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 :)

My Marketable Mommy Skills

My roommates and I joke with our other roommate, Morgan (who is LDS), that if she wants to find a good Mormon boy to marry, she needs to develop her marketable marriage skills such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and general wifey attributes. Well, all this last week I have been going through training for my job. I have been learning how to teach to behaviors through effective praise, preventative teaching, and corrective teaching during the day, and at nights I've been learning how to keep my cool while the girls try to push all of my buttons to my breaking point.

My mom always told me as I grew up that when you have a baby, no one teaches you how to be a parent, that there's no manual for mommies. Well, I have discovered the secret to parenting: my job. Usually parents start from the beginning and figure it out as they go. It's slightly unconventional to start with teenagers, but my job is preparing me to be a parent, and a good one at that. I am learning how to deal with tantrums, encourage healthy behaviors, teach to inappropriate behaviors, and be a good role model of what a healthy life looks like. So now I can not only market my marriage skills to potential suitors who come to call, but I can also market these mommy skills I am developing to snag a good Jesus-following boy to marry ;) But hopefully these marketable skills will not evolve into a brochure that will get pulled out along with my baby pictures when my boyfriend comes home. That would be embarrassing. 

Despite working a billion-and-a-half hours these past few weeks because of training, we've also done some pretty fun stuff. Here's some pics of activities that have marketed my mommy skills...

Tonight the whole campus went to the REAL Salt Lake soccer game against the Portland Timbers. It was a tie, but funny to watch the girls get into the game and root for Portland just to rebel against the staff. As far as rebellion goes, I'd gladly take that over anything else any day! 

I've become the official hair-braider in the house. This is what I missed out on not having sisters! Glad I get to be a part of girly bonding now though :)

We take the girls running around the local farms just about every day. This is a sunflower one of the girls found against the backdrop of a blue sky and the Oquirrh Mountains. Beautiful. 

There are a few apple and pear trees in the back yard, so we've been eating really fresh fruit! So delicious! The girls seem to enjoy healthy eating more when they have the experience of picking their food themselves! :)

Friday was the campus service project of picking up trash in random places around Tooele. They were all rewarded with a pizza party and cookie decorating. This is my happy Halloween cookie. It made my tummy happy too. Yummm...

After having a few really hard days in a row of training and working with the girls and working a 17-hour day, I came home to find a bouquet of my favorite flowers by my bed. Thanks Josh for keeping me sane when work is hectic! 

Being Grateful

I heard a sermon this past weekend on what it means to be grateful. Honestly, I don't remember exactly what the pastor said, but it got me thinking about what I am grateful for. I can get so caught up in so much else, that I often forget. So, I began to think about it in church and started to cry. I've been thinking a lot about it since and decided I needed to write a list. So, this is my abridged list, because today, I could go on forever and ever...

Jesus and his gift of free Life
God's unending forgiveness and sovereignty
The ability to pray freely and be heard unconditionally
That my parents are alive (two of them were caught in the Joplin tornado in May)
A loving family
Three wonderful parents
Mary and her powerful and unending prayers
Josh and his physical, emotional, and spiritual protection over me
Jackie and her unconditional truth, grace, and love
Julie and her pioneer ministry and determination to declare the Gospel with her life
Amazing friendships that transcend time and proximity
My family in Christ
A place to live and enough money to survive
Political and spiritual freedom
Those who have served to protect this country at all times, especially the last decade
Time to think today about what I am grateful for
People who have interest in possibly wanting to hire me
Sunshine, mountains, flowers, and a beautiful city
A place where I can fully relax
Books and my passion for reading
My education and training to write well
Getting to share my heart and thoughts with you through this blog
People willing and wanting to read my blog (Thanks!)
Music
Art
Intellect
Strength and weaknesses
Desire to live a legacy
My life, God's protection, and God's provision
Ability to see what God has saved me from and what He's saving me for

There's so much more, but for the sake of time and space, I'll leave it at this... for now...

Another Summary in Pictures

I have to give many heartfelt apologies for dropping off the face of the blogging world for so long. I have been in many transitions over the past few weeks, and things have been hectic. There has been lots of packing, unpacking, packing, driving, unpacking, driving, and packing, with quite a few fun adventures and "firsts" mixed in. So, per my style, I'll share what's been going on in pictures...

I had the opportunity to travel to Austin, TX to visit my mom for a few days. It was short, but so much fun to spend time with her!

My parents were in Joplin, MO when the massive tornado hit on May 22. I have a lot of family there, who are all thankfully safe, but this was where my cousin's house once stood. The destruction there is unreal. I was visiting my mom at the time, and so thankful my step-mom was able to get a line out to tell me they were okay!

When I got back from TX, I packed up my little Rav4 with everything I still owned and then left Portland to go to Seattle, where the big trek began. 

But while in the Seattle area, I was able to spend some great time with Josh's family and experienced first-hand the mad bball skills his 7 year-old brother has. Syals got it in the hoop just about every time from just about everywhere on the court! 

Then Josh and I left and began our big drive. But as we went over Snoqualmie Pass, we drove into a rainbow! It was a good way to start a 1700 mile road-trip over six states!

But on the way to Denver we stopped for a few days in SLC and the Three Musketeers had a chance to be together once again! And, as always, Josh and Jackie whispered to each other with their eyes in front of me. I never get to know their secrets...

Once we made it to Denver, we went up to Grand Lake, where my parents have a summer home. While there, Dad and Josh taught me how to shoot! It was so much fun and I even made perfect bulls-eye shots a few times! 

I also caught a fish! It was a pretty big Lake Trout. I hadn't been fishing since I was in middle school and never expected to catch anything. As soon as I reeled it in, I yelled at Josh to come take care of it for me ;)

My cheap dad has finally joined the ranks of Mountaineer members and finally bought a fishing boat! Okay, so maybe it's not quite sized for humans, but it trails a lure behind it and could potentially catch a fish! 

After dropping Josh off at the airport, I made my way up to Fort Collins where I will be spending the summer with Campus Crusade for Christ. As the details of our summer project start to come together, I am getting so excited to work with students here and for the staff conference at the end of the summer!

You can't go to Fort Collins without making a trip to Beau Jo's pizza. Just look at this crust... It's over 2 inches thick and drizzled with honey. Yummm... :)

And tonight, before we got rained and hailed out (golf balls started falling from the sky when we got home), I went to my FIRST drive-in movie! I highly recommend Kung-Fu Panda 2.

So, there's a brief summary about what's been going on in the world of Amie Lou. And now that I am starting to get settled, I should be blogging again regularly. But if it takes another week, please give me grace :)