He said "Will You Marry Me?" and She said "YES!"

Today we're going to rewind a few years back before we were married until a few months before the official proposal...

Gaia's college graduation was a big deal in our family especially for my Daddy. He didn't go to college and very few of his brothers & sisters did either. 100% blue collar working class got our hands dirty hard working family. I know he was disappointed in me because I had the opportunity to go to college and blew it. Up until this time I had not flown since I was a little kid when we use to fly to Detroit to visit with Gwen's family up there. I have always been afraid to fly and it was expensive so I always drove. Due to the short turn around I had to fly to make it to her graduation and back because of work.

Maverick had been hinting about my engagement ring since we came back from our Florida vacation. Almost immediately he started taking me around to jewelry stores to try on rings and show him my favorite ones.

So we're getting ready for the graduation and my phone rings... I had went out early that morning and bought presents and a card for Gaia... It's my bank. They're concerned because there was charges in Arkansas AND charges in Illinois - a very hefty charge in IL - well I was concerned - who wouldn't be? And asked them where it was from... oooooooooooooooooh boy. He did it. He bought my ring while I was out of town... SMART MAN! I told the bank "It's fine; my boyfriend just bought my engagement ring!!" she laughed said she was sorry for spoiling the surprise and said congratulations.

It was a beautiful day!! I got to see Gwen, Momma, Pebbles, Gaia, Aeon... EVERYONE. I didn't tell anyone but Momma what happened and she was so excited. We both agreed that he was going to be standing at the gate waiting for me in O'Hare airport and propose right there and then...

That was in mid May.

June rolls around and Maverick is asking questions about my birthday... What did I want to do? Well, I love hiking, I love the movies... a lot of weekends we'd wake up and say "what are we doing today?" and some times we'd flip a coin: north or south? east or west? and just drive. Friday night he asked me if we should go hiking? There is a place in southern Illinois called Starved Rock he's heard about and it would a great place for pictures and hiking. We decided that we would get up early and go for a nice little mini road trip and go hiking.

The day was absolutely beautiful!! Even though my back was giving me a hard time and we had to take it super slow; I was having a great day... and it was only going to get better!

Towards the end of the day we came upon this cliff overlooking the lake. It was AWESOME. I'm standing there looking out and taking pictures when I hear "Honey, come here". I turn around and there he is on one knee. I blurt out "Oh my god you're doing that today?" and without even skipping a beat "Will you Marry Me?" and I said "YES". There was people there and those who noticed applauded and said congratulations. There was an older couple who approached us and said they were married in that spot 50 years prior.

It was beautiful, it was perfect, it was simple and sweet. Just like us.

To celebrate we went to Texas de Brazil and watched movies at home after calling everyone and giving them the awesome news!!

If you've made it this far... I have one more piece of information to share with you before I go... Remember how I said Daddy was disappointed because I blew my change to go to college straight out of High School? I'm in the process of enrolling to get my Associates in Nursing. I'm going to be (pending all the prerequisites and if I even qualify) an RN.

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This post is the 7th in a series of posts that will chronicle milestones and anniversaries. We're coming up on our 5th year Wedding Anniversary & this summer marks 10 years of our relationship officially beginning... I hope you enjoy!!

The One in which She meets His Family...

Yesterday we revisited when Maverick met my family in Arkansas. We both made it with our sanity and on a plus we discovered that we travel REALLY WELL together. Almost a year later we took a trip to Florida to see his Family... And this is how it all went down.

PreVaca: Thursday Evening after work.
We got the rental car and went to the Pyramid club for a few drinks with Maverick's coworkers. Came home and packed the car, got the animals ready for travel.


Day 1: Friday
We woke up at 5 am and headed towards Arkansas. Nothing much really happened just a lot of traveling on the highway. About 3 pm we arrived at Jed's house in the NW corner of Arkansas and dropped off my babies. I then proceeded to bawl like a baby myself. And Maverick took me to have ice cream at Sonic and then we were off to my Dad's house in the Western Central part of Arkansas.

Yes - my ex-husband kept our animals. It was actually his wife's idea. He had started playing SneezyMud again and of course she was smart and got on there herself. We started talking and kind of became friends. When she heard we were going to have to board them for over a week she volunteered to keep them for us... It was VERY nice of her!

Day 2: Saturday
Maverick and Daddy went fishing and I went to visit my grandparents. Maverick asked daddy for my hand in marriage and Daddy said "we can go down to the courthouse right now and get your license and I'll marry ya tonight". (make sure you read that in a thick southern drawl). We ate dinner, laughed and joked around the rest of the night and my sisters stopped in later.

Day 3: Sunday
Was spent driving to Florida and talking about our upcoming wedding... He had not officially proposed to me yet but we had been talking about babies, buying a house, if we wanted to get married or not and then he asked daddy for my hand in marriage.

Sunday when we arrived in Orlando it was a nightmare. We were stuck in traffic and when I do long trips my back starts bothering me (this was all pre-fusion) and subsequently cause a headache. I tried to be the best guest I could that night but it was really hard. All in all I don't think I made too horrible of a first impression. This was the first time I got to meet Mumsy & Hollywood.

Day 4: Monday
We woke up early and went to Busch Gardens. We road lots of rides and walked around a lot. Afterwards we went out to eat Chinese and Sushi which was horrible (it was the restaurant) and I was really feeling my migraine. We went back to the hotel and I doped myself up and went to bed.

Day 5: Tuesday
We decided to go back to BG instead of SeaWorld to take a 2nd look at the animals and take pictures while Mumsy headed back to South Florida early because her doggy wasn't doing too well with grandma. We met Mumsy at her place and went out for dinner at a very good Seafood Restaurant. While our waitress tried my patience and the irritated Jester that rears her head with the painkillers and migraines showed her ugly head... It was not how I wanted Mumsy to see me. After getting a new waitress we had a wonderful time and dinner was marvelous!

Day 6: Wednesday
We all went to the Miami Metro Zoo. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out, enjoying each other's company. My migraine was finally subsiding from all the travel and I was a normal human being again!

Day 7: Thursday
We woke up early and went to the Everglades National Park. Saw lots of alligators. After that we went to the Keys and visited grandma. Then we went back to Mumsy's house, had dinner and headed back to Orlando to get a jump start on the LONG drive that is Florida.

Day 8: Friday
Woke up early and drove through Louisiana. Nothing really interesting happened just lots more talking and me worrying that Mumsy hated me.

Day 9: Saturday
Drove to NW corner of Arkansas and picked up my babies and then back to Daddies.

Day 10: Sunday
went to church with Daddy & Momma then drove back to Chicago-Land. On the way out of Arkansas we stopped by a part of the Buffalo River where our families use to go floating.

All in all I would say we had a very fun time. We didn't go to Seaworld like we had planned but that's ok. We ended up planning 70% of the wedding during the driving days and I hinted several times when was he gonna "officially make me an honest woman".

On the brighter side Mumsy didn't hate me! Maverick had warned her already that long travel periods put my already out of whack back out of further whack and caused migraines so she was prepared for that. I have a fantastic mother-in-law!

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This post is the 5th in a series of posts that will chronicle milestones and anniversaries. We're coming up on our 5th year Wedding Anniversary & this summer marks 10 years of our relationship officially beginning... I hope you enjoy!!

The One In Which He Meets Her Family

Yesterday we left off with Maverick & I moving into the Condo, meeting new people and getting settled in. I had mentioned in there that we made a quick trip to Arkansas on Memorial Day Weekend to get my stuff out of storage. While we were there he met my family for the 1st time... This is how it all went down.

I guess you could say the trip started off fairly well. Even though we were in the middle of rush hour traffic starting off because Maverick got off work later than expected.

There were moments when Drake was not being a good rider and until we figured out the different meanings of his cries, it was pretty rough. We realized he hates to travel at night and that's why he always cried and yelled when I took him on trips: the boy hates to ride at night and I always drove long trips at night to avoid traffic.

Maverick and I took turns driving/sleeping on the way to Arkansas. I didn't get much sleep because of Drake needed my constant attention -- Maverick wouldn't work -- wanted his mommy.

Friday morning when we arrived my nieces by my bonus-brother King were at the house waiting for the school bus... (There was a short period of time that King lived in Arkansas with wife#1 & their 3 daughters; most of the time the girls were dropped off to catch the bus because of their parent's work hours...) After that it was visiting time with my Parents. My bonus-sister Pebbles stopped by a little later and her and Momma went to run errands so Maverick and I decided to make a run to the storage unit and then visit my grandparents on Mother's side. We had a nice visit with my grandparents and we ran into one of Mother's Sisters that was there visiting as well. Grandpa said "I approve" when he hugged me bye -- which was awesome!

Saturday we got up early and unloaded the storage shed. After that was finished we headed out to Cabbot and explored where he grew up... We drove all over the place and he even took me by the land that use to have their house on it. After our visit to Cabbot we went back to Daddy's and rested up and treated Momma & Daddy to dinner.

Later that evening after dinner, we decided to go bowling and my sister Gaia came with us. Well, after overpriced bowling and not finding any balls that we could decently bowl with we decided not to bowl and instead headed to visit with Gaia at her house where Maverick & Aeon played Halo while I got to catch-up with my sister. We got home really late and crashed.

Sunday morning I woke up to Grace calling me and she came over and hung out with us while Daddy & Momma were at church. After they got back from Church we all met out at a local place & had lunch. I think that is the first time that we were all been together at one table in a very very long time. There was Gaia & Aeon, Pebbles & her family, Maverick & I and King with his family. I know it made Momma & Daddy very happy to have all of us together for a wonderful lunch. I'm so very happy that I suggested we do that... I *really* wish I had gotten pictures.

After lunch we rested up and visited with my parents some more at their house and then we headed out back to Illinois. We stopped off at Russell Stovers and got matching bears...

Everyone loved Maverick and he seemed to like my family. We started discussing moving to Cabbot because we decided that we didn't want to live in Chicago-Land or Illinois the rest of our lives.

It was so nice to eat dinner together at the table instead of on the couch and our little home finally felt completed with the added furniture and knick-knacks that I had in storage.

This first road trip to Arkansas became the inaugural trip and we have went down every Memorial Weekend since.

We got a harness for Drake so he could stretch and stuff during pit stops. He loved being on his harness and wallowing in the grass.

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This post is the 4th in a series of posts that will chronicle milestones and anniversaries. We're coming up on our 5th year Wedding Anniversary & this summer marks 10 years of our relationship officially beginning... I hope you enjoy!!