Six Months and Courting!!!

Ok, so I apologize for the delay in updating you all! So here (to make up for the silence) is a rather juicy update...for me, that is. :o)

Our first picture together. He totally caught me off guard at the Undivided Christmas Party. I knew he liked me. But it would be another two months before he felt the Lord give him permission to pursue me.

I totally posted these pics on Facebook back in January so he could see them. :)

It's official - it's on Facebook! :)

A bunch of us girls went to Disney right after we started courting - they made Julie sit on the "Brown Derby" bench...

...annnnnd me in front of a fountain. :)

He's so brave! He met so many Red Hat Society Ladies (in our family) that night...and they were all in love with him.

Dinner with the fam for Granddaddy's birthday - Outback, baby!!!! He fits right in!

I love this pic - on our first ever roadtrip to Georgia to meet his family and go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wanna go back!!! Oh the memories...

Stephanie's 27th birthday par-tay/luau at Jeni's house - hangin' with Kendall and Albert.

The Central FL Fair - he's a pretty good photographer, huh? :) We met up with David, Kelly, Kristen and all six of their girlies for the afternoon. I hate fairs but this one...it was pretty fun. :)

The ferris wheel.

Easter - the first official holiday he spent with us. I think he was back in the house getting more sweet tea. ;) Otherwise, I would've made him be in this one.

He surprised me one night by taking me to see Jars and Seabird at the House of Blues! It was so fun! We met up with the Gillies! Yay for us!

And so afterwards we were hungry - Raglan's was open and we sat and talked till like 1am. It was a really good night - and my meal was way better.

His first Sovereign Grace Conference experience was at Next (formerly New Attitude). I'd been to these for years and years and loved them - highlights of my year. It was pretty amazing seeing it through somebody else's eyes...and having someone to share it with...yeah, that was awesome.

Daniel graduated high school and then we went to the dance afterwards...

For our four months, he had this whole entire Saturday planned in St. Augustine!! We made it through lunch and the museum and then we got rained out. :( But it was such an awesome day...substitutes worked just great. And THE WHOLE DAY TO TALK?! I was happy. :)

Oh yeah, the story...it stormed so much (but prolly only about an hour and a half) that steps and curbs disappeared under water! Water flowed past so fast he almost had to carry me across the street! ;)

I eat food. Lots of it. Often. All kinds. Unfortunately. But he's really nice and usually eats as much as me if not more. I told him he has to - j/k. Anyway, we're on our way to the Crash-o-Rama in Bithlow, baby!!! He said I needed to experience it once...I'm game for another time or two! :-D

I don't know, do we need an explanation here?

Thanks, Mark, for ruining a really great picture. (Randy, your thoughtful gaze into the heavens always cracks me up.)

Ok, this...I could blog about this for days. This was at the train station in Wheaton, Illinois cuz we were heading into Chitown for the evening! We were in Wheaton for the conference that David oversees for Exodus (international with people from 9 different countries!). The conference was five days long and we were there a total of 11 days! It was probably one of the most radical experiences of my life in so many ways! If you've ever been on a missions trip, you can liken it to that - you're exhausted the entire time, running on adrenaline, meeting new people every second of every day (lots of them recognized me from his profile picture, though, heehee :), attending sessions, running errands, carting dozens and dozens of cases of drinks from one location to another...and I was just the gopher. This deal was real, y'all! ...Back to us...aren't we cute?

This is Jeff and Angela Buchanan - longtime friends of David's and incredibly amazing people. AND THEY ARE MOVING HERE!!!! I'm pretty excited and hope to get to know them better. They are amazing...oh wait. I think I already said that.

So there ya have it, folks. There's a pictorial update. (Though I would like to draw your attention to the fact that multiple events included not a single picture of David. It is all my fault. And that is changing. :) It amazes me to look back even six months ago to see the person I was at the beginning of this. The Lord has stretched me and challenged me in ways I hadn't expected...but I've also never enjoyed six months more. David is amazing; I'm very grateful for his presence and friendship in my life!!!!