our ENGAGEMENT!!

I'll start this post with the end of the story: there is an amazing, shiny, sparkly ring on my left hand that I can't stop staring at. But, how did it get there? .....

Wednesday, August 17th was my 21st birthday. The first "celebratory" thing I did was have lunch with two of my best friends: Matt & Emily!

Wednesday was also the final day of RA training, A.K.A. FTLW (Fall Training & Leadership Workshop). For a week, all of the RAs, Matt and myself included, sat through numerous sessions, participated in fun teambuilding activities, acted or handled situations for BCDs (Behind Closed Doors), and we were all waiting for the closing dinner that night. I'll speak for myself, but I think I was most looking forward to it because we get to dress up!

After dinner and the infamous closing activity that makes everyone feel so loved, the entire RCL (Residential and Commuter Life) Staff went outside to take staff pictures. Because there are so many awesome people, this took quite some time! Towards the end of the pictures, my staff got into a huddle before I got embarrassed quite a bit: one of my friends, Will, yelled that it was my birthday, and my entire staff started singing "Happy Birthday," with everyone else joining in. I have no doubt that my face was as red as a tomato!! haha.

During the picture time, mine & Matt's friend Jesse, who is on my staff, told me to stay dressed up for something later on. I didn't really think anything of it, just something else for my birthday maybe, so it was whatever. After pictures, our staff was going to do a walkthrough of our residence hall so we all knew what to do for rounds, so I figured I wouldn't be dressed up that much longer anyway. After the rounds, I went with Jesse, not having any idea where we were going.

We ended up in front of our building, and Matt was waiting on the front steps. Matt said to me, "Let's take pictures; we're already dressed up anyway." Well, if you know me, you know I love to take pictures, but I also love having pictures of Matt and me, so I didn't have a problem with it at all (despite the fact that it was really hot outside).

So, we first walked over to one of the fountains on campus to start...
From there, we walked over to the steps behind Ruffner, one of the main buildings on campus. Before we started taking pictures there, Matt asked me if I wanted to take pictures at the bottom or top of the stairs. In my mind, I was complaining because it was really hot, my hair was down and was so long and was itching my neck at this point. Because of all that, I just said, "I don't care, whatever's fine." Matt just looked and said, "If you could pick the perfect picture here, where would it be?" I said I didn't know, and let's just take a picture at both the bottom and the top. So, we did just that....

Then, we were getting ready to take "normal" pictures at the top. Well, I thought they were going to be normal pictures. I wouldn't usually say that "normal" pictures are having your boyfriend turn to you and get down on one knee to ask you to marry him, because that is not something that happens everyday!! When that actually happened, I was in so much shock that before I said "yes" I said, "Are you serious?!" I was just in disbelief of what was happening because I didn't see it coming!

And YES, these are pictures from the ACTUAL moment, no reenactment! Thank you Jesse for these great pictures!!!!

After all of this excitement, I asked Matt who knew. He said he couldn't tell me yet, so of course I was anxious to tell people but didn't know who I could tell! I asked if Emily knew, he said she didn't, so I did everything I could to wait patiently for her meeting to be over and tell her. When I finally saw her I ran up to her (thank goodness I chose my new flipflops over heels that evening...) and just threw my hand out! haha. We were both just so excited! :)

Matt and I had already planned on going back to his apartment after dinner so he could give me my birthday presents, so we headed back to my room to change. As were were walking, our phones were being flooded with texts, as Jesse had sent out a mass text to our staff and his and Matt's fraternity brothers. It was so exciting and I never stopped smiling! When we got to my room, I started doing little things and Matt kept rushing me. He finally said, "Ok, I'm just going to get my truck now, you just change!" haha

When we finally got over to his apartment, he parked on a different side of the building. Of course I had to be annoying and ask why he did that. His response, "I'm just doing it for this first week or so, so I can run into my residents and say "hi" to them and get to know them." Ok, from RA to RA, that was believable, so I bought it.

When we got to his apartment, he opened the door, didn't turn the light on, and I went in. I saw something in the corner by the TV, so I kind of just stood there for a while with a confused look on my face, because I couldn't make out what was floating in the air (I now know there were balloons!). In the next second, the lights came on and what seemed like fifty people jumped out from nowhere and yelled "Surprise!!!" And yes, I was very surprised, see:

I wasn't even sure what to think! His parents, my parents, Abby, our friends Noah, Will, Kim, and Stephen were all hiding and I was in shock, yet again! I don't remember exactly how it happened, but someone said something and I responded, "there are pictures already on Facebook." Someone then said, "Of what?" Well, I thought whoever said that was just joking so I just threw my left hand in the air and then I hear Matt yell, "They don't know yet!!" Well, they all did know it was going to happen, just didn't know when! So, as Will put it, the surprisee surprised everyone who was surprising the surprises (or something like that!). ha! That's how I like to see it. The surprise was on everyone!

I think this is when I realized I just told everyone we were engaged....ha!

There was also a lot of examining of the very amazing ring I got!

Kim's phone has a flashlight on it, so we were using that to try and read the inside (see explanation below). Thanks to Kim for this great picture of my ring!! :)

Quick side note: Story about the ring--the middle princess cut stone is from Matt that he picked out just for me. The two on either side of that are from his mom and my mom's engagement rings. On the inside of the ring, is an engraved "S" and "J" (for Susan and Jennifer) for the respective side that their stone is on. The two smaller on the ends are from Matt's great grandmother's ring. So, as Matt told me, the ring is very valuable.

If you couldn't tell, I clearly had the best birthday ever, and it was a day I will never forget!! Also, from the mass amounts of "Happy Birthdays!" and "Congratulations!", I have never gotten so many Facebook notifications in my life! It was insane, and it finally got to the point where I told myself there was no way I could comment and thank everyone, so if you didn't personally get a thank you, it's nothing against you! As this very long and exciting post is coming to an end, enjoy more pictures from my birthday / our engagement!!

Family pictures:

We just needed Michael David for this picture..

Will, Noah, Matt, me, Kim!

Jesse, me, Matt, Stephen

Morgan, me, Emily!

a month later....

So I thought I was getting back in the habit of blogging. I obviously thought wrong since tomorrow it'll be a month since I last posted. My bad.

Since then, I finished up my internship at Memorial Regional Medical Center CardioPulmonary Rehab (because that's not enough of a mouthful!).

Now, I'm back at school, in the homestretch of Fall RA training. I have a completely new staff this year in a different residence hall than last year. Which also means.....new residents. I'm looking forward to the new residents I have that moved in this afternoon as well as the rest that will be coming in the next couple days. However, as I told two of last year's residents last night--Curry 7th Floor will always have a special place in my heart :)

Tomorrow is also a big day, and a very important day at that (ok, just kidding).
It's my birthday! :)
Super excited, yet also sad because it'll be the first birthday that I haven't spent with my family. It's just a little pointless for them to drive down tomorrow, when they'll be driving to Longwood already on Thursday to move my sister in (and that's weird to think about!).

Speaking of my sister moving in in just two days, we'll be living in the same residence hall. Well, technically speaking. The whole residence hall is the Cunninghams, but it's broken up into three sections, if you will: North, South, and Main. I'm RAing (yep, that's a word...) in Main, and she's living in North.

Another change from last year is Matt and I aren't both living on campus. He's RAing off campus in the Lancer Park apartments, so that's pretty cool. It's weird though that he's living in an apartment and I have to drive to see him now (not that I'm complaining or anything. I'll take a 3 minute drive over a 2 1/2 hour drive to Ferrum anyday!).

Now, I'm sitting in my new room, which does have air conditioning. I still have so much to unpack/put away because by the time I get back to my room from training, I just don't feel like doing anything but laying down! But, everything will be done by Saturday because that's when my roommate Megan moves in! :)

That's it for now.....gotta make a usual trip to Walmart and then head over to Matt's for a bit since he's on duty and can't leave the Park................okay, that's weird to say that he's the one on duty now!