I am now officially Mrs. Chunk! A lot has happened since I left, I don't even know where to begin.
We left Illinois on June 12th and started our caravan to Colorado. Chunk and I in our van, the kids and ex in laws in a Suburban following us. It's a 14 hour drive out there, and we had a lot of long stops so we were kind of speeding to make up the difference. Actually, it was my ex mother in law who was the speed demon, and we were trying to keep up most of the way. About 10 minutes from the Colorado border, in Goodland Kansas, a police officer did the coolest trick I've ever seen. He pulled 2 cars over at once. Us, and The speed demon. We both got tickets. Chunk's first ticket ever too. Hehe. I found the whole thing rather amusing, aside from the fact we'd have to fork over $125.
We made it to Broomfield and the kids, Chunk and I stayed at his parents house for a few days before heading down to Colorado Springs to stay with my little sister Carie. We had a lot of fun. We got married on Saturday, June 19th in Broomfield at the LDS church building. We were married in the chapel. I was excited because I had heard a rumor that marriages were no longer allowed in the chapel and had to be done in the relief society room. We had a very short ceremony. I am going to type out the vows we said tonight after children go to sleep. We had a lovely reception and then we headed to a bed and breakfast in Arvada Colorado for the night. The next day Chunk and I headed to Utah for our honeymoon. We drove to Moab first, and stayed the night there. We went to Deadhorse Point and peered over the edge. It was freaky. The next day we hiked around the Arches National Park. I never realized how much of a desert Utah is. It's really hot and dry and there is lots of red dirt everywhere. The Arches were beautiful, and I took a bazillion pictures of all of this stuff, I just need to get them all developed.
After Moab we headed to Cedar City for the night. We met up with one of our chat buddies, Brent. He is 6'8". He had to duck to get into our hotel room. We shared our wedding cake we brought on our journey with him and took pictures. It was really cool getting to meet him. We didn't do anything else in Cedar besides hanging out with Brent.
We traveled to Salt Lake City to do some sightseeing. We went to Temple Square and saw the movie "Testaments" in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was so awesome, and it made us both cry. We met one of our other chat buddies Karin, and her husband Ron. On our second day in SLC we had lunch and dinner with them. They were very hospitable and it was a blast chatting with them in person. We went to Temple Square again that day and also the ZCMI Center. I got my first CTR ring and squealed like a little girl. I was bummed that I couldn't find a pink one in my size anywhere. At Deseret Book they told me the manufacturer stopped making them. Shucks. On our Third and final day in SLC we met up with chunk's cousin Roger and his wife Carrie. They have a new baby named Mikaela. We had a great time with them walking around Temple Square and the Conference Center. That night we had the pleasure off hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice in the tabernacle. It was so beautiful. Chunk and Roger had a good time reminiscing and being rowdy. It was really cute.
We started our journey back to Colorado and we stayed there 2 more nights before heading back to dreaded Decatur. I want to move out west so bad. We really loved Utah and Colorado so much. We got home Monday around 2 am. Today Chunk's parents are due to arrive with the rest of our wedding gifts and miscellaneous stuff. We made out like bandits with wedding gifts. We treated ourselves like Kings on our honeymoon too. Thanks to all those who pitched in on the chatroom gift!! And Noelle, you signed our card sooooooo cute and creatively, we loved it! I think that's all. I wanted to summarize everything while I had the chance. We'll have company for the next few days so I won't have a chance to blog again just yet. I will try to post a couple of pics real fast...don't kill me if I don't get the chance too. Love you all!!!!

The dress was purchased today. I got the money order from my sister in the mail, and at 4:45 I headed to teh bank to cash it. After the bank Abbey (ex sister in law, and good friend) and I headed to the store where my lovely gown was being held on layaway. As we pulled into the parking lot, I had a massive heart attack, the store was closed!!!!! I could not wait another day to get my dress, we had too much stuff planned for Friday, and we're leaving early on Saturday, so I HAD to get the dress today. I would not take no for an answer, so we went up to the locked doors and knocked. The owners daughter opened it and after I explained to her what was going on, she let us in. I got the dress and paid for it..but There was no bustier! I asked about it and she said that one had never been ordered and it was not on my ticket- the exact opposite from what the woman who put the dress on layaway had told me. She said she would order one for me in the style I had tried on at the store, and that I could put it all on layaway together. So the owner was claiming I had never even purchased on to begin with. I told her everytyhing that I was told on the day I put the dress on layaway and she went to look in thier order book, sure enough an order was placed for my bra but no one knew where it was. They still said I never paid for one...she looked at my total for my dress and said there was no charge for a bra on there. I was getting a little upset, because I only had exactly enough to buy the price that was on my layaway ticket. I think the owner lady saw that I was about to cry, because she took me to the back to try on bustiers even though the store was already closed. We actually found one that worked perfectly and she gave it to my at no charge. All that she asks is that I refer other girls to her store to get their dresses. I was really happy, I had gotten really awesome service at this store up until today, and she really redeemed herself.

Just wanted to update and say I have purchased Chunk's wedding band. It shall arrive by Friday, YAY! It's being sized as we speak. All of the invitations were mailed out and recieved by everyone. I will hopefully update agian before the big day!

Some major progress has been made regarding our lovely wedding invitations. We were able to print out all the trillions (exaggerating here) of pieces of vellum, and over the course of the past few days I have been assembling them every evening once the children have gone to bed. I have run out of ribbon twice now, but after we go back to hobby lobby today and get the last little bit, this project will be completed and they will take a trip down to the post office. Yay! I am feeling very accomplished this morning.
*does a happy dance*
Now that is out of my system, I can start complaining about my dress. I am stressing out because it's still on layaway and I need to get it out very soon so I can have it altered a teensy bit. I decided to make the sleeves a tad longer afterall, I just don't feel comfortable with the sleeves as they are now. They are short sleeves, about the length of T-shirt sleeves I guess, but they are tighter than a T-shirt's sleeves, and a hint of my wretched tattoo I got when I was 17 peeks it's ugly head out from under it. I tried thinking up creative ways to cover it, but all of my ideas just sounded tacky. My last option: have the sleeves lengthened. I met a seamstress who assured me adding an inch or two to the sleeve bottom would be a cinch, and not a huge expensive project.
I am also getting sad, because I know my dear Chunk has to leave again in a couple of days. We've had a great visit, and I am not ready for him to leave yet!! My consolation is that we will be together always in just a few weeks. I just have to keep that in mind. (Note to self: I will NOT die without him, I will NOT die without him, I will NOT die without him, I will NOT die without him). Ok, so I am being a little over dramatic today. It's fun though, right?

We went to circuit city on Wednesday and got a printer. We didn't have a USB cable though, but I had one on my other printer so I got it yesterday. We thought it was the wrong kind and we were really bummed out, but later that evening we discovered it worked afterall!
The vellum gave us some major problems. They kept printing out off centered. It was pretty frustrating considering vellum isn't the cheapest paper in the world,  but we tricked the printer into doing it right. So the vellum overlays are printed out, mext step is to connect them to the purdy cardstock with the ribbon and we're all set. I have already written out some of the envelopes. I got a silver paint pen for that. It's coming along finally!! YAY!

I am sitting here munching on a bagel and thinking about wedding stuff. I really shouldn't be eating a bagel, I am trying to lose a little bit of weight. If I gain even a couple lbs, that dress will not fit. I am so serious when I mean it is a perfect fit. I took my friend Erica to see the dress yesterday. I tried it on and pranced around the store a little while she took pictures. Those pictures are being developed as we speak. I will have them posted on an undisclosed blog by this evening. If you would like to see them, get ahold of me on yahoo and I will link you. I am stressing out sooo bad about the wedding. I am trying not to worry about it, but I feel like my hands are tied being all the way out in Illinois. I feel like I should be doing a lot more. Basically I guess I am saying I feel like a lazy bum. Work cut my hours back to practically nothing. I am only working ONE day this week, and it's not even for a full 8 hours. I applied for a job at a place called Startek, I have been praying for that job. It pays really well and it would give me an opportunity to be able to put a lot more money into this wedding. I went to Startek and took all of their pre-emplyment tests, and the guy at the counter looked up my scores and said I did really well. My printer started acting up last week, making printing invitations extremely difficult. I need to go down and look at printers today. I am going to need a new one anyways, so I might as well start looking. If worse comes to worse, I can always put the font on disc and take everything down to my school. I don't know how many I could print off before they would get mad at me. I think my best bet is to just go look for a new printer. I already purchased all of the special paper, the vellum, and the ribbons to make them. I really want to do this myself, I am not ready to admit defeat yet. I am too stubborn to give up this early in the game.
Chunk and I had a really long talk last night about scripture stuff. I was in a chatroom and some guys were debating about something, and I kept asking them to explain it to me, but they wouldn't so I went and asked Chunk. I am so thankful that he has such a great doctrinal knowledge, he's already taught me so much. The other night on the phone, he sang some hymns to me. It was so cute. They were from the childrens songbook. I am glad he loves to sing, because so do I. A lot of my favorite hymns are HIS favorite hymns too! We just have so much in common. We even have the same taste in food, well, when I am not on my vegetarian kicks. We both love Andy Capp's Hot Fries. Those things are the best snack food on the earth EVER. I just think Chunk is so special, and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father put him in my path. There were a few times where Satan almost got his way and messed things up for us, but things worked out, and I am thankful for Chunk's faith and his prayers. I love him so much. I can't wait to be married to him, and start our life together. I am also thankful for his love for my children. I know he will treat them as if they were his, and I love him for that. It's hard for a guy to become an instant father figure, but I think he will handle it with much grace. He has an obvious love for children. Speaking of the children, I wanted to include a picture on here that I had developed yesterday. It makes my heart melt when I see it. Hollie had climbed up into Charley's high chair and they were feeding eachother all squished together. Here it is.