Time for a little update... We were in the paper! I guess it's official now.=D
 

And we have a house... I hope to have it remodeled by the wedding which will be on August 22nd, or at least that is the plan right now.





Later!
~James

Just in case you missed it, Ellen and I are engaged...

...and as promised here is the story of the most amazing Valentine's Day of my life....

It begins like so...

She thought I was going to be in the mountains with my family for Valentine's Day weekend but her Dad and I had different ideas. (I had flowers delivered on Friday to throw her off and a note saying how I really wished I could be with her but... hehehe) Anyway, I had to get up at 3:30am the morning of Feb 14th to get to the airport, but it was worth it of course. I arrived in FL at 10:30am on Valentine's Day and her Dad picked me up while doing "errands." He and I then went to "Perry's", a resort on the ocean that their family has gone to since before Ellen was even a twinkle in her Daddy's eye. When we arrived we got the front desk ladies in on our scheme and I gave them a teddy bear...
 
...with a note for Ellen. Then Mr. Joe called Ellen and the rest of the fam on the phone to meet him there to "see the renovations" they had done at the resort and then go out to lunch as a family, still of course not letting on that I was there with him. I went down to the beach and set up a CD player on a towel and drew a heart in the sand near by, and he stayed out front to meet the fam. When they got there and came into the lobby the front desk lady was like "hey do you guys know someone named Ellen Gibilisco? This little teddy bear just walked in a little before you and said he had a very important message for her.” The message told her to run on down to the beach for something special.

So then she and the fam walked down to the pool by the beach and then when she saw me down by the ocean she ran on down to me while the fam stayed back by the pool. For a while all we could do was hold each other and cry...then after our tearful embrace I hit play on the CD player and our favorite song "Better Together" started. Then I got down on one knee....

...held her hand and asked her to marry me to which she responded with an emphatic and tearful YES! I then handed her the ring in its little box...

...we opened it together and then I slipped it on her pretty little finger. Then of course there was more hugging as our song finished playing and then we headed back up to see the family so Ellen could show off her new ring.

After hugs and a couple pix with the family....



....Ellen and I headed out just the two of us for lunch at "Aunt Catfish", a favorite restaurant of theirs where we had a very yummy happy lunch together. 


Sooooo, that is basically the story. I feel soooo blessed and fortunate. God is really far too good to me... I have the most gorgeous, wonderful, beautiful fiancee in the world!!!





I wuv you Ellen!!!!



Ellen is an amazing singer btw. Enjoy this video of her singing at her church the day after we were engaged.

Grace and peace,

~James

So it's been a while, and a few things have happened, so I guess I should post... I got a new 22 round drum mag for my handgun to celebrate the new President's installation. I still have not had a chance to shoot with it but that time will come soon I am sure.

To change the subject slightly, we are in the process of adding a room onto our house underneath where we enclosed our back porch a while back, so I thought I would put a few pix up of the progress...








 





And then in other news I joined a gym the last week in December. I know that might seem funny seeing as how my last post was the New Years Resolution song which basically pokes fun at things like going to the gym, but oh well... I debated joining for a while and finally decided to go ahead and do it. Some might think it is just another monthly bill that is not necessary, but I look at the monthly payment ($28) and the time I spend there as an investment in the future, equally as important as my monthly contributions to my Roth IRA, 401(k) at work and general contingency fund. I guess it just doesn't make sense to put all this money away for the future without investing at least some of it toward my future good health eh? (There is of course the short term incentive of looking gooood at the beach, but that should not be the focus of course). So anyways, I would encourage you all to either join a gym and go regularly or buy your own home workout equipment and invest some time using it each day so that you can be a good steward of the body God has given you.

I hope you all get a good "return" on your "investments" in 09, and even if you don't, remember, you are in it for the long run.

~James