my early mid life crisis.

Anyone know what it feels like to have the next three days of your life taken away from you?

Ok. well I'll be honest it's totally my fault.  I signed up for the 4H leaders conference months ago.  before I was engaged...

I got an email with a reminder that I signed up for this three day... all day conference.  and I about flipped.... I had a CNA shift scheduled friday... plus 5 riding lessons... plus I have an Ochem test next week, and then I thought I haven't seen Kyle since monday (and that was like 15 minutes!)  and I needed to go up to Idaho on Saturday to pick up a load of hay.... well Jen. that ain't happening.

Before I list all of the things that are taking up my life... let me just say I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love my jobs so much.  School is bearable.  Kyle is amazing.  and eventually I'll get my wedding planned.

But you know you have a problem when you have three sections in your iphone of things you need to be doing/at... during 1 time.

• 6 horses; 1 pregnant, 3 that are too skinny for my liking, 1 extremely needy show horse, and Ty.
• 2 horses in training... 1 stud colt that liked to bite the back of my neck when I turn around (I say liked because I did fix that problem)
• 1 dog... who mopes and whines at my parents house because I don't take him out enough
• 2 parents that mope and whine about the dog hair in their house because of my dog. 
• 15-23 children... who I worry and care about and see every week for riding lessons 
• my CNA job.
• 4H... which is taking the next 3 days of my life and every other weekend for my kiddos 
• Kyle.... my personal favorite.  but I haven't seen him in 2 days.  :(
• 2 vehicles, 1 costing way too much money to fill up... 
• Church and callings
• laundry
• Scholarship foundations that expect me to fill out ridiculous amounts of paperwork
• Finding parking at BYU (takes at least 5 hours out of my week)
• Organic Chemistry (deserves it's own category)
• Rangeland Plant Identification class... 
• 2 research projects ( great basin rattlesnakes and dairy cattle)
• my other ridiculously difficult classes
• wedding planning
• exercise
• making sure I eat enough...  I think I eat the most at the Stephen's house... his mom's an amazing cook!
• I cannot function without 6 hours of sleep... it's just not happening.  
• time for me to ride my horse
• this blog which is more like sanity insurance.  

I'm starting to have a mental breakdown of how this is going to work when I have to cook and clean an entire house.  yikes. but it'll be fun. 

So I am taking resumes for the following... 

Teachers Assistant 

Colt starting intern

4H Provo chapter co-leader 

personal assistant

wedding planner

a marathon runner who can take Cowboy out more often than I do. 

plus I think my guardian angels need a break, or double overtime...  

or can anyone just clone me? 

Life's crazy. 

Love it. 

xoxo

just one of those days...

It's one of those days...
ya know.
no make-up, camo hoodie... kinda day.
so DONE with winter.

Loves!

xoxo

couples challenge... week 1

So me and future hubbs have a competition going on.  He's kind of a fitness junkie and I want to get in shape for the wedding.  So we made a bet that we have to go 8 weeks without any junk food and we have to work out every day.

DAY 1

-----

I ate a power-bagel and green smoothie, and did a leg/butt workout...

(btw.)

this 8 week bikini body program

amazing.

http://bloging.lifeplusfitness.com/index.php/bikini-body-8-week-program/

It's seriously like having a free personal trainer. 

and I can do the workouts at home.

anyway. 

I got to eat lunch with my hot fiancé at Sensuous subs, we've been wanting to try it for a little bit and today we finally did.  I got the "sensuous" traditional sandwich... and I found out he likes tuna sandwiches... okaaay?

I have a pretty bad weakness for chocolate, and my coworker brought in these chocolate cookies to work.  that was tough.  And then with dinner they served carrot cake... I love that stuff.  but I'll have you all know, that I held strong through day 1!  

I even went grocery shopping, and finished my laundry, there's hope for me as a good wife yet...

but best of all I came home tonight to find my room clean!  with a note on my bed from my babe.

Seriously he makes every day the best day. 

xoxo

The rest of the Week...
After working out a total of... 4 times... and my entire body hurts...
but no junk food for me :) held strong!

only a lot more to go.

Love Day mishaps.

Frankly I don't like the traditional... guy picks you up with a dozen roses he payed $50 for, takes you out to dinner and you wait FOREVER.  So I (I guess we) are starting the tradition where we do our own thing, not the commercialized valentines day deal.

This year, I'm on valentines day duty.

Last year, I got to help my lovely Kemari with her Anniversary/Valentines day.  She had everything set out for me to build a fort.  I just had to build it, set out some strawberries, and light some candles before her and her hubby got home.  This is what it looked like....

Cute right? 

So I was thinking of building something like that except outside with a campfire.  That, along with a bunch of blankets, some chocolate strawberries, homemade cobbler in a dutch oven, sparkling cider and tin-foil dinners would make for a very romantic evening right?  

So I got my two little bro's in on the deal, and they helped me haul stuff up the mountain.  It was only about half a mile up, but with a bunch of wood and a dutch oven, that's one long hike.  

I'm usually a rockstar when it comes to building fires.  and I had some good kindling too.  This was going to be easy.  I pulled out my lighter and tried to start a fire.  And no matter what I did that stupid fire would. not. start.  There was one point where I got it going but my kindling wouldn't catch fire, it just smoked.... Heck. I even burned off the tip of my thumb-nail off from running that lighter so much. Needless to say, an hour later we gave up and headed back to the truck.  

My brothers went home, and I waited for Kyle to show up,  he showed up with some pretty yellow roses.  He's so sweet!  And he looked all handsome just getting back from the temple.  

So I almost cried and told him my idea wasn't going to work... he thought we could go back up and try.   I was so frustrated that I didn't want to. 

 So we went back to his house and cooked our tin foil dinners in the oven.  An hour later we went to get our dinners out of the oven and realized the wrong oven was on. (the Stephens have 2 ovens stacked on top of each other, and I'd turned the wrong one on... genius)  we didn't eat until after 10.  whatever.  But, I was so over it at this point I didn't even care. 

We ate the chocolate strawberries in the truck on our way to Palmyra. 

We split the sparkling cider between us and his brothers.

I honestly don't know what happened to the cobbler, I think his brother cooked it. 

  

We got to watch one of my fave movies, Secondhand Lions, and I got to cuddle with my man.  So, it turned out to be a good evening.  Plus, I figure we've got a bunch of Valentines Days to come, so we'll try again next year.  and... I guess it doesn't matter.  We love each other every day anyway. 

loves.

xoxo

Dating 101

Ok girlies.

Here's a couple of the tips and tricks I've learned while dating.
When I turned sixteen I got some advice from my Granny goose...
date 50 people before I decide who to marry.

Challenge accepted.

The final tally came to 52.
it sounds completely ridiculous and for the record this only counts "first dates" I haven't really "dated" that many people.
I'd say that I've learned a lot in tips and tricks in the dating world.
I'll share a couple.. only a couple though... I might turn it into a book someday.

1.)   ALWAYS listen to your girlfriends, they know wassup.  Crushing on someone makes you blind, so  listen to your girlfriends. seriously. If they say walk away, you sure as heck better walk away.  Because you'll always go back and say "you were right"

2.)   Can you send me a pic?  texts like that come all the time from guys.  Make it a goal NEVER to give out your picture to anybody that your not in a serious relationship with.  Make them work for it, give yourself some credit.

3.)   Don't open your heart to a guy doesn't open a door for you.

4.)   Date a guy who says your hair looks hot when it looks like a lions mane.  story of my life.

5.)   Never accept a first date for Saturday after Wednesday... it's just classier that way.

6.)   Don't pretend to be someone your not.  I told Kyle I was a vegetarian when we were walking into Sizzlers.... he didn't believe me.  I really am a horrible jokester.  The steak was great!

7.)   Don't be afraid to make the first move sometimes... aka. scooting over to the middle seat of a truck.  Guys would love it and it works.  Plus, what have you got to lose?

8.)   If a guy cares more about the clothes he wears than you do?  Run. Fast.

9.)   If a guy says he wants to hang out after 10, and will travel a long way to see you after 10, say NO. he doesn't really want to hang out.

10.)   If he makes you feel like a million bucks, then love him to pieces.

11.)   blind dates... awkward....they invented Facebook for a reason.  stalking purposes.  USE IT.

12.)  you should probably let a guy know your not interested when he asks you out the first time... unless you're a poor college student and need to eat... (don't judge).  That's why I said probably.

This may sound horrible but dating really is a game.   It's like Clue.  I'm serious.  You need to keep a really good running tally of qualities you like and qualities you don't.  Eliminate people that have the ones you can't stand for.  And once you start figuring out stuff like the murder weapon, or qualities you like in a spouse...  You can focus on finding which room and the person.

I think it's Kyle Stephens.... in the Manti Temple.... with the qualities of.. funny, handsome, smart, hard working, and honest.  

I win. 

xoxo

He's the cutest.

Always a good thing to know the groom is showing up at your wedding.

I love him.

and actually it's now...

2 months 20 days 19 hours 54 minutes and 20 seconds

There's an app for this.

xoxo

Mountains.

I am so grateful to be able to live somewhere where there's mountains, honestly I don't know what I would do without them.

A << all of my major life decisions are either made in the shower, on a horse, or on a climb

 B << They're so darn pretty

 C << you can't beat the view

D << you can get away from BYU...

I checked the weather forecast on my phone, and it said it wasn't going to snow until 1 PM.  that gives me 3 hours to make a climb.

One of my favorite spots is Rock Canyon, it's really close by, and it seems like there's always something new to climb to or explore.

So we bouldered up to squaw peak, at least I think that's what it was called.  You know, the one they pushed young "squaws" off for a sacrifice?  Maybe that's just a legend, but it seems legit.

Yeah.... see that tippee top peak up there ------------->

We climbed that.

I have such a stud of a climbing companion too... not only does this boy chase cows... he rock climbs too.

Best of all? we got back as soon as it started snowing hard.

 This bush that cowboys standing next to? it's called pickleweed.

at least I think so... I didn't do so hot on my last plant ID quiz.

xoxo