May in June

One day I will post on time. But here is another late post.

This month has been busy with wedding planning galore! I have:
-Bought a dress (go here to see some pictures)
-Finally found a tailor that wont charge an arm and a leg.
-Took our engagement pictures (a quick peak)


-Made, ordered, and received our announcements
-Written addresses until my hand wanted to fall off... and still have more to go.
-and so much more! ( I wont bore you guys by talking about every detail.)

On the fun side of things we have done a bunch of stuff too!
-Went to a Josh Abbott band concert. (way fun)

-didn't wash away in the flooding but we got a little dirty :)

-Went to the Texas Ski Ranch and went wake boarding (that's me in the picture)

-Went to the Natural Bridge Caverns with Caroline: a friend from Hawaii here for an internship

-Partied at Six Flags Fiesta Texas
-and I cant think of more but I'm sure we did other cool things too.

Well life was eventful but I cant wait to blog about next this month. look forward to lots of pictures because we just got a new DSLR camera and we cant wait to find excuses to use it!

April Engagements bring July weddings :)

April really proved to be an exciting month... I'm engaged! I'm sure the few people who read my blog already know, but I'm going to write about it anyways!

It all started on the morning of Friday the 12th. We had plans that he would come pick me up at like 10ish so we could go on a motorcycle ride and have a picnic. Well then I get a text that morning that he has to run an errand for his mom really quick and then will be ready by 10:30. no big deal... well then 11:00 rolls around and so I was starting to get a little annoyed that he still wasn't here and I hadn't heard from him. So I text him to make sure he was still alive. To which he replied that he got sidetrack talking to his mom and still needed to take a shower. Well then he finally shows up at like 11: 45. I wasn't happy. So we go for our bike ride and eat at Chick-fil-a, and then he drops me back off at home because I had to babysit and he had to take his mom to the doctors. I was not a happy camper and he knew it. So he said he would make it up to me that night. Sure whatever.

So he comes back at like 4 to come pick me up for our date. He picked up 2 dozen beautiful red roses, which in my mind was the making it up to you part. Oh how wrong I was. So we proceed to Jason's Deli so we could get sandwiches for our picnic that we were finally going to have. Then we drove out to the Guadalupe river state park to have our picnic. Things were going great and I wasn't such a grump anymore. So we ate and just enjoyed the river. Then we decided to go on a walk, so off we went. While walking we were just talking, holding hands, and ya know doing normal stuff. Well then we came to a dead end so what other thing can you do at a dead end but kiss ;) Then David told me he made me something. So he pulled out this envelope from of his backpack and hands it to me. So I opened it and look at this finger painting he made me which along with the picture said "will you marry me". I look up from the painting and there he was on one knee with a little white box.

I of course said yes and gave him lots of kisses! We then joked about how he really made it up to me and how surprised I was. Then I started all the crazy phone calls to friends and family to tell them the news.

Now some fun facts about me and how I wanted my engagement to be. I did not want to pick out my own ring 1. I wanted it to be a gift from him and 2. because then I wouldn't be waiting for him to propose and could actually be surprised when it did happen. Well before this we had talked about getting married and would joke about rings and he knew what some of my ring requirements were (round cut, white gold, etc.. just very general guidelines) but I didn't know my ring size. So Cindy and I had a girls night on the 11th (the night before he proposed) and stopped at Jared's and got sized. Then that night when David asked what we did, I told him we went to Jared's and I was a size 5 &1/2. He played it off like a champ, "oh that's good to know, maybe in the future I will use that info"... something along those lines. Well little did I know that he had already bought my ring on the Tuesday before and gotten the approximate size from my mom. Since I had told him my ring size I decided that from then on out I would 1. have my fingernails painted and 2. always dress "nice/up" so that whenever/if ever he popped the question I wouldn't look like a slob. Thank heavens I started on Friday since David was so on top of things! :)

 And I have to give props to my parents for keeping the secret! Growing up, I always thought that they would give it away since whoever I married needed to call daddy first. Well I was so wrong! David called and talked to my parents on Tuesday a whole four days before we got engaged. I talked to my parents twice in those four days and even mentioned about maybe marrying David and they just gave me their normal answers like okay sure whatever you think. I didn't even get an inkling that he had called already.

So April engagements bring July weddings! We have decided to get married on July 19th in the Houston LDS temple. That was one of the easier decisions to make. Now we are in the thick of planning a wedding and there are so many more decisions to make! But I cant wait to start my life with David and be able to spend eternity with him!

Oh and since David knows I'm writing this he wanted to make sure that "everyone knows that he really, really, really loves me!"  True story. I am so grateful for him and the love that he shows me.

March Madness!

So, no this post is not about basketball although this years March Madness has been nothing short of madness. I mean come on so many upsets and poor Kevin Ware's broken leg. YIKES!

As far as my march madness, there has been a lot going on (hence my post being a little late...oops). First, there was spring break! Wahoo. I had David, school free, for a whole week! awesome. So we wanted to make the most of it. We did a lot of cool things just right around town like the Riverwalk, the Witte museum, and just chilled.

There were cool photo bombing dinosaurs at the Witte Museum. 

We wanted to have a super fun day too, so we went to the beach. I was so happy to feel the salty windy in my hair, to hear the roar of the ocean, and to feel the sand between my toes! Lets just say I was excited! David had just bought his new Tacoma with 4 wheel drive so we had to try that out! It was a blast to drive on the beach! What a great spring break!

Squinty Squinty! 

Yeah we came across a camel at the beach. When I am rich, I too will take my pet camel to the beach...  :)

David couldn't resist posing his black beauty for a nice little photo shoot. 

Then, my parents came out to visit. It was more fun than I was anticipating. WE took them to some local joints and ate WAY too much food. Also, when us girls get together we of course have to shop! So we shopped until we dropped. I was looking for a specific item while out shopping, heels! I know weird, me wearing heels. But that is the wonderful thing about having a boyfriend that is 6'9" I can wear crazy heels and still be significantly shorter than him. I can finally try and be tall instead of wearing flats to have a bigger range of men to date. Now I just need to make sure I can walk in them. Thank heavens I haven't tripped yet. (key word: yet)

Bought these sexy bad boys..well mom did :) Thanks mommy

Now for the reason this post is so late... I was in Arizona for the past week. David and I went out to visit his brother Jeremy, Jeremy's fiancee Steina, and their son as well as to see Davids old mission buddy, and my friends Kahanu and Krisha. Talk about a full week! so I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

First I got to see this awesome lady! Kahanu was down from Hawaii visiting a friend so of course we had to meet up and cause some trouble. 

We also had a double date with David's mission buddy and we were able to go to the wonderful Mesa Easter pageant. It was beautiful and so nice to visit the temple and to be reminded of the true meaning of Easter and the loving sacrifice that our Savior has made for us. 

One of the things I miss about good ole Cali is In-N-Out Burger. I missed In-N-Out so much that during the 1 week I was near an in-n-out, I went 3 times. I had to stock up for the In-N-out famine I am currently in and do not know when I will be blessed with a delicious double-double again.

Also, Saturday was Off-road Appreciation day so we had to be extra appreciative! Jeremy knew some people that were going to go from Lake Pleasant to Crown King (a 30+ mile off road trail) so we decided to join them. David, Jeremy, and their mom bought a Can-am Commander so we HAD to take it out and keep up with the gang. Well we kept up alright.... except for that one time.

Most of the trail is minor bumps and rocks all over the place except for a few "challenges" that you can decide to take or not. Well Jeremy was driving, I was just the passenger along for the adventure (David was in a friends Toyota FJ) and we did not want to be shown up by anyone! We conquered all challenges (some more than once) except one that we didn't try because we didn't have the clearance for it, even one of the FJ's got high centered.   Well, one of the times we were taking on the hill things got a little interesting. We  had just gone through the rough patch once and looped back for round 2. We were going up, going up, then all the sudden we are going sideways and the rock next to me kept getting closer and closer until we were on our side, skid-plates showing and needing some assistance to get back on all fours. It was frighteningly awesome!

One of the other fun things that happened was going to a Baseball game. We hit up the Arizona Dimondbacks vs the St.Louis Cardinals. We had great seats and just enjoyed hanging out.

All in all it was a great month. Now I could just use a vacation from all my vacations to just chill and
relax. But then I wouldn't have anything to write about for April... so I will find some crazy adventure or event to make blog-worthy.

February Fun!

So lots has happened since my last post which is great because that means note worthy stuff has happened and I can blog about it!


With February comes valentines day and man did I have a great V-day! Part of having a great valentines day is having an amazing valentine, which fortunately I did! Blog world meet David!

 Unfortunately he goes to school all day on Thursdays so we could only celebrate that night. So I surprised him and wrote him a "little" note on his drive way and kissed his truck (Lipstick +lips + truck windows = kissed truck). Then when he was done with school we went and celebrated. He showed up with these wonderful flowers! 24 BEAUTIFUL roses accompanied with chocolate! SPOILED!

 Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory (one of my absolute favorites! try the avocado egg rolls if you go YUMMY!) where he spoiled me some more! it was a great evening just spending time together!

Okay, now that the gushy stuff is said and done time for some other fun that happened! So I guess every February San Antonio has a rodeo/stock show ( I haven't lived here long enough to say with certainty). Cool. But the best thing about it are the awesome concerts with cheap tickets! So in one week I saw 3 concerts! (I think I almost doubled my concert list in one week!) First, on the 18th David and I sang along to Dierks Bentley! (what an awesome concert and a great performer) Then on Wednesday the same week I partied with a gal-pal to the rocking music of the Band Perry! They played some of their new music coming out in April and man am I excited now! Then on Friday David and I went to an Anberlin concert (not at the rodeo) . Unfortunately, I got what I am pretty sure is a migraine right before the show, so I couldn't enjoy that concert as much as anticipated.

A little bull riding! 

Dierks jammin' away

The Band Perry 

Anberlin. Yeah the lights did not help the migraine...

On a side note, walking around the stock show really brought back high school memories of the fair and all the fun that went along with it: funnel cakes, showing pigs, barn duty, corndogs, rides, etc...  man was I nostalgic walking through the cattle barn and seeing all the FFA stuff everywhere.

That's my February... until March... Oh wait that's in like a day. Good thing I finally posted so I can count it towards achieving my goal. 2 for 2 and still going strong!

Hey its 2013 already!

So its still January so we are all still getting used to new goals and writing 2013 (I almost wrote 2012 in the title). One of my goals this year is to write on my blog at least once a month if not more. I am pretty sure I have already set this goal in the past and have failed miserably  so we will see how this actually goes. But I have decided that this is a good way to make sure I do something noteworthy at least once a month.

This month so far has been all about adjusting. I moved. Yup I now reside in the lovely state of Texas. Some things I am still trying to get used to: The weather is not as humid here so I now have to (frequently) put on lotion. The weather is colder so I have had to expand my wardrobe to include an actual coat, real shoes, and warm pajama pants. I sleep with at least 3 blankets a night. My gum doesn't dissolve in its packing (in Hawaii if you leave your pack of gum open and not in a zip-lock bag or the fridge for more than 3-4 days you have a sticky wet mess that you have to peel off the wrapper if you want to even try and attempt to chew your gum.) There are lots and lots of different freeways with funny names and I can EASILY get lost,  People not understanding you when you say slippers, shoyu, or anything else pidgin. And hardest of all, I have had to get used to a new culture.

But overall I am still mostly glad I moved here. I say mostly because I mean its Hawaii, how can you not be sad about moving away. That and I am still trying to figure out my life here when I had a pretty nice one going for me in Hawaii.

One of the best things about being in Texas though is hanging with family. I am so thankful for my brother and sis-in-law for letting me be a moocher for a bit until life finally settles. Oh and I totally have favorite aunt status in the bag with these boys now!

Welp, until I do something cool or notable. adios!

Yes I am alive!

ALOHA! I know its been awhile, okay a long while, but I am here to play catch up. Okay so you know about graduation so from there...

 First: I finished my student teaching! Wahooo!!! It was great on the last days of school all 5 of my classes threw me surprise parties (which because of culture/tradition it translates to during this time I was eating a full meal for each of these classes= overstuffed Lacey!). They were so sweet and all signed a card for me in one of their other classes. They all pitched in a few bucks here and there and gave me $100 visa gift card and some Leis.

 Second: My parents, sisters, and grandpa got to come have a blast with me on the island. We partied hard, listened to friends jam on their ukes, climbed mountains and just enjoyed being together.

 Third: Because of housing drama (lots of it and not fun) I decided it would be cheaper to go home for the summer. So It was a summer of nieces and nephews! That's right folks I got to see all 5 of my nieces and nephews this summer. A big feat considering they are spread from Washington to Texas. While mainland I also got to go to my beautiful cousin Janica's wedding. While there I was able to catch up with family that I hadn't seen in years and meet all the new additions (both through marriage and birth) to the Wilcox clan!
One super cute picture of a proud new sister

 Finally: I am back on the island! I decided to take a job with BYUH and am now a special instructor teaching English 101. I have an office and everything! It's great because I only work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 5:20-6:20 and a few extra office hours...so my schedule is really full right now... NOT! I am loving this new found freedom just being able to sleep in, kick back, and chill. Thankfully I have had plenty of time to put into our house as well. It needed some good cleaning and stuff when we first moved in so I have taken on a few projects. One is that since I have so much free time it is like I am the stay at home mom of 5 daughters. I cook for some, make sure the house is cleaned up, do dishes, etc.. but the biggest project thus far was the pool/spa. It was a nightmare! After a couple days, filling and draining it like twice and Cloroxing the crap out of it, I turned this dark and dingy, nasty septic tank looking pool.
   
Into this beautiful, crystal clear, soothing escape.
 
 And just a little added fun: a picture of the 4th of July with with Wilcox clan!

Graduation and other festivities!

Well it has been a whirlwind week/weekend! First off, I was still teaching and working for my last week of "college". Thankfully I am awesome enough (or lucky enough) to not have any finals! WAHOOO what a blessing or I think that would have put me over the top. But anyways, I still tried to make the best of my time and PARTY and live it up with some of my friends who were leaving. Part of the partying it up consisted of playing and hanging out with Bree's family. They were so loving and gracious and let a bunch of us hooligans come over and practically be apart of their family.

So Bree's dad works for Oakley and so his company let their family stay in their company house. Now these company houses are awesome! This is where the pro surfers who are sponsored by the particular brand stay during the surf season.The house is RIGHT on the beach and not just A beach but PIPE LINE. Kind of a big deal since there are three different surf competitions that take place there. Anyways this house was awesome and had a huge back porch that looked out over the beach and had surfer paraphernalia all over the house, including a Andy Irons signed jersey (he was an awesome surfer who died last year). Yeah and of course with surfers come surf boards... There were over 180 Surfboards in the house! HOLY SURFBOARDS! (I have pictures but those will have to be posted later.)
Company House: House on the left is Target, house on the right is the house we played in, just to the right of it was the Nike house but you cant see it in this picture. AWESOME RIGHT?



Like I said the Master's were wonderful and had a big BBQ and so we got to eat out kababs on the poarch while watching a BEAUTIFUL sunset!

All of us hooligans!




The next day, Saturday, was GRADUATION! wahoo! So, I have pleanty of pictures and I am going to let those do most of the talking with a few explanations and captions! enjoy!

Waiting to be lined up and posing with my girls!


Shaking Prs. Wheelright's hand and getting my "diploma"

Its hard to see but I am totally throwing up a double rock on sign as I begin my walk across the stage! "WAHOO I was DONE!" was all that was running through my head. well that and "DON'T TRIP!"

So the tradition after graduating in Hawaii is getting Lei's from all your friends and family. So all my friends and adopted families took care of me and so the pictures below are from those after hours of craziness trying to find everyone.

"Tan Man" Bree's little 7yr old brother who was the life of the party and who now has a couple 20 something year olds phone numbers and texts us :)

Some of me and my good friends that were able to make it to graduation.


One of my Hawaiian families!


Me and some other good friends and roommates


The classic "my mother would shoot me if i didn't get these kinds of pictures" pictures.




Unfortunately though I am not OFFICIALLY done yet. I still have 5 more weeks of my student teaching. But I am going to try and enjoy that and focus on that so I don't get sad and lonely about the fact that SO many of my friends are leaving and I don't know when the next time I will see them will be :( Thank goodness for modern technology though so we can at least keep in contact!

Forgot

the picture was supposed to go with the last post. see even my pizza man (hes actually a good friend of mine BEFORE he started working there, no I am not a fatty who orders that much pizza) gets in on the fun.

Ehh Miss

So when a lot of my friends find out that I am student teaching at a high school with freshman I often get the ever so common"Ehh miss" to the extent where I will now walk down the halls of BYUH and my friends even refer to me as "ehh miss". Well it doesn't stop there. They never simply refer to me as ehh miss but also include things like, "you like go movies after class," or the ever so common "you like go get spam musubi" (if you don't know what that is click here). Well in all fun I would go with it and just laugh at my friends being dumb...

Until........

today while I was teaching a student walked in to say hi and just see whats up (which is perfectly normal for this student) and then he proceeded to ask, "eh miss, do you have a boyfriend" my response "no why? (thinking he was asking for get to know you purposes or just in case his older brother was interested or something) well that was not the case, and since I became so flustered I cannot remember his exact response but it contains these essential parts.

• him ASKING me to go to the movies with HIM
  
• Him telling me "he has game"
• another boy who was taking his test in the corner piping in and saying how he wants to take me out too.
• Them both being dead serious about this, neither said any sort of just kidding or naw after.
  

Which was then followed by me freaking out trying to act busy and not look at them while repeating the phrase "I'm too old for you, I'm too old for you" because I could think of nothing better while trying, not quite succeeding, in holding back a laugh.

Yeah that day came when I was asked out by a student, and not just one mind you! They are 14 years old MAYBE 15. AHHHHH

I had to share this hilarious moment because it still makes me chuckle! More great stories to come!

I'm a MOM

After the terrible loss of my first child, may she rest rest in peace, I decided to adopt again. And since I have been telling everyone I will post pictures, I guess its about time since I have had her for about two weeks now. So here she is.

Name: Twisted Sister or Mom Mobile
Mother: ME :)

Father: still looking for one
Born: 1996

Location: Haleiwa Hawaii

Adoption Date: March 18th 2012

Ethnicity: Ford
Race: Escort
Gender: Girl

PS. sorry for any misconceptions :) I just thought it was a fun way to introduce my new car!