I'm baaaaaaaack!

It feels good to be home, but I think I'd rather still be on vacation with my sweetie. After we had our wonderful vacation together for our one-year anniversary, I'm sorry to tell you that Dan is no longer my amazing boyfriend...



...now he is my amazing fiance! *grinning from ear-to-ear*
Did I scare you there? :)

Indeed, after all the tricks that boy had up his sleeve, his final surprise was the BIG ONE! It couldn't have been more perfect...the vacation, the proposal, all of it. Of course, if I would've remembered that I was supposed to say 'yes' instead of sitting there with my jaw on the ground, it might have been better, LOL, but that story is to come.

One year ago from Saturday the 27th, Dan and I made our relationship official. We were already inseparable, and that morning before he went to work he said something like, "You know, we haven't talked about our relationship at all... somehow we've avoided that topic." We knew we were pretty much boyfriend and girlfriend, so we sealed the deal and made plans to have lunch together that afternoon.

One year later on the 27th, we're at Niagara Falls spending our day out on the town. At 5:00, we went to the Cirque Niagara and tried to decide what to do for dinner. Dan figured that we could just go to a restaurant inside the hotel, and that was fine with me. Before heading to the restaurants, we went up to the room to drop off our stuff. We walked into the suite and I didn't even notice that our dining room table was set for a candlelit dinner, until I realized that Dan had out the video camera and was recording my reaction. A special anniversary message and menu was set up on the table, along with a picture of us taken last year on our first "official" lunch date. That's when the tears came to my eyes.

Dinner was brought up to us a few minutes later, appetizers and entrees that Dan picked out...prime rib for me, and ribs for him...each of our favorites. An hour later, dessert was brought to us. Dan picked out a chocolate torte for dessert since chocolate is my favorite. When the dessert was put in front of us, I saw that Dan had a piece of the chocolate torte, and the room service manager said that mine was a special anniversary dessert. Once he left, Dan opened the lid on his dessert and came over to take the lid off of mine. It was a cute heart-shaped chocolate molded box (what I thought was cake or something), along with chocolate-covered strawberries and other candies. At that point, Dan took the lid off of the heart-shaped box and I saw a ring on a bed of rose petals.

My jaw dropped. I looked at him, he smiled, I looked back at the ring. He picked it up and said, "Will you marry me?" and all I could do was look at him and the box in shock. Back and forth, him now on his knee and me still in shock, I finally remembered that I was supposed to answer! I lifted my jaw from the ground and said, "Yes, of course!"

He got the entire thing on camera, since he sat the video camera on its tripod when we walked into the room. We watched my stunned reaction a few times over and my shock is the funniest thing ever, though I don't really want anyone else to watch it! After that, we didn't really eat our dessert, LOL. We were too excited and still trying to breathe. I called my parents, and of course they already knew, but it was exciting to tell them how he proposed. We have pictures of it all, video of most of it, and I'll never forget our perfect vacation.

Now, we have a wedding to plan! It still hasn't sunk in that we're engaged! We've talked about some details already in the past couple days, and we'd like to have the wedding May 27, 2007. It'll be our second anniversary, it'll be Memorial Day weekend, and even though it's on a Sunday everyone will have Monday off of work. I think it's perfect. I'm not sure what other people will think about it being over a holiday weekend, but it's our wedding, right? :)

I'm so excited! Here are some pictures of the ring. Dan had it made and I love it!

My dessert!


The heart made of rose petals on our table...


As close as we could get for a clear shot...


The pictures don't do it much justice, but it has a channel of 12 princess diamonds all the way across the band, and the sides bridge up to hold a larger princess stone. The wedding band will match with the same channel going across it. I totally feel like a princess! I just keep looking at my ring and watching it sparkle. :)

Now it's time for bed, and we took over 600 pictures on our vacation so I'm not even going to try to sort through and post any yet. I will soon though, through my photosite or somewhere easy to upload and view. Goodnight!

Where am I?...

...at Niagara Falls, Canada!!

Just a very short post to tell you what an amazing boyfriend I have. I was totally surprised! I had no clue where we were going until I saw the name of the exit from the highway, LOL! He booked us a huge, breathtaking hotel suite, and here's a picture he took from our WALL of windows *swoon.*



More later! :)

A little less mushiness...

{TO THE TART FANATICS}
I finally bought a tart burner!! After all this time, I finally gave into the tart craze! I tried to find a cute burner a couple months ago at the mall, but the only store there was Hallmark and I wasn't too impressed. Little did I know until ... um, YESTERDAY ... that there's a Yankee Candle store not even five minutes from me! What?! I bought mine last week when I was at a different mall doing some shopping, and I also bought my mom an electric one for Mother's Day. We've been burning the Machintosh for a few days because Dan really likes it, but today I went with Buttercream because I've always loved that scent. Here's my cute little burner up on my mantel! I thought it matched really well with our earth-tone living room, so I went with it.



{A DEEP BREATH}
Maybe...but not really. Last Thursday I took some time out from everything when I went shopping and also took the day to do some scrapping. That's when I did Dan's layout in the last post, but I also did one using Holly and Gina's fantabulous Summer Home kit! I also used the coffee stain stamps from Gina Cabrera's Book Bag Essentials kit, and some various fonts. Even Dan said it's a totally different style than what I normally do, but I love the way it turned out and it was a lot of fun to put together!



Now that I've had my breath of fresh air it's time to dive back into work! My paper needs to be done in about TWO WEEKS, yipes!... and then Dan and I finally have our getaway for Memorial Day weekend! I can't wait! But I also need to get to work, no more scrapping for this girl until next month!

{NEW JOB}
EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeekk! Okay, so remember that interview I went in for last week? Yeah, well I didn't get that position, lol. That was more in the Marketing realm and that's not exactly my expertise, even though I could catch on really quick. Buuuuuut, I know the woman that did get the position, and now her old position is available. Can you see where this is going? I talked to her this morning about it and she told me the name of the position...Project Planning Coordinator, I believe...and I'd basically be updating project information, keeping track of records, and stuff like that. Organization, records, and planning are right up my alley! Though from the look of my desk right now you wouldn't believe me if I told you a zillion times. Anyway, it's a contract position, meaning I won't have any benefits, but it gets me in the door to the same place Dan works *huge smile* and I'll be able to apply for internal positions when they become available. I also talked to the HR guy after I got off the phone with her about the position, and he got back to me with an offer! These are some great people, so nice! I'm excited, I'll be making some real money (what's that scrapping kits? you're calling my name? you want me to buy you?), and since I'll be working in Northern Kentucky that means Dan and I could possibly look for apartments down in that area. Woohoo!

{PHOTO OPPORTUNITY}
Last week my twin nephews had their First Communion and it was SO adorable. I think 12 kids were taking their First Communion that day, and it was an awesome photo opp. I wasn't really able to get photos of them while they were performing the ceremony, but we were all able to get some family pictures afterwards. I need to email my brother and have him send me the photos with the whole family. Here is one of my parents that I took, and my mom took the other two.

The cuties themselves: Alex and Jared (not identical, obviously)


My mommy and daddy


And who is this adorable couple? ;)


I can't believe how long my hair is now! Here's something that I've been wanting to show for a while, and I want to do a layout about it once I have the time. I found a picture of myself from March last year, and decided to mimic my pose this year to see the difference. Oh my gosh, it's crazy to look at the difference a year can make! The secret's out that I've gained 20 pounds in the last year and I can definitely see it in my face, hehe! I used an orange filter on both photos from Virtual Photographer.



Well, that's it for today. It's 3:00 and I STILL need a shower! When Dan gets home from work we have a hot date, complete with dinner and a movie! I still haven't touched my paper today, yikes! Happy Tuesday!

Ah, memories...continued...

I think I've kept you all in suspense long enough, or maybe not ;) ... but I was waiting for the right dates to continue my story and I've also been mucho busy.

A year ago on Friday the sixth, Dan was out of town for a friend's wedding and we had already had a few long phone conversations that week. I knew it was his birthday and I sent a text message to his phone saying something like "I hope someone sang to you today...Happy Birthday!" We also had another long conversation that night and planned to get together on the eighth, that Sunday, to hang out. When Sunday rolled around, I had plans for a Mother's Day brunch with the girls on my dad's side of the family, then it was off to visit Dan afterwards. It was so weird to see him after so long! We caught up on the last several years, walked around the town, and stopped to have some ice cream. We've been inseparable ever since! It's funny that we can talk about events years ago and have a connection to them, but also have our own story and our own past...an interesting past that's led us together today.

He never ceases to amaze me with his sensitivity and generosity, and I can't believe it's been a year already. We can basically read each other's minds, and it's scary that I can be sitting on the couch or in the car, and he'll ask me about the subject I'm thinking about, without me saying a word. I often wonder if I'm on the Truman show or if something's implanted in me that lets him know exactly what I'm thinking, lol. He gives me everything I want and more, and is always willing to listen and help. I only hope he can say the same about me, hehe. ;)

Here's a layout I did for his birthday. I framed it with one of the 8x8 frames from Target, of course! I picked this song by Jack Johnson because it's one of the first songs I remember from our relationship and it's one of our favorite singers. I thought we could put it on our mantel, but Dan took it to work for his desk! A majority of the idea for this composition came from Dani's Mother's Day layout, that girl is just too creative! I am in LOVE with this kit and the barcode font, too!


Kit - Gina Cabrera's Lucky Star kit, gift from SSD5
Torn paper action - Atomic Cupcake
Character photo filter - Virtual Photographer
Fonts - Snowshoe, Top Secret and Barcode Font

Thanks for looking! Happy Monday!