so guess what?

i am engaged! it is the happiest feeling ever! not even finals can bring me down!

here is my side of what happened...
so i was pretty sure that it was coming yesterday. i wasn't positive though and adam did everything in his power to convince me that it wasn't coming. i kept looking for clues... and dropping *subtle* hints. we went to the olive garden beforehand, and it was delicious. after that we walked around temple square for a bit to look at some of the lights. it is so beautiful at christmas time. =) then we went to the nutcracker, which was amazing by the way, and i started to get a little panicked because i thought he really wasn't going to propose. i guess i was showing my disappointment because he kept asking if everything was ok. so anyways, we went back to temple square to finish looking at the lights, when all of the sudden he stopped and started talking about how much he loved me and hoped he would marry me one day. and then he slipped the best ring ever on my finger and asked me to marry him! i said yes, of course, and here we are! ENGAGED!


here is the beautiful salt lake temple all decorated...
here i am with my new lovely ring!

here i am with my fiance, adam d. ward...

adam has a different story. this is what he says about the ordeal...

Hello everyone, this is Adam, the fiance. This is my first writing of any blog ever so I hope I will not tarnish the reputation Jessica has with hers. She wants me to record for future generations my version of what happened on the night of the 12th of December...
I had gathered the feeling throughout the week preceding that Jessica was confident that I was planning on proposing on Saturday. I was under this impression after many times hearing "This Saturday I am going to be engaged!!" and many other things along these lines. She was, of course, entirely correct. I had planned on asking her ever since I heard that we were going to be heading up to Salt Lake. The main concern was I did not want to be predictable and I wanted the actual asking to remain a surprise (as any man who was contemplating asking a girl to marry him would agree). Therefore I did my very best to ensure that Jessica was led by the power of misdirection. When we got in the car on the way up to SLC I hid the ring in the driver side door, in preparation of Jessica searching my car for a ring box. Sure enough she looked and she looked in vain, no ring box was found, at least not by her. Then when we arrived in SLC we went out to eat. While eating Jessica described me as having a "deer-in-the-headlights" look, so I did my best to appear calm and casual. I did not ask her at dinner. Afterwards we took a little stroll up to see the lights at Temple Square and I was certain that Jessica was thinking that now would be that magic moment. This was not that moment. We had a few moments to walk around and admire some trees then we were obliged to head toward the ballet. Upon arriving there Jessica was still as buoyant as a beach ball in the middle of a pond. She was still under the notion that I was going to ask before the ballet. I did not. We enjoyed the first half of the ballet and during the first part I covertly transferred the ring box from my jacket pocket into my pants pocket. At half time (aka intermission) I went to go and get a drink and I began to feel that Jessica was becoming "disappointed" with the lack of a ring on her finger. I sensed this due to the change in her body language, a lack of a smile, and just an overall feeling of being let-down. I was touched with the sadness apparent in her demeanor, yet these were the signs I was waiting for. I wanted it to be a surprise and to come when she least expected. The ballet continued and we both enjoyed the ending (personally I think I enjoyed the ending more since I was also enjoying Jessica's proverbial balloon deflating). Finally at the end I stated that we should head again to the Temple to see the lights. Jessica grudgingly came along, shivering and being in an overall not-so-happy-I-wish-I-had-an-engagement-ring mood. Upon arriving at Temple Square I took the ring out of the box and was holding if in my hand in my pocket. We strolled around for a bit then I found an appropriate spot. I led Jessica there and then gave her a huge hug, looked to the Temple, and said that I want to marry her and I want to do so there. Then I faked scratching my nose with the hand the held the ring, I took her left hand with my other hand, and slipped that band on her finger before she knew it and asked her if she would marry me. I am pleased to announce that she said yes without the slightest sign of hesitation. After that we hugged and kissed and took a picture or two. We then headed back to the car and I must admit the change in Jessica's mood was a night and day difference. Where there was once a general sulkiness, a pure joy now abode. I think the only person happier than Jessica at that moment was me. I had found the girl of my dreams and had asked her to marry me and she had said yes.

so there we have it! adam's really great, long story... and my reader's digest boring version.
so enjoy!
love you all!

an ode to the arts semester

as you know, it is the last day of the semester.
i'd like to take a moment to look back on the good...
and the bad...
let us not forget
the writhing on the floor,
the impossible ballet combinations,
matching exact paint colors,
memorizing dance calls,
making small children cry,
eating soup and granola bars every day (no milk, of course),
reading fantasy books,
trying to figure out how the library is organized,
wearing a paper bag in the wilk,
deleting the facebook,
not finding a job,
taking three backpacks to school,
freezing my nose,
driving in the snow,
making way cool things in art,
reading the best books ever,
acting like horses and galloping around,
dancing to jai ho,
having the biggest bathroom ever,
finally doing a double pirouette,
understanding how kid's count,
making great friends,
sleeping at normal hours,
writing a play,
and eating cookies during most student presentations.

yes, my major has its bad moments.
but there is also lots of great ones. =)
ONE DOWN, THREE TO GO!

serious words of wisdom

do not trust teachers who tell you to move in a straight line. that is ridiculous. what type of line am i going to move in exactly?

the dictionary defines a line as a straight or curved continuous extent of length without breadth. thanks. straight is in the definition. that is like saying a swimming fish, or marking marker, or luminous light. i don't know. if we all talked like that, life would be insane. "hi, hello!" "how are you? how is life?" "good, great. thanks, thank you." you get the picture.

just don't say that. and don't let anyone say it to you.
and if they do... don't take them seriously.

just a bit of project week/finals week madness for you.

who says desserts aren't breakfast?

hello! sorry it has been so long!
here is what you have missed in the past few weeks:

In-n-Out opened in Orem! YAY!

But instead of palm trees, they have space heaters. (This is not my favorite.)

I was Oobleck in our drama play! Lovely!

We had Thanksgiving and ate yummy rolls that only my mom can make...

And I made delightful snowflakes to hang from my ceiling. I don't have that many (yet) so the picture isn't very good. And I also realize that this is copyrighted by Joanna.

I made many an art project in my art class. For example my Eiffel Tower shirt...

And my my pointe shoes sketch...

And my earless clay puppet from "Where the Wild Things Are."

And it snowed! Look how grand it looks South of campus!

And I got lovely flowers from my Ma. YAY! Thanks, Ma.

The End! Happy finals for all! Anyways, have a lovely December. I will see you soon! =D

it's the greatest time of year

you guessed it! it's christmas time (basically)! and i am so darn excited! so first off, the reason why it took so long to post stuff is because literally nothing has been happening! it's completely crazy. just school stuff... but one of these school things, oh man, you will love. for our drama class, we did a play about weather and oobleck. "that's right. oobleck, the green gloop falling from the sky!" and guess who got to be oobleck??? ME! haha. my lines were, "glub, glub, glub." kammie and i completely rocked that role. =)

guess what else? i got to dance in the covey center! i was an angel in danielle's dance, and look what i can do! it was so much fun... it makes me wish i had done ballet a long time ago. oh well.

AND guess what else? my lovely apartment-mates decorated our apartment for christmas. and look how darn precious it is!!!

yep. i love my life.

and guess what? this friday = in-n-out burger + new moon which also = the best friday ever. AH! i am so excited!

love you all!!!

snow, mariah, and david.

well hello! it has been some time... shame on me. lots has happened in this past little week! first off, i went to the formal homecoming dance, and it was so much fun! they had a live band again like they did in april and i LOVE that. all of the little jolly men playing jazz and swing and stuff. it's great. =) they also had a horse drawn carriage! it was so cool. there were cute little white lights on it and everything. such a happy little place. the only sad part of the night was when i was walking in and my spaghetti and meatballs gracefully exploded all over the fleur de lis sidewalk. shhh. don't tell.


let's see... what else? i finished multiple tests and projects. such a relief... that also means that this week will be dandy and pretty low key. and i am ALL about that. =)

the weather this past week? are we kidding now? it snowed a few times, and when it wasn't snowing, the wind was so bitterly and rudely cold that i couldn't even function. sometimes i wonder about this place. actually, lots of the time i wonder about this place.

it was halloween (as i am sure you know), and at BYU, halloween is no small deal. it is a huge personal victory for people to have the "coolest" costumes on campus. last year i saw huge pac men/ghost deals running around. that was really funny... and this year. oh my. the mother of all great costumes... SHARKS! two great white sharks (complete with jaws and everything) were circling these poor girls! they even attacked her! it was the highlight of the semester. and i was definitely a fan. i secretly wish they had attacked me... and i would have asked for a picture with them. sad day. haha

so anyways, that night i dressed as "halloween spirit" (basically anything black and orange), and adam and i went to the combined wards halloween dance party! check out adams ninja costume! i, being the resident expert ninja, tied his lovely mask from a black shirt. be proud.


on actual halloween day i decided to give up on halloween and move on to christmas. hey, if target can, so can i. i ran about 1 million errands all around provo and orem. i decided that i needed a christmas fish. aptly named mariah, for mariah carey (who sang the best song/christmas song EVER--- all i want for christmas is you). anyways, mariah gets her own little tank now... filled with precious little red and green stones. isn't she just so festive?



i also bought david archuletta's christmas CD with my target gift card. great fun, highly recommend it. ALSO, get diet pomegranite 7-up. it is a must. and it has natural anti-oxidants, so it is basically healthy for you.

so halloween night rolled around and adam and i decided to stay in and pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters. we made dinner in a pumpkin. =) yay! and passed out/ate all of the halloween candy while watching ghost hunters live. truly terrifying. adam said it was fake, but i felt differently. evidence? i slept with my light on and had nightmares about ghosts talking to me about their insane assylum experiences. i should've just stuck with charlie brown and the great pumpkin adventure. bad choices, jessica.

so i think that pretty much sums it up. i will try and be quicker about my posting this week.
love you all! happy november!!! =D

parking space of requirement

in harry potter, the room of requirement is a room that any wizard or witch can find on the seventh floor of hogwarts if he/she has a specific need in mind.

"so let's say i really needed to use the toilets?"
"charming, ronald. but yes."

turns out there is a parking space of requirement at byu. when you most need it, it pops up on the 2nd row of the rb parking lot. in the most dire and stressful situations, it will be there. i have complete evidence of this, because somehow when i most need a parking space (when it is cold, or when i am late) it is ALWAYS there! you can count on it.

so if you come to byu, check it out. it'll be waiting for you.

get that corn outta my faaaace

hello friends. i went to the corn maze the other day with adam. jolly good fun... i will let you in on a few of our adventures at said maze place. here i am sitting on a giant rocking chair. great fun.


here i am holding my findings from going through the maze. as you can see, i am at victory bridge. and there was lots of corn. and it was all dead. so clearly, this isn't stealing.

adam found his baby picture! ah. just kidding, it's michael's baby picture! ha. but seriously. what is this? a giant iguana? a star wars creature? a dinosaur? and why can you walk through it? and WHY is it at a cute corn maze anyway? yeah.

this is me just hangin out. ha. get it? ha. i crack myself up.

here is a pyramid of pumpkins. where every famous person can be found. i.e. gordon b. hinkley, dora the explorer, animals, obama. you name it.

here is adam as the statue of libery. but really, we got this pumpkin for free. i should carve it, but as for now it is in my room. being festive and such.

the end! love you all!

mean yard-duty lady

remember that one time, long ago when i was playing on the playground with the rest of the kids- and the whole group of us found a cat? we chased that cat all around the playground. seriously, probably 30 of us. it was great fun, and i saw nothing wrong with the whole situation. anyway, the yard-duty lady decided that we should stand on the fence for 5 minutes because we were being so bad. i was absolutely distraught, and quite mortified. i remember i was wearing a red tank top with a little pocket on the front and jean shorts. it was a friday. i was crying. and i was the only honest student apparently, because i was the only one on the fence. i basically despised that lady. never would i turn into someone that mean.

well, turns out that i am that mean because i made a little boy cry today.

it was truly not mean, i watched the video tape. this little boy got his first warning... and he decided to not pay attention for the second time. i waited for him to pay attention. i gave positive reinforcement to the other students around him... but there comes a time when enough is enough. and he needed to go to time out. so i sent him there, where he proceeded to cry for 5 minutes, meanwhile wrenching my heart into a million pieces because i DID NOT want to be the mean yard-duty lady. i scrimped, i pleaded, i praised, and i feel that my efforts to become his best friend and fix the time-out incident were probably in vain.

he will forever remember the day that he cried in PE in the second grade. he will remember that he was wearing a grey sweater, and the mean byu lady put him on time out.

shameful.

oh the weekend went too fast...

hello all again, happy late october! that is so very exciting. i hope everyone has a lovely halloween costume picked out. i am going to be a halloween ballerina. yes, something along those lines, and i am quite excited. so what has happened recently?
well my family came up from california to visit me! we had the grandest time ever. =) i want them to come back. what else? i survived this past week in school. i didn't sleep ever, but i lived. pam and jim got married. that's cool. i am getting caught up in my homework so i don't die again next week. i did a double pirrouette (can't spell), even though i can't really do a single. i can do the splits on my left side. (not flexible, so this is a major accomplishment). my room is quite clean. i got pomegranite honey yesterday and ate it on biscuits. (best decision of my life). adam and i made an apple pie from scratch! fun! i got my real simple magazine in the mail and i am so very happy about it. i bought a cake decorating/recipe holiday magazine. and everything looks so delicious that i might have to make it all. =) yay! i had a bad dream about sharks again last night. i sure hope they don't move to utah. i watched the mummy. until i fell asleep. ha, it was good though. =) my room smells like pumpkin spice because i am a festive child. i can't wait for thanksgiving because my momma is gonna make the best rolls ever and i am going to eat IN N OUT! YAY! today i am making yummy red potato stuffs. it will be quite good. oh yeah, i had the worst friday ever. one of my misfortunes was when my backpack flooded (my water bottle opened), and soaked everything inside. my poor art book, and my poor baby keys. well, i think that is all. i love you all! enjoy my babbling list!
jessica ann

hectic, hectic life

hello all! i know it has been forever... so i am going to make up for it. i will put pictures up, change my blog background, and write as much as i can about my adventures in provo. where to start... well. school is positively insane. i never thought it was possible to have so much work to do, with literally no time. i never understood why people couldn't just take the time to make a delicious meal with lots of ingredients, but now i understand that if i do that i will be up until 1:00 trying to scrimp by. it is a lot of work, but i am learning so much. i love school, but i particularly hate my elementary education dance class. at first it was all fun and games, but now we have to call our own dances. so basically it is impossible because i don't know my left from right... and math is hard because i can't divide. and ballet is hard because i can't do any turns. so yes, school has presented me with many problems... but we are working through them.

i love my apartment! it is so grand! my room is kind of a disaster zone right now with children's books all over. but i'll get around to cleaning it. every thursday we have an office party and we watch the office, eat delicious desserts, and play games. it is tons of fun, and it is definitely a nice break from school.

as for my dear duck friends. i visit them every saturday and feed them. it is great fun... and i have my dearest of the ducks- fred. he is such a fool. that bird drew my attention because he is crippled and i felt sorry for him. turns out he just uses his crippled leg to swallow pieces of bread whole. i'm on to him.





today i found out that i am not allergic to 15 foods. turns out i am just plain lactose intolerant. so that's good i guess. haha. today i also gave my first time out in PE. turns out the little fool lied to me... and should have technically gotten his second time out, but hey. there's always next time. those children will rue the day ms. barton came to class to hand out warnings and time-outs like it's going out of style.

this weekend my family is coming to town! yay!!! i am so excited to see them! we will party and eat cafe rio, and go to conference, and do all of the jolly things in the world. well... provo.

speaking of provo, it is freezing. and there is snow on the mountains. what. the heck. it is still september. i haven't even watched charlie brown's halloween, i am surely not ready for mickey's christmas carol. oh, who am i kidding... of course i am.

anyways, i will leave you with two pressing questions...
1) what happens if a rattlesnake bites his tongue?
2) what happens if a baby cow is lactose intolerant? what does it drink?

hasta pronto! love you all!

back in the 801?

hello everyone! here are a few updates... i love school. that is happy! i can't have milk products or lactose. that is... not happy. bye bye ice cream. i loved you so. also, i hiked the y today with adam! wanna see pictures? of course you do! here you are...

here i am on the y!

here adam is on the y! yay!

my aesthetic moment for the day...

adam and i, hiking the y!


anyways, have a lovely night. love you all!

school, what a jolly world

hello all! i am going to tell you all about school, because i just love it so much! i have 8 classes. it is a lot of work, but i like my work, so it seems to find itself completed and in my backpack. so that is happy. here we go!

first off, i have ballet! i love ballet so much! it is so nice to get up every morning and feel great for the rest of the day. i might not be any good at it, but i don't care because i love it. really.

my second class is elementary education math! this class seems pretty cool. we do fun kid's math problems, and then talk about how children would solve them. it's great, i have always loved math.

my third class is elementary education PE. i am going to have my own baby class in a few weeks! i get to make signs and lesson plans... and teach kids every wednesday! it's going to be so much fun. i am scared, but hey. i love teaching i am sure it will be fine. in preparation we played with the parachute on wednesday. the parachute probably is the most jolly thing that ever was... it's great.

my fourth class is music for elementary education. we get to make rhythms and sing kid's songs... and we get to illustrate our own kid's book (of a song) for the end of the year! YAY!

my fifth class is children's literature. i love this class. i already am in the habit of reading my kid's book for 40 minutes a day. last night i hardly knew what to do with myself because i finished reading earlier in the day. i just finished seven brides & seven brothers. i would highly recommend it. we get to read a bunch of kid's books in the library... i am quite excited.

my sixth class is elementary education dance. alrighty, this class literally is like disneyland class. it is so happy. we skip around in circles holding hands listening to music. we even did a little dance to "we're all in this together" (high school musical). how can you beat that? yeah, you can't.

my seventh class is drama for elementary education. so far we have done personality tests (i'm a blue), played name games, and even done an imaginary object game. it is pretty darn fun, i am a little nervous about me having to be wild and out there. but i sure will try.

my eight, phew, class is elementary education art! what a jolly class! we drew mickey mouse yesterday! i get to buy colored pencils today so i can make my native american medicine wheel. woohoo! who knew that homework could be so fun? haha.

so yes, as you see i love my school. it's not all partying. there is a lot of work, don't get me wrong. it's so much fun though, so all is good in the neighborhood! i'll write again soon! love you all! have a lovely three day weekend!
jessica ann

guilty pleasures

hello all! it's been a while... but i thought i'd drop in and write down the latest list i came up with- my guilty pleasures. i decided that there sure are a lot of them. haha. so let the fun begin. =)

1) the barbie song.
i love the barbie girl song. it's so great... and it just makes me want to rock out. i can listen to that song on full volume in my car and sing along to every word. really, i quite enjoy it. it always makes me so jolly.

2) hannah montana & wizards of waverly place.
this shows are for small children, but i find them to be the best shows of all time. i can always turn the tv to these shows, and they never fail me. i want to be selena gomez when i grow up. who knew i could be jealous of a 13 year old? eh, we all secretly think she's great. haha

3) stalking people.
whether it is watching them and learning everything about their lives at the airport or finding out via facebook, i do it. and so do you, or else you probably wouldn't read my blog. haha.

4) procrastinating.
hey, i am even doing it right now! i love to procrastinate. i can pretend that i hate that habit of mine all i want, but it just isn't true. in fact, some of my best work has come from the wee hours of the night moments before it was due. yay me! haha

5) stealing pickles out of the fridge.
pickles: the most lovely food ever invented. if i live in your house, and the pickles are missing... you know where they went.

6) dancing around the house.
not to mention this is 100 times better with blaringly loud enchanted music... and especially when no one is home!

7) blaring ghetto music on my ipod at byu.
it is so rebellious and so delicious. really! nothing is better than walking through the library at byu with some ridiculously ghetto song playing on full volume. talk about satisfying.

8) making lists.
well, there is more to that. it isn't so unusual for people to make lists. but i make millions of lists. and to top it off, i put things i have already accomplished on the lists... for example on a typical to-do list i will put things like getting up, eating breakfast, and brushing my teeth JUST so i can cross them off. and then i take a break because i crossed three things off of my list and i am practically exhausted.

9) hoping for vending machine malfunctions.
i love when the vending machine accidentally gives you two candy bars instead of one. it happens to me a lot... and it just makes my day.

10) colorful socks.
why wear white socks? really. if no one can see them anyways, you might as well party with yourself and have bright ones. that way you know are cute all the way down to your toes! i don't even wear white socks these days.

11) seventeen magazine.
that magazine is filled with great tips of how to be 13. and i am pretty sure that i will have a subscription until i am 98. i can never learn enough about the jonas brothers or mascara. haha

12) boxes.
most people know this about me. but i will buy cards, just so i can keep the box. there have been several occasions where i haven't even liked the cards... but the box was just irresistable. now that is classy.

13) the dollar section at target.
without fail, i will buy something there. even if i went to target with one focused goal in mind, i will always get sidetracked... and that package of hello kitty pencils turns vital to my existance. really.

i think i should probably wrap up my list now. just so everyone knows, i am off to byu again! let's hear it for the best year ever!!!

con amor, jessica

why life is precious

cakery bakery!

hello friends! so today i am uploading my pictures of my latest adventure-- cake decorating! who knew it could be so fun! like i said before, i signed up for a cake decorating class for august. i had my first class on tuesday. we didn't actually decorate anything, but we learned how to frost. actually, we watched her frost the cake. i was pretty nervous that she was just making it look easier than it was, but i did it! i went home, made my frosting, made my cake- and i frosted it! (the white cake has the homemade frosting- and it is completely smooth) here we go!so yay for cakes! i decided if the economy keeps stinking up things, i will just be a cake decorator! haha! yay for plan b. so yes, life is grand. and i keep on eating cakes. i go back to class on monday and we have to make a rainbow cake. it's not my favorite, but hey it's practice! the cake i want to make is our final... it is soooo pretty. i can't wait! i'll post those pictures when it happens! love you all!

i want leave newport not!

so some of you may know, but we went to newport beach for a week! it was so much fun!!!
my mom and dad right next to balboa island!
the brother and i in the same spot!
look at all of those shells!!! (in my bag, and on the sand)
grandma, brother, and i before the pageant of the masters
katie playing pit!
daddy-o playing pit!
my brother and grandma
my cousin, cameron. he works as a rice picker. this blog entry might as well be dedicated to him because of his adorable looks.
brother, briana, and i in front of the lovely spaghetti factory
cameron, being a total stud.
cameron, jolly as ever, with brother
mom on the ferry to balboa!
me on my way to balboa!
cameron, cute covered in sand. he wanted to make a bridge using a boogie board. unfortunately, this resulted in his face getting covered in sand.
briana and i making s'mores!
brother and i, making s'mores! at the beach!ahhh! he is so dang cute!
cameron with the squirt bottle fan.
cameron being a cute poser.
us at the wedge, with amazingly huge waves. (no thank you!)
brother's rockin' skills at photography.

as you can see, it was quite the fun vacation! love you all!