It was Friday, February 20, 2009. Mom and I were out shopping and decided to go in David's Bridal 'just for me to see what I liked'. I was not engaged. At this point everybody pretty much knew that Josh and I would get married.. but he hadn't asked me yet. So into the dress shop we went... pretending. :) After much laughter trying to figure out how the slip that the nice lady gave me to use was supposed to go on, and miscommunications on dresses that I like/didn't like, I put on my dress. As soon as I put it on I knew! (And that was before I saw myself in it-- there's only mirrors outside of the dressing rooms in there--curses!) I looked at Mom and she looked at me and both of us were speechless. That is until I paraded through David's Bridal in my bare feet singing 'Here Comes the Bride'.. and no, I'm not kidding. Then we looked at the price tag. It was ON SALE. Angels started singing! I swear. Then mom said, 'We should get it!' uhhhhhh.... She continued, 'Well I mean it's on sale, it's your size, you love it.. and I figure you're going to love it when it actually comes time to wear it so I guess it doesn't really matter if Josh has proposed or not. This way when he does, you already have it!' At this point the girl working chimes in, 'So when are you getting married?!' Our cover was blown. And I had even switched my purity ring to my left hand. DANG IT. 'Oh, well..' I said, 'He hasn't actually asked me....yet.' Goooooooood going, Haley. Well played. No, no she was very nice and said girls were in there all the time that weren't engaged. WHOOOOPIE! I wasn't the only freak pressuring my poor boyfriend into marriage. (Just kidding. Sorta. No really, I'm just kidding.) I immediately thought of my dad and what he would think. But Mom assured me he wouldn't care! He would be glad we were buying it on sale! blah blah blah. I should have known! What I didn't know was that Josh and my dad were meeting for breakfast the very next morning to have 'the talk'. So after a phone call to dad and the delivery of his American Express card, (delivered by the lovely Shannon.. who cried when she saw me standing on that awful pale green carpet in the gorgeous dress) we were at the check out counter. I still couldn't believe it. And then, my phone rang. And it was Josh. And I almost had a heart attack. OH MY GOSH I'm a that psycho girlfriend!! So there I stood lying through my teeth as he asked me question after question. (What are you doing? Shopping with Mom! Where are you? Kohls was having a really big sale! Oh, did you get anything? Uh.... Mom got a dress!) Then I saw a girl that I worked with at Chick-fil-a. Poor girl said hi to me and I shushed her. As if she was going to say, 'HEY HALEY HOW ARE YOU NICE SEEING YOU IN DAVID'S BRIDALLLLLLLL'. I'm not sure she ever talked to me again.

Anyways, all this to say, that two years ago today Josh asked me to be his wife!! Yep, the very next weekend after I bought my dress. It all went down like this....

Our dear friends the Tilley's had just adopted another little girl, and wanted pictures of their new family of four.

I was going to take them, and Josh was just 'tagging

along'. So we were out in this field (that I chose-- good pointer when you are going to propose-- make her think it's all her idea) and I'm taking pictures of the family. And then when I had decided I had enough and we could probably be done, Jenn chimed in with, 'Let me take some pictures of you an Josh!' And I obliged because Jenn is an awesome photographer! So we are posing and she's just taking picture after picture. Then she says to look over the field with my hands on a fence. (I now have my back to her and Josh.) Then she starts messing with my hair and keeps telling me not to move my head because my hair looks perfect. At this point I'm feel

ing pretty good about myself I honestly don't remember what I thought Josh was doing. I think I just assumed he was behind me. So I hear her take a few and then she says, 'Okay! I'm done.' And when I turned around Josh was on one knee!! I freaked out! All I can remember was thinking how huge the diamond looked and how I was so confused because I couldn't figure out how he bought a ring without me knowing and I wanted to know who all knew and then I realized he was talking so I zoned back in. He was asking me to spend the rest of my life with him. And I went limp. Seriously. The pictures look like he's hurting me because he's trying to hold me up and he's still

got the ring in his hand. I'm literally leaning on him. I couldn't stand. I was so happy!! Then we took some more pictures and headed home to see my parents! We got home and started talking about dates.. I wanted a fall wedding. October to be exact. Well when we realized October was nearly 8 months away, we moved to September.... then August. My mom made us stop there. :) Those 6 months I honestly felt like I was floating. It didn't stop until I was walking down the aisle and I realized it was real life. And the real life feeling feels a lot like the floating feeling. But better.

Best feeling ever.

I love you Joshua Taylor Barton!! And I always will.

PS: Tonight I asked Josh if he knew what today was and he said, 'Um......(long pause) It's the anniversary of when we got engaged!!'

Good man.

Well, nobody commented on my blog yesterday but I know somebody read it because it said I have 63 views. Yep... I know you are out there.. you just won't admit it. Anyways, because I had so many views I thought I'd write again today.. And since I wrote about someone specific yesterday I thought I'd do it again! And who better to write about than the birthday boy!!?!? MY DAD!!! Yep, it's my dad's birthday today.. and he's the greatest dad in the whole wide universe. Seriously. Here's some reasons why I like him a whole lot:

one: He's strong AND tender. When I was little and I'd get in trouble, he'd tell me to go to my room and sit on my bed and wait for him. I used to hate it. The anticipation killed me. (ie: should I or should I not add padding to my butt?) But then he'd come in and sit down and explain to me just why I was in trouble and why he had to spank me. And he'd always explain that he loved me very much. Then he'd spank me. As soon as he was done, he would hold me until I finished crying and explain how he loved me all over again.

two: His humor. It's the same as mine. Coincidence..? ;) When I was growing up, we liked to push each other into clothes racks in stores. One specific time that stands out to me was while we were shopping with my mom. He had pushed me into a rack and it was soooooooo funny. (not) So I decided to get him back. We were walking along and as soon as we were right next to a rack full of panties and bras I pushed him as hard as I could and down he went.. right into the bras. At this point Mom was long gone.. pretending she didn't know us. We stood there and giggled with tears rolling down our cheeks!

three: His love for the Lord. It's in his smile. It's in every word he says.

I honestly couldn't have asked for a better dad. He's always, always been there for me.

Happy Birthday, Dad!! I love you!!

And I'll leave you with the words to a special little song he used to sing to me :

I see your hiney

So bright and shiny

If you don't hide it

I'm gunna bite it

Well, I'm back! (!?)

So here's the deal. I want to blog again. But I want freedom! Ya get me?! I don't want none of this "Hey you didn't write on your blog today/haven't in a week" junk. Alright? Also, I'm gunna write about what I want to write about. (Not to be confused with the picture a day blog.) I don't really know why I'm writing this because I feel like all my readers are compassionate, loving people who are just reading this because they are nice. And want to. And think I'm super cool.

.......anyways.

So let's see. Today I am going to write about....... KK. I just got to visit with her today so I figured I might as well tell you allllllllllll about it. First let's go back to when I met her for the first time.

It was August of 2008 when I first moved to Fresno. I was involved in a Lifegroup at my church with about 6 girls that I didn't know. Out of these 6 girls I was one of THREE believers. And the one of them was the leader! It was quite a growing experience for me. For those of you that know me, you know I'm pretty outgoing. And loud. And hyper. And crazy. And well sometimes just plain obnoxious. But you put me in a group of people I've never met where I'm supposed to be the one with all the right answers to the Bible Study we were going through -- Boy, Howdy! I shut up quick. Anywho, the leader (Hi, Brittany) kept assuring me that there was another girl that would be joining us that was just wonderful and was a strong Christian. She was on a trip to Israel with her school for the fall semester.

That January, (2009), the group decided to meet at Chili's for our first meeting of the year. I walked in and saw a girl I didn't recognize. The leader introduced me to Kaelyn, we made small talk, and we sat down to order. It was me, another girl, and then Kaelyn. I decided I would try and start up a conversation with her so I said,

'My friend went to Israel, too! She went with her school last year.'

'Oh really?! What school?'

'Master's.'

'No way! That's the school I went with! Who is your friend?'

---At this point I wracking my brain to remember my friend's name. We worked at Hume together and had camp names so all that was going through my head was 'Cricket'. Then it hit me. ---

'Julie Stilson!'

'NO WAY!!' I know Julie!'

And the conversation went from there. Literally connection after connection linking our lives together. That whole night we didn't talk to any of the other girls. We leaned around the poor girl in between us and chatted the night away. I knew she was an instant 'life friend.' I remember leaving that night and calling my friend that had also just moved to Fresno about her. I told her that I just had a feeling she would be a very special friend to each of us. And she was. I got engaged the next month and asked her to be in my wedding. So when she told me a week ago that she was going to be in Texas I freaked out!! We only had a short visit but we had a little slumber party and got our 'pillow talk' in. Pillow talk is important in the friendships of Haley Barton. It's just where all the truth comes out. I can't explain it, but it's true! Anyways, we got to walk around Grapevine today and just enjoy being together. She's getting married in April and I couldn't be happier for her!!

In all seriousness, Kaelyn is one of the most genuine, loving people I have ever met. She truly cares about people. She says things like, 'Oh buddy....' And 'That breaks my heart..' (And she honestly means it.)

And also, when she doesn't get jokes, she says so.

:)