How to fight with your fiance/fiancee

On Tuesday, Chris and I got in a dumb fight. Pretty much all our "fights" are caused by the same things: he's late to see me, or I'm hungry and grumpy. That day it was both. We were so MAD! I had to go "do something" which was why I was so upset about him being late, because I had to leave. Anyway, here's the funny thing. The thing I had to do was, I'd bought this one shirt for him with Marvel comic superheroes on it, and it was too short in the sleeves so I needed to exchange it - only the Orem walmart didn't have it. So even though I was mad, I went down to the Springville walmart and luckily they had it, so I exchanged it. I drove back to my office and threw the shirt on his head. I was still mad at him, but I wanted to give him his present and show I cared...sort of. Then I looked at my desk, and he'd bought me flowers. All of a sudden, I wasn't mad anymore :)

So basically, when you're mad, just do something nice for your loved one, and you'll get over it pretty fast :)

Oh yeah, the shirt fits him perfectly and he loves it.

A day in the life...or two.

Just a few fun things from the adventures of Chris and Heather:

Yesterday we had dinner at my parents' house. Shortly after dinner, my mystery illness struck again and I started feeling very ill. Obviously such a time is the perfect time to start a game of hide and go seek. There Chris was, holding my hand and looking at me with concerned eyes (actually, I'm not sure about that part, cause my eyes were closed), and Jake (my 5 year old nephew) says "Chris!!! Come PLAY with us!"

Chris: But your Aunt Heather is sick, let's wait till she gets better.

Jake: But that could take FOREVER!

With an approval from me, Chris counted to 10 and the kids hid. We reminded him to not find them too fast. He was so great with them. It made me smile just to watch. Given that he has little to no experience with young children, I think he did a great job. They sure loved him!

A few more funny things from the kids--

Before the second round of hide and seek, Chris told Jake he'd count to 15 this time. Jake was like, "I think you should count to 5!" ...because Jake is 5. I don't think they quite get the idea that if he counted to a higher number, they could have a longer time to find a hiding place. Also, I don't think Elly got it very well at all (she's barely 3). Once she'd hid, she yelled "I'M HIDING!!!" ... because obviously, then, you can't find her :) She also insisted that Chris had to "find" Jonah, her baby brother, who was just crawling around on the living room floor. Funny kids.

Find Jonah!

Tonight, Chris and I got to use our "pass of all passes" for the first time. Actually, Chris seems to have misplaced his. Luckily, the lady at the mini golf entrance thing just let him play anyway and told him what to do if he can't find it at home. I don't know if I've ever seem a sillier mini-golfer. I am a little unsure as to whether Chris has EVER played mini golf before, because he kept practicing his "swing" at every hole. For like 20 seconds. He must have done something right, though, because he beat me by 3 strokes...or something. We kind of fudged the scores sometimes, like when we were hitting up a ramp and it came right back down at us. He really liked it though, and after realizing how close it is to his place, I think we'll go back a lot! (Plus, you know, with our passes we can go unlimited times for free.) Afterwards I treated him to Dippin Dots, which apparently he'd never had! I think he liked it. We thought about how it might be made, and I think we agreed upon that there are a lot of fairies in a factory somewhere whose job it is to roll snowballs from ice cream.

The proposal!

I was so excited when Chris proposed to me on Thursday that I wrote about it in my journal, but didn't think to blog about it, so I'll do that now!

Chris and I met almost 3 years ago at the Murray Arts Center, which is a dance club that specializes in ballroom dance styles. Chris asked me to dance almost every dance. I liked dancing with him, so I kept saying yes. Shortly thereafter, he used his cunning personality to get us in the same place again and get my phone number. We started dating,, but our relationship was short lived. After all, we barely knew each other.

We maintained our friendship through the years, even when he moved out of Utah. When he visited Utah, we always made time to see each other and hang out, but there was no romance at all, until last June. I actually happened to be on a date with another guy when Chris called and said "hey, I'm in town, having a game night...wanna join?" I asked my date if we could go, and he said yes. Poor guy. I walked in that night, got a hug from Chris, and for some reason, my feelings changed very suddenly. I was all of a sudden very smitten with Chris, and wanted to date him. I kept that a secret for about a day, but I really couldn't keep it very long. He was all for dating, even though I was hesitant to try a long distance relationship. But it seemed to work ok. We called each other or skyped daily, and saw each other for a few days each month. After a whil

e, I started to love him so much that I wanted to be with him even more, and because of our relative situations in life, together we decided it would be best for us to move back to Utah. I helped him find a place to live and finally the day arrived that our relationship was no longer long distance! That was this past November. I was so happy. He was, too.

After that, the decision of whether to marry each other occupied our minds and conversations more and more. He was certain a lot sooner than I was. But at the beginning of January, I finally felt a confirmation that marrying him would be right. Now all we needed to do was get engaged. Oh, a month feels like forever when you know you want to get married but aren't officially engaged!

Last Thursday, I had a dance performance with my ballroom team. He and my parents came to support me, and while my mom fussed over me in the hallway, he saw the opportunity to ask my dad for permission to marry me (yay for asking my dad!). My dad consented. I obviously didn't learn that part of the story till later.

After the performance, Chris really wanted to try the new dance club in Provo, which specializes in ballroom dance (just like the MAC, but way closer!). Plus, admission was only $1 that night. He thought I should dress up, but I adamantly refused. After all, I was just going to a dance club.Jeans should be fine, right? He was a little more dressed up than I was. He looked great. I still had dance makeup and a bun in my hair, so I looked... whatever. On the way over, he asked me a few questions about music. Here's the conversation that took place:

Chris: Do we have a song, that's ours?

Me: No.

Chris: What's your favorite Michael Buble song?

Me: "Everything."

Chris: what dance do you do to that one?

Me: American Rumba.

Chris: I don't know very much American Rumba.

Me: Yes you do! Anyway I still love the song.

Chris: What's your favorite two-step? (Nightclub two step is Chris' favorite dance)

Me: Um... I like this one (the one that was playing).

Chris: What's it called and who is it by?

Me: Uh... I think it's by Ben Harper. It's called "Forever."

Then we went in to dance!

So, once we got in, I saw Laura C. taking pictures of dancers. She came up to me and asked what we were doing there. "Um... we're ballroom dancers," I said, "but why are YOU here?" She explained that she'd just gotten some new lighting equipment for her camera (she's a professional photographer) and wanted to try it out, and she'd gotten permission from the club to take pictures of the dancers. I knew from facebook that she was super excited to try this lighting thing out, and the room was dim, so I bought the story without any questions. She told me her friend (a ballroom dancer) had suggested the place to her. I really didn't suspect anything until I saw Chris mozying back over to me from the DJ booth. He was like "oh! I found you!" and I thought that was a weird thing to say since I hadn't moved since he went to "get a drink." Also, I started to wonder what he'd been doing in the DJ booth... I was remembering our conversation in the car. He brushed it off with "you didn't tell me Toffer was the DJ! I just said hi to him." Normal, right? But I started to be suspicious. I thought that at some point, me might whip the ring box out of his Hagrid-esque coat (seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled a ive turtle out of it). We danced some more, and the next two-step that came on, he danced with me in the center of the floor. We'd been dancing on the edge of the floor, so this seemed a bit odd. Laura kept flashing pictures of us (not very odd, though, considering I'm really good friends with her). It wasn't the song "Forever," but the lyrics were pretty romantic. It's called "But I Do Love You" and it's by Lee Ann Rimes. I was pretty certain he was going to propose at any moment, but I didn't see the ring box anywhere. And he didn't have his coat on. At the end of the song, he dipped me, and got down on one knee.

I'd been thinking the whole time that he was going to propose, but at this moment I panicked. All I could think was "what if he fake proposes in front of EVERYONE?!" ...after all, he's fake proposed twice before. Not in front of a lot of people though, just friends and family. But luckily, he pulled the ring out of his shirt pocket. No box, just the ring. HUGE relief for me! He said, "Heather Ambler, will you marry me?" All I was conscious of was him, and the fact that there was a lot of cheering and flashing lights. It didn't register to me that the music had stopped (planned!) or anything but that YES! I WANTED TO MARRY HIM! So I kissed him, there, in front of everyone... which is pretty uncharacteristic of me. I'm against PDA. He was like, "is that a yes?" and I nodded, grinning from ear to ear. Then he put the ring on my finger. Oh, how happy! After a few seconds, I became aware that other people existed again, and realized the attendees of the dance club had all backed off the dance floor and were surrounding us, staring at us, and still cheering. "Well this is awkward," I said, and walked off, holding his hand and still smiling tirelessly. But honestly, it was so amazing! What a cute, romantic way to propose. The only unfortunate thing is that the ring is too big, but we're going to get it sized tomorrow. Still, I refuse to take it off. I just wear it on my middle finger so I won't lose it!

Anyway, I'm officially engaged. We're getting married! We get to spend to rest of eternity together! I feel so happy and blessed.

Oh no! I don't post anymore!

Well, I've gotten much better at reading two blogs: my sister-in-law Amy's and my dance coach Betsy's. They make such fun posts! Maybe that's why I don't post. I don't have children to post about. How fun is blog without pictures of kids?

Solution: post pictures of other people's kids. Yes! This is me holding my nephew Jonah this past April. I love this picture because it shows I love him! :)

So what have I been doing lately? I'll tell you.

1) Dance! As always. First competition with my new partner, Ben, this coming Saturday! We're not ready! Also, I'm on the ballroom team at school now, so that takes a little time. And I'm in gold 2 standard. And I'm still doing my tap company. Fun stuff... keeps me active.

2) School. Oh, the daily grind. I always have so much homework... and I constantly feel behind in everything! But I am doing all right and I will graduate with a Master's in Math Education some time this coming summer.

3) Teaching. AHHHHHH!!!! It stresses me out, yet I love it.

4) Social Dance Club. I'm the president of an on campus club. For some reason, I like to take responsibilities upon myself that I can't really handle. But it's okay... I like the club :)

5) Nursery. In my ward I'm not the longest standing nursery leader. Which means I'm the one who knows what to do! And I am in charge. Of everything. :D They're great kids though, I love them so much! By the way, several of the kids I have in nursery now weren't born when I got called into nursery. I find that amusing.

6) Maintaining a long distance relationship. 5 months ago I started dating Chris even though we live an 8 hour drive away. He's supposed to move here soon, though!

Dance!

Well~

I haven't updated this in a long time. Thought I'd do a dance update! In January, my tap company (including me, obviously) did a huge performance at the Covey Center in Provo. So many of my friends and family came. (Thanks!!!!!) I've also done several tap performances since then, and I have many to come. Here's a picture from the big show in January. I'm in the black and purple, in case you can't tell with all the makeup.

Next up, a photo of me all makeup-ified for a ballroom competition. I do lots of them. They're fun! I've finally started placing. Not every time, but I do get into the finals sometimes. In the fall I got 4th place in pre-champ standard and 3rd in novice standard. Last week I got 5th in novice standard. Yay for becoming a better dancer!

Lastly, I have realized that I haven't posted a video of me dancing for a while. I decided you've seen me all practiced and polished, but probably not when I'm learning. The following is a video of me dancing the samba the first day me and Seth got it choreographed, so I was just barely learning it (actually, I still feel that we're just barely learning it... :P). I'm dancing with Brittney (my friend and coach) who choreographed it - the whole thing - that day, and Seth is videoing us. I'm dancing with her instead of Seth because we'd just learned it and that way we'd be able to watch the video and he could see her doing the steps he's supposed to do so he could copy it. Also I'd forgotten my dance shoes so I'm wearing jazz shoes, which look kind of dumb. :P

Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Lean your ear... what?!

Apparently, I have been singing the words to "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" wrong for my entire life.

According to Wikipedia, the original lyrics are thus:

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,
Lean your ear this way;
Don't you tell a single soul,
What I'm going to say

Christmas Eve is coming soon;
Now you dear old man,
Whisper what you'll bring to me;
Tell me if you can.

When the clock is striking twelve;
When I'm fast asleep,
Down the chimney broad and black,
With your pack you'll creep;
All the stockings you will find
Hanging in a row;
Mine will be the shortest one,
You'll be sure to know.

Johnny wants a pair of skates;
Susy wants a dolly;
Nellie wants a story book;
She thinks dolls are folly;
As for me, my little brain
Isn't very bright;
Choose for me, old Santa Claus,
What you think is right.

The last verse has been changed recently to be more politically correct:

Johnny wants a pair of skates,
Susie wants a sled
Nelly wants a storybook –
one she hasn't read
as for me i hardly know
so I'll go to rest
Choose for me, dear Santa Claus,
What you think is best.

I still like my last verse the best - the one I've been singing my whole life, I mean. It goes like this:

Johnny wants a pair of skates;
Susy wants a dolly;
Nellie wants a story book;
She thinks dolls are folly;
As for me, you dear old man,
On this Christmas night;
Bring for me, dear Santa Claus,
What you think is right.

*shrug* I think I'll just keep singing my version. Haha.

This is me.

All I do is read, read, read! Sadly, the stuff I read is more difficult than what this little girl is reading... most likely. :)

Master's programs sure require a lot of reading! I have read more than 80 research articles since I started this July. Ahhhhh!