Tomorrow I have asked off so I can go to the rodeo, but sounds like our beautiful week of SUNNY skies and warmth may lead up to a day of thunderstorms....you guessed forecasted for tomorrow, Saturday--Rodeo day.

In other news....at work today and may I just say--working with psych patients can be interesting. He's swatted at another nurse's backside, tried to kiss several nurses included myself not long after getting to work today AND he put his arm around my neck and started to dig his fingers into the side of my neck while his face went very serious...NOT GOOD!

RIGHT NOW---

I'm CRAVING a supreme DiGiorno pizza and chocolate chip cookie dough!!!

Might just have to make a stop on the way home tonight after work...hmm

Dustin and I are engaged!

He proposed on Jan. 30th, 2010. Yes, ladies he even got down on one knee :D

A few days before he asked me out on a date and told me to dress up. We are the typical jeans and t-shirt, dinner and a movie date. Sometimes lunch and running errands date :D So, making plans for a dress up date was really special :D

I had the perfect dress. I had just gotten a couple weeks before and hadn't had an opportunity to wear it. It's dressy for me and due to my schedule hadn't been able to wear it to church either. SO, my first opportunity to wear my dressy dress.

Sat, Jan. 30th, I received a bouquet of red roses! Definitely surprised! I LOVE flowers.

Our date was set for 6 pm, but as I was starting to get ready aprox 2 hrs before (I wanted to curl my hair and have it up and look nicer than my typical granny bun), Dustin called asking if we could move the time back to 7:30 pm. No problem for me... I still wasn't ready in time.

He arrived and had to wait for me about 15 minutes before I was ready, BUT...his first comment when he saw me "You look very beautiful" THANKS :D That's what I was going for. We took pics together before leaving the house with my roses, then headed out. It was very cold and windy outside, so I made sure to have a bit of a jacket with me, but it wasn't much.

Dustin drove us down to Sugar Land city square. Have you been there? In the middle of the square is a fountain with trees on the outskirts wrapped in white christmas lights, so when dark it looked really pretty...a very nice setting. I knew we were headed to dinner somewhere but wasn't really sure where or what the plans were. Dustin was good about keeping it a surprise.

Ok, so we park and Dustin mentions that our reservation isn't until 9 pm, so we're going to walk around a bit. My thoughts: It's FREEZING cold and WINDY outside, are you CRAZY???!!?!? But, I was very good about keeping my thoughts to myself and we got out, linked arms, and headed down the walk. If you are familiar with this area, you know there are a shops around this square. I got us to go into the FIRST shop I saw that was open. My thoughts: MUST get warm :D lol. We walked around a bit, warmed up, then headed back out into the night. We decided to start heading back towards the middle of the square where the fountain was and go past to the Starbucks for a hot chocolate and to warm up, enjoy chatting before the reservation time arrived. For some reason, instead of walking right beside the road and crossing in front of the fountain to go to the Starbucks, Dustin leads us around the fountain....my action: BRACE yourself and continue to keep moving. My teeth are chattering, my body is trembling. The wind is quite strong and did I mention it's cold outside? Why are we going the long way around the fountain? Ok, Court, just keep your mouth shut, enjoy the date and look at the beautiful fountain and the lit trees making the setting so nice and pretty. Dustin is just guiding you this way so we can enjoy the square even though it is a crisp night.

We get to the center of the fountain on the side away from the sidewalk and Dustin stops. Fine with me, we are facing each other, he's blocking the wind from me and he's rubbing my arms to stimulate heat and help warm me a bit. We're both shaking and trembling but he looks into my eyes and we smile. He takes a deep breath, then " Courtney, you know I love." Smile. "You know I would do anything for you" Smile. He begins to fumble in his left pocket for something and pulls out a white jewelry box. He's holding my right hand and nods to my left. My first thought and statement, "I'm not getting down on my knee, that's your job." He laughed and said, "No, I have the wrong hand. I need your left hand." I laugh too and smile, take my ring off my left hand and hold his hand. Then, he dropped to one knee and asked, "Courtney, will you marry me?" I'm rarely a serious person, so no, I did not cry. Dustin and I have been in and out of a relationship for years and I've known all along where his heart and his intentions were. So, while I wasn't sure he was going to propose that night. I was not completely shocked and surprised when he did. While he was on his knee, I bent over and asked "Are you sure? You know I can be a lot to handle." He laughed and nodded that he was sure. My reply? "Yes, Dustin, I will marry you." I remember all I could do was look in his eyes and smile. He got up and placed the ring on my finger and I could still only look in his eyes. He asked if I was going to look at the ring and I remember replying yes and looking down at my hand. He chose a beautiful ring which I absolutely love. Not long after we headed into the Starbucks (remember, we are both still trembling from the cold wind).

There are 12 hearts on the ring, 3 down each band and 3 on each side of the circle of diamonds. Above the circle of diamonds in one main solitaire (it's has the layered look with antique style to it).

After Starbucks, we enjoyed a lovely dinner at P.F. Chang's and enjoyed talking about our future and enjoying dinner with each other.

Hope you enjoyed our story if you lasted through my long-windedness ;)

Check out the website: www.paintingwithatwist.com

Sounds like a ton of fun! For those of you who may have been privy to Mrs. Farish's classes to paint china plates...this sounds like fun with canvas!

Some of my coworkers are talking about it and I definitely would like to go!

Any of you been before? There are several locations across Texas.

Any thoughts on pretty places to live? Anyone want to move to Alaska or ever lived in Alaska? OR any other equally beautiful place promising adventure?!?!

My internship with Mem. Hermann Sugar Land is over in January, so my 18 mon. committment will be complete. I wouldn't mind staying here, but I also think this might be the perfect opportunity to move around a bit. The only downside....a nursing certification is not national. It's certified by state, so if I moved states, I'd have to make sure I got certification in that state so I could keep my license up to date.