Katy and Jim Tie the Knot in Venice

Well the Las Vegas version anyway. There is a gorgeous waterfall behind us here. I’m not sure if they have one of those in Venice, Italy…

(But it looks so real, right? Like we are really in Venice. Not like we are in the middle of a mall indoors in Sin City. My kids cannot wrap their brain around the fact that this was indoors. That really looks like a sky but it’s a painted ceiling. Wild, huh?)

We got married on a gondola at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Our Gondolier sang to us after we exchanged our vows. It was in Italian so we had no idea what he was saying, but it was absolutely lovely.

Pastor Jack took a picture of us as we took a romantic ride down the canal. It was beautiful, and we could not have been happier!

Jim and I have been wanting to get married for a long time. This last year has been full of trials and tribulations for both of us and our families. We finally had a small window of time when he was going to be home on leave from his job in Iraq for a few days and we took this opportunity to get married.

It was sudden and we didn’t have time to plan for anything to include the children or friends and family, so we intend to have another ceremony when we move eventually and we can have a wedding there that will include everyone.

In the meantime, Jim is in danger in Iraq every day, getting bombed all the time, and we just wanted to have the peace of mind to know that we were officially married while he was overseas.

Jim and I have been together, as a couple, for over a year. We thought we would have been married by last Christmas. But after all the disappointments we have had to endure, it feels great to finally be married!

Jim and I have been friends for years. I never would have dreamed that I would have ever gotten divorced, or that he and I would have wound up together. But I truly believe that God has a plan for us.

I never imagined that at 40 years old I would fall in love (like a teenager) with my best friend. Or that he would love me back so much or that his heart would be big enough to love my four kids as well.

Now that Jim is finally divorced and we have gotten married, I will occasionally write about our story on the blog. (My hands were tied a bit before) We now have a blended family with two sets of twins. He has twin boys (11) and I have twin girls (8). I also have a 14-year-old, and a 10-year-old. Together there are 3 boys and 3 girls, like the Brady Bunch. The kids all get along quite well, and they look forward to living in the same place so we can all spend time together as a big family. My son may be the happiest about all of this because he has lived with 3 sisters all his life and he will now get 2 brothers to play with -  he IS THRILLED! And so far the kids like both step-parents. SO FAR. (We know that won’t always be the case.) [Read more...]

AlpacaFarmgirl Gets Engaged!

Kring

Are you surprised? I was too!

He asked me to go for a walk by the ocean.

OceancircularwebI was confused when he asked me to sit down on this bench.

benchwebThen he told me that I was his whole world, his everything… that he couldn’t imagine life without me. That he loved me with his whole heart. And he asked me to be his wife. Of course I said yes and kissed him. Then I was surprised when he gave me a ring.

We had talked about not spending the money on a ring now, as he is in Iraq these days to pay off bills… so I was shocked!

We have been planning on getting married when he comes back from Iraq (now slated for October if not sooner) for eight months, but unpleasant divorce issues had kept us from making any “official” announcements and had kept me from writing anything…

JimengagedwebBut no more.

I am going to marry Jim Cocking. He is an alpaca lover. A former alpaca breeder. He is a co-owner of Kentucky Alpaca Center, and was an alpaca transporter for many years. We were friends for many years (JUST FRIENDS – Lol)  while we were both married, and then when we were both planning to get divorced – something happened – and we realized that our feelings were more than just friendly…I’ll tell you that story later…

We have been like two teenagers in love for months…pining for each other while he has been in Iraq doing contract work. With him home on this short leave, it was a perfect time  for us to become engaged.

For a bulked up muscle man, Jim is a romantic guy. Tough as nails, but with the softest, kindest heart in the world. Over the years, Jim has won the hearts of alpaca breeders across the country as he transported their alpacas to them, always going out of his way to help them out and do nice things for their animals. He’s the proverbial “nice guy”. I look forward to sharing some of those stories here.

Kringedited

We are so happy, and now that I have “come out of the closet”, and gone public with our relationship, I feel like I can finally write again. Whew!

So what do you guys think? Is it about time for the cloud to lift? Lol!