Dream Cruise on Woodward Ave.

Every year in August, Michigan holds the "Woodward Dream Cruise" where cars pile up on Woodward Avenue to show off how old, new, or expensive their automobile is. The busy 50mph road turns into a dead stop from all of the cars and spectators are found for miles up and down the road to admire some amazing cars.

It's awesome because the church building and temple are on that road and we used to pull up chairs and blankets on its lawn to watch the cars.

This year we were on Woodward in the before and after and we saw a lot of awesome cars. I was interested and checked out the most expensive cars 2009-2010. Check them out:

Most expensive cars 2009-2010

1. Bugatti Veyron for $1.7 million
2. Lamborghini Reventon: $1.6 million
3. McLaren F1: $970,000

Da di da da

Here comes the bride!

It's coming up so soon! Last weekend I got more things into place from the tuxes, flowers (which I'm doing most of... especially for the bouquets), cakes, food, etc. I still have 55 more things to be reminded of from theknot.com, so it feels like so much still.

The dress is coming along so well and now I'm just passing time.

Captured TWICE in WWII

Last week I finished the book "Rescued by Mao" written by one of my old next door neighboors William Taylor who served in WWII and was captured TWICE!!!

I loved hearing about his experiences, which were all true, and how he fought, was captured on Wake Island, and suffered so much while in the concentration camps. I can't imagine starving like that or how manipulative the enemy camps were, but he said during the duration of this hardship which was years, he always turned to the Lord and thanked him for his blessings and that he was alive.

At some close times he almost died, was beaten, and could have been greatly in danger or injured, but it's amazing how he was looked after and was dedicated to the Lord in prayer and also his habits and sharing the gospel to others.

Last night we also had a fireside where a man returned from Afghanistan where he served for quite a bit within the last few years and experienced many hardships too being in the face of danger and war. He too talked to us about turning to the Lord in prayer and actively practicing our faith in times away from family and the US.

We've been together for a year!!!

Chris and I have been dating a whole year now!

It's been so great, he's been amazing and we've had so many good times together and are excited to have millions of more in the future. I know when we got engaged we talked about how we wanted to make this engagement time it was about the 'marriage' and not as much the 'wedding' in the sense of making it about us and the temple.

I really feel like we've been doing that and it makes me so happy to have our minds and hearts focused on the things that will last.

I can't believe it's only 23 days!!! It's going by so fast and it stinks because I'm not right there beside him, but without a doubt I know he is there, loyal, loving, caring, etc. Even though I'm not with him I'm glad he's being understanding.

10 Reasons I love Chris Pearson:

1) loves me, the Lord, and the gospel
2) helps me become a better person
3) is trustworthy and loyal
4) kind and thoughtful
5) hard worker
6) thinks of others before himself
7) wants to be married in the temple and a family
8) funny and cute
9) both are frugal and think things through
10) mature and wants our family & us to be grounded in the gospel and its principles

I love him so much! I'm so excited to be with him soon. I'm not just bending these things, this is really who he is which is everything I want. I know too that when looking ahead and continually planning our future together we'll make a difference in many people's lives and in our own.

Love you,
Elise

Favorite things of Today

10 top things that made me happy today. Here are my favorite things which are not in any order:

1. Going through pictures of Chris and I
2. Coming to work and seeing Pearson mints on my desk
3. Seeing a porcupine roll by the side of the road
4. Singing in the car
5. See and work with my Uncle today
6. Doing my nails
7. Putting on my wedding dress
8. Gave the FHE lesson for my family
9. Eating sushi with my dad
10.Reading a book of my neighbor who got captured during WWII

Being Tour Guide of Michigan for Chris

Chris' last day here I took him around the area I used to live. I was born in Michigan and have lived the majority of my life here even though I can't believe that this is year 7 living in Utah.
We drove to Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills area where we stopped at Cranbrook Institute which has the top art school of the country. When I was young I worked here for a boys day camp and oh my heck that was a challenge. I had 22- 8-year-old boys. The grounds are so lovely and designed from some of the top designers.

I also went past my high school Seaholm High School and Quarton Elementary and I think its so cool too that my dad and aunt and uncle went there.

We also went to Downtown Birmingham which I love. The building below is the Townsend Hotel where famous people stay. I remember when the Lakers played the Pistons here in Detroit, the Lakers practiced at our school and stayed here while they were in town.
We also had some golf tournaments at Oakland Hills Country Club right behind our old house and when Tiger Woods and a ton of famous people were in town, even the queen and prince, they stayed at the Townsend. We walked inside it's beautiful.

Later on we went to downtown Detroit. This is Compuware where my dad works. This building is so pretty, in Detroit they are trying to build up to make it nicer.

Here is the front, they are a software development company so their slogan is "We make IT rock"... like IT... information technology. I thought it was cool

Here is the inside at an angle. There's a pond at the bottom and water comes down from these things.

This is the DIA... Detroit Institute of Art

This is the old train station which I think is gorgeous. The architecture and detailing is incredible and I didn't know this but this building is in Transformers 1.

Here's us at Mexican Village. So creepy but the food is incredible and as authentic to Mexico as you can get being thousands of miles away

Dang can't remember what this building is but it's my favorite. Again Detroit has some beautiful architecture and was a beautiful city

We were supposed to get another building in the back. Oh well, here is Chris and I in downtown Detroit. 8-mile is the most dangerous along with Cass Ave which is like 1-3 blocks away. Yikes! Chris has my back though

The General Motor building and Renaissance Center. Not sure if those are empty or whats going on but they do look beautiful especially right off the lake at night

Cute Guestbook Idea

So for me, I would not even open a regular guest book from my wedding again. I also would feel like I would have to keep it, but do nothing with it if that makes sense.
I decided to put together a cute scrapbook guestbook that people would sign for different events like the bridal showers, receptions, etc. and then I would put the pages together to have a cute scrapbook to look through all of our engagement pictures.

You can't see all of the detail, but you get the idea to scrapbook pictures and then set them out when people come into an event so they can sign them. I love it so far and have a cute scrapbook to put them in after the wedding.

Make sure your guest know what they are because people might think they are just more pictures out. Only put 1-3 pictures on so there is enough room to sign around them. Don't put a lot of extra things on the pages

Make sure too that you use a soft- tip pen or marker so the ballpoint pen won't pierce other papers or pictures if they happen to stack them.