The Engagement

The post you have been waiting for.......drum roll please........ we're engaged!

As you probably have guessed, our trip to California was aaa-mazing!  After much anticipation and countdown.... We'll need a little bit of background so we'll start from the very beginning of our trip!  Please prepare yourself for a 9 page post and picture overload :) sorry, it must be done!

Uncle Rob and Rhonda came down on Saturday and we had a big family party (at which Josh DIDN'T help me get the groceries and it bugged me... strike one, little did i know, this is where he informed everyone else on planet earth of his giant plan), we stayed up way too late playing wii, and got up wayyyy to early the next morning to go get breakfast before heading out on the road!  We had a blast goofing around in the car the whole ride there!  After we got settled in our hotel we took Rhonda to the beach cause she had never been before! EVER! can you believe this?! it baffled me since she is 30 something and has always lived in the US, so of course us beach loving people HAD to take her! i think we ended up at seal beach about 4ish in the afternoon, it was sunny and a beautiful 75! I had to laugh when Rhonda stepped into the freezing water and let out a scream, probably shoulda warned her that pacific water isn't too warm in march...or ever lol :)

After the beach we enjoyed a ridiculously hilarious dinner at BJ's, full of much too much adult jokes that are wildly inappropriate but extremely funny.....I'll let you guess where it all started since you know where we ate....ha :) 

On day 2 of our trip we decided to go to Universal Studios since 6 Flags sucks and isn't open Monday-Friday.  I had never been, so I was excited, and it was totally cool!

the boys and their mummy, which made them even more stoked to ride their favorite ride of course!

please note that shrek is loving on josh's head

no lie, we rode this thing about 14 times, rob lost his glasses, and the hotel key.  (sidenote:  Rhonda was also ridiculous about her purse this entire day, i have never seen a woman so tightly hold a purse under her arm ever in my life, especially one with a zipper and a snap and straps that leave it perfectly placed in your armpit.  nor have i ever seen anyone test a purse locker for a ride so vigorously....)

After a full day of adventure at Universal we had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden where much laughter commenced, so much so that we even had our waitress giggling! It was at Olive Garden however that we discovered that Rob's debit card was missing, so of course we frantically searched through everything trying to find the dang thing.  I offered to help, but everyone was like "Don't touch my stuff!" I thought they were all just a bunch of weirdos....little did I know they were all secretly plotting together!

Then on Tuesday, it was FINALLY time for Disneyland!  We met up with Wendy, Curtis and their 2 kids, Jalen and Kyle to start the morning at the park.

Wendy decided that we should go to the Finding Nemo ride first since that one always has the longest line and it was already a 35 minute wait at 8:20 am.  I was excited to go because the last time I had been to Disneyland the ride was just 2 months shy of opening, and I loved the movie so much and the orginial submarine ride as a kid that I had to go on it at least once!

After a short trek back to the ride Wendy asked us to please stand in front of the sign so she could take our picture..........my first reaction was "OHH, they are one of THOSE families that takes photos at every ride they go on to document every FREAKING second of their Disneyland adventure. It's going to be a long day."  But I happily obliged since they allowed just the man and I to be in the first picture together, ALONE, which almost never happens, so i was pleased.  Then she says, "that one didn't turn out so good, let me get another!"  and Rob and Rhonda also pulled out cameras to get one on my camera too, very sweet.  So we get ready for take two, but JZ was no longer standing next to me, so I look over to my left where he had just been attached to me at the hip, and he was on a knee.....it took my tiny brain a moment to process, but once I realized he was on a knee with a sparkling thing in a box, you could say i freaked out.  I don't know that the next few pictures really need any words, cause they pretty much captured it frame by frame. ( we are still waiting on the video which Wendy has on her camera, i promise i will post it as soon as i snag it!)

take one

the "oh my gosh" freak out

"I love you! Will you marry me?"

"YES!"

seal it with a kiss!

still freaking out, but very happy

He sweetly told me he loved me and asked if i would marry him, to which i immediately replied yes! somehow though, i forgot the part about needing to put my hand out for him to put the ring on my finger, so while still on a knee he kindly says "hey babe, i kinda need your hand." since my hands were still stuck over my mouth.....oops.  whats a girl to do when you nearly give her a heart attack in the middle of a crowded Disneyland?!  I don't hardly remember it, but if you watch the video you can see lots of people in the line for the ride clapping and hollering, even the line attendant was like "WOO! way to go man!"  Unfortunately some oblivious people walked right through the video, but i think you can pretty much see all the action, so it's okay!  After all of that craziness, I learned that Rhonda had been hiding the ring in her purse since I had left to get groceries and Josh had refused to go with me......those stinkers, they got me good!  Lucky for josh he wore his cargo shorts that day, or i probably would have noticed the large lump on his thigh prior to the ride! (sidenote #2:  about the time i had my second round of mono, i guess he got the rings and showed my parents, so they knew what was up, and they were all praying that i would get better before the trip and that my hands would stop peeling so that i could wear the ring.  then about 3 weeks before we left, i was helping clean josh's room, when i moved some stuff into his closet that i thought was just another bag of stuff like he has in the corner of his room already, but he got SO mad at me and told me i shouldn't have moved anything and if i saw something and didn't tell him that i would be sorry for lying. needless to say, i was highly upset since all i did was nicely clean the corner of his room and his heavy accusations felt uncalled for.  i guess i had picked up the gift bag that on one side says "Michael's Creative Jewelry" which probably would have been a dead giveaway had i been paying any attention....oops :) good thing he's got a blonde!)

Everything after that was kinda a crazy big blur, but it was OH so wonderful.  We had always talked about doing a low-key sort of engagement, i didn't want to be on a jumbo tron at some game somewhere, Disneyland on Spring Break with like 3 million people wasn't exactly a jumbo tron but it was close! somehow though it was all lost in the fairytale moment.  i have my prince charming, in the happiest place on earth, and i couldn't be a luckier girl!  it was definitely more than a dream come true!  immediately after as we were boarding submarine for the ride, 8 year old Kyle asks me if all of that business meant we were now married. of course i told him, not yet, we will have to have a wedding first.  then i said, "will you come to our wedding?" and he says, "well, i don't know, will there be any cake?"  trying not to laugh i said, "yes we will have cake there" and he replies, "okay well since there's gonna be cake i'll probably come, but if there isn't any, then i might not be there." ha oh kids!

the rest of our trip was absolutely amazing and SO much fun! we had a blast!  our vacation could not have been any more amazing and could not have come at a more perfect time!  I love my Joshua so SO much and I'm so thankful that we are now on the path to married life!  As you can tell there is never a dull moment around here, so i'm sure the craziness will continue as we begin our new journey together.  The big day will be December 1st, 2011, exactly 3 years since we began dating.  It seemed rather fitting to continue with the second half of our journey where it all began.  We will have a giant party to celebrate on December 2nd, 2011 and we will go on a honeymoon cruise the week following.  I will do my very best to keep everyone updated with our new stories and adventures as we get closer to a wedding, there is all sorts of exciting stuff going on around here! And hopefully soon we will even have some engagement photos up after our photo shoot with Ms. Nicole Burt! 

XOXO smile on :)

So much for a new years resolution......

Okay, so I have SUPER sucked at blogging the last two months.  Though I have all of two readers, so I don't think it reeeeeally matters, butttt, i still definitely need to update, considering we have recently had much life change!  I promise I am working on it, I will have many pictures and stories and whatever else belongs on here.  First order of business will be a blog on the engagement of course, and then we'll breifly discuss the rest of that trip even though the second half is much less significant then the first and not nearly as exciting, OBVIOUSLY :)  i'll get crackin on it, but since i don't have access to photos at the moment you'll just have to be waiting a few!  and i promise i will also get a hold of the video so that can be posted too!  much love!

breakfast dates

so my new favorite thing is going to breakfast with my joshua bear. i'm not normally a breakfast person-but half off coupons and my man seem to have changed that....well and maybe being waited on, i can't much object to that now. today we decided to go to ihop and got half off our meal! sweet dealio if you ask me! then i got the last few things i need to take on the trip next week, did the boys laundry since he's gone working all work, and now i just have my own laundry to do.......uh yeah about that. bleh. i'll put it off til friday i think.....maybe ha.
tonight we got to go with the whole watson clan (wes, kim, gramma and grandpa patterson, grandma and grandpa watson, wes's brother and fam) and patti and mike work for dinner at logan's and to see a play in which wes's nephew was part of the orchestra (he was on drums. and it was way cool.) the play was called All Shook Up and was SO cute and funny! i loved it! it was based in the 50's in a small town and used mostly elvis songs to communicate etc. definitely one to see if you ever get the chance! and grandma and grandpa invited us for a game of uno again-funny cause not 2 days ago in the car on the way to a job Josh and i were talking about how we should call them again and ask to play since we had so much fun the first time!
well i guess i'm off to bed now since i haven't had much sleep the last 3 days....poor joshua bear has to be up at 4:30 for work tomorrow......and he got home at midnight....and tomorrow night he'll be at a suns game that starts at 8:30 and be up again at 4:30-i'm hoping i can knock out the night shift early so the poor guy can get some sleep! we've been bombed with more jobs then we can handle this week-we're slotted to hire about 10 new guys and buy 3 trucks just to get through the next six weeks.....eeesh. and in all of this we are talking about moving to a central location and combining all offices......sometimes i think we are a liiiiittle crazy. but things are good, so i'm gonna be thankful!

13 days left in the countdown!

only thirteen more days til its time to leave for our lovely trip to disney! i am so excited! but i still get so tired so i'm hoping the next 13 days will give me enough rest to help keep me energized enough to fully enjoy each day! i'm doing pretty good considering i only had like 8 hours of sleep in the last 2 days-but i did get to nap today! i love taking over josh's big comfy bed while he does laundry and builds a floor in a storage room. its amazing with it's foam topper and soft sheets-seriously the boy has like 700 thread count sheets. we will never be able to buy cheap sheets again. but i will say it is a nice luxury. i slept for 4 hours before i ever realized i was out cold. i cannot wait to marry that boy and steal that bed :) well and cause i love him too!
we went bowling tonight after i woke up! i'm tired now but it was fun! i didn't do too bad either considering! hopefully this week will be restful and very busy-i hadn't planned on missing a week and a half of work before vacay-its killing our vacation money. but hopefully i can make up some this week!
p.s. josh bought a 65 inch tv. yes. 65. its huge. but cool. and he promised no more toy buying for a few years! AND its allowed us to go shopping for an entertainment center! we got to go to ikea today! that was fun. this week we're gonna go out to goodwill to find a table and a dresser or too! hopefully next weekend we can paint! joshy told me i'm not allowed to paint until HE can help me :) silly boy.
last night we made some alfredo like we saw on kitchen boss. we are gonna be the next kitchen bosses lemme tell ya. we made a bomb italian dinner. i knew i was keeping that boy for something :)

welcome back mono, you were not missed

so here i am day 5 of being sick and doing absolutely nothing. thrilling. i determined after day 2 that it was mono revisiting.  now in day 5 i'm 115% positive.  thank goodness i only had one day of fever that never went over 101.5. but i have the awesome rash, and now today i am yellow and i have sausage fingers and toes. yuck. i'm supposed to be going to the doctor in a bit here to determine what my liver function is-i'm guessing that it's not in the normal range considering i look like squash.
on the upside-miss emma arrived yesterday on 2/17 at 7 am, all 7 pounds and 7 ounces of her. i am so bummed that i have been sick and won't get to see her.  nor did i get to give the kids their valentine boxes. ugh mono ruins everything.
i have to be better in a few weeks-i am NOT missing the disney trip.
wish me luck-hopefully i won't be a bloated yellow mess next time i'm posting.

happy mailboxes

so i kinda have this problem with cutesy things. i love them too much i think.  especially when they are in the dollar bins. something i will soon have to curb-well not entirely cause i can still have some crafting and be on a budget even if it's all from the dollar bin. i am gonna be the queen of crafting here pretty soon my friends. i have BIG plans. which will be detailed laterrrrr cause that's a whole nother post. 
so anyways-valentines day is coming up, and while its not like the most important holiday ever BUT there are lots of fun cutesy things, and it's a good excuse to have overly cutesy things that the boy-o doesn't really love. but he humors me. so i love him even more for his large amount of patience and tolerance. :) so target has a super fun dollar bin. and i found super cute mailboxes in it. they are pretty decent size too! i made a bunch of cutesy mailboxes for the kiddos cause they are just now at the age where they are starting to understand the holidays, especially miss lily cause she is now in preschool!  so i spoiled all of them. including miss emma, who is not here yet, but will be soon, so i didn't want her to miss out! and i found super fun mom and dad gifts too-marital bliss candy bars!  i will post pictures shortly when i have a camera with a battery!  i even made mailboxes for Rob and Dustin at the other office! i wish i had thought to get pictures of theirs too, cause i went ALL out for theirs-mostly just to embarass them :) i love love love crafting and wish i had more time, hopefully one of these days i will!
tomorrow should have an exciting story so i'm outta here for now!

time for some changes

so the last week has been full of much reflection, and more talking than was probably necessary, but joshua tells me it's good to let it all out, so i did.  though most of it i feel was rather ugly, i do feel better, a little lighter. i am normally a big fan of change, but for some reason this is much harder for me than anything else to change.  i can let go of nearly anything, i have no problem with people most of the time.  but for some reason i just can't let this go, and i am letting everything said eat me up inside.  which is rather unhealthy.  i'm a rather ugly person inside lately and i don't particularly like it, and nor is it what the man deserves to be with.  so its time to fix it.  he certainly is a big help to me, even though i am usually a stubborn butt about being helped, i'm very glad he is so patient though, it will definitely help. 
on the upside, joshua bought me an awesomely awesome pair of new shoes (which i will be buying a second pair of as soon as our disney tickets have been paid for).  they are the reebok zigtechs.  and they are heaven on your feet.  seriously, after 8 hours on my feet they are only achey and tired, they are no longer painful all day long, and the arches nearly reach the top of my overly high arch and i'm forced to stand up straight, and i'm pretty sure my poor little butt and legs have had quite the little workout lately.  but i love love love them.  he is so good to me.  he even got a pair too and now we match very cutely like, except his are black and white and manly, and mine are black and HOT pink, like neon. and they are sexy. 
i ordered a new battery today for my poor little computer, so hopefully that will be here soon and i will be a little faster about posting more than once every ten years.  hopefully this time my computer will not fry it like it did the last one, that would be much appreciated since it's nearly $200 for a freaking battery to replace the dang one i have.  in case you were not aware, it now lasts a total of 3 minutes while unplugged from the wall, and after 5 minutes of inactivity  while plugged into the wall, it shuts down completely and you must reboot. MOST annoying.  and not conducive to online schooling, so i'm getting it fixed so i can start soonly. ish. blah.
the man and i went to dinner today too-took him to nando's for our "monthiversary".  yes we count them still.  mostly just cause while he was in birmingham it was kinda like a countdown and something to look forward to each month!  i usually sent him a funny goofy card i found at walmart cause it's fun to get mail and it usually helped to boost his spirits a little.......at least i think so.  anyways we had a date night to celebrate and it was lovely.
but now i am sleepy and i have to get up again for work tomorrow so it is BED TIME. glorious.  my favorite time of day.