Hoorah!

Well, the griddle news was good, but I think this tops it...

Amy and I went to the Pekin county courthouse today to get a marriage license which (after some swooning by the lady on duty over my British accent, which ended quickly after I reminded her I was there, with my fiancee, to get a MARRIAGE LICENSE) we got!

While we were there we asked how we would go about arranging a date for the wedding itself, and she directed us to the county clerk's office in the building next door. We thought about it for, lemme see, about a second, wondering if we needed more time to decide on a date, then decided quite quickly that we didn't. And so our wedding day is on Friday the 7th April, 2006, at 3:15PM. So, three of these - :) :) :) - and a bunch of these - !!!!!! - and a speckling of these - wahooo! wahooo! It feels SO GOOD to have a firm date at last, and a nice side-benefit is that we can now tell people a 'when' when they ask 'When????' 'Then', we can reply... um... then.

Aaaaaaand... after that we went to the Social Security Office where all went very smoothly; I handed in my forms, and I.D.s and after a short (confusion-type) delay over my Britishness - "We just don't do many of these" said the lady - my application was deemed successful and I was told to expect my Social Security Number (SSN) within seven-to-fourteen days, which definitely deserves another one of these - :) Oh, okay. And one of these - ! Oh, and we stopped at the DMV to get a copy of the 'Rules of the Road', which I will peruse and ponder over the next few days or so.

In other news a close friend of Amy's parents (and Amy too) named Dan Sage passed away this morning after a really long and gutsy fight against cancer, and other illnesses on top. Betty, Dan's wife has asked Amy to sing a song she wrote for her church praise group at the funeral planned for this Wednesday, which is an honor, to say the least. Amy is quite nervous at the prospect, and afraid she might cry the song rather than sing it, but I know she will do just wonderfully. Anyway, crying is allowed at a funeral.

Hope you are all doing really well. Amy has her bloodwork tomorrow to make sure she's un-diabetic, and so must fast for twelve hours beginning tonight. We're probably heading over to Joel and Sarah's to watch a movie later, and I just hope they don't have chips - it's gonna be really hard sitting there enjoying them while Amy can't. I might even have to turn my back while I fill my face with their deliciousness. Like the prophet said: "It's hard to consider people's feelings when your tummy is empty."

Anyway, speak soon, and our love to you all.