operation surprise joshua

okay so the "post the trip story tomorrow" thing worked really well....NOT. haha sorry for the delay-if you only knew the chaos that ensues the week prior to thanksgiving sheesh. so i don't really know where to begin, its all fairly long and complicated so i'll do my best to keep it short or maybe i'll decided to break this up into multiple posts-not too sure how i feel yet!
so wednesday i went for girls day with emily, as we already know from my airport post :) it was a blast, i think i almost had a heart attack 4 times on the way into the airport terminal, twice in security, another 3 times waiting in the gate for two hours and probably another 5 on the plane, but i felt much better after landing, though i'm pretty sure joshua didn't appreciate the 4 hour delay in text (he decided to nap right at 2ish, and my plane didn't leave til 4-hence the need for multiple heart attacks, cause i was sure he wasn't gonna believe my movie and dinner story, but he did, thank goodness :) ) sooo anyway i sat by some nice ladies on the plane, they were sisters and hadn't seen each other in nearly a year so listening to their stories was quite entertaining!  when i got off the plane, i ran to the potty cause i was shocked by the 50 degree weather after being in the warm plane, and just as i made it down the escalator my bag was almost all the way around the carousel-perfect timing! then i called miss leia and she and her friend morgan picked me up. as soon as i got in the car they say "so are you hungry? do you like mexican food?" and i did my best not to laugh because i knew they were just being polite, but i did have to say "uh, i live in arizona....of course i love mexican food!" i was a little iffy of course because how do you really find legit mexican food in birmingham alabama? i thought it was gonna be like taco bell or something lol but we went to a little hole in the wall place called "los compadres". it wasn't too bad-but it definitely ain't no REAL mexican food like we have here, but it will do in a craving situation for future reference. the salsa i'm pretty sure was canned, and those were DEFINITELY not fresh chips-dang we are so spoiled here lol. oh and i ordered the taco platter. um i don't know if you've ever had a taco platter here in the az but it usually comes with fresh tortillas, delicious meat of your choice and a whole lotta rice and beans. yum. unfortunately this does not happen in the birmingham-you do get three very yummy tacos, but you get like grocery store tortillas and some cheese and lettuce  bahahha :) but i had a lot of fun and i met leia's other friend john too and we all had a great time chatting-john was super curious about arizona, it is so funny to see people's reaction when you say you came from arizona-their jaws all drop and they all say some variation of "you came ALL the way from arizona!?" like it's the other side of the world or something lol. after dinner we went back to leia's house and talked for hours and finally went to bed! i woke up fairly early the next morning for me and leia and i ate breakfast-then tried to plan our day full of things so we wouldn't be bored til gametime at 7 pm. boy lemme tell ya it is no easy task to make a whole day go by when you are wishing it was later lol. we ate lunch and went to the park, and ran errands, and it was only 1!! killer. we had so much fun though! i'm glad we had a whole day to just hang! we went early to tailgate-like 430 or 5ish and of course all of the mom's were dying to hear the surprise story, which was sweet! then i met katie and her family and they gave me my ticket to get in-they are so super sweet! and they even stuck around after the game to see josh's reaction. when it was finally time to go into the stadium leia and i walked directly into gramma and grandpa and i nearly died right on the spot! but somehow they managed not to recognize me so we ran up the stairs to get a spot and sat about 15-20 rows right behind them, i could see them the whole game but they couldn't see me! the game lasted FOREVER! unfortunately they lost, but i had so much fun sitting with leia and trey's family! his dad is super funny! and i met so many new friends!
 here is a picture of me right after the game ended trying to avoid the guys on the field seeing me and his grandparents! they are right to the right of my shoulder in the blue jackets!

they had no idea! as soon as we took this we ran out the gates to the spot where the players come out and did our best to hide ourselves so that josh and gramma and grampa wouldn't see! after what seemed like ten years they finally came out and leia told josh she had something for him, he knew something was up cause one of the guys had said "your night is about to get a whole lot better" but he wasn't sure still. when he got to me his jaw dropped and he was like "wow" haha and he just kinda stood there for a little bit-i think we definitely got him good cause he had NOOO idea whatsoever, all he could say was "wow" haha :) that's an extra point for me thank you very much :) his grandparents were quite shocked to and didn't really know what to say but it was definitely fun! and so worth all of the waiting! thank you to everyone who helped get it all together! especially Leia and Jesse who helped me plan the whole thing!

exhausted.

okay, so this weekend was largely a success-even after the big scare of doom!  i am very thankful, and i had a super wonderful time and i super hate that i'm typing this from my desk in gilbert arizona. very much. BUT-it was a super awesome weekend, and i love my man, and i hate flying, and i super love birmingham, and i love date nights and i love the zoo and i love shopping at 10:30 pm, and i love making food for the boys, and i love listening to joshua sing in the car, and i love going out in the rain, and i love birmingham in the fall with all it's pretty leaves, and i love early sweet thoughtful presents from my boy, and i love when my boy gives me his too small t-shirts so i have a million to sleep in, and i love when he tells me he loves me and gives me a super smooch. and i do like being back home-a little. but not nearly as much as i love being in birmingham. and with joshua. BUT-there are only 4 more weeks til he comes home, in fact he actually has a flight home on the 16th of december at like 9am, so hopefully these next few weeks go fast!  i would post all of the awesomeness from this weekend, but to be quite honest, i am currently trying not to fall asleep so i can finish this post! so i think tomorrow i will write out each day's adventures and tell about how the surprise turned out and all the crazy fun things we did, and if i can figure it out, i may even post the video of josh's face cause it's pretty funny! unfortunately, i have zero pictures of the two of us this weekend :( sadness. but it's okay, cause it was still a wonderful weekend and i love him! goodnight!

girls day=huge success!

My nails are did, my bags are packed, I'm chilling in the gate and I'm a total nervous wreck! I can't believe the day is finally here! It has certainly taken forever! I know I said I wouldn't post for a while but there is pretty much no one here and I'm incredibly bored, plus I have to do something to keep my mind off of my nervousness! Emily and I met up a little before 11 to have our nails done-we both agree that it is incredibly relaxing and we both want a massaging chair. And I have to say my legs have never been more moisturized! Holy crap they use a ton of lotion! But I got a hand, wrist, neck, shoulder, foot and calf massage so I aint complainin! And I smell fruity and delicious! Ha :) Emily got me THE cutest diary journal thing I have ever seen! It is a fill in the blank and multiple choice diary about your day. LOVE it!! It will be so much fun to use! I'm hoping I'll actually be disciplined and start using it on my trip or shortly after and keep up with it!
I am slyly looking around me every ten minutes checking for grandparents, but there are only about 30 or 40 people on the gate and no sign of them yet, so maybe they really did drive there! I'm hoping! I can't wait to land in birmingham and have Leia come pick me up! I won't lie- I am worried I will freeze my buns off the moment I step off the plane, but it was 40 degrees here this morning so I probably won't die lol :) still cold and I don't agree so I'm hoping it stays a little more on the warm side for me! It's finally after 3! Hopefully we'll board in about 30 minutes I am dying to get moving! I need it to be tomorrow already! And then once I see my man it needs to go SLOWWWWWW! Ha I doubt that it will last as long as I hope, but it will be super awesome regardless! I'm so sad that there aren't more people here to entertain my people watching love-that always makes the airport so worth it! okay now I'm really gonna go and pretend to be patient while I wait in this tiny gate! Xoxoxo!

t-minus 17 hours til take off!

i thought this day may not ever come! the last week has been such a rollercoaster and it has taken nearly ten years to get here!  but tomorrow is the big day-well almost lol, at least i'll actually be in birmingham tomorrow night! then it's only one more long day of waiting to be able to see my man and hopefully a surprised look on his face!  so i just now remembered while typing this that i probably shoulda checked in for my flight at 4 pm to get a decent boarding pass number.......yeah well i had a migraine today-they ruin everything in case you didn't already know. i slept right through the 4 o'clock time to check in to be in the early boarding category. dang migraines.  BUT there is good news-i just checked in, positive that i'd have some C boarding pass in the 40's or something, but by some miracle i am an A 18. explain that after all my bad luck last week hahah.  but i'll take it, it's right after business class, so if there is any chance of grandparents on a flight, i may still have a chance to hide in the back of the plane if they don't see me in the gate-we'll see.  my secret secret keeper miss jihae has informed me that their vehicle has been gone all day and that she is pretty sure they have left so we're keeping our fingers crossed over here so that this all goes off without a hitch.  leia said she's ready for me to be there-i'm so glad she's excited to! i hope we have so much fun! i can't wait to get there tomorrow night and spend thursday just hanging out and having fun!  she is such a sweet girl so i'm sure we'll have a blast! and katie sent me a message saying she has my ticket! YAY! it's all finally becoming real and exciting again!  josh still has no idea, he's been with uncle rob all week so it's kept him very busy and hopefully very distracted! uncle rob leaves tomorrow, but josh still has workouts and class and then football meetings at the hotel, so hopefully he'll be too busy to notice that i can't talk much, but we do have a back up plan just in case!  keep those fingers crossed folks!
and tomorrow is finally the big girls day!!!! i cannot wait! i have been dying for it to get here! emily and i always have so much fun, but we never get lots of time to do anything too girly! so tomorrow will be super fun and exciting!  ANNND i get to give her her birthday present! i hope she likes it! okay well i'm off to pack the last few things i need and head to bed cause i have a buttload to do tomorrow before i leave! i don't know that i'll get to posting til i get back, but hopefully the next one i will have a super awesome story to post! yay!

happy birthday to nicole!

today nicole turned 16-kinda crazy to think that she's already 16, but i guess everyone must turn 16 at some point.  i wrapped all of her gifts in sponge bob paper i found several months ago and hung a sponge bob birthday banner across the kitchen for her to see-not too sure how she liked it because there was no real reaction when she came home, i think largely because there was the distraction of a boy.  but as long as she had a good day, that is all that really matters.  we had a quiet family dinner at home, which seems to be more and more rare these days, but it was nice all the same, and then we went to gramma's to have some cake and open her presents.  hopefully she liked them all, it was hard to tell.  i think i have come to the realization that i am incredibly lame, well in the world of high schoolers that is, so i didn't get the reaction i originally expected from my gifts. but things change i guess, the things that we used to enjoy we don't, everyone grows up, one day things are not what they used to be, and that is okay. in time i think i will accept it better when i'm not feeling quite so crushed lol.
just two more painfully long days to go! i think i'll do some housecleaning tomorrow after work to help pass the time. and as soon as my last load of laundry for my trip is done i am off to bed cause i have an early day in casa grande tomorrow!

hello curling iron :)

so today while cleaning my room and being super proud of the fact that i only have 2 loads of laundry cause all of my other laundry is already packed-i discovered that i really truly had not finished packing like i thought!  i completely forgot that i need a hair dryer......i can't use the hotel ones anymore now that my hair has grown back in thick and full (hallelujah!) so i need my own-and since it's supposed to be a high of 72 MAX i'm thinking i'll freeze if i have wet hair all day! so now i have to do some rearranging! poo!  oh well-and i'll have to make some room for a curling iron-yes, i have not used one in over a year because my hair couldn't handle it after mono, plus i had no hair to curl cause a) it all fell out and b) it was way super short and thin-so no good for curling like i used to-which was super uber suckish because i used to always do a quick curl on the ends and go about my day-i always got compliments and i never spent more than 5 minutes cause it always just fell into place and looked perfectly imperfect-then mono ruined it and i never realized how much a under-appreciated my hair-i have however changed my ways and i'm no longer ungrateful! i am super excited to report that since i started boosting my vitamins and gained a few extra pounds i have thick and full hair again, it's not quite back to it's original state, but it's getting closer and i am SO happy about it.  i have broken 2-count them!- 2 hair ties in the last month, which i never thought i would do again! and today i curled it for the first time just to see if it would still be an easily manageable thing, and it worked :) it is currently happily perfectly imperfectly bouncing around on my head, and i feel like i could be in a hair commercial today. it is definitely something to be happy about today-it also means that my hair will be super easy to maintain on vacation next week too-not that i spend an excessive amount on myself, but with thin hair it took me way longer to get ready! but no more! i will look beautiful and spend little time! yay! we should all have a celebration because this is a miracle moment for sure-appreciate and love it please!  such a beautiful saturday-maybe this will mean this week is destined for greatness! keep your fingers crossed!

at least it's friday!

this is the phrase i have been using all morning-i am less than my usual bubbly self, especially the last 3 days.  in fact today, i am a super grouch.  i had a headache all day yesterday and it didn't help that i felt achy and sick on top of it, i slept good last night for the first time in a while, so you'd think that would help. but no. i am having super feelings of jealousy today. and none of the things i normally do are shaking it, so i'm kinda at a loss at this point.  it sounds really terrible, but i am totally jealous of the fact that josh's family has been to all but 2 games on the season, which means that each weekend they get 2-4 days with him, ALL to themselves, unlike me who only ever gets to go when someone else is going and i always have to share, and then he'll come home in december and i'll do the same damn thing cause we'll spend every waking moment together with someone else cause its the holidays.  and everytime they are in town, he is super busy hanging out with them so i don't talk to him at all for 4 days.  you'd think by now i'd be used to it, but i still hate it.  and i'm trying to remember that it is great that they can be there to support him, but lately i feel less and less like its a WONDERFUL thing.  that's rude, but it's how i feel right now.  i don't hate them for it, i hate that i can't be there though, and i hate even more that there's nothing i can do about it.
we went to lunch with Lisa today-she is pretty much the sweetest lady on the planet.  she always has great crafty ideas and funny stories.  she was super bummed to find out that we pushed the wedding date back, kinda funny cause i really didn't think that it would be upsetting to anyone but me, but she was genuinely bummed.  which i think is nice-at least i know i'll have good help when the time finally comes!  talking about all of the ideas we have made me kinda depressed, i mean i love to think about it, but i packed up all of my ideas and shoved them in a box so that i wouldn't have to look at them after the huge disappointment of learning it all couldn't happen.  so i haven't really thought about it much since i threw everything in the box in september.  hopefully next time i have to really think about it, i can be excited about it again cause there will actually really  be something happening.  i'm trying to leave that alone for a while cause it isn't time, and i don't need anything else with false hope this week!
i guess i should really get back to work-it sounds less than appealing at the moment, but it is what makes everything happen so gotta keep on keepin on i guess.  i'm hoping tomorrow i can have an exciting post for a change and maybe UAB will win their homecoming game-it would at least brighten the next week!

one week to go!

well we are down to just one week before i leave.....my enthusiasm and excitement is still not back to the level it was before.  i have a plan b and c ready depending on where and when i see the grandparents.  right now i'm feeling like i shouldn't say anything to anyone and surprise them all so it doesn't look like they have all been in on it, because they haven't.  i'm still incredibly disappointed that they will be there since the whole intention was to give Josh a vacation for once and so that he didn't have to balance his time between everyone who came to visit like he always does.  i canceled all of my day trip plans for atlanta yesterday-guess it's a good thing i didn't buy the tickets for the aquarium like i was going to cause it would have been a waste at this point.  we'll just have to hope it all goes at least semi well cause right now i feel like its all gone to crap.  that sounds horrible and selfish, but if you worked for 2 and a half months, you would feel the same way too.  i'm planning another trip for the spring when i can find some money, and i fully intend to make sure NO ONE can ruin anything this time.  and we will go do a day trip to atlanta, and we will go on at least one date by ourselves and we will have a good time-and i will not share or divide my time between anyone for the entire weekend. period. no exceptions at all. 
in other news, i found a super bargain on two pairs of jeans at Urban Xchange a few days ago-less than 15 each, and they are in good shape.  if you want some expensive jeans for cheap, it would be the place to look if you are okay with used!  it's in the strip mall on the corner of val vista and guadalupe if you wanna check it out.  never know what you'll find, but it's worth a shot! and i also found a shirt at marshall's to replace the blue one joshua loved and out grew-maybe i'll take it to him next week, or maybe i'll just mail it-haven't decided which would work best yet!  hopefully the rest of this week goes smoothly and everything ends up and works out fine. i don't know if i can handle anything else going wrong, cause quite frankly the first wrench thrown in all my hard work made me cry. and i haven't slept in 2 days trying to come up with something new.

the best laid plans.

okay, i am not a crazy person who posts multiple times a day, but i am way super overwhelmed and frustrated at the moment and i have to do something.  everything that i have been working so hard for this last 7 weeks is totally in ruin.  Josh's grandparents are going to the game i am going to-not that i don't love them-but the WHOLE point was so there was NO ONE there and that he wasn't expecting anyone to come :( but now he'll be expecting them so my surprise will not mean nearly as much.  nor will we get to do all the cool things i had planned, or double date with leia and trey, or take josh away from his dorm and have a day trip or anything.  ugh. i seriously should have known it was all too good to be true, i didn't tell anyone cause i know its hard for them to keep secrets and now they have changed their original plans and are coming so everything i thought i did so good on is no bueno. i am super bummed out. and now i only have 5 little days to come up with something at least half way decent.  it won't even be a 1/3 of the greatness that my other plan was. it will still mean a lot to him i'm sure, but its not the same and i know it. it will not have nearly the affect that it was intended because there are going to be other people.  quite frankly right now i want to curl up in a large ball. i know that really doesn't help the situation, but i feel totally helpless, i can't call and ask them to cancel even though i want them too. i know they want to be there to see him too, but i always always always have to share when he's home. we never even get to have a date night to ourselves. EVER. seriously in the almost 2 years we've been dating i can count 4-yes 4 actual dates where we were COMPLETELY on our own somewhere at dinner or a movie.  he's never home long enough for us to go out for just us, and i understand that everyone wants to see him, but i thought this would be an actual chance for us to have some us time to talk and see a movie without a family with us or just have dinner like a real couple for a change.  looks like that is not happening until we're married at this rate. oh well, at least i will get to go and see him, it's better than nothing at all. but honestly this news has completely killed all of the excitement that i had this week. it's all shot. i'm still excited to go, i really want to see him.  but knowing that i have no us time and that i have to figure out how to keep more people quiet and find a new plan to surprise him just kills all of it and i feel rather defeated after all of my hard work.  so much for that lol, he did tell me i'd never be able to surprise him fully, and apparently he jinxed me pretty good, cause i had the deal all sealed and now its definitely not gonna work anymore.  hopefully i'll come up with something new, or maybe i'll get lucky and his information will be wrong, but i feel that the latter is not the case seeing as inside sources have already informed me otherwise.  bummage. i guess i'll check back in when i have more news. for now i'm going to go sit and mope and try to find something better and try not to cry lol.

babysitting my lily and toto

november is finally here! it is quite the glorious fun filled month!  it is always busy and usually goes by too fast, but this year i'm thinking it will be SUPER great! there are so many wonderful things to look forward to! and that is awesome!  last night i watched chris and jihae's kiddos-they are certainly quite adorable and i never mind going to babysit cause they are always well behaved and so much fun!  i love that jihae always calls me "aunt aly"-i'm not even engaged to josh, but i guess that doesn't matter! guess i shouldn't worry about being an accepted member of the family eh? ha :) like the kids know the difference anyway!  we watched shark tale or something of the variety, not really sure-it was about fish and sharks and i'm pretty sure will smith was in it, but whatever! it was cute and fun!  the kids are hilarious with their halloween candy-they each got to pick one to eat as dessert after dinner and lily pulled out this tiny bag of candy corn with the craziest look of puzzlement on her face, i tried super hard not to laugh! but it was just too cute! she looked at it then looked at me, then looks at it again while holding it out away from her with two fingers and says, "WHAT is it?" as only three year old lilster can do. when i told her it was candy corn she just raised an eyebrow at me, so i opened the package and let her try them, she studied them for a moment then ate one, then poured the rest (like 7 candy corn-definitely not enough for a bite lol) out and counted them all and lined them up-i think it's safe to say she is not afraid of the strangeness of candy corn anymore!  then toph, good ol tophy, he pulls out a sucker with great pride and says "i want this one!" and hold onto it with both hands lol then he just holds it for a while and when i took the paper off of the little ball on a stick he looks at it with this HUGE grin and wide eyes and holds it out to me like it is a new invention that could change the universe. and then he just sat there in his chair with it for a long time and looked at it, and smiled at it, and held it out to me, and told me that he had a sucker. i think after a good 45 minutes he actually finally licked the thing-such a little goose!  he also showed me his tattoos last night-such a funny little guy, and he was SO excited to take a bath ha. lily had a super headache and almost made me cry when she asked me to please not wash her hair because it hurt :( poor baby, so i put her to bed and she was gone in like ten minutes! and since toph was still a little rowdy i kept him playing in the bath for a little hoping lily would be asleep by the time i had him bathed-when i put a towel on him and pulled him out of the tub he wraps the towel under his arms  and stiffens them close to his sides so i lifted him out to by his shoulders and like a super hero he goes "TOPPPHHHEEERRRR!!!!" hahah it was the funniest thing ever! i almost dropped him right back in the water cause it was so unexpected but it was definitely a highlight of my day-kids are SO amazing and so incredibly funny, they are definitely full of surprises and i love it! the house felt super quiet and lonely (i was at josh's mom's house for all of this babysitting) and it was weird to be there without josh, i kept expecting him to walk upstairs or something!  the only real noise was callie kitty SNORING in the chair next to me and the "little" kitten playing "attack the mat" in front of me on the floor. it was rather relaxing!  then chris and jihae came back from bible study and i got some girl chat time with jihae! i super love her-she has always made me feel SO welcome from day 1 and she genuinely cares about people, she is such a sweet sweeet lady, and i love her husband too! they are so awesome! i can't wait to hang with them when joshy bear comes home! while i was there i told them about "operation surprise joshua" and they LOVE it! they are my super secret secret keepers and they are so excited too! they think it is a super awesome idea-and they are always awesome about not telling, they are not the gossiping type so i'm not worried about a slip! plus there are only 9 more days! they even gave me 20 bucks for babysitting and said to use it toward my girls day! yahoo! thakns guys, you are super sweet! and i super love you a lot! i can't wait to be a real aunt to your kids! and jihae-you are the best unofficial-almost-future-sister-in-law ever!

17 days and counting

so i am officially at the 17 day mark in my countdown!  (if we wanna get technical its technically still 18 since it isn't midnight and it isn't the 25th of october....but humor me, 17 sounds so much closer.)  i have officially been productive this weekend-though by looking at the house you probably would not agree ha.  i did however get out the fall decorations, put all the fall flowers back in their pots by the front door, and put out all my pumpkins, baby scarecrows, and logs and i even helped rearrange all of the backyard furniture!  it's all starting to actually look like a backyard now!  it definitely has a long way to go, but one of these days it will get there.  i am excited to plant some fall flowers in my grandmas old fountain that now sits nicely under one of our big bushes-we'll see if mom lets me plant it how i want :) i also wrapped all of the november birthday gifts and it is not even november yet-there is a first time for never procrastinating ha we'll see how long it actually lasts however!  i also filled out my november month calender on the wall, it is looking quite festive with my hand drawn leaves-and for once they actually look like leaves, it is not questionable as to what i drew like last month's bat/pumpkin attempt!
and the best work i did this weekend was get my football game ticket!  my sweet new friend katie offered me one of her free ones so that none of the boys have to remember to write my name down on the list and no one can accidentally say things they aren't supposed to!  hooray! now i can actually start to feel excited because the pieces are all in order, now i just gotta make sure i stay quiet and  try to refrain from packing (though secretly i've had things that i don't use, i.e. my winter pj's, robe, and sweatshirts, oh and miss leia's thank you gift, and my hat for disguise, all packed since the 15th of october......yes that is pathetic, but i am very excited so i'm not feeling like a loser for it ha :) and i know i'll still end up taking all of it out and frantically repacking the night before, because that is just how i roll!
here's to a FAST, good week! and a super duper fast next 17 days-i'm in desperate need of the manicure and pedicure emily and i are going for before my long flight! and i am dying to see my man's face when he discovers me in birmingham :)