a mini birthday book.

I love making things, especially for Josh. Last year for his 22nd birthday I made him a booklet of 22 things I love about him. Since we're about to move we've been sorting through old papers and one day we found this.  I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite pages with you.

Fun, huh? The photos in this book are our engagement photos done by Allison Harp. 

wedding favorites no. 1

Today our marriage is seven months old!

I have never really shared any of our wedding photos (except the ones from a project life spread), so seven months of marriage seems like a good time to share.  My good friends from my semester in Costa Rica, Allison and Josh took the photos and did an amazing job.  I love the way the captured the spirit of our day.  We got married on July 21, 2012 at a pine grove outside of Greenville, IL.  Josh's cousins' grandparents (on the other side) live on a small chunk of land which includes the aforementioned pine grove and they so graciously let us use it for our wedding.  We did a "first look" in the pine grove and it was fun.  It was definitely a good way to calm my nerves.  Even though we had seen each other earlier that morning (we helped all our family and friends work on reception food and decoration), it was still SO exciting to meet each other in the pine grove.  The smiles in that second photo are proof.

j & r:

best thing ever.

Three weeks ago, on a Monday night, Joshua asked me to be with him forever.  And it's pretty much the best thing ever.  So here's how it happened:
(Warning:  this is the detailed version of the story, so grab a cup of coffee and stay a while.)

On Sunday we planned to scrapbook and hang out at our favorite porch swing spot on Monday night. We've been frequenting this porch swing ever since our freshman year.  Monday night comes and we enjoy a nice time of eating and working on our scrapbook.  Before heading over to the porch swing, Josh suggested we bring the ukulele so we could play some songs and sing together.  (Josh is teaching me how to play and I know two songs!)  I kind of complained about that idea because my hands would get too cold, but he told me to bring some gloves and I complied.  As we approached the swing, Josh bent down and plugged in a lamp that was placed next to the swing.  A couple of blankets were neatly covering the swing, as well.  At this moment my mind was racing and I thought maybe this would be the night that he was going to propose.  But then I reminded myself that he didn't have a ring. (We had gone ring shopping earlier and picked out a ring that Josh and I planned to go pick up on Wednesday.  But it was Monday night, so he couldn't have gotten the ring yet.)  All that was running through my mind in the split second between when Josh plugged in the light and when he said "I just thought it would be fun to do something nice for us."  That brought me back down to reality and we sat down.  I played the two songs I knew, with Josh singing along.  It was really fun.  Little did I know that the evening would get even more fun!  Then I handed Josh the ukulele and asked him to play a song for me.  Josh said he'd play a song that he wrote for me.  He's written me a few songs in the past, so I was confused when I didn't recognize the song.  But it was all about us, about how we met and grew to love each other.  And then Josh got down on his knee, opened up a little box and asked me to marry him.  I was so giggly and excited, but confused about how he had the ring.  And then I looked and saw it was a little ring made from twine.  It was adorable.  I continued to giggle and smile and hug Josh and at some point I told him "yes."  I had told Josh when we went ring shopping that I still wanted the proposal to be a surprise.  Well, he definitely surprised me and it was perfect.  After playing the song for me once more and calling our families, we went back to celebrate with our friends.  On Wednesday we went to pick up the ring and that too was perfect.

I am overjoyed that I get to journey through this crazy life with you, Josh. 

*Engagement photos by my dear friend Allison of Allison Jean Photo.  More coming soon!

something different.

This is just a little post to say that I am off to Heredia, Costa Rica to work in a school for three weeks.  I think I will be working with an English teacher and I will be living with a wonderful little family in the mountains.  I don't know much about what I will be doing, so I can't say much.  However, I am not guaranteed to have any internet access, so if I don't blog much (or at all) in the next three weeks, that is why.

Also, this coming Wednesday marks two years of my togetherness-boyfriend-girlfriendness with Joshua.  I have to tell the world that he is the love of my life and I am so thankful for the past two years we have spent together.  Josh, thank you for being so kind, generous, funny, goofy, humble and everything else that is good in the world.  You are the best and I miss you so, so much.