YESSSS!!!!!!!!!

Well, its been almost a week and a half and I am still in utter shock. I can't even believe I am writing a blog on this topic right now...

I AM GOING TO MARRY MY HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART!!

Thats right....

Andrew proposed.

And I said YES.

Surprised?? So was I! Here is the story.

Andrew signed up to do the New Orleans Half Ironman race for his second year in a row, and we had been excited about our upcoming trip to NOLA for some time. We had a great time at the race last year and we just couldn't wait to go back for another fun weekend. So, Friday morning after we dropped Cosmo off at the vet, we headed to Jackson. We hopped out of one car and into another and drove down to NO with Andrew's parents. The four of us enjoyed walking around on Friday night and had a great dinner at Deanie's. On Saturday morning, we met up with our friends Alex and Lianne and we all took a trolley ride through the beautiful Garden District. We had lunch and went to UNO to set up the bike transition for the race. We went to Palm Sunday mass at the beautiful St. Patrick's church and then went to dinner for Andrew's pre race meal. The trip had been great, relaxed, and fun. I was staying in the same hotel room with Andrew and his parents for these two nights before the race and they never even gave me a HINT or did anything that would give me a reason to be suspicious of anything. So....Sunday morning comes, we wake up at 5:30am, it is a typical race day routine. We have it down pat by now. We put on our Team Harris hats and shirts, got our coffee and our cameras, and headed out to the race to cheer Andrew on. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The race was underway (after a very disappointing swim cancellation). My parents were planning on coming down to New Orleans on Sunday to support Andrew. I called them and told them they needed to hurry up and get down there because the swim got cancelled and Andrew's finish time would be earlier. So they headed on down, and I never thought twice about them coming for any other reason than to support Andrew. They have come to some of his races before and it just didn't send up any red flags for me...

So, we are all standing there in Jackson Square, watching for Andrew to come running towards the finish line. Eventually we spot him coming down the shoot, giving high fives to everyone on the side lines and making quite a grand finish. I raced down to the shoot exit to see him and congratulate him on all of his hard work that he had just done for 4 hours and 48 minutes. As I expected, he was pretty winded and needed to sit down and drink some gatorade. I know how Andrew works and usually he just needs to be left alone for a few minutes after a race so I was just going to step back and give him his time. But my mom had other plans! She grabbed my camera from me and told me to go over to Andrew so she could get our picture together. I told her that he really doesnt like to be bothered and that we needed to wait a little while to get pictures. She absolutely insisted that I go over there, so I did. Andrew was already bent down on the ground, because hey, he just did an ironman and he needed to take a breather! At some point during all of this, his sweet, secret-keeping mother went over and slipped him the ring. When I went over to him, he held the ring up and asked me to marry him! The rest is a blur. I am pretty sure I said yes...we have it all on video so we might need to go back and watch it closely just to be sure :)

Anyhow...WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!! I have a beautiful ring on my finger that I still cannot stop staring at, and I am counting the days until May 19th, 2012 when I get to marry my best friend and the love of my life. I simply could not be happier or more blessed.

I had to keep a secret until Monday night because I wanted to surprise all of my sorority sisters at my candlelight. I have never kept such a big secret in my life! I saw several of my friends that day, and even spent hours with Martha Ann and I didn't let anything slip! I was pretty proud of myself...and it was so worth it to see the suprised smiles and tears on my friend's faces when I blew out that candle! Priceless memories.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our special day!

I am so appreciative of all the excitement and happiness that our friends and family have showered us with over the past week. You all mean so much to us and I thank you for your love and support!

Let the wedding planning begin!! 

My Brown Eyed Girl

Well, our little girl will be turning 5 months old this weekend. My, how time flies.

I am astonished at how much as Cosmo has grown up when I look at her recent pictures and then peek back to her puppy pictures. She is now weighing in at a healthy 25 pounds...which means we have put 20 pounds of meat on that girls bones since we got her!

Sad news...Cosmo lost her "girl parts" today :(

She is currently at the MSU Vet Clinic in Starkville, while Andrew and I are spending the weekend in New Orleans for his half Ironman race on Sunday. We are such mean parents! She had her surgery on Friday morning and so she should be partially healed up by the time we pick her back up on Monday.

Poor baby girl.

I am missing her a LOT. I thought I'd share some of her most recent pictures. She has grown SO much and has these beautiful, to die for brown eyes.

Hopefully Cosmo girl will have a speedy recovery and hopefully she will forgive us for leaving her at the vet all weekend!

As for now, we are enjoying our "free" time this weekend in New Orleans with Andrew's parents. We got in town around 5 today and enjoyed a nice dinner out at Deanie's together. We will play around town tomorrow and then we will be cheering Andrew on in the race on Sunday!

Happy WEEKEND!

SPRING!

I've been trying to play with my camera whenever I get a chance because there is so much to learn and I feel like I have only just barely skimmed the surface! Here are some shots of pretty spring flowers that I took the other day. I figured that its a great time to post these since it is so yucky and stormy outside right now.



HAPPY SPRING!!

21-21-21: Andrew's Birthday Triathlon

On March 23, Andrew's 21st birthday, he completed a 21 themed triathlon to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. I blogged about it in a previous post, but if you would like to know more, feel free to visit Andrew's page at:

 http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/andrewharris/special-operations-warrior-foundation

Here are some photos that I took during the day's activities. Andrew started bright and early (at 6am) at the pool in the Sanderson Center. His first leg of the triathlon was a 2.1 mile swim...





I counted all 74 laps!



He did a great job and completed the swim in a little over an hour. Wasting no time, he hopped on the bike accompanied by his good friend, Alex. They knocked out the 21 mile bike ride in no time despite having pretty strong head winds!

Our great friend Alex and Andrew's fellow triathlete -- coming to keep Andrew company on the bike ride!

After the bike was the run...the most dreaded part of the day! 21 miles is a very long way after you have already spent over 2 hours swimming and biking!

Shout out to Travis....this guy had never run more than 6 miles in his life, and he somehow ran ALL 21 miles with Andrew! That's a dedicated friend!

Running out at North Farm during the first quarter of the run

A few miles through campus...

At shortly after 1pm, the triathlon was complete.

Andrew successfully swam, biked, and ran all 44.1 miles!

When he finished, he was so hungry and so we went straight to Sonic....he got a Route 44 slush, a hot dog, and an ice cream cone. A couple of hours later, we went to meet Alex and Lianne at Mugshots where Andrew ate a huge hamburger, fries, and had lots of beer. When you burn a few thousand calories in a triathlon, you get to eat whatever you want! It was a fun day and I really enjoyed driving all over Starkville to catch Andrew at different points to take pictures and cheer him on. I am so very, very proud of Andrew!

As of today, he has raised nearly $1800 for the SOWF. His fundraising page will stay open for the next couple of months, so it is not too late to donate and help him reach his goal of $2100 (keeping with the 21 theme). Check out the link at the top of the post to get donation information.

Congratulations, Andrew --- it was definitely a 21st birthday to remember!