Furniture Shopping in High Point, North Carolina

Now that Russ and I are officially engaged, we decided the home we were going to establish would need some new furniture.  Russ "wisely" (more likely "frugally") still had his "2nd lieutenant bachelor furniture".  (He claimed he knew whomever he married would likely have her own decorating styles and he'd learn to live with those.  So he never wanted to invest heavily in furniture while he was still single.)
We'd heard from several people that furniture distributors in North Carolina had really good prices for American-made, solid wood furniture.  So with Russ' plane, we were able to take a day trip to do some furniture shopping.  I got a big kick out of this big commercial airliner having to hold while Russ prepared to land his Piper Cherokee.

While we didn't buy any furniture on the trip, I think Russ enjoyed taking me on a longer flight. 
Russ did learn that I'm a "freak."  After several hours of walking and looking through furniture stores, I told Russ I had to call it a day because my feet were hurting too much.  I asked him if he could hear the bones cracking in my feet with each step I took.  He commented that he thought the noise had been from my sandals.  So I took off my sandals and proceeded to walk bare foot.  I clearly demonstrated my freakiness and that the noise was from my feet and not my sandals.  He claims he still loves me.

Russ' Flight to Dulles International Airport

Russ' best friend, Chad DeNaughel, had his father visiting.  As Chad's dad is also a pilot, the three of them somehow decided that taking a flight up to the National Air and Space Museum, which has a hangar near Dulles International Airport, would be a fun way to spend the day.  (Go figure!) 
While Russ will usually be entertained for hours just by going to an aviation museum, I think he had just as much fun parking N75078 with "the big boys." 

Russ Proposes - 18 Sept 2004

The 18th of September was not one of Russ' better days, to start with any way. We went to an arts and craft fair some where near Virginia Beach and ran some other errands as well. He was acting so edgy most of the day. (Edgy is the polite word. There were times when he was acting like a donkey's back side, towards other people, not me.)
We ended up going ice skating that evening at a rink less than a mile from my house. Boy, did we feel old. We were the oldest people on the ice. There were parents waiting for their children in the snack bar area who were older than us, but we were definitely a generation or two removed from those who were skating.
After barely an hour, I told Russ we needed to leave. My head was pounding from all the hip hop music (or whatever genre the music was) playing at full blast in the ice rink. It was still really early, though, only around 8 p.m. or so. So we didn't want to call the evening to an end already. I suggested we go back to my house and play a game of Scrabble. Russ thought this was an incredible idea. I'd never seen anyone act so enthused about the prospect of playing Scrabble before. He had his ice skates off and was ready to take off before I'd even had my skates unlaced.
On the way back to my house, Russ bypassed the two gas stations that he'd mentioned he had to stop at that night since his truck was almost empty. When I pointed this out to him, he said he'd stop on his way home, but he really wanted to eat some brownies.
When we arrived, I went about fixing up a plate of brownies while Russ was setting up the Scrabble board. I could hear him turning over a bunch of tiles. I thought he was cheating. After all, he usually beat me four out of five games we played. But then the timer went off on the brownies, so I stopped being concerned with the prospect that he was cheating.
As I was bringing the brownies over to the table from the kitchen, Russ told me to set the brownies down and said we "needed to talk." Well, most women know what "we need to talk" signifies. It usually signifies the break up of a relationship. My first thought was everything had been going so well, how could I not have seen this break up coming?
Russ then led me over to the kitchen table where he removed a bag that had been covering up the Scrabble board. He claims he asked me aloud to marry him. I have no recollection of him speaking. I only saw "MARRY ME" on the Scrabble board. Needless to say I was stunned.
Also needless to say, I said "YES."

And I finally learned why Russ had been so edgy all day. He'd decided to propose on 12 Sept and had given himself until that day to ask me to marry him. He hadn't figured out how to ask until I suggested the game of Scrabble. That's when he knew he could use the tiles to propose. What he hadn't realized until that time was that there are only two "M's" in the Scrabble bag. He would have spelled out "will you marry me" if it hadn't taken him so long to find the two M's.
I can't remember who won the game that night, but the brownies were really good.

Rachael Decides to Accept Russ' Proposal - 17 Sep 04

I knew things were pretty serious with Russ, but wasn't sure how serious he felt about our relationship. I'd been praying most of this week to decide what I would answer in the event Russ asked me to marry him. (Keep in mind, he and I had NOT had any marriage discussions at this point.  Though when he first told me he loved me, he said he was going to ask me to marry him when he knew I would be ready to give him an answer.) I wasn't getting any answers at all. Typically, a no answer means NO.
As I was driving home the night of 17 Sept, I drove by a church that had a sign out front that said something to the effect of: "One must first choose in order for there to be a trial of faith." So I chose that I would say yes in the event Russ proposed.

Russ Decides to Propose 12 Sep 2004

On the 11th of September, I held a bridal shower for my friend Jackie Day. As with any good bridal shower, there was lots of food, and lots of food left over. So Jackie's fiance Jose and Russ came over afterwards to help finish off some of the food. Naturally, Jackie and I continued talking about the wedding plans and wedding-related items. So that may have gotten Russ started thinking about wedding plans of his own.
But it wasn't until the next day when Russ and I went walking around Noland Trail, a nature preserve near both our homes, that he realized I was the woman for him. I enjoyed the simple things in life, such as walking around a trail with a 99 cent loaf of bread to feed to the ducks/geese, turtles and fish in the lake. That was the day Russ decided to propose; he just needed to decide how and when to propose.

Noland Trail (Newport News VA) 12 Sep 2004

Noland Trail Nature Preserve is just a few miles from our homes.  Before we started dating, Russ would run along the trails for fun.  As the words "fun" and "run" should never be combined in the same sentence (in my opinion), I introduced Russ to the much more leisurely pace of enjoying the trails.  Here I've stopped to feed the geese.

Russ was trying to see how close the goose would come up to him.  (Russ ended up jerking his arm back before he lost a finger.)

It's a beautiful lake with lots of geese, ducks and turtles.

Russ had to show how manly he was and climb a big tree.  As climbing high objects doesn't tend to agree with me (gravity, you know), I stayed on the ground.

You can't see the turtles in this picture, but I was having a great time tossing them little nibbles of bread.

Day Trip to Atlantic City NJ

Labor Day marked the end of summer.  For our last "summer excitement" we took a day trip to Atlantic City NJ.  Had we driven there, it would have been over 4 hours each way.  As we flew in Russ' plane, it was less than an hour trip.  No, N75078 isn't that fast.  There are just a lot of waterways between Newport News VA and Atlantic City NJ.  The two cities aren't really that far apart when you flight in a straight line.
Russ bought his mom some salt water taffy.  But neither of us is big into shopping.  So we mainly wandered up and down the boardwalk, had lunch at a casino and flew back home.  Not very exciting, but we were together.