Blog Numero Uno

Allow me to explain... At first, this was going to be a wedding blog (note the date it was written). So I wrote this looong post for my many readers' viewing pleasure (joke). And it has been lying dormant for 5 months. However, I have recently decided that since I so enjoy reading others' blogs, I should do you all the honor of sharing my own. So, here I go. This is the original long post, the engagement blog in all its glory, and a good way to kick-start my blog... It is a copy of an e-mail I sent out to some friends right after Rob and I got engaged. It really is very long, so prepare yourselves...

PS: I solemnly swear to never, EVER have an entry this long again. And, furthermore, I even more solemnly swear that this is not just a wedding blog- our lives are way more interesting than that. And I promise to add pictures. Okay, that's all.

Soooo.... Rob and I have been dating for about a year and 4 months. We started dating at the end of September 2007. We had been friends for about a year when he randomly asked me on a date. We had both graduated from University of Tennessee, but actually never knew each other there. He actually graduated a year after I did, and I am about a year and a half older. (A fact he likes to remind me of frequently.) We both moved to Nashville right around the same time (fall of 2006), and started to get to know each other through mutual friends here in Nashville. For several reasons, including the age difference, I was very skeptical before our first date. Actually, when he first asked me to go to dinner, I totally kept telling myself, "It's JUST dinner. This is fine, it's just dinner." At one point I said that out loud, and Rob said, "No, Lara, it's not just dinner. It's a DATE!". When he walked in the door to pick me up for our first date, I greeted him by saying, "Hey buddy, how are ya?". Although he didn't tell me at the time, he HATED that I called him "Buddy", when he was obviously and intentionally working on being more than that:). Somehow, from that time on, the name stuck. He started calling me buddy as a joke, and now it is basically our pet name for each other. We like to call ourselves "The Buddies". Our friends make fun of us all the time, and at times tell us to stop calling each other that. I've tried to use other pet names, which he promptly puts a stop to. I don't think the names are changing anytime soon.

So anyways, we dated, did all kinds of fun stuff together. There were ski trips, beach trips, lake trips, all kinds of sporting events, and all the while loving all the time we could spend together. We both live in East Nashville and enjoyed doing things in that community, but also spent lots of time with both of our families and all of our friends. We definitely had our share of struggles, slowly learning that relationships are hard work but that we think we can struggle through anything together. In the last couple of months we have been talking more about us one day being married... We had a small conversation about what kind of ring I liked, in which I said I had no clue. He then told me we would go look at rings together in February, and he also has made it VERY clear that he doesn't get his bonus at work until March and won't be able to afford a ring until then. So, that was the time line I had set up in my head: ring shopping in February, engagement in March or April. Enough said... This brings us to Christmas 2008.
Christmas 2008- my very favorite Christmas ever! We opened presents together on Christmas Eve Eve ,and he got me a gorgeous dress and a new fleece I've been wanting (he's so good!). I got him some clothes and a washers set (a yard game of sorts, like cornhole sorta). We got each other stockings, and just had a lot of fun with presents this year. We then celebrated with his family on Christmas Eve here in Nashville, and we had a delicious dinner, and opened presents there as well. We drove to my parents' house in Lebanon late Christmas Eve to spend the night with them. My sister and her boyfriend were home from Montana for Christmas, and it was so neat for us all to be out there together. We all woke up there Christmas morning, and opened stockings and presents with them, and then had a big Christmas breakfast. (Now that is a lot of Christmas festivities!)

Rob had been saying all along that he couldn't wait to play with his washers set out at my parents house, and how much he was looking forward to playing washers in my dad's hangar (my parents have a hangar at their home where my dad keeps his small airplanes). As soon as we were all done opening presents, he started asking to go play washers in the hangar. He let me shower (thank the Lord!) and let me take my sweet time getting ready. (This is very rare that he doesn't remind me to hurry up). When I was finally ready, we walked outside to go to the hangar. I immediately noticed how pretty it was outside, and suggested that we play washers outside rather than in the hangar. He, of course, immediately shuts that down with a silly excuse about not having his sunglasses with him?! When we got to the door of the hangar, I barged right on in, ready to play some washers. He called me back to point out that there was a photo album leaning against the door. I immediately thought, "Oh gosh, this is it!". And from that moment on, I was in a complete daze.... I don't remember lots of details. I was shaky and kept saying, "what is this? what are you doing??". When we walked in the hangar, there was a curvy trail of photos all over the floor. They were all photos of us, starting with the first picture we ever took together. He had me pick up each picture, and had me read the message that he had written on the back about what was going on the picture, what we had been doing, or going through, etc... It was all very sweet stuff (which is SO not his thing, and he went way out on a limb to speak my love language). Anyways, when we got to the end of the trail of pictures, he had ended with one that we had just taken a couple days before of us and my crazy dog Jake (that he got me for my birthday). The little message written on the back was sweet, and then instructed me to look at him. I was very teary, and shaky, and kept hugging him and kissing him. Poor guy... he was trying to talk, but kept stuttering and was frustrated that he couldn't remember all that he was going to say. He finally was able to slow down and then said his sweet things (that I don't remember clearly)... and then he got down on one knee!! I looked at him for what seemed like forever, and then I knelt down there with him. At some point, I'm pretty sure he asked me to marry him, and I think I said/shouted "YES!" several times. (Again, this is all a big blur). At some point I remember that we looked up and he had my sister hiding and taking pics up in the rafters on the hangar. Some of the pictures are really fun, but they are mostly blurry. Well...and then the rest of the day and week was a blur. There was lots of calling and texting and smiling and crying. Mostly just being so excited and amazed and overwhelmed!!!!!

So there's our story- the (sort-of) short version. And the fun part is, this is just the very beginning of a long life of stories together. Part of me feels like this is so brief and doesn't begin to do our relationship justice- for all who know me, I can use a lot of words to say something simple. (Rob, on the other hand, would have been done about ten paragraphs ago.) Anyways, thanks for reading and for caring. I'm really excited about what Rob and I are about to embark on, and get more excited every day!