My Black Friday Adventure

Black Friday.

A day for shoppers to get deals, retail store employees to get exhausted, for me to get engaged.

ENGAGED?!? Yes. Engaged! I'm getting married! When, you ask?! I don't know. But I'll let you know when I find out.

Would you like to know how it happened? Okay...here it goes.

On Thanksgiving Day, Wesley called me and said since we had to be at work 4, he'd come get me at 3:15. Let me just tell you, I'm very protective of my sleep. So when he said we could leave my house 45 MINUTES before we had to be there, I immediately disagreed. I believe my exact words (with caps making emphasis) were "it does NOT take 45 MINUTES to get to work!" So he settled for 3:30. I went to bed at 9:30ish, and slept soundly until 2:30 when I rolled out of bed to start preparing for the day. As I was putting my mascara on, he sent a text that read "Can you come let me in?!" I read it and thought "Well, he's perky for 3:30 AM", and then proceeded to go let him in. He came in the house, and while I finished getting ready, my parents woke up and came in the kitchen. (Sometimes if I'm making noise or the lights get turned on and I happen to wake my parents up, they come say hello before I leave, so it wasn't abnormal for them to have gotten up.) They wished me a good day, I told them to go back to sleep, I grabbed me and Wesley a couple cokes, and we headed out the door.

We walked out the back door into the 45ish degree weather and darkness, and I began to walk to the car. Wesley didn't move from the back steps, and asked me to come back to him. I just figured he wanted to hug me before a long day, so I went over to him and hugged him. He said "are you tired, Babe?" and I obliviously said "uh huh"...and he said "I might have something that will wake you up." Then he moved the jacket that had been draped over his arm the whole time he'd been at my house, and held up a ring box as he got on one knee. He asked me to marry him, and I, shocked, stunned, and so excited, said, "um, yes!"

We went back inside, where my mom had the camera ready to take some pictures...of course :)

Needless to say, my Black Friday working experience was not as dreadfully long as I'd expected it to be. The proposal was perfect and turned what normally would have been an ordinary day into a fun, memorable day. When we got back from work Friday night, we celebrated with both of our families at my house and had a great time. 

Oh the ring is perfect too...I love it. He did VERY WELL!

We're excited to be engaged, and start planning not only for a wedding, but for a marriage. The next few months will be filled of uncertain times, but I know they will all be adventures of faith. 

Thank you to everyone who has congratulated us, supported us, loved us, and prayed for us. We are SO blessed, and so thankful! 

Until next time, my friends...

May I have that pen? I have things to mark off my TO-DO list...

I love me some to-do lists. My Vera Bradley planner (affectionately referred to as "Vera") is very accustomed to my daily, weekly, and even long term to do lists. I make lists of all the projects I have to do, and then I make lists of the things I need to get done within those projects. Excessive? Maybe. But I'm graduating on time :)

One of the major things I marked off my to-do list this semester on September 18th was the Praxis. If you get out your reading glasses, or get really close to the computer then you can see that...

I PASSED!!!! WHOOO HOOO!!!! Marking that off of my "Things I need to do to graduate" to do list was a wonderful feeling. 

After the Praxis on my to do list came "Figure out observation stuff". In my blog about TB tests and Sonic Blasts I mentioned that I had to do 205 hours of observation. At that point I had 35 hours listed in my file. Now I am happy to say that I will have 330 observation hours when I finish in December! Where did they come from, you ask? Well independent hours can come from any time you work with children...including babysitting, children's choir, camps, VBS, etc. I had 41.5 of those hours, and since I worked at a student conference for 7 weeks over the summer, I put 200 of my hours from that down. I've also been observing on Wednesdays and other days that classes get cancelled. I'm almost there!

The next big thing on my to-do list was my Senior Piano Recital. Want to see the awesome poster my brother made?

Didn't he do great? I agree :) My recital was this past Friday. This is the thing that has seemed untouchable for 4 years. I felt like I'd never get there. But it came WAY faster than I thought it would. As I've prepared for it and thought about it over the past several months, the thought has always made me a little queasy. I'm done, and it still makes me queasy to think about! 50 minutes, on stage by myself, in a formal dress when I'm used to practicing in shorts and a sweatshirt, playing everything from memory while people watch me? That's still nerve racking. But somehow, I WASN'T NERVOUS that day! Yes, I was very happy to get it over with. However, I wasn't miserably anxious like I thought I'd be. I say somehow, but I know how. Not only did it put me at easy having my family there and hanging out with them, but I know that the prayers that were prayed on my behalf helped the most.

This week I had several lasts:

-last paper in college

-last time to play piano at the University of Mobile

-last time to sing in the University Singers

-last Christmas Spectacular performance

-last time to wear a velvet top choir dress (hopefully)

From here, I have write a lesson plan, do a group project, take finals, and participate in wedding festivities for one of my best friends. Not much left!

It's so crazy to me that I'm almost done with classes in college. Although part of me feels like it can't come soon enough, the other part of me feels like I just moved in yesterday. I do know one thing though. I would not be where I am today without the support and encouragement from family and friends the past few months. When I thought about the fall semester in the summer, I felt overwhelmed. I knew it'd be a hard, long, and stressful journey. However, I have enjoyed the journey, and I know that I did not go on the journey alone. Thank you to all of you who prayed, supported, and encouraged me the past few months as I crossed over major hurdles in my life. 

Well, maybe I'll blog again soon...I marked something else off my TO DO list recently that is very exciting :)