Holas! Hope this finds you all well!

Things are moving right along! Outside, everything is pretty much done... waiting for the fence to get put up and mom has to do some planting. We have a trampoline! You can all come over and test it out! It's a lot of fun!  We've been perfecting our flips for the last few weeks on it! Construction on the basement will begin sometime in the next few weeks... I'm already looking through IKEA magazines picking out all the stuff that I want! I'm ready baby!

Wedding plans... right now we're pretty good... decided to x-out the save-the-date cards... they're cool but they're gonna cost too much money, so... no!  Right now we're focusing on the honeymoon, and making payments on that... we have to pay for the plane tickets and put a deposit down on the hotel rooms.

The job is going great! I absolutely love it! But I can already see where it's going to be hard... I'm making friends with the patients cause I'm taking care of them for a week or more at a time... so not only am I getting to know them, but their families as well. I'm there when they get their diagnosis (typically cancer on my floor), I'll be there when they come back for treatments, and I'll be there when it has taken over and they're in their final stages. So that's going to be very difficult. But it's been a great experience so far, I've had a chance to share my faith with most of my patients and co-workers! It's awesome! I love all the people I work with! They're all wonderful people!

Next week I'm going to Kingdom Bound with the Junior High! I'm psyched! I'm working the first 2 days, so I'll be catching up with them tuesday night or wednesday morning as long as I can find someone to work for me for a few hours on tuesday. But it will be a great experience! It's up at Six Flag Darrien Lake, NY. It's kind of like a Creation Fest (a lot of the same bands and speakers), so it's going to be great! And I'm gonna be there in time to see all my favorite bands perform! So it's all gonna work out one way or another!

The fiance and I are doing great! He's keeping busy with work and getting ready to start another semester. We're making plenty of time to see each other despite our busy schedules. He's amazing! O geez!  And only 5 months and 10 days until we're married!!! Hehe! Oh, some friends of ours had an engagement party for us! It was so much fun! Very intimate, formal attire, wonderful meal, and great company! What a night!

Hope you all are doing well! Adios!

Hey everyone! Hope all is well on your end!

Lots going on here! We have officially started construction on our house... the basement and the garage are now one (we knocked down a wall) and we are getting ready to start apartement preparations, we tore out all our concrete in the back and made a bigger ramp to park on (now 4 cars instead of 1!), we have concrete steps going down to the back ally, we have a retaining wall, and we have a shed. Lots more still to do, but the back yard stuff is just about finished (i think anyway).

Wedding preparations  hehe. All is going well. We have 6 months and 6 days until the wedding! And lots to do. But Jon is working on the tuxes, I have my dress, I picked out the bridesmaid's dresses (most of them have ordered their dresses), I have almost all of my accessories, we have a ceremony site, I have a hair stylist, and we have a reception site. I'll keep filling you in as we go. But I think that's pretty good! We're currently working on finalizing the guest list, honeymoon reservations (and the honeymoon location), and 'Save the Date' cards. We're having a lot of fun doing all this planning! I'm so excited! Yay!!

I started my new job... 3 weeks into it. So far I love it! I'm a Patient Care Technician (PCT) at Lankenau Hospital on 2 Rosengarten (mainly a cancer patient floor). As of today I finished the classroom part of orientation, and have a few weeks of floor orientation to finish. To officially complete the classroom segment we had to take a test and get at least an 80% on it... I got a 91% . So you wanna know all the fun stuff my job entails? Well here you go: Vital signs (blood pressure, temp, pulse, respiration rate), draw labs (blood draws), give enemas , post mortum care (cleaning people up after they die, putting toe tags on, putting them in body bags, and transporting them to the morgue), give baths, and lots of recordings of what the patient eats, cleaning their rooms, all kinds of fun stuff! So, knowing all that, you're jealous now... aren't you? You can admit it! It's okay!  Haha! For real though, I really do like my job.

Dad had a temporary neuro-stimulator in his back for about 4 days, and it worked great. What it does is deaden the nerve signal in his back electronically. It doesn't take all his pain away, but he said it relieved about 50-60% of it. Since that was such a success for him, he's getting a permanent one put in within the next few weeks. We're looking forward to that... he's long overdue for some relief!

Ministry is going well! I have a bible study twice a month over the summer. We're looking at dating and romance. So far we have had a pretty good turnout (for summertime). And we've been having a really great time! So I've been pleased with it!

So all in all, things are looking very good!

Hope all is going well with you!

alright... so details on the most amazing night of my life:

so on wednesday the 18th it was jon and my one year anniversary. we've been talking about marriage pretty much since we started dating. we both knew pretty quickly that this was it. so i definitely knew the proposal was coming... at some point.

i was suspicious about last wednesday because it was our one year, he was speaking about the heart, he wanted a video camera there, he invited the entire senior high to join our junior high study, and the sunday before he had "THE BIG TALK" with my dad. BUT... my family knew i was suspecting something was up... and they told jon... and all four of them decided to lie to me. they all came to me (at seperate times) and told me that "this isn't the time" "he doesn't have the money for a ring right now" "it's not going to happen for a few more weeks" and "stop thinking that it's going to be on wednesday cause you're just setting yourself up for a big let down." so needless to say, by the time it was time for the bible study to begin i was pretty much convined it wasn't going to happen that night.

so jon went on with his lesson... about Christian dating, and what the bible says about dating and the heart. and at the end one of his points was that we need to be equally yoked... basically that your futures need to line up and you need to have plans that work for each other. so he started talking about when we met and how we knew right away that we were going to be really great for each other.

so... (getting to the best part!) he said, "so we've been dating for a year, and we're in love, and i'm thinking it's time to take the next step!" so he reached in his pocket and pulled out HIS CELL PHONE! haha! (at which point everyone in the room laughed cause we all thought he was reaching for a ring). so he pulled out the cell and said, "the first thing you have to do is talk to her father." so he trys calling him, but his cell phone isn't getting any reception, so after what seems like an eternity, he just goes out into the hallway and bring my parents in the room (they were waiting down the hall so they could be there for this!) so they come in and jon says to my dad, "so, we're talking about your daughter here, and i really love her, and i want to ask her to marry me." and dad says, "i don't have a problem with that."

so, jon says, "okay so once you ask permission, cause guys- that's your job, you have to do it! you have to get a ring." so he looks at pastor steve and says, "hey steve, do you happen to have a wedding ring on you? like 1/2 karat, white gold?" and he pulled it out and said, "yeah, something like this?" and of course at this point i'm crying like a baby (in a really great way). so he comes down, takes my hand, gets down on his knee and asks me to marry him. and i say yes and jump up and hug him and we kissed . it was sooooo perfect!

the ring is georgeous! the proposal was absolutey amazing! and now i'm seven months away from marrying the most amazing man i have ever met!  

wednesday night really was the best night of my life! i'm living my very own fairy tale!

song of the year:
etta james- at last

At last,
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
and life is like a song

Oh yeah yeah

At last,
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you

I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known

You smile, you smile
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine at last

so...

may 18, 2005... 1 year from when Jon and I had our first date and began our amazing journey together. and what more could God bless me with than to have the man of my dreams propose to me on our anniversary!

looking forward to a wonderful life as Mrs. Katie Osborn

... details of the proposal to come!

craziness... in a word, that is my life over the last few weeks. i'm sure you all can relate! classes are winding down... finals next week! holy crap! i have to write 2 finals (take home), study for the other two, read the last half of my book for history and write a 5 page paper on it, watch "the killing fields" and write a 2 page review on that. and on top of that try to have a life, be involved with ministry, help and spend time with the boy- ya know, the usual! so just one or two things to get done by next week... guess what i'll be doing this weekend!  haha!

sweet pea... my baby... got a crack in her engine block 1 week after i got my license back. we put sealant in her, so she's holding for now... but it's only a matter of time! she's on her way out! she may be able to hold on for a few more weeks, maybe a month, two at best... but inspection is coming up, and she's not gonna pass... so another vehicle is in the works!!!

dad's out of work, just on extended leave i guess. he's not out on disability or anything yet. he's going to get a temporary implant in his dorsal column (lower back) which will send electrical current through that section of his back in hopes of getting rid of about 50% of his pain. dad was hoping for a larger number, but at this point every little bit helps! not sure yet when he's going to get that put in... sometime in the next few weeks supposedly. if that works then he'll get a permanent one put in... if not then there's a few other things that we could try. but one step at a time!

mom's doing good! she just got back from the women's retreat with church. she had a great time! i think she needed the weekend away, just some time with good friends and lots of time in prayer and with the Lord. she's been enjoying lankenau, having lots of good days at work!! and soon she'll have a cute little co-worker... kind of (me!!!! but i'm working on the unit next to hers, and on opposite shifts).

megs is doing pretty well! been making it out to huntington learning center (that's pretty much her classroom now). she's definitely looking forward to this summer! (aren't we all??) she applied to a bunch of places for a summer job... still waiting to hear back, but she's excited to earn some $$$!

sadie... our little dog... "princess" "baby doll" or as i like to call her "miss priss"... went into heat this week. how's that you ask? gross! she's dripping everywhere. we're steam cleaning THE HOUSE when she's done (no exaggeration), and getting her spayed! HAHA! that'll teach her! and she peed on my bed last week. those are my complaints. now that i got that out of my system... she's adorable, playful as ever, still learning new tricks, gonna enter a dog competition (earthdog.net i think it is- look it up!). she's living a great life.

the boy and i are just about at a year!!! in two weeks we'll celebrate our 1 year!  hehe! he's great! we're still doing great! still in love- all that wonderful stuff! he's just about done his semester as well... been a tough one for him with his crazy schedule (remember he works 4 jobs and is a youth leader and a student and a boyfriend, son, and friend), so he's definitely looking forward to summer when things will calm down a little for him!

phantom of the opera is out on dvd... we bought it today and watched it (me, mom, and megs). i have to say, i love that movie... but it was sooooo much better on the big screen, just not the same on our dinky tv. but, still a great movie in my opinion.

okay, so there's some not-so-great stuff in there, but really everything has been going well! everyone is doing well despite injuries and setbacks. and even though i'm mad at sweet pea, i will forgive her... someday  hehe!

alright, well, bedtime for me! good luck in the end of your semesters!