Simple Joys

Today, before going to work, I was faced with a choice. What to do with the 20 minutes I had to spare. I needed to get an oil change, but did I do that or something else just as productive that needed to be done? No way! Instead I opted to accentuate the beautiful ring I will be showing off this week at Thanksgiving with an elegant manicure. My hands are so beautiful!! And it was so cheap! Plus, it is industrial-strength nail polish, so it won't chip for 3 weeks... Just in time for Christmas! I guess it will be another excuse to get pampered again. *twist my arm!*

It is amazing how one simple little thing can impact my day. I feel that I've been cheerier today, and that when I look down at my beautiful nails I feel just a bit lighter and smile. Oh the joy of life's little pleasures.

To any of you in the Salt Lake City vicinity, go to Sky Nails in Sugarhouse. It is extremely affordable and great quality! I will definitely be going again anytime I need my nails done! Click here for their info.

When You're Exhausted You Lose More Than Your Mind

I lost my keys yesterday. I was frantically tearing my room apart for almost 15 minutes and was late to work. I was only able to get to work because Josh was so sweet and brought me my keys at 6 o'clock in the morning (which was 10 minutes after I had to leave for work). I came home from work late last night and still could not find them anywhere. And I mean anywhere. I was absolutely stupefied.

I have been exhausted the last few days. It didn't help that previous to the 9.5 hours of sleep I got last night, I had only slept 2 of those previous 40. Odd work hours and the new Twilight movie is mainly to blame. The movie was good, by the way, if you were wondering (which most of you probably could care less about). I'm not usually one to be all about midnight showings, but a good friend rallied me into going, so I dragged my roommate, Jackie, along too. The only thing was that I had to be up at 5 to get to work the next morning. If only I had known the chaos that would ensue, I probably would have opted to see the movie on my day off instead.

So, I came home from the movie, set my keys down somewhere I couldn't remember and went to bed. I usually throw them in the same place on the floor or on my bed. They weren't in either of those locations. Or anywhere else. Even yesterday night I couldn't find them. But when I woke up this morning I stumbled upon them, completely unintentionally. When I awoke, I sat up in bed and heard a strange clinking noise, that oddly resembled my keychains hitting one another. The best part? My bed was made. So I tore off my sheets, and there were my keys. How did my keys end up underneath my sheets? Great question. I am asking myself the same thing. It's like a weird, twisted version of the princess and the pea. I'm not even one who is prone to losing keys, or anything for that matter. But I guess when I am exhausted I lose more than my mind. I should go to bed right now to get sleep. But fist I am going to make sure I know exactly where my keys are!

A Weekend of Wedding Shopping

Last weekend both of my wonderful moms as well as Josh's mom and sister came to visit for a weekend full of wedding planning and dress shopping.  I am so honored to be blessed with so many wonderful and supportive women to walk this wedding journey with me (did you catch that amazing alliteration? My English-major skills are still intact!). 

Beforehand, I was nervous about getting stressed out by an overload of people and information, but the weekend went so well! We had lots of girly bonding time, toured reception places, and I even bought my dress! Okay, well, I didn't buy it, but I have one! (Thanks Pamela!) If you want to know what it looks like, too bad. You have to wait until May when I post wedding pictures. Can't leak the secret to Josh! 

However, I will share the response I got back from my dad from seeing a picture of my dress. It's one of my favorite top ten lists he's done. Best of all, he made his little girl cry... 

Amie-

Pamela e-mailed me some photos of your wedding gown options. They all were gorgeous. However, my mind did go through some gyrations while viewing the gowns along with the image of you getting married in one. So I will share with you my brain’s activity as I give you the top ten thoughts going through your Dad’s head regarding this wedding gown:

10. Is there enough gold left in Ft. Knox to pay for this gown!

9. With a train like this, should I bring my locomotive whistle to the wedding?

8. How do they harvest heavenly clouds to make such a gown?

7. After the wedding, it will still have value as camouflage when hunting in the snow!

6. This gown is a bit over-the-top, though, if Amie opts for the Vegas Elvis wedding chapel!

5. This looks like a serious tripping hazard for Dad walking down the aisle!

4. How close is Amie’s collection getting to the magic # 27?

3. Will little blue birds help to assemble this gown?

2. This gown will definitely elicit a “WOW” from Josh at the front of the church!

And the number one thought going through your Dad’s head regarding this wedding gown is 

1. Imagining what an absolutely stunningly beautiful bride my little Girly-Whirl will be on her

wedding day!

What a wonderful daddy :)

I Heart Josh!

Last week a chapter of my life got a fitting bookend. My time dating Josh started with a concert, and it turns out it ended with a concert too.

For the past five years, my friend Jess and I have been enormously huge fans of Josh Wilson, before he even produced his first official record, let alone received a spot on the top of the Christian music charts. His best friend from high school, also named Josh, lives in Salt Lake City and they would often do concerts together at the tiny chapel at the University. That's when I first heard Josh Wilson. I paid $2 to get into the concert and $5 for a plain white CD with "Josh Wilson Unreleased Tracks" written on it. I knew he was a talented musician from the first chord he played. He has unique sound equipment that records what he plays and can record and playback multiple tracks at once, thus sounding like a whole band from one man. Jess, who was my roommate back then, and I would blast Josh Wilson's music whenever we would clean our house and find motivation from singing his music at the top of our lungs. Our favorite song by far was "The Saints."

My senior year of college Josh Wilson got his big break and got his first song in the top 20 of Christian music and went on tour with Matthew West. When Jess and I heard that the tour was passing through Grand Junction, CO, we decided to drive the 4.5 hours to see him. Then Freshmen, Jackie and Josh decided to join us. We made tee shirts and had a blast on our roadtrip. Josh Wilson even recognized me and Jess from the times he had played in Salt Lake. Not to mention he was extremely flattered that we professed our love of his music on our pretty pink chests. And he wrote a blog about us, so we were flattered too.

So, when we heard that Josh Wilson was on tour with Steven Curtis Chapman and had a concert in Idaho Falls, we knew we had to make that drive and reunite the 4 original roadtrippers with our bright pink tee shirts. Wanting to hear "The Saints" like we yelled for at every concert, I began tweeting Josh Wilson a week in advance, in hopes of hearing our favorite song at his concert. He didn't play it, but tweeted me back to meet us by the curtain after the show so he could give us a private concert. It was seriously the coolest thing ever. You can watch the video below. The concert as a whole was also really amazing.

Going to the concert was such a beautiful bookend not only for Josh and Jackie's college career, but also for  me and Josh's dating relationship. For months I refused to date Josh because he was a freshman and I was a senior and I couldn't see it going anywhere. Then one night I was crying out to God, asking him what I should do. I was listening to one of Josh Wilson's unreleased songs, and God spoke back to me through the chorus. "They always told me I should guard my heart, but who are they anyway. Nobody told me not to guard too hard, that's why they never stay." I knew I was guarding my heart too hard and not willing to wait and see if God would move the relationship to something more. And it was shortly after that first concert roadtrip that I agreed to date Josh and see where it would go. So, how beautiful that three years later, we would go to his concert again and shortly after which, end our dating relationship... by getting engaged! God's timing is beautiful. :)

You can check out Josh Wilson's music by clicking here. 
And please ignore the few places where I sing along in the video. I was really excited and couldn't help myself ;)

The Engagement Story

As I write this, I feel so distracted because every time I move my left hand a sparkle catches my eye and my train of thought is replaced with, "Oooohhhh.... Preeeetttyyyy..." After 3 days I am still getting used to the glittering rock that adorns my finger. I also have moments quite often where I randomly remember, "Oh! I am engaged!! I am getting Married!!!!!!" And then I huge dorky smile races across my face. Good thing I am too high on Cloud 9 to care what my face looks like. It helps that no one even notices because they're all too busy staring at my ring and asking me the story. And after retelling it a few hundred times already, I thought it would be a good idea to write it down and just refer people to my blog to read it. It'll at least save my vocal chords! So, without further ado, here is 'the story'...

Saturday was the Navy's birthday ball, and Josh hates Navy Ball. Every year he is in a bad mood due to the "mandatory fun" required of him. Ironic, because he doesn't have much fun at all. I, however, love Navy Ball. It is one of my favorite events all year. I love dressing up and going out for an evening all dolled up and feeling extraordinarily beautiful. But every year Josh's grumpiness brings my excitement down a few notches. So, Friday night he asked to take me out to breakfast to butter me up and store up brownie points for the following evening. When I told my roommates that, they snickered and told me that if he was going to take me out to breakfast at 8 o'clock in the morning, it better be freaking magical. I laughed but didn't think anything of it.

Well, I got a call waking me up the next morning from Josh, asking me to let him in. Confused, asking why he was at my door when I was supposed to pick him up in 30 minutes, I opened the door to find my handsome man holding a bouquet of roses that were beautiful, but imperfect just like our relationship (according to him). I was stunned by his effort and thought he must really be buttering me up! I changed out of my pj's and into nicer clothes and higher heels (per Josh's request), and we left for breakfast.

At breakfast I joked with him about how Morgan and Jackie said our breakfast ought to be magical, and to that he devoured his biscuits and gravy and exclaimed that his breakfast magically disappeared! We laughed and joked and had a good time. After breakfast Josh drove me up one of the local canyons to try and see the fall colors. The leaves had already fallen, but it was still beautiful. We stopped at the trailhead at the top of the canyon where many late-night conversations happened that eventually lead us to date over three years ago. We had never been there during the day and enjoyed the view of the mountains and the valley below. He lovingly asked me if we could do a devotion together. My heart fluttered at the rare opportunity to dig into God's Word together. We read over 1 Corinthians 13 to reflect on what love truly is and how to apply those principles into our relationship. Josh concluded that I am patient and kind and am not arrogant or rude and that he needs to be more like me. I laughed. We spent some time praying and then Josh suggested we should explore some one of the trails. I looked hesitantly down at my high heels, but agreed to explore. But I did so with the understanding that if our hike ruined the high heels he told me to wear, he would buy me a new pair of shoes. :)

I climbed the hill/mountain trail with surprising ease despite my footwear and nagging cough and cold. But the view from the top was worth it. It was beautiful. even though the leaves had already fallen, it was slightly cloudy and crisp, but quiet and serene. We were eye to eye with the nearby peaks, and it was stunning. He held me close against him and told me that it was so beautiful, but not as beautiful as me. I love when Josh is cheesy and romantic. The funny part was though that he said that exact phrase six times in a row! And when he repeatedly pushed me away and then pulled me close over and over, I knew something was up. I couldn't tell if he was nervous or just being funny. But before I could really think about that, he got down on one knee. My eyes immediately went wider than my sockets and I started freaking out. I kept saying, "SHUT UP! NO WAY!! OH MY GOSH!!! YOU'RE TOTALLY KIDDING ME!!!!" over and over and he couldn't get a word in edgewise. Needless to say I was shocked. I knew it was coming, but I had been given false information stating that it wouldn't happen till after Thanksgiving. So I was genuinely surprised. Once he was finally able to squeak out, "Amie, will you marry me?" I freaked out even more. "OH MY GOSH!!!! YOU'RE KIDDING ME!!!! SERIOUSLY???? I mean, YES!! Of course! YES!! YES!!!!" We kissed and savored that moment in each others' arms and admired the view sparkling from my finger as well as the scenery. It felt so surreal, like a dream you'd never want to wake up from. Afterwards he told me that he was nervous about what he would say. Haha. Little did he know that I wouldn't even give him a chance to say much of anything!

Now, having a few days to process, I still have my moments where I wonder if I'm dreaming because it seems unreal to be able to marry the man of my dreams. Josh and I are so perfect for each other. By no means are we perfect, but we compliment each other so uniquely that I can't imagine myself with anyone else. Following this story, many have also asked me if I'm prepared to be a Navy wife. Honestly, I have no real idea what that entails. But I know that being able to walk with Josh in life is worth the sacrifice that is inevitable. And I know that if God really does have a perfect plan for my life and marrying Josh is part of it, then I know he's been preparing me (and will continue) to deal with the challenges of military life. But the best part of this story is knowing that marriage is a commitment, and there's no one better to commit your life to than your best friend. I love you Joshua. 

Showing off my ring and my fiance at the Navy Ball that night. What a great looking couple!
Can't believe this wonderful man will soon be my husband :)