Stuffsez

So last time I posted, it was sometime in February. Since then, I have been engaged for almost 2 months (tomorrow will be 2 months!), almost made it through my 4th semester at BYU, had a Bridal Shower, and well...just life.

Oh, and I guess I promised pictures from the proposal in one of my last posts. Oops! Since it'll take too long to post individually, I'll link facebook album to this.

He Proposed!!


The weekend J.J. proposed, we went to Oregon to visit his family. It was my first time to visit and I had so much fun!! Here are a few pictures from that weekend.

A view of his house
J.J. in front of his old high school
pretty!!
a beautiful sunset at his house
milkshakes at Burgerville...so yummy!!

J.J. and I babysat some of my little cousins and to repay us (which they didn't have to do-those kids are so well-behaved and so much fun!), my aunt and uncle gave us a gift card to Macaroni Grill. We decided to make a fancy date out of it...complete with dressing up!

J.J. drew this on the table at the restaurant...it's us if you can't tell

Since last June, J.J. has been working at the BYU Multicultural Student Services office. Part of his responsibilities there have been to organize the BYU Fiesta. It's program they do every year to celebrate Latin American cultures. Volunteers spend hours and hours learning dances from the different Latin American countries. It was a lot of hard work and could be very frustrating, but it ended up being a great success!! (See J.J.'s blog for more about the Fiesta.) One great thing about Fiesta was that some of his family came to visit. His mom (Robin), his sister (and one of my bridesmaids-Kandis), and his Grandma Till. It was the first time I met his grandma. It was so great to see everyone. His cousin Stacia (and ironically one of my Physical Science TAs) also came to see Fiesta with us.

me, Kandis, Robin
me and Kandis

Grandma Till and Stacia
Stacia and Kandis
J.J. He was working during Fiesta-sound and lighting, etc.

I have a WEDDING DRESS!!! Wow! It's so crazy! Last month, I went shopping with a couple of my aunts. It was so much fun. And I found the PERFECT dress! It's beautiful and I actually look good in it too! ;) Basically, I couldn't be happier with it. Obviously I'm not posting pictures of it on here because a certain person is NOT allowed to see it before August 21 (I'm talking about my fiance if you couldn't figure that out). But if you really want to see it, I can email pictures to you (on the condition that you will not let J.J. see them).

another point of view

J.J. posted his version of the proposal story on his blog:
http://jtothe2ndpower.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-get-engaged-to-erin.html

Don't worry...I'll post pictures soon!

I'm getting married!!!

My Proposal Story:

On Friday February 13, 2009, Joshua Joseph Despain proposed to me! For the three-day weekend, we were going to fly out to Oregon to visit his family. The flight supposedly left at 7:30pm and we were going to meet my aunt and uncle in Salt Lake City at 5:30pm so they could drop us off at the airport. When I picked J.J. up from campus at 4:00pm, he informed me that he "forgot" some stuff at his apartment and we need to go there first. While I was waiting for him to get everything put together (and he was taking his dear, sweet time doing it), my roommate/best friend Jamie called. She also "forgot" something at our apartment. According to her, she was at Thanksgiving Point with her brother and forgot to bring a book that she needed to read this weekend. Since Thanksgiving Point is on the way to Salt Lake City, she was wondering if we could drop it off on our way. I, being the nice, caring roommate, of course said that we would.

We finally got on our way…quite late, I might add. We weren’t even to Thanksgiving Point and it was already 5:00pm. I called my aunt to let her know we wouldn’t make it in time and that we’d just park at the airport. Luckily she didn’t answer the phone; she probably would’ve given something away. I called Jamie when we were close to Thanksgiving Point to find out where she is. I was hoping she could just meet us in the parking lot because we were running so late. But, Jamie said something about it being too complicated for her to meet us in the parking lot and that we would have to meet her where she was. As we were wandering around outside looking for her (trying to follow her directions which were confusing to me), I was feeling so frustrated at her. After all, we were already being so nice and going out of our way to give her that book. The least she could do was meet us in the dang parking lot!!

We came around this trail and saw this really cute gazebo. J.J. said that maybe Jamie was over there. I noticed that someone had set up a table in the gazebo and said, “No, she can’t be over there. Someone’s stuff is in there. Let’s go look somewhere else.” J.J. kept trying to tell me that, “No, we need to go over there.” After the second or third time, I started catching on. We walked over to the gazebo and in it was a table with a beautiful table cloth, gorgeous flowers, sparkling cider, a candle, a box of chocolates, a frame that Jamie made with pictures of J.J. and I, and…a ring box!

Jamie came out from behind a tree with a video camera. J.J. said, “Erin, you are perfect for me and I’m going to try to be perfect for you.” He knelt down on one knee and said, “Erin Leila Wake, will you marry me?” I, of course, immediately said yes! Then he put the ring on my finger. It is absolutely perfect! I love it!! (And him, of course!!)

Right after that, Ilarene and Aimee (two of my other roommates) and Beth (another really good friend) came out of hiding. They had also helped set everything up. I’m so glad they were there too. Beth took a lot of pictures of before and after the proposal. (There aren’t any of the actual proposal…Beth was hiding and Jamie has it on video.)

And that’s basically it. We each called our families and sent out mass texts to everyone to let them know the terrific news. Then J.J. and I went to my grandparents’ house so they could take us to the airport. It turns out that the flight didn’t actually leave until 9:00pm. We made it to the airport in plenty of time and had an absolutely fantastic time with his family in Oregon. I have definitely hit the jackpot with my future in-laws. They are great!

I am so excited! We have set a date for our wedding. J.J. and I are getting married in the Houston, Texas temple on August 21, 2009 at 12:00pm. We’ll have a reception in Tomball that night and then one in Oregon (where he is from) a week or two later. I could not be happier. He is the perfect man for me and I love him so much. I am so glad I get to spend my life with him.

(I don't have time to post pictures right now, but I'll get them posted soon!)

I love three-day weekends!

Especially this one. This weekend is President's Day and we get Monday off of school. Hip hip hooray! (It's also Valentine's day :) )

And I have some very fun plans. I'm going to Oregon!! The Dalles, Oregon to be exact. Why, you ask? To visit J.J.'s family, of course! We are leaving tomorrow after classes to fly out there. His dad works for Delta, so if we fly standby, J.J. can fly for free and I can use a buddy pass, which is much much much cheaper than an actual ticket. We'll get there tomorrow night. Then we'll leave Monday morning to come back to Provo.


I'm not sure exactly what we're doing...I'm leaving that up to J.J. I'm really excited though. His family is great (I've met them once before). I'm not sure if I've ever talked about them before (probably not, since I hardly every update). J.J. is the oldest of 7 children. He has a brother on a mission in Brazil, 4 sisters, and another little brother.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll let everyone know how my weekend goes...and I have a feeling it'll be very wonderful...hopefully with some really exciting news when I get back. ;)

yet another update...

Wow. I am definitely not good at this whole blog thing. I just can't stay on top of it. Oh well. I guess this means it's time for a very quick update. And since I'm lazy, plus it takes too long, instead of uploading pictures, I'm just going to post links to the pictures on my facebook profile.

November 2008:

My really good friend Alan (from Aspen Grove last summer) left on his mission. I went to his farewell. He will be serving in the Chile Santiago East mission.

I went home for Thanksgiving break. It was my first time back in Tomball since July 2007. It was great to be back! My family moved into their new house in October, so it was great to see it for the first time.

December 2008:

One night, J.J. and I went on a double date with my roommate and his roommate (Michelle and Jon). It was so much fun. We went to Salt Lake-ate at a fancy-shmancy restaurant and went to Temple Square.

Finals...ew. (Enough said). But the good thing about those is I am now officially a Junior (credit-wise at least). I still have a ways to go til I can graduate though.

Christmas break was so awesome. I loved being back with my family. One funny story about Christmas day... Our tradition for Christmas morning is that we (the kids-me, Braden, and Dallin) can't wake our parents up until 7am (and can't go downstairs to the tree/presents either). My dad always goes first to make sure Santa came and to light a fire in the fireplace. In our old house, the fireplace was only gas. In our new house, it's supposedly interchangeable. Christmas morning would have been the first time to use the fireplace. My dad couldn't figure out how to open up the damper or something so after he lit the fire and called up to us to tell us that Santa did indeed visit, all of the smoke alarms went off. And boy was it loud. I though I would have to get some hearing aids afterward! We (the kids) rushed around upstairs opening windows, etc. But we still couldn't go downstairs. Finally, the alarms stopped and we were able to proceed with checking out the loot Santa brought us (about an hour later than normal).

J.J. visited!! He arrived on December 27 and stayed til January 3. That week was probably my favorite part of the break. :) He was able to visit Tomball Ward (THE best ward EVER), and I gave him a tour of Tomball. haha. There wasn't much to show! On Tuesday, J.J., Braden, Dallin, and I went to Space Center Houston. It was a lot of fun.

January 2009:

I can't believe it's 2009 already!! I have a feeling that this year is going to be a big one!

Continuing with Christmas break... Since he was visiting, J.J. celebrated New Year's with my family. January 1st marked him being home from his mission for one year. (Sorry if that sentence doesn't make sense. It sounds kinda awkward to me.)

My dad's birthday was the 2nd. We went down to Galveston and then to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge to see alligators. Sadly, there were no alligators to be found. It was still a nice outing though.

My 2nd semester of my 2nd year at BYU started on January 5th. I'm enjoying my classes this semester. My Shakespeare class is interesting. And I'm taking Doctrine and Covenants (the 2nd half) with J.J. Sadly, due to conflicts with my schedule, I wasn't able to continue with ASL. Maybe I'll get back into it later.

I met J.J.'s family a few weeks ago. (Well, technically last semester I met some of them-his dad and two sisters that are in high school.) I met the rest of them (minus his brother who is serving a mission in Brazil) in January. We went ice skating (and I only fell down once!!). His sister Kandis (a freshman in college) spent the night at my apartment and went to Church with us. I had so much fun. His family is great!

February 2009:

Not much has happened yet, after all, it's still the beginning of the month. I just had my first round of midterms. That was a lot of fun, let me tell you.

This past Saturday night, J.J. and I went to the Young Ambassadors' show..."The New Music Makers." It was so much fun. They are very talented.

This weekend is a three-day weekend (Hurray for President's day!). And guess where I'll be!! In Oregon! J.J. and I are flying up to visit his family. It'll be so great. I'm really looking foward to it.

I've had a great past few months. I'll try to be better at updating.


Photo albums:
Thanksgiving Break in Houston

Fall Semester '08 Continued

Christmas Break in Tomball

J.J.'s Visit to Houston!!



P.S. J.J. has a blog and last week he posted the absolute sweetest blog post I've every read. I love it. You should read it. That's all. Click here.

I'm 20!!! (Yeah, I know this is late...sorry!)

On October 11, I turned twenty!! Wow...I feel old. haha. So on Friday at midnight, I opened up my package from my family. Jamie (my aMaZiNg roommate) and J.J. were there. (Don't worry...we didn't break curfew or anything- curfew is til 1:30am on Fridays.)






The BYU Homecoming game was on my birthday. We played against New Mexico....and won!! It was really cold that day.




After the game, I had a little party/get together thing at my apartment. It was so much fun. J.J., my roommates Jamie, Shalynn, and Ilarene, two friends from last year Chelsea and Erika, and an FHE brother Jon came. We had pizza and cake, hung out, and watched a movie. Oh!! Speaking of cake! My aunt Saundra made an awesome cake for me to surprise me. It's the size of Texas...and I'm NOT kidding!

Basically, I had an amazing birthday. It's still kinda weird to think I'm no longer a teenager, but I love it!

Conference Weekend!!!

This first picture isn't from Conference weekend, but whatever. J.J. is in a history of Jazz class and had to attend a Jazz concert about a week and a half ago. So I went with him. This is a picture of us before the concert...I really like it except the light kinda is reflect weird in one of his eyes. But oh well I guess.


Now for the actually conference weekend. It was so much fun!! My best friend Brittany came down from Rexburg (where she's attending BYU-Idaho) to visit me. I hadn't seen her in over a year so it was so great to see her and catch up and everything. For the Saturday sessions of conference, Brittany, J.J., and I went to my aunt and uncle's house in Lehi. My cousin Cara, her husband Jeff, and their baby Mckenna were visiting. I didn't really get to see Cara, but it was a lot of fun being a baby hog (I'm not sure my cousin Rylie really appreciated that!!).





We (again, Brittany, J.J., and I) went to Jillian's apartment for the Sunday sessions. We met Jillian's boyfriend, Jon (we approve...haha). And during the sessions, we made chocolate chip pancakes! So much fun.




The talks given at Conference were so uplifting. I just love conference!! And it was even better because I was able to spend it with great friends.