Happy Turkey Day, A Little Late

Hope y'all had a fantastic Thanksgiving. 

For Mark and I, things went a little fast. It was a fabulous day, none the less. For several years, Mark has been volunteering at the Ecumenical Thanksgiving Dinner, a non for profit organization that hosts Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless, less fortunate, or other people in the Saint Louis area who may not have much place to go for the holiday. This was my second year participating in the event... and... I LOVE IT! It is amazing. So, we got there around 9 (I say "around", because Mark and I are nearly always later than we say we will be. I can never decide what to wear, and he is not the best with time management in spite of his best efforts.) As usual, we did the take outs this year. I love this, because it requires a bit of organization and it is usually always a job that keeps you busy. 

I had told Mark's mom that we would be arriving to eat at 2 o'clock. I, of course, was keeping a sharp eye on the clock. I trained the next group of people who would be running the take outs, said my good-byes, and began to try to round up my handsome captain so we wouldn't be late. We were late. By 20 minutes. All was good, though. We ate. We talked. We laughed. 

As the sun started setting, Mark and I grabbed our healthy pumpkin pie and headed out to the family compound to spend the holiday with my side of the family. More food. More talking. More laughing. I drank far far far too much sparkling grape juice before we said our goodnights and sweet dreams near midnight, heading into my little cousin's bedroom to take over her bed for the night. We didn't get out of bed until 10 the next morning... extremely late for us. More visiting and more food followed. There's nothing like Thanksgiving leftovers :)

This past year, Mark and I started a tradition. (Right, I know, Mark and I starting a tradition... BIG surprise.) We call it the Thanksgiving Jar. Here is it:

Pretty, right? I know :) I bought it at Hobby Lobby. LOVE that place! Anyways, this is our Thanksgiving Jar. Those little papers inside are things that Mark and I are thankful for. Throughout the year (we got this bright idea back in July, so it's probably not as full as it should be) whenever something happens that we feel thankful for in the moment we write it down and put it into the jar. We do not read them until Thanksgiving. Since we are huge procrastinators, we didn't actually do the Thanksgiving Jar until the other night. We each took turns taking a slip of paper out and reading it out loud. We wrote so many little wonderful things. You can bet we were both going "Awwwww" at each slip of paper. It was a fantastic way to reminisce and celebrate gratitude for the little blessings that we may have forgotten about since, but did not overlook in the moment. Life is crazy. It goes by fast. Sometimes you have to just take a few moments to think about what you really have right in front of you.

By the way, I never mentioned how much fun that Rams game was. We lost (like we weren't already expecting that, given their season so far this year) but we had a blast anyway. Though, I can't say the same for the guy sitting in front of us. The only thing I didn't like: the stadium security. Ridiculous. It took us almost as long to get into the stadium as it took us to ride the metro downtown. Here's a photo of us a the game:

 

I was sportin' a Rams jersey, ya just can't see it in this picture because it's covered by the beautiful scarf Mark recently bought me. I'm sorry Bears! (By the way, while the Rams were sucking butt and couldn't catch a ball, my Bears were kicking serious booty. DA BEARS!)

Surprise!

Hey y'all! So, my handsome man is a pretty romantic guy. He is always surprising me with little things. When I got home from work yesterday I went straight downstairs to get in my workout before he got home, so it wouldn't soak up any of our evening. (The workout was fantastic, by the way. I'm feeling so positive that I'll be ready for my bro's wedding in a few months!) As I walked upstairs, carrying a box of recyclables (I am the recycle queen!) that I found while cleaning up our basement a bit after my workout, Mark was just getting home from work; He had that "I've got a surprise for you!" smile on his face. I love that smile! lol

He first presented me with a book. Yes, I know, the very last - I mean the absolute very last - thing that the two of us need is another book. BUT, this is a very fun book, and will be very useful for all of my creative outlets. He bought me a tutorial book on Photoshop Elements, and to top it off, he has the program for me :) Have I said that I love him!?!? ;) Then, as if I was not already surprised, he had surprise number two. Taking my hand, he lead me to the bathroom. As he's doing this, I'm thinking "What the flippity flappity frick is he doing taking me into the bathroom?!". He pulled back the shower curtain and grabbed a bottle of something... an organic olive oil shampoo to help moisturize and detangle my beautiful thick long locks, which seem to get longer and tanglier (yes, spell check just told me that wasn't a word, so I know) by the day, and I am desperately trying to NOT cut my hair so it is super long for our wedding. Then, once he has me on cloud nine and could probably take serious advantage of my state of ecstatic delirium, he tells me I have to wait for surprise number three. SURPRISE NUMBER THREE! Another one! Sweet action!!

As I am waiting for surprise number three, we head to the grocery store. Crazy! Everyone in Florissant was at the grocery store last night. Not only was it Super Thursday ($10 off every $50, baby!) but it is also the week before Thanksgiving. We will definitely have to remember that next year, because we WON'T be doing THAT again! lol So, with groceries purchased, I make dinner. A yummy smoked beef roast with mashed potatoes and saute-d beans of green :) We eat, I savor the spuds, and by then it's nearing ten o'clock. I go into our bedroom to get in some comfy warm jammies and then head towards the kitchen to make our traditional hot chocolate so we can read our book before bed. (Yep, us and our crazy traditions)

As I walk back to the bedroom I'm saying "So today is basically over, can I have my last surprise yet?" And I hear Mark say "Hmmm... I don't know..." and then I'm certain that he's going to skimp on me and make me wait until morning just because he knows it'll drive me nuts all night and he likes to keep me excited for as long as possible. Instead, I walk into our bedroom to find Mark has already turned down the sheets and he's got that same "I've got a surprise for you!" smile that he had on his face earlier. As I go to snuggle up on my side of the bed, this is what I find laying next to Mark on my pillow... (excuse the wrinkly pillow case, I hug it in my sleep...)

 

 ... and inside...

I won't tell you what the card says, because heck y'all, that's kind of personal isn't it?; but that's right, inside this beautiful card were two tickets to the Rams game this Sunday! So excited!! Mark is taking me to my very first Rams football game, something we've been wanting to do for a long time :) Since Mark and I started dating a few years back, football has become something I enjoy watching. We always watch in at home, though, and I'm pretty excited that my handsome captain is taking me to the field!!! It's going to be a blast!

Our Kykuit

After doing a huge renovation at our first rental property, Mark and I decided we would "show some love" to our own little abode. Lots of organization - lots and lots and lots of organization - has been taking place these last several weeks; and, with a new filing system finally in place, a lot of the "junk papers" that we've been just throwing into the second bedroom and collecting on our dining room table is finally finding it's way to the recycle bin... making this girl right here very happy! *Note: I would very much love a paper shredder for Christmas!

With a seemingly endless list of to-dos and wants, there is so much with this renovation that it is hard to decide where to start. It's so easy to want to start with the fun stuff. While holding off painting until the Spring; the winter projects seem to be the installation of the new ceramic tiles in the kitchen and the bathroom, and a new toilet in the upstairs bathroom to match the new vanity we've previously installed a few months back. Each of those projects only become "fun" once they are finished and you can enjoy the final product. Currently, it is still undecided as to if we will hire someone to install the tiles or if Mark will venture into the land of unknown and improve his landlord/home remodeling skills. At this point, I sincerely believe the later is the most accurate outcome. The bathroom is easy since we have a second one, but the idea of not being able to use my kitchen for as long as it takes Mark to set our new flooring kind of freaks me out.

Since this home is not our forever home, we are striving to improve the house in ways that will come with us when we leave. While making a few permanent updates such as new flooring and installing new light fixtures to increase the value of our home, much of the renovation will be in form of art and decor (wish me luck, I'm reupholstering our furniture myself!) that we can easily transfer to our final home once we build it. This is the home where we are starting out; where we have fallen in love, and where we will experience a few of our family firsts. So, while still keeping our impending move in mind, we do want the design of this house to reflect our dream home.

Our dream home interior design inspiration is that of the Kykuit estate that presides in the Hudson Valley and was built by none other than Mark's favorite entrepreneur, John D. Rockefeller. Of course, Our Kykuit will be of a greatly smaller scale. I'll end this blog with our design inspiration photos:

Halloween at Our House

So, maybe this post is a little late, but that fits right in to one of the major character flaws that Mark and I share - procrastination. This past Halloween was the third Halloween that we shared together. Halloween is a special holiday for us, and so this year we commemorated the occasion by handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. It was the first time we were able to do that, as in the previous years we both had separate obligations. 

Now, Mark and I are a couple that like to celebrate traditions... and trust me, we have a tradition for basically EVERYTHING. Each year we carve a pumpkin together, celebrating a date back in the early years of October 2009 when Mark surprised me with a pumpkin and a festive fall evening :) However, this year our procrastinating caused us to fulfill this tradition fairly late in the Halloween season... so late that we didn't get to the carving until Halloween night as the little ghosts, goblins, and Mario nintendo characters were ringing our doorbell for candy. 

After Mark went to work that Monday morning, I set out in search for our pumpkin. (Yeah, that's right. Not only had we not carved it yet, we hadn't even purchased it!) I ended up at the Webster Groves Pumpkin Patch, where all of the small pumpkins were conveniently* already purchased by people who were far better prepared for the Halloween season than we were. So I was stuck with purchasing a pumpkin far larger than I would have preferred, in most part because I knew I would be the one who had to carry it all the way to the car since Mark was at work. Though I loved the larger size of the pumpkin, this sucker was heavy! As I plumped our orange giant into the backseat of my car, I smiled a bit remembering our first pumpkin, Harry, in 2009 (Larry was carved in 2010). Harry was a much smaller pumpkin and my silly Mark playfully had buckled Harry into the toddler carseat in my car. There was no need to buckle this one in, he wasn't going anywhere!

When I got to work, I emailed Mark to tell him that our pumpkin was massive. I somehow managed to get home from work that day before Mark did and had our pumpkin anxiously awaiting his arrival on the dining room table. Instead of a "Honey, I'm home!" I heard the front door open and Mark exclaim "You weren't kidding!" No, I wasn't. Seriously, y'all should have felt the weight of this thing before we emptied it's guts and made it smile. (Though, my sister and brother-in-law had us beat with a freaking mega giant pumpkin that took two people to carry, from what I've heard.) 

So, as I made dinner, Mark grabbed a pencil and began drawing on our guy's face. He asked me what I wanted him to look like. I wanted a BIG smile, so big that it was a bit goofy looking. Here is a picture of Herby, our country bumpkin pumpkin of 2011, sporting a Cardinals baseball hat in honor of their world series championship:

After we ate dinner, Mark began the cutting. This part of the process always makes me nervous, and I'm sure I aggravate the heck out of my handsome man as I repeatedly say "Point the knife away from you!" As soon as the scull was cracked, I started digging in and removing the seedy guts of Herby. One thing I didn't think about... huge pumpkins equal huge amounts of guts. Eww. So, with pumpkin guts and goo up to my elbows, Mark passed out the candy to the trick-or-treaters. Once Herby was empty, Mark picked out the seed we would keep. Like I said, we have our traditions, and we always keep one seed from each pumpkin. Then, it was time to give our giant orange guy a face :) 

After the trick-or-treating appeared to be over, Mark turned off all the lights (a big EEEEEK to me, since I am afraid of the dark!) and the two of us snuggled up on the sofa listening to ghost stories on our record player and drinking hot chocolate. 

So maybe procrastination got the best of this year's Halloween tradition, but we loved every second of it just the same. Halloween at Our House turned out pretty perfect, even if it was last minute.

*sarcasm implied

Introduction: Facebook vs. Blogspot

Almost everyone in the world is on Facebook. I am no exception. In spite of the fact that we met on MySpace back in 2007, my handsome man is more than just a tad leery about social networking. It is a bit of a tease between the two of us that I am a Facebook addict whose pointer finger begins to twitch whenever I come within mere feet of an available internet connection. (And, I reluctantly but honestly have to admit that sometimes I will be sitting somewhere and begin to think I wonder if there is anything new on my news feed. I know this is ridiculous.) In order to prove to myself that I do not, indeed, require a twelve step program; I am starting up this little blog about our life together. We'll see how it goes. For starters... here is the most recent picture of us, taken during our vacation last week:

I like it, and think we are pretty cute. Quite a few people have told us that, and it always makes me smile. Anyways, back to the whole Facebook vs. Blogspot thing... 

As an emotional and sensitive woman, I totally get that whole "take your partners feelings into consideration" thing. In fact, I'm going to gloat and say I'm a pro at it. He is, of course, as well. So, this blog is an attempt to still share all of the little details of our lives together with friends and family while also minimizing the possible search attempts and privacy issues (Facebook has not done the best job with privacy on my account) hopefully keeping us both happy. I highly doubt anyone thinks to blog stalk... right?

Also, this has potential to be FUN! Even if no one reads this thing because they are all as obsessed with their Facebook walls as I have been (and, okay, still am!), it will be a sweet little record of these times in our lives. I have been pretty determined about keeping a historical review of our relationship from day one, from calendars to journals to love notes; this blog is just another keepsake. (Don't let my calm, cool, and collected Mark fool you, he keeps stuff too, he just has to be real manly about it, lol.)

So here goes my first blog ever.