Oh My Gosh. . .

Here I am, less than a week later and I'm keeping my promise.  I told you that I'm turning over a new leaf and I stick to my word.  Never mind that I've said that I'm turning over a new blogging leaf nearly ten times on this blog - this time I mean it.

So, at the time of posting, I have four votes on my Blogger Guilt blog so we're going to please the loyalists first and talk about what they want to hear.  Let's talk engagement, shall we?  Ah. . . we shall.

So, it was a cold day in February.  Sidenote: do you ever wonder why the temperature matters on stories like this?  Especially when the temperature is seasonally normal?  Maybe it would be worth noting if I said "It was February and 90 degrees outside" or "One snowy day in August."  But no, it was February and it was cold, just like it should be.  Mother Nature was behaving herself and piling on the expected 4 feet of snow, just in time for Valentine's Day weekend.  Nothing special about the weather, so scratch that.

Trev and I made plans to go to Moab with his sister Hollie, her husband Jared and their two kids, Anna and Logan.  We love hanging out with their family and were excited to travel with them and do what they and Trevor love - go Jeeping.  I, personally, had never done such a thing.  I'd been to Moab, with a Jeep actually, but my dad washed it the second that it got dirty.  Trails?  No.  Not unless you consider the state highway a "trail".  So, for all intents and purposes, I'd never been jeeping before and I was nervous with anticipation about what the weekend would bring.

Truth time: OK, I was more nervous about packing food than I was about actually going in the Jeep.  You see, we've camped before but generally there was a stove or something to heat up food.  Trev told me a couple of days before we left that we needed to pack food for the two of us for the entire trip - and don't forget that we'll be in the car for two days.  Brilliant!  So now I was less nervous about climbing cliffs in a vehicle than I was about making sure I bought the right kind of beef jerky.  Who thinks like that?  Me, that's who.

So we got up early Thursday morning to head down to Moab.  We, of course, had to do a "Pre-Jeeping Shoot" in the kitchen while I was packing up:

Nice, huh?  Who knew we were so chipper in the A-M?  Yeah, me neither.

So we headed to Moab in a pretty decent snowstorm.  Trev had been working on his Jeep relentlessly for the previous week so we were excited to finally be heading out for our big weekend adventure. 

At this point in time, Trev and I had been dating for about six months.  We'd talked about marriage and about how we felt about each other and really, it was just a waiting game at this point. . . and that went over REALLY well with me, if you can image?  Historically, I've proven that I love to wait.  Nope, no serious action required.  Waiting is half the fun.  Like right now, I'm currently waiting for the day that I no longer have to work and can just watch Oprah.  I don't actually WANT that day to come - just like waiting for it. Are you catching my sarcasm?  Yeah. . . waiting was no bueno.

Anyway, we took a very pleasant and surprisingly short ride and hung out all afternoon, waiting for the McKeeths to show up.  We went to a nicer-than-planned dinner on  Main Street.  You know those times when you walk into what you think is a fairly casual dining environment in your sweatshirt and jeans, only to find out that a plate of pasta is about to cost you $20 and you are too embarrassed to leave because you are in a sweatshirt and have a desperate need to prove to these people that you, too, can afford this pasta you just normally "choose" not to indulge in.  Yeah, that's what we were feeling.  So. . . we ate the pasta and sadly, it was worth every penny.  I say sadly because it made us want to go back. . . bad.  I hate when that happens.

OK, back to the movie.  The next morning I got up and threw on, surprise, a sweatshirt and jeans.  At least I had the sense to straighten my hair.  Hollie says that if I would have walked out in a baseball cap, she would have taken immediate action and had me do something with my hair.  Thank goodness for good people in your life that have your back on really important matters. . . like your hair on what you think is just a normal day but will soon turn out to be magical.

Enter car troubles.  Trev's jeep wasn't running right so we spent the next hour hanging out in the parking lot of the hotel, watching the kids ride their scooters.  Good thing Trev and Jared are handy with the steal, if you know what I mean. . .  I mean that literally - like a steel pipe and tools, not a gun.  But thanks for the lyrics, Warren.  Jeep fixed.

We started up Poison Spider Mesa, a fairly "easy" trail that only requires that you Jeep be completely vertical in a few places.  Sidenote: have you ever been able to look out your front windshield and see the pavement. . . directly in front of said windshield?  If your answer is "yes" then either take my condolences for your car or my congratulations for getting out of Moab alive!  Wasn't expecting that.

We rode for a while and took pictures and had a swell time until we encountered a decent amount of snow on a fairly slick rock face.  Just our luck, Moab had received more snow this year than they had in the previous 20 (we learned that from the locals that were sitting next to us at the previous night's expensive dinner) which makes Jeeping a little more challenging.  Once we decided that we weren't going to get over this obstacles, we sat around and looked for another trail on the map.  OK, truth time again.  Hollie and Jared and Trev looked for another trail.  I was about as useful as a three-year-old helping with a term paper.  So I did what any adult would do. . . I walked around and kicked at the snow until they were finished.

Anyway, we started making our way back on the trail that we had just nearly conquered and decided to stop for lunch.  It's officially test time.  Did I pack the right meat, the right toppings, the right bread?  Would he eat the granola bars or the jerky or the fruit?  Only time would tell but I was ready for Trev's hungry stomach with an arsenal of deliciousness.  After all, we'd only had cereal for breakfast which only makes you fake full (cereal and Chinese food own that category) so I know that he was hungry 20 min after we left.  I was all prepared to make a meaty sandwich and sit on a rock with my cute bf and take in some sun.

I pulled out our little cooler and constructed what I thought was a pretty tasty treat.  As I turned to hand it to Trev with my proud mom look, he took the sandwich and said "Can I go sit with Hollie and Jared?"  Wah, waaaahhh.  "You aren't going to wait for me?  After I slaved for 2 min to make you a sandwich?  No kiss?  No Donna Reed moment?" I said to myself in total dismay.  He was still standing there, waiting for approval.  "Yup."  That's what I mustered.  "Yup."  Ah, the poetic justice of it all.  "Yup."  Off he went.

Now what?  A-ha!  Another sandwich.  He must have been disappointed because of the quantity.  Why wouldn't he be?  Look at all of this bread and meat and I made him one lousy sammy?  So I slap myself together a not-so-good sandwich and rush over to join the convo.  Just as Trev is polishing off his sammy (and not looking pleased), I chime in with "Want another one?!?"  "Nope.  Thanks."  That's it.  I'm never packing camping food again.

So, resigned to my non-cooking station, I stay and chat with Hollie as Trev makes his way back to the truck.  He emerges with his backpack, again not looking too happy.  This backpack has not left Trev's side the whole trip.  Oddly enough, I didn't even think to ask what was in it.  I just assumed some important Jeeping stuff that we needed.  I did try to stick bread in it this very morning and got a resounding "let's put it somewhere else" but oddly enough, I didn't think twice about it and just agreed.

At this point, Trevor is walking up to me and says that he has a present for me.  To answer your question, no, I didn't think anything of it.  We were two days away from Valentine's so I just assumed that he had a card or something that he wanted to give me early.  It was a book.  A homemade book.  And he asked me to read it aloud.

I started reading this stick figure story about two people (yeah, us, we're the people!) that cross paths (true) and meet up (also true) and start dating (see the pattern?  TRUE) and fall in love until one day. . . and this is where I let the pictures take over.

This is the part where I start saying "oh my gosh" repeatedly. . . hence the title.

This last picture makes me laugh because I stopped reading at the proposal.  Who can keep reading at a time like this?  Nobody, right?  Trev had to finish the part about living together forever and this being our beginning.

By the way, here is what I was shocked at:

Today we are married for four months and Trev was right, that was only our beginning.  It's been the craziest and best time of my life since that day in Moab, since we met really.  I couldn't have asked for more.  Trev's so smart. . . I'll never fight him on going to Moab for the rest of our lives.  After all, this is where our story begins. . . and who knows, I might get another ring!