String Cheese and Santa Claus

String Cheese lives in dueling worlds it seems. At times she is asking the most mature questions and seems like this old soul, full of wisdom and I wonder, "Did you really just turn 7?" Other times she is crawling around on the ground pretending to be a kitty or sobbing uncontrollably about nothing because she is tired and she is still just my little girl. Most of the times these worlds get along fine but they clash a bit when it comes to Santa Claus.

SC hasn't truly believed in Santa for several years now (much to the chagrin of her preschool teacher and some of my siblings). I guess I just didn't really have a good plan about how I was going to do the whole Santa thing. I just never felt comfortable outright lying. When she was 3 or 4 she would ask things like:
"Does Santa Clause really fly in a sleigh?"
Me: That is what the legends say.
SC: Does Santa really go around the whole world in one night?
Me: That's what they say.
SC: Are elves real?
Me: What do you think?
SC: Do YOU believe in Santa?
Me: I think it is fun to believe in him if you want to.
...and then the questions got harder
SC: Why did whats-her-name get this-or-that and I only got this? Was she better than me? Doesn't Santa know where Haiti is???

So...I just couldn't straight out lie and have received some severe glares and lectures (including a wide-eyed and worried talk from Deedle's preschool teacher last Monday). SC knows Santa isn't real. But when Christmas comes around there is the magic in the air and SC does allow herself on some level to believe that a Christmas Elf sneaks into our house each and every night during December until Christmas to put a small treat in our advent calendar for the children to find in the morning. And when we drove past Christmas village a while ago, String Cheese said, half-heartedly to me, "If Mrs. Claus is there talking to all the kids, maybe she is real and maybe there really is a Santa. Is there Mom?"
Me: "I think it is really fun to believe Santa is real sometimes."

And so it goes. There is a part inside this little 7-year-old that really wants to believe he is real, that there is truly a magical man that loves little children dearly and wants to give them all their most precious heart's desire to open on the morning of the celebration of the birth of the Savior of the world. But there is the other conflicting part in her.

Today we had our annual Christmas Eve party with my side of the family. As a child we held it at my grandmother's house. As we became too numerous and my grandmother became too frail we just held it at my parent's home. Then for the past 6 years we have done it at a church because there are just too darned many of us kids, spouses, and grandkids to fit in even my parents large home.Anyway, my niece's boyfriend dressed up as Santa and the little ones took a turn on his lap. When String Cheese sat on his lap, she wasn't sure what to say. I think part of her wanted to ask for her favorite gift, but then part of her thought, "this guy isn't going to give me a gift" but part of her wanted to ask for something special so she asked, "I would like for my family to have the best Christmas ever." She later told us, "That wasn't the real Santa. It didn't smell like him at all."
"Oh yeah?" Chancho asked, "What does Santa smell like? Cookies?"
"Yes," she said seriously, "and this Santa smelled like barf."

She then recounted to us that the Santa that visited her school was not the real Santa either because, "You know what I asked him?"
"What?" we ask.
"I asked him why he doesn't give presents to the poor children."
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, I ask, "And what did he say?"
"He said, 'maybe they are on the naughty list'."
"And what did you say to that?"
"I said, 'yeah right! (sarcastically)'"

So, it appears that in these dueling worlds of hers SC thinks a lot like this, "I don't really believe in Santa. But maybe I do. All my friends do. But I don't really think he's real. But maybe there is a real one somewhere. All the ones I've met are fake. But if he is real and I ever meet him I'd really like to know why he only makes some children happy on Christmas."

His Name!

Well, I think it is finally decided and so I will share the real thing once before making up a code blogger name for our little unborn son. His birth certificate will read: Miles Phineas Cox

I really wanted his first name to be Phineas and to call him Finn but Chancho didn't agree (in fact he said, "I hate the name" and that made me so very sad and I told him that was very rude to say you hate something that I so obviously love, so he apologized and said he didn't hate it he just didn't want it for the first name so we could use it for his middle name. Anyway, maybe his blogname will be Finn.

From my research, the name Miles either comes from Latin (soldier), German (mild, calm, peaceful), or Slavonic (merciful). You can't go wrong with any of those. I like to think of my little man being a peaceful, merciful soldier.

The reason I like the name Phineas so much is because of this man, my 3rd great grandfather:On my Mother's side of the family he was the first to join the LDS church and was a friend to the prophet, Joseph Smith. In fact his brother, Willard, was in Carthage jail with the prophet when he was killed. Phineas was a great leader and an example of righteousness and faith. He was forced to flee persecution with his family and was the leader of one of the first wagon companies to trek across the plains and arrive in Utah shortly after Brigham Young. His son, Franklin D. Richards became an apostle, as did his son George F. Richards (my mom's grandpa), and his son LeGrand Richards. Phineas began a legacy of faith of which I'm truly proud to be a part of and am honored to name my little son after this man.

Some of you may find it interesting that he was mentioned in the last General Conference session by one of our current apostles, Boyd K. Packer.

In his talk, "The Test", Elder Packer talks about the trials the saints went through--murder, plunder, destruction, being driven from city to city and even having and extermination act put out against them and how they constantly petitioned the US government for help and time and time again were failed. He talks about their trek across the plains. Two years after arriving in the valley the saints decided to have a celebration of their liberty and freedom. From the talk:

“It may seem puzzling, incredible almost beyond belief, that for the theme of this first celebration they chose patriotism and loyalty to that same government which had rejected and failed to assist them. What could they have been thinking of? If you can understand why, you will understand the power of the teachings of Christ.

Their brass band played as President Brigham Young led a grand procession to Temple Square. He was followed by the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy.

Then followed 24 young men dressed in white pants; black coats; white scarves on their right shoulders; coronets, or crowns, on their heads; and a sheathed sword at their left sides. In their right hand, of all things, each carried a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was read by one of those young men.

Next came 24 young women dressed in white, blue scarves on their right shoulders and white roses on their heads. Each carried a Bible and a Book of Mormon.

Almost but not quite as amazing as their choice of patriotism for a theme was what came next: 24 aged sires (as they were called) led by patriarch Isaac Morley. They were known as the Silver Greys—all 60 years of age or older. Each carried a staff painted red with white ribbon floating at the top. One carried the Stars and Stripes. These men were a symbol of the priesthood, which was “from the beginning before the world was”9 and had been restored in this dispensation.

The Saints knew that the Lord had told them to be “subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.”10 That commandment, revealed then, is true now of our members in every nation. We are to be law-abiding, worthy citizens.

The Lord told them, “I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose.”11

And in another verse, the Lord told them that “it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.”12 They were therefore antislavery. This was a very sore spot with the settlers in Missouri.

And so on that day of celebration in 1849, “Elder Phineas Richards came forward in behalf of the twenty-four aged sires, and read their loyal and patriotic address.”13 He spoke of the need for them to teach patriotism to their children and to love and honor freedom. After he briefly recited the perils that they had come through, he said:

“Brethren and friends, we who have lived to three-score years, have beheld the government of the United States in its glory, and know that the outrageous cruelties we have suffered proceeded from a corrupted and degenerate administration, while the pure principles of our boasted Constitution remain unchanged. …

“… As we have inherited the spirit of liberty and the fire of patriotism from our fathers, so let them descend [unchanged] to our posterity.”14

One would think that, compelled by force of human nature, the Saints would seek revenge, but something much stronger than human nature prevailed.

The Apostle Paul explained:

“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. …

“… We have the mind of Christ.”15

That Spirit defined those early members of the Church as followers of Christ.

If you can understand a people so long-suffering, so tolerant, so forgiving, so Christian after what they had suffered, you will have unlocked the key to what a Latter-day Saint is. Rather than being consumed with revenge, they were anchored to revelation. Their course was set by the teachings still found today in the Old and the New Testaments, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

If you can understand why they would celebrate as they did, you can understand why we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the principles of the gospel.”

And so it is that he shall be named. The End.

FABULOSA!

Well, what a very nice thing. I have been given this lovely award by two blogger friends:
Here the rules to receiving this award:

You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous bloggers in a post.

You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.

I was tagged, or awarded by my sweet friend, Sarah, and also Me--a new blogging friend. They said very nice things about me, so I shall graciously accept the award. :)

5 Addictions--this is difficult. I try not to be addicted to anything and honestly don't think I have any true addictions. I believe that every time we are able to conquer our physical bodies our spirits grow stronger, thus I try to avoid substances that may cause addiction. If I do have an addiction, I want to break it. Maybe some of you will tell me of addictions you think I have. :) Anyway, I will try to think of things that I really like and would be much less happy with out:

1. Oh wait--I might be addicted to my Cymbalta. I'm not sure. I take it for anxiety and depression and if I forget to take it for a few days I start getting really scary headaches and tiny seizures that blind me temporarily. That sounds like withdrawing from something addictive, doesn't it? I wish I didn't have to take it because that is scary, but the alternative is much scarier and luckily thanks to some alternative health methods I am on a lot fewer meds than I was 15 months ago.
2. My bed--it is just so heavenly and now that I have a beautiful headboard, footboard, and side rails it is pretty, too.
3. Golden Grahams--this may be considered more of a pregnancy craving, but I'm pretty much addicted to them right now and have to eat at least one bowl per day.
4. Blogging--I don't feel quite right if I can't check out my google reader at least once per day to read new posts.
5. Haiti--this kind of feels like an addiction because anything that might possibly be related to or suggest anything of Haiti draws me in like some external force is pulling me. When people ask, "Why Haiti?" I often say, "I don't really feel like I chose Haiti, it's more like Haiti chose me." I don't really know how to explain that at all. If you know what I mean, you know what I mean.

Now here is the hard part. To tag only FIVE fabulous bloggers? I think that all of you are fabulous--else why would I read your blogs or comment? So, I will tag those who first come to mind:
Lori~everybody who knows Lori knows she is fabulous! She has been through hell and back with her adoption journey and health issues yet she remains faithful and strong and heads up the board of directors for a charity to help fund an orphanage in Haiti (where her children are residing until they are allowed to come home).
Nancy~what a fabulous sister I have! She is a wonderful friend and a great example to me as a mother and follower of the Savior. I love the way she writes. Her blog is always funny and interesting, even when she isn't writing about much of anything but random thoughts in her head.
Kelly~how fabulous is it to have a fabulous friend that you have had since 1st grade?! Kelly is relatively new to bloggerdom and doesn't post as often as she should but if you are lucky you might click on her link and read her most recent post about how all the fabulousness of Christmas somehow inspired her to write about all the things she hates.
Jodi~I met this friend almost 4 years ago at the beginning of her adoption journey. Although we've only "met" in person once, I feel a very strong sister/soul connection to her. She is absolutely fabulous! When I think of Jodi, I just think of beauty and love--she is beautiful inside and out. She creates beauty, she emits love, she inspires beauty. She is full of love and is very open to people from every walk of life and always desires to do good.
Tia Juana~ How fabulous is it to meet somebody so fabulous through connections in the blog world, and then to meet again for lunch and discover this person is even more fabulous in real-life? Jana makes me laugh and inspires me to be a better person.
Heather~I know several fabulous Heathers, but this fabulous one is just one of my favorite people in the world. One of the most fabulous things about her is that she doesn't even realize at all how fabulous she truly is. She is organized and a go-getter and has a super strong unyielding testimony of the gospel and I love her very much.

Oops! That is already six and I've only begun to tag some fabulous people with fabulous blogs. So, anyway, those of you that I tagged, accept your award and nominate more fabulous people. Those of you I didn't get the chance to mention, know that I think you are all muy fabulosa and BLOG ON!

Need a Laugh

I love Christmas time so very much but I *occasionally* get stressed out. I'm sure none of you do. None of you ruined TWO batches of fudge by first using butter instead of margarine and then listening to your sister Kathy when she tell you it wasn't the butter it was the chocolate so then you made a second batch with butter and different chocolate and it did NOT work. None of you left some of your last minute shopping to do at Wal-Mart until the Saturday before Christmas. ::shudder:: None of you tried to run to 3 different stores on the most busy Saturday of the year on the busiest road in the area to find waterproof gloves for your children who received frostbite this morning while playing in the snow with their flimsy little knit gloves. And I'm sure none of you have children that get over stimulated at this time of year and throw a lot of fits.

But, just in case any of you do have things like that going on and need a bit of comic relief like I do right now, I will share a few of my favorite laugh-invoking video clips.

And please, leave a comment a share one of your favorites with me!

One other quick thing, I know it is not nice to laugh at another's expense. It is not nice at all. But I'm still doing it. So, the best thing I can think of to make up for it is to try and think of some way to have you laugh at my expense. I'll work on that next.

This has to be one of my very favorites of all time but you have to hear the anchors in the background to get the full effect, so make sure you have volume:

Eight Years

Tonight Chancho took me to my favorite restaurant (Temari) and to see the movie "Yes Man". It was pretty funny. It was also very fitting. It was 8 years ago today that I said my most important yes that I've ever said. Luckily Chancho was a "yes man" too as we knelt across an altar from each other in the Salt Lake Temple on that freezing cold morning!I can honestly say that was the happiest day of my life. I have had a lot of days of joy and many moments that I could hardly believe, but an entire day of nothing but happiness and peace and joy? Well, my wedding day was it!
I was determined to marry in the Salt Lake Temple. That particular temple has a lot of significance for me personally. But those dates during winter break fill up quickly. By the time we called to reserve a spot the only time available was 7:15am! And I did it! I felt bad for my family members, but at least nobody had an excuse not to come at that time of day. It was really bitter cold, but the weather was the only thing cold about that day.

Besides being married to the man of my dreams for time and all eternity, I had the great and marvelous joy of having every single one of my siblings in the temple with me. A sealing room in a temple of God is so peaceful and spiritual on so many levels and to be dressed all in white, sitting next to my new husband and to look out and see my 6 brothers and 4 sisters and my parents there in that place--for the first time ever and I think since that every one of has been able to be in a temple together--was just overwhelmingly joyful for me. Here we all are out on the steps of the temple. Even at this age, I guess it is still impossible to get all of your kids to look at the camera for a pic, huh Mom?I was so happy that I was often laughing during the day and remember wondering before our reception even began why my face was so sore--oh yes--not used to all that smiling! I was determined after that to smile more so that I would never have such weak smiling muscles again.During our wedding breakfast our fathers each gave a little speech. My Dad told everybody something that I had told him recently after becoming engaged to Chancho. I told him that for so long it felt like there was a large hole in my heart, like a piece of me was missing. But now that I had Chancho I felt whole. Thank you, my soul mate, for filling that place in my heart!

darn you, blurb.com!

i'm so sad...i tried to start a new blog book and it no longer works on blurb.com (booksmart). apparently blogger keeps changing their format which makes it hard for the companies to slurp the posts. so sad. has anybody else found another place that makes blogs into books? you can still do it with booksmart but you have to copy and paste each entry and i'm not very excited about that. if anybody has any suggestions, please let me know!

SEVEN!!!

Seven Years ago today I gave birth to my first child. I think it was the most emotional and touching experience I have ever had. She was an absolutely gorgeous baby with lots of blond hair, big blues eyes, long lashes, rose bud lips--just as precious as can be.

Per my tradition I started, here is a little countdown:

Brand New...
One...
Two...
Three..
Four...
Five...
Six...
Seven!!!

Beautiful, first born child of mine, I love you with all of my heart. You are a very wise soul. At the most recent parent-teacher conference, Mrs. Burch told me that she is constantly amazed at how old you sound, how thoughtful you are, and how she can always count on you. You are full of kindness. Sure, you have your hard times with your sister but you truly were born with compassion and empathy. You often ask if after you are married you can live with me because you want to live with me forever and ever and ever. You are growing up way too fast and I'm afraid you will be wanting to move out before I know it. Having you go to school full-day this year has been hard for me--letting go of you a bit. But you have grown so much so quickly. You are thriving and love to learn. You have a great attention span and will not hesitate to read to me for over an hour from a new book. You love the latch-hook project Daisy gave you and have learned how to do it very quickly and will be happy to sit and work on it for a good two hours. You are growing up fast, but I enjoy seeing that you are still just a little girl--your favorite gift tonight was a "Hello Kitty" house with furniture and animals to play inside it. You are kind and nurturing to your siblings, especially Loumy. You are just a wonderful girl and we feel so blessed that Heavenly Father gave you to us seven years ago today!

poll results 2

Dear unborn son,

We had a vote on 4 names that your dad especially likes and these were the results:
Jonah - 6
Aiden - 13
Cole - 10
Adam - 4

By the time you are old enough to read this you will already know what your name is. Will it be one of these or something else? I hope to decide soon.

Love,

Mom

More About SC's Birthday

String Cheese begged for a "friends" party this year. We have always had a party for her but it was mostly just family. This year she wanted a time with "just friends". So, on Saturday I through a party for her. She loved it. There were just 10 kids but it seemed like a lot to me! Half of the kids were her "big girl" cousins--Maddie, Charly, Kate, and Daisy. She also invited long-time friend, Olivia Ozmun, Lindi from 1st grade, and Meghan from church. And her siblings were there, too.
The kids ate a lovely Barbie cake, decorated gingerbread houses (made of graham crackers), played some games and did a lot of screaming and giggling.
Tonight we had Jason's side of the family over for pizza, salad, drinks, cupcakes, etc. String Cheese received a lot of presents and said that she had a very, very happy day. ::whew::

Here are the kids posing in front of their game of "tape the nose on Rudolph" with cousins Maddie and Colby, and Unky (Uncle) T.

Joy to Everyone

If you haven't seen this yet, then ENJOY!!!

A Question

Some of you have said that Mckinley sounds like a girl name. I don't agree, obviously, or I wouldn't have chosen it for one of my favorite boy names. But because some have said this I have been doing a lot of research on the name and can't find any girls with that name. I think because girls have taken over Mackenzie and Mackenna and a few of the other Mc names that some people now think maybe it is girly. To me, Mckinley sounds like a dignified southern gentleman who could be a cool, rough and tumble kid with the nickname of Mac.

So, here is my question. I am not asking if you like the name or not, I am just asking if you honestly know of a little girl named Mckinley. I wouldn't want my son teased if there were several little girls at his school with the name. But I have searched social security records and done web searches and even google image searches and haven't found a single girl named Mckinley.

Please be honest and tell me if you personally know a girl with that name.

Thank you and thank you for the voting. Chancho and I are appreciative. Hopefully we don't end up choosing the name that you all like the least, but that may just happen and ya'll can live with it. :)

Back to His Roots

One thing about getting married quickly is that you have to learn a lot about your spouse after the fact. In our case, I have always been fine with it. But it is interesting. For example, one day a couple of years into our marriage we were talking and had this conversation:

Chancho: I hate horses.
Me: WHAT?! What are you talking about?
C: I just don't like them.
Me: Well, I have always wanted to have my own horse so this isn't right. And besides, you can't hate horses.
C: Yes, I can. I do.
Me: But you are a TEXAN. It is absolutely unacceptable for you to hate horses. Have you ever even been on a horse?
C: No. But one tried to bite me once.
Me: ::pshaw::

We started doing some of his family history and as we learned about his heritage I would occasionally think, "Cowboy-ing is in his blood. He doesn't hate horses!" But he still said he did.

I found this photo at his parent's house, copied it and framed it. "Look at you, you are a Texas cowboy!"
"Nope," he'd say. From the time I knew him he was more of a hip snowboarder than a cowboy, so I mostly let it rest. Besides, I've never been big on modern cowboys myself. Never been a fan of country music in any form. And, supposedly, neither had Chancho (although I recently learned that he took a date to a Tim McGraw concert before we met).

Awhile ago we saw part of Comanche Moon on TV and I was shocked to find out he'd never seen Lonesome Dove. We watched it and now own it. Seeing those cowboys in Texas, I think, made him think more about what his great and great great grandparents might have been like. At least that is what it made me think about and I didn't ask him what he thought.

Around this same time Megan and Josh bought two horses. Chancho said he wasn't interested in riding them and I didn't push the issue but thought he would probably give it a try if the opportunity arose. I hoped that the bitter memory of a horse bite from childhood could be assuaged by a more positive experience. When we visited Meg, Chancho got on Gus right away and looked, to me, like quite a natural. Meg and Josh were surprised it was his first time. Chancho enjoyed it a lot and when we came home he started learning more about horses and is now very interested in learning how to ride better and hopefully owning some of our own someday.I was pleased with his open heart. But little did I know what would happen next. We were driving along and he was changing through the stations and stopped on country.

Me: What are you doing?
C: I like this song.
Me: What do you mean?
C: I'm kind of starting to like country. On my commute home from work sometimes I get tired of sports talk radio and other music stresses me out so I've been listening to country and I like it. It relaxes me. It's not all full of angst.
Me: ::pshaw::

And just a few weeks ago while getting dressed in the morning, Chancho suddenly says to me:
"I think I'm just going to give in to my inner redneck."

Me: What does that mean?
C: I don't know, I just like it. It suits me.
Me: Do you have to be a 'redneck'? Can't you give in to your inner 'Texan'?
C: ::shrug:: I guess.

We got in his jeep to go to dinner as a family the other night and he turns on Tim McGraw--a new 3 CD set that he bought. He turns on something like this song (you will have to turn off the player at the top if you are interested in hearing this and then click 'play'):


On one of the CDs I found this song and thought I could do okay with it. It is actually Nelly featuring Tim McGraw and I like this song. Its not exactly typical country (haha) but I'm trying, too, to open up a bit:


So, that is what is happening right now. Chancho is going back to his roots. And I kid you not that just this very moment while writing this post he called to me from the TV room and said, "You should come watch this show with me. It's pretty funny." So, I went in to check it out and it is something like the "50 Best Redneck Moments" on CMT!

New Poll

Thank you for your participation in the name vote. For future reference, the voting ended as follows:

Cale - 3
Jonas - 8
Miles - 10
Mckinley - 1

Now please vote on the second set of names. Thank you. :)

My Soul Mate

Nancy has inspired me to write down some memories from the past when I think of them, whether or not they are of much interest to any of you, so I am going to try to to do that. She said she was reading something and it said something like writing your memories is one important way to actually give meaning to your experiences and increase understandings about our lives--for us and our posterity. Maybe those were her words or maybe theirs. I don't know. I don't even know who "they" are. But that is what I think of when I read the quote at the top of my blog.In two weeks Chancho and I will commemorate our marriage so I thought I would try to post a few things about him.Our relationship happened pretty fast, which I swore would never happen after a long time relationship I had been in ended. I swore that you had to date somebody for a long time so that you really knew them blah blah blah. Well, Chancho and I went on our first date June 30, 2000. Things progressed kind of slowly at first, mostly because I was semi-dating a few people and seriously dating another person. I was really unsure of Chancho until he went on a trip the last week of July/first week of August to California. I remember he came over to my house the first evening he was back and I looked at him standing on my porch and thought, "What has been my problem?" I could feel myself falling in love and thought it was very strange that all thoughts of others were vanishing from my mind and suddenly I wanted to be with him all of the time.
Isn't it fun to remember back to that? My love for my husband continues to increase, but that time of absolute infatuation--the beating heart and blurred vision of anticipation when I heard his car pulling into my driveway--is mostly a thing of the past. Nothing to be traded, but wonderful memories (and I'm not saying he doesn't set my heart racing now, but you know what I mean).For most all of August we were together every day. We started meeting each other's families, going to church together, and began to dread when the night was getting late and we would soon have to part company. Weekends were heaven--no work and only all day to spend doing nothing but whatever we wanted together.Early in September I began thinking, "This really could be it. That is crazy. I just don't feel anything stopping me. Except...one thing...I'm not really sure if we are a match on the spiritual level. We are the same religion but I don't know if he feels the same that I do about things that are crucial to me." That very night we were sitting on the couch in my parent's "conversation pit" and somehow the conversation of religion came up. We talked until 3 am and after I thought, "Hm. Now I know. I'm going to marry this guy."

A few days later Chancho invited some of my family over and cooked a French meal for us. I remember exactly the skirt and shirt I was wearing. Afterwards we were snuggling and I pulled his face to mine and said, "I'm going to tell you something, but don't freak out, okay?"

"Okay," he said.

"I'm in love with you."

Pause. Pause. "Thank you," he said with a smile and kissed me for a long time.

Some people laugh at that. And I might have if it wasn't for the feelings I had. I had been through a lot more serious relationships than he had and he had told me before that time that he had never told any girl that he loved her. So, I knew that when he told me, he would mean it forever. He told me about 3 days later. :)We were engaged on October 1, 2000 and married Dec. 19, 2000. So much for knowing him for a long time, huh? Isn't it nice to know that sometimes things in life are just right?

One fun thing about our engagement is that by this time in my life my sisters had become quite concerned for me. I had been really heartbroken and had turned a bit wild with my dating and was not making the best choices. The second time we ever hung out, Chancho took me for a ride on his dad's motorcycle. We went to my sister's house because I had to pick something up. Kathy immediately loved him. I remember her asking me, "Why can't you marry him?" And at the time I was very confused and said I didn't think I felt anything for him. Because everything changed and happened so quickly, she still was not sure my position. She kept asking how I felt about Chancho and was so sad and disappointed and would always let out this large sigh when I would tell her that I didn't think he was the one for me.

Chancho had done some work on Kathy's computer for her and the night we got engaged we went over to her house and I hid my hand while Chancho told her, "I think I forgot to do reboot something (or some other talk that we didn't understand)." Instead he opened a word document and wrote, "Perla's getting married. Can you guess to who?" Kathy looked at it, her eyes narrowed, she stared at us and cried, in this high voice, "WHAT??? WHO??? WHAT???" It was a very fun night and she was very relieved when I told her that I had been putting her off the last month or so and that I was very much madly in love with Chancho!

So, I apologize if any of you read that and were bored to tears but I think my daughters, at least, will someday look forward to reading this.

The End.