After we were engaged Brian and I were called as Family History Ward Specialists. In singles wards they treat you like you are married as soon as you become engaged; there was one Sunday the bishopric had Brian and me say the opening and closing prayers in sacrament meeting. Anyway we know nothing about family history and thankfully college students are too busy to do family history and didn't ask us anything, but Brian and I thought it would be good to do something for our calling.
So we decided to take a Family History class for our religion credit that semester. I don't remember anything I learned in the class (so don't ask me any questions, because I honestly don't know), except we learned how to use some kind of software to get the names ready for the temple. I am pretty sure the software is obsolete though since I think I heard that it can be done online now, but the way we learned required us to save it to a floppy.
Anyway we took this class together and along came finals. The final was scheduled in the middle of a bunch of my other finals, so I didn't study too much, Brian probably didn't study too much either, but he did alot better on the final than I did. I wasn't too worried because I had enough points in the class to make up for the final. The teacher evidently decided that Brian was smarter than me because he gave Brian an A and me an A-. * (Brian also scored higher than me on the ACT and had one of the few majors that was harder than mine). So it is pretty obvious who is smarter.
*I was able to get my A after having an email debate with my teacher pointing out that even though I didn't get and A on the final I had an A in the class if you add up the whole semester. I am also pretty sure that this debate happened the day before I got married.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Wedding Dress Shopping
Shortly after starting winter semester I went out with Bree to find the wedding dress. We set out with a camera and a day to get some ideas. The first store let Bree dress up too. Here are some pictures. 
Here we both are in wedding dresses. The one I was wearing was like a size 10, they didn't have the dress in my size, so I am trying to hold it on.
The second store I went to I found the dress and it was on clearance. I was so excited to find a dress on the second store, on the first day and on sale. How great was that! This picture was taken before it was fitted. This is the dress.
Here we both are in wedding dresses. The one I was wearing was like a size 10, they didn't have the dress in my size, so I am trying to hold it on.
The second store I went to I found the dress and it was on clearance. I was so excited to find a dress on the second store, on the first day and on sale. How great was that! This picture was taken before it was fitted. This is the dress.
Karalee? Who's That?
To begin with I need to give some background. When I was a freshman my roommates gave me the nickname Kurlee.* It carried over into my sophomore year. Most people didn't take the effort to say the long name Karalee, they mostly called me Kurlee.
When school started up again in January, Brian and I went back to Glenwood. In ward prayer they were announcing the several engagements that happened over Christmas break. My roommate Lindsey was in charge of ward prayer and so she finished up with "Brian and Karalee are getting married". The rest of my ward goes, who is Karalee? Then Lindsey says "Kurlee!". Then everyone knew who I was. No one knew me by my real name.
*The next summer I went to a reunion for my freshman ward, and all the people I knew fairly well came up and asked me what me real name was.
When school started up again in January, Brian and I went back to Glenwood. In ward prayer they were announcing the several engagements that happened over Christmas break. My roommate Lindsey was in charge of ward prayer and so she finished up with "Brian and Karalee are getting married". The rest of my ward goes, who is Karalee? Then Lindsey says "Kurlee!". Then everyone knew who I was. No one knew me by my real name.
*The next summer I went to a reunion for my freshman ward, and all the people I knew fairly well came up and asked me what me real name was.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Christmas break including becoming engaged
After finals Brian and I went home for Christmas break. But Brian had to go all the way back to Tennessee. Thank goodness I had bought a plane ticket to go visit him for a few days around New Years. But we still had a week and a half that we had to be apart. We did talk on the phone every day, and once I even lost my car in the mall parking lot because I was talking to Brian the whole time Nathan and I were there. I finally got off the phone and had to ask Nathan (who was 8) where the heck we were parked. Nathan and I did eventually find the car, but its not fun to look for it on a December night in Utah.
Then there was Christmas which I don't remember any specifics except I got my digital camera which has gotten tons of use since then, and Heather and I got a sweatshirt from our colleges. Aren't we cute.
I also have to show you how amazing my sister Heather is. Every year she gets a lego set for Christmas, usually a star wars one and she makes the ship or whatever on Christmas afternoon. She is so talented at them, she even did one with only 1/2 the instruction manual. (The middle 1/2 was missing). Here is the fruit of her labor this year.
Well after Christmas break I flew to Tennessee. Brian and his mom met me at the airport and shortly after we got back to their house Brian said he wanted to go on a walk at a nearby park. We started on the walk and Brian said he had a Christmas present for me. I mentioned that we were going to exchange Christmas presents later, partly because I had not brought mine along for him. He said that he wanted to give it to me now. I didn't expect a ring because we had talked about going to a jewelery store together later. So he pulls out a ring box and I start to get excited and he opens it and hands me a nice CTR ring. I was kind of annoyed because I was excited for a minute expecting to see an engagement ring in there and because it was too small for my finger. He had bought it based off of my roommate's finger size. We could were the same clothes but her fingers are more slender than mine. But I managed to cram in on my finger and we continued on our walk.
A few minutes later Brian got down on one knee and held up an engagement ring and asked me to marry him. I of course said yes and he put the ring on. (This ring did fit because he had been smart enough to get my finger sized right after finals while we were still in Utah, but after he had bought the CTR right). Then we continued on our walk laughing and pretty much just giddy.
While I was in Tennesse I had to meet all of Brian's family. It was like a wirlwind of meetings. Before this I had met his brother Jeremy and his sister Jesse. But I then got to meet Sarah and Mackenzie and his step-father Bob. Brian then took me up to his dad's house where I met his dad Allen, his wife Tina and their daughters Gracie and Lizzy.
I also got to meet some of Brian's friends. We went over to their apartment for New Years Eve and hung out. I was first introduced to Brian's favorite pasttime of Dungeons and Dragons, he even gave me a starter kit for Christmas. (Notice how I never knew of the Dungeons and Dragons until there was a ring on my finger). Brian played Dance Dance Revolution with Jesse.
Jeremy got me good with some silly string, it took me forever to wash the stuff out. 
On New Years Day I got to meet Brian's extended family on his mom's side. They always get together and have a lunch with mostly foods they like to eat, but they all have a little black eyed peas, collard greens, and hog jaw. Supposably eating those will bring health and money for the coming year.
We then flew back to Utah to begin another semester but now we were engaged.
Then there was Christmas which I don't remember any specifics except I got my digital camera which has gotten tons of use since then, and Heather and I got a sweatshirt from our colleges. Aren't we cute.
I also have to show you how amazing my sister Heather is. Every year she gets a lego set for Christmas, usually a star wars one and she makes the ship or whatever on Christmas afternoon. She is so talented at them, she even did one with only 1/2 the instruction manual. (The middle 1/2 was missing). Here is the fruit of her labor this year.
Well after Christmas break I flew to Tennessee. Brian and his mom met me at the airport and shortly after we got back to their house Brian said he wanted to go on a walk at a nearby park. We started on the walk and Brian said he had a Christmas present for me. I mentioned that we were going to exchange Christmas presents later, partly because I had not brought mine along for him. He said that he wanted to give it to me now. I didn't expect a ring because we had talked about going to a jewelery store together later. So he pulls out a ring box and I start to get excited and he opens it and hands me a nice CTR ring. I was kind of annoyed because I was excited for a minute expecting to see an engagement ring in there and because it was too small for my finger. He had bought it based off of my roommate's finger size. We could were the same clothes but her fingers are more slender than mine. But I managed to cram in on my finger and we continued on our walk.A few minutes later Brian got down on one knee and held up an engagement ring and asked me to marry him. I of course said yes and he put the ring on. (This ring did fit because he had been smart enough to get my finger sized right after finals while we were still in Utah, but after he had bought the CTR right). Then we continued on our walk laughing and pretty much just giddy.
While I was in Tennesse I had to meet all of Brian's family. It was like a wirlwind of meetings. Before this I had met his brother Jeremy and his sister Jesse. But I then got to meet Sarah and Mackenzie and his step-father Bob. Brian then took me up to his dad's house where I met his dad Allen, his wife Tina and their daughters Gracie and Lizzy.
I also got to meet some of Brian's friends. We went over to their apartment for New Years Eve and hung out. I was first introduced to Brian's favorite pasttime of Dungeons and Dragons, he even gave me a starter kit for Christmas. (Notice how I never knew of the Dungeons and Dragons until there was a ring on my finger). Brian played Dance Dance Revolution with Jesse.
Jeremy got me good with some silly string, it took me forever to wash the stuff out. 
On New Years Day I got to meet Brian's extended family on his mom's side. They always get together and have a lunch with mostly foods they like to eat, but they all have a little black eyed peas, collard greens, and hog jaw. Supposably eating those will bring health and money for the coming year. We then flew back to Utah to begin another semester but now we were engaged.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Deciding to get married
*Warning: This is not the post about how we became engaged. We were unofficially engaged for a couple of weeks and this post will tell the story of how we got to that point.
After saying "I love you" our converstations started going into what would happen if we were to get married. It was just hypothetical senerios of what we hoped to do in the next few years and how we would pull that off if we were married. (Things like Brian wanted to return to France, and I wanted to finish school). As the semester started drawing to a close our conversations started getting more specific and we started to talk about if we actually wanted to get married. We decided that we would wait to decide until Valentines Day or so, to give us some more time. I figured that we would stay in Utah for the summer if we were engaged because I had a good job working as a bookkeeper, and if we went anywhere else we would have to both find jobs. So when Brian asked me if I would move to Tennessee for the summer if we were engaged I told him no, but I would go if we were married.
Then heading into reading days Brian says he thinks we should get married and asks me what I think. I had pushed the whole thought out of my mind for the time being because of finals coming up and I thought I had until Valentines Day to decide. So I thought about it over reading days (it probably did not help my scholarly studying), and one night after studying Brian and I went hot tubbing (nothing is better than sitting in warm water than when it is snowy outside), and we talked about it and decided we would get married.
We went home and we had to tell someone, but we didn't want tell everyone until there was a ring. So we told Bree. We went out in the hall as to not alert the rest of my roommates (they did get told the next morning), and Bree started laughing so much that people that were walking down the hall would stop to see what was going on and what was so funny. But we couldn't tell them which led to more laughter from the rest of us. Like I said I told the rest of my roommates the next morning and there was more happiness. Brian told his roommates and there was pretty much indifference. Boys. I called my parents and told them. My dad was in shock for a little bit, but said yes when Brian called him to officially ask for my hand.
Brian and I were trying to not tell everyone that we were getting married and planned on telling the rest of everyone after Christmas break. So after telling those closest to us we tried to rein in the telling of everyone. The problem was that Brian and I were the first ones in each of our families to get married so both of our parents were super excited and couldn't stop telling people. For example my family went to the denist after finals and my parents told the denist and my mom's defense was that we wouldn't see him again until we got married. Both of our parents told just about everyone, I am not sure why I bothered swearing all my roommates to secrecy.
After saying "I love you" our converstations started going into what would happen if we were to get married. It was just hypothetical senerios of what we hoped to do in the next few years and how we would pull that off if we were married. (Things like Brian wanted to return to France, and I wanted to finish school). As the semester started drawing to a close our conversations started getting more specific and we started to talk about if we actually wanted to get married. We decided that we would wait to decide until Valentines Day or so, to give us some more time. I figured that we would stay in Utah for the summer if we were engaged because I had a good job working as a bookkeeper, and if we went anywhere else we would have to both find jobs. So when Brian asked me if I would move to Tennessee for the summer if we were engaged I told him no, but I would go if we were married.
Then heading into reading days Brian says he thinks we should get married and asks me what I think. I had pushed the whole thought out of my mind for the time being because of finals coming up and I thought I had until Valentines Day to decide. So I thought about it over reading days (it probably did not help my scholarly studying), and one night after studying Brian and I went hot tubbing (nothing is better than sitting in warm water than when it is snowy outside), and we talked about it and decided we would get married.
We went home and we had to tell someone, but we didn't want tell everyone until there was a ring. So we told Bree. We went out in the hall as to not alert the rest of my roommates (they did get told the next morning), and Bree started laughing so much that people that were walking down the hall would stop to see what was going on and what was so funny. But we couldn't tell them which led to more laughter from the rest of us. Like I said I told the rest of my roommates the next morning and there was more happiness. Brian told his roommates and there was pretty much indifference. Boys. I called my parents and told them. My dad was in shock for a little bit, but said yes when Brian called him to officially ask for my hand.
Brian and I were trying to not tell everyone that we were getting married and planned on telling the rest of everyone after Christmas break. So after telling those closest to us we tried to rein in the telling of everyone. The problem was that Brian and I were the first ones in each of our families to get married so both of our parents were super excited and couldn't stop telling people. For example my family went to the denist after finals and my parents told the denist and my mom's defense was that we wouldn't see him again until we got married. Both of our parents told just about everyone, I am not sure why I bothered swearing all my roommates to secrecy.
Friday, August 14, 2009
I Love You and Thanksgiving
Brian got to meet my parents briefly when I locked my keys in my car and they had to come rescue me, but he had yet to meet my brother and sisters or spend any real time with my parents. My mom and dad invited him over for Thanksgiving, so he could get to meet my family. We had alot of fun, we played games, rode the horses and just hung out. Brian was really tired from working at 4:30 in the morning so he took a three hour nap, while my family and I put up Christmas decorations outside. We were really noisy, but he was out. I also managed to get my second staff infection, this time it was on my thigh so it was easy to hide. I realized what it was on Thanksgiving, but I didn't want to ruin Thanksgiving so I didn't say anything. That was really hard when my 8 year old brother sat on my lap.
Brian and I also spent some time without my family. We were cuddling and Brian told me he loved me. My roommate had asked me a couple of weeks earlier if I loved Brian so I had already thought about it, and was able to respond back that I loved him too. I realized that I loved Brian before he realized that he loved me, but he got to say it first.
Brian and I also spent some time without my family. We were cuddling and Brian told me he loved me. My roommate had asked me a couple of weeks earlier if I loved Brian so I had already thought about it, and was able to respond back that I loved him too. I realized that I loved Brian before he realized that he loved me, but he got to say it first.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Late Nights and a wierd disease
After Brian and I's first kiss, we started spending all the time that we could together, even into the late hours of the night. Then we started falling asleep in random places. We obviously both slept through class. I fell asleep during a group discussion in class and Brian fell asleep while vacuuming at work. (He was an early-morning custodian at the time). After a few weeks my roommate Bree talked to me and told me what we were doing was not wise. I talked to Brian and told him I did not want to stay up so late anymore, he agreed, and we stopped and our relationship grew as a result.
But all the late nights and school and work must have done a number on my immune system. One day I went to work and there was a bump above my eye, and the people at work and I decided it was a spider bite. The night it grew some and it started to come to a head. I thought maybe it was going to be a nasty pimple-ugg. The next morning I woke up and I couldn't open that eye, it was so swollen. I then went back to the spider bite theory, and called my mom and asked her to take me to the doctor. Well it was neither, I had a staph infection (the kind you get in the hospital, that are resistant to plain-jane antibiotics). I had to be on the first level of super duper antiboitics (do you like my medical terms). Then that weekend when we were hanging out with people in my ward, everyone kept commenting on how Brian was beating me. It went down a couple of days later and then scabbed over. When I pulled the scab off I found a pit above my eye where the staph had eaten away my flesh. Gross. Bree tried to take a picture, but it didn't do it justice.
I did get better, but as you will see, this won't be the last time I get to see a staph infection.
But all the late nights and school and work must have done a number on my immune system. One day I went to work and there was a bump above my eye, and the people at work and I decided it was a spider bite. The night it grew some and it started to come to a head. I thought maybe it was going to be a nasty pimple-ugg. The next morning I woke up and I couldn't open that eye, it was so swollen. I then went back to the spider bite theory, and called my mom and asked her to take me to the doctor. Well it was neither, I had a staph infection (the kind you get in the hospital, that are resistant to plain-jane antibiotics). I had to be on the first level of super duper antiboitics (do you like my medical terms). Then that weekend when we were hanging out with people in my ward, everyone kept commenting on how Brian was beating me. It went down a couple of days later and then scabbed over. When I pulled the scab off I found a pit above my eye where the staph had eaten away my flesh. Gross. Bree tried to take a picture, but it didn't do it justice.
I did get better, but as you will see, this won't be the last time I get to see a staph infection.
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