Food Truck Festival

Last week, Jen blogged about an upcoming food truck festival in the area. I texted Andrew about it, knowing that it was something that would pique his interest. Not a minute later he texted me back letting me know that he had just purchased our tickets and we would be attending. Unfortunately, we didn't bump into Jen while we were there (boo), but we had a great time regardless.

Phoenix Suns for the win!

On Wednesday, we went to the Suns vs Pacers game, and what a great game it was! We creamed the Pacers who happened to be the number one defensive team in the league. No big deal or anything.

Yet another Suns game brought to you by crappy cell phone pictures.

The Inevitable Love Story: Part Six

Previously on The Inevitable Love Story: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five

Things were going well as "friends". We texted each other during the day and occasionally hung out in the evening that week. We kept it very casual. That is until July 14th. After church that day, as we texted back and forth, I expressed to him that I felt things were still a bit awkward and no matter what we said about there being no pressure, there still was. We both tried to brainstorm ideas on how to fix this dilemma. I finally told him I had an idea, but was a little embarrassed to tell him what my solution for our problem was. He obviously wanted to know, but I said that I wasn't going to tell him over texting and he would just have to wait to find out.

That night, we got together a group of friends. We watched Despicable Me and made rootbeer floats. Once the movie was over, we were anxious to find something exciting to do. Next thing you know, we're all in the pool after jumping in fully clothed. We spent hours swimming and playing games. Once we realized that it was one in the morning, everyone parted ways. It was truly a fun evening and for once, there felt like absolutely no pressure. It was a carefree and easy night between us. Once I got home, I received a text from Andrew saying that he had hoped we would have at least a few minutes alone so I could tell him my solution and he was wondering if I was still up for talking. I decided to be brave and said he could come over even though it was nearing 2 AM.

We sat on my couch and I tried to avoid the topic. I was scared to tell him. He eventually got me to admit my thoughts as I blurted out, "Just kiss me already!" He was taken aback, completely confused. He thought I was going to tell him that we should give up and stop trying to possibly get back together in the future. Boy, was he wrong. I explained to him how I felt kissing would ease a lot of the pressure. We both knew it would come eventually, might as well get it out of the way. He tried to be a gentleman saying that he didn't want me to question his intentions. I told him that I appreciated that, but to knock it off and kiss me. And so he did. He grabbed my face in his hands and went in for the kiss.

And you know what? It worked. My solution worked. After the kiss, we were completely relaxed with each other. We stayed up until five in the morning laughing and talking and occasionally kissing. It was perfect.

Although we weren't "officially" back together just yet, we became inseparable after that night.

Read part seven here.

All about leg shaving.

One of my favorite things in the whole world is having freshly shaved and silky smooth legs. I was lucky enough to be able to try out the new Gillette Venus Embrace Sensitive Razor and let me tell you, the experience was heavenly.

Not a single hair was missed. No irritation occurred. I was free from any and all dryness that usually occurs with shaving. My legs were in stubble-free bliss and I can only describe the experience as magical. If I haven't convinced you yet that this is the razor you should be using, then you must not shave or something. 

For those of you who do shave around here, let me give you a couple of my secrets to get the smoothest legs in town. I have two different routes I take. 

Option one: During the summer, I tend to be a bit obsessed with exfoliating and shaving. I mean, it's the summer- I'm getting tan and wearing shorts. All day, e'ry day. So about once a week, I make an exfoliant/shave gel from items in my kitchen. I combine one cup of olive oil, one cup of brown sugar, and two tablespoons of lemon juice in a bowl. Mix those items together and you have a recipe for the best exfoliant and moisturizing shave gel in town.

The brown sugar works as an exfoliant to get rid of all the dead skin cells on your legs, while the olive oil obviously works as a moisturizer and makes shaving a breeze. The lemon juice works as a toner which I particularly like when I'm working on that even tan. Seriously, try this now. You will love it and your legs will thank you for such a luxurious treatment.

Option two: During the winter, when I'm lazier about shaving my legs since I wear pants every day, I switch to using baby oil. You heard that right, baby oil.

I bought a huge bottle for like $3 and it's not running out anytime soon. It locks in your skins moisture and leaves your legs feeling silky smooth. If you're too lazy to make option one, then option two is definitely the way to go. It will change your shaving game and you will never buy expensive shaving cream again. 

And there you have it. You'll be able to jump into your cool, clean sheets with your hairless, baby-soft legs in no time. But seriously, isn't that the best feeling in the world?

*This post is sponsored by Gillette, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Gilbert Temple Open House

Oh how I love the temple! On Monday morning, Andrew and I had the opportunity to go through the Gilbert Temple open house. It is absolutely gorgeous! I was in shock as we walked through room after room, each as beautiful and perfect as the one before!

 After the tour, I knew that I wanted to get married there. So we somehow acquired the scheduling line and bam! We have a date and time reserved to get married in the Gilbert Temple! To say that I'm excited would be a understatement.

PS- All are invited to tour the temple before it is dedicated on March 2nd. If you would like to attend the open house (which lasts until February 15th), get your free tickets here. If you aren't able to acquire tickets, there is a stand-by line so that all who want to attend may. No one will be turned away. If you would like to learn more about temples and what they are used for, click here, or email me at aliciareneesnow@gmail.com.

The Inevitable Love Story: Part Five

But first: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

As soon as I got home from work, I sat myself down on my couch and started counting down the minutes. When I finally heard his knock on the door, I wasn't sure what to do and almost started to panic. I quickly pulled it together and forced myself to answer the door. Andrew was standing there with a nervous expression on his face. I couldn't help but notice how cute he looked, but quickly scolded myself and regained my "I hate boys" attitude. We sat on two different couches and we both remained silent for several minutes, willing the other to speak first.

Andrew finally began. Much was said, but the gist of our conversation was that he believed that he bored me. He was used to seeing me laughing and having a good time with big groups of people in our ward. I explained how I  had been shy and unsure of how to act around him. He then continued on to ask if he had completely ruined his chances with me. I was quite taken aback by this and told him he couldn't ask me questions like that. It was completely unfair of him. This sent him into a frenzied explanation. "I know Alicia. I don't expect you to answer. I just had to ask. You don't have to tell me and don't feel pressured to say anything. We weren't good communicating our feelings the first time around so I felt like I needed to tell you everything today. I didn't think I'd even get this far. I fully expected you to yell at me and send me on my way. I had to ask. But I don't expect an answer."

This was followed by my silence. I could see in Andrew's eyes that he was aching for me to say something, anything, back to him. But I was busy discussing things in my mind. I didn't know how to process all this information. After a few minutes, I decided to tell him my side. "You say we weren't good at communicating so I'm going to tell you everything that I am thinking right now. Some of it I really don't want to tell you, because you don't deserve to know, but I'm going to tell you anyways." I told him about the first time I saw him and how I instantly started referring to him as my future husband. I told him about freaking out when he messaged me his number on Facebook and when he asked me on our first date. I told him about how confused I was when it ended and how devastated I was. And then I told him about my dream where he told me I needed to wait for him.

At this last statement, his mouth dropped. I reasoned in my head that this must have been too much, that he was now seriously freaked out and regretting his decision of coming over. It was now my turn to desperately wait for him to tell me what he was thinking. His words were rushed. "Alicia, you don't have to believe me in any way, shape, or form, but one night when we were dating, I got a very strange feeling. I didn't know why and I couldn't figure out what would make me feel weary of dating you. I was happy and I liked you. but the feeling wouldn't go away. So I prayed about it and all I walked away with is that we needed time. It didn't make any sense to me in the least bit. Even though I didn't get why we might need time, I couldn't shake the feeling. So I broke up with you. I regretted it the second I did it, thinking it was my own thoughts and I was scared and trying to find a way out of a relationship. But hearing your dream, it makes sense to me, or at least I feel at peace with the prompting I had. I've talked to my parents about you a lot, expressing my fear that I ruined all chances of us. Usually they dismiss my ramblings, tell me to move on, that another girl will come along, but with you, they kept saying that maybe with time, things would work out. I understand this is all very convenient for my side of the story, how your dream works in with my promptings, but I won't be offended if you put zero to no stock into it."

Again, I was taken completely off guard by his comments. My mind couldn't decide what to do with all this information coming my way. I told him I really couldn't decide anything about us or if there was a chance to repair what had happened, but Andrew asked if we could at least consider ourselves friends again. I agreed.

After a restless night filled with never ending praying and thinking, I asked Andrew to come see me again. I told him as much as I would like to deny it, I still liked him very much and that I could see a possibility of dating sometime in the future. We decided that we would avoid the pressures of dating and become really good friends and get to know each other better before attempting anything else.

Read part six here.

My run-in with the law.

After going to bed at an already late hour (I have class on Thursday night until 10 PM, but then Modern Family felt left out so I had to watch a few episodes before I went to bed.), I was rudely awaken by heavy and constant knocking on my front door. 

My first instinct was to check my phone. It couldn't possibly be my roommates locked out, they would have called me. And I was pretty certain they were both sound asleep in their rooms next to me anyways. The knocking only increased in sound so I made myself get out of bed at, get this, 3:30 in the morning. Seriously, who the heck was pounding on my door at 3:30 AM!? That's when I heard, "IT'S THE POLICE." and saw a flashlight shining through the front window. 

Okay, this is a first. Haven't dealt with this one before.

I opened my door and the police officer asked if that was my car parked in front of my house. Why yes, that was mine. He then proceeded to say, "Ma'am, someone broke into your car." At this I rolled my eyes. I may have mentioned this before, but for those of you who don't know, my driver's side window is permanently stuck down. So it's more of a: "Did they really "break-in", or did they just open my door since there's a window that's always down granting access to all that pass by?" He confirmed that it was the latter and that the content of my glove box had been emptied onto my seat. 

Police Officer: Do you want to check to see what's missing?

Me: "No, not really. I don't keep anything of value in my car."

Translation: I want to go back to sleep.

Police Office: "Well you see, we have this guy contained down the street that might have done it and if we find something on him that belonged to you, we can arrest him."

Translation: I really want to arrest this punk. Can you please help me find some evidence?

Me: Let me find some shoes and I'll check.

Police Office: *squeal of delight*

Me: Okay, it doesn't look like anything is missing.

Police Officer: Well you better take your CD case inside so that no one steals that.

Me: Oh, I actually wish someone would steal it. I'm sure they'd love all my CD mixes from high school. Summer of '08 is a classic.

Police Officer: *crickets*

Me: There's also one of those mini-Christmas trees in my trunk, I'm surprise he didn't want that. I mean, free Christmas tree, amiright?

Police Officer: *crickets*

Police Officer: You better change your registration to your current address so if this ever happens again, you can be found. You're suppose to change your address within 21 days of moving.

Translation: Your jokes are lame.

Me: Okay, well I have work in the morning so I'm going to bed.

Translation: If you're not going to laugh at any of my hilarious jokes after waking me up at 3:30 in the morning, I don't want to hang out with you.

PS- This confirmed my suspicion that both my roommates would sleep through a house fire, a Lion King stampede, a flash flood caused by playing Jumanji, etc and so forth.

How much is that doggy in the window?

Oh wait, that's my stinky dog Harley. So that would be free.

There's really no point to this post. Carry on.

The Inevitable Love Story: Part Four

Don't forget to read part one, part two, and part three first.

After deciding to trust that things would work out, I threw myself into all other aspects of my life to avoid thinking about Andrew. I re-dedicated myself to my calling, attended the temple more, made new friends, went on a lot of dates, started writing on the blog more, took a few trips, attended blogging events, took every opportunity with my etsy shop, got a temporary second job, volunteered to help in a twice-weekly reading program, and moved into a house. To say I was busy would be an understatement. I didn't have any extra free time. And I loved it.

I would run into Andrew at church functions. For the most part we were civil (there may have been a few times that I purposely ignored him- oops), but after getting over the undeniably fact that we would still be present in each other's life, we established a friendship that was acknowledged by occasional passing head nods. As much as I tried to avoid him, we would constantly bump into each other. Our timing was impeccable when it came to showing up to activities at the exact same time. It was quite infuriating, but I secretly liked it.

(Side story: With all the happenings going on in my life as well as the big decisions that seemed to be flying my way, I was worried that maybe I wasn't making the right decisions. I knew that I was making good decisions, but were they the best possible decisions for my life? I decided that I wanted the comfort and assurance only a priesthood blessing could bring so I asked Andrew if he would be willing. He was and I was able benefit from his priesthood power. I will forever be grateful for his worthiness and willingness.)

The civility and politeness continued over the course of a few weeks until one fateful Sunday. It was fast and testimony meeting and although I hardly ever (see: never) work up the courage to bear my testimony at the pulpit, I had an undeniably feeling to get up. So I did. As I turned to face the congregation, the only person I saw was him. Mister Snow was seated directly center in the very back row. The way he stared at me as I bore my testimony was quite unnerving and once I sat back down, I was more than a little shaken from the experience. I told myself not to think about it, but that proved to be impossible. As the rest of the church meetings progressed, I ran into Andrew a ridiculous amount. Every corner I turned, there he was. I could not avoid him. I was more than relieved when I was able to go home. I just couldn't handle it.

I was able to put it out of my mind until I received a text message from Andrew on Tuesday asking if we could talk. Being stubborn I told him there wasn't really anything that needed to be discussed. But he insisted, saying he had some questions for me. I relented and he said he'd be by around five that same day. My stomach was in knots.

Read part five here.

Le Tote

I'm super pumped about today's post! A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Le Tote and asked if I would like to try out their unique membership plan. After looking around on their site, I was completely on board. Le Tote is a program that allows you to "borrow" clothes and accessories from an unlimited closet as many times as you want for a simple monthly payment. 

Here's how it works: Once you sign up, you fill out a style profile and "heart" items that you like. This allows their resident stylists to pick out and personalize a tote just for you. They mail you your tote and then you get to keep/wear all the items for as long as you want. Two days, two weeks, two months- it's totally up to you. Once you decide you'd like some new options in your wardrobe, send it back. Oh, and free two day shipping both ways. 

I realize I'm not the best at explaining things, so I found this helpful video below that shows exactly how Le Tote works:

You guys know I don't do outfit posts because, well, because I'm an awkward person and they never turn out (selfies by self-timer is a straight-up recipe for awkwardness). But here's one picture to show off the totally cute dress I got in one of my Le Totes. The bracelet, which I love, is also from Le Tote.

Click here to learn more about how Le Tote works and to sign up for your own. I'll be sure to post more of the awesome clothes and accessories that I get from Le Tote in the future.

*This post was sponsored by Le Tote, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.*

The Inevitable Love Story: Part Three

Remember to read part one here and part two here first. 

After deciding to become exclusive, Andrew and I spent the weekend apart due to the Easter holiday. Monday came and I was excited to see my "boyfriend". He texted me that night and asked if I was able to swing by and talk to him. I quickly drove myself to his parent's house where he was located and immediately knew something was wrong when he was already waiting outside for me. I tentatively got out of my car, afraid of what was coming. He asked how my day was then proceeded to tell me that he had been thinking a lot. Thinking is never a good thing so I prepared myself for the worst. He said he felt things were "weird" and that he thought we should just be friends. At that, I told him goodbye and drove myself home.

I was in complete shock.

As a side note, when we were discussing future possibilities, Andrew(who was 26 at the time while I was only 21) was upfront that he was looking for marriage and that I was someone he could see that happening with. I was a little hesitant of the idea as I had gotten out of a very long-term relationship a year earlier, but after discussing it with Andrew, I felt comfortable with the idea. It was something that I wanted to be sure of though so I prayed about it a lot during this period. I had a resounding feeling that I should date Andrew and the jokes about him being my future husband seemed that much more serious.

So as I was driving home, I had no idea what to think. Why had I felt so strongly that it was the right thing to date him if it was just going to end three days later? The only thing I could think to do was to pray. I asked why things turned out completely different than I thought they would and why I received one answer that was different from the outcome. All I wanted was reassurance. If Mister Snow wasn't the one, I just needed to understand why I felt so sure about it in the first place. I wanted to understand.

That night I had a dream. One that absolutely infuriated me.

It started out like a normal, nothing special, wouldn't be remembered, dream. But right before I woke up, Andrew approached me and told me I just needed to wait for him.

I woke in the morning thinking that I absolutely would not wait for him. He was the one who left me with no explanation. God must have known I'd be stubborn because the same occurrence happened in my dreams the following two nights.

And so I decided that I would be patient with Andrew and trust in God's timing.

Read part four here.

Books on Books

There's a bookstore on Main Street in downtown Mesa that I absolutely love. It's called Gallery Book and specializes in old and rare books. I could spend hours there. 

And that's pretty much all I got for this post. Deal.