Christmas Shopping

Hi everyone! So, Christmas is coming up pretty fast. Last night Mary and I went our seperate ways to tackle some shopping. I was a man on a mission -- I knew exactly where I was going and I had lots of really great ideas for Mary. My determination wained after spending nearly 15 minutes driving around a parking lot which was definitely full to capacity, and another 30 minutes in line at a store that will remain nameless. The next place I went to was another parking nightmare, where one of the gift ideas I was most excited about proved impossible. A few more trips were made, but overall, several of my GREAT ideas were shot down. I did manage to pick up a couple of really awesome gifts that I am super excited about, but for the most part, I came home pretty discouraged and frustrated.

Mary got home about a half hour later. She apparently had a much more successful evening. She was so excited that she wanted to wrap all of my presents. I went to bed around 1:00 and she was up for another hour and a half. This morning there was a small mountain of gifts with my name on them under our small Christmas tree. I didn't get an exact count, but there were approximately 3 billion. Now don't get me wrong, because I am extremely excited about all those presents. It does, however, put the pressure on me to come up with some new ideas to replace the ones that aren't going to work out. Therefore, if anyone has some good ideas for me, please e-mail me seperately at vloveson@hotmail.com . I'd appreciate ANY ideas you guys might come up with. Thanks family, and Happy Holidays everyone!!

I blog when I want, ok?!

Ok, so whatever... I'm not a consistent blogger. And you know what? I'm fine with it... :D

I proposed to Mary!! It was a really exciting day -- and a TON of work! I wanted everything to be perfect. I planned a big elaborate treasure hunt. I sent her around to 12 different places where she and I have been together. I tried to pick places where we have special memories together. At each place there was someone waiting for her with a clue to lead her to the next place. BUT, before she could get her clue, she had to perform a small task. The whole thing took almost 4 hours, and it ended up at the institute building, in the choir room where we had our Encore rehearsals. That's where I was waiting for her. When she came in, I started to play the piano and sing her the song, "She's got a way" by Billy Joel. She was pretty much crying through the whole thing. I knew she would ;) After the song, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. When she saw the ring, I think she nearly fell over... She loves it! YES! Go me! :D

I had Mike Oveson following her around and video taping for almost the whole thing, including the end. That will be really fun to watch -- I was thinking that it will be really cool to be able to show it to our kids someday.

It was really stressful planning everything and making the necessary arrangements, but it was all worth it. Mary loved it. I can't wait to marry her -- she really is the most wonderful girl I've ever known. I'm really excited to spend the rest of my life with my very best friend in the whole world.

Another big long post... Enjoy!

It's time again for one of my updates...

I had a pretty stressful week right before tour. On Monday I had my math final, which I already wrote about. Then I had to do my final project for English. Have I ever expressed how much I HATE group work? Once again I got stuck doing the ENTIRE project myself. This was worth 40% of our grade. So basically, my whole group would be taking English 2010 again this semester if it weren't for me. INGRATOS! So, knowing that none of them would do any work, I volunteered to build our group's website. Well, if that weren't stressful enough, I CRASHED MY COMPUTER!!! (Moral of the story : Don't download free music or software!) So I had to borrow Sammi's laptop in order to do it. I was up until 3:00 AM for three nights in a row. I spent hours and hours on it. BUT the good news is, I got 100% and therefore an 'A' in English. AND, I never have to take another English class for the rest of my life!!! That's the happy ending to this story.

Ok, so also, we went on tour. It was really great, but at times it was super stressful also. I guess the hardest part was this... Mary was really stressed and having a hard time because she had worked so hard on the housing assignments so that everyone would have a chance to room with different people. Then in almost every city we stayed in, the housing coordinator had ALSO put together a list of who would room with who. The problem was, it ended up being the same people EVERY night. She felt really bad about it, and was really bummed out a lot of the time. It was tough, because I would try my best to cheer her up with my dumb jokes, but I couldn't do it. And for me, that was REALLY hard. I just feel like I'm SUPPOSED to be able to make her happy, and a lot of the time, I can. So I just felt like I needed to do something, and yet I felt like there was nothing I could do. It sucked. I hate it when she's unhappy.

We had some really cool experiences on tour. The people who allowed us do stay in their homes were SO awesome. I think the most spiritual experience for me was at Martin's Cove. All day I was just thinking about the pioneers and their struggles and their faith and courage. They truly were remarkable. I'm not gonna lie, I did my fair share of crying. I will always be grateful for the sacrifices they made so that the church could prosper and grow and become what it is today. I feel like this show really helped me connect with them, and at least have a greater appreciation for what they did.

I'm so glad that I could be in Encore. It was tough sometimes, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it. Of course, the main reason I'm so glad I did Encore was because that's how I met my Mary girl, who I love with all my heart. I was hesitant at first when Gwen wanted me to join, but clearly Heavenly Father knew better than I did. It was His plan all along.

I love my girlfriend!!!

So, Mary is my favorite person in the world. I was really stressed out yesterday, because I was looking over my review packet for my math final, and I couldn't remember how to do ANYTHING! I was so frustrated, and I thought I was going to do really bad on my test. Finally it was time for me to leave for school. When I went to get in my car, there was a really sweet note on my windshield from Mary. She was so encouraging. It was just what I needed. I feel like I did REALLY well on my math final. (That means I got A's in at least 2 of my classes! YES!)

My cute girlfriend was not done surprising me -- she came and wrote on my windows while I was in class! Then she brought me dinner! She's pretty much the nicest girl I've ever known... and I love her ... lots. Okay, that's all. Thank you for your time. :D

Boo to sickness... BOO!

So I got sick again. But not quite as bad -- it's not strep, so I'm grateful for that. It only lasted a couple of days and I'm pretty much feeling better now. Being sick is definitely no fun, so I think I've had my fair share for this year, yeah? Ok. thanks.

The worst part is that Mary got sick. I figure she must have gotten it from me because she has all my same symptoms. I feel super bad about it. She's just sweet and comes and keeps me company and still hangs out with me even when I'm sick. So eventually, I guess she had to get sick too. I remember that one time, back when I was getting sick ALL the time, she said that it made her heart hurt to see me like that. So now, I really understand how she felt. I just wish that I could somehow make her better so she wouldn't have to feel crappy anymore. I don't even really care that I still feel lousy, I just want her to feel better. I guess that's how you know you really love someone -- when you care more about them then you do about yourself. Hopefully, she'll start to feel better soon.

Hurray for Valentine's Day!!

Man, yesterday was the BEST Valentine's Day of my life! :D

I've been SO excited about it for a couple of weeks now, and it couldn't have been better. Well ... maybe if there had been some STARS ... er ... I mean ... visible stars.

Mary really enjoyed the "heart attack". I'm glad she did, because that was a lot of work! And her neighbors wanted to beat me up! But it made her happy, so of course, it was worth it. She actually surprised me, too! When I came out from work, she had written on my car windows with dry-erase markers! I thought it was really cute of her to do that. I was so surprised, because I had only semi-told her where Sorenson is, and somehow she managed to find it. Mary never ceases to amaze.

So ... I felt like a bum (and I have a bum-chin...and I looked like a bum until I went home and shaved... and I have a bum...what a bummer!) because I forgot to make a dinner reservation!! BAAAHH! I just got too wrapped up in the other things and spaced it. But Mary was really sweet about it, and it worked out good because we actually only waited maybe 25 minutes at Applebee's. AND we had the best photographer/waitress ever!

So, our star gazing adventure was thwarted, as the stars were un...gaze...able... BUT it was still a pretty view of the city, and it was just really nice being up there with Mary. REALLY nice :)

I really loved Mary's gift. She gave me a copy of a book that her mom gave her when she was little. It's a super good book! And what she wrote to me was very sweet. Those are really the best kinds of gifts -- the kind where someone gives you something that's special to them, and then it becomes special to you too!

So, despite the lack of a dinner reservation, and visible stars, it was one of the best nights of my life, and there's no one in the world I would have rather spend it with. Mary really is the greatest girl ever -- which, logically, makes me the luckiest guy in the world! Wow -- I love that girl :)

Venting is healthy ... right?

*Deep Breath*

I am super frustrated and stressed right now!! I am so fed up with being sick! I can't stand it anymore. I started feeling much better on Tuesday, but it was just a trick. Yesterday, I guess I caught something new, because now I am totally congested in my chest and nose, and my head hurts, and I'm coughing, and pretty much feeling miserable again. Will I ever get better?

Aside from feeling like poo, I am really stressed about school. I did my portion of the group project for English, and I must say, it's great work. But, can I just say, I HATE GROUP WORK!! I just have some super lazy people in my group. And that's why group work sucks. I worked hard, someone else slacked off, and my grade goes down. BAAH!! So, in order to avoid that, I being the glutton for punishment that I am, volunteered to put together the final presentation. The plan is that everyone is going to send me an outline of their slides, and I will create the final Power Point... yeah right. I'm going to end up doing other people's work for them -- let's face it. I have to turn in the final by friday night at midnight.

I have to take my history test tomorrow. I am not really ready. I'm trying to finish up the dvd's today at work, and then I'll have to find some time to study the text book. I just can't concentrate right now. I'm afraid I'm going to do bad, and I have been trying so hard to take good notes and do my best.

Okay well, for someone who can't stand whining, I seem to be doing a lot of it. But I figure, my blog probably won't get irritated by it.

*Double Sigh*

Dang Strep! What did I do to YOU?!

Well, I have strep again. Pretty much, I'd like to know what the evil strep virus has against me! Can't it just leave me alone? I'm trying to make it obvious that it's NOT welcome in my body. You'd think that it would take a hint -- I mean, every time it shows up, I try and kill it with antibiotics. Let's suppose it were me. If every time I showed up at a person's house, they tried to kill me, I probably would quit going there. But then, I'm no virus.

The doctor, who by the way was hilarious, said that if I get strep again this year, then I will definitely need to get my tonsils out. So that sounds like loads of fun. Sammi had hers out when she was little, and said it felt like she was swallowing razor blades for about a week. The doctor said that a tonsilectomy is particularly rough on adults. How encouraging. On the other hand, basically all your tonsils are good for is to make you sick. They just sit and collect bacteria and get infected. So I'd probably be much better off without them anyway. The problem is finding a time to do it. I'd have to miss work. And school. We'll see what happens.

The good news is, I have awesome people who take care of me. Shannon massaged my back for me yesterday, mom went to the doctor with me, and she and dad made me food. Mary came over and kept me company last night, too. I feel really lucky to have a girlfriend that truly cares about me so much. It makes me feel good, even if I feel like poo physically.

Getting up to speed ...

I've never been good at writing in a journal .... why should now be any different?

Well lots has happened since I gave myself that pep-talk :

A> I kissed Mary! (several times actually ...) But the first time was the night we had our double date with Patrick and Kristie. I was super nervous, but I guess my self pep talk did the trick.

2> Mary gave me a GREAT surprise -- she told me that she had something for me, but that she wouldn't tell me what it was until the next day when she got off work. So, of course, I was going crazy ALL day with anticipation. She was loving every minute of it. When 4:00 finally came, i was waiting patiently for my phone to ring ... 4:01 ... 4:09 ... 4:13 ... 4:18 ... Finally I couldn't take it any more, so I texted her and asked what was up. She wrote back saying that she was at the doctor and she would call me soon. BAAHH! I was dying. Maybe around 4:45-ish she called me to finally tell me what my surprise was ... She bought me seasons 1 and 2 of my favorite show EVER : Seinfeld!! I was REALLY surprised. I thought that was so nice of her to do that -- totally unexpected. So we watched the first disc that night (since then I've finished all of them :) ). But Mary is definitely the sweetest, most thoughful girl I know.

D> I told Mary that I had been reading her blogs!! I couldn't take it anymore ... whenever she would tell me stuff that I'd already read about ... having to pretend it was news to me ... I felt like I was being deceitful. Luckily, she wasn't upset really. I still feel a little bad about it, but she says that it's fine. I also showed her my blog. So it's possible she's reading this right now. ;)

3> School starts TODAY!! So I'm a little nervous ... kind of excited ... I'm just determined to work really hard. I could just kick myself in the teeth for not working hard in high school. So now, I want to make up for it. That, and if I get all A's, mom and dad will pay my tuition. So that's motivation right there.

Alrighty, well that's my update for now ... I think those are the highlights of the past few days. I'll try and get better at writing ... right ...