the big day

So I'm getting married in the morning.

What exactly can I possibly say about it other than, I'm getting married in the morning.

I've got the fourth of five loads of laundry going (we got new sheets. Don't worry, I don't let all my laundry pile up so much that I really have five full loads to do at once. [Okay I admit, it's been known to happen in the past. I've grown up.]) and I'm sitting here drinking a Diet Coke at 8:15am (surprise?). I made the rest of the hair pretties for my my bride girls and I think they're the most darling. I almost want to keep one for myself except that doi, I've got the actual veil-poof upon which these little baby ones are based. I've got all the pictures and frames set to put on the tables for the reception, and they're packed in a box to take over in a few hours. I finished the reception playlist, put it on the iPod, and I've got little iPod charging so it'll last a few hours tomorrow. I'll also bring the charger with me, just in case.

(On an entirely unrelated note, I need to remark on the number of "teensy baby" items I own that are quite small/darling. I've got this tiny little Acer laptop that frustrates Ames because his hands are too big, though even he can admit how convenient it is. There's teensy baby iPod, teensy baby hair pretties, I'd have a teensy baby Toyota Yaris if I could justify it. I wonder what inspires my love of teensy baby-sized things? Certainly not my physique!)

I have a few more things to get-- some dark red ribbon, a few various cosmetic items, a few Thank You presents. I really do need to pack, for California and also for tonight/tomorrow since I'll be changing my clothes 800 times but I also don't want to overpack so my parents will have to bring back a billion things that will otherwise just sit in my room at home. My room is essentially just a loading area for all the rest of the stuff I've accumulated all my life that somehow I've got to go through, keep or get rid of it, and then find an appropriate place to store in my little nest here in Orem. Busy, busy, busy but none of it really seems to matter because--

I'm getting married in the morning.

I'm not sure how a bride is supposed to feel. All the brides on those crazy wedding shows on TV are always freaking out, or crying, or shaking their hands a lot as they freak out or try not to cry, and they're always really nervous, but I'm not any of those things. I don't have cold feet, I don't even have one single cold toe, and maybe it's because I'm just ridiculously secure, or because I've had ample amount of time to adjust to the idea of being married, or because I've got the kindest, sweetest, most attractive fiance in the whole world, or maybe because I'm just so confident in the fact that I'm marrying the right person, at the right time, by the right authority. Maybe I'm not nervous for all of those reasons.

Our marriage will be solomnized in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Ames's grandpa, in the presence of some of our closest family and friends. We will be sealed together and create a new family link in a big, long, eternal chain of families, and we will be together, quite literally, forever. I can't imagine anything I could possibly want more. It's what I've been taught all my life, it's what I've always looked forward to and expected of myself, and of my future husband, and now that it's here, it's exactly right.

I'm not nervous because I'm calm and I'm happy, and my insides are jumbly a little bit but they haven't not been jumbly since that time that Ames danced with me on New Year's, so I know it's just my spirit getting all kinds of excited about him and us and us together. I'm so glad Ames wants to marry me. I'm so glad that he trusts me enough to want to marry me, and that I trust him enough to want to marry him, and that we will be married and filled with trust and marriage and love. I'm so glad I've prepared myself for this day, and for him, and for our new Bell family.

We'll go get married tomorrow, and I'll wear my short dress and off-white shoes and veil-poof, and he'll wear his textured ivory tux coat with the black collar and shiny new shoes, and our families will be there, and our friends will smile, and so will we, and then we'll go eat some cake and have a really great party about it, all because Ames loves me.

That's pretty neat, I think.

poster kid for frozen dinners

Do you know what I love?

Well, yes, I love Ames, but that's not what I was going to say (because it goes without saying). What I was going to say is, I love Lean Cuisine.

I mean, let's be real-- I love food. I want to eat food for the rest of my life, every single day. My love of food is the reason why I will not be a size 4 bride, and I'm pretty okay about that, please and thank you.

The problem is that I sit at a desk almost all day and then at night, I do things like sit on the floor and organize pictures for my wedding reception, or sit on the couch and paint my toenails, or sit in a chair and fold laundry, or sit sit sit and write addresses on envelopes. Furthermore, I work at a water park where cheeseburgers and seasoned fries abound. They are delicious (mostly) but not so great for my midsection. Sitting + food = dough stomach.

So about a month ago I started bringing frozen dinners to eat for lunch at work, specifically Lean Cuisine. Let me tell you something-- they are delicious, and filling, and satisfying. I never feel like a sick-nasty bloat face after a delicious Pasta Primavera with broccoli and bowtie pasta (the best kind). Everyone is always jealous of how delicious my Roasted Garlic Pizza smells when I cook it up in the microwave, and it's not even greasy like the pizzas from the park. And sometimes, my Roasted Chicken even has a little serving of apple crisp on the side! I defy any of you to find delectable apple crisp as the end to any meal offered at an amusement park.

Sometimes, if you go to Target at just the right time, you can get 5 Lean Cuisine meals for just $9! So not only are they a taste treat, they're a good financial choice. And if you can beleive it, they're only 5 or 6 points with Weight Watchers, so you can go right ahead and have that ice cream cone later and you won't even exceed your allotted points. I haven't changed my daily sit-on-my-A routine one single bit, and I've lost 4 pounds!

And let's be real-- for a girl like me who can but doesn't really cook, and I have a real hard time caring enough to make a bagged lunch, it's the perfect option, especially since I'm super handy with a microwave (at least for lunch. Don't worry everyone, I'll be a good wife and make dinner for Ames). Is there anything not to love about Lean Cuisine, which comes in wide variety of options to satisfy every taste?!!

I submit that there is not.

i like names

So now that it's 12:03AM, I can officially say I'm getting married in two weeks-- two weeks from this very day. I did that girl thing yesterday where I practiced signing "Emily Bell," only this time, it's completely legit because it's almost my name. I bet you're all wondering what I'm going to do about my name, aren't you? Like, sometimes girls keep their middle name and just change their last name. Or like my mom, their maiden name becomes their middle name and they kind of just forget their middle name all together? Well here's the answer to the question: Emily Llewellyn Dabczynski Bell. Kind of a mouthful, lots of Ls, but I'd be heartbroken to give up my crazy middle and maiden name, so there you have it.

Note: in two weeks, I will have a maiden name.

It's kind of a bit of an identity crisis for me, I'm not even going to lie to you. Believe me, it's a crisis I'm more than happy to have, and in general, it's a pretty gleeful crisis. I've kind of been eased into the Emily Bell thing since I've had various combinations of names on all of my various email and software accounts at work. Really it's just made it more appealing. EmilyBellEmilyBellEmilyBell. Say it a few times, just for kicks, everybody.

But really-- what am I going to do when people don't make faces or question my name anymore? I went to the mall tonight for a few items. The only clerk who didn't comment or ask about Dabczynski was the girl at Bath & Body Works because I paid with cash (something tells me she wouldn't have asked anyway-- too many letters would probably confuse her to think about it for very long). The one clerk was Bulgarian and pronounced it no problem. Bethany at Argento was practically my BFF by the time I left-- she knew all about the wedding and plans and loved my engagement ring and she was wearing a really super cute top-- and was so delighted by my last name that she repeated it five or six times right in a row. Dabczynski Dabczynski Dabczynski Dabczynski Dabczynski. Dabczynski.

Note: it's really difficult to type Dabczynski very quickly and accurately. My fingers don't move real well over all those funny letters in a row. Try it. You know, for kicks. Dabczynski.

Did you know that I spelled Dabczynski incorrectly on my high school senior portfolio, and I didn't even notice for almost two years? It's true. On the spine of the binder, I made an insert that said my full name and it ended up saying Emily Llewellyn Dabczynksi. It's not even a big deal. Luckily, I feel like Blel will be an easy mistake to catch.

So okay, I'm just going to have four names on my social security card and probably my driver's license, but I'll only sign Emily Bell because that's easiest. But here's the most important question of all:

How do I update facebook?

If I just change it to Emily Bell, then half of my friends list who doesn't know me any better than I know them will forget who I am, and I run the risk of losing friends. Clearly, this is something I do not want. I mean, CLEARLY. But Emily Dabczynski Bell makes a change almost redundant because people chatting with me can't even see all of Dabczynski, muchless Dabczynski Bell in full. Decisions!

I sure like that Ames Bell the very most of all in the whole world. I'm glad he's going to share his last name with me. I think that is very nice of him.

thoughts on moving

Sometimes, as I pack up everything I own to move to the next town over, I look at all of the stuff in my room and I think to myself, HOW IN THE WORLD DO I HAVE THIS MUCH STUFF?

Furthermore, I ask myself, how have I possibly lived, with all this stuff, in one single bedroom for five years?

And while I do not look forward, exactly, to the packing of all this stuff for the next few days, I do look forward to next week when this stuff will not be confined to a single bedroom, a corner of one cupboard, half of a small pantry closet, and one bathroom drawer. Sweet, sweet unpacking day.

things i have

1. an iron
2. silverware
3. dishes
4. clocks
5. a job

And starting Wednesday, I will have a new zip code.

It hasn't been such a bad day after all :)

the story

Okay, so even though it's been about 8 weeks, I'm still whelmed by the amount of nagging I've had to publish the story. You know-- our story. The one about how I met Ames and then we started dating and then one day we got engaged. You want extensive? I'll give you extensive, but at least it's also adorable.

* * * * *

Once upon a time, I was a dresser for Hale Center Theater Orem's lengthy production of Aida. For those of you not in "the know," all that means is I was on hand during some performances to tear clothes off of people and get them into different clothes so that they can make it back on stage on time, wearing shiny different clothes. For those of you who are wondering (which is most of you), no, I did not tear off Ames's clothes or put new clothes back on to him. Too bad, right, because that would have made a great story. Being around the cast, and already having some good friends in the production to start, lead me to hang with the cast after the show sometimes. Such was the case on a particular November evening (November 15, if you care to know-- not that I write down anything like this) when I went with some Aidakins to Sub-Zero, namely Jared, Janessa, Jeremiah, Alan, and Ames (we keep our names alphabetically categorized around here, nice and tidy). After some rocket science ice cream, and dancing in the parking lot, I was officially aware enough of Ames's existance that I added him on facebook.

It should be noted that this was not the first time we had hung out as part of the same group. In fact, we sat directly next to each other at Applebees one night (which may or may not have been November 1, you don't know), though I confess, I actually remember more from that night about Jared Keetch, who was sitting across from me. There, I said it. To his credit, Ames more or less got me back by not accepting my friend request for a few days, leaving me hanging and wondering. So we're even.

So Aida ended, and I went to Applebees with the cast after their closing night, where I almost kissed him. It sounds scandalous, but it's not, especially because I didn't kiss him which is probably better because there would have been baggage between us if I had, and then there would have been insecurity and weirdness and maybe he wouldn't have even wanted to date me, even though I felt really dumb that night for not having kissed him because he is, frankly, adorable and what girl in her right mind would pass up the chance to kiss an adorable boy? Me, apparently.

Anywayyyyyy, we talked on facebook a few times about how he was moving to Provo and how we'd have to go to every Japanese restaurant in Provo/Orem to discover the very best one (because there are 12987598347 Japanese restaurants in this area), and discussed upcoming All Shook Up auditions for HCTO, in which, I'm not sure he remembers, we were determined to play opposite each other. At callbacks we hung out and practiced all our 8 billion sides together and Ames wowed everyone in the room by doing the splits during the dance sequence. I was not cast (wah waaaaaaaaah) but Ames WAS, and who cares if I wasn't because it's all thanks to callbacks that our interests were piqued anyway. So thank you, Hales/Swensons/Johnsons/etc. Oh, it was also after callbacks that I stole his phone number from Nina.

On December 27 (or something like that because who knows what day it was I seriously don't keep track seriously), Jeremiah popped into town to attend about 8,000 wedding receptions in one day, and asked me to go along with him. Note: This is where the story gets juicy. For better or worse, part of the day included a generous hour and a half during which time he had to attend a sealing in the Salt Lake Temple, which I could not attend. In talking to Ames on facebook that morning, while I was sitting at the back desk at HCTO, he suggested he meet me on Temple Square to keep me company for a while until Jeremiah was finished and then we could all meet up with some Aida folks for dinner at the Gateway, as previously arranged. That's when we went to the LDS Church History Museum and he was reading a book about auditions and he put it in my bag so he wouldn't have to carry it.

We went to Tuchanos:
And then to Mack's to watch a movie, and then I promise it wasn't even on purpose, but I ended up taking Ames's book home with me. So he texted me Sunday about it-- and then maybe we texted the entire rest of the day and his texts made up 48% of my inbox. (The reason I remember this is because to this day, any time I go to text "it." my predictive text makes it say "48%" and I have to scroll through until it says "it.")

He moved to Provo the very next day, and we hung out that night up at my parents' house just talking and talking and talking. And honest to goodness, I knew that I'd be seeing a lot of him after that.

Wow this is seriously long already. I'll pick up the pace.

December 31-- I got my hair cut, he helped to decorate cupcakes at Julie's house for our New Year's Party, he helped to set up/tear down the New Year's Party, I felt all jumbly inside when we danced.
Remainder of Christmas Break-- We spent every day together, ran into the Johnsons at the movies, I wanted him to hold my hand SO BADLY but he did not until...
January 17-- ...when we saw Room Service and hung out at Kyle's.
January 21-- I first entertained the idea that I could very well marry this boy.
January 23-- I thought he might be falling in love withe me.
February 14-- He made me a bracelet for Valentine's Day.
March 7-- I knew he loves me.
March 20-- He sang a solo concert, was crowned the King of Midvale, and I sang with him a song from Little Women about marriage and it was mildly embarrassing because everyone in the audience-- especially Julie in the third row-- knew that I meant it.
March 28-- ...when we went to the Holi Festival of Colors, and then ate Japanese food with one of his mission campanions and we discovered that I had known him in the MTC, and we mentioned the M-Word for the first time. He was single cast in Singin' in the Rain the next day and I was sad, only because I wouldn't be able to spend my whole summer with him.
April 4-- ...when we went to Midvale for General Conference weekend.

--And now, everything you wanted to know about The Proposal--

Prepare to be somewhat disappointed, everybody, because it's not as exciting as you might have expected. Well, what I mean is, it's just not super gooey and romantisch, because it was a Declaration, not a Proposal.

April 5-- On the way back to Provo after Conference, I was all dizzy from all the marriage consideration on top of the likelihood that I wouldn't see Ames very much this summer because of school, work, etc. So I wanted to know basically how I was going to fit into his life. What a silly, unfair, put-you-on-the-spot girl question for me to ask! But he said some things about seeing me whenever he could and then paused before saying,

I want to marry you.

And then I said,

I want you to marry me.

And then we spent the next four hours talking about it, and being excited, and naming the dog that we will someday own (Hippo, if you wanted to know). He spoke to my parents the next day and got the A-OK, and Tuesday we got a little silver ring for me to wear until we could find The Perfect Ring together, which we did find almost by accident on Saturday. After we found The Ring at a little antique store in Orem called Planted Earth, we got in the car, and it was raining, and he asked, "Do you want to wear a pretty ring now?" Ta da. Thus ends The Declaration Story.

We're getting married August 21 (78 days from now) in the Salt Lake Temple, and we'll have our reception that night at my church building in Provo. Plans are coming along nicely. I'm having my dress made by my dear friend Heidi and it's going to be PERFECT. Our colors are dark red, ivory, and pale yellow. Our pictures are being taken by Alli Easley (and she's brill). Mackenzie is making our cake. Join our facebook fan club (Ames + Emily = 4evuh) or send me an email with your address if you'd like an Official Invitation to our reception.
Love love love.