Proud of my little Brandon

Tonight, little Brandon and I went to his ASCE awards dinner. It's for all the civil engineers that are graduating this year. He got a plaque with his name on it that looks so cute. It has "Civil Engineer" written below his name, too.

By the way, did you know that engineers have the highest percentage of married students at BYU? It seemed like 75% of the people at that dinner were married or engaged. We contribute that to the fact that guys with a high likelihood of good employement right out of college are probably the first pick for girls. Way to go, Brandon. You're a hot commodity.

He also got the award for "Most likely to lose their diploma." This was wrong for a number of reasons. First of all, Brandon doesn't lose things. Brandon leaves things, but he always knows where they are. I think what they meant was "Most likely to have their spouse lose their diploma." That would work.

I also have a very alarming situation. BYU is running out of ice cream. Their ice cream supplier has moved locations and won't have their machines up and running for possibly another YEAR. Obviously, this is not acceptable. We are out of all the good kinds already... cookie dough, graham canyon, marionberry, cherry limeade sherbet. I protested to our managers today and told them to get a new supplier.

It's a conspiracy.

I say this because there is no other reason I can think of for which I would have to write SIX essays this week. I only have FIVE classes, so that's more than one per class. I'm pretty sure my teachers have all gotten together and planned this out so that I will quite literally be dead by the end of this week.

swoon

Even if I had an ugly dress, and an ugly bouquet, and my cake tasted like crap, I would still be happy just because I found this necklace and earring set. It was HALF OFF too!

So I added the bottom lace layer to my dress, and I think I like it just like this.

But it is supposed to look like this when it's done. I don't know whether to leave it or add the extra stuff. What do you think? Disclaimer: pictures don't do this dress justice. It looks really pretty in person.

Brandon and I also found a place to live for the summer. It's a 2-bedroom condo, and the rent is even cheaper than a 1-bedroom at Wymount. We are going to sign a contract in 20 minutes. Hooray!

stupid provo weather

Last year was perfect. I remember the trees and flowers being in full bloom by the end of the semester. I started wearing shorts in February, and the warm weather stayed on till summer. This year is quite the opposite. The winter wasn't too bad, but it lingered. The trees and grass have stayed brown and ugly. Quite unfortunate when you have to take engagement pictures by the end of this week. (It's a bit early, but Brandon is sending invitations to Australia, so we have to get them done fast.) We walked up and down the Provo river today and there were no pretty picturesque spots; only a dreary landscape that could have been in a Tim Burton movie. So on our way home I decided to drive down Center Street and Brandon pointed out some historic buildings. Soon we got lost in the architecture and back alleys of Provo, and decided to take our engagement pictures there. It could work, right? Slightly edgier than the normal trees-and-mountain scene, but it could work. Take that, nature. We are officially fighting. I was going to include you in my wedding invitation, but you had to be selfish and ugly. You have lost that privilege.

busts

For my next ceramics project, I have to do a bust. It also has to be of someone I know and it must include an object or symbol that represents the person. So, I thought of some ideas that I could do that would be fun.

Dad, wearing a huge sombrero, possibly with a mexistache.
Mom, with a stethoscope. And a box of chocolates.
Bethany holding a uterus in one hand. It was the most appropriate thing I could come up with, considering her profession.
Brother, holding a Texas flag.
Poodle, with a poodle.
I couldn't think of anything good for Fernash since a mouth is already included.
Bexar, with a rolling pin, and a baby, and she would probably be laughing.

Brandon wants us to do each other so that we can put the busts on our fireplace when we're old.

Invitation

I am also including a card with directions to the reception place.
Please critique.

one more reason she is cool

My roommate was talking about pi day last week, and I told her that I had no idea what that was. So, astonished, she looks at me and says:
Don't you ever go into the math building?!?!?!

dad appreciation day

It was my dad's birthday last week. I remembered. I even remembered out loud to all of my friends. What I did NOT remember to do was to be a good daughter and call him on his birthday. So to make up for it, I compiled a list of 10 reasons my dad is... the bad.

1. He thinks he's mexican. Seriously.
2. He requested to play "Free Bird" at my wedding.
3. He refers to himself as "graytop."
4. He once painted our entire deck red, thinking he was staining it.
5. He snagged my mom, and she is the bomb.
6. He makes the best fajitas I've ever had.
7. He was Coop Dog's favorite person in the world. If Cooper liked him, he HAS to be cool.
8. He once got in trouble for playing bouncy-ball with me at Target.
9. He will stay awake all night just to smoke a good brisket. He can't, however, say the same about church.
10. He has 6 kids that all turned out relatively normal, and 3 grandkids that are awesome.

Happy late birthday, graytop.

Some pluses to living in Provo

1. The new mexican restaurant that has REAL tacos al pastor. It should be the new Cafe Rio.
2. BYU Rugby. So much more brutal than football, and the games don't take 3 hours like football games do. One of the players always orders a double scoop of rocky road ice cream from me, too.
3. A new appreciation for Cosmo. Mascots might be annoying in general, but I'm pretty sure ours is the only one who can break dance.
4. Geology. For a project our class is ordering pizza and watching Jurassic Park and doing presentations on what is or isn't true about various aspects of the movie. One group was even assigned the topic of "the scoop on poop: what we can learn about dinosaur poop." When he gave the assignment, my teacher told the group, "don't just give me a bunch of crap on this one!" He's pretty cool.

More roommate troubles

I have another roommate who isn't so fun to live with. The problem with her is that she is a gas. By this I mean that she expands to fill ALL available space. She is the only person in our apartment with a private bedroom. However, about a month ago she stopped sleeping in her room and started sleeping on the beanbag chair in our living room. She also has a hobby of watching TV REALLY loudly. This is annoying at many times, such as when at 7:45 AM my last minutes of sleep are ruined by the sound of the TV, or when at 11:00 PM I have to do my homework in the living room (because my roommate is alseep in my room) and I can't concentrate for the same reason. The worst, though, happened last night. Brandon and I were in the living room when she came home and put in a movie. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie we found out that it was about a sick old man who tries to make a porn film. Brandon and I got up and went into the kitchen, but that still wasn't far enough away. And the whole time I was thinking, "Why should I have to leave my own apartment? Doesn't she know that I don't have my own room, and even if I did, I couldn't go in there with Brandon? How can she feel justified in taking the only place that we can be and filling it with trash, especially if she has her own room?" Still, we left. One good thing about it was that it gave us something to unite against and talk about for an hour. If anyone expected me to get cold feet before my wedding, my roommates are sure making that impossible.

How I almost had a meltdown today

Who am I kidding, I DID have a meltdown today. I know I promised everyone pictures of my dress, but I can't find the file transfer cord to my camera.

But that wasn't the problem. I went to try my dress on today. I had asked the lady to take the ugly belt off the hips on my dress because it made the dress a drop-waist dress, and I already have a really long torso. When I saw my dress, the belt was off but there was a BIG UGLY SEAM where the belt once was. Suddenly, the vision of my dream dress was fading away and one of an ugly 80's style dropwaist dress was appearing. So I consulted little Brandon. We grabbed a sash and it lifted the waist a little, but it still looked a bit awkward. We searched with no luck through David's Bridal and Joanns to find sashes or fabric that could help. Finally, I remembered a picture in a magazine and I had an idea:
They use lace as a backdrop for this sash. I'm not going to cover my whole dress with burgundy lace, so don't get scared. But I did find some that matched my dress and can cover the seam and allow me to lift the waist. Problem: solved.