My baby girl is getting married!

This is long awaited happy news for us.  Cait and I have had a frank discussions on her love life before the big engagement.  They had been dating about 8 or 9 months when I first asked her about their love life.


Me:  So, Cait, you and Chris have been dating for ions according to the Utah Young Mormon Singles dating timeline.  After about 4 months, there is usually some kind of decision on whether to keep dating or an engagement.  So what's up with you and Chris?
Cait:   We're still together.
Me:    Does that mean you're dating exclusively?  You're dating just as friends?  Does this mean you haven't decided yet?
Cait:   We're dating.  I don't date anyone else.
Me:    Are you guys talking marriage or do you two avoid that?
Cait:   We've mentioned it.
Me:    Is that a good thing?
Cait:   Yes.
Me:   So, you two are talking marriage like in you both want to marry each other?
Cait.  Yes.
Me:   (I waited for her to add more to her "yes", but after about 10 seconds or FOREVER, I answered)
          YAHOOOOO!!!!!  You guys are getting married!!!!!  I'm so excited!  So, does that mean you are      looking for rings?  Does this mean you have a date?
Cait:   Mom!  Mom!  We're just thinking about it.
Me:    Well that's is still really cool!  I'm still excited!  How do you feel about this?
Cait:   Yeah, I'm OK with this.
Me:    Are you two really happy together?
Cait:   Yeah!  We like hanging out together.
Me:    Do you really love each other?
Cait:   I guess we do.  We hang out.
Me:    Woooo HOOOOO!  You guys are getting married!!!
Cait:   Mom!  Mom!  Nothing's official yet.  We're just thinking about it.
Me:   Get a move on, girl!  Tell Chris to hurry up and ask you already.  We've got some planning to do!   What are you two waiting around for?


As you can tell, Cait tends to be very low-key about stuff.  I thought she would let go and be a little animated about this, but Cait is just a quiet girl.  I hope Chris doesn't mind that.

On January 31, 2011, Chris officially asked Caitlyn to marry him.  They went for a drive and ended up near their old apartment complex (that's where they met - they were neighbors and in the same Ward together) and they took a walk out by the soccer fields at UVU.  He got down on his knee and took the ring out of his pocket and said, "I brought you here to ask you to marry me because this is where I fell in love in with you".  She immediately sent us a picture text of her hand with the ring on her finger.  I called when I had a moment and was just so happy that I could only scream in the phone.  


So here it is, almost two weeks later and I am in agony.  There is no date yet.  There is no plan yet.  I feel like a sprinter in a starting position waiting for the gun to go off but it DOESN'T go off and you wait and wait and wait and wait.  The waiting is just driving me crazy.  I posted on Facebook today that I have lots of ideas for the wedding and I'm planning it in my head already and I asked Cait & Chris to hurry up and feed me some needed info.  I guess I'm just to impatient to wait.  I feel like going down there and to do the NCIS head slap to the back of the head and tell them to get a move on and not leave until I get an answer.  Well, assaulting my daughter and my future son-in-law is probably not a good thing but really, do you think anyone can blame me?

Counting My Blessings!

Did I happen to mention that I have the cutest grandchildren.  I love hearing little stories about each one of them.  In just a few weeks, there will be nine grandchildren.  The oldest one just lost his first tooth.  He was a baby just a minute ago and now he is just a take-charge kind of guy, a leader in his family, a guy who likes to keep things figured out.  My oldest granddaughter will be turning 5 next week.  Already her talents are so apparent: she sings, she is doing well in her piano studies (Thank you, Celi), she is reading (good job Mommy Lauren) and she loves studying the gospel.  Dallin, grandchild #3, has a perpetual grin on his face that just hints of mischief, but he loves to express his love to his mother often and me when I get to be around him.  Taylor Jean is grandchild #4 and she has the best laugh.  At 3 years of age, she has her father's quick wit, a love of music and dancing, and promise of being an exceptional athlete.  Next is grandchild #5, Morgan Amelia, who has got the art of looking cute down pat, a girl who thinks that building a snowman in the house was a great idea at the time and can get away with it by a tilt of her head and a killer smile.  Jaedyn is #6 and she is Taylor's shadow, dance partner and her big sister's biggest fan.  She is a mommy's girl and I just adore it when she snuggles up in her mother's lap with her thumb in her mouth and the other hand holding her pigtail.  Sadie is number 7 and up until a few months ago, seemed to be a quiet observer of her older sisters and sideline participant.  Now that she can run, the others will have just keep up.  Go Sadie!  Like her mother, she has mastered the art of language and self expression.  Yeah, Lauren, have fun with that!  And Haydn, grandchild #8 is a lovely little boy.  He is also a mommy's boy and when his mother was gone for two weeks, he let me love and snuggle with him.  I loved that he felt it was his job to throw what ever was in his reach down the stairs.  I know I shouldn't have encouraged it, but it just cracked me up the stuff he would throw down the stairs.  I can't wait to tell stories about grandchild #9, a little girl who will have 3 older sisters.  She is so lucky to have 3 best friends when she comes.

 It is so amazing to me that my children are parents.  It is also so amazing to me that my children who are married have eternal companions that are phenomenal people.  Their love for each other just radiates and enriches them.  It's like regular TV versus HD TV, like food without salt versus food with salt, like viewing life with sunglasses as opposed to viewing life without the sunglasses.  We are so lucky to have two more sons and one more lovely daughter without the pregnancy part.  Who knows, I may love them more because of that!  Just kidding!

I'm not done with this post, but  (yawn.....) I WAY too tired right now.  I love my bed!  I'm going there right now!

AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Boy has time got away from me!  It just shot right by!  In the back of my head there is a constant soundtrack to my life.  On days I'm trying to work and get a lot done, I hear my soundtrack acting like the narrative of my life.  Case in point:


Time, time, time, see what's become of me 
While I looked around 
For my possibilities 
I was so hard to please 
But look around, leaves are brown 
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter 

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/simon+and+garfunkel/#share


See what I mean?


Ok, I love Simon & Garfunkel.  I listen to them or some of my other favorites and suddenly I'm transported back in time to that moment when I listened with intent and thought about the words.  Sometimes that takes me back to my teen days in California.  Sometimes, I'm a newlywed in Seattle while Dennis is in school and sometimes I'm in the car running those thousands of errands that a soccer mom of five has to take care of.  Sometimes, the memories are in layers and all those memories come at once like a collage of thoughts, feelings, memory pictures of faces with the sounds and smells.


So, if I'm feeling a little ineffective like I'm butting my head against a wall, Simon & Garfunkel again with the chorus to "The Boxer".  Lately, my happy music is Santana's "Supernatural" and "Shaman".  My calm soundtrack are hymns.  Those are mostly sung my favorite Men's Chorus, those lovely boys at BYU.  I LOVE THOSE GUYS!!!  They are also my "stay awake" music, especially when I'm driving because I like to "lead" the music.  I can't tell you how many people have waved back at me because they thought I was waving to them.  Folks, I'm leading the music, can't you tell??  And most of all, the soundtrack when I think of my children when they were little and my grandchildren comes from Primary music.  There is no sweeter sound than little voices singing their hearts out.  


Well, I must get back to my life.  It is late and I'm just getting the bedding dry for Grandma Martha's bed.  She said she is OK waiting up until it is finished.  It was a hard day today.  I called her doctor to see if it was time to order labwork done to check for things I'm worried about.  It's amazing how much I know about her health and what I need to do to keep her going.  I'm hoping she isn't too sad that her only other living sibling passed away a few weeks ago.  She loved talking with Catherine and now she is the only one.  She has outlived her friends and her family.  At least she still has all her children and me!