Monthiversary

Today was monthiversary day! Keith brought me chocolate, and took me out to dinner, told me that he loves me, and kissed me good night. It was wonderful.

Customer Appreciation Day

This week has been customer appreciation week at the nursery, all leading up to the big day today. Customer Appreciation Day! We had face painting and a dunk tank, hourly special sales, and a barbecue. And what a day it turned out to be! It was one of the warmest, sunniest days we've had since I got to Anchorage. And with the radio stations advertising and the customers we've been telling to come back all week, we were busy. Finally, really busy.

We got a lot of our people up on the dunk tank. Nikki and Erik were funny, but the best of all was Keith. Now, I might be biased, because I like him, but his reactions were so funny! He kind of has good reactions a lot of the time, though.

Erik's little boys were so cute, too.

Basically, today was a good day. I love my job. I love my life. I love the sunshine. Love, love, love...

35 Hours

11:00-12:45: Breakfast Party
1:00-3:00: Church and hand-holding
3:00-4:00: Drive to Palmer
4:00-8:15: Kenley family dinner & Father's Day celebration*
8:30- 10:30: Games with Hal & Jenny, and family**
10:45-1:00: Cuddling & chatting
1:00-6:15 doesn't really count, as we were in separate areas of Keith's parents' house asleep
6:40-7:50: Drive back in to Anchorage
8:15-10:45: Playing Dr. Mommy, and taking a nap***
11:00-1:30: More cuddling & chatting
1:40-2:30: Out to lunch
2:35-4:40: Watching August Rush
5:00-6:15: Hanging out with the roommates
6:30-7:15: Mini-golf, Katie A. style****
7:30-8:15: Making & eating dinner
8:15-10:00: Poker lessons

That was a basic rundown of my last 35 hours with Keith. They were lovely. I rather like that man.

*This included Keith's sister Amy pulling out some old home video to share with me. He was a pretty cute toddler. It was funny to see some of the personality traits I know and love about Keith as they were 20 years ago. He was just as stubborn and just as content with life back then as he is now!

**Hal is Keith's cousin, and Jenny is his wife. We went over and played the game Acquire with them and with their parents. Also, I got to see their cute baby, which was fun!

***Keith got sick at the end of our drive in to Anchorage. Originally the plan was for him to drop me off and pick up my roommates and then go to work all day, but after throwing up from dehydration about 3 minutes away from my house, he decided driving was not the safest thing, and since that's his job, he called in sick for the morning. Jared (our boss) told him to just take the whole day off, because they weren't planning on being very busy. So I took the girls in to work, and then came home and got Keith feeling all better! I love taking care of people. It makes me feel important. And loved.

****My friend Katie Hoyos, formerly Abernathy, hence the "A", shared a different version of mini-golf score keeping. Instead of counting strokes at each hole, each player makes a wager. Whoever puts their ball away in the least strikes wins their prize. So, for example, I lost hole 8 and have to wear Keith's Utah State, anti-BYU shirt to work one day. But he lost hole 12, so he has to make me dinner one of these days. Also, our after dinner poker lesson happened because I lost hole 14.

Weekend

Today I just feel like rambling... so here goes!

This morning we were called by our boss and told that we didn't need to come into work, because it was raining. So we all got a random Saturday off! In taking full advantage of the opportunity, Kalie, Cecilia, Em and I went to the Saturday Market in downtown Anchorage. It was an outdoor market, full of vendors selling Alaskan treasures- mostly touristy stuff; jewelry, furs, sweatshirts, trinkets, etc... I found souvenirs for some of my sisters and bought a beautiful belt. It's made out out of black elk leather, and has bears, moose and Alaska mountains embossed on it. We took fun pictures of us wearing goofy hats and posing with horses. It was way fun, especially since the "rainy day" turned out to be gorgeous.

Last night Keith and I went rock climbing. My arms are SO SORE! Plus I have a massive bruise on my arm. So, we left the nursery as soon as I got off of work, but still didn't get to the rock gym until about 20 minutes after the belay class started. So... that was going to be really sad. But then- TA-DA! The lady said Keith could teach me how to belay, and then an instructor could test us out, and make sure that we were safe and stuff. So Keith taught me rock climbing knots and safety rules and techniques, and then the instructor tested us out of it. Talk about an adventure- He told Keith to go most of the way up the rock wall while I belayed, and then to fall without giving me any notice of it. Well, Keith took it a step further, and fell while I was totally distracted talking to the instructor about technique. Took both instructor boy and I entirely by surprise, but I didn't let go of the rope. So, we passed. And then we climbed! I was not super good, but it was way fun! And I got to the top of one of the courses, right at the very end of the evening, and only had to cheat on one hold to do it! I couldn't quite get my foot up that extra 6 inches to the next pink one. Had to borrow the green one just below it. But other than that, I got to the top!

I officially love climbing rocks. It's way fun!

Update:

I love my life.

Love my job.

Love my roommates.

Love Alaska.

Really, really, really like my boy.

And that's basically it for now. Just wanted to let the world know what was new.

Roses

I spend the majority of my time surrounded by plants, researching plants, and helping plants grow. So you think I would get over the wonder of them, right? On the contrary, however, I find them more and more fascinating the further I come to know them. And with all of the wonder and amazement I find there, it should come as no surprise how unutterably enchanting it is when a boy brings me flowers.

Keith and I went to a dance on Saturday night this weekend. He came rather early, so I still had some getting ready to do while he was here. He sat on the couch chatting with my roommates as I apologized for taking so long to get ready, and kept reassuring me that I should take as long as I wanted to get ready- I was going to be the most beautiful girl at the dance regardless of how ready I got. When I finally was ready to go, I came down the stairs to find him holding a bouquet of roses. Half a dozen long stemmed roses, white petals tipped in brilliant pink. They were absolutely lovely, and they were for me.

I don't know if I even actually looked at my roses until later in the evening, after we got home from the dance. I was too thrilled by the sweetness of the gesture to do more than glance at those flowers. Too busy looking shyly at Keith, and thinking that I am lucky to be dating a good man. He pretends to be all tough and cool, but he's really very sweet. Flawed, yes, but so is everyone. And for now the only thing more beautiful to me than my roses is the opportunity to get to know him better. I'm enchanted.

Valley Boy

I was talking to my parents today, telling them about Keith and how we came to be dating, and they were asking those questions parents ask about new boys I start to date: who is he, what's he doing with his life, etc... So I've decided that I am going to write a small snapshot of Keith to let my family and friends know who it is I am spending my summer dating.

Keith grew up in "the valley," in Palmer, AK. It's a pretty small place, about an hour north of Anchorage. His family grows all sorts of stuff, and when he was growing up, Keith had sheep. He's got a lovely singing voice. He goes to Utah State University, where he just switched from the Economics program into Electrical Engineering. He's kind of obnoxious- always teasing and joking around. But that keeps me laughing. He's not incredibly tall- Only 5'10' or so- but that's okay. He's got dark brown hair, and blue-grey eyes. When we met, his hair was kind of long and shaggy, but he cut it before our second date because, as he put it, "I wasn't planning on dating this summer..." and then I guess I changed his plans. He changed mine, too, though, so we're even. The bumper on his car is attached with duct tape. He's pretty cuddly. Also, he likes me!

So that's about all there is to say for now. Actually, I could say a lot more, but I'm getting distracted. So. I'm done blogging for now.