i'm looking back...

at 2009 in pictures....

january...

i bring in the new year at amy's


february...

we celebrate valentine's day... (we had boys with us i promise, this was just a girls pic)



march...

i go to new mexico for a mission trip with the teenagers...



then i go camping with seminary friends...

april...

i start playing on a ultimate frisbee team...

we win first place in our league...just kidding. we lose a lot. but we steal the championship t-shirts while the game is going on and pretend we won. just as fun.

may....

luke and i compete in our first triathlon....

we also don't come in first...



i also visit the cute friends with my dear friend allye....

june....

start dating dominick :) happy faces, happy faces

july...

luke and ashley get married.... more happy faces

cody and i get a new sister...

august...
i got to colorado, cody and i hike for 1,589,642 miles...



then on to see luke and ashley in their new home town....

september....
we have hick party at church..


october...
we have fall festival at church and i get strangled by an ninja...


november...
we get engaged, it becomes my favorite month ever...

december...
we wedding plan, we celebrate christmas and everyone is exhausted.
all in all, one fantastic year. looking forward in great anticipation of 2010.

i'm passing test

so, i am getting married and we are having a wedding hence the lack of recent blog post. one of dominick's groomsmen lives out of state and i have not yet had the pleasure of meeting him. since the wedding will be our first meeting he took it upon himself to get to know me a little better/see if i am good enough for his friend. this was the facebook interchange between us and i thought you might all enjoy it. it made us (mike, dominick and myself) laugh.

also he told dom that if i didnt pass his test he would be forced to release a wolverine during our wedding.

Mike McDonald January 10 at 8:52pm
So, I am very sad that i don't know you...and that ill first meet you when i'm in your wedding(which I'm very happy about.) So i decided to facebook you a few questions...like a get to know chelsea better quiz.
1. Favorite color
2. Favorite Band
3. Which do you think would win in a fight a bear or Dom.
. Apples or oranges
5. Winter or summer
6. Superman or Batman
7. Why do you follow god?
8. Who would win in an arm wrestling match, the statue of liberty or king kong
9. The Office...best show ever, or who cares?
10. Last question... Is dom's friend mike crazy...or dom's coolest most awesomest friend ever?

thats all, good luck and god speed.

Chelsea Calcatera January 11 at 2:21pm
Mike,
I am also sad that we don't know each other. Dom speaks very highly of you and honestly I am pretty intimidated/nervous about the man love between you two. I will gladly take your test and hope to pass with flying colors. Should I fail and you feel forced to inform Dominick that I am not cool enough for him be warned that I will then be forced to kill you. :/

1. baby blue and green (mainly the color of a clean sky and trees)

2. this one is pretty hard. I dont think I can list just one so i have broken down some categories:-favorite band to see live:MuteMath
-favorite single man singer-George Strait
-favorite country band-Randy Rogers Band
-favorite when i'm mellow and happy- Joshua Radin
-mostly played in my car are mixes of mae, anberlin, david gray, cross canadian ragweed, bob marley, death cab for cutie, lady antebellum
-favorite music for worship-shane and shane, shawn mcdonald, dominick adamo

3. the bear if it were a fair fight, dom if it was prison rules

4. yes please

5. summer- I love to play outside and swimming and the ocean and being able to wear sandals. However I have never lived in a pretty place during the winter were snow is a regular and I truly believe that if I lived somewhere were it could be winter and you could still play outside because there is snow and not just ice falling from the sky that I would enjoy winter much more.

6. Batman, he was really just a man with no special powers just smart gadgets and a lot of bravery.

7. Because without God, his son Jesus Christ who is my savior, my life would be pointless/hopeless/depressing instead of being joyful/hopeful/with purpose.

8. King Kong. This probably makes me the worst feminist ever but women can't/shouldn't be able to, beat men at arm wrestling. Even if they are tough women who stand for liberty.

9.Up until about a year ago I would have said The Office is the best show ever. While it still ranks in my top four it's position as my favorite show has seriously been challenged this fall by 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation and Community. Definitely not "who cares?" It is still a work of awkward genius.

10. Dom's friend Mike is the coolest of Dom's friend as well as the one I feel most challenged by for the position as "The love of Dominick's life." \

hope this helps in my winning your approval. looking forward to meeting you,

Chelsea

Mike McDonald January 13 at 8:42am
chelsea...i just informed dom, that you are for sure, funnier then him. well done you passed with flying colors. my favorite was the reference to "prison rules" because in my world, those are the only rules. look forward to meeting you soon too


Chelsea Calcatera January 13 at 6:58am
glad i passed, i hate wolverines

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 :)