Proposal

We started dating January 24th and by Easter we had started talking about our future together. Yes, life had hit the fast-forward button and it has been wonderful. So yes, I knew a proposal was coming, but I didn't know when or how. We had shopped for rings a little bit so he had at least the knowledge of the size of diamond & ring that I was interested in. I really wanted it to be something he would buy me & not something that I had picked without his say. Many of you guessed we would get engaged on our six months and little did I know that he actually had the ring at that point. Then many of you guessed we would get engaged when we went camping on the North Shore. Knowing Zack though, I knew he would never do it when anybody expected and nobody would know except for him when or how it was going to happen.

The week leading up to the engagement I had received an e-mail coupon for a nice sushi restaurant. Being that I really enjoy sushi and we had not been on a date night recently I suggested buying the coupon & dressing up to go on a date night. Knowing that he wanted to propose that weekend he agreed. So we bought the coupon, got dressed up, me wearing my nice purple dress and he wearing his nice purple shirt (the boy knows I love the color purple) and off we went to dinner. It was not that cold out so I didn't take a coat, but he did & of course I had to give him a hard time about it. He's response was, "Well, you never know!" We enjoyed a nice meal of sushi & other Asian cuisine with the nice Asian techno background music. As we were walking back to the car it was a little bit chilly out, but Zack quickly put on his coat & didn't offer it to me. As we were driving home Zack asked if I would like to get a bottle of wine to cap off the night. This is a typical date night for us, dress up, have a nice dinner, & enjoy the time together with some wine. So we stopped at Trader Joe's and bought some wine & continued on our way home.

We had just pulled into the parking lot of the seminary apartments and parked the car & naturally I started to gather my things to get out, but he says, "I have a confession." I'm thinking, "ummm...ok?" and he confesses that he wanted to buy wine so that we could celebrate & that he brought his coat with him because he was hiding something from me. This is when I realized what was happening & was internally freaking out just a little bit. As he pulled out the ring he told me that I'm his best friend and that he loves me and then he asked me to be his wife. Believe it or not I was speechless so I kissed him before saying, "yes, of course I'll be your wife."

So yeah, we were in his car in the parking lot and it was perfectly sweet and simple.

I learned that he had thought about asking at the restaurant, but the music threw off the mood. Plus it was pretty crowded. I teased him that we can't ever get rid of his car & his response was "that's sad." It has already been a crazy week & a half of trying to tie down dates & locations. This is what we know: July 2nd, 2011 Luther Seminary. More details will come for sure. In the meantime here are some photos we took right after we got engaged.

ENGAGEMENT!

Yes it is true. Little did I know 8 months ago that I would fall totally in love with this man, but here I am now with a little bling bling on my left hand. I remember the night he first asked if he could kiss me & I knew I had to say yes or I'd regret it and I also remember thinking that was my last first kiss. Somehow I knew that he was who I was meant to spend my life with and it was terrifyingly fantastic.

We had spent the Fall semester getting to know one another and don't really remember any particular introduction, but many short memories of bumping into each other within the first month of school and occasionally being in the same group of friends hanging out. My first memory of him is probably as the cute guy that held the door for me and let me into the dormitory as he was leaving the building. He remembers me as the cute girl who always had a smile on her face. Then one evening our friend who was working security with him introduced us formally I believe. As I write this little memories come back to me.

It quickly became routine for us to visit either in the mornings when I was on campus early and he was done studying in the cafeteria or when I was working the info desk & he was on security duty. One time our friend that had formally introduced us gave us a hard time for talking and I played along with it saying that we were planning our future together and told him to but out. Our friendship escalated from there and by the end of the semester we had become good friends. We even had what we like to call our proto-date before Christmas break. We kept in touch over the holiday break and me being gone with J-term requirements and I wasn't back more than a day and he we were hanging out. I thought we were going to just go out with some friends, but he came in to watch a movie, a long movie, and then he stayed after that even. The sweetest part of that night is it took him probably a good 3 or more hours to hold my hand.

The next day we saw each other on campus for a community breakfast with some friends. I had no groceries yet and knew it was the only way I was getting breakfast that morning. As I was going to leave he asked me if I wanted to hang out and I told him to just give me a call in a little while not remembering that I had to pick up a friend from the airport. I wasn't gone for 15 minutes and he called telling me to call him when I was done grocery shopping. Well thankfully I had remembered that I had to pick up our friend so I told him I would just stop by after I was done helping her move back in & that we were all hanging out on campus that night. It was a fun night with cheap pizza, friends, and a movie started at 11:45pm. It was around 1am when I got a phone call from him. The ring of my phone woke me up (I fell asleep within the first 20min of the movie & he had been there when I fell asleep so I was very confused). He told me he had a question for me & so I went to his room half asleep where he asked me if he could kiss me. I remember walking back downstairs with my girlfriends that night & when I knew we were out of earshot of the guys floor I said, "Uh, I think I'm dating Zack."

Our first official date was the very next day to Old Chicago where I had some guy get excited about my Harry's Chocolate Shop hoodie. Classy, I know! We've spent nearly every day together since, well minus the summer since he lived 5 hours away. God has truly blessed us with one another and I can't wait to put all the fun details of a wedding together and start my life as his wife.


Next blog will be the story of the engagement & hopefully some photos if my computer behaves. For now I must go sleep!

Year 18

So the first week of the start of my 18th year of school is well underway. It's prolly more like the 21st or something if you count pre-school too. Actually the week is technically over. The reading lists are well over 1,000 pages between all of my classes, for the semester. It's an interesting place to be. I'm not totally new, yet I've still got a few years ahead of me with plenty of transitions to come. The semester is going to be plenty busy, but thankfully it looks like it should end on a smooth note. That is as long as I stay on top of everything throughout the semester. I'm taking fun classes like Hebrew, Preaching, the Gospel of Mark, Mission 1, & Church Music. Not only is that all fun, but I get to use the awesome skills that summer Greek taught me in my Mark class. It'll be interesting using Greek while learning Hebrew. One thing that I continue to learn in seminary is how to put my thoughts about the church & mission & my life into words for people to understand. I know this might seem like a "duh" thing, but you don't always realize how much we can't explain why we believe certain things or act a certain way until we're made to. It's been a productive evening of laundry, cleaning the house, updating my calendar & getting a feel for the semester load. Now time for bed :-)