Happy Birthday Papa and Wedding Planning Starts!

Last Friday, my Papa turned 86 years old! It was great to see all of my family and it was the first time I had seen my Grammie and Papa since Aaron and I got engaged. We went out to a sushi dinner and then had cake and presents at Grammie's house. Here's Papa with his birthday balloons...actually, they were Grammie's birthday balloons back in May when she turned 89. Can you see how Papa salvaged them for another use?



Grammie also surprised me with some "engagement gifts"...a pink glass heart to hold my ring (for the very rare occassions that I actually take it off) and jewelry cleaner that she has used forever on her own special jewelry!



Unfortunately, the rest of the weekend was pretty slow for me. I woke up with a sore throat on Thursday morning and had to miss work on Friday. But I'm almost back to 100% now.

Aaron and I did manage to get lots of wedding planning done in the last week though! Most importantly, we have secured a date that works pretty well with everyone. We learned very quickly how difficult it is to fit everyone's schedules but we really tried our best with finals and such. So, APRIL 25, 2009 is the BIG day! It's also my Mom's birthday which I think makes it extra special. Aaron will be done with his year at the Business School on April 17th so we wanted to take advantage of that and the fact that it wasn't the heat of law school finals or college finals (Aaron's brother is a junior at A&M). We are still looking for a venue at the moment but we have booked our photographer and our officiant, among other things. Aaron and I are so grateful that we are really getting to enjoy this exciting time of planning together. I know that it often gets very stressful--and I realize that there is a long ways to go in terms of planning and finalization--but God is truly blessing this time for us and we are both very thankful that God continues to put everything in place for us.

Other than that, everything is going great here in San Francisco. I recently starting training with my friend Pat who is a trainer at 24 hour fitness. He was a year behind me in High School and he's a lot of fun to work with. But don't get me wrong, he's TOUGH! When he sees my weak little arms trying to give up, he reminds me of how I want to look in my dress when Aaron sees me walking down the aisle...and that's some motivation!

I also want to mention some prayer requests...I can't go into too much detail but there is some wedding stuff and job stuff going on right now and in the next week or so and I'm really excited to see what God does in these situations but if you could all just say a quick (albeit, ambiguous) prayer for me, I'd really appreciate it:) Hopefully, I'll be able to explain more specifically in a few weeks.

Hope everyone is having a great week. Please remember to pray for Hurricane Ike victims and the families of the victims of the MetroLink crash in Southern California. We can't take one single day for granted!

"Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." Philippians 2:1-4