the proposal

thursday started out like any other day for me! i got to take my sweet time getting ready for work because i didn't start until 10:45 that day i believe. it was nice to just dilly dally as i got ready for work. tom and i were talking on the phone that morning and i asked him what he had planned to do and he told me his "ho-hum" list.. laundry, errands, and other such things. little did i know that he had much bigger to-do's on his list!!! one being talking to my dad, asking for his blessing in our marriage, and the other ... drum roll... popping the question.

tom had to know that i would say yes. for heaven sakes, we had already registered at target and bed bath and beyond - just because we knew the time we would have together when he would be home from fresno would be limited, and why not do something so fun as to register!!? so anyway, whenever i close at wells fargo tom usually arrives at the bank around 5:59 just to hang out a bit before i'm able to skedaddle out of there. he never showed up!! i called him when i was on my way home and he said that he got caught running errands and he would be a little late getting to my house, but he would try to be there at 6:30. little did i know that he had to drive to stockton to my dad's work to talk to him! my dad usually leaves my house for work at 4:15 pm. he works from 5pm - 5am. tom had picked up the ring earlier that morning and was bound and determined to propose that night! when tom got to my house at 3:30 my mom told him that my dad had a meeting and had left about 10 minutes before. not knowing how else to ask my dad, he drove up to stockton to talk to him.

i really want tom to type how the people at the main gate wouldn't let him through because he didn't have the "pass code" and how he paced back and forth in front of the door that you need a key to get into - knowing full well that people were watching him, and probably laughing at him.. waiting for my dad to take mercy on him and let him in. i want tom to write about how my dad took him into an empty conference room and suggested they both take a seat. cute cute cute. i love details, but that is basically what i know of what happened when i was oblivious to what was happening while i was at work.

so i got home around 6:10 and decided to shower since tom was taking so long to get to my house. honestly, i was a little frustrated that he had decided to use his free day doing nothing, and now that i was free and we could finally hang out and play he was doing errands. i was slightly bothered, but practiced patience and didn't let it bother me too much. tom FINALLY got to my house and we hugged and i noticed right off that something wasn't normal. tom was acting very ... stand-off-ish. normally when he's at my house, or i'm at his we hang out together, sit together, walk around together - you know, like.. be together!! haha... but tonight i was in the kitchen with him, and he'd walk to the parlour. i'd ask where he was going and he wouldn't say anything. so i went in the parlour to be with him and he was playing with my ipod finding romatical songs that we love. he found our favorite and we started dancing. i didn't think this was too odd cause we do that kinda often. the song ended, we hugged and kissed, and then he walked out into the kitchen again. i thought that was weird. and so i went into the kitchen to be with him and he walked to the office. i let him have his space cause i really didn't know what to think. i called down the hall asking him if he was okay and he didn't answer so i walked down the hall to the office, asked what he was doing, and he was just sitting in the computer chair. not doing anything. i knew something was wrong, i just didn't know what!!

so this continued on for about 45 minutes and i was going ca-razy! i suggested we start making dinner - chicken alfredo. it was delish by the way. he and i are in the kitchen and again he walks to the parlour. alone. arr! i was getting so confused wondering why he kept wanting to be alone!!! poor guy was just so stressin out!! hahahaha. the phone rang and it was my sister kelly. i talked to her until call-waiting beeped and it was my sister jenn. i talked to her for a bit and decided to go into the parlour to be with tom. he was sitting in the rocking chair by the window and i sat down on the love seat. i invited him to come sit by me and i would scratch his back - something that he loves! i finally got off the phone with jenn and i asked tom what was wrong because his face was hot, red, and sweaty. he just told me that he had a lot on his mind and he had a headache. i suggested we go in the kitchen and check on dinner and he thought that was a good idea. we stood up, were holding hands, and i started walking out.. but he didn't. so i turned around to see why he wasn't walking with me, and he looked at me, got down on one knee, pulled the ring out of his pocket, and very simply and perfectly asked, "Brittany, will you marry me?"

As soon as he got down on one knee my hands went to my mouth and he said he heard me mumble, "oh my world. oh my world." i really couldn't think or believe that it was happening so naturally, as if it was something that we do all the time! just walking out of the parlour, holding hands, nothing different than any other day or night we do that.. and BAM! down on one knee! busting out a sparkly lovely thing, and popping the question. I just hugged him to me. Since he was on his knee, his head was against my tummy and he pulled away and looked up and said, "Britt. You didn't answer me!" I just looked down at him and said "Of course I'll marry you!!!!" So he got up, moved my CTR ring from my left hand to my right, and slid on the sparkly lovely onto my ring finger. it fit perfect-ly. it is absolutely dreamy and elegant and perfect and perfect!! we hugged, kissed (only once... ha! ;)) and hugged a lot more. I couldn't help but scream out a little "EEEEEEEEE!!!!!" and he laughed. He picked me up, twirled me, and we hugged again. It was happy lovely.

I am happier than I have ever been. I am more in love than I ever thought possible. I love him more and more everyday than I thought I could the day before. I really never thought love like this existed. The kind that makes you smile to yourself when you think about him. The kind that makes you giddy when you know you get to see them soon. I feel like me, but so much better. I am happier and more patient. I am excited and ready to take on the happy days and the challenging ones. I no longer watch movies or read books with a sense of longing for what they portray of love there. I've got my own story now, and it's better than Hollywood could pay people to do.

Yay for January 8, 2010!!!

playin catch up.

So this blog post is a catch up from my week of PTO. On July 22 Tom and I headed up to the mountains. We went to Calavaras Big Trees, one of California's State Parks that will be closing - or so I heard. It's definately something you need to go and see at least once in your lifetime. This day was only a small baby one in comparison to the massively long ones we had when going to San Francisco and Monterey/Santa Cruz. It's a really neat thing to see - such massive tree's that grow from such a small seed!!

Tom and I woke up that mornin and headed up there. We stopped at Subway in Arnold and shared a 5 dollar footlong sandwich. It was pretty tastey!! We then headed out on the trail to get up close and personal with those humungus trees. This is a picture of one of us with a little Redwood Tree. And by little I mean not little.

Here's just another picture of us in front of a huge tree that they cut down. Actually the stump of this particualar tree it was used as a dance floor back in the day. There are about 10 steps you have to walk up to get on it, and it's about 24 feet in diameter. I read on a website that by counting the rings in the trees they determined that the age of the tree was 1244 years old when it was chopped down. CRAZY! That's a pretty dang old tree!! This pic is of a bit of the trunk that is still there on display. Tender. haha.

After Calavaras big trees we drove to my house, hung out for a little bit, and then drove to Tom's where I spent the night because the next mornin we (his mama, papa, tom, and i) drove to Utah for Tom's brother's wedding!! We left on Thursday early early in the morning. I think we got on the road right at 5 am. I wasn't awake for long, hense the reason I'm not certain of the time. On the way there Tom and I slept, talked, laughed, slept, watched 24 on his laptop, talked, laughed, slept, ate, talked, slept, and talked some more. We were laughin lots and we decided and discovered a total truth. We love each other more than anyone has ever loved anyone else in the entire world - EVER. It's true.. so all you readers, if you think you love the person you're with a lot... Tom and I have got you beat. hahaha - okay, maybe not true to any of you, but to Tom and I it's totally true. haha
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So we got to Utah, I met Tom's brother Timothy, and we all got together as family ---eee!! I can say I'm part of the family! Cause I am! ..well, almost!!--- and we ate subway for dinner. It was so delish cause we were STARVIN MARVINS!! We then went back to Timothy's apartment and started the last minute plannin/details of the weddin!! Tom and I got to have a "afternoon out on the town" and we went to Taco Bell for a much needed break away from crowds. haha.. funny story about that Taco Bell that I won't write on here. But Tom sure takes care of me, and he endeared himself to me FOREVER because of his thoughtfulness, and the unawkwardness of the situation. Thank you Tom.

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The wedding day was beautiful and hot. Clear clear blue skies, but hot hot sun. Note to self: no summer weddings. Boo!! I hate hot. I get ornery in the hot. Really really ornery... and in a bad mood mostly. It was so good to be there for Timothy and Shanna's big day!! Yay for weddings for in love people!

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I was struck again by the beauty of the Salt Lake Temple. That was the first time I was there and actually had time to walk slowly around and pay attention to the detail. While Tom and the rest of the family were inside the temple for the wedding I walked around with Tom's niece and nephew and got to play on the grass and run around and get some wiggles out. Despite from being outside and playing around - quietly of course - my thoughts were with Tom inside the temple. I can't wait for our chance to promise to love each other forever and to have our love sealed for time and for eternity. That night we got to go out - just the two of us - and talk about our dreams and plans for the future. We went to the mall and window shopped. It was a lot of fun. We walked into some sparkley stores that made me smile really big - and made Tom a little nervous.. eeeeee. hahaha... good times. exciting times.

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The next day the four of us treked on homeward. Again Tom and I slept and talked and laughed and slept and talked. Tom is truly my bestest buddy. Love his face! We also watched 24, saving the last two episodes of season one for when we were home at my house. I hate that I love that 24 show. It makes unneccessary addicts out of totally uneffected humans like me. And I love Jack Bauer. And I hate Nina Myers. and I love Senator Palmer, but I hate his wife. and Mean people are so mean!!

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I loved this trip to Utah with Tom and his family. It showed me again and again how much I love Tom and many reasons why I never want to live without him. He's so kind and gentle and thoughtful. The trip was a blast. I loved it, loved the company, and love Tom!

i miss him already

if you don't want mushy, stop reading this post now, cause this blog tonight is all about that boy i call tom. tonight is the first night where he is officially living in fresno. it's a sad night indeed. normally on sunday nights we eat dinner, dessert, play games, watch a couple of recorded ti-vo shows, lay on the trampoline and star gaze, tell stories about the past, talk about what's going on now, and our dreams of the future. normally we will hang out with cortney and jacen, my family, or my grandparents and laugh and play games.

so that boy i know has officially moved to fresno. i'm having a harder time of it than i thought i would. i am comforted by the knowledge that he is only about an hour and a half away.. however, it makes me so sad to know that because of the awkward distance, i can't just go visit him for a couple of hours on my day off. it's a little bit too far away for that. as i was gearing up for him leaving i started to really think about things that i admire about tom; trying to take advantage of him while he was here and not having the common "wish i would have realized sooner" kind of regrets. here are some things about tom that i can tell ya right now that i'm going to miss.

i'm going to miss just being with him. simple, everyday errands that we run, our long chit chats, or chat chits as we call them.. :) i am going to miss running up to him when we finally get together and feeling his arms wrap around me as we hug. i am going to miss the safe and secure feeling i get when i know he's there. i feel so comfortable and happy with tom. i'm really going to miss his little face.



i am also going to miss tom's "man"ness. tom and i have talked about the gun laws, politics, gender issues, sports, religion, family, and countless other topics. i have commented to him multiple times how "manly" is opinions are. he makes me laugh so hard at some of his views; and some of them are pretty strong! i love that he really cares about things going on in our world. i love that he isn't a wimp about his ideals. i love that he is taller than me with my tallest high heels, i love that his arm muscles slighty flex unconsciously when i touch them. i love watching him with his determined look on his face. he's got a plan, and he's going for it. i love playing sports with him - soccer and bowling are the only one's so far, but many more to come i'm sure. i love that he wanted to pick me up and twirl me around in his arms but waited til i felt more comfortable.

this picture is of when tom and his brother in law aaron came out to the ranch to help us get rid of some squirrels. now he may not ever be an "annie oakley" but as i understand it, he had 6 shots and a death toll of 5. way to go babe! haha. i feel a tad bit redneck by saying that, but i'm proud!!

i am going to miss his kisses. simple sentence, lots to feeling to it. tom sets my heart in motion when he kisses me. my cheek, hand, nose, or lips - doesn't matter. my heart goes racing and it makes me realize why our faces have lips. to kiss. enough said.. i'm going to miss those kisses.

tom is so goofy. i am going to miss his random happy quirkiness. he makes me laugh harder than anyone in the whole world. he has such a crazy imagination and it always makes for interesting moments. we could be playing cards, walking around, driving around, sitting around, whatever.. and suddenly he'll just pop off with some goofy comment. and sometimes he speaks in a scary man voice to top it off. its just so funny. now here are just a few of some silly little things that we say back and forth that i will miss...

~how embarrassing.

~okay! have a nice life!!

~ (the famous) wah wah!

~ ow my entire life!!

~ Get in the dirt!!!

~bits of glass muffin.. mf mf owww!

~ jack bauer from 24 moments

like i said at the beginning, i'm so glad fresno is only two hours away, but i'm sad it's so far away. so lame!! adding up all of these things and more that i'm not mentioning i guess its easiest to combine everything into a couple ending sentences. i am going to miss my partner in crime, my star gazing pal, my secrets saver, the one i feel the safest with, my adventure-going buddy and my dream maker. i'm going to miss my best friend, that boy i call tom.