Well, this time next week I'll officially be Mrs. Gary Rowe - wow. I wonder how long it will take me to get used to my new last name :)
Gary is still working 10 hour days plus six on Saturday so he's pretty tired at night but the next two weeks will be short weeks for him. We both have next Friday off and Monday after the wedding - plus Gary gets Good Friday off.
I'm not sure if I've blogged about how Gary and I met and if I have - chalk this up to old age that I am repeating myself :) It was the Friday before last Labor Day weekend and during my devotion/prayer time before work I told God that since I didn't have any plans for the long weekend - I was putting my weekend in His hands. I was able to leave work at noon that Friday and was sitting in the park across the street texting someone to get something to work out for that evening and I was getting mad at that person. I was mad at that person and that things weren't working out the way I wanted them to. Finally, a little voice in my head said, "What did you say thing morning about me taking care of your weekend...did you really meant that?" I'm like, "Yep God I really did mean that. I'm sorry for getting irritated that things weren't going the way I wanted them to. You are in control of my weekend."
It was within minutes that I got a text from Julie, one of my friends from work. She texted me that if I didn't have any plans, would I want to go to Denny Arthur's to meet her guy and do some dancing. Julie had texted me another time like a month before this to go to Denny's to meet Matt but I didn't go that time. After reading her text I thought, why not - I'm gonna go out that night.
So sometime after 8:00 p.m. I waked into Denny's - walking right by this sweet looking motorcycle. I get inside, Julie sees me and gets me over to the area where she was sitting with a lot of people. Gary and I decided that he must have been in the restroom when I got there because he was not sitting with the group when I first arrived.
After Gary got back to his seat, Julie was bound-and-determined to get a motorcycle ride from him. So I thought, well, if she's getting a bike ride, I want a bike ride so I started telling this guy that I did not know, that I was going to get a bike ride from him after Julie. Later I found out that Gary really didn't want to give either of us a bike ride - but since he's such a nice guy he did. Off Julie and he go. I saw them drive back into the parking lot and I scooted myself outside the building to be waiting for them when they finally parked. Gary later told me 1. He wasn't that thrilled to see me standing there because he didn't want to give another ride and B. If I wouldn't have been standing out there waiting for him I would not have gotten a ride that night. Good thing I'm a persistent little thing huh :)
After we had been back at Denny's for a while - Gary who was sitting at one table - leaned over to get my attention and asked if I wanted to dance. Did I want to dance - of course I did! We danced 2-3 slow songs and then back to our tables with the group. Later on when another slow song came on I basically drug Gary out on the dance floor lol. Then he tells me something like, "You know, Roni is my favorite girl's name." I'm thinking to myself, what a load of hooey this guy is full of. Really, my nickname just happens to be his favorite girl's name - wow. But the more he went on to explain why he liked the name Roni I believed him. Think Archie comics with Veronica aka Roni and Betty.
Julie, Matt (her guy), Gary and I all walked out the door at the same time and Gary leans over and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Wow. I looked at Julie and Matt (Gary was over by his motorcycle) and said that if Gary wanted my phone number they could give it to him. Gary finally texted me later the next day. After texting for a while, he called me and we planned our first date September 1st at the Blank Park Zoo. And as they say, "the rest is history".
Gary and I have often talked about the first night we met and how it definitely was a God thing that brought us together. What if Julie hadn't gotten her job at Principal - Julie had only been working there a couple of months. What if I Julie hadn't texted me that Friday night? What if I hadn't gone to Denny's that Friday night? What if Gary hadn't gone to Denny's that Friday night. So many things had to perfectly fall into place for us to meet - God was definitely the planner for our meeting.
And now we're five days from getting married. This past week I signed paperwork to put the house up for sale and today after church we finished getting things taken care of for the photographer to take pictures for the virtual tour tomorrow. Friday I paid for the last things (cake, fruit and veggie trays) so everything has been paid for, for the wedding. Gary downloaded all the songs we wanted for the wedding and reception to his MP3 player last night and then his MP3 player decided to crap out on him. Off to Best Buy we head for him to buy a new MP3 player and the wedding songs are on the new player.
We brought my solar fountain from the house to Gary's apartment this afternoon and Gary wanted to paint the frame before we get it all set up. Tomorrow night we'll put the fountain together. Little-by-little Gary's place is becoming our place.
