i'm engaged...

and it kinda stinks.

sorry, i love him and i really want to be married to him but running around and making plans to be married and not actually being married just kinda stinks.

we finished registering and now i really just want to live in a house that we both live in. saying goodbye to him everyday is not fun...and i love fun.

the planning is going good. we are getting married in 89 days, hopefully i will be done planning by then. sometimes i dont think so. it feels like the Lord, in the way that when you learn something new about Him you realize how much you dont know about Him. every time i finish a task a bunch of new task come out of nowhere.

but they promise me that at the end of the planning i will be married to dominick. so i press on.

because i really want to be married to him.

also he wrote about being engaged too.

i'm engaged!!!

so in previous post i have only referred to a "favorite" without ever really coming out with it. but for those who don't know, i have a boyfriend...

wait, i mean, i had a boyfriend. because yesterday he took me here...

the botanic gardens in ft. worth

he took a picture of my hand holding a leaf (turned out to be the last picture of my non-engaged left hand)

then he sat me down on this bench



and then this wonderful man...

said some wonderful things to me (which will be cherished in my heart forever) and asked me to marry him!! through the tears i said, "yes, yes....yes, yes, yes!!"

so now he is my fiance!!

i was pretty excited!!

i mean, look at this beautiful ring!!

after the gardens we went to dinner at taverna, an italian restaurant he took me on our first date.

after dinner he had planned a party with our family and friends. his parents and my parents as well as his sister, her boyfriend and some seminary/non-seminary friends were all in attendance. it was the perfect end to the perfect day.

so basically i have been on cloud nine for the past 30 hours with no intention of coming down.

dominick really is my favorite.

he began as my friend, a dear friend who i shared many conversations with and stood out among the crowd to me as a wonderful man. then one day we were rock climbing (something we had done several times before) when he looked at me and asked me on a date (something he had not done before). i said yes, of course and thus began our dating relationship. since then my love and admiration for my friend has only grown. i love his thoughts, his company and count myself blessed that he would ask me to share life with him.

to say it simply, i love him and thank the Lord for him daily.

please pray for us as we prepare for the adventure our Father has in store for us as we seek to be obedient to Him in all things.

being a grown up....

last saturday morning i woke up slowly, taking my time in greeting the day. i then turned to my roommate and said, "i think i will have cake and ice cream for breakfast." she replied with, "i will have cookies and ice cream." we then (still slowly) made our way to the kitchen to make our breakfast. then we plopped down on the couch and turned on a movie. as i took the first bite of my ice cream and cake breakfast i thought to myself, "i'm having cake and ice cream for breakfast. i didn't have to ask permission or sneak this....this is what it is to be a grown up."

to those who don't love the state fair...

i don't understand you. how? that is my question, how can you not love the state fair??





i love the state fair of texas. it is one of my favorite things on earth. this year i went with dominick and had the most wonderful time. i was amazed at how big it is and how much there is to see. like this guy, who has no bottom half.



dominick was excited to but was able to maintain his cool.



i unfortunately was not...

we stopped to say hello to big tex...




like i said, so much to see like award winning jams and sauces...



star wars exhibits made out of legos...

a k9 movement show...


which we agreed would be more appropriately called, "old ladies dancing while their dogs jump around near them" as proved by the pictures below...


clog dancers

i took this picture from the waste up, because as dom put it, "sometimes when you reach a certain age, you should no longer wear short skirts." but boy this lady could dance...



a monster truck, who doesn't love to see a monster truck?!?




we saw elsie, the borden cow...

as soon as we walked away from elsie, we both looked at each other and simultaneously said, "poor cow." it was funny...and true.



cool bunnies, and dom breaking the rules, which we all know i find attractive.

and of course sampled the wonderful fair food!!!



my first bite of what i consider a fair must have, fried cookie dough...


this crazy went for the fried butter and before you judge, it was delicious!!

there was a pirate dive show...

he jumped from way up there, the pool was only 10 feet deep!!!

dom is classified as a woolly man, also attractive to me.



of course there was a mj tribute in the form of a fun house.

dom sat in the new jeeps at the car show and again you guessed it...attractive!!

we watched the bird show,




dom at the bird show, they release a bird from the ferris wheel behind him and it flies down to the stage, it was pretty stinkin awesome!


so if you don't love the state fair then basically i don't understand you and i think you should go to the state fair with me. maybe i can explain it to you and help you love it too, because it is simply wonderful.



also recently we went to a mavs game for a friends birthday.

so my last few post have been light but i feel a spiritual rant coming on which will be spewed out on this blog. tony, my boss shared some sermons with me on living out our faith in the act of giving to the poor and the last two days of listening to these sermons has been a beating. i am, as dominick calls it, "being worked over" by the Lord. lots of tears, repenting and being grateful for grace has been going on. a few other thoughts have been up in the noodle as well that had i not been so exhausted from the last couple of days would be in this post but for now are being put off till next time.

i will do my best to not be so long between post next time. to those that read, thanks for caring about me and my life, i definitely do not deserve it but am grateful to you all...all seven of you :)

i think i'm ready to talk about it...

summer is over, it was official when i sat in a room filled uncomfortable desk and listened to and elderly brittish gentleman talk about the koine greek language.

i was sad to see it go.

summer 2009 will forever be one of my favorite summers. plenty of playing, watching people i love get married, and spending time with favorites.

as i look back on the summer the memories flood my mind and bring me great joy.

however, there is one memory that brings no joy.

it only haunts me.

truly, i am haunted.

so there i was, enjoying one of these wonderful summer days at hurricane harbor with my good friend/new roommate julie. julie and i had spent the day riding rides, catching waves (artificial of course) and generally laughing our faces off. we were just about done with the day, out of the lazy river for the last time and headed to pick up our stuff and head out the door when we saw it.

it was a sight i shall not soon forget as much as i would like to.

a girl had pooped her pants.

this was no little girl, this was a teenage girl who had pooped her pants.

this is how it went down from what i could tell. (this might not be the most accurate, it's what i could gather from the scene i observed...from a far.)

said girl was playing in the wave pool, disregarding her growing discomfort in the name of fun. her group tired of the wave pool and exited. she then pooped her swimsuit bottoms. in a desperate effort to avoid further embarrassment she took of running toward the lazy river which was about 30 yards away. about half way she was busted by a hurricane harbor employee (who i'm guessing at this point was hating his life) and forced to remain less she spread her excrement further across the water park and dangering the health of other attendants.

so there she is stuck, held captive by the employee and forced to remain in the middle of the crowds, poop down her leg and in a trail behind her.

another employee quickly brought her a disinfectant spray, paper towels and a trash can with which to clean herself and dispose of properly.

to recap:

-she pooped her pants in the middle of the water park
-is now cleaning her poop off her leg in the middle of the water park

as you can imagine at this point she is pretty angry/embarrassed. embarrassed about what happened, angry at the harbor's policy to not let her run and hide.

so this is where i come in. but what do i do? this was the question at hand. what can you do in this situation to help this poor girl.

anyone?

really, are there any suggestions? there was nothing.

nothing.

absolutely nothing we could do.

we kicked around the idea of gathering other ladies to help us and hold our towels up around her but that would have just drawn more attention. also with the trail of poop she left someone would have had to stand close to it to form a solid circle.

so we walked away. we continued in our task of leaving the park in utter shock, horror and sadness of not being able to help. as we left we knew it would be an event that took time to process and sink in.

only now is what i saw real.

that evening i called a creative friend who i thought might have had a really good idea had she been in that situation. (it should be said about this friend that she was much more compassionate than i was) anyway, after some thought she spoke...

"the only thing you could have done, was gone, stood next to the girl and poop your pants."

what a delight...

i am back from my vacation to colorado with everything you hope to come back from a vacation with:

-good quality time with our Lord

-a refreshed spirit

-cool stickers

-good time with family

i had the most wonderful time, just can't say it enough. i had a wonderful time.

wonderful

i think i will just share pictures and write as it comes to me.

first i went to visit cody and he took me hiking.

i was excited about it.

the aspens were beautiful.my brother was precious

this is cody when we got to a creek with no clear crossing point. we still had a couple of hours of hiking to do that evening so we didn't want wet socks. he was trying to decide our best choice. i went first and made it dryly (thank you, thank you) then i watched him cross, all the while chanting, "fall, fall, slip, fall." i am not as precious as he is.

so then we were hiking in these woods...

we came out of the woods to find....

it was cool to make a new friend but i didn't want him to join our hike.

this is at the top of triangle pass. it took a lot of time and effort to get here but it was entirely worth it. this is cody pointing to the pass, we were tired at the end of this day.

after my time with cody i drove a few hours north to visit my other brother luke and his wife ashley. this is luke and his dog in front of his house.

one day the three of us went to downtown ft. collins. it was a beautiful downtown area.

luke bet me a dollar i couldn't sit on the second pole.

get paid!!!

luke and his wife ashley. as you can see by these pictures...we are not very good at behaving in public. we stopped at ben and jerry's for a little afternoon ice cream. and jenga...

luke is usually too cool for school so i was grateful that he was being a good sport today.

one day while i was there luke caught 7 fish in a stream by his house so we fried them up that night and it was free dinner. then we played guitar hero.

this is on the drive from their house to estes park. it was simply amazing. when we arrived in estes park we turned around in this neighborhood while looking for a parking place and found these guys.

i liked watching my brother and his new family.

then we went to rocky mountain national park and it rocked my face off.

saw this guy.i was again, excited. the best sister-in-law ever with her colorado friends.

then we saw sheep with horns...NATURE!!

overall conclusions:

-God is good, he has made a lot of beautiful things and it is only by Him that we are beautiful.

a certain person who i am enjoying the company of a lot lately was pointing out to me one day while we were in the car together that ft. worth is kind of fake. the grass next to the highway is not natural, it was planted there because they messed up the natural foundation with the many highways. this makes this person sound cynical which he is not (ish). a little cynical and a lot wonderful..anyway back to the point.

i thought a lot about what he was saying while i was enjoying the beauty of our Father's natural creation. what He makes is beautiful. He doesn't need our help. He is good all on his own.

what a wonderful thing that why we were

ugly,

sin covered,

He chose to make us beautiful.

-another conclusion:

it is good for humans to sit in front of big things God has made and remember that we are small.

we think we are important, deserving and it is simply not true.

we don't deserve anything but hell.

i wish i could really get this through my head. this is the kind of truth that if i could truly understand it gratefulness would be produced in an amount that might change the way i live.

help me Lord.

but simply, it's good for us to remember we are small.