89 Days

I have a lot of planning to do. A lot. And only 89 days to do it all in- yikes!

Keith proposed to me on Thursday. Since we met at work, he wanted to let everyone there be involved in that. Here's what happened: I was sent home early because of the weather (we're a nursery- weather is directly related to how much we have to do) so I'd been home for a while. Then my boss called and asked me to come back in for half an hour or so to help one of our important clients to look at some plants. So I drove back to the nursery, all annoyed about having such a ridiculous job to do, and got there just after the client was supposed to have arrived. So I went inside, and the girl at the front desk told me that they were out back by our pond.

As I buttoned on my work shirt, I rushed out the door, and just about ran into Keith. He'd set the whole thing up, and had plants arranged around the door so it looked nice, and was wearing his nice suit. I just started kissing him right away, because I was so excited! Then he told me how much he loves me, and handed me a bouquet of beautiful pink roses. He got down on his knee, and asked me to marry him, and I said Yes!

We're engaged! Hooray! I'm way excited. And a bit overwhelmed.

Which brings me back to the title of this post: 89 days. That's how long I have to plan until the big day. And I have no idea where to start. Yikes!

Anyway, if anyone has advice for smoother wedding planning or cute ideas, let me know!

Solstice Carnival

So, I'm a few days late in blogging about this, but it was just such a fun, spontaneous thing that I wanted to share.

Monday was June 21st, which is the summer solstice. That made it the longest day of this year, and up here in Alaska, that means the sun is up all night. I mean, not really up, but it sets and then it's dusky and then the sun is rising again. So solstice is a big deal.

On Monday after work, Keith was driving over to my house, when he passed by a carnival. Immediately, he called me to tell me about it. He was so excited. He gets so cute and little-boy-ish about things like that. It's incredibly endearing. Anyway, we decided we'd go to the carnival.

Ok, you know those rides that they pack up and move around and how they're kinda jerky and not all that awesome? Well... yeah. I guess we're not as young as we used to be, cause Keith and I were getting pretty dizzy by the second ride or so. But we pushed through it, and had a blast. Best solstice carnival I've ever been to.

We rode the Ferris Wheel first, cause it's the most romantic... and I learned

first hand that Keith's not kidding when he says he's scared of heights!

I think my favorite part about the evening was just how much fun Keith and I had laughing together. It's kind of been a weird couple months, dating like a real couple as we live in the same city (finally!) I've loved it, but we get so comfortable with just being together, that we've started being a little bit boring. Mostly, I love just coming home after work, and having Keith come over and make dinner with me, and then channel surfing, or running errands, or playing games, and talking about everything in life. But it was really refreshing to just get out and go on a little adventure, break the routine up a little, and just laugh together.

I'll let the happily-in-love-for-many-years couples in my life be the experts on the subject, but if I were to throw in my two cents, I'd say that a little spontaneity is good for a relationship. I hope that Keith and I keep doing fun, sweet, spontaneous things for each other for many, many more years to come.

Date Night

Such a fun date night with my sweetie boy. We made super good dinner. Pork chops and mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli... mmm! I've figured out the secret to really good pan-cooked pork chops in about 10 minutes. Keith said it was the first pork chop he'd ever really liked. Then we watched Chopped. We watch a lot of Food Network. Next, we were off to the brand-new movie theater here, where we bought tickets and then had a few hours to kill. So we walked around, and Keith showed me the work he'd done (the company we work for has the landscaping contract for the shopping plaza there) this week, and found ice cream. Um, raspberries mixed into black cherry ice cream in a chocolate-dipped waffle bowl= delicious! Then we saw the Karate Kid. That was fun. I am so glad that I'm not that kid's mother. Also, that I don't live in China. Anyway, now I'm home and don't have any roommates here, and I am a little bored... and it's making me really wish that I were married to Keith. I don't like him dropping me off, and then going home to Kevin and Greg. I just wish he lived here with me, forever and ever and ever.

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Like Jewel, you know.

Anyway, early tomorrow morning I'm headed to Atlanta for a week of fun networking and competition. It'll be so good. I'm excited.

And then I'll come back for finals and graduation, and to pack up my life from the last 4 years.

And about 3 weeks from then, I'll be going on another jet plane, this time to Anchorage, where I will start grown-up life.

Too bad I hate Airports.

Planning

In 62 days, I will be graduating from college. Exciting!!!

So, now I have to make a plan. It's called "What to do when you get out into the real world".

There are many options. I could go be a starving bum on the streets of London (because I think that at the end of the year, I'll only have enough money to get there, and then I'll be 100% broke). Or I could get a job somewhere. This is the more likely alternative.

But there are lots of jobs, and lots of somewheres.

My family would love it if I came home, and worked there this summer. Or didn't work, as my mom pointed out to me today. But I need to have a job, or I will go crazy. And stay broke, also.

Keith and Emily and Cecilia and maybe Steph would love it if I went to Anchorage for work this summer. Actually, they probably wouldn't mind too much if I weren't working, either, because then I'd have more time to split between them all, but really I need to have a job. Or I will go crazy.

There are a few companies who I am in touch with who might want me to go where ever they're located this summer, and then after that, also. Think Atlanta, or California. They, however, would want me working, because if I'm not working I'm useless to them.

So there are options, and pressures pulling from different directions and sources. And I'm pretty sure that I know what I want, but what if I don't, really? What if what I think that I want is not, in fact, what I actually want. Oh, I'm confused.

Mostly I just don't want to disappoint anyone with my decision to go one place or another. But you can't please everyone always, I guess.

I hate that about growing up. I used to only have my parents' opinions to think about, and my own, but my opinion was usually pretty in line with theirs on my bigger decisions. Now there are opposing opinions, pulling me quite literally to opposite corners of the country. I'm very neatly tucked smack-dab in the center here at school, 3000 miles from Anchorage, and 2100 from Chantilly.

Google Maps is a lovely tool for illustrating this point. But see, Anchorage is 4315 miles from Chantilly. Which is far. And so we get conflicting opinions.

I need to figure out how to make this decision without hurting anyone. Tricky.

In the end, I need to decide what will be the best decision for me, and not worry about everyone else. Also, I need to remember that moving is not, in fact, final. Just because I end up somewhere in May does not mean that I'll be there forever. It just means I'll be there for now.

Maybe I should go to London.

To Do List

• Finals: Statistics, Pest Management, Turf Science, Religion, Business Strategy
• Project: Grounds Practicum journal
• Sleeping
• Shoveling snow if it comes (probable on Wednesday morning)
• Survive this week
• GO HOME! Celebrate Christmas, eat food, love my family, etc.
• Come back to Utah with my sister! Yay!
• Finish up college- one full semester left!
• Be a grown up?

Babies

So, today I went to church with some great family friends whose baby was being blessed. It was a sweet, lovely experience, and Sarah Elizabeth is precious.

Yesterday, Keith and I went over to play The Farming Game (awesome, by the way) with his cousins Hal and Jenny, and I got to play with their 5 month old boy.

And I'll be honest: I know that I am not ready at this moment to be in charge of someone else's life, especially not someone small and wholly dependent on me. But at the same time, I am so very ready for a beautiful little family of my own.

Anyway, I'm feeling mildly baby hungry tonight. But that's a ways off still. I've got some other steps to complete before I get there! But I'm excited for eventually.

Conundrum

FACT: I do not want a Master's degree

FACT: I do not want to start grown-up life

PROBLEM: If I do not go to grad school, and do not get a grown-up job, I will be a floundering, useless individual without a place in society or an excuse for my existence.

So I suppose I'll have to figure that out in the next little while here, huh?

Because I will graduate in April from one of the top Landscape programs in the nation, hopefully as a Certified Landscape Professional, and have to figure out then what's next. Talk about daunting.

Impatient

I am very much having patience issues.

I just miss my sweetheart too too much, that's all.

So Friday, October 2nd, is being very slow in coming.

Also, we have horribly opposite schedules that make quality phone conversations difficult. We talk several times a day, but usually just stealing a few minutes here and a few minutes there. I haven't talked to him for more than 15 minutes straight in quite a while.

I just want to be graduated so that I can follow him around wherever he is, whether it's Anchorage or Logan or Hong Kong or Baghdad... I don't really think I'll be needing to go to either of those last two places, though. But the point is that if I had already graduated and if he happened to be going to Madagascar or Indonesia or anywhere else, I could go, too.

Is that what it means to be in love? To just want to follow someone around for the rest of eternity, so that you can be with them, and help them, and love them forever and ever? Because if that's what it means to be in love, then I am in love.

But I'd really rather not travel to Baghdad. Lucky for me, Keith isn't a huge traveler, either!

Happily Ever After

Tomorrow my best friend gets married. Weird. We've been talking about this day for years. And more specifically, since she got engaged a few months ago. And I am so excited for her! And so weirded out by it, too.

Growing up is a funny thing. I can't believe that we're this old. Being old enough to fall in love is crazy; looking back on all of the boys we have thought we loved is mildly ridiculous. Luckily, she's finally fallen in love with one who's worth her time. Jeff really is a good man, and he loves her.

As for me, I am still happy to be working toward my own happily-ever-after.

Countdown

7 Days left at Evergreen
9 Days until my Becky gets married
19 Days left in Alaska
28 Days until Provo
32 Days until school starts
146 Days until my sissy comes home
148 Days until Christmas
155 Days until 2010
230 Days until I turn 22

Why are we always counting ahead?

Life is a really good thing. I think I need to take it one beautiful day at a time!

Snuggling

Actually, the topic for this post is not congruous with its title. But my daddy keeps worrying that I'm cuddling too much, so I thought I'd throw this in as a title just for fun. Scare him a bit, you know?

Tonight I would really like to write about anticipation. I am thinking about a lot of things that I don't want to wait for. I am anticipating going to bed (should get on that, actually), anticipating the coming school year and (yikes!) graduation, and especially anticipating my trip home in August. I miss my family. Growing up is great, and I am enjoying the chance to learn and change and be responsible for my life. But it is hard to be a displaced person without a home to belong to. And it's hard to be gone from my parents and siblings all the time. I mean, I spend maybe a month, cumulative total, at home in a year. I don't like it. I'm ready to go home. And then I'll be ready to come back and play in Alaskan Summer for a little while more.

Summertime and the World

I think there are two places that I live in. One is called the real world, and it is where I live and work at a nursery and go to school in Provo and have to be responsible and financially independent, etc. The other is called summertime. In this world, I don't really have to do anything other than be with Keith on Alaskan adventures. I love summertime. It's the best. I would just like to stay at summertime all of the time. Because it's way better than real life. In real life you have to worry about real things, such as should I take Field Botany this fall? Or Statistics? Both? Neither? When can I fit work into my fall schedule? How many hours should I be working? Where? Tree crew? Am I going to have enough money to survive next year? Why are Provo and Logan so far away from each other? How long is the bus ride? Should I think about getting a car? Is a car in the budget? What is my budget? Are my new roommates going to be psycho? Am I going to be psycho? Is there enough time to worry about all of these things? Are my tan lines too intense? What about Sunday dinner? Am I going crazy? Why is everyone I know getting married or pregnant? When am I going to find the time to do laundry? Should I buy new jeans yet? Where could I get a patch kit? Am I eating enough healthy stuff? Etc... It's nuts. Real life is simply not as much fun as summertime.