Feel the Over-Flow Spill all Over your Lap.

As I was driving home from my best friend's birthday party, I had one of those moments.

You know, the moments where you realize something huge in a matter of seconds.

The moments you just start blurting out praises, because you realize how unworthy you are for the blessings you have received.

Moments, where the verse speaks of your cup overflowing, and you can almost feel the over-flow spill all over your lap.

Last year, today, I shared my testimony to a group of woman for the first time. It was also this time, last year I truly hit rock bottom on so many levels- emotionally, spiritually, socially.

Looking at what God can do in just one year is encouraging.

I suppose this girl will go back to frantically making booties for the baby shower tomorrow. I suppose I understand why... now... people just go to the store and buy things. I sure hope this  little lamb chop looks awesome in it's fuzzy crochet bear hat and little booties. We shall see though!

OH, and there's no way in heck anyone will see this dress until after July.... but I found my dress. :) Very exciting. People keep laughing at me, saying I just managed to plan my wedding in one week. I've been titled "Super Bride", or accused of having it all planned out before hand. But to be quite frank with everyone:

 A) It's Dani your talking to, and....

B) I miss my fiance a lot. In fact, I have purposefully made this week busy with wedding things, in hopes the week would go by that much faster. In some ways, it has, in other ways, it hasn't. I can say I got a lot of the hard work done, or at least a lot of the main ideas going. Wedding dress picked out, bridesmaid dresses picked, colors chosen, flowers picked out, location... God is really pulling so many of the details together though.

1. Maid of honor's boyfriend is enthusiastic about making a dance floor. (big relief and joy)
2. My aunt wants to make, and organize the food. (and is EXCITED about it)
3. I have people promising me mason jars, like... just handing them to me.... in fact, the decorative part of the wedding sounds like I am just visiting newlyweds homes, picking out vases, or allowing older ladies to drop off their mason jars and vases at my house...

In other words... I now have no excuse to not focus on my homework, because God is doing His thing.

Ok! back to bootie making....

Dance in the Grass, Darn it all!

I sit here trying to get myself to wind down, breath, let go and let be.

I spent my first part of the morning calling locations, gathering prices, watching the "should haves" add up to some ridiculous number for our wedding. I did manage to make my "inspiration" collages, these will help... I hope. (If anything, it gave me an excuse to print out pictures and use glue sticks)

Then I try to switch gears and move into student-intellectual mode.

Then switch gears to mentor mode

Then back to wedding planning mode (This time, spending time with my new family)

and now to "I really need to find the off switch" mode.

Closing thoughts of my day:

- People can dance anywhere. Yes, a dance floor would be ideal... but before dance floors, people danced in the grass, or sand, or dirt. So kick off your shoes, and dance in the grass people. It will be fun. darn it!
- Things will come together. At the end of the day, the end result is the same: we're married.
- It WILL NOT rain July 14, 2012.
- I need to eat more. This "too busy to eat" I just started doing this past month is not going to cut it.
- I really miss my fiance. I hope his time in Canada is nice, but I miss being able to contact him.
- Above everything, dance floor or just grass, good food or... not.... I really want this wedding to radiate God's grace and this miracle of two people coming together. Thats all. To be honest? That is something I can not create by planning or organizing enough... and at this moment, this is a comforting reality.

We got ENGAGED!

So I have some news to share on blog world...

I know, we are super nerds, and I hope my fiance does not mind that I just posted his face all over my blog... but yes! This lady is engaged!

He proposed Saturday, around 10:30 pm. We were hanging out all day, doing our thing, when we decided to head to my house for the rest of the evening. I got home around 8pm expecting to see him shortly, when he called saying "I need to go buy new wing shield wipers, so I am heading to Meijer. Do you need anything?"

I remember thinking Yeah, your windshield wipers are REAL bad and then realizing I am craving some spin dip...


So I spent the next while with my little sister Christy, portioning out the cat's food into bags (I love my sister, and she is going to school to be a vet tech, but I have never experienced such a mathematically proportioned cat food transition in my life. I even have a calendar taped next to their food dishes, explaining their feeding schedule...)

50 min later, no boyfriend. He says he's still at Meijer.

30 min later (Dani is trying not to be a little irritated by now. I mean, how long does it take to buy wind shield wipers and some spin dip?!), I get a text saying "I got pulled over by a cop"

20 min later another text "My car broke down by the park on the way to your house... please come pick me up"

So by this point I'm thinking "Ok, is he just having the worse night of his life or what?"

I drive to the park, and notice his car is neatly parked in a parking spot. I get this phone call with him saying "I am on the bridge, walk to your right around the pond" In the freezing snowy cold, mind you


As I was walking around the pond, along the path he set up these candle lit bag-lanterns with carved out letters, that said "Will you marry me?"

I managed to run into a tree branch along the way, but I found my boyfriend in the dark, on the bridge (same spot where we decided to officially date each other), freezing his little butt off on bended knee, asking for this crazy chica to be his wife.

I will become a Mrs. Hamlet on July 14, 2012,

 172 short days away.

Now I am just waiting for my ring to get resized, collecting a guest list, trying to figure out how to build your own dance floor (it IS possible!), and setting wedding dress dates (with my whole clan of sisters and friends and mother... it will be crazy), and convinced I do not need a tent for an outdoor wedding in July.

In other words, I am incredibly blessed. 

Dino

I am exhausted and blurry eyed, and I realize I have been neglecting this beautiful thing called writing.

I feel like a person who has been carefully sewn together. 

A few months ago, I taught myself how to crochet. I remember when I finished crocheting this Christmas present. It was a little dinosaur, and I felt this quirky yet deep connection with him. Every stitch, my hand touched, weaved together, until it formed a head, body, arms, legs, and even spikes. I can remember the time when I accidentally made his head crooked, and learning to live with it. I worried I did not stuff his midsection full enough, and at one point he looked like some form of a tadpole-gone-book worm. And like any true creative woman, I choose to name this dinosaur the ingenious name: “Dino”

I know. I have no idea what that name came from either... (bah)

Well, in a really weird way, my alter ego feels like this “Dino” creature, and my pride is the creator.

And in a very raw way I see God coming in with a pair of scissors with my prayers “I surrender” and cutting up my “Dino”. He hates pride. Considering all the time I spent on Dino, this process really hurts.

In the end, I had to give Dino away Christmas eve. 

He was not for me to keep... but unlike my civil manner of sending Dino off into the hands of his 4 year old owner, I seem to be kicking and screaming with every inch this pride gets removed and placed into the hands of an Almighty God.

There is hope however. Big, exciting changes are coming soon, and I just have this feeling that this is all part of God’s preparation for things to come.

Please be patient with me. I promise, it gets better.