So we've got pictures of Echo, myself and even Kayla dog up on the site. But we haven't got pictures of the other member of our soon-to-be family, and that's Austin. Austin is Echo's son and he is going to move down and live with us at the end of the summer after Echo takes the bar. I for one am super excited to have him coming down. Here he is with us at King's Dominion last summer. What a rock star!
After talking with my bassist, Sammie, it appears that Barefoot will likely be playing our wedding reception.
For those of you not familiar with Barefoot, it is the band I founded about three years ago with Sammie and Perry, our drummer. We have since gone through a couple guitarists and Echo joined about a year ago. We have played at various locations throughout Northern Virginia and Falls Church and disbanded when Sammie moved to Pennsylvania and I to Texas this summer.
However, it looks like we may be back in business. Sammie has agreed to come down for the event and our Drummer, Perry, lives in Northern Virginia, so it looks like the stars are aligning (I still need to talk to Perry).
We also are looking at playing in February when I come to visit Echo in NoVa for her birthday. More on that to come.
Here is a picture of one of our performances:
Below is a little clip of our last performance at Stacey's Cafe:
So, this is my first blog of all time. I've actually been a bit reluctant to break into the blogging scene, since I'm not entirely sure I won't fall in love with it and begin ignoring my multitude of other responsibilities. However, in the interest of keeping up with Jesse (who has now posted four times), I thought I'd better step up to the plate and carry my own weight around here.
Let me first just say how excited I am to be marrying the man of my dreams!
I couldn't have asked for a more caring, sweet, funny, smart, good looking man, -------------------->
<---------with an adorable dog,
and some other good stuff that I probably would embarrass him by mentioning (okay, he cooks a mean spaghetti. There, I said it).
I thought for my first blog, I would tell the story of our engagement and post some pictures of White Sands (aka "The Spot").
Jesse proposed the weekend after Thanksgiving, driving us out to White Sands, New Mexico. I initially thought we were going to visit an old western town or something since Jesse has been talking about doing such things while he is in the Southwest. Of course, when we drove into the Alamagordo valley, we were both struck by the mountains literally surrounding the entire valley. We entered the park grounds, proceeding into dunes and dunes of pure white gypsum sand. I thought to myself... ohhhh, of course "White Sands" literally means white sand covering every thing in sight.
Then the pavement ended and we drove onto roads of white sand, where people were climbing and hiking and sledding down the sand dunes. We chose an area to hike out alone so we could take Kayla off her leash (or so Jesse claimed). Kayla was so funny, running around and playing and rolling in the sand. Thank goodness the gypsum wasn't sticky like a lot of sand. In fact, it wouldn't clump at all, so whenever Kayla tried to dig a hole it filled in so fast she kept digging forward and would end up with a trench. Needless to say, she had a blast.
After a while, we climbed onto a new ridge and the sun was streaming sunbeams right on top of us.
Jesse said something to the effect of"I guess this is the place"and drops to his knee. "The view from The Spot"
I won't repeat the sweetest words he said to me, but then he pulled out the engagement ring -------------------> (honestly, this picture doesn't do justice to my pretty, shiny, beautiful ring).
While he was proposing, Kayla started circling us trying to figure out just what on earth we were doing.
It was all so beautiful, and so perfect. And we are engaged!
We hiked quite a bit more and played with Kayla until the sun started going down. We saw more sunbeams, and at sunset there was a rainbow next to the rays. It was indescribably beautiful.
On the drive back to El Paso, the full moon sent its own moonbeams through the clouds onto the craggy mountains (I didn't get a picture of that part, unfortunately).
Overall, I'd say Jesse did it just right (he's good at that).
So that's it. That's the beautiful story of our engagement (and... the end of my first blogging experience).
Here's a picture of us at a rodeo earlier this year. I had just moved out to El Paso and Echo was visiting for the first time. She looks so good, I just had to add it.
So our plan was to get married in Virginia and to have our good friend Judge Cardone, for whom I am currently clerking in El Paso, perform the ceremony. . . .
Not going to happen.
Our dear state legislators in their infinite wisdom have decided that out-of-state federal judges are forbidden from performing the wedding ceremonies within the Commonwealth while local clergy still can. See Va. Code Ann. § 20-25.
In other words, Brother Maynard from the local Church of the Holy Hand Grenade can get a dispensation from a nearby Circuit Court if he can show that he's lived in town for a while, but a United States District Judge from out of the state cannot.
Regardless, plans are moving forward. May 18 looks like the date for now, though we don't know for sure where yet. We may have to ask another judge, or we may be going to Maryland. See Md. Code, Family Law § 2-406. Things seem a little less insane there.
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