Our First Week Being Engaged

Sunday, August 9th- Wedding planning isn't too bad, maybe even a bit enjoyable. Okay I like planning a huge party. Monday night we made rules concerning our physical interaction. It was good to talk about everything and rule out even the tiniest things. After we thought it was complete we prayed about it. Andrew taught me about a different approach to praying. In the middle of the prayer he asked God if the list was pleasing to him. Right away I felt at peace and I was a bit thrown off by this type of prayer. I had never thougth to stop in the middle of a prayer to ask about something specific. I like it and we will continue this way. Since we have made the list we feel very good about our interaction together. There are so many other ways to show your love for someone. We must be respectful and not try to satisfy our sexual desires yet. Throughout the week we made a guest list and decided that we only want to invite people that will be so excited for us and with whom we want to share that special day. It looks like about 150 people will be invited. We set the date for December 19th in the Mount Timpanogos temple. The temple sent us information about the preparation process and it made things seem so official. All my family is so ecited about everything and my sisters are so willing to help. Mom and Dad have rented a cabin in Aspen Grove for all the families to stay together. That will be so fun to have everyone together and to get Andrew's family over there once in a while. Friday we went on a ward campout at Deer Creek Reservoir in the canyon. We went swimming, canoeing, ate tin foil dinners, sang around the campfire while Andrew played the guitar, roasted marshmallows, talked about our engagement, showed people the ring (since I just got it back from being resized), and slept in sleeping bags in tents. In the morning we had a huge breakfast with omelettes, sausage, fruit, juices, pancakes with Sister Jensen's super sinful speed syrup, cleaned up and cleared off trails in the park. It was such a blast. That afternoon I wewnt wedding dress shopping with Cassi and Shanda. We found some I liked but at the end of the day Shanda realized I could probably fit her dress. It fit me and she is letting me borrow it and do what I would like to it to make it what I want. It is so beautiful and I wouldn't have to buy a 1,000 dollar dress that I would wear once. I am so grateful to her and very excited. We went to church on Sunday and listened to Meredith sing in sacrament meeting. After a sunday school lesson on eternal marriage we went to our ward and were able to announce our engagement to those who had not heard or seen the ring. After spending time with Debbie, we went to our first bishops interview as an engaged couple. That was great and I am so excited to prepare for the temple with him. We received a packet of talks on marriage that we can read together. We spent some of the rest of the night discussing similarities on certain marriage issues and then listened to Fiona, a girl in our ward, talk to us about her life. Many times we get compliments from people who are really impressed that we are still involved in other peoples' lives even though we are engaged. They like that we don't become recluses and we are just so adorable together. We are so comfortable with our relationship and each other that we can pay attention to other people. We finally took pictures of the most gorgeous ring ever. I love it and people are always so impressed that Andrew picked it out all by himself. He's an artist with an eye for the aesthetically pleasing and beautiful.