i'm getting married in the mor-ninnnnn!

sometimes its your wedding day and you wake up wiiiiide awake at 5 in the morning because you can't sleep a second longer. it's christmas in july people! i feel just like i did when i was a kid waiting for santa claus to come, waking up every few hours to check if he came by with presents yet. perfect time to ramble and write, right??

i've been meaning to write down the story of how zach and i met and started to date, because i know i love reading how other couples met. plus we get married, you know, TODAY (what is life right now people) so this post is a little overdue, don't ya think? and it's my favorite story to tell. i'm going to warn you right now, this post is sponsored by three parts sleepiness and one part bachelorette party sugar and caffeination. it'll be rambling meesh style and i already regret nothing!!

rewind back to the beginning of january of this year:

after i got back from the DR, my tentative plan was to move down to AZ for a bit to spend time with family there and maybe work for a little to save up some money. and then i was going to move out to washington, dc to try my hand at living on the east coast since i'd wanted to for SO long! i was very much ready to continue living my life how i wanted to, throw caution to the wind, and do my grown up thang! plus i also had my best friends living out there and family close by, so i had lifelines in case everything went to crap haha. that's the yin and the yang of michelle in living form: half spontaneous, half super careful/logical.

back on track: it's my first sunday in my singles ward in AZ (i realize this is already starting off as the most cliche sounding story, just live in the moment with me!). i was walking down the hallway with macie from the DR (reunited in AZ!) looking for the bathroom. and i had just finished talking to someone in the bishopric telling them i had graduated from byu. so, we're walking and this guy in front of me (zach) whips around and says, "did you say you went to byu?" and i'm like "yep...hi random guy?" haha. and he asks if i ever lived at old academy while i was there, which i did for a year. and then he asks if my bishop had been bishop thorne, which he was for half of the time i was there. at this point i'm starting to think, "dear stranger, how do you know my life?". finally zach says "man, i knew i recognized you! my dad was in that bishopric and i was in that ward for a few months one summer" (this is classic zach by the way, making connections with people everywhere he goes). and i'm like "ooohhh, cool!" but secretly still not knowing or recognizing this kid at all haha, oops? he introduces himself real quick, points me to the bathroom (a good samaritan) and we part ways.
he friend requested me a little while later, which i accepted. later that night, there was a fireside that i was going to with macie. on our way, i saw that i had a facebook message from zach asking if we wanted to come over to his house to watch the fireside. we were basically almost at the building, so i just told him thanks but no thanks. but then he asks me if we want to come over after the fireside for a game night/dessert night. and i'm thinking "dang, this guy is persistent!" haha. i wanted to go, but i was babysitting early for my sister lori the next morning so again, i told him thanks but no thanks. after that, we started pretty casually texting over the next few days, and i think he invited me over again for a movie night. but i had some family stuff and had to turn him down AGAIN, yikes! i felt pretty bad because he seemed like a fun guy.

my sister lori would catch me texting him, tease me, and joke "watch, you're gonna end up marrying this guy!" and i would just roll my eyes, because i didn't even know him that well. annnnd remember, i had my plan and i was once and for all in control of my life. i wasn't planning on budging for anyone! even with this mindset, i still did eventually agree to go hiking with him that weekend once my family stuff cleared up, because i told myself what was the harm in going on a hike? obviously that's a load of crap and i definitely was so nervous! i remember talking to my friend chelsea a day before and my sister the night before about him and telling them i thought he seemed cool, but i just didn't want to date anybody before i left. i didn't want to let it go anyyyywhere, so we resolved to not let it be a date and to not let him pay for me.

well we started the date off getting acai bowls, and i let him pay for me. so yep, i failed right off the bat! in my defense, my plan was accidentally shut down because i could tell i liked this guy. i remember thinking, "i'm going to get soooo much crap for this" haha, because of the big deal i made about not dating. and because of being teased that something like this was going to happen, because this was classically how it always happened. i had truly believed, despite all of that, that i wasn't that cliche girl that, right when she swore off dating, this dream guy comes out of nowhere!
 honestly though, it was the best first date i've probably ever had, and i couldn't deny that! we clicked right from the beginning. the conversation was so easy and comfortable, and it was all just nice. i remember him telling me how refreshing it was to talk to me, right around the same time i was thinking the same thing :) we started the hike, got to the top, and talked for hours. and on the way back down, i remember thinking "if i don't marry this guy, i want to marry someone exactly like him", because i just knew this was the type of person that i just loved. and that was freaky to know that and feel that!
we saw each other almost every day after that (besides when i went out of town for a week), and then he asked me to be his girlfriend. just like in high school. cue the meesh heart melting into a puddle.

 

the kicker of all of this (and the reason why this story is my favorite) is that we found out a few weeks into dating that he had still been on his mission when i was in that ward he thought he had recognized me from. and i had already graduated and moved away when he was in that ward. meaning there's no way that's how he had known me, and yet had somehow luckily managed to guess that about me and make that connection that ultimately is causing us to get married in just a few hours. AND his dad had been the one that had convinced my best friends to move to dc, which would've been the reason i moved out to dc as well had i not met zach. what are the odds! that is exactly why i'm going to be the crazy old man on the notebook who loves telling his love story!

with this doughnut, i thee wed.

hola muchachos! long time no talk!

currently sitting on my bedroom floor at almost 1 in the morning, still wearing my spanx and my dress from going to the temple like, five hours ago? apparently when you're in the mood to write, comfort takes a back seat.

i know it's been forever since i've blogged anything, and that's mostly because basically since the beginning of this year, everything in my life has changed. there's been too much going on for this girl! many changes, and change is always good. but things did not go as i had planned them out when i was leaving the DR to come back to the US. and that is the best! i'm glad Heavenly Father stepped in my control freak way and made me go down a different path instead, because there's been so much growth and love and friendship! anyways, i'm totally rambling. i'll blog more later on some of these changes, and how zach and i first met but for now, onto what you're all here for: the proposal story :) it's gonna be meesh style so prepare for lots of me interrupting myself with minor yet important details haha. for the great great grandkids! 

so zach and i had planned on going out to california to visit my sisters over the long weekend for about a month. last minute, we got to head out there a little earlier than planned, and also last minute, we switched things up and stayed at maria/rick/the kids's place first (franny's second) because it was by the beach. we drove out there wednesday night and had good talks and sings the whole way there. i love road tripping with people because it always brings out the realness. and i love seeing that! anyways, thursday morning we wake up and maria (my sister) and i start planning what foods we want to eat that day haha. we're big foodies! santa monica is one of my FAVORITE eating destinations because they have the best everything. i could literally just restaurant hop the entire vacation and not even be mad. and that's basically what we did haha. one thing i am super happy about is that maria talked me into showering and getting ready so we could "take pictures with our food" even though it was actually to save me from myself, because traveling/sleeping did a little number to my hair. otherwise, any picture you would've seen from that day would've been of me looking like an ogre, and that's being kind haha.
anywaaaaays, we decided to start off at bay cities, which is this italian deli with seriously the best sandwiches, breads, chocolates....gahhh, can't think about it while being so far away. it's too painful! 

[do we see that double meat with the fat fresh mozz and spicy peppers?! my goodness, killing me.]

zach had been feeling sick and weird all morning and wasn't super hungry. i felt so bad since it was our first day of vacation! little did i know apparently he was super nervous to be asking me to marry him later on, but let's not skip ahead too soon eh? we finish our sandwiches and maria suggests that we go pick up doughnuts from this cute doughnut shop and take them to the beach to eat them and play. and i'm feeling bad because i know she doesn't like doughnuts, the kids don't like doughnuts, and zach's over in the corner faking it till he makes it. i even tried to talk them out of going to get them since i knew it was basically just for me, but they all convinced me that we should still get them. even minutes later when we were walking to my car, i almost called it off again and zach said "no, let's go while we're still out here so we don't have to come back". well twist my arm, i guess we'll get doughnuts! haha. we went to sidecar doughnuts and immediately i was in love with all of them. 

[again, these pictures kill me.]

and of course rick gets two huge boxes of them and i'm thinking "whoa hold up, who's going to eat these??" i mean of course i was haha, but everybody else was either dying or indifferent. still, those two boxes happened and we got back in our cars to go to the beach. i still remember now on that drive back that zach was being so cute and played the song "bless the broken road" saying it never failed to remind him of me because i love that song, and just saying sweet things. he's the cutest, guys! i don't care if i'm sappy, i love his guts.
we all changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the beach. zach was carrying the kids' boogie boards and had a backpack on, and i asked if i could put my phone and book in his bag. he dropped the boards fast and grabbed them from me and said he'd do it himself, and i was thinking he was grumpy from not feeling good? but of course, the ring was in the bag and he didn't want me to see it. rookie mistake, meesh! once we got to the beach, i ran out to the water with the kids to jump around and play and it was FREEZING. i came back up to get zach and maria came out to me and was making a little video of us dancing around and being silly. i yelled up at zach to come play in the water and he said "okay! i want to have a doughnut before i get all salty, come have one with me!" don't have to ask me twice haha. and maria yelled out to the kids to come have doughnuts too, which i thought was weird because they don't like them, but i thought maybe she was just trying to be nice and make me feel better about being the only one really wanting them. i don't know!
this is the funny part: if you know me even for probably a second, i'm a big food picture taker....obsessed with looking at food pictures on instagram, taking pictures of my yummy food so i can look at them later....it's a little pathetic. but i love it so much! it feeds my soul :) so of course in true meesh fashion, i'm on the ground taking pictures of these pretty doughnuts and i hear zach say "meesh!" right next to me.
 and i'm just like "yeah, whats up." snapping away and not paying attention. 

then he grabs my arm and as you can see, i'm thinkin "boiiii i am up in my food porn zone, this better be important" haha. and of course, i look up to see him down on one knee with a doughnut in his hand. BOOM.

i thought maybe he was just joking around trying to play a prank on me and not believing he was actually doing it because my family was all around and i didn't know he had a ring yet! he grabs my right hand, starts putting the doughnut on my finger, and says "will you marry me?" (he told us after that he was so nervous that he didn't even pay attention to which hand it was supposed to be, he just grabbed one hahaha man, the cuteness.) and i'm like "wait! wait, that's the wrong hand!" and confused, still thinking he's joking and not wanting to be gullible. i said "what are you doing?" and he puts the doughnut down making it seem like it had been a joke...but then reaches in his pocket and pulls out this freaking wedding ring and says "but really". and i'm like dead. down for the count mentally at this point. he told me how he had a big speech prepared and that he had been thinking about it all morning and on the drive to CA but of course couldn't remember any of it then haha. so dang endearing. ugh, he's the cutest! and then he told me he loved me and asked me to marry him. and i said yes!! 

**excuse the blurriness of some of the pictures. these are stills from the videos that my sister and brother-in-law were sneaking which i'm SO glad i have because i would've remembered nothing on account of shock and excitement had it not been for them.

 [phone in hand like a classy modern proposed to girl, of course.]

[literally so happy he did it with a doughnut! i loved that so dang much.]

sidenote: months before, we took a road trip up to utah from az during his spring break to visit his family. and of course, we got doughnuts on the way up. and i was going off about how i just can't say no to them and said something like "seriously though, someone could literally put a doughnut on my finger, and it doesn't matter who you are, i will say yes!". so that's why he did it with a doughnut! even though he could've just literally handed me a pencil asking me to marry him and i'd say yes haha, but shhhhh don't tell him that. i got a doughnut and a ring out of it so y'know, can't complain ;)

cue the freaking heart eyes. i stare at this thing all dang day just like the girls do in the movies. it's ridiculous and cliche and i love it! meeshied's gonna be meeshielee! 

a picture's WORTH a thousand words or WITH a thousand words?

[me and you, you and mee, both of us togetherrrrrr!]

[our stake put on a special dance night for us so we could learn bachata, merengue, and salsa. it was so much fun! and of course i was spinning all over the place trying my best to be that salsa dancing emoji lady.]

[this guy was one of the many hipster guys sitting down and acting too cool to dance. i started talking with all of them and asked them why they weren't dancing and they nominated this guy to dance the next dance with me, even though he was shaking his head no and laughing and saying he was no good. well you better believe when the next song came on, i danced to the empty dance floor and pointed right at him until he came up with me. everybody there was clapping and yelling! it was so funny! we even threw a few crowd pleasing twirls in there to seal the deal.]

[with our cute new friend dariana after she talked in church]

[all of our fun new member friends from the stake dance! half the night was filled with picture taking of course. and yes, all the dominicans have amazing skin and i want to know their secret.]

[jelina and i looking off in the sunset at sosua and talking about how we never want to go back to cold utah winters.]

[angel trying to show off his muscles and me showing off my good side]

[result of what happens when the wifi is out for long periods of time and it's monsooning]

[result of what happens when the sun fries your brain. it got him to stop being all nutso for a second though! but now he grabs my hair every class and tries to recreate this moment soooooo i'd say negative points for miss michelle.]

[the joey tribbiani special. actually, this is the result of what happens when the program director comes to visit and orders pizza for the whole group and you're sitting in the prime eating spot.]

[result of what happens when your neighbor has little piglets which just so happens to be your spirit animal. i picked that baby up and we both just squealed and snorted our heads off!]

[first timers at the orphanage with the sweetest kids. fast friends with all of them!]

[macie and i don't always run to the beach to watch the sunrise, but when we do, we always have a photoshoot. because #picsoritdidnthappen]

[me and my favorite baby girl orphan genesis. i got to the orphanage on this day and they said she was sleeping. i walked in her room and she was asleep on a small mattress with three other little kids. her sister woke her up and genesis saw me and held her arms out for me to pick her up. this picture is after she somehow talked me into giving her a shower (read: she pulled me into the bathroom, took off her clothes, and handed me a bar of soap). we swang on the swings and talked about the crazy chickens and sang "amigaas para siempreeee". i love her so soooooo much! she's such a little nugget.]

food baby lady til i'm eighty!

[mace and i showing off our flowers given to us by little dominican boys. look closely, mine's in my vase bun.]

the second half of our week long vacation was spent in cabarete with a group of us girls. cabarete is always a party! it's the kite surfing beach and it's just beyond sosua beach. cabarete's known for its night-life and reeeeally good food. and good shopping. oh, and good kite surfing. but obviously i'm just there for the food :) anyways, we got to cabarete later in the day because of all the traveling. and you better believe we marched our butts straight to mojitos for dinner. mojitos is one of the many restaurants right on the water. it has the best fresh fruit juice, granisado (frozen fruit juice), sandwiches, fries, and of course yummy mojitos (sin alcohol! that means no alcohol.). alllll for supa cheap!

[ohhhh just me, lookin like a silly in public.]

of course right after i finished my dinner, this little old man kept walking around to all the tables with this little boat made out of leaves and who knows what. and he comes over to me because i made eye contact with me and keeps trying to barter with me and get me to buy it for 50 pesos, which is about $1. and of course he's literally the skinniest man in the world and my belly is all full of food. how could i not buy it, just to give him the money?? it was pretty funny after though because i realized the boat smelled like ish and was covered in bugs and i'm like ohhh what have i gotten myself into?! and i swear that man kept hunting me down all weekend trying to get me to buy his little creations. you give a mouse a cookie! i kept asking people if they liked it and wanted it and they kept smiling and saying "esta bien" haha like nahhh, you keep it. i finally gave it to our taxi driver and said "feliz cumpleanos!" haha. 

and after our scream fest because of how nice our place was that we were staying at, we went to bed. and woke up to this:

[meesh the leper]

[we rented the townhouse we stayed at from some guy on vacation. it was the cutest little beach community! it was mostly older americans and canadians, so it was really quiet and relaxing.]

[complete with a huge kitchen that we all talked about baking all of our american cravings in but never actually did]

another one of our cabarete favorites is fresh fresh. basically we use any excuse in the book to eat here. they do everything right! smoothies, french toast, eggs and toast, burritos, sandwiches, PEANUT BUTTER BROWNIES...everything. you can't go wrong. and there's air conditioning, which is literally a game changer out here (how sad is that). it actually almost sucks going there because you are forced to decide between so many wonderful things. or you do what i do and basically get five of everything every time. they actually kind of hate us here haha. and now i'm going to spam you with pictures and commentary.

[here we have macie chowing down on some french toast, rightfully so.]

[and here we have the holy frijoly burrito, which is a mexican delight. i've gotten it too many times to admit.]

[and here we have me with my literal favorite thing in the DR. judge me, i don't care i don't care i don't care.]

[back at the townhouse! we got macie, courtney, mary, katie, karsen, me, kaylee, and jelina.]

[we gained a lot of weight that weekend. oh, and got flash tattoos! and went hogwild with henna tattoos.]

[debbie, an old lady at our pool, recommended that we eat at lazy dog, which is one of the restaurants on the beach. really yummy flatbread pizza! also we swore we saw a celebrity there and forced jelina to go talk to him like three different times. and got a discount from the owner who happened to be with this "celebrity".]

[more fresh fresh the next day. i just love it so much here! i want to pack it in my suitcase and bring it home.]

 [scrambled eggs and toast and tea, all for 150 pesos, which is a little less than 4 bucks. you can't beat that! also we are all obsessed with this flaxseed bread. no, i'm not going to apologize for my fresh fresh ramblings.]

ummm and last but not least, we ate at another restaurant on the beach (can't remember what it's called) on our last night, while it was having a happy hour two for one deal. turns out we decided to run crazy with that deal and ordered SO much food. like somehow i talked myself into getting two pizzas because one of them was free, but at the same time i was still sharing TWO appetizers with karsen. i don't even know, things got crazy real fast and we were all dying laughing with how much food we had ordered. and our waiter was judging us hardcore and we were dying laughing at everything. people probably thought we were drunk! it was too good though.

basically, i love cabarete. i love these girls. i love food. 

th-th-th-th-that's all folks!