Eternal Life

Happy Easter to you all. I've been thinking much about the meaning of Easter this season. My beloved grandpa passed away a month ago, and it's so hard to think about how he's no longer here with us.

I went home to Texas last weekend for his memorial service. He was a minister of music, directing church choirs all over (including a 6 month tour of Africa), and it was so special to be able to hear his voice from a recording with one of his choirs in Dallas many years ago. 

A family friend spoke of one of my favorite memories of him -- how at Texas Rangers games, everyone within hearing distance to our seats would turn around in wonder as he unabashedly belted out the Star Spangled Banner in his rich baritone voice. One of the ministers then told a story that I hadn't heard before -- that it's tradition in their church to sing the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of the Easter service, and members are invited to come up and join the choir in singing it. He said he'll never forget how last year he watched my grandfather, 91 years young last Easter, immediately get up and make his way down the aisle with a determined look in his face to join the baritone section to sing those words of joy.

Easter holds the promise of eternal life, and I'm thankful for that reminder. I know Grandpa was with a new choir today, singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Life is Short

Having a difficult day here, thinking about my dear, sweet, amazing grandpa and wishing I was home in Texas to give him one last hug and kiss.

I really like the Holstee Manifesto, and when I saw it on sale on Fab.com today, I knew I needed to get it. Life is precious, and I'd like a daily reminder of that.

Golden Sparkles

 Love the gold sequined skirt

Love the gold sequined star stirrer-thingy

 

Love the gold sequined pillow

 Love this tablescape!

This would make for a lovely Valentine's Day fête, no?

Happy 27th Birthday to My Fave Guy!

If our future babies look half as cute as you did

in this 1985 Olan Mills photo (does everyone remember Olan Mills?), I will be a lucky woman.

Love, Your Wife

P.S. Thanks for proposing to me on this day three years ago.  Can't believe it's been so long since then!

P.P.S. Since we will be embarking on a nine-hour roadtrip when this post goes live, I guess I should drive during and let you listen to the US versus Algeria World Cup game with nary a complaint.  It is your birthday, after all.

Secret Message

I volunteer in a hospital gift shop Wednesday nights. A few weeks ago I helped one of the security guards pick out a Valentine's Day gift - a heart necklace where the heart opened into two pieces where you can stick a little rolled up love letter inside.

It reminded me of something that's been on my wish list for a while: the letter-in-an-envelope necklace!

BeadinBabe, $32

Say it in Français:

littlewhitechapel, $20

chrysdesignsjewelry, $26

Or perhaps Español:

grigio, $22
I love the clasp on this one!

Or if you're the kind of girl that likes to save on postage, this postcard necklace is quite adorable too:

basilthecat, $20

I would love the ability to personalize the message. Do you think the back could be engraved, maybe at a jeweler?

Or I could just have my honey stick his own handwritten message inside:

anirtak, $14

I stumbled across some empty envelopes for just $2 each. I wonder if I should try my hand at adding a chain:

greenkitten, $3.80!

J & I didn't exchange Valentine's Day gifts (we're trying to beef up the travel fund, which sadly took a big step backward this month paying for some of his tuition and board exams...why they are so friggin' expensive and why we have to pay for one of the exams 9 months in advance is beyond me), but I may tell him I wouldn't mind being surprised with one of these sometime...because we should celebrate love every day, no?

Which one's your favorite? Do you wear any jewelry with a secret message, such as an engraved wedding band?

Get in Here

February already?! Happy Love Month!

by Christopher David Ryan
18" x 24" poster available here for $20 ($5 off right now with code "THANKS")

also cute in a baby onesie version

My Love Resolution

2010 so far has been crazy work hours-wise for The Hubs (usual) and me (unusual), so we haven't been able to see much of each other lately. When we do, we're often stressed and snippy.

Case in point: I ate the last burrito when I came home late the other night, and unbeknownst* to me, he had his sites set on it for breakfast the next morning. He was not. happy. with. me. (In my defense, it was mine to begin with. His reasoning is that I have 24 hours to eat something that was originally mine and then it becomes community property. Apparently I need to make sure I'm updated on the latest house rules. The committee must have voted on that one without me.)


We did get the chance to snuggle on the couch a little last night after I got home from volunteering and before he had to go to bed, and it was nice to reconnect. February won't be any better for him, but I'm hoping to take a breather and concentrate more on love instead of fighting about burritos in the coming month. A worthy goal, I think.

Just in time for Love Month, AT did a post on love prints, and I fell in love (ha!) with these city prints by artsharkdesigns. I think it would be so neat to have a collection of your most favorite places. Unfortunately, none of them are for cities that have special meaning to J & me (although we've visited quite a few together), so I'm eagerly awaiting new cities. Check out these lovelies!

We did go to Venice and had a grand ol' time, but we didn't do a gondola ride, so I don't particularly feel like this umbrella couple. More fitting would be us walking along the canals with me eating a huge cup o' gelato. I may have to get this one anyway!

I'm saving our pennies for an awesome trip this summer. Maybe London?

Love this one of the UVA campus. I'm crossing my fingers for a UT one! That would be so perfect. Maybe I should commission one?

Brooklyn Bridge

San Franciso...I'm dying to take a romantic trip here!

What's your favorite? Know any other good lovey-dovey artwork I should look at?

* Okay, so not totally unbeknownst to me. I knew we were out of breakfast food other than yogurt and dry cereal and I ate it anyway. It was sooo worth it.

Breaky for Dinner

Last night, James suggested breakfast for dinner, which made me super excited.

You see, I'm not normally that big on breakfast foods.

It's good, just not my favorite. (Unless it was socially acceptable to only order a big pile o' bacon and cinnamon raisin toast.)

I think it's mostly because I'm not a fan of eggs, which are in pretty much every brunch menu item.

But he whipped me up the most delicious eggs (to go with my bacon and toast with grape jelly.
And I may be changing my mind.


Sunny side up from something...blue's flickr photostream

1 Year Blogiversary & New Addition to our Family

My first blog post was exactly one year ago with an Ode to Gordy, the most bad-ass poodle dog you would ever hope to know and love.

Since he passed away, we've been missing him. And after a while, we started looking for another snuggle buddy to join our family. We've done many a search on petfinder.com: size = small, age = baby or young. A couple of times we came across a dog we liked and would make an inquiry: Someone came by the shelter at 7 that morning and already picked him up. Adoption pending on that one. 15-page application not approved by the rescue group. Nothing had worked out, but we were fine with waiting.

Last week my sister-in-law sent us a listing for a litter of toy poodles because she thought the parents looked just like Gordy. We made an appointment and drove north, north, and east of Dallas to see them Saturday.

There were 2 girls and 1 boy left when we got there. We originally thought we wanted another boy, but our heart just went out to this little sweet, reserved, my-siblings-are-crazy I'm-ready-to-move-to-the-big-city girl. She loved chillaxin' in my lap and nibbling my finger while the others were bananas.

Photo in the listing - they call her Brownie

She's changed so much already

Mom and Child

So Brownie it was. She gets her second round of shots and will be ready this weekend, but we're going out of town. We're anxious to pick her up once we get back but decided it best if we waited until next Friday so we could all have the weekend to start settling into a routine.

Now we just have to pick out a name. There are several up in the air, and family members have already provided quite the list of suggestions. I'd prefer something French (gotta honor those roots), and it's gotta have that je na sais quoi.

Any suggestions for what to call our little girl?

I Love You So Much That...

I featured one of the card's from upup's etsy shop in my last post, but I loved this one so much that I needed to share it too.

So Thankful

I got a call this rainy morning from my husband with words I hope I don't hear again: "I just got in a wreck and if it had gone any different I would have died." He hit a patch of water in the left lane of the highway and hydroplaned head-on into a guardrail. Airbags went off, and his car skidded around in the other direction, thankfully staying on the shoulder of the road or a car behind him would have hit him head-on.

Thank God he's fine.

He showed me the photos he took of his car when I got home. The whole front is caved in, and the engine is on the ground. It looks so bad. I had hoped it would be repairable, but I can see now that it's clearly totaled.

Thank God he's fine.

I feel like in some weird way I caused it.
1. Saturday, I was driving and exited where I totaled my car 4 years ago (also hydroplaning, but on an oil patch made slick by the rain - maybe we shouldn't drive anywhere in the rain), and thought about totaling my car.
2. Yesterday, I was talking to my MIL about James's car insurance and how I was looking into paying off his car loan with my tax return.
3. This morning, when I was getting on the highway to go to work, I was thinking about the rain and getting into an accident.
4. James called me earlier on his way in to school when he hit traffic to see if I could look online to see what was causing the slowdown, and I told him his route was showing a traffic jam but was the only one not showing an accident.
5. I had on my to-do list today to call the loan company to see what the payoff amount on the car was, and was really looking forward to no longer having a car payment.

Do I have some weird power? Women's intuition? Or do I just think of weird things?

Thank God he's fine. I'm going to go snuggle with him some more now.

Happy Valentine's Day!

xoxo,
Laura

You're the ____ card here
Ever After print here

On the 5th of December, I Like You Too

On my recent trip to Boston* to visit a friend, we ducked into the MFA store to escape the cold (we did a lot of ducking into stores bars to escape the cold that weekend), and I picked up this book and started leafing through it:

It has the cutest illustrations, and you can see some of them here. (I didn't know Google had a Book Search. But of course. Google has everything.)

I'm at this point in the book when my friend comes over to see what I'm looking at:

Me: Look! This is so cute! It has the Fifth of July in it - my
WEDDING DATE!
Friend: Yeah, or my BIRTHDAY. [Friend, thanks again for sharing your birthday.]
Me: Yes! AND my WEDDING DATE! I MUST get this!

Today, DH and I have made it 6 5** months. Time has flown by, and hopefully this chunk of time will be a very smally percentage of our married life.



** Um, apparently I can't count. For some reason I was thinking 6 the whole time as I created this post. 5 months is so not as big of a deal as 6 months...and 6 months isn't a big deal either really, unless you're under the age of 10 and say that you're "7 and 1/2, NOT 7!". (Now I am clinging to "26! NOT 27! NOT 26 and 11/12!")

Without further ado, DH, this is why I like you:

I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it's
special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say,
Remember when you told me something special
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it's important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I'm funny and you think I'm funny too
Hah-hah!

I like you because you know where I'm ticklish
And you don't tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too
You know how to be silly
That's why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you
I like you because you know when it's time to stop being silly
Maybe day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Too late, it's a quarter past silly

Sometimes we don't say a word
We snurkle under fences
We spy secret places
If I am a goofus on the roofus hollering my head off
You are one too
If I pretend I am drowning, you pretend you are saving me
If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,then you are getting ready to jump
HOORAY

That's because you really like me
You really like me, don't you
And I really like you back
And you like me back and I like you back
And that's the way we keep on going every day

If you go away, then I go away too
or if I stay home, you send me a postcard
You don't just say
Well see you around sometime, bye
I like you a lot because of that
If I go away, I send you a postcard too

And I like you because if we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost**
Then you are the one that is yelling for me

And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don't always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time

I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It's awful when the other person isn't
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up
then you are really sorry
You don't just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that
You say, maybe it was something you ate
You say, the same thing happened to me one time
And the same thing did

If you find two four-leaf clovers, you give me one
If I find four, I give you two
If we only find three, we keep on looking

Sometimes we have good luck, and sometimes we don't
If I break my arm, and if you break your arm too
Then it's fun to have a broken arm
I tell you about mine, you tell me about yours
We are both sorry
We write our names and draw pictures
We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too

I like you because I don't know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can't remember when I didn't like you
It must have been lonesome then

I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do
So many reasons

On the 4th of July I like you because it's the 4th of July
On the fifth of July, I like you too
If you and I had some drums and some horns and some horses
If we had some hats and some flags and some fire engines
We could be a HOLIDAY
We could be a CELEBRATION
We could be a WHOLE PARADE

See what I mean?
Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January

I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again
That's how it would happen every time
I don't know why
I guess I don't know why I really like you

Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like
you because I like you.

On a side note, I Googled this book to find the text to share, and discovered that this has been used this as a wedding reading. We had a Catholic wedding ceremony, so we had very limited choices in our readings, but this would have been perfect for a sweet, simple ceremony. There were so many poems and stories I found during the course of wedding planning that I couldn't use, but I saved them anyway with the idea of using them in a wedding album. This is definitely going in there!



* I will post photos at some point****. I swear.

*** I've gotten lost twice on our trips together. And you went to Rome and back to Castiglion Fiorentino to look for me.

**** Could be months. I am lazy.

Cherishing Those You Love

I had never heard of Stephanie Nielson until about a month ago when I saw several blogs posting about fundraising efforts for her family. On August 16th, the popular blogger, her husband, and a flight instructor were in a horrific plane crash that killed the instructor and left her husband with burns over 30% of his body and 80% of hers. I googled for more information and immediately added hers and her sister's blog to my Google Reader. I immediately felt connected to her, and it has been amazing to see the outpouring of support and fundraising efforts on her behalf by an online community.

I obviously don't know her at all, but she has the most beautiful thoughts on motherhood and appreciating all of the simple, beautiful things that make life worth living. She seems so positive, fun, and to use the word again, amazing. Past posts by her are currently being reposted on her blog, and I check her sister's blog for updates on her progress. She's undergoing skin graft surgeries and has remained heavily sedated, and my heart just breaks for her sweet children who just want their mother (they are 6, 5, 3, and 1), and the darling husband who's still in the hospital. I pray that she will come out of it all, and I don't doubt she'll be amazed by the outpouring of love that's been directed toward her family. It all makes you appreciate every day that you get.

I can still remember...

how I caught you smiling at me as I stood with some sorority sisters at the bar. I was there for a sorority crush party, you were there for a kickoff party for a fraternity event, and the bar was double-booked. I remember you and another guy coming up to us, and I remember how you kind of elbowed him out of the way when he tried talking to me, and how you and I spent the rest of the night talking, long after most of our friends had left.

We met 6 years ago today. And 2 months and 1 week ago we became husband and wife. And every time I look at the photo of you watching me walk down the aisle, it reminds me of how you smiled at me the night we met. I love you.