Friday, October 31, 2008

The County Fair

Until August 9th my only knowledge of the county fair was Charlotte's Web. Brian was shocked I had never been to one, I think they are a big deal in more rural areas or maybe just on the east side of the country, because I NEVER heard of them in L.A. and never went to one in Utah. Well we parked on a giant dirt field and started our approach. I need to provide a little more information so you can fully picture this..1. We just had our car washed before driving onto the muddy field...2. I was wearing a cute little skirt and sandals.... 3.I forgot bug spray...4. Neither of us were wearing anything thing with holes in it or with the sleeves cut off…. We were a little out of place. Now as I am half walking and half prancing because the long grass is tickling my legs and bugs are biting my ankles Brian Points out random blood on the ground near MY feet...YUCK! I don't love seeing large blood spots on the ground. We decided it must be from the animals because we were walking by the large animal pavilion.

 

We ventured in to look at the animals and do some investigating... I was a little worried that one of them would be bleeding all over the place, lucky there wasn't any more blood. The entire time we were doing this I must have asked 500 questions to anyone and everyone who would answer. "Umm hi I have never been to a fair before.... Why are those pigs slimy? What is over there? Are those kids really going to try and put the slimy pigs in those giant bags? Does it hurt the pigs? Why do they squeal?" I was like a 4 year old who just wont let up on the questioning!! I was amazed by how large the bulls were and I was also amazed that someone put a male and a female sheep in the same pin… that was ummm interesting!

 

I decided I needed to see more!!! As we walked I kept singing lines from the songs in Charlottes Web... You know the song about the fair after the lights go out that Templeton sings. As we walked I tried not to gawk at all of the pregnant teens and the soon to be pregnant teens. The people were interesting. We even ran into one of Brian's X-girlfriends. This may seem weird but I love seeing who he used to date before we fell MADLY in love, it is entertaining!!!

 

While we were walking around Brian asked if wanted to see the second place cow. I said YES of course!! He grinned and pointed to a food stand and told me the guy walking by was eating it!!! My face sunk and froze. Suddenly, Brian was laughing hysterically. I felt much better when he promised they weren’t serving the runners-up in the cute cow competition, I refused to eat a burger just incase...

 

We watched these GIANT tricked-out tractors pull thousands of pounds. This was the most popular event at the fair! We saw trucks doing the same thing. There was even a tractor that had a woman driver. It did not seem like a girlie sport to me but I decided I wanted her to win. I only wanted this because I figured it would really bug all of the men drivers and, I thought that would be funny to watch. Apparently only rich farmers enter these contests because the tractors looked nothing like tractors. They had jet engines attached to them and paint jobs like low riders. I don’t think they plow with those fancy tractors. I did however decide if I ever am in a situation where I have to plow a field I want a hot pink tractor with glitter flames and the words BABY DEER painted on the side (I really saw one like this) it was my favorite one because it was a Jon Deer tractor… I thought it was much more cleaver than the other names. The other ones were all named after hunting asceeories or as I like to call them murder tools!!

We got a funnel cake and a snow cone. It seemed like that was a must. It also made me feel like I was living a Jon Cougar MElencamp song! This was an adventure because I was getting to see a carnie up close!!! Brian had told me that carnies were almost their own breed. While our cake was frying I watched the carnie closely... I swear she picked her nose... Brian said I was imagining things. Then she held the plate against her dirty pants, the food side touching the pants. EWWWW! I only ate to top of the cake. Well while she was making it she was screaming and swearing and talking to a friend of hers. It was then I learned it is the dream of all female Carnies to "Marry a rich man so they can move and live in a big house and never work at another fair". Man OH Man... The fair is better than the best of reality T.V.

 

This weekend we are going to another fair...Every County has one...I plan on going to as many as possible. It is the best entertainment… I only wish I could bring witnesses…I LOVED it!

Honeymoon

We went to Disneyland, Brian had never been and I decided it was a must, and then headed up to the Hawley Family’s favorite place… Carpentaria Beach, It is right next to Santa Barbra. We played in the sun, explored the tide pools and had great fresh seafood! Now every year when we vacay with the Hawley family we will remember our HONEYMOON!

Playing in Santa Barbara...



Playing at the beach...





Playing at Disneyland... 






Wedding Wedding Wedding



More Wedding Pictures...










More Pictures

Pictures Of The Wedding











The WEDDING


We got married on June 21st! Yes, we have been married for a month and change and I am just getting around to doing this!!! We have been busy! On to the wedding . . . It was perfect, except for the heat, it was 105 degrees when we got married (outside) at 5:00p.m. Brian was sweating so much he had to wipe sweat away before he kissed me ok actually; I said umm are you going to de-sweat??? It was funny. We loved having all of our friends and family sweating there with us!! I have about 3,500 pictures... any relatives who’s pics I don't have and read this…. please put them on a CD for me! THANKS! So every detail was exactly perfect . . .a huge relief . . . I am kind of “detail oriented”! Detail oriented is my mom’s nice way of saying an anal stress case!!! My mom is one of those amazing women; you know the ones who can do anything and everything. She, with the help of her inner circle, the G-2 ladies, did the food, decor, set up, flowers, ect. It is only fair to say that all of her friends are amazing too! I will try not to make this too sappy… My favorite moments were walking together as husband and wife back down the Isle, getting more bling, dancing, these last 3 aren’t moments they are just decorations. . . the lanterns (they had antique chandelier crystals wired to them), and the flowers, I also loves the crystals they put on my bouquet, wait 4 things the cake stand and cake!!

Side note on the flowers: I got to go downtown to the flower-mart, for those of you who are not L.A. savvy... the flower mart is a few HUGE warehouses that are open from 4am to 12noon and packed with wholesale flowers. They sell directly to local florists and they ship flowers all over the country to florists. My friend Heidi who was in charge of doing the flowers let me go with her to pick flowers out. I had a grand time walking threw selecting some of the flowers for my big day...

 

The day after we got married we got all dressed up again and went to the beach to take pictures …. I was changing in and out of my dress in the parking lot at Malibu beach.. It was pretty funny and I am sure it was entertaining to all of the onlookers!

Easter

Our Engagement Picture Photo Shoot
Our House
I went to check out my new home for Easter and I loved it!  The only bad part about going back to visit Brian was the fact that I had to return to Utah ALONE and keep teaching for the next few months. Being there and seeing what lays a head was so exciting! I meet my soon to be friends & family. His sister Jennie took out engagement pictures... Thanks Jennie! We explored the area and I was relieved by a few of the retailers I discovered... Trader Joe's, Baja Fresh, & H&M (to name a few). It was a relief to find out I wasn’t moving to a big barren swampland full of bugs and snakes (this is what my sisters love to tell me live in WV will be like). They are so wrong! This is where I will be moving what a fun house! 

We Got ENGAGED

 We got ENGAGED! First of all let me start of by saying that I think I am probably the luckiest girl ever! I am pretty sure I am indebted to Heidi and Shaunna forever.

Friday morning 2 dozen roses were delivered to my school. My friend Sarah brought them into my classroom and stayed for me to read the note. It said, "My Love, I hope these brighten up your day. I will see you sometime very soon". I freaked out wondering how soon very soon was. Brian had told me that he was going to be in some stressful budget meeting and his phone would be off. I started wondering if he might be on a plane and not in meetings. I was then obsessed with asking any and every adult I saw if they thought very soon meant he was on a plane. A few hours later he appeared in my school cafeteria. I was so surprised I hugged and hugged him and children ran up yelling "HI MISS HAWLEY"S BOY FRIEND!” He brought presents for my students, mechanical pencils and little stone information books. My students were very excited and asked him tons of questions like when he was going to marry me, and if we wanted a boy or a girl kid first.  He handled it well until they asked him about having twins and if he would like us to be like John and Kate plus 8. His face was priceless!

 

When my class went home we headed to my house so I could shower and change out of my oh so sexy Farnsworth Elementary sweatshirt. He had been telling me my ring would not be ready for weeks and weeks. I was thinking he just flew out to surprise me he is so sweet that he would do something like that. I wasn’t very suspicious of any thing but I had to check every compartment in his rental car just to be sure! I didn't find anything! He told me I had an hour and a half to get ready. It takes me a long time to do things with my limited mobility (crutches). I was ready early this is kind of shocking if you know me. We headed out to a mystery Italian restraint that turned out to be Spencer’s Steak and Chop House. If you haven’t been there I recommend it! It was very romantic! He had reserved a corner booth in the back that was very private. At this point I was still 90% sure that he wasn't going to pop the question. We had a delicious and leisurely dinner.  I even thought Brian’s hands were shaking because he hadn’t eaten all day!

 

After dinner he asked what I wanted to do. I replied by saying that I wanted to get engaged. Ha I didn’t know I was really about to! We headed to some place he wanted to check out. This place just happened to be the Grand America Hotel. Once we got there I was about 50% sure he WAS going to ask. We went up o the top of the hotel and in the room were 3 dozen red roses in a vase that was hand painted with matching glasses. The glasses said true and love.  He is so thoughtful! The room overlooked all of Salt Lake and had a beautiful view of the snow covered mountains. It was so romantic. We sat down and talked and smooched and talked some more. After changing the topic away from us getting married a couple of times he asked if I wanted to be his wife. I was like, yes are you thinking I don’t want to be? Then he smiled got on one knee and pulled out a beautiful yellow ring box with an even more beautiful ring in it. He asked if I would marry him and be his wife. I gushed a YES, shed some happy tears, and kissed and kissed him!

 

 

I was so excited to marry him! I couldn’t wait to be his cute little wife! He was definitely worth the wait because I really don’t think there could be anyone who is more perfect for me!


Thursday, October 30, 2008

CHRISTMAS AT THE HAWLEY HOUSE

Christmas was a little crowded Mom, Dad, Me & Brian, Morgan & Valerie, Hillary & James, Claire, and Katie...wait my grandma Zola was here a lot too! That is a lot of people to squeeze into my parents house. It was fun to have my brother and his wife Val here it was their first Christmas with us since they got married. I loved having the family all together!!



I was a little worried that my family would be too much fun and excitement for Brian but he handed them with ease! On a more shocking note my family loved him! I think this is a first for the Hawley’s usually at least one-person hates who I am dating. Yes! There have been times when they all hated who I was dating. (Maybe some of you remember this) I was very relived that Brian fit in so well since I had planned on keeping him around! We went to all of our holiday parties, shopped, snuggled, ate and ate and ate, I showed him the alley, we went to the canals in long beach, and we even got brave enough to say I LOVE YOU!  My favorite part of him being there was the day we went and looked at sparkly jewelry, the kind that goes on your left ring finger!! 

Foot Surgery




I had foot surgery in December. I got in a car accident 9 years ago and as a result my ankle is fused. It always hurt a little but in October that changed. I was on a date and took a step, I yelped, almost fell over, and then cried. I could handle the pain but the embarrassment of squealing from the pain in public not a chance. I made an appointment the next day. When I went in the Doc said he could fix it but he had only done similar surgeries a hand full of times (as if I wasn’t nervous enough!)

This is what the doc did….

1. They cut off my heel

2. They cut threw the bone in the joint that was fused when I was 17.

3. They cut 1 in x 1 1/2 in  of bone out of my hip

4. They took my hip bone and stuck it in my ankle joint

5. They fused it, this means they screw it all together until the bones heal and the joint won’t move.

6. They screwed my heel back on.

 

It hurt like HELL & all I did was whine about missing Brian to the nurses, doctors, and everyone who came to visit!

Thanksgiving





Brian and I spent Thanksgiving together with his family (his family is so much fun) and it was perfect! After our romantic trip to the Teton’s and Jackson Hole we both hung up our player shoes. We knew we were in trouble, I think this is how people over the age of 25 view falling in love with some one on the other side of the country…. TROUBLE but were loving it! I don’t think either of us stopped smiling the entire time. We went on a 4-wheeler ride and I got to wear the official Fed-Ex artic gear. Thank you Jared! By the time I took him to the airport we decided he would come out for Christmas and meet my family! We were moving fast but hey we were deep in like!!!  We were both way to stubborn to admit we were in LOVE quite yet!