I just won the meanest teacher of the year award!

So I got to Lakeridge this morning and Mr. Anderson said since we saw him teach his lesson yesterday we should teach it today. One problem, I HAD to be mean. The lesson was about stress reduction, so I needed to first CAUSE stress. Maryann didn't think she could be mean, but I wanted to give it a try. I was really hard on them. "Pull out a piece of paper. We're taking a test." Firm voice. This was so hard for me because I really like to smile and I couldn't. When I said the word 'test' all the students groaned. I asked them ridiculous questions that I KNEW they wouldn't know the answer to and then I told them we covered it in class. I told them if they talked I'd take their test and then they'd fail. Example question: "What is the reticular activating system and where is it located? I need at least a paragraph response." I asked them five questions and the look of TERROR was very clear on their faces. I had the hardest time not busting up laughing from their reactions! After I got through question 5, which was the end, I smiled and said, "I'm kidding, there's not really a test." They looked so so so relieved! But I think at least 30% of them knew I was kidding. So anyway then I asked them a whole bunch of follow up questions about how I could influence their stress level. I was worried that since I hadn't had much interaction with this particular class that their first impression of my would've been really bad, but I'm glad they laughed with me about it. I was so nervous I was shaking. But I think it went well!

New state law requires fire extinguisher in Ashleigh's kitchen.

Oh my goshhhh! I've heard Nathan say some FUNNY things when he's almost asleep, but tonight was the BEST! I couldn't pass up writing about it! And I might just do this every time he does this.

Here goes.

Nathan was kind of zoning in and out (no doubt due to his insane work schedule) and I asked him a question but he didn't respond. So I said his name.

"Nathan..."

"...what..." (said groggily)

"You didn't answer my question."

"..The ads."

"The ads for what?"

"The first episode of that tv show you were just talking about." (I was definitely NOT talking about a tv show.)

I knew I was in for a treat when I realized how out of it he was. SO... I may have taken advantage of it. I waited a minute and I said, "Whatcha thinking about?"

"The waters"

"What waters?"

"The ones the customers ordered at the drive-thru.... I don't like it when they do that."

"Well why don't you like it?"

"I DO like it."

"What do you like?"

"The clothes you're making me."

"What clothes?"

"Not very good ones."

At this point I was busting up laughing! he said, "What's so funny? I'm not even tickling you." I jumped up to get my notebook so I could write this all down and as I got up he said, "I'm awake, I promise. Don't go goodbye." HAHAHA Don't go goodbye?? He's so darn cute when he's almost asleep.

A few minutes later, when I thought he was conscious again I asked, "What were you telling me about me making you clothes...?"

"It probably had to do with your birthday present."

"What was my birthday present?"

"Control arm holder thingies." (apparently this is a new piece of equipment or something he saw for work.)

"What are those?"

"Well it's a state law that you have to have a fire extinguisher."

"Why?"

"For when you cook."

Oh my gosh I had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing so hard. His speech was slurring and I could barely get my words out through laughter. Apparently I'm such a bad cook that the STATE is requiring me to keep a fire extinguisher handy. I guess I'll never know exactly which clothes I'm supposed to be making for Nathan...

Zoe, Zac... Same thing!

I have the funniest most embarrassing story! BUT I have to give a little background. For my major (school health education) I'm in this class where I go out to schools and kind of get my feet wet as a teacher. I'm at Lakeridge Junior High and the teacher, Mr. Anderson, is super awesome! If all health teachers were like him, no one would hate health class. Anyway, so today I took roll and every single student was there, which was a miracle. Later I was handing back papers and one said 'Zoe' on the top but I didn't remember calling a Zoe on the roll and I was still trying to learn names. No one raised their hand when I called out 'Zoe' and I thought it was weird because the top of the paper said A2, which was the same period we were in. I was thinking to myself, Someone in this class HAS to be named Zoe or they put a fake name on their paper... Anyway so I showed Mr. Anderson the paper and in the mean time this boy raises his hand and said, "I didn't get my paper back." Shoot. There's an extra paper AND a missing paper. Mr. Anderson looked at it and said, "His name is Zac..." HAHAHA oh my gosh I was so embarrassed! It looked EXACTLY like it said Zoe though. Or maybe I'm just going insane at a very young age... Anyway, the problem was solved, Zac got his missing paper back and Mr. Anderson called him Zoe for the rest of the class. The kids got a kick out of my dumb-ness and Mr. Anderson just said, "Welcome to life as a teacher." Oh gosh, what a day!

But good news though! I get to TEACH my first lesson tomorrow and I'm SOOOOOO excited for it!

The Proposal!

So everyone knows I'm officially engaged now, but not everyone knows the story. I have to give him props for creativity. Earlier in the week I ruined his first attempt at proposing, so when he asked me if I had plans for Friday because he was taking half a day off work, I have to admit I knew it was coming. Besides the fact that it just so happened that Friday was EXACTLY four months from our first date. But he did a pretty good job of keeping the plans a secret. (Keep in mind he is the WORST secret keeper ever. Think of a 4 year old's ability to keep a secret and then divide it by two. That's Nathan.) I wasn't trying to figure out his plans, but I was trying to figure out what the heck to wear. Jeans, a dress, snow pants, etc. ALL he told me was "Don't wear a dress." Okay... so I wore jeans that were a size too big for me because the ones that fit were dirty. What he should've said was to dress warm. We get in the car and I said, "What are we doing?" He said, "We're going on a hike." Greaaaat. Remember how well those plans turned out on Monday? Please don't let it be a repeat. "It's only a mile long but the increase in elevation is 3,000 feet." I gave him a funny look. We got on the freeway toward Salt Lake and then got off at the 90th South exit and headed toward the mountains. I thought to myself, he better have just been joking about the hike. Luckily he was...Kind of. It turns out it was a mile hike with a ginormous elevation increase, just not by foot. By the Snowbird Tram! It was such a pretty ride up to the top, but a little scary. Once the ride ended we walked around for a bit up there then went over to this balcony where the tram ends and he said, "The past four months have been some of the happiest of my life. I can't wait to spend countless more with you, but there's a question I have to ask you first." Then he got down on one knee and said, "Will you marry me?" Oh my goodness I think I had the biggest smile on my face!! I think I was speechless because all I could do was nod my head. Then he said, "You make me so happy. I want to spend every day for the rest of forever trying to make you as happy as you make me." Then he put the ring on my finger. I was the happiest girl in the whole entire world at that moment when he asked me to marry him.

Nathan Frederick Nye, I LOVE YOU!

Yes I'm over 18 and yes I fit in my wedding dress!

So apparently I'm bad at blogging. Brianna told me I need to do it more. So here goes. It's hard to find things to blog about if you just have an ordinary day. If nothing of consequence happens then it's hard to make a post entertaining. So I've been trying to find funny little things to write about.

A couple things happened today.

First. I was at Macey's with my mom and Quinton. We heard on the intercom thing, "Free paring (how the crap do you spell that word...) for every adult (key word, ADULT) Macey's guest. Come to the bakery department now." Obviously, there was a catch. We listened to some guy who'd rehearsed his schpeel a bajillion times and you could tell. It was totally scripted. The whole time Quinton and mom were getting really into it. "NO! He'll TRIPLE our offer?" "A free set of steak knives!?" So the knives were cool, but I didn't have fifty bucks to spare. Just give my dang free knife. Tic tok tik tok. 20 minutes later. A few people got trapped by his rehearsed speech and just couldn't resist getting their hands on the 'forever sharp' knives... Mom and I waited in the line to get our free knives and he gets to me and says, "Are you over 18...?" Duh bozo. See the ring on my finger? Oh wait... I was SUPPOSED to have a ring on my finger by now.. "I'm 20..." Everyone laughed and said I should take it as a compliment. But considering the man I'm about to marry is already 10 years older than me, I really don't want to look like a minor...

While we were at Macey's I got Q an ice cream cone to entertain him during the amazingly incredible speech given by the man telling me I couldn't live without what he was selling. I asked him for a lick and you know what he said to me? "Aren't you trying to fit in a wedding dress?" Excuse me. I DO fit in my wedding dress thank you very much. AND I've lost 25 pounds. I just glared at him, smacked him in the stomach, and told him to shut up.

Happy Bri?

Just one of those days...

Oh my gosh today was too eventful to not write about. Considering only 3 people ever read this, I don't feel weird sharing the story. I apologize to anyone who felt like I was the biggest jerk in the world today. Particular my sweet Nathan and my poor mother.

10 am. Shower. (I was lucky I did that much.) I was probably the most unpleasant person in the entire world. Here's why: My broken tailbone was killing me, I had a pinched nerve in my back, I was more emotional than I'd been in months, I was on my period, and I had cramps like crazy. All that should be enough to put me in a bad mood. To top it all off, Nathan had a hike planned for us. A HIKE. In the middle of WINTER. I wish I could say I was excited, because I'm sure my sweetheart put a lot of thought into planning a nice day for us. But lemme tell you, I didn't even want to be around me today, so I definitely didn't want to make my poor Nathan be anywhere near me. It was one of those days where I should've gone back to bed the second I woke up. My roommates knew exactly what was wrong and kept telling me that it would be fun and that as soon as I was with Nathan I would probably be fine. I just have to say. A girl can honestly not help it when it gets this way. ESPECIALLY the emotional aspect. My amazing roommates listened to my grumbling and gave me hugs. I just knew I wouldn't make it through the day without the water works.

11 am. Nathan was supposed to pick me up.

11:11 am. "I wish that I won't be a bad word today!" Did it come true? HA!

11:35am. Nathan came to pick me up. I wasn't ready. Why? Do I have to have a reason when I'm in that kind of a mood? I thought to myself (keep in mind I'm not usually mean, it just happened to be a bad day), "Gosh! He's half an hour late! And he BETTER not say a thing about me not being ready." Oh boy he sure lucked out. I'm dating a smart man, a man who happened to know it was that time of the month and knew when to not push my buttons. Cause let me tell ya, this morning they were easily pushed. Actually though, Nathan is the most wonderful man and never says anything unkind, so even if I wasn't easy to anger today, I'm sure he still wouldn't have said anything about my lack of readiness.

11:45 am. I'm ready. We leave my apartment and get in the car. Tears start welling up in my eyes. I hold them back. Nathan says, "I don't really have any plans between now and when we go to lunch with your family." Come again? "I thought we were going on a hike..." (I thought I was doing alright at not being a butt to him.) "Well we don't have time since we only have an hour." "I wish you would've told me 10 minutes ago so I could've changed out of my ugly hiking clothes into normal clothes." "Well let's go back to your apartment so you can change." My sweet, caring, wonderful, perfect boyfriend, just trying to help. There was nothing mean or confrontational about his statement. I snapped. "I don't want to go back to my apartment!!" Oh my gosh self, you're being such a bad word right now! Stop! But I couldn't. I felt like I was permanently in a bad mood and there was nothing I could do about it. Tears almost brimming over. Half because I'm an emotional time bomb and half because I just snapped at my sweet boyfriend who did absolutely nothing wrong. Hold them back! HOLD THEM BACK!!!

12 pm. We went to my parents' instead. My grandparents were visiting so I gave them a hug and my mom looked at me and said, "Are you okay?" I lost it. Right then and there. Here come the water works. (Except I wasn't playing Monopoly.) The tears just kept coming and coming and I was sobbing. Luckily I left the room as soon as the first tear fell. Yet again, poor Nathan. Standing in the living room, probably thinking, "well now what..." Meanwhile, in my parents' bedroom. Mom: "Just let it out. You'll feel better. Sometimes you just have to cry." I was bawling, not just crying. Probably couldn't even be understood. "I don't know why I'm crying! *sob sob* But I can't stop! *sniffle snuffle* Nathan probably thinks I'm mad at him! *snotty kleenex* But I'm not! *more tears* And I snapped at him!" On and on. Yada yada yada. "I just put my makeup on and now my mascara is probably all gone!" "No, it's just in the wrong place." More tears.

12:20 pm. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, wiping mascara off my face. My gosh I didn't know it could be in so many places. In walks Quinton. Big hug. It was good to see my goofy brother act sincere. Next up: dad. Another big hug. "It's alright. This happens to your mother too." "Does Nathan know?" "Your mom told him you were just emotional today. It's better that he experience this now and not later..." No dad, he might run away screaming! Finally, when I was as cleaned up as I was going to get, puffyand red eyes still... puffy and red, I sheepishly walked down the stairs and sat on the couch next to my abandoned boyfriend. As much as I didn't want to be touched this morning, I really needed that reassuring arm he put around me when I sat down.

1 pm. Lunch with the fam. I was just fine after my little cry fest. Okay sob fest. Maybe a little quiet, but perfectly content. Not emotional, not in a bad mood, AND not acting like a bad word. I guess that just goes to show sometimes crying is all that I need and all that can help.

4 pm. Nathan and I got back to his house. He puts the car in park, smiles, and pulls a little black box out of his jacket pocket. He gently tossed it in the air and said, "I was going to do this today, but you kind of foiled my plans," and kissed me on the cheek.