I will be a better blogger from now on

I recently decided I wanted to blog more.  How many times have I said that?  That's a rhetorical question.  I mean it this time.  How will I ever find time time to blog,  you ask? Well I've got a newborn (whaaaaat, where did he come from!?) So I'll blog in the middle of the night when he's nursing :) good use of my time!  So that's my "excuse" for poor punctuation and spelling errors. Better than nothing though.

So that newborn I have? He's a sweet little thing!  He was born on November 3, 2023 at 5:42 pm, weighing 7 lb 11 oz and 18.5 inches long. We call him Benjamin and it fits him pretty darn good. He's a pretty patient and calm baby. He's pretty good at waiting his turn while I attend to Max.  The first few weeks were rough... More so than normal with a newborn...because it turns out he had a minor dairy sensitivity.  My mommy instincts told me he had an intolerance to something and so I started researching baby poops. Green and mucousy indicated a food intolerance so I talked to a pediatrician and he suggesed to cut out dairy, the most likely common culprit.  I cut it out (well,  the majority of it) and he's been so much happier and his poops ate back to being yellow and seedy!  Yay for normal breastfed poop! It's been an adjustment cutting out dairy... and I still cheat... but he's much happier now.  It's pretty minor so I think he will outgrow it eventually. 

Christmas was good.  We stayed home and didn't have any visitors. It was a nice, quiet family Christmas.  Well, we did have one visitor, Seth invited one of his single soldiers over for dinner and he thoroughly enjoyed the Cornish hens I made (when i offered him extras to take home,  He asked if he could have the extra hen!!)

Max is doing well and growing like a weed. He's always been on the smaller side but at his 18 month checkup last  week, he went from the 50th percentile to the 86th! He's only 18-25lbs though.  He's a skinny little thing.  Ben, however,  It's chunky and he already weighs 12.2 lbs (as of 2 weeks ago). He's my short and stout little guy while Max is tall and lean (for now anyways).

Both boys are asleep on my lap and I need to trim their fingers and toes before I put them in bed for the night.

Here's to being a better blogger in 2014!

And here is a picture of our boys on Christmas morning:

Our First Christmas Apart

Merry belated Christmas :)

I wrote out a super long blog but then decided it was too long for even me to read so here’s the shortened version.

Christmas with Seth away was much much harder for me than I was expecting. It still hadn’t fully hit me that he wouldn’t be home this Christmas until early evening on Christmas Eve, when I was headed to his parent’s house for their annual Christmas Eve party. My sister went with me and we were listening to the radio and John Lennon’s Happy Christmas (War is Over) song came on. I asked if she knew the title; she didn’t know about the War Is Over part of it and then when I told her, it all hit me. I tried really hard to fight back the tears, and was pretty damn successful. But it was then that I realized that he really wasn’t going to be home, and he was indeed on the other side of the world and this was our first Christmas being separated. We got to his parent’s house and we had a really fun time. We played BuzzWord and it’s an awesome game. I highly recommend it. In the middle of the game, I got a text from Seth. It said, “Merry Christmas, Love. It’s the future for me. Love you.” I called a time out in the game and I said, “I have an announcement to make. Seth said Merry Christmas because he’s in the future.” His mom got a kick out of the “because he’s in the future” part. Everyone said to tell him Merry Christmas too, and we sent a few more texts back and forth. We put the cookies and milk out with the nieces and nephews before they went to bed. After they were tucked in bed and it was safe, Seth’s sister Stacey drank all the milk and we put the cookies back in the cookie bag. (So THAT’S how it’s done, parents?!?!)

On the way back to my parents house, I was sleepy, cold, lonely and just sad that I was driving all alone, when the last two Christmases I was doing this drive with Seth. I couldn’t find a radio station that wasn’t playing Christmas music (and of course I had a Christmas music CD in the CD player) and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” came on and I lost it. It was dark out and I was bawling my eyes out. Ideal driving conditions, let me tell you. At least the roads were clear, so that was good. I was crying pretty hard by this time and was telling myself to stop being a baby, he’ll be home in not a long time, he wouldn’t want me to cry and to suck it up. I got pissed so I slammed the radio button off and just drove in silence listening to myself cry. Awesome. Then I remembered one of the two Christmas cards that I got him. I went the funny route instead of the sad-because-we’re-apart-gushy route. One of the cards I got him said something, like, “you better not shout, you better not cry…” then on the inside of the card, it said, “Because Santa doesn’t like pussies.” I wrote on there that I really got the card as a reminder to myself, but I was sending it to him so he knew I was trying to be tough. After I turned off the radio, I said to myself, OUTLOUD: “Santa doesn’t like pussies” and then I cried even more because I was being a sad baby.

I got home with red, puffy eyes and a red nose and I really just wanted to crawl into bed, but my brother was home, so I hung out with them. We got into a discussion about when we’d do presents at my parent’s house, because I needed to leave there by about 8:45 to get to my in-law’s at 9 for breakfast and then gifts at 10. My sister threw a hissy fit and made some pissy comment about how I was going to be gone on Christmas day to go over to their house and blah blah blah. I was already on the verge of tears. I told them I didn’t care when they opened their gifts (I was the kid that always got up at 4 AM to open gifts, waking up everyone else in the house so I didn’t have to wait). I told her I needed to be at their house at a certain time, they could open their presents with or without me, in the morning or the afternoon, I didn’t care, but I had a strict time schedule in the morning. We never came to a conclusion and I went to bed pissed off because she was making it even more difficult for me. I got up on Christmas morning at 7:45 and quickly hopped in the shower. I thought I’d be up a little earlier than that, so I rushed to get ready. By the time I got out of the dumb shower, everyone was up and telling ME to hurry up so we could open gifts. Ughhhh they were really annoying me. I rushed through opening my gifts, shoved them all in the bedroom and then finished getting ready.

I called Seth when I got in the car, and lost it again. I tried not to talk too much, because he can tell in my voice when I’m crying, and I was TRYING SO HARD to be strong, but clearly I was failing. So when I’m crying, I just don’t talk, and it was sort of an awkward phone conversation because I am pretty sure he could sense I was crying, but neither one of us wanted to admit it. Haha I said I was going to his parent’s house and then my voice started to crack and then the tears started flowing freely and there was no hiding it then. However, I still tried. He said, in his so sweet voice, “awww babe. Are you crying?” I told him that I wasn’t crying, I was fine, all while literally sobbing. He then proceeded to call me a liar and then he reminded me that “Santa doesn’t like pussies.” Haha that’s love right there. This made me laugh and then I was laughing and crying and driving. He said something about how it might be embarrassing to show up at his parent’s house with a bright red nose, and puffy eyes. Valid point. Trust me, I wish I didn’t cry so easily. So we were talking about where I was driving, what part of the road, so he could estimate how much longer I had to get my non-crying face on before I got to his family. Basically I didn’t have enough time. The phone cut out and I called him back and he said he was going to hop in the shower and he’d call me after he was in bed. I drove past his parent’s house to buy myself a little bit more time of not looking like I’d been crying, but then said screw it, I was already late, I needed to get there and sucked it up and pulled into their driveway. His brothers came out of the back door, literally as I was parking and I thought, “oh how nice, they’re here to help me carry in the presents.” Hahaah nope, they were getting ready to hop in the car to go find a store open to get some orange juice. Haha I still asked them to help me carry in the presents and they were nice about it. (BTW, no stores were open on Christmas morning in the town, so they never got their orange juice). I still had a red and puffy nose and eyes as I walked in and hugged the family. Oh well, no one asked about it. I figured they’d know anyways. Seth called me a little while later and we passed the phone around and he talked to most of the family. I helped his mom and sister get the webcam set up so we could get his other sister in Atlanta on the webcam since she’s 8.5 months pregnant and can’t fly right now. Skype was being lame, so I suggested gmail webcamming since that’s what we use, and after a few minutes of installing that, we got it to work. I overheard Seth talking to his Marine brother (Shane) on the phone and then after they got off the phone, I was talking to Shane and he said Marine’s aren’t allowed to have cell phones over there. They have to use the call centers and especially on a major holiday like Christmas, he said the lines would be 3-4 hours long, for a 20 minute phone call. This made me extremely thankful that my love is in the Army, not the Marines, because that would be very difficult for me. He was very surprised that Seth is able to call me whenever he wants, and I can call him too, whenever I want. Seth called again when we were getting ready to open gifts and we talked for a few minutes and I didn’t realize that he wanted to be on the phone when his mom and Shane opened their gifts. He sent me a text message that literally broke my heart. He said, “I wanted mom and Shane to open their gifts. Dammit. Now I’ll miss it. Oh well I guess. It just feels like another Saturday to me anyways. Goodnight love.” I felt soooo bad. I called another time out during gift opening and said that I was going to call him so his mom and Shane could open their gifts but he said no, it was ok, he was just going to go to bed. I felt like a major jerkface and I should have known that he wanted to be on the phone when they opened the presents. Both gifts were his idea, and great ideas at that. I try to put myself in his boots for times like that and wonder if I’d want to hear the excitement of Christmas gifts being opened, and hearing what I’m missing or if I just wouldn’t want to hear the excitement because it would make me sad that I couldn’t be there, knowing what I was missing out on. I never come to a conclusion because neither sounds fun to me. I’ve made a permanent note to myself about this, for future reference if we ever spend Christmas apart again. Hopefully we won’t, but hey, it’s the Army and the odds are pretty great that we will. (Shane was my secret Santa partner and he got me a USMC hoodie. I felt like a traitor wearing it!!!)

Anyways, the rest of the day went well-ish. I cried again when we all sat down for dinner. I thought it’d be a good idea if we read The Soldier’s Christmas poem, before we ate. We had 16 people at dinner and there are 21 little paragraphs or stanzas or whatever they’re called, so I figured we’d go around the table and each read one, and then the first few people would double up to finish the poem. My dad said a nice opening to the poem…and I was bawling before we even began. When I was supposed to read my little part, I read the first two lines and then literally started crying hysterically. Sweet memories, let me tell you. I somehow managed to say the rest, but it wasn’t easy. The younger girls sitting across from me were crying too and neither wanted to read, so I read their parts too, through lots of tears and sobs.

After dinner, the younger girls opened their gifts. These girls LOVE my sister and me. It’s really cute. When they were over for Thanksgiving, they were asking all about my sister, where she was at, what she’s up to, why she wasn’t there, etc. They followed us around all day on Christmas, asking us all sorts of questions, asking about things that we must have told them a few years ago, things we didn’t even remember. For example, they haven’t seen my sister since Thanksgiving 2008, I think. Apparently my sister made a comment to them then that she could put her leg behind her head?? When we were eating dinner, they asked my sister, “can you still put your leg behind your head?” My sister and I looked at each other and started laughing and we both said, “how did you know that?!” They said apparently we told them that once upon a time. They said they wanted to sit by us at Christmas dinner, and they picked out our seats, next to them, for us. Anyways, the girls were opening their gifts and the older one said out loud to no one in particular, “this may have been the best Christmas ever.” It was really sweet and genuine and I was happy that I was able to help make Christmas “the best ever” for them, even if it wasn’t for me.

Ok, well that turned out way longer than expected, so sorry to take up so much of your time. Really – sorry, you probably have better things to be doing, but if you stayed through that whole thing, congrats to you!!

Webcamming on Christmas?

I’m really hoping that Seth and I will be able to webcam at some point in the day on Christmas. I plan to wake up at my parents on Christmas morning, open gifts there, go to his parents, have breakfast there and be with them while they open gifts and then I’ll hang out with them until they go to Seth’s grandma’s house to eat, which will probably be around 1. Then I’ll head back to my parent’s house and I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon there. Luckily, our parents’ only live about 20 minutes from each other. So yeah, in between all this, I would like to webcam with my love. While planning all this in my head, a few logical problems arose:

1. I don’t have a laptop that has a webcam
2. I will be at my parent’s house and they have a desktop, sans webcam
3. Seth’s parents have a webcam, but it might be kind of awkward if I ask them, hey…can I use your computer so I can see Seth? Actually it probably wouldn’t be awkward, I would just feel awkward because I’d be the loner in the office not socializing with everyone. I could be like Kip, in Napoleon Dynomite, when he says “Napoleon, don’t be jealous that I’ve been chatting online with babes all day.” Seth is a babe.
4. I contemplated bringing my webcam to my parent’s house to set up there

Then yesterday, I remembered that my dad has a work laptop that has a webcam. So I called him and asked him to please be sure that he brings it home over Christmas break (or else I’ll make him go to work and get it on Christmas morning…). He then asked if I would also like him to bring a big projector monitor (we're talking like a 50 inch screen...) so Seth can be displayed for all to see. As much as I would LOVE to see this happen, I really do not think Seth would appreciate this. Actually, I know he’d hate it. He dislikes being put “on display” like that. Because I love him so, I will not torture and do this to him. Don’t get me wrong, I did consider it for a quick moment, but then decided against it. Out of pure love.

Seth - you're welcome in advance and you can thank me when you get home :) I love you!!!! xxoo

"I'll Be Home For Christmas"

My mom has a subscription to Reminisce magazine. It’s a magazine with real life stories from the “olden days” …back in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, etc. I love looking at the black and white pictures and reading about the differences between now and then. I am catching up on some reading from January 2009 (wtf, I know, right?!?) but I came across a story that I just had to share. It’s called, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.”

(I'm also waiting for Seth to get online in the hopes we can webcam).

"I'll Be Home For Christmas"
By Bernadette Porter
Villa Park, IL

At Christmastime 1945, the excitement of the season was doubled because the boys were coming home from war. One long year before, Bob and I were married, on December 9, 1944. Five days after our wedding, he received his orders to ship out.

In early 1945, Bob was aboard a German cruise ship, the Blum Fontaine. One night, during the 43 day trip, he was talking with another soldier. The fluorescence in the black water was quite beautiful. Bob stared down into the depth and said, “I’m praying I’ll be home for Christmas.”

“Are you crazy?” said the soldier. “We don’t even know where we’re going. You’re nuts!”

Bob said, “I’m praying, crazy or not.”

Their destination was the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, where our Marines, 4,163 of them, had fought to take it. Bob’s 506^th Fighter Group was to occupy the island. Bob wrote to me every single day and I to him.

Now, the long, lonely year was over. He had been many thousands of miles away. It was hard to believe Bob was coming home, but how? Men needed points to fly home. Flyers with 70 points had left earlier. Bob, a master sergeant, had 60 points.

For reasons we never knew, the naval destroyer USS Independence came by Iwo Jima. The crew called for anyone still on the island. Points did not matter; they were heading home.

The captain challenged the men. “If you boys tighten your belts and not waste food, we can be home for Christmas. If we’re not careful, we’ll have to stop for supplies.”

Of course, there was nothing more the men wanted but to be home for Christmas. Because of this and the captain’s plans to travel straight through, they made the trip in 16 days.

On December 23, the Independence reached its California port, which was filled with ships. This was no problem, since the only place available was an empty dock too large for many ships but made a huge destroyer. The men were offered a 2-week pass; discharges would come after Christmas.

Bob took the pass and hurriedly sent me a Western Union telegram before getting back on ship. It said, “Darling, expect to arrive at Fort Owens, Massachusetts on the 24^th. Suggest you leave Chicago to arrive Boston the same date. Register hotel manager at North Station will meet you there.”

Whether it was serendipity or fate, it was with Bob and me throughout our attempted reunion. The Independence coming when it did, picking up anyone left on Iwo Jima, was a miracle to us. The captain’s challenging plan to sail straight through to reach home by Christmas was also a surprising success.

By train, the men got to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, later joining hundreds of soldiers lined up to take the train to Boston. This crowd would never fit on one train!

Just then, a cabbie arrived, shouting, “I’m going to Boston, $10 each, with room enough for six.”

Bob ran to be one of them, and he somehow made it. This, too, was unlikely. Bob wondered how I was maintaining my trip and hoping I would have the same good fortune.

At home, in Berwyn, Illinois, my bag was packed. People thought I was foolish, since there were so many unknowns. My friend Laura took me to Chicago’s South Station to catch a train to Boston.

The train station was jam-packed, with people standing shoulder to shoulder. One Coast Guard man asked if I was meeting someone special. I answered, “Yes, my husband.”

A fellow Coast Guard man said, “There won’t be a seat on the train for you.” Yet another of the servicemen said, “I’ll carry her luggage and hold her arm. They’ll let us both on if they think we’re together.”

We climbed abroad, but there was no seat for me, so I turned my suitcase on end and sat on it. It was a long ride from Chicago to Boston, but I was delighted just to be on my way. The unbelievable had happened again. Today, I wonder, how did all these things fall into place?

In Boston, our train came in under a hotel. Hundreds of men in uniform were milling about. I walked up to the Travelers Aid folks for help. They read my telegram and explained that I could not meet the manager. They suggested that perhaps it meant that I should go to the Hotel Mangor, upstairs, and meet my husband there. It seemed reasonable that the Western Union worker misunderstood the message when he or she wrote it down.

I went upstairs to register. The hotel clerk was very sorry, but there were no rooms available. I decided to wait in the lobby. It was about 9 pm on Christmas Eve, and at least I was there!

About an hour later, the clerk came over to me and told me a room would be available in a few minutes. I could not believe it!

I waited in the room until about 10:30, when there was a knock at the door. It was Bob! We were both shaking so much that it took quite a few minutes to settle down, or even know what to say to each other.

After we calmed down and got through our hellos, we wanted to go to midnight Mass. With directions in hand from the same hotel clerk, we walked through the busy crowds.

It was Christmas Eve, and Bob was home – safe and sound. As we entered the warm, gently lit church, Bob looked at his watch. It was midnight and as we knelt down, the organ began to play.

I can just imagine her excitement on that day. Can you imagine getting a telegram? A TELEGRAM?! Those things are ancient. I wonder how long it had been since she actually spoke to him. Probably a really long time. I would have done what she did though, if I got a telegram saying to meet me at such and such a place at this date and time, I would have hopped on a train just like her to go meet my husband. I also would have lied and said I was with another Coast Guard man to get me on the train. A girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do. I'm jealous of Bernadette's reunion story.

The Proposal

Exactly 7 months ago, Seth proposed :)

December 29, 2009. Here's how the day went.

First, a background. Seth came home for the holidays on December 16, 2009. On December 17th, I called in "sick" to work and we spent our first day together in 9 whole months. We slept in, he made us omelets for breakfast with all his favorite goodies, and then we to see my dad at work. Random, I know. I don't know why I suggested that thinking back. I'm sure Seth would have preferred go see his dad, but he went willingly along. On our way back, he suggested we stop at Helzberg diamonds so he could look at possible jewelry for me for Christmas. I told him I wouldn't mind a little pair of diamond stud earrings, and he said he wanted to see what kind I like. So we stopped in there. We looked at the men's watches, and oh, we found our way to the engagement rings. He had sent me links to a few different rings to get my opinion in the last few months. I fell in love with one particular one and would go back to the website every few days to look at it and hope and wish that would be the one he'd get me one day -- but I never told him this part. Then some sales lady distracted me by showing me the diamond studs earrings while he talked to a salesman.

Fast forward 12 days to December 29th. We had a lazy morning and I think he took one of his tests online. Or maybe he was playing Scrabble online...I don't remember exactly. I know he as at the computer as I was in the bathroom straightening my hair and it was a gorgeous day out. By gorgeous, I mean it was really bright and sunny and it was blinding on the snow from the previous days and it was colder than hell. I think it was around 15 degrees, and the wind-chill made it even colder. While doing my hair, I asked him if he'd want to drive to the lakeshore (like 45 minutes away) for the day to just see it. Since the summer we met, I've wanted to go to the lake with him, but we've never had a chance. He said sure. We finished getting ready and I grabbed my new Christmas present, a Snuggie, and we walked out to the car. He was driving, and I settled into the passenger seat with my Snuggie. He said he'd be right back and he ran up to the apartment. He was taking a really long time and I was sitting in a cold car. I wondered what the crap he was doing up here for so long. He eventually came down and he was carrying an apple and 4 mini cup cakes we had made earlier in the week. I was wondering why it took him so long to get those, and that it was really really random to bring those with us to the lakeshore, but whatever. I asked him why he grabbed those and he just said, "in case we get hungry." Right. Of course.

We finally started driving, and we had to stop at the gas station to get gas. He said for me to pump the gas, and he'd run in, cash our lotto tickets and pay for the gas. Again, it was taking him forever to cash the tickets and pay for the gas and I was standing outside in the freezing cold. I was getting ready to just pay for it with my debit card because I was realllllly cold, but for some reason, I waited patiently for him to pay. He came out eventually and I pumped the gas and we were finally on our way. We were driving along, talking like normal and I was snuggled up in my Snuggie. I'm sure we were holding hands in the car like we always do too. There's this one intersection on the way to the lakeshore that reminds me of the day I got fired on June 1, 2005. As we passed the intersection, I decided to tell him the whole story of me getting fired, and it got me so upset, I was actually crying in the car. He's a very good listener even though I'm a really bad story teller. He's very patient with me. I lucked out there. We got to the lakeshore, parked and then we got bundled up in our jackets and scarves and gloves and then headed out on the pier. I brought my camera with me and he actually was cooperative when I stopped and took a picture of us. He actually smiled for the camera and didn't try to talk me out of taking our picture! I remember thinking he was being too cooperative with me taking his picture. Weird.

We slowly walked out on the very icy pier and he was scaring the crap out of me because it was icy and he was getting pretty damn close to the edge. I was walking down the middle of the pier, as far away from the edge as possible. I was slipping and sliding in my winter boots, and he eventually came over and started walking with me and holding my arm to hold me up.



It was a slow walk out on the long pier and my ears were freezing so I wrapped my pink scarf around my ears. He called me his Little Iraqi girl, because apparently I looked like one with my scarf wrapped around my ears and head. There was another couple at the end of the pier. They had a cute little dog that must have been freezing cold, and I asked the lady if she'd take a picture of us in front of the light house. So she did.

I asked him if we could go back to the car now because I was really cold. He told me we should just stay out there for a little while longer. I was really really really cold and my legs and hands and face were numb. He knows I get cold easily and I was wondering why he was tortuing me to stay out in the cold for a little while longer. For some reason, I didn't whine about going back to the car to warm up, I just stayed there. The other couple left and headed back to land. We were getting lots of pictures and it was a really pretty day. It was incredibly windy which made it even colder. I was getting a picture of the smaller light house across from where we were and my back was to him.
When I turned around, he got down on his knee and simply said, "Miss Stacy, will you please marry me?" and he opened up the box and holy smokes, the sun was shining and it was bouncing off the diamonds in the ring and it was soooo pretty.

(This is a gross picture of my hand. It looks all red and swollen and just gross and my manicure was long over due. Ignore my hand and just focus on the ring!!).

It was so cute and sweet and simple, and I took his face in my hands and said of course. Then I said, "stand up! Your knee is going to get wet and you're going to get cold!!!" He said, "I'm kneeling on your boot." haha I don't even remember feeling him kneeling on my boot or feeling it on my foot!! I don't know how he did that. I pulled him up/he stood up and I took off my gloves and he put the ring on my finger and then we kissed all sweetly and hugged. My body was numb from the cold, literally, and I always expected I'd cry when he proposed, but my face was too numb, I honestly don't think I was capable of crying. We eventually walked back to the car and I took a picture of my hand with the ring and I sent it to my mom and sister and said, "Seth proposed and I said yes!!"
My mom immediately called and she was in tears. She was so excited. We drove to a little restaurant that is a staple when you're at the lakeshore, and it was the first time he'd been there. I'd told him earlier in the day I would buy him lunch. We got to the restaurant, and we sat down and we were finally warm, and we ordered our lunch and warm alcoholic drinks. My sister called me and it was then that it really hit me and that's when I started crying. Plus, I had thawed out so I was capable of crying now. She asked if she could be my maid of honor and if she could do our flowers. We finished lunch and sent pictures of the ring to all of our siblings and family members, and he updated his Facebook Status to say, "I proposed to Stacy today at the lakeshore. She said yes and then she bought me lunch!" hahaha

(this is the picture that was sent to all of the siblings)

I left him with my debit card as I ran to the bathroom. There's a chalkboard in the bathroom and I erased what was on it and wrote:

I went back out to our table, and he had signed my name on the receipt with his last name. I still have that receipt. We drove back and went to his parent’s house. Somewhere along the way, I asked Seth if he had asked my dad, and he said he had. He had called him when we were at the gas station and he went inside to pay. He took longer than expected because he had to make that all important phone call. He took long when he had to run back into the apartment because he had to get the ring, and he kept that in his back pocket in the car and on the walk out to the pier! (He actually bought the ring on the day we went to the jewelry store, and he stored it in the tip of his Army boots in the closet. He is brave!!! The ring was in our bedroom for a full 12 days and I didn't even know it!! He is so freaking sneaky! He even showed his dad the ring on Christmas Eve at their annual family party, under an inspecting thingy!! How could I have not known all this time?!?!) After we went to his parent’s house, we went to my parent’s house. That night, we went to a new hibachi grill in town and we had a really good dinner and drinks (pomegranate martini's). After dinner, we went to the hot tubs, which we always do at least once when he's home.

It was a perfect ending to a perfect day with a perfect proposal with the perfect guy for me.

Looking back on that day, me having to wait for him and his cooperation with the pictures make plenty of sense now. At the time, I just thought it was all weird, but it turned out jussssssst right. I can't wait to marry him in 352 days!!!