Yes… I realize it’s been nearly a month since I’ve written, but so much has been happening! Kirk and I got engaged the morning of June 27th! It was a Saturday morning, and he went out to “run an errand”. I stayed home and I was lounging on the couch in my slouchy Saturday morning clothes and when he walked into the apartment he immediately came over the couch, got down on one knee, presented me with his grandmother’s ring and asked me to marry him! I was so shocked and I think it took me a few seconds to actually process what was happening. He then said, “I’m serious… will you marry me?”. This snapped me back to reality and of course I said “Yes”, and then I turned the TV off (I was in the middle of watching a Michael Jackson expose… not really the kind of romantic ambience you want when you’ve just gotten engaged). It was so exciting! His grandmother’s ring is beautiful… though it is weeks later I still can’t stop looking at it. I’m truly honored to have  been given such a cherished family heirloom. Kirk said his grandparents were married for 65 years… so we’re taking it as a good sign 🙂

That evening his parents took us out for a nice Italian dinner and we celebrated the fact that we’re all soon going to be family. Here’s a picture from that night:

After basking in the glow of our engagement for a couple of weeks (and deciding on our wedding date – – – October 16, 2010)… crunch time came around again and we had to start packing for our big move into the new place.  We ended up signing a lease for the huge loft in Little Village – Yay! We moved a little over a week ago and things have been insane since then. Packing ended up taking way more time than we thought it would (as is usually the case), moving day was stressful as the movers ran about 3 hours late (but we got a 25% discount on the move… which made it ridiculously cheap given the amount of stuff that we have), and then we had to unpack everything at the new place. Talk about craziness! We still have about 10 boxes left to unpack, and a couple of items of furniture that we need to buy, but otherwise the place is really coming together. In fact, I would even go so far as to say it looks a little “minimalist” given how huge it is. I mean, we thought we had a lot of stuff… but I guess we really don’t have that much.

We still need to get a coffee table, a side table to put between the couch and chair, two bedside tables for the bedrooms, some kind of storage armoire for all of our arts/crafts items, and possibly a futon to use as a guest bed in the second bedroom. We’re planning on doing some thrift/vintage shopping for most of the items – – – the idea of refinishing old pieces in a funky and unique way appeals to both of us, so we’ll see what we’re able to find. As for the futon, we want to save up and get a nice one. No more Walmart crap for us! In the meantime, any visitors will sleep on a queen-sized air mattress.

So… that pretty much gets everyone caught up with what I’ve been doing. I’m leaving for a business trip to Boston tomorrow, and then a couple of days after I get home my parents are coming into town for a visit. This will be the first time I’ve seen then since Kirk and I got engaged and moved into our new place, so I think it will be an exciting trip for them. Also, this will be the trip when we do the “parent introductions”, so that will be super fun as well. I have no doubt that everyone is going to get along – – – I think it will be a good time. We’re going to have everyone over to our new place for dinner, so I’m going to need to figure out what I’m going to make. I’ll make sure to keep everyone updated, and hopefully will find some more time to write I start to settle back into some semblance of my old routine 🙂