A New Beginning!!!

I have been meaning to get this post up for a while, but life is pretty crazy, so it has taken me a few weeks. The wedding went great, and now I am married to my best friend Carson for eternity. I still catch myself wondering if it is all real sometimes. We fell in love so long ago, and after 4 year, 2 of them especiall long for me, we are finally married. I love Carson so much! I was so happy with the way the decorations and everything turned out for the wedding. A big thanks to everyone who helped. We went to Palm Springs for our honeymoon. We had tons of fun at the zoo, air museum, and the food fest. We also took trips to the beach and Disneyland. Carson unfortunately got super sunburned, so the trip could have been a little better for him. After moving into our little apartment, we spent a few days there, then we headed over to St. George for a fun family reunion. The reunion was for Carson's Mom's side. I knew some of them previously, but it was still a challenge trying to keep everyone straight all weekend. We had lots of fun, and then on the way home we stopped in Spring City to go to Kayla and Kendra's baby blessings. They are so cute and fun to play with. Then we came back to Moab for some more family fun as my Mom's sisters started arriving for Tori's wedding. We took my cousins and Uncle to Left Hand for a fun filled afternoon. My 9 year old cousin Hunter is way into sports, so he had a great time throwing a soccer ball to me when I would jump off the rocks. It took me a few trys, but I got a lot of cheers when I made the first and only successful catch of the day. There was a young mens group there that tried it out with a football, but they did not have great timing. Tori's wedding went great as well, and I was really glad that I got to spend so much time with family members that we don't see very often. Tori and Adam have already been spotted in Vegas, hopefully they are having a great time. Of course life is not going to slow down yet though, this weekend we have another family reunion for the Dalton side. There has not been a dull moment since the wedding, and hopefully life always stays that way:-)

Ooops!!

Now Carson is sick. Poor guy. This nasty bug seems to be circulating thru my family. On a positive note, at least it is a short term thing!

He Must Really Love Me...

I knew that at some point after we were married Carson would see me in some pretty low points. The key word is AFTER. There are a few states that I would have liked to avoid at least until we were married and he was stuck with me. Well I thought he had seen the worst for now a few weeks ago when he took Stacy and I to have our skin grafts done. Sitting in Walmart swollen, bloody, and dribbling chocolate milk down myself had to be a low point... until yesterday. I had to leave church because I was not feeling well, after stopping by Carson's house for some paint reliever we barely made it to the parking lot of the park before I took 3 steps and lost everything right there behind some poor persons car. Carson was very nice and patient as he stood there and watched me in my multiple episodes as I ejected impressive amounts of... well you know. Worst of all, we couldn't seem to leave because when we would try to get back in the car, I would start all over again. It was terrible!!! We finally made it home, and Carson was so nice to sit with me for hours in my grossness. And you know what else??? He still wants to marry me!!! Yep, he must really love me.

PS: I feel much better now, and I am getting super excited for this weekend!!!!!

Changes!!!

Changes in life sure are interesting. Some are good, some are bad, some seem bad, but then turn out to be good. Some people like change, and some people really dislike change, but it is inevitable nonetheless. I have had some big changes in my life happen in the last few weeks. My mom was diagnosed with cancer and has started chemotherapy. I love my mom, she is such a trooper and is doing great. The other major change was getting engaged to my best friend Carson. He pretended that we were going geocaching and took me up a hill overlooking Moab right around sunset. Then we started looking for the cache, but for some reason we couldn't find it ;-) All the sudden I hear Carson say, " I found it." I started hiking down to where he was, and as I was climbing down a little ledge to where he was, he pulled out a little black ring box and asked me to marry him. We are getting married June 5th in the Monticello temple. Whenever we tell people the date they say oh that is soon, but it still feels far away to us. Currently I am busy working on wedding plans while trying to survive the last 2 weeks of school. A cumulative final where the teacher does not give your previous tests back is just cruel!!! After I finish school, and attend Megan's graduation (YAY Megan), I am off to Moab for the summer.
Mom, Dad, and Carson came to visit this weekend for my Beta Sigma Gamma honors organization induction. The dinner was good, but the awards part was a bit long. We had a great weekend with great weather!!! We played in the park, watched movies, and played games together. Now I just have some major studying to do before finals. Wish me luck!!!

Bumps and Bruises!!!

This weekend Carson came to visit me here in Cedar City. We did a yummy fried chicken dinner on Friday night with a very yummy sweet and sour sauce that I got a recipe for from work and wanted to try. We also made cookies and watched a movie, it was a great night. We stayed up way too late though, and we regretted it the next day when we had to get up early for the "Hearts for Haiti" 3 mile race. It was very cold and icy, but we did it nonetheless. Carson was nice and ran with me the whole way (even though he could have gone much faster), he did push me a bit, and I ended up taking third out of the girls and won ten bucks. After that we headed to St. George for a fun filled day. We didn't really have anything planned, but as we were running a few errands that Carson had, we saw a large tent off in the distance. We decided to head over to see what it was, and we found the "Dixie Igloo." A spur of the moment decision had us putting on our own pairs of ice skates. We were not great at first, but we did manage to get the hang of just gliding around the rink in large circles. That is when our tiny bit of confidence led to a very bad decision. Note to self: amateur skaters should not attempt to play tag, I have a bruise on my hip and a LARGE bump on my head to prove it. We did have lots of fun though. That night we had a great dinner at Applebee's (my favorite), ice cream from Baskin Robbins, and then a trip to the 2 dollar theater to see Blindside. It was an EXCELLENT movie that I would recommend to anyone. Today was a nice warm day so after church we had a yummy pizza picnic on the grass outside. It was a super fun weekend. Hopefully the weather stays nice; I love the sun!!!

Spring Break!!!

I haven't blogged in a while, so to update: the triathlon went really well. I ended up placing third out of the girls, and it was tons of fun. Now on to SPRING BREAK!!!!
Spring break of course was spent in Moab... is there any other place to go???
I started off the week by hiking in Arches with Carson's family. We had a super yummy dinner at the Moab Diner, and the next day Carson gave a great talk for his homecoming. He is such a great guy, and I am soooo happy he's home.
My China friends came down to Moab to visit me, and we had lots of fun. We did some shopping and hiking. We also did lots of eating, mostly thanks to my Dad literally shoving food at us, it was all super good. We played lot of games with my family, and watched a few movies too. I made super cute panda cupcakes for Keara's birthday, they tasted great too.Then on Saturday Megan and I ran in the Canyonlands Half Marathon. It was lots of fun, and thankfully I felt really good for most of the race, the last two miles were pretty tuff though. I was able to push myself pretty fast, and I ended up shattering my goal by quite a bit. I finished in an hour and 48 minutes, and according to the website, I ran an 8:15 pace (not too bad for 13 miles if you ask me). I finished 650th overall out of about 3300 people, and I placed 25th in my age group. I am so happy that I can now say I have done a half marathon, and I would do it again.
The most eventful part of the race had to have been right before the race when there are thousands of people waiting in line at about 30 pot-a-potties. Something about the start of a race makes me really nervous, and that makes me have to go the bathroom multiple times that morning (so much for trying to hydrate before the race). Megan and I got in line over 40 minutes before the race was supposed to start, but the lines were not moving very fast. As it got closer to the start time the announcer kept saying that we needed to start heading up the hill to the starting line. They also kept informing us that if we did not get our sweat bags in the trucks placed at the top of the hill, and halfway up the hill, we would be carrying our warm ups with us for the next 13 miles. At this point I just keep thinking I cannot run for the next 2 hours if they do not let me go to the bathroom first. Megan and I started stripping down while still standing in line to pack our sweat bags even though it was still super cold. At this point many people start giving up on the lines and head up the hill to the start. Not me, I was determined. We finally get to the front of the line about the time that they are announcing that we have 2 minutes to get our sweat bags into the trucks. In perfect timing Megan and I run out of side by side port-a-potties, grab our bags, and start running up the hill as they are playing the "Call to the Post" in the background. Arriving at the top of the hill I saw the alternative restrooms that people choose to use, oh how nice it must be to be a guy.

We topped off the night with a bon fire at the sand dunes. Luckily I have not been sore at all since the race. Carson spoke again in my ward on Sunday and he did a great job again. After church I sadly had to head back to Cedar City for more tests and papers. It was a great week, I had so much fun playing with my family and friends, and not doing any homework!!!!

Carson is Home!!!

Last week I took off three days of school to head home to Moab and visit my best friend in the world who is finally home from a mission in Peoria Illinois. We pretty much spent every minute together the entire week. Carson taught me how to play frisbee golf at the new course in Moab. I was not very good, but we had lots of fun. We played with my niece and nephew, watched movies, worked on putting snow tracks on a 4-wheeler (I was not much help), played games, had a picnic in the park, and went hiking with my family. I even beat Carson at chess, a rare occurrence before he left. The week ended with Parker's baptism. It was so fun to get to be there for my little buddy as he made this important step in his life. Congratulations Bud!!!

I had such a fun week, but sadly now I am back in Cedar City (where it annoyingly snowed today) studying for tests and writing term papers. There is a window of hope in the future; spring break is only a week away. I can't wait!!!! My China friends are coming to play, I am so excited to see them again. Megan and I are also running in the half marathon at the end of the break, so that should be fun... I hope. I have never ran that far before so this will be a completely new challenge.

Megan and I are also doing an indoor triathlon this weekend at the school, also a new experience. It should be great training for the half marathon. It is running 3 miles, biking 10, and then swimming 1/4 mile. I am pretty nervous for the swimming part though, I am not a great swimmer.

MASQUERADE!!!

I know I have not blogged for a while, but I finally have something blog-worthy to blog about!!! This weekend I went to a Masquerade with my friends from China (and some of their way cool friends). Oh how I missed them!!! Megan was nice enough to let me borrow a dress, and to curl my hair for me- Thanks Megan. And Keara was nice enough to make me an awesome mask-Thanks Keara. None of us had dates, but we danced the night away nonetheless. Even without a date, I thought it was really fun to watch the other couples on the slow and swing dances, they were soooo cute, and really good dancers. There were some way cool masks thereAfter the dance ended we headed to Keara's house for the night. Keara's family is lots of fun. There I was truly fascinated to learn all about Quaker Parrots and how emotional they are. Poor Sarge, he has had a tough life. Then Chelsey, Keara, and Brittany introduced me to "Chick Fillet," and boy was it good. That night we went bowling with Chelsey's parents (they are so cute). Chelsey's Dad creamed us!!! Then we went to "Sub Zero," only the best ice cream place on the planet!!! Yes it was January, and yes it was snowing outside!!! Would you call us a little Strange?? Maybe, but we were definitely not the only one's eating ice cream on that particular cold January night. The next day I went to Chelsey's home ward with her to listen to her speak about her experience in China. She gave a great talk, and I am so glad that I got to be there to hear her speak, especially since I had lived everything that she talked about. In Relief Society the president found out that I had gone to China with Chelsey, and they started calling us the "China Dolls."

I had such a fun weekend. It was great to see Chelsey and Keara again, and to make new friends. We missed Becca!! I hope I get to see them all again soon!

It's a New Year!!!

I had a great Christmas and New Years!! It is really good to be back in the states with my family. I was rather lost for a week or two after getting back. I miss my China friends so much, and I feel incomplete without them. At first I kept thinking of funny inside jokes, or memories from China, but just as I was about to say them, I would realize that no one that I was with would have any idea what I was talking about so I just had to keep all my thoughts to myself. I really enjoyed getting to play with my family, and I am not so lost anymore. I got to work over the break out at the potash plant, (or ash pot as Parker called it). It was a little cold, but I love working out there, the people are great. Christmas was great, especially the food!!! I had lots of fun buying gifts for everyone in China and I hope everyone liked their gifts. I did bust out the chicken feet at Christmas dinner, and there were a few souls who were brave enough to try them. The packaged ones are not as good as the fresh ones, but they did smell like China. (See previous post) I learned tons of new games from my family over the break and we would play until way late into the night (not the best remedy for getting over jet lag). New Years was fun filled with friends, Kim Call's homemade donuts, gummy worms, and a movie. Parker and Payton got so big while I was gone, I played with them as much as I could over the break. We had fun making sugar cookies, dying paper, and just hanging out. I sure was sad to say goodbye to them, and all of my family.

Now I am back in Cedar City after just 2 short weeks at home. I am having trouble getting back into school, mostly just the fact that I actually have to do homework and reading at night. I really like school and my classes though, so I will hopefully be able to adjust to the homework and stuff real soon. I love being able to hang with Megan and Andrew whenever I want, we have already made our arms very sore playing racquetball. Since being here I have already been in 2 earthquakes, ran over 18 miles, and killed my toenail again (what is wrong with me?)

I am usually not a fan of New Years resolutions, but this year I did actually make a few, and I am going to post them with the hopes that it will help motivate me to keep them.

• Cut back on sugary foods. Since I come from a family of diabetics, it would probably be a good idea for me to stop giving in to my sweet tooth so much.


• Exercise at least 5 if not 6 times a week. I am doing great on this one so far since Megan and I are training to run the half marathon in the spring.


• Study (not just read) my scriptures everyday.

Good Luck to anyone else who made resolutions this year!!!!

Do You Like CHICKEN FEET???