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He liked it & he put a ring on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week was a special week for me....because it was a special week for my dear friend Katie! She got engaged!!! It all starts back when Katie & Micheal were "just friends"....kidding we won't go back that far. :) We will go back to October when our friend Michael let me know he was planning to propose. Talk about keeping a secret!!! When it got closer to time I thought about how much fun it was for me to see all of my girlfriends the night I got engaged. My roommate Jess left work early to come to Megan's appt. and celebrate with us all. I LOVED having them around me & I got pitifully sad thinking about Katie's big night & me not being there. It made me sick. So, I decided to do something about it & fly down to see her! Don't worry, I made sure Michael was ok with me coming & he ended up working all of us into the engagement surprise!!

I got up around 3:30am to catch my ridiculously early flight. Arhmin picked me up from the airport around 12 noon & she and I ran some errands including picking up food for the "after party." Did I mention I ate myself sick on chick-fil-a!? Yum! Anyway, then the two of us went back to the airport to pick up Michael!!! From that moment on we video taped the day so Katie could look back and see everything Micheal did to prepare for this night. We ran a few more errands with Michael (including picking up all the rose pedals and a bouquet of roses he ordered) & started preparing for the night.

Abby, Arhmin, Cameron, Brad, Steve & myself hid upstairs and waited patiently (well, kind of patiently) as Michael popped the question downstairs. I wish I had the pic. Cameron took of the two boys peeking their heads out of the door so they could "hear better." The apartment looked amazing and he played some music which prohibited us from hearing. :) Michael also make Katie a beautiful book that some might just call "poetic." It was a book of their journey together & the end page had a picture of her ring and his proposal written out. Truly special! The whole thing is recorded & the video turned out really great!

He proposed, the two of them looked at the book & then Michael told Katie he had "one more surprise." We all burst downstairs and the room exploded with laughter, congratulations & screams of excitement! It was a wonderful Wednesday!

I was also able to spend some quality time with my mom Thursday & Friday. It was her first weekend without my dad. We were able to cruise around and look at all the new developments in Oak Ridge & eat at my favorite pizza place in the world, Big Ed's. I returned to Cleveland Friday & saw my friends in the President's office...I sure miss that gang! We all got together at Jenkins' for dinner and my mom headed back to O.R.

Saturday was an all girl day that incorporated wedding dress shopping, bug stomping at Zaxby's (don't ask) and getting our nails done thanks to Cameron's husband, Brad!!!! Wasn't that sweet? Mine are still lookin' good! I got to see some of my favorite kids in the world, Fletcher, Winston & Harper & eat at all my favorite places. It was soooo wonderful to be around some close friends without any agenda...just to do a little wedding planning & enjoy each others company. I loved it!

Arhmin on "candle duty"

Us girls helping pick flower pedals off the roses!

Ah, the food! We had white & chocolate fondue w/ fruit & marshmallows, Jenkins chicken salad sandwiches, apple fritters, a chocolate mousse cake (made by Cameron), jalapeno corn dip & more!

Michael trying to act calm

Yummmmmmm!

Arhmin slavin' away in the kitchen

right before we went upstairs!

close up of the book he made

Right when Katie saw me!

Phil, Tonya, Autumn, J.R. & others came over afterwards to celebrate!

The happy couple!

I finally get to see Arhmin & Steve's apartment!

Precious baby Harper!

Katie is like a sister to me & I'm a better person b/c of our friendship. I'm soo soo soo happy for her & honored to be a part of her engagement. C-ya in July!!!!!!!

homemade soups!

A few Saturdays ago after church (we always go on Sat. nights) we went over to Justin & Beka's house to eat her delicious homemade soups & play games with her parents who were in town visiting from WI. It was great fun!

Beka is an amazing cook & puts me to shame with her healthy eating/cooking habits (same for you, Kerri)! Everything was so good and I'm pretty sure I ate an entire loaf for bread myself. We played cranium & had delicious cake (somehow it was healthy too). I'm not sure if my favorite part was her dad doing the Rocky dance when the boys won or the food, but I'm happy I got to experience them both!

Thanks Van Dalens!

Traveling again...

This time I'm not talking about my travels, but my dads. My dad has a unique job where he goes out of the country for 6-8 weeks at a time. He mainly travels to Guam or Japan & stays on military bases. He was a marine, but he's not traveling for them. He has a government contracted job--meaning he works as long as the money continues to fund their project. He took this job around 4? years ago thinking it was temporary, but they keep getting money to continue working.

This job is a blessing overall, but it sometimes feels like a curse. My dad graduated from UT with an aerospace engineering degree. That alone should tell you a lot about my father & how his brain works....if it doesn't I'm more than happy to give some humorous childhood stories of growing up with an engineering father. :) Anyway, what he is currently doing is traveling to military houses/buildings & putting in radon detectors. Radon is a radioactive gas that seeps out of the ground naturally...the problems is when we build houses and buildings we "trap" the gas inside & it can ultimately kill us since it's been found to be carcinogenic. Not every house has radon, but there are certain places that it's more prevalent (MN being one of them). So, dad goes over and puts in testers...reads and analyzes the data to find out how strong the radon is and then develops a plan to get it out...the "mitigation" part, which is some serious labor. He does it all.

The curses of this jobs is that he feels like it's so easy, "a monkey could do it," which we all know isn't true, but he still feels that way b/c he is not challenged. Second, it requires him to be away from my mom & they both hate that---it doesn't help my mom that her only child is 17 hours away. Also, it's technically "unstable." When the funding stops--so does his job. Luckily that hasn't happened yet, but it's in the back of everyone's mind all the time.

All of that was there to say this. I want to brag on my dad for sending my mom flowers at work today. He isn't the most observant man (cough cough), but there is no doubt he loves his family more than anything and he's proven over the years he'll do anything (including travel for a job he doesn't like) to provide for them. When my parents started dating he would very very often put a single red rose on her car windshield for her to find after work. The day he proposed he left a white one. My mom thought that the store was out of red ones, but saw his sneaky foreshadowing later on. He know how hard it is on my mom to be away from her & he took the time and effort to remind her how special she is to him....even if he's 1/2 way across the world. I think that deserves a post! :)

Here's to you dad. Thank you for being an incredible husband and father. Thank you for being so selfless & for being a constant voice of reason throughout my life. Your wisdom, forgiveness, love & support doesn't go unseen. You're an amazing man & I'm beyond proud to call you my dad. I love you!

ps. We're open to prayers for a more stable, US centered job anytime! ;) He gets back from Japan in March.