This weekend was a crazy, non-stop party of BUSY with family in town visiting, a surprise party for my friend Jenn, an unexpected visit from someone I've known on-line since 2003 but never met (she lives in the Netherlands), and, most importantly, my little sister's ENGAGEMENT.
You guys! My baby!
That kid is one of my favorite people on the planet, and has been since I met her when she was about 14 months old. She's not actually my sister, but a neighbor. For all intents and purposes our families have merged though, so it totally counts. I've known her almost her entire life, and her brother for his entire life, and they are just the sun and moon to me. So it was with much excitement and a lot of happy tears that I helped Heather's now-fiancé John pick out the hotel, restaurant, and other assorted plans for the Big Weekend.
John assigned me a "super secret spy name" in his phone so if Heather saw his caller ID at any point she wouldn't know it was me and get suspicious. He named me Veronica, declaring that it was a perfect sexy-sophisticated Russian Spy name for me (Teryn has since named herself Betty, and now we will never have proper names in John's phone EVER).
After a baseball game and dinner at a fancy restaurant, Heather and John headed to Navy Pier to see the fireworks. Thanks to under-the-table texting I was able to catch sight of them coming in and follow them all secret like to get photos of the proposal.
She didn't know I was there until after the fact, when John pointed me out and she started crying again. She hugged me tight and cried and told me how happy she was and said that it meant the world to her that I was there for that moment and my heart just about exploded from happiness for her. I didn't think it was possible for me to get any more emotional about the evening until she called her mom on the phone to tell her and only managed to choke out "Mommy!" once before bursting into happy-sobbing-tears again.
The next day Heather's mom emailed me and thanked me for being there for Heather and for "loving [her] daughter as much as [she] does". I told Teryn about the email and she said it best with her response, "How could you NOT?" I know, right?
Congratulations, Heather and John. I couldn't be happier for you if I tried. John, welcome to the family. I love you both to pieces.












The normal shade of green isn't quite this bright.

