Sorry for the past few days friends - I got a little spooked when I went onto my statistics and found some of my top referring sites were pornography (what the?!?!)

I found out it's just a spam bot - that nobody was reading my blog from a porn site and my site wasn't affiliated with them in any way. Just shut down to only private for a few days until I could get it all figured out. And now it's all figured out and all is well!

We got WEDDING PICTURES! Expect a full, detailed post (or two. or three.) about that wonderful day just 2 months ago.

Let's catch up a little:


24th of July was awesome! We got to watch the parade, hang out with family, and go to Lagoon! And YES we rode Cannibal - TWICE in fact! It was so much fun to be with family and have such a good time.

I love Pioneer Day because it gives me the chance to really think about my pioneer ancestors, and appreciate all they did to get me where I am today. Some people don't understand or think it's that important, but really it's one of the most important parts of history, in my opinion. I will forever be so thankful for what those brave men and women did, so that I can be where I am. It made me reminisce on my Pioneer Trek experience from Young Women's. We went up to Wyoming to actually walk the path that those pioneers did. It truly was so remarkable to walk where they walked, to see what they saw. It made me that much more grateful for my faith and those who worked so hard to make sure I could believe whatever I wanted.

The days get away from me now friends!

The routine has settled in, here's how it goes.

Wake up, Randy goes running and I either work out or sleep. Get ready. Breakfast. Scriptures. Drive to work together. Work work work. Randy sometimes goes in later or leaves earlier depending on his schedule, and goes and runs errands which is AMAZING (love you!). Get done with work. Drive home together. Make dinner. Watch a show, read, play games, spend time with friends, go shopping for more house things, have FHE, go to the temple, make treats, or a mix of any of these. Then we do it all over again. Surprisingly, I really love the routine we have settled in to. It makes me feel like we are real life adults, a family, and I love that security.

Now here's time for the ballet part of this post:

My sister danced her last recital at Clytie Adams a few weeks ago. It was so nostalgic for my family. We have had a ballerina there for the past 18 years. And now we're all done dancing at that wonderful studio. Clytie came to my wedding a few weeks before the recital, and jokingly asked me when another Richards girl would be coming to dance for her. I have left so much of my heart at that studio, on the stage at Weber, in the dressing rooms downstairs, in every toe shoe and pair of tights. Dancing 100% has made me who I am today. I will always be a ballerina even though I'm not dancing as much anymore. Dancing at Clytie's are some of the most precious memories I have. I danced for me when I was there. Just for me. Because I loved it. I learned elegance, grace, friendship, technique, determination, hard work, how to smile through hard things, and that I could absolutely anything I put my mind to. I am forever thankful and so happy that I had the chance to be a Clytie Girl, and that my sisters also both that to do that.

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in so long that it's becoming a sin. A travesty. I'm ashamed of myself. BUT here I am, ready to play catch-up during my lunch break! Randy isn't here:( So you won't be getting any of him today, but I expect he'll be around again soon enough!

Between working 40-50 hours a week, planning a wedding, spending time with Randy, trying to wrap up my senior documentary, apartment hunting, and trying to see friends before I'm married a no fun, it's been a little busy!

So here's the small catch-up I can give you right now, stay tuned some posts purely dedicated to Randy and I's first look photo shoot, the rest of our bridal shoot, my thoughts about going to the temple for the first time, and things I've learned since becoming a working girl that I didn't learn in college!

For now, here's what's been up:

Don't mind the construction on here for the next few weeks....we're just getting read to unveil...


Randy and I are SO excited to be doing a blog together! We thought about waiting until we're officially married, but it'll just be so fun to blog about these few weeks before the wedding, together!

Watch out for Randy in bold and Maddy in normal font!

New URL: www.hereisthelowdown.com
Don't worry, www.averagedayofaginger.blogspot.com will still get you here!


So again, don't mind the mess for a few weeks while I reconstruct! If you have questions, suggestions, comments, or advice please let me know!

Happy Monday everyone!

So I'm a little behind blogging. I've been a little busy, getting engaged! Oops:)

SO here's the story. 100% unedited, ready for you to read. It's a good one, super sappy, but super perfect. I'm going to tell my side of the story, and then Randy is actually going to type up his side of the story in a cute he said/she said. We're thinking of moving my blog to a platform where we can both post regularly, so let me know what you think about that!

Ok, here we go:)

She says: Randy and I had been seriously talking about getting married for a few weeks now. We'd been praying, going to the temple, spending time together and apart to figure out if it was right. And we both came to the conclusion that we were crazy about each other, and wanted to get married. It was the right decision. We went and looked at engagement rings and I pointed out several that I liked, and told Randy to make the final decision and surprise me. I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for him to propose. I knew he'd gone and talked to my dad, but I wasn't sure if he had the ring, or when he was going to pop the question. I would bug him about it every day, whining and wondering when it was going to happen. He was stubborn and wouldn't tell me a thing! Which is good because i would've been upset if he'd spoiled the surprise. Randy told me he was going to do grand gestures and crazy dates for the next few weeks so I would never knew when it was actually coming.

So Monday, February 2nd, my roommate and best friend Rachel texted me and asked if we could go get cheesecake in Salt Lake that night. We had both had a rough weekend, and she said she wanted to go have a girls night out. Randy had told me a few days earlier he was working Monday night, so I said of course! I came home after class and got all dolled up for our night out. We drove to Salt Lake and jammed to our favorite tunes. I was a little suspicious at first, but Randy was texting me from work, and Rachel had been in no rush to leave, and I figured if Randy was proposing he'd want me at a spot at a certain time.

We went and got our cheesecake, it was delightful.