Posts tagged ‘marriage’
I might be a bit biased but …
My little family is the cutest. 🙂
There is nothing on earth I love more than coming home from work to my husband, two adorable dogs, and cute little house. Bliss.
Happy birthday, baby!
This sexy man turns 25 today. Happy birthday, my love! Welcome to the quarter-century year-old club.
This marks the 8th birthday that we’ve been together, and the 11th birthday we have had since we met each other – woah.
I am so fortunate to be the wife to a man who is hardworking, smart, loyal, thoughtful, drop dead sexy, a great pup father and a good foot rubber. I love you, dear. Hope this is the best year yet!
A quarter of a century flown by
Today I turned 25, and for some reason this feels like a monumental birthday to me. Growing up, I always saw 25 as being the official marker of adulthood. (Who considers a 21-year-old an adult, really?) It’s the age your car insurance goes down, it’s a quarter of a century, it’s the age my parents were when I was born. There’s no denying it now, I’m really an adult.
Years from now, looking back on this birthday, I want to remember how completely content I am. Madly in love with my husband. Gainfully employed in a job that is fulfilling on most days, working with people I genuinely love. Working in an entirely different field that I imagined 3 years ago. Gaining rich, rewarding volunteer experiences. Still close to the people who have been my friends for 12+ years now. Earning enough to not struggle much from month to month, and close enough to recent history when that wasn’t the case to really appreciate what that means. Living day to day life in our cute, tiny, cozy little house filled with my favorite man, my favorite furry friends. A still relatively new homeowner that marvels at the ability to paint walls, tear up flooring, and create a home. Proud caretaker of a fledgling perennial garden that isn’t weeded as much as it should be. Increasing confidence in the direction of my life, of my redefined career goals, of my growth as a woman, wife, future mother, friend, employee.
I can’t help but wonder what the next quarter century has in store. Â In another 25 years, I hope to be the proud mother of one or two college graduates. To have established a slightly larger, but still just as cozy home on an acre or so where our children come back to visit us, to stay in a home that’s filled with memories for them.
From Countryliving.com
To have a huge king sized bed with a worn, lumpy mattress from Saturday morning cartoons in bed with our kids and our dogs piled under the covers.
To still be madly in love with my handsome husband, getting ready for a new section of our life as the parents of grown children. To be established in my career, and have my husband in a career he loves, too. To have the time to really give back. To have a huge garden that feeds us in the summer but also fills the house with beautiful perennial flowers.
From thousandislandslife.com
To have traveled to a country on a different continent (preferably multiple countries and multiple continents). To know how to finish a quilt from beginning to end. To be looking forward to watching my husband’s eyes light up at holding our first grandchild. (Woah.)
Life is a beautiful, surprising, joyful journey. I am so thankful for these first 25 years and all of the simple pleasures they have held. To the next quarter century.
A boy just needs to run
Rufus is showing up more and more in my blog. Hmm.
This weekend was absolutely beautiful – mid to high 70s on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, we took the dogs to a huge open field to run. I don’t know who enjoyed the games of fetch more – my dog or my husband.
My favorite shot of the day - stick high in the air, Rufus mid gallop, Matt following through.
Such handsome men in my life
The girlies
August, come quickly
“The mountains are calling, and I must go.”
John Muir
My husband is amazing. He is currently working fulltime, and working on a master’s degree parttime. This means he will go whole weeks not getting only 2-4 hours of sleep per night. He does this all with relatively little complaint, and still being a peach to live with. (Lord knows I would be cranky on that little sleep!) He even still finds time to feed the dogs and help around the house, when he can.
We are very close and it’s been hard to spend this little time together. So, we needed something to look forward to and have about a week and a half break in August when he won’t be in school and I can sneak away from work.
We booked 5 nights in Breckenridge, CO at the Great Divide Lodge, followed with 1 night in Estes Park, the town we got married in.
I am so excited to spend time with him, and to go back to my favorite state in the U.S. He has certainly earned a vacation, and I am happy to use that as an excuse to go! 🙂
The Jewel Box
My previously mentioned step-brother’s wedding was so much fun, and the wedding location was a gardener’s/photographer’s dream. Set in The Jewel Box, an art deco green house in the middle of the beautiful Forest Park in St. Louis, you couldn’t ask for a much more picturesque location.
"To Cultivate a Garden is to Walk with God"
This trip, coupled with this beautiful weather, is inspiring me to get out in my garden and finally chop down some of the old growth, lay some new mulch, plant seeds … if only the ground would dry out before the rain starts again!
Awesome gift
When our second anniversary was nearing, I was searching through Facebook, looking for photos of our first 2 years of marriage. While we had documented many of the fun things we had done together, there were many things we were missing photos for. One of the main reasons (besides forgetfulness), is that I have a beautiful camera that’s too large/lovely to take along for occasions like walking, camping, hiking, dancing with friends, etc. We were discussing that one of our main goals for the next year of marriage is to do a better job capturing some of the fun times we have together, so we would have photos to job our memories as the years rolled by.
Which, is what made this such a perfect gift. For our anniversary, this weekend, my mom gave us the following camera:
I am super excited to use this to capture the next years of our marriage, and look forward to having more photos to look back on. Thanks for the perfect gift, Mom!
2 years of bliss
Tomorrow is our 2nd wedding anniversary – seems hard to believe it’s been two years since that fateful trip to Estes Park, but at the same time it’s hard to imagine not being married.
It’s been an eventful 2 years. In no particular order, we have:
Celebrated the wedding of Dan and Allison (not pictured)
...using their wedding as a great excuse for a vacation in St. Louis, complete with seeing Stone Temple Pilots in concert
Embarrassed our dogs with our kissing
Went to Des Moines to celebrate baby cousin's birthday, stopped at train along the way.
Traveled to Pittsburg for a couple of football games. And traveled to Warrensburg, Arrowhead and Maryville for their football games.
Spent lots of time in Krug Park, near our house
Spent weekends visiting our family in Kansas City
Spent Halloween in Manhattan with friends, dressed as bacon and eggs
Visited Branson with my mom for a belated Christmas trip
Decorated a beautiful Christmas tree, twice
Spent New Year's Eve in Manhattan and watched the little apple drop. Watched two of our great friends get engaged.
Traveled to Tennessee for first anniversary. Got stuck on mountain for two days. Hiked to see two beautiful waterfalls.
Brought home Rufus, one of the cutest puppies ever
Spent weekend in Pittsburg with friends for Doug and Kristen's wedding
Watch Ben and Laura get married
Take fun weekend trip to Omaha, visit zoo and cool downtown
Spend 4th of July in beautiful Chamberlain, South Dakota
Remodel lots of parts of house, including new kitchen countertops, new wood floors, lots of painting, carpet stripping, bead board installing, new light fixtures and light fixture remodeling
Other highlights not included:
– Seeing Wicked
– Vince Gill in concert
– Holiday jazz concert
– Plays at the Unicorn
– Blondie in concert
– Lovely summer dinner at Castaways on the lake
– Day road trips to Lawrence, Weston and other places
– Al fresco dinners on the deck
– Hot tub parties with friends at our house
– Watching the fireworks in our neighborhood
– Shooting Star concert in Krug Park
– Lots of trips to farmers markets on Saturday mornings
– Sleepovers at Ben and Laura’s
– Making meals together
– Taking the dogs on walks on the parkway
It’s been an amazing, fun two years. I can’t to see what the next has in store. For sure it has a trip to St. Louis at the end of the month, a trip to some mountainous state in August, and hopefully a trip somewhere warm this coming winter. I am so thankful I get to go through life with my best friend. Life is never boring by his side. 🙂
Pretending to be a housewife
During the week, our nightly meals range from gourmet to down right embarrassing. Some nights we have steaks with red mushroom sauce, as mentioned previously, while other nights it’s Kraft Mac n’ Cheese or frozen pizza. With both of us working full time, Matt working on homework, and me commuting 50 minutes each way to work – by the end of the day we’re looking for something to fill us, and not add much more work.
The weekends, though. Those are different. I love making a fancy meal for my family one day a week. Spending hours in the kitchen is more of a hobby then, rather than a rush to feed hungry bellies before bedtime. Since we went out for our Valentine’s dinner last night, I wanted to make something special for my husband today. On the menu? Roasted chicken with crispy skin coated in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and green onions. Green onion and cream cheese mashed potatoes. Rhodes rolls (not exactly homemade, but we love these things). Carrots and celery briefly sauteed. Yum. And, since we are so fancy, to drink – sparkling peach juice from Target. Ha. Maybe it’s ghetto, but it’s tastier than most wine anyway.
Roasted chicken, rolls, green onion cream cheese mashed potatoes, celery and carrots.
Complete with vintage Archer Farms sparking peach juice. Haha.
* Pretty roses in back from Matt – one on Friday night when I returned home, one this morning when I woke up. I am so lucky to have him.
Mashed potato recipe:
5 large baking potatoes cut into thick slices. Boil slices for approximately 20 minutes, or until fork tender. Drain water, return to low heat.
Mash potatoes with fork, and leave skins on. It adds texture and a bit of vitamins. (Although, it’s mashed potatoes – not exactly a super food vitamin wise but sooooo tasty) Add to potatoes: 3 tbsp butter, 1/2 package (4 ounces) fat free cream cheese, 1/6 cup milk, 4 stalks green onions cut into small pieces, 1/4 cup homemade chicken stock (future post), and lots of salt, freshly cracked black pepper and garlic to taste.
Heat until all has melted and keep whipping until potatoes are tender. Enjoy!
The only downside to making a real meal? All of the dishes. Oh well. Now we’re down to our normal Sunday night – Matt’s doing homework, I am blogging, and the pups are taking turns snoozing beside me on the couch.
Just another Sunday night
Happy Sunday!
A Valentine’s tribute
Warning to all readers: Schmaltz ahead. Feel free to ignore.
What would Valentine’s Day be without a tribute to my favorite person in the whole world?
My husband is amazing. Seriously. Right now, he is working fulltime while attending graduate school, and getting great grades to boot. He is a super hard worker, and does all of this while still managing to help around the house, feed the dogs, and be an attentive husband. In short, he is a saint.
He is the calm to my storm, the tall to my short, the skinny to my …Â not so skinny, the love of my life and the bacon to my eggs.
Happy Valentine’s Day, dear readers.
Modern mind, vintage heart 