A Move, a Job, and an Engagement!

If you can read a calendar you will notice that I haven't posted on here in a ridiculously very long time. It has been a crazy whirlwind of logistics, moving, getting settled into my job, AND getting engaged! So far I am loving my new location. Eric and I found a great apartment in a nice part of town, and unlike my apartment in Chicago, this one is larger than a closet! It has a fireplace, a balcony (which is already decked out with plants), and a washer and dryer. Also, it has a dishwasher. People, I didn't realize a person could be so excited about cleaning up after dinner until I finally got to clean up by putting things in a dishwasher, rather than washing them by hand! Plus, the fact that I can look outside and see grass, trees, birds, and watch storms roll in just makes my soul a little happy.

The new job is incredible, too. Every day I am completely exhausted by the time 5:30 rolls around, but the weird thing is... for some reason, I actually look forward to going back to work the next day! I teach 3-year old art in my class. We do things like paint, glue, learn how to use scissors... it's pretty cool. You might think that coloring and painting and doing "basic" art projects with 3-year olds could get boring because they can only do so much. On the contrary, a 3-year old will keep you guessing, and their art projects NEVER look the same. They have such cool perspectives on the themes we work on, and they are certainly not afraid to share silly and crazy ideas. It keeps me on my toes every day-- I love it!

And, yes, the best part of all of this-- being engaged to Eric! We've been engaged for almost 2 months and we've got our venue, the dress, the invitations, and the general theme all chosen and set up. But that's not the best part. The best part is that on my wedding day, my best friend will be standing at the front waiting for me, and we'll get to promise our love and friendship to one another for the rest of our lives.

So here is how it happened:
On June 20 I was dropping Eric off at FedEx to fly back to Memphis for work. As I was standing by the car waiting to hug him goodbye, he said he had to find something he had misplaced in his bag. I didn't notice at first, but he was on one knee as he was rummaging. All of a sudden he pulled something out of the bag, looked up at me and started talking. It took me a second to realize he was saying sweet things-- for the first few seconds I was thinking to myself, "What the heck is he talking to me for? I don't know where his thing is!" Once I realized that this man was proposing, I just started laughing. I was so happy. There we were, standing in the FedEx parking lot, the love of my life saying the sweetest things I've ever heard (including, "I'm sorry I'm doing this at FedEx, but I just couldn't wait"), and me just laughing because I was so overjoyed. As soon as he asked, I said yes!

Now, up until this point I hadn't really bothered to look at the ring. I was too focused on trying to permanently inscribe every word he was saying in my mind. But once I said yes and hugged him, I looked at the ring. You guys, Eric is the perfect man. He got on my Pinterest board and looked at all the styles I had pinned, he had his sisters go with him to the store, and he shopped at at least 3 different stores to make sure he'd found the perfect ring. And he did. He found THE. PERFECT. RING.
 

We got a couple of FedEx employees to take our picture, we hugged and kissed and laughed, and then he got on the plane and headed back to Memphis.

Some people might think that this story isn't that romantic. It's FedEx and he left right afterward. But you know what? It was the perfect proposal. I pick up and drop off from that FedEx each time Eric comes home. At least once a week I get to see the place where my boyfriend became my fiance, and every week I just get so giddy and happy and, yes, very cheesy. But isn't that the point?

As far as I'm concerned, Tulsa has been a terrific success so far!