Rambler to the End

Wow, what a whirlwind of life and work and holidays and all the fun stuff that happens along the way! In the last while, my life has changed drastically. But it's great.

After getting home from Colorado, I was laid off and then offered a position increasing my work load and responsibilities. I am very, very blessed to be able to stay where I work and in the end the new job is OK... just super BUSY! I also moved... grumble. I sure don't like moving... at all. I'm now living on campus at work in a small 400 square foot apartment that we lovingly call "The Hallway". It's nice and new, but again, it's 400 square feet. It's a challenge but more it's a huge blessing as it is super affordable and helping us save for a house.

Us. I'm totally crazy about my J. He is always showing me through his example how fantastic he is and that I'm making the right choice. When to get married and how has been complicated... and pretty frustrating too. I'm talking tearful frustration. Then I got to thinking. I realized I'm focused too much on the wedding and not on the marriage. J is a gift and I think being married to him is a heavenly gift. Im super excited for the marriage part of this. So, we are doing a quick, fun, spontaneous, beautiful, "us" type wedding in Honolulu next week. And then we will be on to the more important part of growing a beautiful wedding and being sealed in a year. Yahoo!

So, I guess this logically completes this blog's life. Although I want to make it perfectly clear that I'm still a rambler and always will be one in my heart... just now I'm rambling with J. It's time to move on to the next phase of our lives. That can be found at: http://www.eightyearsinthemaking.blogspot.com/

?Question?... Bling...YES!

It's not a secret that I don't do surprises well. Never have. As a matter of fact, my lil sis told J the other day that it would be almost impossible to surprise me because I'm "evil"... harsh. I think she is either referring to the many days of December gone by's that I "forced" her to help me unwrap and then rewrap all the presents under the tree or perhaps how I taught her to steal the car keys and look in the trunk to find the hidden presents. Maybe she is referring to the times I had her stand lookout as I snuck into my mom's wallet to read receipts and figure out our future hauls. Certainly she couldn't be referring to my master therapist skills that will after hours of questioning will wear anyone down who holds a secret, especially a big one like this:

With the bling acquired, I knew the proposal was coming, just didn't know how. J promised to surprise me, which only whetted my appetite and sent me on a frenzy to find out exactly what was going to happen. Bless my dear friends and coworkers hearts... such stalwarts they were! I'll admit, I'm still surprised everyone stayed on J's team and wouldn't come over to my team by spilling the beans. After a rookie mistake (sorry RM, I just figured it out) I knew the place of the proposal. J threw his hands in the air and said, "fine, I give up, you win, let's just go to dinner and I'll give it to you." Victory... I thought.

J is a romantic at heart. He is also quite talented in so many ways. He's the kind of guy that everyone loves. Before dinner we took a romantic walk around the park that was so confirming to me. Walking on that path, being with J, talking about a future together, I knew it was a go and the absolute right thing to do. I didn't know he was stalling.
When we finally got to the restaurant, we were walked to a beautiful table with roses and an amazing painting set on it. Weeks earlier I had told J about my favorite painter, http://www.kershinik.comKershisnik and shown him my favorite painting by him. (J is actually quite the artist himself. I'm quite proud of the fact that he painted a few murals and worked many hours overtime to help pay for my ring. I love his work ethic.) J had done a study of that painting and painted us in the corner. I'm holding my ring and kissing J. Also, he painted in the temple on the top of the hill. I just think it's amazing and incredibly thoughtful.

My favorite surprise though was when the live musician started playing our song, "Then", by Brad Paisley. When he started strumming it, J asked me if I'd like to dance. I shook my head because I was too scared and shaking, luckily, he was too. In the part of the song that the guy gets on one knee to ask the girl, J pulled out my ring and asked me to marry him. That was the easiest "Yes!" I've ever said.

The guitarist was fantastic. He had never heard the song before and the music J ordered online didn't come in time so he sat down and learned it by ear on his own. His wife told us the night before he sat and sang it to her all night long. So sweet!

Without getting too personal, Y'know I've waited many a moon to find J. Perspective is everything, the rest of it was too hard, too forced, but with J it is the most natural/comfortable life transition. Maybe 8 years ago, while we were in the same singles ward, we should have hooked up... but there was a lot of life to be lived in those last 8 years. And a lot of growing up to be done. Now, we have a ridiculously fabulous life ahead and I'm excited as all heck for it.

I've always wanted a sapphire to be somehow incorporated into my ring. I love it! I think it's beautiful and perfect for me.

Denver Impulse Theatre Laughs

The perfect end to a fantastic week was at the Impulse Theatre in Denver.
It's located in the basement of a downtown bar that serves at the theatre. Hence, each child had to come with a parent. My nieces "Boy Who's A Friend Boyfriend", W, didn't have parental figures with him... so, meet our boy. He was a good sport.

J loves Improv and had a hoot of a good time.

During intermission, the kids and I got jiggy with it. They make me giggle.

Below posing with the ape man down

Dinner Family Style

Dinner at Maggiano's before Wicked. YUM!

Wicked!

Wow and amazing and wonderful and absolutely worth seeing! What a night!!!!
It was an amazing night thanks to my Denver family.

Denver = One Big Speed Trap

This image was taken while sitting in my car in a long line of other "speeders" that were caught in the trap, waiting for our tickets. Turns out Denver Police needed to pay their bills that day... and I got caught in their budget crunch. Lucky me! $125 was definitely not worth getting off the freeway just to drive by Coors Field. Nor was it very calming on my chill out scale. As a matter of fact, J was worried that the officer was going to pull me out of the car when I started arguing with him and insisted he tell me immediately that he tell me how to get out of Denver... yeah, not one of my more brilliant moments... this must be what they were talking about when they said a road trip is very eye opening.

Estes Park, Colorado

One of my favorite spots in Colorado is Estes Park right at the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Forest. It's beautiful. I really wanted J to see it and I really really wanted to do some shopping. My older bro, who is a fantastic host by the way, came too. Loved the scenery, loved the shopping, loved the day.

Turns out my J is a bit of a goof. Like a really big goof actually! And T did nothing but egg him on. How is it that the ONLY shirt in the whole town that J wanted was a "poopy orange" color that said, "I went camping and burned my weiner." Yes, I gave in and bought it... I know.