I’m assuming most of the people who read this little blog of mine know by now that I’m engaged.  If not, hi, surprise! I’m getting married.

Ivo and I were supposed to get married on June 13th, 2020. (Please note the words “were” and “supposed to.”)

But for now, pay attention to the MOST fun facts below 😉

• I am a fan of the Seahawks.
• Ivo is a fan of the Niners.
• The first time we ever hung out on January 1st, 2017, we spontaneously went to a Niner vs. Seahawk game together.

• We started officially dating on May 30, 2017.
• We’ve been to two more Niner vs. Seahawks games since then.

• Our 4th game couldn’t be a Niner vs. Seahawk game because of a business trip I went on, so instead, on October 27th, 2019 we went to a Niner vs. Panthers game which I didn’t mind at all because…Cam Newton. Hello.

• At that game during halftime, we walked onto the field and Ivo asked me to be his wife using a message on the Jumbotron, wearing white cement 3 Justin Timberlake Spike Lee Jordans…It’s a mouth full but, the shoes are important, k?
• I said yes.
• We picked June 13th, 2020

When the shelter in place order was placed over Monterey County due to COVID-19, I had a feeling that our wedding may be affected, but we made the decision to move forward as planned.

However, once it was extended to May 31st, we felt like we might need to reconsider.

So last week, we called an audible. Can someone please be impressed that I worked this reference in here after talking about how significant football has been in our relationship? K Great, thanks!

Ivo and I have officially decided to get legally married on paper, May 30, 2020 on our dating anniversary…Yeah that’s 19 days from now.

THEN we are going to have a real (fake) ceremony and reception at a later date, with alllllllllll of the people we wanna celebrate with. We talked through a few options, and this is the one we landed on.  It might seem weird to some people, but I mean..the majority of 2020 has been weird so far, so we might as well just jump on board and go with it.

We haven’t officially picked a new date, we’re waiting until May 31st to see what happens, but I just thought for now, it might be helpful to get the information out somehow. Our wedding website isn’t really cool about accepting ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as the new date, so once we know for sure we’ll update it.

Thank you for reading the most very important, very long winded, announcement.

The end.

Love,

Candace ALMOST Jimenez, like in 19 days

 

 

 

 

 

Wanna know what I recently discovered makes the list of things I like?

Sanding.

Staining.

Painting.

Wanna know what I recently discovered about myself?

I.

Am.

Impatient. 

Up until now I thought I had a pretty good amount patience. But I don’t actually think I do anymore.

Wanna know why?

Because I like sanding, staining, and painting.

If you’re assuming they have something in common, they do. And no, it’s not that every single one of them requires a trip to Home Depot.

They’re all instantly gratifying.  You can see the change in what you are sanding…immediately.  You can see the change in what you are staining and painting…immediately.

You wanna know what else is on the list of things I like?

Growing, challenging myself and becoming better.

Getting physically stronger.

Having a really amazing credit score..yeah maybe this one’s weird, but it’s true.

If you’re assuming they have something in common, they do. And no, it’s not that they’re instantly gratifying.

They.

Require.

Patience.

If you really want to get a sense of the kind of person I am…lemme just say this: I’m the girl who will do a whopping 10 curls each arm with a 15 pound dumbbell, and check the mirror the next day to see if my biceps showed up to the party yet.

I was thinking about this the other day while I was sanding a couch that Ivo and I built in the backyard last year.  Instead of sealing it when we first built it like my Dad told us to, we let the weather wreak havoc on it over the winter.

Last week…? Two weeks ago? Sometime during this whole shelter in place deal, we worked to get it back in good condition and treated the wood to protect it.  As I was choking to death on little couch particles that the sander blasted into my face, I was thinking Ah this is so satisfying.  Why can’t it just be this easy to become a better a person, to grow in the areas I know need work?  Why can’t becoming fit and strong be so instantaneous? etc. etc. etc. 

After thinking about this for a while and accepting that I now fall into the impatient category…here’s the conclusion I’ve come to.

The things that are fast and easy and instantly gratifying?  They’re great..but the feeling is fleeting. It’s like K, done. Now what?  What’s next?

The things that take years…that you work for and toward a little bit day by day, week by week, gaining traction and seeing little glimpses of improvement or change but KNOWING there’s more to come…those are what keep you going and working.

Sure, maybe there are points where it’s like come ONNNN how much longer is gonna take to reach the level I wanna be at? But I’ve found in the last few years that if you just put your head down and keep going, eventually you’ll look back and be shocked at how far you’ve come. And that…that isn’t a fleeting feeling at all.

Love,

The quarantine sander and stainer