BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!

I spent a glorious week in Lake Powell recently. The combination of family and sunshine leaves one wondering if it can get much better than this. Little did I know that waiting for me when I returned was an evening that would blow my week out of the water!

Lane had asked me while I was gone if I would be ok going on a double date with one of our friends the Saturday after I got home. I of course agreed. We had doubled with this friend on our first date and had a blast and I was most definitely looking forward to spending time with my handsome man the moment I got home from my vacation. I missed him the rest of the trip and couldn’t wait to get home.

Saturday finally rolled around and Lane picked me up for our date. Keeping his composure so well that I didn’t even have any inkling something was “special” was going on, we enjoyed a meal at Olive Garden with our friends. Back tracking some, for our very first date, Lane and I went to dinner with this same friend and then out to some land he had to do a bonfire. They had decided they wanted to go have a bonfire again on Saturday. I wasn’t extremely excited about this bonfire idea as it had looked very rainy and windy as we were driving out. But I tried not to be a huge grump.

We stopped at the store to pick up some supplies to make éclairs over the fire  (which I found out later this was just to stall for time). Lane said we didn’t need all the supplies because some of them were at his friend’s house and we would stop on the way out to “the island” (a.k.a where the fire pit is) and pick up everything else. We stopped at Weston’s, he jumped out and said he needed to get his date a jacket as well so Lane piped in “We’ll just head over and get the fire started and meet you there.” Lane still had never made one moment seem out of the ordinary and I had no idea what was coming.

We drove out to the island, parked the car and started walking towards where the fire pit is. There are tall reeds and bushes so you have to walk a ways before you can see anything, but as we came around the corner the fire was already lit. This is how dense I was tonight, even with the fire lit, I still didn’t think anything of it. I just thought some other people were there like the time before. It is seemed like a popular place the first time we came. But then I noticed some tiki torches lit all along the path leading up to the fire…then I noticed there was candle light flickering in sections all around the outer edge of the island…then we got closer and I noticed a basket…and a rose…and a note. It read:

“Remember how we first met?”

I know it took me a while, but I finally got what was happening and started to cry. Turned out, the candlelight lining the island were little “stations”. Each one had a rose and a memory nest to it. At the 12^th station there was 13 roses with a note that read:

“Remember how the best is yet to come?”

And there was a little sack next to the roses. Lane said “I think you should probably open the sack.” I did and sure enough nestled in the bottom, under tissue paper that was the colors we’ve picked for our wedding, was a little black box. I pulled it out and as I did he dropped to one knee.

“Kelsee, will you marry me?”

GAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot think of any word(s) to describe the happiness I felt inside at that moment. I of course said “YES!!” without hesitation, and as he stood up to kiss me, our own personal firework show started on the  other side of the pond. His brother and friend had been watching for the one-knee moment and when it happened they set off the greatest fireworks I’ve ever seen! It could not have been more perfect. I’ve been on cloud 9 ever since and don’t plan on coming down…and the best is yet to come J

POST NOTE: I was recently chastised for not playing the name game in the above post. The set up and fireworks were provided by my amazing brother-in-law to be, CLARK BOYER, and our just as equally amazing friend BONES (aka Brett Goodwin). Many great and boisterous thanks for your valiant efforts in the wind and rain to make out night impeccable :)

Slept at my new place for the first night last night. It was peaceful. I think this is going to be GREAT! I woke up early this morning so that I could have enough to time to stop at the terrace on my way to work and pick up my bed. I wanted to get it out of the house and back to my parents. Sarah was at the house when I showed and she was willing to help me load it into the Yukon. Everything was going easy breezy until I got home. I parked the car, ran in to say hi to my mom and ran back out to my car so that I could get to work on time. What'll ya know, my dang battery was dead. So rather than be late for work, I left my car at my parents and drove the Yukon, bed and all, back down the street to work. After work I was able to jump start my car and get it back on the road ok. Time for a new battery! This has happened way too much recently.

After my somewhat un-lucky fiasco of a day, I went home. I had to hurry and change because we were doubling with a friend of Lane's for dinner that night. He swung by around 7:30 and we went to Red Robin with Fran and McKenzy. They are so cute!! I couldn't get over what a great combo they were. Fran kicked Lane out of the booth for about 10 minutes he could "interrogate" me, asking me questions like "Why Lane?" and "What exactly are your intentions with him?", etc. It was fun.

And did I mention I had a delicious wrap for dinner? It will become a craving I'm sure. Take a peek

A fresh spinach totilla with juicy chicken breast
smothered in our signature Whiskey River BBQ Sauce,
all wrapped together with Cheddar cheese, lettuce,
totilla strips and a touch of ranch dressing.

Oh it was even better than it looks and sounds. Mouth watering. Not to mention a basket of Red Robin bottomless steak fries. Ohh yummy! It was blissful really. 

After dinner, Lane and I went back to my place and attempted to watch The Emperors New Groove...however we were exhausted and both fell asleep within the first 10 minutes. He's never seen it so I've got to get him through it one of these days. Classic.

Dead battery morning didn't turn out so bad afterall :)

Moved my last load of crap out to my grandmas today. Lane was nice enough to help me haul everything in, running up and down the stairs. When we got everything inside we just kind of collapsed on the couch. Didn't last long though...we ended up dancing in the dark. There is something very special about holding someone you care for close to you and swaying back and forth to music that touches your heart...

Entwined
by Jason Reeves

Entwined
All thath we are is defined
By each others shipwrecked hearts
And I
Shiver to think
What would have been if I wouldn't have seen you in time...
Would we pass by?


Like parachutes and air balloons
Or satellites and lonely moons
We'd still be drifting far apart
But thank the stars we are
Entwined...


All that you are is mine
Your divine imperfections
color the dark
And I, shiver to see
How fragile you are when the world's such a cruel place to be...
Then you cut me free


Let's walk the tightrope together
Without a safety net...
And when we fall
And we will fall
Lets fall forever


Entwined...

Needed to start really focusing on packing tonight. Boxing things up and getting things in decent enough shape to move from location A to location B is not something I care for. But moving will be for the best!! I'm starting to move out of this place tomorrow! I'm going to miss the terrace and my roomates and my ward...but it will be a change for the greater good. Next step in life, here I come!

Wednesdays are more like Monday's in my book. You know when someone says "Ugh. It's Monday" and you can slap them on the back and say "I feel your pain" because we all know that Monday's suck? Yes well, for me it's it is more likely to be "Ugh. It's Wednesday" and there is all the Monday implications intended in the phrase. I got rear ended only minutes after leaving for work this morning. Didn't even make it out of the Terrace. We were making a left hand turn at a light and all of us had to stop in the median before merging over due to traffic...however the woman behind me didn't pay attention to any of us stopping in front of her and ran right into me. She was very nice about it and we've worked it all out with the insurance so it is fine, but it's funny how even a little bumb in the rear end can shake you up. I was surprisingly calm and collected though. The lady asked if I just wanted her contact info and we'd get going but I calmly explained I didn't feel comfortable leaving the scene of the accident until the officer could get there to do the report. Usually I cave under pressure like that, but I think I handled it all very well.

The officer was very nice, got everything taken care of and tried to send me on my way...but then my car wouldn't start. Something had completely sucked the juice out of my battery. Great. Well, the officer didn't have cables and neither did I so he called another officer to come help us out and we had to sit and wait for him. I was grateful they were so nice and patient with me. We finally got my car running and I was able to make it to work, walking through the door only about a half hour late. And I'm fortunate to have a kind and understanding boss.

Lane of course was all worried because I sent him a text rather than calling him when I got rear ended. He was so sweet about it. He even drove out to see me at lunch even though he only had about a half hour to spend with me. He brought me this care package

He said the cookies were to comfort me while I was working since he couldn't be there (they are his mom's homemade cookies that are WONDERFULLY delicious!), and the laffy taffy to remind me of the silly things we do that gets us through most of our days, granola to munch on because he took me to lunch a little early, Mountain Dew to keep me awake that evening (because I was moving a load down to my grandmas and he was going to the BYU basketball game so he wouldn't be with me to help) and a whistle from one of our other dates...to call for help whenever I need him. HELLO!! How adorable is that?? I just sat there with him the whole time thinking "Is this guy for real? I am so in love". It was a great way to get me through my rough Wednesday. I think Wednesdays might be a little less like Monday's with him around...

"I'll never have to go back to the day before you"
-Rascal Flatts
♪♥♫◦°°◦°°◦♫♥♪♪♥♫◦°°◦°°◦♫♥♪♪♥♫

When I got off work, I immediately jumped into packing things up. Tawny and I were able to move most of my stuff out to my grandmas in just over an hour! It was awesomely productive. It's going to be a task and a half getting settled in, but at least there's only one more load to actually move down. On our way home, we stopped for tacos from Dell Taco (somewhat a tradition of ours), brought them home and attempted to watch Princess and the Frog. Well, I guess it was more just me who attempted. I ended up falling asleep on the couch before we even got half way through the movie. Apparently I needed some rest. I don't like it when Lane's not around, but I suppose last night it turned out alright if I was THAT tired.

Around 10:45 Tawny woke me and said "Kels, why don't you go to your bed where you'll be more comfy?". I got up, barely coherent, climbed in bed and sent Lane a quick "I'm out" message and that was the end of it for me. haha I didn't hear Tawny and Sabrina talking, or Tawny take a shower. I was just dead to the world. It was awesome.

Overall, I won't be complaining about my Wednesday :)

Today was my favorite Martin Luther King Day ever!! "I have a dream-" a very dream-y guy that is ;)
I took Lane lunch and then he helped me start fixing my lap top. It has been bogged down for years and in such a mess. My man is so smart! He just wiped the whole thing out and started over. A lot of the things he had to do took time though, so, darn, I had to spend the majority of the day hanging out with him. haha It was THE BEST!! We just had a lazy day. We looked at pictures from his mission and family through the years and then looked at pictures of my past as well. It was so great. In honor of "picture day", here are a few of my favorites of my hunny and I :)

Eins, zwei, drei Deusche Festival!

Did something different for date  night tonight. We went to the German Festival at the fairgrounds. Those Germans are festive! I tell you what! Music and dancing the whole night, lots of very rich and heavy food, and plenty of culture living on through the ages. We went with Lane's friend Chad Davis and his date Jazzy. We went to get some food first...which I really was not a fan of. Not the most delicious dishes I've had. Tried a hearty authentic sausage...definitely a no go! One bite was one too many for me. However, Lane fully enjoyed both his sausage and bratwurst.

Wayyy too much meat compounded into a wiener for me, thanks. haha The potatoes were good though. I can go with that.
After we finished eating we wandered around. They had random treat and craft booths scattered around the arena along with a few authentic German knick nack booths. It was fun. I think the part I loved the most of watching the old couples dancing around in their authentic German get-up to the awesome polka music playing throughout the night.

After we had as much meandering and entertainment as we could handle in a different language, we went to nickelcade. I don't know that I've ever been there before. It is beat up and dirty, but it is fun and games are played by the nickel which makes it about 3 times less expensive that other arcade places around. We had a great time goofing around and collecting tickets like 2nd graders.

Yup...I love him. :)

Happy Birthday to the greatest mom in the world!!

Today was my mom's birthday and this evening we went up to my parents house to celebrate her being born and awesome! We played games and enjoyed lots of laughs. There's a game called Scribblish, that, if you haven't played, you should. It is like the game "Telephone" but with drawing. Some of the things people come up with are pretty dang funny.

This is the cake my brother made for my mom. Yes, please go ahead and have a good laugh. We all did. He took it out and it just started falling all sorts of apart from the second he started frosting it. Rather than let it be a bother, he just kept frosting all the little crumbles saying "It's going to taste even better than it looks!!" haha

                                        This would be lane blocking the camera. Party pooper.

Here's the boys prepping for the competitive games. Funny story about the headphones Jayce is wearing...My mom bought a house down the street to fix up and sell and ther other week she walked into her house and it appeared that a bunch of kids had broken in just to hang out. There were pop tart wrappers all over and those headphones, along with a phone charger, were left in a drawer. She politely left a note on the door that read "I'm sorry I made it so easy for you to get it. I'll be better next time. If you'd like your stuff back, just give me a call and I'd be more than happy to return it to you. Thanks" hahaha I thought it was hilarious. But they are really nice headphones. Skull Candy noise reduction bass boost headphones. I'm in love with their sound. It's great.

Taylor bought a Kobe Bryant jersey and my family is not his biggest fan so my dad put it on and walked around mocking him. Good times.

I love my mom and I'm so grateful for her life and the goodness she's dedicated it to. One year older and wiser too, happy birthday to you!

Had a fun opportunity tonight. Lane's brother and sister in law are moving to Oregon (this is a sad fact), and last night they headed up there to look for houses. Peggy and Gary were watching their boy, Colt, who is just shy of year. Well, come to find out they didn't communicate plans very well and Peg and Gary had plans they couldn't break Friday night leaving Colt without a sitter. They asked Lane if he could watch him, but he had work. So I volunteered for the job. Colt is such a doll. The amount of slobber that comes out that boy is astonishing though!! He's such a happy kid. We just played with him for a few hours prior to bedtime. At one point Lane was holding him and I accidentally switched on the ceiling fan above the kitchen table for a second...Colt was hooked! He LOVED the combination of the lights and the spinning. Lane held him there, every once and a while reaching up to spin the fan around, and Colt just stared and pointed and grunted in amazement. It was fun.

Soon it was time for bed so I gave Colt his bottle and rocked him while Lane took a shower. He didn't even finish the whole thing before he was down for the count. I laid him in his crib and shut the door. Monitor on, I went into the kitchen, peeled an orange and waited for Lane. He came back upstairs right around the same time his brother Clark got home. Lane and I were hungry and were deciding what to eat for dinner. Clark volunteered to sit with Colt for a minute while we ran to grab dinner, but right when we decided what to eat, Colt woke up. He was fussy for a second but calmed right back down when I went in the room. I tried just stroking his head for a minute to see if he's fall back to sleep but no luck. That's when the real adventure began.

Two hours of hyper gibberish Colt later, he finally went down again. He just wasn't tired! I'd rock him and he'd doze, but the second I put him down he'd open his eyes right back up and be WIDE awake. It was actually amusing more than frustrating because for a baby his age that was that tired, I just couldn't believe he was so darn happy! He's adorable.

Sleep finally overcame him and Lane and I ordered pizza and spent the rest of the evening pondering what children will really be like. I'm grateful for family and for the Boyer's allowing me to be an unofficial part of theirs.

I haven't been attending the temple for the last several months and it has been a  rough road. But today was a very special occasion. I was able to return to the temple with my dear friend Tawny and do baptisms for the dead for the first time in lots of months. It was such an amazing feeling. Every aspect of the beauty found at the temple engulfed me as I sat in white and listened to the ordinances being performed. I was so happy to be there. I'm very grateful for Heavenly Fathers plan for each of us and for my Saviors atoning sacrifice that aloud me to be there this night. I'm grateful for the trials I face and the lessons I have learned. I'm grateful for the journey I've been on and continue to live in. Life is beautiful and a very special blessing. I couldn't be who I am without where I've been and I'm grateful for every obstacle and thick patch of fog I've been through. I can't wait to enter the temple someday soon to learn so much more and strive for exaltation in the eternities to come. I'm grateful to my dear friend for supporting me and helping me through difficult times and being there with me when I was able to return to the house of the Lord and feel the love and spirit there. Love you Tawny.

Went on a group date tonight down to Salt Lake. I've been craving Crown Burger the last week or so and when I mentioned it to Lane he joined me in my craving. So in planning the date, Crown Burger was definitely the dining pick. It was Lane and I, his friend Brody and his "confusing " date, and David Clark and his date. We drove down with Brody, who's comment was "I feel like the chauffeur", as his date lived in Salt Lake. When we picked her up we went straight to dinner (thank goodness! my tummy was rumbling). We walked in and prepped to order our delicious food. Once we ordered, they gave Lane a number and I said, "Hey, what's our lucky number?" this is what he showed me

Not the luck I was hoping for, but it was funny. After a good laugh, we got our food and enjoyed ourselves...maybe a little too much for the amount of grease we consumed.

After dinner we met up with David and date and went to Fat Cats to do a little "non competitive" bowling. Right. After the scores were applauded by some and scorned by others, we went to 7-11 to grab some hot chocolate for the drive home. 7-11 hot chocolate is tasty! And it's never just grabbing a hot chocolate. Making it is an adventure in its self. What to put in, who over did it, who burns their tongue first...it's fun.

With the nights adventure on the downward slope, I was tired and ready for the evening to be over with. But it was a great evening. The best part was the guy by my side :) 

Lane came and kidnapped me for lunch today. It was the greatest midday relief. He's so great. As new as the whole "girlfriend" scene is to him, he sure does a heck of a job being good at it. We went to PX (aka Panda Express) and had some food suffering from serious heat lamp over exposure. It was definitely not the greatest PX experience. However, it was a pretty dang good lunch date in every other aspect.

Later on after work, I had to hurry over to the church to meet with Cindy to re-vamp some visiting teaching business. She was a little late, which ended up working out perfectly because Lane showed up with a smoothie for me. Some tropical something or other. Delicious, but mostly because of his thoughtfulness. He had meetings at the church too, and even though his meetings finished long before mine, he hung around until I was finished to make sure I didn't need anything and just to be with me. He gets better and better every day :)

Finished my Tuesday with some cuddling...doesn't get better than that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I believe this year holds many changes and happening for me and I figured I may as well start now in documenting them. I ended the year with lots of struggle and heartache. All unexpected but all what needed to be. I found many lessons being taught to me by my Father in Heaven about trying to do the right thing even when it is very difficult. I hope to use that and many other lessons to carry me through this new year.

I rang in the new year with my boyfriend...yes, boyfriend. Count the letters and no, he is not just a boy that is a friend. His name is Lane Boyer. He was my biggest (and best) surprise of 2010 and I'm planning to keep him through 2011 and as long as he'll keep me after that.
He's wonderful. (no ring...yet... tee hee)

Some of his friends got together and we all went to dinner at The Pie then went back to Lane's house to play games and watch the ball drop. It was fun being with some new people this year and feeling apart of something good. Here's pics from the night.