A Cheesy, Wacky, Planning PARTY!

So this post about a month late but I still think it deserves posting.  Last time Gunnar and I went home, I was in dire need of some major girl time!  I'm always around guys here in College Station, which I love don't get me wrong, but even great guys who are super supportive and happy for you just aren't that interested in what color the table cloths are going to be or how what kind of bridesmaids dresses I want.  So my very intuitive sister planned a little surprise planning party at her house.  Gunnar and I had gone to Reb's football game so he took me over to Sara's afterwards and I walked up to this on the door and started tearing up!  

It was a cheesy, wedding aisle in wal-mart inspired party complete with a plastic febreeze smelling boutonniere, light up tiara, party hats, 90's country music, and junk food!! 

It was exactly what the doctor ordered and I felt so blessed to have such great sisters and mom!

Only two months away....give or take a couple days....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sleepy

Church yesterday = So sleepy!

Solution = doodle!

Doodling = I actually listened to and learned from the sermon!

A little one tracked mind lately =

FBC Shower

A couple weekends ago Gunnar and I headed home to Mertzon for a weekend of football, wedding planning, shopping, family time, and our (my) first wedding shower!! 

The ladies at Gunnar's home church in Mertzon threw us a beautiful shower of burlap and lace!  I felt so blessed and special that they put forth so much effort and attention to detail to make the shower fun and beautiful! It's kind of surreal being the bride after helping, attending, and throwing showers for so many other people.  I definitely felt blessed and loved!  Gunnar's friends and church family have been so welcoming to me from the beginning! What a blessing.

Gran (my Dad's mom) and Mom (sorry it's kinda blurry)

Gunnar's Mimi, Aunts and cousins came into town for the shower also.  They're such a fun family!!

Opening a present from Gunnar's Mimi.

One of my favorite gifts... a wall hanging from Mimi. It had a sweet poem painted onto it and I'm kind of a sucker for things like that!

Another one of my favorite gifts was from my grandmother.  She gave me several hand made heirlooms from our family.

  I got two items made from separate Great-Great-Grandmothers that have been passed down, an item made by my Great Grandmother (who is still alive at the age of 96!!) and an item made by my grandmother.  I LOVE history and antiques and family heritage so this gift was so meaningful to me.  I mean how many people have handmade doilies made by their great great grandmothers?!  This item was made from a flour sack.  One of my great-great grandmothers crocheted a border to make a decorative scarf as a gift for my great grandmother in the 1940s.

People just don't do that anymore!  Gran had each item labeled with the full name of the person who made it, the date (approximately) of when it was made and the story of how it came into her possession.  I can't wait to display them in my house!  I love decor that has memories or meaning behind it instead of just simply being pretty.

Gran, Penny, Me, Sara, and Mom. 

Gunnar's cousins Emily and Mary came down for the shower :)

Sisters solving the problems of the universe......  Right!!!.....

Gunnar and I are very blessed to have such wonderful people as friends and family!!  We are blessed with two wonderful church families as well!  We are also grateful for the love and support people have lavished us with during our engagement!  Thanks everyone!

Aggie Ring Day

Took me long enough to blog about this but I finally got to it. I feel like I want to blog about these events in our lives more for us to have to reminisce over later than for other's enjoyment but either way I'm glad I did finally blog about this.

Getting your Aggie Ring is a huge deal at A&M.  Gunnar was short by 1 hour last semester so he had to wait until this semester to get his.  Sid and Ann and Gunnar's Aunt Joni and Mimi came into town for Ring Day.  Gunnar's cousin Emily got hers at the same time so it was very fun and special for them to get their rings together and to have family around to celebrate all their hard work. The only sad part was because of football Reb wasn't able to come celebrate with everyone :(

Gunnar asked his Dad to present the ring to him.

Sid's ring no longer fits so they had fun figuring out different ways to wear their rings together.  Sid was class of '84 so it was really special and honoring for Gunnar to have his Dad present him his ring.

Cousins!!

These next series of pictures crack me up.  All the moving around and rearranging for everyone to get settled for a decent group shot!

You stand here...scoot over...

Finally!! (l to r) Joe Mark, Aunt Joni, Sid, Ann, Gunnar, Emily, Me, Mimi, Mary

They were both so happy to get their rings!!

He worked hard for both of those rings and I am so proud of him and am so glad to belong to such an amazing man!

We went to the big Aggie Ring the next day and had fun taking lots of pictures.  The weather was nice and there weren't very many people there so we enjoyed taking our time and getting lots of good pictures. 

I really love this picture! Props to Ann for capturing such a great shot!

Gunnar and his Mimi :)

Thanks and Gig 'Em!!!

Shower

Proposal Part 2 coming soon but for now...

 

Got a little somethin' in the mail today!

It made me pretty excited.

I'm still a little taken back by how loving, supportive and wonderful all our family and friends have been and what people are just lovingly and excitedly doing to help and bless us.  The Lord has definitely blessed us tremendously with friends and family!

Awesome props to Sara Terral Design!

Proposal Part 1

For those of you who haven't heard the story yet and for us to always have to look back on, here is the first half of our proposal story!

Gunnar spent the summer on a cattle ranch in Colorado working as an intern.  The ranch is situated in the foothills of the Rockies about 45 min. North East of Colorado Springs.  The weather was beautiful, the landscape glorious and the people friendly and inviting.  I flew up to visit for about a week in mid July and was so glad to see my boyfriend and escape the humid heat of College Station for the cool evenings in the mountain air.

I need to back up a little here.  When I went to Colorado I was definitely hoping Gunnar would propose.  I mean it just seemed like such a great opportunity! Mountains, blue skies, pine forests, Pikes Peak in the distance!  I could, however, think of several good and loving reasons why he might not propose until after our summer of long distance was over.  So I was definitely hoping but had come to a place where I would not have been disappointed if he hadn't proposed...... Did I mention I was hoping?!

So Sunday, July 15th, we got up, went to church, moved irrigation, hung out at his boss’ house and just enjoyed a relaxing day.  Late into the afternoon Gunnar pretty much just got up and went to saddle the horses.  I had been going with the flow all week so I just went along but I did have the passing thought "I wonder why he didn't ask me if I wanted to ride.....oh well."  He later told me that he knew he needed to make sure and ask me if I wanted to go ride so I wouldn't suspect anything but forgot about it in all his nervousness.

As we were saddling up, Cody, a young cowboy and friend of Gunnar's on the ranch, kept giving me these weird looks.  I asked Gunnar, "What’s up with Cody? He keeps looking at me like I'm an alien!!" Gunnar just kinda blew it off causally and responded with something like, "Oh that's just how Cody is."  Later that night after Gunnar had proposed and I had had time to process everything I told him “So THAT'S why Cody kept giving me weird looks!!! Haha"

We rode leisurely along around the base of a hill and came to place where we could see Pikes Peak beautifully displayed in the distance.  We tried to get pictures with it in the background but it was too far away for the shots I was wanting.  We still got some fun shots and had fun trying to take a picture with two horses, one dog, two people and just ourselves as photographers!!

At some point earlyish into our ride, we passed a group of large boulders nestled into the side of the mountain.  I made a comment about how pretty the spot was or something and Gunnar, very teasingly tells me, "Yeah I thought about taking you for a date in those rocks but decided not to."  Of course I knew he was teasing me and responded back accordingly.  I knew it was all in good fun and he responded with something like "I guess I shouldn't have told you that huh?!"  "OF COURSE you shouldn't have!!!"  was my all appropriate response!!

 To be continued...