We Do Fun Things...Sometimes

Since we have been lame and haven't updated, I decided I will do a photo overload for your personal enjoyment. Here are some pictures from our summer! Pictures are more exciting than posts with words, right!? More to come soon...

                                    Yes there is white water rafting out east...West Virginia!!

                                                       the turtle face strikes again....

                                                  First day of school, year three as el Profe.

                                                            I wanted to swim with this bear!

                                                  Memphis Zoo with my sister and Jessi.

                                        Pure joy! Jessi scaring Grampa with alligator noises.

                                          an oldie but a goodie. I love this picture of Jon!

Recent Hapenins

I have been meaning to post about this for several weeks now, and I'm just now getting around to it (¡Sorry!). Janet and I went out to visit Brian and Mandy in the beginning of June for Hali´s dance recital (she did soooo well!). We had tons of fun. We spent a lot of time playing with the kids, went to a frozen yogurt place called frogs, Brian made some awesome bbq, we watched some youtube videos, and I got makeup attacked by Janet, Milaya, and Janet. It´s basically a given that they will do that every time. Here are some pics from that trip.

 Sorry... I post a lot of pictures. I think these are all sooo cute, so I want to share them all.


Also, the last few days have been super eventful. Janet and I went and saw Coldplay on July 3rd (so freaking radical!!!). The openers weren't that great (the first band was okay but the second was ridiculously stupid... it was a girl named Robyn or something) but Coldplay rocked the house. We got these wristbands that lit up and they controlled them during a few songs in the show. They are a very high energy band and they performed super well. Chris Martin danced around a lot and you could tell he absolutely loves performing. Then July 4th we stayed in bed watching Prison Break until noon, which was nice and relaxing, went grocery shopping and got stuff for dinner and made it (kebabs and angel food cake with festive toppings), and then we went to a baseball game with fireworks. Janet also put together some homemade frozen meals which look awesome (we will probably post more about it later). Anyway, here are some pics...

Note Janet's festive colors. I felt left out and lame (I almost wore an Olympic Mexico shirt that I got a couple weeks ago with her, but then I decided that wouldn't be wise) so I put on more festive colors to match her as well. She is so gorgeous!

 This first picture goes with Jon's last post, this is where we ate on our first date, Benson's BBQ. It wasn't really that great of food from what I remember, but the company wasn't too shabby.

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Strawberries from our garden! Critters ate most of them, but luckily we also had my parent's strawberries to pick.

 Red potato from the garden, I planted old red potatoes and magic happened.

 This picture does not do it justice, this thing was huge! We have zucchini coming out of our ears right now.

 

MY FAVORITE!! Oh my gosh, eating blueberries everyday is heaven for me. 

I made freezer jam! A month or two ago I made strawberry freezer jam, I used a low-sugar recipe that is weird, it makes great salad dressing but is a little tart for PB and J. However, yesterday I made peach freezer jam and raspberry/blueberry freezer jam and they turned out fantastic!! I can't describe how delicious they are! And they were low-sugar recipes too and are plenty sweet.

I feel like such an old grandma. I pick produce daily and I bake/cook all the time (ok maybe not but it feels like it sometimes). My back has been aching so I am taking it easy today and staying in bed all day. I am too young for this! p.s. I love my job. One of my new clients ran up to me on Friday, put her hand on my stomach and said, you have a baby in your tummy! haha nice try but I do not. I guess I shouldn't wear that shirt again... ok am I boring you yet?! thanks for reading about our fruits and veggies. We are so exciting.

p.s. these pictures are from my phone so don't judge the quality.    
pps. have you ever tried homemade chicken nuggets? they are a staple food in our house now, so yummy and easy to make!                                     

Our garden is growing like crazy! I love having fresh produce from my backyard. I am counting down the days until we have blueberries and tomatoes ready. This year we have already enjoyed the following: spinach, basil, romaine, sugar snap peas, red potatoes, strawberries, and raspberries. We still have a lot of stuff we are waiting to finish growing. So yummy!

Over Memorial Day we went to the beach with my parents, cousins, and my aunt and uncle. Here are some pics! 

These next few are from a local petting zoo...I have been begging Jon to take me and so off we went yesterday! He was grossed out by the animal slobber.

"First" Date

Way back in April of 2011 over Easter weekend Janet and I had our first date. This was when she invited me to see her in Atlanta while she visited for her nephew Xander's baby blessing. It was such a fantastic weekend! I was super nervous to go out there since it was our first time seeing each other in person since New Years, but I was also so extremely excited. I had been in Costa Rica the week before, and had been talking about her, and visiting her pretty much the whole time I was there. I kept thinking about all the things I could take her there to do and see and how much greater it would have been with her there. Anyway, we were to have our first official date that weekend. We went to a park and drew with sidewalk chalk next to a pond. Then we spent some time looking for somewhere to set up my slackline, but we didn't end up finding a good spot. So we went out to eat at a local bbq restaurant. It was pretty good. If I remember correctly Janet got a bbq sandwich and I got ribs. It was decent, but not the best bbq. Then we went and bought some ice cream (which we didn't end up eating) and we returned to Cameron and Sandra's house to watch a movie. We watched I Am Legend, and of course, Janet fell asleep within the first 20 minutes of it =). I ended up dosing off at the end of the movie as well. When I woke up, that was when I kissed her for the first time... a small peck on the lips to wake her up. It was so amazing to be with her, and it is something I will remember forever. Anyway, here are some of the pictures from that date.

This past Easter, we went back to Atlanta to visit Cameron and Sandra. We were able to recreate the date to a certain extent. We went back with sidewalk chalk to the same park, and re-drew some of the pictures we drew the first time. Then we walked around the park and sat at one of the benches all the while talking and remembering last year. Janet has been such a blessing in my life, and I am so grateful for her and all she does!

 

 

 Here is the pond! It's a pretty one... though it's hard to tell in this pic.

 Here are some super cute pictures of us... especially Janet. She probably won't be too happy that I'm posting these because of the faces she is making, but I think they are super cute.

The Engagement

This is a little belated, but I wanted to post this still. Megan helped me out a bit with the engagement. Here is her side of the story.


After our trip to Colorado for Katie's graduation, I KNEW I was to marry Janet. I was thinking it from the moment I met her, but that was when I knew it for sure. Soon after in our Sunday skype sessions and phone calls throughout the week, I started asking her how she felt about marriage, and what kind of ring she wanted. I got the image in my head of what she wanted pretty quick, but I had her keep sending me pictures and stuff just to be safe, and to keep her thinking. I searched in Charlotte for a few days after work, and finally found the perfect ring. I had them put it on layaway for a bit, and got to work preparing how I was going to ask her. Talking to her parents, they offered some of their frequent flyer miles to get me out there (they still didn't know I had the ring, and that I was really planning to ask her to marry me, though I bet they had a good feeling). I was going to fly out around my birthday at the end of June. She was planning to move to NC towards the end of July. She was going to go to graduate school and get her masters degree. Bit by bit we moved her date closer until we finally decided that I would help her move back when I flew out there. I knew I wanted to ask her the soonest possible. I can't hold something like that in for very long. I wanted to do something with sidewalk chalk because on our first date we drew with sidewalk chalk in a park in Atlanta. I wrote a message to her, and asked Megan if she could find a really nice park with pretty walkways where she could write the message and we can get a little bit of privacy. My plan was to have the message written out on the sidewalk for Janet and I to read as we walked, and I played the guitar and sing to her. A day or so before I left I went to a free orchestra concert with her parents. It was fun... we had a picnic and everything. We got back to their house, and I knew I wanted to ask her dad for permission to marry her. I was super nervous about that and I totally stalled until about 11 at night when they finally told me that I shouldn't feel like I need to entertain them. I fessed up and asked for permission then, and Janet's dad said "Yep" without hesitation, and her mom gasped and said "Oh my heart!". I hugged them both, and was quickly on my way.

The day finally came for me to ask her (it was a Saturday morning, and it was the day before my birthday), and I remember being nervous from the morning I woke up. I got ready, said a little prayer for courage, and right about that time she called me to pick me up. I put the ring in my pocket (without the box and stuff so she wouldn't notice), and went out to meet her. We went to her cousin Celeste's house on our way to Salt Lake. I told Janet that we needed to be there at one; Megan had something planned for us. Celeste was super nice, and I even got to meet her husband Rob. We all talked for a while, but I don't really remember too much because my mind was elsewhere. We showed up at Megan's house at one just as I had planned, and Megan sent me a text right then telling me that she "got called in to work at the last minute". I grabbed her guitar, and told Janet that we would go to a park to pass the time. I think that's about the time that she started to catch on. We drove by a few parks on the way to "the park" where Megan prepared everything. Again, Janet got suspicious. I had memorized the directions from Megan's house to the park, but we still had to turn around once or twice before I found the entrance. We were at the top of a hill, and started to walk down the sidewalk that Megan told me to as I attempted to play the guitar and sing to her. I was super nervous, and could hardly sing, and my fingers wouldn't stop shaking. Then we saw Megan. Right in the middle of the path. She had a camera in her hand, and started looking around frantically for somewhere to hide. She finally pressed up against a wall and attempted to hide behind some leaves and told us which path to go down. Janet asked if we were going to say hi as we passed by, and I told her not to worry about it. It was a circular path, that went up and down this hill. When we got to the bottom is where the message started. I stopped Janet and had her read it. By this time, I had given up with the guitar. We continued to walk and read. At the top of the path again we found the phrase "as I get down on one knee..." and I hugged her for a bit, told her how much I love her. I sneaked my hand into my pocket and pulled out the ring, and got down on one knee. She was startled and asked "Where did that come from?". I almost put the ring on the wrong hand because she had both hands out for me. Then she put her left one forward more so I knew which one to put it on. Megan and Marrilee were of to the side taking pictures for a bit, then they ran off. We took a second to look at the ring on Janet's finger, and kissed a bit, then went on our way back to Megan's house. Megan expected us to go back to the bottom of the circle, and she waited there for a while. We didn't really plan out too well where we would all meet after the proposal. When we got back to her house, we quickly started texting all of our family to let them hear about the good news.