It's going to be hard to follow up that last post, since it was the happiest day of my life so far, but I'll try.

Being engaged is wonderful. Because I worked all last week I didn't get to wear my ring. Well, I actually chose not to wear it because of what my job entails at times. I would put it on and stare at it the second I got home though. Andrew and I both agree that there are times where we remember "ohhh wow, we're engaged!", and while I can't speak for both of us, I know when that happens to me I can't stop smiling for about 5 minutes. I can't describe how special and blessed I feel that he chose me. It's pretty darn wonderful. I'm very excited for June.

Work was pretty dull last week. I did get to work in the ER one day and that was exciting. There was a car wreck about 50 feet away from the ER doors that day, no one was seriously hurt (besides the demolished bus stop) so I found it okay to laugh at how great it was that someone got in a car wreck right outside of an ER.

I went to Houston this weekend with Julie. We went to Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God concert (if you have never heard of this please do yourself a favor and click on that link, and listen now). It was such an awesome concert...I can't wait to go again someday! I loved it. Julie and I spent the rest of the weekend in Houston. Spent time with her family (love them), and I got to meet a bunch of her friends from home. It was a good time.

Now I'm back at our cozy apartment listening to Christmas music and wrapping presents with our balcony door open because it's 65 degrees outside in December. Insane, but I'll take it.

I love that little tree back behind me there. Last year it stayed up in our house until March, when the Grinch (allie) decided to take it down while we were all at school/work. Here it is last year...also look how short my hair was!

Tonight is my last night in the apartment until after Christmas so I'm soaking up the soft glow and cool breeze. By this time tomorrow night I'll be in Cleburne waiting for Andrew to pull up from New Orleans. By this time next year I'll be sitting my the tree with my husband. Eeeee!!

I hope you have a very happy Christmas. Remember why we celebrate...and celebrate that with joy in your heart!

The most perfect moment

A lot has happened since I have last written to you, the dear blogging world. Prepare yourself for a loooong post.

When I wrote that last post on the morning of Andrew's birthday, December 9th, I had no idea that later that day I would be engaged to him.

That's right, we're engaged!

I could go on and on about how happy I am, how I feel like I'm floating on a cloud, or sliding down a rainbow, or something else totally cheesy (but true) like that. I still get butterflies thinking about seeing him kneel down and and tell me sweet words about how he wants to live life with me and love me forever, and I don't think they will ever stop. Everything in that moment was perfect.

Julie, my very sneaky roommate, called me while I was napping to tell me that she had a really hard day and came to have a moment at the park and locked her keys in her car. She asked me to come get her and take her to the apartment to get a spare key. So I rolled out of bed, put on some jeans and obliviously drove to the spot where I would get engaged. Here's a picture of the sneaky people themselves waiting for me to show up:

After he proposed (and I said yes) we hugged for a while, mostly so I could convince myself that I wasn't dreaming. I told him that he was so sneaky and he said "so are they..." We turned around and his parents were there snapping pictures.

I feel so grateful to be entering such a wonderful, loving family.

We celebrated at Stagecoach Inn, a cute little restaurant in Salado, spent some time with Andrew's aunt and uncle in Temple, and then hung out with Julie at our apartment. It was the best evening of my life so far.

My sweet fiance (can't figure out how to put the accent over the e) helped me move into my new apartment on Friday, and then on Saturday my soul friend, Robyn (you can find her here and here and here and here) took some engagement pictures of us. I love them, and have to show a few of them off...

Robyn, thank you so much! Everyone needs to go click on those first two links and check her amazingness out.

Alright, massive post is coming to an end. Thank you for reading.

Until next time,

Engaged Allye

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to my favorite person in the whole wide world!

Thank you for making the world a brighter place, love.

Now for some old and new pictures of the birthday boy himself:

Check out that hair and beard! Intense.

Now check out THIS hair. Intense.

I could keep going, but I'm sure it's getting old. "Getting old" is probably not an appropriate thing to say in a birthday post.

Anyway, happy birthday Andrew!

I love you.

OH HAPPY DAY

I passed this semester! OHHH my. If I could bottle this type of joy and give it away for Christmas I totally would because it's fantastic. My study pals Bryn and Katie passed too, which makes the happiness even more magnificent.

We're graduating in 5 months. (!!!)

I've been dancing to this song today:

So happy this long, frustrating, incredibly hard, pretty much awful semester is over.

Dream land

I've been having really weird dreams lately.

Well, actually they have been quite normal. And that is weird for me.

Okay, let me explain...

My dreams are always crazy, unexplainable, and just plain weird. I usually remember them, and sometimes even apply them to my life. Last night when Andrew and I were talking he used an analogy referencing one of my past crazy dreams, I just went along with it for a while and then realized we were speaking in "Allye dreamland language". It was fun. Anyway, I have crazy dreams.

But lately my dreams have been very normal (which is weird to me). I've been having these dreams that when I wake up I can't remember if it was reality or dream. I had a dream that my friend Chelsea wrote on Andrew's wall "hey! we need to hang out over christmas!". The next day I was on facebook and remembered that so I went to Andrew's wall to comment on it something like "hey! I'm your friend!! but i'm glad you want to hang out with Andrew..." and come to find, it didn't exist.

I have had to start many conversations lately like this: "Okay, so I don't know if this was a dream or not, but..."

Frankly, it was getting old and confusing.

I attribute it to stress. (?) Because I had my first non-reality dream last night!!

Oh, I forgot to mention that I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL FOR THE SEMESTER! I still don't have my grades, so who knows, I could've failed. But nevertheless, I'm DONE until January.

Shhh- listen, you can hear the angels singing.

So, I dreamt a weird dream. I woke up after it SO excited. The dream was Andrew and I were at his parents house. He was wearing these metal baseball cards as necklaces (extra weird dream detail- all the player's faces were punched out) when in disgust he realized they were dirty. He asked me to clean them, but specified "only clean their feet". Well, I thought that was absurd. Why would I just clean the metal baseball players feet?! I'll clean the WHOLE metal baseball card. Well as I cleaned, Andrew noticed what I was doing and he got very angry, snatched them away, and told me that he would get his mom to do it because she knows how to do it THE RIGHT WAY. I was a little upset, but it didn't last for long because then my dream transitioned into me at Pioneer Woman's house learning how to make bread. It smelled like the Mrs. Baird's factory in there, and it was glorious. Andrew didn't get to come with me to Pioneer Woman's house because he was busy monitoring the metal baseball card cleaning, but I'm sure if he did he would have looked like this:

Ah, it feels to good to be weird again.

Also, Nacho (the cutest dog on the planet) wants to wish you all a Merry Christmas:

Yet another countdown post

Because I enjoy these so much:

-1 (ONE) day until this semester is OVER

-4 days until I'm done with RA duties

-5 days until I move in with Ju!

-16 days until I'm done working and ready to celebrate Christmas

-19 days until CHRISTMAS

-35 days until my LAST semester of college begins. This also means around 34 days of no school time. Magical.

-152 days until graduation.

Do not fear.

Our first real final is tomorrow. This is echoing in my mind:

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10