We Are Engaged!

I guess it was appropriate that I put that "Why We Work" post up on Friday... because on Friday evening A asked me to to spend the rest of my life with him.

The whole evening was absolutely perfect. We walked to our favorite park in Columbus, sat on the bench where we said our first "I love you's", and spent a while just talking, cuddling, and people watching. Finally, he turned the conversation back to us (instead of the strange man laying on the ground taking pictures of flowers on the pond) said some incredibly sweet things that I only kind of remember, and asked me if I would marry him. Of course, I said yes.

Those first two pics were taken the night it actually happened. The rest of these were taken a couple days later when we realized we should probably take a few more (obviously we are selfie pros).

The whole weekend was an awesome combination of time for us alone together and time with friends. We spent Friday after the proposal calling/texting friends and family and later ate dinner at one of our favorite bars in Columbus. Saturday we got massages in the morning, had lunch with two of my girlfriends and their husbands, spent the afternoon being lazy together, and went out to a fantastic dinner at one of our favorite fancy restaurants in town. Sunday we got brunch with one of A's college buddies then went back to the park to enjoy the gorgeous day and snap a few more pictures.

It was a perfect weekend; without a doubt it was a weekend I will never forget. Ever since I've been home I can't shake the fantastic feeling that I get to marry my best friend, my love, my crazy partner in crime. I will likely do another post soon to answer what I'm sure are some of your burning questions (i.e. "But Ashley, don't you two still live in different cities? Yes. Yes we do.)

For now I'll leave you with my favorite picture from the weekend. I call this his "She said YESSS" face, and I think it is perfect.

Long Distance Love

By now you are all fully aware that my boyfriend, A, and I are in a long distance relationship. And it is not an easy thing. Now that I am back in Dallas and won't be seeing A until after Christmas... Today I thought I would talk a little bit about a few of the basic things that we do to make it just a little bit easier:

1. FaceTime: Thank goodness for FaceTime y'all! It makes a world of difference to be able to come home from a long day of work and see A's face while I am talking to him. Long distance love relies heavily on our ability to communicate with one another; and talking on the phone is great but when you can see the person's face it is much easier to interpret and understand what they are telling you. Many a miscommunication is avoided with the help of FaceTime.

2. Snapchat: This goes along the same lines of everything said above, but I love to send and receive little snapshots throughout the day.

3. Watching Movies/TV Shows Together: Again- thank you to FaceTime for allowing us to do this but... just because we live 1500 miles apart, doesn't mean we can't have shared experiences. We have a number of TV shows that we both watch and we will often make an effort to watch them together. These mini-date nights allow us a break from normal conversation and let us veg out while watching the same show/movie. Only bummer about this--- cuddling not included =(

4. VISIT: We see each other as much as possible, of course. For us, it has been averaging out to about once a month. We are diligent about spacing out our visits to make the most of both our time and money. But we can talk more about these visits in another post. And best of all, I get to see him for Thanksgiving in just two short days!

Long distance love takes patience (something I do not have much of) and trust. It is a challenge every day, but when you've got the right person on the other end of the phone each day, it is a challenge that is MORE THAN worth it.

Intermediate Gratification

A and I were talking the other day- trying to figure out our visiting-each other-schedule for the next few months... and I said it is depressing to look at a calendar and see how little I am able to see him in a given year. His comment was, "well I am a big fan of delayed gratification." I immediately responded, "I like instant gratification."

His response... "I guess we will just have to find some intermediate gratification."

First of all, that's not a thing. But it definitely made me laugh. So I guess that has now become a thing- at least it will be for our current situation.

We are constantly having to find ways to balance his patience with my impatience, his desire to work with my desire to play. He pulls me back from making impulsive decisions and I push him to go with the flow a bit more.

Rather than creating tension, our differences in opinion allow us to both become more balanced individuals. Of course getting to that balancing point requires listening and respect, the ability to abandon judgement and embrace understanding, and a very healthy dose of open communication- all skills we continue to strengthen daily.

Through all that, somewhere in the middle we find the right decisions for both of us.

The intermediate gratification.

Change Of Plans

Soooo.... remember on Friday when I said that I would be seeing my boyfriend on Wednesday... Welllllllllll I got a little impatient.

After looking at my work calendar and realizing I didn't have a lot going on (because many of my coworkers are out this week) I decided to buy myself a one way ticket to WV.

I also decided to scare some friends and family by telling them only this part of the story. ***cue evil laugh***

No... I haven't up and moved to West Virginia... yet... ;)

The new plan is to work from here (thank you flexible work environment!) until Wednesday when we will head back to Missouri for Thanksgiving with his fam; at that point we will be back on the original plan and I'll fly home to Dallas on Sunday.

Patience is not, and has never been, one of my strengths. I lost the battle this time....

And I couldn't be happier about it =)