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The Wedding!
What a whirlwind of activity! It's been a long time since our wedding, but I wanted to try to write down all of my thoughts and observations, while they're still somewhat in my mind. Day before the rehearsal (Thurs)My day started at work, where, miraculously, the day did not go by nearly as slowly as I thought. I stayed mostly occupied and I did leave a little bit early so that I could run some errands. I was able to pick up my tux, but still needed new shoes (the ones I had gotten were too big). Picked up some things at the store, and then spent the rest of the evening doing laundry, packing, and cleaning a little. Packing was actually more stressful than I thought. If I had to do it all again, I would print out big detailed checklists (things needed for rehearsal dinner, things needed for Ohio hotel, things needed for checked bag, things needed for carry-on.. etc). Packing was probably one of the more stressful events of the wedding week for me. (Part of that could have been the feeling of "Wow, it's happening!") Day of the rehearsal (Fri)Woke up and did some more cleaning before my groomsmen and family were going to be getting into town. James, Dave & Doug all arrived at nearly the same time, a little before lunch. We hung out for a bit and I showed them the apt before we headed over to the Boneyard for lunch. While there, Paul called and said he was in the area too, so he met up with us there too. I was a little nervous because I had called my parents & sister and no one had picked up, so I wasn't sure where people were. I was glad that the guys had all made it safely in though. We hung out playing Mario Kart at the apartment for a little before my parents called and said they were basically picking up their tux.. so the guys headed back to their hotel, and I went with James to check out the tuxes. My dad's needed an alteration or two, but James was ready to go. Rehearsal night
As I was heading from my apartment to the church, I was feeling a little blah. I definitely felt like if I had layed down, I would have been able to take a pretty nice nap, but there wasn't time for that. On the way, the driver I had called for our get-away car, called me and told me basically that if it rains, he wasn't going to come, and it looked like it was going to rain. Oh, great! Got to the church a little early and was happy to see how the cleaning/decorating had gone. Then we waited for people to arrive. That took quite a while. Kath's church is out in the middle of nowhere, and apparently the GPS units that people had weren't finding the right address, and cell phone service didn't work at all, so a lot of my friends had to ask people for directions, which didn't work for them either. Eventually things got going, but it was much later by the time we got started. The rehearsal itself went well, although it was odd that we were doing a lot of the wedding things early (Kath walking down to the song from Amelie, saying our vows, etc.) But, I felt like people knew what they were up to for the next day. We were heading over to the rehearsal dinner when Kath's dad's car got a flat tire. More delay. I was thinking "Oh man.. how's this all going to come together for tomorrow??" Once we got to the dinner it was a good meal and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I was going to be going out with the guys to Dave & Buster's for a bachelor party, but it was getting kind of late, so we decided to just go get ice cream instead. We drove around for awhile until we found this ice cream place, but it was closed. By this point, I'm just getting tired and want to go home. So, that's just what I did. When I got back, I called Kath which was a nice relief for both of us. With everything going on, it was really helpful to just take some time to ourselves before the big day. I think this was a big, big help to us, so I encourage other couples preparing to tie the knot to do the same thing. The Big Day - Pre-Ceremony (Sat)
Well.. I got about.. 3-1/2 hours of sleep, so I thought I'd be pretty tired, but thankfully my sleep didn't catch up to me. I went to the Georgian Manor Inn, where Kath and I would be staying and checked in with the owner. He gave me a key to the place, I dropped off my car, and James & Kristi picked me up. We then went to the church and all of us hung out at the parsonage. We ate lunch, played a little foosball, etc. One thing I remember is thinking "Wow, I have more of an appetite than I thought I would." The guys went over to the church and had some pictures taken. I was a lot happier once my dad arrived and I knew that he had gotten his tux & the alterations were fine. (though somewhere along the lines his tie was missing, so we just had to borrow one from the pastor, that thankfully, he had) Went back to the parsonage for more waiting until making our way over to the church again and waiting in the office for everyone to get settled before the start... The Ceremony
We had a traditional wedding ceremony, with no big surprises. Katherine's little brother, Bryce, did the readings for us. After lighting the unity candles, we took our first moment as a married couple to pray together at the altar, while James sang "Be Thou My Vision" (My family & I knew the tune from "Make Us True Servants") It was really hard to concentrate on praying anything other thank "Thank You!" and I really wanted to listen to the song more; it was beautiful. Before long we had our first kiss as husband and wife, we were presented as Mr. & Mrs. Leonard, and promptly made our way to the back of the church. The Reception
We had an absolute blast! The food was so good (got many comments on how amazing the alfredo pasta was), the cake tasted even better than it did when we had our taste test with the lady earlier. James & Beth made great & funny speeches.. Everyone had a lot of fun dancing, and we even had a silly dance-off between Dave & Doug (courtesy of Marissa and Kath). The DJ responded to the crowd well, and was appropriately enthusiastic. We were truly amazed at how well everything worked out. I got a call from the driver saying that it wasn't going to rain and that he would be there to pick us up. Around 8:30 we made our exit while everyone was holding sparklers. That memory is a blur, though I do remember seeing James happily waving just a stick (his had already burned out.. hehe) We got into the car, a 1970 convertible, as our driver took us to the hotel, while my eyes were majorly watering from the smoke of the sparklers. :) Any more thoughts?
As we were driving away, we couldn't believe how perfectly everything had gone. In that instant, we wouldn't have changed anything, it was such a great time. We did later come to find that the video of most of our ceremony didn't work (ahh!) Apparently the battery died shortly after starting (even though the charger said it was full. Blast!) Oh well, we got part of the ceremony, and some pretty good parts at the reception (including the dance-off.. haha) I think that's about the only thing I would have changed. Thanks to everyone for a wonderful time! Labels: kath, love, rehearsal, sean, wedding
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26th Birthday
Happy Birthday to me! Yes, I celebrated my birthday yesterday so now I'm the big 2-6.. Didn't have any major plans yesterday, but Kath came over on Saturday to celebrate early. We ate downtown in Little Italy and then walked around to look at the "Art Walk" they had. Stopped over at the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) which was a lot less impressive than I expected it to be. But it was fun anyway. She had never gone to a driving range before, so I took her over and we hit a small bucket of balls too. It was funny. Then for dinner we made fondue that was soooo good. I sort of combined the standard "James & Sean Pub Fondue" with another recipe and.. oh my gosh.. it worked out perfectly. It should have been enough for at least 3, maybe 4 people, but between the two of us, there was nothing left when we were done! It's my new favorite recipe. :) Katherine's mom baked me some cupcakes that were really good! Well, I only have a few left. They're cherry flavored [not real cherries] and taste great! And they gave me a gas card, which will come in handy for driving down to see them and Kath this summer. :) Katherine got me Tommy Boy (The "Holy Schnikes Edition") which we watched while eating fondue, and a fun bocce ball set, which I want to play sometime this summer. Marissa sent me a nice map of Paris for the honeymoon next summer, and some excellent books about LOST. And my parents sent me some boxes full of a variety of fun foods & gift cards. Yay! Of course, I got a bunch of cards, calls & on-line notes from friends & family too which was a lot of fun! It was a good day for me and I thank everyone that made it special! I'm glad to have you as my friends & family! Labels: birthday, fondue, kath, little italy, moca
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Matt & Meghan
So this is a little bit late, but I wanted to make sure I did get around to putting this in my blog... Katherine and I headed over to New Jersey to celebrate with my friend Matt from State College. We grew up together, and two weekends ago, he tied the knot and got married! He asked me to be a groomsman too, so that was an honor, and a lot of fun! The festivities started when we arrived at the Cherry Hill mall, where we met up with Matt and I tried on the tux. We quickly checked into the hotel, changed for the rehearsal dinner, and arrived at Meghan's house (Matt's now-wife). We got to meet her and some of the family, before Matt arrived. Everyone was really nice! They had the rehearsal in Meghan's backyard, and the pastor was telling us not to lock our knees and everything, for fear of potentially fainting. Okay, so at least now I know it's an outdoor wedding. Temperatures were going to be around 80 or so, and I wasn't thrilled with the idea of being in a black tux standing outside in the sun. So, I was relieved to find that when we arrived at the winery on Saturday that the weather was perfect and it was under a canopy. Very very excellent day for a wedding. But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. At the rehearsal, it turned out that Beth, one of the two bridesmaids, happened to be in a class with Katherine last semester! What are the odds?? So, that was pretty fun. We then headed to downtown Philly at 5:00pm to catch dinner at a historic location, the City Tavern. After getting stuck in traffic, accidentally going in the parking garage for buses, and walking 3/4 of the way around the parking deck, rather than the shorter route of only 1/4, we finally arrived. The meal was a five course dinner served in a traditional Colonial fashion, complete with pewter cups and servers dressed up in colonial attire .. and.. everything! We had crab cakes, salad, salmon, steak, potatoes, and cinnamon ice cream and... it was just a never-ending meal! We were so full afterwards, but it was a good time and we all got to know each other a little better. Matt gave the groomsmen a flask and a money clip with our initials engraved on it, so that was really nice. The bridesmaids got a necklace to wear in the wedding, a little bag, and .. maybe something else.. I forget. Friday we spent the day relaxing by going to Bed Bath & Beyond and looking at china patterns and other things we'll be registering for, playing a round of mini-golf, practicing Kath's skits for the Philippines, and of course visitng Marissa in her new apartment! It was good to hang out with her and her boyfriend, Royal, for a while. We went out to eat at the Macaroni Grill [always a favorite!], went to the mall, and ended up playing on Royal's Wii for a little before we had to drive back to New Jersey. It was a short visit, but it was nice to see them! Saturday was the wedding, and everything went pretty well. We had a little time to kill in the morning, so we found a park nearby and just walked through it. There was a lot of sand, and as we walked closer, we saw there was a very tiny beach by a .. tiny lake. I saw a weird shape in the water and I told Kath it was a dead fish.. she was like "no! It's not!... wait.. is it?" so then we walked closer and were very grossed out to find there were dead fish all along the edge of the water. Disgusted, we promptly left that area. :) So anyway, for the wedding, Matt's brother, Eric, was the best man, Eric's two kids were the little flower people [twin girl & boy].. In a few weeks they'll be turning 3, so they're really a fun age. Whenever the girl, Maddy (Madison) would lose sight of someone she knew, she'd start bawling.. once it happened and Kath and I were closest, so Kath just went over to her and gave her a hug while I got Matt's mom. As soon as she saw someone she knew though, she was fine. I get on tangents a lot, don't I? Well, the wedding was just about to start when Matt's dad, the photographer, said that his camera had just run out of batteries. Oh no! I had some extra batteries in the car, but they said it was a special kind, and was charged.. it didn't just take regular batteries.. So, I guess they ended up getting some cameras from some of the guests.. hopefully everything turned out well! The whole wedding theme was primarily wine: the purple color that was used on invitations, it was held at a winery, and all the tables were named after a different kind of wine (I think we sat at the 'Burgundy' table) etc. Also, since their names are Matt & Meghan, or M&M (just like my parents!), they also had little glasses of wine full of m&ms in colors similar to red, white and rosé wines. Anyway, the wedding, the reception, the rehearsal dinner, all were very fun. Out of the three weddings that Katherine and I have gone to together, this was definitely our favorite. So, best wishes to Matt and his wife Meghan! After the reception, we drove back up to Pennsylvania so that I could drop Kath off at a family's house. Her and five other girls were taking a missions trip to the Philippines, and they wanted to get to the airport by 6:30am. Yuck! We were sad because they told the girls they wouldn't really be able to call, and email would probably be tricky, so we wouldn't get to keep in touch. I was happy when I got an email saying that the girls had all arrived safely. .. and really happy when Kath was able to call for about 30 minutes a week into the trip. She was able to send a few emails while there, but it's just not the same as talking together. Anyway, Kath just got back yesterday, so I was super excited. We talked for a while and got caught up on some of the stories that occured in the past two weeks, before she got way too tired, and quickly fell asleep before her parents arrived to take her back to Greenwich. She had pretty much been up for 3 days straight, since she didn't really sleep on the plane. I'm just very glad that she got back safe & sound and that overall the trip was a positive experience for her! Now we get to start all the wonderful things we have planned for the summer! yay! Labels: kath, macaroni grill, matt, meghan, philippines, wedding
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Allergies
Okay, figured it was about time I get a new post on here.. Let's see.. Well, going back in time to when I was in school, my mom had both Marissa and I tested to see what we were allergic to. And so they mark your back in a big grid and prick you with various allergens (trees, grass, dust, cat dander, etc.) .. Every single square on my back was red except for dogs. So last summer, I decided I should get retested and sure enough, I was even allergic to dogs.. (and to cockroaches.. seriously, why would they test that one?) So then I looked into the idea of getting allergy immunization shots. Even though my insurance will cover a majority of the cost, I'll still have to pay a substantial amount, so I was waiting until the new year before scheduling an appointment with an allergist here. That way, my insurance coverage would be a bit better. So, every week for the past 5 weeks I've been going to get my 3 sets of shots. The first time I went, I guess I was more nervous than I thought.. especially because they have you signing forms indicating the potential risk of such a procedure (1 or 2 deaths in the US each year) But, the dosage they're starting me on is so small that there was not much concern from the nurse at all. Anyway, I have to get them once a week for.. well, a long time. Probably about 6-8 months. At that point, I reach "maintenance level" and the shots will only be needed once every two weeks, or once every month. This can last for a few years, so it's quite a commitment. Still, I figured it's better to do it now while I'm young to really receive the full benefit of years of allergy relief. I think the ultimate goal for me is to be able to really enjoy the outdoors. So, we'll see how much improvement I see. It shouldn't do much until I get to the higher doses which won't be until probably August. Luckily, taking allergy medicine will not interfere with the process either, so I can still take meds when going to visit Kath and her family. Speaking of, I got to spend a large amount of Kath's spring break with her at the beginning of March. We took her younger brother, Bryce, to see his first movie in a movie theatre. It was really funny to see his eyes light up at the video games, blinking lights, concession stands, etc. He seemed in such awe at the experience. That night, we got to play the penny game with everyone, and even got to play "Curses" this really crazy game I got for Christmas. Let's see.. at one point I was stuck with my wrists at my chest, anytime someone made the noise of an animal, I had to shout out the name of a deli meat, and whenever Kath's mom spoke I had to interrupt her saying "Really?", "Is that so?", etc. It was definitely goofy. Anyway, as always, the time spent with Kath was great. We got to ask her pastor about marrying us next summer, and we're going to schedule some pre-marital classes that will probably take place this summer. Should be interesting! Now we're just counting down the days before Easter break next week! Haha.. I'm driving her crazy because I also recently booked the hotel in Paris for our honeymoon, but I'm keeping everything a secret. :) Let's see... what else? Oh, I got a promotion at work! My title changed from Programmer / Analyst II to Programmer / Analyst I. Oooh. :) Most everyone has been very congratulatory about it, and telling me it was very well deserved. There were actually three promotions in our group, that were announced to our team a week ago. The problem is, it comes at a bad time when people were just recently let go, due to budget cuts. So, there has been a little bit of hostility from other groups, but nothing actually personally directed at me. Still, for those who gave positive feedback, it felt nice to be acknowledged. Actually, I've noticed that I've been putting in a bit more effort since the promotion too, so I guess the incentive really did work. Oh, on the same day I found out about the promotion, I also won $70 in the lottery! Random, but cool. Labels: allergies, curses, kath, promotion
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Blizzard 07
This has been an interesting week! For starters, last Tuesday I had heard a rumor at work that there was a big meeting coming up on Thursday, and two different sources said this was going to be to announce lay-offs. So, people were a little nervous about that. Then Tuesday night / Wednesday morning was when the blizzard passed through. I was really hoping for a snow day (basically all the schools and some businesses were closed) and people were saying it's the worst snow they've seen since '78. Still, our office was open, but since my apartment complex hadn't plowed at all, I opted to work from home. Nice to know my wireless internet is still working well. In the afternoon I got an email saying that there was going to be a big meeting Thursday morning, just as the rumors had predicted. On Thursday, people were pretty quiet until the 9am meeting. It was there that they announced they would be laying off about 100 people from the Strongsville office. (We probably have about 600 total).. and that management would be notifying us either Thursday or Friday. Oh, this has all been reported in the news, so it's ok for me to talk about now. So anyway, after the meeting, everyone was wondering whether or not they were going to have a job... Our manager pulled us all aside around 2pm and informed us that our jobs would not been impacted, so we could rest easy for the rest of the day. I was just getting ready to leave, when I noticed my cell phone had a text message on it. Here, Katherine had been worried for some time because she was going to have to get x-rays! After the snow came through, she and some friends went sledding, and injured her neck in the process. So, I hit the road for State College after work and when I stopped at a rest stop, called to make sure that she was OK. Thankfully they didn't find any permanent damage and she was feeling a lot better after hearing that. I made the rest of the trip back home and spent some time with my parents which was nice. Then the ride down to Philly.. ugh.. Normally, it takes about 3 hours and 15 mins.. Everything was going smoothly until about 70 miles to go.. That's when traffic came to a standstill on the turnpike, where they had completely closed off 20 miles. I guess when the blizzard went through, a tractor trailer jackknifed and caused a huge mess. Anyway, long story short, it ended up taking me 9 hours to arrive! It was definitely worth it though to spend the weekend with Kath. Leaving for home is getting harder and harder.. I can't wait till we won't have to! :) Some notable activities included going out to eat a lot, seeing her friend's play and going ice skating. It was a nice way to celebrate Valentine's Day and our 1-year anniversary! I might add that neither of us fell while skating either! Thankfully the roads were back to normal on my drive back to Ohio. One funny thing I saw on the way though was this "Oversized Load".. Normally they're not all that interesting, but this one in particular looked fun and I tried to take a picture. It was a giant red Radio Flyer wagon! The wheels must have been about 5 or 6 feet in diameter. It looked cool! Anyway.. the countdown to the wedding continues.. :) Labels: blizzard, kath, layoffs, traffic
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Emerald Isle
My poor neglected blog. How often must I dust the cobwebs off you? Anyway, here's a lengthy update for the few people who check my blog... Emerald IsleIn mid-September I had a blast while visiting Emerald Isle in North Carolina. Heather & Dave organized the whole deal, and we had 10 people total staying at a beach-view beach house. I ended up driving there from Cleveland and it took about 12 hours or so. While there, we primarily relaxed in the ocean.. I really had a lot of fun body boarding with the waves.. When we weren't doing that, we hung out on the beach with many games of touch football. In one such game, Dave leaped up to block the football and managed to swat it down to the ground. As he did, his wedding ring popped off and landed somewhere in the sand. We all spent about an hour looking for it, but no such luck - it had disappeared. Some people went to see if anyone nearby would have a metal detector, but the only thing we managed to borrow was a rake, which we used to mark the location.. The next morning, our hopes sunk as we had a huge rainstorm. When we went out that afternoon to the rake, Mike, Heather's brother saw that the ring was just sitting there, only partly in the sand. Everyone was really excited about that! We had a lot of really good food.. I can't even remember all the different types of seafood I had.. there was only one that I didn't like, and that was because it still had fish bones in it.. eww.. I do remember that my sea trout was very good though! From North Carolina, I headed north to Philly to visit with Kath. That was actually a very cool drive.. It took me past places like D.C., where I got to see the Washington monument and Capital building... to Baltimore where I got to see a neat view of the harbor.. If nothing else, it was a welcome break from the normal routine at the office. :) Kath and IWell, at the end of August Kath started her junior year at Eastern University near Philly. It's pretty far away (7 1/2 hours), so it's been tough not to be able to see her every week. We make up for the distance though, by talking on the phone every night which is a lot of fun (and usually leads to spontaneous fits of laughter). Plus, we've been able to schedule fairly regular visits. Last semester, I saw her in late-September at the end of my vacation, then in mid-October she got to meet Dave, Nate, Doug and Kim M when we met up in State College to watch the Michigan game, in early November I went out for another visit, and then she spent Thanksgiving with my family. Three weeks later she was back in Ohio for Christmas break! Christmas break was a lot of fun and we got to spend a good amount of time with each other and with our family and friends. It's just a shame I had to go back to work and she had to go back to school! Well, we're both excited to see each other in just two weeks when I go to visit for Valentine's Day & our 1 year anniversary! Wedding PlansLet's see.. what do we know so far? We both agreed on our original date: 06-07-08.. we're having it at her hometown church in Shiloh, OH.. We've booked the reception hall and have started to look at menus from caterers. She's got an excellent menu figured out and apparently knows almost exactly the wedding dress that she wants too! We've started picking out some of the songs like what she'll walk down the aisle to, what our first dance will be, etc. The plans are coming together nicely and we're both very excited. Pretty soon I might even book the hotel for our honeymoon in Paris! Marissa's moveWell, this past weekend I went back to State College to help load Marissa's stuff into a U-Haul truck, drive down to the Philly area, and then help unpack it [including taking two hours to assemble her futon]. It was a pretty exhausting weekend, but thankfully you couldn't have asked for better moving weather in February. Plus I got to spend Saturday with Kath! Marissa's apartment was nice and the office did a good job of cleaning it before she arrived. It's very big too! Now she's starting to go through the joys of setting up your own place.. and of course the biggest one is the constant struggle with the phone companies. Once again, I'm so happy I left AT&T. :) Hopefully everything will come together for her shortly. Website NewsWell, sadly my free 3-year subscription with 1and1 has expired, so I was forced to find a new home. Luckily, I found a new location a few days ago and it appears everything is running smoothly. If you notice something not working correctly, please let me know and I'll fix it as soon as I can. Anyway, I'm doing well. Thanks for reading all this! Labels: beach, eastern, emerald isle, kath, marissa, move, north carolina, wedding
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We're Engaged
I know it's been a long time since I've written an entry, but there's been an awful lot that has happened since then, and it seemed appropriate to get everyone up to speed ... ... As most of you know, Katherine and I have been together for some time now, and have thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. We've gone to movies, concerts, bowling, the zoo, Cedar Point, etc.. When we're not out having fun, we have just as much fun staying indoors and making baby s'mores over tealights, doing puzzles or just acting goofy. Most importantly though, we're able to talk to each other about everything... It's crazy how comfortable we feel with each other.. I honestly don't think I ever expected to be as close to someone as I am to Kath, and I feel so blessed that she's been brought into my life. :) So one night her and I had a really long and meaningful conversation.. and we both realized then that we were meant for each other, that God had led us together and that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We started asking each other questions about how we wanted to raise kids, who would handle chores, what we wanted to do with our religion, etc. And with each question, we grew closer. I don't think I got back to my apartment until 3am, we just had so much to talk about! I had actually informally been educating myself on engagement rings a few days before that conversation, but the next day, I started looking at ads in the yellow pages for jewelers, and realized the gravity of what I was doing. Was I actually going to start looking for engagement rings?? How crazy is that?? Crazy as it was, I couldn't have been more sure. After about a month of looking I had learned all I needed to about the engagement ring and knew what I wanted to get for Kath. I walked into one store, and the second ring that they showed me was exactly the setting I wanted to get.. I gave a slight upgrade to the center diamond, and went with 6-prongs instead of 4.. and in less than a week it was sized and in my possession. Oh wait, the ring size.. that's another fun story.. The day that we had our conversation, I had actually played with her ring a little bit. I had slipped it on my pinky finger, and knew about how it fit me. The day I first set out on my hunt, I went to a jeweler and used their ring sizers to figure out that she was a size 5. Maybe a week later I remembered I had a fake ring that was a size 6. I tried that, and it was just a tiny bit bigger, but still pretty much felt right. So, I knew her size was no smaller than a 5, but could have been up to a 6. I decided to call on her friends Beth & Katrina to help me out. They were sneaky, and managed to find out her ring size as a 5 without Kath knowing what they were doing. It didn't much matter though because a few days later, Kath was looking at her hands saying "You know, I have really small hands.. I only wear a size 5 ring" .. I just laughed. "I already knew that!!" :) Anyway, the weekend after I got the ring, we went to a wedding down in Columbus.. well, that's a whole story in itself. They had the wedding outside, in ~ 84 degree weather. The bridesmaids were all wearing black.. Late in the ceremony a little bee started annoying some of the bridesmaids.. one of the groomsmen was just dripping with sweat from wearing his tux. Kath and I both agreed: no outdoor wedding. Then the reception was held in a conservatory they had there. While the members of the bridal party were having their pictures taken, they gave us time to wander around the conservatory.. Although it was basically a giant greenhouse, we got to see a big koi pond, a room with butterflies, a room with cacti, some birds, etc. The reception was held in a big room with plants but no insects/birds or anything. It was a little cooler than outside, but not by much as we were still in the greenhouse. Although the location was hot, there was no denying that it was definitely very beautiful. It was a little weird though.. they didn't do any bouquet or garter belt toss, they didn't have any dancing.. etc. It was a unique wedding for sure. Alright, so anyway, the next day Kath came back to Cleveland with me so we could go see the Cleveland Orchestra playing. While we were waiting outside in the grass for others to show up, we were both getting pretty wound up and I ended up making her a ring out of a blade of grass and gave it to her.. she actually wore it the whole night too.. heh. I find it very hard to keep anything secret from her, and I think this was just my secret starting to come to the surface. I knew I wanted to propose to her very shortly. I had a bunch of ideas for how I wanted to propose, and I wasn't really sure which I would use. One of the first things that crossed my mind was to take her to the place where we had our first date. Sadly though, when I went to check it out, I found they were completely closed! So, in the end, I decided upon this: Friday evening I went to ask for her parents' blessing.. I was so nervous my hands were shaking, but I got out what I wanted to say, and we had a nice long talk. Meanwhile, Kath was out with her friends. I figured if her family were anything like me, they wouldn't be able to keep the secret in either, so I dropped off a bouquet of roses while I was there, to celebrate our 6 month anniversary (of when we committed ourselves to each other).. That way, she would definitely know I had been there, and none of us would have to lie about it. She just wouldn't be completely sure of the main reason I had been there. She was going to be coming to my apartment Saturday morning, and I had thought about waiting until the evening, but I just couldn't hold it in any longer. I lit a bunch of candles all around my apartment.. and when I saw her arrive, I started some music playing so when she walked in the door, she saw the candles and heard the music.. And then we danced for a little bit (we were both a little disappointed we didn't get the chance to at the wedding).. then I had her sit down, and I got one on knee and asked her to marry me. There were tears, quivering lips, shaking hands, etc. - it was all so exciting! :) Oh, and she said 'yes' before I could even open the little box with the ring. :) We decided we needed to go out to eat and celebrate our engagement together.. I was looking up some information on the Cheesecake Factory online, and Kath was standing behind me.. All the sudden I hear her ask in a little voice "Am I on fire?" I turn around and the entire back of her skirt is in flames!! It was spreading so quickly, she took it off and threw it to the floor where I found the closest thing I could find to extinguish the fire. That happened to be a library book which is now slightly burned. :) I got the fire out and then made sure that she was okay. She was shaking from fright, but handled the situation very well. All things considering, Kath was fine. She had some small burns on her leg and foot, but a couple ice packs and some Advil took care of that. We laughed about it for a good half hour, and continued sporadically laughing about it throughout the day. It certainly was unforgettable. :) I gave her some of my sweatpants to wear while I went out to the mall to find her a new skirt. We finally made it to the Cheesecake Factory but no stories there could ever compare to setting your fiancées skirt on fire! :o) That night I drove back with her to Greenwich to stay at her parents' house and then in the morning we went to church to announce our engagement. Her little 8 year old brother was hilarious. I got him all excited by telling him we'd be brother-in-laws.. and then later I guess he was going around the church telling people that he was going to be an uncle! Ahhh! Wrong choice of words, Bryce! :) I guess he was trying to say that EVENTUALLY he would be when we have kids, so we had to tell him not to tell people that. We have no plans for children until we've enjoyed many years of marriage together. :) So anyway, it's been fun telling people of our engagement and starting to think about wedding plans. We plan to have the wedding in Greenwich, OH with the unofficial date of June 7th, 2008.. (Which is also easy to remember 06-07-08) :) Thanks to everyone who has offered us congratulations - we're both very excited to start our united life together. I love you Kath! :) Labels: engagement, fire, kath, marriage, proposal, ring, wedding
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My Girlfriend
Well, this was quite the week. :) Let me backup to last Saturday, the 11th, when Kath and I went out on our second date which grew to be one of the longest dates ever: ice skating, playing games, watching "When a Stranger Calls", having dinner, listening to a comedian, and just sharing in conversation with each other. It was great fun, and we got to learn so much about each other. Anyway, the rest of the week continued the momentum of the first and second dates.. For Valentine's, we cooked dinner at my apartment and watched "Monster's Inc".. Thursday we got together again and watched a Brian Regan DVD I had just received in the mail [hilarious].. and then yesterday since it was so cold out, we just spent a lot of time hanging out at Kath's dorm listening to music, ordering pizza, and playing random games. Oh yeah, and coloring in a coloring book.. haha.. don't remember the last time I did that. It's crazy for me to think that we've only known each other for a little over a month, but we've already grown very close. We decided that things were going really well and we're excited to see what's in store for us.. so now we're officially in a relationship. yay! It's been a while since I've had a girlfriend, so it still hasn't completely sunk in yet.. but it's a great feeling. :) Can you tell I'm happy and excited about all this? Hehe. Car accident? Who cares anymore? :) Alright, more to come later.. Labels: date, girlfriend, kath, valentines
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First Date
Wow, my first post of the new year. Guess I'm late as always with this. I'm just going to give a brief overview of everything that followed after the accident.. There's just too much to list. I have a new car now, it's a 2002 silver Honda Civic. Although two days after I got it I had to have the battery replaced, it seems like it's doing reasonably well now. I finally received the title to my Corolla, but my dad and I are both listed as the owners. So, I have to have it notarized, send it my dad and have him sign & notarize it, and then forward it to the insurance company. Then I'll get the final check and be done with the automobile portion of the claim. As for the medical, I'm still working through it. The day after the accident, I could see that there was a big black & blue mark just above my kneecap. At first I thought I must have hit it on the dashboard, but the more I looked at it, the more I realize it must have been the steering wheel. Anyway, two weeks after the accident, my knee got a horrible pain just below the knee cap, to the point where I couldn't even walk on it, it hurt so much. I went to the doctor, they took x-rays but didn't find any kind of permanent damage, short of taking an MRI. They subscribed physical therapy, so that's what I've been going to for the past two weeks. It seems to be going well - I haven't taken advil since Tuesday and the therapist thinks the swelling in my knee is going down. More importantly, I can walk, even if it feels a little awkward still. On to more interesting things.. Last weekend I had the pleasure of going out with Katherine, a really cute & cool girl who's going to Baldwin-Wallace here in the area. We took a little walk over to a coffee shop and hung out, talking about random things, while drinking hot chocolate. At one point during our conversation she said "Heck yes" and then proceeded to ask if I had ever seen Napoleon Dynamite.. Wow. Since it was such a nice day out, we took a stroll around the campus and she was showing me some of the buildings. It was interesting to be on a campus again. We hung out at her dorm for a little bit, and ended up watching Pirates of the Caribbean together. We had both said we were more introverted, so I was prepared to deal with a little bit of awkwardness, but I gotta say I felt pretty comfortable around her & hopefully she felt the same. Most importantly though, she's got a good set of Christian values, which is awesome. Anyhow, she was out of town for the weekend, so we didn't get together, but hopefully we'll go out again soon. Instead I watched a bunch of movies, ran errands (as always) and am trying to stay warm since it actually feels like winter now. The Super Bowl is on in a little bit, and I'm prepared to watch it [mainly for the commercials]. Got some pizza yesterday so I wouldn't have to order today [I worked at a Pizza Hut on a Superbowl Sunday once.. and it was the most awful thing.. ever..] Anyway, I'll keep you posted! Labels: civic, date, kath, knee
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