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We have a date—invitations soon to follow!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that Danielle and I actually have a date and location for our wedding. We will be married on the afternoon of August 19th at Craig Memorial Congregational Church in Paradise, CA.

We’re working on the invitations and they will be out soon…

For those of you coming in from out of state, please email me so we can coordinate travel plans (and minimize runs to Sacramento Airport).

We’re engaged!

Is there much more that can be said after a headline like that? I suppose you might be wondering about all the details (the wonderful day leading up to our engagement, the time and place, our courtship, etc.), so I’ll do my best to share them. With that said, Danielle tells the story much better than I — if you want the *whole* story you should ask her.

The most wonderful and important fact is that Danielle Amanda Buss and I are going to be married. To be entirely honest, I don’t know if either of us have stopped smiling since late Saturday afternoon. That’s pretty much the news, but if you’re interested in the rest of the story, read on…

The Rest of the Story:

As many of you know, Danielle and I have been seriously dating (or courting, if you prefer) since I returned from Focus on the Family Institute (FFI) in Colorado Springs in December. We have known each other for almost four years since she works for my parents as office manager, direct mail technician, receptionist, and just about anything else that comes along. Our friendship started with a snowboard outing during my last Christmas vacation from TAC. I helped her shop for an acoustic guitar over Easter break. During last summer we spent quite a bit of time together. I gave her guitar lessons in exchange for singing lessons (she sings beautifully). We also went to concerts, the state fair and looked at rare and interesting guitars that I was thinking about purchasing (a Squier Venus XII in surf-green anyone?).

When I moved away to Colorado, I found myself missing Danielle. We started talking every week on the phone (a fact my roommate Steve Sellers can attest to). Soon, the Sunday-night phone calls were the highlight of my week. That fact, coupled with the things we were studying at the Institute helped me realize that I wanted to get to know Danielle as more than just a good friend.

Needless to say, in light of the announcement of our engagement, Danielle turned out to be much more than a good friend. In the past 4 and a half months we have spent quite a bit of time getting to know each other. We have worked together at Cedar Creek Publishing, traveled to SoCal to visit my relatives, gone to concerts (I’ve seen my favorite band Mae twice now!), and spent quiet time at her house studying (Danielle) and working on websites (me). We even went snowboarding together twice this season, and, given a few more trips, Danielle could become quite a good snowboarder.

We had talked about getting married and the future, in fact, the point of our relationship/courtship has been to get to know each other and see if we are “marriage material.” A few weeks ago (just before Easter) the time finally felt right. Danielle and I had a great time shopping for an engagement ring and found one that really looks great!

Last Saturday we took a trip out to Fort Bragg, CA. For those of you who don’t know (and don’t want to click on the Google Maps link provided), Fort Bragg is a few hours North of the Bay Area off Highway 1. It has a rugged coastline and beautiful beaches (perfect for walking on). We learned on this trip that you can indeed surf in the area, but that the water is really cold (5mm wetsuits with hoods, booties and gloves, anyone?). The waves are also supposed to be more powerful than those found in Southern California.

Enough digression (at least for now). We left Paradise at about 6:00 in the A.M., which is pretty early for me, and started on the 4.5-hour drive to Fort Bragg. Danielle and I had a great time talking and laughing on the way. We arrived in F.B. at about 10:45 and went for a walk on one of the many beaches just to the north of town. Lunch was at Captain Flints, a neat restaurant that has been in Fort Bragg for quite some time. My fish sandwich was alright, but Danielle said the clam chowder was excellent.

I suppose I need to explain why Fort Bragg was chosen for our destination. When Danielle was younger, her family spent many vacations at a private beach near Rockport. Louisiana Pacific owned the beach and allowed employees to use it for their vacations. As a result, Fort Bragg and the outlying area is very special to Danielle.

After lunch we drove north on Highway 1 to the private beach just outside Rockport. We parked the car, changed into swimsuits (I’ve gotten really good at towel changing because of my surfing escapades) and started the 10-minute walk to the beach. Conveniently ignoring the signs saying “Private Property, No Trespassing.”

We spent a few hours on the beach sunning ourselves, talking, and chasing seagulls. We even took a walk (which was the perfect transition I needed…). After the walk, I sat Danielle down on our blanket and proceeded to take something out of my backpack. She later said that she thought I was going to get a ring out and ask her to marry me, and, when I didn’t, was disappointed in herself that she would be like “all those other girls who are always thinking about getting engaged.”

Instead, I brought out a small bowl, washcloth and towel and proceeded to wash her feet. While doing so, I had her read John 13:1-15 (the part about Jesus washing his disciples’ feet). When I had finished, I proceeded to tell her how I loved her, wanted our relationship to reflect that of Christ and His Church, and asked her if she would marry me.

As I waited, looking expectantly up at her, I thought something must be wrong. For a moment (the briefest of moments, really) I wondered if she was going to say “no” or something like that. My heart stopped.

Danielle then did something which I hope sets a good tone for our upcoming marriage. She practiced reflective listening. She said, “Are you asking me to marry you?” I responded that, yes, I was indeed asking her to marry me. Throughout this time my heart was beating, but in such an erratic fashion I though I was going to faint. Then she smiled and said, “Of course I’ll marry you.”

I went back to the backpack and pulled out the ring-box. I’m pretty sure my hands were trembling when I put my ring on her finger. It was one of the best moments of my life.

We laughed. Hugged. Kissed. Almost cried. We even ran on the beach out of sheer joy.

As we were packing up to go, a car pulled up to the parking area. A woman about our age got out and started walking towards us. She proceeded to tell us to leave. I asked her to take our picture and to my surprise she said that she would if we would leave immediately after.

Our walk back to the car was full of laughing, hugging, kissing, etc. I think it took twice as long to get back as it did to walk out.

We drove back to Fort Bragg (when we were done laughing, hugging, kissing, etc.) and were just in time to watch the sun set at Glass Beach. Danielle and I shared communion after the sun set, then we sat bundled up in my beach blanked and watched the waves. It was glorious.

When we finally decided that food, while not the most important thing, was a necessary evil, it was well after dark. We ate at the best Denny’s I’ve ever been to. The quality of the food/service, or, at least, our perception of its quality may have had something to do with our emotions at the time. I do recall that it was the best meal I have ever had the pleasure of eating and that I tipped the waiter somewhere around $7.50. I was pretty happy.

The drive home was long, but the company was excellent. We both smiled the whole way back, and I know my cheeks were a little sore the next morning. It was 3:00 AM when I finally drove down my driveway. What a fantastic day!

I guess that’s about all of the story to this point. We don’t have a date set as of yet (but I will post it when we get it figured out). We are looking at the first few weeks in August, but much of that depends on when we can schedule the church and have Pastor Dan Nelson (of Calvary Chapel Ojai) come up to say the service.

We would appreciate your prayers as we prepare to join our lives.

As a side note: I am opening this post up for comments (not usually the norm here). Please let us know what you think! In addition, Danielle will also be using this blog, so you’ll start to see posts written by her as well as me. Also, I’m finishing up the photo gallery of the pictures we took on Saturday. I’ll post it as soon as possible.

News Flash!

The following comic says it all…

In all honesty, the picture may not say it all. To fill in some of the details, Danielle and I have been dating since December 17th. I’ve known her for a long time (about three years). We spent quite a bit of time together last summer after work and on weekends and became good friends. To make a long story short, on December 17th I asked her if she would like to get to know me in a more “romantical” way and she said yes! Since then we have been spending most of our waking hours together. It has been really fun to get to know Danielle and I look forward to the coming months.

If you’ve got any questions for me or Danielle (e.g. why didn’t she choose the turkey? etc.) send me an email.

And now for December and January!

I suppose it is getting to be time for another installment in the “Life of Matt Dale” since I haven’t posted anything since mid-December ;)

I finished up the last few weeks at Focus on the Family Institute after Thanksgiving break. One of the last events we got to do was to go see the Phantom of the Opera up in Denver. The performance was really amazing. I don’t think I particularly enjoy musicals, but there is something neat about watching talented people perform in front of you. In addition, the production was fantastic. I had a great time.

On the final weekend of FFI we went back up to Horn Creek retreat center to have the “summit” retreat. It was a time of reflection and prepared us to say “goodbye” to each other. A group of us went bowling (at a tiny alley they have at the retreat center) that night. We (and by we, I mean mostly that I) got really crazy. It was mostly me jumping around and saying silly things at the top of my lungs. I don’t think I bowled a very good game, but everyone had a great time. We fit 16 people in a Ford minivan on the 1/4 mile drive back to our cabins. The next morning I could barely talk (from all the yelling the night before), but somehow managed to lead worship for the whole group. Luckily for me everyone at the institute could sing really well, so I just had to keep playing the guitar ;) The worship set was especially memorable for me because I broke (and subsequently dropped) a pick halfway through the second song and broke a string on the third song. Luckily one of my friends had his guitar there and I was able to finish the worship set.

Graduation was a lot of fun. The day before Steve (my roommate) and I cleaned the house from top to bottom. When graduation rolled around, he had left to stay at a hotel with his dad, so I had the apartment to myself. Graduation itself was a cool experience. It was nothing like the TAC graduation, but I really enjoyed Dr. Tackett’s commencement address. I said “goodbye” to all my friends and took a lot of pictures. That night I was alone in the apartment and felt sad and lonely; my institute experience was over.

The drive home was fairly uneventful. I took off around 9:00 a.m. and drove all day. I skipped lunch and hit Wendover, NV by 7:00 p.m. I had lots of time alone to think and pray while I was on the road. I also listened to pop music and 90’s hits on XM radio. In Wendover, I stayed at the Montego Bay casino for $40. The room was comfortable and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap place to stay in that area. Along with my room, I was given a coupon book filled with different complimentary deals. One of them was good for $1 in nickels to play the nickel slots. I redeemed my $1 and put it towards breakfast at McDonald’s the next morning. I always like coming out ahead of the house ;)

The second day’s drive was much like the first. I almost ran out of gas, but didn’t. My car took 9.9 gallons of gas when I filled it up, and it only has a 10 gallon tank. I made it home that day by 4:00 p.m. and was really happy to be off the road.

Almost immediately upon reaching home (actually three days after), I started dating Danielle Buss (c.f. the “news flash” above). I won’t go in to any great detail here, but we have been having a great time getting to know each other as more than just “friends.”

The following week was preparation for Christmas. My brother Alden came home from college with his girlfriend, Stephanie. My grandparents also drove up from SoCal for a visit. My friend, Rick Ruhman, and his band, The Revells, had a gig at Abottswood restaurant here in Paradise. Danielle, my grandparents and I showed up and watched a few of their sets. Danielle and I left around midnight but my grandparents stayed until the bar closed, then went to listen to karaoke at another club. I guess if you can’t stay up until the bar closes, you’re too old ;)

We spent New Year’s Eve at my house. Danielle and I played Catch Phrase with my parents. My parents managed to beat us most of the games, but one of these days Danielle and I will show them! We set off a bunch of firecrakcers and bottle rockets at midnight, then (after sending Danielle home) crashed into bed.

The next morning (at 4:00), my family and I took off for our annual trip up to Seaside, OR. The flight to Portland was great. We finally got to Seaside that evening and had our traditional halibut sandwich dinner at Dooger’s. We had three great days in Seaside. Alden and I didn’t get to surf because the waves were closing out. We did have fun at the two different surf shops. I picked up a couple of surf movies and a bunch of older surf magazines. All in all it was a really enjoyable time with my family.

The week after we got back Danielle, my mom, my grandad and I went to Macworld SF ‘O6. We saw all the stuff at the show, enjoyed riding cable cars and the older street cars to and from the show, and walked around the Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39 area. We had lunch the second day at Boudin’s (where they make the best sourdough bread!). I’ve posted a bunch of pictures in the “Photos” section of my site.

When I got back I became an “official” employee of Cedar Creek Publishing. It is my first “real” full-time job. I’ll probably be here until mid-summer, when I hope to move back down to the Ventura area.

Last weekend, Danielle and I drove out to Reno, NV. We went up Highway 70 through Quincy and had a great time taking pictures and stopping to look at interesting things. When we got to Reno, we played miniature golf at Magic Carpet golf and I won! After dinner (at Joe’s Diner, which was awesome) we walked around downtown and tried not to get mugged. Reno can be a scary place at night.

I have been looking for a snowboard ever since I got back from Colorado. I finally found one at Boards ‘N Motion in Auburn, CA. I’ve got an ‘04 K2 Instinct 162cm board with ‘05 Salomon SPX-Pro bindings and ‘05 Salomon Dialogue boots. I bought the board on Tuesday and went up to Donner Ski Ranch for a half day. The board is really great. I can’t believe how much better it feels than the rental boards I’ve been riding. I hope to go up every week for a half-day of riding on either Tuesday or Wednesday. I’m actually going to hit the slopes tomorrow. It’s not surfing, but I suppose that in the given conditions, it will have to do ;)

For pictures from the last two months, check out the new photo gallery! I’ll do my best to keep y’all posted on a (hopefully) more regular basis ;)

My Life: October and November

This post originally started of with the following:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone (even if it is a few days late)!

I suppose that is probably not the best way to start something that is going to be posted in late December but so be it. Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone out in internet land.

I figured that I should give y’all a brief update on how things have been going the past few months. I’ve been very busy, so I’ll focus on the “important” events. I’ve also put together a photo gallery to accompany this blog entry. You can find that gallery here.

As far as important events go, my 22nd birthday was certainly near the top of the list. This year my birthday fell on a Thursday, and also coincided with one of the Koinonia fellowship dinners here at the Institute. As a result, I had the pleasure of leading worship for the Omega group on my birthday. To make it especially memorable, we had a dog that wanted to join in. He added his whining and yelping to our voices as we made a joyful sound for the Lord! After the dinner one of my friends, Mindy, made cake and had a few people over to celebrate my birthday. It was basically awesome!

The first, and possibly the largest, social event of month was the FFI barn dance (and it happened the very next day!). Everyone got dressed up in their boots, hats and blue jeans and had a great time line dancing, square dancing, and participating in all sorts of crazy group activities. They hired a real square dance caller, and he taught us how to do all sorts of dances. I had a really hard time with the line dancing, but was pretty good at the square dancing. To get in the door, each set of roommates had to bake a dessert. I made Rice Krispy Treats. In the process I learned that if you make them in the microwave you need to have a really big bowl, otherwise the marshmallows expand and stick to the inside of the microwave. Thanks mom ;)

The weekend after the barn dance I drove up to Denver with two friends (Bernie and Christine) to see Mae in concert. They were joined by Discover America, Mutemath and Circa Survive. The first two groups put on a great show, but Circa Survive screamed a little too much for my taste. Mae was awesome! They played most of the songs of “The Everglow” but threw a few old classics into the mix. It was my favorite show of the semester!

The next weekend we had another fellowship dinner, but instead of leading worship I got to participate in a lip sync contest. We had a group do “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, another group did the “Seize the Day” from the Newsies soundtrack, a third did the Cheerleader skit from Saturday Night Live, a fourth did “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice. Those ladies looked pretty ghetto with their baggy pants, backwards hats and silver front teeth. My group did “That Thing You Do” by the Wonders (from the That Thing You Do soundtrack). We should have won, but somehow the judge picked another group ;)

The next week, I got to attend a Focus broadcast taping. Dr. Dobson was at the annual board meeting somewhere in Georgia, so he did not ask the questions, but John Fuller and Dr. Bill Maier led the discussion. The broadcast was on the practical evidence against living with your future spouse before marriage. It was really interesting to watch the broadcasting process, although I don’t think that the subject matter really applied to me. After the broadcast they took a few questions from the students, so I might be on the show when they air it in February :)

On November 5th, Jeremy Camp, Bethany Dillon and the Afters came to Colorado Springs. I didn’t feel like paying for another concert (I had already attended 3 this semester), but my good friend Jeremy Pond happened to get three free tickets (he knows people that know people, and that’s what really matters in the music industry). Anyway, he invited me to go with him. In addition to the tickets, he had Meet & Greet passes, so I got to shake hands with all the artists. The concert was pretty good. I enjoyed Bethany Dillon much more than I thought I would. The Afters were a little to “pop” for my tastes, but they put on a good show. Jeremy Camp has certainly matured as a performer since I saw him three years ago at Spirit West Coast. There were lights, lasers, lots of smoke and ear-splitting rock and roll. I especially enjoyed the last few songs of the set when he really rocked out (his acoustic stuff is alright, but I wish he would either go Alternative or Acoustic Pop, not sit on the fence between the two). We wound up the evening at Waffle House (which is probably the coolest, if not the only, fast-food waffle place in the world).

In the next few weeks I had two tests and two papers due. I spent my first late night studying this semester (and that was only until 1:00 AM). We’re actually almost done with our tests and papers right now. I’ve got two more papers to write and two tests to take and then… FREEDOM!

Before I came to the institute, one of my big goals was to become more “domestic.” I wanted to make sure that I knew (at least to some small degree) how to use the Joy of Cooking cookbook (I also wanted to learn how to iron my clothes, but I think that will have to wait until Christmas). To this end, namely, becoming a better cook, I invited four young ladies over for dinner. Instead of picking something easy, I decided that I was going to cook a chicken for dinner. It was an interesting experience. After many emergency calls home for maternal guidance, I pulled Mr. Chickie out of the oven and served him with baked potatoes and green beans almondine. Nobody died. Actually the food was quite good. I have a new desire to learn how to properly carve a bird because this was the hardest part of the whole process (along with pulling his frozen neck out of his body and washing him in warm water to quickly thaw him). I had a great time.

Over the next few weeks I spent quite a bit of time studying and having fun. On Thursday, November 17 we got to hear Ray Vander Laan speak about the “eastern” perspective. He talked about how we, as westerners, miss many of the subtle details found in Scripture because we don’t know the context and background. He was an amazing speaker and I got a lot out of our 6 hours together.

Our Thanksgiving vacation began after class that day. I had a lot of fun during Thanksgiving break. In the first couple of days, I finished the Calvary Gateway website and started working on the Hooker Oak Alliance website.

All work and no play makes Matt a dull boy. To this end, I took off really early Monday morning with my friend Troy to go snowboarding at Arapahoe Basin just outside of Keystone, CO. We had a great day snowboarding. I biffed it pretty good a few different times. We spent the night at the Arapahoe Inn which was staffed by weird european girls who did not seem very helpful. The rates were very reasonable, however, and the company was excellent. On the second day, we were joined by about 30 students and staff from the Institute. Troy ended up skiing that day, but I stuck to the snowboard and by the end of the day was able to race down the hill with my skiing friends while staying mostly in control. I don’t think I had a bad fall the whole day! I can’t wait to buy a snowboard and season lift ticket for Donner Ski Ranch this winter.

The next day I picked my buddy Andre Fox from the Denver airport and brought him to Colorado Springs. Andre graduated from TAC in my class and is teaching at a private school in Napa this year. The next day was Thanksgiving and Andre and I spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon cooking. We made a turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and a bunch of other stuff that I’ve forgotten at this point. We had Troy and Jen, two of my friends, over for dinner and they both brought goodies with them. The rest of the day (after the clean-up was done) was spent vegging out in front of some excellent videos (Christmas Vacation and a few others). All in all it was a pretty awesome “first” thanksgiving on my own.

Andre hung around for a few more days. We visited the crazy sales/shoppers on Black Friday, but started at around 11:00 A.M. and didn’t buy anything. On Saturday we made the drive up to the top of Pike’s Peak. It was incredibly windy at the top, and I heard that they closed the road soon after we left. A few days later it snowed on the top and I would imagine that it is pretty difficult to get up there right now.

That’s pretty much what happened during October and November. I’ll get to work on the update for December (and should probably start on January while I’m at it!). Check back soon for more updates!