End of the Year...

It's the end of the academic year and that means one final blog. It's been fun folks! I hope you enjoyed all the pictures. There have definitely been some memorable moments! I love you all lots and lots! I hope you keep in touch!

Secret Club...

Today I was looking for a quiet corner to eat lunch so I went to the top floor of Coolbough Hall in an alcove. The was an overstuffed chair there and a table with other desk chairs around it. About 30 minutes later an older professor sat down with his yogurt, thermos and newspaper and quietly began to eat. He was joined in a few minutes by two more professors with their lunches. Not saying a word, he pulled out a deck of cards from his pocket and began to deal them out. From what I have seen, these three professors, with their snow white hair, come to the top floor of Coolbough every lunch to play cards in a back corner. Huh. You learn something new every day...

Good Thing I'm Not Scared of Heights!

Team Working in the Lab...

Sample Collection...

Beauty of the Outdoors...

We Met Dancing...

Best Floor Ever!

After Church Today...

Wedding Planning Support...

This wedding planning stuff is rather complicated. It's like having extra homework or taking another class. I'm excited though. I know that at the end of it I'll get to be with Ian for the rest of my life and that makes everything worth it. In the mean time, a lot of supportive people are coming out of the woodwork. Both sets of parents so far have really helped and had really good advice. Both have said they will support whatever we decide, which has helped a lot! Bethany, my maid of honor, and I have been talking a ton tonight. I'm amazed by just how much she has been able to think about and help with this all. She's going to make an amazing maid of honor. Other support has come friend Beth, newly engaged, and Ashley, newly married. Both have been wonderful to talk to during this time. The biggest supporter of all has been Ian! He's been wonderfully understanding of all this craziness and has helped in any way he can. I absolutely love him!

Fun in the Park

How we REALLY met: Editor's errata

Ok, so I have to poke fun at Laura here.. because while her story is right in a couple regards, she's missing another part.

The spring of our first year at Mines, both Laura and I (unknowingly) attended an info session for some summer trip to study languages abroad. I arrived earlier than she did, and when she came in, I was very surprised. I remember knowing about Laura, not really having met her, but having heard of her as a sweet, wonderful, and most importantly, Godly woman. Somehow in the meeting, it came out that she was wanting to learn languages to help others overseas.

Of course, being a typical male, I did not do anything with my amazement, simply observed. However, it did make me curious to learn more about this Laura Anderson.

The next time we met was in all likelihood swing dancing. She's right there, I couldn't (can't) dance worth a hoot. I don't know how I gathered a good impression, I was nervous as all get out. Must have done something right.

Then came AEM (Advanced Engineering Mathematics). I was once again surprised to see her in my section of the class. For the first few weeks, I sat with some friends across the room, but one day the seat was taken. So, I slid on over to sit next to Laura (I make this sound smoother than it actually was). I remember chatting a little before class, and then talking a lot on facebook and skype during the evenings. I used the excuse of being able to contact her in case she missed a day and needed the notes (sounds horrible, but I wasn't trying to be that manipulative, really!). One conversation in particular stands out to me, I was nervous about speaking at a campus ministry that night, and Laura listened to me, and promptly tore me apart for worrying about what God was responsible for doing. I loved that.

She also had a penchant for stealing my eraser and pencil during class to see if I'd notice. I'm not really sure what was up with that. :D

And that brings us to our first "date", the "singles awareness day" (aka Valentine's day) skating trip. But that's another post.

Ring in Tulip...

Flowers...

Last night I received beautiful flowers from Nana and Papa! Not only did they have impeccable timing, but they reminded me that I haven't really started collecting photos yet. I love taking photos! Therefore, over the next many months, I'll be showing off my pictures here. Enjoy!

The Ring Shopping Experience...

Ian invited me to go ring shopping with him whenever we decided we were ready. We started looking for a chance to go, but never seemed to have enough time. This weekend was E-Days and my parents and Amy came up for some of the events. They left earlier than we anticipated (Daddy had jet lag) so Ian and I decided to go ring shopping. We didn't expect to find anything, so we just headed out in our jeans, hoodies and baseball caps. First we went to Jared's since it was nearby. One of the salespeople took us on a tour of the store and then introduced us to a woman names Trish who specialized in wedding rings. Trish was wonderful, very good at her job and absolutely adored us. The first thing she did was clean the necklace the Seniors had given to us and told us about the diamond. She really made it shine! Trish loved the diamond and it's history, which meant a lot to us. She quickly figured out what we were looking for and pulled out a small, beautiful white gold ring. Ian and I both loved it! She showed us several more, but the first was by far our favourite. We decided to keep looking, just in case, and headed to Shane Co. The salespeople there (we had two helping us) didn't really understand the concept of small. I felt like a robot, forever repeating myself with "too sparkly", "too big" and "too much like a volcano". We quickly discovered that any ring that I would possibly consider was kept in the back, only big rings were on display. Each salesperson was helping at least three couple, so they never did take the time to understand exactly what we were looking for. We didn't find a single ring we liked. Something that we did learn was just how nice the diamond from the Seniors is. Every sales person would bring out a similar size diamond to place in the ring and every time they would say, "but yours is better quality!" Thank you Seniors, for this very precious gift! That night we went back to Jared's. It was late so the store was starting to empty. By the time we were done, we had every salesperson in the store chatting with us or helping out. There was lots of "you two are adorable together!" I think we are their new favourite couple. We bought the ring, the very first one I tried. We also managed to find the wedding band and get that too! It's all so exciting! Trish was wonderful and explained everything from the protection policy to how white gold is created to us. She spent a lot of time going over everything, far above and beyond what was required. Over all, we are incredibly happy to have found the perfect ring which I am happily wearing at this minute!

P.S. Bethany is happily quoting the commercials "He went to Jared's!

The Proposal...

Ian proposed last night! Yes, I'm very, very excited! After my staff meeting last night, we went for a nighttime hike up one of the mountains surrounding Golden. The city lights were sparking beautifully and we saw all sorts of wildlife. In the background we could hear the sounds of a nearby creek flowing down the mountainside. The setting was incredibly romantic. When we were at the top of the mountain, sitting on the rocks and watching the world together, Ian proposed. I didn't even stop to breathe before saying yes. We took the time afterward to pray together. Pray over each other, our families, the times to come. Ian then pulled out the Bible I had given him for his birthday and read some scripture. The evening was beautiful, everything so perfect. The ring is beautiful! The central diamond was originally a necklace my grandpa gave to my grandma. They let us have it for the ring. It's stunning. The preliminary picture is below.

How We Met...We Think...

Ian and I aren't entirely sure how we met. He's convinced we knew each other before, but I'm pretty sure it was swing dancing. That's the first time I remember seeing him. He had that crazy long, curl hair and was laughing. I remember being excited for the circle to rotate so I could dance with him. He was so nice to all his dancing partners and so respectful. I will admit, we danced terribly together, but I think maybe that was because we were laughing the entire time. I had so much fun! It really impressed me that he could have fun, even when the dancing was all wrong. It definitely did not hurt matters that he was so good looking.

Next semester was AEM, Advanced Engineering Mathematics. We sat together and started talking. We started facebooking a lot at that time too. Our first test was coming up and we decided to study together. I guess we both had ulterior motives. Ian didn't need to study for this test, I did. I also knew studying would be a easy way to keep the conversation going and I wanted to learn more about Ian. He was intriguing. I remember standing in front of that massive whiteboard as Ian laughed at my annoyance with row reducing matrices, something I hate to this day. From there things took off in a slow sort of way.

This is the short version, but I thought you might all enjoy it...

Strawberry Pie!

A Very Proud Ian!

Together Always!

Ebersole Family...

Family in Virginia!

Finally Presenting: http://aspprc.mines.edu/

Sisters!

My Floor At Soiree!

First Date Where Something Did Not Go Horribly Wrong!

Finished Product... minus a few slices!

Making Bread... from scratch!

Residents!