Congratulatory Surprise Party

Earlier this week my neighbor, Lauren, sent me a message on gtalk while I was at work asking if Kory and I were doing anything that night. I said no and asked why. Then she told me she wanted to plan a little get-together for her husband, Zach, to celebrate that we was accepted into the Accounting program. Over the next few minutes I helped her plot what was turning in to a surprise party with Zach's friends from the ward. We planned that she would leave the key behind for me while she took him to dinner. I helped her contact people to invite while she got things ready. When I got to their apartment Lauren had decorated everything so cute! She also had yummy brownies and ice cream ready for everyone.

Needless to say, it was so fun to surprise him and then have a little get-together with some friends from the ward. Zach was absolutely startled! Here are pictures for you to enjoy :)

Everyone waiting for the "surprise moment."

Scared for his life.

Close up.

Lauren and Zach, so cute.

L ro R: Aubree (from Double Date post below), Me, Lauren, Rebecca.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KORY! (October 24th)

We celebrated Kory's birthday last week! It was so fun. His birthday was Friday the 24th. I wanted to do something really special for him so I decided to plan a surprise birthday party! I originally had it planned for Friday, but I found that a lot of our friends already had plans or things going on so they wouldn't be able to make it. So, I planned the party for Thursday instead (the day before Kory's actual birthday, what better way to surprise than to throw a party the day before? haha).

Things went really well all day long. That morning I took Kory to school then ran to the store to get party stuff: happy birthday plates and cups, birthday hats, birthday noise makers, and birthday streamers. Then I ran to Costco and got a chocolate birthday plate. I only had a limited amount of time before I had to get Kory from school so I ran the things over to my friend Emily's apartment for her to bring over to our apartment later. I was able to swing by the post office on campus to drop of some invitations that needed to be mailed and buy more stamps. It saved me a lot of time instead of having to run all the way to the Provo or Orem post offices. I picked up Kory for a little bit and then he had to go back to school again to take his statistics test. That gave me enough time to run to the creamery on campus and get balloons and candles, and then drop those things off at Emily's also. I ran home to shower and get ready I cleaned the apartment and did some finishing touches on the decorations. I hung up a frame with some of our engagement pictures and another french style bulletin board with pictures on it. I arranged for friends to bring all of the things I had picked up, ice cream, and root beer.

Kory and I went to work and had a normal day. As we started wrapping up and getting ready to go home I was starting to get anxious and excited. I called friends really quick to make sure that everything was running smoothly. Then the whole way home I was texting them to give them the play by play. Kory was driving and I noticed he didn't make the turn to go home. I asked why and he said he was heading straight to our Bishop's interview (which I had secretly rescheduled for later). I told him I needed to go home first so he re-directed towards home again. As we approached our door there was a skateboard sitting outside of our door and Kory stopped and looked really puzzled. He checked to make sure the door was locked...

Kory's Version:

So we're going to our interview with Bishop, and we start passing our street, and she's like "where are you going?" I reply Bishops, as in, duh, don't you know? My type-A inherited from my father was on a scheduled basis right now. She replied then that she had to go home first. Partially annoyed, I didn't ask why and just decided to go home. As I approach our apartment door there's a skateboard outside. Puzzled, I'm looking around this skateboard, and then I just say aloud, "punk kids." Then as I'm about to unlock the door, I get this gut feeling that something isn't normal inside. I immediately just think to myself, "some kids must have broken into our apartment." I check the door and it's locked. I unlock the door and open it only to satisfy my presumption, seeing something white hanging from wall to wall in front of me. "The punks TPed my apartment!" I thought to myself. Then, keep in mind this all processed within 3 seconds ... then the lights flip on and .. "SURPRISE!" ..... yes, I was surprised. 1. who's in my house 2. how'd you get in here 3. why are you here? ... "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Oh, yeah, it's my birthday! HA! I was totally not expecting anything to happen walking into my house that night. Ana Lee was successful with her surprise intentions. My next issue ... what do you say to your guests at a surprise birthday ...? Best I could come up with was "thanks for coming!" hahaha.

It was so fun throwing a surprise party or Kory! I loved it. After everyone had some cake and ice cream we gathered in the living room and talked for a while. Then we played the game where everyone took a turn saying something that they love about Kory. There were so many wonderful things said. Kory is one of those people that others really enjoy, admire, and grow to love. It was very apartment that his friends think very highly of him.










On Kory's real brithday. I took him to Tucanos for lunch, it was a special occasion! :) We had a lot of fun.





Well Kory, I just want you to know that I love you very much. I am so proud of you and I am continuously amazing by you. I hope that you had a wonderful birthday, and that I am able to pull off many more surprises in our future :) Happy Birthday!

Midterms and Moving

We FINALLY got to move into our apartment! It is so awesome! We are very excited to have a home base now. Mom and I drove the Yukon pulling a trailer full of furniture for our place from Boise. I spent a few days there packing up and loading things in. It was so much work. I surprised Kory with a piano! Mom is letting us borrow hers for a few years until Kory can get his own. I hope that he is able to enjoy it. I know he would be way more excited about a TV than the piano (opportunity cost wise, if he had to choose between the two he would pick the TV). But I really wanted to surprise him with something I knew he wanted. I hope he sees it as something he will enjoy more than something that is in the way of him getting what he really wants, the TV. Our apartment is fully furnished, thanks Mom and Dad! But even better, Mom has been here to help us get settled and allow for both of us to stay here. I stay in the bedroom with Mom and Kory sleeps on an air mattress in the family room. I bet he will be so sick of air mattresses by the time November 8th rolls around. When Mom leaves I will probably go stay with my friend Emily again.

Kory has five, I repeat FIVE tests this week! He has a test in every class he is taking this semester. Which, by the way, are very challenging classes. Therefore, Kory needs to stay at the apartment more than I do right now. I can handle it a little longer, even though it kind of starts to weigh on you after a while. I think Kory and I are both feeling the burden of this awkward transitional stage. But don't worry about us! We are very happy and healthy (for now, let's hope it stays that way)! So back to the tests, Kory took his Calculus test on Friday and he got a 95% only missing one question. What a stud! He is so smart. He says he is going to contest the question he got wrong, if it's the one that he thinks it is. Oh Kory, so competitive but it really pushes him to be the best that he can be. I am so proud of him.

Since we have the Yukon and trailer down here we went and picked Kory's things up from his friends' basement (they were being stored there for the summer). Somehow when Kory was getting in and out of the car his phone was dropped on the ground in their backyard dirt. Well unfortunately, he ended up driving over his phone! Luckily, it still works! But both screens in his phone are completely shattered. So don't try to text him, and if you call be sure to leave a message because he surely cannot see a thing. That was the sad story of the weekend.

Wedding planning is coming along very well. Things are crazy busy right now. I had a consultation with the cake and flower ladies. It went really well. There was one point where we started talking about prices that I got a little stressed and my eyes watered up. My mom said, "look, she's going to cry." So of course, since she pointed it out...I cried! In front of the cake lady in the middle of my consultation appointment! It was so embarrassing. Funny how you can hold back your tears no problem as long as no one asks you what is wrong or points out that you are about to cry. Stupid birth control combined with stress makes for easy tears haha. But anyway, after that I think she felt sorry for me and she kept talking about things that she would do for free for me (and Kory). Like a 4 inch cake for Kory and I to take home, and some intricate design work that she normally charges a lot for. It was really sweet of her. I think everything is going to turn out so great! I have this vision of how I see things, and sometimes other people have different ideas than I do. That is hard sometimes, because I really am trying to make everyone happy. I hope that I am because I really do care a lot about making it a special occasion for everyone.

There is so much to do and so little time. I am super tired. But absolutely love life right now. I am so happy! I feel truly blessed to have so many amazing people in my life: my wonderful fiance, my parents, my brother, my future in-laws, my friends.

I Have the Best Fiance

Things have been going so good lately. Sadie commented on my last post that I needed to make sure to journal all of my experiences at this time in our lives. I have been meaning to write in my journal, but I really wanted to start a new journal since I am entering a new phase in my life. It just seemed like a great idea, to start a new chapter with a new journal. Unfortunately, I have been looking for a new journal since I was in Europe and haven't found one that I loved and was willing to pay that much for, haha. Well the other day while Kory and I were at Walmart looking at planners for him I saw the journals next to them. I briefly mentioned that I needed to go to Deseret Book and find a journal so I could start writing about this special time. Yesterday, out of no where, Kory gave me such a wonderful and thoughtful gift. He got me a journal! It is beautiful teal leather bound, it has hibiscus flowers (I love Hawaiian flowers) and gold satin lining the pages. The best part is that it has a scripture at the bottom of every page in the journal, most often about faith or other great principles. It is a beautiful journal, and another reminder that I have the best fiance ever!

We have been crazy busy lately trying to finalize wedding plans and keep our costs as low as possible. It's not easy! But things are going well. It is such a fun time. I'm still sleeping on my friend's floor, and he's still sleeping at a friend's on an air mattress...but things are going well for us.

I have to run but I thought I would drop a quick note.