Long Overdue

alright
so.. i should have blogged about recent happenings long before now. i just haven't found the opportunity, lol.

so let's see. when last you heard from me, i was single, still in finals, stressed about school and work (i didn't talk about that much), planning a roadtrip for january, and not nearly close to being finished with my Christmas shopping. let me set you straight.
first of all, i'm not single anymore ^_^. The most wonderful man in the world, who by God's grace has somehow fallen in love with me, my best friend, Collin Bragdon, is no longer just my best friend. Call him what you want, my boyfriend, my honey, my beau, my beloved, my man ^_^ ... the key word there is my. as some of you may or may not know,we've known eachother for about 2 and a half years, give or take alittle. and we've been "talking"... getting to know eachother, spending time together, and most importantly praying about eachother for about a year and a half. about a year ago, i knew for sure that i was his girl and that only God could possibly make this relationship happen. lol. and about six months ago we talked about it, confirmed that we were both on the same page and had heard the same things from God, but it wasn't the right time yet for us to move forward with the relationship. and THEN, sunday night... change of story.

so it's Collin's first week back in town for the holidays, right. naturally, sunday night we went to The Deep 20's ministries. after the deep, it's generally the practice to go out to eat somewhere all together. Collin very early suggested ihop, which i thought nothing of. it didnt matter because in the end he was overruled in favor of going to buffalo wild wings to watch the cowboys game. we ate... and by we i mean eveyone but collin and joel. everytime i offered collin food he declined. said he felt like he might throw up. this i also thought nothing of, other than concern. a few times while we were there he got up to go talk to someone from the staff... this i found EXTREMELY suspiscious. especially since he gestured toward our table while talking. so i knew he was scheming. i thought he was going to tell them it was my birthday and have them do their make-a-really-big-deal-about-it thing. i was mistaken.
so the game ended, people started leaving, things quieted a little. i didnt notice joel slipping outside to retrieve something from his car :/
next thing i know, collin's asking for everyone's attention to say, "Excuse me everyone. as some of you may or may not know, this lady and myself have been in a relationship for some time now. But now the time has come to take our relationship to the next level. Rebekah Michaele Melillo, will you enter into a courtship with me that will last until our marriage?" and he hands me a rose.
At this point i'm not sure whether i was laughing or crying from embarrassment. i am very sure that my face was the same color as the rose, and all i could say was "yes." followed by applause and "awww"s from around the table. turns out he had had breakfast with my dad that morning, my dad gladly gave his consent (and why wouldnt he?) and they had a nice long chat about everything but the weather. (i dont actually know if they tlaked about the weather.)

and so begin's Collin and mine's courtship. we get to learn to share our lives with eachother, to do life together. I'm so excited!!!
we also had our first date last night, but i don't have the stamina to tell about that today... another time.

in other news, i survived my finals, and my lighting project, and got my grades back for the semester. turns out i made 2 B's. one in govt and one in Lighting. the govt i can understand. i only gave about 90% in that class, and i missed some online work. totally my fault. but Lighting?? i'm very upset about that. i worked my tail off in that class to learn what mt prof was supposed to be teaching me. and i got a B. VERY uncool.
so i was disappointed. i mean, this is the first time i've gotten a B since at least middle school. but i'll get over it. my life is far from ruined :D

i was also stressed about work, because i was getting miniscule hours. i'm full time now though, and making happy money :)

finished my Christmas shopping yesterday... but i have to go back because the last thing that i bought (incidentally, collin's present ^_^ i'd tell you what it is because i'm so excited but he tends to read this blog often, so i wont. you'll find out after Christmas.. Eve.) i brought home only to find that it has a broken part. argh. so i have to take it back to whence it came from and have it fixed asap.

and yes, I was planning a roadtrip in january, to alabama to visit some old friends and check out Legacy Church (potential career-starting job op). Collin and I have been wanting to go, and the details worked out so nicely in January, except that no one else could go, and Collin and I can't go by ourselves, for accountability and appearance purposes. yarr. so it's been postponed. i feel bad for flaking on Pastor Chris, but there's not really anything i can do. *shrug*

*sigh*
God is so stinkin awesome. everytime i turn around He's blessing my socks off and i'm just totally overwhelmed (in a good way.) Thank You, Lord!
What has He done for you today?

<3

almost... done...

one final down, 3-and-a-half to go! i say three and a half because the fourth one is actually a final project that i am SO CLOSE to being finished with. i really should have finished it last night, but apparently i lack the ability to diligently work on schoolwork at home. it's so much easier to watch House :p
so i'm going to enjoy my cup of powder-mix chai, finish this blog, then i'm going to go spend some time with the Lord and we're gonna jam to some michael w. smith and talk about some stuff, and then i'm gonna go over my government stuff for my exam today at 4, finish my research paper final draft (mostly i'm reprinting the rough draft... go me) and my other little english "lab" assignments (i've got like 6 to go..) and look over the prompt for the final exam tonight at 7. i ought to do some studying for the physics exam tomorrow too, but only if there's extra time leftover. i still have to print some stuff out, select color samples, and draw up a magic sheet for my stage lighting project, also due tomorrow. so as you can see, i'm pretty much booked for the day. but after tomorrow, i'm home free!!

*sigh*
alright, the Michael W. Smith Christmas concert. it was awesome. i love Christmas music, i love MWS' work, so i knew going in it was a good review waiting to happen. i'd never seen him live before this... just heard his music and loved it, especially the compositions. you know what's wayy better than his compositions? his heart for worship. seriously, his heart and his realness are what impressed me the most. he plays in "professional" venues like the Meyerson, but no matter where he is or who his audience is, he's not ashamed and he doesnt hold back on the gospel of Christ. i want to be like that. i left that concert not wanting it to end because it was so much fun, but also sortof wishing that i could just jump on the bus and go with them. i would so love to be doing that.. traveling, sharing the gospel, acting out my passions for the glory of Christ like they are... but for the time being i'm stuck here, working toward that true enough, but so often it feels like i'm not moving at all. just wasting precious time. anyway. we were driving away and i said to my mom "i really want to go hang out with michael w smith now" in an effort to express what i was feeling, and she says, "you and a thousand other people" .. that made me feel kinda small. but i know what she meant.
i was a little saddened that i couldnt meet him after the show or get him to sign my purse, but thats how things work in a more "sophisticated" venue like the meyerson. i'll just have to go to another show ;)

alright alright.. i gave the promised mws details... now i have to get to work. yarr.

<3

taking a break

yeah... its been awhile. holidays, parties, and finals. what do you want from me? i'm taking a break from school work for a bit though... so i thought i'd better post before i just get so ridiculously behind that i can't even manage to get it all into a blog post. lol.

ok, so i totally spaced on the thanksgiving post. i think i'm gonna do it sometime that's not thanksgiving... it's healthier when it's not contrived.
it's officially Christmas season now, and i'm totally excited!! but before i get too carried away with that, i think i better tell you about my ridiculous weekend.

alright, let's start with wednesday, the official beginning of my thanksgiving weekend. i helped clean the house a bit, did absolutely no schoolwork, and then went to work. i worked for awhile, nothing really entertaining happened. UNTIL i was pleasantly surprised when none other than my superman (ok.. he doesnt exactly belong to me. i suppose as long as that's the case i'd better use his first name, huh?) so collin shows up unexpectedly, and we end up joining the old "gang" from paradigm for some good ol' timin' applebees. twas good times. it was really good to see everybody. then we stopped by andi's to hang out with my other "gang" from high school... more good times and memories were shared. once again, good to see everyone. i freaking love/miss/love andrea sanders. yeah. pretty much.
thursday was thanksgiving... mom cooked, cass and billy came over, we cleaned, sean and april (bro and sis-in-law)n and april's sister amber came down from tulsa, and much food and a good time was had by all. yay ^_^
i went to bed early that night, as i had to get up at THREE AM the next morning to be at work at 4 to open the coffee shop at 4:30 for Black Friday. which was, after all of that hullabaloo, a flop. nobody came. not one customer claimed their free shots. lol. so i left work early to come home and crash for an hour, then commence with "decorating" (we didnt really get much decorating done friday) tiffanie and collin came over and hung out, watched a movie, etc. etc. had some good time with the fam. i love my family.
saturday the real party preparations began... and let me tell you, by the time we were done with it the house looked great, inside and out. we almost exhausted ourselves (especially mom. that woman is a machine) by the time the party even started. so 7:00 rolls around and the early partiers start showing up.. mom and i go primp ourselves, and before you know it the house is crowded and the party is in motion. lol. most everybody said they liked the party.. in my opinion if you didnt have fun it's probably because you were too boring to go strike up a conversation with one of the 50 thousand people there (ok, there werent that many). lots of food was also available for stuffing one's face. thanks so much to everyone who came and those of you who didnt get to (you were missed!)
sunday we were all too pooped to do anything. cass and billy and sean and april and amber went home, and the rest of us were left as witnesses to the aftermath of the weekend. lol. needless to say, no cleaning was done. actually, not much of anything was really done.
monday was back to school and back to work, and just about time for stress over my stage lighting projectto kick in. i got a good portion of that done today though and at least know what i'm doing and am confident that i'll pass with a decent grade, so i'm feeling much better :) seriously though.. stressing out is exhausting and detrimental to the body. i most certainly do not recommend it.
the rest of the week passed in much the same fashion.. today was the last day of class for the semester and i have finals monady, tuesday and wednesday of next week. pray for me!

oh! and wednesday i took my mom to that concert for her birthday. it was a great show, but it deserves more detail than i can really go into right now, so i'll save that for another post.
...whew! goodnight!

<3