And now, what you've all been waiting for....

...the trip update!! :) Well to sum it up, it was the best ten days of my life. I didn't have any doubts about the way things would be going into it and I was spot on. :) There was no awkwardness between us at all. Basically it felt like (well, feels like) we've been together forever, and when I got there it seemed like we were seeing each other again after an extended absence. Anyway, story time. :)

So I arrived Thursday morning, at about 11am London time. The flight arrived a little late so I was rushing to get to customs since I knew Chris would be waiting. They give you these things called "landing cards" to fill out on the plane and give to the customs agent. There was a question on there about the full address of where I would be staying while in the UK. I hadn't even thought to have Chris' address handy...big mistake. I asked a guy before I got in line about it and he said to write down Chris' phone number and it shouldn't be an issue. I did, but when I got up to the agent this was apparently a big problem. He began questioning me about why I came and why I didn't know my boyfriend's address. He wanted to see my return tickets, which I didn't have, so then he wanted to see a printed itinerary of my travel plans, which I also didn't have. It even got to the point of questioning me about who paid for my plane tickets and how much money I had in my savings account. :P At the end, the agent said he had every reason to just deny me entry and send me back to the States, but he would let me in. The guy was a gigantic jackass. And it was my second encounter with a very rude Londoner. Chris is adamant that the real bastards in England all live in London, and I'm inclined to believe him now.

Anyway, I finally got through customs and picked up my bag, then went to the arrivals gate to meet my boy. :) He was there waiting for me with a bouquet of red roses. We gave each other a hello kiss, which wasn't awkward at all. :) Once we got to the car, he presented me with a diet coke (which he knows is my drink of choice) and some cookies from a local bakery. We drove back to his house, and once we were settled, we made a trip to the store to get some supplies. We took it easy the rest of the day, so I could recover from the long journey, and that night Chris cooked me dinner. :) On Friday we went to the nearby city of Southhampton and wandered around their shopping center. Later that night we went to dinner with his mom, dad, sister, and sister's husband. It was awesome actually...I REALLY like his family...it seems I'm bound to get some good in-law's with this deal. :) They are all very nice and really fun.

Saturday was the proposal day! We went driving through New Forest, which is an area near Chris' hometown that is just beautiful. First we stopped in a little town called Burley and wandered through some shops, then we just went for a nice, relaxing drive through the countryside. The area had wild horses too!! They were everywhere, just grazing by the side of the road. :) Chris thought it was entertaining I was so excited by them, but that's not exactly something you see everyday in America. So we decided to park and go for a walk in one area with a nice lake. We stopped along the way and kissed, then he whispered in my ear "will you marry me?" and got the ring out of his pocket. The first thing I said was "what? no speech?" Haha! But of course I told him I was kidding and said yes. He explained that he didn't want to do a speech because then I would know what was coming and would just be waiting for it, which is a good point, so he decided just popping the question would be more of a surprise. So yes, we were engaged and on cloud nine! After that we made our way back to Chandlers Ford (his town) and stopped at the store for some supplies for a party we were having that night...we even got champagne to celebrate! :) A bunch of Chris' friends came over that night. We had pizza and played some poker. They were all great and I was happy I got to meet some of the people in Chris' life.

Sunday we drove down to Cornwall, which was about a five hour drive. We arrived there around 8pm and told his parents about the engagement soon after. They were surprised, but not shocked, if that makes sense. But they were great about it! His mom told us that she had been saving her grandmother's engagement ring for him too. :) So we are actually going to make a small repair to that and get it sized, then have that replace my current ring once he comes here early next year. I absolutely LOVE the idea of having a family ring. I just saw a picture of it the other day and it's beautiful, so I can't wait. :) And the next day, his parents got us "congratulations" gifts! It was so sweet. Sandy (his mom) bought me this beautiful, handcrafted necklace. I'm wearing it in a few of the pictures, including the ones where I have a bright pink shirt on. Anyway, we picked up his sister Mary from the train station that afternoon and had a wonderful dinner down by the harbor, which we were less than a mile from. It was a beautiful place and the house we stayed in was great. On Tuesday we went and toured an old, Victorian mansion, which was gorgeous. Wednesday we went to the Eden Project, which is the cool place with biomes with different environments like the rain forest. Thursday Chris and I just relaxed at the cottage and watched some movies together. We drove back to Chandlers Ford on Friday (which took 7 hours, thanks for numerous traffic jams) and Saturday we drove to London. The day was spent exploring the central city places like Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the Thames river, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament. To finish the day off, we wandered around the Victoria and Albert Museum, then headed back to our hotel for some room service.

Sunday was the day I left and it sucked. It's only been a week now but feels like we've been apart much longer. We made a plan for him to move here in (hopefully) April of this next year. We are going to be applying for a fiance visa in the next month. The one catch with a fiance visa is that you have to get married within 90 days of the fiance's entry into the country, so until we get the visa sorted and approved, we won't really be able to set a definitive date for the wedding. Originally we were going to just do a courthouse kind of thing here, but his parents said that they wanted to come for it so we've decided to do something nicer. It would be a bit of a waste for them to travel that far for a courthouse ceremony! Although with my almost-OCD like urge to plan everything ASAP, I am getting stressed with the wedding planning since we can't even narrow down the date yet. I'm trying to just calm down and find other things to concentrate on so we'll see how that goes. We are planning to eventually live in England for awhile, but after this trip I can see it will take a lot of adjustment! Their driving is just super confusing, with all the roundabouts and such. The metric system threw me and everything is smaller over there! They also have tons of different food over there, some of which Chris got me very addicted too...such as scotch eggs, a variety of cheeses, clotted cream, marmite, and cider. Yummm!! I've already been searching for places to find those kind of things here. :)

Well this entry is already super long so I better wrap it up. In summary, it was an absolutely amazing trip. I am sooooo happy I got to go. Before Chris, I didn't think I would ever want to get married again, and now here I am planning a wedding and I couldn't be happier about it. :) I know soul mate is kind of a cliche term these days, but I have no doubt that Chris is mine. There might be some cynicism about the wedding, since it's my second and since we haven't been together THAT long, but I hope when people see us together they will see how happy we are and be supportive. As my new maid-of-honor Cheri said today, "this is the one that counts." :)

What a Difference a Year Makes....

I was just thinking the other day how different my life was just one short year ago. I was in the midst of the divorce and getting ready to move back to Idaho. In fact, I have a blog about this very day one year ago:

Monday, October 19th: Monday was my lowest point. I was just so overwhelmed. Where had this come from? It hadn't been explained well. After a day spent arguing about division of assets and threatening to get lawyers, I just broke down. I cried harder than I ever have in my life...I'm just glad no one was around to see me. That evening I wrote him an email asking him why he was doing this. I said I wanted to work things out, that our marriage was more important than this. That night I got a reply from him. Apparently he thinks that to make himself right with the Lord again, he needs to leave me. He said he had felt the Spirit more of the past few days than he had in a long time. He felt peaceful and calm when he thought about getting divorced. He said I had hurt him and we had both changed over the course of our marriage into people he didn't like. He was going to go to the temple the next day and pray about whether or not to try to work things out.

It's funny how much things have changed for me, and in the BEST way possible. I am so much happier now, especially with who I am. I think I've grown a lot in this past year, and gotten to know myself better than I ever have before. I have stumbled a bit, but all and all it's been the best year of my life. At the point that I wrote the above entry, I couldn't imagine how things in my life would ever turn out for the better, but now I am so grateful for all of the trials I went through. I never would've dreamed that I would be heading back to England to spend 10 fantastic days with the absolute love of my life. :) I can't wait! And I am just soooooooo grateful for where I am now and for how I've grown this past year. It's kind of an awesomely fantastic way to celebrate the anniversary of one thing ending, by having an amazing new phase begin. I just wanted to express how truly grateful I am and in awe of life...it's such a gift. I'll sign out before I get too sappy, but stay tuned! I'll update with England details soon!! My trip starts tomorrow with a drive to Salt Lake at 6:30am, then flights to London through Thursday morning.

London Calling... (UPDATED)

Just had to do a quick update (and it's a little late, sorry) to tell y'all that I got my tickets to England!! Hooray!!! :D I am headed over to see my honey in less than three weeks and can't even convey how beyond excited I am! I leave on the 20th of October, arriving there the morning of the 21st. Then I get to enjoy ten whole days with the love of my life before coming home on the 31st. I'm flying out of SLC so I have to drive there, which is a shame but the cheapest and easiest option. We ended up getting tickets for about $740, which is pretty damn good. :) Chris' mom was amazing enough to let us put the flight on her card and pay her back over the next couple of months.

I'm really so super excited! We are going to spend the first weekend together around Eastleigh, and I'll get to meet all of his friends. Then on Monday we are off to Cornwall with his family for the week. On Friday we will head back to Eastleigh and Saturday morning we will go explore London for the day and stay there that night, with my flight departing the next morning. I'm pretty sure leaving is going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done, but the fact that we will be reunited in January (instead of April) should at least serve as a small comfort.

Oh, and to those of you who requested a picture of Chris...I keep forgetting to ask his permission to post one. :P So I will check with him tomorrow and as long as it's fine, I'll add a couple pictures to this post then.

Speaking of pictures, I also promise plenty of pictures of England when I return! For those of you a bit anxious about the prospect of me traveling overseas alone (*cough* Monica *cough* ;)) I will of course be keeping in touch with family while there. Chris has offered me full use of his computer, as well as his cell phone, and international calling cards are quite easy to purchase there. My mother will also have all of his contact info. I only say this to put minds at ease...as for me, I don't have any single, solitary doubt that this trip will be one of the best of my life and I have absolutely no worries about it. :) I really do love this guy and can't wait to be able to see his house, friends, and family in person...and of course him, but no, I don't phrase it as I can't wait to meet him. We know each other so well at this point that it's just ridiculous to say we haven't met. We haven't touched, but we've met. (Wow, that's either my second or third rant about that on my blog...can you tell it's a touchy subject? ;)) Anywho, can't wait to give some updates. Keep an eye on Facebook as well since I'm sure I'll add some pictures there as I travel about. :D

And now for your viewing pleasure...a Chris slideshow! :)

Holla!

I'd like to take a moment to do a "public" shout out to Ms. Bethany Lyn Davis for being the only friend to leave a kind comment about my Chris post. I'm sure there are a lot of skeptics out there, and I can understand why. The fact that we haven't met yet seems to be a huge road block to everyone but us. ;) But in further news, it looks like it's a for sure thing that I'll be heading to England at the end of October. For awhile it was looking like it might not happen, but Chris is determined to get me there and says there is no "if" about it. So in the next couple of weeks, we will get tickets purchased. I am really soooo excited when I think about the reality of us finally being together in a few short weeks!! Plus I've got some awesome family visits planned for the next two weekends, which will make time pass quickly, then just two weekends to kill and I'm off to see the love of my life! :) The one thing I don't want to ponder too much is the leaving part. I'm not sure how I'm gonna drag myself away from Chris once we are finally together. The only consolation (and only reason I'll be able to leave) is that we've formed a new plan for the future! Instead of waiting until April to come out here, he is moving to Boise in January. We are both very excited about this!

I think one of the biggest reasons I'm looking forward to the England trip in October is that it will finally put people's minds at ease. They won't keep using the whole "not meeting" thing against us. ;) If I already covered this in my previous post, sorry, but it does feel very untrue to say I haven't met Chris. We basically talk all day, and we video chat usually each night, some mornings, and every weekend. I know him. He knows me. We just haven't been able to hug or hold hands yet.

For any of you who don't follow my movements on Facebook (ha, wow that sounds self-aggrandizing) I got a package from Chris a couple weeks ago. :) He included a bunch of my favorite snacks that I've been missing since my study abroad trip, plus a few new favorites (mmm...Jaffa Cakes.)

And here's a picture of the package contents:


Anywho, in other news, my sister, niece and grandparents are coming into town this weekend. I'm very excited! I haven't seen my grandparents in a long time and I always love seeing Taylor and Rikki. Taylor just gets cuter and cuter each time, and I can't get enough of hearing her call me Sassy. :) Should be a fun weekend. And next weekend my dad is coming. :) It'll be some nice family time for the next couple of weeks.

Chris

So I've been trying to figure out how to write this entry for the past couple of days. Do I just lay it all on the line, explain everything, knowing my family sometimes reads this blog? Or should I censor a few of the crazier details, saving them for a later date when they don't sound quite so mental? I still haven't come to a conclusion, to be honest, so I'm just going to start writing and see where it goes.

As I believe I've said on here before, I used to belong to a couple of dating websites. Well, I was growing tired of seeing the same guy's faces every time I logged in so one night I decided to change my "looking" location from 'near me' to 'anywhere.' Soon after this, I had a profile pop up as a match of a guy from England. I read his profile and it just seemed like we had similar personalities, so after viewing his pictures and deciding he was indeed very handsome, I decided to send him a random question and see if he'd respond. Low and behold, a couple of days later I got a message back. From that point we started emailing each other on a regular basis, with each email getting longer and longer. After a few days I suggested we try to chat online, which turned into video chatting. Basically, before I knew it, Chris and I were talking every possible minute of every day.

So there's kind of the bare bones facts of how we met and how it's progressed. I guess now is the time for deciding how much to say. Well, what the hell....I am insanely, absolutely, irrevocably in love with Christopher Richard Grapes. (And yes, Grapes is his real last name. ;)) I know that sounds crazy because we haven't technically met in person and because it's been just over a month that we've been talking, but I have absolutely no doubts that we are meant to be together. I've never felt like this about anyone before. He completes me (cheesy, I know, but still true). It's amazing how well you can get to know someone when you spend so much time just talking to them. ;) I say that for those of you thinking I don't even know the guy. To assuage a few more fears, I am planning a trip to England at the end of October so we can officially meet. After that, Chris is planning to travel to Idaho next April. We haven't quite worked things out yet with that trip, but it's looking more and more like it will be an indefinite stay.

That's my big news...plain and simple. If I was in your shoes, I would probably be thinking that I am crazy so I won't be upset if that's what is going through your mind right at this moment. :) But Chris and I are both sure that things with us will work out. We haven't decided details yet, but we are both willing to do the relocation thing to make it work.

I suppose that fills my crazy quotient for the night. If ya'll want to know anything else, feel free to leave me a comment with questions and I'll try to write a follow-up blog soon. I'm sure more random stuff will pop up along the way, and obviously I'll be blogging about my upcoming trip to England...so I just wanted to make everyone aware that Chris is going to be a standard fixture on stories of my life from here on out. :)

Big News to Come

Anyone who is Facebook friends with me may have noticed a few recent changes. :) I will try to write a blog to update ASAP...it's just going to be a long one so I've been procrastinating! I'll write soon. :) Hope all of you are well.

Running Away

I remember once, when I was about six or seven, gathering a little backpack of supplies and taking off down the street. I was going to run away. I'm sure I had my reasons, and I'm sure they were completely valid in my young mind. I believe I made it about four houses down before I sat on the curb and wondered how life would be if I abandoned my family. Would I join the circus, as you tend to believe all runaways do at that age? I couldn't see myself as the circus type. After swallowing my pride, I shuffled back home. I don't think anyone even noticed my attempt to change my life forever, which possibly made it worse.

Now I'm starting to wonder if the urge to run away ever leaves us. Today I've found myself wanting to be that seven year old again. Gather up a little suitcase with the necessary supplies, drive myself to the airport, and just disappear somewhere into the wild blue yonder. Would anyone notice this time? Would someone come and see my apartment, left just as if I had been fully intending to come home that night, to do the dishes and make my bed? I kind of love the image of my apartment being frozen in time that way. Of imagining people wondering where I'd gone to...if I'd finally gone to join the circus. The unfortunate thing is that at seven years old I fully believed I could run away and join this imaginary circus, the thing that really stopped me was a lack of desire to do so. Now at twenty-six, I know there isn't a circus with a vacancy just waiting for me. I know I have bills to pay...a job people expect me to show up for...cats that need taken care of. I can't just fly off on a foreign adventure. I need money. I need a passport. I need a place to stay. I wish I was seven again and didn't even consider those things...I'd just shoulder my backpack and start walking. Maybe this time I'd make it further than four houses down the road...