Hickory/Boone/Blowin' Rock

My visit to NC was everything I was hoping for and more! I was introduced to Patrick's world and all the wonderful people in it. Hickory is a great town with all the necessary amenities and charms. I got to stay with Patrick's parents, who made me feel so welcomed and comfortable! They had fresh flowers next to my bed and made sure I had a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. I guess Patrick had given them ample warning of my dependence on caffein to wake up each day.

Friday: Patrick showed up at the house in the morning to pick me up. He was fairly early, which shocked his parents a little. It must be love! :) I got the grand tour of Transportation Insight where Patrick works. Everyone was very nice. It's a neat place, and they all had good things to say about my boyfriend. It made me so proud.
From there we went to the bank where Mrs. Berry works. The welcome was overwhelming! All of her co-workers are evidently faithful readers of my blog. It was so funny because they all already knew me to some degree and were following the story of our Love. Great fun!
On to Boone - a beautiful drive up to the mountains. I got just a bit car sick, but once we had lunch at Our Daily Bread my stomach settled. We got to go to Footsloggers, Jason's outfitter store - very cool! He is so nice and it was entertaining to watch he and Patrick interact. The ASU tour was next. What a great school! Kind of made me wish that I had gone there.

Saturday: We woke up early so that we could go to the ASU Homecoming Parade that Patrick was driving in. It was cold cold cold when we left but quickly warmed up to a sunny 72 degrees. The weather could not have been better! Once the parade was finished we walked all over campus, down to Duck Pond Field, and then back to the other side to meet up with some old friends. I met tons of alumni, professors, current students, etc.
Instead of going to the game we decided to go for a hike up at Price Park. There I met some very curious cows (see pictures below). They followed us up to the wooded area where we strapped up the hammock and stared at us like we were doing something terribly wrong. We were getting uncomfortable as one of them got closer and closer. Definately was a Kodak moment...

Sunday: Church, lunch with friends, a tour of Hickory and some great time with the Berrys. I learned to ride the Segway, which by the way is great fun! At this point, we were starting to feel the wonderful weekend coming to an end. We had to both work to distract one another from getting really sad. We had as much quality time together as we could. The trip was full of great memories and stories, moments and discoveries. I did not want to leave.

Beautiful Sunday

Sunday was great!

After church, a crowd of us went to eat at La Paz for lunch, which is always good. We made plans to join the Shoreline lifegroup for some V-ball and frisbee at Morgan Sports Complex. The weather was perfect and a bunch of people showed up to play. Later that afternoon, Shoreline was holding a baptism service and picnic at the Crab Trap, where we celebrated new beginnings and great food while watching the sunset. It was perfect in every way! I really do love this place! The water is different from day to day, the sunsets each unique and inspirational. I left around 6:45 to meet up with Mom and Dad to see "Fireproof", which I was able to enjoy despite the over-acting. The message was strong and I did shed a tear or two.

This weekend I'm so excited to be going to Hickory and Boone to meet Patrick's family! It's the ASU homecoming, so I'm sure we'll be super busy and I'll be meeting a lot of people who know, admire, and love the man I love & admire. It will be wonderful to see Patrick on his own turf, in his element, amoung his people. The autumn leaves will be showing off their colors and the temperatures will be low - it's the perfect time to be in the Mountains. I Can't Wait!

The Ma/Summer Meet In the Middle Weekend

Patrick and I met in the "middle" this weekend. After a long pleasant drive to Atlanta, I arrived around 9 p.m. at Summer & Josh's house where Patrick was waiting. We had a wonderful weekend together, chilling out with Luke, Summer, and Josh. He also got to meet Doh Doh & Norman and got to go to Fellowship Bible Church - which we both really liked. Most of our time was spent just talking and staring at eachother. We are constantly trying to come up with the possitive aspects of having our relationship long-distance. We are trusting God's timing and believing that we will have the wisdom to recognize it and know what the next step is for us.

We went to my favorite Thai place in Roswell - Rice

We had a wonderful dinner, perfect weather, great background music, and a romantic atmosphere.

Of course, any place is romantic if we are there

Just before we were planning to leave I managed to sprain my ankle pretty badly goofing off during our photo shoot with Summer.

My hero

Watching Summer play Tennis - She's pretty good!


Just sitting by the lake before I hurt myself

Kiss me, you fool!

Patrick checking out my ankle - It was the size of a tennis ball in about 30 seconds

Josh watching Summer play

They Won!

There he is!
Big Smile!

Thank you Ma for the has money! With gas prices, it was a huge blessing!

Thank you to Summer & Josh for their hospitality!

Thanks for the contributions to our "Meet in the Middle" weekend!

We are full of Smit!

So, I bought a ticket to go to Hickory, NC, the first weekend of October, and Patrick bought his ticket to come down for Thanksgiving. But... that's a long way off, so Patrick and I are meeting up in Atlanta next weekend. Turns out that after 10 years of not seeing each other, we don't really like being apart very much. In fact, we are trying very hard to not despise it. So, Summer, you will get to meet him sooner rather than later. Yea hey!

If you would like to donate $$$ to the "Patrick A. Berry: I have a Dream" fund or "I Dream of Patrick A. Berry" fund, please just let me know. Your contributions will reserve you the right to take personal credit for the success of our relationship and the bright future of our great country. As part of the strategic fundraising opportunity we will forever label "areas of the future" with your personalized name plate...for example: 1. fund the gas for a "meet in the middle" and it will be named the [insert your name here] Meeting 2. fund a dinner '[insert your name here] Romantic evening' 3. the $500 level will get you an entire week visit named after you, 4. $1000 level will get a season of our relationship named after you (eg. the Chara Season) 5. $5000 level will get a room of our home named after you (eg. The Brenda Kitchen), and the $10000 level will get you our entire house named after you (eg. The Richard Berry Homestead). Consider it an intangible investment.

Faytastic Weekend Pictures

The weekend was full of suprises and special moments...

With help from Mom, Patrick arranged to have 3 Dozen peace roses waiting at the house when we arrived. The arrangement was MASSIVE and Beautiful!

We spent some time on Sunday at the Beach House with Mom, Dad, Ma, Papa, and Chara. Discussions were mainly focused on ministry and politics. Patrick very quickly earned Ma's vote!


He's very special!...

... and we are very Happy to have found eachother!

And we look so darn cute together!


Some friendly competition was in order...

I beat him...

Then he beat me...

We had breakfast at Modica Market in Seaside while taking shelter from TS Fay

I took Patrick to my favorite little reading nook at Sun Dog in Seaside and wooed him with my skills on the guitar...

I love him...

A FAYtastic Weekend...

Patrick will be joining our Thanksgiving festivities this year. We're working on our talent for the talent show, so you had all better put your big girl panties on and bring on the competition!