A wedding in the works

Okay, okay! I know I didn't give any details in my last post about my wonderful man or the wedding plans. I was actually wanting to post some pictures of us together, but I still don't have any because he's camera shy! He tells me to photo shop a picture of Brad Pitt in with me so nobody knows who I'm really marrying. But no worries, I will get a picture of us one of these days! Regardless, I do have some pictures from the night we got engaged, just not of us. :) Many of you have already heard the story, but for fun I'm going to write it anyway. Derek is building a house on 3 acres out by Plain City. Earlier in the week he built a fire pit and benches out at the back of the property behind the barn. He asked me if I wanted to bring the boys out that weekend, have a big bonfire, and cook dinner and smores in it. That sounded great to me and we were all pretty excited about it. Here are some pictures of the boys out by the fire, it was a big, very hot fire!



So we made our dinner and were sitting there eating when suddenly I noticed something light up out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and the roof of the barn about 70 ft. away was all lit up. I was confused wondering if I had just barely noticed that after an hour of being there, or if it had really just lit up. (it turns out I wasn't as oblivious as I thought, the lights did just barely turn on) Derek says I looked at the barn real quick, then to him in confusion, and back to the barn. Then I read the words, "Will You Marry Me" spelled out in Christmas lights on the roof, and understanding came. I was so surprised! Then Derek looked at me, smiled, took my hand and got down on one knee, put a ring on my finger (which he picked out by himself and which I love!) and asked me to marry him. I am totally in love with him, and was so excited, and surprised, but of course I said yes! And the boys were just sitting in their little chairs watching the whole show. It was neat to have them there, and they both loved the lights. The lights are still up on the barn, and it is kind of special that we got engaged in the place where we will share our lives together. Every time I see that barn I'll remember Derek proposing. I can't even explain how happy I am. Derek is such an amazing and wonderful man. I can't imagine ever being without him now. This just feels so right, like we were always meant to be together. So the date is set for Jan. 10th. We want a very small ceremony, but we'll be doing a very laid back open house of sorts, or something, about a week later. I couldn't get a very good picture of the lit up words with my little camera, but it was all I had so here's a picture of the attempt. It looked much better than the picture!