And so it continues...

As I said in the previous post, we were inseparable the rest of that summer. But, then the time came when I had to leave for school.

Toby drove to Hays separately that day that I moved. My parents and Aunt Kelly also came up too. We all met for supper after we got done moving my stuff into my dorm and meeting my new roommate, and then my family left. It's sure a weird feeling watching your parents drive away leaving you to live in another town. I was glad Toby was there too. We went driving around Hays that night, and he was showing me all the sights and places he worked and had fun at when he went to college there. But, eventually, he had to head for home too. He drove me back to the dorms and asked if I wanted him to walk me to my room. I said no, that it would just make it harder to say goodbye that way...so we said our goodbyes, and I sadly watched from my 4th floor window as he slowly drove away. I knew that night that this would be the last boyfriend I would ever have.

And so the fall passed. I had fallen for this cowboy. I made the two hour drive home every weekend (and sometimes during the week too!), and he made several two hour trips to Hays in the middle of the week. We spent every spare minute together and loved it!

The first family dinner I went to as "Toby's girlfriend," Toby warned me before we walked inside.

"Just beware, you're the new one...so you're probably going to get roped."

Boy was he right.

Halloween night I had ridden back home with a friend and surprised Toby. We were enjoying the night together (and the fact that I only had a 1:30 class the next day) when I got up to go to the bathroom. While I was in the bathroom, I heard kids voices...I knew it had to be either Toby's nieces and nephews OR my family, and neither one is good when you aren't supposed to be there! SO, I chose to finish peeing and just wait it out in the bathroom until they left. Good idea, except it was Toby's family, and his brother had to use the bathroom........let's just say he caught me. Caught me in the act of buttoning my pants! We were both startled and I was given away. Apparently Toby had already made up an excuse as to why my purse was in the kitchen when one of his very observant nieces asked. So, all of his brothers and sisters had to make the kids promise not to tell my mom that they had seen me when they went to school the next day. And would you believe that not a one of them said a word?!? The next weekend when I saw my mom, she asked me,

"Why didn't you ride home on Halloween with Rachel?"

Well, I couldn't lie to her, so I simply said,

"I did." :)

Then November came. Toby's Dad was very sick with his cancer, and he was in the hospital. I'd known all along that he had cancer, but I was never sure how serious it was. We had spent days working with his Dad and mornings and evenings checking in on his mom and dad. I was waiting on Toby to get home from work one evening, when he walked in and said,

"We have to go right now. He's not good."

So, off we went. There's no words to describe the feelings that come when someone is dying, especially when it's someone so important to the one you love. I took the week off from school to be with Toby. The night before Terry died, we slept in the hallway on the floor outside of his room. All 10 of us were asleep outside that hospital room. Terry died on November 12, 2006. November 13th was Toby's 25th birthday. Those days were the saddest days in our relationship.

I went back to school the next week, and made the decision to transfer to Pratt @ semester. I couldn't be so far away from that boy any longer!

That Thanksgiving break, I was helping my Dad move his tractor to another field. I was to wait at home for about 30 minutes, and then head to pick him up in his old service pickup. I was driving along, when I thought I should call and let him know that I was on my way, but my phone slipped out of my hand and wound up on the floorboard. Long story short, I found myself flying through the air in that pickup with no seat belt on. In a matter of about 3 seconds, I had begged God for my life multiple times. When the pickup landed, I still wasn't sure if I was alive, but I knew I had to get out and get help. I miraculously found my cell phone and dialed my Dad.

*Call lost.*

And then I panicked. I had no way of getting help if my cell phone didn't work! I dialed again and prayed for just one bar of service. God came through again, and I got my Dad. I was so afraid because I had ruined his pickup and scattered tools EVERYWHERE. I was sitting by the wheel when he got there (much thanks to our good friend Jennifer), and he waited with me until the ambulance got there. Thanks to God, he had heard my desperate prayers and I was only very bruised and very sore. That night, Toby slept on the floor of my parents' living room, beside me on the couch. He got me anything and everything I needed. What a guy.

We celebrated Christmas with our families, and enjoyed my time off from school, dreading the day I had to go back, but excited it would be much closer to home!

More to come...