2 days.
2,916 miles.
3 classes.
Turn in 2 papers.
Work on 1 paper.
Two nights of sleep.
1 drive to the train station.
2 trainrides.

...and then I am home with Allison :)

Can't Slow Down Yet

Wow,

The past few weeks have flown by. Everyday seems to blur with all of the studying, writing, missing Allison, and sleep. Allison is coming in 2 days though! I can't believe it, that is so soon. Branch Night is Sunday! I am not nervous, I am 307/1160, I will get my first choice. But it is surreal to think about. I have spent so much time here at West Point, by the time May comes around I will have been a cadet for nearly 6 years if you include my mission. But I am going to get my assignment in the US Army on Sunday. It is weird for me to think about. Growing up I never imagined myself in the army. It was never something I really thought about. I am glad that I have this opportunity though. Someday our children will be able to say that their father served their country during a very turbulent time of change and challenges. I am excited to serve this great nation.

Allison is coming this weekend! I am so excited. I have a history test tomorrow though on the Napoleonic Campaigns. And I am working on my capstone paper on geography and macroeconomic development. Good times. 2 more days :)

Dallin

Chipmunk cheeks

There have been a lot of highs and lows over the past couple of weeks. The highest high: visiting Dallin in New York from October 9th to the 12th. The best thing about last weekend was just the opportunity we had to spend time together. We basically just did a lot of hanging out in the city. We walked around a lot in Central Park, Times Square, China town and other places. We went to the Magnolia Bakery, one of my favorite places to visit in New York. They have the most unbelievably delicious cupcakes.

We also saw a play! We saw "Finian's Rainbow". It was quite enjoyable, however, Dallin and I agreed that the story line was a little crazy and hard to follow. But the music and dancing was excellent.

We also sampled many delicious foods of New York. Yummy Chinese chicken and broccoli on Canal Street, delicious thin crust pizza in Tarrytown, and Roast Beef sandwiches near Park Avenue. This last weekend confirmed to me of how much I love spending time with Dallin. I always have so much fun with him. He is my best friend. I love going on adventures with him in New York City. We have so much fun exploring and relaxing with each other.

I returned back to Utah on Monday October 12th at around midnight. And what did I have to welcome me home that night? A four-page essay, that I had not even started. I wasn't able to go to bed until around 4 am. The rest of that week was just as depressing as I studied my brains out for an international economics test and an operations management test, both of which I received mediocre scores on. Then last friday, to top it off, and make this last week the worst week ever, I had my wisdom teeth removed.

For the past couple of days, I have been recovering from the surgery at my Aunt Sandi's house. I just barely came back to my apartment yesterday afternoon. I am still in some pain, and I still am pretty swollen with chubby chipmunk cheeks. I can't wait to look normal and eat normally as well. However, I just received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my sweetheart. He very much brightened my day. He has probably suffered the most from this whole ordeal, because he usually calls when I have just woken up and I am still cranky. I have not been very nice to him over the past couple of days. So, I am sorry Dallin! I love you! Hopefully you still love me, after I have treated you so rotten after this past week!

This weekend....

...is going to be amazing. I can't wait for Allison to be here. This past month has been lonely without her around. I can't wait for her to be here with me. I love Allison so much, I am so lucky to have her in my life. This weekend is going to be so much fun, I can't wait. Did I mention that I love Allison? Because I do. Also our engagement is 5/12's of the way done!!! These past 5 months have flew, and I know that the next 7 will! Before we know it Allison Neal will become Allison Rosdahl!!!! Wooohooo, I am so lucky. I love Allison.

Dallin

Hard Work

Today class rankings were released, and now more than ever these are important. My branching in the Army, which I will submit next week, are based entirely on order of merit so first come first serve. I think when I was a lowly plebe my rank was somewhere in the 800s or 900s (out of 1250 at the time). Today I received my rank as of right now...312 (out of 1,060). So HUGE improvement. What this means is that I will defnitely get my first preference for jobs and will also likely be the first to get it. This will be important this winter when we choose our first duty station because this too is done based on rank.

I am really excited, I cannot adequately articulate the stress, pain, and work that I have put forth to get this far. It feels so good to start getting rewards for all of my hard work. Branching will be just one more step closer to graduation, I can't believe how soon it is coming. People always say, West Point is a great place to be from but not to be at...I can't wait to just be from here!

Like Allison mentioned, she is coming out twice in October! Man she is a champion for being so awesome and willing to fly so far to see me. I just ran a rough calculation in my head, and I think that on weekends alone, we have spent $3,000 thus far! Now, that is a lot of money! We could have used that to buy a sweet used car, 2 new iMacs, 10 ipods, or for 60% of our annual contribution to a roth IRA. However, IT WAS AND IS SO WORTH IT!!! Those flights and weekends are largely what got us here! We have spent so much money to be together, often for really short weekends where we are almost on an airplane as long as we are together. But we now have each other, we are in love, and we are going to get married in the temple in 8 months! I can't put a price on that, this investment truly will have a greater return than any material or financial goal could. If Allison and I continue to love and honor each other, we will be able to spend eternity together.

Surely more factors came into this besides those weekends, but they really have made a huge difference in keeping us together. I am so excited to see Allison in 2 weeks when she comes out. Life apart sucks! I love Allison, and I am so fortunate to have her in my life. Life is good.

Dallin

busy

I am not a good blogger. Maybe I will be better someday. But right now, life is very busy!

I am about 3 weeks into the fall semester, and school is proving to be more difficult than I expected. Although, I only have about 3 hours of class everyday, it still seems like I don't have enough time to get everything done. I usually have to do around 100 pages of reading each night, along with other written assignments as well. I also have to make time throughout my week to meet with my group to work on various group projects. The plus side: I am learning a lot!

Despite this, Dallin and I are able to find around 2 hours in our days to video chat. This is my favorite part of the day. I am also trying to find a spare thirty minutes each day to exercise. Exercising really helps me to manage my stress.

I just got a calling in my ward today. I am a family home evening group leader. I had this same calling freshman year, and I quite enjoyed it. This time around it may be more difficult because my family home evening group is rather large (around 20 people). I think it is going to be a challenge to get everyone to attend.

Today I also booked another ticket to New York. But don't worry, I used sky miles, so it was relatively inexpensive. I am planning to visit Dallin October 30- November 1. It will be fun to spend Halloween with him. Any suggestions for Halloween costumes? If I were not going out to New York, I would probably have to spend Halloween alone because my friends will most likely want to go to a dance, and I never really feel like going to dances without Dallin. It should be a fun weekend. October is going to be a very busy month though. I am going to be out of town 3 out of the 4 weekends in October. Should be interesting...

Fall already?

It is cold in New York, already! Dang it. 3 weeks ago it was too hot, now it is too cold. Either New York is the worst state in the United States or I am a complainer. It has been a few weeks since our last update. We are doing well, we had an incredible time last weekend together in Salt Lake. We had a fantastic time at the Mt. Timpanogas temple Saturday morning, at Park City, in Provo and of course with Uncle Jon/Aunt Bonnie & co.

We are back apart again, not fun, but we are doing well. Allison is actually sick with a cold today, and I am procrastinating starting my Friday afternoon homework by typing this. Tomorrow is our first home game of the football season. We play Duke, they are horrible, and so are we, it should be good! School is good, nothing too exciting to report.

Being engaged is awesome! But it is designed to be a little shorter than 13 months as Allison and I are learning. We can't wait to be married and start our life together. Just 8 more months to go! Woohooo! Ugh. She is sick of living with girls, and I am definitly sick of living with men. We are definitely both extremely heterosexual.

In order to alleviate the pain I have began to plan our honeymoon a little and our adventure which will follow (likely Europe unless we get stationed in Germany, in that case we may stick a little closer). I should be getting my class rank in the next week or so. At the end of the month I will submit my branch preferences and then on November 1st I will get the official word on what I will be doing for the next 5 years! Exciting stuff. I can't wait to be graduated from West Point! Ahhhhhhh. It will be awesome. I remember being a lowly plebe, and thinking of my senior year, at that time 5 years away, and thinking that it would never come. Time flies.

Well, Econometrics II is calling my name. Tobit, logit and probit!

Dallin