Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Engaged

Hello all! Well, if you haven't heard yet - Kyle and I are engaged! He proposed last Wednesday night. We went to the Melting Pot and the waiter brought the ring out on the dessert plate. Then Kyle got down on his knee and popped the question! It was really sweet and I was pretty surprised. Kyle of course made me call both my parents before we even ate the dessert - which was caramel fondue which Kyle requested because I couldn't have the chocolate one. It was so romantic - we had a secluded private kind of table and didnt see anyone but our waiter. It was so special. Although in all the excitement I did have to go back later and ask Kyle exactly what he said when he asked b/c I was sooooooo excited and hugging him and saying YES! that I don't know if I listened at all!

Well, now apparently - my groom and I are going to start planning our wedding! The cool thing is that Kyle really wants to be involved and help out. But for the next few weeks we are just going to relax and let it all sink in!

Alrighty- back to work/ daydreaming

-L

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Happy Turkey Day

Hey there! Just wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving day tomorrow and a great relaxed weekend! No work for 4 days!!!!!!!!!! Wahoo! (When was the last time you went Wahoo?)

Stuff yourselves with stuffing and have a great holiday!

Love,

-L

Friday, November 17, 2006

good talk

Hey women! It's finally FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I have only to report that last night Kyle and I took a break from our
Lifegroup meeting in exchange for a having a great talk about our relationship.
I had proposed this after reading some article about marriage and the things you should talk about before you get married or engaged. Quite a few of the things concerned me, so i suggested me sit down and hash them out. Turns out we have a lot more in common than we thought and the things we do disagree about aren't deal breakers but things we will just have to learn to work through and compromise on. It was a big relief. I must have been in crazy mode b/c after our talk I felt like this huge weight had been lifted b/c I wasn't worried anymore about those
issues that I considered being deal breakers in the long run or danger zones down the road. This might sound funny buy maybe you understand - we talk all the time even seriously but, sitting down and talking about being married and what we would do and how we hoped to be was really amazing. I looked at him sitting there as we were talking and I fell in love like 10 times over and then I couldn't believe that someday he might ask me to be his wife. WOW! It was really amazing.

have a good weekend gals!

-L

Monday, November 13, 2006

I feel like Leslie

Hello all. I can only hope that everyone reading this had a fabulous weekend, because i did and am sure to gush uncontrollably about it for the next several paragraphs.
As of friday - we left off with me waiting to go pick up my Mom who was coming to see me for the weekend. What some of you knew and I didn't was that she was coming with a posse. A small but great posse! I saw my mom and was giving her a hug when...she suddenly turns around and there is her lifetime best friend Kelly! She brought her on the trip! And then..someone comes and grabs me from behind! Tiffanie!! It was soooo great, I of course cried at the thought of a weekend not only with my mom but two of the funniest girls ever! As soon as I saw them I had anxiety b/c I knew they would be leaving in two days and I couldn't keep them all down here forever. So much fun. We did all the things my mom and i planned to do but with 3 times the enthusiasm, funny jokes and hysterical laughter. And I wasn't allowed to tell Kyle that they were there so we could surprise him when he got back from CO on Sunday! We got him pretty good too! We had Kelly show up at the door (Kyle has never met her) and ask for some sugar and say that she just moved into the neighborhood. Then she asked him out on a date and I was standing there and he said no and got all flustered like I was going to think that there was something going on that wasnt. And then I asked her where she moved from and she said some little town in Oklahoma. A few seconds later we were laughing so hard we had to tell him, and then Tiffanie knocked on the door (he knows her!) . It was fabulous.
On Saturday we shopped until our legs just about fell off. And Sunday we hit the beach-
I wish it could have lasted for days and days! It's the first time since I moved here that I have had girlfriends here that I was completely myself with and I just let loose and it sounds weird but, I just felt like I was Leslie again.

My mom told me that she tried to rally some of my nearest and dearest gal pals but timing and things just didnt work out! I soooo wish I could have seen you guys!! I did have a great time though and I hope one day to get some of you down here! Lots of love and have a happy Monday - if that is at all possible ( I personally got up at 4:30 this morning to take people to the airport -so I am living on caffeine fumes - but, nothing has ever been more worth it!)

God Bless

-L

Friday, November 10, 2006

Fancy Shmancy

Well, it is finally friday! Kyle is heading to Denver to meet his family for the game and my mom is one her way to see me!!! We have many adventures of shopping planned and I just can't wait to see her.
I am gonna miss Kyle like crazy but I am sooooo glad to have some girl time with my mom. Although we talk every single day (seriously) - it's just not the same. I can't wait. Tonight we are headed to International Plaza -my fav shopping zone in Tampa Bay and tomorrow we head to Orlando to do some serious outlet mall shopping topped off by my second fav Florida mall - The mall at Millenia which is so fun and has my fav stores Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn and of course the best store in the world! White House/ Black Market.
And on Sunday I am taking her to church at Baylife and then she insists on the beach! So, I'm gonna take her to Clearwater and let her put her toes in the winter water of the Gulf which is kinda chilly. But, seeing as how I haven't been to the Beach at all since she was here in May....it seems like a pretty good idea.

So, I have an issue guys... I have vented a thousand times to Kyle and now he has begun his own venting sessions. Here is the thing. We have made quite a few friends down here. Very nice fun people that we love to hang out with. But, lately it seems that a few of these lovely folk are kind of wearing on our midwestern hospitality. Now, I know that it should be Southern Hospitality via the magazine and all but that is not the case in our neck of the woods. Now, I like these people and I consider them very good friends - all of them. But, to my gals out there, I just wonder if you guys know what I mean. So, one thing is that although great and easy to talk to - you just can't depend on them for anything. I think that maybe this is hard on me because I really haven't had any close friends that were like this before. Example: If we were to be hanging out and I said, "hey, I am going to the baker and the candlestick maker tomorrow" and two people said that they would love to go with me and we set a time like between 11 and 12 and said I will give you a call tomorrow. Well, as far as I am concerned those plans are set. So, the next day - rolling out of bed and getting dressed to go - I am ready about 10:30 and having not heard from the said people yet - I give them a call. two answering machines. thirty minutes and then and hour later I call - same response. At 1:30 one calls me back - and says she wants to go but must go to her mothers first. It should take half an hour - I will call you then. At 3:00 she calls and says I am done - do you want to come over here. In awe I here myself say yes - b/c I still can't believe that this is happening and no one has even said the word sorry and the other is still unheard from. So I get to the house at 3 and we are talking and the other finally calls. She went golfing with a friend. ?????????? So, we say well, we havent left yet if you want to come - she is on her way home (30 minutes) away. She says yes and she will be there in an hour. an hour and fifteen minutes later she calls and says she's not coming cuz she still isnt home. we leave - the mall is 30 minutes away. we get there after 5...do some shopping - honestly fun times..at 7 she says she needs to go home. ?????????????? 30 minutes home - home by 8 - 2 hours of shopping under my belt and a whole barrel full of frustration. SERIOUSLY! SERIOUSLY! did this just happen? So, I know what your thinking:

Well Leslie, have you considered that these gals don't like you? Of course. But, they asked to come and we do stuff together all the time. They invite us over - we are friends. They just don't have the same concept of courtesy that I have always been used to.

So, this gets me upset and then it gets Kyle upset b/c he feels like I'm being treated badly but - its really the fact that we just act differently. So, this similar situation - no necessarily to this ones extremes of time, has happened. Plans to do things, never get done. They come up with things and plan it out - they never call. They say they are coming somewhere and then they don't. Well, it all happened again recently when I had a Jewelry party that I had gotten hooked into at a friends own party. Well, I told everyone that I would only have one if they all came b/c I know few people here and without them I had no reason to have one. I passed out the invites after setting the date and was met with one who couldnt come due to work (understandable - no grudge there/plus she ordered something anyways). Then two more a week later due to a wedding they had forgotten about. So that left me 4 of the church friends. Then one moved to North Carolina (understandable distance issue). Another had a baby (understandable- giving birth, dealing with newborn). I also invited the four girls I work with and a friend who is the wife of a guy who works with Kyle. One couldn't come due to sons soccer game (children before jewelry, i get it), another (grandma) used to sell the jewelry plus it was her deceased husbands birthday (no excuse needed). The other two confirmed.
Night before party - 2 from church friends (1 from wedding who is now not going and told me w/o me asking that she was coming), friend thru Kyle's work and two from work. 5 - good number. Day of party - 1 girl from work shows. no calls until 1:30, other girl from work cancels, 2:30 friend thru Kyle's work calls having just remembered due to incoming family, girl from church finally answers to call from night before and that morning and says cant come due to new puppy. The other girl who had the wedding and then didnt have the wedding never called, didnt show. Attendance= 1. Embarassing, humiliating..you name it...but, mostly dissappointed in the lack of courtesy of people to their friends. I can't even imagine my friends doing that to anyone. Not even a call! Don't make commitments you can't or won't keep!!!! As Stephanie Tanner would say, "How Rude!". Am I wrong here?

So, the list goes on with various other incidents that have left Kyle and I completely stumped on the subject of human courtesy in the South. It's just that people are so nice about being so completely thoughtless of others.

Hmmph!


Alright the venting has commenced.

Happy Friday!

-L

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Livin' on Tulsa time...

So, when did life get so complex? By the way - hello, hope everyone is having a fab week. So, one second everything seems so easy and the next...
Just when I think I have it figured out - autumn sets in and the homesickness comes rushing in out of nowhere. I can't even explain it - It's not just friends and family - its the actual place that I miss. Who would have thought you could miss a place like Oklahoma. But, I look at pictures and I think - O' my gosh it is beautiful there! Especially in the fall. And memories get stronger for me this time of year. Just smells and certain things that are so intertwined into who I am. sigh.
And then there is flat and green Florida. Now, I admit that there is many a beautiful place down here but, it's just not the midwest - and this time of year it's hard when everything stays green and it's still 85 degrees in November. 75 degrees is jacket weather - we are such wimps! But, I love it here too.
So complex... Bills, Bills, Bills, credit cards, credit reports, insurance this and that
and THESE DARN POLITICAL COMMERCIALS!!!

So, I hope everyone did the American thing today and went out and voted for our nations leaders-

New Subject:

My mom is coming into town this weekend to visit and Kyle is flying up to Denver to see his family and catch the Notre Dame vs. Airforce game on Saturday.
I am so excited to see my mom and get to spend some time with her without everyone else around.
Of course, it would be nice to have some back up when the 'please move home' lectures start!

Alright - thats enough babble

-L