He put a ring on it! (Our weekend in Chicago)

As almost everyone knows, Joe and I went to Chicago this past weekend to celebrate our anniversary (a month early). We were really excited to have a weekend to get away together before I leave for camp and since we haven't gotten to go on a vacation together in a long time.

We left at six in the morning on Saturday (yikes!) so that we could make it there by early afternoon and spend the day going to the aquarium, dinner and to a play. We had a nice drive and got there right on schedule. We were staying with my wonderful cousin, Kaila, she helped us navigate mass transit to make it downtown.

We were dressed up all nice for dinner and the play, but obviously I wasn't wearing my peach dress because it caught on fire. We were the fanciest people on the train and throughout the evening, several homeless people asked Joe for money because I guess they thought we looked wealthy. That really happened.

(Joe is not in this picture because he wouldn't let me ask someone to take one of us.)

Anyway, we got to the aquarium and found out that there would be a two hour wait! We were hot in our dressy clothes and didn't have time to wait in line if we were going to make it to our play that night, so we decided to find something else to do... a water taxi!

(Us in line waiting for our water taxi)

We were really excited to ride the water taxi because it was a beautiful, sunny day and a boat ride sounded like a lot of fun! The taxi went to Navy Pier, which is a place were planning on going, anyway. While on the water taxi, we saw the Ferris Wheel in the distance and I suggested we go on it since I couldn't go on the swings in a dress. Joe (overly) enthusiastically agreed that the Ferris Wheel sounded like fun.

As we were buying our tickets for the Ferris Wheel, I mentioned something about how it was kind of boring, but Joe, once again overly-enthusiastically, assured me that it would be really fun since it was such a pretty view. I agreed and we bought our tickets.

While we waited in line, Joe was acting pretty... weird. He was very happy, first of all. He kept smiling at me weirdly. Secondly, he kept squeezing my hand like he was nervous/excited. Sketch. At this point, I had my suspicions that something was coming so I was pretty excited myself.

We got on the Ferris Wheel and the view was very pretty. I suggested we take a picture of us with the pretty view behind us. This picture was taken literally a minute before Joe proposed. I love this picture because look how happy he looks! :)

So anyway, we're on the Ferris Wheel, I'm suspicious, we're taking pictures and nothing else is happening! We've gotten to the very top and are just starting the descent and I'm starting to think that maybe I was wrong when Joe says, "Hey Brittany..." and gets down on one knee! EEEEEEEE! He goes to pull something (a RING) out of his pocket and can't get it out. He looks embarrassed and panic-stricken and it's the cutest thing in the world because obviously I know what is happening since he's on one knee. He finally gets it out and asks me to marry him and I say YES (of course)!

We are both glowing because WE ARE FINALLY GETTING MARRIED when we get off the Ferris Wheel when a little girl with braces who was probably around 13 comes up, glowing as well, and tells us, "Congratulations!!!" She was in the car behind us so she saw it happen. :) We were really happy that we had one witness to be excited with us.

After that, we walked to dinner while I called and texted all my friends and family. Dinner was amazing and our waiter was great! He even put candles in our desert to celebrate our engagement.

We were glowing all evening and honestly, I still am. I just can't believe it's finally happening and I get to marry my best friend at last! We are so, so excited and so blessed. More on this later.

We ended up missing our play because mass transit takes forever, so we changed our plans and walked around Michigan Avenue, went to the beach briefly (see picture above), then finally back to Navy Pier to hang out at the beer garden and wait for the fireworks. There was live music and the fireworks were awesome - what a perfect way to end the night, right?

When we got back to Kaila's apartment, she had candles and champagne waiting to celebrate with us! It was so sweet and it was great to be able to celebrate with someone who wasn't a stranger.

The next day, we finally did get to go to aquarium.

(This is the appropriately named "Man with Fish.")

We waited in line for an hour and a half, but it wasn't too bad and the aquarium was really cool. After that, we got hotdogs (Joe got Chicago-style, I got a turkey dog) and then walked to Millennium Park. It was sooooo hot and humid that day, so we were dying by the time we got there. We made a pit stop in what we thought was Millennium Park and took this cute picture in front of the fountains, showing off my new bling:

At the real Millennium Park, we took a necessary tourist picture with the bean and then played in the spitting fountains, which felt wonderful since we were so hot and sweaty.

Then we headed home.

Overall, we had a wonderful weekend together and it was a great way to not only celebrate our anniversary, but our engagement, too!

I feel so blessed to be marrying Joe. We have been together for so long and I know that God put us together for a lot of reasons, which I will not go into on here. It has been a long wait, but we have prayed that God would work everything out in his timing and that we would have patience in waiting. We have struggled to be patient, but have always known that when the time was right, God would work everything out for us. God's timing is so much more perfect than ours ever could have been! I will be moving back to St. Louis in December to student teach... what more perfect time is there for me to get married and move in with Joe? Also, a short engagement is perfect for my hyper-planning, type-A personality. If I weren't diving right into planning, I would be going crazy! God knows us so well and I am so thankful that we waited for his timing instead of moving forward with ours in any aspect. He is providing magnificently already for the wedding in the form of support, offers of help, finances, etc. God is SO GOOD!

I leave you with a few more pictures of my ring because I am obsessed with it:

Thank you for reading! :)

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Apparently I caught on fire and didn't know it.

I was not planning on updating this again until after this weekend. Joe and I are going on an anniversary trip to Chicago for the weekend, which will be super fun. I was intending for that to be my next post, but as I was packing for said trip, I discovered something horrible.

Flashback to last month. Semi-formal was the first weekend in May. I had a cute sundress and sandals to wear  because usually it's warm enough for that in May.

Don't be fooled by this picture where we both look nice and warm. It was freezing cold that night. When we walked in, I was shivering. Naturally, we all gathered around the space heater to stay warm. I should mention that it was a big space heater with flames, not a little electric one. I spent the first half hour or so of the time we were there warming up in front of the space heater until enough people got there and it got warmer. We ended up having a really good time, despite the cold. I went home thinking that it had been a good night and that I had avoided any disastrous situations.

WELL... back to the present.

I was packing for our Chicago trip and since we are going out to a nice dinner and then to a play, I was planning on packing this dress to wear again. I pulled it out of my closet and noticed something weird...

Yes. That is a BURN on my dress. Apparently I caught my dress on fire (I can only assume it was from the space heater) and did not know it. HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN? How does one catch on fire and not realize it?

R.I.P. Pretty Peach Dress

Enjoy this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J91ti_MpdHA

The end.

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Why Joe and I will never own a bakery

About a month ago, I asked Joe if he would make brownies for a party we were going to while I got ready. He begrudgingly agreed to make them and I went to my room to get ready. Once I was ready, I came out to cut the brownies and found that they looked really... strange. I wish I had taken a picture because it's hard to explain what they looked like, but they were very crumbly and dry looking. I asked Joe if he had put water in them and he said, "Brittany, you don't put water in brownies."

Uh oh.

The brownies tasted horrible and looked even worse so I opted to take strawberries for a desert instead. Later, when I went to rinse the pan the brownies were in, it came out in a solid block. Yuck. Needless to say, I have been giving Joe crap for the past month about his inability to make the easiest desert on the planet and accusing him of this:

Karma can be a pain.

This weekend I decided to make brownies because they are delicious. On my first attempt, I realized I didn't have any eggs. No big deal because we ended up getting ice cream that night anyway.

Two days later, after purchasing some eggs, I decided that I was for real going to make brownies. I got out my eggs and water, laughing to myself because of course I wouldn't forget the water like Joe had. After I got out all of my supplies, I opened the bag of brownie mix... well, I tried to. Those bags are so hard to open! If I were smart, I would buy some kitchen shears, but apparently I'm not. So of course, I pulled as hard as I could with both hands and the brownie mix exploded all over me, the stove and floor. RUDE. (Unfortunately I do not have a picture of this, as it was before I decided to start blogging.)

So there I stood, with brownie mix everywhere, confused and sad because I really wanted brownies. There was still about 3/4 of the bag left, but that's 1/4 less brownies! I shouted for Joe, "Joe... something bad happened." He didn't hear me. So I attempted to shovel some of the mix back into the bag from the stove before heading into the other room and repeated that something bad had happened. Joe followed me into the kitchen and started laughing, asking why on earth I would explode a brown mix. OBVIOUSLY I DIDN'T MEAN TO.

Anyway, he graciously helped me clean it up and only made fun of me a little bit. We laughed about how neither of us can manage to make the easiest desert in the world.

But it's not over. I still made the brownies. As I was stirring them, I realized the consistency was a little strange... That's right. I forgot the oil. I hate myself

Anyway, I added the oil and put them in the pan. They never cooked all the way through because there wasn't enough mix but I think they still tasted delicious because brownies are delicious.

The moral of the story is, Joe and I are not master bakers. We'll stick to buying our deserts from U Knead Sweets downtown.

Happy Wednesday.

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Blogging?

Several people I know have started blogs in the last year. I used to be into blogging back in the Xanga days. I was recently reminiscing about Xanga... those were good times. Anyway, I have found that it is nice that that blog still exists for me to go back and look at my angsty former self. And since so many people have started blogs recently that I really enjoy reading, I have decided that I might like to have one, too. I enjoy being able to keep up with people's lives and the funny and interesting things that happen to them, along with their deep thoughts and wonderings. I'm not sure what will come of this blog or if I will even actually keep up with it, but it's something new to try.

So this is my introduction to the blogging world. That's all.

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