did i forget to mention this?

hello!  phew!  wow, hi, guys!  it's been a real long time.  i'm sorry to leave such a gap.
it's hard to know where to pick up because so much has happened within the last couple months, but i just have to start with this: my dear man, my francis, and i are ENGAGED!!  wowie wow wow!  most folks who are reading this know that already, but there's somethin important to me about documenting it here and making a special post.  blogging has been something i've done since my senior year of high school (!!) and it's seen me through lots of things since then, but this being the biggest... the one i've imagined and wondered about and prayed for & about all those years now has a face and a name! (it's francis by the way, if ya didn't catch that ;)) 
he is the one i've chosen to love and serve and be with for the rest of my days, and that is something significant (kinda huge, actually) and i don't take it lightly.  to be quite honest though, the few weeks after engagement where some of my toughest ever.  i'm not going to go into too much here because there's real, loving, in-person friends, family, and community for that, but francis and i had to come face-to-face with ways we hadn't loved each other super well, and it was just real tough.  we'll still have good things to work through in this season, but if you could earnestly pray for us, it would mean a lot to both of us.  prayer is really really special and important to me, and especially as i'm figuring out what the heck it looks like to commit to someone so seriously and intimately and love him well.  i'm humbled and grateful to get to choose francis and to be loved by him.

onto pictures from the day! ...

^ oh that handsome man i love so much.  i really love him, guys.  like, really really love him.

francis just killed it the whole day of the proposal, but it was extra special that it all went down in eau claire.  putnam rock is where he proposed, and that is really meaningful (kinda like he planned that!  hmmm..), filled with lots & lots & lots of memories (holla back, october 2013! ..just one example) but gotta say, the best mem there has to be june 16th, 2018 ;) and, THIS SUNSET was the sweetest gift from God.

^ one of the pictures francis' friend, sid, got when he came over to take a few pics for us.  (i later realized he had taken a bunch of the proposal from the other side of the river too!  sneaky!  i'll have to put some of those on here sometime too!)
the most perfect ring.  i couldn't have picked a better one.  it's so perfect, i love it so much.

oh man, i jumped and smiled and cried (like, ugly cried, ha) and was just really really really happy that night! ^

​and for some pics from earlier that day...

this day was hot, like SO hot, and we both got nice & sweaty longboarding around to a bunch of shops participating in a giveaway thing in downtown eau claire.  afterwards, fran had this super great picnic dinner packed for us to go to mount simon (another eau claire gem!).  i especially liked it because the picnic he packed was the same picnic he and the other staff would pack with groups when he worked at expeditions unlimited camp for a few years!  like that he shared that with me.

those trees!  that man!  hah, sitting so straight.

the day after the proposal, fran and i joined my fam back at my parents' house for dinner/father's day, and i'm so glad.  here's a pic of 5 eventual sibs!  woah!

and that's a little glimpse of the day, though there's lots more i could say.  i'll be sharing more soon of other events that have happened these past months, but had to start with this one.  (with a note that i am currently waiting for this man to come home from south asia on the 8th.. eek, hurry hurry, time!)
thanks for sharing in my life, in whatever ways you have, dear readers.
excited for all that this next season of my life will bring and teach and grow me in.

also, i love you, francis.  you're the one that i want, yessir!