people do crazy things... when they're in love

Today wasn't that bad of a day. It was long, but I had a couple of job interviews, went grocery shopping, and came home to cook a frozen pizza for dinner (and yes it was delicious). Eythan's in Idaho getting more surgery. So I watched Bones and contemplated cleaning the kitchen before he gets home tomorrow. But then everything was derailed because the bathroom flooded. That would happen when the man of the house is out of town, wouldn't it? 

It was probably the worst part of my whole life. Fine, it wasn't that bad, but that bathroom stole some awful hours that I will never get back. I seriously hope I killed all the germs, because it still freaks me out to step on the floor in there.

Now I'm watching Bones again, and eating apple slices and peanut butter, because now I am TOO TIRED to clean the kitchen. And I think it's really romantic that I cleaned that dang bathroom, because what I would really have liked to do is just move. 

-(I was identifying really hard tonight with Tom from Parks and Rec: 

"One time my refrigerator stopped working and I had no idea what to do. I just moved!")-

I feel that.

But here I am, because apparently I'm committed enough to spend my friday night disinfecting a bacteria-infested bathroom instead of hitting up the mall and burning this apartment complex to the ground so I could pretend this never happened. 

Ah, love. <3 

the famous photo wall

Well. Maybe one day it'll be famous. The point is I finally figured out what to do with that blank cinder block wall in the living room. We (read: I) stuck up a bunch of photographs of all the good times. MOST everyone I love made it onto the wall, along with a couple of people I don't really like, some old friends and acquaintances, and several complete strangers. (And I'm only counting the pictures that came from my life, not Eythan's.)

Since you can't examine the wall yourself and see how many photos you're in, (unless you come over, ) here's a list of (mostly) everyone who's in one or more of my contributions to the wall. (some are from places like other people's weddings, and there are people I've never seen before or since, so they don't count, ok?) :

I'll even put it in alphabetical order (by first name) so you can see if you made it,
(and there are some people who really should have, but I didn't have hard copies of any photos, so I'm sorry.)

Abby Millard
Abby Grout
Adam Lang
Aimee Wright
Amanda Farris
Angelina Dew
Annie Horne
Alex (soon-to-be) Lamoreaux (Richardson)
Alex Worthen
Alexis Danielson (Bradshaw)
Amanda Peterson (Riggs)
Amber Jones (McKenzie)
Andrew Eaton
Annemarie Pugmire
Ashley Anderson
Ashten Burt
Aspen Yocom
Austin Peterson
Bailey Wagstaff
Becca Cho
Belle
Blair Belone
Braden Packard
Brandon Jolley
Brenden Harris
Brianne Kirby
Brittin Squires
Cameron Comer
Cassie Rasmussen
Chase Lindsey
Chris Hoffman
Chris Stallings
Christine Buehler
Coach Clark
Courtney Chapman (Petersen)
Dan from Imagine Dragons (just sayin)
Darin Stallings
Derek Rees
Devon McCaffree
Dezrea Gertsch (Kelley/Spencer)
Eloria Weekes (Brown)
Emily Rogers
Erik Christensen
Erin Christensen
Erin Cowley
Essen Skabelund
Esther Raty
Eythan Barney
Gabrielle Ames
Haley (soon-to-be) Shumway (Hunt)
Hanicka Harmon
Heather Glathar
Heather Granata
Isabelle Griswold (Aguilar)
Jaime Christensen
Jared Arnell
Jazzi Hill
Jeff Elison
Jenna Hoffman
Jenna Watson (Marsden)
Jesse Brenner
Jessi McKenzie
Jessica Jensen
Jessie Meyer (Carillo)
Jordan Bumgardner
Josh Sellers
Josh Watson
Julianne Fairbanks
Kanecia Gordon
Katelyn Lindstrom
Katie Webber
Kaylie Rush
Kim Bennett
Kira Day
Kirsten (soon-to-be) Morgan (Christensen)
Krystal Stevens
Kyle Baugh
Laken Jacobs (Lott)
Laura Jones (Potts)
Lauren Granata
Lauren Schow (Patterson)
Lexi Patterson
Lillie Hammock
Liz Poulsen
Lizzie Hegstrom
London Granata
Lyndsie Broadhead (Hansmann)
Madi Webber
Makayla Johnson
Mallory Romine
Mark Lierman
Mary Wilson
Megan Anderson (Farra)
Megan Livingston
Megan Ross
MerylAnne Dexter
Michelle Stallings
Mikaela Hamilton (Kauffman)
Mr. Andersen
Myka Watson
Mynette Stallings
Natalie Stallings
Nate Stebbing
Nate Morris
Nathan Egan
Nichole Berry
Parker Shumway
Rachel Stallings
Raphael Barney
Samantha Garza
Sami Romine
Sandra Shurtleff
Santa
Sara Corbett (Richardson)
Sarah Crandall
Sarah Hanson
Seulbee Lee
Sierra Klein (Wagstaff)
Shanna Becker
Skyler Colledge
Sophia Pugmire
Stacie Faulk
Stallings Family (all the aunts, uncles, cousins, g-parents)
Tanner Remsburg
Tara Facer
Taylor Savio
Todd Stallings
Travis Berry
Tyson Meyer
Whitley Glad (Gordon)
Will Corry
Vikki Downs
Virgithmar Molina
Zane Smith

Way random list, right? Some of those are my best friends, some I barely know. Obviously not nearly everyone on the list is going to see this, but it would be kind of cool if they found out their picture was on my wall. It's a little weird to think you could go to Girls' Camp with someone, or be on the same debate team, and five years later, your picture is up in their house.

I dunno. Just sometimes I sit on my couch and get distracted by the photo wall and I could just look at it forever.

And while I'm looking at those pictures that represent truly meaningful people and times from my life, I reflect on just how much sticky tack it took to make those dumb pictures stick to the wall.

resolved, 2014

I'm not going to be conscious of these things during the year, really. But hopefully I was going to do all of them anyway.

1. Go to Disneyland.
2. Get more money.
3. Therefore, get a job.
4. Buy more lipstick. (with that money from that job)
5. Rock that lipstick.
6. Temple, monthly.
7. Read that BOM.
8. See my friends regularly.
9. Go on lots of dates.
10. Ask more people to take pictures of me and Eythan, rather than attempt the awkward two-person-selfies or the separate pictures of us doing the same thing. (but don't eliminate those entirely, because they can be pretty cute.)

Both have their place, right?

an illustrated tour of 2013

in which i use an abundance of ands and thens.

Disclaimer: Obviously way more happened this year than I could ever hope to list. Also, I got a little tired by the end and just kind of skimmed the basics. Also, I laid out a very attractively formatted post, but it went pretty wonky when it was published. Not my fault and no idea how to fix all that extra space.

Note: Many of the following events may not be in exactly the right order, but this is a close approximation. 

Note: if this is all a bit much, you can get smaller doses of our year by following me on instragram. (@steffalie) That way you wouldn't have to read next year's recap. I'd understand.

The original members of the BFC.

Nine Finger Nilsson and Simmons

2013 was our favorite year (obviously). We started it off on our own: Eythan moved down to Provo into an apartment across from some goons (i say that lovingly) who he served with in Romania. I was still cozied up in Apartment 92 and happy as a clam. We (the roommates and I) had been a little bit freaking out because these two new girls were moving in and we thought they might throw off our groove. We went disco skating for Will's birthday and they didn't talk to us, and we didn't talk to them, then yada yada yada, we went shopping at City Creek and formed the Best Friends Club. 

Call him that. 

Eythan went back to school after a two-year hiatus and changed his name. He was taking some crazy political science classes and I was trudging along through the elementary education program. 

Whatever, I'd seen his pictures on faceboook and what a hottie, right? So I casually messaged him saying I'd had this book he lent me since high school and was never going to read it, so should I send it to him or something? Then we met up, and went grocery shopping, and he asked for my help on homework (I was able to provide vague advice on question #3 and that was it.) He became a brace-face/metal-mouth and was pretty traumatized by that. 

Then he asked for a haircut, and seemed pretty okay with the fact that I had never given one before. And I was pretty okay with him using that haircut to trick me into our second first date. 

Things got pretty heated on our second date...


If you know what I mean. 



(what I mean is we learned to breathe fire)

I tearfully sent my BFF off on her mission and was dismal at writing her. 

Then he went to Idaho on Valentine's Day to get his wisdom teeth out, but he left me some flowers and a get well soon card (typical) so it was all fine. At least on my end. I hear his was pretty bloody and drool-y.

Then we made it official. (but not facebook official because we're too cool for that, apparently.)

I went off to the Happiest Place on Earth for my birthday (per the best family tradition.) I walked all the way across both parks to buy some Little Green Men and a postcard to bring home as presents. (Plus pins for the Best Friends Club.)

Then he threw me a birthday party. With Jell-O strawberry cheesecake and pirate pinata that I beat with brass knuckles. (he hates pirates, that's why.) 

And then we celebrated some more with the free birthday thing at Tucanos. (and eythan forgot to tip the waitress, and we feel ashamed to this day. especially because she knew him from somewhere and he did not know who she was.) 

And I can't remember where this fits chronologically, but around this time I scammed my way into TWO free t-shirts from BYU. We matched for the first time, and it was probably way too early in our relationship for any of that. (one of us loved it and one thought it was pretty silly and embarrassing. guess who was who.)





Then I kept giving him a hard time about never taking me to the prom in high school, because how cute would that have been? So he took me to the prom. I wore a real prom dress, and he kind of wore a tux. And we went to a really fancy restaurant that even served sorbet. We snuck into PG High's prom and danced right in the middle of a sweaty crowd of teenagers. And we judged them so hard. 

This is how we looked at all the high schoolers making terrible life decisions.

We discovered that we had lots of things in common. Like being big fans of photo booths, and always using those blood pressure machines at the grocery store, and dressing up for movie premieres.

Admit one.

We dressed up fancy (again) (it's one of our hobbies) and went to the premiere of the original play Ninja Princess.

Snuck a photo of the actresses.

Eythan moved in with The Ninjas at University Villa for the spring and summer. They were very classy gents and had a good time playing super smash and sleeping in MegaBed.  He got a job as a security guard, and we had to stop breaking the law (on campus.)   

Sandra moved into 92 while most of the rest of my friends went away for the summer, and she officially became part of the Best Friends Club. (that actually happened before she moved in, but this solidified it.) There were other perfect new roommates and we started a roommate blog but all our enthusiasm soon fizzled out.

Eythan secretly started ring shopping. And everyone went on lots of adventures including skinny dipping, (only the roommates, eythan was not invited) dumpster doughnuts, Fancy Pants night, and staying out way too late for old ladies like me and Sandra. (prom actually happened around this time, but I already wrote about that and I am not moving it because it is so freaking hard getting the pictures in the right place, i mean seriously.)

And at some point, we made it REALLY official and got engaged. (as you can see from this snapchat, which is one of the only pictures from that actual day, we didn't announce it for a week or two so we could tell all our relatives and best friends first. Either that or I was really embarrassed and wanted to keep the whole thing quiet.) 

We went to Idaho for Eythan's brother Kholtyn's mission farewell the day we got engaged, and we played a lot of games including mafia, and I was grateful that I didn't make any enemies in my new family because that can sometimes happen when you play mafia. 

This was my favorite part, duh.

Then we went to San Diego to help his sister move. We went to the temple grounds on sunday and that was nice, but guess what my favorite part was. On the way home we rode that huge roller coaster outside of Las Vegas. I know you've seen it, and yes it was way scary. 










And then we had Relief Society Girls' Camp, because you are never too old for Girls' Camp. 

Joy Story: To Eternity and Beyond

And celebrated Raph's birthday.

And Eythan and his friends proved to be a terrible influence on me. 

Eythan started work at the MTC and sent his little brother off on a mission to Ukraine. 

And sported some minor injuries from his lacrosse league.

I caught a wedding bouquet (a lifelong dream) even though I was already engaged which maybe wasn't fair to everyone else, but I was clearly very happy.

                                        

    

Everyone moved out of 92 on the saddest day of my life.

The cleanest that place ever was.

I dropped Sandra off at the MTC. (Erin also left but I don't have a picture for that.)

She was bound for Brazil.

My bachelorette party happened.

And so did his bachelor party.

And then there was that wedding.

Which preceded a Honeymoon.

Followed by Halloween,

my K-2 Practicum,

                                                                                                                                   
and Thanksgiving.

Eythan ran a 5k and I didn't. (no regrets)

To top it all off, we spent Christmas with my family 

And Eythan got a nose job. 

 And somewhere a long the way, 

I got bangs

                                                                          we went on dates,

 and met a zebra.

 I also switched from antiperspirant to straight up deodorant, and never looked back.

Thanks a million to my whole family, Eythan's whole family, jaime, ashten, nichole, erin, sandra, erin, annie, esther, gabrielle, mary, aimee, annemarie, hannah, ashley, isabelle, nathan, travis, lillie, lizzie, derick, syd, eckersley, daniel, chad, tanner, caleb, devin, amy, jacob, brady, shay, lindsay, kyle, devon, will, braden, dezrea, amber, lexi vikki, becca, alex, mindy kaling, and everyone else one or both of us love love loves but whose name didn't happen to pop into my head. Happy 2013, and happy new year.