Yes I am insane, Thank you for being the millionth person to observe this.

All right, I've been needing to post for quite awhile, but I've been a "little" busy. Since I woke up at 4:30 am and can't go back to sleep, I figure I might as well take this time to say... I'm engaged!

THE STORY:
Ok, here's the long drawn out story. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, so sit back, get some popcorn, stretch your eye muscles, and enjoy :)

First of all, if you haven't heard of Seth Austin, here's the beginning of the story...

October 16: Airport day. I drove to the airport to pick up Seth Austin. This was the first time I would be seeing him, and thought that the Rapid City Airport was tiny, so it would easy to find him... It was a little bigger than I thought, and when I saw a guy with dark hair, I thought it might be him, except that he was smoking!  We finally found each other, he grabbed my hand, and we walked out to my car. We went shopping at Target for road trip snacks, then we went to visit Tina from the branch for a minute, and we were on our way. Neither of us had slept well the night before, so the tourist's tour wasn't too spectacular. I pointed out the window saying "There's Mount Rushmore, do you want to go walk around it?" He didn't, so we just took a couple of pictures on the side of the road! We did go to my favorite taffy store in Keystone, then I took him to Sylvan Lake, the lodge for lunch, and down Needles Highway. Hera was probably the only one who was interested in meeting Seth, while the other employees just said, "Oh, hi." or something like that.

From October, Conference and SNOW

We decided to head for Wyoming and our middle stop on the road trip home. The most "adventurous" part of the trip was Douglas WY. The adventure included the Plains Motel, which is a complex of recycled buildings/doors. I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I'll try to describe it... First of all our rooms were about a block apart, then his was a room, which smelled a lot worse than just smoke. His heater had two settings, off and full blast! He said it was a, "smoking hot room." After he opened some soap and set it by the heater, it smelled more like soap, so that was a little better. Then his lights above his sink didn't work, so he came over to use mine to shave. lol. Mine? It was non-smoking, and fairly live-able, except for the fact that the walls were very thin, and the hunters in the next room woke me up at 5:30 am or so! Seriously, do you really need to laugh that loud that early??? My favorite part of the room was the five gallon buckets that served as garbage cans. Then we went to eat at a Chinese Restaurant- it was the greasiest, runniest food we'd ever had, though again, mine was better than his. What's the significance there? Don't know. Note to self: Douglas WY isn't the place for fine... anything.

I know that the mind reels at finding something more exiting than the above, but there's more. The rest of the trip was pretty nice. We stopped at Independence Rock, and it was fairly early and cold, so we didn't climb to the top. I thought the names would be along the bottom, and was pretty disappointed to find that there were only graffiti names from the 70's. My sisters told me that the names are all on the top of the rock- a little too late though :( Then we drove the next few miles to Martin's Cove. This was such a fun day! I love Martin's Cove, and we were able to take a handcart around the trail this time. It was only about a two mile loop, but it was hard to walk that much pulling/pushing, holding the thing up. It definitely gave me a new appreciation for the early saints. One cool thing was that we were there just a few days before the anniversary of the actual snowstorm. It was a beautiful day for us, and I even got a sunburn, though it was a bit windy. How did they do it? I don't know, but I'm ever so grateful for my ancestors' sacrifices. As we were pulling the handcart, I made about it being like a relationship because you both have to pull together, etc. and Seth says, "What does it mean if I jump inside and leave you to pull me?" ha ha. Long road trips, then pulling a hand cart didn't do our hips any good, but oh well, what's a little stiffness compared to starvation/freezing/dying family and friends?

From October, Conference and SNOW

We ended our trip together in Vernal, UT. We went to church with his son Collin, who is probably the perfect child- this I of course know after two days :D Then I was off to travel the rest of UT, vising friends and family for about a week.

My trip: I was able to go to two temples in one week! Las Vegas [I went to drop off Annie at the airport- she's going to New Jersey to be a Nanny!!!! I can't believe I missed a turn and made her late, but she made it. No pics :'( ], and the St. George Temple with my friend Katie. Good times, but I realized that there just isn't enough time to visit all of my UT friends, because there's some in pretty much every city along I-15. But at least I did get to see Katie, Hyrum and Sarah Grandy's new baby, and Paola's baby and s again. Then of course there were the Caines to see and haircuts to do. It was a great week, though I would rather have been hanging out with Seth the whole time...

Annie's Goodbye Party


Vegas Temple

"Engagement":
When Annie left at the airport, she yelled, "By the way, if you get married, you can only do it in December or June, because that's when I'm coming home!" Ha ha. If she only knew. We had spoken with his bishop on Sunday, and he said that it might be awhile (could be years) before some paperwork would go through, making it so we could get married in the temple... I was upset about the whole idea of getting married outside the temple, and didn't even want to think about it... BUT in the temple I felt really peaceful about moving forward. That was a little unexpected, first of all in feeling peace about that, then moving forward. I was excited :D That night during our usual conversation, Seth asked me how my day went, and I gave him Annie's line about December or June. lol. He says, "December works for me!" This was a little faster than expected, but by the end of the conversation we were engaged. My dad happened to be there, so I gave him the phone so Seth could ask him. I didn't realize how much he didn't know... he asked Seth what he did for work! Poor guys, but I guess it went ok.

I finally got back to Vernal, and poor Seth gave up an entire Saturday of working on the house to just be with me. Poor guy, boo hoo tear for him ;) In just a few days, we got pictures taken, his mom gave him his great grandmother's ring for me (there is a really old family portrait, and you can see the ring in it, VERY cool), He got down on one knee, as we were sitting in the new addition and officially asked me if I'd marrye him, and I, being my usual self, said, "No, you have to tell me all the things you like about me!" So he did, and I said, "Of course."


... THEN WE MOVED UP THE DATE.

This is the insane part (to some, it's not to me). We're getting married on November 7, 2009.  The hardest part for both of us is that it most likely won't be in the temple, but it's not because of our desires, and NOT because we've been unchaste (I know what you're thinking, j/k)! Reasons for moving it up? 1. The sooner we're married, the sooner we'll be able to be sealed when the paperwork does go through. 2: The word Fabric. I just want a simple wedding, and got a dress from Paola, thinking it would be easy to fix. Then Pam, Seth's mom looked at it and said that she'd need to make an entire new top for it. We'd have to go to Provo to get fabric, then try different things... This point is where I started to feel sick to my stomach. I don't want everyone to go to all of this trouble, and I don't want to do anything with fabric (issues with that stuff, don't ask). 3. I can't stand engagements to start with, and to add to that: 4. His brother that lives with him dislikes me intruding into his life, and is pretty hostile. So, I don't want to do this for two months!!!

First of all, about the hating engagements thing: I've gotten to different levels of engagements 6
times, SIX TIMES previously, and honestly I don't think there are words to describe the livid hatred of wedding planning I have come to feel.  I've told my family for years that if I ever get married they'll have two weeks notice.  Soooo, I was talking to Seth, and he said he'd be fine if we got married the next day. I figured that my family might not be up for the idea of eloping, since I was pretty close once and they flipped out- so I thought two weeks sounded perfect.  We'll just have a simple family wedding, then have a party/open house in Cedar City near Thanksgiving.  It's pretty much everything I've ever wanted, except for the temple part of course- small wedding, simple and not too much planning needed, but a party later for those who want to come. I figure that we'll just count this as our first step toward the temple, so you're all invited to a temple sealing next year (hopefully it won't take years and years like I've heard it could)!!!