Wedding Planning and Car Insurance

My beautiful engagement ring! I love it so much!

Wasn't the proposal (post below) just the sweetest thing you've ever heard?! I'm so grateful to Ben (and dear family members who helped) for that once-in-a-lifetime experience. So memorable!!

Well, the wedding planning has begun. I need to kick it into full force, though, because it's less than three months away. Yikes! If you are married, I'm open to any advice for planning a wedding; please share!

Remember the car accident I had last Friday? Now I'm in the middle of talking with the other car owner's insurance company with whom I've filed a claim. The insurance company is trying to contact the other car owner, and hopefully they will get the ball rolling soon so I can get my car into a body shop.

Prom-posal Story!



There's no way I can do the proposal story justice through my mediocre words, but I still want to have it written, and for you to know! It was unbelievable. Maybe I'll bullet it. Yes, I'll bullet it.

• got home from work yesterday (ben had the day off, but usually we come home from work together).
• ben said that he wanted to treat me to dinner at robintino's, an italian restaurant in bountiful.
• we stuck around the house for a little while, then off we went.
• but first he used an excuse to get me to go to my place.
• we get to my bedroom, and there on my bed is a dress that he rented from a fancy formalwear place (i had gone to this place to get the correct fitting, so i knew a special proposal was approaching, but i didn't know when/what we were doing).
• he said, "you're gonna want to be wearing that. i'll be back in a half-hour to pick you up."
• i scrambled to get a girl over to help me put on my dress, but wasn't having any luck. i began to get ready myself.
• he also had some of his mom's beeeautiful jewelry and silver purse there for me to accesorize my dress with.
• i finally got his sister-in-law to come over and hook/zip me up.
• a few minutes later, he arrived!
• we walked outside to a streeeetch white hummer limo. oh em gee.
• the limo driver took us to robintino's where we enjoyed a yummy italian meal.
• then we went to our church building where ben with his family's help had set up a prom scene (neither ben nor i went to our own high school proms).
• we took pictures, danced, ate, the whole nine yards.
• after that fun, he went onto the stage and in the microphone announced the prom king and queen. i wonder who they were?
• with sashes and crowns/tiaras, we released the balloon/rose petal/confetti drop.
• ben brought out a cake that said "i love you, ashley." he asked me to remove one of the (icing) roses from the cake.
• the one he asked me to remove wasn't actually icing. it was a RING BOX!!!!!!!
• he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
• i said, "yes...hahahahah...of course...hahahah."
• i opened the box, and took out the most gorgeous ring.
• we embraced. a lot.
• we danced to our song, "the rose," as performed by westlife.
• we then picked up our friends, sophia and troy who were waiting on stand-by, and some of ben's family members in the limo, and brought them back to the gym to enjoy the remainder of prom with us.
• sophia and troy then came home with us. we opened a bottle of martinelli's.
• i called my family and gave them this bulleted list.
• ta-da!
• i'm engaged!
• the wedding date is 11-11-11 in the reno lds temple.

I'M ENGAGED!!!

via

Ben proposed to me last night atop a stage in a church gym.

Details to come soon......

Just Another Saturday

+cleaned my bedroom and bathroom.
+ate at my company's picnic.
+ran some errands.
+fogged my room for bugs. Again.
+finished the last two episodes of season one of 24. All I can say is "OMG!"
+got part-way through the musical, The Music Man. I have never seen it, and Ben wants me to know what's going on when our stake performs it this weekend.
+had a sore upper back and neck all day. Not sure if it's from the car accident yesterday or if i slept funny on it last night or if it's a combination of the two. It feels a little better right now, and just hope it continues to feel better.

Family Vacation, Bug Bites, and Car Accident

My family came to town Tuesday, and left this morning. It was great to see them! We got to go to Lagoon yesterday (Ben and I took the day off), and had a lot of fun. Glad they were able to make this summer vacation.

I'm estimating that I have about 15 bug bites right now. It's really getting frustrating. I'm almost always itching/applying calamine lotion. I have a pink polka dots all over my body from the lotion. Hope the bugs stop biting me soon. Like now.

My poor car!

Ben and I were in a minor car accident this evening after work. We were on I-15 going north just a couple of minutes from our exit. An 18-year-old boy's front tire went flat, so he lost control and hit my left rear. No one was hurt. Took about a day for a cop to show up after I made a couple of phone calls, but it all worked out. My car does have some body damage and will need to be repaired. Just grateful that everyone's okay. Would have liked to start the weekend out a little differently, but hey, can't have it my way all the time. Hope your weekend began a lot better than mine!

Yaweh, Mormons!

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Bite Me (Not!)

via

Over the past week or so, my body has accumulated 11 bug bites. And while some of them don't really bother me, there are some that itch like crazy. Ben thinks they're spider bites. My coworker thinks they're mosquito bites. Either way, they itch. Now, Ben fogged my bedroom/bathroom last Saturday for insects, so we're hoping the biting will stop, and I can focus on just getting rid of the ones I have now. Ben bought some After Bite: The Itch Eraser at the store yesterday. It works a little bit, but the itching dominates. The bugs have always loved my blood. Make them stop!