(almost) Wordless Wednesday

"Chocolate tower" dessert from our anniversary dinner on Monday.   We had a wonderful night celebrating our anniversary - 7 years!!     We went to Union Kitchen a new to us restaurant (love Groupons!) and had a wonderful dinner - salmon tartare appetizer, we each had steaks with different sides that we could taste (loved the polenta), the dessert above and some yummy red wine.   Great relaxing meal and a nice break from the work we've been doing on keeping the house 'show-ready'.....love you sweetie!

another (almost) Wordless Wednesday

I nicknamed Smokey our "hot dog" this weekend.  It was over 100 degrees and he still wanted to be let out the back gate so he could go off-leash and explore.

I had to tell him no, it was too hot and we'd already been for a short walk.  Its tough to say no to that face....

I think this was the happiest he was all weekend.   Kevin had a quick one-night trip to Austin with friends so it was just me and Smokey at home, and Smokey sulked the whole time....a little taste of what he does when we're both on vacation.  K got back mid-day Sunday and all was right with the world again.  I haven't had the heard to tell him we'll both be gone on vacation soon.....

Sunday was also our anniversary -- six years!   We had a very low-key anniversary.   I looked up the traditional gift - candy/iron.   I'm not sure how those two items go together.   We substituted frozen custard for candy and had it for dessert after I'd made spaghetti and salad for dinner.   I'm thinking we may've had spaghetti last year too....obviously we like it!

8 years

8 years ago today, Kevin and I had our first date!

I remember being nervous before the date and he even had to come get me outside - I was waiting for him outside the restaurant and it turns out he'd gotten there early - we met at benjy's.  We sat down, must've ordered some food, and the conversation flowed and I didn't want the evening to end.   After dinner we went to the lounge upstairs and sat on the outdoor balcony, each with a drink and continued our conversation.   I have no idea what we talked about that night, but it was the beginning of something wonderful.

This day means more to me than Valentine's Day, though K gets major brownie points for calling to wish me a Happy V-day that weekend even before we'd officially met.

We both new very quickly that we had found something special and we never looked back.

I am proud to say I met the love of my life online.  When we first met I wasn't sure I should tell people how we met - 8 yrs ago it was common, but not as common as it is now (and there was no ad campaign saying how many couples meet online).  I thought about saying a friend introduced us, but thats a lie.  To this day some people assume we met at my alma mater, since he went there at one point too - we could've seen each other on campus!   Then I realized it doesn't matter how we met, just that we did....and I'm so glad we did...

Happy anniversary to us! I cannot believe that tomorrow will have been 4 years since we said "I do." Time does fly when you're having fun, and we have lots of fun.

Only bad thing about getting married on a Saturday, its a long time before your anniversary falls on a weekend. We still find ways to celebrate. We met up for dinner tonight after I got off work and before Kevin's chess meetup (oh yes, we are both nerds) at a great Chinese & Vietnamese restaurant in Montrose.

We hadn't really talked about exchanging gifts, but Kevin surprised me with a card that is so perfectly us. My favorite line, "but what really matters in my world is that we are together, and however busy life may get, I don't forget that...ever" I don't know how you cite a greeting card (Kevin would probably know, but he's playing chess right now), but credit goes to Hallmark.

Anniversary

We got our hopes up last night that we might get rain. We heard thunder and the lights went off and on half a dozen times, sometimes staying off a few minutes (ruining our chances of finishing our movie since the tv and all had to start back up every time). We went outside to take the umbrella down and also just to watch the lightning, it looked like quite a storm -- really windy too! I've never been so excited to hear thunder and see lightning! After all that, we got just a few drops - we looked at the radar and it actually went around us. The street was wet this morning, so we must've gotten some rain, but nothing like I was thinking we'd have after that intro.....I am so glad to hear that some people got rain, the whole area needs it so badly.....

I often hear people say, this summer is much worse than last summer or other similar comparisons of weather to other years (milder winter, colder winter, etc., etc.). I am hopeless at remembering weather from one year to the next, with this exception -- I know that 2 years ago June was MUCH wetter, it rained nearly every day...I know because we were getting married at the end of the month and planned to have an outdoor ceremony, so I was anxiously watching it rain each day and wondering if we'd get the ceremony we wanted. We did get the ceremony we wanted even though we moved it inside -- it was still too hot and would've been miserable outside. I find it hard to believe that happy day was two years ago today. Happy Anniversary sweetie! We have no big plans since its a Tuesday - though we will have wine with dinner to toast the year and ring in the beginnings of year #3...we already know it will be a year of milestones - a move and our first niece...

Also a Happy Anniversary to Hillery & Mike and our next door neighbors! what are the chances that your neighbors will have the same anniversary you do? not sure, but ours do!

We thought the rain might've been an early anniversary gift (or a late birthday gift for Kevin). Here's hoping July is cooler and more wet.

Addition: We got a great anniversary gift - we were able to lock in a good interest rate for the new house!

MacGyver moment

We had a great anniversary. After sushi at Miyako, we wanted to get a drink so we tried to go to Absinthe, but its closed on Monday. So then we tried to check out Salud, a nearby wine bar, but it is also closed on Monday. Why are so many places closed on Monday? I know they have to give their employees time off, but Monday seems like a prime time for people to want to go out, since they just started a new work week. Kevin jokingly said we picked a bad day to have an anniversary. Since we were 0 for 2 we decided to just go to Cecil’s, we knew it would be open. It was open, so we had a round of drinks and enjoyed being in the smoke-free bar (I love the smoking ban) and then headed home. We'll have to check out the wine bar another day, and try to remember that those places aren't open on Monday. That happens to us a lot - showing up somewhere we want to go only to find out we didn't remember the hours very well...oh well.

Kevin wanted to get a shutter release (think remote control, but wired, to make your camera take a photo) for taking photos of the fireworks on Friday, and he’d read that you could make one from a cellphone hands-free headset, which is $10 rather than the $20-30 that the shutter release costs and its a challenge. So, at home I see him get a knife and a hammer and go to work on it. Cutting wires and looking very MacGyver…all he needed was a piece of gum. After a few minutes of working on it, he decided to try it and it worked! You can hold the wire, push the button and voila, the camera takes a picture!

In unrelated, but good news – I had a voicemail from the dermatologist that the mole I had removed last week is benign :)

One Year

Today is our one year anniversary! Hard to believe its already been a year since we got married. Looking at some old blog entries reminded me of all the planning (and stressing) that went into our wedding. I had the spreadsheet to end all spreadsheets to help with planning. Why do we have such large events? Part of it is that we’ve seen movies and read magazines all our lives about the ‘princess day’ that is your wedding, but to me it was wanting to make a wonderful celebration for our family and friends to include them in starting this new phase of our life together. With lots of help from friends and family we had just that, and both have great memories of our wedding day. I still have to laugh when I think of our first impression of the chef - hearing him yelling at someone in the kitchen when we went to check out the venue as a possible place to have our wedding, then at the wedding he aimed to please and kept giving drinks to me and to Kevin.....everyone was well taken care of.

We’ve had a great first year of marriage, with lots of changes and adventures. Since getting married, we got our dog Smokey and in the fall I changed jobs with a lot of support from Kevin. I know these will be the first of many changes in our lives together.

Our anniversary falls on a Monday, so we both have to work today, but will celebrate tonight by going out to sushi (yum!). Here is one of my favorite photos from our wedding.