engaged

last year i proposed to my amazing girlfriend the day she returned from a month long trip to india. i had spent the weeks leading up to her return realizing that i wanted to marry her & trying to scramble & plan a surprise proposal. it was completely rushed & i was about 50% sure that she wasn't going to be ready yet, but it didn't matter. I finally knew that she was the only person I ever wanted to be with for the rest of my life and i needed her to know it. so i got a ring that i felt she would love & slapped together a proposal video journal and went for it.

turns out she wasn't quite ready.

this last year of waiting together for the right time has been a complete gift. I'm so glad i'm going to marry someone who will always be honest with me, even when it's incredibly hard to do so.

that's right! last week she returned the favor & proposed to me in such a fun, creative, meaningful way. a scavenger hunt to several landmark moments in our relationship, ending in a proposal & surprise engagement party with our church community & family. i was so blessed by every moment. so now i'm officially engaged to my beautiful fiancé!

i'm the luckiest.

27

this is the year of 27 for me. like i said in my last post... i'm 27 years old. i've lost 27 lbs... and in an hour or so, i'll have 27 teeth.


kinda crazy.


say a little prayer for me.


pictures to come soon!

growing pains

i feel like a totally different person lately. like i've lost a little bit of who i am. but the parts i'm losing need to go. they've needed to go for a long time now. and it's not just physical things like fat & decay. there are things beneath the service that are slowly melting away. greed. laziness. hardness towards god. i've been finding myself wanting to be more generous. i feel highly motivated. i'm starting to "feel" god like i used to when i was young. i'm just so glad for everything that the lord is bringing me through right now. more than ever, i feel that i'm becoming the man he's created me to be. but it kinda hurts!


today i made my 2nd trip to the dentist. had to get 2 fillings and i actually received some good news! they were concerned that these particular cavities had high potential of becoming root canals. but after removing the decay, they found that they weren't deep enough for root canal procedures. whew! that's a weight off my mind. so... 2 cavities down, 10 to go. AND next week i get to have a tooth extracted. my poor mouth. but hey, it's progress! and even though my mouth is a bit sore, i'm just SO relieved to be getting all of this taken care of now.


on a related note, i'm moving out of the 4plex i've been living in for the last year. i've decided that with all these dental expenses coming up, it might be good to move back home with my amazing parents & save some money. it's been an awesome year living here & i'm really going to miss it in so many ways. i have great roomies & great housemates. but this is also a year to start preparing for the next phase of my relationship with my girlfriend, amanda. don't get too excited! nothing's official yet. but we've been talking about it & i've decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to start saving up for a future wedding & all that comes along with that... who knows... could happen anytime :)


i just turned 27. and guess what folks? that is the amount of pounds i've lost so far! still have a long way to go, but i'm celebrating more than just another year of life... i'm celebrating the years i'm potentially adding to my life(with god's help). i had to buy a belt cause my pants are falling down. i can run almost 4 miles on the elliptical(when i started, it was really hard to do a mile). i just did a 4 day juice fast with manda. didn't particularly enjoy all of it, but i did it.


i honestly don't think i look that different yet. but i am different.


it must be permanent.

new look

so i figured since i'm going through so many changes right now, it'd make sense to give the blog a little tweak. the symbols sort of reflect what i'm focused on right now in life & i thought it was about time to update some of the pictures on the side bar as well as the list of blogs to check out. i'll write an ACTUAL update soon.


till then. peace!

tooth hurty

my friend jeremy recently asked me if that's what time my surgery was scheduled and if they were going to get to the root of the problem. heh...


well good news. the surgery went well and i'm on the mend! my mouth has been a bit sore & stiff... but there hasn't been much swelling at all and i haven't had too hard of a time eating. i'm just so glad this is all getting taken care of... and if that surgery was the worst of it, than i guess you could say it's all downhill from here. (ever since i saw the movie due date i've been confused about that saying)


if you haven't heard yet, i recently started a music blog with my friend jessica. it's called sound of souls. you should check it out if you have time.


merry christmas!

all i want for christmas is tooth #30...

i'm getting surgery on monday. this is an actual picture of my failed root canal. you can kind of see on the right side of the highlighted tooth a dark line running down the root. that's where it got all jacked up. apparently the specialist thinks that there are fragments of a root canal instrument that broke off in the root & caused the failure/infection. bummer.


looks like i'm gonna have a swollen face for christmas.


even though it's somewhat sucky... the bright side is, they don't have to pull my tooth! in 3 months when the surgery is healed, i'll get a crown and be done with all this madness!


thanks for the prayers y'all!

daniel before the endodontic specialist...

so today i get to see an endodontic specialist. they're going to give me a consultation on my failed root canal. $100 just to look at is & see if they can fix it. if they can, it'll cost around $2,500... if they can't, i lose the tooth... tough choice. i guess i'm hoping they can fix it. nobody wants to lose a tooth. ugh...


we'll see what happens i suppose. pray for me y'all!