Map.

Ladies and Gents, I officially have 11 days until married life begins. What does this call for? A crafty project, of course.

I guess I can't take full credit for the idea. My wonderful mother said something about having a "display table" at our reception... followed with "maybe a map of everywhere you and Daren have been or something?"

Bingo! Daren and I have traveled a LOT in our short dating career. We only officially dated for about 11 weeks.. and we were out of town/road-tripping for 8 of those weeks. Crazy, I know. Then the engagement period brought it's own trips, including Virginia, Boise, San Francisco, and Island Park. So, I guess partially to keep me occupied in the coming days, I've begun my "Road Trip Map Project".  I thought it'd be a cuteski present I could give to Daren, too. He'll probably squeal like a girl when he sees it. He tends to get really excited like that. *cough cough*

When I started brainstorming, "MAP" was literally my only idea. So, it took some time. And LOTS of sketches. But, eventually, I found the frame I wanted and sketched this out with a dry erase marker:

The idea is to have Utah in the middle with red dotted lines going from Provo to the big places we've visited together. Then, on the side is a key with numbers that correspond to the map.. I guess to list what the trip was/big events that occurred. Kinda make sense?

 This is a more detailed sketch I did after I liked the general idea.

Then came the fun part.. picking out the materials!

At first I thought I would just draw everything, but then I decided it would be adorable to use different materials. After a trip to Joann's, I now have a fabric canvas with red yarn  for the red-dotted lines.

Also, I had fun with pipe-cleaner.

 

Golden Gate Bridge, anyone?

 

In the end, I'm going to sew a banner that with "fly"across the top and say something like:

Daren & Kaylee: It all began with a road trip...

Or something corny like that.

Here's the current version:

We'll see how it turns out. Stay tuned! (Or.. just come to my reception..)

 

Happiness.

I feel like the last 6 days have been the craziest of my entire life. That may be a slight exaggeration, and I'm sure crazier times are sure to come, but I'm definitely on an emotional overload right now.

First off, I left Provo. The place that's been so good to me for over 4 years, where I've lived with my best of friends, won't be my home anymore. These past 4 years have given me the best friends I've ever had, my future hubby, and the craziest/funnest memories to date. How could I not be sad to leave??

Luckily, pulling out of P-town with Daren by my side was the only thing that made it better. After all, he's the reason I'm making this decision... and although i'm sad, I'm also DANG EXCITED for the future!!

Funny how that works. So much sadness and happiness all at once.

The next day, Daren and I took our wedding pictures. A little early, you ask? Yes. Very early. 5 weeks early. But, considering he'll be in California until the day before we're married, we had little choice. Plus, they were a BLAST, so why not!? I can't believe how happy I was just dressing up and walking around in our wedding attire pretending we were married. The ACTUAL wedding day is going to rock. I may faint of happiness.

This is the only pic I got of myself/us.. and you can't really tell at all what anything looks like. Just know that I LOVED my bouquet (complete courtesy of my mother) and my hair (courtesy of Pamela).

The next day, I went through the St. George Temple for the first time. It was so amazing to feel so loved and supported by my family and my Heavenly Father. What a blessing temples are!

Unfortunatley, the crazy week ended with my least favorite thing: Daren leaving for California. He started his big job today, which means we have one month of long-distance coming up! As I've been attempting to control my emotions the past few days (mostly concerning the leaving Provo/Daren leaving thing), it's been interesting to look at my life and try to be optimistic. Sometimes, it's really hard!

Isn't that selfish of me? To be sad that I'm going to marry the love of my life in only 5 weeks time and i get to live with my wonderful family until then??

Happiness is a decision. We can always decide to be sad and find things to mope about, or, at the same time, we can decide to find happiness and see the blessings around us. Thinking narrowly and selfishly, I find myself feeling empty and alone; however, looking up and towards the future, I can see a bright life of wonderfulness!

I'm going to make this month one of optimism and happiness. After all, I'm in love and couldn't be happier. Why waste time moping?

Never say Never.

For some reason between traveling to Washington DC, a family reunion, starting summer classes, planning a wedding and working 40 hours a week, I haven't found time to write! Sadly, there's no way I'm about to catch up on everything that's been going on, but I've got a few highlights.

Last month we took a trip to Virginia! It was an entire week of no work, all play. I'd never been to the East Coast before, so it was quite the experience. Actually, I'd never done a lot of things we did.

 I'd never been to a circus. 

 Never been sailing. 

 Never met up with my best friend in Washington DC!  

 Never seen the White House. 

..and never had Ethiopian Food. 

Which was an experience all on it's own. Short version: we went to an Ethiopian place where we clearly had no idea what was going on - much to everyone else's entertainment. When they brought us these HUGE platters with no silverware, we kinda guessed and ate with our spongy bread as a scoop. Definitely the most Ethnic of our restaurant trips so far! 

Basically I got to meet my future in-laws and spend a week with my fiance. It was incredible.

Since we've been home, life hasn't been quite AS exciting. However, my roommate of 2 years got home from her mission, while another one had a baby shower. Someone we're all growing up and doing old things and it keeps getting weirder. 

I'm a big fan of reunions. Especially when it's been years since you've seen each other. 

Oh yeah, and my real ring came! I ended up wearing the loaner for 4 weeks, which just made me that much more excited to see the real thing!  

 You can't really tell, but it's rose gold. And I love it!

Oh yeah, and I'm just planning my move to California in 2 and 1/2 months with my husband. I guess you could say life has been good to me.

PROPOSAL.

One of my favorite things about relationships and love is that every situation is unique. Put two unique people together and their story has never been heard before!
Even though there have been millions and billions of proposal stories before mine, the one I'm about to tell has never been heard before. That makes it about one million times more romantic if you ask me.

Back story #1:

Daren and I had talked about marriage and knew it was gonna happen. We'd gone ring shopping and I had agreed to wait as patiently as possible until the ring arrived. They said it would take 2-4 weeks.

Maybe it's just me, but after I KNEW we were gonna get married, I just wanted a ring on my finger. Waiting is not something I'm very good at.

5 days after ring shopping:
It was a beautiful day outside and all I wanted to do was get out of the office. I texted Daren and asked if we could go read up the canyon liked we'd been planning. We had just gotten books at Barnes and Noble and thought it would be a fun place to go read.

Emphasis on the "I texted Daren" part. This was all "my idea". 

He picked me up from work and off we went. Before long, we found a place we thought would be nice and set up camp. A blanket/pillows to sit on and our reading material. Add the view and beautiful weather and I was ready.

Daren suddenly pulled his backpack over and pulled his own book out.

"Why don't we read this together?"

First of all, how did I not notice the backpack this whole time?

I looked closer and saw that it was a homemade book with a picture of Daren and I on the front entitled "Daren and Kaylee".

Wow, this was adorable. How much time did it take him??

I got excited and asked if I could read it out loud to us. It was all hand-written in rhyme with pictures and all.  The rhymes were probably my favorite part. He tried so hard and most of them were pretty good!

Back story #2: I LOVE rhyming. I write Daren super weird cheesy rhyming poems for fun when I'm bored.

As the story went on, it mentioned when I first invited Daren to play games at my apartment. At this point, Daren reached into his Mary-Poppins bag and pulled out a game for me. One, it was a game I'd mentioned before. Two, we love playing games together. Double win.

K, This is waaay too adorable for an everyday thing, but he could NOT have gotten a ring so quickly. There is no way. 

Next came our first date story. Because we'd eaten cheesecake at the end of that date, he whipped a mini-cheesecake out of his bag. I almost didn't know how to react! But I just kept smiling and setting his gifts next to me and continued to read aloud.

Back story #3: Cheesecake is my all time favorite treat.

By this part of the book, there were actual pictures of us on our dates. After one photo of us at the tulip festival, he pulled out a bouquet of tulips. Which also happen to be my favorite flower.

I have no idea how all of this fit in his bag so secretly. Stuff just kept coming. 

When I turned the page and saw the words "100 reasons why I want to Marry You.." I let myself embrace the fact that this was a proposal. (Yes, there was a little envelope with 100 reasons why he wanted to Marry me. Yes, I cried when I read them.) I guess somehow he'd gotten a ring.

From this point on, I'm sorry to say I don't remember much. I couldn't tell you where he got the ring box from. Or how I was suddenly standing up and he was kneeling in front of me. Or what he said to me after he choked up and couldn't talk. All I really remember was thinking is, "ahhhhhhhhhhhh is this really happening right now!!??

And then I said yes and squealed.

So, there you have it. I'm in love and engaged and couldn't be happier. We're getting married in September and then moving to San Francisco together. Holy I can't even comprehend what my life will be like in 5 months. But I'm thrilled about it!

Eternity with this man is gonna rock.

Oh and P.s. Daren got a loaner ring. That's how he got me with the "only 5 days" thing. The one I want is on its way and until it gets here I'm wearing a similar diamond from the store. Surprise!

LOVE.

Ever since I was a little girl, I've dreamed of falling in love.

I've dreamed of a man who would always take care of me and who would see past my many flaws and shortcomings. A man who loved the gospel like I did and wanted to raise a family while serving the Lord with me for the rest of eternity.

The thing is, I dreamed so much that I started to tell myself it would never be as good as I imagined. Falling in love wouldn't be as easy and obvious and marriage would be scary. But deep down I held on to my dream man and hopes for a romantic love story full of giddy excitement.

Since day one, things have been different with Daren. Where I was used to unsure feelings and lame "dating games", came a man who was fun, great to talk to, and had facial hair. I immediately wanted to date him. We started seeing each other everyday and the more we talked, the more I realized how good for each other we were. When he finally asked me out, I was giddy with excitement; I'd never liked a guy this much before even going on a date with him.

From that first date until today, I can't remember ever having doubts or fears about Daren. Sure, I worried that he didn't like me as much as I liked him, or that things wouldn't work out, but I never doubted how much I liked him. Our relationship came easily and naturally as our friendship grew and he continued to be everything I had dreamed of in a man. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was falling in love. Not only was he Christ-like and fun and thoughtful, but he truly made me better.

I'll spare you the rest of the mushy-gushy falling in love stuff (because I could go on) and skip to the present: *I'm engaged. I've never been so happy or so sure about anything in my entire life. Daren is the man I've dreamed of that I want to spend forever with and I'm more giddy about it everyday.

Eternity with this man is gonna rock.

*The cutest proposal story you've ever heard, about which I will be posting soon!

BARNES AND NOBLE.

I love books.

I love cheesecake.

I love Daren.

Throw all three together and I'm guaranteed to be a happy girl! Last night was a prime example. After a splendid trip to The Cheesecake Factory (via gift card, might I add - even better) where we both ate and talked much, we stopped at Barnes and Noble.

Walking around a book store is kinda overwhelming for a book-lover like myself. I think I could spend, oh, thousands of dollars there. It's my dream to have a library one day. I picture something like this:

Anyway, before making our summer reading lists, we decided to play a game. We split up and looked for books that reminded us of the other person! After wandering around searching, we showed each other what we had chosen. They ranged from cheesy to sentimental to hilarious. Success.

Finally, throw one more "thing I love" into the evening: personality tests/books. Have you ever heard of the color code? Neither had Daren! So... I made him take it and then analyzed his personality. Here's the gist of the test:

Everyone is motivated by one of four things: Power (RED), Intimacy (BLUE), Peace (WHITE), and Fun (Yellow). We're all a different combination of the colors and have different innate strengths and weaknesses. I find it fascinating to read about how different color-types get along in relationships and life! In fact, I find that I am a mystery to myself. I have so much red inside of me, yet tend to nurture my blue side. It's quite the contradiction and quite a fascinating subject.

Yes, we sat there reading through that book for about an hour. Moral of the story: take the test, it could change your life. If not, it'll be fun anyway.

When we'd finally walked around and had our fun, Daren bought me a book! 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, here I come.

Oh, and P.S. Going to Barnes and Noble was on my Summer List. CHECK.

Black Sheep Cafe.

I had heard a lot of good things about Black Sheep Cafe. A LOT. Because of that, going in I was a little nervous. I didn't want my expectations to be too high and ruin my good opinion. Luckily, they lived up to and even exceeded their reputation.

How? I think it all comes down to color. But let me start from the beginning.

The group was smaller this time: Daren, Joel, Andee, Jennie, and I. We showed up and were quickly seated slash introduced to our waiter. He had a beard and was extremely friendly. Therefore, I was a fan. The first significant decision came right away with our drinks. We all ordered (actually Daren ended up buying this for us... thanks Daren) a pitcher of Cactus Pear Juice to try. We were all curious and wanted to have "the experience". So how much more excited was I when our wonderful waiter brought out a pitcher of bright pink juice! I have never seen such brilliant color in a glass. That alone made it task divine!

The next great decision was evident when my soup arrived. I am extremely bad at making decisions and really struggled with what to get (I wanted to try everything on the menu). I ended up choosing the squash soup, and then was even more thrilled when it came out GREEN. I'm not completely sure why, but I was thrilled to be eating green soup. Plus, it was DELICIOUS.

Please note the pink juice above my food. It looks like potion! 

Daren/Andee's Goat Burger Meal. Coming from a girl who doesn't like burgers, this one was pretty dang good. I don't know if I'd order a whole one for myself, but I'm still a fan. 

Confession: I may have eaten half of Daren's Sweet Potato Fries. 

 Jennie's Navajo Taco. HUGE and delicious looking. From what she expressed, also wonderful.

 Joel's... meal. I think they're tacos? 

And here's the crew. In a beautifully artistic picture taken by myself. 

Overall: the combined experience of good friends, pink cactus pear juice, and green squash soup really made me giddy about this place. I definitely want to go back for more. Mission accomplished.

Spicy Corea.

Once upon a time I actually did something on my bucket list.

(Speaking of Once Upon a Time i'm EXTREMELY excited to watch the season finale tonight)

One of my summer lists is entitled "Ethnic Food Restaurants". Basically, I decided to go to a different ethnic food place every week. This will undoubtedly make me more cultured or something. So after writing down basically every little place/restaurant I could think of, I recruited friends.

One thing you must understand about me - I don't do things alone. Yes, I'm one of THOSE people. If nobody will go with me, I usually don't go. Luckily, this didn't prove difficult in the ethnic food category. One great thing about people: they are generally willing to eat food with you.

Our first stop was Spicy Corea. It's a Korean place (go figure) that I'd actually never heard of until last week. Now, unfortunately I'm not much of a food critic. Maybe it's the whole poor college student thing, but I'm usually happy to have food in front of me, regardless of quality. That being said, I really enjoyed my meal! Jennie, Andee and I all got the same noodle/vegetable stir fry while the gentlemen all opted for a more meaty option. Either way, the general mood was positive: Spicy Corea was delicious.

 Presenting: MY MEAL. True, it would look much more appetizing had I remembered to take the picture BEFORE I had finished eating. Alas, this will do.

 A special shout out to the group: Daren, Andee, Joel, Zac, Jennie and Michael Ted. We'll all be connoisseurs by the end of the summer.

Not sure what everyone (meaning Zac and Michael Ted) is doing in this picture... interpret as you will. Also, photo props to Jennie Lever. 

In short: I'd like to officially declare my "Summer Ethnic Food" list underway. Next stop: Black Sheep Cafe.

LISTS.

So I realized I have this thing with lists. I want so badly to have fun or be productive, that I go crazy writing down all I can think of. It makes me more confident that things are actually going to happen. That being said, I'm currently going crazy with my Summer Bucket List:

- Go tandem biking to Provo Lake
- Provo Farmer's Market
- Hike Timp
- Mona Lake
- Go camping
- Zion's hiking trip
- San Fransisco Trip
- Sailing
- Float Provo River

Don't worry, there's more; this is just a snapshot. But the thing with lists is that even more lists always come from the list. Example? I want to go to San Fransisco, but there is an entirely new list of things to do once I get there! If everything wasn't so fun, it'd be exhausting.

The moral of the story: I declare this my summer of lists. Summer Bucket List, Summer Reading List, Summer Ethnic Restaurants List, Summer Free Time List, Summer Movie List... All I know is that I won't be getting bored anytime soon!

So, until I've started ACTUALLY checking this stuff off... Adieu. I'm off to read/watch/play/drive. We'll see where my heart takes me.

HELLO.

I live in a house. A perfectly adorable green house with a porch and a yard, to be exact.

This may seem like a normal thing for a college student in Provo. We all live in old, run-down houses, right? Here's the thing: that's false. We (Jennie, Andee, Jenna and myself) lived in the same apartment complex for 3 looooong years in a row. So when we up and moved last weekend it was kinda a big deal.

So big, that I decided to start a blog. I guess you could say it's my way of coping with the dramatic changes in my life. I move to a new place, I start a new blog.. who knows what's next! All I know is that this summer is going to be full of random, crazy adventures of joy and I need a place to record them.

So here's to summer porches and new adventures! Let the JOY begin.