crazy in love

so I have realized I might be going crazy......

and my family and Marvin are probably feeling it.

in the next 60 days I will be moving 112 miles south, unpacking, setting up a new apartment, finding/starting a new job, finishing wedding plans, and getting married.

 (if you ever want to know how many days remain between today and the 21st of december, feel free to hit me up anytime :) not that I'm excited about that day or anything....)

my mind is reeling with requests from people, offers to help, advice, ideas...

decisions to be made.....

whether I should wear a veil...

will my dress look good with the earrings or are they too much...

how to do my hair...

buy or make necklaces for my sisters....

wondering where in the world can we get or borrow cheap trees....

somehow getting enough twinkle lights without spending a million dollars...

deciding on the thank you favors....

who will make the cake...

making sure there's enough food...

which picture to use for the announcement....

planning a honeymoon....

coordinating travel for incoming people...

not spending a gazillion dollars....

sorry no I don't want to throw a bouquet....

neither do I want an arch with a receiving line...

trying to coordinate everyone's wardrobe...

because yes I do know how I want it to look....

I have a big problem with trying to please everyone. when someone offers something or proposes an idea, I have a hard time saying no cuz I don't want to offend them. especially when they are so kind and caring. but we cant do everything nor do i want to do everything. somehow I will figure this balance out. probably in the midst of this wedding stuff. experiences are the best teachers right? haha. 

and did I mention I'm also moving? and need to find a job? yup craziness. 

so if you happen to offer me a suggestion or service and I cringe a bit, don't take it personally. I appreciate all the offers, please don't be offended when I don't use it. I promise it doesn't mean it was bad idea it just means I can't do it all :) 

....and I'm sure Marvin wants to keep his sanity. good thing he is super patient and wonderful. def reason #1 I'm not yet insane. 

reason #2 "it is not requisite that man should run faster than he has strength." not only is it not requisite but literally I can't. 

ill get there. 

but in the mean time I'm reminding myself that the most important thing out of this whole crazy process is that we will be getting married. I'm going to start a new chapter of life with this man who loves me.

I feel like 90% of the time people forget the point of a lot of big things, especially weddings. at the end of the day, the point is that a marriage has just begun. a union that was consecrated and designed by God himself. sounds pretty important and amazing right? 

even more amazing that mine will start with a slew of blessings promised by God in connection with that marriage, including the promise that it will last forever. (still wrapping my head around the thought of being with him forever...like eternity...like never go to sleep or work or vacation or meetings or death apart cuz we'll be together roaming about the universe as eternal beings. yeah if that's not mind blowing I don't know what is, but that's a whole other story/thought in itself)

so I keep saying to myself that I am really and truly only going to care about 3 things:

#1 that we get married (temple appt set, marriage license obtained... this part's in the bag!)

#2 that my family be present (no flights booked yet so that's still a bit stressful)

#3 that I look gorgeous. (ok a bit selfish and vain, but I'm still human and a woman so I think it's allowed, or maybe at least not frowned upon) 

how great thou art

the more I learn about the human body or the earth the more I see God's power and wisdom and the deeper my faith grows. it is impossible to see all of these miraculous and amazing things and say that it is all by chance or some cosmic accident. 

today I read an article that reported how breast milk contains proteins to fight HIV transmission from an infected mother to her infant, an occurrence previously thought to be unavoidable due to sharing of bodily fluids and blood by both during pregnancy and delivery. the article states:

Tenascin C’s presence in breast milk, though, prompts a deeper question: Why would milk naturally include a protein that battles HIV, a virus that evolved extremely recently in our evolutionary history, sometime in the early 20th century?

In other words, Tenascin C is effective at combating a large variety of infections (perhaps related to its role in adults, where it holds various types of tissue together, necessitating receptors that can bind to a wide array of different cells). The fact that it happens to bind at just the right spot on HIV’s outer envelope so that it combats the virus’ transmission, as Permar puts it, is “a gift from evolution.”

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/10/discovered-a-natural-protein-in-breast-milk-that-fights-hiv/#ixzz2iSSY6Qsk

I do not believe that this was a gift from evolution, but rather a gift from a loving and merciful heavenly father who knew before the world was created that innocent babies would be affected by this tragic virus. 

God loves us, we are his children and he created us in his image. he created all things on this earth, for our benefit. his power is endless and it continues to bless us even when we don't realize it or deserve it. 

it amazes me and makes me stop in wonder like the poet penned--

    O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder

    Consider all the worlds thy hands have made. 

    I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

    Thy power through out the universe displayed,

    Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee,

    How great thou art!

    How great thou art!

its a love story....part two

i was sitting at home on a Friday night, fixing a skirt and missing my guatemalan man, expecting not to see him till saturday as usual. when all of a sudden he tells me he's on his way up to DC. best surprise number one. 

we had been wanting to go on a bike ride ever since he got a bike, so he brought his bike up and asked me where I wanted to go the next morning. i had been really wanting to go up to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, for a while (don't ask me why). so we went!

we found the national park area and were pleasantly surprised when miraculously it was a fee free day! (Heavenly father really wanted us to be there we decided :) )

so we parked the car, jumped on our bikes, and made the very hilly ride down to the town of Harper's Ferry. 

it was kinda busy but we walked our bikes to the overlook where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers meet. it was beautiful, although a bit of an overcast day. we crossed the Potomac on the old railroad bridge and parked our bikes with the bazillion others there. 

the C&O canal trail winds along the Potomac so we thought to venture along it. he saw a open spot of the river bank so we stopped there to enjoy the view of the two great rivers merging under the steeples of the town. it was so gorgeous and peaceful. 

there was a weathered tree that had been bent to form a natural bench. I hopped up and perched on it for a bit while we enjoyed the view, took some pictures and blissfully (and I ignorantly) chatted. with him telling me how happy he was and being his typical romantic self (si amor, te digo que eres romántico)

some people strolled down to enjoy the view also so I hopped down from my perch momentarily. when the passers-by continued on their way, he asked me if I wanted to sit on the tree again. I laughed a bit and asked if he was really asking me if I wanted to sit on the tree or if he was asking me to sit there again. he smiled and said when he asks that it means he wants me to sit up on the tree. :) (yes I can read him like a book)

so I jumped up onto the branch again and chuckled at this silly man that had captured my heart. he asked me how much I loved him and I laughed a bit again knowing how many times I had told him how much I love him. but I humorously responded that I couldn't count how much I loved him, to infinity. (this is our fun game- one asks the other how much he/she misses or loves the other and they respond with some ridiculous distance or quantity) 

he then told me to close my eyes cuz he had another question to ask me. I dutifully closed my eyes as he pestered me to keep them closed until he was satisfied that I wasn't peeking. then he asked me if I would marry this silly, poor, crazy, in love man. I happily said I would as I smiled with closed eyes. he told me to open my eyes and there in front of me was a sparkly gold ring. I swear it appeared out of nowhere! (note we had just biked 4ish miles up and down the crazy hilly streets of harpers ferry. no idea where it was hidden-inside the box!- that whole time) i was speeches for a total of 12 seconds as he put the ring on my finger and put his arms around me. 

I thought I would cry or jump up and down or launch into a chatter-fest, but instead I was so content and blissfully happy that I just silently smiled in between bursts of random giggles. in fact I couldn't stop smiling as we walked along the trail. he kept asking me why I would start giggling randomly every few minutes or so and I told him I was just so happy! happily thinking about being married to him. 

the trail and rivers seemed to be the perfect metaphor for the moment....2 rivers merging into one, just like 2 lives coming together....us walking along the trail like beginning journeying through life together. I was telling him about the canal and the trail, how they go all the way down to DC--almost to the end of the world! I said. he said do you want to walk to the end of the world with me? and I said yes I did very much, except maybe not that day cuz I was hungry. :) well, he said, we have our whole lives now to do it. (awwww...yes he's the best)

so I ended the perfect day with the perfect moment, with my perfect person. 

(my apologies if there is too much cheesiness in this post. I blame it on being in love...especially with a suave Latino man. :) )