WOW - This was a fantastic week for me!

It all started Tuesday night...John came out here to see me and we went shopping for my new digital camera and our pumpkins! I splurged a little on the camera, but that's okay because it will come in handy for school and all my projects. It is soooo awesome! It has so many neat features and I know I need to spend time reading the manual just to learn everything about it. We then were on a wild goose chase looking for pumpkin carving pattern books. We went to so many stores and no one had them, but I guess that's what happens when you wait until a week before Halloween! We ended up using books we already had but we were looking for something more challenging. John of course picked out the biggest pumpkin he could find...and I guess it was a bargain since he got all that pumpkin for only $4 at Jewel!!

On thursday I got to see my Johnny after work, and we went out to dinner to celebrate our upcoming birthdays. Nothing fancy, just a nice dinner for two at Olive Garden. Then Friday was my 22nd birthday!! I did not have to work in the morning, so I got to sleep in a little bit. I did do some homework in the morning, but that's okay (I wanted to get it done and out of the way). I was asked if I wanted the day off from work but it did not bother me since I really had nothing going on in the afternoon, so I figured I would work to help pay for that camera! It was really quiet there so the afternoon was easy. When I came home, John and my sister Lisa came over and we had pizza and I opened some gifts. John bought me a nice new printer...I bought a new Mac computer in the spring and I never bought a printer for it, so it was a gift I could really use. It's works great with the new digital camera! My parents gave me some money for the camera and a few items for my hope chest. I also decided to give John his birthday gift a little early, so we got to open our gifts together (I got him a bears shirt and hoodie, a CD, some chocolate since he's a chocoholic, and an sterling silver Celtic cross necklace). My boss gave me a gift certificate to one of my favorite restaurants...Fuji Japanese Steakhouse. I thought that was a really nice gift from her, and she also gave me Saturday off from work!! That was a great present...hahaha.

Since I did not have to work Saturday, I spent the morning cleaning and getting ready for our party Sunday, and then I babysat the rest of the day for Jackson (his picture is on my first blog). I have been watching his sister Sydney for the past 5 years, and for Jack since he was born. He is such a cutie, and I look forward to seeing him and his sister every other weekend when their parents bowl. They had the fireplace going when we got there, and we just kept adding wood all night...there's nothing better than keeping warm by the fire on a chilly evening. Jack and John and I played "campground" and roasted marshmallows and told jokes, and then watched the movie "Over The Hedge" which was really cute. After I got home, I caught a little bit of the movie "Nacho Libre" and headed off to bed.

The phone rang about 6:30 a.m. Sunday with some good news...John's cousin Karen had her baby! It's a boy! They named him Zachary Ryan. I spent the morning cleaning some more, and then the families came over around two. John's birthday is the 30th, so we had a combined party for the two of us. His mom, Grandma, and brother came, as well as his cousin (who is also his roommate) and his godson, Nick. My Grandma and Uncle came as well as my sister and brother-in law, best friend Kelly and her boyfriend Josh, and Johnny and Julia, the friends of the family who just got married two weeks ago. I had such a blast!! My mom made a fantastic meal, and John's mom took care of the cakes....yellow with chocolate frosting for John, and a pineapple orange cake with a cool whip frosting for me....yummmm. Most of the guys were glued to the TV for awhile because the bears game was on, but that's okay since it gave the girls more time to socialize! Everyone sang to us and we opened gifts. The families left, but my sister and our friends stayed late and we just had a great time talking, laughing, and sharing stories about everything and anything. I haven't laughed that much in a long time! It made me really appreciate the awesome friends and family that I have, and I love them all dearly.  

I posted plenty of pictures of the party and our pumpkins....I chose to do an enchantress/gypsy woman, John did the two dracula faces, and my sister did a dancing skeleton, witch, and cat in front of the moon. The new camera took some great pictures! I just had such a fun week, and created so many new memories that I won't forget!

Finally Engaged!!

I AM SO EXCITED!!!! JOHN AND I GOT ENGAGED!!

Wow this has been a great weekend for me!! I am so giddy right now I am having a hard time thinking!! I HAVE to tell the whole story....

Well work was really really really I mean REALLY slow this week. OK, so it's Wednesday afternoon.....I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs all week watching the clock move so slowly and looking for something to do. So of course, right when I am the middle of helping the people who are training at our store, John calls me. Any other time would have been fine but of course he calls me when I was in the middle of something. Go figure. So we made the phone call short and quick, which left me unable to as him a million question because I am the type of person who has to know everything about everything...the who when what why how type of thing. So he simply asks me really quick if I wanted to go downtown tomorrow since I don't have school on Thursday mornings. I was thinking of going for a haircut but that was no big deal. I just told him sure I'd go, I would just have to be back by 1 for work. He said he was going to take the day off so we could go down by the museum campus to take pictures for a speech he was giving in his class on Thursday evening.

So, I was thinking, okay, he's taking off work to get me so we can go down there by the Planetarium...one of my favorite places (also the place I hinted around the past 5 years as a good place to get engaged, haha) so I had to let him go before I could ask a million questions since I was a little suspicious. I thought to myself, he works downtown, so why is he going to take the whole day off just to go down there and take pics?? So, the idea of getting engaged popped into my head. Then I thought, nah, that's crazy. It's wishful thinking. I was the one who suggested last weekend that he do his speech on the planetarium and beautiful museum campus (I wrote a paper on it once before) So, I thought it might happen if it was his idea, but it was mine, and maybe he really did need to go down there for inspiration and to take pictures for his visuals for the speech. So, I tried not to think about it. Since work was so slow, I just asked if I could have thursday afternoon off because I thought John and I would want to go out to lunch afterward, and I didn't want to rush to be back in the 'burbs by 1.

So guess what? I did not sleep at all on Wednesday night, just thinking about this possibly happening. And I guess John didn't sleep at all either. So....in the morning, we got ready to go, and the whole way there John did not put any music on in the car. We ALWAYS have music on. So I started thinking to myself, IS HE NERVOUS? MAYBE HE'S HIDING SOMETHING!?!? So I tried to pay close attention to his actions. After we got down there, I noticed him fidgeting a lot as we walked around and took the pics. He kept touching his pockets, holding his jacket kinda funny, looking in those pockets, walking behind or ahead of me...little things....so I STARTED to get a little nervous thinking it could be it. NAH....I still didn't want to think about it so I didn't get my hopes up if it did not happen.

So....we walked to my favorite spot by the planetarium, the large stones to the south of it that are set in a circle, almost like a large sundial. The view to the east was sooooo incredible! We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was 65-70 degrees, we didn't need a scarf or gloves, and the sun was shining so bright it was making the lake glisten like sparkling jewels. Very few people were around, and I decided to sit down on the large rock. I told John to sit down next to me, but he said he wanted to take my picture. So I made a cheesy smile and posed like a rock star, and then he told me he had to take an "after" picture. I was like, uhhhh...an after picture of what? Then he proceeded to get down on one knee and pulled out a little black box with a GORGEOUS antique style, 1 and 3/4 carat t.w. brilliant cut diamond ring with two smaller brilliant cut side stones, and a carved miligrain band encrusted with smaller pave diamonds. He asked me to marry him, and I said I would be more than honored to be his wife!!!!

I told myself I would never cry when it happened, but I couldn't help it, the tears started flowing!!! He then wanted that "after" pic, but I said NO WAY since my face was all red and puffy and my makeup was running from crying!! I was sooo happy! We called our families right away, and pretty much everyone knew but me. John asked my parents for their permission the night before! He's so cute and old-fashioned...I love it.

My best friend Kelly absolutely freaked out! I made a lot of visits to friends and family that night to show them the ring, while Johnny went off to class to do his speech.....the funny thing is he really did not need any pics...he wasn't allowed to use visuals at all! That little stinker. When he told the class he proposed to me there that very morning, they all clapped for him!

So I've been smiling so much that my face actually hurt by the time Friday night rolled around! We went out that night to celebrate with my family and friends. So needless to say, I had a great weekend. I posted the pics we took by the lake. The one with us and the blue sky in the background is one we took just a minute or two before it happened. I also put pics of my beautiful ring (by the way I think he did a great job- I absolutely love it!!) and other pics I had my dad take that I am using for my engagement announcements that I am making to email to everyone. There's quite a few pics so enjoy them!!!

:)