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Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig

Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller

Twenty-Seven Years (i.e. WHOA!)

by Chautona Havig · 7 Comments

Twenty-seven years: That's how long it's been since our wedding day. Not to be confused with our "marriage" day. Two very different days. via @chautonahavig

That’s how long it’s been since our wedding day.  Twenty-seven years. Our “wedding day” is not to be confused with our “marriage” day.  We got married in Las Vegas on November 25, 1988.  But, three months later, on February 18, 1989, we still had our wedding.

I was just talking with my favorite server at Denny’s last night.  You know, I had my jaw wired shut for six weeks before the wedding–car accident in Iowa the week after Christmas.  I got really good at blending up hot ham and cheese sandwiches from Arby’s with a bit of milk.  And Jamocha shakes?  Lived on those suckers.  In fact, I drank so many that I can’t stand to think of one even today!

twent6-seven years

I was skinny back then…

… and six weeks of a liquid diet didn’t help. They kept taking in my dress until the week before the wedding when I got the wires off my teeth.  But, I still couldn’t eat more than a bite or three. So, on my wedding day, they zipped me up in my dress and it was still a bit… loose. Talk about under-exaggeration.  I can’t tell you how many times my photographer told me to “get back in your dress.”  You see, I’d be standing there, I’d turn, and my dress would stay in place.  Awkward!

weddingphoto

Tarnished Silver CoverWe’ve lived in the same house for those twenty-seven years.  We’ve raised six children and are working on the final three. In fact, three of our children were born right here in this house. I married my best friend, and the night he broke my jaw in a car accident is the night I truly fell in love with him.  That’s pretty amazing.

I’ll never forget laying on my in-laws’ couch, hurting too much to sit up, and hearing my husband sobbing in the kitchen that he’d “hurt me.”  My father-in-law came over to me, hunkered down to check to see that I was okay, and then said, “That man in there sure loves you.”

And he still does!  Even after twenty-seven years!

That just amazes me.  Especially when I figured out a couple of years ago that his “proposal” could have been a rhetorical question.  OOPS!

I told him not to tell me if it was. I don’t even want to know.  When a girl seriously and without reservation says she is NEVER getting married and her best friend asks, “Well, would you marry me?” And that same girl takes him seriously, figuring God is telling her something, the last thing she wants twenty-five years later, is to find out that it was curiosity.  Ahem.

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  1. patty-anne Lea says

    February 21, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    God has a sense of humour when he decides 2 people are meant to be.
    I was a divorce with 2 children. My ex husband had been a mechanic with kleptomania. There was enough stuff in my basement to build a D8 Cat.
    Friends from my church came over and we boxed all the stuff. And I put an add in the paper so I could sell the stuff and reclaim my basement.
    Well the only reply I got was from a fellow who could not afford to pay me. He asked if he could secure it with $10 and pay it off monthly. I had no other customers, so I said yes. I started to take his three sons to Sunday School and other Church outings.He made me promise not to convert them. I promised but did not promise anyone else would not convert them. I am pleased to say they all accepted the Lord.
    By this time Jim had fallen in love with me, his boys adored me, and i was fostering tender feelings for him.
    I could not be unequally yoked so would not accept his proposal of marriage.
    More time went by. Things started getting very difficult for Jim, One of my friends said she was fed up reasoning with him, she would stand back and let the Lord sort him out while she prayed. He phoned me one day,said “tell Sue to stop praying, I am ready already.”. Jim accepted the Lord. With the backing of our Baptist we married. So now I had a new husband 3 more sons and all the junk I had sold to him, and never got paid for, but got his junk as well.
    We had twenty wonderful years together until cancer claimed him.
    But as a dedicated neat freak, I married four of the most unorganized male creatures, with all their junk. So you can’t tell me God does not have a sense of humour.

    Reply
  2. Lonzine Lee says

    February 20, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    That is such a fun look back. Congratulations on 25 years. I already have Tarnished Silver, it’s one of my favorites outside of the Alexa books. Thanks for giving us such a great reason to smile.

    Reply
  3. Elizabeth says

    February 18, 2016 at 4:51 pm

    Congratulations, you two! I love how y’all love each other (It shows!) and I love your your kids are so much like both families! Wow! Everything about this post seems exclamatory!

    I love you, Chautona. I’m glad you said yes! 😉

    Reply
    • Chautona Havig says

      February 20, 2016 at 2:04 pm

      Aw, thanks!

      Reply
  4. Maria McGee says

    February 18, 2016 at 4:43 pm

    Happy Wedding Day Anniversary!

    Reply
  5. Katherine says

    February 18, 2016 at 1:15 pm

    Okay…now I really want to hear the whole story! How did you get engaged? Why did you marry in Vegas? Did you elope? Any more pictures????

    Nosiness can be a curse, sometimes 😉

    Reply
    • Chautona Havig says

      February 18, 2016 at 1:56 pm

      That’s how we got engaged. We were talking about life and what we were going to do. He was going to open “Mayhem Software” and I didn’t quite know. But I DID know that I was NEVER getting married. Not doing it. No. Way. No. How. And that’s when he said, “Well, would you marry ME?” I had one of those flash thoughts that work faster than seconds. I thought, “Either this guy is an idiot or this is a God thing.” I knew he wasn’t an idiot, so I figured God had a hand in this. So… that was it. September 1988 we got engaged. He bought a house a month later. He was to move in December 1. And if I moved in, too, that would save us 200 a month. SO… we drove to Las Vegas and got married so I could move in. Just had the wedding anyway. Pictures… I’ll have to dig ’em out. 😀

      Reply

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The Because Fiction Podcast

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Episode 206: A Chat with Lisa Phillips about Her New Spin-off Series
byChautona Havig

Fans of Lisa Phillips’ Last Chance County series are doing happy dances following the release of an exciting new spin-off series, Last Chance Fire and Rescue. Expired Return brings back a few favorite characters and kicks off another of Sunrise Publishing’s author/mentor led fiction seasons! Listen in to find out what happens when an author brings back a guy she dropped a building on a couple of books back…

 

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Let’s face it. Authors might SOMETIMES be “done” with a series, but readers often want more… indefinitely. Well, with the brilliance of Sunrise Publishing’s mentor model, authors get to collaborate with authors they trust to do their “worlds” proud while still having time to write new, exciting things as well. And some of the Sunrise lead authors even write in the spin-off series–like Lisa Phillips and Trisha Goyer!

This new Last Chance County series promises everything we love about Lisa Phillips’ world–danger, intrigue, heart-stopping suspense, drama… you know… all the feels. But in addition to her own release, Expired Return, this series also introduces us to new authors who have been carefully vetted and selected to ensure they do justice to Lisa’s Last Chance characters. I, for one, can’t wait to check it all out.

Lisa and I chatted about what she plans for the series,Lisa hinted about a possible super-secret reveal coming soon, and I even poked her with the idea of a Last Chance Christmas.

Help me convince them on that, will ya?

But this new book… Whoa…

Expired Return by Lisa Phillips

Pepper stood up. “How dare you.” She could spit fire at him right now. She’d loved and supported Victory since the day she was born. “You know nothing about me.”

“What’s this?”

Pepper whirled around at that voice. Heart. Breaking. She loved that gruff, commanding voice more than anything else in the world.

He wore a look a lot like Aiden’s. Blank, which she knew—or hoped—had to do with protecting his heart because he still cared for her. Except he probably hated her.

Donaldson sat back in his chair. “Allen.”

Former police officer Allen Frees had both hands on the wheels of his chair. He wore a fire department uniform of slacks and a white shirt. Emblems. A badge. His life of service hadn’t ended when he landed in that chair after a building blew up over his head.

As far as she’d been able to tell, it barely slowed him down.

She’ll give everything to protect her family.

He always knew she was the one.

Veterinary tech Pepper Miller lives a quiet life in Last Chance County. She’s watching her niece until her sister shows up…if she ever does. When Victory’s father demands he take over her care, Pepper knows something has gone wrong. With a new drug in town, and her sister embroiled in a dangerous bargain, it’s up to Pepper to protect the people she loves.

Even if it costs every secret she’s ever kept.

Fire Department liaison Allen Frees lives with the injuries he sustained as a police officer in a raid gone wrong. He’s put his life back together but getting the truck crew and engine squad to succeed might be his toughest assignment yet. When Victory is nearly kidnapped at a community event, Allen steps in to help Pepper keep her niece safe. The one thing he couldn’t fix was the love he lost, but he isn’t going to let Pepper walk away this time.

No matter what walls he has to break down.

Last Chance County returns in this blazing new series from Sunrise Publishing.

Last Chance Fire and Rescue

  • Book 1: Expired Return
  • Book 2: Expired Hope (coming soon)
  • Book 3: Expired Promise (coming soon)
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Learn more about Lisa and her books on her WEBSITE.

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Episode 206: A Chat with Lisa Phillips about Her New Spin-off Series
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His sister has a solution--lots of dates. Great, heaping gobs of them. Go ahead. Be awkward. Get used to it. Then... then try with someone you really want to get to know. He's not so confident, but when a man gives his word... (Note to self: no more agreeing to Selby's plans without knowing what they are!)
Find out what happens in Random Acts (or is it Facts?) of Shyness.

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There's a link to how to find it in my bio.
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