Hot Wings from Heaven

Ten months ago I didn't cook.

I could muster up a chicken breast and some plain brown rice but that was the extent of my cooking repertoire.  As irony would have it, I actually had a kitchen shower as one of my bridal showers and I got all sorts of neat looking gadgets and big bowls that looked like they would be very adept at holding large bags of potato chips or perhaps even a nice batch of orange chicken that would arrive from the neighborhood Chinese restaurant.

You could see it on my mother-in-laws face. Women would ask "Do you cook for Daren a lot?" and I would laugh and say "Oh no, I don't cook at all."  My dear mother-in-laws face would blanch, if just for a moment, and you could see the thought race through her head that her precious son was going to starve to death upon given his name to this girl.   My knowing mother, who herself has married off two sons, would shake her head in exasperation, lean in to my ear, force a smile and say "You can cook a little, tell them you can cook a little."

So cook a little I did.  

And now, I cook a lot.  For our second annual Superbowl party I took on the challenge of making the hot wings myself.  A feat for any new cook. I seasoned the meat, tripled the sauce and tweaked the recipe. As I placed each wing on the serving platter my little heart pounded with nervous energy as I hoped that I wouldn't ruin my own party for lack of wings.     

It was as if I were watching a very dramatic, slow motion cooking show as I watched my husband take his first bit of my first hot wings. Success! Daren smiled a perfect hot sauce covered smile and declared "These are good!".

Let it be known to my mother and mother in law, that God answers prayers. Daren has a wife who can cook, and this was proven Superbowl Sunday 2009 with the Hot Wings from Heaven.

The Green Room

Daren loves me, he really loves me. How do I know this? What great act of love did he do to show me this and allow me to speak with such confidence about his love and commitment?

DAREN SANG KARAOKE!

Its true, Daren sang karaoke for the first time in his entire life. We were out at the Green Room ( best Sunday night karaoke in town) with a group of my friends for Brian's birthday. Note that these are my oldest friends, the friends I grew up with, the friends that have known me since before my first boyfriend and are now loyally standing by me as I get married. Brian, the birthday boy, decided that since it was his birthday he was going to pick what and when everyone sang. So you would be just sitting at the table laughing and telling stories when Captain, the DJ, would call you onto stage and let you know what song you were about to sing. I sang my karaoke staple, Black Velvet. Matt performed his best Neil Diamond ( several times as a matter of fact, even though Brian only put his name in once). Jessica and I sang a rousing rendition of "Earls gotta die" by the Dixie Chicks and joked about how many times we have sang this song together at the top of our lungs with no one but my dog and her cat to listen. Then is happened....

"Let's hear it for Daren!" shouted Captain into the microphone. With that the whole table started clapping and shouting for Daren to go up on stage. He downed his beer, grabbed mine and polished it of too as he slowly raised himself from the dark wooden bench we were seated in the back left corner of the bar. Knowing the whole time that these old and loyal friends are also protective of me and want what and who is best for me. So he did it! Daren walked onto that stage grabbed a microphone and waited as Jimmy Buffet's, Margaritaville, began to play. With that one of our crew, Arbo, jumped up from his seat and darted up onto the stage, grabbed the other microphone and offered up his vocal support to Daren, Sarah's fiance who has just proven himself to us.

While Daren and Arbo were blowing out flip flops and stepping on pop tops birthday boy Brian leaned over with a huge smile on his face and said, "He must really love you."

Love and Laundry

Laundry = Romance. Is this a sign of things to come in my life as a future wife and mother or was it just one of those spontaneous moments that I will always remember as special. I chose to believe the latter. Never before has folding laundry been a romantic experience for me. Most of the time the folding of my laundry is an afterthought and is only done when guests come over to clear a space on the couch! This time, this one time, it was different.

Daren was over at my place and I had been puttering around like I usually do in the evenings. We had cooked dinner together and I was catching up on those mundane chores you don't think to do when you are busy being in love and planning your dream wedding. Hence the laundry.... the only thing left to do was fold the towels and the sheets that where heaped on the edge of the couch, already dotted with dog hair. I walked into the other room to put away a new stock of clean socks and when I came back into the living room Daren was folding my laundry! This in and of itself was wonderful and thoughtful. He picked up the red sheets and began to fold the big queen sized top sheet and it was clear that it can be folded best with four hands. So I walked over and took the opposite side of the big red sheet. We folded it long ways and as I walked closer to him to fold it in half the sultry sounds of Elvis's voice fills the room and we hear " Wise man say, only fools rush in...." That's our song! It became our song on the beach in Hawaii when we heard it playing distantly from one of the beach bar bands and it is our story word for word. As I reached him with my side of the big red sheet he stepped even closer to me and we began to dance. Right there in my living room with the big red sheet still in our hands we danced. Danced to our song that is quickly becoming part of our history and is sure to be a part of our future. Then he kissed me....and he smelled like peanut butter.

The Great Back Hair Debate of 2007

Throughout history there have been various major significant events that go on to shape the future of the world. War is often a part of these defining moments. The Great Depression. The Holocaust. The Great Potato Shortage in Ireland. These events created an atmosphere of strife and of determination in those who lived through them. Those people became resilient, hopefully, confidant and wise. Through great strife arose a spirit of appreciation, thankfulness, and steadfastness. In the world of Daren and Sarah we have just experienced one such major event "The Great Back Hair Debate".

We began our weekend as we often do, with a workout class on Saturday morning. This particular morning we chose Spinning class at our local gym. This class was ridiculously hard and caused us both to go into a state of low blood sugar which may or may not have attributed to the following sequence of events.

There was already an air of tension filling the room that should have been recognized before the next sentence was ever muttered from this bride-to-be's mouth. " Hey, we should wax your back" Now please understand that the hair I was offering to wax is about 3-5 stray strands of hair. No sweaters here! The offer was much more for my own enjoyment than anything else. The answer, of course, was an immediate "No." I, not always taking the no means no philosophy to heart, kept at it and asked a good four more times in various ways and offering up different hair removal options. This time the answer was a much more adamant "No" Following by a fervent "I don't want to change anything about you!" ......Oooops.

The battle then lasted us a full three days and grew in size to cover a remarkable number of topics ranging from plastic surgery opinions to money matters to the need to recycle and even on to how I could call a child Olive but that I don't actually like to eat olives. In the end we both agreed that there is a certain amount of pressure that comes along with being engaged and planning to spend your lives together for the rest of your life that makes such trivial matters feel of utmost importance.

I love being engaged and I love the man I am engaged to. This weekend of conflict was full of frustration, tears, raised voices...sure. But it was also full of deep, passionate communication that allowed us to walk away with a deeper understanding of each other and of where we want to take our future marriage. I think that people spend way too much time keeping their real feelings about life experiences quite. Getting married is very exciting but it is also a lot of change and that causes stress, anxiety and even fear and no one really talks about that. In no way does admitting to these feelings mean that I do not want to marry Daren, nor does it mean that we won't have a happy marriage.

Being engaged is an incredibly exciting season of life. But remember that each seasons climate causes harsh spots. The Great Back Hair Debate of 2007 will go down in our history books as a big battle that helped us move closer to each other, revealed even more of our authentic selves and will give us plenty of fodder to laugh about over the years.