Sunshine of Your Love

Wednesday, 25th:
Not the best day today, but okay. I woke up today to sunlight, which seemed odd and then I freaked out and sure enough, is was 8:30am in the morning and my alarm clock was flashing. I guess the high winds last night knocked the power out. :-/ So, I missed my 8am class and my 9am class was already cancelled. I did have a nice quiet time and then went off to my 10am class in the freezing cold. It went pretty well and I came back home and had some lunch. The afternoon I spent doing miscellaneous things to catch up with life. One big one was going backwards and blogging for like that last two weeks. I was so far behind and so much crucial stuff happened that I want to remember. So, that was good to finally get that done with. Also, this afternoon, Liz and I went over to Cary's jewelery place and looked at the diamond that came in. He actually mixed up the order and got a different (but similar) one in, but Liz ended up liking this one better anyways, so it worked out just fine. :) We got her all sized and the ring ordered, so it should hopefully be in and done early next week. :-) I made myself a quick but awesome dinner around 5:45. Scrambled eggs with cheese and brocolli with melted cheese. mmm...I'm getting hungry just remembering. :) Then, I went over and picked up Liz and we went to Awana at 6:30. Good night there, I had a lot of fun with Ellent tonight. Very goofy. :P At the end of the night, T.J. pulled my chair out from under me and I fell on the hard floor in the J.V. room which hurt something terribly bad. :-/ So, I gimped back to Liz's place with her and she gave me an excellent back massage which really worked it out quite a bit. :) We had some dessert with her family and then went back into her room. I needed to do homework, but was tired, so I ended up chatting with Liz for a couple hours. It was a very good talk like we haven't had a while it seems. I really enjoyed hearing her heart about some stuff. :) I finally left around 12:15, got home and went on to bed with my cute little snuggly Shadow cat. :)

Thursday, 26th:
Very busy work day today. I got up at 6:30 and then went back to bed until 7:30. On my second try it was better and I started off with some quiet time and breakfast. Then, I did a little prep-work for my classes and then took about thirty minutes just to pray and think with God. I've really been neglecting Him this week and it has shown a lot in my attitude. So, that was pretty nice. I jumped on the bus at 10:45 and made it to my first class at 11. We took a "field trip" to the TV studio here in Whittemore hall. It was pretty cool getting to go around and see how they make T.V., mix audio, edit it on the computers, etc. Then, went to my Software Engineering class which was boring as usual. zzz... After class, I went over to the library from 2-5 and worked on reading some stuff for my classes. It was good to feel a little more caught up on the readings. :) At 5, I met with some guys from my software engineering group and we went to the CS lab to work on the first part of our project. They are pretty cool guys and I think this project should go well with them. We got most of it done in about an hour. Then, Liz came in to campus around 6:30. We walked to the new "bubble" lounge in the library to show her that and then headed over to Torgesen 2150 to grab a seat. We went to watch a presentation about the Dead Sea Scrolls that was put on by this Jewish scholar from Israel. It was fairly interesting stuff, I was able to learn a little more about the scrolls and what they mean. There's so much information there, it seemed like it was necessarily abbreviated. Some day, I'd like to learn more about that sort of thing. The presentation went from 7-8:30 and then Liz and I went back to her house. We had some leftover amazing lasagna and some dessert. :) After dinner, I got some schoolwork done, chatted with Liz a little and then she took me back to my house around 11:30. I finished up my project for tommorow and got on to bed around 12:30.

Friday, 27th:
Today was fun. I got up at 6:30 and had a decent quiet time. Then off to class from 8-11. After class, I went over to Kroger and got some stuff for making dinner tonight. I really had a craving to make Liz and I a big meal. :) Then came home and had some lunch and read my Bible a little more. I spent this afternoon doing laundry and stuff and then around 2:30, I went outside in the backyard. Put on some Jack Johnson, grabbed a cigar and a Honey Brown, let Shadow out to play and then chillaxed in my chair. It was great. :) I spent the next two hours working on the preliminaries of my proposal plan, laying it all out and whatnot. I got a lot accomplished and was pretty pleased and excited about what I came up with. :) This is going to be so much fun. :-H It was getting cold around 4:30, so I came back inside and worked on the proposal a little bit more. At 5:30, I started cooking dinner for us. I made chicken brocolli casserole with some rice and brocolli, cheese, and spice tomato soup. :-D I ran out of mayonase part way through the recipe and walked to Food Time which was closed (!) and then had to race over to Food Lion. So, the timing got a little off and Liz came at 7:15 and I wasn't quiet ready, but it worked out okay. :) We had a fun dinner together and had a nice time talking and stuff. She was tired, so I made her take a nap on the couch for about 45 minutes while I cleaned up and did dishes and whatnot. I got her up a little before 10 and we just chilled on the couch and chatted for awhile. Talked with Skinny Steve a bit too which was good. I guess that was about it, and Liz left around 11:30. I stayed up a little longer and got to bed around 12:30.

Saturday, 28th:
Lots of stuff today. I was up around 8, had a quiet time and cleaned up. Then I went into campus at 9:45 and met this high school senior, David at Burruss. I was to show him around campus and stuff today in order to get service hours and to recruit him to the school. It ended up being a lot of fun. I walked him all around the academic section a little bit and into some classrooms, Torgeson, the library, and Squires. We were supposed to go in the CAVE, but it was closed. :( So, I walked him around to the residents side and showed him the eating places and went in some dorms and stuff and in War Memorial. By that time, it was noon and we met Angela for lunch at West End. Awesome food as always. :) I got a calzone and then some INCREDIBLE cookies and creme ice cream. :) That took us until about 12:45. We walked back across the drillfield to my car and then we drove up to the Corporate Research Center and met Cal Ribbens at 1:00 to look at System X. It was pretty neat to see. It's huge and loud and very cool. :) After our visit there, I showed David a few more spots and then took him back to where he was staying. I got home around 2:30 and chilled for an hour. Then went to Liz's and we went outside and threw the frisbee for an hour or so. It was beautiful weather out; nice and warm. :-) We had a nice talk about marriage plans too. We did that until around 5, and then came back inside. We spent most of the evening working on wedding plans together. I went through a couple of suggested wedding checklists and then made us a master list of stuff to do and when to do it by. I think having a schedule will help a lot. :) We stopped around 8 and had an great meatloaf dinner with her family. :) Then planned more late into the evening. I left around 12:30 or so, but it was great to get a schedule done and organize our thoughts more. :)

Sunday, 29th:
Today was okay. I got up around 8 and had some quiet time and then picked Kristin up for Sunday school at 9:45. After that was church at 11. We had another pastoral candidate speak today- his name was Dave Ferguson. He was really, really good. He was younger than anybody we've had there before, which I think is a good thing for Harvest, and also you could tell that his heart was really into everything he said and he was a firm believer. He tended to get long winded and take a long time to get around to the point, but in a way it was awesome, because he was so into the message. It was a strong and convicting message about God's sovreignty and the Great Commission. After church, we chatted a bit and then I took Kristin and Liz home. I went back to my place and had lunch by myself. Then spent some time cleaning up my room. I had four loads of clean clothes to fold and had this month's bills to pay and whatnot. I got that all done just in time to pick up Liz and go back to Harvest for an earlier evening service at 4. Dave spoke a really strong message about persecution that really cut to the heart and was hard to take, but really good. I like him a lot and hope Harvest gets him or someone like him. After service, me and Liz went back to her house around 5:30. spent a little time chatting and then I had to get to work on writing my paper that is due tommorow. I had a very hard time disciplining myself to do it, but I finally got a little start. We stopped and had a small sandwich and soup dinner around 8:30. Then got back to work around 9. I was just writing my paper and Liz got her room straightened a little and then spent a lot of time searching for a wedding dress. She helped me proofread and I finally got the whole thing done right around midnight. We chatted a little longer as usual and I left around 12:30, got home and went to bed a little after that.

Monday, 30th:
Pretty nice day today. I woke up a little late at 7:15 and then rushed around and headed off for class at 8. My car had ice on it and had a hard time starting, so that started me in a bad mood and I was like a minute late for class. Classes were from 8-11 and nothing special. I came home after class and warmed up some chicken for lunch. Then I had a nice quiet time during and after lunch which helped get my focus back on God much better. Had a nice time praying too. :) After that, I started finishing up my proposal plan. I had so much work to finish on it, and I realized that I would hopefully be using it in the next few days, so I really needed to get it done! I got a couple things done, and then Liz came over at 2:30. We chatted briefly, then went downstairs and put the fireplace on and prayed for about 45 minutes which was very nice. I let Shadow play outside while we were down there and she was silly. :P After our prayer time, we spent the last 30 minutes reviewing the first chapter of our pre-engagement book. That was good and the Liz left just before 4 to go have ice cream with Rebecca. I spent the entire rest of the afternoon and evening working on the proposal plan and talking on the phone with tons of people. I talked to my Mom for awhile, talked to Curt for 45 minutes, talked with Kristin, Jon, and Kat about being in my wedding and those talks were nice, and then I talked with Liz a bunch of times throughout the evening. Logged a lot of phone time, but I was able to keep working on the proposal during most of my phone calls. :P I had some warmed up chicken and rice for dinner around 8 and that was a nice quick break. I finally finished up the proposal completely around 12:45 in the morning. It was a lot of work, but a good relief to be done with it. I can't wait to use it! I went to bed just after that.

Tuesday, 31st:
Not too much happened today. I got around 7:30, cleaned up, and then had a really nice quiet time. I really enjoyed Acts a lot today. Then I left for campus around 9:30. I went over to Deet's and worked on my theory homework for a little while and got a couple problems done. Then walked across campus to class from 11-1:45. Nothing too exciting with them. After class, I had a chilly walk back across campus to my car and came home. Warmed up the last of my leftover brocolli chicken for lunch and started dreaming about a nice honeymoon. I did some preliminary research and found that San Fransisco, Yosemite, Sequoia, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, and San Diego are all not that far apart. So, I think that's going to happen. :) I looked at pictures of those places for about and hour. At 3:30 I started working on my theory homework again and did that through the evening. I finished it up around 8:30, warmed up a good Digorno pizza for dinner and then started doing some more formal, in-depth honeymoon planning. It went pretty well. Oreo time at 10 which was okay. Liz came by around then for an Oreo. Then we spent some time in my room dicussing wedding plans and looking at dresses online and stuff. We got a few things sorted out and organized a plan for tommorow. It was a good time with her. :) She left around 12:15 and then I stayed up until like 1:30 looking at possible outdoor wedding locations around this area online. I found a couple I might call tommorow. :)

Wednesday, 1st:
Today was nice. I stayed up too late again and thus dragged out of bed around 7:30, threw on some clothes and went to class from 8-11. My second class was cancelled, so that was some nice chill/catch up time. After class, I went to the bank and then paid rent. Came back home, took a shower, made lunch and had a really nice quiet time in Acts. I really enjoyed it a lot. :) Early this afternoon, I spent a couple hours researching outdoor locations around here for the wedding. It's hard to find places! I went and picked up Liz at 3 and we drove out to a farm that we thought might hold outdoor weddings. We were wrong, but that's okay. After that, we drove around a little and then went to Carol Lee's to look at wedding cakes. We looked through a whole bunch of pictures and discussed them for awhile. Then, went back to her house and chilled for a little while before eating quick, microwaved leftovers just after 6 for dinner. Went to Awana at 6:30 and had a nice time there with the kids. :) Came back to Liz's house after Awana and spent the rest of the evening discussing wedding plans and preparing a guest list. I'm pretty happy that we're making a lot of headway on these various aspects of the wedding. Hopefully we can knock out a lot of the hard work now so it will be easier later on. We talked a bit more and then I left around 12:15 came home and off to bed.

Thursday, 2nd:
Today went pretty well. I had trouble waking up and got up around 7:45. Lazed around a bit and got ready. Had a pretty nice quiet time too. I headed off to campus around 9:45 and then went into the library for about an hour and browsed the Web and whatnot. Then went to multimedia class at 11 and software engineering class at 12:30. They went okay and then I was off. I came on home and worked on some homework that I had to get done. I got most of it knocked out before Liz came at like 6:00. We spent about an hour together praying and then reading our pre-engagement booklet together. That was nice and then around 7, we went out for a quick dinner at Taco Bell. After dinner, we drove over to the mall. Spent some time in Belk looking at plate sets, silverware and other housewares. It's about time to be making up a gift registry. :P We then scrambled across the mall to Sears before the mall closed at 9. After that, we went over to Target and spent about an hour looking at housewares and furniture. It was pretty fun. :) I think I will enjoy getting married. :-D Target closed at 10 and then we went over to Wal-Mart. Found some cool picture frames on clearance and we also decided to buy a fake engagement ring. Tommorow was looking like a decent day for a proposal and the real engagement ring wasn't shipped until late today, so it won't be in until Monday or probably Tuesday. :-/ So, we found a corny $7 engagement ring to use tommorow. We got back from Wal-Mart around 11, hung out a little bit and Liz left my place around 11:30. I stayed up a little while thinking about more wedding stuff and went to bed around 12:30.

Friday, 3rd:
Awesome day today...I got engaged! :-) Started off the day early at 6:30 and had a nice quiet time. My 8:00 class was cancelled, so that was nice. I instead finished up my resume assignment for my 9:00 class and then went into campus and to class. Class was okay and I got out at 11. Came on back home and did some stuff around my room like cleaning up the bathroom. Then got everything ready and together for my big proposal today. I went over to Liz's at 12:30 and we had a little lunch together. Around 1:15, I started the proposal. It started with a heart puzzle that I had made from a picture of us at some Italy gardens. We put it together on their dinner table and it was fun. Then, turned it over to the treasure map on the back which I had drawn. I didn't show it to Liz for too long and then started the next phase of the proposal. I had picked 50 spots in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford at which we had made good memories. I picked out a picture of us for each spot and wrote directions to that spot of the back of it. Liz had to follow the directions to each spot without looking at the picture and then I would give her a new picture once she found the spot. We started with some stuff around her house and then went to a few remote locations around her area. It took us awhile to do the first 10 or so. Then, the best thing every happened around 3:30. We were at Pandapas Pond and Cary the jeweler called me! He said that my ring was in and finished for me to pick up!! I couldn't believe it, because he told me yesterday that it had shipped and wouldn't be in until Monday or Tuesday of next week. So, I was a little sad that I had to propose today with the fake ring, but now I didn't have to! This was too good to be true. :-D I don't know how it all happened, but I give the credit entirely to God on this one. In fact, I even cried a little because I was so happy. God is so amazing. :) Speaking of God being amazing, the weather was just incredible today. It was far better than the forecast even. It probably got up to 63 or so today and very sunny. :) It was so nice and just the perfect day for a proposal. :-) Anyhow, so after Pandapas, we continued on our journey and drove up the dirt road on Brush Mountain. I was trying to cut through over to McCoy falls, but after awhile, we ran into a part of the road which was under like 2-3 feet of water. I had no choice but to turn around and cut that picture out of the mix. We went over to the spots around my house next and then drove onto campus and walked around to a bunch of spots. That took a lot longer than I expected. By that time it was almost 5:00, I still hadn't picked up the ring, and we were only 25 spots into the tour. I had severly underestimated the time. :-/ So, I had to improvise. In the Coliseum parking lot, we went through the last 25 pictures together, pretending that we were driving to the spots and talking about out memories there. Then, I drove over to Cary's and picked up the ring, which was beautiful. By that time, it was about 5:20. There was no way I was going to be able to drive out to my Claytor Lake spot in time. So, I had to improvise again. I decided to drive out to McCoy Falls, but then changed my mind again on the way there and quickly drove out to Mountain Lake, which was a lot closer. We drove about 2/3 of the way up the mountain and then stopped at an overlook along the road. The last part of the plan was to look through a bunch of Europe pictures that I had printed out. She had to go through about 100 of them and she had 5 changes to pick the 1 picture that had special meaning to the day today. She missed it on her first 4 chances, but got it on the last one! It was a picture of the "unwedded hand" from Como, Italy. :-P So, she completed the treasure challenged and then I proposed there as the sun was setting over the mountains. It was very beautiful and Liz accepted. :-) :-) :-) We stayed there for a while chillin, talking, and praying until it got too cold. Around 6:30 we headed off the mountain and drove over to Radford to have dinner at Sal's. We got there around 7:15 and had a great dinner. Sal's is so amazing. :) I got the gnocci which was just divine! Best Italian restraunt EVER. We were there eating until a little before 9:00 and then drove back to Blacksburg and over to the Dellinger's house. Matt was throwing another LAN party tonight and I wanted to drop in and be supportive of his efforts. We hung out there for just over an hour. I played a little Half-Life with everyone who was there and it was fun. Just as we were leaving, Liz Westman noticed the ring on Liz's finger and then we announced the engagement to everyone there and recieved small fanfare. :-) Left around 10:15 and went back to Liz's house. We chilled there for awhile and explained the whole day to her parents and Laura which was fun. I left Liz's house just after midnight and went home pretty exhausted. I was so happy to go to bed!

Saturday, 4th:
Had a pretty busy day today. I slept in for awhile until about 9:30. It felt great. :-) Then I had a hard time getting a start on the day. I kind of dragged around most of the morning, getting stuff done slowly. I finally got inspired enough to make a little scrambled eggs for a late brunch just before noon. Also had a little quiet time which was good. After lunch, I started into some schoolwork and did some work for my multimedia class project and module for that class. That pretty much too the whole afternoon until like 6:00. At that point, I went over to Liz's house and we warmed up some leftovers for dinner. The rest of the evening we dedicated to wedding planning and mostly working on the guest/invitation/announcement lists. It took a lot of time to think of people and make a spreadsheet and everything else. I worked on that and finally got it all done just before midnight. It was quite a relief to have that passed us for the most part. We chilled and talked a little until 12:30 when I went home and on to bed.

Sunday, 5th:
Today wasn't very exciting at all. I got up around 8, showered, trimmed my beard up a little bit and had a good quiet time. Liz called and was really sick today, so she wasn't going to come to church. I didn't go to Sunday school, but instead stayed home and spent some more time praying and getting some stuff organized around here. I picked up Kristin on campus at 10:40 and we went to the 11:00 service together. There was another pastoral candidate there today and he was pretty good. I didn't like him quite as well as the other too, but maybe my standards were just too high. :P Andrew came this week and I enjoyed talking with him a little while after service. I got a few engagement congratulations from some people, but I think a lot were confused why Liz wasn't with me. :P Oh well...After church, I took Kristin back to her dorm and then I came back home and made some lunch around 1:00. After lunch, I had to get back into doing schoolwork. I worked all afternoon and into the evening on my software engineering project plan. It's like 17 pages of pure pain. :-/ That was about it. I finally stopped work on it around 7 and made some dinner and watched a little bit of the Super Bowl and the Rolling Stones' horrid halftime performance. *puke* Around 8, I resumed work and spent about two hours writing an essay on cyber-ethics for my professionalism class. The last hour before I went to bed I spent on the phone with Liz talking through wedding plans and ideas and whatnot. It was okay. There's a lot to do and think about here. I got to bed on time tonight, finally, at 11:30. It took me awhile to get to sleep...my body has inadvertantly become conditioned to going to bed at 1-1:30. :-(

Monday, 6th:
Today was okay. I woke up a little late and went into class from 8-11. Nothing exciting there. Then bought my graduation cap & gown and stuff and then came back home around noon. Made some lunch and watched the travel channel a little bit and talked to Liz on the phone. Then spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up my software engineering project plan. It was painful. :-/ I got it all done and turned in around 6. Then, Steve and I went out and got Chinese food from China Inn and brought it back to eat together. That was pretty fun. :) A little before 9, I went over to Liz's house and we worked on wedding plans together and with her parents. We worked a lot on the guest list mostly. Liz and I stayed up late working on everything and just talking. It got late pretty quick and I left around 1am and got to bed again at like 1:30.

Tuesday, 7th:
Slept in a little and got up at 8 today. Had a decent quiet time and then went into campus around 10:30. I walked around for 30 minutes and had a nice prayer time, although it was pretty cold out. Class was from 11-2 and was okay. I came home after class and spent the afternoon working on honeymoon plans. I was trying to find airline tickets and searched through like hundreds, it seemed. Around 3:30, Liz called me and I went to the nice Holiday Inn on Prices Fork to meet her and her dad. Apparently he had called them earlier in the day to find out if we could use their facilities for the wedding reception. They didn't have June 3rd booked but REALLY wanted to, so they were going to swing us a nice deal. The place was nice too. We would get the big ballroom, an outdoor area, a dance floor, tents, decorations, they would decorate, catering, and some other stuff. It is sweet. :-) So, I think we're going to do that, yay! God is awesome. :) That was fun and I got back home around 5. I worked on searching for airplane tickets again for awhile. Then went to Liz's house for dinner at 8. It was nice and we spent the time afterwards talking and doing more wedding and honeymoon planning. I left a little before midnight and got to bed around 12:30.

Wednesday, 8th:
Up and down today. Got up at 6:30 and had a good quiet time, then went to class from 8-11. Classes went okay. I got kind of down because I was looking at airline tickets in my second class and found out that the ones I was planning on getting had already all been sold. :-/ Then my third class, we got our programming project which is going to be A LOT of work. :-/ I came back home and spent some time catching up on emailing some people and whatnot. Then made and ate a quick lunch. After lunch, I spent some more time getting caught up on a few miscellaneous chores, doing the Awana lesson for tonight, and then I started searching airline tickets again. After a long while, I actually found some really cheap ones round-trip to San Diego with great times for leaving and returning! They saved like $120 off the ones I was originially going to buy yesterday. So, I locked into those tickets. :-) I'm so excited! God showed me through that, that He is good and worked out something even better for me. :) After that, I spent a little bit of time doing some school work/scheduling. It was boring, so I started searching for car rentals instead. I found a pretty cheap one, so I was really excited about that. And by going to San Diego first, rather than San Francisco, it saved us like another $110 off the same car rental from the same company. :) I got that done, then cooked a scrumptous DiGiorno's pizza and had a few slices, then went to Awana a little late. I did the council time tonight for the JVers and it went okay. We only had 4 kids tonight and they were all pretty chatty, so it didn't go as well as I had hoped. But it was pretty good. I talked with Liz a little afterwards and then went to the McBryde computer lab at 9 to meet with my Software Engineering group. We had a meeting for about 1 1/2 hours and it went really well. 5 people showed up and we got some good stuff done on the project. :) I got home a little before 11 and then talked to Liz on the phone for a bit and got to bed a little before midnight.

Thursday, 9th:
Today went well. I was pretty tired and woke up at 6:45. Had a good quiet time and a nice start to the morning. I got a number of little things done before I went to campus around 10:30. I really enjoyed walking around for about 20 minutes before class and praying. Really helped out my focus on God a lot. :) Class was from 11-2 and went well. After class, I came home and had some lunch. Around 3 I started working on homework. I got some good stuff done for two projects and did some reading. At 6:30 I went over to the McBryde computer lab and met with my software engineering group. We worked for about an hour on our project and got some good things knocked out. After the project, I went and picked up Liz about 8:00 and we went out to Burger King for dinner. Had a nice time with her there. :) She came over to my place afterwards and we worked on some wedding planning stuff. She spent awhile calling people. I did Oreo time with the guys at 10 for a little bit. Around 10:45, Liz was all done on the phone and we spent a little while going over chapter three of our engagement booklet. Had a fun time dicussing the stuff in it. Pretty encouraging. :) I took Liz back to her house just before midnight, then I came on back home and got to bed just before 12:30.