It's Official!

It's Tuesday, which means time for another list! I'll try to make it a short one, since today's entry may be rather long.

Before the list, let me address the recent big news in my life: John and I are getting married!

He proposed last Saturday evening, before Easter. The short version of the story is that we went to dinner at a swanky restaurant downtown, and then he proposed at Furman. Like many Furmanites, most of our first dates involved long talks while walking around the lake, so it was neat to head back to our old stomping grounds.

The extra part of the story is that earlier in the day, when we were practicing a little bit of softball, I caught a fly ball....with my mouth. So the evening that the whole engagement/proposal went down, I had a hugely swollen lip, some bruising on my chin, and a very sore jaw despite spending much of the afternoon with an icepack to my face. John told me it looked like I had Botox - on only one side. I wasn't in the best mood when the date started, but I sure looked funny!

The swelling went down very dramatically during dinner - we were actually both shocked at how fast it went down, considering that the ice earlier had not helped at all! I found out later that my mom called her sisters after John and I left for dinner (she had a hunch), so they were all praying for my lip to heal quickly. I believe in the power of prayer, so I just think that's a neat part of the story. Besides, who else gets a softball in the face and a diamond ring in the same day from the same guy? Or a proposal with a busted lip?

We're trying to plan a wedding this summer. Yes, as in 'summer 2008.' Yes, as in 'we're completely flippin' crazy.' If we can't work out an available date/venue for this summer, the wedding will have to wait until Christmas, because he will have no good breaks before that in his pharmacy school program.

I promise this will not become a completely wedding-obsessed blog - but if we're only engaged for like 4 months, you'll have to forgive me if that's most of what I think about for the next few months! In honor of that, 2 goofy lists:

What We Need
1. A date
2. A place for the ceremony (since my church meets in a high school)
3. A place for the reception
4. A marriage license
5. Food
6. Music
7. Drinks (at this rate, lots of them!)
8. Just about everything else...

What We've Got
1. A bride
2. A groom
3. Rings (John already has my wedding band!)
4. Strong likelihood of oppressive South Carolina mid-summer heat
5. Yep, that's about it.

Any suggestions/tips are welcome. Also, if you care to read any more about the story of John and I, our good friend Vance put a great blog entry about us here. Thanks Vance!