Boost your moral- grow a mustache.

Brandon called this morning. Already I can't wait for him to call again. I was so sleepy but we laughed and laughed (okay maybe lack of sleep had a LITTLE bit to do with it) that and he is seriously thinking of coming home with a full mustache.

"But I thought you liked facial hair!?" he cried
I do, but mustaches have been kr33ping me out lately. It's not even that their formidable rise to popularity has been kinda irksome, just the people I associate with who have them that I can't stand at all.

He said he'll pray about it, but the general consensus among his ranks is that he should keep it.

I told him I'll pray about it and I'LL decide if my eyeballs like it enough so that my face-mouth will like it too.

He says He'll groom the thing.
blehgh!


I'm thinking chuck norris with a beautiful mcdonald's archway over his forehead
and then I think about how I'm just looking out for his well being- his fashion's well being. Right now it's probably not "being" much...

I can't be sure if I would help him by telling him to get rid of the thing, since it seems to be boosting moral.

That and this substance.

Chocolate.

"Jacqueline,
I
AM
ADDICTED
TO
CHOCOLATE."

oh Brandon. I am so glad you signed us up for dental insurance before you left.

We ARE selling your contract to the air force as soon as possibly otherwise you may have dentures before you are thirty.

So, I need to send a sling shot (because apparently men running from dogs holding machine guns is unmanly- and men running from dogs with machine guns AND sling shots IS MANLY!)

more hot cocoa.
anything chocolate.
pancake mix.

and more love than I can fit in a box
because I can't fit myself in those flat rate boxes.

even with spin classes.




[jesus=#1 in our hearts]
love,
j

Bravo

God bless Bravo Company 4th LAR in Afghanistan.

Please keep the rest of them safe, and please bless the family of the man who died yesterday by the hand of a suicide bomber.


Bless the five men surrounding him who took impact from the blow,

And please bless that their sister company Charlie can find the men who organized it.

Pray for the military. Please.

j

a few things you need to know

Mrs Cochran

A few things you need to know:

1. You are the love of my life. You are more than anything I ever imagined I would have for a wife.

2. I thank God sincerely night and day for answering the prayer that sent you into my life.

3. No matter how cold or dark the night is you warm my heart and bring a smile to my face.

4. I hope and pray every day that I can give you the life you want and fill it with laughter, adventure, and farm animals.

5. You are my best friend, even though I CRUSH you in candyland and pillow fights and eating ice cream.

6. Can we have kids yet?

7. You will always be the most beautiful woman in the COSMOS.

Simply... I luf you!

<3>

Oh pea um

Would someone please classify the era of art that this belongs to?

Thank you,
J

July 1 2009 With deepest sympathy

At three oh clock today
I finally got out of bed.
The night was a long one the room I slept in overrun by new nieces
sleeping all over the bed, in a crib and on the couch.
After two sets of earplugs,
six hours of tossing and turning
moving addi from the couch to the bed and myself waking with every noise the baby made
I marched downstairs,
knocked on brandon's door
and said
it's your turn.

This morning he asked me if I still wanted kids.

I asked him to marry me
he said yes
and so I asked him when he was going to ask me
since I ask him every day.

Today.

I stepped out of the shower and threw on some underwear
feeling good about my finally
not so albino skin
I threw open the bathroom door
and glanced around my room.
(I would say I threw my eyes around the room but I am beginning to think I throw too many things.)

Stuff everywhere.
Except something was different from when I got in the shower.
On my bed near the left edge facing towards me
is the most beautiful rose I have ever seen.
Next to the rose
are the words
typed from
an old type
righter

Sundance ski lift 6PM
See you at the top.
Love,
Brandon

I turn over the card and a pink ticket for the sundance lift falls to the floor.
I glance on the other side of the card
for more clues

and read the words
"With deepest sympathy"
Orem Floral & Gift


I'm not sure
whether to laugh or cry
so I do both.

I get to be with you forever.

Wherever you go
I go too.

and so I am lucky
and I guess you should know
that

I
love
you.

Will you marry me tomorrow and the next day and the day after that?

With deep sympathy,
Jacqueline J Francis (tentatively in the most assured manner) Cochran

August 9th 2009

Already the drawers next to our bed in the guesthouse are beginning to mirror yours in sundance.
It seems the term night-stand applies
more liberally as "day"-night-stand.
Why do they even call it a stand?
It does nothing of the sort
but instead,
is the perfect image of stillness.
I've decided then
to call it a day-sit
from this time forward
from this time still stagnant
forever.
I'm glad I've married a stand
er.
Someone who wants to go somewhere
and I never fear
Rolling over in bed
my love silent beside me
and kissing the night stand.
I mean the day sit.
No
you are alive and not
content to sit
still.
And allow the papers
the leafs of my life
to lie
in your
quiet
wooden
arms.
No.
you are the words
you are the movement
the moment
my soul sits upon
lips
you read out to me
and in those endless eyes
I live.

All you need

Just a preface, I got a really really sweet comment on this blog from one of brandon's good friends and I just felt like I should post the rest of our story- the in betweens and a lot of blogs from my personal blog that I've kept (entries from when I first met brandon etc) It's a lot to read but I want it included in this. Thank you for reading, it makes me feel so loved to know that other people feel this kind of love, and want to know about it.

The old, knew.

Watching
you walk down
the stares with your eyes up on mine
could have been the perfect ending to an evening
until you, slipping down the last three-
lay there looking up at me
into the deep darkening blue
and spoke these words
"Jacqueline,
I think
I've fallen
for you."

Love is no big truth

The answer

The trays go round
the room and
with the exception
of a baby's cry
and the usual
shuffle of comfort
or lack thereof
it is silent.
In the midst of
all this
my mind catches a
muffled
question.
the small girl
in front of me,
slipping on her
dress in earnest
replies

"Because I love you"

I soon realize this
reason is the
answer to
everything
in my
heart.

She said

Today my wonderful sweet fabulous fantastic supercalifragilisticexpealidocious etc. relief society (emphasis on relief) said this in comment to something I said in church
she said

"My mother never read 'they lived happily ever after' instead, she changed the words to 'And they worked very hard to love each other every day'."

I love that.

It is so true. Growing up, my concept of love and temple marriage was celestial. That doesn't mean that marriage isn't all its cut out to be - for realz people its the greatest in the whole wide earth. It just means that it isn't perfect, and that if we work together as a team and turn our hearts to God and the gospel and to others that we make it alright.

My husband is the dreamiest, most wonderful kind hearted, sacrificing, fun, and aggravatingly patient person. I'm glad we have our differences, it opens my eyes to so much more.

It makes me know that we are ALWAYS a team, and we are ALWAYS worth any struggle. The convenants and promises we've made mean that together- we can become perfect. Well, in our eyes at least.

But the hard work comes first.

I can't wait.

Love cracks your heart open, spreads it really wide until you think your body is going to split into a million tiny pieces and then- miraculously it heals.

So next time, you can hold it all.

They're here, they're gonna be big.

yes, those are CROISSANTS

What you smell like

Somehow we always end up on the floor, tangled in blankets, and each other's arms.

Your hair is messy.

I shaved my head, but if I didn't it would be messy too.

In this comfortable contortion you ask 'what do I smell like?'

For an instant my man nature takes over and I almost say 'Chicken,......'because that's what we had for dinner.

But your eyes tell me you want something poetic, a simile, some synesthesia or sonnet telling you

That

You smell like the moment rain first begins to fall.

Off beat

as it decorates the sidewalk with

polka dots.

OR

The last day of school

OR

When from your backyard you hear the faint familiar jingle of the ice cream truck,

not sure if it's coming or going you panic

realizing you're a dime short to get the popsicle

shaped like a shark

But remembering your friend owes you, you take off running down the side walk barefoot

carefully

because it's hot

hoping he's heard the truck too.

My mind races to find something creative, something so amazing that even after I leave she'll muse over the beauty of that metaphor for days. I could see her in my mind at the flower shop she works at, telling her co-workers while she blankly re-arranges a perfect bouquet of roses 'He said I smell like...." And she'd sigh, and all the girls in the flower shop would sigh and say something about how she's so lucky and how their husbands used to be like that, and how they're not and how they wish they were.

But all that came out was 'Fall leaves'

"You smell like fall leaves"

By the expression on her face I might as well have said deranged, miscolored, rotting foliage.

"You smell like deranged, miscolored, rotting foliage."

I sink back into the pile of human and fabric

defeated.

But the truth is

you did kinda smell

like

chicken,

a little fowl.

-BLC

Hi Honey!

(this is from brandon to me.) I am not including the whole letter but just enough.

I just got off the phone with you. Your voice brings peace to my heart. All of the stress, frustration, and fear that weighs on my shoulders leaves when I hear you say you love me.
I love you forever.
I always feel like it's the last day of school in the 3rd grade when I think you are my wife!
I am so grateful we are married. Today a marine came to me in tears telling me his fiancee said she just can't wait for him. I don't know what I would do if I was in his shoes and you were the girl who could not wait for me.
What do you think would have happened if we wouldn't have married?Do you think you could have waited? (YES YES YES YES YES- j.) I am so glad we did though.
People talk about how much money they are going to have when they get home and what they'll buy and do. They ask me and I say Ill have ________ dollars and the most beautiful wife in the whole world. As long as I have you when I get home that is all I'll need, and want...

I've lost the nick name "golden boy" because I no longer feel as I once did about the corps. I view the high ranks with impudence. I am tired of their supercilious aura. I am tired of being a peon, obeying orders that they would not carry out themselves.
A spirit of rebellion has entered our ranks, marines refusing to obey, marines on the verge of snapping from the injustices heaped upon us. I pray, and pray, and pray. I endure. I lean upon Christ, He carries me day to day. They cannot break me, I have filled my heart and mind with love. I refuse to let hate fill me. I will not succumb. Pray for me my love, and I will pray for me. Go to the temple for me. I really believe I will come home a better man. I will for you. The mind is mine and I give it to you. pure. love b.DO NOT ENTER ---->MARINE CORPS.

Dear Brandon

okay, it's about time again (I keep sending letters to brandon but I seal them before I type them up (doiiiiighhh_dumb) ) so here is one finally- don't think I'm being cruel and never writing back to all these amazing letters blc writes (although I readily admit that his are so much more beautiful than mine) (maybe I just have to think that god's earth is greener beneath his feet because I love him like whoah but srsly) BUT I AM. proof:

[romantic, uplifting side]
Brandon,
Sometimes before I fall asleep at night your face appears in my mind and I am filled with the undescribable accumulation of all the thoughts I have to tell you throughout the day. These things begin penning themselves in a letter that only my dreams see- and when I wake up, the words fail and are replaced with a feeling that is a day old, and must develop again, anew.

If I could try to tell you what that feeling is it would take many words and I am sure a lifetime of love and adventures. But I can still try.

So that even with you on the other side of the world, you know that it is like

the idea of you entering a room, sends shivers into my heart and makes it wider, smile , and sometimes do spastic dances. It's the deep deep sweet.
It's the feeling of flight, the freedom to fall.
It's knowing nothing, but expecting hope and goodness.
It's the last bite of ice cream on the lid.

It's the stranger who stops to ask if you are okay.
It's your first valentine from someone who isn't your best friend, and then your first valentine from someone who is.

It's the honest nobility of a spare kindness, or care.
It's knowing you're here, even if you're there.

It's the sound of the ice cream truck.

It's the climb and the summit.
It's the motivation, the memory, the melody.

It's the word,
that endless word
it bends and beckons,
it reasons and expands simple views
into nature

in every grandeur
in every time.

It's like this
only a small increment
of the un- expressible
miracle of you.
and me.

[silly and slightly weird side...]

Some thoughtsicles:
I hope you didn't call me
today my phone is le dead.

We had sunday dinner at the cabin last night.
It's snowing again.
Today, I bundled the children into three layers each and drug (!?!) DRAGGED them (well, they sorta dragged me) out into the yard to make their first snowman,
the attempt (somewhat sullied by Boo's pee and poo ridden snow in the yard)
looks like this
pickles for eyes, carrot (classic) knows, herb branch for the smile, poop...

CUTE HUH
We had to do some reconstructive surgery to his/her face but he/she is happy near the back garden (this is an exact replica of the snowman, but may not be to size)

xoxoxoxoppooopxoxoxoxoxo

ps. the lump in my breast is hopefully a benign cyst or an infection, LOVE YOU!

love,
Wyfuh (like wifii internet but EVERYWHERE)

Missing peace

SS counterfeit

I got an email today saying that if I get a phone call saying that my husband has been hurt in afghanistan and to disclose my social security number and his that it's a scam.

The government always sends someone to the house to tell you in person.

Honestly, how awful is that?

What kind of person would do something like that?

Shame on you.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance,

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

-William Ernest Henley

i'm a cancer

this is a strawberry crab.

reap what you sew

Brandon called me last night to tell me that god hears our prayers. It's funny that I needed someone 5,000 miles away to call me and tell me that. Like God is lifetimes away and still right here. All the time.

I know it's selfish, but mostly I just pray for brandon's safety- and the safety of his men that he is with. My heart is filled with gratitude every night for his life in mine, it is overwhelming.

And the moment I think that my heart can't find any more space to be filled in, I remember that my love for him is just a portion of God's love for me, and for you and for everyone on this earth.

Brandon's purpose in calling was to tell me before I heard through the grapevine and worried my guts out
that some men were trying to plant an IED (a bomb) on the road they take everyday out of their camp in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan,

but the bomb blew up before they could plant it.

Brandon was sent out to the wreck to take pictures of the bodies and document the incident.

He said that war is so much more fake than movies.

You've been de-sensetised by the guts and gore of the media.

I don't want to say I hope so, but I do hope he's right.

He told me the Village Elder couldn't look them in the eyes when they went to question if he knew about the men's intentions.

Brandon says he doesn't blame him, because he knows the Taliban comes to the Elder's house too- he knows that they threaten to kill his family. They know that the Americans come to his house as well.

What a tough spot to be in. I know now, that I need to not just pray for Brandon and his men, but for the people of afghanistan- so that their hearts will know what is right. So they will know that if they don't help us, like we are helping them- that the violence will continue. That the Taliban won't stop at just killing the families. They'll do whatever it takes. Even risk their own lives to kill us, the afghani people and whoever else opposes them.

When I say us, I mean the men and women who are out there fighting right now.

So that we can get in our cars, and go to the grocery store. So that our children can play in the streets. So that our homes are safe from people who could come into them and threaten our lives, our families. Here.

Brandon said he was praying two hours before the bomb was heard going off. He said this:

"Heavenly father, please soften the taliban's hearts, so that I can go home and be with my wife. But if they won't soften their hearts, please help them reap what they sew."

God hears our prayers.

hi coo haiku

A mouse caught falling
Gleefully in mid air in-
To a garbage can.
-blc


I stand in dark places
looking for darker things
through the brush I see their faces
Into them my bullet rings.
-blc

spelling test

Brandon called this morning and asked for shrimp cup of noodles, chicken top ramen, teeth whitening strips, gel, and tuna prepackaged-ready-to-eat, SWISS MISS hot chocolate, and a "smorgusborgue" of oatmeal.

I told him I'll send it as soon as he starts addressing his letters with my name spelled correctly.

love,
j

joyeux

you are the greatest husband in the whole wide world and also in outer space if we ever decide to go there.

my wrist smells like maple sugar, is it okay to want to eat it?

its my left one...

well, i love you. happy new year sugarpiedumplingbunchahotrooskie.

ilovegarden

This letter comes to you tonight from the heart of a lonely Marine; a Marine that doesn’t want to embellish nor diminish the future that awaits him. There is no comfort in the practice of war. There is no peace in the knowledge that I know how to kill a man with a bayonet or that from 500 yards I can send a bullet into the face of a man nine out of ten times and sometimes ten out of ten. But I do have peace in you, and comfort in your arms and touch, and the simple knowledge that our souls have been knitted together and though our destinies are bound together it is through that bond I have become free. This bond saved me. And it will continue to save me time again as I face the demons of my life and the demons that are not mine but the worlds but that I have volunteered to fight for the world. My body is separated into two worlds. Five to five I am schooled in the art of taking life, and from five to five I try to build our life by creating it. My mind races across the hell I will travel witnessing the tragedy and tears, the bullets and blood, and the faces that will be lost to fate. At its end I see you. I see us. I see that although this journey begins in hell, it ends in heaven; and that cannot embellish nor diminished.

Love me through hell and high water and I will take you to a better place. Maybe even Olive Garden.


Forever yours,

Brandon

Some die looking for a hand to hold.

I remember you

two many letters

Two more letters came in the mail! I will just post one today since I've been overload brandoning lately!

Dear, Dear
The desert I am surrounded by is littered with these innumerable scattered crescent shaped sand dunes. The curve of each dune facing the same way: the way the wind blows. Squinting, they resemble large croissants, which I love. And all I can think of is what a cool pattern it would be for pajamas. Croissant pajamas. They're going to be big. Some how the desert always makes me think of dessert which logically brings my mind, and stomach to you, whom I love. I miss you so much. We are lucky to learn early what life is like without each other; a lesson most under take (with the undertaker) when it's too late. I feel ashamed knowing I snuck out of bed some nights to check the tv for final football scores when I could have been lying next to you, or adventuring for a midnight snack alone, when it would have been so much more fun for you to come along. I promise I'll never do it again.
You know what I love about you? Besides everything- it's that you mkae me happy when you're not even here. I'll be under the most miserable circumstances, cold, wet, maybe a little afraid, but if I think of you I always smile. I get that feeling like I'm jumping on a trampoline for the first time in a long time.
I think about all the fun and crazy things we've done and the things I know we'll do and I see many happy days ahead of us. What an adventure it will be to start a farm together, to travel the world, chase our kids around the house trying to put clothes on them, which I wont blame their ardent resistance, when we know absolutely well we'd be running around in our underpants too.

Things I look forward to:

Saturday morning breakfast
A great dog
Bed time stories (after the kids')
FHE, which will consist soley of family wrestle mania tournaments and sorry attempts at hymn performances with old instruments.
Shelves filled with great literature
Helping our children with homework

Extreme (rabid) makeout sessions when we're 40, with heavy petting (because the prophet says its okay when you're married so we'll take full advantage)

------ ---- ----------
(censored for obvious reasons)

Taking the same classes at college so we can cheat off each other's homework [WHAT DREAM ON BUDDY]

Getting sent to the dean's office together.

Falling in love every day.

[heart] Brandon.

With love, the beautiful brandon

So this is another I almost peed in my pants moment. This is the second letter I've gotten from brandon in two months- mom joked about it being sent on a camel but I think even a camel would have made it to my house faster than the military mail has.

for the people who care
this is what it says:
Ah Honey!
I miss you so much, not even this empty desert is as lonely as I am. I guess the old adage is true, distance makes the heart grow fonder, maybe thats why so many people... nevermind. Anyways you are on my mind always, I hope you are safe and happy. I look at my pictures of you and still cant believe how I married such a beautiful lady. I cant believe I married the love of my life Jacqueline Francis! You make me so happy even when I am not with you just the though of you makes me smile. I say a thousand prayers a day that I will come home to your sweet face. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for deepening my smile wrinkles.

Yesterday I led my first combat patrol outside our outpost (the others were inside and mostly just to the chow hall). We went out to check on the trip flares surrounding the base. Most had been set off by animals.

I fell in a canal of water but overall it was succesful.

We did another this morning to a small village a mile away. Its funny we have these super cool vehicles that take us everywhere but yet we choose to walk.

We are very safe from IED's because there are so many goats around. All with 4 or more legs.

The people said we were scaring the women and children. I hid my disfigurments as best I could but to no avail they discovered my ugliness. We just might loose this war on account of my face.

<3>


I have no words brandon.

Too many potatoes

"Dec 6, 1993, Dear Mr. & Mrs. Cochran, Just a note to update you on Brandon's behavior. Today, he told a girl she had eaten too many potatoes. She is over weight and his comment hurt her feelings. When I confronted him about his comments, he said that he was just giving her some valuable feedback and that he would be happy to jog with her at lunch. His apology did sound sincere. He is very good natured and takes these small repromands in stride. Sincerely, Mrs. Clawson..."

Brandon's mom sent me this today and I almost peed myself I was laughing so hard. I'm glad I can laugh about it now because four months ago after we first got married brandon mentioned that I was gaining weight. (We found out later that I was pregnant when we lost the baby) But at the time his comment really really hurt my feelings.
When I brought it up in a disagreement later he had no idea that it had hurt me at all.

Really people. REALLY.

He had the most sincere, complete intention of this meaning-

I want you to feel good about yourself- I want you to go to physical therapy and fix this knee problem so that you can hold our children and not be afraid of falling, I want you to want to FEEL healthy and happy.

He really meant that but it came out like this:

" I think you should come exercise with me"

As you can imagine I just about ripped my prince charming's head off.

But now I just think it's hilarious.

here's the rest of the letter the teacher sent home

P.S. We just had another incident. The DARE officer just arrived to take a picture of our class. We were chosen for special recognition with the City Council. Brandon hit the officer in the chest with a rubberband. Brandon told the officer he was aiming for a girl in the class, but she jumped behind the officer at the last minute. The officer was very upset and will not be taking our classes' picture. I will not be putting Brandon's name on the ICCM club list (I Can Control Myself)[WHAT HAHAHAHAHA] even though he has earned a startling $20 Clawson Bucks since the last incident."

[now everyone will know who the real brandon is] [honestly my family thinks they died and went to heaven when he is around, and that he NEVER misbehaves, NEVER belches or jokes about gas with me, NEVER hands me HUGE AMOUNTS OF horrifying hygiene products in walmart- declaring loudly to everyone around us that we better "stock up", and NEVER NEVER laughs insanely loud like a mental retard in public places to embarrass me.]

Rememories

Remember that time we got married forever? Remember what came before that? All of that? Well, this morning I laid in the little yellow room where we took our first nap together- and tried very hard to recall it all. This is our story and I want to right it down before it's left behind.

We met three years ago. I was new to BYU Idaho, and you had just returned from your mission in Ghana Africa, the Ivory Coast. I was dating a boy long distance from Berkley, he was everything I thought I ever wanted, and would ever need. He was intelligent, deep, poetic, more than anything he let me be whoever I thought I was. I was in Rexburg Idaho, it was cold, I was lonely, my roommates thought I was crazy. My relationship was on the rocks, I was doing everything I could to hold things together, but in the end Patrick and I didn't want the same things out of life. I'd been watching Brandon for months. To me, he embodied the typical, beautiful golden boy. He had a testimony, charisma, and dates in every dorm (even in the guys... honestly). Every girl in my ward was gaga over him and I remember calling my mom one sunday and saying in reply to her probing about dates or possible boys I liked there " he's gorgeous, he's all brawn and no brain, and what's worse- is everyone likes him- I could never date a guy like that." I remember thinking how clever and smart I was to avoid what seemed to be constant heartbreak- sweeping chapman hall. HAH! Love, who needed something like that when I had a brooding, atheist with childhood repressions who appreciated my nonsense?

He tells the story differently, he says that I was just different- (like his story) and I caught his eye. He says he needed to know me. But I get itchy all over just thinking about how many times I would just stare at him, oblivious to my existence.

I was sitting in the cafeteria, he said. I was sitting in the cafeteria when I saw you come in. I asked the guy next to me who you were and if he knew anything about you. I remember thinking that in my mind I said a prayer "God, if you get her to come over here I will ask her out".

Oh please.

I make fun of him now, but maybe he was telling the truth.

Anyway, in my memory I walked past his table and heard him speaking french. I stopped and tried to start a conversation with him. I'd taken almost six years of french from middle school skipping highschool and was currently enrolled in a full time french course in college. I could handle this. He jumped up and started babbling and

I still have no idea

to this day

and he doesn't either

as to what he said.

I excused myself and went dejectedly over to the ice cream machine.

In his head

he asked me to sit down and I told him no way.

It took three years, and much more than I can write

for our lives to cross paths again.

It began online, we would chat and ask each other noncommittal, noninterested, easy answer questions that typify any conversation.

How are you? What have you been up to? Why do I still think about how I'll never date someone like you? Why do you have deep quotes and like to read? You're supposed to be shallow.

Just kidding.

And then he emailed me.

"Want to go on a date?"

Brandon Cochran April 8 at 8:25pm

Dear Jacqueline,

I surmise finals went well.

I'm going to be in Rexburg around 11 Friday morning. I need to meet with an old professor sometime Friday or Saturday concerning a writing project I'm working on, but wanted to know what time you'd be available for floralfittiering this weekend.

Sincerely,


Brandon

Jacqueline Cochran April 9 at 8:02am

Dear good knight sir,

Finals went wonderfully with the exception that I got a phone call yesterday about my gram being awfully sick. She is coming in to town today to start chemotherapy and I'll be with her.

I have a paper due tonight but as far as classes go those are over. phewe. Friday early morning Imagonnabe moving into my new apartment and then I work from 9 till 5 at the flower shoppe. Saturday I work again from 10 until 12 so anytime after then- or friday knight or whenever you can sqeeeeeeueueuueeeze me in.

I'm glad you are coming. :]

ENDLESSLY,


jacqueline

(just kidding.)

Brandon Cochran April 9 at 10:34pm

TO: Jacqueline

I am very sorry to hear about your grandmother. I will muster all my faith seeds in her behalf.

My mind told my heart to tell me to tell you that we should have dinner friday night and then play on saturday but that I should ask you first.



FROM: Brandon & the bear in the bathroom

Jacqueline Cochran April 10 at 7:49am

TWO: Brandon/bear. (they could be one.)

I'll check with my secretary,
but it sounds good to me.
(it seemeth delicious to me)

Frumb: Ja

with these, and so many more

good things come to those who wait (2)


Do not take the darkness of the night,

because distant is the dawn.

Do not forget the sweetness of summer,

because winter isn't gone.


Do not fear your love

to state.

For better things come,

to those who wait.

On our first date, Brandon drove up to Idaho, rented a hotel room and drove to my townhouse. I was in the middle of moving out to another townhouse down the road and I had just gotten off work. I was nervous, excited, and terrified that this person would be 1. nothing like his emails, or his words. or WORSE 2. everything I imagined he would be. and everything I already knew I wanted.

He showed up and I showed him my new apartment, where my new roommate screamed at us for having a boy upstairs...

it was a good start. I was shaking the whole time, and he just acted like he was fine. He asked me if I was hungry and I told him no so he pushed me into his car and began driving to Idaho Falls. I know now that he was probably STARVING from driving all the way up here to take me to dinner. And the only reason I wasn't hungry is because I'd been eating my feelings all before he arrived.

On the half an hour drive we talked nonstop. When we got to where we were apparently going- I was confused but interested. Brandon opened my door and pulled me into Smitty's pancake house.

We sat down and ordered some juice. He looked over at me and said "I hope you're hungry" and when the waitress came he asked her "what is the highest stack of pancakes someone has ever ordered" I glanced at her in fear, and then did another mental check on how not hungry I was. She kinda looked between us like is this a joke? And he ended up asking her to bring us 25 pancakes.

She brought them on a platter with a tub of syrup and a bowl of butter, and he grabbed one and I grabbed the other and we began stacking.

Our stack was two and half feet off the table when we began eating it.

He just kept eating and eating

and I ate until I was sick (literally) and had to go to the bathroom.

We talked until they closed and then left to walk about the falls.

Brandon surprised me with his talk, his congenial mannerisms and his overall goofyness. He began the date with calling me sister francis the entire time, asked if i would give an opening prayer and then proceeded to carve my name into a tree.

After that we threw rocks at ducks, and he chased me around with his butt sticking out pretending he was a bumble bee.

It was love people.

Passing the temple, an older man was closing the gates and brandon popped down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

This was our first date.

I told him no way and took off running.

This guy is crazy

I thought.

The old man at the gate was bent over laughing and brandon chased after me to make sure I knew he was kidding.

It was a good good date.

On the way home we passed fields of cows and Brandon pontificated on why man had chosen the horse as a ride when he could have chosen the cow. A noble beast.

I just laughed until I cried.

The next day he picked me up and we went to find some cows to ride.

Weird things always happened on our dates,

double rainbow arches,

albino bunny rabbit and a black bunny rabbit,

brandon spilling a myriad of assorted beverages all over himself on each date.

1. singing into a soy sauce bottle

2. pouring water all over his lap

etc.

He would rise at 2 or 3 in the morning and drive up, and wake me up with a daisy in his fist,

or flowers in my face.

Or bacon in my nose.

Brandon began to be, everything I ever wanted. All the things I missed.

He filled the very deepest part of me. And I like to think that I do that for him too.

Brandon drove those 4 almost 5 hours, every week- until he made the decision to leave school, and come move up to idaho to be near me while I finished school.

To be continued...