The last month has seriously flown by, but I feel like everyone says that about February because it's a shorter month and all. But we're in mid-MARCH! How does that happen?! I wish I could say some interesting things have been happening over here in the Doskocil home but sadly that isn't so, time has just been slipping on by.
Since I last wrote I have been to 2 more weddings (#yearofweddings!), one for my friend Melissa (my first black wedding! it was a whole new experience!) and also my friend Allison. Allison got married at a barn in Huntington Beach that I had considered having as our venue, and it was gorgeous as expected..leaving me a taaaad jealous ;}
February - Melissa & Trent
Brides trading places!
March - Allison & Dave
Speaking of weddings and such... February marked our 6 months! Wow! 6 months of being married and also 1 year since James proposed. Been looking at some photos, taking trips down memory lane- it's our favorite thing to do.
The best day, ever. I wish I could do it over and over (kind of).
Feels like yesterday :]
This month I also got to take my niece Julianna out on a date to paint some ceramics and have some sushi (a girl after my own heart!).
Before, after painting, and a week later after firing it in the kiln...
Her first time at Sushi Studio...
I also got new glasses because we discovered I have latent hyperopia, meaning my vision switched from entirely near-sighted to entirely far-sighted. I didn't know that was possible, but of course if indeed it were, it would happen to me. I don't know how I feel about the new frames though, they're kind of dark against my fair complexion! We'll see...
Not too many other happenings going on over here. I think one of my favorite things about being married is the time we have in the morning to chat and prepare for the day. And to take pictures (that's his least favorite thing about marriage...maybe ;}).
My sweetheart <3 p="">
See you in 4 weeks, Stacked!
I suppose I will leave you with this picture I might have snapped while driving.... I had to! I guess there is a school for everything nowadays???
Today is my 22nd birthday, and for some reason I feel like I've been waiting for this birthday all my life. After the excitement of turning 21 fades, most people don't care too much about 22, but I feel like I have always looked forward to today... little did I know how much was in store for this year :]
Falling in love, getting engaged to my best friend, growing more deeply in God's word than ever before, watching my little sister get married and my parents renew their wedding vows, moving into my first apartment and making my own home has made for quite the 21st year. 22, show me what you've got!
I feel like every day there is something new happening and something to be terribly excited about! My birthday is only 5 days away, and our wedding is only a month out! Not to mention all the other little excitements happening in my friends' lives, like Kacie and Todd's new little Gemma, or Kasey and Sam's recent wedding, or Andy and Lauren's engagement, and I can't forget that Deb and Rachel (and many of my other close friends) are leaving today to CHINA! Tomorrow is my Parents' 30th wedding anniversary (WOW) and I also get to go to my first Padre's game of the season (late.. I know..but better late than never)! I hope it doesn't end here :]
As soon as you get engaged people rush to congratulate you and tell you what a happy and romantic time "engagement" is--let me tell you, that is not true. Maybe if you have a year and a half engagement period and plenty of time to sit around it might be a bit less stressful, but overall engagement is hard. Trying to please everyone with your decisions, trying to have the wedding that you actually want, trying to stay out of debt and still have a beautiful day, on top of all the legalism involved in maintaining your current "dating" relationship, it's just not very fun. But there is a silver lining.
On another level, being engaged is like having something small and wonderful happen to you every single day. I can't speak for everyone else, but for me it usually hits just before I fall asleep, or sometimes first thing when I wake up. That one tingling little moment where I remember that in x amount of days I will be married to my best friend, forever, in our own little place, free to do whatever we want, (and away from the evils of wedding planning). That is the moment that makes all the stress worth it!
"Jenny and me was like peas and carrots"
This past Sunday was James and my official 1-year anniversary, despite any of our other milestones in between. This is actually pretty startling to most people's ears, but that's when we can tell our real friends from our judgmental friends. It boils my blood every time I hear people imposing their own opinions on what is an acceptable period of time to be together before getting married. Especially from our "Christian" peers. Every day I have customers telling me that we need to just live together for a year before we decide if this is what's right for us, or that we are just too young to know what we want. Don't even get me started on that bit! But if I may, I would like to clarify that we have known since day 10 that we wanted to get married, and we have been dating "in light of" that the entire time. We have been extremely careful with our physical and emotional boundaries, we have always been planning and budgeting for our future, and we have been staying in the Word and trusting God to confirm our timing, as opposed to those around us.
[diary snippet from last year]
While I get the pleasure of being James' first girlfriend, many people know I have had other relationships in the past. If there's anything to be gained from them, it's knowing what I want and don't want, but more importantly knowing what I deserve. James is the most amazing guy I have ever met, and he is perfect to me. It's so crazy when you find that one person in life that fits you like a glove; who isn't your twin but who compliments your personality and meets you on your own "level." I know so many of my friends who could have never dated James, but for me he's exactly what I needed. We have some of the funniest, most honest conversations I think I've ever had, we are naturally inclined to such similar thought processes (to the extent that he has become my personal mind-sperlunker), we have the same goals and direction for our future, and we seriously love every minute we have together. In the past I've always noticed that too much time together eventually makes you snippy and irritable, but I don't think we've ever experienced that. We would tell you it's because of our foundation in the Word and our commitment to being renewed by it, but I also think we are just two peas in a pod.
So Sunday was spent doing things we wanted to do and needed to do--mostly, rest. We went to church, had lunch with a group of our friends, then headed to downtown Disney to take in the beautiful afternoon and leave with a cute build-a-bear we conveniently named Jaycub (like Jacob, but bear style). We had a delicious date night to Kobe's Japanese Steakhouse (if you haven't been, it's a really cool restaurant much like Benihana's where they cook your food right in front of you) and then loaded up on sweets and snacks before catching the solar eclipse and watching Avatar in-home-movie-theater style. Nothing too fancy, but no regrets here.
I really really love my best friend. I'm sad when I see other couples who aren't as lucky as us, or when people take each other for granted. I'm so glad that life took us both on our own journey to get us to this place where we are now, together. We're blessed, to say the least..
As some of you may know, this past Saturday was our long-awaited Engagement Party! (I think there were some issues with Facebook invites, because I know a lot of people that we invited who said they never saw notice of it, so sorry to you all!) It was a great night of celebrating and bringing families together.
Bride & Groom!
James' mom and aunt were amazing as they put on the whole thing--food, decoration, ambience and all--and it was soo beautiful! We even got some sweet gifts, which we weren't expecting at all. I really love all of our friends and family, and I love spending time with everyone at once, which means a lot coming from someone who hates being the center of attention. It just makes me even more excited for the Big Day to finally get here so we can all party together again....
Dad and 2 of his 3 son-in-law's.
The cutest little flag I ever did see, marking which house it was!
Wedding Bells!
**And for anyone paying attention, I GOT MY DRESS yesterday! I went back to David's Bridal with one of my Bridesmaids, Oanh, to get her dress picked out, but I ended up trying on MY dress again and we knew immediately that it was the one. I got compliments from everyone in the store and I think my smile was about 100% bigger this time around. We rang the bell, took all the pictures, and sent away for it. I go in for my first fitting in 6 weeks, woo hoo!!
So I guess everyone wants to know all about how it happened, and by it I mean how we got engaged!
Yes, it's official, I'm engaged to marry my best friend, the love of my life!
Want to hear the story? I'm sure I won't get sick of telling this one....
Even though we have talked [seriously] about getting married since the night of our first kiss, I had no idea when it would ever really happen or when we'd get engaged. I know he'd been giving bigger hints since arriving in 2012 but I still didn't have a clue as to what he was actually planning. He started meeting up with practically every one of my close friends, and much to my chagrin everyone (including my family) new about the secret plans well before I did, and held it over my head. I mean, I knew it was close, but all this sneaky-sneak was just ridiculous. He started throwing me off, fake proposing, throwing around timelines, etc. for the past couple weeks, but I wasn't falling for it. He even told me, flat out, it was going to be on March 8th. But what kind of person tells you the actual date? In all honesty I thought it would be on Leap Day (the rare 29th of February).
I knew he wouldn't do it on Valentine's day, that was too cliche. But then things started getting pretty weird around the Post house starting on the 13th. I was suspicious, but I played it cool... just ask my mom, or Joy, or any of the people involved in my expanding collection of flowers and love notes.
By my ever-expanding bouquet, I mean how 1 flower turned into 8. I tried to keep them separate and I tried not to gush too much online about the phenomenon that was taking place, but...
On Monday, upon returning from work, I received a red rose... On Tuesday, though we didn't celebrate Valentine's much, I received purple orchids and jewelry... On Wednesday, two ski-masked bandits (possibly Ben Huntsinger and Andy Turner) dropped off another rose, and a sweet card... On Thursday, I was serenaded from outside my window by Travis Gilley (accompanied by Nathan Murphy) before receiving a yellow lily and card... On Friday, while working away behind the counter at Starbucks, Deb dropped off a pink gerber daisy and another love note... On Saturday, I was visited by Amy Green and Kacie Downing who just happened to drop off an orange lily and yet another wonderful papyrus card...
All of my cards were so sweet; they all had a different trait about me that he loves, and on the other side he would write a part of "our story," starting with the first time he ever laid eyes on me.
On Sunday I was expecting something in the morning when he picked me up for church, but he was empty-handed. Oh well, I thought. We did have plans for dinner that night, and I was told to dress fancy because we were celebratin!
(Remember this?)
With a white rose (and card) in hand, James picked me up for our fancy dinner and we went to one of our absolute favorites--the Melting Pot. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious as ever, but I was nervous, I was trying to play it cool, my stomach was in knots and I could hardly keep food down. I kept passing it off as being really really full, but the truth is there was just so much adrenaline coursing through my veins I wanted to be anywhere but cramped in a romantic little booth eating expensive fondue. And it didn't help that he was super smiley and giddy--that was like sealing the deal (or so I thought).
If I'm honest, I'll just say I was fully expecting it to be that night. I was expecting it to be after dinner or something, but nothing happened at all. Driving home on 405, it fully dawned on me that it wasn't happening. We came home and passed out on my bed within minutes--due to massive food comas--and then he left! I got up, took a shower and overanalyzed it in my mind... I couldn't believe it. I had spent all day getting worked up about this to no avail! Now I was stumped.
By Monday I was over it. Or at least I tried to be.
I got up and the weight of disappointment from the day before came flooding back. I struggled to get ready for class, and then rushed off to take my first exam of the semester, and face yet another busy Monday. At some point in the morning, when I had a few free minutes, I caught myself and realized how ridiculous I was being. I prayed about it and moved on, no longer disappointed but thoroughly confused and back at square one. When I got home from class I worked on some homework while watching a movie, and to my surprise James texted me telling me not to eat because he had something planned for dinner since his Monday night Bible study was cancelled. I ran to the bathroom to curl my hair, but then continued with my movie, trying to stay calm and open-minded... ;]
The long-story-short is that it happened that night. We went to George's Greek Cafe and retraced the steps of our first date, getting funnel cakes and walking down on the boardwalk at the Pike. He was SO calm and collected, he really had me thinking this was just another date night. But when we veered off our path and he started shaking, I knew it was coming. He gave me a sweet, sweet speech (which I don't remember anymore, since I was just a little excited when I was taking it in), got down on his knee, fished the box out of his sock (apparently he knew I'd be scanning his pocket for bulges, haha) and then excitedly popped the question. Immediately after I said yes, Debbie and Travis sprang out of the bushes, cameras in hand. (I'm really glad that there was someone there to capture the moment, I'm sure I will always look back on these pictures fondly!)
After the proposal we returned to James' apartment to a bunch of our friends, with champagne at the ready, for celebrations. When we were tired he brought me home to my house, and like a true 21st century couple we sat on my bed, laptop open, watching all of our comments and notifications stream in on Facebook. (For someone who has not had cable TV in 8 months, this was amazing entertainment.)
Can I just say, my fiancé has the BEST taste, and this is the most beautiful ring I've ever seen? When he opened the box my eyes probably doubled in size; I couldn't stop staring, and I couldn't believe that it was mine! It sparkles from every angle!
Now, the planning and crazyness commences, and even though I already feel like it's impossible to get everything done, I know it isn't, and that it will all be worth it.
Thank you to EVERYONE who has supported us and loved us along the way, and for all the congratulations we've received! It means the world to us, and we couldn't be happier!! :]
And that's the story of how my life began to change forever.
