More Wedding Photos: The Ceremony

I took a bit of a break from posting wedding photos because I didn't want people to get too tired of looking at them.  But, I still have a bunch I want to share so I thought I'd post a few more.  These ones are on our actual ceremony - sorry this post is a bit long, hope you don't get bored.

I thought long and hard about what we were going to include in our wedding ceremony.  I read a bunch of books on ceremonies and traditions and readings, etc.  I really wanted the ceremony to reflect hubs and me - to really illustrate (mainly to us) what we wanted to bring to our marriage.  I didn't want just a plain, traditional ceremony because already we weren't plain and traditional - we were two people from two very different countries and two very different cultures.  That alone meant our ceremony had to reflect our cultures.

To include Honduran culture, I wanted to have an arras ceremony.  Now, you'd think that all I'd have to do is ask hubs about this.  I came across it on another blog about a girl who also married a Honduran.  So, I ask hubs about the ceremony, what it included, what it meant, etc.  What was his response?  He'd never heard of it.  Figures.  He couldn't seem to recall any Honduran wedding traditions.  He insists there aren't any.

I decide to forge ahead with the arras ceremony anyway and do some investigation (and some creative thinking...).  What I ended up finding was that the arras ceremony is sort of like saying, "What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine."  There were MANY other interpretations, the majority were like a dowry kind of thing, but it was my wedding so I chose my own interpretation, and I like the "mine is yours" idea.

Here's some photos:

{the coins sitting on top of the bag}

{hubs pouring the coins into my hands}

{hubs saying his arras vows}

We also had two readings - one from the Book of Ruth in the Bible and the other from The Prophet by Kahlil Kibran.

My mom did the one from the Book of Ruth.  I really liked this reading because of the specific part where is says "your people shall be my people".  I felt that resonated with our bi-cultural, bi-country union.  Here's the entire reading:

And Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God; where you die I will die and there will I be buried. May the lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you.

And here's my beautiful Mom:

And my aunt read from The Prophet.  What was best about this is my aunt had given The Prophet to my mom as a birthday present for her 16th birthday while they were traveling through Europe together as young adults.  I had this EXACT book and had read from it for as long as I can remember.  So, it was nice to have my aunt read from the book she had given my mom.  I also really like the emphasis on joining together in marriage but not loosing yourself in the marriage.  For an independent girl like myself, this is important.  Here's the reading:

Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, Master?
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each others cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each others keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each others shadow.

 And here's my beautiful Aunt:

And, the last thing we did was "Jumping the Broom".  I came across this in my wedding research and LOVED it.  My mom made the broom from maple twigs she found in the yard, then as people arrived at the church they tied ribbons on it to decorate it.  At the end of the ceremony, once we had kissed, my good friend Brenda placed the broom in front of us, hubs and I held hands, and JUMPED over the broom on our way out of the church.  It symbolized us jumping into our new life together and starting our life clean and free (swept clean from the broom, of course). 

Here's a photo of us jumping:

And if you're wondering what that white thing is in my hubs's mouth - IT'S GUM!!!  Yes, my hubs chomped on gum during our wedding.  How formal, right??

Leavin' me in the dust

Ugg, today was a horrible running day.  Although I had a lightweight sweat-whisking tank top on, I felt like I was running in a sweater.  A hot, sticky, furry sweater.  It was SOOOOOO humid out.  And I'd only had a cup of coffee to drink all day because I thought it was going to thunder so I didn't think we'd make it for a run.  Big mistake.  My head was pounding a short five minutes into the run and about ten minutes into it my stomach was a big ball of cramp.

Here's a recap of husby's and my run (this actually occurs every time we go):

We start out together.  We do some pathetic looking stretches in front of the house.  It's almost fake stretching because we hold the stretch for all of 5 seconds. 

Then we start walking down the street together.  Inevitably Husby purposely bumps into me, then I purposely bump into him.  We continue doing this down the street.  Then we run and try and grab tree branches like we're five. 

We finally reach the main road and I want to start the run (the walk to the main road is our "warm-up").  I get ready to go, Husby jumps in front of me.  I look annoyed and try to get going again.  Husby bumps me off the sidewalk.  I look even more annoyed.  I get ready to go again, Husby runs me off the sidewalk.  After about 2 minutes of this I finally get off.

I head off, far ahead of Husby.  He lags behind letting me feel like I'm gonna beat him.  Then, once I reach the top of the hill and start the downhill, Husby flies by me yelling "Adios" as he leaves me in the dust. 

I don't see him again until the end of the run. 

Pretty much this is a summary of our run EVERY time we go.  It makes me laugh every time.  I do kinda wish we could run farther than 2.5 miles - but Husby insists he isn't ready.  I try to tell him if he didn't sprint at the beginning, determined to leave me in the dust, he might be able to go half a mile farther.  Nope, not yet.  I'm trying not to push him since he's just learning to like the whole running thing.  So, I add an extra .25 miles to my run (making me fall farther behind) and call it a day.

I'm still thrilled that he's going with me.  I actually like running alone so it works out.  Hubs motivates me to get out the door, makes me laugh with his annoying antics, and then lets me do the run all by myself while he sprints ahead.  Then he's waiting for me at the end of the run making funny faces and walking like an old man.

A First Paycheck

Hubs finally got his first paycheck!!  We are so happy, a tad bit of extra money this month.  He's been working for a while but at the beginning he was just volunteering and then when he finally got his residency card it took awhile to fill out the applications and get his first paycheck.  But it finally arrived.

He was soooooooooooooooo excited.  The first thing on his list to buy was a hair straightener and a blow dryer - for me.  I convinced him that it wasn't necessary because I didn't actually use those two things very often.  He really wanted to buy them for me because I'm currently borrowing my sisters all the time and he wants me to have my own.  So, instead he invited me on a date.  How sweet and romantic.  We're not sure when we'll go on our date, since we ended up not going tonight (my sis had already started dinner so we decided to eat the Aloha Chicken she was making).

Although money is still a huge stress factor because there is just not enough of it, it was so great finally seeing hubs get his first paycheck.  It's never easy for a man, especially a Honduran, to have to rely on his wife for 100% of the expenses.  And it doesn't help that I am not good at sharing.

It's odd actually.  I am great at sharing stuff but sometimes I can't believe how bad I am at sharing my money.  It's quite hard actually.  That is something that I'm working on.

So, we are really excited about the extra paycheck in the house.  And tomorrow hubs is opening a savings account at the bank!

More and More Every Day

 
I love my hubs more and more every day.  Yes, I admit, there are times when he annoys me or aggravates me and I want to bop him on the head.  It happens quite often actually.  But even then, I still love him.

What I really love about being married, especially to him, is always having a partner.  I think because we met and got married under such weird circumstances we never really got to enjoy being a couple like other normal American couples.  In Honduras, although we spent a lot of time together, we didn't go out on dates or actually go too many places together - we mainly just hung out.  We lived in a VERY small town of 1700 people and there was NOTHING to do - sometimes there was no electricity let alone a movie theater.  There wasn't even a theater within four hours of us.  Plus, he worked seven days a week on the only method of transportation in town - so if he wasn't working it meant that the bus wasn't going anywhere.  A few times we did get to go on a "date", like when the sketchy Honduran circus came to town (think circuses of years past - very, very sketchy) or when there was a BBQ-like fundraiser for the church.  That's about it.

Then we were apart for three years and then he moved here and three months later we got married.  So - not so much of a courtship in our past.  However, now that we're married and settling down into a married pattern, we get to enjoy each others company in a way we never did before.  And it's GREAT.  I officially have someone to eat dinner with every night, go running with, run errands with, drag to the grocery store, wash my car, do manly things like take out the trash and carry heavy things up the stairs because I'm too lazy, go to the gym, play bocci ball, play cards, etc.  I love it.

Before I had my lovely sister to do these things with, but let's face it, I could only force her to do so many things.  She wasn't compelled to do everything I asked.  She was actually compelled to do things with her hubs - which often left me hanging out alone or running errands alone - and always running alone.

So - this married things is going quite well.  I realize had we had more of a traditional relationship we would have been doing these things together while dating.  However, that was not the case.  And to be honest, I didn't have any real boyfriends before Mr. Hubs so I never shared this type of relationship with anyone.  I think I'm liking it though.

And now we're off to the gym - the coolest place to be on a Friday night!  Right?  Okay, maybe not but we're completely broke until pay day so it'll have to do!

Bark, Bark!!

Do any of you lovely readers out there speak another language?  Do you remember what it was like when you confused words? 

I took hubs to the dentist last night and he reminded me of the first time we went to the dentist.  I went back into the exam room with him because he doesn't speak English and I wanted to be able to translate for him.  Since this was his first dentist appointment the dentist wanted to take a bunch of x-rays.

Do you remember how when you get dental x-rays you have to bite on those plastic pieces?

Well, I was a bit confused and unsure of my dental Spanish, so when he had to bit I said:

LADRAS!

Well, ladrar is the Spanish word for BARK!  Not bite!

Bite is MORDER!! 

So, throughout the entire appointment I kept telling him to bark.  He actually didn't remind me until later that night that I had the words confused. 

I thought it was hilarious. 

And now, every time we go to the dentist he starts barking - just to remind!  It keeps us laughing.