I just can't hide it,...

I am so excited I just can not take it anymore. So, here it goes.

The other day I posted this comment on my Facebook: hmmm,... I think it's time to buy a dress. If you asked "a dress or THE dress" good intuition!!! (Winky face)

It's hard not to just jump right in and blurt it all out, but I really want you to get a feel for what actually went down. So, I'll start at, kinda, the beginning.

Last week I received a letter from our beloved IRS notifying me that I, Angel Zamudio, owed them about $2000, because I claimed the interest on our house in 2011 and they didn't have any documentation to support that claim, therefore, I owe them money, in their opinion.

My name, as well as Keri's name, is on the mortgage and always has been. We have alternated who claims the interest on the house before and it wasn't a problem. We always file separate and single because, although we have raised a son together, have had joint checking and savings accounts for 18 years, bought and paid for, in full, a couple cars, opened a new business and sold it for a profit and adopted a very handsome golden retriever, ALL TOGETHER, mind you, we are not able to marry one another in our home state of Oregon! Bull shit!!! Yes! I know!

Well, don't you worry your pretty little heads one bit about this because we have supporting documentation to substantiate my claim and a letter to the IRS including that information is already on it way! So there! Hmph!

Here's where it gets exciting. Once I notified Keri, via text, that all the documents had been signed, dated, copied and mailed, she shot back a question. Hey, how do you feel about taking a little jaunt up to Washington state and making this thing legal? My heart started pounding. I made a little squeal and shook my open hands around in utter delight. I responded, Are you asking me to marry you? As I waited for her to respond and because I knew that's exactly what she was doing, I was already typing my response, YES! A thousand times yes!

The excitement totally blew me away. Here is my baby, such the planner that she is, spontaneously purposing that we run off and get married. I couldn't believe it!!! Ohhh the excitement!!! When? Are we talkin' Vantucky? (Vantucky is what we jokingly call Vancouver.) No! Not Vancouver, SEATTLE!!! Whoop whoop!!!

Hold it now!!! Wait one stinkin' minute!!! What about the wedding we were planning in 2015? All the fun, party, family and friends, singing, dancing and all that stuff? What about that stuff? She knows I would not just give up on all that dreamy stuff a girl loves! Nope! She said we'll still do that, this is just a technicality, so we can start getting the benefits of a married couple.

I am so excited to be excited about getting married!!! I guess the third time IS a charm. More on that later. The totally awesome thing about it, besides all the other totally awesome things about it, is that on October 17th the Human Rights Campaign posted a comment of their blog announcing that "Oregon will now recognize all out-of-state marriages, including those of same-sex couples". Woo hoo!!!!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="224"] License in the mail, after 18 years, better late than never.[/caption]

So, you can see now why I'm so excited. I will legally be married to the woman I have lived my life with, grown with, loved with, vacationed with, planned retirement with, raised a son with, bought a house with, trained and raise a handsome golden retriever with, cried and laughed with, supported each other through loss, developed our family, cultivated friendships and all the other things a married couple would do together. We have done those things and now, NOW we will be a legally married couple. Tears of joy roll down my face as this next thought popped into my mind. I can finally check the married box. It may seem silly to some, but I have been begrudgingly checking that single box for the last 18 years and it is monumental to me to have this basic right.

Wife and wife.