Long Visit (by Thomas)

I am now back in Florida again after a deliciously-long visit to Rebecca and her family in Texas. It's somewhat depressing, but I am so ready to be back in class again that it's not actually too horrible. I have the drive now...I have made the connection between success in class and being able to marry Rebecca someday, which has the effect of increasing my motivation by a large factor. I also have a full heart because the visit was so wonderful.



I arrived in Texas on August 9th after a very quick, uneventful transit from Norfolk via Atlanta. Rebecca and her dad picked me up and we went out for lunch. After this point, I can't even really remember everything that went on. It was all so wonderful (and so long) that it really ran together.

We did have our first date on that visit, on August 11, 2008. =) We went to the Arlington Highlands, an outdoor mall with a winding stream and park benches and nice landscaping. We walked around for a while and then went to Mimi's Café, which turned out to be a rather nice little French restaurant. It was admittedly a little bit weird at first to be completely alone...no chaperones, no one else around but strangers. But by the end of the night, we were enjoying each other's company greatly. It was a very sweet first date.

Rebecca actually liked our second one a bit better though. We started to go the Highlands again, but couldn't find a TGI Fridays, which is where we were going to eat. Upon leaving the Highlands to find one, I spotted a Sweet Tomatoes and made a snap decision to eat there. Rebecca loved it. She just loved the whole evening. She said she was more comfortable, she loved the restaurant, and she just had a great time. =)

And so things kinda ran together. I went to Chuck Swindoll's church with Rebecca and Allison on Sunday, which was cool. He didn't preach, but it was still neat to go there. Rebecca had to work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so I typically stayed home and hung out with the family until she got back, at which point we would go on a date. Tuesday and Thursday were days she didn't work, so we generally spent those running around together doing errands.



One amusing side note is that nearly every time Rebecca and I were outside together, we ended up getting in a water fight. The Craigs have a small kiddie pool filled in the back yard....and the accessible water was frequently just too much to resist. ;-) I think we were quite amusing to the rest of the family.

I greatly enjoyed getting to know Rebecca's whole family better. They're really a sweet family. Courtney (age 6) loved to have tickle wars with me, which Joshua (age 3) liked to get in on occasionally. I shared a room with Daniel (age 13) on a bed which Mrs. Craig had bought specifically for me! :o She said I would be there frequently enough anyway...they might as well buy me a bed. Josh can use it after I get done with it in a couple years. I was quite shell-shocked by her generosity. I had not expected that at all, but it was a real blessing.

Another cool experience was going with Mr. Craig on a tour of a very large steel manufacturing plant...one of the largest in the country, in fact. I was quite impressed with the whole process. The heat coming off the molten metal was particularly impressive. It felt like an oven some 30 feet away. While I'm not interested in going into the steel industry for a career, it was a very informative experience. I thought it was quite amazing that our tour guide was none other than the VP of operations there....which you can bet doesn't happen much! It was really cool of Mr. Craig to invite me along on that tour and I really appreciated it.



I left Texas on August 18, which was a somewhat depressing experience. It didn't really hit me until I was actually sitting at my gate that I was gone. *sigh* Sometimes I hate long distance. But I have a good motivation....I'm off to slay the dragons of the semesters of Fall 2008, Spring 2009, and Fall 2009. After those dragons are dead, we can (God-willing) get married. The visit was wonderful....just a small taste of what future life together will be like. =) Hopefully Rebecca and her parents will come visit me in the next month or two, which will likely be the next time I see her. I can't wait! =D

HSA Reunion (by Thomas)

Ah yes, I finally got to see Rebecca again....and it was SO worth the wait!

The weekend began on Wednesday morning. I left VA at about 2:30 a.m. after about 3-4 hours of sleep. I went to bed at 9:00 the night before, but couldn't sleep. Don't ever try to sleep when you're hungry and excited...it doesn't work! In any case, the drive was pretty tiring for the first few hours. I was quite sleepy until I stopped near the WV border for some coffee and a muffin. The caffeine/sugar woke me up and after that, the sun was rising, so the increased light kept me awake.

I was quite surprised by West Virginia...nearly the entire state is made up of mountains! I seriously followed the interstate for some 150-200 miles of mountains, only emerging from them after Charleston. After driving through a deluge of a thunderstorm in Kentucky, I finally arrived (after about 10 hours of driving) at the Kroger I had scoped out beforehand. Situated strategically some 10 miles away from the campground where Rebecca was, it had the all-important floral department.

I grabbed a bouquet of carnations and a cheesecake (a thank-you present to Rebecca's sister Christina for chaperoning in the car), and headed off to the campsite. Seeing Rebecca again was a teeny bit awkward at first, but we re-acclimated to each other quickly. We were quite comfortable with each other's company again by the end of the day. As soon as I got to the campground, we loaded up, grabbed lunch at Subway, and headed to the Creation Museum.

http://www.creationmuseum.org/

The museum was VERY cool. It has like 70 acres of land, most of which is gardens and such outside the actual museum itself. Rumor is that they plan to build a full-scale Noah's Ark next. That would be amazing.

We spent that evening after the museum playing cards, eating hot dogs and s'mores, and generally just enjoying each other's company. That night was very interesting as far as camping goes. It thunderstormed and rained heavily nearly ALL NIGHT. Those of us in the guys' tent woke up around 2:00 a.m. with water soaking up through the floor of the tent. We subsequently moved to my truck for cover, after checking to see that the girls were all right. Rebecca and one other girl had moved to the van and the rest were damp but fine. The next morning was a fun experience, involving literally dumping water out of the tents. We threw all the wet stuff in the back of my truck to spread out and dry at the Reunion.

After that, we were off. We drove down to the Reunion and got checked in. The facilities were very nice, if somewhat hilly. The guys' dorm was perhaps 50 feet higher in elevation even though it was only perhaps 500 feet away. The whole campus was like that, so we got very good workouts just walking around! Rebecca and I got into a daily habit of meeting at 7:00 a.m. for our morning walk and subsequently "hanging out" for the rest of the day. There were scheduled events that we sometimes went to, but in general, we just spent time together and enjoyed being around each other.





And so we enjoyed the weekend, spending nearly every waking minute ofevery day with each other. We got more comfortable with each other's company than we ever have before. She is hands-down my best friend (the best I've ever had) by far. One of our most treasured times this weekend was getting to have fun with each other......me putting ice down her back, her throwing a cup of icewater on me, spashing each other, laughing at each other's attempts to shoot a basketball, playing cards together, laughing at each other trying to swing dance and looking stupid, and just generally being goofy. That was a major part of our relationship that we hadn't experienced much of before, and it was so enjoyable to just have fun together.





So came Sunday and the end of the weekend. She cried when we left (as always), despite the fact that we knew we would see each other again in only six days. I had a hard time not tearing up myself, but the short time we have to spend apart was definitely a mitigating factor. =) I'm already hyper-excited for this next weekend and the 1.5 weeks I get to spend with her and her family!



God is good! I can't wait to see how He draws us together next. =)