Not Blogging (here) and Getting Engaged.

Some things that have happened since I last blogged here:

I finished my 4th (but unfortunately not last) year of college.

I started working at Sweetwater Sound (the 3rd largest music retailer in the world!) as a public relations intern.

Fort Wayne became my home once again for the summer.

Amy, Jeff and Ezra came to visit Indiana

I GOT ENGAGED!
I've been planning a trip to Cincinnati as a birthday present to Joseph.
I've spent lots of time enjoying the lake.

Getting engaged has definitely been the highlight of my summer. It came as a complete surprise to me and I couldn't be happier! I can't wait to marry my best friend and start a new life together. The wedding won't be until October 2013 at the earliest and March 2014 at the latest so I'm not going completely crazy my final year of college. But, I'll get to plan at a little bit of a more calm pace and hopefully enjoy it all! Even after a month I still catch myself looking down at my finger glimpsing at my beautiful ring.

While all of this has been happening I've very obviously ignored my blog. A part of me thinks that maybe it's just a sign that it's time to turn in the key to "The Katie Chronicles". At many times throughout my teenage years and early 20s, blogging has served as a bit of an escape. A way to get down my thoughts an feelings unfiltered. My various blogs have served as places to show and share some of my favorite things and what has been inspiring me. With places such as Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, etc... coming around, not to mention a heavy school and work load in more recent months, having the time and patience to sit down and ramble off about my life doesn't always come easy. Not to mention I don't always feel like I have to most interesting things to share. All that said, this blog will most likely be absent of updates for awhile.

However, I have decided to start blogging about all of my experiences being engaged, planning a wedding and getting married! I hope to include a bit of everything from how Joe proposed, to some pictures and blogs I'm getting inspiration from, to my experiences, trials and tribulations in dress shopping, family meetings, venue checking and everything in between. I hope that you'll check it out. I'm excited to share this new chapter in my life!

Hop on over to For Better Or For Worse to keep up with my life as an engaged gal, and just me in general!

A Night With Sir Elton

Saturday night I was lucky enough to have the chance to see Elton John live in concert. I have been a fan of Sir Eton since I was little (ala the Lion King soundtrack) and grew up with my grandparents and parents playing a lot of his 70s and 80s era music. When I found out that he would be coming to Fort Wayne I knew I HAD to go. Not only would it be a chance to see a great concert, but also a rare opportunity to see a living legend. So, I was over the moon when my mom told me she had gotten us tickets.

 I'm not really someone the needs to get a concert shirt when I see a show. But, I felt like I absolutely needed an Elton John shirt. They were a little pricey, but well worth it. And even better, they weren't your general concert name on front, tour dates on back kind of shirts. He had all kinds of cool ones. I loved this one with all of the different Elton's throughout his career.

 I got to go to the concert with my mom and my grandparents. We were all dancing and singing right along. Our seats were really good. My grandparents own a couple of the club level seats which are right in the middle of the arena. I wasn't able to get any good pictures, but I could see him perfectly and had the video screen in perfect view to get some up close and personal views of him.

One thing that they did that I thought was genius was have a camera on the piano. They would show close-ups of his hands and it was fascinating to see the work he can do on the piano. I wish I would have taken a picture of one of the shots when they put it on the big screen.

 This show was really neat. He had no opening act, no band, no elaborate stage design (save for two video screens and some lights). It was just 3 hours straight of him singing and playing piano 100% with very few breaks, and even then they were to take sips of water.

He played almost every single song you could hope to hear. He even played some of his lesser known work and showed off how amazing of a piano player he his. The icing on the cake was his encore of "Circle of Life" and "Can You Fell the Love Tonight". I may or may not have teared up a bit. The Lion King was my favorite movie as a kid (and still is way up there) so hearing the artist that sang my favorite songs from my favorite childhood movie was pretty spectacular.

It was an amazing concert and a night I will never forget. My grandma said that someday when I have kids and grandkids and they talk about Elton John like they do some of the other famous, legendary performers, I'll be able to tell them that I got to see him live. When you see a performer, singer, songwriter and artist of his caliber it really makes you wonder what is going on in music these days. Very few things compare.

Life From the View of My iPhone

 Celebrating St. Patrick's Day with my mom and grandparents at JK O'Donnell's.

 Adorable puppies.

 Spring at Ball State.

 Gidget REALLY hates bath time.

 Cash and I go to the park every Sunday that I go to Joseph's mom's for dinner. He always wears that hat so we can find our way back home.

 My adorable grandparents.

 Fro-yo date with Joseph.

 Making chili and having a bit of wine with some lovely girls.

 My first spotting of the Happy Friday guy ever! (If you go to Ball State this is a huge thing!)

 My team from the Ball State Daily News social media team entered chili in a chili challenge. We won "most original" chili. I was pretty stoked about it.

 Debrand's sundaes with my mom and brother.

Olive on Easter. She is already 6 months old! 

 My attempt at making a Peep cake from a recipe I found on Pinterest. It's supposed to look like a sunflower, but my Peeps went a little square.

Family Easter photo!

I'm absolutely, positively, in love with this song by Jason Mraz. I haven't listened to him in ages and then this gem came on the radio (yes I still listen to the radio sometimes) when I was driving to class last week after a few rough days. After I heard the first verse and the chorus I started to cry while driving, which can be really dangerous. But, that's beside the point. The point is this song is very beautiful. I don't even know if it's considered cool to like Jason Mraz anymore (is it?!) but this song just really got to me and made me realize how much love I have in me.

Where I've Been Lately

The other day I realized that I haven't blogged anything in a very long time. Between a lack of motivation, a lack of time, and not feeling myself I kind of have avoided this little corner of my life. But, that tends to be how I operate when it comes to something like blogging. I'll do it faithfully for awhile, but the moment I start feeling uninterested or off I know it's time to disappear for awhile.

So, here's some things that have happened since the last time I posted:

• Amy, Jeff and Baby Ez moved to Rochester
• Everything in my apartment simultaneously decided to break
• I applied to so many internships I could write a cover letter in my sleep
• I had my first internship interview
• Joseph and I took Cash to his first Komets game
• I landed a really great internship in Fort Wayne
• All of my professors decided that group projects are the way to go
• Indiana decided to just skip spring, and move right on to summer

Basically, all in all I've been very busy, very excited, and very drained. I miss my best friend very very much. I'm elated over getting a ridiculously good internship. I don't know how to feel about it being 85 degrees in March.

Here's more of life according to my iPhone