Episode 34: In Which Jessica Catches a Cold and Also Has The Best Birthday Ever

You really wouldn't think those two were related, catching a cold and having the best birthday ever. As it turns out, they're not. They just happen to be two very large things in my life right now.

The funny story about getting sick is that no matter how good your immune system is, kissing your fiance when he has a cold, is basically begging to get sick yourself.

So I'm sick. That's what happens.

It started on Saturday I believe. Andrew had been sick the previous Thursday and I was having a rather fun time taking care of him. And by taking care of him, I mean I was allowing him to sleep on the couch while I played with my new video game and then fell asleep myself because my apartment was warm. =P

But let me back up. I know that its been 20 or so days since I last wrote so I'll let you know what's been happening.

On Labor Day weekend, my family came up on their way to taking Brianna to college. Andrew and I went and hiked Timp with my dad. It was really fun but REALLY tiring. The hike to the last meadow before the summit wasn't bad at all...but once you get into the loose shale that covers the summit, its painful on your feet. But we made it to the top! :) Even though we suffered for it for like a week afterwards. =P

And in random of randomness, our apartment also got a pet that weekend. His name is oscar and he is a praying mantis. We don't have him anymore, we had to let him go. There wasn't enough food in our apartment to sustain him and the next time we found him his adorable beady black eyes were clouded over. We felt really sad and let him go. I hope he's doing well. :)

Last week, on the 12th, I went out and took Ali and Tanner's engagement pictures. It was so much fun! They are so cute and they're pictures came out super cute! I have so many favorites I could hardly choose which one to put up, but finally I had to settle for this one because you could see Tanner's face as well as Ali's. My other favorite one is oe of Ali hugging Tanner, but you can only see Ali's face of course.

Oh yes, and on the day before that, Ali and I went out for a girls night and tried on wedding dresses. It was so much fun! I tried on a pretty a-line gown that was all sparkly and Ali found a cute dress with big pleats in the front that she kept playing with. =P It's so fun being engaged at the same time! :)

Other than that, nothing much is happening. Just studying. I've been a good student lately. I'm not being a very good student right now...I have anatomy reading to do and I have to review some of the stuff so I don't forget it. But I want to post in my blog so nyah.

But seriously, somehow last week, I developed this magical sense of responsibility. It's crazy! I wonder if this is all part of turning 24. Anyhow. Last week I finished all my homework for the entire weekend on Wednesday. Conveniently enough, Andrew had Thursday and Friday off so I was free to spend it with him. :)

But I have been doing really well at keeping on top of my classes and stuff. I know its about to get crazier here in a while because midterms are starting...but let me enjoy my responsibility while I can ok?

Classes are actually quite enjoyable. I had to change my schedule around a lot at the beginning of the semester and that was stressful, but it turns out that it was probably a really good thing. Anatomy is my only really hard class and that works well with trying to get everything ready for the wedding because I can focus on school AND the wedding plans.

If I'm not careful, I'm going to start falling behind in family finance. I've been doing so much anatomy stuff that I've forgotten how to do the basic formulas in Family Finance and now we're getting into more intense stuff. I'm going to have to visit the TA lab for a refresher in everything before midterms hit.

I really like Family Finance and I'm actually quite excited that Andrew and I decided that I was in charge of managing the finances when we're married. It's going to be fun. It also helps that Ali is in that class with me. :)

My foods class is long, but once we get cooking the time seems to go by much faster. I'm getting to know the people in my cooking group better and we work well together so it's really fun. I'm learning a lot in that class too about preparing balanced meals and eating healthy. I've found it to be very applicable lately as I've been making dinner for Andrew and I these past few days.

I'm trying to save us money by keeping my pantry and fridge decently stocked with staples and other things so that we don't eat out as much. It's been working well because I can't remember the last time we went out to eat needlessly.

I've made quiche, teriyaki chicken, spaghetti, stroganoff, grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, and beef stew with biscuits so far and there's plenty more I'm excited to make.

I try hard to keep in mind all the elements of meal planning and balanced nutrition that I learn in class and its been a fun challenge. I've also discovered that as I take the responsiblity for making sure that Andrew eats well upon myself, I also take more responsibility for myself. It's really fun. I suppose this is the way marriage is supposed to work, but the first time you discover that being responsible for two people is a blessing and not a burden, its really exciting! (not that I ever thought it would be a burden of course)

All this cooking has been so fun that last Thursday, when we went to Costco on Thursday (I picked up some frozen stuff like chicken...because i figured it would be more cost effective in bulk) I bought myself a new video game for my Nintendo DS. It's called "America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking" and its pretty much the greatest game ever created.

Think of it as an electronic cookbook...that has "how to" videos interspersed throughout...and also builds a shopping list for you among many other things. It has 300 recipes in it and you can even assign kitchen duties to more than one chef if you want to work together. It will call your name when it needs you. Its SUPER fun. On Sunday, Andrew and I used it to make slow cooker beef stew and biscuits. Oh it was a DELICOUS sunday dinner!

Yeah...I pretty much love my new game.

I also got a copy of Cook's Illustrated because it had a bunch of make ahead recipes. I have to go through and look at those because I want to get some stuff together and put in the freezer soon. Once midterms hit, I'm sure my free time will disappear.

Andrew has been totally awesome as I've started my new cooking kick. He always compliments everything I make so it gives me more confidence to keep cooking. He's basically awesome and I love him :)

On Friday we tried to take our engagement pictures but when we got stuck in traffic and lost the sun, we had to reschedule for Sunday.

Saturday I went to Anatomy Open Lab with my friend Shelia and it really helped a lot. I think I got like an 80 on my quiz this past monday. We're going to go every Saturday morning now.

Later that day I went to Harmon's in search of fresh herbs to make our stew with. I had my DS out and when I walked past the deli, Andrew saw me and laughed. He knew exactly what I was doing. He seems to think its funny how engrossed I become in that game. =P

I wasn't feeling so good on Saturday so I asked Andrew to bring home some orange juice for me. Good thing he did, because I could not sleep all Saturday night because of my sore throat. I drank as much orange juice as I could because the acidity felt good on my throat.

Sunday I was tired but I packed up all my ingredients and went over to Andrew's so we could start the stew. We went to church, came back, hurriedly changed for our photoshoot and headed to my house so that I could change and do my hair. Our stew smelled good but we would have to wait until we were done with our engagement pictures to eat it.

Our engagement pictures turned out WONDERFULLY. I'm so happy! It was so much fun and Kaylynne said we were very photogenic. We got the DVD with the pictures the other day and I can't stop staring at them. I can hardly tell you which is my favorite! But then, if you've been to my facebook, you'll know. I uploaded over 100 of them. =P

I'm really excited over the emotion that Kaylynne was able to capture in all the images. I feel like each picture, even if its a formal posed picture, tells a story about me and Andrew. That's what pictures are supposed to do and I'm so pleased that she was able to do that for us!

When the shoot was over, Andrew and I went home and put the finishing touches on our stew. We made biscuits and tried out our creations. They were delicious! I was especially impressed with the biscuits! They were so easy to make and they came out so light and fluffy and perfect, like biscuits should be! I should post the recipe sometime because it was the best. They were done in less than half an hour. :)

I meant to take pictures of our cooking endeavor on Sunday but I was so out of it that I forgot my camera. Turns out that I completely overexerted myself that day. But the time dinner was over I could barely keep my eyes open. I fell asleep and stayed that way until Andrew came back from ward prayer.

I was kind of cold so Andrew wrapped me up in a blanket and I slept with my head in his lap for a little bit longer. Then we watched the CES fireside from last week. He had missed it because he had to work. Oh my goodness....SUCH a good fireside. I love Elder Scott! He talked all about marriage and how to prepare for a happy marriage or if you were already married, how to create a happy marriage. Andrew and I learned a lot. :)

Monday, I started working with the cadavers in Anatomy. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting...really I soon forgot they were human beings at all and felt like they were just models. Squishy models.

Andrew started working morning shifts. He gets off work at 6:30 all week this week, except Friday. Yay! I don't have to wait til 10 or later to see him!!! :) So he came over after FHE on monday and we got our pictures from Kaylynne. We had fun going through them together and deciding which ones we liked. Then without notice...it was midnight! What the heck! How does time go so fast!? So we walked out to his car and he reached into his car and pulled out a notebook and a card! I was super surprised and way happy! Andrew got me a new journal! I've been needing one for so long and haven't gotten around to getting myself one! Hooray! He's amazing!

It was only midnight but it was already the best birthday I've had, ever!

I went to bed that night and was woken up at 6am by Ali singing "happy birthday". She's so sweet, she got up at 5am to make breakfast for me! So I got to have breakfast in bed on my birthday even though it was a school day. Between Ali and Andrew, NOTHING could have ruined my birthday but it only got better that day anyway.

After my last class, which unfortunately was at 8. I ran up to the top floor of the JFSB to meet with my bishop, then ran back downstairs to meet Andrew so we could go have an interview with his bishop. I'm really glad we were able to meet with his bishop. We got some really good advice from him regarding our marriage and engagement. :)

After the interview we went to Andrew's house and while I thought he had already given me a birthday present, he also gave me a rose too! :) I was so happy! That's the first time in my life that I've ever gotten flowers from a boy. Andrew is the best! :)

My apartment is full of flowers now because my mommy also had a bouquet of pretty happy flowers delivered to my apartment and when I came home last night there was another bouquet of flowers on the counter. I'm not sure if it was for me or not...but I put them in a vase so they wouldn't die all the same. So much pretty in our apartment! :)

I also came home and there was a spiffy little banner thing on my door that said "happy birthday, jessica" on it. It was my name written out on cute little origami boxes. I thought it was cool when I saw it, but then I brought it into my room and turned out the light to go to bed (after writing in my new journal of course) and then it reached a whole new level of cool. The boxes were attached to a glowstick! It was awesome! :)

So that was how my birthday ended. Now I'm 24, but I don't really mind at all :)