Episode 31: In Which Everything Happens All At Once and Nothing Happens At All

So you probably all thought I had dropped off the face of the planet on account of getting married. Well, you would mostly be right.

See, there is a whole bunch of stuff to get in order before a wedding and I've been working on it pretty much non-stop when I can. It's pretty much making me insane. I am already bored and ready to elope. Not to mention the more that I do, the further and further December gets.

The good news is that my mother AND my future mother-in-law are both super chill and are like "Ok Jessica, we love you cuz you're awesome and whatever you want is fine" :) Ok I added the "we love you and you're awesome"...but I am sure it's true, cuz I am awesome. There. :)

So did I mention? We set our date for December 21st and we will be getting married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. :) Beautiful. I totally can't wait.

In the meantime, I have guest lists to finalize, invitations to order, dresses to be measured for and other like things. I'm so tired that I've stopped thinking. Someone asks me what I want my cake to look like and I give them this look like "blaaaaaaaaaah". It goes for pretty much everything. "what shoes do you like? "blaaaaaaaaaaaaah". Do you want a quartet at the reception? "blaaaaaaaaaaaah" Remember that old "I failed chemistry" picture? It is a versatile picture. It represents wedding planning too! I'd post it here, but it's on my old and broken computer. So you get this updated version of me dying on a binder of wedding invitations =P

It also doesn't really help that even though I have 6 months (actually 4 months and 3 weeks) to do all this because I'm trying to get most of it done before school because I'm still a full time student and I still need to get a job. Luckily my student financial aid came through and so I have money for tuition and some for rent and whatnot. That gives me a little bit of a cushion, but I still need a job.

If anyone knows of any jobs on or off campus that are good for crazy busy students let me know! I'd love to do something in child/healthcare since that's essentially where I'm headed anyhow as an occupational therapist. But you know, when you're a poor starving student attempting to get married...money is money.

In good news, Andrew DID get a job. He's working at Harmon's at the deli counter. Poor kid, long hours on his feet. I love him so much!

I must say it's a huge relief ONE of us having a job finally, but I really need a job because I do not want him to bear the burden of supporting us on a minimum wage (maybe a little more) job. But still, he's pretty patient and reassuring and keeps me mostly upbeat on the whole situation. He's the one with all the faith I guess, I'm the one with all the "blaaaaaaaaaaaah" =P

I'm trying to stay busy here in the meantime, figuring getting a job in Arizona is hopeless. I've actually got a few resume classes I can attend before I head up to Utah to give me a better idea on what to do. Also, I'm in charge of making dinner Monday-Thursday. It's going to help prepare me to feed poor andrew, so we don't have to eat hamburger helper every night (or at all if I can help it). I did manage to make one meal so far. I had the best of intentions and I was going to sit down on Sunday with the coupon papers that come in the mail and hash out a weekly menu and plan for shopping on a budget. I feel like i'm on some TLC reality show. =P

Only I'm failing at that. Ali came home and so I've finally had someone to hang out with and laugh with and what not. (Arizona is a pretty lonely place when everyone is married and your fiance is 700 miles away). Needless to say, little planning has been done and even less cooking. I did make a delicious "Chicken Ziti with Broccoli" though. It made fantastic leftovers and it was really simple to make. Definitely a keeper.

I will say though, that despite the lack of productivity in an area that I so desperately need to improve, it has been a tremendous blessing just being able to be here for Ali while she adjusts to normal life and I remember why I came back to Arizona in the first place. :) I've been there, done that with the whole coming home thing, so it's been nice to be able to lend her support.

Today we went to the temple together and it felt so wonderful to be there, with a friend. It's always easier to go to the temple with a friend. For a while, I would coordinate with andrew and go at the same time as he did, but in a different temple. It was ok...but the Provo temple has been closed for cleaning so it's been me and me til today.

It was an adventurous trip to the temple, involving losing my purse and ali putting her dress on backwards. Hee hee. but it was also a really really good session. It kind of made me think of Andrew, but what can you do? The temple is for families, so I would be concerned if I didn't think of Andrew when I was in the temple. But instead of a terrible empty and lonely feeling, it was a calm and peaceful feeling. I love the temple :)

In other other news, I woke up to the sound of rain today. and the nice hot stickiness of humidity. I loved it. I almost thought I was in Japan again! But then I woke up all the way and realized that I was not in Japan. Zannen. Anyhow, now it's raining again and I can hear it. Such a wonderful sound. So soothing. :)

I also went to target with Ali for fun. But looking at everything I felt that familiar "blaaaaaaaaah" coming on. I looked at all the food processors (something I DEFINITELY want for my wedding) and saw no Cuisinart food processors. Nothing else seemed interesting. I saw all the multicolored potholders and towels and was like "wah! color coordination!" and promptly chose all white stuff that I could just bleach at the end of the day. I am SO not into home decorating. Maybe andrew will have more ideas? Or our house is going to be very boring.

But what can you do? Well, you CAN beg Sportman's Warehouse to open a wedding registry, because then I can find stuff I actually want and can use, and Andrew and I will have more fun shopping for it...AND it won't matter how bad I am at home decorating cuz we'll spend most of our time in our spiffy new tent and sleeping bag, eating dutch oven cooking to survive. I'd even opt for setting the tent up in the living room. =P

But I don't see that happening, so I guess I had best form some kind of opinion on what I want to put on my registry. =P

Maybe wedding planning will be more fun when I'm back in Utah and I can actually do this stuff with my fiance. Do you know how hard it is to do this all over skype!? Bless him though, he's busy but he's willing to talk things over with me and help out where he can. :)

In final news, I made my first cheesecake. It was delicious. Lemon cheesecake with Lemon curd topping! Yum! I think I ate the whole cake single handedly. :) Oh yeah! and I made crepes with Natalee and learned how to flip my crepes in the air! I felt pretty accomplished. So I can take comfort in the fact that when wedding planning is super boring and annoying, I can flip a crepe. :)

So that's my exciting life. So now you see why "everything happens at once and nothing happens at all"? You can also see why I haven't blogged lately hee hee. Oh, and also...yes, I'm bored with wedding planning. No, I am not looking for advice. Thank you. Just look at my cute hair and face. I've got a handle on this. I have the temple scheduled and that's all that matters. :) but seriously, look at my cute hair. I got a haircut. I forgot that part. It looks the same...but its curly with a flower in it. :) Oh admit it. You love me. =P

haha, look. I posted episode 31 on July 31st. Yeah! let's go to Baskin Robbins! :)