wait for it...wait for it...

The 3.2 people that read this thing are already aware of this news, but just humor me. okay? thanks.

A couple of Saturdays ago (September 25th at 5:30, to be exact)  Tyson asked me to be his wife. That's right. After 7 years of me driving him crazy, he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. What?!? I'm sorry, but that's a huge deal and I still don't think it has really hit me yet. Sometimes I feel like we're already married since we've been together for so long, but this is a whole different ball game and I can't wait to play! (you liked that one-didn't you?)

I've known for a long time that Tyson was the man I wanted to marry. And in one way or another, we both knew that we would end up together...forever. But it is still crazy to think that it is official and that we are ENGAGED. As in, I have a diamond on my left hand ring finger. As in, I'm going to have a husband and we're going to live in the same house and our laundry will be put in the same washing machine. As in, we're going to have the same bank account and go grocery shopping together. Seriously? Is this really happening?

Needless to say, I am super excited and maybe just a little bit still in shock. I walk around like nothing is different about me, but I'm a fiancé. I'm getting married. Sometimes that's really hard for me to wrap my head around.

So here is how the whole "day of engagement" went from my point of view. This might take a while, so you might want to grab a snack and brace yourself...

Let me give you some background before I start. I am pretty much impossible to surprise. This is not a quality that I am proud of. I am nosy and sneaky and I over analyze things until I figure them out. I can count on one hand the times that I've been surprised in my life. With that being said, Tyson is not a very good surpriser. He gets really excited about things and can't keep them a secret. As much as I had dreamed about my proposal being completely out of the blue, I was convinced that I would know about it. I had NO IDEA this was coming. I mean, I was hoping that it would happen eventually, but I certainly wasn't expecting anything this particular weekend. Tyson worked so hard to make it a perfect and complete surprise for me!

The Friday night before Tyson proposed, we met some friends Birmingham to go hear my Aunt Rachel's band play. Unbeknownst to me, Tyson had also come to Birmingham to pick up my ring. We had a great time listening to Flying Jenny and hanging out with my family and Stanley and Charity. Our plan for Saturday was to drive down to Magnolia Springs, AL to pick up a canoe that Tyson found for a really good deal. I was thinking it was kind of crazy to drive all that way for a canoe, but Tyson has really been wanting one, so I decided to go along for the ride. We woke up on Saturday morning, ate breakfast at Tip Top Grill with Stanley and Charity, hung out a little bit at 'lover's leap.'

At this point, these two boys knew exactly was going down in a few hours. Sneaky, sneaky.

 After that, we went to go eat with one of my bestest girls, Meghan. Newk's, where we ate lunch, was RIGHT BESIDE the store Tyson got my ring from. We even had a whole conversation about a man who was outside the store looking at a ring in natural light with a policeman. Tyson even said something like, "do you want to go in there and pick out a ring?" He knew how opposed I was to picking out my own engagement ring, so he was pretty confident that I wouldn't say "yes." But what if I had....oh man!! Anyway, we had a great lunch with Meghan. When Tyson went to the restroom, she came out and asked me, "when are you two getting engaged?" I gave her the whole speal about how I'm not stressing about it and that I know it will all happen when it's supposed to-in God's perfect timing.

Just for the record, I hadn't taken a shower...

 After we left Newk's, we hit the road towards Millbrook so I could drop my car off and we could drive down to Magnolia Springs so he could purchase this illeged canoe. I was going to change clothes and put my overnight bag in my apartment, but Tyson convinced me to just put the bag in his truck so I would have everything I needed. So, we were off on our little road trip. I slept...a lot (typical) while Tyson drove and took care of the details He later told me that he was thankful that I slept for so long because it meant he talked less, which meant he was less likely to spill the beans :) When we finally made it close to our destination, Tyson called "Mr. Anderson" so he could meet him to pick up the canoe. He had this whole conversation with this man that was actually Tyson's brother, Jaron. When he got off the phone, Tyson told me that "Mr. Anderson" wouldn't be at his house for a while, so we had some time to kill. I proceeded to go off about this Mr. Anderson character. What kind of person would tell you to wait another couple of hours after he knew you drove such a long way? In the words of one of my heroes, Bon Qui Qui....rude. We just so happened to be just a few minutes from the beach, so Tyson suggested we take a walk until it was time to go pick up the canoe. Because the beach is one of my most favorite places in the world, there was no argument from me. Before long, we were out of Tyson's truck and on the beach. We walked and talked...no big deal. We saw some jellies, sea gulls, and crabs, and we even had a little foot race that was too close to even announce the winner :)

Still, no idea...


Tyson's brother was hiding (I have no clue where. I guess in some sand dunes) taking pictures. So this was us beginng our little walk down the beach. I'm still clueless at this point.

This was on our way back from our walk. Getting closer to the proposal sight :)

On our way back, I became enthralled with a little baby sea gull who was going back and forth when the waves would come in and go out. Because I was so focused on this thing, I didn't notice THIS until I was right up on it...

That's right. This man cut out letters and glued pictures of us on them.

While I was looking at the pictures and beginning to realize what was going on, Tyson was doing THIS behind me...

So, pretty much after this, he asked me to marry him. I said some form of "yes" and for some reason, said "holy cow" for about 5 minutes straight.

looking at the t-man's masterpiece

Probably saying, "holy cow...how did you do this?"

I think he was trying to explain everything to me. I was still in shock.

 looking at all the pictures...7 years worth!

CRAZY!

the bling...

So, let's review...

I got engaged.

on the beach.

to a pretty sweet, thoughtful, and wonderful dude. 

who is now my fiance 

and we're getting married.

on june 11th.

that's 236 days from now.

Happy Birthday Jordy!!

Today, we celebrate the birth of my sweet, sweet friend, Jordy McKnight. Her real name is Jordan, but she's been Jordy to me and my crew for as long as I can remember.

One of the first things I remember about Jordy happened during a 'get to know you' game at a pledge retreat. When asked to share one thing about herself she said, "my name is Jordan McKnight and I will marry John Mayer one day." I thought "aww...haha. she's cute," but I later found out that she really wasn't trying to be funny.

Jordy is funny....and cute... and creative....and just pretty much one of the coolest people I know. To see for yourself, check out her blog at http://www.jordaneliza.blogspot.com/

So, I wish we could all be together to celebrate Jordy's birthday like the good ol' days, but this will have to do for now...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDY!!!!!!

I hope you have a fabulous day!

P.S. props to the t-man for getting pictures of Jordy from facebook and emailing them to me. I really have to get my computer/internet situation settled.

The Crew's First Shower...

I  can't believe I haven't introduced my "crew" yet on this thing, but I guess this can serve as an informal introduction. A detailed, more formal introduction will come at a later date. The "crew" is a group of my best college friends who happened to meet through chi o. Almost as soon as Jenny got engaged, I knew we all had to do something together to help her celebrate! It took the whole summer to find a convenient time for everybody, but we finally made it happen! It had been waaaaay too long since we've all been together and this was such a sweet occasion to celebrate! e met at my APT in Millbrook, ate some yummy food and ballin publix cake, oohed and ahhed over Jenny's ring, flipped through wedding magazines, watched 'My Best Friend's Wedding', and had our own little candlelight-something we had talked about doing for years.

Here are some pictures from the "Crew's" first shower...

the invitation.

This is a horrible picture, but if you look closely, you can see how I strung wedding pictures above my couch

I used pictures from wedding magazines to decorate my little table...

A little collage of the "crew" over the years

Jenny's miniature wedding cake. This is the first one I've ever had from Publix and I am now an official fan of the Publix bakery!

Looking at wedding magazines...

Candlelight...hand made by Cathy Foster.

Jenny telling her engagement story...even though we had all heard it before :)

I love this picture of my Boo Boo. It's so her.

Jordy listening to Jenny's sweet story...

Liserr listening...this one screamed when Jenny blew her candle out. I mean, we were here to celebrate Jenny's engagement. We knew who was going to blow it out. She was just so excited! Just one reason why we love our Lisa.

Cathy listening...

Meghan listening...

So, there you go. It seems like just yesterday we were all piled on the bed during Spring Break, telling sappy boy stories. Now, we're listening to one of our very own tell her engagement story. My how time flies...

he liked it...

SO HE PUT A RING ON IT!!!!



Why, thank you Beyonce! I don't believe I could have said it better myself...


This post is waaaay overdue, but I haven't had access to the pictures that I wanted until NOW!

My most precious friend, AKA my heart friend (I'm planning on devoting an entire blog to the explanation of this term, so just hold your horses) got engaged this summer on June 14th!!!

Jenny and I have been talking about and planning this time in our lives for years, and it is absolutely unfathomable to me that this time is NOW!

For the past couple of years, I have had some anxiety regarding Jenny's and Andy's engagement. Literally. Like, dreams about Jenny telling me that she's engaged and me not having a suitable reaction to the news. I would be lying if I said that this topic hasn't been a source of stress in my life. Through a few conversations with the A man, I learned that whenever he did decide to propose, it would be completely out of the blue and almost nobody would know about it. Not even ME! After a while, I began to respect this plan and accept the fact that I would not know until after he popped the question.

Andy is in medical school in Atlanta and Jenny is in pharmacy school at Auburn. To say that their schedules are crazy is an understatement. I think Jenny was convinced that it would be years before she and Andy tied the knot, simply for practical reasons. I kind of had a feeling that it would be before she expected it, and obviously, Andy had that feeling too!!

So this is how the day of June 14th went for me...

because the day of engagement for heart friend A is of equal importance to heart friend B.

you can find the story from the mouth of the actual engaged person here www.theknot.com/ourwedding/JennyPiazza&AndyBarranco

June 14th was a Monday and it just so happened to be the Monday that I interviewed for the job that I have now at Prattville Elementary School. I had taken off from work, (nannying the precious boys in my previous post) so my day was already a little unusual. After my interview, I had a migraine, so I decided to take to my bed. My mom was using my phone for internet access, so I was unavailable to the outside world. When I awoke from my stupor, Marti told me that Jenny had been calling and texting me and that I should be so proud of her for texting back. While I was very proud of her step towards technological efficiency, I was a little annoyed that I had missed some pretty significant communication efforts from my heart friend.

Background: For the past few months, Jenny and I have been texting back and forth names of people we knew that were getting engaged. Because she and I had both been with our significant others for A NUMBER of years, we were getting a little frustrated with these 6 month relationships turning into engagements. Our texts would look something like this...

Jenny: Jane Doe.

Rachel: damn.

So, as I was flipping through my missed communication, I saw a call from Andy, a few calls from my boo boo (that's Jenny), and a text that said something like, "I hate to do it this way, but you won't answer your phone...Jenny Piazza." I immediately started having heart palpitations!! I was freaking out like no other! I ran outside (with just a t-shirt on....don't ask) and began dialing Jenny's number frantically. When we finally got in touch with each other, I was running up and down my driveway with a limited amount of clothes on. I wish I could remember exactly what was said, but I just remember saying  "okay....okay....okay" a lot. I asked Jenny where she was and informed her that I was gonna need to see her-like real soon. She told me to come over and I told her that I had to put some clothes on and I would be right there. Apparently, the best option I had was a pair of bright magenta soffee shorts (the trash bag kind) and an XL t shirt that said "Chuck's BBQ" on the front and "Jesus is the Bread of Life" on the back. I made it over to 662 in about 3.5. Seriously, I don't know how I got there that fast, but it was like I sprouted wings or something. I had planned in my head to tell a police officer that might pull me over "I'm sorry, my best friend just got engaged. If you would like to give me a ticket or arrest me, you'll just have to follow me there." I'm pretty sure I pounced on both Jenny and Andy when I got there...I was soooo excited and I think maybe in a little bit of shock!

Andy proposed to his beloved in such a sweet and thoughtful way. She thought he was in ATL, but when she got home, he was there with roses and a timeline of their relationship.
The night was full of sweet family and friends and maybe a little over the top excitement from me. We went to Outback to celebrate and I really couldn't eat anything...this is not normal behavior for one such as me.


Anyway, I could NOT be more excited for Andy and my Boo Boo! She is one of my most favorite people in the world and is such a special friend to me! Jenny deserves much, much happiness and I know that God will richly bless this marriage!


P.S. For the record, Andy did try to call me before he proposed. This is an aspect of this occasion that seriously touches my heart.

P.P.S. Jenny and I are somewhat of a couple ourselves, but I have no intention of forgoing our special relationship. I just have to share her on a deeper level now. That's okay...I can deal with it.

Don't they look so happy? Sweet little engaged people...

THE BLING that A man picked out completely by himself! Didn't he do a good job?

Big Don was so happy and proud for his little girl!

Sweet sister/showing off the bling moment

Her first wedding magazine!! Let the planning begin!

I wish that I could say I made this face especially for this picture, but I'm pretty sure this is what I looked like the whole night.

i miss these little people

For those of you who haven't had a conversation with me in the past 3 years, I have nannied for a family for the past 3 summers. I realize that it's natural to bond with the people you babysit for, but these kids are literally like my second family. I love them like they're my own and I honestly can't imagine not having them in my life. Both parents work full time, but they take their parenting very seriously...and it shows. These boys are precious, smart, funny, polite, well-adjusted, and just overall pretty much my favorite kids around. Through the years we've gone to Monkey Park, mommy and me gymnastic classes (that's right...I was the mommy), Frog Legs, Chick Fil A, Concrete Park (aka Town Creek Park), the hospital to visit their new baby sister, the movies, Burger King, swimming lessons, Vacation Bible School, All American, and the Grove Hill pool (back AND front) just to name a few. I've had some pretty good "mommy practice" with my boys and I think I will probably thank them for the experience when handling tantrums and bathroom accidents is a piece of cake when I'm a real mommy. I visited them last weekend when I was in Auburn and I think it just made me miss them even more. I could go on and on with cute stories, but I'm just going to leave y'all with a few pictures for your viewing pleasure!

This is from our first summer together...they were (and still are) all about some ice pops. I'm not gonna lie, I kind of dig them myself :)

Also from the first year...2 YEARS OLD. Couldn't you just eat them up?

 This might be one of my favorite pictures ever. This boy is all about some goggles. This summer, he would wear them even if we were playing in the sprinkler...bless.

bahahahaha!!

As long as everybody is fed, napped, and potty-trained, Frog Legs is a pretty cool.

B read to the twins for 30 minutes every day this summer. Precious lambs...

This is often the position I would find Christian in, he loves to explore and dissect things.

We had chores this past summer, mostly just for symbolic purposes. But trust me, this is not how my sweet little friend looked most of the time when it came to picking up sticks. I could relate to him, however, because ONE of my punishments as a child was to pick up sticks...I now have an aversion to yard work for this very reason.

This boy loves him some strawberry milk. He's also very particular about not putting the spoon back in the powder once it's been in the milk. Miss Rachel had to get that straight real fast.

This was at Monkey Park after I took them to the dentist one day...see what I mean about mommy practice?

 

 

 

 Me and my boys at my Senior Recital. They brought me flowers...it was emotional.

Okay, so I could post a whole lot more pictures, but I'll spare you for now and maybe save the others for another post. It's okay, really. You can thank me later :)

P.S. does anybody know how to get pictures beside each other on this thing? I'm getting a little annoyed with this -one on top of the other- mess.