This weekend was so great! I had one of those real weekends where I don't do any work and I just relax, ahhhhh. The weekend started off with the Institute Fall Festival Dance. I went as the cutest nerd anyone has ever seen (sorry, no pics since I didn't get any with my camera, boo). It was alot of fun. Seeing everyone dressed up and seeing how creative people can be is so much fun. There were some pretty creative costumes too. Let's see Ugly Betty, some Star Wars characters, the Sock Monster, Roadkill, the Institute Clan, the Crazy Cat Lady, John Cena and Wendy (you now, the WENDY'S Wendy) all showed up for a night of dancing and socializing. Then it was on to Saturday. I love Saturdays simply for being able to sleep in until 9am. I never get to do that during the week so it's really nice to do on the weekend. But anyway, after waking I straightened up my place, got things in order, made some baklava (yummiliciousness), and just sat down and read and relaxed. That evening Leland and I went to his department's Fall Social. It was absolutely beautiful! The weather was perfect, the food was great, and the live jazz band was wonderful. The band was having some fun of their own while they were on their break, you could smell it :) We then went back to his place and watched the UFC fights. I started falling asleep around 11 so I decided it was time to go home and sleep for real, which means I missed the main event, and from what I hear it was a pretty darn good fight. Dang it, I always miss the good ones. Oh well, there will be others very soon. On Sunday I had Stake Conference and it was great as it always is. This conference theme was based around a talk President Monson gave about being "rescued" and how to "rescue" others. It was quite the conference with many amazing speakers. Some points of emphasis: Pray, do home/visiting teaching, love, serve, temple work, genealogy, and scripture study just to name a few topics. Then it was off to a good-bye dinner for Jenny who is moving today to Utah. All in all a great weekend with fun, food, friends and family.

Oh yeah, Mom came into town for a little bit this week. Sorry for not being able to spend more time with you. Having Mom here was a huge stress relief. Mostly because she cooked dinner and I have leftovers to last the week and she filled my fridge and cabinets. I love Mom. She always seems to know what I need, which is usually food. We also got some more stuff planned for the receptions. The EP reception is going to be beautiful and the food will be delicious. I am getting excited for that. Now the biggest thing we need to do are the invitations. Doing different invitations is a hassle. There is the sealing invite, EP reception invite and RSVP cards, and the actual announcement/invite. It's just too much sometimes. As long as we get everything finalized this week and printed the invites can go out as early as next week. Let's hope it all gets done. Then we can focus more time on the reception here in SA. Crossing the fingers seems to work pretty well right now, so everyone cross your fingers that it will all get done this week. Having Mom around really helped me out this week and I was able to relax a little more. Thanks for everything Mom, I love you! Now it's time for another week to start. Back to reality for me. Have a great one!

Have you ever had to depend upon other people that can't seem to get things straight? I am always in that position. It seems as though my time is not a precious as theirs. It frustrates the heck out of me! Sorry, but I don't stay places until 11 or 12 at night to make copies. I don't work like that. It's not my job to do that. If you say you are going to have something at 12pm for me then you need to have it at that time, not four hours later when I am on a tight enough time schedule. Sheesh! If I tell someone I am going to have something for them at a certain time I try my darndest to make sure it is there and ready to go. I may not make it 100% of the time, but I would say at least 95% of the time I am on the ball. Maybe that's being a little too confident, but more often than not I have what I say I am going to have when I say I am going to have it. This happens every week where I am told I will have everything at a certain time and it doesn't get to me until three or four hours later. I would love to have everything copied to give my athletes who have nothing to do something to do so they won't be so bored and get into trouble. That's the norm around here, sitting, waiting for others to do their stuff so you can do yours.

The bright star in my day though was being able to go to the temple tonight with my mom and Leland. It was a beautiful night outside and, of course, inside the temple. Time does really fly by and the rest of the world goes away when you are in the temple. Everything that had happened throughout the day just disappeared. The troubles with admin, the stress from Wednesday Folders, the pettiness of people went away. It was so relaxing. I really didn't want to leave, but figured the building would be closing soon and it would be a good idea to get out while I still could.

Mom is here visiting for a few days and I am so grateful for that right now. Now, my fridge will be full! I seem to always run out of food and have an empty fridge when Mom comes to visit. Funny how that always happens. When Mom sees the fridge empty she fills it for me because she thinks I'm not eating and need to eat more. I think it's funny how things work out. Plus, she is diabetic and I never know what to get for her and when I ask her she doesn't tell me, so I leave it up to her to buy what she needs. I love Mom's visits! Moms make everything so much easier and loads seem lighter when they are around. I love my mom!

That's really it for now. Not too much is happening lately. Still freaking about stuff, but I think that's going to be a norm until after January. We shall see if the freaking out stops.

Reality is setting in and I am in panic mode. 75 days until the wedding and I am starting to freak out a little bit. There is so much to do and so little time to do it in. Leland keeps telling me that everything is going to be okay, but when I plan stuff I freak. Is everything really going to be okay? I have planned big things before that have gone straight down the drain (Thanksgiving 2007, but we won't talk about that, ever). Maybe I am freaking about nothing, but the invitations haven't even been approved and printed yet, the guest list incomplete, registering hasn't even started, etc, etc, etc. So total panic mode right now. There really isn't anything anyone can do to help either. I am now starting to feel the stress that just about every bride goes through. Not liking it too much.
On the other hand, the school's high school volleyball team won their first game in history! Finally! It's the breakthrough that was needed and it came at the perfect time. Right before a week of no games and hard core training. The middle school are so close to their first win, but just can't seem to get over that mountain. They are getting closer to the peak, but it's just out of reach right now. There are only two MS games left, so they gotta get going. High school has three or four weeks left so they have a little more time to get some more success under their belts and know what it feels like. Congrats to them on their hard work and perserverance, it has finally paid off!

General Conference was this past weekend. Have I ever mentioned how much I love General Conference? It's such an uplifting weekend. Conference always seems to come at the perfect time. So what if it's always been the first weekend in April and October? It still comes at the perfect time. Messages about family, keeping the commandments, and testimonies of the restoration of the gospel, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and our Savior Jesus Christ were wonderful to listen to and I know my testimony has grown a little from what was said. Some things I paid a little more attention to than I would have in the past. There were some things that I would usually not pay attention to just because I thought that at that time in my life they weren't all that important. Boy, am I wrong when it comes to that. Everything the leaders of the church talk about is important in my life. Even if I am not going through with what is being talked about, I will go through those things at some point my life and need to know what's up and what to do. The gentle guiding counsel of the leaders of the church remind me of how true The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really is. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and what it has taught me. I know that Thomas S. Monson is prophet called by God to lead and direct His people here on the earth. General Conference just ROCKS!
The whole weekend was great. Listening to conference and, as usual, falling asleep to some parts was the relaxation I needed to energize me for the week ahead. I also had the wonderful opportunity to actually talk (on the phone) with my future mother-in-law. She's funny, and oh so cute. I could hear the happiness and excitement in her voice. I won't be able to meet her in person until his whole family comes a few days before the wedding, but phone calls and facebook work too. It was a fantastic weekend and I look forward to many more weekends like that. I don't see any in my immediate future, but there will be more weekends like that, I know it! Time to get things ready for work, Peace out!

It's Official!

I am now officially engaged! Everything happened last night and I was contemplating writing this last night, but I figured sleep was a little more important at that time. Here's the story:

One of my friends comes into town periodically and when she does we go to Alamo Cafe for dinner. Since I am so busy and never know when I am getting off work we went after Institute last night. Really late for me to eat, but I was starving so I didn't care. It's unusual that we let boys in on our girl's dinner, but Leland was allowed to come eat with us. We are eating and Leland says that tonight is a great night for a walk. This sent some flags up because I am the one that usually brings up the idea of going to La Cantera and walking around, so I was a little suspicious at this point. It's also a Wednesday night and we normally don't do anything on that night since it's Insitute and we are hanging out with friends afterwards. Anyway, we go for our walk around La Cantera and we head up the stairs of the new part and sit on a bench in the perfect location with the breeze going and complete peace. The music was on and we were just relaxing. A few kisses later, he reaches into his pocket gets on one knee and pops the question. I said, of course and we went back to the evening. He even had a photog there for the moments after. How neat is that? You usually don't have anyone there right after to get the expressions and stuff, so it was something that was unique and I loved it. So there's the story. Nothing flashy, nothing big, just simple and sweet. Just the way I like it.
Oh, the big day will be December 29, 2009. Yikes! That's only three months away. Whew!