Friday!!

Here I go again!...only nine to ten hours this time:) This Friday I leave to head to Virginia again...this time I am driving during the day time and I will be driving to Blacksburg first. I am leaving early Friday morning and getting into Blacksburg that evening then I will go see the boy I miss the most on Saturday and spent memorial day weekend with him.

Like mentioned previously this will be a new adventure. I am going to say with my Blacksburg people during the week and hang out with B on the weekends for about a month. After that we will see where I end up!;)...hopefully we will all still like each other..haha

Anyways the dogs are traveling with me this time, but the cats are staying in the STL until I make a permanent move...so I am going to miss them like crazy:(

What am I gonna miss the most...probably Gizmo!! My mom's dog. He is one of my favorites and he sleeps with me every night...he is one of those dogs that reacts to your feelings and comforts you. When you return home from a five minute trip its like you have been gone forever...he loves you to pieces!! Oh Gizmo, I love you! I will miss you terribly!! (that's him when he was a baby...he is bigger now)

I am so excited....and I know people are gonna miss me...as I will miss them! I truly appreciate those of you who have told me you will miss, but have acknowledged your happiness for me and told me to do it!! You can come visit;)

Anyways, I am not sure everyone is going to be ready for all the stuff I am bringing but oh well...I am really only bringing clothes, shoes, purses, computer, accessories, dogs....haha

Ok, I'll talk to you again from Virginia!!

Grandpa's Lake

So this weekend I spent at my Grandpa's lake condo. His condo is right on Beaver Lake in Rogers, AR...a magical place! Of course this was the first time I was there without him, seeing as he passed away in the fall. It was weird being there without him, but all of his things where still there so I felt his spirit. Also, I felt him telling me, "Alia, do you think we can get top dollar for this place if my old wallpaper is still up?" No, Grandpa I don't!! So what did I do....remove it of course, Grandpa's wishes;). Although, I truly don't think we will ever get top dollar for the place because we can't sell the laughter and joy that grandpa brought into this place with his love for our family!!

My Grandpa was a character....strong, full of wit and humor...yet down to earth and understanding. He fought in World War II...(flew the planes), was a journalist, and providing a great home for five children (and many animals)...he had many life experiences that I know we never knew of, but the one that I think abounds overall all others is through everything he still had a love of life, a love of family and friends, and his great sense of humor. Grandpa had his wit and sarcasm till the end!! I thank him the most for all these things:)............with much love and appreciation I miss him.

Grandpa--we will be there, all of us...critters included, this summer to celebrate you and your life! As a last tribute, to carry on your inspiring character and integrity!

Let Me Recap...

Lets rewind...I know that some of you are reading this and are like, "who is this person she keeps talking about." Okay so here is the story of how we met......

I was in a wedding on Halloween of last year (2009) in Blacksburg, VA. Lets just saying everything up until the actual wedding was chaotic because the bride was mainly doing a DIY wedding and she ended up in the ICU until 3 days before her wedding. So there was still a lot of stuff to get done...but if you know me you know I will do everything to ensure it gets done. Anyways, the bride's parents are like family to me so at the rehearsal dinner I was introduced to the best friend of the bride's mom, Seleta. Little did I know that the plotting had begun!:)

I was told pre-wedding that this guy was coming to the wedding and him and the bride April had a history....I had been given the role of dealing with him if he acted up at the wedding...but I still had no who he was. So apparently, the night of the rehearsal dinner or the next morning (I have gotten a billion different stories on how it went down) Seleta told her son, Brandon, that she met this girl who was a bridesmaid. Seleta says that she told him "she couldn't wait for him to meet me because he met his match." (I am still unaware of anything) At the wedding, Brandon was checking me out and says I had his attention when I danced back down the aisle after the wedding (Mind you we were supposed to...its just no one else did!)

Okay so the reception. I went over to the table to talk to the bride's mom and there was this guy sitting next to her....and she introduced me and said, "Alia, this is Brandon and I saved him a dance with you." I was like ok whatever...I mean you know I will be on the dance floor the entire night...so ok. Once again I didn't think anything of it! I knew my role was to dance and keep the party going (the bride and groom told me this was my job).

The first song, Brandon was out on the dance floor to dance with me and I almost turned him down because he wouldn't put his drink down to dance with me. Luckily he changed his mind and abandoned the drink;). Basically, we danced the whole night and finally at one point he said, "do you want to meet my mom?" I said ya...guess who his mom was...Seleta!! So this was the bride's mom's best friend's son and the guy I was supposed to keep in-line if he acted up....WHAT?! Crazy!

Anyways, we spent the rest of the evening into the morning getting to know each other better. Brandon lives in Virginia, as you have gathered, and I am in the STL...but some how we just kept talking and now it has developed into something bigger than I think either of us could have imagined:). Who knew...crazy!

As Seleta says, "It took them no time to connect and after that they never separated."

In refection on this story, I must say I think it is crazy, yet fitting, and I wouldn't trade it for the world:)

Did I get all the details right B? I miss you!

Wedding No No's

Okay, so like mentioned previously I was driving to Virginia to attend a wedding with my B on Saturday night. Well first of all I made it, for those of you who were worried:). I drove the whole way with only two stops...it took about 12.5 hours. I left the STL at 9:30pm and I arrived in Richmond at 11am the next day. Lets just say it wasn't exactly a fun time, but I did it and B talked to me on the phone for about 4 hours of the trip.

Back to this wedding! First of all, the wedding was about an hour and a half away from Richmond on a military base. Which means that you had to follow all these procedures to get onto the base. When we arrived the wedding was behind schedule because the DJ had not arrived. Finally, he arrived, and the wedding could start, but none of his equipment worked so the audience did not hear any of the wedding ceremony. To add to this, the wedding party stood in a gazebo that was much higher than the audience. Not only were we unable to hear the ceremony the majority of us couldn't see a thing either.



Then to the reception........well we got lost a couple times finding the reception site because it was on an entirely different military base. When we got there, guess who was behind, the DJ! Yep, he still was trying to get his music set up and the wedding party was having to sit in the lobby waiting on the music to make their big entrance. As an added bonus, the reception ended at 9pm. I have never been to a wedding reception that was in the evening and had dancing that ended so early....oh well.


All I have to say is, weddings are crazy!!!....keep it simple and I am sure it would flow a lot smoother:)


But, all in all, we still had fun!;) We danced and danced and danced. When B wasn't around to dance with me, which was almost never, I had to find other dance partners. I got his dad to dance with me to the Cha cha slide...very fun!


By the way, B and I wore matching attire:).....I am leaving Richmond and driving back to the STL on Thursday:(.