A sneak peek

A great big thanks to this wonderful lady for taking some of the most amazing pictures I have seen in my life!

These are just a few of our favorites.

And of course, you always have to have a little fun with each other.

103 days to go.....Mrs. Burks to-be.

Weekends are my favorite

There are those times in life where you can pinpoint the exact things that bring you happiness. The reason for that is because there are a lot of things that make you happy in the midst of the things that bug the crap out of you.



Weekends make me happy. Why? Because weekends are the time when I get to spend more than a hour hanging out with my hubby to-be and not already getting ready for bed by the time he gets off work. We started a ritual, probably last year sometime, where we don't see each other Mondays and Tuesdays, so having the weekends to be able to actually hang out and do FUN stuff together is so nice. And, I find pleasure in being able to get the things done on the weekends that I normally don't have time to do on the weekdays.



Things like wedding planning.
Things like being able to run a marathon.
Things like attending a graduation ceremony and getting engagements pictures done by one of my most talented and kind friends that I am so blessed to have in my life.
Grocery shopping.
Getting our favorite gluten-free cupcakes at Sweet Cake bakery in Kaysville.
Those are just a few of my favorite things.



And because I know that blogs are better with pictures, here are just a few to re-cap some of the past couple of weekends that have been so, so great.


Because I am done with attending classes, I got to walk for the Graduate Ceremony at Utah State. I have a project to finish up over the summer, but my goal is to be completely done with this by July.


After graduation we met up with some pretty awesome people and had a great dinner at Rooster's. You can obviously tell by Kaytee's face that the food is good.


www.melissaoholendt.com


A big huge shout out to Melissa for coming from MN and shooting our engagement session. These pictures give me a glimpse of what we have to look forward to on our wedding day, and I cannot wait for that.


I love you Mel, and I just had to post this picture.


I think this picture was taken somewhere around mile 3, which is why I am still looking pretty happy that I am running at this point. A picture at mile 12 would have probably shown a little different face. But, I am still so glad that I was able to run, run the whole race, and overall be in good health to be able to make goals like running a 1/2 marathon and be able to conquer them.


And last but not least, a tempting photo of one of my personal favorites from the bakery, the vanilla coconut gluten-free cupcake. Yum. YUUUUM.

In three weeks

This post is long overdue.....and so is my hair coloring. Blegh.

Anyway....the list.

In three weeks:

• I will officially be done with my last "class" for my master's degree
  
  

• I will walk for Utah State graduation. No I am not really done, I have a final project to complete and some internship hours to do until August, then I am officially done with my master's level education. I can't wait for August 3rd.
  
  
  
• I will get to see one of my best friends, hang out, get some pictures taken by her with my fiance', go to Park City, eat at PF Chang's, and just have a dang good time with her. Yay for getting to see Melissa!
  
  
  
• Chas and I will be getting our engagement pictures, done by that lady mentioned above. So excited for this!!
  
  
• I will be one week away from getting ready to run the 1/2 half marathon for the 2nd time. My goal is to be 30 seconds faster than my per mile time from when I ran it in 2008. That means I have to run a 9:30 mile for 13 miles....In the words of Michael Jackson, "Don't stop til you get enough." I ain't stoppin.
  
  
• May will be here and I am about 90% sure that I will finally get to plant some flowers to liven up our back porch that has been o' so bare for the last 9 months. Man, winter seems long here.
  
  
• My best friend of 14 years will be that much closer to having her first baby girl, going to be named Madison. She is due July 12th. I cannot WAIT to meet her. Here's to Amy and John and their first encounter at being parents. I love you guys.
  
  
  

That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully I will update again soon.... instead of in another 2 months from now. Heh.

Tick-tock and a run around the block

As many of you may know, I am running the Ogden Half Marathon again this year on May 15th.
I started my training two weeks ago, and so far this are going fab-u-lous. Last time I ran the 1/2 (which was May 2008), I averaged almost exactly 10 minutes per miles for the entire race. This go-round, my goal is to beat my old time, thus have a NPR (new personal record). I am happy to say that in the last two weeks of running, I have been able to increase my running speed almost every single run. The last run I went on I was down to an 8'47" mile for three miles. Next I will be increasing the length of my runs and attempting to keep that pace. It's not quite nice enough in Utah yet to be running outside every time I run, but with days like today (50 and sunny), I gain more hope that spring is coming very soon and I will be able to enjoy runs with scenery instead of the wall of Crossroads Gym.



The reason I am so stoked that the running is going so well is because, well, I was a little worried a couple of weeks ago that I was going to have to cut down on the running and take it easy for a while.
I went into my stomach doctor for what ended up being just a really nasty virus (thank goodness it wasn't something else, it really could have been way worse), and in the process of doing a physical exam realized that I had a heart murmur.....hmmm. How long I have had this little noise coming from my heart, I have no idea. No one has ever said anything about it before.
So I went to a cardiologist and had it checked out, Echo, EKG, the works. Turns out my heart does NOT have a hole in it, and functions properly. VERY good news.
I HAVE been having weird heart palpitations, knows as tachycardia, for about 8 months now, which I discussed with the cardiologist. He recommended that I wear a heart monitor for a week to see if they can catch this little hiccup in my heart beat and see why it is happening.
I am now on day three of wearing the heart monitor, and besides getting worrisome looks from people who know me, I feel good knowing that when I do have episodes, they are being recorded and hopefully we can get to the heart of what is going on, no pun intended. I think more than anything it will just put me at ease knowing that I had it checked out and if it turns out to be nothing and is just the way my body is "wired", then this girl is going to continue to keep on running her heart out, again no pun intended.


I recently got my graduation papers in the mail so that I will be able to walk in May commencement. WALK. With a Master's. If Claire is reading this, which I almost know she is, then she knows exactly how it feels to say those words. I have never wanted something more in my life, besides knowing that I am getting married to a wonderful, loving, supportive man, in 7 months. And at the same time, I can't lie that I am not even just a little bit nervous knowing that there is going to be an end to this madness of the last two years and wondering what is going to happen next. But, I DO know that God has plans for each and every one of us, including me. So I just wait, and pray, and prepare for what IS to come.


On a wedding note, things are at somewhat of a lull right now. My friends who have been married told me there would be times where there just isn't a lot of planning going on, and I told myself that I wasn't going to purchase anything wedding related during lent. That's a big feat for a woman who has spent the good majority of her savings over the last 8 months on wedding "stuff". Heh. My dress should be here any day, and I can't WAIT to try it on and start the process of making it fit oh so perfectly for that special day. I am sure Chas is even a little excited for that day too ;)


The only somewhat of a hang-up we have experienced with wedding planning so far was the sad news that we will not be able to hold our wedding ceremony at our church. Washington Heights is planning a renovation, and it very well may be happening this year. We were advised by Roy, our pastor who is marrying us, to start looking for another site. I can't say that I wasn't bummed to hear this news, of course, knowing that our church was the place Chas and I met and have been attending for the last 10 years. It does have special meaning to us. But, we also know that this is a very small thing, and we have plenty of time to look for another place. We actually were given the suggestion of having the ceremony at the very cute and quaint Episcopal church in downtown Ogden. This place would honestly be perfect for our wedding (I say that because of the decor and colors I have chosen, it really just would all go together so perfectly). So I have made the call, and am waiting, patiently, for them to return my call so we can get things hopefully underway quickly. ( I have heard they are very hard to get a hold of and very slow to call back). A visit to their Sunday morning service may be in my near future.


That's all I'm gonna post for now, I am singing at church tonight and still need to take a look at the music. I will leave you with an awesome picture of my get-up from the Ugly Dress Party I went to last weekend. The song may come to mind "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy, come on baby let me know." Yeah, I know you want my 90's style.

The weekend

It's always nice to plan. That's what I think. Chas is more of a fly by the seat of your pants kind, it keeps me guessing what is going to happen, or if something is going to happen at all, heh. But he did a really good job of planning out a Valentine's date on Saturday for the two of us. It started with one of my favorite meals, sushi. Now, some people say that it is the place that makes the meal, but I say it is the company you are with that makes the meal. And just an FYI, Ahh Sushi is NOT somewhere you want to plan a date for if you are looking to impress anyone. It's just a good thing that I love Chas, and I love sushi. Not only was it a sushi bar, but, it was also a bar. Interesting. But we made a good time of it, and even overheard a great name-dropping conversation about this guy and how he met Jim Carey. He must have been this guys idol because he wouldn't stop talking about it. And there were some youth there talking about getting lit. It was awesome.


Place number 2, Chas wanted to see an IMax movie on the really big screen, so we headed over to the Gateway Mall and decided to pick the movie on going to the moon. I liked it, and we even got to wear some really cool 3D glasses. I really wanted to keep mine.
Then we headed over to the news station where I got to pretend to be weather caster for the night, I always wanted to be on TV.

Even for being sickly, Chas was still a trooper and took us on a trip to Mars. Yes, we made it to Mars and back in one night, the flight was amazing. Don't believe us, check us out. (there is an oxygen bubble around us to prevent from suffocating)


It was a fun evening, and I even got some pretty flowers out of the deal. Now let's just hope I don't catch Chas' awful cold. I still love you though honey :)