I know that some people already know about my engagement, however, not everyone does. Also, most people do not know the details of the engagement or my Josh :o)

So, everyone, meet Josh Thompson. He is a 29 year old guy from Goshen, IN. He loves bull riding and bronc riding, however, he has not done it in quite awhile - no money and he has me around now. He is a truck driver for a company called TMC based out of Des Moines, IA. He loves his job even though he hates winter. The company that he works for gets all the guys home every weekend. There are 6 weekends out of the year that he will have to work, but other than that he will be home every weekend.

Obviously, as you can see, these two middle pictures are of my ring. I helped pick it out, but he was the one that went and purchased it.

Josh and I have not been together an increidibly long time - since summer. But we have been praying non-stop about our relationship and telling God that we want his will with us. We have not felt any opposition with the way our relationship has been moving. He and I have so much in common with out pasts and the way we live that it just seemed obvious. He is an amazing man, who challenges me to voice things a lot more than I used to. He lets me follow him instead of having to be the leader all of the time. He supports the career that I want, as well as, my schooling and how important that is to me. I will be graduating in a year and I told him that without a doubt I want to finish.

He is great with Liam! Josh loves Liam like he is his own son. He does not have any children, but he now calls Liam his boy. They play together all the time when Josh is home. Liam loves that Josh drives a "big black peterbilt truck!" Josh also builds huge train tracks all over the living room floor that are very intricately detailed for Liam and his trains. Liam is so thrilled when he sees it. The two of them have bonded quite a bit and it is so good to see.

Josh is also a very old fashioned guy. He opens doors for me all of the time, walks on the outside of the sidewalk when it is next to a street, walks in front of me to block -7 degree wind, in hopes of keeping me warmer, he holds my hand all the time, sits on the outside of the pew at church and loves spending any sort of time with me that he can.

The proposal:

Josh took me out to a steak house in Michigan City, about 15 minutes away, and we got to sit right next to a fireplace (very unplanned on his part). We ate our dinner, which was excellent! Then we decided to go right around the corner to the Washington Park because they had to whole park covered in Christmas lights. We parked his truck and walked through (in freezing temperatures) the light show. We walked up into the gazebo to look at the lights more and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

Ever since, we have been busy planning and figuring things out. We decided that we do not want a big wedding. We have both been married before and had the big wedding. We want small and simple right now. That just seems so much easier and exciting to us at this point. Plus, we don't have a whole ton of money to be spending on the wedding. Well, that's all for now, but more photos and blogs will be posted!

Summer Fun!

This summer I did not have a whole lot of money to go out and get some new pictures of Liam and I done. I haven't gotten to have "professional" pictures of the two of us done in about 2 years. I either have not had the money or he and I have not had the time. My friend decided to take the top four pictures of Liam and I. He knew that I had bunches of pictures of Liam or Liam with other people, but when I am the photographer, which I do not mind being one bit, I can't really get pictures of my boy and me together. So he grabbed his camera and met us at the park to just take some natural pictures. The last picture, the one that is color and only Liam, I took myself while we were taking a walk through a local area. The place we go to walk is called Coffee Creek. Liam loves going there because they have a waterfall (small one) and a water fountain in the middle of a lake. You can go to one side of the lake and sit by the waterfall. There are many trails throughout the entire place and I just let Liam run and run and run. He has gotten into the habit lately that about the only way he will stop when he is running if you holler "red light" to him. He loves it! He instantly stops in his tracks and just turns around with a huge smile on his face! He has started to use "red light" other places as well, but on mommy. He jokingly says it to get me to stop whatever I am doing.
The summer has just gone by way too quickly for us. I am 5 weeks into my new semester of school and working 25 hours a week as an English and writing tutor; the same place that I have been working for 2 years. I am taking 5 classes; 3 English classes, a Statistics class and an Astronomy class. All of which keep me busy! Of course adding to that, I am a mommy, so that keeps me busy as well.

We have had such a fun summer and I am so happy that I mostly took the summer off to spend it with Liam. Now that school has started fun times with Liam are much fewer and far
between because of the hectic schedule. We were able to make it to the zoo before school started for me and he absolutely loved that! We went with my best friend and her two daughters.

I am slowly but surely getting done with school. If everything goes the way that I am planning right now, then I will be done in December of 2009, finally! I am really buckling down with the classes, but it will be worth it once I am done and I am able to just spend the most of my time with Liam instead of juggling both school and work, it will just be work.
Before I know it, Liam will be in school full time and then life will just take off even quicker than it already has gone by. His daycare that he has been in for over a year is practically a preschool as it is. He has learned so much and the whole place is just so educational. It seems like he could be ready for college within the next year because of how much of a sponge he is. Yes, I am his mom, so I am kind of biased, but he is learning so much and doing so great with using what he learns! Anyway, that's my blog for now. I have a few other blog ideas, I just need to get the time to put the pictures on here! Enjoy!

Tee Ball

Jon and I decided to have Liam try tee ball this summer. We both thought that it would be good for him to stay a little busy this summer and also to try something new that he has never done before. The program was a little over 8 weeks long with practices every Wednesday nights from 6pm - 7pm and games every Saturday morning. The games lasted an hour with 3 innings. Each team would be in the outfield 3 times and each child would go up to bat 3 times. Liam did very well for it being his very first sport to try. After he was able to play the game on his own without mommy being out there, it seems as though he had much more fun. All of the children were between 3 and 4 years old, and with Liam being 3 1/2, he was a little scared and intimidated. Mommy would run the bases with him and field with him as well. The last two or three games, Liam was able to do all the fielding and sit in the "dugout" waiting for his turn to bat all by himself. He did so well and we all truly enjoyed ourselves.
He played tee ball for the YMCA. He had his own little glove, cleats and jersey. He borrowed the helmet and the bat from his coaches. The coaches were all parents of kids that were on the team with him. We had moms and dads both coaching. I am very happy with what he got out of this experience. He was definitely able to learn even more patience because of having to wait for his turn to bat and to get the ball when it was hit by the other team.
As you can see in the middle picture, Liam looked like a bobble head doll when he had the helmets on. The helmet looked so big on him, but just about fit him perfectly. It was cute to see. I was able to get some pictures when Liam let me sit on the sidelines to watch. For awhile, he liked to play just in the dirt, but his coaches were good at trying to keep his interest in the game. The last picture Liam is at the pitcher's mound waiting for the ball to be hit from someone on the other team. The coaches taught them all sorts of strategies. Jon and I were also playing tee ball with him at our own homes in order to keep his interest as well as help him learn and remember some things. He did such a good job! Enjoy the pictures!