return of the 80's

So last week I had lunch duty and I saw a lot of frightening things...frightening but funny. There was one girl (who I've named freaky girl) who caught my eye because she varied her dress from enormous sweats/t-shirt to very dressed up. Her hair is platinum blonde and very, very straight...her face has so much makeup that it seems a little bit like a mask...except the makeup is all base - no eye color, no lip color, just a very pale face with a LOT of black eyeliner. Freaky girl spent half the week in huge sweats and the other half in skinny jeans with a very tight "stylish" shirt...face and hair never changed. The next victim of my watching was a girl I like to call Madonna girl. Her clothing choices were just straight up cah-razy, but the one that I'd like to tell you about was the day she brought out the Madonna earring...you know, the very long dangly cross earring. Just one, not two. I kept waiting to see if she'd wear the fingerless gloves, but no luck. I saw a ton of Madonna crosses all week - not just on madonna girl, but on everybody...crosses on tshirts, big huge diamond encrusted cross necklaces, crosses on jackets...lots of madonna crosses. Skinny jeans are of course very in (those would be the tapered jeans that should never have been designed in the first place), but the weird part about those is that I saw a lot of girls wearing them pulled down around their feet....as in the jeans are long, so they leave them half-pulled over their feet, tucked inside their shoes. How that can be comfortable to walk in is beyond me! The highlight of the week was when I spied a girl wearing hammer pants. No joke, they were cut a little differently than the old MC Hammer pants, but the same idea - big and balloony around the bottom, secured with some elastic around the ankle. I may or may not have stared at her in horror! Hammer pants were not a good idea the first time around! Ahhh, these kids crack me up! My high school is in a pretty affluent area, so I guess what I'm seeing for clothing choices are the expensive, stylish clothes from the expensive, stylish stores...I don't know who's idea it was to bring the 80's back, but it's a little scary. Pretty entertaining for me though, since I live in this high school world.

Honeymoon!

helloooooo

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted...I've been without the internet for the last 3 weeks...and I changed everything in my entire life in one quick swoop and have since been trying to figure it all out.

All I have to say at the moment is that being married is even better than I thought it would be...and I had high expectations! I often think I might be dreaming because life is so fantastic. Tonight the speaker at church talked about brokenness, and I realized that I have needed to thank God a whole lot more than I have been for giving me such an incredible and easy life right now, especially after asking for a break a lot in the last year...a break He has given! Wahoo!

And now, some honeymoon fun: (these pics are from Playa del Carmen, after we swam with a sweet dolphin named America)

LESS THAN ONE WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nervous? NO!!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts of late...life has been slightly crazy lately. I have T-11 days until I am married! The most common question of late is "Are you nervous?" I've discovered that there are two standard answers to my answer of "Not at all." The answer from the christian friend/aquaintance: "Well, that's good. You are allowed to be nervous you know." The answer from the random passerby (there have been a lot of these lately): "Really? Wow. But you've never lived with him, and this has been a long-distance relationship? What if you get there and you can't stand him? You don't even know what his quirks are. I'd be SO nervous, I don't think I could do that."

How do you explain that this decision is entirely (ENTIRELY) based on a whole lot of prayer? Or that it is the most sure about a decision I have EVER made. Not a doubt in my mind, not a single one. And NO, I'M NOT NERVOUS!!!!! I'm IMPATIENT! and OVERWHELMED! but not nervous.

Sorry if I sound frustrated...I have realized in the past couple days that I really am frustrated with a lot of responses that I get from people. I shouldn't be - they are just trying to help, to look out for my wellbeing. But really, I feel like I need to make a t-shirt that says:
No, I'm not 18
No, I'm not pregnant
No, this is not a rash decision
No, I didn't just meet him
No, I wasn't dating him before, but I have known (and loved) him for almost 3 years
No, as a matter of fact, I absolutely do NOT want to move to Dallas and "try it out" first
No, I do not have second thoughts
No, I am not worried that Marc is not going to be trustworthy
No, I am not worried that Marc will ever break my heart again, not even a little bit
and NO, I am NOT nervous

People are right, I am young (but seriously people, please please PLEASE stop staring at me in total disbelief when I say that I'm a teacher, not a student, and please please PLEASE stop telling me that I "look 17" when I tell you that I'm 3 weeks away from being 25, and that I'll "appreciate it when I'm older" - I'm NOT OLDER, I don't APPRECIATE it, it's getting OLD), and yes, they are also right that I am getting married fast. This whole engagement is a week shy of being 3 months. The thing is that I have loved Marc with everything I have since I met him. I have prayed almost unceasingly about him and about us since I met him. I didn't mention him to many people in Albuquerque when I moved here because I thought that God had taken him away, and I was trying desperately to kick him out of my heart, to think that it would be ok that I wasn't going to get to have him in my life. During the time I wasn't talking about him, I was still talking to God about him, crying out for help. God used that time invaluably in my life, in changing me. But he brought Marc back to me, surprise of all surprises. And Marc is better, so much better, at loving me than he was before. And I totally, and completely trust him - and that is absolutely supernatural. I can trust him because I trust God, who made him, who has shaped him, and who has given him to me. I guess that it frustrates me to hear that people are worried about this decision because it seems like they must think I'm a total idiot, or that I'm "one of those girls" that just wanted to get married so bad that she took the first guy who came along. But I have thought this through, I have reasoned and reasoned. I have so many journal pages stained with tears over lists of pros and cons and qualities I want and qualities Marc has. And ultimately I truly am basing this on trust that God has me in the palm of his hand, and he has said "Yes!" to me about this. I know that marriage is hard, and for the rest of my life. I can't wait to start working at it! Marc is the one for me, I know it, in the depths of my heart I know it.

Phew, enough kavetching. To all of you who have understood, this isn't aimed at you. I suppose it's not really aimed at anybody...I just wanted to explain I guess. And vent.

And now, for the exciting part: I'm getting MARRIED in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!!! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's about time!

Dallas Fun

So I've been in Dallas for the past few days for some school training, apartment searching, and fun. Marc took me to the Fray-Gomez-Eisley concert and we got to go backstage after the show because his friends from work grew up with the Fray guys in Denver. The show was great! Sadly we missed Eisley because I had some issues with the Dallas freeway system (I may or may not have been almost an hour and a half later to pick Marc up from work than intended), but we did catch the last half of the Gomez set and they were pretty good. I was impressed with the Fray, which is nice as I didn't have much of an opinion about them before going. They definitely had the coolest light show I've ever seen, and I really love bands that use piano as a strong voice. They played a few new songs that were great as well as all the songs you hear on the radio. I especially enjoyed their Shakira "Hips don't lie" cover as a closet Shakira fan :). After the show, Ben the drummer came out and talked to us for quite awhile, and wow, was he cool! So low-key and laid back...yet again, I was just impressed. Such a great night! Unexpectedly fantastic show and conversation with a non-obnoxious-rockstarish rockstar :)...yessssss!

funny

This is the fab-o dog I housesat last week...

(he has an eye issue so he has to wear "doggles"...he he! I love it!)

pics to go with the last post