Greetings everyone! I know I’ve been gone longer than I had at first told y’all…but I promise there was a good reason for it. And I’m going to explain why below. 🙂 Since it’s been over 13 days since I’ve really been on the computer, I’ve got a good amount of catching up to do — but I promise to be back in full swing next week. 🙂

So, as those of you who read my previous post (here) knew, my fiance was coming into town the first week of December. Which is why I took a break from blogging — this is the last time he will be able to visit until the wedding, so I wanted to enjoy every moment I had with him while he was here. 🙂

Because he is trying to save up leave for my wedding (and my brothers wedding 2 months after mine), he was only able to plan a 8 day trip down here. I was so excited, as you may imagine — I hadn’t seen him since August (when he came and proposed) and those 104 days between visits was VERY long!

We had a few things planned for his visit, but mostly we just wanted to be together most! And that’s what we were able to do. 🙂 During that time my friend Kait did a photoshoot with us. All the pictures turned out SO well and I really enjoyed the whole experience. Dan and I went with my brother and his fiance — lots of fun with those two!

Oh, and by the way, we also confirmed our wedding date and did a bunch of planning together while he was here. So it’s all official, I’ll be getting married…

So, moving on, his 8 day trip went by far too quickly. Saturday morning arrived and I was gearing myself up to say goodbye to him…when he found out that his flight was cancelled!

CANCELLED!! 😀

With all the strange weather we’ve been having down here — getting warm, then cold, then warm again — the plans were iced over and a lot of flights got cancelled that day.

So, after Dan spent MANY hours on the phone that Saturday, he got another flight that left 6AM Tuesday morning.

😀

This was a huge surprise and blessing! 😀 I was stoked at the thought of getting two more WHOLE days to be with him! They went by pretty quickly — time always flies when you’re having a good time, lol!

Tuesday morning came around and I woke up VERY early with my dad to take Dan to the airport. We got there, said our goodbyes, and Dad and I drove off. I remember thinking, when we left, that I should’ve hugged him just one more time…one moment longer…

Us posing with Aaron& Rachel (June Wedding)

Anyway, so we’d almost got all the way home when Dan called us and said his flight was cancelled!

Again!!

I am not joking! So we turned around and I tried to recover from the emotional rollercoaster ride I felt like I was on as we drove back to the airport to pick him up. His new flight wouldn’t leave until Wednesday afternoon. This unexpected delay is eating into his leave time, but we are resting that in the Lord’s hands and will trust in Him to know how much leave time we need for the coming weddings. 🙂

And so, now I have pretty much caught you up to date — his flight Wednesday afternoon wasn’t cancelled and he left on time. I made sure to get in the extra hug, too! 🙂 The countdown until I see him next has begun again…

134 days to go.

Lord willing, it will pass swiftly — and in the meantime I will enjoy my family while I am here with them and start planning a wedding ceremony that will, I pray, both glorify God and honor my parents. 🙂

I hope y’all enjoyed looking at the pictures from our engagement shoot. For those of you who follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, you’ve probably already seen them. If you don’t follow me on any of these places yet, I encourage you to! I often post about things I don’t mention here on my blog. 🙂

Oh, and as a quick P.S. to this post, yesterday I was officially done with Cosmetology school! All I have to do now is make an appointment to go in and take my boards exam to be licensed as a professional cosmetologist in Florida! Yay!!

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Okay, so I got really good at being consistent with posting on my blog…and then I disappeared again last week. There was a VERY good reason for this, however, and I’ve been looking forward to telling y’all about it! So, what’s the exciting news??

Yes! I am! And it’s a really fun and special proposal story….or, at least I thought so. (And I guess that’s whats important. If you care to hear the story, keep reading to find out how he did it… 🙂

He flew in and surprised me. I had no idea that he was coming into town! (For those of you who missed my courtship announcement post, my boyfriend is in the military and had to move across the country a few months ago.) So we had talked the night before and everything sounded normal – I didn’t suspect a thing.

The next day – August 10th – my older brother left to have lunch with an old friend that was passing through town on his way somewhere. I had known this for a while, and so thought nothing of it when they told me that he was going to have the friend stop by the house to meet the family before continuing on his way.

So, since somebody was coming over, I got semi-ready and presentable (because I figured, why get all prettied up when my boyfriend was two thousand miles away, right? :-P) and continued on with dinner preparations like normal.

As we were just finishing up with dinner, Aaron got home. My chair at the table was facing away from the door and so when my brother said, “Hey Mom, come meet Adam.” I turned around and was SHOCKED to see Dan walk into the room.

He walked up to me and immediately got down on one knee and proposed to me. 🙂 It was the most AMAZING moment ever and one that I couldn’t believe was happening at that moment. Of course I said “YES!!” and my joy continued to rise when he said that he was staying for a whole week!

He left yesterday (Saturday) and while I miss him like crazy, it feels AMAZING to be engaged to marry this guy! Having his ring on my finger is an awesome reminder that, while he’s not at my side yet, there’s going to be a day in the near future (spring/summer of 2014) when he won’t leave me anymore. 🙂

So, yeah, that is why I didn’t post this past week. I was soaking up every moment I had with my fiance! I plan to continue on with my usual schedule/posts from now on. 🙂

Greetings everyone! Long time, never see, ehh?

I know I really disappeared from my blog and the whole book/blogging world for the better part of this year, and I do apologize for that! And that is the whole reason of this post—to explain what has kept me so busy for the past 7 months!

Right now I am trying to sort through backed up emails (talk about a headache!) and begin to start planning posts for my blog. I’m not sure exactly what my schedule will be like on my blog—I know I won’t be posting as frequently as before or with as many book reviews, but as soon as I get a feel for how often I’ll be posting, or maybe even have a weekly schedule, I’ll be sure to let y’all know!

So, I might as well dive right into my update. 🙂 In the middle of December last year, my life took a very big and a very unexpected turn! I don’t know how to say it to build up any suspense (lol!) so I’ll just saying it like it is.

A single Navy guy who was being stationed here for a few months was visiting our Church…and in the middle of December he asked my dad if he could court me.

🙂

We started slow–since neither my parents or I were very familiar with the guy (he’d only been visiting our church a few months), and we called it the “get to know each other” stage. Or, for more simplicity, it was like a “pre-courtship”. He came over and visited with me and the family on a weekly basis, and I got to know him more. Then in the middle of March we began “officially courting”.

😀

Here’s a picture of us, if you’re curious. His name is Dan (which is funny, since I have a brother named Danny, and Uncle named Danny, and three cousins who have names beginning with “Dan”). Since he’s in the Navy, we had a lot of ups and downs around the time that he got his orders. For a while we thought he’d get stationed in my home town, then we thought he’d be just a few states away…it was really crazy for several weeks. There were many, many prayers for God to work in our situation and place Dan where HE wanted him to be.

And when the dust finally settled, we found out he was to be stationed in California.

And for those of you who may not know, I live in Florida.

It wasn’t what we had wanted or hoped for, but after some time to adjust to the whole idea, we both agreed that it shouldn’t be what we wanted for us, but what God wanted for us. And, if you knew the whole story with all it’s crazy twists and turns, you would agree with us that God really wanted Dan out in California.

So, as you can imagine, with the reality facing us that he would be leaving very soon, we spent as much time together as we possible could. And while I am unspeakably thankful for that time we had….it seemed to pass far too quickly!

It’s now been 16 days since Dan left, and while sometimes I think I’m getting used to the whole “long distance” relationship….there are still days that I wish there weren’t over 2,000 miles separating us.

🙁

But, I keep looking on the bright side of things — while we are separated now, it’s only for a season. 🙂

So! Yeah, this whole courtship has been the main reason I have not had time to blog or read at all the last few months. We were spending a lot of time together before we found out where he was going to be stationed–because we knew the possibility of him being stationed somewhere far away. (Though neither of us ever imagined California!) So then when we found out it’d be in CA, we spent every spare moment together.

Cosmetology has also been taking up the rest of my time the last few months. This year I’ve been going to school all morning, coming home around 1 o’clock or so. It’s been a really fun experience and I’ve been learning a lot! I’ve discovered I love doing hair styles, cutting hair, and even coloring….but don’t enjoy highlighting, perms, or relaxers as much. But we learn everything and, hey, even if I don’t particularly enjoy it, I still need to know how to do it well. 🙂

I’m set to graduate out of Cosmetology school in December, Lord willing. It’s exciting that I’m more than halfway over–it seems I’ve been going to Cosmetology school for ages! But it’s been a great experience and one I will look back on with fond memories. 🙂

Well, I think that’s about it. Those are really the only two things that have been engulfing my time this year. I hope y’all forgive me for disappearing on you this year. Lord willing, I’m back and will soon be in the swing of things. I can’t wait to get back to visiting all the blogs I used to read on a daily basis. While I won’t be able to commit the time to it that I used to, I will be doing as much as my time will allow. 🙂

So! with all that said, I’d love to hear from y’all! Especially if we used to communicate last year before I disappeared. 😛 How is your blog doing? Any big changes in your life? Can’t wait to hear from ya!