rainy days...

I just love rainy days... when I have nowhere to go that is!

Today is a gloomy, rainy day... but I absolutely love it! There's just something so cozy about the rain. One of my favorite things to on rainy days is get into my comfiest clothes, turn on the fireplace, make a cup of tea and curl up on the couch with a blanket and a book. I love being able to just stay at home on a rainy day, and that's what I get to do today... let's just say I hear the couch calling my name right now!

:)

Birthday blessings :)

Birthdays are wonderful :) How fun it is to get spoiled and reminded that people love you!

My birthday was on Monday and I had a great one! I'm definitely feeling well loved by many! It was a pretty normal day for me... didn't really do a whole lot during the day. Did some work on invitations, tidied up a little and watched some TV. Talked to my sister and my grandparents on the phone at dinner time and then went out for a lovely dinner at Applebees (my favorite!) with my Mom and Dad :) (Much to Dad's delight and my embarassment, I even got sang to and received a free dessert!)

One of the highlights of my day was something very unexpected! I got a flower delivery! I got a call earlier in the day from a florist asking if I was going to be around for a couple of hours becuase their delivery guys were running behind. So, all day I got to play the guessing game wondering who sent me flowers! Turns out, they were from Bobby! :)

I was thrilled! I love flowers SO much... and I've never gotten them delivered to me before! It was fun :) Here's a glimpse of my beautiful birthday present all the way from Japan...


I am so blessed... I have an amazing fiance! I certainly wasn't expecting this because he had already given me a birthday gift when he was here!

Anyway, just thought I'd say thanks to everyone who made my day special! Thanks for taking the time to make me feel loved! Have a good week! :)

PS- 72 more days!!!

Give me Jesus...

I just have to say this... we've moved into the 70's in our countdown to the wedding now... just 79 days now!

Ok, I'm sorry my blog posts have been centered around the wedding... I'm trying hard not to get lost in all the little wedding details like flowers, dresses, invitations, guest lists, venues, etc and lose focus of why we're actually planning this special day, but since my world is basically consumed by wedding plans for now, that's all I have to blog about! But, today I've got something to blog about. Something I wanted to share from my quiet time today...

Something hit me today. Something that I've always known, but so often taken for granted.

I am so blessed. God is so good! He has given me a wonderful life with so much to be thankful for. If I was to list all the things I'm blessed to have in my life, my fingers would get sore from typing and your eyes would dry out looking from at the computer screen too long!

Seriously, I couldn't ask for a better life. I couldn't be much happier than I am right now! (People tell me it gets even better when you're actually married so I'm leaving room for improvement!) :P

This afternoon when I was taking a break from printing wedding invitations, I came into my room to hear this Jeremy Camp song playing on the radio. It's always been one of my favorites, but as I watched a few of my most precious and beautiful pictures flash by on my screen saver, I took a minute to soak up God's goodness to me. So many wonderful friendships, a beautiful and loving family, amazing pictures of God's handiwork in creation... I am so blessed!



As the song was playing and I was thinking about all these blessings in my life, it got me to thinking about how often I end up loving my life a little too much... I lose sight of why I'm here in the first place and so quickly forget about what God has in store for me after I leave this world. Today just got me to thinking about the fact that if I think my life on this earth is so wonderful, how much more wonderful will my eternity in Heaven be?! It's going to be so wonderful that it's beyond my comprehension right now!

Another thing stood out to me in my quiet time that I think sort of ties into what I was just talking about, came from the introduction to Philippians written in my Bible:

"In contrast to happiness stands joy. Running deeper and stronger, joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God's love and work in our lives- that He wil be there no matter what! Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Christ."

I'm not quite sure how to connect my two "lessons", but maybe you can...

I guess it just got me to thinking about whether I am filled with joy or happiness right now. If all these wonderful blessings in my life were to suddenly disappear, would I still be as content as I am right now? Would I be content and truly "happy" if all I had was Jesus, like the Jeremy Camp song talks about? Do I currently have joy in my life or is it happiness?

I know it's easier to say this when life is so good and I'm not really facing any trials in my life, but I believe that right now, my heart is filled with joy! Yes, I'm happy, but it goes deeper than that. Jesus is my source of joy!

Thank you Jesus for the gift of joy. Thank you that no matter what our circumstances may be, you abundantly give us joy. Help me to be a woman who exudes joy in my life in all I say and do! I love you!

I found it!!!

Guess what folks...

I found it! I found my dress today! It was even below what I was budgeting, and off the rack- just like I needed it to be :) God is so good! My family and I were all praying pretty hard today about finding what I needed/wanted, and God answered!

Mom and I went dress shopping today after my Dr's appointment and we ended up going to just two stores. The first store was great... it was my first time ever trying on a wedding dress (or any kind of "fancy dress"!) and the girl had a ton of fun picking dresses for me because I only had a vague idea of what I wanted. The only unfortunate thing was that she was having me try on $1300 dresses that I really liked, but obviously could NOT afford! We left having picked out 2 that I liked, but didn't make any promises of purchasing them.

Then we moved on to another store just down the road and had another great service experience. This time, I didn't try on as many dresses, but had a better idea of what I liked and didn't like. This place had WAY better prices and I was really impressed! I would recommend Theresa's bridal salon to anyone in a heartbeat! I only tried on about 5 or 6 dresses there, and I actually ended up choosing the very first one I tried on.

I really, really like it!! You have no idea how bad I want to post a picture of it but I can't!... it's torture!

It is really neat to see how God is providing for us and taking care of all the details I so easily get worried about. We've set Riverton Gospel Chapel as the location for the ceremony and things are just falling into place! We don't have a lot of money, but God is providing for us! (both in the way of people giving generous gifts and getting things on sale or less than we were expecting!)

So... with less than 3 months to go now, I'm getting more and more excited every day! What I love is that it's not just 3 months away from the wedding, but I'm 3 months away from spending nearly every day of the rest of my life with my best friend! (who happens to be the man of my dreams!) I am so blessed. SO blessed...

3 months from today...

...I'll be getting married! That's right... we've set the date! July 10th... just 91 days away!
This morning we took Bobby back to the airport and said our goodbyes. Although was incredibly difficult to watch him walk away, it was exciting to think that this is the last time we'll have to say goodbye in an airport! (The next time we see each other, we'll be travelling together!) Just 2 months apart now...

We had an amazing time together... a lot of laughs, special memories and family bonding!

Melissa and Brad were here for Easter weekend so they got to meet Bobby too. It was really fun to be a family of 6! Bobby fits in so well with everyone... almost too well! :P (just teasing!) and I think everyone is really excited to have him as part of our family.

It's amazing how fast 2 weeks go when you're having such a good time. We were able to get a lot of wedding planning done together which of course is fun, but stressful too. I'm certainly blessed to have a groom that really cares and is soooo helpful!

One of the many fun things we did while Bobby was here was a trip to Gimli. We basically just walked around and took pictures and just enjoyed a beautiful day by the water. Here's some of the pictures we took...

Can you tell how happy we are? :P (and that we like being goofy?)

I love this picture of Mom! They quite enjoyed the photo shoot and we got some good ones of them too... still so cute and so in love after 32 years of marriage!

Admiring my beautiful ring...

Can you tell which ones are posed?! :P (I'm a little awkard with photo shoots!)

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day together! God is so good to us and I'm so grateful for the time Bobby and I could have together over the last 2 weeks.

So I guess I'm doing pretty poorly at posting smile lists these days... but rest assured, I'm still smiling- just not as much today though :(

I'm sure I'll be plenty busy in the next 3 months, but I'm really, really excited about all the future holds! Oh, by the way... yesterday, I found out that I am officially a Christar missionary! :)

Guess I should get going since I haven't really accomplished very much yet today! Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

I'm getting married!! (and this is no April Fool's joke!!)

I'm sooooo excited to finally announce this:

I'm getting married! Bobby proposed to me yesterday at the Forks and I of course said YES!

So here's the details...

Wednesday started off as a pretty yucky, cloudy/rainy day but ended up turning into an absolutely fantastic sunny day! (I head it was about +17 and we actually both ended up getting sunburnt faces!) We headed off to the Forks around lunch time, and walked around for a little while. Then we found a nice little spot for a picnic, feasted on heart shaped cheese and pickle sandwiches and dill pickle chips, watching the geese and enjoyed the sunshine.

Then, Bobby said he had something for me... he pulled out a little homemade story that he wrote about a "little girl and a little boy" (us) and read it to me. After he finished, he said he had something else for me... he pulled out a little white box, got down on one knee, said a lot of sweet words about me, and asked me to marry him! I started crying as soon as he said my name! :P

I absolutely love my ring! My poor Bobby had little to work with in the surprise department as far as planning a proposal, but he did an amazing job of making it special and romantic! and... he chose the ring all by himself! (we had never looked at rings together)

At this point, we haven't set an official date, but we are aiming for this summer! Bobby will go back to Japan by himself in mid April but will come back to the States in June. In the mean time, I get to start planning!

I'm so excited and couldn't be happier. Only God could have brought us together the way He did! I am beyond blessed to have Bobby Baden as my fiance and I'm really excited to see how God will use us as we serve Him together. So much more could be said.... but I'm speachless! :)

Thank you Jesus for the wonderful life you've given me! :)