Addicted to Reading

Rob and I have spent a lot of our time together reading this summer. Since I have hour-long lunch breaks in Idaho Falls, I spend most of that time reading, and then I get so into my books that I want to read more when I get home. Rob is fine with that, because he also loves to read. The picture above was taken when we went to Monkey Rock with a group of people, and just couldn't put our books down. My summer roommates always comment on how cute it is that we read together, but I think deep down they think we're boring old people.

Anyway, we decided to blog about the books we are currently reading. I started out the summer reading the "Hearts of the Children" series by Dean Hughes, which is a sequel series to the "Children of the Promise" series, which I read last summer. I think I liked the first series better, but they are both good, and I feel like I have learned a little bit about the historical time periods in which they take place.

When I finished that series, I didn't know what to do with myself, so Rob got me "Twilight." It was just the kind of book I wanted to read, and I am a fan. However, after buying both the first and second books in paperback, Rob found out that the third book isn't going to come out in paperback for another year! I didn't want to buy the third book in hardback, because that would ruin my collection. So I'm waiting to read the third until I can borrow it! And I'll probably have to wait to borrow the fourth as well... Meanwhile, I borrowed a Nicholas Sparks book from Katie called "True Believer." It's getting me through my lunch breaks.


Rob has been reading a series called "The Wheel of Time" for a while. He is on book 6 out of 13 right now. The author, Robert Jordan, passed away before he could finish the 13th and final book. Luckily, he had chosen someone to finish the series for him, so Rob won't have to be left without an ending to his series. Rob likes reading fantasy books, and I have decided that the next series I read will be "Fablehaven," because I've heard it is good, and to make Rob happy. Who knows, maybe I'll become a fantasy fanatic and stop teasing him so much.

Rob gave me a copy of "The Screwtape Letters" for Easter, and we decided to read it together. It's not a quick and easy read, and it's helpful for us to be able to slowly read one chapter at a time and talk about it. So far, it's been really interesting and insightful.

That's our reading blog! If you have any book suggestions, let us know!

Engagement

Here's the story, written by Rachel:

I spent a few days last week in Chicago for an internship conference, and flew back to Idaho on Friday. Rob had told me earlier not to eat dinner because he wanted to go eat with me in Idaho Falls. When I got off the plane, he was waiting, all dressed up in slacks and a button-up shirt. He looked (and smelled) great, and I was just wearing jeans. We went to the car, and I found out that he had gone to my apartment and gotten a few skirts for me to choose from, knowing that I didn't have one with me. However, he thought I had church shoes with me, but I didn't, so I just ended up wearing slacks and a dressy shirt I got in Chicago. The skirts were very thoughtful though! When we got to the car, I also realized that he had totally cleaned it, inside and out. I have been driving his car to work, since I commute and his gets better gas mileage, and I had unfortunately left it pretty messy. But he had fully cleaned and vacuumed it, and even fixed the rearview mirror which had recently broken.

We went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, and it was delicious. I had never eaten there before. Afterwards, we went to the Idaho Falls temple to walk around. It was dark by then and no one else was around. As we were walking towards the gardens, we looked up to see fireworks that someone nearby was setting off. (I'd always wanted there to be fireworks when I got engaged, so it was so lucky that they showed up, unplanned!) Everything was so romantic.

We went to the back of the temple in a fenced area and stood for a while. Rob was nervous, and I kind of was too. (I definitely had my suspicions about this super-romantic date). Finally, he got down on his knee, pulled the ring from his pocket, and asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes. The ring is so beautiful! It was slightly too big so we took it to be re-sized yesterday, and I already miss it!



We wanted to take a few pictures at the temple, but I had used Rob's camera in Chicago, not knowing we would need it when I got home, and the battery died right away. So we headed back to Rexburg, calling our parents on the way, and went to see my sister, Katie. She and her boyfriend took pictures for us at the Rexburg temple. The whole night was perfect!




I am so excited to get married to my best friend!

Starting a new life!

So Rachel and I got engaged on this last Friday, July 11, 2008. It was perfect, really. I couldn't have asked for more. I mean, there were fireworks going off! How was I to know that someone was going to light off fireworks on the day I propose? It was very, very convenient. Rachel was and still is ecstatic! I'm grateful to her because she didn't even hesitate to say yes. Saturday we took the ring to get sized. It will be ready on Tuesday. We're very excited to start our new life together. Since everyone seems to have a blog nowadays, we decided that it would only be right for us to do the same. This is just a starting post, but we'll get some pictures up soon of the night that we got engaged. We know you're all dying to see them.

Rob Loves Rachel!