The Story

So here it is, the story of our engagement. Or should I say, the story of the day he proposed? Either way, here it is...

I am a Communications Liaison, which entails me writing and publishing newsletters, coordinating events, fundraisers, parties and doing pretty much every other task people can think of that A) They don't want to do, and B) Involves communicating to the masses. Our biggest work function/event? The annual "Holiday Party" held every year around Christmas. To me this is a big deal because this is the one chance my company has to give back to its employees and I would like it to a memorable event that they thoroughly enjoy. Needless to say, around this time of year I'm fairly stressed out. Not awful stress, I enjoy planning parties, but it still takes its toll on you.

It's Friday, December 11, 2009 - the date of the big holiday party. Also the date that Bubba and I have designated as our "Anniversary". We never officially said, 'this is official', we just kind of happened and we knew it was around the 11th, so there you have it. 2 years of dating joy...and I say that in all seriousness. There has not been a moment with Bubba that I haven't been happy. He is truly a diamond in the rough and really knows how to make me laugh.

Back to the story...So we're at the holiday party, and as the one in charge of planning I have to stay around to make sure all the drunks leave and that the caterer and DJ make it out ok, which also means Bubba has to stick around as well. He was a little antsy, but we finally made it out around 11:45pm or so.

We make it home (Lexington Park to Colton's Point isn't exactly a quick ride) and I'm exhausted. I hadn't been sleeping well all week, and with the music that had been blasting my head was pounding. So I instantly change into my pajama's in one fell swoop and head to the bathroom to wash my face. All the while Bubba yells, "Crap! I left my phone in the car". I noticed it took a while for him to come back in and I was just hoping he hadn't slipped and hit his head or something ( I always think the worst). So he comes back in and has a bottle of champagne on ice, a vase of roses, candles and 2 glasses...My heart dropped and I thought I knew what was coming. But he read my face and said, 'No no, you did a great job tonight on the party and I thought we'd celebrate!' So I'm sitting on the couch (in my PJ's) and brimming with excitement he tells me that he has an early "Christmas Thing" to show me, and that I needed to put my coat on. 'Is anyone going to see me? I am already in my pajamas. Do I need real shoes?' He told me he didn't think anyone would see me, but he wasn't sure...So I throw on a sweatshirt AND a coat, socks and slippers and he guides me outside.

Go stand by the fence and look at the house, I want to show you something. YES! He put more lights up on the house and we won't look so ghetto!! Ready Mindy? Here it goes...

And then nothing, I felt awful! How does it look? he yelled. I had to answer, Aww babe I think you blew a fuse or something, nothing happened! Well, that is because you're looking the wrong way...and he turns me around to our pier completely lit up in white lights...and then the shaking set in. I knew what was happening. We walked out to the end of the pier and had the most beautiful moment I could imagine!

And that is the story of our engagement! Simple and sweet, and every bit as romantic as I'd hoped it would be. Bubba is truly the love of my life, and I can't imagine spending it with anyone else. I know it's mushy, but come on, if you're lucky you only get engaged the right way once!

I'm a pretty lucky girl:

The Big Apple

December is going to be pretty jam packed for me this year and it's already started out with a BANG! And a good BANG at that. The 3rd - 5th, three generations traveled up the East Coast to the great city that is New York. Marci, my grandmother, Nan, my mom and myself boarded a train at BWI and made our way to Penn Station, where our journey began.

This is not my first time traveling to New York, in fact, I've done just about every winter "touristy" attraction possible. I've been to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and watched the ball drop in Time Square on New Years. It's just something about New York in December that keeps me coming back for more. Maybe it's the lights, or possibly the unbelievably creative window displays donning every store window. Perhaps it's the scarves and peacoats that line the streets, or just the simple excitement and joy that exudes off of every person you pass.

This trip we explored the town, watched the AMAZING Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, ate a superb dinner at The View on the 47th floor that slowly rotates to give you a view of the entire city, bargained on Canal Street, remembered at the site of the World Trade Center, and did some shopping in the beautiful Bryant Park which was filled with unique vendors.

Overall I love New York and will always continue to go back and visit!

It's that time of year...

Maybe I'm feeling mushy because it's the first day of December and I know that the Christmas season is in full swing, but I really am thankful today. I know what you're thinking, "Thanksgiving was last week, you're a little late..." It's true though, I'm really feeling blessed with the people I have in my life at the moment. I'm lucky to have some outstanding friends, both near and far, who are genuine and truly caring people. People who have been my friend through thick and thin and are each unique and special to me.

I'm glad to say that all of my friends are so very different from one another, but yet all have one common characteristic. They are good friends. What is a good friend? Someone who will text you just to say, "Hey, I'm stalking your life online and am crying because I miss being in SMC-we need to get together" or someone who can play phone tag with me for WEEKS before we actually get to catch up and not care because she knows I suck with phones, or someone I can randomly text about drunken nights/parties that were years ago, and still laugh when she reads the text because she knows exactly what I'm talking about, someone who I can call after not having seen or spoken to them in a few months due to our distance and busy schedules, but be able to pick right back up where we left off, someone who can send me forwards that make me laugh EVERY time and complain that she missed "National Ginger Day" last week or finally someone who can tolerate playing rock band with me and listen to me cheer and perform like we're a real band or something...

To all my friends, thank you so much for being there for me, I love you all very much!!

McDaniels

Coming to a town near you...McDaniels! The newest bar in town.

And it even has it's own theme song that you won't be able to resist.

So our night out to the Green Door resulted in us realizing that we want to have our own bar where you don't have to think, you can come to drink AND we don't care if you stink! And it's all in honor of our friend Dan (shown blushing at the end of the video). As soon as we figure out how we're all going to pull our money to start this bar it's going to be St. Mary's County's newest hot spot...Ok, probably not, but Friday night we sure thought it was a good idea!

Video: Starring Adam, Bubba & Dan. Producer-Bee

This is why...

...I have such a hard time going to work every morning!

Hello, November! As I was walking to my car this morning, I was blessed to see this beautiful sunrise. This is the one true factor that makes it so incredibly difficult for me to go to work in the mornings. It's hard not to go back inside and change back into my "comfy-clothes" and curl up on the front porch with a nice hot cup of coffee. In fact it kills me to drive away with that staring back at me in the rear-view mirror.

Living in Colton's Point grows on me more and more as the days go by. It's hard for me to imagine living anywhere else, even though eventually I know it's bound to happen. (Unless of course we want to rent our entire lives...which we don't) But for the time being I think we're going to take in the beauty and comfort the Point has to offer and enjoy every second of it!!

Negligent Blogger

I must apologize to those few fans I have who actually come to my blog to cure their boredom for a least a few short minutes. I have not been posting quite as frequently as I would like, due to outside factors...strike that...it's just one outside factor-LIFE!! Once October hit I knew things would start speeding up with things like party planning at work, the time change, Halloween, upcoming holidays, shopping, etc. Things start to get hectic around this time of the year, and 2009 is certainly no exception. To be honest this entire year has pretty much been a racing blurr...but that's life, right? No sense in complaining, things could be much worse!

So Bubba and I technically had our first Halloween "together" this year. And by together I mean out on our own, being able to decorate our house, carve pumpkins and give out candy-even if we only got about 10 trick-or-treaters. That's better than none! Anyway-we had our first Halloween and I think it was a success...we dressed up as Peggy and Al Bundy from Married With Children!

Another thing that I've been thinking about lately is my career path. It's a tough pill to swallow every month as I am paying my student loans and realize that I am probably only putting about 25% of that specific education to use. Before I graduated I knew that if I moved home, my odds of actually having a career in advertising or public relations was pretty slim to none, but that was a risk I was willing to take in order to be close to my family and the one place I truly love, St. Mary's County. But now, like I said, it can be hard to deal with, but that's just something I'll have to get over. In fact, I've never been more ready or willing to try and pursue something non-traditional in my life when it comes to my career. I was telling my mom just the other day that I am good at "stuff", how do I make a business or career out of "stuff"? And just what do I mean by stuff? I love organizing, simplifying, decorating, cleaning, making things look pretty, anything classic, planning themes for parties etc. That is my "stuff", so how do I make that happen? Your guess is as good as mine (and much appreciated!;) Since I was young I knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom some day, and as I get older, I've realized that it's hard for families to only have one bread winner and that for a mom to contribute, but still spend the ample, quality time she desires with her children, her own business or work from home business would be the best way. I'm just planning ahead here people :)

So I must mention another thing that is coming up very quickly that I am so overly excited for, I'm almost embarrassed to admit it...New Moon - the movie comes out on November 20th and I've already got my tickets! I'm still in the process of reading the final book from the saga (Breaking Dawn) but absolutely LOVED New Moon and am so excited to see the movie version...I've even developed a small crush on the under-aged Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black) in addition to the beauty that is Edward Cullen (Robert Pattison). I mean look at them, who could resist?