CHANDACE

Hey Everyone! We've got a new blog! Well...we may just keep this one...I may turn it into my DIY page for decorating my house and such...BUT for all updates on me and my bunny...go to http://chandacehatch.blogspot.com/ Lots of love! MWAH

Wedding Gala

Just in case we miss anyone, I wanted to make sure you knew that you were invited. We've had some troubles with the people who are printing our invites, which is why you haven't seen them yet, but you will. But I wanted to give you all a heads up to a time and place so you can mark it on your calendars and hopefully come and celebrate with us! It's going to be quite the party and it'd be that much better if you were there! Here is an electronic version of our invite! My amazing friend Lou designed them for us! 2 more weeks!!! We're so excited!

One Month to Go!

So life is getting pretty crazy! I mean...you always hear the rumors of how busy people get once they get engaged...but I've come to realize that you never really fully understand until you're there yourself. And then...it's like...cats and dogs living together...mass hysteria.
Back in September I put an offer down on a house, that I was going to buy. It was panning out pretty well...and then...last minute...it all fell through. Unfortunately...it fell through AFTER I gave my 30 day notice at my other apartment and so I've been homeless for the past couple of weeks.

Being homeless is quite the adventure. My car has been transformed into my closet and everything else I own is currently filling up my future in-laws garage to full capacity. I've been staying here and there trying to not bother anyone too bad. But it's getting pretty old living out of a box/bag/car/garage. ALTHOUGH...I have to say...this is the second time around that I've done this...not for this long...but I've been in this position before. Last time I was freakin' out...this time...I'm fine. I feel like it's all going to pan out the way it's supposed to and I'll be fine. I'm homeless...big deal. Homeless happens. I've got great things ahead of me.
One of the greatest of all...I get to marry one of THE most amazing people on this planet! Woot Woot! Chad is my rock. He's amazing! And just when I think he's topped out...he turns around and does something even MORE amazing. I love it! The day before I moved out, it was a friday, and Chad only works 4 days a week, so he has fridays off. Well he got a key to my old apartment without telling me and while I was at work he went in and packed up my entire kitched, cleaned out all the cupboards, cleaned the stove, cleaned the oven, cleaned all of my bathrooms, AND did my laundry! Now ladies...I ask you...how many girls can say they've found a catch like that! SERIOUSLY! It's like I've struck Gold, and trust me...I'm well aware of my fortune. WOW I love him!
We went and got our engagement pictures the other day. Wanted to share some of them with you. Enjoy!

Anxiously ENGAGED

I'm ENGAGED! I was trying to come up with some witty and fun way of announcing it...but...I'm too excited to be creative! Last night I was expecting just another night out with my boy, he had had a long day and had asked we go out for a detox when he got done with his study group. He came, he picked me up and took me to Dairy Queen and bought me a Strawberry Cheesecake Blizzard, and then drove me up to our "seceret spot". You see, when we were first dating we would go out on "Detox Sessions". Where we would just vent and re-group and relax and just escape all the crap that was going on in our lives. It's just what we do. So I wasn't thinking ANYTHING of it when he drove me up there. We were having a nice little conversation about this, that and the other- Nothing really life altering- and then we started talking about our first detox session and how everything just snow balled from there. We were sitting in his car, reminicing about how great it's been getting to know one another and all the drama that encircled our courtship and then he turned to me and said "You are my favorite person ever, and I love you more than anything, and I want you to have this." He handed me the box and then said "And I want you to marry me." :D

I was completely caught off gaurd! I had NO clue! The man is AMAZING with surprises, and this one took the cake. He had a dozen roses for me and everything and it was...perfect. He's perfect. For me he is. Even with all his imperfections...which only make him more loveable. He's amazing to me! I've never in my life felt more loved and adorned and completely blessed.

He picked out the ring himself and he did a GOOD job!

I'm Getting MARRIED to the most incredible man I've ever met!!!! November 19th in the Bountiful Temple! And I couldn't be more excited about it! I choose my love and I love my choice!

Never Would Have Guessed

Remember when you were little, and you would think to yourself "One day, when I'm all growed up, I'm going to meet the man of my dreams and fall in love." Yeah...I'm no more growed up now than I was then. I've been thinking that way for the past 26 years. And now...a few weeks shy of my 27th birthday...I'm beginning to change gears from the "some day" kind of thinking to the "here and now" mind set. "Today, regardless of my maturity level, I met someone amazing...and I'm in love."

My last blog "So there's this boy" stated that the story was still pending, well that story has long since ended...rather anti-climatically- might I add- and most suredly not how I had hoped it would at the time. Providentially for me, however, God had a FAR better story waiting for me, and I couldn't be more grateful for His hand in my life.

About 3 months ago I met Chad at church. He had just been called as a Sunday School Teacher to teach on the off weeks that I wasn't teaching. (Yes...we are both the Gosple Doctrine Teachers in our singles ward.) I met him and the guy sitting next to him at the same time, and due to a series of...events...the other guy actually ended up asking me out first and I dated him for a bit. Again...God had a different plan for me and for whatever reason things just didn't pan out between me and the other guy. Shortly after things fell through with the first guy, Chad and I started hanging out a little more one on one and quilckly came to find that there was something between us that was worth looking into. Turns out...we were right. :)

Tremonton Rodeo

Camping @ Bear Lake

Getting ready to ride the Desperado at Buffalo Bills Casion in Primm Nevada

Chillin' in Vegas in front of the Bellagio!

San Diego Temple

Playing on the boat!

The whole gang in Mexico!

Formal Night on the Cruise!

We've been having a really great time getting to know one another. We've been to bear lake, and we just barely got back from a cruise to Mexico with a bunch of our friends, which was AMAZING! And we are currently planning trips to Boston to go to Trina's wedding and another friend trip to Disneyland! We both love to travel and we are having a blast doing it!

And may I just say, that if you have yet to go on a cruise...start finding a way to make it happen. That was one of the FUNNEST trips I have ever been on! ...Yes...you gain about 5lbs every 2 days...but...it's totally worth it. :)

I never would have guessed that my life would pan out this way. But I am INCREDIBLY grateful that it did.

"So...there's this boy..."

Ten years. ...Ten years of dating. Ten years of stories of "the phone call", "the door step", "the first date", "the blind date", "the last date", "the look", "the DTR", "the confession", "the denial", "the heartbreak", "the freak out", "the kiss", "the crush", and "the game". Hundreds of lessons to be learned...and after 10 years...I STILL can't wrap my head around some of them!

I have had countless conversations on the dating game with countless numbers of people, friends, family, strangers...you name it, I've talked to them about it. Through all these conversations lots of theories have been presented on how to best play your cards so you can win. You know, "Play hard to get, it's all about the chase." "If your interested let them know." "The guy has to call you." "You should ask him out." blah, blah, blah. Everyone has their own take on it. In all reality...dating has too many variables to predict a favorable outcome based on the card you choose to play. The rules of dating are very much comparable to the rules of Calvin ball...subject to change at any given moment for any given reason.

This last lesson...is a hard one for me to swallow. I don't always see the reasoning behind why it has to be so complicated...so I try and buck the system. See if I can find a new and actually effective theory.

The movie "He's Just Not That In To You"...makes a good point. The female gender likes to escalate the meaning of every little thing. Turning it into a sign or a hint which will makes sense of this mell of hess we call "dating". I know I'm guilty of it. Constantly trying to turn myself into "the exception". My recent escapade is a case in point.

"So...there's this boy...", he and I have been friends for quite sometime, and that's all we've been. We've never gone out on a "real" date and, as far as I could tell, he's never given me any indication that our friend status would change. One day one of my favorite people pointed out to me that this guy and I were just pussy footin' around the issue and that both of us seemed more interested than what we were lead to think. That all this stuff, that we were doing under the pretense of friendship for and to one another...had more to it than "just friends." Well...shoot...that got me thinking. I have a tragic tendency to throw boys into the friend corner before even giving them a chance, and I was becoming more and more aware of that...and I didn't want to do it again.

Gathering all the information and factual evidence I could from all of the time I've spent with him, I made an assumption concerning this long time friend of mine that there was potential for me to be his exception. A risky assumption. Possibly a very STUPID assumption. But I figured "What do I have to lose? I like the guy...and I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering what might have been." So... I decided that if he wasn't going to address it...then I would. I cowboy-ed up and threw myself in front of a bus...hoping that I wouldn't get run over.

This story is still pending. There is a good chance I have already gotten run over. Kind of pathetic that I don't even know if I have been at this point or not... But...I left that night, the night I'd decided to throw all my pride and insecurities out the window and just go for it, feeling like I did the right thing. Feeling courageous, and giddy...and liberated. There was no fear, no embarrassment, no rejection. I did what I had set out to do...knowing fully well that he could reject me, and that was his call....but also knowing...that he if did decide to reject me...both he and I knew it wouldn't be because I wasn't good enough. It wasn't about me...if he chose a different path...it wasn't about me...it was just his choice.

An entire decade FULL of stories, with many more to come...I'm sure. Some relatively predictable, some completely unheard of, some boring, some AWESOME, some sad, some hilarious. ALL completely worth it. Hindsight is always 20/20 and in retrospect...there is not a thing I would change. No regrets...no...not one.

Land of the Beautiful

A while ago it was brought to my attention that I was born and raised in the Land of the Beautiful. I was talking to some guy friends of mine who have either been residents in, or visitors of the home of the Aggies, and all of them said "If you want to see beautiful girls, go to Logan, it's swarming with them." Call it Aggie pride...Call it home town smugness...but...I can't help but agree. ;)