Alabama

One of my good friends moved to Alabama and I have loved looking at her blog and keeping up on that Southern State I used to call home. Her little apartment was recently hit by a tornado and she and her husband miraculously survived. Rachael has one of the funnest, most free spirited personalities, which instantly drew me to her when we were in Jerusalem together. Watch this clip of her on CNN. She is amazing.

Give Away!

Go check out my friend Aubrey's craft blog. There is a special Earth Day give away. She carries these little cuties around the office, and believe me, they are cute!

Pressing onward

My view these past few days...

Driving from place to place with my mom and Ronnie's mom. The wedding plans are well on their way. Let me be the first to say, it is going to be amazingly beautiful.

I don't know if you knew...

I am marrying my best friend. He is a pretty amazing man and when I am not with him, I miss like crazy. Our friend Karly recently did a story about him on BYUtv. Want to see?
http://www.byutv.org/watch/173-542
Fast forward to 18 minutes.

p.s.

Just look how cute our babies will be (and isn't his mom a babe!)



And I had to add my favorite picture of him.

Meet Cole

Isn't he adorable? When I "inherited" him onto my caseload after I started working at Kids On The Move, I couldn't have been happier. I have always been a sucker for brown eyes...and look at those big brown eyes! Don't you just want to melt!
Cole was a typically developing baby until 10 months old. He started having seizures and he became a different little boy. After many failed attempts with seizure medications and special diets, Cole's parents got him into the Cleveland Clinic where the Dr.s discovered his brain is malformed. They may have to do surgery and remove parts of his brain and hope that since he is young, it will rewire and his seizures will be gone.
I know with my job that I could probably lead you to hundreds of families with tender stories, but I couldn't resist sharing a link to this brown eyed boy's blog. Hop over and take a peek!

My Last Minute

It looks as if in a short 113 days, I will finally have a middle name. I will add Squire to the end of the name my parents gave me 24+ years ago. Mr. Ronald Gary Squire Jr. (or Handsome, as I like to call him) slipped a ring on my finger on February 26th and asked me to be his.

Let me take you back a little bit in time. I remember the day in Seminary, towards the end of those wonderful high school days, when my teacher told me I would be the fist to get hitched when I went to college. I was thoroughly offended. Then I went to work down at the dealership and found out they were taking bets as to how long I would last at college before I got married. My dad gave me 3 semesters. "I hope he has money riding on that, and that he loses big time" was my thought pattern at the time.

Around the same time, back in our old house on Foutz Road, I picked up the phone and it was my mom's friend Kit Cook on the other line. I remember exactly where I was standing and what that old white phone looked like: with the caller I.D. faded from an overzealous Lysol spray from me and it's stretched out cord wrapped around my fingers. I remember so vividly because the advice Kit gave me hit me like a bolt of lightening. She asked how life was and what my plans were. I spoke of adventures, orphanages in far away lands, and college. She shared her mutual love for adventure and then said,"You go for it girl! Don't worry about love.
Fall in love at the last minute possible."

With trips around the world, a college education, and stories exaggerated enough to make my mom giggle, all tucked under my belt, it looks as if my last minute has come.

Ronnie and I met in late September of last year. From the night we met at a ward pizza party, he pursued me. On our first date, he slathered on the charm and made me laugh like no other boy ever had. 5 months later, Ronnie asked me to be his wife. Exactly 67 years after my grandparents were married, I became engaged.

Do I feel like my adventures are over? No way. I am adding an adventure buddy, a very handsome one if I might say so myself, and a new last name. So stay tuned for the tales of engagement and MARRAIGE!

The day of Love

Oh glorious day. This valentines day was great.  It was my first with Ronnie.  I set a 10 dollar limit this year so se would have to get creative. I decorated Ronnies room and made a banner I made, hearts with messages, and streamers (thank you JD for helping me). We exchanged gifts before we went to dinner at Macaroni grill. I made Ronnie a book out of a deck of cards with 52 things I love about him. He also got a big bag of swedish fish-  his favorite and a little something I had from Egypt. Ronnie gave me flowers and a beautiful and thoughtful gift he worked very hard on.
My roommate Ashlee is taking a letterpress class so she helped him take a page and drawing from our favorite book and turned it into a letterpress to display. Ronnie etched it and set the type himself and they spent many long hours figuring it out. I just loved how close Ashlee and him got and how much fun they had together.
I loved my gift and will keep it forever.  We then had a blast together at dinner. My dad gave me a beautiful silver bracelet. He always pull through on that.
I hope your day was as fabulous as mine!