Secret Passion

As some of you know, I am an art major with an emphasis in photograpy. I would consider myself an average photographer, nothing amazing.  But I do love to look at other people's photographs and at works of art in general.  In fact, I would love to work in an art museum.  Well, one day I was looking at one of my art books and found a picture that I loved.  The composition was beautiful and the contrast of values impeccable, but that wasn't what truly caught my eye.  This is the picture I saw.  The photographer is one of my favorites, Rodney Smith.

What really caught my eye was the grace and beauty that these two women held themselves with.  I've always loved ballet dancers and how beautiful they are.  They wear beautiful dresses, they are slim and graceful, strong and felxible.  I love photo's of ballerina's and here are a few that I really love. 

Photo by Rodney Smith.

And another photo by Rodney Smith...

This is not Rodney Smith, but I really loved it.

If you get really bored, I found this video awhile ago and still love it.  This is from a ballet called La Bayadere.  I'll give a very short background up to this point in the ballet.  The main character Nikiya is a dancer.  She falls in love with a warrior by the name of Solor and the High Brahmin (basically a high priest) is in love with Nikiya.  The High Brahmin finds out about the relationship between Nikiya and Solor.  Solor is selected to be the Rajah's daughter's fiance' and the jealous High Brahmin tries to get Solor killed by telling the Rajah about the relationship.  However, this backfires and the Rajah declares that Nikiya is the one to die.  Nikiya agreed to dance at a feast, not knowing that it is Solor's and the Rajah's daughters engagement feast.  At the feast, Nikiya (dressed in orange) begins with a somber dance, very mournful.  After a little while, she is given a basket of flowers that she believes to be from Solor (green outfit) and begins a very joyous dance.  However, the flowers are not from Solor, they are from the Rajah (fancy crown thing-blue outfit) and his daughter (purple dress) and in the basket is a poisonous snake that bites Nikiya.  The High Brahmin (orange outfit-big headdress) offers Nikiya an antidote, but Nikiya refuses it because she cannot be with her true love.  This dance is called Morte de Nikiya and the dancer playing Nikiya is Isabelle Guerin.  I'm sorry if that was a confusing summary!  The clip is about 7 minutes long so you don't have to watch all of it or even any of it.  I just like this clip.

Weekend Adventures

Well, this weekend has been a very busy one!  On Friday, we were going to go camping with Paul and Alyssa, but we didn't really have enough time to, so we decided to go hiking and have a campfire instead.  We wanted to go to Cress Creek trail, but I kind of got us a little lost so for the first part of our adventure we followed a railroad track and climbed up the side of a hill.  It was actually pretty fun!  Pulling the stickers out of our socks, however, was not.  I knew we were close to the trail and that we still had plenty of daylight left, so I called my mama (my best direction system) and she got us there safely!  This first picture is the rock we sat on and watched the sun set.  It was a beautiful day and the sunset was great to watch!  

This is a picture I took while we were going up the trail.  Yes, part of it was paved, but since we are all out of shape it was ok!

 David and Pauly, best of friends

On Saturday morning, I woke up at about 5:30, trying to catch my breath.  I couldn't get enough air to my lungs because they felt so congested.  I tried drinking some hot chocolate to loosen things up, I tried putting my head over some boiling water to see if I could get the steam to loosen my lungs up, but nothing worked.  I finally decided to wake David up, but I knew he was going to be super tired because we had been up so late the night before.  But, being the wonderful husband that he is, he got right up, put me in the bathroom and had me in a hot shower so that I could breathe in all that steam.  That didn't really work, and since no doctors office was open that early, we headed up to the hospital.  The wait wasn't very long and I had a few little tests and they finally told me that I had bronchitis.  Basically what that is is the inflammation of the main airway to your lungs.  They gave me some antibiotics (in the hope that it was a bacterial infection) and some cough medicine. 

We went home and slept for a little bit longer.  David had to go to work so I stayed at home.  He took a break at 2 and came and got me and dropped me off at my mom's house.  He got me all situated and went right back to work.  I think he was afriad if I was home alone that I would stop breathing and die, so he was being so good to make sure I was ok!  So all Saturday he was at work and I was at my parents house.  I mostly sat on the couch with their dog watching Dr. Phil.  It was a long day because I was sick and I didn't get to see David hardly at all.  Normally we spend most of the day together so that was really hard.  I was so glad to see him that night!

Today was a pretty good day, we slept in, went to church, had dinner at my parents house, then came home and relaxed all night!  We had a nice little suprise when we looked out the window.  It was a good end to the weekend, being able to see another beautiful sunset!



Fulfilling a Request

I had a request from one of David's sisters to update my blog and tell how life in our home is going, so here it is!

Life has been pretty dang busy.  Both of us work about 4-10 hours a day, 6 days a week.  Between the two of us, we work about 90 hours a week.  I know my dad would be proud about that and wouldn't even bat an eye if he had to do it himself, but doing it every day for the last 4 months has been a little hard.  But on the upside, we can pay for school, house supplies, car, and date nights!  But I will be glad when school starts so we can slow down a little bit.

This past week David went to play in a wedding gig in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  He got to play with one of his favorite teachers ever and had the whole ride down and back to pick his mind.  He was pretty much in hog heaven! 

I took some senior pictures of one of David's cousins but am still working on editing them.  Once I get them done I'll probably put them on my other blog, but I might still include a few on here. 

Not much is due to happen in the next little while until school starts, life will pretty much be the same way it's been for the past few months.  I've picked up a little bit of a chest cold so I hope that clears up soon. I really hate being sick and not feeling good enough to keep up with everyone else.  But things will get better very soon, I'm sure of it! 

Whelp, until next time, have a good day!

They're growing!

Awhile ago, David took some pictures of my poor tomato and flower plants.  They looked pretty pathetic, I must admit.  However, since then I've split my tomato plant and planted 2 more flower pots.  I don't have a garden or even a patio, so I've been growing them on my windowsill.  I regretably had to move one of my tomato plants to my mom's house so that it could be in a bigger pot.  If I would've put it in a bigger pot, it wouldn't have fit on my windowsill.  Thanks mom for letting me do that!  Anyways, here is a picture of my plants as of June 22!  I think they're looking pretty good!

We Made It!!!

Well, it's been about a week and a half since we got married.  I don't think either of us thought that married life would be all sugar and spice, but it's been fun!  I think one of my favorite things is not having to leave him at night and being able to give him a big hug when we get up in the morning.  I've even tried to be an extra good wife and make him breakfast as often as I can.  The cleaning of the apartment hasn't gone so well this last week because we were helping with my sisters wedding/reception (which I think turned out pretty good!), but we plan to tackle that soon!  It's been hard not having a lot of money to pay for everything, but we've had fun setting up our custom TV stand (which means that now only one of us gets to sit at the kitchen table.....) and listening to our Harry Potter!  It's like going on dates all the time in our little apartment and I love it!  We have fun and that's all that matters to me.  I love David!

Almost there!

Well, it's 2 weeks and 1 day before the wedding!  I'm getting close to having everything ready for the actual wedding, but I haven't been able to focus much on the reception.  But the reception is a little ways out (May 28th) so I'm not too worried about it.  I have the dress, tuxes, flowers ordered, photographers contracted, and hopefully lots of people that will be there!  My mom told me the other day that I am the opposite of a Bridezilla, so I guess that's a good thing.  David told me that I would be going crazy and turning into one when we got engaged, but I guess not!  David and I have been pretty relaxed about almost everything and I think it really helps.  It helps that he's not freaking out otherwise I probably would too. 

He keeps me pretty calm about everything.  Pretty soon all this will be over and we can just enjoy life!  Ok, things will probably be just as busy then as they are now, but I think we're pretty good at dealing with it!  I'm probably going to put some pictures on here of our apartment, but it's kind of not very pretty right now.  We're still trying to get everything situated with me half living there and half at home and finding space for it all, but the pictures will come soon! 

The Crawl

I decided to start this blog with this video.  It's called "The Crawl" and was shown to me by my sister awhile ago.  I've been thinking about it these last few days in relation to this semester.  This semester has really taken its toll on me.  This has probably been my hardest semester with class, or at least the most time consuming.  Taking an art studio class, being in 3 orchestras, and taking an accounting class (which always takes me forever anyways because I am not a math person) has really been hard on me.  I counted last night, this semester I've played in 8 different concerts, had 6-7 night rehearsals, and went to Sun Valley for a day all for classes that have nothing to do with graduation.  I know I should've cut back on that a little bit, but I love playing in the symphony and I don't regret it at all. 

I've also been working 2 jobs, averaging about a 20 hour workweek.  I used to be able to do my homework at work, but that didn't last for too long because of some changes at work that keep me more on my toes.  I'm also trying to plan a wedding.  I'm not doing a very good job, but I did get the dress, tux, and most of our engagement pics! (I still have to edit the rest of the pics)  I'm very grateful to my mom who has been helping me keep my life in order. 

The thing that I wish I could've spent more time with is my wonderful fiance'!  Things have been very stressful this semester.  We've had a lot of crappy things happen that have put a little bit of a strain on our relationship.  But when it comes down to it, I love having him in my life!  He has told me that when he starts getting down on himself, that I need to tell him about things that I need help with and it will snap him out of his schlump and he focus on me.  He does everything he can to help me.  I'm looking forward to starting our lives together and to starting a family with him!  I know he's going to be a great father.  We both have our off days and days when we just want to give up on life, but we are slowly but surely figuring out how to help and lean on each other!

Going back to the video, those women were putting everything they had in order to get 4th place.  No prestigious award, just the knowledge that they did it.  I feel like I'm fighting for 4th place right now.  But after it's all said and done, I'll have the knowledge that I did it.  And that's a wonderful thing for me.

The Proposal

A few different people said I should write down how David proposed so I wouldn't forget, so I figured this would be easiest. So here it goes!


For about a week before David proposed, I knew something was up because he would disappear for hours at a time and he was always texting my mom but he wouldn't let me read any of them. He said it was all for my Christmas present, but I didn't believe that one Christmas present would take up that much planning. I had an idea of what was going to happen, but I went along with what he was saying on the off chance that he really wasn't planning on proposing. It was also David's turn to plan the date that week so he said part of it was for that.

The date was on Saturday. He had to work in the morning and I had some homework I had to do on campus. We both got done around noon so he came and picked me up from campus and gave me a ride back to my apartment. I was glad the date didn't start for another 3 hours because I had some time to get myself all dolled up! When he finally made it to my apartment (about 30 minutes late...) he seemed so flustered! I asked him if I needed to wear anything specific and he just said to wear whatever I had on so we could get going! He told me later that he was so nervous that he just wanted to get it done.

We went up to the Snow building and got our instruments out to play some hymns together. It was really nice just being able to play with each other and have some fun. About 45 minutes into our duet playing time, David's friend Kellen came in and handed an envelope to me. He said "Have fun love-birds!" and left. David told me to open the envelope so I did and there was a clue inside. It was a word scramble the led me to the photo lab (I'm a photo major). So we packed up our instruments and started heading over to the photo lab. While walking, David made me slow my pace way down saying that we should enjoy the moment (really he was just trying to give Kellen more time to set everything up!) When we got to the photo lab, there was a mixing bowl there with another clue. The second clue read "Vincent and Pablo would feel right at home in this gallery." So we headed over to the art museum in the Spori building and found another clue attached to a bag of chocolate chips. I was a little nervous at this point that it was just going to be a regular date where we would get to the end and just make cookies or something, but I wanted to make the best I could out of it! The next clue said "Bagels anyone? Try the 3rd floor instead." This was because David and I would sometimes stop in the Manwaring Center after our religion class to get some breakfest. So we went there and there was the card game of Phase 10. I honestly thought at this point that it was going to be just a regular date (but still fun!) so David did trick me there.

The clue that we found in the MC said this "The doctrines here can help you Taylor your life for good." We had a religion class together that was in the Taylor building, so we headed over there next. When we got there, the clue was stuck in the window in the door of our classroom. There wasn't a prize there, but there was another clue! This one read "Let it Snow (on four chairs in the hallway)." I was so confused by this clue. I knew it was leading us back to the Snow building (where we started everything out) but I had no idea what chairs he was talking about. I kept asking David what chairs it was and he kept saying things like "I don't know! We'll have to find out!" I was getting frustrated because the whole way down the hill I was trying to figure it out. We made it to the Snow and started wandering around. I looked in a bunch of different places, but I figured out it was the chairs by the lockers where everyone keeps their instruments. When we got down there I saw a bunch of our friends sitting in chairs and on the table was a vase with beautiful flowers in it! I wasn't expecting that at all and was pleasantly surprised and the people sitting there were all smiling and looking very happy for us. David said that that was the point at which he wanted to make the switch into more serious thinking. The clue with the flowers read "Vroom vroom on loan." meaning the car that my parents were letting us use.

We headed out to the car (my awesome Ford Bronco!) and found the next clue which said "Holes. Greens. Birdie." I knew it was leading out to the golf course by my parents house. At this point I was starting to realize that David was going to propose and was getting a little bit nervous...but very excited! After David had helped me get into my side, one of the people that were sitting in the chairs came running out of the building and flagged David before he got in the car. David talked to her for a few minutes and then he got in the car. When he got in he turned to me and said "Are you hungry? Do you want to go get some food?" I was thinking, can't we finish this off and get some food after? So I asked him "Right now? You want to get some right now?" And David just said "Yeah, I'm so hungry right now!" I didn't want him to starve so I agreed and we went to Arby's (David's favorite place to go out to eat) and sat in the drive-thru for about 10 minutes. While we were sitting there we were having a lot of fun talking and laughing, but every once in awhile David would start texting people. I thought this was weird and that was another clue for me that something was up.

What happened was David's friend Kellen who was helping him get everything set up was waiting at the last place to take pictures but his camera had run out of batteries. He was asking David if he wanted to wait till he could run down to the gas station and get some batteries, but David said he was too nervous and just wanted to get it done with! So we went right out to the golf course.

When we got out there, it was just a bunch of wide open spaces. I asked David where the last clue was and he waved his arms over the whole area and said "You get to find it!" So I made him at least give me a general direction. We started walking and I saw Kellen standing out by a tree so I figured the last clue was out there. I started going but the snow got so deep that David ended up giving me a piggy back ride out to the tree (for some reason he had picked one far away from the parking lot!) When we got out there, there was a 3D puzzle of the Taj Mahal. I picked it up and there was a clue on top. I picked the whole thing up and was trying to figure out what the Taj Mahal was for. I opened the last clue and this is what it said "Take a look around. Surely there you will be looking down!"

I was a little confused and looked at David for an explanation. He was looking at me and said "Before I explain this last clue I want to explain the gift. I don't know if you know much about the Taj Mahal, but it was built by the emporer of India after his wife died. It's a great example of everlasting love. It's to represent the castle that I told you I would build for you. Now, these things are all things that we can only have in this life, but I want to represent something that will last for eternity." At this point he pulled a box out of his coat pocket, knelt down in the snow, opened the box and said "Abby, will you marry me?" I must admit that seeing the ring and him down on one knee and hearing those words I just started to tear up, but they were happy tears! I of course said yes and gave him a giant hug! We kissed and hugged for a minute and then David gave me a piggy back ride back to the car. Kellen was standing about 30 ft away the whole time and when we got over to him he told us congradulations and I was so happy to tell him that we were engaged! After that we went back to my parents house where only my mom was there and had fun calling all our families and being very happy ;) Later that night we went to a Christmas Concert put on by the Idaho Falls Symphony and enjoyed every minute of it!

It was a wonderful day and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of details, but here's a pretty good idea! I'm so excited to get married to my man on May 3rd and to be together forever!

Spray Paint

It always amazes me when I see people with real talent, especially people that can create something out of nothing.  I really like this video and think this guy does an amazing job!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1bY0wP/www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DdY1Lr-yGtd8

I think I need to try this....

David's sister sent him a link to this video.  It's pretty hilarious so I had to share!