Sandra Rose Hughes

It wasn’t long after we met, that Anthony and I began exchanging emails regularly. I was impressed by how intelligent he sounded and how well thought-out his emails were. When I came to Bakersfield for Christmas, he took me out to Coco’s restaurant and we talked in depth.   I asked him what his “5-Year-Plan” was and it was around this time that he told me about his dream to build his own home on his parent’s property in Lake Isabella. Lake Isabella, CA Overlooking the family property.             Unbeknownst to me, Anthony was actually going on a few dates with another girl around the same time, someone his sister had set him up with. He told me about her much, much later, and he says that dating the two of us made it clear who was the better choice for him.             The flurry of emails continued and whenever I visited my parents in Bakersfield (about once a month), I always made sure to squeeze in a date with Anthony. He also visited me at college, sent me the occasio

My husband and I a few years before our baby was born. For Christmas this year, I wrote a 75 page summary of my husband and I's courtship and the last 7 years of our marriage. He loved it and I really enjoyed writing it. I will include a few excerpts here. Bright blue eyes stared into mine and round cheeks grinned up at me as I reached over to wake our son this Christmas morning. By this Christmas of 2012, our son Bennett will be about six months old. When I hold little Bennett in my arms this holiday season, it is hard to imagine that there was ever a time before he existed. Even harder to imagine is the fact that there was once a time before Anthony and I knew each other- quite a long time (especially for Anthony), in fact, before we met, courted, and became a family. It was shortly before Christmas of 2002 when we met for the first time on a blind date to the Yule. Our mutual friend, Jennifer, was setting up my sister Carolyn and one of our friends, Becka, up

Most of my life sounds bucolic when I put it down on paper. I spent last weekend helping my husband work on cabinets for the house he is building us, carrying branches up to the grind pile with my baby and my dog, and collecting pine cones for our out-door fire pit. A few months ago, a friendly neighborhood tortoise wandered up our hill, thoroughly surprising all of us. I hope he will migrate across our property on a yearly basis.  During the week-days, I stay at my parent's house with the baby. My parents have high-speed internet and cable which is wonderful, and they have a house-cleaner and a gardener who come regularly, so I don't even have very many chores to do except for taking out the trash, keeping my areas picked up, and making dinner for everyone. Okay, it doesn't just sound bucolic- it IS bucolic. Too bad I don't have a sheep to round out the picture. The cat will have to do.