Pulled Off the Surprise

(This was actually scheduled to post on Thursday, but then I remembered I wanted to share a tutorial about the centerpieces I made for my sister's wedding shower so that I could link up for "Saw it. Pinned it. Did it."  So tomorrow will be the tutorial for SPD. And so now I'm posting twice in one day :) Enjoy!)

Earlier this week, like way back on Monday, my fiance called me on my office phone at 4 p.m., and said he had a surprise for me for that night. Usually, we have family dinner every week on Monday nights with my whole fam (mom, dad, sister, future BIL, step-bro, me, Jeff), so he was asking if we could miss  it just this one week. Since he was being so cute and he was so excited about it, I decided that yes, we could miss it this week, and I was definitely up for a surprise!

I tried to get a hint or a clue from him, but all he would say is that "it's not going to be another ring!" :) He said that if he tried to tell me any clue, he would probably mess up and give away the surprise on accident. So I just had to wait it out! I eventually found out from him what might be an OK outfit for the night (not knowing what I was dressing for), and after I went home and changed, he came to pick me up from my house.

We ended up going to one of our favorite restaurant's, Harry's (also the restaurant from Valentine's Day/Engagement night!), and sat out on the patio because the weather was just sooo nice! It was feeling pretty perfect, and it looked gorgeous, and we had a nice little view of part of downtown. (That big white building is the Capitol building of Florida!)

Well neither of us could decided what we wanted to eat, and then he had to leave to go use the restroom, and then we still couldn't decide on our meals, and then he ordered an appetizer instead, and then I was just like, "OK dude - we need to make some food decisions." So we did, but our waitress wouldn't come over. So I'm just sitting there looking around, and this girl walks up, and I'm like, "That girl looks a little bit like Nicole. Wait. That girl looks a LOT bit like Nicole!!"

So of course I jump up and speed-walk over to her, and just hug her immediately. And now I'm going to copy her post about this, because I like the way she quoted us... :) Thanks Nicole!

Halie: "What are you doing here?!?! YOU'RE my surprise?!"
Nicole: "I wanted to come visit you!"
Halie: "This is so fun!!"

So she joins us at our lovely little table, and I ask a hundred questions trying to figure out how they worked this out. Nicole lives in Pensacola which is about 3 hours from me, but was working in a tiny town for a few days that's only about 45 minutes away from Tally. She got off work earlier than expected, and so she text Jeff early afternoon in order to work everything out. When he had "gone to the restroom" earlier, he was actually calling her to tell her what table we were at. He had also grabbed an extra silverware bundle and stuffed it in his pocket! Silly boy :) And all the stalling with the menu and all that was just to wait for her to get here, so we could all order at the same time. So clever of him. ;)

We finally all ordered, and we all had delicious meals. This is seriously one of our favorite places to eat in town (for a bit of a "fancier" meal out), and I'm glad we went there that night! We all tried each other's meals, and I of course liked Jeff's pasta the best. Duh. I'd had the pasta before and wanted to try something new, so I went with baked shrimp with crab meat on top, with the fried grit cake. It was definitely super yummy, but I think next time, I'm going with what I know best and get the pasta again! We ended up staying there for about two hours talking and eating and laughing and having so much fun, and we even watched the sunset over the balcony. As Nicole said, it was so romantic ;)

Then afterwards, Nicole "convinced" us that we needed to visit Starbucks, and so we did. (Although really it didn't take any convincing at all. We were so on board with that idea.) She had been craving some petite vanilla scones, so of course we had to try some out too! And they were delish little fellas. I drank coffee for the first time since my Daniel Fast in January, and it was sooo good. Of course I got decaf though, or else I would have been awake 'til about 3 a.m. Then we just sat around Starbucks for over an hour or so talking and laughing some more!

It was such a great time catching up with her, since I hadn't seen her since November, and we had so much fun together. It was definitely an awesome surprise to have her show up here in my town, at one of my favorite restaurants, and I'm so glad she did! She's definitely one of my bestest friends, and I'm so glad she was able to work it out with Jeff, and that they both Pulled Off the Surprise!!