I have been most neglectful of you in the past year. I promise to make it up to you, though. I will start by very penitently giving you a ridiculous picture of me to look at.
There's more where that came from :P
Here's what you can look forward to in future (past) posts:
Massage School, Gaelic Storm, Blurry Carnival Pictures, the VNSA booksale, our first apartment, a Stunning View FROM our second apartment, Finally getting to our third apartment, Camping, Chase turning 25, Doula training, Graduating from Massage school, Turning 22, Our 1-year Anniversary/our Nephew's 3rd birthday, 4th of July, Dust storms with ridiculous names, Babies, Graduating from Master Bodyworker Massage school, English speaking Ward, The Chinese Cultural Center, The Phoenix Zoo, more Camping, River Walking, more Camping, Primary Music, Priest Quorum happenings, My life as the Lincoln Lawyer, Spanish Literature @ ASU, Learning to Sew, Hunter & Rochelle's Wedding, half price Sea World, and using Cruise Control!
Things are plenty crazy and although I never want to say "the honeymoon's over," we're definitely facing life head-on, without some of our favorite honeymoon type blessings-the extra time together, the temporary lack of laundry or dishes, the almost constant dates. *sigh*
I'm scheduling my next honeymoon right away. I'm not counting on it coming around for another decade or more, but I'll get another one someday. Mark my words. :)
So, besides being fabulous, what does that picture up there have to do with this? Well, I'm here to tell you. :D Jennie Karges of Ampersand Photography did our engagement and wedding pictures and I LOVE that she captured this moment. I looked at that and was so excited that she caught this part of our relationship. This is exactly what it looks like and how we stand when we're talking things over and deciding on something together.
It's okay if the honeymoon's over, because I love the "figuring it out together" part of marriage that we're getting right in the thick of. Mind you, us figuring it out these days doesn't look quite as cute as it did on our wedding day, but oh well.
And in case you weren't paying attention, here's another plug for Jennie: Ampersand Photography
Chase is at ASU and MCC working on prerequisites for Dental school and working at the Scout Shop. He's serving as Cubmaster in our Ward and doing an amazing job! Seriously...ask anyone! He's the best.
I'm our ward's music chair, chorister and choir director. We're trying to get a choir going again...which is a LARGE point of STRESS for me right now. We'll start up practice in October and until then I will probably be praying frantically. :P
Scholastically speaking, BIG CHANGES for Melissa: I've taken a leave of absence from ASU to do a 30-wk. Massage Therapy program starting next month. Like I said-BIG CHANGES. I'm definitely a little nervous going into something completely new and different, but I'm really happy about it and Chase and I are way excited. :)
Because my school schedule is going to be 9-5:30 M-TH and pretty hard to schedule, I'm not working right now, which is tough, but we'll survive.
Anyhoo...I hope everyone's doing great. :)
-Miss
P.S. Blogging friends,
I want to see you blogging more. I miss you when you're not blogging. That is all.
July 2, 2010-Chase and I were sealed in the Mesa, Arizona Temple for time and all eternity.
Married life is treating us wonderfully. Marrying this man was definitely the best decision of my life. He's so amazing as well as amazingly good to me. He's the strongest and gentlest person I know and much more concerned with my welfare than his own. He even cleans my kitchen and does the dishes...like every day. Alright, so maybe he does it more for his own sanity than mine, but still. I dare you to top this. :P Being married to him feels like the most normal thing-like taking a breath. Despite the adjustments, I feel like I've been his wife forever-and I really will be. :)I should put more pictures soon. I've still got to write about the Alaskan cruise family reunion, though, so there's some catching up to do. For now-just know that we're doing great, that we're crazy busy, that we're both looking for new jobs and getting ready for school to start. Love you!
I'm getting married July 2nd to the most amazing man in the world, universe, eternity...etc. His name is Chase Kimball. We met in our Principles of Leadership class at the Tempe Institute at ASU. I had my eye on him from the beginning and we became fast friends. We sat next to each other all semester...(at first with a little sneaky arranging on my part)..and just had a blast. We spent lots of time whispering back and forth and making each other laugh, but still managed to learn a ton from our great teacher Bro. Hofeling. {He gets a special shout out, since I took his class before and his counsel was a huge blessing to me when I was going through a tough time and considering taking the class again. I did and, well...it will be paying off for eternity.}
Chase tells me he had his eye on me as well and that he had been praying that the right girl would be in one of his classes. Well, there we were. We were always on the same page when discussions got weighty, family and future oriented. I felt uncannily normal around him...and now I'm addicted to the feeling. I told him I liked him, but he was dating someone else at the time. I was devastated, but resigned myself to being the best friend he could ever have. As one last ditch effort I made him peanut butter chocolate brownies for his golden birthday-March 24th. We walked down the stairs of the institute together as we always did and he asked me out. We went to the Renaissance Festival for our first date and just walked and talked all day.
Chase and I have the best time wherever we are and whatever we're doing. Our courtship has been such a comfortable thing for both of us. I remember wondering out loud, "Is this what it feels like for everyone-finding the right person?" He said, "I don't know...but if not, it's a shame."
When he proposed we went to a neighborhood with a beautiful lake view and went for a little walk. We arrived at a bench overlooking the lake and there were flowers waiting for me on the bench. As I sat down to pick up my flowers, he got to one knee, addressed me by my full name and asked me to marry him. I'm so glad I said yes-for obvious reasons...but also because there was a candlelit picnic dinner to follow. It was glorious. He's glorious.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to be sealed to this wonderful man for time and all eternity. I wish everyone this kind of joy. We all deserve to feel this. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ it's all possible.
We love you and want to see you come celebrate with us. (send me addresses on facebook if you want an announcement)
JULY 2, 2010 7-9 PM LDS Extension Building 616 S. Extension Rd. Mesa, AZ 85210
The last couple days I've been immersed in New York Voices...which I love, but hadn't listened to in years. I missed Vocal Jazz. It makes me want to get my degree done and go do my masters at Sacramento State. *sigh* Like I said, I forget about parts of me. I really hadn't thought about that love for three years.
Change of Subject: I'm tired. Someday I'll have a really good excuse to be tired, like being a mom....For now, I'm just tired. :/
In better news: I'm having a really lovely time with most aspects of my life. I'm getting slightly better at piano, I think I'm becoming a better teacher, I might just survive the school year, I've been spending a lot of time with a guy in my institute class, and I'm really hoping (and praying) for the best.
...I'm mostly praying that I don't screw it up royally. I've been handed a lot on a silver platter...I just hope I'm not nearly as clumsy with these blessings as I've been in the past.
Things are going excellently well. Things are just as difficult as they ever were, but significantly improved. I can't quite explain what's happened. I really don't have any idea. School is crazy. Work is crazy. Home is crazy. Church is crazy.
The first week in February my family and I went to the Renaissance Festival. There are some adorable pictures I need to get up. It was a blast. I must tell you all a story about the "hair stick" I bought. Another time.
The next weekend we went to the VNSA book sale. I should write an entire blog on that as well. For now I'll just say that I love books and I purchased a great many of them for cheaper than dirt cheap. ...I had to wait in line at 4 am to get in early enough, but it was worth it.
anyway.....
Stake Conference was this last weekend. It was quite a trip. I learned in the adult session of conference that a dear friend of my family's died suddenly of a heart attack that day. I was completely broken apart and cried through some of the talks. It was, very difficult...and still is. My sister Lisa played a beautiful musical number on Viola. She's so talented, I just can't stand it!
For the general session I was in the choir, as usual, and shared a descant with Lisa. The music was very mission-centric and got me thinking and crying. I listened to the Spanish translation during the meeting. I often feel the spirit more strongly in Spanish and it's a good challenge for me to practice translating in my head along with the translators-two of which are relatives (my Dad and my T -->ío Ron) and another who's my Primary President (Soy la 3a consejera...yes 3rd counselor). Fun stuff.
School is as it always is. My favorite class this semester is of course my Institute class-Principles of Leadership. The class is fabulous and it is only improved further by the superb company. :) I'm doing incredibly well in my Italian class. It's really astounding how easy it is if you're a Spanish grammar geek who already took a class on Italian pronunciation. weird... :P
Work is insane. Of course it is! :P You can't expect anything less working with kids. I've been bouncing around the preschool a lot lately. I'm really getting fond of working with the threes, though....which is probably why they put me back in the twos today. :P oh well... Hooray for potty training twos!
In other news,
My family's in the middle of approximately ten million projects. So far, the prognosis is good. I am impatient with myself, though. And I'm betting I'd get more done if I weren't so tired...or still sick.. either one. ;)
There's more where that came from :P
