her side

so…i know that most of you have probably already heard a lot of this story before, BUT…i’m just going to start at the very beginning. when i met robby. 🙂

that takes us back to november of 2007. i had just gotten back from seeing the movie “beowulf” at the rave and i logged onto facebook to see i had a message!! it was like christmas. facebook messages were always such a happy surprise! so i go to my inbox…and it’s from robby baker. who?? i don’t know robby baker! so, i opened the message. it said something along the lines of, “hi. i know you don’t know me, but i saw you liked murder in the dark. that’s awesome!”

now..normally i never wrote back to messages from people i didn’t know because my mom thought it was dangerous. and i had promised her that i wouldn’t. but..it seemed like a pretty harmless message, so i decided i’d just write a quick response. “yeah! haha me and my friends love murder in the dark! i didn’t know that anyone else played! i thought it was just us.” yeah..i actually thought my dad’s friend had invented the game.

anyways. he wrote back. i wrote back. we started writing to each other every day until one day…it kind of died down. i was SAD. because robby was really funny and i looked forward to his messages. a lot. by this time…he hadn’t actually friended me yet. and i had a strict “i’ll never friend ANYbody” rule. but since now the messages were becoming less frequent and we weren’t officially friends…i was afraid that might be the end of it. NOT happening. so, i broke my rule and friended him.

HE ACCEPTED!! jooooy joy. i was happy. now even if he DIDN’T write me messages as frequently, i’d have an excuse to make random and sporadic contact. which i did. 🙂 haha..i couldn’t help it.

so between the time we started talking in 2007 and about fall of 2008, we talked randomly through wall-to-wall posts and inbox messages. just friendly, “hey. what’s up?” type stuff. i still thought he was funny and loved chatting. then around the beginning of december..the epically long wall-to-walls began.

it started out with just a question. then it turned into…you have to answer the question AND add a question. then when you got the response back, you had to respond to EVERYTHING listed above…and add another question. which soon turned into..you need to add another 3 questions. 🙂 haha…that’s why it ended up being like 20 pages of posts.

well..during the wall conversations, robby discovered that..i like guitar hero. so he sent me a message and told me that he needed a break from school and had planned a guitar hero party for the upcoming weekend. and he wanted to know if i could come. he left me his phone number in case i had any questions and he didn’t check his computer the next couple of days.

now…we already both knew that the other person was addicted to texting. so, weird as this might sound, i had been WAITING for an opportunity to present itself where i could start texting him. i didn’t want to be awkward and be like, “well hey. here’s my number. feel free to text…since we’re both addicted to texting! haha”. yeah. how lame. but THIS was perfect. he GAVE me his number. in my mind…it was basically an open invitation. and i accepted. and texted pretty much immediately.

skip forward a few days. the day of the guitar hero party. i almost didn’t go. my family was hanging out that night watching movies in their pj’s. i was in my pj’s. and anybody who knows me knows that once i’m IN my pj’s…it takes a LOT to convince me change. so…the guitar hero party was looking iffy. last minute..i worked up the initiative to change into real people clothes AND print directions. and i was off.

i got there. and the music was BlARING from the house. “ohhhhh..we’re halfway there. woAAAAAHHH…livin’ on a prayer!!!” i knocked on the door and waited a minute. nothing. nobody answered. i knocked again…nothing. honestly..i was freezing from standing outside and i felt SO stupid…i almost left. but instead…haha, i texted robby. he let me in. 🙂

after giving me a speedy tour of the house, we went outside to kind of actually “meet”. and say hey to his awesome dog, xena. when we finished that, we went inside and all had a fun-filled night of guitar hero and pizza. and 5 people playing the drums at once. haha..it’s the arnold way. in a big family, you need to be creative if you don’t want to take turns. 🙂

in the following months, i started hanging out at whitesburg a lot more. and with robby and his friends (..now OUR friends. i love it!) bunches more too! and…started liking robby. well, more than i already did. haha. i already liked him…but i definitely started like him lots more. we got closer until finally…oh happy DAY!!!! he asked me to be his girlfriend. june 16th, 2009. it was the happiest day of my life. til march 29th, 2010. when robby asked me to marry him. 🙂

i know that’s a little bit of a leap forward in time, but i’m just too excited to tell the engagement story!! this is how it went.

well..we’ve known for a while that we were going to get married. a couple months into dating, we knew it was going to happen. the question was…when?? well…that was MY question. i was left to try to figure it out on my own. because robby wouldn’t tell me anything. until a couple weeks before my birthday.

he started telling me that it was probably going to be a while before he could propose to me. maybe even a couple years. of course…i was going to wait. he’s PERFECT for me. there’s no way i wouldn’t wait! i just love him SO much. i mean..okay, i was a little disappointed. i wanted to take the next step forward in starting my life with the man who was BETTER than my dreams. so..the few weeks leading up to my birthday, that’s all the news i got.

MY BIRTHDAY!!

robby told me that he wanted to take me out for my birthday. we decided to go to the olive garden!! 🙂 i love the olive garden. raviolis?! PERFECTION! but anyways. so we went to the olive garden. just in case you were wondering, yes…the waiter of the table across from us spilled drinks all over the people. it was…embarrassing and funny all at the same time. moving on.

once we had finished dinner, we started driving home. it was actually a pretty day! not TOO too cold. so along the way, robby said that he thought maybe we could go walk around ditto landing for a while…because we couldn’t waste the gorgeous day. i was fine with it. TOTALLY up for it. so…to ditto we went.

we got out and started walking on the little bike trail that runs along by the river. the sun was setting. it was GORGEOUS! then we got closer to this dock that’s just off the river. outside the chain link fence that leads down to the dock was an easter basket! in the bottom was a note that said, “briley! it’s an easter egg hunt! follow the easter eggs to your prize!” so i did. i started collecting the easter eggs. and i opened every single one along the way. they were all filled with rocks. but that’s not important. haha. when i got to the end of the easter egg trail, there was a present. so i sat down and opened it! it was…a nikonD3000. whooooaaaa! i was shocked. i did NOT expect it at all. what…a surprise. so i said thanks SO much. hugged him. 🙂 i was happy. then he told me that he thought i should take the camera out and put it together. just to try taking a few pictures! see how it worked. besides..the sunset was gorgeous, so why wouldn’t i??

so…i did just that. put the camera together..took some pictures. then i started taking pictures of him. he was doing all kinds of poses. being silly. i mean…being the robby i love so much. 😉 haha. THEN…then…he stretched his arms out in front of him and opened his hands like a clam. he said he was doing the “dragon ball z” move. we’ll go with a clam shell for my version of the story. haha 🙂

at this point, i still didn’t know he had the ring…til i zo0med in with the camera. and saw it. there it was. in the palm of his hand. i could HARDLY believe it!! my eyes IMMEDIATELY filled up with tears. i couldn’t stop crying, i was SO happy and excited!! he went on to say how much he loved me and was sorry he had lied to me so much the past couple weeks, telling me i was going to have to wait forever for him to propose. then…he asked me to be his wife.

i said YES!!!!! not right away. i actually couldn’t talk right away. i was still in shock. my voice was GONE!! so i sat there nodding my head. a lot. and then i went down and sat on the floor with him and hugged him SO tight. and said….yes.

it’s official. we’re getting married. this year!! and i could not be MORE excited.