Sentimental Things

Valentine’s Day

I’m such a Romantic at heart.
*sigh*

Valentine’s day has held a sappy little spot in my heart for as long as I can remember. My dream since youth was to have a Valentine’s Day wedding with roses and hearts galore. Seeing as Prince Charming was still a long ways off and had not yet displayed his royal face onto my horizon, I began writing a letter to him every year on that special day. Letters of waiting, longing, wondering, and hoping. Letters to confirm to him that I was waiting for my One-and-Only, my true love, my soul-mate, my Beloved. Extra entries filled more pages, written on special occasions, holidays, and of course, every Valentine’s day.

Fast forward the time clock a few years to February 14th, 2008, when Mike took me to a movie, dinner, and a Casting Crown’s concert. We were “just friends”, but a couple months later, we realized that had been our very first date.

There are no pictures from that evening, just a pile of memories that make me all warm inside when I think about them. It will probably always stand out as my favorite Valentine’s Day, because that day was the beginning of our love story.

October 4th, 2008 –
Our Wedding Day

In traditional fashion, Mike & I exchanged wedding gifts that evening. His gift to me was a Bible matching his, with my new name engraved on the cover. It was perfect! My gift to him was a leather journal, filled with letters to my love, overflowing with years of waiting for that moment, waiting for that man.

Our wedding did not fall on Valentine’s Day like I had hoped for so long, but in the end, it did not matter. Our flowers were Roses, the colors were red & white, and it was still Valentine’s Day in my heart.

Well, that is my Valentine’s Day story! I’m going to put a MckLinky at the bottom of this post in case any of you blog about your stories and want to share the link. I’d love to read them!

Our January Life

In case I haven’t mentioned this before, I blog in my free time, therefore, absence of posts = absence of free time. Going into year 2010, I knew January would be a busy month for us.

My best friend got married last Saturday, which made for a very busy week of preparations. I will have a more lengthy post about it some other time, when I actually have a picture of the Bride. A plethora of pictures on my camera and yet somehow I managed to neglect getting a good picture of her. But you can still see a sneak-peak of her here. My husband was an usher and I was the Matron of Honor – it was a simply beautiful day and the bride was stunningly gorgeous.

The next big event in our lives is getting ready for our Hawaiian vacation! We leave next week and are SO ready to get out of this Midwest weather! Six full days in the beautiful tropics, 80 degree weather, soaking in the sights, sounds and sunshine! We are beyond excited and are literally counting the days until we leave! This trip will be my first airplane ride, about which I am both nervous and excited. So many new experiences; I’ll be taking pictures galore on this trip!!!!  We are staying at a resort in Maui, and I drool (not literally...) over the website looking at the beautiful pools and lush surroundings.  Oh beautiful Sunshine, you can't come soon enough!!!

On an unrelated topic, I am in the midst of constructing a post on Thrifting & Frugal Fashion (as I’m wearing my NY & CO dress pants that I bought for $4.99), which will hopefully get finished and posted sometime this week. It's a topic that I personally get very excited about, and hopefully some of you will too! :)

… so stay tuned!

Anniversary!

Twelve months have come & gone so quickly. We have learned a lot, changed a little, and our love has grown to depths deeper than I knew was possible. It was an absolutely wonderful year and I treasure the moments & memories it brought us.

Our anniversary wasn’t an extravagant celebration by any means, but it was simple & quiet (like us) and it was a wonderful day. The greatest gift is simply being with each other.

We went to one of those fun restaurants for lunch where they play country music overhead and have a bucket of peanuts on your table...and were you throw the peanut shells on the floor, which is the most fun part! :) 

At home we cut into our year-old wedding cake, a tradition we thought was pretty cool, especially considering we didn't really get to have any cake at the wedding unless you count feeding each other a bite when we cut it (but my bite was all frosting and I ended up running into the bathroom to spit it out...).  Mom had wrapped it up tight and kept it in the deep-freeze all year and it survived surprisingly well.  The cake was moist and the raspberry filling was delicious! 

And last, but certainly not least, we exchanged our very first anniversary cards.  My dear husband always picks out the perfect cards and writes the sweetest things inside...guaranteed to make me cry. :) 

It was a perfectly lovely day and a delightful way to spend the day commemorating our first year together.  I so look forward to spending many happy years with this dear man that God brought into my life. 

How have ya'll celebrated your past anniversaries, or any fun plans for future ones?

the Cake

Looking through wedding pictures today, I was reminded how funny (albeit a little awkward) the cutting of our wedding cake was at our reception. These pictures are now posted for your entertainment....