Wordless Wednesday - blog edition

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~ Football & Pansies ~

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Ann Arbor to visit "The Big House" -- the football stadium at the University of Michigan.

My husband is a huge Michigan fan, so by default, I am now too.  

A fan by marriage.

{Jessica, the Buckeye that you are, I won't feel bad if you stop reading this post now!  And if Luke is around, you'd better close the browser!}

We were allowed to tour the team's locker room that day, and wander around the field.  Such a fun experience! 

At a gift shop we bought a Michigan stepping stone for my flower garden.  Just needed to find some pretty yellow flowers to plant around it.

My mom, not knowing that I was in the market for some yellow-lovelies, surprised me with a basket of beautiful yellow pansies the other day!!!

Last night I got everything planted and arranged.

Hello, Michigan!!!

I love how it turned out! :)

Everything else is blooming around the yard right now too.  Seems like it was a really long winter this year, but I am so thankful to see a steady stream of sun and colorful flowers again!

A couple more weeks and hopefully we'll be past the night time frost threats and I'll be able to get the rest of my flower beds all spruced up and filled with flowers. 

Have you planted anything yet?

Listening.

I love being married.

Seriously.

It’s the best thing ever.
(But I've probably mentioned that before....)

I love the give-and-take that comes with being a spouse. That constant support-system that is always around makes my heart sigh and smile in happiness.

We have great days...and not so great days. 
But I love that we can share both with each other.

The last couple weeks have been filled with some of those not so great days for both of us.  They haven’t been bad days, just exhausting and stressful ones.  Work stuff mostly. 

It has left us both needing to be in the take-mode because we haven’t had a lot leftover in the give department. 

But ironically enough, our current challenges at work have left us both with a deeper understanding of what the other person is going through because we’re both left feeling the same way.  We get it.

I have been blow away because this mutual-taking has turned into mutual-giving, and it has blessed my socks off!!!  

Instead of leaving us cranky and short-tempered with each other because we’re stressed-out and overwhelmed, we have a deeper understanding and empathy for one another because we can completely relate.  It has been such a beautiful thing.

Last night as I was driving home from work and all I wanted to do was go out to dinner and talk. 

Talk about everything going on because my brain was overloaded and I couldn’t keep it all contained in my head anymore. 

I hardly ever ask to go out to eat, especially not during the week.  Not when I feel it’s only because I’m too lazy tired to cook.  But I was exhausted and I was prepared to go without eating because I really didn’t feel like making dinner…but I knew my dear husband would be hungry so I wracked my brain as to what I could make that wouldn’t be too time-consuming and stressful.

I walked in the door, and was greeted by my dearly-beloved and a sweet “How are you doing, love?”

He hugged me, and before I even had a chance to say much at all, he asked me if I wanted to go get some dinner so I didn’t have to cook. 

{And some people say they don’t believe in mind-reading. 
Well let me tell you, he reads mine pretty well...and he knows his woman!}

We sat in a back booth and talked… and talked… and talked some more.  And he understood.  And it was wonderful.   When I was done babbling and finally stopped to take a breath and munch on my salad, he looked at me and smiled.  “I get it.  I know what you’re going through.”  Those words mean so much to me. 

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Later we sat on the couch together, he watched the hockey game and I read… and we could just be. Content in our understanding and support of each other.  Content in where we’re at in life, and content because God has so richly blessed us with the other half of our puzzle pieces: each other.