Invitations are out!! ...but late

The official Wedding Invitations are in the mail, and will soon be hitting your door(if they haven't already). I know they are late, and I know the time to RSVP is short. We will completely understand if the RSVP cards get back late, we'll make it work.

Also if anyone is anticipating challenges getting to the wedding please let it be know so we can all team up and get everyone here. Leave a comment here asking for help and be sure to check for comments. We have a great tool here to help us make the most of the time until the wedding.

I know the invitations were late but we will make it past that, lets use the tools we have at our disposal to make that happen.

~Richard

Music

Hello Everyone, I believe Richard and I have finally picked our first dance song. Which is really exciting because we have been searching for the perfect song for a long time. Now, I am not telling what it is because it may or may not change and it leaves the element of surprise!!

I am currently putting together a playlist of songs for the reception. If there are any requests for something you would like to hear, please let us know so I can add it to my list!!

~Leslie

Invitations

I just wanted everyone to know that the invitations are finally getting put together. I know that they are running a little late and cutting in a little close. We now have a lot of the addresses we have been waiting on, and Johnny and I have been putting all the pieces of the invitations together this evening. That was an amusing process let me tell you. Johnny was putting all the pieces together in a pile and I was putting them all in the envelopes. I was not moving fast enough for him, he kept saying "come on mom hurry up!!"

However, now we have to wait for Richard to get home so we can print the address labels. The printer is not working, but that will not hold us up long. So, we will finally have the invitations in the mail soon!!!

~Leslie

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to let what ever readers I have know to have a happy turkey day!

Also, please be aware that I need addresses. Even if you think(or know) we have your address send it to us. E-mail is by far the best way to do that.

~Richard

The making of bows

As the day of out knot tying approaches we are working on the various aspects of the wedding.

Wedding favors were the work of the day. We are building millions (well 80) little bows. Until today Leslie was building each of these little bows herself, by hand with a hot glue gun. Today, however, I decided to get in the mix and help out.

In doing so I quickly noted that the simple "glue the ribbon method" did not work for me. I have no artistic sense at all so I need things like this laid out step by step. So... after collection some cardboard from a couple boxes and a needle from Leslie's sewing kit I had myself a basic bow making jig.

After I had finished construction of my bow-making jig I was able to( with the jig, two pincher tools, a glue gun, and a pair of needle nose pliers) do the same thing Leslie could do with a glue gun, and it only took me just over twice the time to accomplish the same task.

Additionally I've also decided that a hot glue pen is a device that needs to be built. I'll see if I can figure that one out.

~Richard

Maps

I'm building a map to include with the invitations and RSVP cards. I am pretty sure most everybody will be getting into Round Rock via IH-35 south. So That is how the map is built. At the moment I need to rename some land marks, and some exits. I was wondering however if I should include hotel information, restaurants, or anything else on the map?

While I'm thinking about it, hotels and more importantly room rates. I think it would be a wise idea for everyone to stay at the same hotel. Here's why, if we all choose to stay at the same hotel we can get a group discount... the more room nights we buy the better the discount. So we need an accurate count of who is coming down. Also I'd like to know a good rate to aim for.

I think this blog can be a great tool in getting everybody on the same sheet of music we need only use it. So please leave comments, talk to us and talk to each other.

~Richard

P.S.

You will see the "Google Calender" button to the right. If you use Google you can easily add our wedding to you Google calendar.

Excitement

I just wanted to take a minute to share my excitement. I recently got a new schedule. I will no longer be working until 1am. So that means that Richard and I will actually get to see each other while we are both awake and spend some time together.

The last four months, we have been struggling with our schedules. I have been working from 4pm to 1am, and Richard has been working mostly am shifts at work, leaving about 7 or 8 in the morning. So of course, this limited the amount of time that we got to see each other. Now, I am working only until 8 pm. This, I believe, will help us plan a wedding together. Not to mention the children are happy too.

~Leslie

Invitations....

I've finished making the invitations the other day. After printing nearly 100 of them I noticed I forgot to put Round Rock Texas in the address. At first I was devastated by this. Then after some brainstorming and discussing, we found a solution.

From the beginning we had planned to include a strip map to the ceremony, our apartment and perhaps some area hotels. Eventually we decided that by including the map putting "Round Rock, Tx" on the invitations would have been overkill.

So the map and the RSVP cards should be done soon. With that being done soon the invitations ought to be in the mail soon as well.

~Richard

A set of three...

I wanted to talk briefly about three important parts of our great history: First the meeting, then her first marriage, and lastly my enlistment in the Army. I wanted to do this because I feel the contrasts are very important in understanding the story. If you've not read Leslie's previous post please do so.

As you know it was in the sixth grade that Leslie and I first met. We both were trumpet players for out respective middle schools. I was talking to my friend, Andy when I first saw her. We teased each other as school kids do. Shortly after Leslie stopped playing our little game, and told us to "talk to the hand"(with her hand), I told Andy I was going to marry that girl some day. Back then I had no idea of the path I had set forth on. I left the concert sure I would never see that girl again...

At the beginning of the following school year I started school in Tyrone Oklahoma. It was in that school year that Leslie transfered to Tyrone. Shortly after she started there we began dating and continued to do so on and off for the next few years.

Now a lot happened in this middle part here. Including the catalyst for the infamous last break up, my daughter, and many more stories. These will come in time. For this post I only wish to fill in important contrasts in the story.

Years later she came to me, and let me know she was getting married. I did what any good friend would do; I congratulated her. Later that night, however, Nick and I broke out a nice new bottle of something. We then had this long discussion where he told me I should be happy for them and support them, that he was a good guy, and that clearly I didn't have a chance with her. So by the end of the bottle, odd as it may be. I had decided to be happy for her and support them to the best of my abilities. And so I did, for years.

Not too long after this time I enlisted in the US Army. As I prepared to leave the thought that I could not shake was that I would not be around if anything were to go wrong. So I spent weeks thinking and searching for some way to be there if needed. Conveniently it was near her birthday so, getting a gift for her was not an odd thing to do... I got her a vehicle emergency kit, to help keep her safe. Then I had done what I had to do. I was protecting her, my dream.

More stories follow but again those will come in their own time. I really wanted to talk about three on the big points made in Leslie's post: the beginning, her first marriage, and my enlistment.

~Richard

The History

There are some that will read this that don't know the history that Richard and I have, and many of the ones who do may not know the extent of our history together!

We met in the sixth grade at a band concert in Liberal Ks while attending two different middle schools. About a year later I moved to Tyrone, Ok where I found that Richard had moved as well. At this point we were in the seventh grade. We started dating for the first time not long after I moved there. We continued dating on and off throughout junior high and part of high school. Our sophomore year we split up one last time and spent about a year not speaking.

At that point our lives started changing a lot. I started hanging out with a different group of people that had the potential to get me or help me get into trouble. Throughout this time I never took my eyes off of him. I hid my feelings from him and the rest of the world. When I was sixteen I found out I was pregnant with a child by a man I had only been dating a short time, and the relationship ended shortly there after. It was not long after this that my communication with Richard started up again. All the while still hiding my feelings from him to protect him from the burden I was now bearing.

I started dating a man that I was working with who knew about the baby and was ok with it. After the baby was born he asked me to marry him... It was with some hesitation that I accepted. I went to Richard the very next time I had the chance to talk to him to tell him I was now getting married, hoping for some sort of sign that would tell me no don't do it, but got nothing. So I then got married at 18. Even still, I could not let go of him no matter how hard I tried.

When his sister Emma came back to Liberal they got an apartment together. We started getting together all four of us and Brieanna for dinner, "steak night". Not long after steak night started I found out I was pregnant with my second baby! At this point, I was sure there was no hope for the two of us... so I gave up. I never stopped loving him but gave up on the thought there was a chance.

When I was about 6 months pregnant Richard told me he was joining the army. My heart sank at this point, this was after 9/11 so I could only imagine what he was going to. So he went away, first to basic of course, and to Kuwait, and Korea and of course the places in between. We would keep in touch through email mostly while he was away over seas. When he was home between tours, I would talk to him a little more and he came up to Kansas from Ft. Hood a couple of times to visit. The last trip he made was before he shipped out to Korea. I wanted so badly to tell him, I loved him and I hated to see him go back overseas, but of course I could not. I was in a marriage where everyday I had to pretend that I was happy and try to carry on life as a wife and mother.

While Richard was in Korea we kept very good contact considering the circumstances and the distance. It was not until near the end of his tour in Korea that I began to feel there may still be something there. However, I just pushed it aside as false hope or something to that effect. I came down to Austin when he flew in from Korea. I was here with my best friend, Tracy, for just one day. That day the three of us walked like 3 miles, maybe more, around Round Rock just talking and catching up on somethings. At about eleven, I think it was, Tracy went to bed and Richard and I sat beside the pool talking until 6 am about everything that came to mind. It was that night beside the pool that we finally opened up our feelings that had been bottled up for so long. There were many tears shed that night for many reasons, but it was the beginning of the happiest part of my life. Tracy and I went home the next day, and life in Kansas was just awful. I did not want to be there any more at all.

In January, Tracy and I were supposed to come down to visit again, however Tracy could not come so I came by myself. It was at this point that we decided that there was a decision to be made. I had to go back, file for divorce, and move to Texas or we were both going to be unhappy for the rest of our lives. I filed for divorce two weeks later, and moved to Round Rock on March 4. Since then I have been happier than I could have ever imagined. We are planning our wedding for January 27th 2008. This is why the dream has been held silent for nearly a decade!!

~Leslie

Starting out

So I've just started this blog. Why? Well actually because Leslie and I have family and friends all over the the U.S. and around parts of the globe. As we are getting married in January I thought it would be beneficial in keeping everyone up to date. Then I decided why make this end after January the 27th. So instead we now have a blog all about us, and our family.

I hope you enjoy watching and reading about our adventures through our dream.

~Richard