The 11 days of Europe – Day 1

So we’ve decided to do a different post for each day we spent in Europe! Each day was jammed full and always fun! I hope you enjoy our trip!

Day 1 – The traveling….so our original “confirmed” travel plans were to leave RDU at 4:00pm for a flight to JFK in New York City. Then catch a 10pm flight out of JFK to Zurich. We were supposed to land in Zurich at 12:40pm that Saturday the 10th and had a day full planned of exploring Zurich. We were then going to take a 5pm train to Nate and Maria’s house and spend Saturday evening with them. This is how it actually happened….

JJ and I got to RDU airport at 2:15pm to check in with Delta. As we are checking in, super excited about our upcoming trip the woman says…”your flight left 45 minutes ago”. Never has this happened to me! We were very early, but our flight had changed and we were never informed! So the woman we were working with spent the next 25 minutes on the phone and her computer trying to find some way to get us to Zurich, because there were no more flights to JFK that day…She finally looks up and says, the only way I can get you to Zurich leaving today is to take a 4pm flight to Atlanta, have a 6 hr layover there, then take a 7 hour flight to Paris, have a 5 hour layover there, then take an hour flight to Zurich, which will put you into Zurich at 8:55pm. We just wanted to get there so we took it!

The flight to Atlanta was smooth and short (just the way we like it!). My boss and 2 of our managers had been in Atlanta for the Catalyst Conference and were flying back to RDU that night, so we got to have dinner with them! That helped the time pass and was really nice!

We then boarded the plane at 11:00pm for our 7 hour flight to Paris. I had worked that day and all the traveling had worn me out so I was a sleep before the plane ever took off! Needless to say I slept most of the flight except when JJ would wake me up to eat! He got to sleep some too! The next “morning” well morning for us, 1pm in Paris, we landed! Just to sit in the airport for another 6 hours…. We brushed our teeth and freshened up (I love the tax free stores that sell perfume, I always freshen up with their testers ) then sat and read for awhile. It was almost 5pm so we figured we better try to get ourselves on their schedule so we got 2 sandwiches from a restaurant there in the airport, then JJ passed out as usual…

We finally boarded our last flight for the day to Zurich, Switzerland! Our flight left on time and was a pretty easy flight! We landed in Zurich at 8:15pm and ran off the plane because we had to catch the 9:05pm train to Basel. We rushed through the airport to baggage claim, to find JJ’s luggage had been lost… so now not only did JJ not have his luggage but we also had to go through the whole baggage claim process while still needing to make the 9:05 train. We finally got it all straightened out, went through customs, and ran to the train station. We bought our tickets then did our best to figure out what train we were supposed to be on! We took a guess, but in an hour and a half we were getting off the train in Basel to Maria! After 24 hours of traveling we were glad to be there! We then took the tram to their neighborhood and met Nate and Jake who helped us get all our stuff to their house!

It’s been a long time!

It’s been a long time since we have posted, but we are back and posts will be coming soon!!! Stay tuned!

The Story of Us!

So I realized that I haven’t really told the story of us since starting this blog.  Below is the story we posted on our wedding website before we got married!

Where should I start… Although we grew up in the same small town, JJ and I did not meet till the end of high school. Truth be told…when we did meet we didn’t really like each other. Well I take that back JJ had a great time picking on me and making fun of me, but I couldn’t stand him! When JJ graduated he went to NC State. A year later I was heading there as well. Even though we were now in Raleigh, things did not change much, the teasing continued through out my freshmen year. By that summer our story would finally change! We realized how much fun we had together and how well we could actually get along!

For the next 2 and a half years we had our ups and downs. When I look back now, I realize we were both young, but yet it was during those times I came to understand that whether it was going to NC State games, hanging out with friends, or just watching TV, I loved every minute we shared together. During that time God was doing amazing things in our lives, (that we didn’t even realize He was doing). If there’s one thing JJ and I have come to understand it’s God has always been intimately working in our lives. When we first started dating JJ was running from the Lord and I had yet to experience what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ was really like. In January of ’06 JJ and I went to the Passion Conference in Nashville, TN. It was there that the Lord called JJ back to himself and for the first time in 21 years I truly understood what the Lord was calling me too. Two weeks later I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

For the next year our relationship faced many trials, God was calling us as individuals not as a couple and in January of ’07 we broke up…what I thought was for good. For a year and a half we both did our own thing, keeping in touch occasionally. Then in March of 08, I heard JJ was graduating from the Police Academy and I just knew I needed to be there. A couple weeks later JJ invited me to a dinner that would change our lives. Although I would have never expected it was then that JJ told me he believed I was the woman he would marry. It would be an under-statement to say he caught me off guard. While I was not sure what the future held, he seemed confident that he knew what was ahead of us. For the next 4 months we spent time praying, hanging out, and getting to know each other all over again. In that time I saw the Godly man JJ had become and the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. On August 1st we got back together and the rest is history!