There have been so many things that have happened!!! UGH! I don't know where to begin!
Let's see here, Dave came up. Things with him couldn't be better. When he was on his way up I was scared. I didn't know what it was going to be like...but when I saw him and held him in my arms it was just perfect.
He was here for over a month...flew home on Easter Sunday...that was a TERRIBLE experience. It felt like part of me was missing. I couldn't eat or sleep without him here. Then I was talking to him one day and I was like, "Well, if I could get down there, we could get you a UHaul and then move all your stuff up here, we wouldn't have to deal with the goodbyes again" Next thing I knew I was on the phone with his aunt while she bought me a ticket to go down there and DO JUST THAT!!!
This was on Thursday, I was on a flight out of Grand Rapids Friday morning at 6:30 to go down to Fayetteville, NC. I got there and we had a perfect reunion. I can't be without him again. My plane landed at 11:30 and we couldn't get the UHaul until after 2pm...so we hung out and watched some of the coverage of the Royal Wedding (which I was not impressed with her dress at all, I feel like could have been so much better) and then we went and got the UHaul. Then we went back to the hotel, ate something, and then went to his brothers house and blitzkrieg-ed his garage and got all Daves stuff in the UHaul.
I am talking like we took a garage full of a 1 bedroom apartment and organized it, and loaded it in the truck in an hour and a half...we were VERY proud of that. We were thinking that it was going to take a lot longer than it did. Then we went back to the hotel and though about what our plan was going to be for the next day. I HAD to be back in Michigan on Tuesday so I could start packing to leave for Mackinac Island on Friday May 6. So, after we ate dinner and laid out or plans, we decided that we were going to get up in the morning and head out for home. Since we were driving we wanted to get a good start.
We left Fayetteville and started road-tripping home around 10am. It was SUCH a nice drive. We had SO many good laughs and memories. Before we stopped for the first night we drove through a town in Virginia that had been hit by the tornados that went through a few days earlier. The destruction was, in a word, amazing. I don't mean that it was amazing to look at in the beautiful sense. I mean that it was amazing in the sense that I had never seen anything like that, and we didn't know what was going on. So we were driving slow through the traffic, as the highway crews were trying to clean the debris from the road, we just looked around in awe. What the wind can do to trees, houses, buildings, is just, amazing. There were trees snapped in half, clothes, toys, whatever you can think of, just strewn about. Then as we were looking, we noticed that there were people that were sitting outside of where their houses used to be. It was so breathtakingly sad. Yet all we could do was drive.
After we got out of the destruction, we stopped for the night in Bristol, Virginia. We stayed at a VERY nice Motel 6, we were both VERY impressed with the accommodations. After spending the night there, we got up and left for home. Drove the next day and ate breakfast at the Davey Crockett Travel Lodge. It wasn't what we were expecting, but they did have coon skin hats for sale, sadly we didn't buy one because they couldn't fit us. Then we saw a sign for the "Forbidden Caverns", so we thought that, those would be something fun for us to see, since we did have the time. We took the exit that it said and started on quite the adventure through the Smokey Mountains.
*A LITTLE PIECE OF ADVICE* DON'T GO THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS ON THE TWISTY CURVY ROADS IN A LOADED UHAUL!!! IT IS SCARY!!!!
So we started following the signs and although they said that it was only 12 miles, it was the LONGEST 12 miles ever, after we had been driving for a while we were starting to think that we missed them, so we were going to stop and ask for directions. Nope. Not on a Sunday in Tennessee. That is something that will not happen, as NOTHING is open. So we got to a spot where we were starting to see a factory and we thought that it was just going to be a water treatment plant or something, since we were in the middle of no where. Nope. It was the Bush's Baked Beans plant! How random! So we said that we still wanted to find these caverns, once we did, there was a sign that said "Closed Sundays". How sad, but we did have an adventure through some VERY pretty mountains and found something that was totally off the map!!!
So after that, we decided that we were going to head back for home. Drove for the rest of the day and stopped for the night in Kentucky. We were sitting on the bed in the hotel and then all of a sudden there was a "breaking news bulletin" President Obama came on tv and told the world that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. So that was pretty cool. After that, we went to bed and go up the next morning and drove home. After driving for what felt like FOREVER we got home. It was the longest day ever, we were EXHAUSTED. After we got home and go the UHaul unloaded we went straight to bed.
Then the week went on and I started packing for Mackinac. Trying not to think about the fact that in a few days I would be the one that would be leaving. But while I was packing and we were taking about how I was leaving, I told Dave that he needed to apply...so he did. He had a phone interview for Friday morning when we were on our way to the Island...had a Skype interview for later in the week, and then he got the email that said our HR guy wanted him here! He was up here on Thursday the 12...so not even a week of being apart!
So, here we are living and working on Mackinac Island, PLANNING A WEDDING!!! We have the date set for September 29, 2012. This is what kills me though. He asked me one night when we were drunk in the kitchen without a ring..and he has asked me a few times since, but still with no ring. He does not believe in diamonds, so he is looking at emeralds, and that is fine with me. I have a dress picked out and we know where and when, and the "theme" of the reception and what not, but until I get a ring and he has asked my moms permission, I don't feel like making any more plans. Sure I do wear a fake ring, and it does represent what is going to happen, I just, every girl wants that moment where he gets down on one knee and brings out the ring and REALLY asks you to marry him...
oh those dreams we had as little girls...<3
