10 Things I've Learned Since Being Engaged

Narrowing this list down to ten things was not easy. I learn new things about Stu, myself, and what it really means to be on the brink of making the biggest commitment I'll ever make. All good things of course. :) Here are a few of those things pertaining to being engaged, and some others that I just felt like  other people might like to know, such as...

#10. Basketball finals takes place in several series of 7 games. "Finals" is plural for a reason. After the Heat beat the Celtics in the playoffs after 7 games they moved onto the Finals to compete against the OKC Thunder for the 2012 Championship. Now, I was under the impression for some reason that after the basketball nation had determined that the Heat and Thunder would be playing in the Finals, that they would determine the championship after playing just one game. Lucky for me, there were in fact SIX more games after that one. I do mean it when I say lucky, reason being that the Thunder won the first game in the series and if they had taken the championship I would have had a very disappointed Heat fan of a fiance. And now the Heat are up 2-1. :) Only 3 more games!

So here's what I've really learned. I used to dread watching games with Stu. I tried hard to not complain but it was starting to get the best of me. Just when it was starting to get really bad, like a game every single day bad, I noticed that I had started to figure out the game. And I actually cared who won! Haha for someone who has watched more sports in the last year than in the rest of my life combined (x100) that is saying something. And I have to admit, I'm pretty proud that I am now able to explain playoffs/finals to the blogosphere. So, take time to learn about the seemingly boring things your main squeeze enjoys. You hate it, then get used it, then if you're lucky--you might start to enjoy it too.

#9. I dream about the wedding literally every single night. This never happened before there was a ring on my finger even though we knew we were getting married. It was as if now that there is a piece of hardware on my finger, my brain magically knows that it needs to solve wedding problems in my sleep. They have ranged from really stressful (all my teeth falling out), to REALLY weird (having a mexican fiesta and then watching rated R movies inside of the temple).

#8. I hate being at my apartment. I can't wait for us to just live together already. Being with Stu at his town house feels more like home than being at the apartment I've lived at for a year. I don't even leave food there anymore except for breakfast haha. August can't come soon enough. And by August I mean September since that will realistically be when we will actually be able to settle in. We found this really great apartment in Orem and are waiting to hear back on whether or not we got it. Cross your fingers for us. :)

#7. Savings are suddenly important. I've never cared that much about money and have just been content in the past as long as I had money to fill my car up, pay for my gym membership, and hit Costa Vida occasionally. All of a sudden, it's not just about me haha. I'm more grateful than ever that my parents made sure I developed my ability to play the piano as well as encouraging me to start teaching piano lessons in high school. It is an awesome job and I'm so glad that we can always have that to cushion our income a little bit.

#6. People are more accomodating to me when they know I'm engaged. It's like everyone thinks that I'm planning my wedding every minute of every day. If I'm running somewhere late, "It's okay, I know you're getting married." If I forgot to register for an essential class Fall Semester, "You're engaged?? Don't worry about it!" Banana Republic didn't have something in my size, "It's for your engagment pictures?? I'll have it rushed here!" It is awesome. I'm going to keep pretending I'm engaged after we get married, because I doubt anyone cares after the deed is done. I can't wait to see what it's like when there's a kid on the way...

#5. Planning things isn't as fun as I thought it would be. That's why I'm so glad that my mom and Stu's mom are both in wedding planning beast mode. I really haven't had to do much. I just show up when I'm told to and tell them when I like stuff. They both have incredible tastes so I don't have to worry too much about the way things will turn out.

#4. Every day I get more excited to just be married and care less about the actual wedding. This is one of the best surprises. I've never liked when girls get caught up too much in the stuff that goes into that one day. When it really comes down to it, it's just a party for other people. I know that day I'm going to be completely oblivious to the shade of pink of the flowers in the centerpiece. I'll be way too focused on the handsome boy next to me. :)

#3. My perception of us as a couple is gradually changing. I've started to mentally view us as more of an unofficial little family. This is super cool. Maybe if you've experience it you know what I mean but if you haven't, I don't really know how to explain it and even if I could, I wouldn't want to ruin it for you. :)

#2. I love doing wifey things. I've been cooking a ton and it's so much fun. I was telling Stu the other day that I used to totally pity my mom when I watched her make dinner every single night. I thought it would be so inconvenient to have to interrupt what you're doing every day around 5 o'clock to go make some food for everyone. I look forward to it now though. I love finding new recipes and trying them out and we've loved some of the healthy recipes I've found. Stu is an awesome cook too so if I ever do need a break, I'm lucky I found a good one who knows his way around the kitchen.

#1. Dating is fun. Being engaged is lame. I always said I wanted to date for a year before getting married. When we get married in August, it will have been almost exactly one year since we started dating. I'm glad we're having a relatively short engagement, but it cannot pass fast enough. Sometimes it seems like we're going to be stuck in engagement purgatory forever. Only 2 more months though and Stu assures me it's going to fly by. :)

WTS??: Not What You Think It Stands For

If I tricked you into reading this by titling this post after an abbreviation for an inappropriate curse phrase, you may now leave this page. WTS, in fact, stands for Wedding-Triathlon-Socks.

1. Wedding

Okay for those of you who have planned weddings and used the conveniences of Facebook to spread the word, let's talk about creating an event to get addresses. I am so confused by this. You create the group to get addresses and then people say they are "attending"...and then they don't post their address...Haha. So am I now supposed to track down all these people and get their addresses? I don't quite understand this phenomenon...Stu and I are getting a good laugh out of it as our event says there are about 100 people attending but we probably have less than 50 addresses. It's a mystery!

2. Triathlon

My dad just did his 2nd Ironman in May and it was so BA. That does stand for what you think it does. Ironman's are insane (as in cool) and the people who do them are equally insane (as in CRAZY)! When we went and watched him compete in this last one we caught the triathlon bug. Stu was hooked pretty instantly, it took me a little longer to get on board. When I heard that the one he wanted to sign us up for was the week before our wedding I decided that I'm in. I figured it would be a super fun thing to get in to and also that it couldn't hurt to be on a vigorous athletic training schedule in the 3 months leading up to the wedding. :) The training schedule that we do is sweet because unlike the schedule I used to train for the half marathon I did last year, this one tells you to train for a specified amount of time, rather than distance. Example: Today we run for 50 minutes. Tomorrow we will swim for about an hour. Wednesday we will bike for 97 minutes. (I made all that up. I hope it isn't that long...) But you get the idea. I love this so much better than just going to the gym and doing random cardio and weight lifting. The only problem is that we don't have bikes. Those long bike rides are KILLLLER indoors. It is so boring and so hard to sit and just spin for long than 45 minutes. You start to loathe all of the music on your ipod. We need bikes. Yes, need.

3. Socks

There has always been one mystery of the universe that I just cannot understand. Where do all the missing socks go? Where?!?! I used to get upset at allll the socks I lose but over the years it's gotten to a point that it is just plain comical. Observe:

This is my Sad Sock box. It is full of lonely, single socks. Whenever I can't find a sock match, the single sock goes in the box. I refuse to wear mismatched socks, so these outcast socks are put out of commission, perhaps forever if their partner goes undiscovered.

Occasionally I will open up the Sad Sock box and see if the partners of any of the forsaken socks has snuck its way in unnoticed. These were the contents of the box a couple of days ago when I decided to give it a try. I know. It's unreal. How does this happen??

This is the outcome. Out of all those socks, only 8 pairs were reunited. Only 8! Once again, How does this happen?! There are sneaky elves breaking into my apartment at night and stealing my socks, I am sure of it. Or there is a black hole out there in the universe that is acting as a home for a host of my beloved socks. I've looked in my car, at my parent's house, behind the dryer, under my bed, through every drawer, through my sister's drawers...Everywhere. But no dice. Maybe someone in the witness protection program needed some mismatched socks. I don't think they're coming back.

The silver lining in this otherwise dreadful situation is that it seems that the vast majority of my lost socks are green. And green is my least favorite color of sock.