Well. I have huge news that happened this very evening. We've only been able to tell about six or seven people thus far but we'll call up everybody else in the next few days.

DAD'S ENGAGED!!!

He met a gal named Colleen about two or three weeks ago working at State Farm Insurance - she called him later that day and asked him out. They went out when we got home from Texas and hit it off RIGHT AWAY. She's exaaaaaaaaactly what he's been looking for for so long and they're totally in love. I'm SOOO stoked. I met her on Saturday and love her!! I'm not gonna write a huge in depth blog about her right now, but I just wanted to share the exciting news!! She's absolutely beautiful, has two kids (16 and 20), has our very same sense of humor, is SO easy to talk to and get along with, and shares many of our tastes... just, everything! Colleen, if you read this, I ADORE YOU!! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for taking that step and calling my Dad. He's been so lonely the past five years, this is what he's been needing and what we've been praying for.

Seriously, every other woman he's gone out with since Mama died were just... not right. All of his dates with them, he'd come home all pessimistic-sounding and would just say something like, "Eh, it was okay." and that was it. I've met a couple of the ones he went out with and I either felt intimidated by them or just like I had to watch what I said around them and not be myself. Colleen? Nope. She's so easy-going and you just don't have to watch what you say around her, and she's not a 'little miss perfect' either, so that intimidated feeling wasn't there at ALL when I met her. And when Dad got home from his very first date with her, it was the first time on ANY date he's been on since Mom that he came home with a giant grin, telling me, "OMG it was awesome!! It went VERY well - this is very promising, you'll love her!!!" and could NOT stop talking about her.

He witnessed to her on the third date (I think it was the third) and she understood right away and is now a believer, and she even got mad that he didn't share the gospel with her on the first date. How cool is that.

I'm KNOW there are those who will think they're moving too fast. Heck, if I hadn't met her and seen the two of them together, I'd be thinking the same thing too. But no, this is one of those rare, beautiful happenings where you find that right one and it's immediately plain and clear that they're the one you've been looking for.

I won't post a picture of her on here without her permission LOL, but I will say this - she reeeally reminds me of an older version of Catherine McCormack, the girl that played Mel Gibson's wife, Murron, in Braveheart.