Let the Registries Commence!

Frank: Heyo blogosphere! Jessica and I have started the first of our wedding registries (how exciting, right?). So first up is our Wish List from Barnes and Noble, because every young couple needs a few books to populate all their new bookshelves, and to help us out as Humanities minors ;D Go ahead, don't be shy! You know you don't want to wait until the last minute to buy us a wedding present, and this here from B&N is the easy stuff. Until next time... Here's the list! UPDATE: Amazon too!

http://my.barnesandnoble.com/Frank-Brazells-My-MyWishList/wl/151403512/#
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&type=wedding&id=KHJ4HZE7MGMA

Once Upon a Time

Frank: Hey everybody! So here's the deal...

Jessica: We just got engaged! :D

Frank: Well, last Saturday, May 12th, 2012... And it was awesome! I'd been planning it for quite some time, so now we're going to go back...

Jessica: To the beginning....

Frank: She was conceived on---

Jessica: Woah, woah, woah, woah! What are you talking about? It all began back when God created the heavens and the earth, we can look in Genesis chapter 1...

Frank: Woah, woah, woah yourself! That's WAY too far back... How about this, let's tell them OUR story. 

Jessica: Okay :)

Frank: Once upon a time: We were Freshmen at CIU. It was mid-September, and I saw this girl!

Jessica: At the same time, I didn't know this guy who saw me existed! :D

Frank: I frantically scoured my hallmates for information, only to discover that her name was Jessica. I then proceeded to creep on her and find out her last name, which I then used to Facebook stalk her! At this point, I discovered that she was a vegetablearian XD

Jessica: Yeah :) I still didn't know he existed :)

Frank: I had no idea how I was going to meet her, but I was worried about a direct confrontation. And then my miracle occurred when my friend Kris introduced me to her on September 16th, 2010.

Jessica: Once again, it was Friday, September 17th, dear ;)

Frank: O.o I always forget that... Anyway, we were introduced! Shortly afterwards, we ate lunch together, and I guided the conversation based on what I already knew about her (from stalking her).

Jessica: I just thought it was all coincidence that we had so much in common.  I enjoyed the conversation, although everyone around us was making it a bit awkward... I thought "is this typical CIU behavior when two people meet and have a convo?" but little did I know... I felt something strange about the whole thing though.  It wasn't a bad feeling, just a strange one.  And suddenly - know lie - I felt like something was saying, "this guy is going to be pretty important to you, Jessica, in some way..." It shocked me, and I tried to hide the shock in my face (I apparently did a good job of it), but I continued listening to what he was saying... Then the convo stopped with awkward silence... until he said, "...welllll I better go..." or something like that.

Frank: In typical 'Frank' fashion, I must say that you said: 'Know', instead of 'No' XD. So later that night, I asked her if she would be doing Adopt-A-Highway the following morning, although she had no idea of my true intentions. She said she was. "No way! Me too." And I waited...

Jessica: 'Wow, how cool...O.o" I thought, but I wasn't bothered by it ;) Apparently right before then, he had ripped his pants on accident just to come down and see me! xD  Anyways ;) That night, I go to my hall and a few girls sitting with us at lunch ask, "Who's Frank!?" obviously joking around.  I blush and say, "some guy I just met..." trying to hide the awkwardness of my position.  Well I tell my friend Monica (and another girl in her room) about the feeling I had at lunch while talking to this Frank-guy.  She was pretty excited, but obviously knew something I didn't.  She didn't press it though, and said she was really happy for me.  That night was the first time I prayed for our friendship/relationship...

Frank: Aww, shucks!

Jessica: Yup :)  I remember asking God what He wanted to do with this new friendship and I really sought Him out.  I felt something special earlier and I really wanted to take it seriously because I had never felt it before.  I asked God to bless our friendship, and to show me what He wants to do with it.  I felt so good talking to God about it :)  The next morning...

Frank: The next morning, I was out in front of the administration building, worried that she wouldn't show up. And then she did! We cleaned up garbage for a few hours, and I cut my ankle, so she brought me back to CIU and cleaned my wounds, in full romantic glory.

Jessica: Monica was with us, so it spared any awkwardness that could have been at that point - I still didn't know anything about his intentions.  Well, while we were walking along, picking up trash, we talked about our aunts and uncles and our families, and he told me that he was going to take his eleven year old sister to the zoo that day to talk to her about her relationship with Jesus Christ.  I thought, 'wow! that's so cool!' and I explained to him my family situation.  We talked about politics, and about the government (he likes monarchy..) and I explained to him ALL of my family (extended family included. At a certain point, he mentioned something about going to somewhere that night with some CIU and USC students.  I don;t remember if he asked me to come, or something like that, but I ended up saying that I would like to join them...

Frank: So that night, we went with some of my friends and saw a movie: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which is one of the most awesome movies EVER! We enjoyed ourselves, although I kept running to the bathroom because I thought that I smelled bad, but it was all good, it wasn't me. After the movie, we got dropped-off at CIU, while my friends continued their night of mayhem. It was eleven o'clock, and I asked her if she would like to walk around campus and talk for a little while. Boy was I nervous.

Jessica: I was like "...well sure :D yeah :D.... why not? It's only eleven... :)" So we embarked on our two hour journey around our ten-minute-per-lap-campus...

Frank: Sweetheart... Pick a color already. And seconds into our two-hour walk... I told her how much I liked her! And the world has never been the same. (Que amazing music).  So we started 'not-dating' for the next few months, waiting before we started dating... Then on December 14th, 2010, I couldn't take it anymore, so I asked her if she wanted to start dating. She said... 'Okay'. Way-to-go, darling, way-to be nonchalant about everything. We dated through ups and downs, through long-distance and no-distance, to make it through fun times and the rough stuff. 

Jessica: I picked purple!

Frank: I love you :D And then, on Saturday, May 12th, 2012, we went on an adventure to Biltmore House and Gardens in Asheville, NC. Why don't you tell the nice people what happened there, darling? ;)

 

Jessica: For the records, his exact first words were: "In case you haven't already been able to tell, I really like spending time with you.  And I want you to know up front that I really like you..."  First thing that came out of his mouth. I smiled and blushed and looked away from him and thought two things, "that's really strange... we just met... but that was actually really cute of him :)))))" and with the consideration of the feeling I had earlier the day before, I turned back and waited for ANYthing to come out of my mouth.  Over all, we actually were dating before it was considered "official" in December.  Alright, back to May 12, 2012!!!

I had never been to Biltmore before - he had.  He wanted me to see Biltmore from the top of the hill where the statue of Diana stood under a vined gazebo.  He was having trouble setting up the camera so that we could take a picture, so I offered to help and he snapped out, "No! I've got it!" I backed away thinking, "Well, goodness..." So we got in position to take the picture.  I see the red light blink and I started walking towards the camera to look at the picture when he called me back over and pointed at something for me to look at.  While I was looking into the middle of space...

Frank: This happened...

'Jessica Lee Greve, you are my best friend in the whole wide world, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you so  much. Will you marry me?'

And she said yes.