We're Engaged!

Hopefully this isn't your first interaction with our big news, but if it is, we greatly apologize and beg for either your forgiveness or your swift and nearly painless judgment (hopefully your forgiveness, though).

At any rate, here are some pictures to let you into our little circle of joy. The beautiful girl who's pictured is my fiance, or, if you prefer, my bride to be. Actually, I prefer that one!

We've set a date for June 7th at Northpoint, our church home here in Corona, CA, the center of the universe.

Here's a little of our engagement story, as told by Jay.

I had planned on waiting until the middle of February to pop the question, but the opportunity presented itself and I went down to the jeweler on Monday, which, if you're as unfamiliar with jewelery as I am, you may not have known that many of them (including this one) are closed on Mondays.

So, Tuesday became the big day, and I went down to the jeweler along with our good friend Staci Worthington (who is set to be the maid of honor). There we saw the perfect ring, as previously picked out by Janelle herself, I threw down the dough and the excitement was on.

Tuesday night, I was a wreck before I went over to Janelle's parents to ask permission to marry their daughter (that's wild, I can't believe I'm writing that!). But they said yes, and so I figured that was a good sign.

Friday night, January 18th, became my new D-Day, and believe me, I was so nervous the whole week, leading into that night. We started it off with a little bit of Disneyland--a Nemo here, a Matterhorn there--and made it to the beach just before sunset, where I asked her to marry me and put the ring on her finger.

Now, my brother, Casey, had offered to pay for us to have a celebratory meal at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Anaheim and that's where our evening took us--the newly engaged couple. When we arrived at our table, on a side note, there was, sitting on the table, a wheel of cheese, which I know will take a little explaining.

Last Valentine's Day, you see, I had tried to rebel against the hoopla of the holiday and had purchased, much to my chagrin in hindsight, a cheese wheel instead of the traditional flowers, chocolate and card.

Well, our relationship survived that great self-inflicted storm, but Casey and all of his cronies (I say that in the most complimentary way) in Alabama won't let me live it down (which is not to say that they ought to).

We had a spectacular dinner, definitely the best meal we've partaken of in our time together, and capped it off with an impromptu get-together at the Burns' house to celebrate.

Thanks to Casey for the dinner and the cheese wheel idea, and to Dad (he was instrumental in planting the wheel on site), and thanks to Staci, Aubrey and all the girls for correctly conveying the information about the ring.

Oh yeah, thanks Chad and Teresa for giving us the go-ahead! Also, thanks for the sweet camera, which will serve to populate our blog with mucho pictures in the months to come.