Six Years Engaged!

Six years ago today, Carson proposed. 

Our Engagement Photos

Once upon a time, Carson proposed, we got engaged, and we started planning a wedding. One by one, we checked things off the massive to-do list, and one of those things was to take engagement pictures.

 We took these the day after my birthday (364 days after the first time he asked me out) in 2010 and I'd sort of forgotten about them, but I'm working on a project that involves going through old pictures, and I came across these ones again. 

They aren't my favorite pictures of us, but they're fun to look at. 

Some thoughts, when going through them:

- I should have planned what we were going to wear a little better. I bought the dress the day before and it really makes me look like a lumpy frog (not necessarily in these pictures, but certainly in general). The color is great, but I kind of hate this dress (yes, I still have it). 

- Carson's shoes - this was actually a long-standing debate until I nipped it in the bud, but he thought that white tennis shoes were equal to dress shoes. They are not. 

- My shoes - were the only dressy shoes I packed, so they had to work. They hurt my feet, so I don't have them anymore but I loved them because they looked like jelly shoes.

- Carson's hair... got cut the next day. It was a busy time. 

- My makeup... I should have gone by the rule of "wear more so it shows up on camera". It's okay though. And I remember really debating if I should have worn my hair curly that day. 

- I don't think I look like myself, which is fine, but I can't figure out why. I think I may have been sick, so that's a factor in these pictures. It was also March and cold, so it could have been more of a "sick of winter" kind of sickness.

Double-chin, and my nose looks wide but I like this one.

No idea what was going on here.

Fake smile on my part. 

This is Carson's favorite picture. We sent this picture with half of our invites (the other half got my favorite picture). I don't like this one in the slightest but Carson still has one in his wallet.

Carson's idea. He had lots of ideas like this and would have preferred only pictures like this. We actually printed some of these out and sent them with our invitations, but only to very close friends. His roommates had this picture up on their fridge with all kinds of commentary, with good reason. 

Our eye color stands out and that's all I can say.

I wish we'd chosen this one because now I think it's one of the better ones, but we didn't. 

THE SHOES.

I like this one too.

I don't know why I'm barefoot here. Maybe I thought it wouldn't be in the picture? Maybe it's on purpose?

This is the one I loved, and the one we sent out in half of the invitations. We appear very airbrushed and whitened and I have a feeling that's one of the reasons I liked this one. 

This was a fun little walk down memory lane. It really wasn't that long ago, but I feel like it looks like it was, judging from what we wore and how we looked. I think that's really one of the big reasons to get engagement pictures in the first place - they may not be the best pictures of your whole life, but they document an important stage. 

And for us, since our families are on opposite sides of the country, it was slightly practical we wanted our guests and invitees to have a visual and be able to say "Ah, THAT's the bride/groom!" when they met Carson/Lindsay at our receptions or wedding. These were printed out on big sheets of paper, cut individually (we sent several hundred invitations so this was not fun) and tucked in with our wedding invitations.

Oh, and we still have a million of little wallet sized versions that we sent with our invites if anyone wants one. We over-printed.

Four Years Since

We got engaged four years ago today. 

Last week, I had Jillian take our pictures at Old Sheldon Church, where we got engaged. It's funny comparing the four-years-ago us to the four-years-later us. 

I'm not as tan (I lived in South Carolina that summer and went to the beach all the time.), we're not really in the same shape anymore (I was running every day and Carson was a ranger in the Washington wilderness), our hair is longer, we don't look like little kids (or we look like older little kids), and most importantly,

now we're married. 

Can't believe it's been four WHOLE years since this day...

and can't believe it's only been four years.

What an adventure life has taken since then!

Maybe we'll take this picture in four more years and compare the difference :)

 

When I Said "Yes"

I like to celebrate the little things - momentous days that are just ordinary days to everyone else. My first year in Spokane, my roommate and I were alike in this regard and printed out a list of holidays like "wear green day" and "eat peanut butter day". I'm not sure that there were such days, but we kept to the list and tried to celebrate the little moments.

Today, I don't celebrate those same small holidays, but I do try to make note of the small personal holidays within our tiny family. For instance, I came home from Ukraine on June 19th, Carson's half birthday. We didn't celebrate it but I made note of that in my mind. May 12th is another day I make note of; it's the day I graduated from high school and the day Carson and I started dating. May 2nd is the day of our first date (and May 3rd was our second, and our first DTR).

On that note, today is the day that we've been engaged for three years. There's a good chance that if you look at blog posts from the past few years, you'll see posts celebrating that day. That's because it's important to me!

Here are a few pictures from the day that Carson said "Will you?" and I said "Yes!

(It was also the only day in my life where I wore no makeup. Clearly the proposal was unexpected. I always wanted to be surprised and I was, which makes the day that much sweeter in my memory. But I regret ignoring the little voice that said "Try to look pretty for your nice boyfriend, Lindsay!")

This is at our wedding because I couldn't find one from the day of... my hand is on the right

A Green Dinner

This isn't the most exciting post in the world, but I wanted to give an update on what we actually did on St. Patrick's Day. 

During the day Carson worked (he wore green of course) and I stayed home and did homework (this is midterms week and there's a LOT due). Later that afternoon, we went over to a friend's house for a surprise engagement party. The info isn't quite up on Facebook so I won't say who, but two friends got engaged on Saturday and we had a little celebration in their honor. 

When we got home, we had this green meal:

This was the only green drink we could think of... and Mountain Dew itself is yellow. Somehow I didn't know that... the bottle is at least green.

Along with that, we had baked potatoes (because potatoes are Irish). This was the first time I've ever made them. The potatoes were HUGE and we totally could have shared just one. We each ate half. 

We had green salads also. Regular-colored dressing.

For dessert (we ate this the next day because we were that stuffed), we had green jello. I used the "quick set" method with ice cubes from the back of the box, which is why there are those funny indents. 

We topped those with whipped cream and green sugar sprinkles. 

And that was our St. Patrick's Day dinner! It was fun to plan a themed dinner, so I am now scheming of other holiday meals. If you're wondering, Carson isn't as excited about this as I am, but you expected that, didn't you? He appreciates the efforts and laughs at me for getting into things like this. And I don't actually take it very seriously either; it's just fun to make obscure little holidays special. 

Around the House

I don't have much to say (a lie. I always have a lot to say) other than to show you what we've been up to lately. 

A few weeks ago, I made peanut butter cookies. I enjoy most cookies before they're cooked (dough) but peanut butter cookies and the oatmeal cookies my mom makes are the two exceptions. I had all the ingredients for peanut butter cookies, so I set to work filling up the cookie jar. 

Unfortunately, since I like them, the cookie jar is once again empty. Oh well. 

Carson returned to work at Super Supplements. His boss called and offered him a full-time position. Yes, please! I made a sign for his first day. 

 I also thought I should make a note of how we watch movies around here. On the macbook, propped up by other dvds, with computer speakers. This movie, by the way, was the updated version of "Charade" (with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn). This one was called "The Truth about Charlie" and it just wasn't that great. We have Charade and I think it's much better! 

With ice cream, of course. Carson keeps getting my favorite (mint chocolate chip) so we keep eating ice cream... it's a problem I don't mind all that much :) 

Here's another something I made: an owl pincushion. The drawback is that it sort of looks like an owl voodoo doll. I don't know that they have those but I feel bad stabbing this poor creature in the back. He has been rather handy though. I don't miss having to stick pins in the couch when I'm trying to sew.

I just love squash and zucchini cooked together. Something about it just seems so summery. I think it's the colors and the fact that growing up we had a million squash from Granddaddy's garden each summer. 

Since I'm showing you "life", here's some Reilly Building pictures and updates. 

This is our list of rules for the apartment building. Some people took the liberty of calling others out on certain misdemeanors. I, for instance, have a drug and alcohol issue... clearly. Some of the names are personal jokes (Rachel has a fish and was called out on the "pets" rule and Keith may or may not be loud late at night).

That rule list is posted on the whiteboard that's in the foyer of the building. I think it's supposed to be for helpful notes. There are a few, but there are mostly pictures and funny notes. Stephanie recently made this one of the Reilly women (yes, we have new people)... and Izzy made an addition. 

The biggest Reilly family news has been that two of our members, John and Rachel, got engaged last week! We're all THRILLED for this event, to take place this winter over break. They will continue to be our neighbors - she'll move down the hall to his apartment, which happens to be right next to ours!

...in a burned down old church...

 Two summers ago, my whole world changed. 

I met a guy who I thought I could marry and dated him. 

We were in the same city for three weeks and then we were long distance for two months. 

And then he came to visit in August. 

Further changing my life by asking me to be his wife. 

That was two years ago, today. 

In this place. One of my all-time favorite places back home. 

(and I don't think he even knew that at the time)

I was happy. 

And so was he. 

(and he's wearing a Piggly Wiggly shirt because that is the first thing we did after we were engaged. 

He was SO happy to get that shirt)

The ring was perfect. 

Because he'd picked it out. Classic. Simple. 

And because he'd been sneaky and found out the correct size.

Nine months later, we would get married not too far from that old church ruin. 

And two years later, I would wonder how on earth it had been that long.

One of the best days of my life!

old friends, new places (in life)

You remember this friend, don't you? 

First roommate in Spokane, one of my best friends out here...

Molly!

Why, yes, we do see each other occasionally.

We went out to lunch last week, I showed her the new apartment, and we talked all things wedding. 

Because she's getting married in January! 

So fun "catching up" with old friends... who aren't even really old friends. 

It's just that so much has happened in the TWO years we've known each other that it seems like a very long time. 

August 11th

This day holds a special place in my heart. 

Though Carson most likely won't remember, he proposed a year ago today. 

(I asked once if he knew when we got engaged and he said "August? September? I know it was hot...")

In all honesty, I couldn't care one bit whether he remembers or not. 

It was there, at Old Sheldon Church in South Carolina (he had also surprised me by coming to visit), dripping with sweat (direct sunshine at about noon + nerves + humidity + August) that he asked me to be his wife, after very sweet words that I can never remember correctly (in my defense, I had no idea that he was proposing - I would have focused more had I known). He got on one knee, presented a ring, and asked the fateful question.  

And I said yes, of course. It's a miracle that that came out instead of "Is this for real?!" 

And he slipped this ring on my finger, which was WAY more than I'd ever have expected or even desired. But it was perfect. Chosen carefully and long-searched for - the only ring agreed upon by his ring shopping committee consisting of several aunts and uncles, his mom, and naturally, Carson himself. 

The size was even perfect. He asked my dad, who asked my mom, who asked my grandma, who randomly decided to have my promise ring sized as a ploy to get the correct size (I resisted - I'd already had it for four years and saw no need. But I did get sized. Size five.)

One thing I always wanted the day I was engaged was to be pretty. Unfortunately, having no clue I would be getting engaged, I put on little makeup and clothes I didn't like very much. Oh well.

Met Spring of 2009, classmates for a little while (I wouldn't even really say friends - read the "Story" link), dated for three months, two of those spent long-distance (letters and cell phones!), engaged for 9 months and eleven days, married for allllmost three months. Yay!