I'm married.

New family blog.

Hints of what is to come at the reception...

Empty picture frames

Ice Cream

Photo booth

White centerpieces

Calla Lily bouquet

Parasols

Bunting

How will it all come together? Very nicely, I hope...

Countdown

1 day until the fiance's birthday

6 days until I go through the temple

8 days until I get to hear one of my favorite ballets performed by Utah Symphony (Rite of Spring)

11 days until I move most of my stuff into our little yellow house

12 days until I get my dress and we take the bridals

13 days until the open house

14 days until the wedding

15 days until we head off to Florida, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama

32 days until summer term starts

It's all coming so quickly! My bedroom is covered in birthday presents for the fiance, early wedding gifts, boxes to move, boxes of trash, and lots and lots of crafts.

Why I want to be what I want to be when I grow up

Ever since before I was in public school, I have wanted to be an elementary school teacher. I have always been in love with children, so it made sense as the perfect profession for me. Children always make me so incredibly happy and I have wanted to be a mother ever since I tried naming my little sister after my nursery teacher. (I think she is grateful to my parents that her name is not Sister Mendenhall.) Years upon years ago, it was my bedtime. I was pretty young and I was telling my older sister a bedtime story. It went something like this:

"Once upon a time, there were a bunch of fairies." (Insert lovely things that the fairies did here.) "Then one day, all the fairies got really sick. They went to the doctor and the doctor said, 'Well, either you are all going to die....or you are all going to have babies!'" (The facts of life were a little hazy to me back then.)

Having a classroom will be like having a lot of nieces and nephews. I will get to spoil them, teach them, watch them learn, discipline them a little, and at the end of the day, send them back to their parents. Granted, it does come with loads of responsibility--there are way too many people out there that will sue for anything. It also is not the highest paying job in the world. In fact, my first year teaching (internship) will be just a few hundred dollars more than what I make right now at my kiosk, but I do not get people that go into their profession because of the Christmas bonus they will bring home or the salary that will be more than I could possibly make by teaching.

Ever since getting into the eled program, I have been in love with the courses, the teachers, and the girls I have classes with (and two boys). I cannot wait for school to start up again in the fall so that I can see these people again and get back into the classrooms.

Saturday brought this

Mark and Jill's wedding. This marked the last time I will be head babysitter during a sibling's wedding.

Great quote from yesterday...

"In this last dance, can you describe anything different or interesting you saw someone do?"

"I noticed Lois. No explanation necessary."

...Just because I was the only one flailing all of my limbs...

Wedding ideas thus far

I have always been really into wedding planning. I have been thinking up ideas ever since I was in high school and now that I actually have the chance to plan my own wedding, it has been hard to narrow down the ideas!
I will post tutorials as I get to making all of these, but here are my favorite ideas so far:

Found here. (All for this penny)


Found here. (My DIY wedding day)

Found here. (My DIY wedding day)

Found here. (Again. DIY Wedding day.)

Found here. (Dollar store crafts)

Reasons as to why I am in love

We say the same things at the same time. Several times a day.

We have bizarre nicknames for each other.
He does not care how I act. Generally I live up to his expectation to be a mature 21-year-old, but sometimes you just have to let loose and throw paper off the "catwalk" at the mall or entertain him with monologues or go to Kiwanas after the sun goes down to talk and cuddle and drink sparkling pear juice straight from the cool green glass bottle.
He catches me when I trip over nothing. Even when we're at the symphony.
He crafts with me. {Oh wait. I don't know if he wanted that one to come out of the closet.}
His wit is nearly as clever as mine is.
He will read my mind. This sounds creepy but it actually is rather nice. Just the other day, I just had to say "Would you like to..." and he gave me my answer. The correct answer. Not only did he give me his answer, but he then proceeded to tell me what the rest of my question was. Pretty soon I won't have to talk at all.
He has a gorgeous singing voice.
He has been known to rub my feet as I take finals {online}.
He cooks me anything I would like and it tastes divine. Usually. Everything I have requested him to cook tastes magnificent. Some of the random endeavors he has decided to take on may have teased my palate in the wrong sort of way.
He lets me call him at any time of the day or night. And he has been known to answer when I call him at 4:00 am.
He gives me a piggyback ride whenever I decide to jump on his back. I jump on his back on a fairly frequent basis.
He has caught onto my strange urge for random, poorly thought through pranking tendencies and frequently plays along. Even during the ones that end up in an epic fail.
He has shown me into secret places in the mall that few amateurs have been in.
When it's that time of the month and I am in a bit of pain, he'll stop at a store {without my asking} in the middle of a date to not only get me my choice of painkillers, but also a bottle of water to help wash the pills down.
He is a bigger nerd than I am.
He picked out the most gorgeous ring I could imagine and it only leaves my finger when I do baptisms or when I want to give him a good scare.

The girl who cried wolf

I am engaged. To be married. To one handsome and witty Wolf.

It all happened Thursday, February 17, 2011.

It was a Thursday like any other Thursday; full of carefree events that might make it into a daily journal (if I kept a daily journal) and yet not memorable enough that in ten years I would sit my children down and tell them the tales of that Thursday. I lunched with my {then} boyfriend at noon, went wedding present shopping with my darling friend Manny in early afternoon, and then dutifully went to my two classes that are held on Thursdays.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

That night, I received my nightly phone call from work and called my boss to pass on the numbers. Immediately after I hung up with my boss, I headed out the door. I had plans that night to have a laid back evening with Manny. However, as I pulled into her driveway/parking lot, I got another call. From Kaeli. Kaeli closed at work.
"Hey, Laura, I locked my keys in the cart. My work key and my car keys."
After running a few options through my brain that did not involve me actually going to the mall, I agreed to come rescue her. (It was not the first nor probably the last time.) As I pulled up to the mall, I noticed my {then} boyfriend's car still in the parking lot.
'Strange. He was supposed to have left twenty minutes ago.' And yet, I did not suspect anything. I dashed to the cart and then stopped in my tracks.
There was no Kaeli.
I walked around the cart once.
No Kaeli.
As I was about to pull out my phone to call her, I saw my {then} boyfriend walking up.
"Hey! What are you doing here?"
"Kaeli called me to come unlock the cart. Her keys are in there."
"I saw her leave fifteen minutes ago."
"Oh."
And yet, I did not suspect anything.

Until.
"But since you're here..." And with that, he pulled out a ring box. A deliciously colored ring box that made my heart start to pound and my eyes widen. I slowly opened it and then felt annoyance start to rise in my being. In this gorgeous box that I would have filled with my most prized trinkets fifteen years ago was a very large, very obnoxious flower ring.
For the next five--very long--seconds, I thought he was trying his hand at pranking. A fake proposal just to mess me up. Something that would give him street cred in the humor department. It just was not working for him.
After those five seconds, I noticed him pull something off his pinky. This ring came with a proposal.
And I honestly don't remember the two minutes right after that moment.
I do know that when he gave me the real ring, my first reaction was "I hate you."
I do know that I was kidding about hating him.
I'm pretty sure I told him yes.

I accidentally stood up Manny that night.
She has since forgiven me.

And so it begins

On Wednesday morning, I almost peed my pants because I was so nervous. The wait to laminate six pieces of paper was an hour longer than it should have been and I laughed a strange, nearly forced laugh whenever the laminating machine fixing tech men made joke after joke while trying to find the problem with the machine. I did laugh when I thought of the image I left (while tripping out to my car) for the last stragglers, obviously uncaring that they were late to their 9:00 class.

25 beanbags in a mesh bag in my left arm.
A 6' x 4' laminated bundle that I needed to take sheers to.
My bag, unusually large, on my right arm.
7 curiously long jump ropes along for the ride.
4 large orange cones balanced precariously on a few binders balanced on the palm of my right hand.

A half hour, I was to my destination. After running around frantically and trying not to look completely crazy, I had a minute to spare; to make sure I had my whistle around my neck and a mic properly attached.
"Hello, third grade! My name is Miss Sederberg and I'll be your P.E. teacher for the next five weeks!"