Catching Up!

Well hello there to all of my readers (ha! ha!). It's been a while, since I wrote you last my garden has become overgrown with weeds (again...), I went through finals week, traveled to Florida, started and finished my summer online class, got engaged (EEK!), hosted a bridal shower for Kara, was in her wedding and am now busy planning our wedding! Wow, that's a lot going on! No wonder I haven't updated my blog. You know, because so many people read it and those of you (Laura) who do read it are so interested in the goings on in my life and don't already know about everything. :P

I will focus on my favorite thing for this post: our REAL engagement! As most of you (haha...okay, Laura, as YOU know) our wedding date was set long before I had a ring on my finger so looking at rings and getting a ring wasn't a huge surprise, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't special or exciting for us.

We went ring shopping in Lawrence one Saturday and found one that I fell in love with. After dealing with a couple of stores we weren't very impressed with we walked into Kizer-Cummings Jewelers on Mass. Street in Lawrence, I'm telling you, if you need a nice place to go, this is it! We got to choose from a few loose center stones and I went back to do that once they came in. The store was wonderful to us, got the stone set the same day so we wouldn't have to drive back to Lawrence again. Now I just had to wait for him to give it to me. *sigh.

Ross made a reservation for us at the Grand Central in Cottonwood Falls, and we got to sit out on the patio on our own away from the main dining room. Our waitress hadn't even come back with our drinks before he popped out of his chair, got on his knee and was saying the words I'd been waiting a loooooong time to hear. "Ali, you're the only woman I ever have loved. You're the only woman I ever will love. Will you marry me?" And of course, being the pain in the a$$ that I am I rolled my eyes and said "I guess...". Poor guy, what has he gotten himself into. Way to ruin the moment, Ali.

Isn't she beautiful?!

Ross: "What the hell have I done?!"
Ali: "EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Florida!

I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with my closest girl friends. The trip cost us very little (a big thanks to my internship supervisor, Deb!) and we were able to make this Kara's bachelorette party weekend.

Laura, Kara, Jess, Sumre, Amanda and I stayed at Laura and Aaron's house the night before and woke up VERY early in order to leave for the airport by 4am. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but getting six women out of bed, dressed and ready before 4am is no small feat. Somehow we were out the door before 4:00, how that happened I will never know. Off we were to Florida! Well, to the Kansas City airport, then to Florida.

See?! Proof!

Our flying experience was anything but glamorous. On our first flight we not only sat in the back of the plane near the smelly restroom but we had a crabby flight attendant. We weren't all that enthused about being up early either but she sure was a grouchy butt. We survived and made it there, got to the resort, did our grocery shopping and decided to lay out by the pool for a while. It was lovely! So relaxing, just what we all needed.

Laura covering her nose from the smell...

We went back to the room, made supper and had...a few...drinks. :)

The next day we went to the beach which was owned by our resort and private so we had less creepers than the other beach (but not completely creeper-free). Sumre and I played in the waves for a long time while the other girls relaxed, tanned and read their books. They got just a liiiiiiittle sun burned so we took it easy the next day.

Sumre and I getting thrown around in a wave...we didn't have any fun at all ;)

We had a nice dinner out on Saturday night, then on Sunday we went back to the beach and rented chairs with umbrellas for those who were a little too pink for the sun. Laura and I weren't burned so we saved our pennies but later in the afternoon two ladies who had chairs next to the other girls were leaving and offered them to us, bonus! We got a mojito and strawberry margarita to celebrate!

Enjoying our free chairs with an umbrella!

We went to the beach on Monday morning to say 'goodbye', packed our bags and headed back to the airport and back to Kansas. We had a great trip and hope that we can do something similar next year!