{lurve}
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
January 4th, 2009 (technically Jan. 5th)
As promised. Hey... it's not midnight yet!!
Sunday January 4th my mom, my youngest sister, myself, and my two kids left Virginia for the 17 hour road trip back to Missouri. We were in my truck. We left at around 8:30 in the morning. After several potty breaks (gotta love two year olds!), stops to eat, and stops to the side of the road to adjust an attitude (gotta love two year olds!)... we finally pulled into Waynesville at around midnight. Actually right at 12:30. Thessali had driven as far as Waynesville to meet up with me for the drive to Virginia so we had to drive back through there to get her car.... plus I was ready to see John again after being gone for two weeks!!!
Well for the last two hours of the drive John had called me several times wanting to know EXACTLY where I was. He'd ask me where I was and I'd say something like "I'm on your side of St. Louis" and he'd say "where exactly? town name?" so I'd have to say something like "ok, I'm going through Sullivan" (or whatever)
He told me that he needed to get off the phone for a sec when I was getting closer to his exit but asked me to call him back when I turned onto the outer road that his house and the family business is on. I didn't think anything of that.
So, I called him as I was making the left turn at the stop sign, after driving for the last 17 hours and finally getting off at the exit I'd been driving towards ALL DAY!!!!! He answered the phone "hey, where are you?" and I said "I'm on the outer road getting ready to turn into the shop." At that second, he flipped a switch on a generator that was giving power to a pair of big high powered work lights that lit up the billboard like the fourth of July. He had rigged it to be remote controlled so he could flip the switch when he saw my headlights crest the top of the hill on the outer road.
USUALLY there are a lot of outdoor lights at the shop lighting up the whole parking lot. But since the billboard is so close to the parking lot and John needed to make sure that I saw it and didn't drive right by it in the night, he had turned off all of the outside lights so everything was pitch black, and you can't miss it when a light comes on right in front of you.
So he lit up the billboard which said "Marry Me, Juliet"
sidenote: When the Taylor Swift song "Love Story" came out we adopted it as "our song." We were both young when we first met... like the song goes. Go back and read the lyrics from my post yesterday. At the end of the song he kneels to the ground and pulls out a ring and says "Marry Me Juliet"... he also says "I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress." (remember this it will be important in a minute. =]
Anyway... the billboard is 12' by 32' that he had been working endlessly on while I was gone. Most of it is hand painted!!!
I turned to my mom beside me in the truck and said "did you see that??"
She said "yeah, what's that all about?"
I pulled into the parking lot, parked the car right there still running in the middle of the parking lot at 12:30 in the morning, got out (In my pajamas!! he couldn't tell me to get all gussied up for the ride home without me wondering why).... and John was standing there with a lantern. He said something that I'm sure was really sweet (LOL) but my head was spinning.
sidenote: that new year's kiss from ten years ago... took place in the very parking lot that he proposed to me in. Almost ten years to the day. He had wanted me to be home by new years but couldn't tell me why and it didn't work out that I was able to make it back by then.
Then he got down on one knee, and proposed. =] I of course said yes, and when he stood up he said "I talked to your dad... go pick out a white dress."
He had called my dad while we were on the road, so my dad knew. But mom didn't so it was a surprise to her and my sister who were in the truck, road weary and confused. Haha.
Details are still being planned.... like the date, which is everyone's first question. no... we don't have one set yet but when we do we'll let you all know. We can't wait to include our family and friends in what has been THE love story of all love stories.
Another song that we love that also sums up our relationship is God Bless The Broken Road by Rascal Flatts. It's been a very long and very broken road... but it led us to each other (again). God bless it!!!!!
Sunday January 4th my mom, my youngest sister, myself, and my two kids left Virginia for the 17 hour road trip back to Missouri. We were in my truck. We left at around 8:30 in the morning. After several potty breaks (gotta love two year olds!), stops to eat, and stops to the side of the road to adjust an attitude (gotta love two year olds!)... we finally pulled into Waynesville at around midnight. Actually right at 12:30. Thessali had driven as far as Waynesville to meet up with me for the drive to Virginia so we had to drive back through there to get her car.... plus I was ready to see John again after being gone for two weeks!!!
Well for the last two hours of the drive John had called me several times wanting to know EXACTLY where I was. He'd ask me where I was and I'd say something like "I'm on your side of St. Louis" and he'd say "where exactly? town name?" so I'd have to say something like "ok, I'm going through Sullivan" (or whatever)
He told me that he needed to get off the phone for a sec when I was getting closer to his exit but asked me to call him back when I turned onto the outer road that his house and the family business is on. I didn't think anything of that.
So, I called him as I was making the left turn at the stop sign, after driving for the last 17 hours and finally getting off at the exit I'd been driving towards ALL DAY!!!!! He answered the phone "hey, where are you?" and I said "I'm on the outer road getting ready to turn into the shop." At that second, he flipped a switch on a generator that was giving power to a pair of big high powered work lights that lit up the billboard like the fourth of July. He had rigged it to be remote controlled so he could flip the switch when he saw my headlights crest the top of the hill on the outer road.
USUALLY there are a lot of outdoor lights at the shop lighting up the whole parking lot. But since the billboard is so close to the parking lot and John needed to make sure that I saw it and didn't drive right by it in the night, he had turned off all of the outside lights so everything was pitch black, and you can't miss it when a light comes on right in front of you.
So he lit up the billboard which said "Marry Me, Juliet"
sidenote: When the Taylor Swift song "Love Story" came out we adopted it as "our song." We were both young when we first met... like the song goes. Go back and read the lyrics from my post yesterday. At the end of the song he kneels to the ground and pulls out a ring and says "Marry Me Juliet"... he also says "I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress." (remember this it will be important in a minute. =]
Anyway... the billboard is 12' by 32' that he had been working endlessly on while I was gone. Most of it is hand painted!!!
I turned to my mom beside me in the truck and said "did you see that??"
She said "yeah, what's that all about?"
I pulled into the parking lot, parked the car right there still running in the middle of the parking lot at 12:30 in the morning, got out (In my pajamas!! he couldn't tell me to get all gussied up for the ride home without me wondering why).... and John was standing there with a lantern. He said something that I'm sure was really sweet (LOL) but my head was spinning.
sidenote: that new year's kiss from ten years ago... took place in the very parking lot that he proposed to me in. Almost ten years to the day. He had wanted me to be home by new years but couldn't tell me why and it didn't work out that I was able to make it back by then.
Then he got down on one knee, and proposed. =] I of course said yes, and when he stood up he said "I talked to your dad... go pick out a white dress."
He had called my dad while we were on the road, so my dad knew. But mom didn't so it was a surprise to her and my sister who were in the truck, road weary and confused. Haha.
Details are still being planned.... like the date, which is everyone's first question. no... we don't have one set yet but when we do we'll let you all know. We can't wait to include our family and friends in what has been THE love story of all love stories.
Another song that we love that also sums up our relationship is God Bless The Broken Road by Rascal Flatts. It's been a very long and very broken road... but it led us to each other (again). God bless it!!!!!
The Rest of The Story (Part 2)
My kids and I moved to America the day after Christmas 2006. In January I was on the computer one night after the kids were in bed, surfing the net. I decided to search for Melanie on myspace. A few months earlier when i was in England, we had talked on the phone and at that time she didn't have a myspace (which is how I had kept in touch with people while overseas) but she siad the teens in the youth group that she worked with at their church were all pestering her to get one so she thought she'd have one soon. So in January 2007 I was online looking for her on myspace. But couldn't find her. So i decided to see if John had one. And he did. Although, it turned out that he had JUST STARTED his account there. What timing huh? Well, I left him a message saying hey and askig him if he knew whether or not Melanie had a myspace. He messaged back the next day, tossing in a flirtatious comment. He gave me her phone number and conveniently put his in the message too. Hmmm. Haha
We ended up messaging back and forth quite a lot until finally one of us said it'd be faster to IM. so we added each other to IM and talked that way for a while. From there it progressed into phone calls... all the while rekindling the old friendship/romance that wasn't.
We started talking about maybe him coming to Columbia to meet up sometime and in late February I arranged for a babysitter, John drove the two hours to Columbia and picked me up at my house and we went to supper at Red Lobster. Our first official date.
The rest is history from there.
I guess now you want to know the story of the proposal huh?
well...
... to be continued (later today, I promise)
We ended up messaging back and forth quite a lot until finally one of us said it'd be faster to IM. so we added each other to IM and talked that way for a while. From there it progressed into phone calls... all the while rekindling the old friendship/romance that wasn't.
We started talking about maybe him coming to Columbia to meet up sometime and in late February I arranged for a babysitter, John drove the two hours to Columbia and picked me up at my house and we went to supper at Red Lobster. Our first official date.
The rest is history from there.
I guess now you want to know the story of the proposal huh?
well...
... to be continued (later today, I promise)
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Rest of the Story (Part 1)
I'll fill you guys in on the rest of last night's details... but first you need to know some background info...
New year's eve 1998... ten years ago this year, I spent new year's eve with my family and friends from church at our house in Waynesville. It was a tradition to have people from church over and at midnight we all went out back onto the deck and shot shotguns to ring in the new year.
Rewind even more...
the summer before I went to college, I regularly babysat for a family of three little girls.
Fast forward to new year's eve 1998 again...
It was my first winter break home from college. I had been asked to babysit the same little girls that I used to watch for new year's eve so that their parents could attend a party. so I went and got them and took them back to my house and watched them there.
After midnight at around 1 in the morning, I left my house to take the girls back home. On my way back to my house I decided to stop by my best friend's brother's house where I knew that she'd be hanging out on new year's eve. He was having a party that night and so a lot of people that I knew would still be out there and I could say hi, happy new year, and then go back home.
only...
I ended up staying long enough to end up kissing my best friend's brother that night. Which I guess turned out to be my new year's kiss that year.
This is the part of the story where I tell you that JOHN was/is my best friend's brother. I met my best friend Melanie when I was 14 years old. I'm 28 now which (you do the math!) means I've known John (or at least known OF John) for half my life. I had just turned 18 that October of 98 when John and I kissed on new year's.
We flirted that winter with the idea of persuing a relationship, but I was six hours away at college so it never really progressed to anything more than a few phone calls. Then we both moved on with other relationships. Occasionally when I'd drive through Waynesville over the years I'd stop in to see Melanie at the family's business, and I'd see John working there. We'd always say hey to each other and play a brief game of catch up, but that was it.
to be continued...
New year's eve 1998... ten years ago this year, I spent new year's eve with my family and friends from church at our house in Waynesville. It was a tradition to have people from church over and at midnight we all went out back onto the deck and shot shotguns to ring in the new year.
Rewind even more...
the summer before I went to college, I regularly babysat for a family of three little girls.
Fast forward to new year's eve 1998 again...
It was my first winter break home from college. I had been asked to babysit the same little girls that I used to watch for new year's eve so that their parents could attend a party. so I went and got them and took them back to my house and watched them there.
After midnight at around 1 in the morning, I left my house to take the girls back home. On my way back to my house I decided to stop by my best friend's brother's house where I knew that she'd be hanging out on new year's eve. He was having a party that night and so a lot of people that I knew would still be out there and I could say hi, happy new year, and then go back home.
only...
I ended up staying long enough to end up kissing my best friend's brother that night. Which I guess turned out to be my new year's kiss that year.
This is the part of the story where I tell you that JOHN was/is my best friend's brother. I met my best friend Melanie when I was 14 years old. I'm 28 now which (you do the math!) means I've known John (or at least known OF John) for half my life. I had just turned 18 that October of 98 when John and I kissed on new year's.
We flirted that winter with the idea of persuing a relationship, but I was six hours away at college so it never really progressed to anything more than a few phone calls. Then we both moved on with other relationships. Occasionally when I'd drive through Waynesville over the years I'd stop in to see Melanie at the family's business, and I'd see John working there. We'd always say hey to each other and play a brief game of catch up, but that was it.
to be continued...
It's a Love Story
We were both young when I first saw (him)
I close my eyes
And the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony of (winter) air
See the lights,
See the party, the ball gowns
I see you make your way through the crowd
You say hello
Little did I know
That you were Romeo ....
.... and I said:
Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes
So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet cause we're dead if they know
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while
Cause you were Romeo ....
....and I said:
Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes
Romeo save me, they try to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real,
Don't be afraid
We'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story baby just say yes, oh,
I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town I said:
Romeo save me I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head, I don't know what to think
He knealt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And said:
you'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad go pick out a white dress
It's a love story baby just (SAID) yes
Cause we were both young when I first saw (him)
More details later. =]
I close my eyes
And the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony of (winter) air
See the lights,
See the party, the ball gowns
I see you make your way through the crowd
You say hello
Little did I know
That you were Romeo ....
.... and I said:
Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes
So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet cause we're dead if they know
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while
Cause you were Romeo ....
....and I said:
Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes
Romeo save me, they try to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real,
Don't be afraid
We'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story baby just say yes, oh,
I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town I said:
Romeo save me I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head, I don't know what to think
He knealt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And said:
you'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad go pick out a white dress
It's a love story baby just (SAID) yes
Cause we were both young when I first saw (him)
More details later. =]
Thursday, January 1, 2009
What This World Is Coming To...
This is the scene at the kitchen nook table...
I'm calling it our internet cafe. Haha.
Four adults in this house. Four laptops at the table.
I warned people (still in their pajamas) that I was taking the picture, and they vacated. Ha!
Happy 2009
For some of us, may this be the year of new beginnings. For some of us may this be the year of renewals. For some of us may this be the year of staying constant. For ALL of us, may this year bring countless blessings, forgiveness, time with family, health and happiness.
Happy new year 2009, Love Bex and Co.
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