I’m alive and well. And I’m almost not-single anymore. Our wedding day is RAPIDLY approaching; I want to share things with you regarding said MAJOR event, but it will all have to wait until after the honeymoon.

The honeymoon to where? I know not. I asked The Dreamboat to surprise me. He’s waiting to tell me ’til the last possible second; I’m having fun trying to get information out of him.

Anywho, here’s our official engagement photo. And since our wedding theme is DIY, you’ll be happy to know I took this. With my tripod and remote. Which is why only my diamond is in focus.

Is it still a professional photo if it’s a self-portrait taken by a professional?

….

And many of you are probably just wondering where in the world I’ve been all these months.

The Dreamboat and I are engaged.

Yep, I’m getting married.

To The Dreamboat.

DB proposed to me over President’s Day weekend and we have been quite busy since. Actually, we’ve been so busy with other things, that planning our nuptials has been slower than we hoped for.

So, in honor of finally finishing our Save the Date (I’ll be sharing that here at some point), here is the announcement email (written the Wednesday after Prez. Day) I sent to my family back in February. I wanted to litter this post with photos from that weekend, but those will have to wait; I have a guest list to finish.

Dearest family & friends,

Last Saturday, DB and I drove up to Hume Lake for our 3-day weekend to see old friends (of mine, now his) from New York, the M Family. Hume, CA is a super-tiny mountain town, smaller and more remote than Speculator, NY, but it felt like home. Being in a small town, surrounded by snow and a family I love so much felt like an instant-vacation.

With Hume being nestled deep in to the Sequoia National Forrest (and 5200 ft above sea level), we stopped at a little tree-spotting trail on our way home Monday. With Mr. & Mrs. M leading the way, pointing out the HUGE trees, DB handed me a paper box he made. In that paper box were subsequently smaller boxes, all made of paper, each one having a note written on it. I read through the notes with joy, thoroughly enjoying the “we met one year ago today” romanticism. I also read through the notes freezing my tail off, since we were surrounded by snow and massive trees blocking the sun light. Later on, DB confessed to wanting to propose right there, but decided not to since it was so cold.

Because of my extra-romantic notes and how The Dreamboat was acting, I knew what was coming. I’ll be honest, I had been expecting him to drop a knee all weekend. There was a level of disappointment when I opened up the last box to find nothing in it but the note written on the paper. About 10 minutes later, I was finished with our walk, fed up with taking photos and just wanting to get in the car and go home. I was a bit grumpy, but wanting to honor my super-romantic man, I pushed those feelings aside and tried to enjoy the rest of our outing.

As we were parting ways with Mr. & Mrs., Mr. prayed for us in a manner assuming that engagement was in our future but having no idea it was in our within-the-half-hour future. As a couple, we’ve been commission in prayer before, but this felt so fresh and new. It means a lot to us to have such a fatherly figure pray for us mere minutes before we made marriage-commitments. DB later told me that the desire to propose right there in the back seat of their car was so big that it was almost as if the ring was burning a hole in his pocket.

The last 20 miles of driving up to Hume require chains in the winter. My Calif-Texan suggested before we left for the weekend that I should do the snow driving since I had more experience. I did the first bit of driving home, so as we pulled away from the M Family’s car, I was behind the wheel. As I was driving those few miles of snowy roads, DB started folding my notes back up. I mentioned to him that I wanted to read them again. Reminding me that I should read them the “right way”, I looked over and saw that he was almost finished the folding process. A few moments later I looked over a second time, and saw they were all unfolded again, with DB trying to hide something from me. I didn’t press him, because I knew what was going on and didn’t want to force him too much into a lie; he mumbled something about them coming undone and I let it rest.

We pulled over a few minutes later, as he finished folding for a second time, so the cables could come off our tires and he could resume driving. As he was working on the tires, I sat in the passenger seat, waiting for him to get back in the car before I started reading. And I shook the box when he wasn’t looking.

He finished his duty, got back in the car and started driving as I re-read the sweetest note his hand had ever penned. By God’s providence, The Dreamboat was driving the speed limit and the other cars behind him didn’t want to, so he pulled over. Pulling over on the one pull-off with the most breathtaking view just then was not planned, but secretly prayed for. DB said something about taking a nap while I finished reading, then subjected himself to holding the interior paper boxes as I opened, and re-read the notes inside.

As I got to what was originally the last box, DB suggested we step outside. Seriously, I knew this was coming from a million miles away, so I silently submitted to his wishes. Overcome again with the beauty that surrounded us, we took a few photos and enjoyed the view. Then I turned to him, held out a hand, and gave him a look that said “Dearest sir, please give me that box before I throw you over this cliff in anticipation”.

Inside that last box that was originally empty, I found a smaller, red one. On the outside of that box was written, “It is not good for THIS MAN to be alone. -DB” As I opened the box, I pulled out the delicately shiny object and read what was written on the inside of the box: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD. Proverbs 18:22″. I was in his arms through this whole opening-process and as I looked up, I saw my Dreamboat filled with joy and teary-eyed. He pulled the ring from my fingers, dropped to one knee and said, “Christina, will you marry me?”

“Yeah.”

Like I said, I knew it was coming, but the act of him dropping to one knee was still overwhelming and unexpected; I couldn’t even respond with proper grammar. I have thought of 500 different responses to that question over the months and “Yeah” is all that came out. He popped back up, tried to figure out which was my left hand and slid the ring onto my ring finger. We stood in each other’s arms for a few moments, took some photos and continued on our way.

We spent the rest of our trip enjoying our first few hours as an engaged couple, and only moderately started “planning.” We’ll get to that soon enough, I suppose. At the moment, we’re just trying to make it through another busy week. I got food poisoning yesterday (thank you, future husband, for caring for me as I puke in front of you) and today I haven’t left my bed. Another act of God’s providence, I suppose, since I didn’t know when I was going to be able to write this email.

Thank you all for your kind words of support and encouragement over these months of dating The Dreamboat. We certainly covet your prayers as our wedding day quickly approaches.

Love,
the future Mrs. Dreamboat

I was going to wait ’til the end of the day to reflect on my blessed day of birth, but the time and ability to focus has availed itself this morning. I could honestly spend an hour reflection merely on these past two weeks; so much has happened. Uprooting my life and moving across the country has been no small feat, but God has been abundantly good to me. While everything is new, I have been granted a community which makes Torrance feel like home. “Community” is what I had been missing in Delaware and I’m grateful that I’ve got one in Torrance.

But T-town is not the purpose of this post. Calif was just weeks ago; a whole year has passed under the heading of “26″.

I turned 26 in Delaware, with my family, celebrating with my twin. I had just officially moved away from New York; I had no job, I was mere weeks away from running out of money. God was amazingly gracious in providing a place to live (home, with family) and eventually throwing a part time job in my lap. That employment turned out to be more fun and rewarding than I could have ever hoped for; my first few weeks turned it into a full-time position with more responsibility and challenges. It was those challenges that would continue to shape me relationally, spiritually and professionally over the next 10 months.

One of the many blessings of working for the jewelry store is that I could pretty much take off when I wanted/needed to. Cumulatively, I took close to three weeks of vacation over the summer. On the surface, that’s a mere perk; those vacations, however, turned out to be life-changing. I spent all of my time away from work back north in New York, refreshing my body and brain in a community that I never really wanted to leave. Over the course of those trips, (starting in February, continuing through August) I met and was eventually courted by The Dreamboat.

Now that my 27th year of life is complete, I sit here in Mission, Texas.

Texas, everyone.

The girl from Delaware who lived in New York forever, replanted back in Delaware and eventually moved across the country to Southern California, now sits in Texas.

The Dreamboat and I traveled to his hometown to spend the holidays with his family and our time thus-far has been awesome. Faces that I’ve met via video-chat are real and so incredibly loving. Today is day 3 of our 7-day vacation and I already feel quite at home with this family; I’ve been hugging the sisters and punching the brothers and almost-winning games of Balderdash.

Today, plans are unknown to me, just the way I like them.

Merry Christmas everyone, see you in the new year!

So today (even though I had a late start) will be spent organizing, packing and making decisions. All of this will followed with more organizing and packing. Because I am who I am (distraction abounds), here are two Christmas videos for you:

Not only did the position seem to be written for me, the manner in which the description was written seemed to be penned by me. I sat on the job listing for a day, thinking through it and wondering if I even really had a shot (for a year plus, I haven’t had any luck with a cold-cover-letter-ing). Thursday afternoon I decided that if I wasn’t going to apply for the job before The Dreamboat arrived, then I wasn’t going to apply at all and needed to forget about the whole thing. That evening, I wrote an email that broke all the cover letter rules; whoever wrote “smarty-pants” into a job title didn’t want to be forced into a coma over a dry, cookie-cutter cover letter.

There’s always that moment right before hitting send, where you wonder if what you wrote will be good enough. Or grammatically correct. Or coherent. It’s the moment where you either delete it all and start over or you hit send with an “it is what it is” attitude. There’s a lot of vulnerability there; a rejection of the cover letter is a rejection of you. Praise be to God who grants me the faith to believe in Him and His sovereignty. I hit send, then soundly went to sleep.

Friday, the day The Dreamboat arrived, I worked a solid day at the jewelry store. At some point in the afternoon, I got a reply: “I liked your cover letter. You’ve got some serious skills. How soon can we chat?” In my excitement (which was raised exponentially because DB was in the air somewhere over the US) I may have shed a tear or two. Really?

After some back-and-forth, I had a phone interview. For that evening. I got home from work with enough time to sit down, review my stuff and work up a few questions. Then my phone rang. The Creative Director (TCD) started out by reminding me that the internet is a very powerful tool, “After google-ing your name, I pretty much know everything about you.”

Crap. What did I blog about last? Oh yeah. This.

After he told me everything about myself, I was able to ask some questions and get a feel for the company and position. All-in-all, it was a great interview with one exception: it’s an asap position and I live 300o miles away. I got off the phone and then went and picked up The Dreamboat from the airport. It was a long exciting day and I was grateful that I was able to tell DB about the interview in person.

And this is working itself out to be the longest blog post ever. Take a break if you need to; go grab a snack. Here are some photos:

Saturday, DB and I drove up to Speculator (where we met) for the weekend. We arrived back in Delaware late Monday night and Tuesday morning I had another interview set up. This time, via Skype with TCD and CEO. The timing of when we wanted to do the interview couldn’t have been more awful, so after a stressful day figuring that out (so stressful, DB went out and bought me chocolate), we settled with driving to my aunt and uncle’s and setting up for the interview there.

It was the best interview ever. Before they asked me some questions, I was able to lay one before the CEO. Considering the whole process was moving so quickly, I really needed to know who he was in a short period of time. What does one ask when one only has one shot at getting to know a potential future boss? Boldly, only 50% confident that I wasn’t stepping over my boundaries I asked, “I want to see your passion. Why do you do what you do?”  His answer sealed the deal.

I’m in. I want to work for this man.

And that was the highlight of the interview. They asked me some things and I’m sure if I could go back I would say them more eloquently, but I really communicated everything I needed to. I got off the computer, found DB and the first thing I said was, “I want to work for them.”

Through this whole process, I knew their list was short; it was an honor to even be on it. I also knew one (and maybe only) hesitancy concerning me was the distance. In my mind, 300o miles is an easy deal-breaker. I was excited about the position, about the company, about my prospective future bosses, but with a firm understanding that I probably wouldn’t be offered the position.

Wednesday came and DB and I traveled down to the Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. We spent the day looking at awesome things and then drove to Old Town Alexandria for dinner. Just after we ordered our meal, I quickly checked my phone to see if there was any email activity.

I had a new email. From the Creative Director. With the subject, “So… ready to give thanks?”

The Dreamboat saw the look on my face and started asking, “what? what? what is it?!” Before opening the email, I slid my chair over to DB’s side of the table. Squishing up next to him, I opened the email so we could read it at the same time.

They offered me the job.

Because I still don’t quite believe it, I repeat: they offered me the job.

Excuse me?

Am I dreaming?

The moments following the email were so emotionally charged, I barely remember them and at the same time, I know the memories of that meal are seared in my brain for life. DB and I stared at each other and came to grips that our long-distance relationship would soon be ending. We would be living in the same town. I had a job offer in Torrance, CA.

To commemorate the moment, we took our first photo as a non-long-distance couple:

By the time dinner arrived, I sent a quick email back to my new boss and informally accepted the position. By the time we had dessert in front of us, I was on the phone formally accepting it.

I am the new Graphic Designer of a stinkin’ awesome company that does some really awesome things. And to top it all off, my new bosses are awesome. It truly is an honor to be a part of this, and I don’t fully understand what “this” is yet. Awesome.

The really exciting part? Not only will I be working in the same town as The Dreamboat, but a mere 3 miles from him. Three. Miles.

Three miles from this guy:

I mentioned earlier that the job is an asap thing. Currently, the Creative Director is doing my job on top of his. He graciously extended the job to me knowing that I would still be two more weeks. Two weeks are a long time for him, but immensely short for me; he could have found someone who would have started immediately and again, I’m honored.

Two weeks: Finish well at the jewelry store. Pack. Say goodbye. Pack. Fly.

Ladies and gentlemen, Thanksgiving evening was yet another big moment for me: I bought a one-way plane ticket to LA.

December 11th.

Like this evening:

Maybe I should start killing time by blogging.

One thing to note was The Dreamboat still had to work while I was there (he’s saving vacation days for actual trips). I had the use of his car during the day, which I took full advantage of. I was also given a map which saved my life. Twice.

I love getting flowers.

A real-live, Southern California snail!

The Dreamboat is quickly learning to photog. And well.

And lastly, I love it when he drives.

I recommend watching full-screen. Cheers!

More to come soon!

One of the concerns I first had when I came to realize how similar we are, was that our “issues” are similar as well. I was concerned that since we both struggle similarly, how are we to push one another towards Christ-likeness? Won’t we just wallow in our self-misery together?

Thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet. The Dreamboat and I both came into our relationship knowing where and how we sin; we have been actively fighting for God’s glory in our lives well before August 1st, 2010. As we see “our” sin in the other party, we’re quick to recognize it and graciously know how to bring it to light and encourage one another with scripture (he’s better at it than I). It’s been pretty awesome to push one another in that regard; we’ve been building good habits in revolving our relationship around the gospel.

I get him and he gets me. Concerning the length of time we’ve known each other, we shouldn’t. It’s such a comfort knowing that when I freak out about things like moving to California, he understands. And not just the “oh yeah, I get it,” surface emotion, he seems to know each delicate, intricate detail that makes up the situation. I know it won’t always be like this; at some point sin will divide and confuse us on some level. That’s where this gospel-driven habit, grace and faith will show its amazing power in our lives.

I bring all this up to brag. Honestly. I have found the greatest. guy. ever. And by “found” I mean “I did absolutely nothing to merit his attention or intentions to pursue me.” I fly out this Wednesday to spend a week with him (and my new friends!) in California. Words can’t really express how eager I am to get out there. On top of being courted by The Dreamboat, I’ll also have some opportunities to spend some time in California by myself (he still has to work) and possibly have a job interview (!). I’m looking forward to vacation!

Cheers!

P.S. Some of you may be wondering how The Dreamboat feels about my blogging habits. Every time I post something regarding him, I can’t help feeling a bit insecure until he reads it. When he finally read the California post he said to me, “Christina, I love that you do this. 1) Because you’re good at it and 2) I don’t have to.” I win.