The Announcement You've All Been Waiting For...

Well, folks, this is it... the Big Announcement that you've all been waiting for... :) Could I have a drum roll, please?

I'm very pleased to announce that Kim LaPee accepted my proposal of marriage this past Tuesday night. There are a number of details to be worked out regarding the date of our wedding, but it will most likely be sometime in the middle of June 2007. Our current plans are to get married where she grew up in Florida.

As far as the other details go... It was basically a year ago that we had our first date. Monday was the anniversary of our first "unofficial" date; Wednesday was the anniversary of our first "official" date. I say "unofficial" for Monday's event (7/10/05) because that was supposed to be for three of us, but Kim's friend Michelle backed out on us at the last minute, just as Kim was getting ready to leave. Obviously then, the "official" date was something that I planned for just the two of us on July 12th. Anyway, I decided to celebrate our "one-year-of-working-on-a-relationship" by splitting the difference between the two days and celebrating on Tuesday. Fortunately, her schedule worked out this summer that she didn't have to work on Tuesday, which allowed me to be a little bit more creative in my planning. My overall plan for the day was to throw enough surprises at her that she wouldn't be expecting anything or that she wouldn't notice if I happened to start acting a little funny. Anyways, here's the story...

On Monday night, I told her that I had planned a surprise lunch for her on Tuesday and that she needed to dress for outdoor weather. I knew that she would probably figure out what that meant, but that wasn't going to be a problem. I showed up on Tuesday morning with a dozen roses (surprise!) and then whisked her away for a picnic lunch in one of the state parks near here (surprise!). After eating, we went for a short hike down to the nearby river and took a few pictures of the scenery. The climb back up to the car was pretty steep, and we both ended up being winded by the time we got back to the car. As we sat in the A/C, I pulled out a gift bag and told her it was for our one-year-of-dating anniversary. She looked surprised, and then she opened it and found an mp3 player (surprise!). Since it was so warm and humid, we decided that a dip in the pool would be refreshing, so we went back to her apartment and relaxed in the cool water. After we got out, we were just sitting there relaxing - she was playing a Sims game on her Xbox - and both of us were starting to get hungry again, so I suggested going out to eat rather than having her cook something for us (surprise!). We went ahead and got dressed to go out (I just "happened" to have clothes for that with me... surprise!), and headed out to an unknown location. We got to the area a little early (surprise!), so I figured we'd take an intentional detour to Ft. McHenry, which was just nearby. Ft. McHenry is a nice little park with picnic tables and benches set up by the water's edge. There's things to see and do there as well, but we just sat and talked there at one of the picnic tables. As the time grew near for us to leave for the restaurant, I surprised her with a comment that she wasn't "properly attired" for tonight's meal. She looked at me in confusion and asked, "What do you mean - you told me to wear corporate casual..." I repeated my statement, "You're not properly attired..." She said, "I'm not wearing a tie, if that's what you mean." "No," I replied, "but what you need is this..." and I showed her the ring. She was speechless for a moment, but then she readily accepted. :) After that we went on to our meal of celebration at the Rusty Scupper - a nice restaurant on the water's edge, with a good view of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

A couple of interesting facts about the night... A long time ago (last October?), we were walking around the Inner Harbor area, and I joked with Kim "if you're very, very nice to me, someday I might take you to the Rusty Scupper." Until Tuesday, we hadn't been there. Another interesting note... Kim was resting in the car as I drove that night. She had no idea where we were going, but, when she saw that we were headed close to the Inner Harbor area, she thought, "If he's taking me to the Rusty Scupper, I know he's going to propose to me tonight." Fortunately, we had enough time to go to Ft. McHenry first so that my surprise wasn't ruined... :)

Well, folks, this is it. The Lord has done a lot of working in both of our hearts in the last year. A year ago, neither one of us was ready for a serious dating relationship, and we actually stopped dating on two different occasions. Now, by His grace, we are engaged and preparing for the most serious relationship of all, other than that one we have with our Savior. I am so thankful to the Lord for how He has changed both of us and the lessons that He has taught us. In the very beginning of our dating relationship (back when I was posting on my blog, whatever that was...), I commented several times that God alone would deserve the glory for whatever he allowed Kim and I to become. Little did I know then how true that would be. Now, as we have taken that next big step, I say it again but with a much deeper understanding... to God alone be the glory.

Update #493b

Once again, I humbly posit that I am way too busy to be blogging anything. Okay, so I have a few free minutes to write a quick update, but that's all it's going to be... quick. We're in the middle of high school exam week at my school, and I'm happy to have the extra time to catch up on all my work... and to find things to do (like blogging) so that I can put off the work that I don't want to do.

So, yes, school is going moderately well. I'm busy enough with all of those classes that I teach. My Computer III class is not particularly enjoying the deep discussions of DSL technologies, Operating Systems, token ring networks, AppleTalk, and other such technological items. However, the exciting news for that class is that they are the reason behind my school's 1st-ever purchase of a Mac. We ordered a mini Mac, and it got here last week. I'm still working on configuring it for student use, but I'm excited to be able to add it to our computer lab. Maybe all the PC's will start behaving now that there's a challenger among their midst? :)

The church is moving along quite well too. Attendance at the church has been slowly growing. I think we're topping the 400 mark on Sunday mornings now. The music program is growing as well. We just switched the day/time of choir practice from a Thursday night to Sunday afternoons. As expected, there were a few people with schedule conflicts, but otherwise that transition seems to have gone well. We even gained a few new voices in the process! Praise the Lord for those people who are excited to sing and give testimony in song about our God! Before we know it, Easter will be upon us, and then the summer... and then another Christmas! Hopefully by then I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing. :)

Finally, the most important update of them all... the update on relationships. :) I know that several of you have been asking about us, and, yes, Kim and I are still dating and doing quite well together. In the last month we started doing a little bit of our devotions together - just reading a chapter of Scripture and commenting on it. After just a few days of doing that, we both realized that this would be one of the most special things that we could share with each other. Every day we both look forward to that time we get to spend with each other. This last weekend also was exciting for us as I met Kim's dad for the first time. He was up in the area on business, and he was able to stay for the long weekend. We were able to spend some time visiting D.C. and Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and we also spent some time playing games and talking. Kim and I are excited to see what God has done between us in helping us both to grow and mature, and we continue to look forward to what He will do between us in the future. As I have said before (and I still mean it too... it's not a vainless repetition!)... to God alone belongs the glory for this relationship. We are together only because of Him and what He has done in us; I trust that we never forget that. To Him alone is the glory, praise, and thanksgiving! :)