There are a lot of firsts I'll be posting about on here, I'm sure!
So, on Sunday we went to our new ward for the first time and were amazed at all the families with super young children :) it will be so different than our last 10 years in singles wards.
After church Ryan made pulled pork sandwiches (Costco has amazing pulled pork!), salad, and fresh pineapple. We only have his old gun table and my folding chair for my keyboard, and his office chair. It was cute! Ryan is so awesome to take care of this meal while I'm off at choir all Sunday morning.
More pictures of our place to come... We are working on getting furniture-- and we will have most of it by Valentines Day!
Doris, I don't know how you swam your way into our hearts so quickly. I mean, you were only a goldfish but you sure had a cute personality for the week that we owned you. You would perk up at the sound of Ryan's voice, ignore our feeding you pellets, and seem to perpetually hug the side of the tank. And I assume that as soon as I wasn't looking you must have started eating because you had a very healthy digestive system.
But alas, you are gone. We sent you off on the porcelain express tonight and thoughtfully cleaned up your toys.
Ryan and I would like to take this moment to thank Morgan who was very communicative with us through the process, as we were running errands when Doris took a turn for the worse:
No immediate plans have been made to acquire more aquatic animals. Doris remains our first pet, though it was ever so brief. I will post pictures soon.
In Lowe's Hardware today we imagined some of our dreams coming true with various updates to our new condo. Of course many of these remodeling jobs are for VERY far into the future and we don't have money for most of it, but we can dream, right?
I asked Ryan about a countertop in our laundry room that was sagging, and he said that when the counter had been put in, the screws weren't put straight into the studs on the wall. I told Ryan that I was really good with a stud-finder-- I have done several home improvement projects myself over the years on my bedroom and other things.
Ryan says, "Of course you're good with a stud-finder. You found me!"
We bought a condo in Eagle Mountain, Utah! We will be moving there after the wedding. This will help make Ryan's commute to work much better, and we will have a lot more room to grow with a three bedroom, two bath space. We will also be closer to Ryan's brothers in Lehi and some of Emily's cousins in Eagle Mountain and Herriman.
Ryan will be taking online classes to get his bachelor's of Nursing and then later to become a Nurse Practitioner. We are blessed that his company will help defray tuition costs while he is a full time employee. It's never too late to follow your dreams!
Emily is applying to go back to school for a Masters Degree at BYU in Curriculum Design. While this is a deviation from her undergrad studies, we feel strongly that she should do this. She looks forward to working in education and then starting their family when the time comes.
Moving to a new city will be a big step for both of us as we have lived in Provo for a combined amount of over 15 years! But adventure is out there!
Ryan got Emily a bike for Christmas and we hear there are excellent bike trails in Eagle Mountain, so we hope to make that our recreational hobby together.
Being engaged during the Christmas season is pretty fun. Lots of holiday parties to attend, and a time to turn hearts to the Savior.
Today at choir we rehearsed a piece for next week's broadcast: John Rutter's New Year, published in 2006. The lyrics voiced so many of my own thoughts and feelings about the changes taking place after the start of this new year. Especially just the thought of it getting lighter outside, spring is on its way, starting my own new family, and the hope that it brings to Ryan and I. I think every year when Christmas ends that it is so sad! But I won't think of it the same way anymore. The Birth of Christ only ushers in the lengthening of days and increased warmth and light (at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere).
I will include the lyrics to this song:
Lyrics to John Rutter's New Year:
Turn your eyes to the light,
Cast away the works of darkness, let them go.
Turn your eyes to the light.
Turn your face to the Sun.
Feel the warmth, the hope of new beginnings
With each new year.
The light was always there if we could but see it.
And hope was in the air, if we'd known how to feel.
Turn your eyes to the light.
Turn your face to the sun.
New light, new hope, new year.
New light, new hope, new year.
Turn your ears to the sound
Somewhere near a voice is calling, hear the news.
Turn your ears to the sound.
Turn your hearts to the love.
Christ is come to bring the world new life, to bring new life.
The voice is always there if the world will hear it.
And love is always there if you search in your heart.
So I'm going to start by saying, this is the first blog post I've ever written. Which means that I'll probably like, win a Pulitzer Prize or something over here.
My tale of the proposal begins several weeks prior, with the forging of the One Ring. Emily and I had gone out ring shopping so that she could show me the type of ring she likes and then I would go later and purchase one to where I could surprise her (which didn't work out at all, by the way). During the course of our little excursion, after enjoying hot chocolate at Jared's, we came upon a ring that it was obvious to me she fell in love with. I also knew that I would probably need to sell a kidney or other vital organ to be able to get it (you only need one of those, so I hear). Fortunately for me, and my kidney, I knew of a place that could custom make one for much cheaper. So, armed with pictures of the ring she liked, I went and had this place start work on her ring.
It was a little under 2 weeks until we were to leave for Thanksgiving to go and meet her family. They told me the ring would be done in 2 weeks or perhaps a little less. I was hoping that they would be able to get it done before we left so that I could maybe propose to her on the way back, but when I called them before we left they told me it would be the following Tuesday. So there went that plan.
We get back, its Tuesday, and the ring place tells me it isn't quite finished, but it will be the next day. Well I had to scratch the plan to propose to her that night. So the next day comes and I give them a call. Turns out the ring had some sort of oxygen contamination when forging part of it and they had to redo it. Probably never had this type of problem at Mt. Doom. No problem, they tell me. It'll be ready by tomorrow. So I give them a call back the next day. The ring is done! Yes! Its out at the independent appraiser and isn't back to us yet. No! Finally though, I'm able to pick it up on Friday.
Now, the other thing you have to know about this, is that we had engagement pictures on Saturday. You kind of need a ring for engagement pictures. So Emily knows its kind of do or die time for me.
I had contacted Derick and Becky, my middle brother and his wife, for ideas on how to propose. My brothers advice to me "She's going to be telling this story to people for the rest of her life, so make it memorable." Well, no pressure there.
I knew that the temple is a special place for Emily, and so I decided that I wanted to do the proposal there. I had my brother pick up roses and hide them behind a bench at the back of the Provo temple. Turns out he takes that duty very seriously, even going as far as scaring other people away so that we could have the place to ourselves.
After the ward party, we were supposed to meet up with Derick and Becky to go out to get some dessert. I called them as we were leaving and they were still "busy" so I suggested we go for a walk around the temple while we waited for them. I'm pretty sure this is the point that she knew she was about to get proposed to. We walked around to the back and sat down at the bench where the roses were hidden and talked for a bit. Emily talked about how that area was a special place for her and told me some of the experiences that she had back there, I took that as my cue, and pulled out the roses from behind the bench and told her we needed to add one more special event to the list. At that point I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. Since we had already been planning the wedding for several weeks at this point, it did take some of the nervousness out of it since I had a fairly good idea what she would say.
So, while it wasn't a surprise and wasn't the more elaborate thing, it happened in a place, the temple, that is very special to both of us. I'm still super excited that she said yes!
Every girl dreams of being proposed to-- (amiright?). What it will be like when he gets down on one knee to pop the question??
My courtship with Ryan has been a little different than either of us expected. We knew early on in our relationship that we were meant to get married. I remember the rush of feelings I had when I realized I wanted to marry him. Our journey from meeting at work, to meeting again at a party at his house, to dating and deciding to marry is very sacred to us. We have been prayerful every step of the way so as to make wise decisions. God is a huge part of our relationship and I wouldn't have it any other way.
So technically we have been planning for this moment for nearly 6 weeks. I had pretty fair warning, so I wasn't too surprised.
It was Friday night and we had just left my ward Christmas party. I was wearing my ugly Christmas sweater! (To top it off I had on a bright green coat. So classy, I know. )
There were about 4 couples in my ward who had gotten engaged over Thanksgiving! Everyone was talking about engagements, rings and weddings at the Christmas party. Funny, no? I'm sure Ryan was laughing inside with each little comment about proposals.
Ryan told me his brother and sister in law wanted to go to dessert with us, so we left the party to go to the BYU Creamery. But when we left, Ryan said they were running late! (I'm thinking... something is fishy here!). He decided we should drive around the Provo Temple...
We walked around the back side of the temple to the quiet gardens. Ryan's proposal was as simple, straightforward, and beautiful as he is. We sat on a bench -- and it was cold outside so I'm sure he just wanted to get me out of the cold. He pulled a gorgeous bouquet of red roses out from behind the bench, got down on one knee, opened the ring box and said, "Will you marry me?"
I said yes!
There were no flashy lights or flourishes--it was so simple. Just Ryan and me cementing the decision we had made weeks earlier. I didn't have a rush of emotions, or have any second thoughts. It was natural to say yes, and I am so thankful for God answering my prayers and sending Ryan to me.
His brother Derick and sister in law Becky had left the bouquet at the bench and were hiding in their car. They were so adorable and excited for us when we came out to the front. We went to Swig to have treats afterward. Thanks you guys!!
