August, 2010

I cannot believe July has not only come, but is long gone. September is quickly approaching. Paul and I were married in the Washington D.C LDS Temple on July 9th and it was all in all a beautiful day. We could not have asked for anything better. Here is a quick recap of the days leading up to the wedding and the week after:

What's the fun of celebrating the happiest day of your life without a little snag to make you want to sit on the couch and cry? The A/C went out on our house the day before the wedding. Lucky for us, it was only in the mid 90's that week so it was not completely unbearable. We have a lot of trees in our yard so the house is well shaded. Paul jumped on the phone and contacted a co-worker of his who told him to call a guy who is a former police officer with the city of Charlottessville, VA. Lucky for us (so we thought) he was already heading out the Lake to look at another A/C unit. He came by, told us that it needed a new compressor. Within a couple hours, the A/C was up and running and we were feeling really lucky b/c he did not charge us a dime or the part or the labor. Let's just say... Paul will not be writing him a ticket if he pulls him over for speeding! The nice man left and within an hour or so after feeling like we lucked out, the house started warming up AGAIN. Yep, it broke... AGAIN! This time it was the fan. We were still feeling pretty lucky b/c we were not going to have to replace the entire unit... but we were not going to be able to get it fixed until after the wedding. That's well and good, but my poor family had to stay at our house without any air. They were troopers. The A/C repair man was able to locate a fan for our unit and it was back up and running by the end of the next week. We did have to stay in the house for a few days after the wedding without A/C but we survived.

The wedding was wonderful. We had aprox 10 people at the wedding itself which was perfect. We wanted it small and simple. My friend Marcie flew in from Utah and my cousin flew in from Boise, ID. I loved having them both there. The wedding was at 11:00 and we were done with pictures and everything by 3:00. It was great! Our families headed back to Charlottesville after the wedding and Paul and I stayed at a nice hotel in Bethesda, MD. Bethesda is a quaint little community. I would love to go back and tour the city. From what the woman at the check in desk said, there are a lot of fun things to do around town. Maybe for an anniversary in the future!

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Paul's parents house for a luncheon. It was nice having both families together. I'm glad everyone seemed to get alone. The reception was at one of our local ward buildings in C'ville. We probably had 70 people at the reception. Paul and I were both glad there we not more. Neither of us enjoy feeling like we are on display. The people who meant something to him showed up. We had a beautiful cake (made for us by Kaylyn, Paul's sister) and we did all the traditional... cake cutting, first dance, bouquet toss, garter toss, etc. I will post pictures as soon as I get them from my cousin! The reception was beautiful!

The week after the wedding was fun. Instead of spending money on a honeymoon, we decided to buy a new couch and paint our livingroom/diningroom. I'll find pictures and post those as well.

Random things that have been going on in our life... I FINALLY found a job. I will be working at Skyline Cleaners in C'ville. I looked for weeks for a job that would allow me to attend church on Sundays and be home in the evenings with Paul. I was blessed with this opportunity. The best part is that it will be very low stress and I won't be bringing my work home with me like I have had to with previous jobs. The hours are perfect and I finally feel like I will be contributing! I am in desperate need of getting out there and meeting people, so hopefully this will help a little. One of the best parts is that I will be working with Paul's sister Anna most of the week. We should have a good time together. Also, Congrats to Paul! He made his 1st batch of brownies from a box. I honestly was quite shocked when he told me he had never made brownies before... I thought it deserved a picture. He did a great job. I'm so proud of him :) We bought a WII after the wedding and have had a good time doing that together. We think our MII's are quite cute. I thought they deserved a picture too :)

I don't know much else right now. I'll post more soon... I promise!

Love,
US

It's about time :)

Paul will be in Missouri the day after tomorrow and I am thrilled. On Sunday, I began convincing myself that this week was going to sluggishly go by.... but I have been proven wrong! Tomorrow is already Wednesday! On Mon, Wed and Friday's I work 2 jobs so hopefully tomorrow will fly by like today and yesterday did.

We are down to 51 days! My friend Brad got married on Saturday and it dawned on me that Paul and I's wedding is right around the corner. Paul's visit to Missouri this next weekend will be our last visit before July. The wedding is July 9th but I will be moving July 5th. His sister Randi is flying into St. Louis so she can drive with me back to Charlottesville, VA. I am really looking forward to my trip with her.

Paul bought our first lawn mower this past week. He did not have the proper tools to put the wheels on so we both joked that he should have put it up on blocks (like a broken down car... ok, maybe that was just funny at the time). He did get the wheels put on over the weekend and finally got the grass cut. I am sure it looked a lot better! He has been busy with work... working a LOT of weekends and overtime. I really appreciate all of his hard word. I never hear him complain about the events he has to attend. He's amazing.

I have been busy with work. I picked up a part time job 3 evenings a week. I have really enjoyed the time I have been able to spend with this family. I had a personal tragedy a little over a week ago. I came home from work to find several of my African Cichlids had died sometime during the day. I was heart broken. Somehow my fish tank had acquired a parasite and I could not treat it. Believe me... I sure gave it a try. Yesterday, I finally had to say fair well to my last 2 fish in the tank. I hate looking at an empty tank.... but, I do believe the loss of my fish have been a true blessing in my life. I will get to move my tank to Virginia and have a chance to start over with fish. I am really looking forward to picking out new fish with Paul.

Update on wedding stuff:

I still don't have a dress. The fabric is in a bag in my closet. It will sit there until the 19th of June. I have friends who do dress fitting after dress fitting and I will be danged if I do that to myself. My mom is making my dress so I know it will be perfect! If she makes it 3 weeks before the wedding, there are not enough hershey kisses in the world to make it so I don't fit in the dress!

We ordered most of the items for the reception over the weekend. Boxes should be showing up on the front step any day now. We will be ordering the flowers in a couple weeks. That is what's new as of today!

I don't think we ever posted our engagement picture. I 'll post it now! Enjoy :)

May update :)

I cannot believe that another month has passed since my first entry. We have 61 days until the wedding and I could not be more excited.

Paul moved into our house last month and I was able to see the house during my April visit to Virginia. I love it and cannot wait to move all of my thing in the first part of July.

My trip to Virginia was great. I really enjoyed my time with Paul's family. Getting to know his sisters a little better (meeting 2 of them for the first time). Paul's sister Randi was nice enough to take our engagement pictures that Sunday. The pictures turned out great! Paul and I's next visit will be the 20th of this month. Paul is flying into St. Louis. This will be a special trip for several reasons. We are finally registering, I am taking Paul to his first major league baseball game (St. Louis Cardinals vs. LA Angels). The game is home so he get's to experience Bush Stadium in all it's Cardinal glory... AND, best of all... this will be our last visit before I move to Virginia.

Wedding planning update:

The invitations have come in the mail. Paul and I will be addressing them while he is here. Everything is slowly coming together. The dress has not been made yet, but I do have Paul's wedding ring. That's a great feeling.

Getting to know Us

I am trying to figure out how all of this works :) I have had several people ask the typical questions:

- how did you meet

- when did you meet

- when are you getting married

- how did he propose

I have decided that with everything going on in our lives, we would start a blog so everyone know's what's new in our lives. As of today, a lot is new. I cannot wait to keep everyone up-to-date on the happenings in our lives.

So, here is our story! Enjoy :)

HOW DID WE MEET

We met in April, 2009 on www.ldssingles.com Paul was the first guy I had exchanged more than 10 words with. We continued chatting from April through the 1st part of July and due to some unforeseen circumstances, we lost touch. Although we (temporarily) lost touch, we never stopped thinking about each other... what the other was doing, were they ok, what's new in their life, etc. Then in January, 2010 Paul sent me a friend request on Facebook. I remember like it was yesterday... I came home from work and logged onto FB. I saw the request and my eyes shot up at my sister Emily and I said "Paul sent me a friend request". The only thing she could think to say was "Virginia Paul?????". The next day Paul and I spent the majority of the day exchanging text messages and the day after that, he sent me a text asking if he could call me. I was ecstatic :) I got off of work at 6:30 p.m. and I believe our 1st conversation lasted 3-4 hours. Between January 21st (the day he called me) and February 4th, we spent hours on the phone getting to know each other. Ironically, I had lost my job in Idaho so we had plenty of time to talk. I ended up having to call Sprint and buying more minutes. I went through 700 daytime minutes in 4 days. It was well worth it.

On January 25th Paul booked my flight from Idaho Falls, ID to Richmond, VA. It was a crazy time in my life because I was not only packing for my trip to Virginia, I was packing to move back to Missouri. I had been offered a job the Saturday before and had 4 days to get everything ready to be loaded in my u-haul the day I flew back to Idaho. It all came together, and on February 4th, I left Idaho and flew across the country to see Paul. I wish I could say that the trip was smooth sailing... but it wasn't. It was long! I flew from Idaho Falls, Id to Salt Lake City, Ut and then to Richmond, Va. The rough waters did not end once I hit Richmond! They had just started. As soon as the plane landed in Richmond, I went into a full blown anxiety attack. I could not breath, I lost feeling in my feet and I was shaking so bad, everything I had in my hands fell onto the floor next to my seat. This poor woman next to me did not speak any English other than "are you ok, are you ok" (with a thick Chinese accent)...... My only reply was "No". The thought "what am I doing" kept going through my mind. This was a 5 day blind date. Was I crazy. I did the life saving, put your head between you knees, and was able to get my breathing under control. I called my sister as soon as I was able to and she talked me through the rest of it. I am pleased to say that the anxiety passed and as soon as I got off the plane and saw Paul, life was amazing. All of my fears of "what if we don't like each other" vanished. I knew we were going to have a great 5 days together.

It was a blessing from above that we enjoyed being with each other as much as we did. I say this because Charlottesville, Va (I should say the ENTIRE East Coast) got foot after foot of snow. I thought I was leaving the snow behind in Idaho. Oh NO! That would not be my luck. I believe it snowed almost 3 feet while I was there. Everything we had planned to do while I was there was tossed out the window. We did try to get out once to go to Walmart and as soon as we got to the store, we realized... IT WAS CLOSED. We had a great time though. We sat around and watched a lot of Cops (a personal favorite), World's Dumbest and whatever else that we could laugh at. We did a lot of laughing. February 9th, I flew back to Idaho Falls. After Paul dropped me off, I called my mom and told her how sad I was that I had to leave. I knew from the moment Paul picked me up on the 4th that there was something about him that I was going to like. Little did I know, there was a LOT about him that I would LOVE!

Not long after I flew home, I knew that Paul was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. To a lot of people, our relationship has moved VERY quickly, but to me (us) is seems right. On March 19th, I drove to St. Louis and picked up Paul. Little did I know, he had something amazing up his sleeve :)

THE PROPOSAL

On Saturday March 20th, we drove to Nauvoo, Il. I grew up in the Nauvoo Stake so going around town and seeing all the little houses/shops was not new to me. Paul had never been there so I thought it would be a lot of fun for him to see Nauvoo for the first time with me. Little did we know.... mother nature would be stubborn and give us a horrible mixture of rain, snow and wind to play in :) After stopping in Hannibal, Mo for donuts (yummm) we made it to Nauvoo around 11:00 (I believe). We parked the car, I grabbed the umbrella and off we went. Although the temp in the car said that it was 31 degrees outside, the wind made it feel so much colder. We walked across the street to the temple and Paul got his camera out so he could take a couple pictures. Across the street from the temple is a statue of Joseph & Hyrum Smith on their horses. We walked over to the statue so Paul could take a picture from a little further away. The entire time I was thinking "I love this city, but dang... it's FREEZING". I did not dress for the weather! Paul and I walked around the statue talking about how bad the weather was but how beautiful the temple was. About a minute later I looked up and saw a beautiful Blue Heron flying above us. For those of you who don't know this. The Blue Heron is my very favorite bird. I love spring and summer because they usually are only seen when the weather is warm. That bird is such a sign of peace and good luck to me! Anyway, I stared at the bird and got the best feeling inside. As I kept my eyes on the Heron, I told Paul to look up. He did and I said "Do you see my Heron, I can't figure out why it's flying in the snow, it's a sign of good things to come though". At that moment, Paul said "Speaking of good things"... I looked back toward him and he was dropping to one knee. As he opened the ring box he said "Will you, will you marry me". I honestly think it if I was not so dang cold, I would have cried!!!! I was so excited. I replied "Of course I will". He stood up and I think I squeezed the life out of him. I could not have been happier. It may have been cold and wet and I may have looked like a drown cat, but it was the most PERFECT moment of my life. He's the most amazing thing to ever happen to me!

THE WEDDING

We are getting married on July 9, 2010 in the Washington D.C. LDS Temple. We are planning a reception on July 10 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Wedding plans are coming along very slowly, but coming along nonetheless. My mom is making my dress and I wish I could put into words how excited I am by the dress I have picked. I think it fits my style and personality to a T. I hope it turns out as beautiful as I imagine it will!

I don't have much else to update everyone on..... give me time and I am sure there will be plenty to tell!

OUR HOUSE

Something VERY EXCITING happened today!!!! Paul signed the mtg papers on our very first house. I cannot explain how excited I am knowing we will already own a home when I move to Virginia. I am beyond excited to see it next week. The house is in Palmyra, Va. Just outside of Charlottesville. It's close enough to the police station in C'ville (where Paul works) but far enough away so we both feel we have distance between us and the city. Several people have asked about the specifics of the house. Here is some info.

4 bedrooms

2 bathrooms

2,200 sq ft with an unfinished basement

fenced in backyard (perfect for a dog)

Hopefully this is a house that we can grow in and live in for a long, long, long, long time. I can't stress the word long :)

I hope everyone appreciates this 1st post. If there is anything you want to know, just write a comment :) I will do my best to keep the blog current with as many pictures as I can.