Betty Beguiles is hosting a The Story of How You Became Engaged link-up, click here to read more stories!

Well, I think everyone who knows us, knows how we met. Joshua was in Seminary and I was helping out with a youth retreat there. Our friendship began that cold, snowy weekend in 2003 but the romance did not begin until after he had discerned he was not called to the priesthood and after I had heard God firmly close the door to a religious vocation for me. Let me say clearly, at no point while Joshua was in seminary did I have a thought about him as anything other than a friend and he will say the same thing about me.

In July 2003, I received a phone call from Joshua letting me know that he was leaving the seminary and the order he was in as he had discerned that he was not called to priesthood. My response, vocally, at that time, was something along the line of “Oh, yeah, okay, well, keep in touch”. However, in my heart, deep down, I heard and felt something. That something was that Joshua was now available and we could be more than friends. As I had never had a thought of that before, ever, it scared me and I pushed the thought aside and buried it deep in my heart, but I felt there had been a shift in our friendship.  I went about things after that and really forgot about what I had felt and thought. Two weeks later, I was visiting a convent, and it was there that I heard God say that pray as I want, I was not called to be a religious sister. So I headed back to Columbus, knowing that I was called to marriage.

A few weeks later he called to tell me that he was coming to Columbus to pick up things he had left at the seminary and was in need of a place to stay. I hooked him up with my friend Jon which was convenient as Jon lived upstairs from me, so we could all visit. I will tell you that thought I had a few weeks before that was so firmly tucked away, that I had never thought of it while planning his visit, until, I received The Phone Call saying his car broke down and asking if I would I come to get him, and even then only sub-conscientiously. I prayed like I had never had before, in that car ride to get him. (Two rosaries and a Divine Mercy Chaplet, all the while chewing my nails to stubs!) I honestly did not know why I was so darn nervous.

I made it to the service station where he had managed to make it to and found him sleeping in the car. I walked over to him and well, fumbled some words, but I have no recollection what they were. His response was “Don’t ever wake me up again” (in a teasing tone) and my thought was “but what about when we are married?” Yeah, I was pretty freaked out at this point. I prayed that my bubbly, talkative personality would not take over and that I could be meek and quiet the ride home. THEN Joshua started flirting with me. I kid you not. He flirted. I was so darn flustered I could hardly breathe and I hope that my face did not betray my thoughts. We made it back to Columbus and invited a few people over to hang out. It was during that time that Joshua and realized that we needed to talk about something. After everyone left, he professed his love for me. My response was “How can you love me? I can’t cook”. Yeah, smooth. We knew that night, though, that we would be married.

So the actually proposal, I know, that is the point of the post right?

October 18, 2003 at the Adoration Chapel in St. Elizabeth Hospital, Lafayette, Indiana, we had just finished praying the rosary when Joshua reached in to his pocket and took the ring out of the box and asked me to be his wife, forever. I said yes. We held tight to each other as we finished our Holy Hour.

After leaving the chapel, we headed out to find a place to eat and celebrate, but being after 10 pm in Lafayette, our choices were limited. We ended up at White Castles. No, I am not making that up and it was the first time I had ever been there. I said “I have never eaten there before and I am not going to on the night we got engaged”.  It was only the beginning of the many times Joshua has forced me to try something new, to expand my horizons and to break out of my shell.

Just under a year later, we were married at St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church in Lafayette, Indiana on October 2, 2004.

For a while, I have been wanting to purchase a snood, to help keep my hair in place while doing my household chores and to keep my hair from becoming part of dinner. Ew, gross, I can’t believe I just wrote that, but it does happen, once to a dear friend. He was very gracious and came over many more times for dinner.

I have been hesitant to purchase one though, for fear that I might not like it or t might not work in my slick hair. Then I saw Cam over at A Woman’s Place is having a give away! Check her out. Also check out her shop, A Snood for all Seasons.

 

 

{pretty}

 

This is the view from one of the living room windows. Those trees you see are Pecan Trees, while we don’t have any one our property, they sure are pretty to look at!

 

{happy}

 

I have found that when moving with children, the first thing you need to bring out is toys. Benedict was quite happy in the middle of this pile.

{funny}

I find this funny, all the toys dumped out and the big kids no where to be found. This is pretty normal at our house. The nice thing about the new house is that they will not be dumped out in the living room for much longer, toys are only for the rec room!

{real}

 

I took a load of boxes out this morning, on my way to meet the bug person. The stuff on the pool table is what we took out last night. Slowly, we are getting it all out there.

 

For more {pretty, happy, funny, real} head over to Like Mother, Like Daughter.

Yes, we are homeowners once again. We purchased a house about a half hour north of Valdosta that is on an acre of land, surrounded by a pecan grove, a green bean field and a cabbage patch. This day only took almost four months, but we finally made it. Of course I have pictures for you all to enjoy.

Stay tuned for more fun stories about the house, the contract, the four months it took to close and the closing, until then, enjoy the pictures! (click on them to make them big).

 

Let me just say: Gnats are gnasty! The humidity and heat are not what keep those who live south of the Gnat Line (anything south of Macon, Ga) in side all summer, it is those darn gnats.

Yesterday they were pretty bad, before and after Mass. Most people do a quick open and close of the car door, so the cool air does not escape. In South Georgia, one does it so the gnats do not swarm inside the car. So, trying to get the kids out of the van for Mass, while replacing shoes, checking a diaper, securing chapel veils, and not trying to let gnats is often a lesson in futility. I often find that we bring a swarm of them with us in to the church and I am spending the first five minutes or so of the Rosary swatting then away from the baby’s head.

After Mass, yesterday, I stopped Father to ask him a question. I tried to make it so quick because in the morning sun, I could see the gnats swarming his head as I am sure they were doing to mine. (Sorry, Father.)

Last night, we went to visit with Joshua’s Aunt and Uncle and their family. They were camping outside of Adel, so we headed out to visit last night. The gnats were awful last night, thankfully fully they went away after the sun went down! We used a natural bug spray that the locals told Joshua’s uncle is what they use. It sort of worked, sort of.

If anyone out there has any suggestions, I would appreciate them! 🙂

 

 

It was sitting outside my back door when Joshua arrived home. I was rushing to get ready to head to our friends’ house for their son’s 2nd Birthday Party when I heard Joshua call for me. He had the box in hand. I was more than thrilled to see my wonderful and thoughtful gift. I plan on sautéing zucchini and squash in it tomorrow!

(the picture is from williams-sonoma.com)

I have been waiting for a package to be delivered all day today. It contains my Mother’s Day present. I am not about presents at all, but Joshua the kids ordered this from a fancy-schmancy kitchen store and it has been on back order. I have no idea what it is, but I am very excited.  Joshua sent me the link for tracking and this is what I see:

We are going out for a bit tonight, I just hope it gets here before we leave…or that the UPS driver left it at the back door and forgot to ring the doorbell left.

Our city has four major grocery stores, Winn-Dixie, Harvey’s, Publix and Walmart. I refuse to step foot in to Walmart, so I alternate between the three other stores. I really like Publix because they will have uncommon items, but the meat prices there are usually out of our budget. Harvey’s has good prices on meats and cheese, but much of the store is processed foods. Winn-Dixie has been hit or miss. They have good sale items, but the quality of their products are not always good. This goes for store brand and national brand.

This past Saturday, I was preparing the meal plan for this week and discovered that we only had one pork roast and a package of chicken in the freezer, so I needed to stock up. I saw that WD had some of their meat buy one get one free, so I decided to go there to stock up a bit. One thing I learned a while ago about going to WD is the need to check out sell by dates, as perishables are on the shelfs well beyond the sell by date. (For example, the cream I saw this weekend with a sell by date of 27 April, at the front of the shelf, not pushed back and forgotten.)

Joshua and I went together with the kids and looked over the meats and decided to pick up some ground beef, beef roast and pork chops. The pork chops had the sell by date of the 25th of this month and I planned to make them yesterday, so I stuck them in the fridge (even in the bag they were put in at the store, in case they leaked).

Last night when I took them out to get them in a marinade, I knew they were bad, before I even took them out of the bag, I knew they were bad. I opened the package anyway, just to make sure it was not say some juice that had leaked out and started smelling. Nope, the pork chops were bad. When Joshua got home from work, he confirmed.

I was frustrated. It was dinner time and here my main course was bad. I was further frustrated by the fact that this is not the first time that something I purchased from WD went bad before the “sell by date”. Milk, cream and butter have all gone bad before the sell by date. (okay maybe the butter does not go bad, but it always tastes like refrigerator.) I know to keep away from them, unless I absolutely need them (and WD is the nearest store to us, so I will run and pick up only one of the item I need). This was the first time meat has gone bad.

I have never returned the food that did not last until the sell by date, mainly because the time and energy involved just did not seem worth it. However, last night, I called up the store and they said I could return it, but I needed to return it to the store I bought it from, so this required a trip to the other end of town, as we went to the store near our (wonderful!!!) farmers market. Oh and because I had tossed the receipt already, we got store credit.

Winn-Dixie was already the store I went to the least because of the other reasons mentioned, but I am taking it off my list for good. Grocery shopping is something I really enjoy doing, really, but I do not want to have to look at every package buy and wonder “how long will this last?” or “will this have a bad taste to it?”

 

 

 

 

 

This evening we visited the local store of a national chain store hardware stare, when we noticed this:

 

(click on the picture to make it bigger)