IM ENGAGED!

I have been in a relationship with my boyfriend, Ben, for about six years. We've known each other since we were 11, when his family moved to New Zealand from England. We weren't friends at first, in fact I think he found me a little annoying because I used to tease him and joked that he read the dictionary (which was only because he had to pretend to read one in a play put on by his group at camp). I dont think he even really knew my name, I was just 'that annoying girl'. Eventually we got a bit closer as 'friends' because he was in a group of guys that I was sorta friends with as well (I'd just got out of that 'I don't wanna talk to guys' stage of my early teens). After a few months of his guy friends and my girl friends joking that we 'liked' each other and that we should 'go out' we actually started to wonder "hmm.. maybe there could be something there?". And so, by the age of 14 we had started to have a 'thing' going on and by that I mean we texted, instant messaged on MSN and never talked to each other face to face because we all of a sudden went from being 'sorta friends' to too shy to even talk to each other cause we liked each other so much (cringe!).

We officially started dating as boyfriend/girlfriend on January 18th 2010 at the age of 15 and now its coming to the end of 2015 and after being together for almost six years we are engaged to be married on January 20th 2016.
Some people think 21 is too young to be married and think that young people don't know what they want or even what love is but I can honestly say that I know without a shadow of doubt that Ben is the 'one'. I've known Ben's the 'one' since we were 14 and hadn't even started dating (and talking face to face) yet and I couldn't be happier to start this new life with him. He makes me smile, laugh and  enjoy things that I never thought I'd enjoy. He annoys me, he frustrates me to no end and tickles me to death (I hate being tickled). He's smart, funny, honest, loyal, shy sometimes and other times he never shuts up. He is warm, great to cuddle, has a really good sense of style but still enjoys dressing like a bum too. I love everything about him, even his cute, grumpy face.

2015 Update

I haven't made a post on my blog since December.. sorry for my lack of effort (I say this mostly to myself because I set a goal to make more posts, but also to whoever reads my posts haha). I thought I'd start by making a post which is an update of the bigger things that happened with me this year and then make an announcement.

TRAVEL! I love to travel (as you can see from previous posts) and this year I went on two holidays. The more exciting of the two trips was to Australia.. now I've been to Australia three other times before this but I love it every time I go and this time it was a girls trip with My mum, sister and our family friend Marilyn. We stayed in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast and we did all the usual tourist things like visiting all the themeparks, playing mini-golf, checking out the native wildlife, seeing a show at Dracula's (which can I just add was awesome!) and shopping at both the local markets and city centers. We also got to visit some long-time family friends of ours which was bonus!

My other trip was even closer to home. For the first time in my life I got to visit the South Island of New Zealand (I know, my own country and only just visiting the south now.. useless). As seen in a previous post I did a Tourism course at Weltec and for a class trip we got to go to Queenstown. On this trip we did plenty of tourist activities which included visiting a small nearby gold-panning town called Arrowtown, we went jet-boating, visited a glow-worm cave in Te Anau, went on a ferry trip through the Milford Sounds, took a helicopter ride (which I don't think I'll be doing again) and went luge-ing which is kinda like go carting except its not a little car and you go down the mountain, its hard to explain so look it up :)

In April this year I graduated from my Weltec Tourism course and got a level 3 and level 4 Tourism certificates as well as two certificates with City & Guilds. I was the only one of my class that decided to actually attend graduation and all up there were only 4 tourism students graduating (the other three were from another class). My family, which includes my parents, my sister and my boyfriend, all attended and our family friends Brian and Marilyn, who are like my second parents, came as well. 

I turned 21! And no.. it wasn't a major celebration resulting in a hangover the next day like most 21st parties seem to go. For my 21st I had all my closest friends, family friends and extended family over for a PG rated party and feast. My cousin Sarah made me an amazing cake and my dad cooked all the food (what champs!) The night ended with a couple friends staying over watching scary movies and tv shows all night which was the perfect ending. All this actually happened two days before my birthday and on my actual birthday I went out for lunch with one of my best friends and then a group of us went bowling that night. 

And now here are just a few more things that happened this year that I believe are worth mentioning.
1. My beautiful baby sister (although not a baby anymore) went to her school ball where she looked like a super gorgeous 50's movie star.
2. I changed my hair colour. I decided that I was bored with my dark locks and have been slowly going lighter since July this year thanks to NYX hair design.
3. and finally, I got to help celebrate the first birthday of little Harper who is the beautiful girl of Krystal, one of my longest time childhood best friends. It was a super cute fairy party with special guests Mickey and Minnie Mouse. This birthday party was extra special because it meant alot to Krystal and her family, who are currently going through a very hard time, and being able to have a whole day just for fun and celebrating this gorgeous little girl was a great way to just forget about all that for a while. 

And now you are all caught up on what's happened since December 2014 till now.. well except for one important thing, but you'll have to wait for the next post to find out what that is ;)