RIP

If you have ever seen the movie Hook (which I know you all have) then you know that even Peter Pan chooses to grow up. I too have made that choice. Kind of. :) The good news is that anyone that has experienced any kind of "growing up" knows that it is merely the opening of limitless possibilities.

John and I are officially married. Now begins the fun hoop-jumping of changing my name to match his. Included in that is my cyber life, and thus this blog has reached its end.

So long Neverland!

Here's to the ultimate adventure... marriage!

◊THE NEW BLOG◊

Post-It Love

It's been something of a rough week for me. The mean reds, if you will. Well when I walked into John's house this morning, this post-it was on the wall right above where we take our shoes off. I still don't know what he meant by the selfish thing, but clearly he was "tuned in" to my needs and left me this little post-it treasure hunt all around his place. He is so good to me. These little pieces of paper are WAY better than anything that could be produced in a blue box.

On the dog's kennel.

On the dishwasher full of clean dishes.

In the pantry.

On my washer. (yes, "my washer")

The fridge, just below our grocery list.

On my awesome new KitchenAid!!
(I made him beer bread.)

On top of our pile of wedding favors that have so obnoxiously over taken the kitchen table.

The coffee table, where we play Monopoly each night while watching the extras to each LOTR movies. (Each movie has 3 hours of extras.)

Our little pile of scriptures that we read together every night before I go home.

The mirror in the bathroom.
(Please notice our awesome monogrammed towels!)

On the window out to the balcony where we have a small herb garden in a planter that he made me for my birthday.
(This one pic is my fav. You can see our little yellow watering can.)

Last, but not least, on the bed.
I am so lucky.

Our latest obsession

I have had the pleasure to have a few days off and to spend them all in San Antonio with John.
It has been wonderful.
This has become our latest obsession.
We play a game every night.
This is not a quick game.
We love it.

Engagements + Party = Good times

So, we took our engagements and had a party at the same time.
This turned out to be a fabulous idea.
Enjoy.

Love these two guys.

Three generations via surrogacy.

A HUGE THANKS! to these troopers. Thanks for making this day what it was.
Love you, sisters (including Spencer).

An even bigger thanks to these two.
Thank you for making this all possible.

27

I always believed that turning 21 was when you became an adult. That may be true legally, but yesterday is when I think adulthood finally hit me.
It's time to grow up, a little bit.
27 is legit. I like it, even if my life feels slightly heavier today than it did before.

Men are from Mars...

...Women are from Venus, and apparently that is where Bed, Bath & Beyond is from too, because it seems that men have trouble understanding the purpose of most items in this store.

Needless to say, the registering is done and I have learned some very valuable marriage/relationship lessons. Thanks for the unexpected gift, my retail friend.

3 to 10

To preface the engagement story I must tell you...

1. Very early on John learned that I love surprises.
2. He also learned that I happen to be very clever and end up spoiling a lot of surprises for myself on accident.
3. So from a few months in he started planting seeds about wanting to take our time and date for "3-10 years". (As mentioned in number 2 I am clever and so I knew that 3-10 was an exaggeration, but I was going to let him drag his feet for at least a year, so that I could travel. Naturally.)
4. He and Lacey Gchat.
5. He made me cry before I moved down to Texas because I felt that he wasn't putting as much effort into this relationship as I was. (Little did I know he already had purchased my ring.)

So I made the big move down to Texas and that first Friday I was awoken by this message from John. "It's May 6th. It's going to be a great day! Write that down." I fell right back asleep not thinking a thing of it.

I had a fairly mediocre day that involved nail painting, sun bathing, and hanging out with his dog. The symphony was on the docket for the evening so I got dressed up and he came to pick me up. We ditched out on the symphony at intermission because he was moving the next day and we had a lot to do. (Again a ploy to get me to do what he wanted. The truth was that he left the ring in his truck and was out of his mind nervous about it.)

When we got back in his truck he told me that he had a surprise for me. (I thought that meant that we were going to get ice cream. I am a simple person. Easy to please.) I soon realized that we were driving to his new place and not his house. Being the "clever" girl that I am I figured that was the surprise, but didn't want to ruin it by saying anything.

We got to the apartment, to which he had just gotten the keys that afternoon, and he had a beautiful vase of tulips waiting for me. (This is not anything out of the ordinary. He is very sweet. There is still no inkling that anything "special" is going on here.) Gave me a little tour of the apartment. And then we sat down on the new carpet in front of the empty fireplace in the darkness.

I didn't realize in all of my supposed cleverness that John was steering the conversation somewhere, I was busy all wrapped up in the feeling that it was one of those nights that was so wonderful that nothing could bring my feet back to the ground. Just being next to him felt magical. All I knew was that sitting on the floor in the empty apartment, so dark I could just make out his face, so close I could feel him breathing, that everything that I needed in this world was right there. Right in front of me. The night would have been complete had it ended then.

It didn't. :)

Basically he just told me that he woke up on April 1st and knew that I was the girl that he was going to spend the rest of his life with and he asked me to marry him right there, kneeling on the floor, in the dark. I thought he was joking, and was pretty mad at him because that is not something funny to joke about. Remember the "3-10 year plan"?

Turns out he wasn't joking, pulled out the most gorgeous ring, and succeeded in pulling off the greatest surprise of my life!

A brief history.

Back in October I enlisted my friend Caitlin to find me a man. There were a few fruitless set-ups, when she decided to go with her gut and set me up with her first choice even though he was in Texas. (She served her mission in San Antonio and John was the Ward Mission Leader in one of her areas.)

From the first time John called me I fell madly in love with his voice. Seriously, it's a good voice. Real manly, very articulate, with just the slightest Texas drawl. We spoke every few days for a couple of weeks and then I decided to fly down and meet the person that was attached to "the voice".

He was so handsome as he pulled up, stepped out of his truck, and gave me a big hug. I had affectionately nicknamed him "Texas" to my family, so when I got there we did quintessential Texas things. Got some Texas BBQ, drove out to see some Longhorns, stopped at a dance hall, and then started a Lord of The Rings marathon. :) We never once stopped talking and it was rather obvious that this was going to be one of those effortless relationships.

My plan was to only be there a day and I was NOT going to kiss him, but apparently he had different plans. He made the move and then asked me to stay another day. That was the moment I fell hard.

So, from the second week of November until I moved down to San Antonio in May I flew down there every week to be with him, sometimes only having four hours to spend with him after having a 7 hour round trip commute. All the lost sleep has been totally worth it.

The best part is that it just keeps getting better and better.

John Kirtland Farrow

Turns out this is the guy I am going to spend the rest of forever with. Here are his specs:

Name: John Kirtland Farrow
Age: Old (32 years)

Born and raised near: Beaumont, TX
Currently resides in: San Antonio, TX

Occupation: Asset Manager at Zachry (a development company)
Salary: "decent, but not great" :)

Loves: Music. The Gospel. Singing. Guitar Playing. Laughing. His dog, Chopper. Food. Reading. Reading news articles. Food. And most of all me.

He is ridiculously intelligent, ludicrously hilarious, straightforward to a fault, and one incredibly sweet, caring, thoughtful, and romantic human being.

Talk about marrying up. I hit the jackpot.