My side of the story...

Hey there everyone! So while I myself actually created this lovely little blog, anyone who has followed my blogs in the past knows that I am pretty terrible at keeping them updated. Thus you have heard plenty from Danny, and literally nothing from me. Ooops. I am vowing to be better now. Anyway, for all of you who know Danny but not me, and really just for anyone who would like to know, here is our story, from my point of view.

Danny and I met here in 2006:

Yes, that is the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. The way he tells the story, he walks up to me all smooth like and strikes up a conversation where I immediately swoon and fall in love, but I promise I was a little harder to get than that.

Anyone who is friends with either of us were insanely surprised to hear that we were engaged. Over the past 5 years, I have kind of put this sweet boy through the ringer. There were many obstacles in our path to wedded bliss; I will spare you the gory details, but at the beginning I was waiting on a missionary to come home, in the middle there were a few really not great semi-boyfriends, and in the end there was a fateful move back east in which I realized what I really wanted out of this topsy turvy relationship we had. Throughout it all, I knew that Danny was always there. I think I always knew that we would end up together, but for some reason (I blame it on me being maybe a little too independent) I needed to test the limits of his love.

I was worried that when I got back from my move that things would be different between us, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that we quickly fell back into the happy, comfortable relationship we have always had. After a couple months of spending time together, I realized how supremely dumb I had been and that while I had been searching for the right guy, the right situation, and the right life, I had failed to see that they were standing right in front of me the whole time.

The past few months of our engagement have been joyful, encouraging, and at times trying. I feel closer to Danny than I ever have and I cannot wait to be his wife and eternal companion. He truly is an honest, caring, hardworking and all around loving person. He is everything I have ever looked for in a companion and although it took me a while to see it, I see it now and I'm not giving it up for anything in the world.

I promise to keep the blog updated with what we are up to, more wedding plans and where our lives are headed. Thank you for all of your love and support of us and we cannot wait to share this fantastic journey with all of you!

Spring is so much more awesome than fall...

Don't pack your bags just yet...

We've decided to push back the date a few months to the springtime.

We'll keep everyone posted with more details as soon as we have them.

How I know Rachel really loves me.

I'm kinda fat, and Rachel still wants to marry me.

Okay, so maybe I'm not fat, fat... at least Rachel told me last night that she's not disgusted by me yet, but my busy schedule and frequent traveling lately have led to a new level of un-fitness.

(This picture is a bit of an exaggeration, by the way, I'm not that gross)

But not to fear, with 9 weeks until W-day, and a new tool in my fitness arsenal, I should be at least a few more steps away from Rachel being disgusted by me.

Rockwell (my place of employment) just launched a digital line called Rider by Rockwell, and I was the first to pick up the new Rider "Fit," which is a heart-rate monitor watch.

I took the Fit out for a run today, and it was pretty amazing having realtime feedback on my heart rate. Apparently I've been running WAY too hard, so I've really hated it. This made it way easier to know when I needed to slow down or walk, and I was able to go much further.

So between more effective running and hitting the weights, I predict I'm about 9 weeks away from Arnold.

I'm such a good husband-to-be.

9 weeks to go...

Rachel has been much too busy planning our upcoming wedding to post anything on our blog, so I'll give you the quick rundown.

Ceremony- Check

Reception Venue - Check

Catering - Check

Cake - Check

Rachels dress- Check

My suit - Pending

Photographer - Check

Engagement photos - Sept 14th

Announcements - Designed

We're getting pretty close now, but we're doing pretty good. You should probably be there on Oct 29th, because Rachel's style, plus my skills in the ring will make for one wild, yet elegant, wedding.

I used to blog...

I think it appropriate that I introduce myself to those of you on the Rachel side of aisle who don't really know who I am and are wondering if she's marrying a total weirdo. I assure you, she's marrying someone who is only mildy weird. That being said, let me commence.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? Here I am as a small child. It is still fairly common to see me with this look on my face:

It's mostly due the general attitude of awe and wonderment of everything going on around me.

I was born and raised in Southern California and spent most of my formidable years on the mean streets of Moreno Valley. That's near Riverside, for those of you unfamiliar with the area, smack dab in the center of what was once the fabled "909." It still takes an amazing amount of restraint to not get a full sleeve tatooed on my arm and keep from pulling up my black socks to my knees under my Dickies brand shorts that are 3 sizes too big. But somehow I manage.

During High School my family moved to Carlsbad, CA, as seen here:

Some like to call it paradise, but for a short time I called it home. My parents still do. I consider myself quite lucky to always have a place to stay when I head back to the beach.

Most people are pretty surprised to find out that I'm an only child, and the first thing they usually ask is, "What was that like?" to which I generally one of two replies: " I dunno, it was fine... What's having siblings like?" or "Christmases were always pretty awesome..."

But I think that instead I'm going to start saying that I'm the sole heir of a wonderful home in beautiful Carlsbad, CA, assuming my parents don't sell the place and decide to start touring the world... which wouldn't surprise me too much, so I guess it's pretty great... But seriously though, what is it like having brothers and sisters?

When I was 19, I got the call to be a missionary and spent a couple years getting preachy to the Mexican Nation. Monterrey North, to be exact.

Here I am standing in front of the Monterrey Temple (see.. same face, told you...)

I also apparently forgot to shave this day, which is a pretty common occurrence now. I typically forget to shave for at least a week or more. I kind of deeply hate it.

I spent a couple great years here, met some wonderful people, and learned a lot about myself and the gospel. All-in-all, I'd say it was one of the better choices I've made in my life. Lots of hard work though.

By the way, Mexico is awesome. I'm super pumped my new family vacations there every year. Can't wait to go.

Fast-forwarding a few years, I met Rachel one day on campus at BYU, and found out that we lived in the same condo complex, and the rest is history. I think we'll leave the details for another post.

Currently I work for a watch brand called Rockwell. We're an actions-sports brand and if you haven't heard of us yet, you probably will soon. Things are going CRAZY right now, in a good way. I oversee all the product and graphic design for the company, which keeps me super busy. It really is my dream job and I feel so lucky to actually be able to look forward to going to work every day.

But as if things couldn't get any better, I'm finally getting to get married to the girl that I've been madly in love with for quite some time now. If you're not familiar with our story, well that's a whole different post (or novel) in and of itself, so you'll have to wait. If you're not into reading (which is strange since you've gotten this far in the worlds longest blog post) you'll just have to wait for the movie to come out. It's going to be a good one. But until then, just look at how cute we are...

This is us at Rainbow Bridge Nation Monument at Lake Powell. You may notice that I'm still making the same face. It's kind of a problem.

WELCOME!

Welcome to our blog! We are getting married on October 29 here...

so check back often for wedding plan updates, info and general awesomeness.

Wish us luck!