house and home.

so clearly it has been a while:)
not too much is new since my last post of eloquent poetry, but I will go ahead and make a list anyway!

For starters, a very special event FINALLY took place on April 23, 2011 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, at the park next to the Hillsborough River and Lowry Park Zoo. My boyfriend of over 7 years proposed:) he thought and he schemed and he oganized, and he planned, and he was successful. surprise was achieved, and exuberant, overwhelming joy, and elated-ness are extreme understatements. He set up a scavenger hunt for me, through my best friend Alexandra, and the whole time I just thought it was all for my upcoming birthday.

I am so thankful for that sweet man..that fact that he put so much effort into planning such a momentous occasion just for me makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Best proposal story ever? Check.

The only BAD thing was that on this day I had been suffering from BRONCHITIS for the past week and a half..I was almost going to go to the DR that day but I sucked it up:) and I went the following Monday. 'Yayyy' for meds.

After my extremely wonderful and thoughtful proposal...

-I celebrated my 21st birthday; the night of my engagement we had a "surprise" get together at my house..it was just a wonderful day:)
-On my actual birthday we went to Bern's Steakhouse, yumm!
-We celebrated Memorial Day in Daytona Beach. LOVE!
-My cousin Katie got married, my sister and I were both bridesmaids. Such a fun day:)
-My oldest sister, Lindsey got married.

photos from the "Smile (photo) Booth" at Lindsey's wedding:



confused:)

un-confused:)

-Summer classes were in full swing...ICK.
This brings us to our current time..
we have been in the process of house-hunting. Our wedding is almost 9 months away, and so we have been diligently trying to find a place for Jaymes to get into well before the wedding date so that we can have everything DONE by the time that I will be living there:)

We put in an offer on our first house back in March. But I just didn't feel the peace that I knew should accompany such a big decision..I trusted God and we pulled our offer. Boy are we thankful.

About three weeks ago we found a house that we felt was perfect. Big lot, perfect area, and an adorable starter home. We knew that a lot of work was going to be needed, but we were prepared for that. We made and offer, negotiated with the sellers, and eventually settled on something.

We had the home inspector and termite guy come out yesterday.

Results, you ask?

Oh dear. This house is basically just a "shell". EVERYTHING that makes a house functional needs to be replaced:) it was to be expected because the house was built in 1958, but I will say that my fiance and I were a bit naive going into it. Everything from plumbing, electric, A/C, roof, washer/dryer hookup..i mean ANY single thing that you can think of. RE-DO. we're going to lowball the seller EXTREMELY, and if they don't bite, we are walking.

WALKING away from what we almost thought was God's plan for us, but WALKING towards the house that He actually does have planned for us. It just makes things so exciting and comforting to know that God has everything under extreme control. And it is even more exciting to see how He choses to reveal that fact to you:)

Summer classes have technically ended, I have two assignments still due for my online "Intro to the 'Black Experience'" class..needless to say, that was an interesting course:)

This Saturday, we leave for Islamorada in the Keys. Anxiously awaiting, am I:)

~Allyson