Some Things on Monday

On the weekend, Evan and I got to take the evening and go on a splendid date together. It will, more than likely, be our last before Bambino #2 arrives, so I soaked it up to the fullest.

We did it up romantic style by going to the States and hitting up Lowe’s for paint for the new house and Target for nursing bras, newborn diapers and maxi pads. We also came home with a stack of paint chips a mile high. The definition of “date” sure has changed.

Evan was trying to hurry me along in Target (world’s worst mistake a husband can make) so I sent him and my pharmacy item list off to gather things while I tried on nursing bras and camisoles. I was just trying to do him a favour by killing two birds with one stone. Of course, when I tracked him down after I was finished in the fitting room, I was told that “Target didn’t have anything that was on my list and the only things he managed to find were a case of beer and four cases of pop. Besides, do you know how many types of pads there are?” Men.

At least we finished the night off by enjoying a delicious dinner on the patio at The Cheesecake Factory. Spending nearly two hours, uninterrupted, on a gorgeous night on the patio? Perfection.

The nicest part about the date was that Evalyn was at a sleepover at her Auntie’s (for the very first time) so we had absolutely no time pressure. It was really nice. Just to be. Us. For a few hours, no diapers, no singing Happy And You Know It, no sippy cups and no snack traps. Just me and my husband. Bliss.

~~

Another important thing happened this weekend – I realized that I’ve reached ‘that point’ in pregnancy. You know? The point where complete strangers look at you in public and their face reads “Oh. Oh, dear. You poor thing”. Clearly, I’m waddling.

It started on Friday night when I visited a fresh new snuggly at the L&D department in our local hospital. Pretty sure at least four nurses and one hundred other people in that hallway were looking at me like, “Hm, are you here or are you just here?”

Then at the mall, I watched a security guard keep his eyes close on me as I waddled walked past him looking for my husband. I’m not sure if he thought he was going to have to catch my baby or what.

But, honestly. Maybe it’s just my heightened self-consciousness. Probably not.

~~

I’ve already reached the point in pregnancy where clothes? Yea. They just don’t really work so well anymore. The tops I wore right until 40w5d with Evalyn barely stretch over my belly anymore. So, coming up with a decent outfit to go out in public in can be a challenge. Thankfully, my husband is helpful. And honest. Some women may not like the level of honesty I get from my husband, but me personally? I’d rather him tell me if something makes me look like a whale than let me go out in public and pretend I look fabulous.

So when I got dressed on Saturday night for our date and came out of the room to get his opinion, I was appreciative of the fact that he told me the outfit didn’t really work so well on the current configuration of my body. What I was not appreciative of, however? The fact that I wore the exact same outfit one week ago without him seeing it. Fail.

~~

Yesterday we celebrated the upcoming arrival of one of my BFF’s first babies at a lovely baby shower. We managed to wrangle together the four of us besties and our off spring for a photo op. Notice a trend?

And, no, the one second from left is not already lactating. It’s just baby drool. I can’t tell you how I’m excited that we’re all sharing this journey together. William is currently 5.5 months and with the other 3 on the way, we’ll all welcome our little ones within 9 months of each other. Awesome, right?

We’re hoping for 4 boys so we can start putting together an awesome hockey team.

The one who saved Valentine’s day (a week late…)

We aren’t really Valentine’s kind of people around here. If you know my beau in real life, you may be extremely surprised by this based on his naturally romantic demeanour (um, not).

Either way, I don’t expect a huge celebration on Valentine’s day and I’m not disappointed, nor do I feel hard done by, when I don’t get one. And it’s a good thing that I feel this way because history shows, when we do try to “do” Valentine’s day? It’s bad news. One year it resulted in rotten caesar salad at one of our favourite little restaurants where the Dude had so sneakily made reservations for two (ahem, one week before Valentine’s day, I said “make reservations at Cafe Amore for next week”). Another year, it resulted in both he and I buying each other the exact same gift. Which wouldn’t necessarily be so bad. Except that what I got him was for him. So what he got me? Also for him. This is a family friendly blog so I won’t go further than to say that what we purchased each other was something that rhymes with bonjerie. At least we know we have the same taste since we both bought the same piece.

With these things considered, it didn’t take us long into our marriage to figure out that we just don’t do Valentine’s day. Which is fine. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t throw out chocolate or flowers if they came my way, but I’m good without them, too. And since I knew the husband likely wouldn’t deliver, I took things into my own hands last Tuesday, and had a date with the BFF where I treated myself to a Valentine’s day poutine and bag of mini reese pb cups. Good enough for me.

Then I topped off Valentine’s day by making a meal that was far below the husband’s expectations. Minestrone soup. Without meat. With spinach. Gasp. How could I?

But thankfully, this year, the precious little blessing that will soon be joining our family saved the day and made Valentine’s Day something to remember, after all.

After Blessing #1 was tucked into bed, Ev and I curled up on the couch to finish the last few episodes of Friday Night Lights and snack on our (my) nightly bowl of melted butter popcorn. And while we were doing so, the hubby had his hands around my tummy and felt, for the first time, those sweet kicks of his unborn baby. Looks like Baby #2 wanted to make sure the day was special, even if we failed.

Our Story

I’ve blogged about our love story in the past. A few years ago, as we were approaching our 3rd anniversary, I wrote a fully detailed 7 part story highlighting how we met, became friends, fell in love, got engaged and became man and wife. Seven parts might seem like a lot but it was necessary considering we had about 12 years to cover between our first introduction and the day we walked down the aisle.

Nearly three years has passed since I wrote that story and a lot has changed in those three years. We’ve graduated from 2 degrees, started a new business, started a new career, welcomed a child and became pregnant with our second. Oh yeah? And, more importantly, I’ve met a ton of new blog friends who have likely never heard or read the story of how we came to be Us.

So today I’m linking up with the lovely From Mrs to Mama who’s hosting a Love Story Linkup between now and Valentine’s Day. Of course, I can’t cover every thing in one post, so I’m giving you a sort of summary and, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll follow the links and read the entire story.

Our story begins when we were about 8 years old and met at a youth rally and then continues when we became friends at summer camp. It gets even juicier when I began stalking him and taking sneaky photos with him in the background because I was too chicken to actually snap a photo of the guy. The next few years passed with us seeing each other a few times a year, at youth rallies and summer camp, and me being too shy to ever say more than Hi to the cute boy with the hat from Papua New Guinea.

Part two takes us to three years in high school where we were in the same class at a Christian Boarding School where we went from being best friends to worst enemies every other week. Here we struggled together as both of our mom’s faced breast cancer and we learned a lot about life and each other. During this time, Evan went through a rough patch and I found myself hurting for him in a way I couldn’t understand.

Part three is where the story gets really good when the high school hottie confessed his love for me just one week before graduation and just one week before we walked the aisle at commencement together as Mr and Mrs GL. Trust me, you gotta read it to believe it.

Next up, we go through a summer of separation where I battled confusion, entirely unsure of what my future would hold in terms of university and a pending relationship with the boy of my dreams. The summer ended with him coming home from his job at camp and asking if he could visit me.

In part five, we date. We fall in love. And it is just mushy and beautiful. Go, go now. Read.

Part six is probably the best portion of all, where my sweet love put together the most elaborate plan he has ever conspired and somehow completely surprised me when he proposed to me on horseback. This portion of the story even includes photos of scrapbook pages since it took place way back in the olden days when we didn’t have digital cameras.

In the last part, I became his wife in a wedding celebration that completely made all my dreams come true. We committed our lives to each other in front of our family, friends and our God. And we’ve never, ever looked back.

Life Lessons from Coach Taylor

It’s not a secret that Friday Night Lights is my current obsession. Both the husband and I are totally hooked. In fact, as much as we love the show, we’re both to the point where we are thinking, “okay, when will this be done so that we can get on with our lives?!” Honestly. Right now my house is a little messier than normal, the meals are a little less well put together than usual, the laundry is a little less caught up than usual and the hubby’s progress in the shop is a little less up to date than usual. In other words, we have been wasting spending hours and hours and hours of our lives chilling on the couch with the ever handsome Coach Taylor (or the ever beautiful Tami Taylor, my husband might add).

In the meantime, when we’re not getting ourselves acquainted with the residents of Dillon, Texas we’ve been getting serious about house hunting. If you’ve ever done this before, you probably know how oh!so!fun! it can be. In this family, the husband is the chillaxed, easy going partner and I am the high strung, stressy stress face. So you can imagine how awesome house hunting may be for two people like ourselves.

By now you may be wondering how a major Friday Night Lights binge and house hunting are related. Just stick with me. Trust me. They are. Because while FNL is normally just a few hours of mindless entertainment, I have found that there are a times when major life lessons can be drawn from the episodes. These moments make me think that perhaps I’m not completely wasting my life away while I sit around watching hours of TV a day.

There’s a scene somewhere way, way back, season two, I believe, where Coach and Tami are facing a situation and find themselves at a crossroads. Don’t worry, if you haven’t watched yet, I’m going to set up the context of the scene without giving anything away. They are in the midst of a situation where they have to make a decision for their child. And the solution doesn’t seem clear to them. Tami approaches the situation with a sort of “WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!?” attitude. You know, the same kind of attitude that I often have when discussing important life decisions, such as purchasing a home, with my husband.

In the midst of Tami’s miniature freak out, Coach puts his hands on her shoulders and calmly says,

“This is not our burden. This is our gift.”

And, whoa. Has that line ever hit me in the face!

I have been trying to remember and reflect on this line as I’ve faced my own miniature (or not so miniature) freak out sessions over the past few weeks.

To be in the situation where we need to find a new place to live because we have been blessed with a second child and need more space? To be in the situation where we need more space because we have been blessed so abundantly with ‘stuff’? To be in the position where we are able to purchase a home because of my husband’s hard work and motivation over the past eight years? To be in the position where we can buy a home that needs renovations because I have a husband who has the skill, ability and desire to make improvements?

To be in this position I am in, despite how stressful, unknown, unclear and scary it may be?

This is not my burden. This is my gift.

My Word

It’s a new year. 2012. Time to make resolutions. To start fresh. I’ve never been much of a resolution person. Maybe because I don’t trust myself enough to stick with them. Although, in 2009, I did resolve to make every single one of our bread products for an entire year from scratch, and I managed to uphold that one. But for the most part, I don’t usually make resolutions.

That being said, I do think there is great value in being reflective as we enter a new year. In past years, and this year especially, I’ve seen some talk of a “word for the year” floating around blog land, twitter and face book. I had never put much thought into that concept before now, but this year, every time I’ve seen a post reflecting on a “word” for the year, a specific word comes to mind: Push. At first, I kind of laughed it off, but the more I thought about it, the more it makes sense.

In 2012 I want to:

Push myself to be a better mother. Push myself to be more focused, hands on, and present in my interactions with my daughter. Push myself to be more organized in our home. Push myself to show my husband more love, more respect and more honour everyday. Push myself to be the mother my children deserve and the wife my husband deserves. Push our family to achieving the goals we’ve set for ourselves. Push myself out of my comfort zone to get involved in some new activities. Push myself to be more active. Push a baby out. Push myself to a new and deeper relationship with my Saviour. Push myself to live with intention and fully enjoy the moment.

In 2012, I will Push.

Five

Today marks five years since I became yours. How do I sum up five amazing, fun filled, adventuresome, roller-coaster years in one measly blog post? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I walked down the aisle and took your hand?

You are the one I laugh with, fight with, work with, grow with, and live for. You are living proof that a girl’s dreams can come true. You have made me a wife and a mother. You have made us a family.

You rock my world, ECPC.

Love 2 you. Here’s to the next five…

xoxo, Luc

Summer Dreams…

My good blog bud, Erica, is hosting a link up asking everyone to compile a list of the top 10 things they want to do this summer. She’s a teacher and she used this activity with her first graders and figured it would be fun to bring it to blogland. So, here I am.

1. Put my daughter in a sundress, shorts, a tank top – anything really. Seriously. Here we are, May 17th and she has been able to be outside wearing short sleeves once so far. I took her to the doctor and grocery shopping today. And guess what? She had to wear a hat. And I had to tuck a blanket around her in the car seat. So, yes. My number one goal for the summer is to dress her in summer clothes.

2. Enjoy our garden and the crops around us to the fullest potential. This includes canning peaches, pears, salsa, beets, dill pickles, perhaps some jam and eating delicious, home grown meals every night.

3. Travel 8 hours up north to visit my family for our family reunion. This will be Eva’s first BIG road trip. The longest she’s done is 5 hours, way back when she was 7 weeks old. She does great on the 1.5 hour trips to my parent’s place and the 3 hour trips to E’s parents house, so here’s hoping!

4. Go on a family vacation with E & E. Planning is in the works! We’re hoping to go camping and spend a few days in our capital city.

5. Celebrate with my in-laws as we watch my sis in law, Amy, marry the love of her life.

6. Go swimming with my little as much as humanly possible. We’ve got friends and family with pools who have extended invitations to us and we will take advantage of that. Aunt Shelley – watch out … here we come!

7. Make ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream. Eat said ice cream.

8. Celebrate our fifth anniversary. That’s half a decade, dudes.

9. Re-do the dining room which will include refinishing our hutch, a table and chairs set, and making a toy area for Evalyn. (Okay, so I technically won’t be doing much on this one, per say. But I will be supervising).

10. Enjoy the sun. Enjoy being outside. Enjoy the garden. Enjoy the park. Enjoy my husband. Enjoy my girl. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

There ya have it. The top 10 things I want to do this summer. Granted, these things all require summer actually arriving. Which doesn’t look likely at this point (see #1). But I can hope.

Now go over to Erica’s and link up with your own list!

Young Love

Yesterday I was looking through some old photos and I came across some gems. I shared two of my favourite pictures of Evan and from wayyyy back when with my Tweeps.

The first one was taken in June 2005, when we returned to our high school to walk in commencement and crown the next year’s citizens of the year.

This one was taken a few months later, in August. This was taken before we went on what may be the most significant and memorable date in our history. We had set some financial goals that we wanted to achieve before considering marriage, and when we achieved those goals, we celebrated. We went out to The Keg and I ate so much that I made myself ill. It was glamorous really. He should have run away screaming then, but bless his heart, he didn’t. Mind you, I should have run away screaming when he wet the bed on our ‘first date’, but I didn’t do that either.

What can I say? We were meant to be.

See? It’s true. We used to look like that. I can hardly even recognize those two people six years later.

I may or may not get in trouble for saying this but the coordinating outfits? Always Evan’s idea.

After showing these pictures, I got to see Young Love photos from lots of my tweeps. And I loved them! So let me know if you’ve posted some photos, I’d love to check them out.

Happy Birthday to the one who Rocks my Socks

Today marks 25 years since my Fabulous Dude was brought into this world. Although we’ve spent a million and two (okay, six) birthdays together … this one feels different.

Because this year, for the first time ever, I celebrate him not just as the love of my life but also as the father of our sweet daughter.

Evan….

You are the best playmate for your girl, the hardest worker for your family, and the most committed partner for your wife. Evalyn and I could never ask for more than what you give us every day. When things are uncertain, it is certain that you love us and will care for us.

Happy Birthday.

Love 2 You.

The First Last Date

Last night, the first words the Dude said when he walked in the door were, "Do you want to date me tonight?"

Um, date the cutest guy on the block?

Yes, please.

At first we thought about going to a movie but then we decided to do something that would allow for a little more interaction so we decided to head down to Port, get some ice cream and take a walk along the Pier, enjoying the sunset. Ha! Sounds so romantic doesn't it? (Not so much when you're waddling along and struggling to keep up with is pace).

While we were walking, I said, "This might be our last first date."

But he promptly corrected me.

"No. This is our first last date."

He's right - it was the first time we've been out together that I really considered the possibility that it might, just might, be the last time we go out on a date as a childless couple.

Over the next couple weeks I really want to make an effort to take advantage of our time - just the two of us. I know that life is going to change in a blink of an eye (or ... after hours and hours of grueling labor) and although we wouldn't have it any other way - I'm sure there will be times when we will long for the days when it was just the two of us.

So, here's to our first last date and all of the subsequent "last dates" we will go on in the next few weeks before the baby arrives!

Interruption

Today is Thursday, so I should be posting a 35 (!!!) week update. But, I hope that you will excuse this small interruption in our regularly scheduled posting because today, there is something else to celebrate.

Today marks four years since I walked down the aisle and became Mrs. Fabulous Dude.

Since many of you haven't been around since the very beginning, and may not have had a chance to see the Fabulous Dude in all of his glory, I decided that in honour of our anniversary, I would recap some of my favourite Fabulous Dude stories that I have blogged about over the past few years.

Perhaps you don't know that we met when we were eight years old but then we parted ways for a while until we were reunited during high school and became good friends. Remember when he confessed his undying love for me as we were graduating? We spent some time apart while I was struggling with a lot of confusion, but of course, we were both falling in love. He proposed to me on horseback and then we were married on the most beautiful day I've ever known.

When my nephew was born, we spent a few weeks away from each other and I was reminded just how much I love that guy. Then one time, we went shopping and he dressed up in full armor in the store.

Luckily, I've been able to use his hobbies to my advantage and have figured out how to get him to clean the house.

I remember the time I felt (kind of) guilty to looking forward to him getting his wisdom teeth out, but quickly made up for it by serving him a cheeseburger and diet coke smoothie.

We've had our hard times due to his snoring, but I've managed to learn how to deal.

He's "given" me all sorts of lovely gifts.

He transformed me into a crazy dog person, has joined me in raising a *not so* law abiding puppy, and has made me into farmer McLucy, sometimes causing me to do things I never thought I'd do like chase chickens around the barn.

Sometimes the dude's habits drive me bonkers, but most of the time I just love him to pieces.

Of course, we can't forget the time he peed the bed on our first date.

Even though he won't admit it, I have proof that he thinks my excessive list writing can sometime be helpful.

Sometimes my Dude gets a bit confused and thinks that there is a place in the world called the Sixteenth Chapel, but we will just let that one slide because he makes up for it by doing funny things like stripping for his grandma on her 80th birthday and jumping out of the freezer to scare my dad.

My favourite thing in our marriage so far has been watching him transform into my baby's daddy. Of course, he says some silly things to me, but that's because we are comfortable enough to joke around with each other. Besides, I post ridiculous pictures of him, he's got to get back at my somehow.

He is the provider for our family and never ceases to work hard for us. Happy Anniversary, my Sweet Fabulous Dude!

Thou Shalt Not Say: Part One

I am beginning to think that my husband's sole purpose on this earth is to serve as an example to other husbands and fathers-to-be. Over the past few weeks, I have begun to accumulate a collection of phrases and comments that he has made to me. And as such, I have decided I should write a book. I am here today to share with you the beginnings of this book.

"Thou Shalt Not Say: Comments a Husband Should NOT Say to His Expectant Wife"

"Why are you wearing your tiny underwear today?"
(When, in fact, said underwear are no tinier than they ever have been, but perhaps, what is in said underwear is, um, a bit larger than usual.)

"Hm, see those boobs? Yeah, they need to get bigger. They need to keep up with that big belly of yours."

"You're looking rather chubby today."

"You are the biggest pregnant girl I have ever seen."
(Please tell me this is not true. My goodness, I am only 16 weeks! I am going to assume he meant the biggest pregnant girl he has ever seen without clothes on.)

As he strokes the side of my face, "I see you're getting a bit more hair on there now."

"You don't have acne, it's just a few pimples ... on your face."

As time progresses, I am sure I will be able to continually to add to the list. In fact, if he keeps up at the rate he's going, I might be able to make this "Thou Shalt Not" business a weekly feature.

Oh dear, let's hope not.

Happy Birthday to the Fabulous Dude

Happy Birthday to the most Fabulous Dude of all.

You are the peanut butter to my jelly.

The sun to my sky.

The H to my Izzo.

The orange to my juice.

Today I celebrate your life and our love.

Thank you for being my designated smoothie maker, my official popcorn popper, and my (very) occasional foot massager.

You are my best friend, my confidant, my partner.

Happy Birthday, sweet boy.

We've Been Featured

Guess what?

Today the Fabulous Dude and I are begin featured over at the Newlyweds-Blog on her Meet the Newlyweds feature!

Head over here and check it out.

Let me have a sentimental moment...

I am sentimental. I'm not going to deny it. I cherish memories, traditions and other "special" things. In the post I wrote about Christmas decorations, I said that I was going to share some of the ones that have a really special meaning to me. Well, here is one such decoration.

I am not sure I can really describe why this decoration is so meaningful to me, but I am going to try my darnedest to. Let me take you back a few years...

It was the fall of 2006. The fabulous dude and I were establishing ourselves as a newly married, newly living together young couple. It was nearing the end of November and I began to realize that we didn't have an abundance of Christmas decorations and this would not do! Thankfully, some good friends of ours had given us a Gift Certificate for a Christmas store in a quaint village located about 25 minutes from our home. So, on American Thanksgiving weekend, we headed out for the day to gather some goodies to make our home look like Christmas.

I remember that day so well. Even though we had gone to that village many times before that, and many times since, I remember it as being a special day for us. The next day, we went shopping again and used the remaining gift cards we had at other stores from wedding presents to buy some more decorations. It was special because I knew that the FD probably could care less, but knew how important it was for me to have a "Christmas house".

We got all of our decorations put out all over our tiny little basement apartment and I was excited to share our first Christmas together as Mr. and Mrs.

Unfortunately, when I returned home from school on the first Friday in December, at which time we were experiencing a major rain fall, I found our floors covered in about an inch of water. By the time I made some phone calls and got some people to help (Thanks, Swampy!), the apartment was sitting in about 2 inches of water. We quickly put all of our furniture up on blocks and got everything important off the floor. We stashed stuff on every dry surface, including in the shower.

By that evening, we had packed all of our clothes and linens and headed to the FD's aunts house to stay while we sorted things out.

Don't get me wrong, it was a total blessing to be able to go to M&L's home and to feel as though we were welcome to stay as long as it took to get this mess sorted out, but I was sad. I was sad to know that we wouldn't have a home to spend our first Christmas in and that all our decorations we had just bought were not going to be seen.

I was stressed out. I was in the middle of exams, I was trying to get ready for Christmas and I felt displaced. I was sad.

The FD and M&L cheered me up quite a bit by getting a Christmas tree and decorating it in their basement, so that I didn't have to miss out on that tradition. There are also two ornaments on our tree that have our names on them that M purchased for us that day.

Amazingly, the Lord poured out his blessings on us and led us in a very mysterious way (this is an amazing story that I really should share someday) to finding the apartment we are now living in. Within a week of the flood, we had moved out of flooded apartment, "settled in" at M&Ls, found this new place and moved in. Literally, the house flooded the first Friday of December, we found this place the following Wednesday. We started moving stuff in on Thursday night and we made the "big" move and began sleeping here the following Saturday.

One of the first things I did while my family members were there to help us move and unpack was find the box where I had stashed all of the new Christmas decorations and set to work at decorating our new home. And, M&L brought the tree that we had decorated at their house over to our new place so that I could have a real live Christmas tree in my house for our first Christmas (something I would not have been able to do at our flooded apartment).

Although we were heading away for a week for the holidays and wouldn't even be at our home for Christmas, there was something so comforting about knowing that we were sharing our first holiday season as Mr and Mrs in a place that so quickly came to feel like home.

For some reason, ever since that year, these two snowmen bring back all of these memories of that first Christmas. I'm not sure why, since it is one of many that we accumulated that day in the village, but each time I see it, I think of the journey we took to get to this place - our home - where we spent our first, second, third and now our fourth Christmas together as a family. Maybe it's because I see the two snowmen as representing us - clinging to each other despite the storms of winter. Umm, too cheesy? Okay, I'll stop.

This year, I decided to put these guys right beside my kitchen sink, where I am sure to see it every single day. And now that I've articulated into words the reason this decoration is so special to me, I have a feeling that with each passing year, the tradition will carry on to place these snowmen in a special place to remind me of our first Christmas.

Wow. I just re-read this and I realized how amazingly lame it sounds. The fabulous dude would make tremendous amounts of fun of me if he knew I wrote this. I told you I was sentimental.

This post is being shared at the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash Christmas Traditions and Memories

A Year From Now....

A few conversations I have had recently have got me to thinking about where we will be a year from now and what I will be doing.

• For the first time in my life, I will no longer be a student.
• For the first time in my life, I will need to have a full time job.
• For the first time in our married life, we will not have to live in this area due to school commitments.
• For the first time in our married life, we will be able to start thinking about exactly where and what we want to be doing and actually take steps to do those things.

I like to live in an oblivious denial that we will ever have to make real life choices. I like to pretend we'll always live here, I will always be in school and things will stay just like they are.

But they won't.

These are scary thoughts for me.

Hmm ... Where will we be at this time next year?

My Love and I

I stole this fun survey from my girl Brittany. Here are some fun facts that you might not know about us yet!

♥ What are your middle names?
Marie and Clayton Paul. You can guess which name belongs to who.

♥How long have you been together?
We've been married for three years and 2 months. We've been together for 5 years and 2 months.

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

♥ Who asked who out?
Neither of us really asked the other out. It kind of just happened. But, he definitely started the ball rolling.

♥ Who made the first move?
He made the first move to make us a couple. I made the first "move". He still bugs me that I took the lead and kissed him first. Ha! That'll teach him...

♥ How old are each of you?
At this moment, we are both 23.

♥ Did you go to the same school?
We went to the same high school. I went to a private Christian boarding school in grade 9 and he started in grade 10.

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Nope. We lived three hours apart growing up.

♥ Who is the smartest?
Ask him, he'll say him. Ask me, I'll say me. I am definitely the more academic, intellectual one but he beats the pants off me in terms of street smarts, common sense, and general knowledge. Seriously, he seems to know something about everything. He is a fountain of useless information. I can write a mean term paper, recite the APA stylistic guidelines like the back of my hand and memorize cue cards in a matter of minutes while he can identify nearly any piece of machinery that ever existed, analyze a situation to determine the best course of action and fix just about anything in any house at any time.

♥ Who majored in what?
I did both my undergrad and my grad degree in child and youth studies. He's currently working on a trade certificate.

♥ Who is the most sensitive?
I am way more sensitive than him and get my feelings hurt way too easily. Sometimes I call him a flat liner because I say he shows no emotion.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
I could lie. Or I could tell the truth and say McDonald's.

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

♥ Who has the worst temper?
He says that I do. I don't know if I completely agree with that. Actually, I do. Remember, he's a flat liner?

♥ How many children do you want?
A bunch - his words. Sometimes we joke we'll have 12 kids, like Cheaper By The Dozen. Our strong desire for children is really the thing that brought us together in the first place.

♥ Who does the cooking?
He is a super good cook but I do nearly all the cooking because I love love love to cook and because I am usually home and he's not. If I have a later evening at school or am really busy, he will very willingly take the reigns and cook delicious meals. He's wonderful at making something out of nothing whereas I have to have a clearly laid out plan.

♥ Who is more social?
Him. I suck at small talk and I'd much rather be at home, by myself, or with just him than out with a big group.

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Me. Me. Me. He said he is but that is a complete lie. He could care less what the house looks like. I freak out if a coaster is in the wrong place. Thanks for that, Mom.

♥ Who is the most stubborn?
We are both very stubborn which can make for some very interesting moments in our household. We butt heads often. We bicker sometimes. Neither of us ever want to give in. But we love each other all the time and someone (usually me) always cracks. Ha ha ha .. I just read this answer out to him and he said "Usually, you? Yeah right!" How funny is it that we're being stubborn about who is the most stubborn?

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Most days he wakes up earlier because he has to go to work and I don't. On Wednesdays I get up really early and leave the house before he gets up. On weekends, if we have no plans, I'm usually up before him.

♥ Where was your first date?
Neither of us really know the answer to this one. We never really had a first date. I guess you could say our first date was at my parents boat when he peed on the bed.

♥ Who has the bigger family?
He has a bigger immediate family (3 sisters and him) than me (one brother, one sister and me). But I have the bigger extended family.

♥ Do you get flowers often?
I've only gotten flowers twice in the five years we've been together. But that's fine with me. I'm not really a fan of spending that much money on something that will only last a few days.

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
We take turns going to his parents and my parents every other year. No matter where we are on Christmas day, we still see both of our families each holiday season. We also do a lot of holiday things at home, like decorating, opening a few presents, and having some dinner parties etc.

♥ Who is more jealous?
Me. Hands down.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
64 seconds.

♥ Who eats more?
Him for sure. He's a bottomless pit.

♥ What do you do for a living?
I'm a full-time graduate student, teaching assistant, and stay-at-home blogger. He is a facilities mechanic at an organization that support adults with development disabilities. He's pretty much a jack of all trades.

♥ Who does the laundry?
Me. He will (sometimes) switch it from washer to dryer or bring it in off the line if I ask. But, I am pretty particular about how things get done around here, if you haven't figured that out yet, so I tend to just do it myself.

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Me. He goes on the computer about once every 6 years.

♥ Who drives when you are together?
Him. Always him. For our first year together I did not drive with him in the car ... ever. I was too scared to. Now I will drive if necessary, but he usually does.

♥ What is "your" song?
We've always said our song is New Frontier by Aaron Pritchett, although I'm not sure why. We danced to "Bring It On Home" by Little Big Town. That's the song that makes me think of him most.

How fun was that? Come on, ladies ... join in!

Which room do you live in?

I have recently restarted working my way through The Love Dare by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. This is a devotional book that is centered around becoming a better spouse and learning to lead your heart to unconditional love. The book is a 40 day challenge that discusses a different aspect of love, presents a specific dare and provides questions to reflect on each day. A few days ago, one of the themes really struck a chord with me and has been on my heart ever since.

The theme for that day was "Love Believes the Best". The writing was focused on seeking out the positive in your spouse rather than constantly focusing on his flaws. In this chapter, the authors presented an analogy that was very meaningful to me. They discuss two rooms that are housed in our hearts: the Appreciation Room and the Depreciation Room. The appreciation room is where we store all of the positive and encouraging aspects that we love about our spouse. Alternately, we also have a depreciation room, where we harbor negativity, irritations and flaws.

While discussing these two rooms, the authors challenge us to reflect on these rooms and to think about where we spend most of our time. Do we spend the majority of our time in the Appreciation Room, building our spouses up and encouraging them to succeed? Or do we spend more time in the Depreciation Room, criticizing our spouses and bringing them down?

In the chapter, the authors suggest that the only time we should enter the Depreciation Room is to write "COVERED IN LOVE" across the walls, over top of the negative thoughts and to pray for our spouse and for our marriage. This image makes me think of Jesus - and how he has written these very words - "COVERED WITH LOVE" - over top of all of our sins and shortcomings.

I have been reflecting on this a great deal - gazing into my own heart and my own thoughts to determine which room I live in most often. Unfortunately, I know that I spend far too much time in the Depreciation Room and not enough time in the Appreciation Room. But I don't want to. I want to dwell in the Appreciation room because I know that is where Jesus lives.

Whether it be with your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends or your coworkers, what room do you live in? The Appreciation Room or the Depreciation Room? Have you written "COVERED IN LOVE" in the Depreciation Room?

The Giant Revealed

A few months ago, I wrote a series that many of you seemed to enjoy. The series was called the Real Life Romance series and through it, I told the story of us in seven installments.

Well, if you recall, in Part 5 of the series, I told every single one of you in blog land that my-now-husband-then-kind-of-boyfriend-who-was-19-at-the-time PEED THE BED on our very "first date".

I must say that I was completely and utterly disgusted with the fact that out of 17 comments, only TWO of you made mention of the fact that a grown man wet the bed on my parents' boat and yet, I still chose to date him, become engaged to him and marry him. Are you serious?

Rachel said "Oh my gosh, you had me totally sucked in with this post!!! I still cannot believe he peed in the bed! Poor guy! But it is kinda funny!"

Brooke said "first off - he should have realized your fabulousness when you gave him the bed, the pee-sheet cleanup should have sealed the deal! and the waiting - that must have sucked!"

Where were the rest of you on that on?

So, because I was so appalled that the rest of you didn't come through for me and mock and ridicule my hubby's bed wetting, I thought I would dig out the speech that he gave at our wedding so you can all witness how he broke the news to my parents (after 2 years of secrets). This will be fun, it will be like you were all at my wedding with me -- which I wish you were.

**Disclaimer: I do have my hubby's permission to share this story. I would not reveal his giant without permission. Although, after making this confession in front of 200 people at our wedding, does he really have much say?

To the [Lucy's maiden name] family; I thank you for all that you have done in preparation for this day. Thank you for all the laughs, love and hard work that went into it. We appreciate it so much. But beyond that, I thank you for giving me another family to call my own. You've given me the woman of my dreams who, from the start, I knew was the one for me. So now, since the knot is tied and I'm officially a part of your family, I can honestly share the story of how I knew your daughter was the one because it's too late for you to do anything about it. On my very first visit to [Lucy's hometown] in the summer of 2004, Lucy brought me to the boat for the weekend. A long day of fun in the sun makes for a little dehydration. I wasn't feeling so good, and being a lifeguard I knew the symptoms of dehydration so from about 3:00 pm onward, I drank as much water as I could. After an evening of drinks, ice cream and puppy love, I went to bed dreaming of my perfect girl. Unfortunately, my dreams were rudely interrupted by a warm sensation I knew so well. As a child, I grew up with a little problem which was somewhat hidden until today. I had difficulties with nocturnal bladder control. From the time I was a small boy, sadly to say, until grade 9, I struggled with this issue. I thought I had overcome this giant in my life. I was moving on to as many sleepovers and slumber parties as I could. I could now go to GL not having to worry about putting plastic garbage bags on my mattress before I put the sheets on. I was becoming a man. But, after years of silence, this giant unveiled his ugly face again. Needless to say, not at the most convenient time. A young man trying to flaunt his stuff around the woman of his dreams needs to be bringing his A game. By this point, I was doing pretty good, I had already held her hand and it was only Friday night. I had all my plans set out for the next day, but the giant and I were not on the same page. I could blame this on genetics because my Grandfather wet the bed on his honeymoon. But, despite any excuse I could have made and all the paper towel in the world, I was not going to be able to cover up the yellow mess I had just created. All my plans to snag this beautiful girl were now laying in a puddle on my bed. After what seemed like an eternity, I decided there was no other choice: I had to tell Lucy what I had done. I had gone to the outhouse to try to clean myself up with a little water, but most of it just ended up on the floor. With my head hanging in shame and a new pair of shorts, I went to wake the sleeping beauty. It was around 5 am so I told her I couldn't sleep and wanted to go for a walk. The sleeping beauty was not so beautiful. She agreed to go, but first we had to stop at the outhouse. When she came out she had a disgusted look on her face and said, "I think someone peed all over the floor in there". All I did was smile and say, "You have no idea". We walked along the pier and when small talk started to run short I decided to take the plunge. Lucy is not exactly a morning person so I knew I needed to lighten the mood. I said, "I'll bet you $20 I can make you smile" (Lucy here: I am sure he bet me $100). She agreed to this bet and I knew it was time to reveal the giant. I explained to her the issues I had as a child and how it had kind of, sort of, reappeared. She was confused, so I cleared the air. I turned to her, looked into those deep green eyes and said softly, "I peed the bed". Apparently the confession did not exactly clear the air. She looked at me blankly and said, "YOU DID WHAT?" Again, I said, "I peed the bed". How many times was she going to make me voice my shame? Immediately, I won the bet because she broke into laughter. Somehow, we managed to clean up inside the boat without Lucy's parents knowing what was going on. Lucy graciously kept this secret hidden from them and snuck the sheets home to wash them without anyone knowing a thing. It was then that I knew she was the one. Now the hardest thing was trying to keep it a secret from everyone else. I knew in my heart of hearts she was a woman I could trust, but let's be honest, can you trust anyone with that secret? The news spread quickly that a 19 year old man had just wet the bed. Somehow, over the past two years we have managed to keep this a secret from the entire [Lucy's maiden name] family but today, as your new son, you have no choice to accept me for who I am, bed wetter or not.

Where I've Been...

Last Friday, we headed up north to attend the wedding of two of our good friends. The wedding was held on her Grandma's farm, overlooking the fields. It was a beautiful location. And, across the field, you could see the farm that my mom grew up on, where I spent many childhood days visiting my grandma and grandpa. The bride and groom were blessed with no rain that day (the first day without rain in many days there). It was cool and overcast, but it made for a comfortable day. I was a bad girl and completely forgot to take any pictures. Seriously, I have about 8 and none of them have the bride and groom in them. I get so caught up in enjoying the wedding that I forget to get my camera out. Oh well, you'll just have to believe me when I say that the couple looked fabulous.

While at the wedding, we got to spend some time with our friends from Ohio. They just got engaged and so it was great fun talking to them about all of their wedding plans for next summer. It's a bummer living so far away from them, but we always have a blast when we're together.

The fabulous dude and my brother held the MCing responsibilities for the evening. They did an amazing job. They had funny pieces of advice to go along with pictures from the bride and grooms childhood, trivia for guests to answer, and an archery station where guests could attempt to pop balloons to get the couple to kiss (the bride and groom are both avid hunters and love archery so it was fitting). They also re-wrote the words to "I'm Still a Guy" by Brad Paisley to tell "The Story of Cassie and Ry". It was hilarious and the crowd absolutely loved it. I might try to get the video of them singing it up here sometime next week.

On Sunday after the wedding, I headed home with my sister, her hubby and my nephew to spend a few days with them. I was there until Tuesday and we had loads of fun. We went for walks, played games and spent some time at the beach. I did manage to take a few photos there.

On Tuesday after supper, we loaded ourselves up in the car and drove three hours back to my place. They stayed here with us until last night. We did some shopping (thanks for the birthday gifts, sister!) ate lots of food and had a play date with some friends. Unfortunately, the end of H's vacation at Aunt Lucy's was ruined by a trip to the hospital to get treatment for an infection. Poor baby boy was not impressed with the waiting time (nor were Auntie and Mommy).

After the trip to the ER was done, we ate some dinner, played for a few more minutes and sent them on their way. It was a busy week but it was great. I am really just trying to soak up the last few days of "summer vacation" before I really get back into the swing of things at school.

I hope you all had a great week ... I've missed you all!