Dear Readers,

It’s been a while since I’ve written a real personal post.  But I think it’s about time I catch you all up on me.

There’s been a lot going on in the past few months.  I’ve been pretty busy, which is one of the reasons for the lack of blogging.  It is the middle of wedding season, yes, but there’s something else that has been occupying my time.  Well… really… SOMEONE else.   So I think it’s time for a proper introduction.

When I posted this photo on facebook a while back with the caption, “Me & my sweetie”, it caused quite an uproar.

63 comments and 182 “likes” lead me to believe that people are pretty excited for me. 😉

Then when I posted this pretty photo that my roommate, Ally, took of us when when she photographed my friend Julie’s wedding, PEOPLE. FREAKED. OUT!!!!

A bunch of people thought I got married.  I was a bridesmaid, people!!!!  Do they not know me at all?  Don’t you think there would have been a big… no, HUGE announcement had I gotten engaged?  Believe me.  You’ll know.  EVERYONE will know.

So who is this mystery guy?  His name is Tony and he is just the sweetest guy ever.  Doesn’t he just have the kindest eyes?

Let me start at the beginning.  We met on eharmony.  I’ve been a member off and on (mostly on) for years.  I’d given up on it many times, even though so many of my friends and clients have had success on there.  We got matched in February and started emailing each other.  When I saw his photos I was drawn to his smile.  He just looked so kind.  Everyone I showed his photo to said the same thing.

And I looked forward to every email!  So finally I said, “I’d really like to meet you.  How do we make that happen?”  The feeling was mutual so we met for the first time on St. Patrick’s Day.  We agreed to meet for coffee at The Night Owl, my local hangout.  It was raining that day so I drove all of 2 minutes (maybe) down the road.  In walked this REALLY tall guy carrying a gift bag and a box of cupcakes.  I liked him already. 🙂  After we awkwardly hugged and sat down at our little table he told me that he had brought two gluten-free chocolate cupcakes (he’s a gluten free guy) for us from a local cupcake shop.  Then he handed me the gift bag, with the disclaimer that he saw this in a store and didn’t know if bringing it to me was too much, but his friend’s girlfriend told him it was OK (pretty adorable, right?).  It was this mug.

Knowing that the place we were meeting was called the Night Owl, when he saw this at Marshall’s he just couldn’t pass it up.  So cute!  And so thoughtful!

We ended up talking for about 3 hours about all sorts of things.  He’s a full-time graduate student, studying to be a marriage and family therapist and I was super curious what had led him to that place.  We found out we knew some of the same people and that he is currently going to the church where I grew up and my family still attends!  After 3 hours I asked him if he needed to get going.  He said, “Well… um…. would you want to walk around a little?”  Sure!  So I showed him around my little Downtown Fullerton, showing him all of my favorite buildings and restaurants, probably talking WAY too much.  We stepped into Rutabegorz so I could show it to him and he saw the little Jelly Belly machine near the counter.  He put a quarter in and said, “put out your hand”.  So I put out my hand to catch a handful of my very favorite candies.  So sweet!  It showed me that he was listening!

After we walked around for almost an hour we decided we should probably say goodbye.  He asked if I’d want to go out again and of course I said yes.  We hugged goodbye and I headed home.  We both needed to return calls and texts from friends and roommates wanting to know how it went.  I called Ally and my mom and when they asked what I thought of him I said, “He’s one of the sweetest, most genuine guys I’ve ever met.”

And it’s true.  We’ve been dating for about 5 months now,  and as we learn and grow and make each other mad and offer each other grace, I come to appreciate him more and more all the time.  I love that quiet time with God is part of his daily routine and that he’s sensitive to God’s leading.  That he wants to help people become who they’re meant to be.  He tells me how he’s feeling and I don’t have to guess.  He genuinely cares for people.  He’s extremely generous (he surprises me with cupcakes often).  He sings a lot (like me).  He’s SUPER handy (that’s so attractive to me!).  We have a ton of fun together.  I love that he’s tall!  His eyes sparkle.  My friends love him.  My family loves him.  He is just an absolute gift.

So there you go.  That’s a little bit about my sweetie.  I think he’s the bees knees. 🙂

Here’s some photos of us on some of our adventures.

Yes, we’re at a Dodger’s game.  To all of my OC friends, don’t freak out.  Neither of us really cared about the game, we just had some amazingly close free seats that we couldn’t turn down.

We were curious to see if his “wing-span” was as big as a smart car.

Almost!  He’s 6’4″ just in case you’re wondering.

Went up north to meet his family.  He’s silly.

Handsome guy!  We took HWY 1 back home and it was gorgeous!

My brother is excited to have him around.  (me too!)

It’s good to ask someone to take a photo of you so that all of our photos are not unflattering, close-up photos taken at arm’s length.  I’ve got quite a few of those.  Although, most of the time, people seem to leave all sorts of space around you.  I don’t really want a photo of the whole park, lady.  Just us and our picnic.  I had to crop this one a lot and some of the others too.

We often sit out under the magic lights in my backyard.  One night Ally brought her camera out and took some photos of us.  It’s really nice to have an awesome photographer as a roommate!