Winter Break Ponderings
Hi There!
It's really late for me. I should actually be asleep. I've been trying to fall asleep for about an hour or so, but there is a lot on my mind, and I thought "What a great way to think it all out than to 'write' it all down?".
So here I am. :)
I managed to get through the last stretch of Fall 2013. The last Fall term of school I'll go through (at least I think... It depends if I want to go back for an education to become a teacher of some sort, but we'll see more about that much later in life.) I got through with 3 A's, 1 B+, and a solid B. Not bad. My cumulative GPA is still going up slow and steady, it's a little hard to make it go up when you have more than 140 credits that have it pretty solid with where it is. This is also a good thing in case I get a not so great grade, so I'll count my blessings.
In other news, I recently got engaged to Karl. :) I am so very very excited. At the same time, this just adds another thing to worry or stress about with the coming academic terms. Now we have the joys of, working our current jobs, going to school, planning a wedding, and for myself, looking for a job when I graduate in a location that has a university where Karl can take language courses to prepare to go into a doctoral program for history. He has to know the language to be able to read texts in their original script. It's kind of like a prerequisite of math and chemistry for engineering classes.
Brief Proposal Story/History:
Karl's mom was so kind as to let us use her mother's wedding ring in our future together. Her name was also Mary. The ring is a Marquis cut, the same as my mothers, on a simple gold band.
(I will post a picture here when I have a nice one. )
We went to the Jewler's in Grants Pass to have the ring sized and orient the diamond horizontally (my mother's is vertical). This was done in early November and ready before Thanksgiving. Karl and I were not able to return to Grants Pass before the holiday break, and thus Karl did not have the ring with which to propose (to my knowledge).
The first week of winter break, both Karl and I were working in Corvallis. We got off Friday (the 20th) and were spending that weekend with my family in Dallas. Friday morning as we were coordinating our departure for Dallas, Karl was quite slow in his response times, and even such that he would miss my phone calls frequently. ( I called 2 or 3 times that morning to ask what things to bring, and when he would be ready, etc, and each time it rang and rang, then voicemail. This was out of the ordinary for him.)
We eventually coordinate everything alright and end up making it to Dallas. My sister was going to be coming home on Saturday and I had originally planned on picking her up from the train station in Salem around 4pm. Karl said we had adventure plans for around that time so it would not work out for us to go and pick her up. So we sent my brother Alex to pick her up. I was thinking that Karl would be taking me up to Portland for an adventure, maybe to Multonomah Falls, or to see the Christmas Zoo Lights, something like that. Earlier that morning he had been on the phone a lot as well, and then proceeded to go play videogames with my brother for a decent amount of time. He just seemed to be very distant.
Around 3ish, I was bugging him asking him if it was time to go on the adventure, and finally he said, yes we can go on the adventure, but first we should take a walk, as we will be in the car for awhile and we don't want our legs to get sore. So we left the house, initially I went to turn South, and then Karl said that we should walk the other way, and that something about how Chinese walk south for good luck and that I wasn't Chinese. It was Karl being silly, and he claims that it is true, but I still am not sure and need to do my own research. We headed to the Dallas City Park and walked near the Rickreal River bank. They had done a significant amount of tree cutting near the bank and I was a little sad. Karl asked what I saw up ahead, and I was preoccupied with sorrow that they had cut down so many trees. He asked me to look up ahead and asked if it was a memorial for someone, as there appeared to be a bouquet of flowers in the grass. He then joked that maybe a group of hippies left them there as a memorial for all of the fallen trees. As we neared the bouquet, he stated that it wasn't a group of hippies who left the flowers there, and that it was him and he had a question he wanted to ask me. He got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. I said yes and immediately started hugging him. He pulled out a box from his jacket and put the ring on my finger and we proceeded to hug and eventually I started crying. He talked about how I had mentioned that I made daisy chains down at the park with Toshia when I was little sending them down the river hoping for our prince to find them and then find us. He got me a bouquet with daisy and said that he had found his princess. It was the sweetest thing. There was also a small group of children playing on the nearby merry-go-round and Karl shouted at them "SHE SAID YES!!" and there was a little cheer from the group, and then they left as I think the long period of our hugging got a little awkward for them.
As we walked back, bouquet in hand, I began to ask questions like, why were you on the phone so much? Is this what you were doing when you were going on the shopping errand and why I had to close my eyes when you were getting things out of the car? And then, the real question dawned on me, How did you get the ring? It then came out that his parents were in town and he was coordinating where they would stay that evening!
So we walked up to my front porch and his fathers Romeos were outside of our front door. We walked in and my parents and his parents were both there to congratulate us and hug us. My sister arrived a little bit afterwards as she had texted me asking where we were (as far as picking her up at the train station as I forgot to mention Alex would pick her up.) I had replied that "I am busy being proposed to. :) Alex will be picking you up. " And the first thing she did when she came in the door was want to see the ring, not even a hug! Silly sister.
After all of the hugs and congratulations and putting the flowers in a vase, we all headed out to Mira Mar for a celebratory dinner. Followed by bowling, except my parents did not attend this. Mom was tired and Dad was going to a Christmas party.
End Proposal story
I think one thing that is especially important to Karl and I at this time, is to not become enveloped in the importance of "The Wedding", because what really matters is "The Marriage". I won't lie, I totally have a Pinterest Board just for wedding things, but in all honesty, that isn't what matters. In a society where divorce rates are 50% or higher, it makes me think that people are all too excited about the wedding and not focusing on the other person that they're marrying at the wedding.
Karl and I are simple, thrifty people. We don't like to spend money. We plan on having a 'thrifty' or as some would say 'cheap' wedding. We will ask our friends and family to help and contribute to its happenings by volunteering. We don't want to spend a fortune on fancy cakes or photography and having just the right decorations and hire a wedding planner. It's not about those things. It's about us, preparing to spend the rest of our lives together. Becoming people who are excellent at saying we're sorry and forgiving, exercising patience, and truly loving one another. (For me, Love is the definition given in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7:Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.) We also want our close friends and family present, those who will encourage us when times our tough, and will help support us and lift us up in prayer and continue to inspire, and challenge us to become better people.
When people want to see "the ring", I think, "Don't you want to know about who I am marrying?". I am so blessed to be engaged to someone who I admire, who I can brag about. Granted, he is not perfect (and to acknowledge this is good), neither am I, but being proud of who you are with and who they want to become is really important. If your in a relationship with someone where you don't admire them, or believe in their dreams and goals, it's probably not a good spot for you. I am enjoying being in a place where I believe that Karl can become a history professor, and that is something that I want to support and encourage him to do, especially when times get tough, and other people tell him he is crazy to try and get a job in that field. I have never met a person more passionate about history than he. I have never met a person who says that they enjoy writing papers as much as him, and how he loves reading the historical books I get him for his birthday/Christmas/ anniversaries. He is very academically driven. He is also a man who knows The Word. Much better than I know it myself. However one thing that he does need improvement upon is practicing some of what The Word says, having the heart behind a lot of how Jesus interacted with people, which is one of the qualities I feel I posses more than he. I think this is just one instance how we compliment each other and how we can encourage each others growth.
I believe I've written enough about myself and my relationship for now.
Thank you for putting up with my mushy-gushy love story.
I hope you enjoyed it, or my perspective gave you something new to think about for yourself. :)
-M.E.
It's really late for me. I should actually be asleep. I've been trying to fall asleep for about an hour or so, but there is a lot on my mind, and I thought "What a great way to think it all out than to 'write' it all down?".
So here I am. :)
I managed to get through the last stretch of Fall 2013. The last Fall term of school I'll go through (at least I think... It depends if I want to go back for an education to become a teacher of some sort, but we'll see more about that much later in life.) I got through with 3 A's, 1 B+, and a solid B. Not bad. My cumulative GPA is still going up slow and steady, it's a little hard to make it go up when you have more than 140 credits that have it pretty solid with where it is. This is also a good thing in case I get a not so great grade, so I'll count my blessings.
In other news, I recently got engaged to Karl. :) I am so very very excited. At the same time, this just adds another thing to worry or stress about with the coming academic terms. Now we have the joys of, working our current jobs, going to school, planning a wedding, and for myself, looking for a job when I graduate in a location that has a university where Karl can take language courses to prepare to go into a doctoral program for history. He has to know the language to be able to read texts in their original script. It's kind of like a prerequisite of math and chemistry for engineering classes.
Brief Proposal Story/History:
Karl's mom was so kind as to let us use her mother's wedding ring in our future together. Her name was also Mary. The ring is a Marquis cut, the same as my mothers, on a simple gold band.
(I will post a picture here when I have a nice one. )
We went to the Jewler's in Grants Pass to have the ring sized and orient the diamond horizontally (my mother's is vertical). This was done in early November and ready before Thanksgiving. Karl and I were not able to return to Grants Pass before the holiday break, and thus Karl did not have the ring with which to propose (to my knowledge).
The first week of winter break, both Karl and I were working in Corvallis. We got off Friday (the 20th) and were spending that weekend with my family in Dallas. Friday morning as we were coordinating our departure for Dallas, Karl was quite slow in his response times, and even such that he would miss my phone calls frequently. ( I called 2 or 3 times that morning to ask what things to bring, and when he would be ready, etc, and each time it rang and rang, then voicemail. This was out of the ordinary for him.)
We eventually coordinate everything alright and end up making it to Dallas. My sister was going to be coming home on Saturday and I had originally planned on picking her up from the train station in Salem around 4pm. Karl said we had adventure plans for around that time so it would not work out for us to go and pick her up. So we sent my brother Alex to pick her up. I was thinking that Karl would be taking me up to Portland for an adventure, maybe to Multonomah Falls, or to see the Christmas Zoo Lights, something like that. Earlier that morning he had been on the phone a lot as well, and then proceeded to go play videogames with my brother for a decent amount of time. He just seemed to be very distant.
Around 3ish, I was bugging him asking him if it was time to go on the adventure, and finally he said, yes we can go on the adventure, but first we should take a walk, as we will be in the car for awhile and we don't want our legs to get sore. So we left the house, initially I went to turn South, and then Karl said that we should walk the other way, and that something about how Chinese walk south for good luck and that I wasn't Chinese. It was Karl being silly, and he claims that it is true, but I still am not sure and need to do my own research. We headed to the Dallas City Park and walked near the Rickreal River bank. They had done a significant amount of tree cutting near the bank and I was a little sad. Karl asked what I saw up ahead, and I was preoccupied with sorrow that they had cut down so many trees. He asked me to look up ahead and asked if it was a memorial for someone, as there appeared to be a bouquet of flowers in the grass. He then joked that maybe a group of hippies left them there as a memorial for all of the fallen trees. As we neared the bouquet, he stated that it wasn't a group of hippies who left the flowers there, and that it was him and he had a question he wanted to ask me. He got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. I said yes and immediately started hugging him. He pulled out a box from his jacket and put the ring on my finger and we proceeded to hug and eventually I started crying. He talked about how I had mentioned that I made daisy chains down at the park with Toshia when I was little sending them down the river hoping for our prince to find them and then find us. He got me a bouquet with daisy and said that he had found his princess. It was the sweetest thing. There was also a small group of children playing on the nearby merry-go-round and Karl shouted at them "SHE SAID YES!!" and there was a little cheer from the group, and then they left as I think the long period of our hugging got a little awkward for them.
As we walked back, bouquet in hand, I began to ask questions like, why were you on the phone so much? Is this what you were doing when you were going on the shopping errand and why I had to close my eyes when you were getting things out of the car? And then, the real question dawned on me, How did you get the ring? It then came out that his parents were in town and he was coordinating where they would stay that evening!
So we walked up to my front porch and his fathers Romeos were outside of our front door. We walked in and my parents and his parents were both there to congratulate us and hug us. My sister arrived a little bit afterwards as she had texted me asking where we were (as far as picking her up at the train station as I forgot to mention Alex would pick her up.) I had replied that "I am busy being proposed to. :) Alex will be picking you up. " And the first thing she did when she came in the door was want to see the ring, not even a hug! Silly sister.
After all of the hugs and congratulations and putting the flowers in a vase, we all headed out to Mira Mar for a celebratory dinner. Followed by bowling, except my parents did not attend this. Mom was tired and Dad was going to a Christmas party.
End Proposal story
I think one thing that is especially important to Karl and I at this time, is to not become enveloped in the importance of "The Wedding", because what really matters is "The Marriage". I won't lie, I totally have a Pinterest Board just for wedding things, but in all honesty, that isn't what matters. In a society where divorce rates are 50% or higher, it makes me think that people are all too excited about the wedding and not focusing on the other person that they're marrying at the wedding.
Karl and I are simple, thrifty people. We don't like to spend money. We plan on having a 'thrifty' or as some would say 'cheap' wedding. We will ask our friends and family to help and contribute to its happenings by volunteering. We don't want to spend a fortune on fancy cakes or photography and having just the right decorations and hire a wedding planner. It's not about those things. It's about us, preparing to spend the rest of our lives together. Becoming people who are excellent at saying we're sorry and forgiving, exercising patience, and truly loving one another. (For me, Love is the definition given in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7:Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.) We also want our close friends and family present, those who will encourage us when times our tough, and will help support us and lift us up in prayer and continue to inspire, and challenge us to become better people.
When people want to see "the ring", I think, "Don't you want to know about who I am marrying?". I am so blessed to be engaged to someone who I admire, who I can brag about. Granted, he is not perfect (and to acknowledge this is good), neither am I, but being proud of who you are with and who they want to become is really important. If your in a relationship with someone where you don't admire them, or believe in their dreams and goals, it's probably not a good spot for you. I am enjoying being in a place where I believe that Karl can become a history professor, and that is something that I want to support and encourage him to do, especially when times get tough, and other people tell him he is crazy to try and get a job in that field. I have never met a person more passionate about history than he. I have never met a person who says that they enjoy writing papers as much as him, and how he loves reading the historical books I get him for his birthday/Christmas/ anniversaries. He is very academically driven. He is also a man who knows The Word. Much better than I know it myself. However one thing that he does need improvement upon is practicing some of what The Word says, having the heart behind a lot of how Jesus interacted with people, which is one of the qualities I feel I posses more than he. I think this is just one instance how we compliment each other and how we can encourage each others growth.
I believe I've written enough about myself and my relationship for now.
Thank you for putting up with my mushy-gushy love story.
I hope you enjoyed it, or my perspective gave you something new to think about for yourself. :)
-M.E.
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