Celebration!!!!

Thank you, Zach! For the past six months and counting ;) I love you!

All of our friends surrounding Johnny as they mock his "elboobs"

Kisses...Our Candy :)

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of hearing the story...I'm going to share it with you right here on my blog! Basically...six months ago (Sunday evening of conference weekend in October) I got a call from my friend, Jen, inviting me to game night. I had been babysitting all weekend and never quite did my hair or makeup. I figured it was just going to be the same old crowd...I managed to pull my hair together just a little and apply a small amount of makeup before heading out to Jen's...as game night is something I can rarely turn down. It's truly one of my favorites!!! :) I walked into game night that night and my life literally changed forever. Enter Zach: poker playing, good looking, returned missionary, with a love for competition, and a distaste for BYU! Hello perfect! :) At least that's what I thought...there's much more to our little story...little details that sort of signify (at least to us) that it was meant to be. If you want to know...ask..we're happy to share! October was ...as I once described...a roller coaster ride. I was upside down, all turned around, and couldn't have been more happy! Our connection immediately took off! We saw each other at game night the following weekend, Zach came to hear me speak at Stake Conference with all of our friends, and then he I invited him to play poker with mine. We spent that weekend together. Eventually the weekends turned into weekdays. The man had me up until 4 a.m. on some school nights! By Halloween we were seeing each other just about daily. He took me by surprise and I'm sure glad he did. We've had a good time over the past six months. We've become very good friends and I love him! I think what surprises me most is how different it is...compared to how I thought it would be. I have always been a HUGE fan of my alone time and my own space. So it astonishes me sometimes when I have such a hard time saying goodnight or how I will sometimes stay up much later than I should just to have a few more hours or even minutes with him. I know this sounds corny and cheesy but it's true...and he's already heard it all :) In the past six months I: moved out on my own, lost my Grandma, celebrated the holidays without my brother, and had many additional stresses in my life. Zach has listened to and seen me through it all. He listens to stories about my brother and to this day still lets me cry to him about Gram (and truthfully knows that it will probably never stop happening). He lets me vent about school and even puts his two cents in on standardized testing. He helps me grade/enter grades in my computer. He knows some of my students by heart and he knows some of their nicknames :) He makes me laugh when he helps me with school stuff which sometimes makes the grading something to look forward to almost. He's visited my class and they all love him. They're so supportive. I occasionally will have a parent that will ask me when I met this "Zach fellow" :) He's become a part of our family. My dad LOVES him (I honestly HONESTLY think more than he loves me...not even joking), my mom loves him, Cara loves him, Grandpa likes him, and Grandma liked him, too. I have a pretty good feeling about Shane liking him. I have been welcomed into his family with the same love and acceptance. His dad even came to my classroom to talk to my kids about the Revolutionary War (I have pictures to post with that later on). We leave to visit his family in Georgia at the end of May (SOOOO excited about that!!!!) Anyhow...I think conference weekend will now hold an even more special place in my heart. So this Sunday I hosted a celebratory game night at my little townhouse. It was a really good night. We invited all of our friends. We made sure to invite everyone who was there that first night (and those that weren't). We had quite a few of the people from that very first night (Zach, Me, Jake, Jen, and Johnny) I don't know who was missing aside from Tara and I THINK Ashley. In addition, Brady, Dave, and Austin all showed up. I want to express my thanks to them for joining us on this adventure! We still play games and see these people quite a bit and they've been nothing but happy for us since the VERY beginning, honestly! What a gift! Here are a few pictures of our little gathering...hopefully more to come in the future! :) I just want to express my gratitude...I'm so grateful that life doesn't always go according to my plan. (I know I will absolutely EAT those words later but they're working for me right now :)