a trip, never to forget

The countdown to August 03rd finally arrived… I flew out of Pensacola, FL at 9:45am, with a layover in Atlanta, GA, and then landed in Akron, OH around 2:15pm. In Akron, I met my wonderful fiance… whom I greeted with a loving hug and kiss! J The three weeks seemed to have been years, he looked so much different.. I stared at him in amazement! I couldn't keep my eyes off of him! We picked up my luggage and drove thirty minutes to Streetsboro, OH. Although I didn't want to let go of him, he left me there and went back to work. L That night after work we went to a family-style Italian restaurant, called Buca de Beppos. It was amazing… they walked us through the kitchen, introduced us to the cooks who waved and spoke, then sat us in the wine room. I know what your thinking.. No, we didn't drink wine… It was called that because the ceiling was a shelf of wine bottles! The food was delicious to me, and I found out that I just might like sauces and dips after all. J


Saturday night, the surprise was so amazing.. We rode around downtown Cleveland, OH for awhile (Aus' GPS program doesn't know everything!). But we parked in this parking lot and began to walk… I was still so clueless.. We got in a ticket line, I looked to my right and it was then that I realized this was going to be the most romantic night of my life! (Well, maybe not… because I know we'll have many more of those, but let's just say it was the most romantic so far..). I saw a cruise boat that was named, Nautica Queen! We went on a dinner cruise on Lake Eerie!! It was awesome.. We ate, listened to the tour guide for awhile, and then went to the top deck. This is where all the romance took place. J By this time, the sun was setting so that made a beautiful scene and the city lights were on! We were watching this beautiful scene while leaning on the rails of the boat with his arms around me, nothing more I could have wanted or imagined at that moment… it was beautiful! As the music played, we were wrapped in each others arms and hugged, kissed, and danced. J WOW!! We were so "lost in the moment" with each other! I stared into his eyes and saw my future.. I never wanted this night to end, but he kept the surprises coming!

Sunday morning, I was craving some donuts! I asked Austin if there was a Krispy Kreme around! Even better, my favorite childhood donut spot was in OH, just like in FL! Dunkin Donuts! He already had plans to take me there! We went! Oh my goodness, I ate glazed donut holes just like when I was younger with my daddy! I can't thank him enough for this surprise! It meant more than just the wonderful donuts to me and Austin knew that! It was great! And Sunday night, we ventured back downtown Cleveland. We ate at Sushi Rock… and it was so delicious! I didn't think I would like Sushi, but I ended up loving it!! He fed it to me, because I hadn't quite mastered the chop-sticks yet!! But… keep reading because later on in the week I became a pro! Anyways, after this we went to The Playhouse where we saw a Broadway Play: The Lion King. Oh my, it was the most wonderful sight to see. I've never been so amazed… the actors were wonderful, the costumes, the singing, dancing, music, etc. I couldn't have imagined it being any better! I have always dreamed of going to a broadway play, and that night my dream came true! And no one better to share it with than my love, Austin. He made that evening, "a night to remember."

Monday.. Was supposed to be my last day there. L Aus had to be at work around six am and around eight am he got off! He wanted to spend the last day with me… All day long we both were sad, not to mention I cried a few times. We spent the day running a couple errands, then ordered pizza. WOW! I had quite an appetite that day.. It definitely was a moment for the history books, because I ate three pieces of pizza and five chicken wings! Austin, on the other hand, only had one piece of pizza and the rest of the chicken wings! So that means, I ate more than him! Whoo Hoo!! J This day, we had several conversations about whether or not I should go home on Tuesday or stay longer. I already had plans to return to both jobs on Wednesday, but after a few phone calls I was in Ohio to stay until the following Sunday! This made us both ecstatic, and we celebrated with The Cheescake Factory. By the way, a breath-taking restaurant! We were seated in a boothe, sitting on the same side of course, and there we sat glaring into each others eyes.. WOW! Before we left that restaurant, we both knew exactly how we felt about each other.. The heart to heart conversation made a memory that I will never forget. I think that we were so "lost in the moment" that we forgot what he had came to the restaurant to do… eat! Thankfully, we only ordered one meal- to split. Both of us only ate a few bites, so the waitress boxed it up for us. Aus mentioned that it might be considered a sin to visit The Cheesecake Factory and not eat any cheesecake!! So we ordered our favorite, Strawberry Cheesecake, to go!

Tuesday night we went to Cracker Barrel and ate with Aus' boss, his wife, and their four- year-old daughter. I fell in love with their daughter… and I'm almost positive she loved me too! It was so precious how she imitated everything I did! Little kids, do admire their elders so much.. I realized how much they observe and in return copy exactly what we do. She drank, ate, sat, etc. just like me! She watched me and did exactly what I did. It was so cute, especially how she was trying to be so discreet about it… but it really opened my eyes. As an adult, I need to be an influence that I would want younger generations to be like. I also realized what a good thing that I have been blessed with.. Austin is an amazing gentleman. The way he knows me and treats me is incredible. Even in the rain, he opened my car door for me. In fact, he never missed the opportunity to do that my entire trip!

Wednesday I went to the Cleveland Zoo with the four-year-old, McKayla, and her mother. We arrived at the Zoo around twelve… saw every animal (maybe a couple times), played on the playground, ate lunch, visited the gift shop, and returned home around six. After doing so much walking in the heat, I was exhausted. So, that night Aus and I worked on our wedding plans and cuddled. J We also grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican restaurant in Streetsboro. I had a craving for some good ole cheese dip! Aus tried to explain to me that there was not a restaurant in town that had cheese dip, that's just in the south. Well, stubborn me would not take no for an answer until we found one, and that we did! Like he said, it tasted Nothing like the South's but it was edible. So, that made a wonderful night! J I loved just spending quality time with the man that is going to give me his last name!

Thursday night was my surprise! We went to dinner at Austin's Steakhouse! Yep.yep.. It was his name! We laughed so hard at the restaurant! Everything he said, seemed to be hysterical to me… people probably thought we were quite strange, but we enjoyed ourselves! Oh yeah, you'll never believe what was across the street from Austin's Steakhouse… a Sky Bank! J That was pretty awesome to us! Anyways, then we had icecream at Scoop's. I had buttered-pecan (my personal favorite) and Austin had Cheesecake. There was a painting on the wall that had objects hidden in it, so we got to search for them while we ate our icecream! Pretty cool.. Then we ordered a pint to go for me and were on our way!

Friday night was wonderful! Before the "main feature" of the night, my baby took me on a thrill ride! He decided it was time to test his four-wheel drive.. So… we pull up at this dirt hill! WOW.. My eyes have never been opened so big as they were when I realized what was going on… we drove up one side of the hill and practically straight down the other side (slipping and slidding). Yes, for the first time in a week… I wanted my momma! And as if that wasn't enough of a scare for one night, we made a 360 degree turn on two wheels, it seemed like! He promised we would never do that again! No.. thinking back on it now it wasn't bad at all… but not expecting it made it not so fun! However, I think he had that planned… to cause my muscles and joints to be tense, because the "main attraction" of the night was a one-hour massage! Oh my goodness… another thing that I have never done! It was the most relaxing and stress- relieving hour of my life! We also found out that Aus was very stressed (from work, not me) and the lady lowered his shoulders a couple inches! Really! And my therapist was able to determine which arm I carry my trays with while waitressing because I had a knot! But she worked it out. Although the massage was simply the best, my favorite part was when Austin said, "baby, I love you!" That put the biggest smile on my face! J After that, we went to a "ma and pa" Italian restaurant called Parrasen's. It was delicious… Meatballs as an appetizer with cheese bread! Aus ate raviolis and I had lasagna. Oh yeah.. And we got to sit in a booth that had mirrors surrounding it! My baby loved that! He has a love for mirrors… hehe! Afterwards, we rode around Streetsboro trying to find a place to develop our pictures! It definitely was nothing like Mobile! Walgreen's nor Walmart were open 24 hours! But, like the usual Target closed early. However, we were at Walgreen's just in the nick of time to select our pictures… and the sweet girl stayed there fifteen minutes later to develop them for us! And she said we made her night because she got to work.. Hehe! Then we put together our present for McKayla, which was a photo album of all the zoo pictures, and delivered it to her room. This was an amazing night… until I started having pain in my lower back, but I made it through the night.

Saturday afternoon we went horseback riding! My horse was Bonnie and Austin's was Clyde! Hehe.. So appropriate! We rode through the trails in the woods, in the creek, we trotted, walked, climped, Everything! I loved it! I had dreamed of going horse back riding for the past six months, so finally my dream came true! J It was so peaceful, and I felt like I had been doing it for my whole life. I was not nervous, scared, or anything, just a natural! And my Austin was wonderful at it his self! Him and Clyde were a lot of alike, they both like being close to their women and are both very protective! I loved it! Saturday night we returned to Sushi Rock… Where, like I mentioned earlier, I became a "pro of the chopsticks!" I must give all credit to the love of my life! We sat at the Sushi Bar this time: and we quickly ate our sushi, smiled for a quick picture, and off we were… walking downtown Cleveland. The next part, Aus made look so simple! Just like I had seen it done on the television… He stuck out his hand, the taxi pulled over, we hopped in, and Aus said "Indians game!" The door closed, the man pushed the time button to begin (which determined how much money he got), and off we were… weaving in and out of traffic.. Just like in the movies! I loved it… In no time at all we arrived at the Jacob's Stadium, home of the Cleveland Indians! We purchased our tickets, climbed the escalator, and arrived at our seats! Oh wait! I left one thing out… "Take me out to the ball game.. buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if we ever get back! For it's root, root, root for the home team (which stunk by the way… but we still rooted for them) , If they don't win it's ashame (and it was..).." OK… before we arrived at our seats.. Aus bought me cracker jacks and him peanuts! Just like the song! We watched each other the whole game! So I'm not sure the score, but I know the NY Yankees won… need I say more!? Oh yeah, we left seventh inning.. To avoid traffic! We walked back down to the ground level.. And oh my the back pain that I mentioned occurring Friday night has increased drastically! With every step, I felt like someone was stabbing a knife into my lower back… but I tried so hard to be strong, never mentioning the severity of the pain… I just let Aus know he was walking fast! But walking back down the street, stopped at a corner… we were stopped by some man wanting money, as Aus was pretending to listen to his comical story, I hollered "there's a taxi" and pointed.. Aus grabbed my hand, and we ran across the street, jumped in the taxi.. While the man screamed "hey man… that was rude!" Not caring, we directed the wreckless taxi driver and off we were! Oh my goodness, I absolutely Loved the Taxi rides… especially the one back to Austin's truck! Once again, another amazing night!!

However, Sunday was not my favorite day at all… For one, I woke up early that morning in such excruciating pain. Except this time it felt like a hundred knives were being stabbed into my lower back and stomache. I was nauseated, hot, sweaty, etc. I called my momma in tears, claiming that I had to go to the hospital. Just like my momma, she comforted me and prayed for me, always making me feel better… And my Austin did everything to take care of me! He really was wonderful, and I was so thankful for him doing that.. Because if not for both of their comfort I would not have made it through that night without some type of medicine. Later that morning, while blow drying my hair, the fire alarm in the building went off.. I did not hear it until I turned off the blow dryer.. My heart fell.. I was so nervous, I saw smoke in the room… Panicking, I threw on my clothes, grabbed my cell phone, flung open the door, met eyes with the neighbor, and we both ran down the stairs and outside! There I stood barefooted, hair still wet, no makeup on, trying frantically to call my Austin… Pressing the number two (for A), then the number eight twice (for U, S) to get quickly get to his name in my phone (like done so many times before) I could not find his name! I did it again, and again, and yeah for the fourth time! Until, I stopped, took a breath, and realized that at the Cleveland Indians ballgame I changed him to husband in my phone, and myself to wife in his! Then, I pressed the numbers four (H), eight (U), seven (S).. and there it said husband. J Finally! He answered, I told the story, and within ten minutes he was there along with his boss and another co-worker. By this time, the fire was taken care of and the firemen were leaving.. Some crazy people, left their stove on and it started a fire! Might I say.. Retard! Hehe.. Okay, so I do know that my Aus is going to read this and say "Baby, you did that the day you went to the Zoo." So, yes I must confess I am a retard.. But atleast it didn't start a fire! And no, I don't do that on a regular basis… and will be more careful next time! So, Austin's boss let him have the rest of the day off so he could take me to the airport. L After doing some last minute packing, we stopped and bought presents for my family, ate a quick bite to eat at Wendy's, and headed to the airport. Ugh.. I hated this part. We both agreed to be strong until we left each other: but uh yeah, that didn't happen. I squalled like I was a baby and as if it was my momma leaving me for the first time! I cried, cried, and yep (you guessed it) cried some more! With tears in my eyes, I went through security, then I sat in a chair downstairs while he was upstairs looking down through the glass window at me and we talked on the phone! J Not even security at an airport can separate us! Hehe.. Then my plane boarded, I gave him the I love you sign on my hands and he watched my shadow as I disappeared into the terminal. I boarded the plane, sat by the window, and looked out with tears falling down my face. I missed my one true love. L About an hour and a half later, I arrived in Atlanta, GA. I knew I had roughly a two hour layover, so I prepared myself. I went straight to my concourse, sat down, pulled out my new found hobby a Sudoku puzzle, and my cell phone to call my baby. Time passed rather quickly, they changed my concourse, I arrived at the new location… and the pain hit me! Actually, it never left me but I was just learning to deal with it. Until, now thousands of knives we stabbing me in the back! I could not stand it, I was not around anyone that I knew, so I broke down.. The tears flowed, my eyes red, and my pain unbearable… 6:40pm.. The time of my departure… Of course that didn't happen when I was dieing to get home so my momma could take care of me. Once again, they changed my concourse… I walked through that huge airport, with puddles of tears rolling off my face, to another concourse. Taking longer because of my slow pace, I arrived, only to find I had one more stupid concourse change!! I went there, sat down, and waited on them to call out my flight number… trying to calm my nerves I worked on a Sudoku puzzle, which only made me madder because it was a difficult one. I quickly closed it, ripped open my backpack, shoved it in, stood up, and annoyingly walked towards the time board… there it said 8:15 departure. I had already been there an hour and thirty five minutes past my original departure time! I was ticked! Finally, around 8:45 we boarded. Every step I took seemed like one step closer to the last one I would take. I thought I was dying.. I climbed the steps of that airplane, found my seat, and sat in front of a screaming youngin! J What more could I have asked for!? But I cried with her the whole ride to the Pensacola. Pausing, just a second to say that the night flight was pretty.. Seeing the city lights below and all was beautiful.. Now back to my horrible day, I walked off the plane, down the steps, on the course they had set for us, into the airport, up the escalator, down the loooong hallway, where I saw my mother and brothers. With tear filled eyes, a pale face, and one hand on my back we got my luggage and headed home… Not letting my momma stop at the Pensacola hospital, she drove to a hospital in Mobile, where I sat in the Emergency Room, waiting on relief….

* I had the most amazing time with my future husband, this truly was "a trip, never to forget!" Just like he promised me…