Happy Happy Happy Monday!

...which started with a happy happy happy HAPPY saturday

probably the best saturday of my life

ever ever ever

okay, let's cut to the cheese

i mean, chase

you'll probably get both

because after all,

I'M ENGAGED!

it's kinda cool. kinda unreal. kinda mostly just awesome.

want the story?

oh, i knew it.

can i start at the very very beginning though because it's such a good story and even though i'll probably bore you to death with it, i want you to have the full experience

i'll try and leave out all unnecessary words. it may even turn into a poem.

poem engagement story

who am i?!

once upon a time

i didn't make the dance major at byu

so i went to ucmt

and on the first day i knew 100% i needed to be there

and not at byu

so within like 2 days

i become bff with this awesome possum girl named

TIFFANY

and she's the best friend a girl could ever have

super sweet, super cute, super hilarious, super fun

laughs at all my jokes

lets me call her turkey cupcake

(my nickname christening abilities are amazing, I know)

etc.

well, we became all buddy buddy

and she decided to set me up with her brother's best friend

months pass

then one day we're on break and i bring up that one kid

what was his name?

bryson?

right, bryson...

...you should text him

so she did

and he wanted to see a pic

well, we decided one of my model pictures would be a good idea

{i think it was the first pic from this post}

and within a minute he replied

"i'm in"

hehe

i believe it was the next day that i got this text

skipped the falling in love warning though

then imagine dragons concert

cold stone

thor

circus

sushi

longboarding

scum

words with friends

cafe rio

studying

harry potter halloween costumes

tennis

stick shift driving

picnic
bowling

kid history

and a lot of other things

turned into me falling for this truly amazing person

i knew after two dates

he's known for about 16 years

intermission

The Body Issue: Part 2

I remember it most in high school.
The weighing, the skipping meals, the worrying.
Worry worry worry
I wasted so much time worrying!
I worried about my bubble bum in ballet
I worried about eating school lunch
I worried about fitting in size 0's
I was told all the time that I was skinny
Tiny
After a while, I thought that was who I was
And that if I woke up one day and wasn't, I wouldn't be me.
My body began to define my spirit
I realize now how potentially dangerous that is to a soul
My focus was skinny and the byproduct was a small obsession
And a lot of wasted time
(It could have been so much worse)
Now balance is the focus.
I am healthy and happy
I have learned to love myself and others
I am stronger
I am wiser
I am less critical
I am closer to the Lord
And I'm still thin--but that isn't the point.
The point is I am trusted with a divine gift
Everyone is
And we choose every day whether we'll
Care for it
or abuse it

Choose the first one

The Body Issue: Part 1

So...I've been debating whether to do this or not

It's personal

And people might not like it

But I think I should

Here it goes

I used to not have a very healthy image of myself

Not in an extreme way, just in subtle ways.

I would say that most, if not all girls

go through phases of 

hating her body

loving her body

wishing her body...

changing her body

conforming her body

starving her body

critiquing her body

etc. etc. etc.

I did that

Sometimes I still do

And I think a lot of people don't understand

That the 5'3" 110 ish pound girls

worry just as much as everyone else

So

I want to switch up this blog a little bit

I'll still post the pics and stories of Life a la Erin

But I want to talk about my testimony of

the human body

I hope you will read this little series

And that if you don't already

You will learn to love your body

Cuz it's pretty cool

The Boy is Back in Town (The boy is back, the boy is back)...

The Sunny Sunny Sunnies for this Lovely Week

• B came back from Brazil. Tan, which is new. And as sweet as can be, which is not. I have said it before and I will say it again. . . I love airports. P.S. I am also oh so grateful that he served his mission before we met. Those two weeks felt like foreva. 
• CHRISTMAS! My momma is the best and gave me gift cards to like every restaurant in Utah so the boy and I have free dates from now until Independence day! Add in the Pass of All Passes from B and we may last until Thanksgiving. I exaggerate, I know. 
• Playing Bananagrams on Christmas. Winning this game with my clever placement of "Pathology" (how do you like that you UCMTers?) I want it for my birthday, just so everyone knows. The game, not a disease.
• Losing every single pound I gained over the holidays with the worst case of the stomach flu this girl has ever had. Actually, this really isn't happy, but that I'm back to solid foods is very happy indeed.
• New Years Party: Awesome food, hilarious friends, Star Wars Wii game - complete with lightsabers, Step Up 3, and a pretty decent kiss. I have a good feeling about 2012.
• My New Year's Resolutions. TBA...soon.
• The look on B's parent's faces when I was peeling his back (all that sun...) Typical Saturday night activity for us.

Sorry no quotes this week

Happy Monday! 

Meet Nonac

'Twas the week before Christmas

And all through the house

house tiff found on her way to our party. return trip required

Not a creature was stirring

Not even a monkey

monkeys bryson and i saw at hogle zoo

The presents were given two weeks in advance

In hopes that Bryson would come back super fast

momma kim's present

tyler's present wrapped up so nice...

don't worry, it was just a watch

The children watched Star Wars instead of sleeping in their beds

tiff's wrist...

lightsaber/lint roller = erin skywalker

girls' night at its finest

While visions of mistletoe danced in their heads

hogle zoo

funny story... see below

And with Tiff's cute face and I with my new toy

bah! love her

this is my graduation present nonac. ha.

We all tried to forget about how much she missed the boy

this is actually my "stop taking my picture" face

Basically, here's what it all means:

Bryson is in Brazil for two weeks. In a beach house. On the beach. In Brazil. BRAZIL BEACH HOUSE. For Christmas. Where it's warm. In Brazil on the beach. He wore shorts to the airport. Lil' punk. Sigh. I'm over it. I get Europe in April. With cute little girls. When he's in school. Ha. So really, we both got/get our dream vacations and everyone is happy... and lonely.

Tiff and I had a Star Wars marathon which began with driving around Lehi looking at the fabulously decorated houses. Following which, we took many pictures. And then we got tons of blankets and fell asleep before we even finished the first movie so the whole marathon thing kinda didn't happen. Still so much fun with my little turkey cupcake.

Oh, and the funny story. Bryson (and Tiff) had surprised me at school (which I will talk about in an upcoming post) so I had to be a good girlfriend and get him something before he left for his beach house. (We're having second Christmas when he gets back) Trip to Walmart. Huge Hershey kisses in the front which couldn't be passed up. Originally went in for mistletoe. Found that stuff. Mission accomplished. Except I'd look really weird going through the checkout with only those two items so I start searching around everywhere. And then the Holiday Pringles started singing and my two presents became three. And I looked totally normal going through the checkout.

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!"    

Aaaand...She's back

Sorry for the lack of posts. I go to school. All of the time. Or I'm with B. But I'm back! Hopefully to stay. (I made a goal to blog every day this week). Here are the happys.

• Couple days ago in class.  Post massage. Post midterm. Everyone sitting attentively, waiting for teacher to give some profound statement.  And she says, "Can I just say how fab Erin's hair is right now?"  Yes, yes, I know I look like an electrocuted white version of Jimi Hendrix.  I suffer from massage hair!  Real condition ps. (It looks something like the pic below).
• Playing at Nickel City.  Bryson had given me a handful of nickels so I could go play games with the girls.  Upon being reunited, we decided to feed the last few into those games/machines/whatever where the nickels are all piled up and if any fall you get tickets, know what I'm talking about? Well, I was on my award-winning shot, reach in my pocket and pull out that last coin...And it won't go in.  I push and push and push and the dumb thing was broken!  E:  I broke it!  B: Let me see *tries once, looks at it, and said with all the tenderness he could muster*... Babe, this is a quarter.
• Bruising big buff man partner in class.  That's right.  I'm strong. Arm wrestle, anyone? 
• Texting B one morning with this picture:

warning: sometimes my hair does this in the morning

Reply 5 seconds later:

sometimes my hair does THIS!

I like him.

• 12 more days of school. 3 more clinics. 1 GRADUATION.  You're all invited.  I hear there will be cookies.
• Doubling with Mr. and Mrs. Kim (aka B's parents).  aka Sushi. aka I love going out with parents!

cuz we're poor college students who think doing homework together is a date :)

• Paying my last tuition check to UCMT.  Best. Feeling. Ever.  
• Holding new baby nephew Carl.  Love love love. Holding new baby Emma.  Love love love.
• Being sick-not happy.  But having B show up with these yummy treats and the sweetest note ever written-extremely happy.  He is the best, I tell you.  The best.

the soup stayed in the can...

• Zupas night with the girls.  Imitating teachers (which almost cost me my life), swapping elementary school horror stories (actually, Audrey just told us how she got sent to the principal's office for hitting a boy in the head with her perfect rock egg that she would play with at recess...Don't tell I told!).  

it was gonna fall off the stick. get over it.

• Unlimited bowling. Making the ultimate wish at 11:11 on 11/11/11 while bowling.  I'll tell ya if it comes true.
• Stomach growling wars with Tiff. Which turned into who can't laugh wars. Which turned into awkward nose laughs by Erin and cute suppressed giggles by Tiffany. Everything is 19483720384 times funnier when it's against the rules to laugh! (P.S.  Happy Birthday Tiff face!) 
• More real life stuff... Tonight my awesome cousin and her awesome husband offered to let me live in their awesome basement with their awesome family for super cheap rent. Have I mentioned they are awesomely six miles away from my awesome B?  Love all the awesomeness in this situation.
• Said family also invited me to go to EUROPE with them for two weeks to help watch their totes adorbs little girls.  Okay. Fine.  I'll go, I'll go.  
• Um...Can that last one be beat? 

"Now tell me that wasn't fun"

I'm watching Gilmore Girls (it has been far too long--my witty comments and hilarious jokes have significantly decreased these last few weeks) and eating cereal as I write these happy moments from the past 2 weeks.  

Bliss.

• Speaking of cereal, here's a good one.  Not too long ago, Superman and I were cuddling, which turned into a tickle fest (as sometimes happens with us).  Well, I fell off the couch and wasn't going to have any of that so I dragged him down with me. (I know what you're thinking...Scandalous...Keep reading) Next thing I know, I'm pinned to the ground and his knuckles are hitting my forehead and we had the following conversation:

B: Name ten cereals!

E: What?

B: Name ten cereals or I won't stop!

E: Uh... Lucky... Charms...

B: Tap, Tap, Tap

E: I can't do it!  (Said in absolute desperation and defeat)

He stopped, looked at me with some disappointment on his face and said, "Oh yeah, you didn't grow up with brothers."

Guess who is now taking upon herself the task of memorizing the following list in order?  Cheerios, Chex, Fruit Loops, Honeycomb, Kix, Life, Lucky Charms, Pops, Trix, Waffle Crisp.    

• I got a Scentsy travel tin for my car, which was sitting on my desk while Danielle and I were having a heart-to-heart.  She picked it up, opened it, put it right up to her nose, and took a big whiff.  Well, she went from 0-60 (on the freak out scale) in about 2.7 seconds. I wish you could've seen her face. Just so everyone is clear, Scentsy travel tins = modern-day smelling salts.  Handle with care.
• Christopher Columbus there's no school today! (Little Little Women reference/pun for ya)
• So this last term, I had a class called Shiatsu, which is a Japanese form of massage that is done on a mat on the floor instead of a table.  The therapist works from the hara which in English means you rock back and forth.  Well, when the whole class is rocking, and you've been doing this for thirty minutes straight, you look around at all these other crazy rocking people and you realize, We're all just a bunch of insane asylum posers.   
• Setting: My Kitchen.  Characters: Bryson and Erin. Eating banana muffins.

B: Why do you eat them like that? From bottom to top

E: Because the tops are the best

B: But that doesn't make sense.  I enjoy every bite, you only like the bites at the end.

E: I like every bite, the last few are just amazing.

B: On a scale of 1-10 how much would you say you like muffin bottoms?

E: Probably like a 5

B: What about the tops?

E: Like an 8

B: K.  Well the whole thing for me is like a 7.  So that means my score is 7x10 which is 70 and yours is 5x5 plus 8x5 which is 25+40 which is 65. Therefore, I enjoy my muffin more than you enjoy yours.

E: But yours is just a line with a slope of 0 while my line increases exponentially.

B: My score is still higher.    

Just some muffin math.  Typical B.E. night. 

• Three terms down.  One to go.  And I took my resume to job choice #1. "I'm a big kid now"  
• And a weekend that included Gateway mall, Sushi, Community, Ikea, Temple Square, an *NSYNC music video remake, Battle of the Sexes, my last Saturday of waking up at 4:00 a.m., Rachlette, and Hook.

Happy Monday!