First Day of The Rest of Our Lives: 2012

"Lets take a trip!" Craig says to me. This took me by surprise considering it wasn't my birthday or his, our anniversary or any other special occasion. Whats with the randomness? Not that I'm complaining, I love when we go on our adventures! Of course I'm totally up for it! So a couple weeks pass and we still haven't done our trip, but Craig keeps telling me to look for places to go that we haven't been to. So that X's out pretty much any beach in southern Michigan, Chicago, Columbus Ohio, and LOTS of Indiana. Even though we have went on lots of adventures we still have lots of ground to cover. Finally I discover that we have never really been to Michigan City, IN. The only time I have ever been there was for a basketball game when I was a freshman in High school. The only thing I knew about Michigan City was that their basketball team was way better then my high schools team and that they had a awesome strip mall there! (I was with a group of girls and we had three hours to kill). So I ran the idea past Craig and then kinda forgot about it. Little did I know Craig did not forget about it. Later that week we had a bowling youth event to do. (Craig is a youth pastor and I assist him) He walks up to me at the event and says "its settled we're going to Michigan city!" I say "oh cool. What are we doing there?" "I guess there is a cool zoo there and a beach!" Craig says. I'm a sucker for zoos! So its planned that Sunday, after church we are off on our new adventure! Later I was talking to one of my youth girls about how random our trip was and how weird it was. She says to me maybe he finally going to ask you! I thought no that is crazy! In my head I was like "Well it could happen".,but quickly disregarded the thought as to not get myself overly excited for something that might not happen.
So church is almost over and its going pretty normal, but I notice Craig is acting really strange...oh my goodness could my friend be right? As we worship our Lord, Craig flings himself onto the alter and starts to cry out for Gods help...Craig had had a long week and I knew he was under alot of stress..so part of me saw this coming. We prayed and Cried together at the alter and after it was all over Craig said he felt like a million pound weight had been lifted off of his shoulders! I am so proud of him for this. It lets me know that even though he has a very "manly" exterior...he lets everything go when it comes to him and his God and that makes me love him ever the more! So the reason he was acting funny was because he was under a lot of emotional stress and I'm glad he got it off his chest!

We get in the car with our snacks, tunes, and map! We are just enjoying the cool April air as we drive to our destination. Usually we choose our tunes from Craig computer. Which is not a problem at all because we usually only have his computer to use and we both enjoy most of the same music, however I am a women and I do have some "chick" music I enjoy. Well on this particular trip Craig was being awfully generous with our music selection and even let me play my chick music for probably most of our trip! I really didn't notice until later when we talked about. So we arrive at our new place. Washington Park. We go to the little zoo first. We see all kinds of animals. Really cool tigers, pretty birds, monkeys (which Craig can't stand) and we almost got to see two guys get sprayed by a very manly lion! We had all intentions of bringing Jackets, but we both forgot them at home! So a side mission was to find some cheap zoo hoodies or jackets at the zoo gift shop. Unfortunately this is the only zoo I have ever been to that doesn't have any type of clothes in their gift shop...so I remember the strip mall and mention it to Craig luckily my GPS of a boyfriend knows exactly where it is and its right down the road. So thats the next stop, but first we go to this little pavilion outside of the zoo. Its just us sitting up there and Craig gets down on one knee and....TIES HIS SHOE! Okay we all know that I still had a little bit of a thought that today might be the day, but this was definitely not it. So we leave and go to the strip mall. We find this super awesome store that is a mix between Pac Sun and Hot topic. Craig fell in love. We ended up getting a hoody for me, a jacket for him and a pair of really cool Craig shoes that were on sale! So we head back to the beach to fly the kites we had packed! I was really excited because even if i didn't get a proposal...flying kites on the beach is pretty romantic, in my opinion and its super fun! So now we're dressed all cool with our kites in hand. His was Sponge-bob and Mine was Pooh Bear. We met an unusual character that was a actual wind surfer! Which was weird, but awesome. We set up in the lifeguard perch for a while and watched the lake. It was a great day. Then we decide to walk out to the lighthouse. Lighthouses are kind of a family thing so of course we had to go check it out. It was a long pier, but it was a great walk. There are a set of stairs leading from one side to of the lighthouse to the other and as we crossed them I look out over the lake as the sun glistened off of it and thought to myself "sigh. This would be so perfect if it could happen here" Not to let myself get too lost in dreams I walked down the stairs and started to read all the silly things people write on the back of the lighthouse. Its always fun to make fun of it with Craig.When we first walked across the stairs we noticed this backward question mark and I was like "huh I wonder what thats about" but I quickly forget about and look out onto the lake and wonder back to my thought of "today would be perfect" but I shook my head and thought who cares when it happens! I have Craig right now, our relationship is Great and when it happens it will be all the more worth it! I walk over to Craig totally over the Engagement thing and give him a hug and a kiss. Then as our embrace stops, he says to me as he gets down on one knee "Ya know Patty, its kind of convenient this question mark is here, because I have a question for you" he takes my hand in his and he says "You are my best friend and I know you know I want to spend the rest of my life with you" of course I start to Cry and flip out. Repeating "Are you serious right now?!"

Then I say "If this is a joke I am going to be so mad!"
Considering Craig has tried to pull this joke on me before once or twice.
Then he pulls out the most Perfect, Beautiful, Flawless ring I have ever seen!
I pull him up to me and kiss him..he asks "is that a yes?"I laugh and
say "OF COURSE THATS A YES!"

The walk back to the car was filled with stories of how he snuck the ring out to the pier and how he had had the ring since before Christmas. He is so sneaky!! I was so impressed! We went to the South Shore Brewery for our Celebration dinner. Craig bought a bottle of their aged stout that was sealed with wax and he decided to save it to drink at our wedding. The drive home was filled with calls to the parents and text messages to the friends. Everyone kept asking if it was a joke and I was like why does everyone keep asking me that? We had totally forgot about it being April fools day! Another thing Craig told me as we walked hand in hand down the pier was that he asked some people where he should take me to ask me and everyone kept saying South Haven or places we had been, but he said "I wanted to go somewhere none of us had ever been. I wanted it to be our special place. Its the first adventure of the rest of our lives.

Please Keep Reading- Bride-to-be, Patty

First Day of The Rest of Our Lives

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Breakfast Date Wednesday! (wedding RECON!)

Friday, June 15, 2012

The Lighthouse Engagement.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Getting to know us.

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