Flashback Friday Love Story Meme

Cami tagged me for this delightful love-story meme ages and ages ago and I am finally getting around to it, but hey what a better day than flashback Friday to do this one!! (I'm calling it the "love story meme" because I'm obviously feeling a bit cheesy today:))

1. Where did you meet your husband? We were in the same Heritage Halls student ward at BYU and yes Adrian was my home teacher. He says he first noticed me when I gave a talk in church on feeling the spirit before he became my home teacher, but I first met him when he showed up at my apartment to home-teach me and my roommate Mika. If I remember right he came with his good friend Ben.

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband? Oh I have no idea... It was probably nice to meet you or something stupid like that.

3. Where was your first date? Country swing dancing at a place called Jake's in Orem, Ut. You know I really liked him to agree to go country dancing!! We went with a big group which included my roommate Teri and we all went back to one of the guy's apartment for root beer floats and many rounds of mafia after the dancing. It was a very fun night even if I was quite horrible at country dancing.

Oh, and I should include in here for posterity's sake that Adrian asked me out about a week before our first date... I was on a "date" with my ex-boyfriend who was trying to win me back (long story) when Adrian called and I must have looked very crest fallen when I told him I couldn't go out with him that night because my ex pretty much flipped out after I got off the phone. He even said, "I can leave if you really want to go out with this guy!" And really I totally did wish I could have gone out with Adrian that night and probably was a bit rude to my ex. Ah, the drama...

4. Where was your first kiss? In the front hallway of my parents house - I think under the mistle-toe. We started dating right before Christmas break. It was December 21, 1996 and we had gone to my parents house after going to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi to see all the Christmas lights. It was a very romantic date and we held hands as we walked around Thanksgiving Point. Anywho, when he went to leave that night I asked him when I was going to see him again and he stopped and said, "Yes, let's decide that now..." and then he kissed me and said, "How about tomorrow." It was all very sweet and it makes me happy to remember it.


5. Did you have a long or short engagement/courtship? Well we got engaged on March 1st and got married on July 19th so I guess that's 4 1/2 months. To people outside of LDS culture I'm sure that sounds crazy short, but for me it seemed normal.


6. Where did you get engaged? Okay well seen as Adrian and I did have the quintessential BYU romance of course we got engaged on a walk around the Provo Temple. Adrian had taken me ring shopping so I totally knew it was coming and when he mysteriously needed to borrow my car for an evening (I later found out he went to ask my Dad's permission to ask me), I knew it was any day... Then when he asked if I'd like to take a walk around the Temple... I just felt bad because he seemed so nervous as we walked around the temple; he kept looking around to see if we were alone, but when we finally got to a spot without people around he got down on one knee pulled out the beautiful ring he got me (I do love my engagement ring even though I usually just wear my wedding band now) and asked. I immediately said yes and then said the stupidest thing that Adrian will never let me live down,"I really need to get my nails done!" This was after he slipped the ring on my finger and it just popped out because the ring was so pretty and my nails were so awful. Later that day we went to Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back (this was when they reopened them in the theaters) and Adrian always says that it was the most perfect day because he got engaged and went to Star Wars!! (Yep, he's a geek, but I love him!:))

7. Where did you get married? The Salt Lake City Utah Temple, July 19th, 1997. When Ben sees our wedding pictures he always says we got married in the "castle temple". It's just too big of an undertaking to think of telling all about our wedding right now (maybe in another post some time) but I can sum it up by saying it was a beautiful and wonderful day that I will always treasure.

Quilting Progress

I've made my first quilting square!! I actually made this over a week ago, but I forgot to blog about it. It's a snowman if you can't tell quite yet (it's going to have button eyes and a carrotish nose). Now I just have 3 more like this to make and then do all the borders and sashing etc. etc. I really don't know what everything is called yet and I have tons more to do, but I have to say I'm really excited that I've gotten this far!!:)

Why I Want to Beat Up This Man

This is Andrew Davies, the prolific screen-writer who is responsible for many good and wonderful film adaptations of fabulous books, like Pride and Prejudice and Bridgette Jones Diary. OK, well that said I still want to beat him up... OK "beat up" may be a little too much, but I would like to ask him why, seriously WHY he decided to take the gorgeously romantic story of George and Lucy from A Room With a View and give it the worst ending ever!!! We are talking horrible death... Oh yes, if you didn't catch last nights Masterpiece Theater version of A Room With a View I'm going to tell you how it ends - George dead on a World War I battlefield. Doesn't that just make you shudder?? I love (love love love!!:)) the 1986 version of A Room With a View with Julian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter. I love the book. It does not end with death; it ends with love - wonderful eloping to Florence love!! Why would Andrew Davies want to spoil that?? I can't even imagine.Anyways, I really did kind of enjoy Masterpiece Theater last night until the end (even though the actor who played George kind of had a lisp). I still have it on my DVR and I plan on watching it again, but I'm definitely going to turn it off after George and Lucy elope to Florence because that's how the book ends and there's no need for George to die in a fox-hole 3 years after they marry. NO NEED AT ALL MR. DAVIES!! Oh and as a side note Wormtail and Mr. Weasley from Harry Potter are in it, so that's pretty fun.

Let's Do the Time Warp Again!!!

High school... Oh high school. Those rough waves of adolescence!! I've been thinking about my HS years because on Friday Adrian and I went to a ward activity that was a "high school reunion dance". It was FUN! But it brought back lots of memories. So I thought I'd share some with you...
We'll start with Adrian though because I love this picture of him looking very important walking down the halls of his HS in his Academy of Finance finery. Adrian dressed in a suit and tie every other week as part of a business program.

This is me on graduation day with my parents. That was a very very happy day for me. High school was really not a fun place for me especially since I moved my junior year to a close-knit community and a much smaller high school were everyone knew everyone - well except for me and the handful of other move-ins like me.

I just had to include these in here - these are some of my HS class folders that I've saved for all these years. I used to doodle and write favorite lyrics on everything!! The scary guy on the Trig folder is suppose to be Trent Reznor from NIN. I had a habit of falling asleep in my Trig class, more like I was lulled to sleep every afternoon by the dulcet tones of my teacher Mr. Palmer. I drew the pic of Trent to wake me up after I got a really low grade on a test. I think the only "B" I ever got in high school was in that Trig class!

Okay and I would be totally remiss if I did not share with you at least one high school poem since I carried around my poetry journal all the time, you know just in case the mood struck me right and I had to jot down my thoughts in prose!:)

Listless confusion
abides with me,
filling my ever aching mind.
I look to the right
and left
only to find myself
staring back at me
with strange eyes.
Never before seeing my own face
I run from myself,
but like a shadow
I fall
stretched out on the ground
dark outline
of what I once was.

(Isn't that the epitome of high-schoolness??!!)

So there's a short and fragmented trip down high school memory lane. I was talking to a friend the other day and I think she put it best: "Isn't it great that most of us don't peak in high school!" Oh yes my friend it is!!

3 Cheers for Ben

I just had to share the little bit of happiness that I received today in Benjamin's preschool bag - his progress report. It's kind of like a preschool report card to let you know how things are going. It gives yes or no answers to things like: "can sit and listen at story carpet" and "tries to participate in music and fingerplays", then there are places for comments from his teachers. He got all positive comments!! It really made me misty to read some of them:

"Works well with peers - Ben is doing much better! Ben is now using words. We are seeing fewer and fewer tears."

"Ben has really grown socially this year. We are so pleased with his progress and willingness to take some risks."

I too am so happy with the progress that Ben has made this year!! It's hard for him to get out of his comfort zone and I can't say how pleased I am when I see him playing well with others and controlling himself when something difficult happens. (In the past he had major meltdowns at home and preschool if say someone took a toy from him etc, but he's getting so much better about letting things go.) So yay for my sweet Ben and for a happy preschool report card!

Man Cold

Kellie posted this little video clip from youtube on her blog a while back and I thought it was hilarious and sadly its also a little too close to home for me right now! (Really if you haven't seen that clip you must click on the link and watch it!!) All this week I've had a flu or cold sort of a thing which means I basically just felt gross but kept doing all my normal activities (except for on Thursday night when I did crash and go to bed at 8pm). I had a sore throat for a couple days and then on Thursday afternoon and evening I just felt horrible with aches and chills. Friday was better and today I just pretty much have a headache and runny nose. It's really not too bad, but I can say that Thursday with the aches and chills was horrible....

So who do you think has it now?? Yes, my sweet husband. And to top it off it seems to have mutated to the "Man Cold" variety which of course makes it 10 times worse than the cold I'm getting over right now. He has a sore throat and seriously spent the whole night and all morning telling me how awful he felt and how he just wanted to stay in bed for a couple days... ARGH!! I would understand if he just wanted to stay in bed if he had the chills and achiness, but during the sore throat phase of this illness I seriously never even mentioned it to anyone because it just wasn't that bothersome... I did ask him to bring me home a shake on Wednesday night but he ended up not being able to find a fast food place with shakes and just brought me home a Sprite instead (same diff right??). Okay, I admit I am being a little hard on my sweet husband and he has many many good points, but dealing with him in sickness can be a bit... well... annoying?? I feel bad that I feel this way and I'm going to try to have a better attitude, but after just getting over this cold and then having him get it and act like he is going to die in phase 1 is just too much...

Alright vent over. I guess I'll go make him some chicken noodle soup and rub his head saying "my poor little bunny". Maybe that will work. Then I'm going to try to get into a more spiritual and happy frame of mind for watching Conference. I have a feeling there's going to be a talk on being nice and not writing blogdetta posts about your spouse!!!:)

What's in a Name Meme

Happy April Fools!! I saw this meme on Cami's blog and thought it was a great one to do todays since the whole thing is a big joke really!!:)

1. Your rock star name (first pet, current car): Alexis Van (hey not bad, you know Van Morrison and all...)

2. Your gangsta name (fave ice cream flavour, favourite type of shoe): Peppermint Croc (yeah, that sounds really gansta!!!;))

3. Your Native American name (favourite colour, favourite animal): Green Bear (does that mean I'm a grump with a weak stomach??!!)

4. Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born): Dee Westminister (I actually think that one works!)

5. Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name): Andje (hee hee)

6. Superhero name (2nd favourite colour, favourite drink): Purple Coke (not sure that sounds very super..)

7. NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers): Matt Ezra

8. Stripper name (I like the way Cami did this one so it's my first pet and hometown street name): Alexis Flemming (Ha! Not that I was hoping for a really good stripper name, but come on you have to admit that one is good!!:))

10. TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Shoemaker Savannah (that one's admittedly odd)

11. Spy name (your favourite season/holiday, flower): Autumn Rose (I don't think the directions for the spy one work very well - maybe that's my "folk singer" name instead!)

12. Cartoon name: (favourite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Strawberry Slippers (hmmm... doesn't seem to work very well either, but it's kind a funny)

13. Hippie name (What you ate for breakfast, your favourite tree): Carnation Instant Breakfast Oak :)


This is one of the silliest memes I've ever done, but it was actually quite fun!! Go on give it a try!:)