He Got Down on One Knee

Ok, so I thought I'd do a little bit of catching up, although everyone already pretty much knows this stuff it's good to get it written down. For posterity's sake, right?

Obviously a lot has happened in the past months. Michael and I got married and I am now Mrs. Sarah Nelson. I am absolutely head over heels in love with my handsome, amazing, supportive husband. He makes me laugh and love life every day. Basically, I love my Michael like a fat kid loves cake :)

Here's the beginning of our story....


Our Engagement

Michael and I had known we wanted to get married for quite a while, and I knew he had the ring...but it seemed like I had to wait FOREVER for it to happen. Ok, maybe not forever....but that's how I remember every day feeling :) Then on March 8, it was Michael's birthday. I had a whole scha-bang planned out. I surprised him at work with balloons and his favorite ice cream from the Creamery, Raspberry Cream Cheese. Then I went to his apartment and decorated it with streamers and Happy Birthday banners. That night we went to Texas Roadhouse (steak is his favorite) and had a scrumdidlyuptious meal. Then I gave him some headphones and new shoes he was wanting. After all that we went back to his place and had a party with friends and Cold Stone ice cream cake. I thought I'd done a pretty good job...

After all the chaos Michael took me back to my place and we decided to take Toby on a walk because he'd been pent up inside all day and night. We walked over to the duck pond near my apartment and sat down to talk. I asked Michael if he had a good birthday and if he'd gotten everything he wanted. And he said "no"!! I remember thinking he was such an ingrate...what else could I have possibly done besides hire a plane to write "Happy Birthday Michael" in the air over Provo?? He said there was one more thing he was wanting, and that he needed me to answer a question..then he got down on one knee and said "I'd be honored to have you as my wife. Will you marry me?" Suddenly it all made sense...and apparently he had the ring out for quite some time before I even noticed it. I was too excited and barraged him with kisses.


We were engaged for 3 months and married on June 10th. More info on the wedding and some lovely pictures to come. Until then, enjoy this typographical interpretation of mine and Michael's story that I made for our wedding website!

Kayak to China

So my friend Luke and I were talking at work about biking, and I told him I bike way more than him...but on an elyptical at the gym. In fact that I could have probably biked to China by now via elyptical. He said there way no way that was possible, and okay, maybe it was a slight exaggeration on my part. So to debate this we got onto Google maps to see how far away China actually is by getting directions from the United States to China.

So Google Maps gave us 133 easy steps to get to China. But a few weren't so easy.

Steps 1-30: Drive all the way up to the Washington Coast.

Step 31: Kayak across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii.

Step 32-46: Drive across the Hawaii islands?

Step 47: Kayak across the rest of the Pacific Ocean to Japan.

Step 48 - 104: Driving all over Japan until you get to the southern tip.

Step 105: Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean.

Step 106-133: Drive to the center of China.


....I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather dig to China than spend 38 days and 2 hours going 11,329 miles which includes Kayaking and Jet Skiing across the entire Pacific Ocean.


My directions, 2 steps.

1: Drive to closest airport.
2: Board plane to China.


On the positive side this google search was so entertaining that it distracted Luke from proving me wrong about my elyptical track record :)

My Acceptance to Hogwarts

I haven't blogged in a million years and thought this would be a good ice breaker....





It's official, I have received my admittance letter to Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. Let me explain:

The other day I received a letter in the mail at work. It wasn't from our company and it wasn't to anyone at our company. There was no return address on it, just an address to a lady in Colorado, which was apparently undeliverable. Weird....how did it end up at our office? So I wrote return to sender on it thinking the post office would dispose of it or do something with it. I put it in a big blue postal drop box and washed my hands of it. Then, today, I received the same letter again!! How did it find it's way back?? It's incredible!! It's like putting a blank envelope in the USPS drop box and having it show up at your house twice. So my theory is that somewhere in invisible ink or in that USPS scan bar in tiny print it says:

Mrs. S. Nelson
The Cupboard Under the Stairs
American Liberty Insurance

On a more serious note though, I will be accepting my spot at Hogwarts. I think I will be buying an owl and I suspect my wand will have Unicorn hair inside of it. Please let me know if you would like a souvenir of your own from Diagon Alley.

Yo Quero...Mi Root Beero!!!

So Michael and I made a late night fourth meal run to Taco Bell yesterday night. Nothing suits the late night munchies like some cheap mexican food and hot sauce. As we pulled up to the drive-thru menu we were stared down upon by the Five Buck Box advertisement.

This isn't the first time I'd had an encounter with the alluring five dollar deal. We'd first met when he was much larger...a five foot window printable on the glass front of another Taco Bell. Since that first encounter Michael and I had discussed several times what a good deal the Five Buck Box is because the Crunch Wrap Supreme by itself is almost $3. So for an extra $2 we could get some new burrito, a soft taco, cinnamon twisties and a drink...only an idiot would say no...right?

So we excitedly ordered the Five Buck Box with a root beer. After much anticipation the drive-thru girl handed us a bag of food. A BAG??? Where's my box?? It's called the Five Buck BOX. Okay, so maybe they are trying to save a little money...it's hard economic times for everyone, even the corporate guys at Taco Bell. I get it. Whatever. You could at least make your advertising match the actual product. Bag is a B word....call it the Five Buck Bag! Or maybe the Five Dollar Deal. Don't get my hopes up that I'm getting some spiffy movie-theater-esque box to eat out of and then leave me high and dry!

Anyways, so then Michael takes a sip of our drink and it's not Root Beer!! It's Pepsi!! Sick! How hard is it to get an order right with two things? A five buck box with a Root Beer. I know all the late night Taco Bell employees at best are community college kids with a baggy of marijuana in their pocket for their lunch break...but I mean come on. Michael's 7 year old sister could do your job!

Needless to say, at this point we are thoroughly disappointed and we have yet to even partake of the cheap taco goodness. So we get home and start out with the new burrito...some kind of beef burrito with spicy fritos. I was skeptical, and I should have been. It was beef with the nastiest curdled milk tasting cheap cheese and soggy fritos. I took one bite and wanted to spit it in the trash. Of course the crunch wrap and soft taco were good. And who doesn't enjoy a good cinnamon twisty fix? But after the emotional roller coaster I'd been on for the rest of the meal, I felt more like we had purcased the Five Dollar Disappointment.

So to all you late night Taco Bell-ers, or just Taco Bell consumers in general...I'd say, yes, order the Five Buck Box. Just realize you don't get any nifty box, throw out the nasty frito burrito before you even take a single bite and make sure the person you're ordering from speaks English and gets the drink right. Then maybe you can have the euphoric experience with the Five Buck Box that we were never lucky enough to have.

C'est Utard?

There were three things that I told myself I would never do in life. They are as follows:

1) Get married young/before I graduate college.
2) Live in Utah/become a Utard.
3) Eat fish and enjoy it.

Sadly I have recently managed to fail at failing to do those things. (Did you get that?)

I have officially moved back to Utah...and ::gasp:: I missed it. In fact I missed it big time! Plus Michael's roommate Jason recently introduced me to tuna melts and I am addicted. I can't believe I like something with fish in it. You can be grossed out if you want...but there's something absolutely delectible about tuna, mayo, mustard and melted cheese. Don't judge me.

Anways, back to the main point. I am once again living in Utah. With Michael moving back up to Provo for the semester and me having recently quit my old job, I didn't have a whole lot keeping me down in Texas. So I took the huge leap of faith and 21 hour drive and here I am. Again. All in all though I'd have to say that Utah is very happy to have me back. Within 24 hours of being back in the state I was offered a great job that I absolutely love. I found an awesomely cheap house for Toby and I to live at, that is only 3 minutes from Michael's house and 7 minutes from work. Aaaand I haven't been able to stop having fun since I've been back. I've been underground sledding in tunnels, to the hot springs in Midway, to a BYU basketball game, sledding in the canyon, I got dinner with my amazing friends Jared and Amanda at my favorite italian restaurant La Dolce Vida and tons of other stuff I'm forgetting at the moment. It's as if Utah missed me dearly and is trying it's hardest to convince me to never leave again. And I have to admit...it's working.

So yes, you may laugh, poke fun, mock and harass me from this point on because it seems I have completed the transformation and become a total Utard.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I love Michael's little sister Emma Jane. For anyone who hasn't had the absolute pleasure of meeting this adorable, toe-headed, raspy-voiced three year old she is amazing. I thought I would share a recent Emma Jane experience.

Lorie (Michael's mom) does the laundry on their bedroom floor. She stepped out for a minute and came back to find that Emma Jane had used a bra to hook the two bathroom doors together. She had one shoulder strap on each of the door handles. When asked what she was doing she said she made a booby trap! haha...oh the irony.

Later I told Emma Jane that she was a silly goose, to which she exasperatingly replied "No I am not! I'm Emma Jane!"

I'm Sorry

To anyone out there who actually still follows my blog I'd like to say...

(Have you ever seen Simon Birch? If not you should...just ignore the blowing up part at the end I couldn't find a clip without it)

Ok, ok...so I admit it has been a shameful amount of time since I last blogged. But in my defense, I had a lot going on. And then after a few weeks of not blogging I realized how much I had to catch up on and I just let it snowball...and here we are almost 6 months later with no new blogs. Ahhh!!! If procrastination is a communicable disease then anyone who knows me should go get checked out. But let me see if I can sufficiently sum up the past 6 months for you:

1) I had a job with a real estate company. It sucked. Working in an office on a computer 45 hours a week can make you very depressed and irritable. If you don't believe me ask my family or Michael and they will testify that it is true. So I quit. Voila...my life is back. On the flip side I sadly have no income because I haven't bothered getting another job yet...I'll explain why....

2) Toby picked up the wonderful habit of running away. Once for over an hour. It makes me feel like a horrible parent. How would you feel if every time you opened the door your child ran for the hills like they couldn't wait to escape you? However I think it is mostly because he misses being outside. In Utah he practically lived in our backyard. And now Texas has been too hot and he gets too stinky if I let him out. Sorry but Mom doesn't want our sofas smelling like nasty doggy so you will have to continue to lust for the wild through the glass Tobster. On the bright side he is starting to take me more seriously when he does get away. In fact a week or so ago when the UPS man made his daily eBay delivery (due to my mom's recent discovery of the 'internet') Toby bolted out the door. But I yelled at him so loud he literally stopped and pooped...I think I scared the crap out of him. His tendency has been reduced by 50% since.

3) I am dating Michael Nelson. Yeah, yeah...I know you all already knew and it's so obvious why even bother...but if you DIDN'T happen to know it seems like a big chunk to leave missing out of the last six months. He is wonderful, I'm not gonna lie. In the first week of us dating he brought me roses...twice. When I would go to bed at night with roses on each of my nightstands I felt like Cleopatra. But besides the fact that he is a romantic he has been such a great blessing in my life as well. We are best buds and spend most every day together. But I don't want you all to vomit and stop reading my blog because of all the 'mushy' stuff, so we will ration it and come back to Michael some other time.

4) I do not like sushi. I tried it once like two years ago, but recent attempts have confirmed my previous hypothesis. I do not like sushi.

5) I saw a dead body for the first time. There was a really bad wreck on the highway and I was dead stop across from it. The person was flung from their car and laying on the highway. Paramedics or whoever hadn't gotten there yet to cover the body. I definitely see death differently now. It's more real. I know that may seem stupid...we see blood and gore and death continuously on tv and movies. But seeing it firsthand is totally different and not something you easily forget.

6) My aversion to nuts has been reduced. I can now eat nuts in cakes and muffins. But that's as far as I'll take it for now.

Ok...so there's a teeny weeny update. More to come.