18 months of awesome!

So I haven't posted on my blog for a looooong time. Looking back on it most of my blog posts have been pretty silly and funny but for this one I wanted to do a serious post about the most awesome thing in my life right now. I have been meaning to put this post up for a while but I haven't gotten around to it between work, school, traveling, etc. But today as I got on facebook I saw that someone who was younger than me was just diagnosed with cancer, a very treatable one according to the post but still it scared me and made me start counting my blessings and most of my blessings begin and end with Kirsten so I figured now would be a great time to do it.
     As most of you know I am engaged to the most wonderful person I've ever known and her name is Kirsten Bayles.  Her and I have been dating for a little over 18 months now and are engaged to be married on the 23rd of May of 2015. That's 286 days away but who's counting? I wanted to post a little bit of how we met and came to be engaged, so that way if any of you were ever curious.. well now you will know!
     Kirsten and I met at Utah State University at our job. The Aggie Connection, we pretty much call alumni, parents and friends of the University and ask for money. I had worked there for a year already before she was hired on ( I am grateful everyday she was) and at first we were just casual co-workers, friendly but nothing too serious. Though there is one memory in my mind of me monitoring one of Kirstens phone calls and then talking to her afterwards( a common practice at our place of work), she was considering transferring from USU and I for some reason thought I should do my darndest to keep her here.. I am still not 100% sure why and I remember thinking.. am I supposed to date this girl? Luckily she decided to stay though! Our relationship really began to take off during the winter of 2012. We were both in Logan over the winter break and decided.. hey why not hang out!
     As we started to hang out more and more I started to notice Kirsten more and more, I noticed how cute she was, how cool she was, how similar she was to me.. I mean she loved sports, loved all the movies and hobbies I did, was a cutie, and was passionate about the things she loved. Lucky for me she started to notice me too. Things didn't click immediately, and we hit some bumps on the way but eventually on February 1st we decided to start dating "officially".
     And date we did, through all seasons, through countless acts of silliness and selfshiness and imperfectness on my part, through most everything possible we held strong. As we started dating longer and longer and as I met her family and got to know Kirst on a deeper level I realized.. I want to marry this girl, I should marry this girl and luckily I had the good sense to act on those feelings. As the winter of 2013 approached we started looking at rings, found one, and I bought it while she was away at home over thanksgiving break. During the winter break a month later I traveled out to ask her dad if I could marry her, I was terrified but luckily her dad is one of the greatest men I know and he gave me his permission. A little while later and after much planning on April 3rd of 2014 I proposed to her, it was a simple proposal of me putting together a cute video of our memories and pictures of us and showing it to her in the phonathon room where we met( technically we met in ANOTHER room but the phonathon is where we really got to know each other so I chose that one.) There were some technical difficulties with the video but thankfully, she looked past it and said yes and now we are engaged to be married on May 23, 2015.
     I can't put into words how excited I am to be marrying her. She puts up with A LOT from me, and I can't ever express how grateful I am that she chose me. I've made a lot of mistakes but she still loves me. Because of her I am trying to be the best I can be, I am trying to be the best physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually I can for her because she deserves it, and since I am trying to be the best I can be I have to tell you right now.. she is perfect. If you don't know Kirsten, get to know her, you'll come to know one of the most amazing, passionate, fun loving, beautiful people you'll ever meet. President Monson said of his wife "There is no one like her.. absolutely no one." and that's how I feel about Kirst! She's my best friend and my everything , she's grown more beautiful, more awesome, more amazing everyday since our relationship started and I am grateful to my Heavenly Father I get to be with her forever.

    Thanks for taking the time to read this if you did, I only brushed over the details but that is the jitz of it. Better than the movies, that's for sure. Also listen to the song I have attached, I was going to try and have it playing in the background but I couldn't figure out how haha but it's a pretty good one. :)
   

Carry on my wayward goose..

This is a story about a wayward goose..  named Stewart Turkeylink..

Last night I was driving in the car with my friend Brad.. it was midnight and with the Sabbath being over we decided to go and get a beverage from 7-11. As we were pulling out of our apartment complex we were talking, listening to music and having a good time and all of a sudden we both stopped talking for a moment because we both saw the same thing at the same time.. we saw Stewart Turkeylink, a wayward goose walking in the middle of the road. Keep in  mind there are no parks close by to us.. no other geese anywhere.. no gosling.. just apartment, concrete, and automobiles.. and also a college kid who lives in the apartment complex across from us I assume just standing by his car smiling at the same situation we were beholding.. it must have been a sheer nightmare for Stewart. Remember as well that this is Logan, Utah. It should be spring but it has been snowing, rainy, and decently cold more often then not so far this spring so geese aren't seem to much around this time of year. We didn't know what to think.. Brad said "holy crap that's a goose" and I slowed down to a stop.. watched Stewart waddle past us and waddle slowly and then keep moving across the street.. I honked to see if I could get him to fly or move quicker so he wasn't walking slow across a busy road but to  no avail it worked.. Stewart was also very dirty. A normal goose should be white and healthy looking like the picture above but Stewart was dirty.. probably hungry and probably far from his home. His wife and children must have been worried sick. His mother is probably in a goose hospital because of a heart attack from Stewart being missing. Oh the stories that this goose could tell. That is the reason I wrote this blog is because I would like us all to remember Stewart Turkeylink in our thoughts and prayers. Brad and I considered taking him in but then realized that would be a bad idea.. but my heart goes out to him. Where was his flock? His family? His home? His next meal? Did he have a place to rest his head for the night? I am almost in tears as I think of my dear friend Stewart and the brief moment we shared. I hope that one day when we meet in heaven he can forgive me for not taking him in. It is not that I didn't want to it is just I wasn't in a situation to do so. I pray for Mrs. Turkeylink and little Joey and Sandy Turkeylink. But most of all.. I pray for you Stewart..Carry on my wayward goose.. there'll be peace when you are done.. lay your weary head to rest.. don't you cry no more.

The reason I started this blog... Chapter 1.

Well hello world.
     How are you doin? Brady here.. I am doin well. Thank you for asking. I know many of you are wondering why would Brady Dalton create a blog.. quite honestly it was mostly because of one event that happended last night at about 12:30 or 12:45 in a McDonalds drive-through. No I am not becoming a father and it's not anything dirty either so get that out of your minds.
     What is this event you ask? Well to get the full feel of it I need to start at the beginning.. it is Sunday night and I am driving home from Salt Lake back up to Logan(which as all of you Utahns know is a decent drive) and as I am going I start to feel.. well hungry and eventually when I make it back up to Logan. It is about 10:45ish at this point I see my good friend Brad Francis and he says "Brady, you wanna go to Denny's at 12:00?" A lil side note it is a Sunday and because of my good Mormon faith I don't spend money on Sunday. It's evil. But once 12:00 rolls in it's Monday and we are free to spend. As noted I am hungry so we decided to go and are just sitting on the couch watching sportscenter until the time comes. Well the time rolls around we are off in my old but good Corolla. Listening to Danish music, talking about life,women, and the pursuit of happiness and just having a grand ol time. Well as we are driving we are trying to find a Denny's but we are having no luck. So I search for it using the modern miracle of the internet on my mobile device and come to find there isn't a Denny's in Logan. Don't worry I was as shocked as you are right now. But we do know that there is a Village Inn and an IHOP so we decide to try our luck there. We go to Village Inn( I love the village, reminds me of fond childhood memories with my grandma and grandpa) and it is closed. So we move forward to IHOP because IHOP is usally always open right? WRONG. Dead Wrong. As we arrive the lights are off and Brad says he feels like he is back in Denmark which I found comical(we were on our missions together there and actually served together 2 months.) The reason he says this is everything in Denmark closes extremely early. A problem we usually don't have in the USA. Anyways back to my story. So we have run into a wall. It is now about 12:15 or 12:30 and we need to eat. There are a number of fast food places around and as we were driving we commented about a special at the McDonalds here aptly named "Big Mac Monday" Where big macs are on sale for a great great price. At this point remembet it is Monday so we thought.. hey maybe we can get the Big Mac Monday deal. But as we look around there is a Burger King in front of us which looks delicious as well. We need to make a choice.. to quote a wise man named David Russel, he says "The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn."
Do we cross the bridge to the kings castle or golden arches? As fate would have it we go to McDonalds and as we get there we see.. a special.. not Big Mac Mondays but something.. greater. As some of you may know I love chicken nuggets. Brad Francis loves chicken nuggets as well and McDonalds has a sale going on of 50 chicken nuggets for 10 bucks. That is right folks 50. That would mean 25 each. Plus they had a deal where you could get 2 large fries and 2 large drinks with for only 5 dollars more. WHAT A STEAL! Is the thought that races through our minds so we go for it. 15 dollars for an incredible meal neither of us are sure we can eat, I mean a 10 piece nugget meal is usually enough but 25? Plus all the extra goodies? Yeah crazy. So we decide to do it. So we then pull up to the drive-thru and hear a message ring out from a tired McDonalds worker "Welcome to McDonalds, just so you are aware our credit card machine is currently down" or something to that extent. I have no cash on me, neither does Brad so I tell the man we will be back when we get cash and we drive to Wells Fargo to the ATM, get 20 dollars, then drive back. As we get back we hear the same message, the same monotone get-me-the-heck-outta-here voice and as we are about to order I freeze. Realizing how angry this man is going to be when 2 men, at 12:30 in the morning, order 50 nuggets. But I order and I even tell him he might not have enough  nuggets made up but then I drop the bomb. I order the 50 nuggets with the fries and drinks.. then we wait.. silence from the other end.. then finally he comes through and asks us what kind of drinks we wanted and what kind of sauce. Diet Coke and Coke and BBQ and Ranch we answer. Then we pull forward, pay the man, and wait again. All the while there are cars piling up behind us because honestly there was no way he had 50 chicken nuggets made up right then and there. So we wait. 2 cars.. 3 cars.. 4, 5.. it just keeps getting longer until finally our good man comes to the window with 2 bags, hands us the 1st with the fries and such in it then goes to hand us the 2nd.. (just a side note I  have the biggest smile on my face right now as I am typing this because this is so dang funny..) and the 2nd bag is full of all the nuggets and as he is handing me it I am reaching out to grab it and it's as if this is happening in slow motion but before my hand can reach the bag the way the man is holding this bag and the weight of the 50 nuggets causes the bag to rip, yes the bag rips and 50 nuggets come splatering all over the drive-thru road between the car window and the drive-thru window. As I look at the man he is to the point of being so angry and frustrated all he does is give the smile one gives when that happens. We all know what is is. I look at him and say "it's all good man" thinking that it was maybe only a box or 2, but then I open my car door and all I see is ALOT of chicken nuggets and sauce staring up at me, it was not just a box or 2. But being the quick thinkers we are we decide to salvage the sauce(at this point our McDonalds associate has gone back to work on making 50 more nuggets, probably doing things to the nuggets out of pure anger that should never be done to a frozen slab of processed chicken) so now Brad and I are trying our hardest not to laugh, keep in mind all the cars behind us and we have been at this drive-thru for literally a half an hour now. We wait a lil longer and he comes back and hands us our nuggets, drinks. Then we drive off , all the while you can hear my car running over chicken nuggets, at this point Brad and I just start laughing and this is probably the hardest I have laughed in a long long long time. My sides start hurting, Brad is punching my dashboard its so funny and the whole way home we just squeak lil things in between our laugh such as " he made us 100 nuggets, dropped the bag, rip, sauce, long line at drive thru, etc.." so we arrive home, and tell some people that are still awake of our story, I decide I am going to make a blog just to tell the peril of this McDonalds worker, this man is working at McDonalds at 12:30/1:00 at night, probably really wants to go home, has a ton of customers and then we show up and he has to make us 100 nuggets in total, 50 of which are now a part of the pavement and my tire tread. Hilarious. There are some moments in life that are pure comedy. When you know only God could have brought all of those things together to make that one comedic moment and that was it. As a side note we did finish all the nuggets, fries and drink. Was it easy? No but we did it for that man. Whoever he is he will always be a legend in my family now, my kids will know this tale, my grandkids and my posterity for generations. It will never die, though the nuggets will digest(one can only hope) the memory of the whole thing will not.

Thank you for coming on my 1st blogging journey with me. That was Chapter 1. Stay tuned for Chapter 2.