Introduction to an "ingaged" girl

As you may have read in my “Favorite Place” post, my boyfriend and I went on a trip to Disney World over the break. On our third night, he proposed, and since then, my life has been a whirlwind of “You’re engaged!”

On our way home, we stayed with my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Tim, who live in a big house in the woods in Arkansas. Debbie is one of the sweetest people I know, and after giving her a “thank you” gift for letting us stay with her, she brought out a big white box. “I was going to wait until later to show you this, but… I changed my mind!” she said. Smiling, she set the box on the table in front of us, revealing a cake with a photo of me and Josh (the one we’d posted on Facebook right after we got engaged) on the top! I’d never eaten a cake with my face on it before, so I thought it was pretty exciting—and incredibly sweet. No pun intended.

(Our cake, courtesy of Debbie Howard—she had it made the morning after she heard the news!)

When we got home, my dad and step mom had prepared a special dinner, complete with “engaged” themed sugar cookies from our neighbor, and popcorn with a sign that said, “He popped the question!” My seven-year-old sister made a poster with the words, “To the ingaged two: Have an ingaged welcome!” which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense grammatically, but was incredibly adorable. On the poster, she had drawn a picture of one monkey proposing to another monkey. (I don’t know why she decided to depict us as monkeys.)

(Ella's poster, which she hurried to finish before we arrived)

(Our neighbor Brooke's cookies; she's super talented!) 

On top of that, my mom has been calling and emailing with different venue ideas and requests to schedule appointments to visit places. On Saturday, we’re going to a bridal show in Tulsa. In short, I’m really excited about the engagement (mostly because I love Josh and I can’t wait to be married to him), but it appears my family is…even more excited. I guess it shows how much they love both of us, and I’m thankful for that.

Update: The initial excitement and flurry of activity has ebbed somewhat, replaced by the chaos and routine of school and my family focusing on their own lives. I miss the feeling, but I can't say I'm not happy things have quieted down a bit. And I do like my routine.

Despite the fact that things have settled down, though, I now have a baker (Amy Cakes!), a gelato/espresso bar (Il Dolce), and a DRESS picked out! I'll share a picture of the back, because I think that's safe, and it's not like my fiance is ever going to see this anyway...at least, now he's definitely not. (By the way, Megan at Silhouette Bridal is the best! She's so sweet and accommodating and her shop is wonderful.)

(My wedding dress! That sounds so weird.)

Besides being engaged, I’ve been trying to focus on my “normal life.” So, as I push aside fleeting thoughts about cakes and dress ideas, I’m in the process of moving out of my parents’ house and into a house closer to campus with my best friend, Kessa. Kessa’s a dance major, and we’ve been best friends since we met in Kindergarten at Flower Mound elementary school. We both love dorky things like reading, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and… food—which is not so dorky. 

(Me and Kessa at our senior prom)

Update: I'm loving my new house, and living with my best friend! (And no, we still haven't become un-best friends because we live together.) Cooking for myself has been a blast, and I'm glad to have the practice. It's also great to live so close to campus, whereas before, I had to drive across town when I was done with class. I also think living with my two roommates instead of my family has given me the chance to focus more on school, because we're all doing school! (Instead of me holing up in my room while my family was watching a movie or something.)

   (Pot roast! MY first time using a CrockPot.                             (Mediterranean tilapia)

     Although I can't take credit for cooking 

     the meat; my grandma did that.  :p)

  (More tilapia, with mushrooms and veggies)     (This is actually the breakfast casserole and                                                                            sweet potato I made for Josh on Valentine's Day...

                                                                        it took an embarrassingly long amount of time to cook.)

(Oh look, more sweet potato.) 

On top of that, I’m working to “up my game” at my job, since we have a new owner and I’m having to learn new marketing skills. I’m the administrator at a CrossFit gym, and I introduce new clients, post the workouts, and do other tasks that none of the coaches need or want to do. I also love working out there.

Update: We just moved to our new location on Wellsite Drive, and we are officially CrossFit 405 South! It's been a lot of fun meeting the coaches from the other gym and adjusting to Aaron's programming. I also registered for The Open this year (first time!), and I'm competing in Bricktown Throwdown (team CrossFit competition) in May! I'm not much of a "competitor," so this is out of my "I really wanna do this" zone, but I am excited! The people in our gym are really fantastic and supportive.

(Me deadlifting at 405 South, taken by Ryan Pratt, coach)

So that's me, for now! My main focuses in life are Jesus, my family, and exercising (besides school), but as you can see, right now my engagement is clouding a lot of it. And I think I'm pretty much okay with that. I'm a professional writing major (less than a year to go!) and I'm excited about knocking out this semester!