Laughs

A couple weekends ago Ryan got to meet my BFF from high school and her dad.  It was another round of peeps to meet.  Only this time Ryan didn't get an earful of how wonderful I am and how lucky he is.  I think he's gotten a lifetime's worth of that.  It was more of a "Are you sure about this?  Do you know what you're doing?"  Alicia's dad always gives me a bad time but that's because I'm a brat to him.  Oh well.  It was fun to see Alicia again and while I thought Ryan was taking pictures of us, he was actually getting us on video.  I appreciate that he did that because he caught us laughing instead of posing for the camera.

Update

We want to let you all know that Ryan and I won't be getting married in June.  After counsel and advice from our church leaders, we have decided to postpone our nuptials.  No new date as of yet.  We'll be sure to keep you posted.

It's picture time!

These pictures aren't really in chronological order.  I tried to move the pictures around on here, but it wasn't working for me.  It covers our trip to Las Vegas, our drive home from Idaho, and a couple days at Ryan's old house.  Enjoy!

My birthday dessert.  So rich and yummy.

A view of Las Vegas from the Eiffel Tower.

Um, no comment.

I wonder how much success these guys had that night.

We stopped in Reno on the way home from Idaho.  We split $1 at the Silver Legacy and took a swing at the one-armed bandit.  No big winnings that day.  The buffet rocked.  This picture is out of order.

The following are pictures of our hotel room at The Venetian.

The bathroom.

Our beds.

The view from near the window.

I love jumping on the beds at hotels.

The following are pictures taken during our drive home from Idaho.

What our view looked like most of the way.

The sugar that kept us energized.

My cute little honey with his Icee.

That's our U-haul in the background!

The following are pictures of the last days in Ryan's house.  

Holy cute couple!

This was one of the first places we stopped on our way home.  Such good food.

Nacho mama!

Lost Wages, Nevada

The pictures from this trip may someday surface.  But for now, you'll have to use your imagination.  We went to Las Vegas last week.  Ryan had a two-day conference to attend to and one of those days happened to be my birthday.  Two birds, one stone.  Why not?  Although I'd technically been to Las Vegas before, it was only to the airport (it's pink, I might add) and it was years ago.  I'd never been for fun and I was excited for the trip.  

Our plane ride over there was packed.  I was the last person to walk on to the plane, and although our seats were separated initially, an elderly gentleman, after hearing us lament that we couldn't sit next to each other, generously gave up his seat so that we could sit together and watch a movie.  It was a quick trip there and I was excited to see our hotel.  I'd told Ryan that I'd never stayed at a nice hotel in the states.  The nicest one I'd ever been to was in Taiwan after my mission.  It was really nice, but I think I had compared it to the crappy apartments I'd lived in while I was there.  So The Venetian totally kicked butt.  It was amazing.  There were 2 flat screen TVs in our room as well as a TV in the bathroom.  We had 2 queen beds and I could have stayed in my bed all day.  In fact, on my birthday I did do just that.  I wasn't in bed ALL day, but I did let myself veg for a couple hours.  We took advantage of the buffet at Harrah's that night - even got a two-for-one special.  

The next day Ryan had his conference and it started fairly early in the morning.  After I took my time getting ready, I headed out to face the sinful city of Las Vegas.  I was so naive about Las Vegas that I thought "the strip" was actually going to be labeled as "The Strip."  No.  It's Las Vegas Blvd.  What a trip.  That place sure is interesting.  Tourists were everywhere.  I went in stores, I looked around, I gawked, I shopped - I just enjoyed the day.  The weather was beautiful and I fielded a couple "Happy Birthday" phone calls.  I treated myself to the most expensive and the coolest skirt I've ever bought.  It can be worn over 100 ways!  We went out to dinner that night and walked down the strip a little bit.  We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed a spectacular view of the fountains at The Bellagio.

The following day while Ryan was at day 2 of his conference (he did a fabulous job there and passed the test at the end - way to go babe), I was able to meet up with an old friend of mine.  I hadn't seen her since 2001 when I lived in Hawaii.  We'd kept in touch over the years and she was always trying to get me to come out to Las Vegas.  It finally worked.  It was great to talk to her and catch up and to see her cute kid!  That night we walked the strip in the daylight and took in more of the sights.  Lots of good people watching going on.  We left Las Vegas that night and the trip home was fairly uneventful.

Ryan moved out here to CA the weekend after St. Patrick's Day.  He now lives about 5 minutes down the road from me and it's great having him so near.  The ride out here in the U-haul was fun and we took our time and split the trip up over a couple days.  Made it enjoyable and very doable.

I love Ryan.

How We REALLY Met (Kersina's Story)

He was a stripper and it was ladies night.  What more can I say?

Alright, well, not exactly.  I think it's interesting to note how we both ended up on the singles website.  I had been talking to a mission friend (丁姐妹）and she told me about the luck she'd had on that website.  I'd done the internet stuff before and had found a couple decent fish.  I'd also found some weirdos.  If you are one of the weirdos, you're probably not reading this because we don't keep in touch.  

I guess I owe our meeting to me being a teacher.  I'd been on the site for a week or two when I got a message from him.  For those types of websites, you have to pay a meager amount in order to read your messages.  After checking out his profile, I decided that the $15 was worth.  And boy was it ever.  He asked a question about my students picking up on me.  I didn't respond right away.  But the next day, one of my students did pick up on me.  I thought of the email Ryan had sent me and emailed him back either that day or the day after and told him my brief story.  Our "get to know you" emails exploded from there.  Ryan is an excellent correspondent and is great at asking questions.  He's in the business of getting to know people.  Seriously, his job title is: Get to Know-er.  He remembered a lot of things I'd said and continued to ask questions.  Well, emails eventually led to phone calls which led to "Hey, it'd be cool to meet sometime," to "Surprise!  I'm 2 hours away from Sacramento" on a late Friday night, days before we were supposed to meet.

Emails and phone calls continued after that.  We were able to spend the holidays together.  He made another surprise visit (I am still in awe that he pulled it off so well) in February, accompanied by a surprise "question" and now in a matter of weeks, he'll be here again. 

 

Life together is going to be great.  I'm so excited for our future, honey.

How did this happen? (Ryan's Story)

After my last break up I was taking things a little hard.  I mean when else have I ever had the shingles and an abscessed tooth right after a girl had broken up with me?

The sad thing was she was a rebound too.  Well my mom told me to get one of those on-line dating services to try my luck there.  I mean no one wants to do that and definitely not when your mother is telling you to.

Nevertheless I acquiesced.  Within a  week I had friends again, immaterial ones that is, and I was socializing it up.  Then I met Kersina.  We emailed back and forth for a while and then spoke on the phone. 

She lived close to home and I was traveling home for Thanksgiving so we decided to meet up sometime during that trip.

Then one day I had the rash idea to take a surprise trip down to her house and play my cards that way.  Well, let's say I surprised her to say the least and the rest was history.