And God Blessed My Broken Road…

Because it led me straight to him.

Today is my fourth wedding anniversary with my Dear Husband.  I found these questions on Legally Married recently and thought it would be a great way to commemorate our celebration. We’ll be going out to dinner and then of course, going to bed early so I can get up at the crack of dawn to watch another wedding – this one of a royal nature.

♥ How long have you been together?

We started dating in October, 2005. So we are going on six years of togetherness.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?

We met briefly in our first year of college but lost touch until our senior year. We ran into each other and just let fate take it from there.

♥ How old are each of you?

I am 27 and he is 26, about to turn 27. I’m ten months older than him and he never lets me forget it.

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?

We live in the same city as his immediate family, so we see them a fair amount. Mine lives in a different state and see him far less often.

♥ Do you have any children together?

With him in law school, I can’t imagine that I would ever find the time! Besides, we’re having fun – we’ll be able to settle down with kids soon.

♥ What about pets?

I want a dog but our apartment complex won’t allow them. Which is probably good, because I can’t keep a plant alive. We have to work up to those kids from the previous question.

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?

I think moving in together and learning how to be a couple is hard enough. Add in law school and it’s just crazy.

♥ Did you go to the same school?

We met in college.

♥ Are you from the same home town?

Technically, yes. But he lived in a suburb and I was in a way different one. And then I moved to Texas in elementary school. So yes and no.

♥ Who is the most sensitive?

Me. By far.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?

We both love Penn Station and the Kolache Factory. The latter usually on a Saturday morning of errands. Mmmm.

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?

He surprised me with a trip to Paris for our honeymoon. It was wonderful.

This was the view from our hotel room. It makes me smile just looking at it. :)

♥ Who has the worst temper?

Me, again by far. He’s better at controlling his emotions than I am.

♥ Who does the cooking?

We haven’t been doing a lot of cooking lately. But usually it’s me who doesn’t want to eat out again, so I’ll end up cooking something to sustain ourselves.

♥ Who is more social?

I think it kind of depends. He really enjoys going out with his law school friends now, but sometimes, I just want to be at home on the couch. But sometimes I’m just a social butterfly doing a million different things and loving it.

♥ Who is the neat-freak?

That’s me, definitely. I wish he would catch that bug!

♥ Who is the more stubborn?

I think we both would have to fight for that title. We’re both pretty strong with our opinions.

♥ Who hogs the bed?

He would claim it was me – but I disagree. He steals the covers.

♥ Who wakes up earlier?

I wake up when my alarm goes off – and usually hate it no matter when it is. He’s the same way.

♥ Where was your first date?

There’s a small Mexican restaurant on campus at our college and we ended up there for dinner. But it wasn’t a date when we started out. It became one. Sort of.

♥ Who has the bigger family?

For immediate family, we both have the one brother. But extended family, he wins by leaps and bounds. I think there are 15 first cousins and 8 of the next generation? Lots of kids!

♥ Do you get flowers often?
I adore flowers but usually only get them on Valentine’s Day.

 

♥ How do you spend the holidays?

Splitting them up between families is so difficult. With Dad gone now, we’ve just been playing it by ear to see how to manage that. It’s been really hard.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?

Well, my mother doesn’t like to hear this, but we started dating in October and were looking at rings in December. It happened quickly but I guess we just knew, as they say.

♥ Who does the laundry?

I go through clothes a bit more quickly than he does, so I end up doing most of the laundry. A few months ago, we split the loads into his and hers and he’s supposed to take care of his. But, I always end up throwing some t-shirts and boxers in with my things. It’s the nice wifely thing to do – I can’t let him have nothing to wear!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I absolutely adore my dear husband. I can’t imagine the last four years of my life without him. Standing there on our wedding day in a big poofy marshmallow of a dress, I was the happiest woman on earth. Still am. :)

An Easter Weekend in Pictures

I have been such a poor blogger lately. Please forgive me. I offer up pictures from the crazy weekend we had!

Friday Night – Friend’s Birthday Celebration

Bar food is great, but fried green beans with ranch is just the top.

Gotta love amaretto sours. The best.

Saturday – Baseball Game and Easter Fire

It was Red Schoendienst commemorative statue night!

 

I was fascinated by how many people they brought in to get the tarp on the field when it started raining. It was so neat to see! We were on a rain delay for a bit but then had to leave to get to St. Charles for the Easter fire. But we did a picture of us…

My FIL asked hubs to help build a fire for the Easter Vigil services. Due to the rain, we had to go to Plan B: a fire pit. Still a great fire, but not as impressive as the inferno they’ve done in the past, or so I’ve been told.

  

We had to wait until it was all out and then hubs and BIL helped dispose of the embers. 

Sunday – Easter with LOTS of family; BIL’s birthday

We had brunch with my mother-in-law and father-in-law, plus brother-in-law and his girlfriend. Then, Hubs’ first cousin was there with her family (husband and three kids). Of course, we added in cousin’s huband’s mother and stepfather. Then there was cousin’s husband’s sister and her three kids. Oh and cousin’s husband’s stepfather also had his niece in town. So there were 19 of us. Yeah.

Don’t get between me and my chocolate bunny. For reals.

 

The kids got a big basket – gotta love it.

MIL with little Moose, our godson. He has definitely gone from toddler to little boy.

 

Scrappy really enjoyed the chocolate fountain.

 

Then again, so did I. :) That’s my plate!

We clean up pretty good, I think!

MIL made her niece (hubs’ cousin) a scrapbook of old family photos that she had found. We spent a bit of Saturday shopping for the paper and embellishments. Makes me hope I’ll have more time to continue my scrapbooking!

 

BIL and his adorable girlfriend.

After a few hours of rest after brunch, we were eating again for BIL’s birthday. But first, he had to ride the saddle while we all “yihaa-ed” at him. I love Texas Roadhouse. :)

We had lots of peanuts, and what else did we need? Cake. Lots of ice cream cake. :) BIL was a little intimidated by all those candles.

Husband also picked out an awesome card – that didn’t really open! Hehe.

 

It was an absolutely wonderful, hysterical, exhausting weekend.

Why Does Working Out Hurt?

On the way home from work tonight, I decided I was going to hit up the gym for the first time (again) of the Couch to 5K program. After all, it’s part of my 101 in 1001 list.  When I mentioned it to Husband at dinner, he said to wait for him and he’d go with me!

Spending time together with my dear husband just makes me smile, whether it’s sitting at the kitchen table working on our separate projects, working out, or snuggling on the couch watching tv. I love it. :)

We worked out to our Cto5K program on our own little treadmills – and I was rocking out to the playlist he made me a few days ago. Let’s just say that running to NKOTB’s “Right Stuff” was awesome to the max.

But walking back from the gym in the rain, with lighting in the distance and then walking up the stairs, I think I might regret this whole working out thing. It’s gonna suck when I wake up tomorrow morning.

Not Exactly a Thrifty Weekend

Over the weekend, a work friend who has become a real life friend invited me to a Girls Day Out Fashion Show. She had two friends, one from volunteering at my work and another one from college, who were very artistic folks. One is a jewelry maker and one is a seamstress. She put the two of them together for a fun fashion show on Saturday!

Holly of Au Naturale Jewelry had her jewelry out for display before the show started, in case we wanted to browse. Well, I did more than browse!

I fell in love with this necklace and could NOT pass it up.

So you can see the whole outfit. :) It works perfectly!

A bit more detail – it’s uncut citrine with brown beads in between and a great wood pendant.

Holly also has an Etsy site as well – you can find it here.

The seamstress, Allison, also has an Etsy shop called Blue Silk Rose. She has created some awesome pieces, but I didn’t get pictures of them. Since she started out in the costume shop of the theatre, she is a pro at period pieces. They had displayed one of her civil war dresses and a Shakespeare-era dress, with all the different layers and pieces that go along with both of those garments. Allison told me it took 100 hours of work to create everything you see on a Civil War dress – and 50 hours to create the things you don’t see! So that would be the corset, the pantaloons and the hoop skirt and all the rest. I was SO impressed.

But more than that, she’s starting to do modern clothes as well. She had some great dresses that can be made to order – and for less than what you’d find at a store! I think I may have to request one of her dresses for a present in the future. They were SO pretty but I had already spent my money on a necklace. :)

If you’re looking for a fun new shop to check out, please visit their shops! They are sweet ladies and would love custom orders – or take something straight from their shop. I vouch for both of ‘em!

[I was not compensated for this post. I just like her stuff!]

Facebook – The Final Frontier

I feel like I have a split personality on Facebook.

On the one hand, I use it to keep in touch with friends across the country, family across the world and my husband in the next room. However, I also use it for business reasons. There are so many of my contacts from work on Facebook, both their personal profiles whom I’m friended and the business pages that they run.

With over 560 friends (wow, that sounds super conceited, doesn’t it?) and probably 100 fan pages, it’s gotten to be too much to keep up. I created privacy lists to make the division between work and personal a bit more clear but there are somethings I’m not sure how to draw that line for.

Do you show other people pictures from the weekend? Your status posts? What about fun videos you find on YouTube?

For most people at work, I feel like I draw that line on the more conservative side, so I don’t insult anyone with my random videos or whatnot. But there are some people in the office who show everyone everything they do on Facebook (I think).

How do you keep that division between work and your personal life on Facebook? Because I need some serious help in that department.