Moving!

After the proposal, Ben and I came back to his Madison apartment, changed our fb status (naturally), and then took a nap. For the next several days we packed, and packed, and packed some more. Our friends Nick and Chase came over to help Ben pack all the boxes into the moving truck.

The following day, Ben drove the moving truck, while Chase and I drove "white lightning"(Ben's appropriately named vehicle). Of course it was not as simple as that: the moving truck that Ben had to tirelessly attain from Budget now had a broken windshield wiper. As you can imagine, this hinders your driving ability quite a bit when you have snow and road salt barreling at you. We pulled over to a rest stop in Wisconsin, and Ben quickly made friends with about 10 truck drivers (he's a charming one), in hopes of finding a wrench so that he could (very manly mind you) fix the broken wiper.

After 20 minutes or so, SHAZAM it was fixed! Handy man indeed.

4 hours later we ends up at a Frisch's Big Boy right outside of Indiana. It's by far the worst "food" that I've ever eaten in my life. Warm things were cold, cold things were warm... ulg. However, our University of Wisconsin division 1 athlete, Chase, found everything very delectable. I gladly "shared" my "food" with him. As in he ate 90% of it. He's a growing boy.

Once arriving in Indy, we relaxed. We slept. It had been 5 days since I'd seen my bed, and this time I got to share it with a boy, tee hee.

The next morning, the manly men unloaded that stuffed moving truck, as I completed my last minute Christmas shopping (this was December 24th). Please note  *last minute means all of my shopping in this specific case.

We then loaded up into White Lightning and dashed to Ben's folks' place in Cincinnati. We spent 1 day there, said goodbye to our Division One athlete, and headed west to lovely Tell City to see my family. By the time we got there, Ben and I were feeling the ran down feeling of, "where is my bed? where is my home?" It was a great time to see all of my family, but I'm also disappointed that I felt soooo tired, and out of sorts.

We spent a couple days in TC, and then we headed back to our home. This is what it looked like for a week or so. :-)

Unpacking, hard.

I'm hiding. Where's Lacey?

Ben journaling.

Ben had no counter space in the kitchen, so this is where he prepared our delicious black bean soup.

Unpacking, like a champion.

But no worries folks! It looks awfully snazzy these days. Pictures to come.

A little to celebrate

A lot has happened in 3 weeks... Ben graduated from grad school, Ben and I are now engaged, holidays with our families, Ben moved from Wisconsin into our apartment in Indianapolis, and we are almost 20 weeks pregnant.

It all started with being picked up by Ben's family and traveling up to Wisconsin from Indianapolis. It was Friday, the last day of class before winter break. I rushed home and gathered some last minute things for my suitcase, and was happily greeted by Ben's mother, father, and sister. We all packed up into their car for our road trip, first stop: Bloomington, Illinois.

Ben's family had reserved a hotel room for us to stop at, that was half way from Indy to Madison. Upon arriving we ran to a nearby Mexican restaurant for some lovely, warm dinner. It is also where I fantasized about hooking up Ben's sister, Sarah, with our waiter. I decided that it may be inappropriate, so I caved.

The next day, we traveled another 3 hours north to Madison, Wisconsin. It was bittersweet for me, knowing that this might be the last time that I ever step foot into the city that has warmed my heart. Not to mention, it was the city that I had envisioned myself in, as a UW grad student. Therefore, this trip was also tough in the sense, that I was also closing the door on my UW grad school intentions as well.

We arrived at Ben's apartment. I was greeted with his lovely blue eyes and two long arms wrapped around me. I hadn't seen Ben for a week, but a week is a lot of time to be separated from someone that you love. After greetings were exchanged, we met up at a cafe on State Street. Ben's cousin, Chase, and our friend, Claire also joined us. That night we began to help Ben pack up his Madison life.

The next day was a big day. It was graduation day for Ben. Words cannot express the enjoyment that I felt that day for Ben, and Ben's family. We helped him get suited up in the graduation garb, however, this was different because he wore a hood that signified him as a "Master," or so he says.

Ben found his place, and his family and I found our spots among the many other proud families inside the Kohl Center. The ceremony took about an hour or so to commence. After the graduation, we all walked to Nick's Restaurant for a celebration lunch (before Ben's parents and sister began their journey back to Cincinnati).

After lunch, we said our goodbyes to Ben's family and Claire. Ben, Chase, and I continued to walk toward Bascom Hill. It is tradition for UW graduates to climb up the statue of Abraham Lincoln, that is placed at the very top of Bascom Hill, and whisper hopes, dreams, or intentions into his ear. Chase split off to go and study for a final exam that he had the following day.

Ben and I walked/hiked up to the top of Bascom Hill in the freezing Wisconsin winter air. I brought my camera to document this monumental occasion. Ben had a tough time of getting a good grip onto the icy statue so instead he whispered loud enough that Abe could hear, but no one else could.

Ben walked back to me, took the camera out of my hand, took off my gloves (at this point... I was very confused as to why he was taking off my gloves when it was a negative degree windchill), reached into his pocked, and then kneeled down before me. This is where is gets a little fuzzy for me... my mind was saying a lot of things, "Oh crap, is he proposing, his knee is going to be cold, wait is that a ring, oh crap..." Of course my mind was racing while I was missing what he was saying, and they were probably the most perfect words about our love, and yeah, there I was, wondering if his knee was cold.

I snapped back into real life, realized the proposal, started laughing and smiling, and replied with a, "YES!" Ben stood up and placed a delicate and lovely white gold band upon my ring finger. I, then, grabbed his hand and kneeled before him and asked for his hand in marriage, of which he also replied, "YES!" to. As we hugged and kissed, we were celebrated by the clapping of passerby strangers.

to be continued...