surprise!!

john is just the best thing EVER.

so, a couple weeks ago we were looking up cheap hotel prices for when he cam to visit me this weekend.  he got a couple of guys at his work to trade shifts with him [or so i thought] so he was going to be able to spend thursday through sunday here with me.  we haven't seen each other since the very beginning of october, so it was pretty exciting for both of us and we were glad for a chance to spend more than just two days together.

so this week finally got here and we were soooo excited that we would finally get to see each other on thursday.  i told him it felt like christmas was coming early!  and it did.  at work on monday time just seemed to speed right on by.  and then this morning it was going pretty quickly too.  i was e-mailing john and we were playing a game [naming state capitals... because we're awesome like that] and he was taking forever to e-mail me back each time.  so i was just sitting at the desk looking at wedding websites and there he was!!!

john surprised me!!

he lied about trading shifts with anyone and so he had his normal tuesday-wednesday off and took the rest of the weekend off too!!  isn't he just the BEST?!!

i was so excited i couldn't even move.  i just sat there staring at him and barely believing it.
i'm just so happy.  i have the best fiance in the world!

i love you, john!  thanks for surprising me  :)

Fifty hours a week= a walk in the park

As the Spring semester of 2010 was coming to a close Sydney and I were at a pretty intense crossroads(eh, I just shuttered at the word "crossroads", anyone who knows me understands). I guess I  should say that Sydney was at a crossroads(eh I did it again!) because she was still trying to figure out if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me or in piles of dirt as an anthropologist. Me, on the other hand, I knew that I wanted to marry her at about week three of the relationship(I'm not weird or anything, however, I do use parenthetical statements a lot). So when that day finally came and my pretty girl told me she wanted to spend forever with me I became the happiest kid in the western hemisphere. However, along with that happy moment came a myriad of difficult decisions. There was one concrete plan, Sydney was going to move back home and I was going to spend six weeks protecting families in the hell I like to call Orem, UT. Why do people live there? It's kinda like living in a big city with a bunch country folk that aren't quite sure they live in a city. Also, whoever decided to put 200 million stop lights in that town should not be allowed in heaven, but I digress. I say I was protecting families because I worker for the self declared, renowned security system tycoons, APX Alarms, in the monitoring department. In a nutshell I wasted the precious time of law enforcement and American tax dollars, and sometime H.O.A fees. No matter how you look at it, that job was like trimming bamboo(I wonder if you think I'm really cynical yet).

So one day I was sitting in my lugubrious excuse of an apartment in Orem and I was contemplating how Sydney and I were going to move forward with this marriage idea, and then it hit with me like a ton of bricks. This crazy idea floundered into my head. This idea that would launch me back to sunny San Diego and only 5 hours away from the most important thing in my life. See I had two options in front of me, go back to Rexburg  and attend school full time or go back home and attempt to get my old job back as a graveyard security officer. I was leaning toward the going back home part because I would only be 5 hours away from Sydney, instead of 10, and I could save up a bunch of money. Also, I could still go to school half time taking online classes. The only question was if I could actually get my old job back. Yikes! The crazy thing was that my buddy who took over my job when I quit was going to quit at the same time I was going to need to come back to San Diego. It was perfect. The only thing that made it more perfect was the fact I was able to get my other job back at a law firm. After that all fell into the place the decision seemed obvious. I moved backed to San Diego and now I work anywhere from 40-55 hours a week, and one of my jobs is a graveyard shift.

Its great now, in between all these decisions Sydney got her pretty ring, fluffy dress, and reservation for the "big" sealing room at the Las Vegas temple. I don't think we could be happier. However, I think Sydney worries about me a lot. I think she worries that I work so much and sleep so little. It does take a little getting used to but I draw so much strength from the idea that I do all this for us, not just me. I do it all for my pretty girl. I would work 100 hours a week if I had to. I don't know how to love anything more than I love Sydney and I will always be grateful that I had that idea bounce into my head, because now I am only 5 hours away from Sydney and I have the opportunity to earn some extra scratch.

Besides, I have no room to complain, Sydney has to drag herself out of bed at six every morning. I'll always love her for that.

sorry i was grumpy yesterday.

to my johnny monster -
you are the best thing in my life.  you make me smile, even when i don't want to.  you light up my heart every single day and you remind me that it's never going to be dark again.  thank you for always doing what you say you will.  thank you for always being there, even when i didn't ask for you to.  thank you for telling me that you love me every chance you get.  thank you for my pretty ring and the promise of forever that you attached to it.  thank you for not thinking i'm crazy.  thank you for being lazy with me, and letting me take naps.  thanky you for telling me the truth - even when it's hard.  thank you for holding me close, and holding my hand, and kissing my head when i'm sad.  thank you for letting me meet your family and friends in san diego.  thank you for liking my friends and family and not thinking we're too wierd.  thank you for being the driver on long road trips.  thank you for making my lunches before school.  thank you for holding my hand when we'd cross the street.  thank you for taking an online class while your home and working.  thank you for calling the apartment complexes to find out more information and get us on waiting lists.  thank you for trying to explain things to me because i don't understand them, and not getting too mad when i give up trying and need to take a break.  thank you for giving me a reason to go back to rexburg, because i wasn't quite ready to leave forever.  thank you for being driven and wanting to be the best student you can so you can get into a good law school and support me and our family.  thank you for thinking i was cute in a pathetic sort of way.  thank you for loving hot dogs and slurpees and horkleys and pickles as much as i do.  thank you for all your efforts to get me to go to the gym.  thank you for reminding me of the things i need to do.  thank you for inspiring me to be better and to really study my scriptures.  thank you for being my best friend, and the best thing in my life, and for wanting to spend the rest of forever with me.  thank you for calling and reserving our date at the temple.  thank you for calling my every morning to make sure i'm awake and to tell me that you love me.  thank you for staying on skype every night until i fall asleep.  thank you for letting me bug you with a million e-mails a day and responding to them whenever you have an extra minute.  thank you for letting me call and wake you up in the middle of the "night" and talk to you while i'm at lunch.  thank you for getting days off work to come and see me for halloween and for our trip to rexburg.  thank you for everything you do for me.  thank you for all your prayers.  thank you for thinking about me.  thank you for boris, and ghoti, and marcus, and the flamingo whose name escapes me...  thank you for loving me even though i'm an absolute mess all the time.  thank you for kissing me before i brush my teeth.  thank you for thinking i'm pretty when i'm sick, and haven't showered, and just woke up, and especially when all of those things happen at the same time.  thank you for letting me take you all over the place to take pictures and then not even showing them to you because i don't really like them.  thank you for letting me have a secret engagement story.  thank you for introducing me to the two-story target phenomenon.  thank you for metting me be me.  thank you for laughing at my silly jokes.  and thank you for laughing at me when i'm trying to be serious.  thank you for working graveyard shifts, even though you hate it.  thank you for telling everyone you meet how much you love me.  thank you for washing dishes.  thank you for fluffing herman.  thank you for telling me that i have too much stuff.  thank you for all of it - the whole package.  thank you, john.  i mean it.  i really don't deserve you.
i love you, forever and ever, times a bazilion, plus infinity, with everything i have.
love, your pretty girl

hey baby :)

so, this is OUR blog.

eventually we'll change it so it reflects our personality.
but i just wanted to get it set up so we could start posting.

i want this to be like a journal of all our experiences together.
and we can both post, so we can remember both perspectives.
i guess all our friends and family will know that stuff too, then...
haha.  might be kinda cool  :)

i love you forever!