Will You Marry Me?

I'm engaged to Brian Sommer. 

OH.


MY.


GOSH.


and I'm sure you're all DYING to know the story, so here it is! :) 


[but we have to start from the beginning]

I left for Indianapolis on Tuesday, June 12 to visit Brian and his family for a few days.  After getting to know his family and the cute hippie town of Broadripple, we drove up to West Michigan to visit my family.  My mother, father, and brother were flying to Michigan for a reunion on my Mom's side of the family, so it was perfect timing for Brian to meet my family as well.  Brian and my parents spent time together at Holland beach and Grand Haven on that Friday.  
Basically that whole day Brian was acting super weird.  I mean, if you know him he generally is a goofy guy...but seriously, today was a different Brian.  He was acting nervous and silly all day, and when we got back to my grandmother's house he kept talking about how he wanted to take me "to this certain place". 

At this point, I totally knew what was coming. 


Brian and his family have been coming up to Holland, Michigan once a year since he can remember, so he kind of knows the area.  He took me through the beach cottages on the lake, walking on the sand, and to the pier overlooking Lake Michigan.  As the sun was setting, he said all these wonderful things, got on his knee, and asked the question...
"Will you marry me?"
AAHHHH!!!! 
YES!

...but he didn't have a ring. HHmmm..
* the ring he was going to give me didn't turn out to be quite right, so he said he would work on getting one the following week.
So, to make it feel more official until the actual ring was placed on my finger, we got a pretend ring from Walmart, America's finest jeweler.  Then he proposed again in the parking lot. 

Classy.


Brian left to go back to Indiana a few days later, and came back up to Michigan after my family reunion in Northern Michigan was over.  He took me back to the pier, in a "different" spot, and proposed again - with my beautiful (real) diamond ring! 

So, I got proposed to three different times in a span of 10 days. Who else can say that?!


I'm so excited to marry my best friend. I can't wait to call him my husband! :):):):):)


Let the wedding planning begin...

"Bearing Fruit in Every Good Work!"

"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light." Colossians 1:10-12

(I'm pretty sure these verses changed my life this year)


Well, it's official. I am officially finished with my second year teaching 3rd grade at Jarabacoa Christian School. Here are some highlights to the last couple months of school...


I had a student teacher from the last week of March until the third week of May.  Her name is Alyssa Morris from Biola University, and my kids and I had so much fun with her! It was great working with her, and I hope she was able to learn a lot about not only teaching ESL students, but also living abroad and seeing how awesome it is to live that "missionary" life! A few weeks ago we had a going away party for her. Alyssa, you were so special to us! 

Alyssa and I

Miss Morris and the 3rd graders!

We also had an awesome awards ceremony with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade - complete with RED CARPET!

Some third grade awards included....

Endy for "Best Hugs"

Angelica for "Most Likely to Speak Hawaiian Someday"

Enmanuel for "Most Loyal Friend"

....And many more!

After Miss Morris left, there weren't very many days of school left in the year.  So what did Ms. Ensing do? Last 10 days of school balloons! There were 10 balloons hung from the ceiling starting on the last 10 days of school.  Each balloon had a number on it, counting down to "1" as the last day of school.  Every day we popped a balloon and did the fun activity that was inside! 

Balloon number 9...

Make "9 more days of school" hats!

Can you guess what balloon number 2 was?

 (addressed to Ms. Ensing) "Be our teacher in 4th grade" :) 

The last balloon was a water balloon, for our water day! This was probably my most favorite school day of the year.  We started the morning watching a movie, then I chose a student to be blindfolded for the last balloon popping.  I popped the balloon over his head and got him soaked, which was SUPER fun.  We then proceeded to have a dance party for 30 minutes, involving the whole upstairs floor of students in the hallway.  Then, we all went downstairs and got everyone wet before waiting for the firemen to come and spray all the kids with their hose! 

And that's that. School's over. So fast and slow all at the same time.  What am I doing now? PACKING! In approximately 36 hours I will be at the airport in Santiago, on my way to Indiana - meeting up with Brian and his family. OH.MY.GOSH. I think I tried too hard to not "check  out" on the last weeks of school, and I purposefully tried not to be excited/nervous/anxious/relieved to go the the states after 10 months of being in the Dominican Republic.  I still don't know what to think...

Please pray that my culture shock isn't too extreme.  I will say I'm nervous/excited for a lot of things coming up this week, but culture shock really shouldn't be one of them.  BRING IT ON! 

Okay I'll stop now.  This blog is long enough :)