How It Went

I promised that I would give more details, so here it is....I knew it was coming. We had decided a couple weeks ago that we were going to get married. I had told him in the past that I didn't want to know when he talked to my dad about it, before or after. I think he was just so relieved about it all, so he told me. Haha. I was okay with that, just because he is so incredibly excited about it all, and that makes me happy.
First, I have to tell you how he let his mom know we had decided to get married. Months and months before Kyle even met me, his mom came to him and said, "Kyle, the walls are talking to me." No, she is not crazy, I promise. What she meant was that there is an empty wall that she wants to put a family portrait on. The walls were "telling" her that Kyle needed to get engaged or married in the few months following that so that the portrait would not fall out of date for a while. He laughed and said he would work on that. (The time frame has passed since then. He's not marrying me because the walls said so.) So, we made a sign with a picture of us that said "The wall has spoken. Kyle and Amber. June 5, 2009." He put it up before he went to bed Friday night (the Friday before he proposed) and she woke him up screaming "I heard the wall! I heard the wall!," at 5AM Saturday. Haha! I thought that was pretty cute that he would tell them that way.
I also knew that he was going to ask me the night that he did. I'm just too smart for my own good. He told me that he was taking Tuesday night off of work. Now why else would he do that? It was a good thing, though, so that I was able to get all pretty for the day. :)
He came over to pick me up after I got home from work. After chatting with my family for a while, he asked if I wanted to go get some dinner. Usually he asks where I want to eat, but this time he got in the car and drove. I was proud of him for planning things out. LOL. He took me to eat at Chili's, which is also where we went to dinner on our first date. It was fun to reminise, as well as discuss and look forward to our future.
After dinner we went miniature golfing. He didn't realize it, but that is one of the things we did on our first full Saturday together. He just remembered it as a date he enjoyed. I was trying to figure out the whole time when he was going to drop to his knee and propose. I joke that I thought he was going to put the ring in the hole to find when I went to get my golf ball. Haha!
After that, he said that we were going to go to his house to watch "The Princess Bride." Not only is that my favorite movie, it is the movie we watched right before our first kiss. Can anyone sense a theme here? :) As we were walking in, he said he had just gotten a text from his sister saying their mom was saying the walls are talking again. I just laughed, and apparently totally missed my clue. We went inside and he had a dozen red roses for me by the TV. It took me a second to realize that he was going to be asking me right then. I started freaking out. I wanted to cry, I tried to cry, the tear came right behind my eyes, but would not come out. It was painful. He pulled a sign down off the wall to have me read. He was so nervous, however, that I did not have time to see what it said. All of a sudden he was down on one knee and holding my hand. I could not look at him, so I was looking the other way. Haha. "Amber?" he said. "Uh-huh?" I said looking the other way. "Will you marry me, Amber?" he said. "Yes!" I said, still looking the other way. Haha! He stood up, gave me a hug and kiss. I cried, some of the tears had finally forced their way out. He took my hand and slipped the ring on my finger. I had not seen it up to this point. It was so beautiful! Not like any I had ever seen! That's what I love about it. It's so unique. More so, I love that it means that I get to keep him. Keep him forever!
After that, I made my calls. I called my grandma, then my grandparents, then Andy, Summer, Holly, etc. I waited to talk to my parents until we went home, just because they knew it was going to be happening that night. I sent out a text with a picture of the ring. More texts came back in, more calls came back in and out. Kyle was so patient. I love him! Yay! I get to marry him! Anyway, it was a fun night. Memorable.
As for the future details. We are getting married on Friday, June 5, 2009 in the Draper Temple. That is actually the only detail that we really know. It's the best one though! :) At least that is what I think. So, yep. If you can't tell, life is good, I'm as happy as can be!

Good News!

Hooray! Tonight, Kyle asked me to marry him. Obviously I said yes! I'm too tired right now, and just wanted to get pictures up for the moment. I will give the details later, when I can think straight. :) Yay me! We will be married in the Draper Temple (which is why I loved being there so much, see previous post) on June 5, 2009. :)

Draper Temple

I had the chance this morning to serve at the Draper Temple open house. That temple is SO! beautiful!!! I was so impressed with the craftsmanship that went into it. There is a mural that is of a fall scene with yellow-leaved quakies. It reminded me of the scenery at my cabin in the fall, which is one of my absolute favorites! I cannot even describe how beautiful this House of the Lord was to me. If you haven't already reserved tickets to the open house, I suggest you go to http://www.lds.org/reservations/0,10751,1619-1-501,00.html to get some. It is an experience worth having! Hooray for beauty all around us!

New Year

I have barely had a chance to get on the computer these past few weeks. I was lucky enough to at least get some pictures posted. It was a fun holiday season for me. My last day of work in 2008 was on Dec. 23. On Christmas Eve, I finalized all my Christmas preparations, then spent the day with Kyle, who also did not have to work. We played games with my sisters, then went to a movie. After that, we headed over to G&G V's for our traditional Christmas Eve family party. I am grateful that this tradition has held for so long. We always have a delicious ham dinner, read the navity story (we decided next year the great grandkids get to act it out), do white elephants and finish the night by watching "A Christmas Story." If you ask me and my sisters, that is the one tradition that must not be broken. In our family, we only watch "A Christmas Story" one time, and it is most often on Christmas Eve. We laugh that it is a sin for a Vernon to do otherwise. So, for dinner, we were one chair short to fit everyone, so Kyle and I got to eat at the counter. I stepped away for a minute, and when I came back I heard Andy saying to Kyle, "This is just our way of welcoming people, send them off to sit all alone in exile." Haha. Later, someone was joking about us sitting at the kids table, then Andy called it the "pre-marital table." I asked him how he could eat so much with his foot in his mouth. I love Andy, he is a very good big brother to me. For the white elephant game, I made a snow globe of a kid with his tounge stuck to a flagpole. My gift that I opened was an old ugly purse with a sequence wallet. Kyle opened a dress that gets passed through every year, but someone was nice enough to steal it so that he could get something else.
That night, I stayed in the guest room at Kyle's house so we could spend Christmas morning with his family. I woke up at about 7:30 and could not go back to sleep. His parents were up cooking breakfast, so I went out to talk to them. His brother and sister came over with their families, and we opened presents. It was fun to watch the little girls and their excitement over all their presents. They were all very kind and I recieved several presents from them. Thank you McFall's! (Kyle and Kelli you can tell your family that I said so if you read this.) Then we drove through the crazy storm to my house and had another breakfast and opened presents with my family. Summer and her family called in on the web-cam, so we got to see Jorryn playing with her new Christmas toys. Santa gave our family tickets to go see "Wicked" when it comes to town! That was my favorite gift, along with the new camera that G&G V gave me. We spent the rest of the day lazing around and watching the movies and playing the games we recieved. Kaylene was nice enough to stop by real quick to say hi. I love her so much, and miss her since she is living in AZ. Thanks for taking the time to come see me Kaylene! (The truth is, she probably wanted to meet Kyle... haha)
The day after Christmas, me and two of my friends from my mission (Stefanie and Clarissa) drove to Ramona, CA. It was so fun to be back in the mission! We went down to be there as a couple that we all taught went through the temple and were sealed as husband and wife for time and eternity. Talk about worth it! It was amazing to see these two people that I love so much, and in some ways feel as if they are my children, (they would laugh if they heard me say that) be able to recieve the amazing blessing of an eternal family! As we were leaving, Clarissa and I were talking about how the blessings of the Gospel make things that are already so happy ten billion times more happy! It's the truth. :) We spent a few more days there, running around and visiting people that we got to work with on the mission. It was busy, but a blast.
We drove back home on New Years Eve. I got home just in time to hop in my car and drive over to Jayne's house to wait for an hour for midnight, then drive home. Haha. Kyle ended up having to work until almost midnight, so we were unable to spend the time together. We did, however, spend New Year's Day together playing games at his house, then going to a movie with my family. The next day, Kyle went to visit Andy to get his teeth whitened, redeeming the prize he won in a drawing at Andy's office. He has bright shiney pearly-whites now. It was nice to have such a long break for the holidays. (All paid too! Sweet!) It was hard to go back on Monday. I have been so tired all week, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to catch up on my sleep. Oh well, it's a sacrifice worth making. Life is enjoyable, especially since I am surrounded by people I love! If you read through this whole thing, wow! You are amazing to listen to my rambling even when I am not around! Well, Happy New Year! It is going to be a great one, I can tell.

Christmas Slides

Cali Slides