A break from the grind

Jonathan and I were working out of our Sydney office this month. Jonny has actually been down here for more than a month working on our Australia website as well as a couple of vendor issues. I decided to go the long way around to Dubai and take care of a few things in Sydney and in Hong Kong before joining the rest of our group in the Emirates.

I used to travel by myself and as a single man and I would focus all my attention on work and never the environment around me. I think I am the only person who travels to Egypt every year and has yet to see the Pyramids or film in China for two weeks and not see the Forbidden City or the Great Wall.

And so this time I have I actually taken the time to enjoy something as simple as surfing (not so simple). Sometimes it takes a companion to force you to do the things you really ought to do in an effort to keep you from losing your mind.

It made my work and the trip so much more enjoyable!

This is the first trip where, as I travel, I am always thinking..."I bet Em would like that"
..."I wish Em could see this"

I remember asking my sister, Sarah, once about how she felt when she was away from her husband who often goes on long business trips. She said it was like something just "wasn't right". I think I know what she meant....

Birthdays....

September was full of birthday fun...celebrating birthdays is even better when you can celebrate with two families. Thanks Tash for all of the birthday cakes you have made in the past couple months...they were fabulous!I am also proud to say that we have successfully finished most of our registering, which made for an very eventful day,and we have also finished our engagement pictures. As of now Josh is traveling around the world for the ministry and I have been busy catching up with work,school, and friends.It seems that things are finally slowing down, but there is still much to look forward to.

We have a when and where....

Here are some pictures from our trip to the wedding location in Habersham
(1) My Dad clearing the tall grass with his tractor
(2) A huge hornets nest we found
(3) One picture from the wedding location

Our Wedding details as of date:
When: April 5th
Where: My family's property in Clarkesville, GA

We are now officially a couple of brown berries after spending a weekend in Watersound Florida. It was a celebratory weekend with Mrs. Youssef's birthday and our engagement. I truly enjoyed my first vacation as a semi-Youssef and I am looking forward to many more. Here are some photos of the trip and other random shots.

The Proposal

Our first week of being engaged has been quite busy. I have been hearing from people that I have not been in touch with in years. Women want to know every detail about the proposal and with each telling the event becomes more and more romantic. The fact is I was nervous as hell. The color in my face did not return till hours after I asked Emily to be my wife. I had spent the week prior perfecting my sign language so that I could sign " Will You Marry Me".... I am just glad that I did not get the words switched and say " You Will Marry Me". I managed to sign properly and Emily forgave my exagerated signals. Technically she did not say "yes" however somewhere between the air sucking through her teeth and the sobbing I heard an affirmtive response. We prayed together in the sanctuary of the Church of the Apostles and we asked that the Lord calm our hearts and that he be exalted in our relationship. Joining both our families afterwards at Canoe was something I will never forget.

He did such a great job!