Kristen And I Are Engaged!?!?! (This Post Is worth the 2 and a half month wait)

So this is quite surreal for me to be actually making a post about this, and I am actually the one getting engaged. For a while I thought that a movie was going to be made about me called 27 Tuxes for how much weddings I have been in. I constantly joke around about how many people post that they are engaged on facebook; literally sometimes it is daily! For a long time I kind of wondered "when will this be me?" Well I'm glad that I have been patient over the years because I have found an amazing woman, Kristen!

Where to really start in this story.... I feel like I have had so much going through my head over the last month or so, so I guess I will go back to about a month ago. Well, I had known for quite a while, even in college that Kristen was an amazing woman, but over the past several months I have really seen it in how she lives out her life. As we have been living life in community together and been dating, I have just seen how she is such a perfect fit for me and how well we work together. I had been thinking through many things throughout the relationship and just really trying to understand what it looks like to have a truly God revering relationship and when to know that I am ready to get married. After spending more time together and getting to know each others families, I just realized that this is a woman that I would love to marry, so then planning had to begin.

So there I was, finally I had decided that I was going for it... I was going to propose! I had always known that whenever i did propose, it was very important to me to make it a complete surprise and something special. So I had to do a lot of planning and precautions. First thing was first... I needed to find a ring. I knew that Kristen wanted me to pick out a ring without her knowing so I just had to go off of what I knew of her. So I went online and looked through many rings of different styles and narrowed it down to 2 rings. The first was a large center diamond with 2 pear shaped diamonds on the side in a very elegant white gold ring. The second, which is the one I chose had a center raised diamond with channel set alternating diamonds and sapphires in a white gold setting. I ended up deciding that because it was very clean and classic looking but also original that it was the perfect ring for Kristen. So then I needed to know the ring size. Kristen went to work one night, I snuck into her room, grabbed a ring that i was pretty sure fit and took it to a jeweler to get measured. I then placed it back and gave the info to my guy in California, Archie Henderson.

Quick Advertisement: Archie Henderson of Henderson Jewelry in Carlsbad, CA does amazing work, so if you need any jewelry you should definitely check him out!

So, the next part was asking Kristen's Father for her hand in marriage. Being 1000 miles apart, I knew the only way i could ask was over the phone for me to be able to do it without Kristen knowing. So I stealthily stole kristen's phone and got her parents phone numbers out of the phone. I called David (or mr. giesenschlag if you prefer) and asked him in a somewhat awkward but great conversation. I was so blessed to have them give me the go ahead and tell me they are excited about it.

I guess that is enough background: Here is the engagement story. I wanted to make a very special christmasy evening that seemed like a normal date night. So we went to Pick-up Stix for dinner down in san diego (we don't have that in portland, so we missed it). Then I took her to Garrison street in point loma, where the street is DECKED out for christmas, so i wanted her to see the splendor. Next, off to The Hotel Del Coronado. This was her first time down there, and christmas time is the perfect time to check it out. We walked through and saw all the beautiful decorations and then watched people falling on the outdoor ice skating rink. We left there to go to the final spot. As we were driving to the last spot we had the "Remember the Titans" Cd playing in the background and I think that it was the perfect pump up music for me. There is a little park on the edge of coronado overlooking the San Diego bay and with a beautiful view of the San Diego Skyline. We walked over to a bench where I handed Kristen a somewhat large wrapped box, which I told her was an early Christmas present. When she opened it up, she realized it was a Photo book that I had made for her that had "A Book Of Memories" written on the front with a picture of us together. The book has a bunch of photos of us and adventures we have gone on throughout the relationship, for the most part in cronological order. As she turns through it I await somewhat nervously, for I know what the last page had in store. As she turns to the last page, there was a picture of me down on one knee with ring box in hand in front of a christmas tree with the caption "The Memories have only just begun". As she turned to this page, i got down on one knee and proposed. She said yes and with a big smile on her face, gave me a huge hug. It was truly a special moment!

One last surprise was in store for Kristen. After we started driving home, we continued to talk about the night and my sneakiness, and when we arrived at my parents house, waiting there was my parents, my grandma, my sister, brother in law and nephew, my bud dustin and his wife courtney, Kristens parents, her sister and niece, and her friend amanda and husband aaron. We had a great little celebration and was truly the perfect end to an amazing night. I have been truly blessed to be dating Kristen and now I am lucky to be able to say she is my future wife! Below are some pictures from the day including the last picture of Kristen as a pre-engaged woman. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of the proposal itself, but we will remember it forever!

2 Months, A New Record!!!!

Ok, if it wasn't official before, it is definitely official now that I am not a blessed blogger... Or at least I am just not a motivated blogger. Man, it seems like every time that I want to be more eager about keeping up with the blog, i just fall away from it again and again. Oh well. Let me try to give you a two month synopsis! Lets see what events have occurred since the last time I've blogged.

1. Josh Dean Married Sarah Shryock (Dean). This was a great wedding down in Silverado, CA (which is basically just in the hills of orange county). That wedding was a ton of fun! Kristen and I got to go down and hang out with SD for a week with our families and then got to enjoy an amazing time with a lot of college friends that we hadn't seen in a while. I was a groomsman in the wedding and got the chance to sing the song "True Love" by Phil Wickham during communion. It was a truly beautiful event and I was stoked to be able to go! Oh ya, and I also caught the Garter.... don't read into anything =)
2. Jacob Stoesz and Katey Schroeder (Stoesz) Wedding! Two weeks later, I was a groomsman in my old college roommates wedding, Mr. Jacob Stoesz! This one was in Pismo Beach, just 15 minutes away from good old San Luis Obispo. This wedding and the events surrounding it was quite nostalgic as I hadn't been to slo in almost a couple years. Pretty weird feeling but it was great seeing a bunch of my old roommates and friends! This wedding was less formal, and was a ton of fun! I got to hang out with a lot of people but the trip was like 3 days (because I had already spent so much money and time for the other wedding).
3. I Saved A Bunch Of Money On My Car Insurance By Switching To 25 Years Of Age! On september 26th, I offically became an old man... I can no longer claim to be in my "early" 20's anymore... I am officially in my mid twenties and goodness gracious, i can already see 30 pearing around the corner so mischieviously. My birthday was pretty awesome. Kristen planned a whole day out up in seattle. She picked me up in the morning, we went to these Locks in seattle (where they raise and lower boats by making a water blockade) it was a really cool sight and we had a picnic at a park there. Then we went to the Experience Music Project museum, FOR FREE, because it was Museum day randomly. Finally we spent some time down at Pike Market and got dinner at the waterfront. Overall it was a great day!
4. Designed And Built A Soundbooth! I had been planning on putting a soundbooth in the church to better contain all of the sound equipment and computer stuff, especially since we are allowing a bunch of other groups to use our church building. So i spent some time, got out my engineering drafting tools, and drafted up a design for a soundbooth, got out a bunch of tools including some new powertools my parents got me for my birthday, and put about 20 something hours into building this booth, and I must say, i'm quite proud of it! It came out pretty good!
5. A Pursuit Of The Photographic Nature. I have decided that I am going to start trying to do photography on more of a semi-professional level. I have been adding equipment to my arsenal and am really hoping to be able to start doing more portrait photography, maybe even doing some wedding photography. I don't know If I really want to make this my career but I just enjoy doing photography so I am working with it right now.

So there is probably much more that has been going on within the last couple months but I feel like that gives you a good idea of what has been going on in my life. God is good and I am stoked on where things are headed. There have definitely been challenges, including a 5 month struggle of understanding my housing situation, figuring out whether I need to move, trying to find a roommate, having to move, then just figuring all these things out but God continues to be faithful. There is no end to this story yet, but there should be within 3 weeks. I hope all is well, God Bless!

Who Am I Trying To Kid

So, I feel like I continually lie to you all and I apologize... I have realized that blogging is probably the first and easiest thing to neglect once life gets busy. For about a month my schedule has been as follows:

Monday: work from 11:30 til 3ish, then play a softball game for the mens league i joined at night
Tuesday: The beginning of my weekend, the one day I have completely open
Wednesday: I am off of work this day as well which i usually get some stuff done then have community group at night
Thursday: I work at 4pm until about 10pm
Friday: I work from about 3pm until 11pm ish
Saturday: Work from 5pm until 12am
Sunday: Get up at 7am, get to church at 8am, at church until noon, get lunch and hang out until about 2, work from 3pm until 9pm, relax a little bit then sleep to start the next week

I think what makes things so difficult about this schedule is that I only have one night a week open to plan stuff which usually gets filled up pretty quick, either meeting up with friends or having a date night with Kristen. Those afternoons before work seem to fill up so quickly as well. But i am enjoying life! I just wish i didn't have a lack of evenings, which is when most people are actually able to hang out.

So lets see, what has been going on in life... I've got a couple weddings coming up at the end of this month and beginning of september so i have been looking forward to those! Both are in california, so it is going to be an expensive time, but very enjoyable! Kristen and I will be spending a week in SD area to see family and go to one of the weddings, so that will be a blast.

Here are some pictures from the last month or soSome of the Colossae girls having fun with sparklers on the 4th of July

Yay for the 4th of July
This is in July when my parents came up to portland to visit. We went to the Japanese gardens
Here they are at the rose gardens!
We went to the aquarium down in newport oregon, on the coast. Crazy Jellyfish!
Kristen enjoying being under thousands of gallons of water and crazy sharks!
Kristen and I went on a dress up date downtown portland, and went to a great sushi restaurant!
Finally this is just one picture i took from community group of my crazy little friend Charlie (He loves his food that is for sure)

A Tale Of The Absent Blogger....

Ok, I am really terrible with keeping up on this blog and I apologize. Man, life gets busy and it is something that I just don't think of. I will make it a goal of mine to start keeping up on it. I do have some cool stuff coming up including: Parents coming up to Portland, 4th of July Festivities (which i may not get to do if my work double keeps me at work too late), then wedding season.

So lets get in my time machine, go back to this last month and take a glance at what has gone on. Lets see... well i have been dating Kristen now for just over a month and that has been great! This last friday was Kristen's birthday and so i planned a surprise adventure day to the coast since she hadn't been out there yet. Picked her up at 10:30 and then drove out 26 west, starting out in Ecola state park. This truly showed an amazing view of Cannon beach and haystack rock.It is a pretty beautiful coastline. Then here is a picture of Kristen with the beautiful viewpoint behind her.
After we left there we went into cannon beach and hung out in the little city there. We had lunch at this cool little tavern which i actually ate at probably a year ago with my buddy kyle. After lunch we got back in the car and headed north to Astoria! Yes, this is where the movie the Goonies was filmed and I really think it is cool up there. A very old city that is sort of San Francisco esq as it is a very hilly community. This magazine mentioned the Astoria Column was a must see thing so we went up to the highest point of Astoria to check it out.So there was approximately 163 steps going round and round up the center of that column that we climbed to see the amazing panoramic views from the top. I'm not going to lie though, coming down those stairs quickly going in circles over and over made both Kristen and I start to get motion sick, hahaha. Maybe someone will pay to put in an elevator soon =). On the left side of the last photo you can see a bridge that is somewhat Golden Gate esq, that bridge is actually 4 miles long and spans accross the Columbia River to get to Washington. It is a really fun bridge so I drove us accross that and we saw a sign for a place in Washington called "Cape Dissappointment", so with a name like that, we couldn't turn down such an adventure. We drove for about 20 minutes or so to get down to this place and look at each other and ask "what the heck is this place supposed to be?" Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty drive but this place lived up to its name... we left dissappointed. After a long day of adventuring we decided to take the 2 hour drive back home to Tigard. Got some chinese food, played some darts, relaxed and called it a day.

Lets see, what else has gone on in the last month.... I am still playing softball in my mens softball league every monday night which has been a lot of fun. We still haven't won a game and are in a league where guys have been together in their teams for 10 plus years but non the less we are having fun and are finally getting more competitive. I am just happy that getting out there after not really playing baseball or softball for probably 15 years that I am still decent (not great, but still a little athletic). This upcoming monday we are playing the only other team who hasn't won a game so we will soon find out who is the worst team in the league, and you better believe we are going to battle this one to the death.

Lastly, I'm just realizing these days a blessed I am by the community of my church. There are some really cool people in this body and this is the first church i have been a part of as an adult where I feel truly like we are living in community together, sharing burdens and joys. I love sharing meals every wednesday and just a cool place to be with people and be mutally blessed. God is still doing cool stuff in our church body. It is now summer, so weekend attendance is hit or miss right now with all the vacations and whatnot but It has been going great. Worship is still going very well and I love the freedom I have to lead this congregation in worship.

Life is good!

Distant Friends Are Like A Rain Cloud In San Diego: You Don't See Them Often, But When You Do They Bring Life And Joy!

So that is probably the longest blog entry title I have ever made, but I just thought I would do it. I have been blessed over the last month to have some of my friends from my past visit in Portland. Two of my college roommates: Jake and Travis, both came up here for different reasons this last month and it is such a blessing to hang out with people who have been such a part of your life and then due to distance are so separate. I had a great time hanging out with them and know that they are both truly such a part of my life, as are everyone else who i left in California. This summer looks to bring a lot of friends up to this area for a visit which I am very excited about, this is always a great thing!

Well, once again it has been a month or more since my last blog post and this is simply unacceptable... Of course so much has happened and is happening as time flies by, but I don't really take time to sit down and think about it, let alone blog about it. First of all, God is continuing to move in astounding ways in the body of Colossae and I am excited to see how these things grow us as a body. We had a sermon out of Ecclesiastes a couple of weeks ago which was entitled "It is best when bad things happen". This was taught from Chapter 6-7 and was looking into how Solomon teaches how hardship and "bad" things truly allow us to grow and build us into the people that God desires us to be and calls us to. We are starting to experience some hardships and pains within the body of our church but seeing how God can use pain to draw us near and build us up.

Worship is still going very well. A guy from our church named Jeremy has joined my worship "band" playing Djembe. (If this word boggles your mind, it is basically like a large bongo drum). It has been a great addition and it is exciting to see growth in this ministry. I'm overjoyed with how God is taking this and how he is moving.

WORK: I am still at CpK and though it can be excruciatingly frustrating at times, God is blessing me financially there and it is still going well for me. I am starting to realize that something I haven't been utilizing is some of the free time that I have from working a restaurant job to do stuff like work on Photography skills and music development. I talked to someone at church last week who came for the first time and I might look into doing a little photography to make some money, which if I did, I would use it to buy more equipment so that I could be a better photographer. The other day i decided to just go downtown and take some pictures by myself. Here are a few, I love downtown Portland, it is beautiful!






One last thing I wanted to talk about, which is kind of exciting is that I am actually dating someone now! If you have known me long enough, this is kind of crazy because I have been very patient and have been waiting quite a while but I feel that God has put this girl in my life for a reason and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to be in a relationship with her. Her name is Kristen and we actually went to college together down in San Luis Obispo. Well she ended up moving up here to Portland to be a part of Colossae Church and to try something new. Her heart for the Lord is astounding and I am just stoked to be able to date. So we will see what God does from here, but it is a pretty fun place to be in.

Other than all that, I can't think of too much else that is new... Just living La Vida Loca. I hope to see ya'll soon!

I Shot The Sheriff, But I Did Not Shoot The Deputy

(This Blog is being written whilst listening to Lovedrug and enjoying a cold Wingwalker Amber Ale)

Hello Cyber-world, I often neglect thee.... So I am trying to get better about this whole blogging thing, ergo this time it has only been 2 weeks since the last time I blogged. Nothing too paramount has come up since the 1 year anniversary other than truly realizing how blessed I am to be up here. You know when you are in something or doing something and you just don't take time to step outside of it and look in to see what you are a part of? Well I feel like I am just starting to step out and see how blessed I have been to be a part of this body of believers in Colossae. The closeness of this community is so unique and I am just amazed at how God has brought so many different and unique people together to serve together and work toward one purpose. It is still surreal to me that one year ago we were in a house with 20 people sitting in a circle on some couches and chairs.

One thing that is challenging is after a while of having things together is trying to stay continuously intentional and always seeking opportunity to serve and get outside of our "Busy Life". I am perplexed by this Diachotomy that we call routine: routine helps me to work well, structure my weeks and stay organized, while it also promotes laziness and a lack of desire to branch out. Shoot, as I sit here writing this the idea comes into my head of potential realization. "Am I still in this serving job because of the lack of routine that it gives me?" or "Is there structure in lack of routine?" some interesting Ideas, shoot I don't know the answers, haha.

So, I once thought that Carlsbad was SO unique with their flower fields; coastal hillsides adorned with multi colored floral arrangements. Well I just found out how impressive a 40 acre field of tulips is in oregon! here are a few pictures to visually explain.It was quite a sight to be out there and see all these ridiculous tulips. Kind of beautiful. I still am not a flower lover like my father, but they are very photogenic and I know that he loves them so I like to take pictures of them.

Next item on the agenda: SOFTBALL LEAGUE. So I joined a slow pitch softball league with some men from my church and some of our co-workers. We started practicing for the season 3 weeks ago and last night was our first real game! We were excited but also knew that the division that the league put us in may be a little above our skill level, since many of us hadn't played since little leagues. Well we got out there last night, and our hunch was right. I think the final score was about 30 to 1.... We scored our only run in the 5 inning right before they Mercy Ruled us, which for those who don't know what that means, they stopped the game because we were getting beat too badly. Well, looks like we have some work to do. I actually decided to go Gung Ho about it and start doing physical conditioning and training. I started a gym regiment today that will hopefully become 5 days a week. I figure, if we aren't good now, i might as well be in great shape and work my butt off to help the team. (lets see how long this actually lasts) but I am even changing my diet up, trying to get healthier.

Well there isn't much more going on here, just been working quite a bit and doing church stuff. God is good and life is good!

Ps. You should probably visit portland, because it is pretty legit!

My One Year Anniversary!

So truthfully, I don't really even know where to start on this blog entry. I just went back and re-read some of my initial blog entries from when I moved up here last april. It is amazing how some of it is so vivid in my mind and some of it is a blur. I think about it and I am like, WOW, I moved up here and truly only really knew like 1 person up here. I was lonely, jobless and curious to what God would have in store for me. The one thing I come back to over and over is just a realization of God's Sovereignty.

I was just talking with Aaron Chesnut from our church tonight at an Easter gathering we had at their house about the Sovereignty of God and the idea of God's Will. We were discussing the idea that without truly giving everything up to God and trusting Him, you can't see His will fully in your life. I can't believe how different my life up here has been than I imagined it. I sort of felt like when i moved up, a beam of light would pierce the rainy clouds and shine down, showing me the perfect job. Finances would be easy, church would be perfect, I would find a wife immediately, you know, everything Ideal. Well, of course that isn't how things went down. I couldn't find an engineering job, so I have been serving tables at California Pizza Kitchen for almost a year now, which has been good, challenging, frustrating, tiring and many more emotions mixed together. But I understand why we have trials and how much we grow and learn through trusting in God.

Something that I have noticed by living here for a while now is that maintaining friendships and life from california is much harder. There are lots of weddings coming up of good friends, and I am going to have to turn some down which is hard for me. On top of that, friendships that you thought would last, just begin to fade and you lose contact with people... but alas, this is life.

I think I could write about the last year for hours so I am going to try and wrap this up. This part of my life has definitely been an adventure and I am enjoying growing in my faith and learning what it means to truly live out my faith. God is continually faithful and I am more than excited to see what year 2 brings! Thanks to everyone for their love and support of me!

The Land Of The Sun

So I went and visited my family in San Diego for the last week of march. It was quite a nice trip, to be able to go get a little sun and see the fam. It had been 5 months since the last time I saw everyone and lets just say, especially in the case of my nephew matthew, it was long overdue. My nephew has grown so much from 1 year old to 17 months. It was crazy. He can run around, he can say some words now as well. It is so stinking cute. For instance, he can say "no no no", "on" which comes out more like "non". He likes to say "doggy" and a bunch of other things. This was a great week though, that wasn't exactly too relaxing but a lot of fun hanging out with family and friends non-stop. Of course, to my demise, the last day of my venture I got sick. This made the plane ride home today not too fun. Luckily i didn't have to use one of those fun little bags in the seat compartment ahead of me, but I did pray continually that God would keep that from happening because I definitely felt like i could have.As you can see, matthew is still a majorly cute kid. I got to hang out with him every day. I had a great time with the family and over all it was just an amazing time!

It has been over a month since i have written on here, so there is probably a lot more than just my trip to San Diego. We have been in the new church building for a little while now and are getting acclimated to being there. I am starting to get all the technical things figured out and it has been amazing. This sunday was my first sunday away from the church in 10 months and I think that was a blessing in a way because I can look and see how I missed it and the people in the body. God is continually moving and I think we are in a spot that can be tough. That is, we have been here for almost exactly a year and it is easy to get in a rut and just become complacent or just be used to routine, so now I especially need to focus on continually growing and progressing with the body. To continually come back to this idea of "embracing the hope that I say that I have in Christ".

Life is good, sometimes a little tricky and confusing. But God is continually sovereign and is the source of true joy.

Colossae Has A Building!

This is the room in front of the sanctuary where we gather, hang out and on this day eat food.





Another picture of the gathering space and the kitchenette


A picture from the sound booth of our sanctuary

Another picture of the sanctuary
The front of our building

Comfortably Cold

I am officially used to living in a place where 30 degree weather doesn't send your body into a shock but simply enjoys the crisp embrace. Talking no longer carries weight without the steam of your breath. Most nights get below freezing, so this becomes a frost laden land but the last few days have actually gotten up to 58-60 degrees, which yes I realize this doesn't seem like much to all those southern californians but truly it was wonderful to sit outside in a t-shirt and enjoy the golden sun rays. But I still believe nights were meant to be cold. There is a comfort that I don't think you can get when it is hot. Being able to burrow within a down comforter and blankets and sleep so comfortably is amazing. I unlike a lot of people have the tendency of being naturally hotter than a lot of people (temperature wise of course) which makes sleeping in the summer time miserable. But I definitely love sleeping when I am actually cold enough to enjoy blankets.

Portland Trailblazers vs Cleveland Cavaliers
Just a few weeks ago I was awarded to tickets to the Blazers game which was simply AMAZING! My work has season tickets so they were great seats and not only was it fun to be going to my first live NBA game ever, but I also got to see Lebron James, one of the best players in basketball, play in person. He definitely didn't dissappoint. I took one of my bud's from church and just enjoyed a great game

Colossae's New Building
We have officially moved into our new building for Colossae and that is so exciting! I got to do all the audio video install work and just help get it ready within the 2 day window we had before our first service in it. I put in a nice 13 hour day of work but it turned out great! God has truly blessed us and given us an amazing place to meet and use for His glory. We are still seeking ways we can tactfully use this building to bring joy to God and to live out our call to serve the poor, hungry, cold, etc.... Some pictures to come soon.

Sun Within A Cloudy Land

So this morning I was thinking about it, and I realized it had been quite sometime since I have written a blog entry. So I went on just to see, and tomorrow will make it a month... so I apologize to anyone who has been waiting for something to come up. Well something crazy has happened over the last week.

We have had 7 days in a row of CLEAR SUNNY DAYS!

This may not come across as strange to you but we had 10 days straight of rain before that so this has been a refreshing little break. Still winter though, staying in the 30's and 40's. Thankfully the snow has been gone for about 3 weeks now and we are back to pseudo normal weather.

Well I bet there is probably a lot that has gone on since the last time I updated this... Lets see, we I had my first holiday season completely away from my family. That was definitely a new experience! One that was definitely a little difficult but I think very building as well. It was unique and truly didn't feel like i really had christmas but we did have snow on christmas here, so that was nice!

One thing that is really exciting is that Colossae is going to be moving into our new building at the end of the month! This is really exciting because I think it is going to truly bless our body to be in this more "permanent" location and this building will much better suite the kids ministries. But what this also means is that next week is going to be a solid week of work during nights and mornings to get the building ready for service the following week. I am officially the Colossae Tech Guy as well now and will be doing all the audio/video install work. This is just an exciting time. It definitely gives me stuff to look forward to and allows me to utilize my gifts a little more and some of my college knowledge. There is probably a lot more but there is the update for now. For visual stimulation, look below. This is a picture i took on a beautiful evening at Hoyt Arboretum at the end of the snow.