Colors

Is it possible to go too bright on your wedding colors? What do ya'll think of this hot pink, tangerine, and turquoise combo? (I wouldn't have that ugly brown ribbon on the bouquet.. it would be either turquoise or white.) 

Pictures!

Let me just say that it is HARD WORK getting  Joan to smile in a picture. He likes being goofy :) 

We're working on getting some more normal pictures so you can actually tell what he looks like and what we look like together, but ... gotta start somewhere! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I think I can safely say that I now have two favorite holidays: Christmas and Valentine's Day. I know, you think I'd go for something in the summer since my birthday is wedged in between those two, but nope, those are the ones! This Christmas I only had one real wish for my gift. I wanted to be married (or find the right person for that.) I never suspected at the time that I would actually get my wish, but I did. I met Joan Gonzalez, a tall, dark, and handsome stage manager at the MoTab Christmas show. We flirted, a friend gave him my number, and he immediately put it to use. Over Christmas break we talked nearly every single day! I had a suspicion then that I might be getting my wish, but I couldn't be sure. I  mean, we still needed to do some dating in person. 


Once I got back to Utah, it didn't take very long for Joan and I to realize that the connection we'd felt already was getting stronger and stronger. We spent a lot of time talking to each other, going on dates, and getting to know each other. In an unheard of step for me, I quit my international dance group so that I could have time (and money) to get married this summer, if the need arose. Nothing can get me to stop dancing when I have the choice to keep going. But finally getting my dream of marriage? That's the one thing that could stop me and get me to reevaluate my dance pursuits. I'm so glad I did!! 


Today, on February 14, 2012, Joan got down on one knee in the cold snow above Emigration Canyon and asked me to marry him. According to him, I shouted "YES!" My cheeks were bursting from smiling! He pulled a ring box out of his back pocket... sadly it was dark enough that I couldn't really see it well. So as I took off my glove I asked him to put the ring on my finger. He very willingly obliged. (The current ring is not the real one. The real one is being made right now and is going to be a stunner! But this stand-in ring is not too bad on its own, either.) We are getting married on  June 15, 2012 in the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple. I am so happy and can hardly believe that this is really happening! Joan is a wonderful man who treats me like a princess, and I couldn't imagine a better companion to go through life with. 


P.S. Pictures coming soon!

busy bee

well, you may have wondered why i fell off the bloggingplanet lately. to be honest, life is so crazy busy right now! school is super super stressful and has been taking my health on a downhill run for a while now. since january, really. it's not exactly a good thing when your skinny jeans don't fit snugly... especially fresh out of the dryer. aside from getting the life sucked out of me on a daily basis, my own personal life is thriving thriving!! which in turn keeps me busy and occupied constantly, thus i have little time to update my blog. there's only 100 other things to be doing right now. like sleep. and laundry. and lesson plans. and unpacking my room. yes, it's been months and i still have not completely arranged my living quarters!! one day i'll have time to put it together, probably just in time to move again when my contract is up. oh well, bridges for another day. if you are really interested in what's happening in my life, stay tuned. i'll try to keep ya posted as things happen. look at this year already! january is already over and february is chugging away quickly. school honestly can't be over soon enough for me. i hope i can sing/speak again normally after it ends. and i hope the stress stops taking such a big toll on my physically... sick for 3+ weeks and counting, dropping weight, sleep, etc. this administration has set me up for failure and i don't care for it much. nor do i have my stress-relief of dancing in place anymore. 


anyone in SLC know of a good studio for adults? i found a place that does pole dancing but that's just not my thing. i need dance that will give me a sanity check and at least a small workout. hm. maybe i should join a gym or something? what do you think? i really need to add something to my life (yes, yet another thing to keep me busy) that will help me de-stress from the nutso job i have taken. (lest ye be worried, i do love teaching and i do love my kids. it's the administration and their hurdles of expectations and the circumstances they've placed me in that make me call it nutso. it's disaster in a classroom and i think we're all just surviving this year - students and myself.) so yes, thoughts appreciated!

Happy like a river

In case I hadn't mentioned it, I am in love. YES! For reals this time. And it rocks my world. It's interesting though.... in my "younger" days I always thought I'd be super giddy and starstruck and all that. I mean, I did feel all those things in the past when I was in "love." So either I've grown up and am a little more realistic, or love just feels different when it's actually mutual and good and working well, etc. 


My love is like a river. It's constant, and fairly deep. Abiding. Yes, perhaps that's a good word for it. It gently colors my world a beautiful shade of rosy pink. Most of the time there's not crazy fireworks and explosions and grandiose moments, but they happen often enough that I'm not worried about anything missing. 


The only downside? Distance. And time. Because the distance is just enough to make it inconvenient to see each other every day, we talk a lot on the phone. And that time flies way too fast. And when it is over not only do I wish we had more time talking, I realize I need more time to do my little tasks too. So instead of switching my laundry and doing lesson plans I blog..... yeah. Teaching this new year may very well kill me. Too many students. Too many "extras" to worry about (science fair, spring sing, grades, re-enrollment,  P-T conferences, valentines, etc). Lots of pressure/high expectations. Depending on if my mom's scale and my sister-in-law's scales are fairly similar, I've shed 5 pounds in the past 3 weeks since coming back from the break to teach. (And those aren't the healthy, oh I worked so hard to lose that weight pounds. No, they're the stressed, stressed, stressed lost pounds.) 


So to sum it up, I need to change the laundry and go to bed like 30 minutes ago. Because the grind begins early, and I'm still fighting my 2 week illness, and I need to work hard tomorrow so I can play with my man later this week. And that concludes one of my more random posts. 

Recipe To Try

PUMPKIN CHILI

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
• 1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice
• 1 (28 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Directions

1. In a large pot over medium heat, cook beef until brown; drain. Stir in onion and bell pepper and cook 5 minutes. Stir in beans, tomato juice, diced tomatoes and pumpkin puree. Season with pumpkin pie spice, chili powder and sugar. Simmer 1 hour.

Doors and Windows

So 2012 has been very interesting so far. VERY good so far! And it looks to be extremely promising on some fronts, which makes me happy happy. Of course, you can't have a house where all the windows and doors are open at the same time. So naturally, some windows have had to close. For the first time in my left, I voluntarily chose not to participate in dance. 

WOW.

It was surprisingly easy. Easy in the sense that I've been dancing for over two decades and have always ended prior dance commitments through someone else's choices - moving away, not making a team, etc. Actually choosing my future? Choosing to say no to dance?? Yes. I did it. And it feels right. 

My travel journal documents my impressions from our very last performance in Lisbon. It was a back-to-back show for LDS church members from three stakes in the area. Both shows were packed! The audience was so wonderful and it was an amazing synchronicity of performer and audience. Perhaps my words that night sum up this choice. "Absolutely best way to end dancing :) " At least for now, one chapter of my dancing story has closed, but I am confident that it's not the end!