On becoming a stereotype / college overload

I ran into my cousin the other day, as in I was late to class and doing that really fast walk without running thing (because when you run with a backpack, well that's just embarrassing). And then we got to talking,  our conversation went like this....
Me: hey how are you doing?
Cousin: Good just been a little sick lately
Me: (while rubbing her tummy, its OK we are close) Oh haha what are you pregnant or something
Cousin: actually I was waiting to tell you till I saw you...
Me: what! (mind blown)

I started to tear up and jumping hugs were exchanged. What wonderful news right! After the initial shock I was overcome with the idea that my 21 year old cousin is married and pregnant and still in college. And yet this is not weird.

And then I realized I am also a BYU stereotype! married before I am out of college gasp how could this happen? and yet I know exactly how it happened. BYU is a quite a magical place.

And I am so unbelievably happy for this little ball of sunshine to bring a baby into this world:

(granted this was at least four years ago she is older and much more "mature")

BYU 101:
3 most common reasons to congratulate someone
1. engagement/marriage
2. going on a mission
3. having a baby

Things that are not weird to see or uncommon to over hear on a BYU campus
1. having a baby in your classes
2. looking at a person's ring finger before their face
3. hearing people burst into song (some people find this totally unacceptable cough cough mela)
4. If it is over 50 degrees break out the flip flops and shorts
5. hearing the phrase "I will see you at church" just as much as "I will see you in class"
6. when you hear the word party automatically think of dance or dessert

 It is amazing as an 18 year old I decided to come to BYU just for a year to see how I would like it. four years later I have:

~lived in the dorms and found some of the best friends I could ask for (Jessi not in the dorms but still the best)
~shared a shower with at leas 20 girls on my floor
~ been able to feed all my family with one swipe of my meal plan card (thanks mom and dad)

~ lived with my sister and had some crazy adventures with my family

~ weekend trips to vegas and disneyland

~ meeting this super cute guy ( set up by my sister)

~ falling in love with said guy

~deciding to take him on as a husband

~Going to Jerusalem
~ and all the while discovering who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do

Isn't life great!
BYU I know I complain about how hard your religion classes are, yes I expected that going to seminary at 6 in the morning, every day, would mean I had an automatic A in these classes. What else did we do it for? oh for the experience and education you say? Alright we agree to disagree.  AND I am still bitter about how you are built on a hill and I have repeatedly told Marky that flights of stairs are now my mortal enemy BUT you haven't killed me yet so we are good. forced exercise I guess

Anyway, as you can see I have thoughts on my education. I love going to college and I especially love going to BYU. It is not for everyone, that is why there are so many colleges to pick from. So pick one you could love. It can be fun if you always say yes to new experiences.

Oh the places I'll go

I am going to DC in 4 DAYS! say what?

 Yes I get to take a little trip across the country for two very special reasons.

1) to see this girl. . .

go through this place . . .

Before she heads off for a year and a half to serve a mission for our church in Japan! 

2) to see this lovely lady 

oh hello jen frey a.k.a my sister (please don't kill me for putting up this picture)

I am seeing cupcakes, movies with horrible acting, and lots of lounging in the sun in my near future.

Yes please!

Scenes from my last visit:

And so began our cupcake obsession

in another life i think i would be a devious spy

Alexandria cupcakes

Air and Space museum

Sprinkles my personal favorite

we lost one. . .

Let the gallivanting begin!

p.s. I shall miss this guy while I'm gone. . .

what a cutie

Cinco de Mayo aka my wedding

I finally got some pictures of my wedding. What up! 

I got married on May 5th 2012 on a blustery Saturday afternoon in the Draper Temple. What a day!

Mark and i picked to get married here after driving back from one of his lacrosse games at the U two years ago. It was a stormy night and the sky was deep purple. Mark said he had something to show me, never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be this beauty. We parked in the parking lot, that also happened to look over the whole Utah Valley, and talked about our future and our "hypothetical potential" marriage. Isn't that funny how things turn out.

Just got married. I couldn't smile any bigger if I tried

My studly man 

center piece: a eleventh hour save by my sister and cousins. it was perfect

Cake made by my wonderful sister-in law What a gem!

Happy day! from the Mannings

Snow day in december. . errr I mean march

It snowed quite a bit in my neck of the woods this past week, but that is usual right? It's Utah and "winter" time right? WRONG it has barely snowed all this year. Christmas season was barren and we have had so many warm days one starts thinking winter is over. Crumbs people we are getting crumbs of snow.

But not this week. KT (my ahem "Special" roommate) walked outside today to go to class only to walked back in and exclaim "no one told me it snowed last night, now I can't wear flats". poor KT she had to change her shoes. I however wore flats anyway, I bet she was jealous. moving on.

I am planning a wedding. rephrase. I am attempting to plan a wedding. I have some major stuff done like the dress, Davids Bridal:Vera Wang:white collection(mark don't look). It was a LOT harder to find THE dress than I had originally thought. But since I am giving up complaining for lent (yes I know lent is a catholic thing but hey live a little!) we shall just leave my opinions on finding a wedding dress at that.

I have a reception place. Le Jardin

It is basically a giant green house and it is perfect. No good pictures could be found on the internet so imagine a nice jungle with tables. . . and lights. . . and other cool things yet to be decided.

Here is what I am thinking for bridesmaids

Just the skirt

Off of The Daybook. I just like the skirt

And thinking this for a cake:

But really i don't know what I am doing. I think I am seeing a theme though?? hu hu stripes ya like?

I have a nice triple date tonight. Destination is TBD so I better get on that since I am the one helping to plan it. Have a good weekend and enjoy the snow while it lasts. (snowball fight while it last is what I am thinkin. . . mark be prepared)
 

These breaks are killing me

Lets get real. I made this blog because I wanted to test my hand at the whole blogging thing. I admit I can get sucked into the latest craze now and again: high-waist things, modern family, top-knots. I liked blogging because there are so many thing in life where I think oh ya I will always remember this, how can I not it is so important (ahem ahem things on tests), so I don't write them down and regret it later. Journals were always a little weird. I never got past the whole am I writing TO my journal or just at the journal, do I sign it or not because no one really cares except for me. AND then you start thinking why am I doing this in the first place does this really matter? And BAMB its been four months and you begin again: dear journal it's been four months I am sorry I forgot to write I was just so busy. Anyone? maybe not. There you go fun fact about Lindsey.

Ok so the real heart of the matter. I like blogging because it is a different spin on the journal. Pictures are a big motivator for me. No more hand drawings of today's events. I consider myself a visual learner.  What kills me is when I feel so good about writing a blog post that I let my posting slide. Like when you go to the gym once and call it exercise for the wee, "oh well I did just work out yesterday, two days ago, I should go tomorrow, maybe just Monday again". Anyone? just me too? alright I suspected as much. 

So I am making a resolution to blog more. Because I am getting killed by these three week (or more) breaks. KILLED. Rant over.

So my life so far. I got sick. . . really sick/ had to turn in my advertising application the same week. It was one of those true life moments where everything points to: this is why we don't procrastinate you  might just get the stomach flu. Never even saw it coming. 

But I survived and turned it in with two minutes to spare! Now I am planning a wedding and trying to make decisions that I really have no clue how to make. 107 Days people!!

I am going wedding dress shopping this weekend and would love to find something in this style. Found of course via pinterest.

 

At this moment I have a Bad J-ru picture war going on with my dear roommate KT Buhler.  It keeps me smiling if not laughing so hard I can't breath. 

what a peach what a doll

The Long Lost Engagment

On December 28th 2011 I got engaged to Mark Manning. You might be asking yourself that was a couple weeks ago why is she just blogging about it now? Well. . . that is a very good question! Lets sum it up to me finding the task daunting(I want to express everything just right!), and like all good procrastinators I'm putting it off till an almost unacceptable time. So lets just pat my back for putting this up and forget its a tad bit on the late side.

Lucky readers you get the long version of the engagement story. Context: Mark had asked me if we could save a day to go to Seattle, preferably Dec 28th because it is our anniversary. I was like of course! a day in Seattle with the man of my dreams, ya i think i could swing it. Fast forward a couple days and we picked up jenny(my lovely sister) from the airport and she mentions that she had been talking to mark and thought we could all go to Seattle together. Light bulb! Mark is going to propose in Seattle with the whole family there. I figured it out. To say I was proud of myself is an understatement. Alright press that fast forward button again and Mark is in town (Gig Harbor, WA) and he is saying he wants to go to the aquarium in Seattle. Jenny agrees. Second Light Bulb! he is going to propose in the aquarium. I KNEW IT. We had almost never talked about going to the aquarium and now all of a sudden that is all we talk about! I'm a smarty I know whats up. 

So I told everyone and their mom that I was going to be proposed to on Dec 28th in Seattle at the aquarium. I'll give you a a spoiler alert. It didn't happen quite as I thought. I know surprise, surprise. We did go to Seattle on the 28th. We took the ferry over with my family and played some games and took some pictures to pass the time (see pictures above). And then we go to the aquarium. Mark forbid me from touching his pockets and kept on going over to my sister and whispering to her. I was more than a little anxious. Around every corner I imagined Mark popping down on one knee.

(that's the giant octopus)

Other than seeing the most adorable river otters (future pet) my life didn't change dramatically. I was a little bummed because my plans were smashed to smithereens. We meandered on over to Pikes Place to get some good eats. It was pouring! my favorite kind of weather. 

Nice little picture of a horse cop. We unanimously decided that horse cops must be what all cops strive for. poor walking cops and bike cops. 

The Seattle Space Needle was were Mark and I split form the fam. They caught the ferry home and we went hunting for a restaurant we had eaten at right after I came back from Jerusalem. I asked mark if he knew where it was and if it was part of the engagement plan. He gave the oh so descriptive answer of "I don't know, is it?". Then he would look at me with his baby blues and give me that "I know I am driving you crazy" smile. but we found it (fun fact: he had no idea where he was going). 

There was a little incident where Mark leaned over during dinner (more of a swoop down and back up) I might have thought he was kneeling and proposing. I got all sorts of butterflies. But alas it was just a kiss across the table and nothing more.

At the end of the night we strolled back to the docks to catch a ferry home. I was resigned to the fact that no engagement would come and i was pepping myself up on the inside. The ride was filled with walking around the deck and nearly getting blown off, cuddling up and looking out into the distance, planning our future and talking about everything under the sun. 

When we got home the lights in the house were off and our cars were parked outside the garage so we had to go through the front door. And when I walked inside this is what I found.

The lights were off and tea candles and rose petals were strewn on the ground. Cue tears. Mark lead me into the living room and let me soak it in for a minute or so. I could feel his heart beating so fast which made me a little nervous and it hit me that I was actually getting engaged. And then he proposed. It was beautiful and sounded like he had practiced it but when you speak from the heart it always sounds perfect. I love Mark Manning and I had many thoughts rushing through my head at that moment (to say I remember everything he said is a lie, I got a little distracted when he got down on one knee and pulled the ring out).  It was perfect though. Simple and personal and the best part was that my family got to be involved (they set it up when we were still in Seattle). 

So I said yes. After almost two years of dating behind us and a lifetime ahead of us accepted Mark's question to become the future Mrs. Manning. After I stuttered out my answer my family came down and we all soaked in the moment with some sparkling cider. 

It is white gold, with black diamonds and white diamonds surrounding them.

So here's to you Mark Manning. To a lifetime of keeping me on my toes.