My First Blog

So...this is my first blog, exactly one month from our wedding day. And, yes, we still are on our honeymoon!

What do I want this blog to do? What do I want it to do for me/us?

Mostly it will probably be random thoughts about where we are, where we've been, what we're doing, what we're gonna do, etc. And, maybe some excerpts from the hand-written journal that I've been keeping. Yes Mom, you read right. I've been keeping a journal. Quite an extensive one, if I do say so myself, at least 2 single-spaced pages a day.

Ummm...where to start? Maybe a little background would be good.

Everyone wants to know how we met. Truth be told, I don't remember. You see, I've known his family my whole life. I grew up being a pen-pal with his younger sister, Rebekah, who is my age.

My mom met his parents when she was 17. Our moms have been friends for forever. I know what some of y'all might be thinking now. "This sounds like the makings of an arranged marriage." That is SOOO not the case.

I grew up knowing of Caleb. He claims he didn't know I existed until the summer of 2008. And that, my friends, is when our story starts.

My family went up to Colorado to camp and visit his family. One night, after having some worship time together as families, we sat at the piano as everyone else drifted out of the room. During that visit we found that we had some very big interests in our lives that we shared. Namely, God and music. He had recently been baptized and I was getting ready to be baptized, so we were able to share our experiences. Up to that point, and even for a while afterwards, he was just my friend's older brother. But later that night, laying in bed, I thought, "Why in the world did I tell him all that stuff? I'm never that comfortable talking to guys my age. Why in the world was I with him?" Then the thought popped in my head, "Maybe because you're gonna marry him." I seriously laughed out loud. Marry him? You can't be serious, I mean he's a great guy and all, but he's Rebekah's older brother. Whatever. Then promptly rolled over, went to sleep and pretty much forgot about it. 

Apparently, he had a little harder of a time forgetting it...

Our families had little contact over the next year. Eventually I completely forgot about it.

Then a little over a year later, I started noticing that there were very few guys around, all of whom were great friends with no hope or desire for anything more (from either side). I decided that I was too young to get married and that I wanted to do a year of mission work before I got married and that I wasn't even gonna think about marriage until I was 23, because I had spent too much time thinking about marriage during my teenage years. I wanted to get my priorities right.

That worked for about 3 months. I started looking to mission work, got my mind totally off of guys, and then at the oddest moments I started to get flash-backs to that evening at his folks piano and would wonder...hmmm.

Then in January of 2010, my family went to visit his. I thought, "Ok. Now will be my chance to see if my memories have just grown on me and there's nothing there. The first evening there, I'll know. If for some crazy reason there's something to it, I'll tell Dad that night."

Well...we got there and I knew it hadn't grown on me, it was for real so that night I went to Dad. "Ummm...Dad, this is what I keep thinking. I don't know if its for real or not, but it keeps bugging me so I thought you should know." Lol! I was sooo nervous.

Apparently Caleb knew it was real, too. In March, he came down to Texas with his parents, and while he was there, he asked my dad for my hand in marriage. We also wrote a song together during that visit and that was when it was clear to me that we were to marry. I just felt God say that we could serve Him better together than alone and all of my questions and uncertainties about mission work and all of that just disappeared.

After that there were a lot of phone calls, emails and texts as we got to know each other.

In August, my family went to California to help celebrate my great-grandfather's 90th birthday.

On the way back, we took a more northerly route through Gallup, NM. Unbeknown to us kids, Mom and Dad had arranged to meet his family there. We stopped at this little park, and Dad was like, "Just thought that y'all might want to stretch your legs."

I got out and was redoing my hair because it was a mess from traveling all day and was walking around. I looked up and saw Mom and Dad a ways down the park and started heading in that direction. Right then, one of my little sisters came up and said, "You can not go down there. Mom and Dad said for us kids not to go there!" That got my curiosity up. I looked closer and all of the sudden, I recognized his family's van and saw his dad walking around the back.

Oh my word! I freaked out. I totally knew what was up. I raced to the middle of the play area, it was only area that was remotely screened because in NM everything is flat and you can see for miles.

I sat down, my heart racing 90 miles an hour. "Breathe deep. Take deep breaths." I told myself over and over. 

Ez ran up. "You need to come quick, they're waiting for you."

"I'm coming." I said.

I got up and started walking to the car. "Hurry. Hurry." She insisted.

"I'll get there when I get there. I'm NOT gonna go running up."

We walked up and everyone was standing there watching us. We all said hi and chit-chatted. After a few minutes, Caleb asked if we could go for a walk.

And as they say...The rest is history!

So. To make a long story longer, that is how we started. Hope I didn't ramble on too much :)

Well folks, I would love to write more, put more pictures up, whatever. But is getting late, and I have a husband waiting for me! 

More coming later...