Most exciting news of the new year - Josh and Jaylene are engaged!
They flew to San Francisco for the day, where he proposed with a video he had made on his iPhone.
For months, he has been having his pic taken, holding up a sign that says, "Will you marry me!"
Knowing for a while that she is the one, he put that together cleverly with each family member on both sides
making comments about their loved one. They flew home that evening and everyone
on both sides of the family who could be there, greeted them at Jaylene's home.
They are adorable together and we love her!
Josh is our oldest grandchild and has always been so very special to us, so his future wife had to be amazing, and she is!
Josh's announced engagement was a bright spot in a long sequestered January.I cooked, baked and shared with friends and neighbors lots of food.
Here are some pics of some of it:
oatmeal coconut cake
Homemade angel food cake with raspberry sauce and whipped cream
Blueberry pound cake
Roger made my birthday dinner - Surf 'N Turf!
For my Valentine birthday, which we have celebrated in Las Vegas for years, we stayed home. Roger barbecued a filet mignon we shared and fixed Alaskan crab legs - he even cracked them for me! He brought me these gorgeous roses and my dear, dear ministering sister, Janice, sent me a gorgeous flower arrangement. I received so many lovely cards and sentiments from family and friends, old and new, and my kids sent gifts and cards and grandkids made cards and we iChatted and it all made me so happy and feel loved.
Mindy texted this pic from the Big Island, where she and Jeff are celebrating Mindy's 40th birthday.
Jodie responded with this pic, asking if Mindy would like to trade places.
So I took a pic today (the day after Roger and I received our second Covid vaccination - YAHOO!) with my birthstone (amethyst) sparkly slippers on that Stacy sent me for my birthday.
She actually is sending me (some are still to come) 6 or 7 different pairs for me to try on and choose, but I told her after I tried these on that they will have to pry these off of me with a crowbar if they want them, because I'm keeping them - I LOVE them!
We are now working on combining our personal histories into one book and I am writing the story with Roger's input and editing and lining up the scanned pics in the computer.
Here are some of the pics we found this second time through slides and other sources:
!
After looking long and hard, we were tickled to find a pic of Roger's car when we were dating, a 1957 Ford coupe with a four-speed shift on the floor surrounded by a Roger-made naugahyde boot!
Roger is a real cowboy!
Pam and little Ricky in Lubbock, Texas
Roger, the jet pilot in full gear
Our little family in front of our base housing in Biloxi, Missippi
This is about where we are in the story, in Wichita Falls, having added our first little girl to our family.
A growing Gabrielsen family group shot, taken at about this time
The end of this long, sequestering tunnel is in sight! We can't wait to visit our kids and grandkids and try to catch up on the many missed hugs!
In the meantime, we will soldier on with our personal histories book,
knowing that this is a far-reaching project into the future.
After being forced to spend so much time on it during Covid, I guess there's light at the end of that tunnel, too!
