Our Story – Part 2

Oy.  Now I have to remember where I left off… sorry I didn’t post this last night, but Eric decided to actually SLEEP at night instead of working all night.  It was kinda nice to have the whole family in bed by 9:30!  Weird, I know, but still kinda nice.

So… back to the Story of Us.

Let’s see, I got you through the engagement, right?  We were engaged in March, and I wanted a December wedding, so we still had another 10 months to go… gives a girl plenty of time to plan the perfect wedding, right?  *wink*  and it was…

Have I mentioned yet that I am an only child?  Yep, no siblings to have to share anything with, no siblings for the parents to have to save wedding cash for.  Bwahahahahaha.  Sorry, that just slipped out.  And the college I went to?  right around $1,000 per semester.  I was going on the cheap for the ‘rents.  I made up for it.

3 bridesmaids, 3 groomsmen, 4 jr. bridesmaids/groomsmen, 2 ushers/candlelighters, 1 flower girl, 1 ring bearer, and most of these were relatives.  Eric’s dad was his best man – so cool, I know!  My Grandpa led us in communion during the ceremony, but declined when I asked him to officiate because he didn’t think he would be able to make it through.  I was the oldest grandbaby, and the first to get married (by quite a few years).  My great-grandma flew out for it too, which TOTALLY ROCKED!

The ceremony was almost totally candlelit – 183 candles when you count the unity candles.  yes, you read that right.  A candle arch, 4 spirals & lots of angled candlabras.  Candles going up the aisle.  We pre-lit them all to help the guys have time to get them all lit during 1 song… and when we blew them all out the smoke set off the smoke alarms and the fire dept. sent out a truck to put out the fire!  We were a wee bit nervous since we had – ahem – re-arranged the pews somewhat.  The fire chief gave us his blessing to “have a wonderful wedding.”  Bless him.  We had a great picture of the entire wedding party in front of the firetruck at dusk… well, everyone but the groom.

He couldn’t be found.

What?!?!?!?!?

Eric has been pulled into the pastor’s office to have a final talk.  Not sure why, but the pastor felt he needed it, I guess.

Just before my Dad walked me down the aisle, he showed me the car he had arranged for us to go to the reception in.  It was a 1920-something Lincoln Limo- gray, and complete with little hanging flower vases in the back.  It was a beautiful car, to say the least.  Forget the limo I had arranged – the wedding party got to go in that one!

My voice teacher sang a song while the bridesmaids entered.  My best friend sang The Lord’s Prayer, the choir 24 member I was in sang “Locus Iste” from the back of the church while we took communion, and I sang “The Twelfth of Never” during our vows… which Eric had NO KNOWLEDGE OF.  That was so totally cool!  I’m still kinda amazed I made it through without tears.  I’ll have to let him fill in his feelings on it some other time, but he looked rather blown away.

To say that the ceremony had a lot of music was a bit of an understatement.  Have I mentioned that I was a voice major in college?  Um, yeah, music is kinda my thing.

Since it was a week before finals, we postponed our honeymoon until Spring Break… we were already planning to go visit his grandparents in WA for Christmas.  We came home on Christmas day… but missed our connecting flight by 2 minutes (we actually watched the plane taxi away) so our first Christmas dinner together was airport Pizza Hut pizza… and it was cold.  It was still fun though, because we were together.  I’d like to add that this was BEFORE the olympics came to Salt Lake, so there wasn’t a whole lot in SLC to eat.  The other choice was burger king.  blech.

The honeymoon was supposed to be a surprise, but round about the end of Jan he slipped and said “you don’t just go walking around the countryside of Jamaica!”  Yep.  The guy can’t keep a secret to save his life.  It was beautiful there though!  And a nice break from the cold winter of Colorado.

We stayed in CO for me to finish my degree, and an extra 6 months to save up money.  Then we moved to Phoenix for Eric to go to grad school.  Phoenix is why I can no longer tolerate hot weather.  I’m sorry, but 115F is NOT cool!  Everyone kept telling us that it was a cool Summer…  It didn’t drop below 95F for 4 months solid – not even at 2 am.  Fortunately I only had to endure it for 16 months. Monsoon season was cool though.  Really… it was.  Temps dropped for a few minutes during the torrential rain each day – I even had hail on my porch in August!  Of course they melted almost on impact, but they made it to the ground!

Phoenix does have some good qualities though.  The skies are gorgeous, they have lots of good food – especially the non-chain Mexican dives and the Japanese fast food chain whose name escapes me at the moment.  Oh, and the French bistro on Scottsdale Blvd.  Yep.  Lots of good food.  You can sit outside to eat almost year-round too, which is a nice bonus.  It’s also where we bought the VW.  Oh, and our oldest was conceived there.  That earns it a special place in my heart.

But, it was not to last (thankfully!).  He graduated and we fled from hell, I mean Phoenix, as fast as we could.  Poor guy was loading up a truck in 103F heat and his grandma wouldn’t let me pick up so much as a PILLOW because I was pregnant.  Seriously.  She got on me for picking up 1 pillow from our couch.  uff-dah woman!

And that brings us (quickly, I assure you) to mmoving to Washington.

And another post will share that…

*grin*