Happy Two Months!

Has it only been two months? It seems both longer and shorter. The great news this month is that I have wedding pictures!!! I've had so much fun looking at them... I'll let them speak for themselves. 

At least one of us was ready to get married....

Our beautiful venue, Le Jardin

Cute nieces as flower girls

Button, button, who's got the button?

Mom always knows best

The cuteness!

Handsome boys! Someone coached Carson really well, it looks like :)

We're married!! Cue the Hallelujah chorus!

Our dear family and friends

Tyler: It's tough being almost 2 

My cute nieces and nephews!!

Grandparents with their grandkids

My beautiful mother

My handsome father

My four brothers - a rose between the thorns? That, or some seriously awesome bodyguards. I'm the luckiest girl to have these brothers watching out for me!

Sweet Tyler

The Burgin Family

The Smith Family and friends 

The Smith Family

Kids are the best!

Possibly the best bouquet shot I've ever seen captured on film! 

True love 

David Rollo Smith and Erica Burgin (Smith)

Wow!! Let's just pause for a moment and recognize that this is my last full week at work before my wedding!!! I can't believe this day is almost here. Even now, it is a little surreal. But I am so confident and excited and ready to take this next step with Dave. 

I get to look at this announcement every day - at my work cubicle and at home on my fridge! What an excellent man.... I love him. In 8 days I will give him the biggest hug ever! Let's get married, Dave. I love you. 

Luuuvvv, trwweewww lluuuuuuuuv

My Dave is incredible. So wise! So handsome! So strong! He is honestly better than my dream guy. I never dreamed big enough... didn't really think such a perfect-for-me man could exist! His strengths balance my imperfections. We become a pair of grinning idiots together because seeing him makes me smile, and him seeing me makes him smile, so I smile more so he smiles more so I.... well, you get the idea. He knows when to hold me and when to offer suggestions. He sacrifices one of his most precious resources - sleep - so we can Skype. There's so many dreams and futures, and wedding plans, to discuss that we often run past our 8pm/10pm curfew. 

Can I just mention how excited I am to be in the same time-zone, state, city, and HOUSE as my love in just 23 days!??

Can I also mention how it all still seems a bit surreal? Was it like that for anyone else?

In honor of this week's afternoon thunderstorms, here's a pic of Dave and I on our London/Scotland adventures. It's the first of many trips we will share together!

Bless Dave's sun-sensitive eyes :)

Busy times

Life is super busy right now! 

We didn't really send these out, since invites are coming super soon.

I'm so excited to be marrying my best friend. Sometimes it's a little crazy to think how quickly and smoothly everything has happened, but when the timing is right, things just work. I love Dave and can't wait to be with him again - for now through eternity!

Peaks and Valleys

I was reading yesterday about a man who complained that life always seemed to be on an up and down rollercoaster... never smoothing out into a nice balance. He happened to be complaining to a nurse, who observed that if you're in the hospital, the peaks and valleys on the heart monitor indicate you're alive! No one wants to get a flat line there. 

It's true. Life is a continual series of peaks and valleys, reminding us that we are alive, living, learning, and growing. Monday was a day like no other for peaks and valleys. There's a few things in limbo for me right now, which is a phase of living that I really don't care for and really don't thrive in. I dislike limbo. Nor am I particularly patient in limbo. Clearly, there's some learning and growing for me to go through right now. 

So limbo. I've been in limbo for a bit. A valley to be sure. About when I entered limbo, though, my new roommate moved in! She is awesome. All three of us are getting along well, and I think she's a great catalyst to bring us together. Fun, outgoing, supportive... definitely a peak. 

Work - another peak in my life. I love my job! It's rewarding and fulfilling, and I am good at what I do. I got some exciting news on Monday about upcoming events, which was definitely a big peak! I'll be sure to elaborate more on that when I get the full details :) . 

Peak: I went ice skating at the Olympic Oval last night and had a great time with the ward! I met some new people I hadn't talked to much in the past. Guys and girls. I also realized that I'm a decent (not great, but definitely not bad) skater, and that I really do have strong legs that don't tire easily. We won't mention the knees.....

Peak: I've been doing SO GOOD on my goals of scripture reading and prayer so far this year. Some days it's a little harder to feel the peace, comfort, and tranquility that these usually bring, but I know it's there somewhere. I feel like my relationship with the Lord is improving. That's very important to me. 

Peak: This one might be a questionable peak, but I hit and surpassed my weight goals for the holidays. I wanted to drop a few pounds (literally, like 2) by getting a bit more in shape. Over the two months of Zero Weigh In challenge, I actually lost a bit more than 5 lbs! I had fasted the day before the weigh in, so I think that might have dropped me a few more, but a solid 5 is very nice. My next goal is to work on muscle tone and cardio endurance. 

Peak: I have friends and family who love me and care about me. 

Peak: I am involved in a fantastic dance company that supports me individually and really cares about me as a person. We are also pretty dang good dancers, which doesn't hurt.

Peak: I finally went grocery shopping! I need to go again and get some menu ideas going on, but I am somewhat better stocked and finally have breakfast foods again. Yum!

Peak: I moved to the master room in our house and have a sweet bathtub in my bathroom. I love it. And I have a bay window. And hopefully I will find a few of my monkey hooks so I can hang a picture or two. 

Peak: I have good books on my Kindle! Admittedly, I'm currently reading an old one simply because I know it will be a good brain escape (it's very hard to find things that will occupy my brain so I can stop over-thinking), but I'm excited to start my new gift "And the Mountains Echoed" and a recommendation from my sister in law. Can't remember the name, but I did buy it!

Valley: Limbo. Always has been and always will be hard for me. Gone through some various stages of sadness on this one. I'm not sure where I stand at this point. All I know is who I want to be and how I want to live my life. 

Valley: Delynne Peay, one of my dearest dance professors in college, passed away last night. She had a major role in the course of my life through college, and even beyond. She was passionate about dance, culture, and the great good that comes through these facets. I danced on her team for two years, and remained close to her even after I finished my time with folk dance officially. She was vivacious, compassionate, and always pushed us to be our best. The Lord calls us to different missions at different times - she made a profound difference in my life and helped me discover a passion I didn't know I had. She believed in me and my skills. It has been so impressive to see the response from all the dancers whose lives she touched. I'm thankful to be part of her folk dance family and pray that her immediate family feels the peace and comfort they desire at this time. 

Good morning, 2014!

I must say, 2013 was a good year. Honestly, there was some inevitability of that happening... the previous year was probably the worst year of my life. This time last year I was still pushing onward with faith but uncertainty, and probably not tons of happiness. This New Year, I am so blessed and thankful that it's hard to remember those tough memories! 

I have a wonderful job that keeps me busy and pushes me to learn and grow. Every day I get to work with compassionate and creative people. Together, we make a real difference for hospitalized kids across North America. 

I am taking steps towards my goal of getting published - I'm expanding my thesis and broadening it out to address some important topics in more detail. I will be presenting a portion of my new research this February in Washington D.C. 

I'm healthy and strong. I am motivated to work out and stretch my limits again... maybe even get back into ballet shape with the goal of performing on pointe! I am also continuing my dance pursuits with a competitive clogging team - a whole new experience for me to compete in dance!

I live in a cute house with great roommates who are caring and fun. I am looking forward to the adventures we'll have once we all get moved and settled in. 

Also I had a special someone to kiss at midnight. :)  Thanks, Jake, for wonderful New Year's Eve, New  Year's, and birthday! 

We went to see the Secret Life of Walter Mitty recently..... I loved this quote and want to live my life like this: inspired.

To see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to, to draw closer, to see and be amazed and to feel, that is the purpose of life.

Rememory

Sometimes when my mind is staying occupied consistently with interesting or important data, it forgets little things... the precise word I'd like to use, a conversation I've had on a topic, an event that occurred in the past. Generally, I can eventually tap into those seemingly innocuous memories that are niggling to be recalled. Since the need for recall is often triggered by a current event, the memory becomes important and useful to the present time. 

For example, my back started hurting yesterday after work. I sit at a desk all day and hadn't done anything crazy or strenuous. I knew this happened around winter last year as well, but all last night I could not remember what on earth caused it to happen. All I know is I slept on a heating pad for the next several weeks.... months... yeah. 

Thank goodness I didn't completely neglect my blog last year, because the winter posts triggered that memory! I pulled my back last year while climbing over the seats in my brother's suburban while my mom was in town! This doesn't really help explain why my back all of a sudden has started hurting the same way again, but at least it finally came to me. I refuse to admit the temporary forgetting as a function of age; rather, it's an illustration of how occupied my mind is these days. 

Yep, we'll go with that! :)

Die Empty

"Alas for those that never sing, 

But die with all their music in them."  

- Oliver Wendell Holmes 

We received this book today at work from our Innovations team - aka, the big ideas team. Todd Henry, the author, spoke at Celebration about the need to live a full life... to explore and try every new idea that comes so that you can die knowing you lived. Really lived. I haven't started reading the book yet, but I'm already excited about the concept. I am a fan of pursuing possibilities and expanding them out. Arguably, it's how I've lived my life to this point. There's certainly more ground to cover, and I'm excited for those experiences as well. 

In the free time...

So, as you learned in my last post, I did not make it into a dance group that I was hoping to be in for Christmas. Ultimately, this is for the best, as my calling is  much more important, and being in this group would have filled the remainder of my week and made it impossible for me to fulfill my calling. While I still will miss performing in that show just a bit, I realized two important things today. 

1. I finally activated the gym membership I bought in April! In my defense, I severly sprained my ankle about 3 days after buying it, so it made absolutely no sense to redeem it earlier. But I'm excited to take a gym bag to work with me and stop there on my way home every day. I'm hoping it helps with my figure, but mostly my sleep. 

2. I have been cooking more than usual. This is kind of huge, because there was quite a while in college where I cooked and tried new recipes because I enjoyed it. I had a bad experience, though, when my cooking was arguably the only reason this guy was in a relationship with me. I mean, he made it a point to eat my homemade german chocolate cake right before he broke up with me. And after dating him I kind of lost the motivation to cook so much. I suppose you could argue that I suffered mostly from that one, but I also learned to hide my cooking skills under a bushel in new relationships. I couldn't say if I'm past that or not, but I'm really happy to be cooking more. It's one of those more subtle markers of me having some time and of being happy.