First off - we got kittens!! I'll tell you their real names, which are Charlie and Chap (Charlie Chaplin). They are a black and white brother and sister duo and absolutely adorable, though my cat Fuzzy does not think so. I hope she stays around long enough for me to take her to our new apartment in November, but since she is an outdoor cat who has recently become very pissed off by this method of replacement, I can only hope she won't run away forever and never come back... (Picture included. If you've never seen an angry glare, consider yourself no longer sheltered)
Also - after a little prayer, Atlantean and I received the message that he should continue school this semester, which has been a hard decision, because I'd love it if his only role this semester was as my new husband, but it's the right decision and we know it. So he's begun long days at school and I'm still working at my crappy retail job (which I'd really like to leave) and planning a wedding, sometimes it feels like alone.
We had the solar eclipse on Monday, which was insane! If you got the chance to see it - the shadows on the ground were personally my favorite part. Atlantean and I went to the library during the eclipse and saw a bunch of people with the glasses looking up. It's cool when community is brought together by unique things that happen to all of us :)
(Also Atlantean has read over 60 comic books this summer. Wowza. He likes his superheroes)
On Tuesday, I planned on going shopping with my friend Siren for Bachelorette party items, as we had spent some time planning it a couple days previous, but she had barely started school that week and was kind of exhausted, so I let her off the hook and went with Atlantean instead. So we kind of had our first couple shopping experience, because I could tell he was like, "Are we done yet? Can we go now?" And I wanted to keep looking around. But I picked up some jewels for our faces and pots and paint, and worked all night until twelve on them. I managed to paint seven pots white for a project we're doing at the bachelorette party and then I created a bouquet of paper flowers I've been working on for a while, but I finally accumulated them. I was up until like twelve, but I got it done.
On Wednesday, we went with my friend Sprite, whom was moving back up to Utah State University in two days. Fairy Queen, Mermaid, Sprite and I went wedding dress shopping at a local dress shop. It's more like the basement of a rich lady's house who likes selling and renting out dresses and has a ton of them. And I was a little discouraged at first, because I thought we were going somewhere fancy, but I actually found a dress there I like a lot. The lady said wedding dresses don't sell too often and was willing to sell it to us for 175$ which is REALLY not bad. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since then, so I very well may go back and get it. We just need a shrug for it. But Fairy Queen, Mermaid and Sprite all helped me put on dresses, which I thought was better than going in and changing and then coming out to present. I actually got their help and it way cool. The lady who owns the shop told us to go spoil ourselves somewhere nice, but not bring our wallets, "Cuz you only get to go wedding dress shopping once," she said. Afterwards, we went to Pirate-Os to grab fun drinks and had fun laughing at all the weird foods.
On Thursday, we had dancing lessons with one of Wolfman and Mermaid's friends, Satyr, who taught Atlantean and I some cool new waltz dance moves which I want to use to choreograph our wedding dance which is If My Heart Was a House by Owl City, and I was really grateful for his help because Satyr has recently become a very busy boy. But he gave us some great moves, some of which we pulled off fairly quickly to his amazement, and I'm really excited to work on choreographing the dance to be able to entertain our guests :) I've wanted to dance this song at my wedding since I heard it in 2015.
It was on Friday that I had been called in for an interview at Canyon School District where a man from my ward had recommended I apply. I wanted to get out of my retail job, so I went, but I really don't think I got the job. I prepared the night before for basic questions like, "What is your greatest strength/weakness?" "What is a disagreement you've had with a previous employer and how did you work it out?" and "Why should we hire you?" But I guess it wasn't enough prep cuz I kinda felt like my answers were lame. Oh well. Atleast it's one job interview I won't have to do again, and now I have the experience.
Later, Atlantean and I went to Jinn and Troll's house (where Atlantean and I will be living after we're married) and helped clean our apartment. We got really excited to be there and kissed and danced around the kitchen a little too much 😅 But we got to spend time together there with our new landlords and in our new apartment with it being all empty and ready for us to move in and start our new life. We joined Jinn, Troll and their little baby girl (thinking of name...) Unicorn for dinner, and enjoyed more wedding preparation talk. :)
And then it was that Friday night that a long family friend finally returned home from his mission in Canada! It was crazy seeing him there for the first time in a long while, and he was still his great and goofy self. When we went over to their house to talk to him, he went straight for the piano (as he always had) and played a great song. I really have a secret desire and hope to stay in contact with him and someday be able to write a musical with him, because he really does have a gift. That night in their house was a rare thing, because all of their kids were home and so were we. We used to be a dynamic group, but now that life has been taking us all over the place, we hardly get to see each other anymore, so it was a special night. Atlantean was a good sport and stayed the whole night and our missionary got to meet him for the first time. It was crazy, really exciting and a really good night of reunion all around :) I'm telling you - its important to form strong bonds together with other people so that you can be happy when they're around.
Then Saturday was also a bundle of fun!! I managed to convince my favorite boss to let me off half an hour early so I could go to a pool party in which I cramped my leg, dislocated my shoulder and scraped the skin off the tips of some of my fingers, and was super fun!!
After the pool party, I rushed home to throw on a dress so I could go to another distant friends reception, which was super expensive! They had embossed napkins and table center pieces with their faces on them! They had photo booths and live DJs! It was fancy!! But it was also just good to see her, and she remembered me from the many years ago when she was my director in a play I was in.
After that, Centaur, Fairy Queen and I rushed to a adult session of Stake Conference (we're LDS/Mormon) at which Atlantean met us at. At Stake Conference, Atlantean had so much we had to catch up on (after not seeing each other for an entire day, heaven forbid) After it, we met up with Siren who wanted to tell us about a new guy she was very excited to get to know at her work (and he really does sound cool, considering his story sounds a lot like Atlantean's, so I couldn't argue) Afterwards, since both Atlantean and I were hungry, Siren agreed to drive us to Walmart at like 10:30 at night to grab ramen and I made enough ramen for the all of us, and after we ate, they went home :)
Though I pulled Atlantean back into the house to take a link off of our paper chain we have that's counting down the days til our wedding. But then I let the tired boy go.
Its funny how relationships change. I'm so content to just be around Atlantean, that I'm very happy with our relationship, and feel God helping me be content with him being gone so much because of him going to school this semester. For that, I'm grateful 😊
On Sunday (yesterday), we went to the rest of Stake Conference together and then Atlantean massaged my cramped leg and made me flinch and jerk a lot, which he thought was hilarious. Atlantean then (through my final consent) taught me a little more stick - shift considering his toaster (white scion) is the only car we're going to have when we get married and it's a stick shift. I've only ever driven a stick shift once up in Montana, and even then my mom put the truck in third gear and insisted I was bad when I couldn't start the car. So I've been hesitant ever then... But I gave his toaster a try when he came up with us to Montana this year and managed to shift up then to higher gears as we cruised along winding roads. But on Sunday I really wanted to practice starting and stopping so I could develop muscle memory. I think I made some good progress, and Atlantean told me he used to screech it when starting for years after he got it. So I felt better and want to keep practicing.
Afterwards, we headed to his parents for dinner, which I insisted I wouldn't eat anything because I'm trying this new diet where I eat only when I'm actually hungry (revolutionary, I know) but I guess I couldn't resist. Also, Atlantean's grandmother was extra responsive and talkative which was cool :) The family was the chattiest I've ever seen them and shared cool stories they'd learned from church. They're very active and love to compliment the temples and talk about genealogy. The food was unfortunately too good to resist. Even when we headed back to my house, we ate more of my mom's wonderful food while we looked through photo albums Atlantean's parents had volunteered for the wedding slideshow. Seeing baby pictures of Atlantean was my favorite :3 I made an agreement with him, that if he was going to give me big babies, I guess it was okay as long as they were handsome babies, which I could see from his pictures, they would be. (Lol - I love him 😘)
Then that night, we went to my friend Pixie's house and played board games! Now this is a new thing that Atlantean and I have been trying to install, because they are really fun people to play with and seem lonely, and since we quit our old D&D guild and started our own, we haven't been able to see Pixie often, and we both adore her. So we played Formula D (a racing game) and then X Com (an intense alien fighting game). We all had a great time and enjoyed ourselves and all wanted to do it next Sunday as well. Those ladies are so awesome :) and I'm really, really happy with this arrangement of seeing them every Sunday where Atlantean gets to play his games that he wants to play and has trouble finding someone to play with, and we all get to keep each other company while defeating aliens or completing race tracks. Also, Pixie and her mom offered us a lazy boy recliner they were getting rid of because they are trying to move in December, and Atlantean loves it! So that was a major win and we were very grateful!
Wow! There's a recap :)
Excited for what's to come
And excited for what I have now :)
~ Nymph
