Its Been A While Friends...

Well I've been slacking on the blogging lately. Between the excitement of planning a wedding, working, and being in Canada for a week I haven't had much time to sit down at the computer and write out all of my thoughts.

Like I said, I went to Canada for about 5 days the weekend of October 15 with my mommy. It was amazing! Unfortunately the original reason was to go for my grandma's funeral, but it turned into such an amazing weekend that I'm hoping will be life changing. I guess I should start from the beginning:

First of all, I had to drive to Decatur, Alabama to fly to Missouri which was a long four hour drive and I almost got lost numerous times (I really need to update Keegan's GPS.) After a layover in Charlotte, I got picked up by my mom who I was soooooooo excited to see. I got to show off my engagement ring and be total girls with her on the ride home. The next morning my mom and I took a bus to Kansas City to fly to Canada. I got a bunch of grief from every airport security person I met, but I eventually got through both the American and Canadian customs agents with just my permanent resident card! Woohoo no passport for this girl needed (even though I'm still in the process of getting one just to make travel easier.) We landed in Toronto at 1:30 am and had to take a taxi from the airport to my dad's parents house. That was an adventure just by itself (just a note, don't trust the taxi driver if he says he'll take a credit card, you'll end up paying for the ride in American money,) but we got to my grandparent's house around 3:30 a.m.

After a few hours of sleep, my mom and I got up for my grandma's funeral. We got another taxi to the funeral home, but got there an hour early. We walked a few blocks to a Tim Hortans (Canada's version of Starbucks but much better in my opinion) and got coffee to warm us up. At the funeral home we were met by my aunt and two cousins who I haven't seen in about seven years, and my aunt and uncle who I can't remember when I saw last as well as numerous cousins. The funeral was sad and it took all of me not to cry so I could be strong for my mom. After the funeral we went back to my uncle's house to hang out before going over to my great-aunt's house for a party of sorts. It was so amazing to reconnect with my cousins, some of which I haven't seen since I was three years old! The best story of all was from my cousin Andrew who I hadn't seen since I was three. Apparently the only memory of me that he has is when we saw each other and he had long curly hair like mine. Being three, I decided Andrew must be a girl like me since our hair was the same. I wouldn't let anyone tell me that he was a boy. I think that I connect with both my aunts/uncles and my cousins now that I'm older. The last time I've seen almost all of them I was a young shy girl who wouldn't talk to them. Now I'm able to tell them about my life and appreciate the talks I have with them so much more. I learned so much about my family during this weekend that I didn't know before and I really really really want to make a big effort to keep in touch with my family now that we've reconnected. I think its stupid to have a family riff stop a family from knowing each other, but again, that's another story.

The next day, there was an engagement party/party for my grandma at my dad's parents house. Again, it was nice to reconnect with everyone. I met three of my cousins that I hadn't met before (one of them is 7 and the twins are 3,) as well as see another who I had only met the day she was born. I love hearing what everyone is doing and see how families have changed. It was just such an amazing weekend of connecting with my extended family and I really appreciate the time that I had with them.

The next day, my mom and I went hung out with my two aunts, my great aunt and two of my cousins. We went to downtown Toronto and saw the Occupy Toronto march, had lunch, and went shopping in a HUGE mall. It was nice to hang out with the girls in my family and get to know everyone better. That night, we went over to my dad's brother's house to hang out with his three girls. Don't tell anyone, but he has always been my favorite uncle on my dad's side. He was always the "cool" uncle who drove motorcycles and wasn't afraid to play around with us when we were kids. He has a beautiful wife and family now and I loved hanging out with them.

All in all, it was such an emotional and amazing weekend. The original reason to be there was sad and it was really hard on me when my mom turned to be and said, "I just realized that I'm an orphan. Both of my parents are gone." I didn't know what to do, it is hard to all of a sudden switch roles and be the comforting figure in our relationship, but I tried to comfort my mom the best I could. I love that I was able to reconnect with so much of my family (many of them even said they'd like to come to my wedding!) and I hope that I can stay in touch with everyone. That is my new goal in life; to never loose contact with friends and family that mean a lot to me. Life is too short to let something like that happen.

I'm going to try and post more often so I'm not writing novels every time. I can't promise with my crazy life, but I'm going to try really hard.

!!!!!!

Sooooooooooooooooo



I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!!


I'm so excited right now that I don't even know what to do with myself. Today seemed like a pretty normal day. Keegan and I were out most of the day with a relator looking at houses (that's another blog post entirely,) so we were in the city next to ours for most of the day. We hung out with a friend out there for a few hours, and then came back to our town for dinner. We had an amazing dinner at a restaurant called the Grill (who has amazing Snicker's pie by the way,) and then we came home. I hopped in the shower and then got in some comfy clothes. Keegan suggested that we go out for a drive, something that we like to do from time to time, and we drove out to a lake about fifteen minutes from our house. We parked the car, walked out onto the dock and started making small talk for a little bit under the moon and stars. All of a sudden, Keegan says "Hey Ais," and I turn around and he's on one knee. He pulls out a ring from his pocket and says "Will you marry me?" Of course, my hand flies to my mouth, I start crying and laughing and shaking all at once and I'm *pretty sure* I squeaked out "Yes!" I pulled Keegan off his knee, hugged him, and didn't let go for about 5 minutes. I don't think I can do the whole night justice, it truly was romantic under the stars on the water. I don't think I've ever seen Keegan so happy when I said yes and just hugged him.

Apparently while I was in the shower, Keegan called my mom's cell phone to try and get a hold of my dad. She said he was busy, but Keegan pressed upon her how important it was that he talk to him. My dad was apparently in the shower, so my mom went to go get him thinking something was wrong with me. I guess Keegan asked my dad for my hand in marriage while my dad was dripping wet from just getting out of the shower. Only in my family eh?

And here's the ring. Again, it doesn't do it justice, it is so much prettier in person.

 I'm pretty sure I'm just babbling now so I should sleep......or try to at least!