Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Love and Parties

In our lives we will go many places, do many things, meet and love many people, and plan many parties.
Love and Parties…the things that fill my mind.  I am getting ready to become a wife (out of mushy loove obviously) and plan what I hope to be the best party I (we) have ever thrown.  I hope to share in the coming months the honest, straight-up feelings and events that occur in the midst of all this love and party stuff.  So if you’ve read this blog before, welcome to the name change.
So…let’s get caught up.  First of all, let us not grow weary of reminding everyone that a Marriage needs more preparing for than a Wedding.  Yes yes yes, ok ok OK.
Well of course I agree.  But wedding stuff is just so much FUUN!
So to catch everyone up, we got engaged in January.  It was an awesome day, he proposed on a hike (see below) and surprised me with a small celebration party that evening.  Joel still likes to remind me of the peculiarity that although I am an avid crier, I just so happened to not cry during/after the proposal.  Well I would like to remind him, during this honest record of events, of the peculiarity of us going on a hike, a week after ring shopping, with a camera in his Camelpak. 

No seriously, I was as sure that we would get engaged at the top of that mountain as I was that I would BEAT him up the mountain (we don’t “race” but…we race).  That was - Hopeful, But Not Sure.  And I was wrong about beating him that day, so anything could happen.  All in all, it was awesome.  Ring: Check.
Soon after that we enrolled in Marriage Preparation classes at my church, St. Thomas the Apostle here in Phoenix.  Joel is not Catholic but is totally on-board with the “let’s do everything we can to prepare for and have a great marriage” thing.  I’m a lucky lil Catholic girl.  Check.
Then, on my recent trip back home we decided on the reception venue and officially set the date for Thanksgiving!  The feeling of OMG it’s really happening: CHECK.
In that list of “21 Suggestions for Success” by H. Jackson Brown, the very first suggestion listed is “Marry the right person.  This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.”  I believe this to the extent that the person you decide to daily eat, sleep and negotiate between the Today Show and Good Morning America with (negotiations currently under way) will indeed have a profound effect on the rest of your life.  In the words of my very own naïve, starry-eyed self…We are going to be so awesome at this.  So a little twist on the tip for success, but I’m aiming for “90% happiness” in this thing.  What thing?  The whole thing.  And I know we'll get there.
Next report: how to survive hearing the word 'mucus' 36 times in 120 minutes.