What a year it has been!
Here's a simple blog with our year, in pictures!
Brandon asked me to be his girlfriend (aw) the day he left for his first deployment, in the unit he is in now. Luckily, his deployments are only three months at a time, so they aren't too bad! My parents had never met him before so when I came home crying the night he left, Mom-cared, Dad-simply took note and gave me a hug. Through out the deployment he sent me a couple gifts...flowers(!) which he contacted mom to have them delivered at a time I was home. Next, was a package that had arrived while I was gone for a week with Big Stuff with the youth group at church. Talk about a long 8 hour ride back from PCB! I was so anxious knowing there was a package at home waiting for me! It was a build a bear that he had built for me :) We named him Miami Monkey.
This is a little collage of us celebrating his return from deployment. Me, him, and a bunch of friends headed to Nashville that day for a day of fun on the lake and going out for the evening! What a FUN trip! We had the best time and made some great memories with some awesome friends!
Virgina Beach was a marker for me. Flew there to meet his family! I flew there, BY MYSELF! I'm your not-so-average Tennessee sheltered girl that doesn't get out and do too much. I've only flown twice before, so flying by myself-eeek! Brandon left that Thursday and drove down there, and I flew in Friday night. Got to meet his family, go to the BEACH, and have a cookout with his family! It was such a fun, fast trip!
We left EARLY Sunday morning and we were off for a TWELVE HOUR road trip back to Clarksville! Our first road trip. It was fun and fast! Fast? Um, yeah...I never knew twelve hours could go by so fast, really! We had such a blast that when I saw Nashville, I was kind of in shock. Couldn't believe it went by so fast. I would like to say I am a great road trip buddy, as I had plenty of things lined up for us to do on the way home! I had the iPod's charged and ready to go, coloring book and crayons, a bag of Jelly Beans so we could play 'Name that Jelly Bean' which was harder then it sounds and Madlibs! Which is our new vacation, long drive companion.
Here's a big collage I made of our trip to Miami. What a FUN trip it was AND I got to spend my birthday there!!! Which, is the most important day of the year! Turned the big 22 in Miami. What an experience it was, my first big trip without mom and dad. Luckily, we made it there and back home safely with tons of good memories.
Here is a fun collage of us in our Miami hotel, just playing around with the webcam. Oh...the things that entertain us :)
Brandon and my brother threw me an AWESOME birthday party when we got back from Miami! It was SO fun! They did a Mardi-Gras Birthday theme and invited all of our closets friends! Everyone got to dress up and some even made their own masks! Such a fun party and I will never forget it! (Excuse his naked-ness.)
Halloween was last minute for us but we still came up with some pretty cool costumes. Brandon was a nerd, wasn't too hard for him though. I was a robber! Wore all black and did my make up all black. Since Halloween was on a Sunday we spent the night at my parents passing out candy and carving punkins! We had a contest, I think I won, mine was the cutest!
In November I had my big surgery. I had three cysts removed and got stuck with a wound vac. NOT fun. I was pretty much helpless the first week. I don't know what I would have done without Brandon by myself. He set the clocks and gave me my medicine, waited on my hand and foot and pretty much spoiled me rotten. My mom and dad saw it all with their own eyes. That for my dad was the turn around point. He already knew he really liked Brandon, but I guess for my dad to see how much he really cared about his 'baby' was the eye opener. He was the best nurse. It's nice to know that since my condition isn't going anywhere anytime soon...that I have someone that will always be there!
Here we are goofing around again with the webcam. Fun times :)
Unfortunately Brandon was deployed three weeks before Christmas so we had to cram everything in before he left. We got the tree put up, gingerbread house decorated, family christmas taken care of, and a trip from Brandon's mom! It was such a great month, even if it didn only last seven days!
New years and Valentines Day was spent alone, but that's how the military life goes. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and it makes the time we get together so much more special!
Now that Brandon's home we are engaged! I finally got the scoop on the ring. It was in my mom's closet for a month in a half before he got home. He ordered it offline. He specifically picked out the diamond. He was able to see it and spin it and look at each line in the diamond and see how the lights bounce off of it. Pretty great fiance I got there. He did all of this while in Afghanistan. It's funny because when we would talk on the phone I could tell he was distracted...so I'd be like (BRAT STATUS) "REALLY BRANDON?! It's bad enough you aren't here can you atleast get off the computer and talk to me and pay attention to me!"
The whole time he was ring shopping...hehe.
This was right after he proposed :)
This is right after Brandon got home. Once everything got settled and we were back in the swing of things we went out to catch up with some friends! We had such a fun time seeing everyone!
A month ago we got our engagment pictures done. They are better then I thought they would be. I'm so thankful that we will have these to look at forever! Here is a collage of some of them I made.
This brings me to now. Planning the day that we will remember for the rest of our lives and starting to build our home together. I tell Brandon all the time that I'm so thankful and blessed that he's the one God hand picked for me to be with the rest of my life. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the rest of our lives together. So far, he is spoiling us both rotten!
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