I climbed a mountain!

Update since my last post...  Nothing much, just busy being ENGAGED:)

June 10 - Tim McGraw concert with Tom, his brother, Michael, and their family friend, Jake.  It was very, very fun!  I believe I did a mobile upload from the concert, which you can find on facebook:)

June 11 - Day trip to San Francisco for the Giants game!  We got to see Omar, Tom's friend from GE, for the first time in a while, because he was in town for business. Miss him!

 We saw some nakie people who were encouraging us to "burn fat, not oil."

 The Giants lost.  Shoot.

June 13 - Junior League Social!  I just mailed in my check last week, so hopefully I'll hear back soon:)  Happy to join Kathleen as she "pledges" in NC!

June 14 - First interview with Goore's!

June 23 - Met with John at Coldwell Banker.  I'm considering getting my real estate license, if I can ever find the time to study!  This was also the last day I went to the Cambria Cove office... such a sad, sad day:(  But, when I showed up after my Coldwell Banker interview, so that all of us girls could go to lunch, they surprised me with the most amazing engagement/wedding present ever!  THANK YOU MILLIONS!  You are all wonderful and I miss you like crazy!

June 28 - Second interview with Goore's!

July 6 - First day at Goore's!  I will be helping with their Furniture sales, both in store and online.  Look for huge improvements to that part of the site soon!

July 8 - Concert in the Park in El Dorado Hills with the neighbors!

July 15 - Erin, Jeremy, and Robyn arrive!  They stayed until the following Friday.  Tons of fun!

July 23 - YOSEMITE!  A truly breathtaking experience.  I recommend it.

July 27 - Rachel arrives!  Tom's sister accepted a job with Intel, and is living with us until she has enough furniture to move out:)  It's nice having a female around!

July 30 - Tom and I did a pub crawl in old town Folsom.  A very nice way to see places we would have normally skipped right over!  The hosts really liked us, too:)

August 3 - Left for NC! 

August 4 - Bridesmaid dress appointment and beach music at North Hills:)

August 5 - BIG wedding dress day with Moma and Sister.  We have narrowed it down!

August 9 - Wilmington with Moma and Sister for floral consultations and cake tasting - yum!

August 10 - Tom arrived!  Oh how I had missed him:)  That night we met a bunch of friends for dinner, sort of an unofficial engagement party.  Thanks, everyone, so much for coming!!!  Miss yall tons.

August 11 - Emerald Isle for a few days to see Moma and Tim's new place.  Just adorable!

August 13 - Missed Katy's shower:( but headed to Wilmington to show Tom the reception venue and see Dory and Matt!

August 14 - Went to church at Grace United Methodist, our ceremony venue:)

August 15 - Grandma's birthday! Then back to good ole Sacramento.  Hally is such a seasoned traveler.

Hot dog!

August 19 - Out for Aylin's birthday!  This was our first time out in Sacramento since we've been here!  It's about the same distance as Benson is from Raleigh, so transportation is never easy to figure out.  Good think we're about to have a sister living downtown... ;)

August 22 - Michael moves out:(  You can practically hear crickets in our home...  Miss you, homie!

August 24 - Rachel moves out:(  Looks like it's just Tom, Hally, and me!  We also had a going-away outing for Rachel Itwaru.  Bowling & gambling:)  See you in a year, hopefully!

He wants to marry me!

A lot has happened in the past 2.5 months since my last entry!  Let's start from the beginning...

Two of Tom's brothers, Jake and Dan, came to visit over their spring break.  They all attempted skiing for the first time, after driving to Tahoe in a blizzard.  We went to a Sacramento Kings game, which at the time could have been one of their last, but the team decided to stay in Sacramento for at least another year.  We also went to San Francisco and toured Alcatraz (very cool!), among other touristy things!  Awkward video (that was supposed to be a picture) alert.

Then we had a visit from our favorite LA friend, Kyle!  Below is a pic of us at a pub in Old Town Folsom.

Tom and I went to Six Flags!  It was TONS of fun!

My family came to visit a few weeks ago!  It was so amazing having them around.  Perhaps they are going to relocate?:)  For Mother's Day, we took Mama to Amador County to taste the local wines.  We also went to San Francisco!

We had two roommates move in about two weeks ago: Tom's brother, Michael, and their family friend, Jake, who both have Summer internships with Intel.  They'll be here for 12 weeks!

Jacklyn and Hunter came to visit over Memorial Day weekend!  How awesome it was to have friends around!  We had dinner in midtown Sacramento, stayed a night in South Lake Tahoe (where we did some harmless gambling - they all made $$!), chilled by the pool, shopped at the outlets, and went to Napa Valley.

MOST IMPORTANTLY

Tom and I got engaged!

I am SOOO RIDICULOUSLY HAPPY!

I think he might be, too! ;)  

Background info: Tom and I first met briefly one night when we were out with friends in Raleigh.  He followed up via text and Facebook to see if I'd go to dinner with him.  I agreed, but I didn't know if he was a total weirdo or not, so I had Jacklyn and Hunter meet us an hour or so into our date.  Turns out I didn't need saving, but we all had a really great time together. 

The rest is history...

On Memorial Day, Jacklyn, Hunter, Tom and I went to Napa.  My boss's husband works for Trefethen, so we went there and had a private tour and tasting.  It was wonderful!  

When we were leaving, we were taking pictures by the fountain in the courtyard.  Jacklyn took a picture of Tom and me, and then immediately after, he turned to me and held my hands.  I knew right away what was happening because he was shaking:)  He began by pointing out the significance of Jacklyn and Hunter being with us... etc... and choked up while saying that he thought God put him in NC to meet me.  Talk about a tear jerker!  Then he got on his knee and asked me to marry him.  I said YES!  Boy was I surprised!  The wedding will be in Wilmington, NC sometime next Summer!

p.s. Jacklyn had no idea that it was coming, so she was just as surprised and emotional as I was!  Hunter knew the whole time!

I am absolutely the happiest I've ever been!  I couldn't have dreamed of a better husband-to-be.

Isn't it lovely?

xoxo

Happy Spring!

Five weeks ago we had crown molding installed in the living room and kitchen!  We are very pleased!  Don't worry, we're still trying to pick paint colors!  I ordered a pendant to go over the kitchen table, so we'll probably pull colors from that.  I might even convince Tom to let me paint the living room ceiling blue!

 Three weeks ago Tom and I went to San Francisco for the night.  On our way in, we went to a Golden State Warriors NBA game in Oakland.  I'm pretty sure they lost; we left early because the arena and game weren't all that great.  The next day we explored San Francisco.... we went to the market on the water and had brunch, then went to the park and the aquarium.  Thankfully  my super sweet coworker watched Hally for us:)

(cozy with Tom on the couch)

Tom's best friend, Kyle, visited us a couple weekends ago.  It was nice having a familiar face in our home!  The weather wasn't that great... a little rainy... gosh, I can't wait for summertime when it never rains!

I've been working at Cambria Cove for a little over a month now, and thankfully, I love it!  CC is a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, based in Kansas City, MO, and I took my first business trip there a couple of week ago.  I will be going there probably once every two months or so.

We are very excited that two of Tom's younger brothers are visiting us this week while they are on high school spring break!  They are arriving Thursday and staying for a week.  They're going to get to see Tahoe, Alcatraz, and see a Sacramento Kings game before the team leaves Sacramento for good!  Hopefully they won't be too bored while we're at work some days:)

I'm so excited for all of our visitors this summer!!!  

MARCH: Tom's brothers 

MAY: my family AND Jacklyn and Hunter

JULY: Erin, Jeremy and two of their friends

(AUGUST: We're going to NC!)

Anyone want to visit me in April, June, or September?? :)

Tom and I also booked a flight to NC in mid-August!  My parents will have a place at the beach again this summer, so we couldn't miss that!  With flights being almost $600 each, though, I'm not sure how Christmas is going to work out.  Just keep your fingers crossed that gas prices will go down!

I got a car AND a license plate!  Now I'm really official... job, CA driver's license, car, and CA license plate.  Guess I'm here to stay...

 Please excuse the water droplets.  It was raining today.

BRACKET UPDATE: I've been consistently 4th or 5th in the McCurdy family bracket.  I really need Kansas to win this, or I'm out!  $400 sure would be nice... :) Cross your fingers!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!!

Until next time...