that a good registry is between 150-200 items... we had 78. Awesome. I don't think we did anymore at Target. It was an exhausting 3 hours and I wasn't feeling the best. Why am I always getting sick lately? I'm rather annoyed with it. So let's chat about this video real fast. Seriously this kid was just chillin on his DS while his future wife did all the work. He barely even looked up from his game! That girl needs to lay down the law ASAP, or else she's in for a world of hurt. I like how Spencer points at him, just in case you didn't know which one he was, and also how you hear the dude say "okay" like he's actually contributing somehow. Just another reason I am so glad that I'm marrying Spencer. He's not into all of that gaming stuff. He's basically amazing! Other big news that I shall be blogging about soon.... Jason is home, Harry Potter is over (tear), and of course more wedding stuff.... Super fun!