2009 Wrap Up

I like to look over the past year and reflect on what went well and what didn't. Usually I just focus on the goods parts, but this year wasn't the greatest. The ups and downs make up the whole year... so here we go.

January - let's review the goals I had a year ago at this time. I was starting my 5th year at Thompson Hine but getting bored with work. I was thinking about getting training for another career and all I needed to do was find a school online (or near Dayton) that had classes on meteorology or surveying. (Yes, seriously.) I was also hoping that we'd get pregnant this year and that Jason's cabin in eastern Kentucky would sell after being on the market for over a year. Little did we have any idea of what this year would bring. (Quick answer - none of the above.)

February - we celebrated a low-budget Valentines day with dinner and cards. Jason somehow surprised me with flowers he bought at Krogers the night before and then delivered to my building on his way to work. A week later my law firm had layoffs and several of my friends lost their jobs. I was grateful about still having a job but it scared us pretty good - how could we make 2 mortgage payments and 2 car payments on Jason's salary. I suddenly appreciated my job a lot more.

March - Jason and I went to Gatlinburg to celebrate being married a year. (We won't technically have an anniversary until 2/29/2012.) We found a great cabin at the top of a mountain with complete privacy, wood-burning fireplace and hot tub. And then we got snowed in. :)

April - not much happened in April. We helped with our church's huge Easter egg hunt and I was in the Easter choir. I also went to the Dayton tea party downtown - I just stayed late after work. It was cold and I just wanted to go home. It was great to see so many people in Dayton who want change, but so many seemed angry (at people who weren't there) and some of the children holding up signs kinda bothered me. Freedom of speech and all that. I worry about future generations for so many different reasons.

May - this is when our lives turned upside down. Our house was broken into May 20th and my laptop (along with many pictures) was stolen, Jason's ipod touch was stolen, and all of my gold jewelry, including a lot of my grandmother's jewelry, was stolen. I'm heartbroken and try not to focus too much on the loss. It's just stuff I guess.

A week later Jason and I were at church and I was questioning why God lets bad things happen to people who try to help other people. (I'm still wondering about this.) I asked God for some direction, some answers to prayer, and I just felt like God was telling me that we're moving to Olive Hill, KY (where Jason is from) and we're going for the people there. I wasn't sure I heard right and didn't say anything to Jason. But then later that evening Jason said he felt like God was telling him that we needed to move back to Olive Hill. We decided to pray on it and make sure we had heard right.

June - a friend of mine, Jenni, won tickets to the Art Ball at the Dayton Art Institute ($300 tickets) and asked me to be her date. I happily said yes. We had a wonderful time sampling incredible food, wines, and dancing the night away. I so wish that we had the money that I could take Jason next year. Maybe someday - but I have a feeling that Jimmy Buffet tickets would take priority. :) By the end of the month we knew that the move to Kentucky was a "when" and not an "if." We just wondered about the timing.

July - I had started running in June and had my eye on running the Air Force Marathon 5k. I surprised myself from going from barely being to run for 60 seconds to running for 8 minutes straight within 6 weeks. On my birthday I wore strappy sandals with a heel when it was raining. I ended up with a high ankle sprain and was on crutches for about a week. I couldn't run for 6-8 weeks and really struggled to get back on track with running. I'm still hoping to run a 5k in 2010.

August - we traded in Jason's boat of a car (Crown Victoria) and got a used Ford Escape. We love it! The next day we took it down to Riverbend (Cincinnati) to see Jimmy Buffet. We figured out it has a little quirk of locking the doors when you haven't hit any buttons (it's happened 3 times now) and ended up locked out of the car. Our experience with Riverbend security was horrible and I'm still not sure we'll go back there next year. (They won't let AAA into their parking lot and they treat you like a drunk even when you're not.) Keep in mind I was still wearing a brace on my ankle and wasn't in the best mood at 12:30 am while we were still waiting for someone to let us into the Escape. Anyway...

September - this was the month we were putting the house on the market. We fixed pipes, we repairs cracks and chips, we scraped and repainted, we cleaned and decluttered and put almost half our stuff in storage. Friends took in Jason's two kitties (boys that were just over 2 years old) and Dad and Claire took my big fluffy kitty, Kinzie. We had the carpets cleaned and finally had our first Open House. And... nothing. Jason was hopeful about getting his old job back working for the state (commonwealth) of Kentucky. It looked like he would but then... nothing. The "when" of the move was still up in the air.

October - my favorite time of the year with the cooler temperatures and the leaves changing colors... and Halloween. :) Few people were coming to look at the house, so we decided to bring the kitties back home. There was a bit of readjusting to be done with the cats getting used to each other again and so much of the furniture missing. We were very happy to have the fuzzies back along with all the fluff and chaos.

We decided to go "goth" for Halloween. It was the first year that we didn't have to plan our costumes around events involving children. So we decided to do something a little on the scary side - something that wasn't us. It was fun and we shocked a few people - but isn't that the point? :)

November - I went to Honduras for the 4th time. It was definitely the best trip I've been on - because it wasn't as hot as the summer months when I've gone in the past, and also because I got to really connect with the people there. I really want to work on my Spanish so that I can talk with them a little better next year. Several weeks later we went to Columbus for Thanksgiving. Dinner was at my step-sister's, Stacy's, house. My dad, step-mom - Claire, Amy - my other step-sister, and my step-mom's parents - Grandma Doris and Grandpa Bob, along with some of Stacy and Neal's friends had dinner together. It was a great time of getting together with family.

December - a very eventful month! Jason and I finished a cake decorating class and plan on taking the next course in January. I knew I wouldn't get a bonus this year and it was doubtful that I would get a raise. And then we found out that Jason would be laid off in January. So we decided to do no more Christmas shopping (we had already purchased gifts throughout the year). At first I was upset but the season turned out to be a lot less stressful. Though we're hoping we have the opportunity to splurge on the ones we love next year.

We started off the Christmas season with the holiday home tour of the historic South Park neighborhood. It was a chilly day but the homes were warm and welcoming. I also took a balloon animal (and other such sculptures) so I could be a clown at the Vineyard's annual Christmas party. We serve a sit-down dinner to 1400 people and give gifts to over 800 kids. Jason was one of the servers and this year I put on some festive clothes and Sparkle (the head clown of our group) do my makeup. I ended up twisting balloons for over 4 hours and loved every minute of it. I'm looking forward to learning more about ballooning, and clowning too I guess. :)

Our choir at church (the Dayton campus of the Dayton Vineyard) decided to do a cantata-style performance this year. We had books with 3 parts (soprano, alto and men), CD's with our parts, and a choir director. After two months of practicing we had one performance, and it was awesome. Christmas eve I had the privilege of singing harmony for the worship team. Christmas songs have to be my favorite songs to sing harmony too. What a treat! After the 7pm communion & candle-light service we headed to Olive Hill to spend the rest of the holiday season with Jason's family.

It was a busy but great Christmas season. We are so loved by our family and friends and we are so blessed to have so many positive, up-lifting people in our lives. We had one last blessing - a few days ago I got an email stating that there would be bonuses and raises after all. We trust that God will truly provide for us in 2010, no matter where we live or where we work.

One last thing. We get asked so often - what about the move? It will still happen, we're just not sure when. Our house is still on the market, and Jason is still looking for jobs in eastern Kentucky. When he gets a job, he'll move to his cabin and I'll stay in Dayton until the house sells. If the house sells, we'll go ahead and move. But with the housing market and job market being what it is, it doesn't look like the move will happen anytime soon. Ultimately though we keep in mind that God is in control of this and when he wants us to move, the timing will be perfect and everything will happen right as it should. I'll definitely keep you informed when it finally starts to happen. :)

Thinking about the week in Honduras...

What an amazing trip! I’m sitting here in the airport in San Pedro Sula waiting for our flight and reflecting on everything that’s happened this past week. I thought I’d start blogging while everything is fresh in my mind. I didn’t journal this year as I usually do. My down-loading each evening was done in the form of chatting with Jason.

Definitely the most amazing trip I’ve been part of. I don't even know where to start, so I thought I'd just do a quick overview and then I'll tell some stories of things that happened this past week. If I miss anything, I'll just do another blog.

At the beginning of the week we didn’t have any large projects to do, just screening windows and showing the Jesus film. Most of our emphasis was to reach out to the people there to help them, show them God’s love, and pray for them. We wanted to interact with people outside the church as we built screen frames for their windows, and we were going to invite them to a fiesta which included dinner and the Jesus film. We thought we may also try a few other outreaches, whatever might come up.

There was one change. When we got to El Quebracho, Pastor Roberto asked if we could show the Jesus film in El Rosario, a village nearby. This required some change of plans, but we're flexible. Gregg, who was in charge of our outreaches, also wanted to go to a squatters village near Comayagua.

So here's how things went down this past week.

Saturday - left Dayton at 5:55 am and arrived in San Pedro Sula at noon (Central time). Went to a nearby mall for lunch (I had Wendy's), then drove to Canchias. We were the only team there and many of the students were gone on break. (Graduation is next weekend.) After dinner and orientation, we headed up, up, up to our cabins. (First time I haven't stay in Casa de Esther.)

Sunday - due to a the path being flooded, we were unable to go up to Ambassador Mountain for devotions. We went to the back patio, which has an incredible view, and started with a couple of songs. We had a great time of sharing and prayer, and then Amy, the Heart to Honduras staff person who was with us all week, shared the background and vision of Heart to Honduras. Around that time it started to rain, so our village tour was done by truck as we headed to Comayagua. We got to the hotel we like to stay at, the Hotel Santa Maria, and checked in. After quick showers and dinner, we headed to El Quebracho for church. It was so wonderful to see everyone again!

Monday - started our screening projects. We all went to the first house together and took measurements and then went back to the church to cut the wood and start putting the screens together. Then we broke into 3 groups. Two groups went out to get measurements and then would install the screen doors and windows after they were done. The third group, which I was part of, built the doors and windows.

My part was stapling the wood together and then putting the two layers of screens on (one layer is regular screen and then a heavier layer with bigger holes it put over it). Then we added firring strips over the edges. I believe we got 5 doors and a couple windows done the first day.

(lunch under the orchard trees behind Pastor's house)

Monday night after dinner we went to the beautiful cathedral square. It started to rain, so we headed for a cafe where we got pastries or ice cream. We didn't get many pictures of the square, but we had a great time hanging out in the cafe waiting for the rain to stop.

Around 1:30 am I started having bad stomach pains. Around 3:30 am I (finally) got sick and was able to fall back asleep. I woke up Tuesday morning still feeling queasy but went to breakfast and devotions anyway. I was determined to go to El Quebracho with the team, but alas, I got sick again and ended up in bed all day. I wasn't able to keep anything down until that evening. So I also missed the church service that evening. Thankfully by the following morning I was feeling a lot better and was able to go out with the team again.

Tuesday - the day I missed, they did more screen doors and windows. They went to El Rosario to pass out cold bottles of water and pass out fliers about the fiesta. They met a man named Eddy who had been in a car accident and had a bad scar across his neck. It seemed he was lucky to be alive. They prayed for him and invited him to the fiesta. That evening they went to church and Ana was there with her three kids. (This was the only time she made it to El Quebracho, so unfortunately I missed seeing her this year.)

Wednesday - we stopped at a grocery store on the way to the village to pick up some bottles of water and ice. I went inside to see a Honduras grocery store and you know, it looked just like an IGA except there was a guard with a gun outside. (Heh, I got him to smile for my picture.)
Then more screen doors & windows. This time, however, some guys from the village were working on putting the doors & windows together. It was great to see the pastor's two sons working on them too.
While they were working on installing the doors and windows, I walked around to the tiendas (stores) in the village with Gregg, Kevin and Ever to get snacks for the outreach.
After lunch we loaded into the bus with six guys from the village and headed to a squatters village down the road. It was a large field where people had taken whatever materials they could find to piece together homes. Zelaya, the president that was removed, gave these people the land even though it wasn't his to give to them. We started walking around and many people came out to us. We gave them bottles of water and the small bags of chips we had and then prayed for people. While we were praying for one family, the wind blew a large piece of their roof off the house. So much of what I have seems frivolous after seeing what little they were surviving on.

That evening we went to church and Chris took the youth outside and Ever translated for him. Then men also met outside with Luis translating for them. And the women met inside with Michelle speaking and Amy translating. It was a great evening with a lot of prayer and encouragement. When we're there it no longer feels like "us" and "them." It's all of us being a church, being family.

Thursday - the day of the fiesta! In the morning we started the day by finishing up the screen doors and windows. A group, including Kevin, Gregg and Michelle, went to the store to get groceries for dinner for the fiesta.

We went to Pastor's house for lunch and discovered that the ladies are hung decorations for Kathy's 60th birthday. After we ate they came out with a cake and sang several birthday songs for Kathy. Afterwards there was a pinata which Kathy did a great job beating until the candy came out. So much fun & laughter!

While this was going on, the ladies from the church had already started cooking the chicken for dinner. After the birthday celebration the men left to start packing the truck and setting up for the fiesta. The women stayed at the house and chopped vegetables for hours. Then everything started going in the big pot and as the food was ready, we had an assembly line that would put the food on the plate with a fork and two tortillas and then wrap it in Saran Wrap. We did 300 dinners this way.
The men went to El Rosario early to get things set up and all of us ladies who worked on dinner road in the bus over together. At 7pm the people from the Quebracho church started handing out dinners to the people waiting to watch the movie. We passed out cups of water after they got their dinners.
Then we started the Jesus movie, en espanol. (This would be the one put out by Campus Crusade, not the Passion movie.) After the movie Gregg got up and explained how everyone can have Jesus living in their hearts and led a prayer asking Jesus to come into their lives. Then 50 people stood up to say they had prayed the prayer. Afterwards we prayed for people and started packing everything up. It was a long day, but so exciting.

Friday - Pastor Roberto, Olga, and their two sons, Levi and Limber, joined us for breakfast and devotions.

Then we headed to see the new camp that Heart to Honduras is building. Due to the presidential problems, many teams canceled their trips this summer. This has created some financial problems for them, however this freed up a lot of the staff people to work on the construction at the camp. In June there was one building, and now there are 4 buildings, a gymnasium, and a soccer field that's halfway done. It's amazing!

We went to Power Chicken for lunch and then went shopping at the mercado. I got some souvenirs, Christmas gifts, and some cigars for Jason. Then we went to Casa El Meson bed & breakfast for the night. (The women stayed in one room in a building behind the house and the guys stayed in rooms in the front of the house.)

Saturday - our last day in Honduras. We had Gary flying back to Louisiana, and Michelle was flying into Columbus, but all of us were leaving around 1pm so things worked out well. All our flights were on time and we made it home by 9pm that evening.

We had such a great group of people and did a lot of laughing. The staff people that Heart to Honduras provided were great and really got involved with our group. We were able to make connections with the people of the church and also others in the villages of El Quebracho, El Rosario and the squatters village. But most importantly, we got to see the people of the church there doing what we do at our church in Dayton. They're reaching out to the people around them, and "showing God's love in a practical way."

Gregg told us about a book he read where it said that the gospel could be summed up in four phrases: 1) Jesus did it, the disciples watched. 2) Jesus did it, the disciples helped. 3) The disciples did it, Jesus helped. 4) The disciples did it, Jesus left. In the same way, we came to El Quebracho, showed the people there what had been taught to us. We did it, they watched (the first year). We did it, they helped (the last few years). They did it, we helped (this year). And now we're gone and they'll continue what was started.

Once again I left my heart down there. I miss them as always. They are an extended family and I look forward to seeing them again. They have picked up some English from us and we've picked up more Spanish from them. The best part was hugging them and hearing Olga say "I love you" and me hugging the women I spent hours with on Thursday telling them "mi hermana." (My sister.) Our hearts are knit together and we are truly sister churches.

More pictures can be found here... http://quebracho.shutterfly.com

Our story - part 5

My apologies for this being long overdue. We've been working on the house getting it ready to be put on the market. The obvious questions are "where are you moving?" and "why?" These are the answers I'm trying to answer by telling our story. So please be patient while I get through the whole story. (My stories are never short.) Also, if you're wondering "when?" we don't have this answer yet. Maybe by the end of the telling of this story that answer will be known.

So Jason and I started dating May of 2007. It was a long distance relationship but we made the effort of seeing each other every weekend. After a few months it was Jason who usually made the 3 hour trip to Dayton, but I did try to get out to Olive Hill at least once a month.

By this time I knew I really liked Jason's personality and I enjoyed spending time with him, but I had reservations. First, he was way too good to be true. I had dated guys like this in the past and they used lies to convince me they were something they were not. So I was always on the alert to catch Jason in a lie - because I assumed he was one of those guys.

Another thing that bothered me was that he always had to hold my hand, have his arm around me, or be sitting right next to me. I'm not a touchy-feely person and was afraid that Jason was the clingy type.

These things bothered me but was it enough to end things with him? No. I figured I'd keep going forward and see if things got better or worse. But honestly I really wasn't optimistic about the relationship. In the back of my head I kept thinking that what I expected would happen and the relationship would end.

I remember one phone call where I freaked out on him and tried to break up with him over the phone. He actually refused to let me end it that way. He wouldn't let me dump him. We laugh about it now, but obviously his refusal worked and I listened to him. (Guys - this won't happen often, so don't try it unless it's really worth it.)

There was another time where we were saying good bye one Sunday night and he said something that made me respond with a reminder that I didn't want to talk about marriage until we had been dating 6 months. He turned and looked at me and said "I am the man in this relationship and *I* will determine when we get engaged." I looked at him like he was crazy but this really impressed me. Of course he would wait until that 6 months though (or so I thought). Little did I know that he had already started to pick out an engagement ring.

In September of 2007 we got a new partner in the Cincinnati office. (All you TH people are groaning right now and wondering what she has to do with our story. Heh.) I was sent down to Cincinnati for the week to put all the transferred files in our docketing system and stayed at a hotel that week.

That weekend we had a conference at church and I was doing the overheads for most of the sessions. I was exhausted from my marathon days at work and then I had to drive back to Dayton Friday afternoon with a headache. I got home where Jason was waiting on me and took a quick nap before we headed to church. The headache was better, but I was wore out.

We stopped at Taco Bell to get dinner and both of us got burritos. (I hesitate at this part of the story because I hate telling this story. Those who have heard it before are either cringing or snickering at this point.) I was driving and tried to eat my burrito. Unfortunately whomever made the burrito did it with little care and beans were squishing out in 3 different places. I was so frustrated that I did something that even to this day I can barely believe I did.

I opened the window and threw it out onto the road. Wrapper and all.

Jason just sat there for a moment and didn't say anything at first. He took a bite of his burrito and after a dirty look from me offered it to me. I didn't want it, so he put it back in the bag. And then I started crying. There was a lot more going on, of course, but even I wasn't quite sure what the problem was. Other than being really really wore out.

We got to church and Jason went in to let them know I wouldn't be doing overheads. I pulled it together and after talking to Scott (Sliver) and Jason went inside to just listen to the worship music. I was okay for a few songs, but then the tears started again and we had to leave. Jason and I had a long talk out in the parking lot where I let him know it wasn't him, it was just a lot of stuff from my past coming back to haunt me.

And he understood. He listened and offered comfort and I felt so much better.

Here's the thing. Jason had the ring that weekend. He was ready to propose. He had shown the ring to a few people on the worship team. Of course my burrito-flinging and crying had made him reconsider any proposal that weekend. I kinda wonder what those worship team people were thinking when I left crying...

It really wasn't the right weekend anyway. We still had unanswered questions and I wasn't 100% sure he was the right one.

Funny the difference 48 hours makes. (To be continued...)

Our story - part 4

In case you're just joining us, here's links to the previous blogs:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

A quick recap: Jason and I met online back in May 2007. We met in person in Chillicothe, and then Jason came to visit me Memorial Day weekend. Things were clicking, there were definite sparks, but we were two different people.

Jason was so happy to get the relationship going, but I was jaded, cynical, doubtful and distrustful. I knew I had to let go of this if things would ever work out. So needless to say, things were a bit bumpy at first. A good analogy of our relationship - both of us are on the same rollercoaster and it has a REALLY big first hill. (This would be falling in love - really really in love.) Jason was all for it, ready to go plunging 100 mph down that hill with his hands wildly waving above him yelling "WHEEEEEEE" the whole time. Me? I was the one freaking out, wanting to get OFF the ride, shrinking as far down as possible and closing my eyes praying to God it wouldn't be as bad as I thought it was going to be.

How's that for a mental picture? :)

So with that as a background, let's get on with the first weekend I drove down to Olive Hill, Kentucky to visit Jason. It was a week after he visited me and he arranged for me to stay with his parents. I was so nervous about staying with his mom and dad. We're not just talking about meeting his parents, but staying in their house - walking around in pajamas in the morning, getting ready in their bathroom, eating their food. There really was no alternative, it's not like there's a hotel to stay at in Olive Hill.

I got off work early and headed east to Kentucky. (For those in Ohio, that's S.R. 35, not I-75.) It was a looong drive and it was almost dark by the time I got there. Jason met me at the Dairy Queen in town, where I got a huge hug from him, and then I followed him to his parents' house. His parents were very welcoming and low-key people. (Well, of course, it's where Jason gets it from.) Jason stayed over and slept on the couch and I was in the guest room. The next morning Gayle made eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy. How do I remember this so well? Because we've had it almost every Saturday morning in Olive Hill since then. (Yummy!)

Jason showed me around his town, where he grew up, where he went to church, and where he went to school. We went out to his cabin and hung out there the rest of the day. Jason made dinner on the grill and we sat in the hammock and just enjoyed the cool summer evening. We headed back to his parents' house and sat in the guest room watching TV and talking.
The next morning we went to his Baptist church where I got to meet his Sunday School class - he taught the High School class. They loved to tease him and having me there just gave them more to harass him about. (Not that week, but a few later, one girl asked what I was doing there if I was from Dayton. She hadn't quite caught on that Jason and I were dating. LOL! I won't mention who she was since she's probably reading this on facebook...) ;)

Being back in a traditional Baptist church brought back a lot of memories. The hymns, the choir, the invitation at the end. It really felt like I was back at home. My favorite part about the Baptist church is their support of missionaries. If it wasn't for my Baptist church where I grew up, I don't think I'd be so passionate about the people in Honduras. I probably wouldn't have ever gone on a mission trip.

After lunch at his parents' house, Jason took me to Carter Caves. We went through the Saltpetre (not a typo) Cave which is underground. I'm so glad we went at that time because it's now closed due to a disease that kills bats. There are other caves to go through though, thankfully. If you'd like to see Carter Caves, you'll have to go see it yourself - it's amazing. I'll show you a picture of Jason and me while we waited for the tour to start.
So we get back to Jason's parents' house, Gayle had made a stack cake for me to take to work the next day. I was so impressed that she would do something like that for me. We wrapped it up and gingerly put the cake on the back seat of my car. Jason and I had a discussion about whether or not to put it on the floor. I won because the floor was dirty, so it was going on the seat. I had to get on the road, so I said goodbye to my gracious hosts and followed Jason out to the highway. Another huge hug and I was on my way home.

And then somewhere just past the Ohio state line, Bambi hit. Bambi hit my car. I've never hit a deer before and I had no idea what to do. My first thought was to drive up a little further because I couldn't bear the thought of stopping next to a dead or severely injured deer. Seriously. My clear thinking had been replaced with scattered thoughts.

First I called Jason and told him I hit a deer. He asked if I was okay and I said yes, but the cake didn't make it - it wasn't on the seat anymore. And before Jason could get any further information, I told him a state trooper had pulled up behind me so I had to go. (We laugh about this now, but I was REALLY upset about the cake.) So I get out of the car and he tells me that he was coming the other way and almost hit the deer and then saw it jump in front of my car. So he turned around and came to check on me. My car was hissing so we assumed it was the radiator and it was best that I didn't drive the car any further.

I called Jason again and reassured him I was alright. I checked on the cake and it was laying on the floor - plate down. Maybe it would be okay. (I've learned my lesson. Cakes go on the FLOOR.) Jason said he'd be right there and would pick me up in Lucasville, which was just a few miles down the road.

I got in the state trooper's car and called my insurance company while the trooper called for a tow truck. After the calls were made, we chatted about church and he said it was good to meet a sister in Christ. That really helped me get through the next hour.

When the tow truck driver showed up, the trooper reassured me that he was a good guy (although a rough-looking chain smoker). He took me and my car to the Speedway in town to wait on Jason. I went inside to get something to drink and a few minutes later the tow truck driver came in and suggested I get in the truck. I guess a homeless man was going around harassing people. I was glad for the help, but it was really unnerving. Where was Jason?

And then my knight in shining armor arrived to pick me up. I almost started crying at the sight of him. I was definitely crying later in the safety of his car - from exhaustion, frustration, and relief. We didn't get to my house until after midnight, so I insisted that he stay over and head back in the morning. He wasn't sure about staying over, but since we hadn't kissed yet, I told him it was okay, we were still in the "friends" stage. Gotta tell you though that a huge kiss would have been in order that night! And even if I was still saying we were just getting to know each other, I was definitely falling in love with him! Maybe that first hill on the roller coaster wasn't going to be too bad after all.

By the way, the cake did make it to work with me the next day. It was a little flat on one side and wasn't quite centered on the plate. But everyone said it tasted great - even if it did hit a deer. :)

Our story - part 3

This will be short, I hope. I should be in bed, but I'm waiting for the last load of laundry to get done so I can hang up my pants to dry. Hoping to be able to wear them tomorrow. What? You don't care about what I'm wearing tomorrow? Fine, I'll get on to that first week after we met.

The first weekend Jason came to Dayton was Memorial Day weekend. He had a family reunion on Sunday and it upset me a bit that he'd rather be in Dayton with a girl he barely knew than at a family event. He assured me it was an annual thing at his Mamaw's house and he's always there. They won't miss him this year. But then he found out two of his favorite cousins from Ohio were going to be there, so he apologized that he'd have to cut the weekend short. This made me feel better about his priorities. So he was just in town Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning he headed back to Olive Hill.

Friday night my small group (Bible study) had a cook out, so the first few hours he was here, he was meeting 7 of my friends. :) They all loved him. The next day we went to Ken & Melissa's house - this would be the most difficult of tests - the best friends AND children test. He passed both of these. Jason jumped in and helped Melissa in the kitchen, and then Ken kidnapped him and they went driving around to see some of the historical places around Kettering. Later Eme was sitting with Jason and I and I asked if he was a redneck or a hill billy. She looked at him really good and then looked at me and said "he's a PINK neck!" So funny!!

Sunday morning he came to church with me and got to experience the Vineyard. I was curious if he'd be okay with that kind of church and he loved it. We went to lunch at the Greene and then he had to head home.

But before he left I gave him two pictures of me - a Glamour Shots picture and a really hideous funny picture of me. He loved them both. He took great pride in showing people the pictures of his new girlfriend. He loved show them the ugly one first and wait for their reaction. Seriously! (If you're brave you can click on the picture and see the full sized one.)

So one week after our official meeting things were going very well. He sent me flowers at work and therefore announced to everyone there that I had a boyfriend - and he REALLY liked me. I didn't mind. I was enjoying finally dating again. And it was what I had envisioned a good dating relationship to be - HE was pursuing me. (Because I'm fabulous and I'm worth it! That's an inside joke with Jason and me.) ;)

Next time I'll post about my first weekend in Kentucky. I promise it's a lot more eventful and ended with Jason rescuing me in Lucasville.