Feb 18, 2013 | Holidays, Love & Marriage |
We decided to take our Valentines celebration on the road this year by visiting the Parthenon in Greece.
Or perhaps it was the Parthenon in Nashville. The exact location is a mere technicality.
The earliest dinner reservation available that evening was 9:15, so we had plenty of time to kill. I spent more than a little of that time reading an article about Nashville’s most eligible singles. In retrospect, Valentines Day may not have been the most romantic time I could have chosen to read that article.
We had a few pre-appetizers at a different restaurant before the main meal at the fancy restaurant because if you’re going to travel all the way to Greece to celebrate true love, you might as well hit up all the restaurants. I kept Christopher entertained by telling him one of the world’s most anticlimactic stories about the time I mixed up my purse with Jenn’s. As I got to the punchline, “But I mean, OBVIOUSLY it was her purse because no one else was around at 5:30 in the morning,” the waitress leaned over and said, “All the sketchy stuff happens at 5:30 in the morning.”
Well. Had I known you were eavesdropping I would have prepared a better story.
(How many self-portraits can I include in one post?)
I realize this picture makes it look like we intended to pose with the white lamp over Christopher’s shoulder. We did not. I was also unaware of the hair sticking straight up off my head. These are the types of problems you deal with when continually forced to take self portraits. Next Valentines I’ll be sure to bring a pack of photographers with me when we spend the holiday in Paris.
Paris, Tennessee that is.
Feb 15, 2013 | Holidays, Love & Marriage |
Christopher doesn’t like when I write posts ALL about him.
Sometimes I do it anyway.
I love him even though he has strong opinions very contrary to my own about how meat should be thawed.
I love him even though the other day he was sick and kept insisting that the house was too cold. I felt like we were suddenly vacationing in the tropics and I hadn’t packed the appropriate clothes.
I love him even though we have 402 books on the bookshelves, most of which (370 to be exact) have titles like this. In other words, they’re books I would probably never buy.
It’s very obvious which of the remaining 32 books were my contributions to our library.
I love him so much that I’m always passing along interesting things I hear because I know he likes that kind of thing. Like that time I told him that studies have shown the more birthdays you have the longer you live.
Life with me is so educational.
Jan 3, 2013 | Holidays, Life |
It’s only the third day of the year and I’m already behind schedule. I wasn’t going to do a 2012 recap because this entire blog is a recap, but here I am, jumping on the year in review bandwagon.
It looks like the lucky number last year was 3.
I made three new friends who I love them SO MUCH. They’re all smiles (except when Sam is grumpy which is 88% of the time), kissable cheeks and chubby thighs (I’m not talking about you, Jenn! I’m talking about Molly!), and chocolate. I really don’t know why you’re at this blog when you could be
visiting them.
I turned 23 and spent the weekend in Washington DC.
I visited three presidential homes. I was not invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. but hope springs eternal.
I lived in three new homes which meant three different living rooms and three different furniture sets.
I’ve veered slightly off the three path and attended four Army events worth noting. Attending the FRG treasure class is hardly worth mentioning.
I wonder if the prominent number for this year will be four. Maybe I’ll have quadruplets. That would throw a little bit of crazy into things.
Dec 28, 2012 | Holidays, It's all relative |
I wasn’t going to write about our Christmas until tomorrow or Saturday (procrastinators unite!), but I’m sitting on the couch soaking my foot and since I have nothing else to do, I might as well blog. For those wondering (which is probably exactly zero of you), I appear to have an infected cut thanks to the day I smashed my foot against a shelf at Walmart four weeks ago. I guess injuries are to be expected when you’re running around in heels trying to find the shortest check-out lane.
We spent Christmas Eve next door with the relatives. It’s a pity they ended up with such a skinny tree.
This was Christopher’s first Christmas with my family, so he was able to experience things like Matthew and Aaron protecting themselves during the annual wrapping paper fight.
Molly was there in all her loud and boisterous glory. She was very excited that Daniel and Erika gave her a check for Christmas. She was boasting to Zachary that he didn’t get a check too (in reality it sounded more like “Zach! ZACH!! Did you get a check? DID YOU GET ONE? You didn’t?! I GOT ONE AND YOU DIDN’T!!!”), but he wouldn’t have liked the check anyway because it was really a gift certificate for a pedicure.
EXACTLY at midnight it started snowing!! It was truly a Christmas miracle. I was so excited. Last Christmas I was surrounded by palm trees and missed the snow so much.
Christopher was really! excited! on Christmas morning.
We spent the day at home doing two of my favorite things- giving gifts and eating food.
We gained a new family member this Christmas.
Aaron gave the fish to Dad so he’d have some company at work. I’m really hoping he’ll last through New Years but I’m not holding my breath. Aaron forgot to buy fish food so the fish hasn’t eaten in two days. He’s still unnamed but based on previous fish experiences, he’ll probably be named Joe. Over the years we’ve had Joe, Joe Jr, Joe the Third, and Joe the Fourth. All have died in infancy which has really discouraged me from naming any of my sons Joe.
I spent some quality time during the day posing with the giraffe mask Daniel and Erika brought back from South Africa.
It seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Dec 25, 2012 | Holidays, Uncategorized |
(Our last name isn’t really Awesome, but it should be.)
Dec 14, 2012 | Holidays, In a People House |
This is a big year for me. For the first time ever, I have my own house to decorate for Christmas! Last year we were in between homes (we were basically homeless) so I wasn’t able to decorate. I did insist we get a little Christmas tree anyway because it was our first married Christmas and it was
so cute. This year I had big plans for DECORATIONS GALORE. When we finalized our Christmas plans and realized we’d be away for Christmas, we decided to keep things to a minimum. I wasn’t able to bring to life many of my Pinterest ideas, but there’s always next year to make a snowman out of wreaths!
Welcome to our living room, the place where Christmas exploded. (I just wrote “Christopher exploded” by accident. I’m happy to say that has not happened. Although, had I made all those Pinterest crafts he just might have ended up in a million pieces. MOVING ON.)
I made this Christmas sign one week when Christopher was working late. I hope it lasts for at least 12 years because that’s how long it will take me to recover from all that cutting.
We set up the Nativity #1 on the bookcase in the kitchen. Two of the wise men didn’t fit with the other pieces (there’s a lot going on in this nativity what with the sheep, people getting water from wells, unknown characters with huge bags on their backs, etc.etc.etc), so we put them one shelf up to make it seem like they’re traveling to see Jesus. I think it’s very biblical. Either that or they were just late to the party because they stopped to read The Story of Wine, the book they’re sitting on. Somehow that seems slightly less biblical.
Grandma gave me this nativity last year. She couldn’t find the correct baby Jesus so she gave me a Jesus from a different nativity set. Look how huge this baby is. He’s practically bigger than Mary and Joseph.
A few more decorations we have around the living room. I made the little people decorations after the first Army ball we went to together. (The clothes are accurate, but the extreme roundness is not.) Nativity #2 came from Christopher’s parents. Jesus is the correct size .
We have no mantle or staircase to hang them on, so the stocking were hung on the windowsill with care. The pumpkinman stands besides them, keeping an eye over the proceedings.
If I was impressed with how well the people decorations turned out, than I was BLOWN AWAY with our gingerbread house. Never in my life has a gingerbread house looked anything like a house when it was finished. I might keep it forever because like the Christmas sign, it will probably never happen again.
This is our non-themed fake tree. For your viewing pleasure, I’ve included a picture of the tree at night and during the day. Or possibly I couldn’t decide which to put so I put both.
We decided to do a red and gold theme for our real tree. I didn’t have an extra tree skirt so I used burlap. (It looks greenish but it’s the regular color.)
We found some gaping holes on two sides after we set up the tree. (Obviously we didn’t do a thorough tree investigation before we bought it.) I attached little birds among the branches so it would look like we got a tree with holes for a reason.
I love love love how our living room looks at night!
Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself…
~Norman Wesley Brooks~
