Tuesday, January 09, 2007

holy matrimony, batman!



So all of you should know by now. If you don't, that's ok, cuz here it is in blog-form. The story is, I went to New Mexico after Christmas and came back engaged! The uncut version is here for your enjoyment:

I arrived from Ottawa to Albuquerque on Dec 26th kind of anticipating that Joash would propose sometime in those ten days in New Mexico. The first thing he did when I arrived was to take me up the Sandia mountains ('watermelon' in Spanish), where we hiked along the ridge to see an amazing view of the city and mountain range around us. Apparently we were at 10,000+ feet or something ridiculous. I was huffing and puffing around the mountain like my lungs had fallen out (plop!) until we got to a stone shelter on the edge of a cliff...a perfect spot for a special question...but alas, that was not to be. We then went back into town and spent the evening with Mark and Renee (many thanks to their wonderful hospitality!) and their adorable little Sammy.

On our way out to Taos a few days later, we explored a beautiful mountainous area called Jemez (pronounced: Hey-mez) to play around in some hot springs. It was snowing like crazy up in these mountains so hiking to the natural hotsprings seemed treacherous and not-very-fun. Instead, we went to a very 'zen' oriented bath house and soaked in two individual tubs built for giants (good thing for Joash), separated by curtains that we had to whisper over to talk. There were people apparently trying to meditate there...what a funny thing in such an isolated town in the woods! The water was SO hot that I thought something was wrong with my water (I envisioned my flesh slowly being burnt from the outside in like a boiled chicken), but Joash whisper-assured me that I'd be okay. Well, there was no proposal here either, and by evening, we were headed back to Taos in some freak winter snowstorm that actually got us using 4WD on the highway.

So we got into Taos, and found myself again in the wonderful company of the Schumpelts, including the Floreses (Joash's sister's in-laws). There was also the newest edition of the family awaiting me, the fluffy and dim-witted pup Sebastian, greeting me with lots of slobber and cuteness, and of course, Dougall their soft-eyed sheepdog who I thought someone said was allergic to dogs (they were referring to me, haha). On New Year's eve, Joash took me out to dinner, but I knew it couldn't be "the night" because he was like, "Uh, where do you want to eat, Matthea?" I suppose I still had some vague hope he would ask, as you know alcohol can sometimes act like veritaserum from Harry Potter. See following equation:

High altitude + alcohol + matthea = very, very silly me.

With my brain swimming after supper, I stumbled around the plaza leaning onto Joash's arm and mumbling, "Hurreee up...Ah don't neeeeed a rinnnnng, jus' gimmeeee a band-aid or somethin!!!!

Well, of course, now you know it didn't happen on new year's eve.

On new year's day, Joash took me snowshoeing up to William's Lake, a hike we had done last summer, but this time it was covered in 6+ feet of snow. We trudged through it for a while, and again, the altitude left me huffing. Joash kept encouraging me to go farther, but I was getting very tired. Cold, and ready to go back, we reached a point where we couldn't continue because the snow was too deep. Joash made a little packed snow-platform where we could sit and have lunch. I sat down ready to pour the hot chocolate when Joash plopped down on his knees infront and said something about "don't pour the hot chocolate yet" and the next thing I knew he had some craaazy ring out, sparkling like a huge iceberg against the snow (it was a lot bigger than I'd expected). That's when he asked me to marry him, and I had to look at him for a minute in semi-disbelief since I didn't expect it that day.

Well, this was a very long story but here's your reward for being a good blog reader -- a photo of me and Joash! awww.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

YAY I was wondering when there would be a blog about all this! It was so much fun knowing you were being pulled along until just the right moment when you wouldn't expect it. We love you and are so happy for you and Joash.

Anonymous said...

i love the story. mucho congratulations!!!

see you soon!

Anonymous said...

Even Sammy knew the details before you did, Matthea! Ha!

matthea said...

Ah, even the baby knew! ;). I wonder how y'all kept your faces straight about the whole thing...good job! ;p. hehe.

We love you guys too. Don't hurt yourselves on Wecks' while we're gone!

photo_fanatic said...

congrats matthea and joash on your engagement. great story, btw!

StorMRequiem said...

Congratulations Matthea and Joash! Let the barf competition begin. Love,

Joneryl (*barf*)

Beyond Umami said...

congrats mathea!!

hobbes2888 said...

very cool!

congrats matthea!

Anonymous said...

Can I assume the lack of updates are due to you and Joash's hands being cemented together? ;)

Jul said...

Hey, daughter-in-law to be,
I love you and hope all is well. Please encourage that boy to call his mother and espcially to e-mail the sister he plans to steal the birthday from!!! :)
Love you muchly!
Jul

Charis said...

Congrats btw! I was great to finally meet you when you were down! So since a certain male will not answer email...and I don't have yours...you guys set a date yet? Let me know so I know if I can make it or not! :)

Unknown said...

Hi Mattie!

Congratulations! I got engaged myself last year I'm very happy for you! Hope everything is well if you have some time drop me a line I'd love to catch up with you. You've become one of those people we ask whatever happened to so and so from camp my e-mail is brett_tillotson@hotmail.com add me to MSN or send me an e-mail I'd love to hear from you! and congratulations again! :D