The Proposal.

Well, I've been officially engaged for about a week now, and everything is kind of a blur. I feel like I've been living in a constant state of Cloud-Nineness mixed with extreme surrealism and some healthy doses of intense stress. With all those emotions going on, I can't wait to experience what weeks 2-22 will be like. haha.

No, but really guys, I couldn't be happier. Devon is the absolute greatest and I love him. Can't wait to share my life with him.

But enough about that. You want to know how he proposed, don't you? Well... it's kind of a funny story...

Long before Devon ever proposed, I warned him that he would have a hard time surprising me due to my suspicious and detail-oriented nature. His response was, "I think I can do it."

So, the week before the proposal I was in Hawaii with my girlfriends. We got back Friday night from a hellacious day of travel and arrived around 1:00-2:00am (so really, Saturday morning). Saturday was our church's General Conference, which starts at 10am, so after going to bed very late, I got up to watch GC running on about 5 hours of sleep. GC got over around 4pm and I kept asking Devon what he wanted to do after he got home from the Priesthood Session, which runs from 6:00-8:00pm. We decided to go see a movie. Devon left my house around 5:00pm and I was like, "See ya! I'm taking a nap." I had only planned on taking a 2 hour nap... but it may or may not have turned into 3. So when I woke up, Devon was coming over in 15 minutes and I was still in sweats, hadn't done my hair, and wasn't wearing any make up. Needless to say, I looked like a dumpster lady.

I got up and started getting ready, realized that I was starving out of my mind and hoped that Devon and I could grab something to eat before the movie. In my head I was thinking, When Devon gets here I wont be ready yet, so I'll just have him listen to some of these new songs I found while he waits... and I was actually pretty excited about it.

When Devon knocked on my door, I just yelled to him from down the hallway to come in, and a few minutes later, walked out to greet him saying, "Well, I may or may not have overslept, so I'm obviously not ready yet." To which he responded, "That's okay."

At this point, I start to notice some things that are out of the ordinary, and it was like my brain was trying really hard to be suspicious, but nothing was actually clicking. For instance, Devon told me he brought me flowers, and said that he planned on bringing them to me when I got home from Hawaii, but since I didn't get home until 2am, he decided to bring them to me that day instead. And in my head I was thinking, hmm, he was here all day long, why didn't he bring them earlier? But I was grateful, because I love getting flowers from him.

Then I noticed that he had brought over a backpack with his laptop, and he only does that when he has work to do, and this is how the following conversation went:

Me: "Why did you bring your laptop (thinking, we're just going to dinner and a movie anyways...)? Do you have work to do?

Devon: (Spouts off some reason that I don't remember and then says...) "But I have this video that Justin asked me to be in for one of his projects a few months ago...it has something to do with cool light stuff, I dunno, but he finally gave me a copy so I want to watch it real quick."

Me: "Oh that's cool, I need to finish my make up anyways."
 And then he had this weird look on his face and I realized, "Oh, you want me to watch it with you, don't you?"

Devon: "Yeah! Come watch it with me." (A little too eagerly if you ask me, which threw me off a little bit.)

Me: (long pause while internally thinking, Ugh, do we have to watch this video RIGHT NOW? I'm starving and I need to put my make up on and I wanted him to listen to those new songs I found. Why can't we do this later? Yeah... just ask him if we can watch it later. But then, when I opened my mouth to say those words, the look on his face stopped me and I realized that for some reason, this was very important to him. So I said, a little begrudgingly...) "Okay fine. I'll just grab my  make up and put it on while we watch."

Then I went to get my makeup, grumbling inside my head thinking, Now I have to do my make up with a tiny mirror in bad lighting...grumble grumble. Then I sat down on the couch next to the one Devon was sitting on.

Almost immediately, he says:
Devon: "No, come sit by meeeee."

Me: *Sigh* "Okay..."

Then I started putting my make up on while he started the video. And then... I heard a song start playing that was written, recorded, and performed by my uncle. A song that Devon loves. And I thought, Weird, did Devon give my uncle's CD to Justin to use in one of his videos? Then I looked up at the TV to see what was going on, compact mirror and make up brush still in hand, and saw that the first frame said, "For Raechel..."

Me: Whaaaaaa?  *Slowly puts down compact and brush*

Then this video played:

And that's when Devon got down on one knee, opened a ring box with the most beautiful ring I could ever have hoped for in it, said lots of sweet things to me, and asked me if I would marry him.

I said, with slightly watery eyes, "Of course I will."

And then, after some kisses and hugs, I looked that man straight in the eyes and said, "And you really couldn't wait 5 minutes for me to put on my makeup?!"

And we laughed. And then we never got around to eating dinner or seeing a movie because we were too busy calling our family and friends.

So unbelievably happy.

Is this real life?!

An Open House, Surgery, and a Valentine

A week after my brother's wedding in San Antonio, I found myself back in CA for his open house. It was small, so we hosted it at our home and worked hard on all the decor and food. I think it turned out pretty nicely!

Top: 92 y/o Grandpa and my nieces
Middle: Sister and niece, Me with the bride & groom, Sister & Mom
Bottom: Outdoor decor: smore's bar, cake table, drinks

A week after the open house, I found myself at the Provo Hospital, getting my schnoz worked on...again. When I say "worked on," what I mean is I had a deviated septum fixed and nasal polyps removed so that I can breathe properly again. I had this surgery (minus the septum part) once before, about two years ago. So, hopefully this time is the last time. Luckily, coming out of anesthesia came with some funny stories... like taking my latex glove full of ice and putting it on my head exclaiming, "Look, I'm a rooster!"

Top: Surgery
Middle: The Super Bowl, Top Gun in 3D
Bottom: Valentines Day in Vegas

Now, let it be known, that I had the best Valentine this year. You may think yours was the best, and that's great, but I know in my heart that mine was. For Christmas, Devo got me tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show of my choice. We were already planning a trip to California for President's Day weekend, so we figured we'd tack an extra day on to that and go to Vegas for the show on the way down. Well, naturally I chose the Beatles Love show, because I heart the Beatles in a major way. And it just so happened that the day we ended up being there was Valentines Day.

Before the show, Devo took me to a really nice and delicious restaurant for a filet mignon dinner inside the Mirage hotel. He also got me a beautiful amethyst necklace and hand made me the cutest, most hilarious, pop-up card. The show was amazing, naturally, and the night was perfect. And we were just so thankful to get out of the freezing cold here in Utah!

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at my parent's house in California. We had Taco Shop, played games, watched movies, visited my Grandpa, went shopping, and enjoyed 70 degree sunshine and happiness. It was a great long weekend.

Coming up next: in less than 5 weeks, two of my girlfriends and I are taking a chick-trip to Hawaii for a week. Yesssssssssssss. I. Can't. Wait.

Sometimes I'm Spoiled

It's a funny thing - everyday I go through my blog list to read the latest from my favorite people that I rarely get to see and most days, there's not many updated blogs. I hate it when that happens and I find myself thinking, Really? Come on! I've got like 40 blogs listed here and the majority of them haven't been updated in over two weeks - what is that? Shows how much I love reading about your lives. And then I remember, well... I guess I haven't updated in awhile either.

So, here's my update - which I hope will inspire you to go update. :-)

Let's see, the last time I updated was my birthday, but I didn't really give any detail. Ok. Here I go -

This year for my birthday I felt so spoiled. Usually for my birthday I'll go to dinner with a group of friends and then have a dessert get-together at my place that I planned myself. This year, seeing as how the majority of my close friends don't live close by anymore, I decided I didn't want to plan anything so I just invited my friend Jayni over to watch a chick flick in our comfy clothes and order Chinese take-out (which was so kindly provided by my roommate). Turns out, not planning things yourself is the way to go. The week of my birthday, Chad took me to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (all I wanted was the loaded mashed potatoes because mmmm those things are good!), my friend Kathryn visited the weekend before and treated me to a pedicure, then my brother took me out to a sushi dinner and a movie of my choice (I chose Midnight in Paris and was very pleasantly surprised) AND he brought me some awesome gifts - once of which was "To the Rescue", President Monson's biography that I've been wanting to read for awhile now. Then my grandparents sent me a gift and a card, my Dad sent me a gift and a card - actually I'm wearing his gift right now; hold on I'll take a picture...

Pretty, huh? Then, my mother treated me to a morning at a day spa where I received a 60 min massage (which is a funny story in and of itself!), a 30 minute facial, 30 minute Sauna, and a 30 minute pedicure. Fantastic.

And then, to top it all off, last weekend Chad and I were leaving the movie theater (we saw Footloose - SO cute) and he said to me, "So... you're probably wondering why I didn't get you anything for your birthday..." Me: "No, I wasn't actually..." Him: "Well, I didn't because I've still been working on it and I think I finally got it so, can you get November 6th off of work?" Me: "Yeahhhh...?" Him: "How would you like to come with me to Arizona that weekend to see the Cardinals/Rams game?? (He has a side job some weekends where he travels to NFL and MLB games, meaning that I get to see him EVEN LESS during those times) Me: (So shocked I couldn't even show him how excited I really was) "Really? I would LOVE that!"

So, in a few weeks, Chad and I will be going on our first trip together. Warm weather and football will be involved. That's three of my favorite things in one weekend - and I'm really excited!

All-in-all, a GREAT birthday!

Polynesians and Cougars

Did you know that I can dance like a Polynesian? Neither did I. But apparently the leaders in my Stake thought that I could, so I've been working on learning this for the last month:

 Hopefully this video works because I just spent an hour trying to upload it. Anywho... I learned a dance from Fiji and had to perform it in front of 800+ people in my stake last Thursday night. Good times. Did I mention that I don't dance? Also, I'm pretty sure the preparation for this dance gave me gray hairs. Yes, it was that stressful. It was like, swallowing up my life! But it's over now and I think it went pretty well and we had some of the best costumes so I am pleased.

Then this weekend was the first BYU home game of the season that we shall never speak about again on this blog. Just know that I was there, with Chad and multiple members of his extended family (+1 Ute fan) and I suffered through the ENTIRE thing. Because, unlike most other people in Utah...

I'm no fair-weather fan! I hung this flag on the outside of my bedroom door after the game, just to remind myself (and anyone else who may happen to look down our hallway) of that.

Labor Day Weekend Part 2

Here's some better pictures from last weekend that I pilfered from the bestie's blog:

Yeah... it takes a lot of work for me to get a good picture with Chad. You can see why...

Labor Day Weekend

The three day weekend was MUCH needed - and it was rather lovely. I got to spend an extra day with Chad because he had Monday off too, AND my bestie Shannon came to visit, so I got to see her too:

To celebrate Labor Day, we slept in (I didn't get my butt out of bed until 11am - I didn't even feel bad about it!) and then went to a delicious Mexican food lunch at Los Hermanos. It was perfect weather, I was with two of my most favorite people in the world, and I was eating great food. It was a great day. The worst part was having to say goodbye.

Goodbye's = not my thing.

One, You're Like a Dream Come True...

Yay for another weekend update!

No but really, my weekend was very nice. WAAHAY too short, but nice just the same.

On Friday I got a text message from one of my freshman year roommates, who I haven't seen in a long time, saying that she was in town for just that day and asking if I had time to come see her. Well, let me tell you something. Even if I didn't have the time, I would have MADE time to see her! I was so excited to hear from her, so right after work I went down to Provo and met her at the BYU volleyball game where I got to (finally!) meet her sweet little baby girl, Harper, and catch up on the last year or so.

Sometimes when you're a [almost] 24-year-old in Utah who hasn't been in school for [almost] 2 years, you tend to get a little lonely. In my case, all of the good friends that I made while I was at BYU got wise and ditched this crazy place (and most of them got married too). I have friends in DC, AZ, CA, CO, MD, NV and now GA - which often leaves me all by my lonesome in UT [wishing upon star after star that I could just get out of here too!], so I get REALLY excited when one of my favorite friends is in town and wants to see me. It was funny because when I got to hold Harper in my arms, I realized wow, it's been 6 years since I met Whitney in the King Henry Apartments that I lived in my first year in UT, and now she has a family and is moving to GA. Sometimes, it feels like King Henry was only a year or two ago. Sometimes it feels like a different lifetime. But, out of the 3 roommates I had my freshman year that I was good friends with, all 3 are married, all 3 live outside of UT, and all 3 have at least one kid. And Harper was the first of those kids that I got to meet. And she is perfect.

It was fantastic seeing Whitney again and I got an added bonus since she ended up marrying a guy from a group of friends we hung out with back in 2005/2006, so I got to see some other friends from back then that I haven't seen in forever. It was great to see Eric (who we call May) and his wife Lindsy (who is due in 3 weeks!) too! Eric, Lindsy and I all worked together at Brick Oven back in the day. And now we all hate that place. Some of us [me] with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns.

On Saturday I had the pleasure of actually seeing my own boyfriend (since I only get to see him on the weekends, if I'm lucky) and we went to a Brian McKnight concert! I guess I'm one of those special white people who listened to and loved R&B in the late 90's, early 2000's and, let's be honest, I still listen to it all the time now. (Boyz II Men Pandora station - listen to it, you won't get let down). Thankfully Chad loves R&B too, so he got us some tickets to the show and it was fan-freaking-tastic! Brian McKnight's voice is like a dream and he is such a talented song writer. He played the whole show on just his piano and guitar (no band), did impressions, made us laugh like you wouldn't believe, and was extremely humble and down to earth. By far, one of my favorite shows I've ever been to (and I've been to some goodies).

Ok - Pictures:

Yay! I had friends again for one night!

And just in case you missed the concert or haven't ever heard of Brian McKnight and therefor can not yet appreciate his creative genius [Mom I'm looking at you], here's a little taste of what I got Saturday night:

And Now Presenting...

The Unisex Hottie

(A.K.A. Chad)

Him and Me.

We only took this picture because our families kept badgering us. 

You can all stop now. :-)

Also it took about 9 tries to get one decent picture. (Not because of him, because of me.)

Of course.