I Should Be Asleep!

I really should be asleep right now... but instead I've been trying to fix up our blog :) I used to be really good about writing blogs often on my myspace page, so I'm gonna try to do that on here. I was thinking that maybe I should write more about my background and Mitch's since most people who look on here only know one of us or the other. I think I'll have Mitch write about himself... or I'll write it another time, but for now I'm just gonna write about myself.

I am the youngest of 5 kids. I was born and raised in the great Las Vegas! At the time it was great, but now it's a little scary to look back on haha I have three older brothers and an older sister. They are all so different and I think that being the baby, I watched them while growing up and now am a little like each of them. Though my sister and I both played with dolls and barbies and stuff like that, I'd say that we were never really "girly girls". I don't think our brothers ever would have allowed it. As a kid I loved going camping and playing sports.... mostly I remember wanted to do ANYTHING with my brothers, though it was a rare occasion that they would let us stick around them and their friends haha. I was the kind of kid that was an ANGEL at school....... but my mom wanted to kill me at home!! It wasn't so much that I was doing bad things, I was simply a fit-thrower. Nearly anything could throw me into a tantrum (ie- I wanted to close the door, but my mom did) and then I'd literally cry for hours! I was known for stiffening my legs and digging my toes into the ground...... the reason being that I had to hurt myself to have a reason to keep crying! Seriously, I think that raising me gave my mom a ticket straight to heaven! Anyways, I did well in school and from 4th to 8th grade I was in choir. I also played the piano from the age of 8 to 18 (though unfortunately I'm not nearly as good as I should be!) My oldest brother got married when I was only 8 and my first niece was born when I was 9! I've been an aunt for over 11 years and absolutely love it! I was an avid babysitter from 9 to about 18... then my first two jobs were nannying and working at a daycare. Needless to say, I love children and I can't wait to be a mommy! I went to high school at Las Vegas High School and I will consider myself a Wildcat til the day I die. "I bleed red and black!!" I was involved in student counsil, the president of STATUS (a club against alcohol, drugs, and tobacco), and a member of the yearbook staff for 4 years, three of which I was an editor, and my senior year being the editor-in-chief. Though it may come off that I was very outgoing...... I was always hoping that I'd blend in with the back wall in high school!! I was incredibly shy for most of my life, and still am at times. Though I didn't take all the classes I probably could have, I still managed to graduate with a high honors diploma. After high school....... you'd think that I woulda gone off to college like all my responsible friends, right?! NOPE!! That's just not like me! I've always been the kind to go against the crowd... even when it's the right thing to do sometimes haha. About 6 months after graduation, I moved here to St. George, Utah. I started hair school about a year after I graduated... and though I enjoyed doing hair, I absolutely hated going to hair school! So after wasting a year there and lots of money, I eventually quit. Then last spring I decided to go to college! I absolutely LOVED it! I felt like I was using my brain again and for some reason I thrive off of the challenge of school! That's about the time that I met Mitch and my whole life changed. I wasn't looking for a relationship, let alone to get married!! But isn't that just how life goes? So... now that we're engaged, we can't afford to both be going to school. For now, I'm putting Mitch through school, and maybe eventually I'll go back. I was originally thinking I'd go to be an elementary school teacher, but now I'm considering photography. Maybe even journalism... obviously I don't have a hard time writing haha. I've always loved writing, but my downfall is that I always write in too much detail. My mom tells me stories about me coming home from school and she'd ask "How was school today Val?" and 2 hours later, I'd finish telling her about every little detail of my day haha. All of my brothers are now married with kids and my family has grown from the original 7 to 18! The last few years of my life have been filled with lots of challenges and growing experiences. Though I definately haven't always made the right choices, I have become a completely new person since high school, and I couldn't be happier! And now I get to marry the best guy on earth!

Anyways, I'm sure there's lots more I could write, but I really need to go to sleep!

Our Crazy Lives!!

So I have done a horrible job at keeping our blog updated!! Life seems way too crazy lately to find the time to stop and write everything down.... but I'm gonna try to do better from now on :) Everything is going pretty good for Mitch and me. We're both staying really busy and it's helping the time FLY by! Mitch had 3 big tests last week so for the last 3 weeks he's done nothin but work, go to school, study, eat and sleep! Thank goodness he can relax a little bit now and we can see each other a little more. Life has been going a million miles an hour for me and most days, I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day! I moved a few weeks ago...... most of my stuff got taken to the basement where we'll live when we're married, and the things that I need came with me to my parent's new house here in St. George. I can explain how glad I am to have that move behind me!! I felt like I was going insane there for a little while! Everything is going really well with the wedding. Little by little, everything is getting done.... though there are still tons of little things that we have to finish up on. We've had a few hang-ups along the way though. Our invitations have caused a little grief because of some misunderstandings with the printers..... but leave it to my mom to march down there and demand them to be redone hahaha If you know my mother, then you know that she got her way after spending that much money! So our invitations are being reprinted, and hopefully we'll be getting them tomorrow. We took our Bridal pictures on Oct 6th and I just got the disk of the pictures back today.... here's some of my favorites.....

Our photographer took over 100 pictures and I could only narrow it down to my top 50 today..... so obviously there are too many to post on here! But if you want to see the rest of them, I posted them on myspace, so here's a link to see them:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=12714719&albumId=2911652

You can either use the "previous/next" buttons above the pictures to go through them, or if you just click on the picture, it will go to the next one. I love them!! Our photographer did an amazing job! When I get my favorites narrowed down more, maybe I'll make a little slideshow and post it on here.

Other than school, work, and the wedding, there isn't much to say about Mitch and I. It's actually pretty sad. It kinda feels like we don't see a whole lot of each other anymore, but we both know it'll get better when we're married. Life is so fun right now though!! I had my bridal shower in St. George this last Friday and it was lots of fun. I was bright red with embarassment for part of it..... but it was still a blast!! My other bridal shower in Vegas is this Saturday and I'm super excited! It'll be good to see everyone from back home again. Anyways, life is going good and I'm more excited than ever to be getting married to my best friend! I'll try to write again soon!

-Val

Our Engagement Pictures!!

So I know that pictures are kinda small on here... but if you want to see them bigger you can just click on the "View All Images" button at the bottom of the slideshow and then it'll take you to the place where I made it. Then you can click on the pictures at the top and it'll bring them up individually and bigger. Thanks!!

Our First Post!!

So it's midnight and I don't really know what to say, but it's about time that we actually put a blog on our blog page :) Mitch started a new job at the college and goes to work at 4am, so needless to say, he's not here to write anything with me. Anyways, I figured that maybe I should start by writing a little bit about how me and Mitch came to be. His story would probably be a little different than mine... but here it is either way:

Mitch and I both attend the college 18th ward. In January I found out that I had been assigned two new hometeachers. I was way busy going to college and working 2 jobs, so they made several failed attempts to visit me (though they did leave me a piece of pie once haha). Well in mid February, Mitch called me after church and asked if they could come teach me. So... that's technically the first time I ever really met him. They only ever came to teach me that one time, and then his companion moved away. About a month later, Mitch text me and asked me out on a date. I said yes, though I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think it was a little odd going out with my hometeacher. We went out a few times, but I was really busy with school and work, and I wasn't really looking for a relationship. Several times, I had to cancel plans with him because I'd have homework or something, but I'd feel bad so I'd invite him to some other activity, such as the fair. He was pretty persistant, so we hung out probably like 4 or 5 times, but always with other people there. Welp he asked me out again and we planned to go on a big group date to hike up in Zion's. I'd had a long talk a few days earlier with a close friend who made me realize that I needed to me more open minded about guys and just pray and leave things in Heavenly Father's hands. So the day came for the hike and everyone else cancelled leaving just me and Mitch to go on the date. Well.... it was an awesome date and we've basically been inseperable ever since. He's the greatest guy I've ever met , and I honestly feel like the luckiest person in the world!

So now we've been together for almost 4 months, but it seems like way longer than that. We went up to Salt Lake a few weekends ago and it was so much fun!! We went to the Hogle Zoo, Lagoon, and the Bryan Regan show with Coby and Lynette. It was way funny!

This was right after Mitch got sick at Lagoon...

he'll be mad when he sees this on here :)

At the Bryan Regan show

Then we went down to Oak City to meet up with the family for Oak City Days. We watched the parade, went camping and then went to the park the next day. The weekend was lots of fun and I'm glad I got to spend some time around the family.

For the most part, our lives are pretty boring. Mitch works from 4 to 7 every morning and then goes to school. I work at Pizza Factory and then usually come home and do stuff for the wedding. It's less than 12 weeks away!! Crazy!! We're both way excited though! My mom is like a wedding machine! It's all she does all day, everyday! I don't know what I'd do without her.

Mitch and I took our engagement pictures this last weekend, so maybe I'll make a little slideshow of some pics and put it on here....... if I can figure out how to do that of course. Well this is plenty long so I'm gonna go to bed!