¿Qué Novedades Hay?

Literally, this common Spanish greeting translates to, "What new developments are there?" or "What news is there?" Since I never read or watch the news, and lead a pretty normal life, I don't usually have much to say to this question, well at least not since a year ago when I randomly adopted a small child as an unmarried foreigner. But I digress. Generally the answer to this salutation is similar to our English version, "What's up?" or "What's new?" Answer: "Nothing."

This week, as I start back at the university teaching summer classes, which I love by the way, the professors, students and staff are emerging from their holiday break back onto campus, with "¡Felicidades!" Which is kind of "Happy New Year!" and sometimes "¿Qué novedades hay?" And for the first time in awhile, it would just be dishonest to respond "nada." Since I last saw all of these friends and co-workers a lot has changed, and I sure do have news.

I never thought I'd be that girl that waves her hand in the air showing off her ring, but it must be some kind of female instinct when sharing the news that you've just gotten engaged. The excitement just gets the better of me.

Angie's gonna have a daddy!

(Most adorable side note ever: Every prayer she's prayed over the past year that she's been with me has automatically started with, "Thank you God for this nice day." Every day, that is, until the day Jon left to return to the US when she instead opened with only, "Thank you God for this day" in not just one, but two of her prayers)

Ruby's gonna have another playmate, master, and pushover to get table scraps out of.

And I'm gonna be a wife. Woah. But before that wife role kicks in, there's this whole necessary (debatable) wedding thing to do first. Have you ever tried to plan a wedding from 4,000 miles away? Well, it's actually possibly easier than attempting the same feat from ground zero, or at least I seem to be enjoying the details more than Jon and this was mostly his idea in the first place.

Ah, but I skipped the when and where. On July 21st, 2012 at the Caldwell Chapel in Louisville, KY, we'll be officially growing our little family again.

Now, amongst the wedding planning fun we get to try pre-marital counseling from different countries. Skype, podcasts, books, and semi-bilingual couples small group should be a good start, but if you have any advice we're all ears.

If you haven't met Jon yet, you're missing out and you're gonna love him. I'm still trying to figure out what I can bring to this relationship as he cooks better than me, keeps a cleaner house than I do, fixes things, sews, and rarely lets me carry anything. Maybe I'll just cheer him on while he lays down the new hard wood floors and changes the oil. I think I'll count Angie and Ruby as my contributions as well, that's fair right?