Uncle George

I don't want to distract from Taki's great buys, but I've been meaning to post about Uncle George's funeral for a couple weeks now. I learned some cool stuff that I thought you all might be interested to know. Here are some fun facts:

-Uncle George swallowed a pencil when he was 5 and had to have it surgically removed
-He was an incredible gardener with a real green thumb
-He wasn't ticklish, but he did get seasick
-He loved baseball and was a serious bowling champion with lots of trophies
-He met Aunt Ruby on a bowling team. I guess he was quite the ladies man and everyone was after him!
-He really liked to hum
-He was a VERY picky eater and people would always say, "Oh George, you won't eat anything!" and he'd always reply, "Nonsense, I eat everything that I like!"
-He was a pretty quiet guy and when asked the secret to being quiet he responded, "You just don't talk!"
-His proposal was, "Let's go to Vegas!"
-He loved Vegas and won a pretty big jackpot there a while back, something crazy like $30,000. He got a super big check and everything!
-He loved to BBQ

I got to spend some time with the family, which was a lot of fun. I'm trying to gather information about our grandparents so that we can share stories with out kids someday. Anyhow, I think there's a little Uncle George in all of us!

My first Purchases for "US"

Hey everyone. So if you didn't know, last year when I moved in we had no furniture. My roomate John had a friend with a bunch of stuff in storage, and we worked out a deal for him to "store" it at our place. He lent us his dining room table n chairs, desk, tv, dvd player, vcr, and vacuum. Well, he moved away last week, so we've been scrappin it again eating on the floor and stuff. But, not anymore. So I've kinda been this spend-aholic lately but have been getting some really sweet deals. You know I've never bought furniture, so this is a whole new experience, and I loved it. I think the most exciting part about it is the fact that I'm buying them for Connie and I. Well, hopefully I suppose.

So we began moving everything out into the U-haul and John called to ask his buddy if he could buy the vacuum. His friend just gave it to him, and then asked John if anyone would want to buy the tv. We had just loaded it in the car and John told me his friend was selling it for $200. With only 10 minutes to decide, and completely exhausted from moving it all out, I made a compulsive purchase and offered him $175. You know that I'm not good at spending money without thinking heavily on it. He took it, so we went back out and moved it all back in. That was for the tv and stand, but his friend threw in the dvd and vcr too. It's a stinkin big tv, but I figure Connie (we) will enjoy watching her Survivor and The Amazing Race on it. That's the first deal.

Then last week I found this dining room table on Craig's list (kinda like an online garage sale) for $75 dollars. Went over today to look at it, and it's in sweet condition. My buddy with the truck fell through so I decided to make a couple trips in my car. Well, turns out with my master action jackson stacking skills I was able to get the table, extra leaf, and all six chairs in my car!! Pretty much amazing. And, the lady asked for only $65 cause I was such a poor sweet college kid. Rockin' good deal eh? Gotta love the charm too.

Our Pansies

As most of you know, before leaving Provo for Spring Break, I gave Connie a couple packets of Pansies as a gift. Not only is it her favorite flower, but I thought it'd be perfect to plant together and see grow when summer comes. The package said 70 days, which is right around the beginning of June. So, when we see each other again, we will hopefully have pansies to celebrate the growth in our relationship. Here's a little sneak peak of how well they've sprouted. Connie did an excellent job in caring for them in the first few weeks.

Hole in the Wall

So anyone who's visited our apartment (which is pretty much just Lori) knows that our downstairs bathroom has a strange Soil scent. We've always had really bad spider problems in there as well. Lori noticed that it smelled worse under the sink.
Well I poked my head under there the other day (in the cupboard right under the sink) and I noticed that I could see SUNLIGHT coming through the wall and there was some dirt in the cabinet and 2 big ol' spiders. GOO! So yeah, apparently there's been a big hole in the wall, directly to the outside, and I just noticed saturday. Pretty awesome, eh?

Sewing baby!

I wanted to have a spring dress and I saw one at Macy's that I liked, but it was $55, so I decided to make it. I started it two weeks ago, but got busy. So, on Saturday night I knew I had to finish it so
that I could wear it once before packing it away for the summer. I think it turned out pretty good. I got a lot of compliments at church. The dark blue has a paisly kind of pattern too. You are probably all wondering how much it cost to make-$8.50. Pretty sweet huh!

My first blog

Well, here goes my first try at the blog thing. I had a great time in Cali with Annette. Highlights being food, the swap meet, food, being hit on by the little mexican boys, visiting uncle Tad and aunie Anne and food. So, here are the updates. Yes, I did go country swing dancing and had a rockin good time. Ryan is really good and it took me a while to let loose, but when I did, it is one of my new favorite things. Still don't like country music, but the dancing bit is fun.

I have been busy going on silly dates lately with different guys-chinese buffet dinner, bonfire and foiled dinners up the canyon, March madness and pizza and movie night.

Ok, here are the shoes that I recently purchased.

Yes, these strappy ones have a 3 in. heel!

I hurt my knee, not while wearing the heels, but by playing soccer and so the whole heel thing is on hold for now. Well, hope this post works. If it works, I will post more often. Fun stuff huh!

She Loves Me!!!

What a wonderful spring break. I'm pretty sure I spoke with everyone, but I thought I'd just place a little recap of some of the events of spring break. Going back to BYU was lots of fun, and again being the "big man on campus" of course felt great. In one of Connie's smaller classes, the teacher knew I didn't belong and called me out asking who I was. I told her, "I was just following this pretty girl (looking at Connie) who I bumped into in the parking lot, hoping to get her name." All Connie could do was blush and wait for the attention to fade.
I left my hair nice and long since Connie wanted to make an attempt at giving her first haircut. As you can see I was a bit skeptical, but welcomed the experience. It actually turned out really nice, and I told her I wouldn't cut it for a couple months until she could do it again. How nice it would be if she was to cut my hair again, and again, and again.

Some of the highlights of the week included a chicken enchilada dinner prepared by the two of us for a bunch of her friends and family. Lori was able to be among that group, and good times were had by all. When I asked for an apron, Connie thought it would be cute to stick me in the frilly purple one. Well you know how I'm a crowd pleaser, and everyone seemed to get a kick out of it.

We took a trip up to South Fork Park (just passed Vivian Park) for a nice picnic. I put together some excellent tuna fish sandwiches (it appears as though she's really got a big thing for tuna).
I spotted a perfect place to eat, which happened to be on the other side of the stream.
Right away Connie headed for the bank and said, "Let's just cross here."

Well, you all know how little of a risk taker I am, and with a look of apprehension, I of course let her go first. I was a bit taken by her bravery, and loved her sense of adventure.

On Friday night I had my bonfire party at Connie's, and I was actually surprised at how many people came out. The highlight of the evening came when Connie's mother threw on the Christmas tree which immediately billowed into one massive flame. Saturday was the big day of the Rex Lee 5K Run. Connie let me run the entire race with her, though she continually suggested that I run ahead.

It was lots of fun, and we actually kept a pace much faster than I expected. She took me by surprise with a sprint just before the finish line to beat me coming in just over 33 minutes. Little
stinker!

Later on that day we washed our cars out on the driveway, jumped on the trampoline with a sprinkler underneath, and plopped into the hot tub. We danced around in her basement to the birthday cd of slow jams I made for her. Then we looked at a couple of scrapbooks Connie had put together of pictures and such over the years. Probably more fun for me looking at all of those past memories of good years, and not so good years, though I thought they were all great. Speaking of bad pictures, this one of us before leaving for church is not among my favorites.

Sara's downward tilt of the camera combined with Connie's massive heels makes for one really small legged Taki. I don't know what it is, but girls just seem to love wearing heels around me. I think it's silly, but am learning to make to cope with my stubbness.

I came up huge like usual with a little surprise following our stroll down memory lane. Earlier that week I picked up some Pansy seeds knowing it was Connie's favorite flower. Just that day as we came home from the run, Connie asked me if I remembered that being her favorite flower. Of course I told her I did, and smirkishly grinned knowing I she was gonna love the gift. As she saw the Pansy seeds, she just smiled. Struck by the fact that I got her yet another gift, but also one with so much thought, all she could do was melt. I explained that if we planted them then, they would just be blooming when we next saw each other. So we found a pot and planted the pansies that will hopefully brighten a wonderful summer together.