It's been four years...

Yes, it has been four years since what I consider to be one of the greatest days of my life. The day went something like this.

Saturday, October 18, 2003

Steve and I had been dating all of five weeks at this time. Last night I met his mom and stepdad for the first time. They are down visiting for the weekend. Steve and I are getting together with his parents and my parents for dinner tonight so that everyone can get acquainted. It is early afternoon and Steve calls me to ask me if he can pick me up early so I can go run errands with him before dinner. I told him I could as long as we could stop by the grocery store and get the things that I needed in order to do my part in contributing to Sunday lunch the next day. He said that would be okay. Around 4:00 he comes to my apartment and picks me up. We drive around for a little while, and I was totally clueless of where we were or where we were going. Suddenly, I realize that we are just off University Parkway by the Coliseum. The next thing I know, Steve is turning by the Coliseum and headed towards Groves Stadium. My heart stopped. This is where he took me for our first date. And then, he turns in there. There is no football game on that day and the stadium is eerily quiet. Steve said he needed to get something from there and that he was told one of the gates would be left open. And surely enough, it was. So we get out of the car and walk into the stadium. I see no one or hear anything. He then takes me up to the place where we sat on our first date. "This is the place, isn't it?", he says. I agree, shaking my head wondering exactly what was coming next. I soon found out. He said that he wanted to ask me three questions. I agreed to listen. He proceeded.
1. Will you make me the happiest man in the world?
2. Will you do me the profound honor of being my wife?
3. (He gets down on one knee) Will you marry me?
And he holds out a box with a ring in it. A ring, that the single Christian school teacher that I was never imagined would ever be put on my finger. It was so amazingly beautiful that I was in utter shock. So it took me a second to answer because of that shock, and Steve thinking I wasn't too sure about it all said, "Please !?!?"
Of course I said "Yes!" and when we embraced he secretly gave a thumbs up sign to his friend Jeffrey Griffin from WSJS who was up in the sound booth (and who also had conveniently left the gate open for us). Jeffrey then began to play "Spoken For" by Mercy Me over the loudspeakers of the football stadium. Both of us when hearing that song at separate times in the earlier weeks thought immediately of the other one and our relationship.
After the song finished, Steve said, "There is more". He took me down to the front of the field where on a music stand he had a Bible waiting for me. It says in the front cover "Presented to The Love of my Life. By your adoring man. On this, the day of our engagement, October 18, 2003". He told me that he always wanted Christ to be the center of our marriage.
After this final presentation, Jeffrey emerged from the sound booth for hugs of congratulations and picture taking time.
We met our parents later at Longhorn. I kept the ring hidden in my pocket until we were seated at the table at which time I began to flash it around pointing at things on my mom's menu. It took her a little bit, but finally she grabbed my hand and said, "I didn't get a good enough glimpse of that flash." At this point in time everyone started crying tears of joy and the waitress was caught in the midst of an emotional time.
That was four years ago today, and I still look at that ring on my finger and my heart stops. Not so much because of the beauty of the ring, but because of the love that is behind it and the wonderful man that I can now call my husband!

cute pictures

To appease my blog checking friends who complain that I don't update frequently enough, here are a few cute pictures I have taken of Josiah recently. To fill you in on the recent news. He went to the doctor today and is 34.25 inches long (97+%) and 26.2 lbs (75%). He is saying a bunch of new words like "off" and "Eeyore". The word of the day is "yes" which he said at least a billion times. He is such a joy and we are so thankful to God for such a wonderful gift!!

Daddy's little helper

Steve was in our bathroom tonight folding the basket of laundry that he did the other day. Josiah decided that he wanted to help daddy with the laundry. His idea of "helping" was taking all the underwear out of the basket and throwing it in a pile on the floor. Every now and then he would lay down on it and laugh. I caught a few pictures.

I don't even know what to title this....

What a day! I am glad it is almost over and that I can go to bed soon! The day didn't start off too bad. The boy, being overtired from a lack of naps and being out late yesterday, slept until 12:20. He might have stayed asleep longer, except I had to get him up for a doctor's appointment. I went upstairs, and when I opened the door, there to my surprise is my son standing in his crib with his pacifier in his mouth and just his shirt on. (Last night we were at a friend's house until late, so when we got home we just put him in bed with his shirt on.) As I neared the crib I noticed that off in the corner was a diaper. I also noticed that the smell of the room got remarkably worse as I neared the crib. Apparently, Josiah at some time had figured out how to take off his diaper. He also managed to wet and poop in his crib, all over his blankets and toys that were in there. He also got poop all over his hands and wiped it up the sides and top of the crib when he stood up. And, to finish it off, he stepped in the poop....with his socks that were left on from last night! I managed to very carefully pick him up and take him downstairs for an immediate bath. A couple of small pieces of poop fell off of him and onto the carpet along the way. I laid him down on the changing pad while I filled the tub, which then had poop smeared all over it. I somehow managed to get his soaked shirt and disgustingly filthy socks off of him and into the washer. I then put him in the bath and scrubbed him down using an unusually large amount of bath gel. The diaper changing pad was then thrown in the washer before the boy was taken out of the bath. I managed to get him clothed and then fed. I gave him some grapes to eat to occupy him while I ran upstairs to take care of the bedding. Upon further inspection of the bed, I realized he also got poop on the bumper. So I removed the sheets, blankets, stuffed animals, bumper and anything else that was in there and ran downstairs to the washer. I decided this was a good time to try out the sanitary cycle on our washer! Three hours of cleaning and super hot water!
Steve spent some time this evening scrubbing the mattress pad and crib to try to remove the poop scent that had been ingrained from the earlier episode. When he dressed the boy for bed tonight, he made sure he put on tight PJ pants!
I just don't understand how these things managed to happen to me and only when Steve isn't home to help!!