Well in no particular order, here they are:

• Got engaged!
• Test drove new cars
• Bought a new car!
• Bought a wedding dress
• Planned and threw 2 baby showers
• Introduced my dad to my future in-laws
• Became a landlord (i.e., invested in a rental property)
• Successfully competed in Warrior Dash
• Found the only Alamo Drafthouse outside of Texas and watched a double feature
• Drove to New Jersey and back in less than 48 hours
• Saw a production of Disney’s Newsies at the Papermill Playhouse and met the cast at a local diner afterward
• Created a wedding website and registered for wedding gifts
• Got a promotion to Software Engineer II
• Learned how to play the awesome game of Dominion
• Planned a wedding (partially)
• Threw a Silpada party
• Got second place in a Biggest Loser contest at work
• Made a fall wreath
• Became addicted to Pinterest
• Went to Smith Mountain Lake
• Watched an elementary school production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Attended the Top of the Hops Beer Festival, met up with an old college roommate, and met a famous blogger
• Had engagement photos taken by an awesome photographer
• Made my own t-shirts for Shamrockfest 2011, the 2011 Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler, and Breaking Dawn Part 1
• Went to a bridal show
• Participated in Office Olympics
• Got my concealed weapons permit
• Attended Scrum training by one of the inventors of Scrum
• Spent a wonderful long weekend in Disney World with my dad, step-mom, little brothers, and my fiance
• Had an AMAZING girls weekend in the Outer Banks
• Helped plan an engagement brunch for a friend
• Attended the 7th Annual Pink Ribbon Polo Classic at King Family Vineyards and met the owner who attended my alma mater
• Watched the Royal Wedding
• Crowd Surfed during the Dropkick Murphys performance at Shamrockfest
• Saw a real live bear
• Experienced my first earthquake…SCARY

I’m sure there are a ton of things that I’m leaving out and so many pictures and stories to go with all of these experiences, and one day I’ll hopefully get them all up here on the blog.

It’s been an AMAZING year so far and I’m hoping 2012 will be even better!

Hope your 2011 has been as great as mine!

The love of my life and I will get married on Saturday, June 23, 2012 (the day after our 6 year anniversary) at the beautiful Clifton Inn in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The Clifton will provide much of the wedding party and out of town guests with rooms for the weekend, as well as catering, linens, and tableware.  I think having a venue that is a one-stop-shop for everything from the cake to the tents is going to make my life alot easier.

The only other official plans I have made for the wedding are arranging for a very talented, local photographer to be there to capture the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, getting ready for the wedding, the ceremony, and the reception.  Aaron Watson takes beautiful photos that succeed completely at capturing the mood and emotion of the moment.  He took family pictures for some good friends of mine and did a beautiful job at portraying the personality of their young family!

I still have LOTS to do…look for a dress, pick out the menu, find someone to make the bride’s cake (that’s right, I’m starting my own tradition:  a bride’s cake instead of a groom’s cake), officially ask my bridesmaids to be in my bridal party, register for gifts, etc.  The list goes on and on and it is quite overwhelming!  So if you wonder where I am or where I’ve been, hopefully June 23, 2012 will be able to show everyone where my time and effort has been going!

If you’re reading this blog then you probably already know this, but just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere, I’ll make the announcement:  Ben and I are engaged!  Finally after almost 5 years of dating, Ben proposed on Valentine’s Day.  So for the last two months, I’m been doing some wedding planning and venue searching instead of blogging.

We think we’ve found my venue and picked a date, but I don’t want to announce it until its finalized so I will leave you all with the pictures from our engagement night and a promise to update this blog as soon as our venue and date are official!

Ben, you are the love of my life, my best friend, and the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.  I love you!

Here are just a few of the happy times we’ve had together over the past 4 years:

Fall 2006 roasting marshmallows at his parents’ house in Charlottesville	November 2006 at Cria and Megan’s in Charlottesville for Nita’s baby shower
Easter 2007 in Charlottesville when mom came to visit	Spring 2007 at Coup Deville’s in Charlottesville when Lauren came to visit
April 2007 in Charlottesville when dad came to visit	June 2007 in Richmond – First plane ride together on the way to Texas
June 2007 visiting dad, Laura, and the boys in Galveston	July 2007 eating Tex-Mex with friends in Houston
July 2007 eating Tex-Mex with friends in Houston	July 2007 eating lunch on the Riverwalk in San Antonio
Fourth of July 2007 at Padre Island	July 2007 at the condo in Padre
August 2007 at South Street Brewery in Charlottesville when Mikey came to visit	August 2007 at Holden Beach
August 2007 at Holden Beach	August 2007 on the boat in Holden Beach
August 2007 on the ferry to Cape Fear	August 2007 at the Cape Fear Aquarium
Labor Day 2007 Camping at Spy Rock in Nelson County, Virginia	Halloween 2007 making jack-o-lanterns in Charlottesville
Valentine’s Day 2008 at the Melting Pot in Charlottesville	April 2008 in Charlottesville when mom was in town to meet Ben’s parents
Easter 2008 getting ready to ride in the hot air balloon in Charlottesville	Labor Day 2008 camping at Spy Rock in Nelson County, Virginia
May 2010 at the Washington D.C. zoo	Me and my “Edward”

]]> http://www.texaslou.com/2010/06/22/the-4-best-years-of-my-life/feed/ 6 http://www.texaslou.com/2010/06/21/summer-solstice/ http://www.texaslou.com/2010/06/21/summer-solstice/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:15:57 +0000 Leslie Elsaifi http://www.texaslou.com/?p=446 Summer makes me feel young.  The sun makes me feel happy, and today, the first official day of summer, is the day with the most hours of sunlight.

I’m celebrating by going to an outdoor concert to see Sheryl Crow and Colbie Caillat this evening with some awesome ladies!

In honor of the true beginning of summer, I wanted to post one of my favorite summer pictures.

This was taken by one of my best friends and partners in crime, Sarah Travis, a couple of summers ago while camping at Spy Rock in Nelson County, Virginia.  From left to right sit Ben, Me, Ian (Ben’s younger brother and Sarah’s fiance), and Sarah.  We had a great time that involved hiking, climbing, watching the sunset, building a bonfire, roasting weenies, and watching the stars.  This will always hold a special place in my heart as one of my favorite camping trips and summer days!

Here are a couple of other pictures from that evening (also taken by Sarah).

I hope everyone kicks off their summer right and enjoys some fresh air and sunshine today!

The conversation between my friend and I lead me to wonder about those who had not had the opportunity to skate like no one was watching as a kid.  I quickly thought about the city that I currently live in.  Charlottesville doesn’t have a roller rink.  I wondered if they had one in the past.  I quickly dialed Ben’s number to ask him what seemed to me like the most important question (but probably seemed to him like a pointless one).

Ben’s answer was no, Charlottesville had not had a roller rink in his twenty-seven years as a resident.  This saddened me.  All of these Cvillians, and I’m sure countless others hailing from small town, Anywhere, had been deprived of the roller rink experience.  They had no roller rink songs, no memories of skating beneath flashing neon lights to the beat of some one hit wonder while trying to impress their friends.

But then I realized, what they lacked in roller rink experiences, they made up for in other ways.  For example, I never experienced a snow day living in south Texas, but Ben’s childhood was filled with them (especially from the blizzard of ’96 that I hear about so often).

I still hope my kids get to enjoy the roller rink experience someday, or the twenty-first century equivalent.  Hover boarding perhaps?

The only thing that keeps me from losing it completely is knowing that I’m headed home to the people I love in Virginia and thinking about getting to see Ben and our kittens.  It also helps to know when I’ll be back in Texas to have that to look forward to.

I returned home safely from Texas after a very nice long weekend with friends and family.   Despite a large number of deer midnight-grazing along I-64 on my ride home from the airport and already desperately missing my family, I made it home in one piece, both mentally and physically!

I can’t wait for the month of November to pass by so I get to see everyone again in the lone star state for my little brother’s college graduation in Austin.  And this time I get to bring Ben with me so the airport waiting and plane traveling won’t be so lonely!