GETTING MARRIED!

Hey everyone! I'm engaged! Yay for me! Okay, so I've been engaged about 2 1/2 weeks, but I wanted to make sure to tell everyone before they read it on my blog. We're getting married in May (date is still up in the air). I'm so happy and have no doubt at all that he's who I have been looking for my entire life. I'm so in love and cannot wait to be with him for eternity. I'll write details later about how it all came to be, but for now, here's a picture my grandma took of us the other night. Everyone, meet Brandon, my future husband...

More Gushing

One of my friends told me that I gush about B. If you are tired of hearing about how great B is, then stop reading immediately. The other day, I got a home decorating project in my head and at 9:00 at night after we had already been out for the night, B helped me measure and hang and staple and anything else I needed until the project was done. He didn't even complain once about it. By the way, the project turned out GREAT! Then, yesterday, another bouquet of flowers mysteriously showed up on my piano, right below the recently completed project. The saddest part is that I didn't even notice the new flowers. I felt so bad. I'm so spoiled. So happy... Did I mention how cute he is?

Headaches and tattoos

Have you ever felt like something was just off. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I haven't been quite right lately. I'm all achy, I have had a headache for 4 or 5 days, and I'm so tired all the time. It's not a lack of sleep and I'm eating healthier than I was. Shouldn't I feel better? I don't think I'm getting sick because I don't have any sick symptoms. I wish I would feel better because everything seems harder to accomplish lately.

On a different note, I'm willingly letting a woman run a needle along my eyelids for an hour or two tonight. About 6 weeks ago, I got permanent (aka tattooed) eyeliner. It was the most painful thing I've ever experienced. Apparently it takes two visits to really complete. I can't believe I'm going back for more! What am I thinking? Although, I love having it. It means that when I wake up in the morning or just get out of the shower or pool, my eyes are defined and I don't look sick. Also, my eyeliner doesn't wear off by the end of the day. Oh, what glory! I guess beauty is pain.

Best Boyfriend Ever!

I am so lucky! B is so good to me. For Valentine's Day, he had a huge bouquet of roses delivered to me at work and then cooked me dinner that night. It was perfect. Last week, he noticed that I was frustrated when I was cooking because I don't have any good pans, so a couple days later he showed up at my house with a really nice set of pans. This weekend I was struggling and somewhat emotional. Even when others may have thought I was being crazy, he just loved me and was so patient. Plus, he came to my house on Saturday and mowed and weeded my backyard and cleaned my garage. Yesterday, he brought me a book about how to fix my car (he said mostly for him), a gas can for my lawn mower with stuff written all over it about how hot I am, some Stargazer Lilies (I'm running out of places to put flowers), and a Costco card (he added me to his membership). He's wonderful and I'm in love!

Beehives

In my church, we all have what are called "callings." Basically, a calling is the job you are assigned to do in the church, which could be anything from the librarian, to the greeter, to the organ player, to a Sunday School teacher, to the Bishop. You don't get to choose the calling. Instead, the Bishop and his counselors "call" you (with inspiration from God) to a calling. So, after that lenghty explanation, I got a calling today. I've been called to be a Beehive Advisor. Beehive is another name for 12 & 13 year old girls.

What that means is that I teach a lesson on a couple Sundays a month and I attend weekly activities and just generally help out. It also means that I have 13 girls to love now. I'm so excited. They are excited and full of life, and yes, even a little obnoxious, but I think I will have the greatest time. I'm excited to get to know all these girls and hopefully to have some impact on their lives. Wish me luck!

The Story of B

Most of you who read this already know the story of B (that is IF anyone reads it anymore). However, I thought I'd write it down for posterity anyway.

Over a year ago, I met OB at church. OB and I became good friends and eventually OB was assigned to be my home teacher (someone assigned to visit you every month to give you a spiritual message and make sure you're doing alright). Well home teachers come in twos and for some reason, OB needed someone to come with him to home teach me so he brought his friend and next door neighbor B. Now I had never met B, but I had heard about him because my friend had a big crush on him and things didn't really go well, so I had heard about what a jerk he was. Anyway, OB and B came home teaching and we had a great time. B was really funny and I think we became friends.

A couple weeks later, my roomate hired OB to do some electrical work for her at our house and B came along to help. That's when B and I started to get to know each other. I told him what a jerk he had been to my friend and he agreed. After that night, the three of us started hanging out more frequently. At some point during all this, B rekindled things with an ex-girlfriend in Utah and had a long-distance relationship going with her. Since she wasn't in Arizona too often, B had a lot of spare time and he and I continued to be friends. He was around last year for all the main events in my life and helped me celebrate. At some point, he got engaged to the Utah girl.

Well, I bought a house in November and B liked to come over and do a lot of home projects for me. We hung out a lot and spent a lot of time together, but we never crossed any friendship lines. My mom and I were going to drive up to Utah for Thanksgiving and B asked if he could hitch a ride to go see his fiance. We had a ton of fun driving up and I remembering giggling a lot. We also had some really good, long talks about life stuff. When we got up to Utah, I dropped him off at his fiance's house for the week.

The day after we got there, B called to tell me that he was headed home because he and his fiance had broken up. My mom's cousin was driving home the next day, so B caught a ride with him.

When I got home from Utah, B kept coming over to help me with house stuff. One night I was tired of doing projects so I just suggested we make a pizza and watch TV. It kind of started with a joke, but B kissed me in the kitchen while we were waiting for the pizza to cook. At first, I just kind of laughed it off and wondered what that was all about, but we ended up kissing again later when we were watching TV (or supposed to be watching TV). After about 3 days of this, I finally asked what he wanted. That night, we decided to start dating and see where it would lead us.

So two months later, things are wonderful. He treats me like a goddess. He makes me feel like the most beautiful amazing woman in the whole world. He makes me laugh every day. My family loves him. He makes me happy.

I'm back

Well I hope I'm back. I will try to be back. There is just so much that happens, that it's hard to find the time to get it all down. I'll try and give a quick timeline of the last few months.

11/03/06 - Closed on my house and moved in! Yay!
11/04/06- Had the first floor of my house painted. My great room is blue and my kitchen is orange. I'll post pictures soon.
November - Worked on various house projects like unpacking, taking down wallpaper, painting, putting up shelves, seeding the backyard, fixing sprinkler system, general decorating, etc.
11/18/06- Left for Utah for a week for Thanksgiving. Spent part of the week in Idaho visiting my sister.
11/25/06- Get bad news from work. My firm isn't doing well financially and a rumor starts that attorneys are no longer getting paid. Stress!
12/04/06- Got myself a boyfriend!
12/15/06- My last day of work at the law firm.
12/18/06- Start preparing to open a new law firm with another attorney from the old one.
12/21/06- New law firm opens up with my name on it.
Christmas - Christmas Eve and Christmas were wonderful!
New Years - Had friends over and got a great New Year's kiss! Lots of fun.
January- Working hard to get the new law firm going strong. Got a niece and lost a great-grandma on the same day. Was the organist at two funerals in one week. Trip to Utah for one of the funerals. Hired and fired an office manager at the new firm. Hired a much better office manager. My dad got bucked off a horse and landed himself in the hospital. He broke seven processes on his spine and fractured his sternum. Ouch! Apparently he thinks he's a cowboy.

Today is the first day of February. Things are great. I have the world's most wonderful boyfriend with whom I'm madly in love. The new firm finally seems to be running smoothly. I still love my house. What more could I want? I am a happy girl.

So much...

I know I've been such a blog slacker. Here's the problem (excuse): Since I've been out of school and now that I don't have to study all the time, I don't need to procrastinate, which was what I was doing most of the time I blogged. Second, I'm not online during my free time near as much since I work full time.

With that said, I'm sorry I haven't been more interesting lately, but my life has certainly been interesting. Here's the brief recap:

9/17/06- Entered into a contract to purchase a home (yay!)
10/26/06- Lost contract on a home (broke my heart)
10/6/06- Found out that I passed the bar exam (yay!)
10/8/06- Entered into a second contract to purchase a home (yay!)
10/18/06- Became a licensed attorney with a bar number and everything (024742 yay!)

Right now I'm just finishing up packing. I was supposed to close on Monday, but due to neverending financing blunders, I probably won't close until Tuesday. Either way, I'm scared but so excited to be a homeowner. I love the house. I have pictures on my Yahoo photos page. Click here to see them. Keep in mind, all the stuff and decorating is not mine, but the previous owners. I'll have to do before and after pictures when it's done. Did I mention how excited I am?

Well, that's the long and short of it. Things are going really well right now. Work is challenging, but I still love it. I have my first court appearance on Monday. It's an easy hearing, but I'm still nervous. Life is good!

The Universe Hates Me #2

I hate all things cell phones! First- background. Remember how my cell phone was stolen, along with my purse, in July? Well I just started using my brother's old, cracked cell phone. I used that for a couple months before I thouhgt it would be a good idea to leave them in my pants pocket and then put it in the washing machinge. On September 4th, I had to purchase a brand new cell phone. Now on to the story...
Saturday morning, September 16, I went wakeboarding with my brother. I had a million things to do, so I had left the lake by about 9:30 am. I was driving out to my aunt's house for breakfast when my urge to use the restroom overcame me and I was forced to stop at the next QT. I parked, and carrying my keys and cell phone, made a dash for the bathroom. Now by this point, I had to go so badly that I was dancing around trying not to wet my pants. I was still wearing my swimsuit and wet board shorts. Now it may be possible that I have grown a bit and my wet board shorts were a little bit stuck as I was trying to take them off. Well, as I was yanking them down, doing the potty dance, my cell phone jumped straight out of my hand and into the toilet. Seriously??? Well long story short, I drove straight to the Verizon store and forked over another $200 for my 4th phone in 4 months because I declined the insurance. Clearly, I have money to burn!

Moral of the story...buy cell phone insurance and don't wear tight, wet board shorts.

Kiss Me To Fiercly, Hold Me Too Tight

True story:

Me: Hi Jack (names have been changed)
Him: Hey Tara, I was going to call you yesterday
Me: Oh yeah? Why?
Him: To see if you wanted to grab a bite to eat or something
Me: But you didn't
Him: Yeah, I decided I didn't want to

By the way, "Jack", if you read this, know that I still love you! I just think sometimes guys say funny things.

On another note, I saw Wicked Friday night. It was absolutely amazing and I would highly recommend it to anyone. I saw it a couple years ago on Broadway with the original cast. I was a little worried that this cast wouldn't live up to the Broadway cast, but the show was fantastic. I had goosebumps over and over and was deeply entrenched in some emotion at all times during the play. It was an A+ in my book. I want to be a Broadway actor now.