The Joys of Being Engaged

Steven proposed to me on December 15h and the planning hasn't stopped since. One of the fun things we needed to do was get our engagement pictures done by our best friend and Steve's best man Judd.  Judd is an amazing photographer, but with his work schedule, he doesn't have a lot of time to take pictures other than what he sees on the adventures of his job.  So we had  to wait awhile to coordinate a day that we could all three get together when it was light outside.   We've gotten together a couple of times since he's been home from Florida.  One photo session was a random moment where Judd texted me and said he'd be there in 45 minutes and we only had 30 after that to take them. I was still at work and had about 25 minutes to get ready once I got home.  Short notice yes, luckily my hair wasn't too nasty and I had time to curl it and get dressed. Then Judd worked his magic.  

Some of these were taken on Steve's family farm and others were taken around where Judd lives. 

 This is one of my favorites (above) because it cracks me up.  Look at Steve's face.  Judd interpreted it as "don't touch my Ging" which is Steve's nickname for me. 

 We had a pose similar to this (above) when we started dating. Steve and Judd went to my parents with me and Judd took a picture of us two while we were standing in the corn crib.

 This one (above) is on of Steve's favorites.  You can guess why... firefighter t-shirt.

 This one captures us pretty well. We're always screwing around and laughing. The one below is one of my favorites too.

These are just a few.  We still have more to take too.  Its nice to be best friends with a good photographer isn't it?  I'll keep you updated on when we get more pictures.

Graduation!!

Well, I haven't really graduated yet. I "fake graduated" if there is such a thing. I have to complete my thesis, then I can be done.  Most of my cohort has to finish their thesis or project, so we all "fake graduated."  The first picture is of most of those who went through grad school with me. They are all fantastic people! I was so thankful to go through the stressful times with them!

 These are my 'Wine Friday' girls. I'll miss them terribly.

 The family and I.

 Steven and I, he graduated the next day! (As seen below)

Steven and Em graduated together, they actually got to sit right next to one another.  Its nice to have family in the same program isn't it?

It was a long but great weekend.  Mom, Dad, and Katie all stayed with me in my tiny apartment, so that was entertaining. They stayed until Sunday for Steven's graduation Party.  My Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin spent their Saturday with us for graduation. It was fun to see them too.

 I slept in until 11:30 on Monday after that long weekend.  I declared that I was in a state of boredom by Wednesday. Steven told me that I shouldn't be bored because I have a thesis to finish and I need to find a job.  So he spoiled it for me. So, I'm currently taking a break from reading research and developing my thesis.  Hopefully I'll finish up the majority of this puppy before the end of the summer.  The only thing left to do now is find a job...

Rise

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile.  Things have been hectic, but  I now have many stories to share.  Here's a teaser list I guess, I graduated, EB graduated, SZ graduated, I got a new engagement ring, I finally got to see one of my best friends, J, after not seeing him for a couple of months, I bought a gold fish named Gentleman Oscar Tuna Zimmerman, I helped MW move, I'm working on another draft of my thesis, I'm looking for jobs, I may be moving soon, and more....

Anyways, I came back to my office for the first time in a few days. I don't have internet at my apartment because I'm trying to save money and I'm a broke kid. (I can no longer say broke graduate student, just a broke kid looking for a job I suppose.)  Anyway, I was responding to some student emails and began to get frustrated with the fact they don't like to take responsibility for themselves sometimes.  I literally got a headache.  I have had a lot of great students and need to remember this.  My teaching assistantship ended last week. I've been teaching at WIU for the past 2 years and I think that I'm really going to miss it. I've learned a lot about myself and I have learned a good deal from my students. So, as my teaching duties come to and end, I need to remember the good from this experience and learn from my mistakes too. 

This song played at a good moment. Its one of my favorites and wanted to share!

 Happy Wednesday!

Baby Went to the Ball

E and L went to the MilBall last weekend.  I did E's hair, L is so talented and ended up doing his own. :) These are some of the pics that I took of them.

E said that they had a great time.  You'll have to ask her for the stories.

Fabric Flowers

 I love Pinterest. Its great. I've blogged about it before. It's a great distraction and its a great place to borrow ideas. Especially for weddings :) So, I saw this little number on there on how to make cute little fabric flowers. You start out with fabric and cut it into little rectangles.

 Then, take those little rectangles and cut them into petals.  After that, make a running stitch (I think that's what its called) and pull the petals together.  Circle them up, attach the last petal to the first, tie a not and you're done!  It took no time at all and they are super cute in my opinion. 

These little pretties may cause me to stray from the paper flowers that I created.  You can read about it in my post about Centerpieces - Being Crafty Again .

 These two pictures above are of a test centerpiece that I made.  I liked this one so much that I just left it together and put it in my apartment.  So this let me test the flowers out.  The flowers are a little hard to see in the first photo and there are only two so far.  But I'm thinking that I like the fabric over the paper flowers.   The pictures below are from another post, but its just to give you an idea so you can compare the two.

Annnddd this is what Steven did while I made the flowers.  He loves his iPod.

Let me know what you think!

Prayers for my Steven

Steven has found a love and calling for his life, other than marrying me and farming :)  He wants to be a firefighter (and a good looking one at that, that's my take on it anyway).  In 2.5 years, Steve has gone from joining a volunteer fire department to becoming an EMT, Firefighter II, and having many certifications and training hours.  He loves it.  This kid has taken full course loads at Western plus he's been taking certification courses outside of school (making his course loads equal to about 23 or so course hours per semester).  He just wrapped  up his most recent certification course in March. 

He's been working really hard and is testing for the Macomb Fire Department next Saturday.  This is his dream job because he can be a firefighter and still farm with his family.  Plus he makes a good looking firefighter, did I mention that already?  He'll do a physical and written test, then if he passes both of those, he'll have a panel interview.

So, if you could, say a little prayer for him.  Pray that he's successful, carrying out God's plan, and stays safe. :)

The Most Perfect Wedding Shoes

I'm now taking donations for the "Steph Wants These Shoes To Wear When She Marries Steven" Fund.  I affectionately call it the S.W.T.S.T.W.W.S.M.S. Fund.  I'm even going to make t-shirts for the carnival that I'm going to host to raise the money for these shoes.  Is that a bit too much?  Maybe so. Perhaps, just perhaps, I'll do what any normal person would do, which is just save up for them.  That's not as fun though.

Aren't they pretty? They're ORANGE! And PRETTY! And PERFECT! Well perfect as long as they fit properly and don't really kill my feet :) Then that would be the most amazing thing, pretty orange shoes that don't hurt my feet.  Oh and marrying Steven.... did I mention that?