April 18-May 19: Finished up student-teaching, graduated, and began my first serious dating relationship
May 20-28: Spent a week in Hawaii with my family to celebrate two graduations and my parents' 30th wedding anniversary
May 31-July 22: Spent seven weeks in Glorieta, New Mexico, working for the second summer for a camp called Centrifuge
July 22: My man proposed at the Tulsa airport. It was wonderful.
July 23-August 8: Drove back and forth from Bolivar to Grove more times than I wanted
August 9-14: Prepared for my first year as a teacher
August 16: First day of school
August 17-Present: Busy with school, teaching Zumba, spending time with my fiance, roommate, friends, planning a wedding, grading papers, and being a real adult for the first time ever.
Life has a been a little busy. I'm only writing tonight because I'm not feeling the greatest. Probably because my body has not had a break since last Christmas. It really hasn't. Thankfully, I have four full days of school left before Thanksgiving Break, and then I get a five day break from school, the first break I've had from school since Labor Day.
I guess the biggest change in my life is that I'm engaged to the most wonderful man in the world. We started officially dating on April 18, 2012, and he proposed when I got off the plane in the Tulsa airport the day I got home from camp. It was wonderful. We are getting married next June.
Paul is also a teacher; that is how we met. He was teaching in the school I was student-teaching in, and toward the end of the semester, we just started talking, with a little bit of prompting from our principal. Before we really began talking and seeing each other, he had another offer for a teaching/coaching position in a little school about fifteen minutes from where he was. He ended up taking that, so we both live in Bolivar but drive short distances to work. It's a pretty good setup.
If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you know that one huge desire in my life was to meet someone and be married. I can say that I know God was preparing Paul and me for each other. He is such a wonderful man, and when people ask me to tell them about him, the first adjective that comes to mind and the best adjective to describe him is simply 'good.' Paul is so good. His nature, his desires, his heart, his looks, it's all good. I could not be more blessed. God has allowed Paul and me to grow closer to each other and to him. When Paul and I first started talking about getting engaged, our original timetable was more along the lines of December, but I could not imagine going through what I have since I returned from camp without being engaged to him. Not that we wouldn't have been there to support each other in the way we have now, but I don't believe it would have been to this degree.
The Lord has definitely been teaching me more about trusting him, and I have to allow the Lord to make me slow down. I have just been constantly going for a long time now, and I have to take that time with the Lord and rest. It has been good. Last week was the busiest week I've had as a teacher so far. I was in charge of planning the Veterans Day Assembly at my school, and it ended up being great, but it was a stressful week trying to get everything done. Thankfully, the Lord is good, and he made sure everything got done and was great. He has been so faithful in the big and little things.
I don't really know what else to say. I found my wedding dress; details are coming along with the big day, but we are going to wait and do the rest of the planning after the new year. We know our colors, and we have the ceremony and reception venues, so that's good. Paul has been so good as far as planning goes too. He is very involved and wants to help as much as possible. It's great. I think a huge thing we have to remind ourselves about is that this day is ultimately not about us. It's a picture of what Christ has done for us, a picture of Christ and the church. When we look at it in that light, some of the other stress and worry disappear.
I will try to update better on my blog. Time is precious these days, and sometimes this is the last thing on my mind, obviously.
Until next time.
