I Love You

Day 773

Day 1-203 here
Day 204-406 here
Day 407-772 here

Day 773 – We were married for 1 Year – Hawaii 2011

Day 775 – We renewed our Wedding Vows
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsfQFn-sRk?hl=en&fs=1]

Day 808 – We blew off studying and ran off to Eureka Springs for a day of fun like Newlyweds

Day 814 – We celebrated 10 years out of High School.

Day 831 – Hubby hit his last year in his 20’s (29)

Day 843 – Hubby got his first deer of our marriage

Day 849 – We went on the Show Boat Branson Belle.

Day 854 – I baked my first ever Turkey for Thanksgiving 2011.

Day 869 – Ft. Worth Bound Baby!

Day 873 – I found out we won a horse breeding to Smoother than a Cat

Picture courtesy of http://www.smootherthanacat.com/site.htm

Day 883 – I got my Hippopotamus for Christmas.

Day 892 – We rang in the New Year once again with a kiss.

Day 932 – We headed to Grandbury to take Squirty to meet her mate.

Day 939 – I killed my hard drive with all our photos.

Day 947 – Hubs and I had a blate.

Day 980 – Afternoon road Trips to Tulsa with hubby to meet Pioneer Woman

Day 985 – Headed to pick up Squirty.

Day 993 – Showboat Branson Belle – Again.

Day 1017 – What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.

Day 1035 – Hubby won his first Belt Buckle

Day 1070 – Big Brutus adventures

Day 1077 – Hubby experienced his first Round Robin show – I judged.

Day 1088 – Our 3 Year Dating Anniversary

Day 1093 –  I hit my last year of my 20’s (29)

Day 1107 – Our first night apart in just shy of 2 years.

Day 1110 – Spent a day and a half vacation together.

Day 1112 – I got my Drive In Date – 14 years later.

Day 1125 – We lost Squirty and our baby foal

Day 1129 – We celebrated our 2 year Wedding Anniversary

Times Fun….

Time’s Fun When you’re having Flies
                                                                   ~Kermit the Frog

I believe Kermit said it best!  Ok maybe not… I’m not going to eat flies, but……………..
Time sure does fly.  Especially the older we get.  Although I wonder why that is…
Well anyway…. a few month’s ago Janna over at Perception is Everything was talking about percentages.  And in doing so it got me to thinking about my percentages.
My husband and I went to school together starting in Kindergarten.  {Yes, we went to the same school} 
  • I started Kindergarten at age 5.
  • I am now 28 (but in a few short days will be 29)
  • So that means 28-5 is 23.
  • I’ve had the chance to know him for 23 years.
  • Or 82% of my life.
  • YIKES!

We were in different Kindergarten, I was AM he was PM.  We had different 1st grade teachers, I had Mrs. Thayer and he had Mrs. Craighton.  Probably only ran into him on the recess ground.  Then 2nd grade I switched schools.  {At the time our town had 6 grade schools, 1 junior high and 1 high school}

7th grade our paths met back up.  We should have met.  We didn’t have any classes together though.  We probably passed in the halls because all 7th grade lockers were together.  We probably met in the cafeteria, maybe, maybe not.

8th grade we finally had a class together – Band.  I was the dorky Clarinet player and he was the obnoxious Tuba player.  What can I say, we were band geeks. ha!

  • I was 13 in 8th grade
  • I am now 28 (but remember in 5 days I’ll be 29)
  • So that means 28-13=15
  • So I’ve known him for 15 years of my life
  • or 54% of my life.
  • Holy Cow

9th grade we had more classes together.  We got in trouble together once.  {Keep your heads out of the gutter people!}  We were singing in class… I got mad at the teacher and started singing {yeah don’t ask} and he joined in with me.  Oddly enough, that year we became friends.  I must admit at first I couldn’t stand him but he grew on me 🙂

  • I was 14 in 9th grade
  • We’ve already established I’m 5 days away from being 29 but that still means I’m 28
  • So… 28-14=14
  • Kind of backwards of the previous or reverse or something
  • So I’ve been friends with him 14 years of my life
  • or 50% of my life

We’ll just skip over the fact in 10th grade he asked me out, but I couldn’t answer him fast enough before he found someone different.  {Sorry I throw that out there every chance I get.  Maybe someday I’ll drop it…..}

We graduated high school, went our separate ways.  I went to college and Costa Rica and got a job.  He got a job, joined the Military, got discharged and became a Civilian Contractor at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.  We led completely different lives.  Our paths never crossed even though we were from the same hometown.

Then, this crazy thing happened in 2009 that flipped my boat upside down.  One month 2 days before I turned 26 I found this long lost friend from high school. 27 days later I went on my first date with him.  That date changed my life forever.

  • I was 25
  • 5 days before I turned 26.
  • Three years we’ve been together
  • He didn’t give up on me even though I wanted to give up on me.
  • I didn’t think anyone would love me.
  • I didn’t think anyone would want to be with me.
  • He did.
  • We’ve been together for 3 years.
  • 28-25=3
  • 3/28= 0.1071428571428571
  • We’ve been together 11% of our lives.
It may not be the best photo… taken with a Crackberry at 3am, but it’s the first picture to forever!

 Happy Dating Anniversary baby!  I love you!

My Dearest Love

You have no idea how happy I am that God brought us back together. We drifted apart, but partially I think we both had to go make our “mark” on the world. You left yours on a wall in Afghanistan and I wrote mine in the beaches in Costa Rica. We took very different paths from each other but it’s so strange how we wound up back together.

I know there are times when the “what if’s” in life fall into our heads or pangs of jealousy even take over (yes I said it), but at the same time we’re strong as individuals but we’re stronger as a team. Never let those things rule our lives and I’ll try my best too. Sometimes I fall and I need you to help pick me up and guide me back on path, and I believe it’s ok to ask for help. Can’t maybe died in the corn patch, but needing help sure didn’t!

I love you more now than the day you proposed to me. And we’ve had our struggles as every married couple does, but let’s stay on track with each other by our side!

Love,

Cole

Nuts!

When I first started dating my husband he told me he didn’t like nuts.  Ok I can buy that I guess.  There are things I really don’t care for.  Nuts seemed a bit odd, but I guess I’m not real crazy about walnuts so ok.  Every so often I’d want to make something that called for nuts and I’d either leave them out or just not make it.  I didn’t want him to feel left out :).

Well you know they say that your taste buds change every 7 years.  Keep this in mind….

So Saturday we went to a horse show, unfortunately just to watch :(.  Anyway they usually have a bucket up for candy and a bucket up for peanuts in the shell.  Truthfully I have a hard time resisting peanuts in their shell!  Even though sometimes they are a pain to get out.  I look over at hubs and see this.

I’m not gonna lie.  I looked at him with wonky eyebrows (you know, like maybe a fish hook in my eyebrow… Lol) shook my head, blew it off as candy and went on.  A few minutes later I see this:

Again, I look at him like maybe he’s lost his mind.  It was only to be followed up with this:

Now that is obviously peanuts!  Then I see this:

And this:

Which just confirms my husband was eating peanuts ladies and gentlemen.  Oh goodness me!  What is this world coming too… lol.  I love you hunny 🙂

Valentine's + Surprises + Recipes = Oh My

Oy this has been some week!  Luckily we’re on the downhill slide :).  Not that I want to wish my life away or anything!

So I just thought I’d share my Valentine’s Day, not that we did anything grand or spectacular… but still 🙂  Ok don’t make to much fun of some of the photos, the first ones were ALL taken with my cell phone.  It was a lot less obvious than my big camera at work :).

Why what is this?  Oh, it looks like flowers huh?

I opened the box to 2 dozen Purple roses.  Purple my fave!

Yup, that’s my sweetheart!

Are they not gorgeous!  Oh and please ignore my messy desk!  Apparently my desk is a dumping ground some days!

I kept the box to get them home with.  Great transportation right there!  Back when I took my floral class I learned to buckle my flowers in to get them home.  Works great!

Now all morning hubs was trying to play it off like he didn’t get me anything but I got him the wallet. Truth be told, I didn’t care.  I knew better because I know him, but if he didn’t get me anything, that was fine by me.  And I am speaking honestly here!  Not just saying that because I should.  Just sayin!

Next, whatever could this box be?

I saw the blue bag and so thought of Santa’s bag… LOL

Another Awe moment 🙂

One box to another box….

To another box.  I’d have almost sworn he  did this on purpose, but it came from Amazon so I guess they did it…

And whatever could it be?  White plates!

Now at work, try telling people your husband got you white plates for Valentine’s Day.  Trust me, you’ll get some weird, odd, strange looks.  I’m sure people even put him in the “bad” gift giver category and I just laughed.  I told him that’s what I wanted.  Now sadly enough I told my mom the same thing when she asked because I was afraid no one would get me any, so I wound up with 2 sets so mom is taking hers back.  That made me feel bad!

But truthfully, I didn’t want a set.  I really just wanted 1.  Now try doubly hard to explain that one.  I swear I haven’t lost my mind!  Cross my heart!  People at work looked at me strange though!  But I don’t tell them so much that I have a blog.  I just told them I like to photograph food, which gets some even weirder stares.

My kitchen is green & yellow, aka John Deere colors.  My plates are Fiesta Ware Shamrock & Sunshine.  Now I may not always be the best at photographing my finished food product, but when I do, those colors put a weird cast on to my food.  I wanted a white plate because they reflect back.  And I’m not crazy about the round white, I like the square white!

Anyway hubby got me a serving of 16 which is 4 dinner plates, 4 salad plates, 4 bowls & 4 coffee mugs.  So be prepared to see them.  They probably won’t be exclusively seen, but you’ll see them.  Plus in this picture you’ll notice a large white plate under the smaller.  Mom got me that for Valentine’s Day.  The small dipping bowls and 2 funky square spoons we got while in Texas over the weekend at World Market.

 

Yes, I think I had a good Valentine’s Day.  Truthfully I didn’t need or want anything!

So then we’d talked about going out to dinner for Valentine’s Day but then met up for lunch instead.  So when hubby asked if I wanted to go out to dinner I told him no.  Save our money and we’ll go home and cook something.  While in Texas at World Market we found the cutest pasta.  It’s in the shape of hearts.  I told him I wanted to make something with Pasta for dinner :).

So we settled for Spaghetti.

Now if you know anything about us, very seldom do we use just store bought sketti (that’s spaghetti) sauce, or if we do, we usually jugge (don’t know how to spell but I can say it… like make it better, add our own twist to it, etc) it up.  Last night was no different.  We actually used store bought sketti (remember spaghetti) sauce and added hamburger, spices, mushrooms, red bell pepper & onion to it, plus a can of crushed tomatoes b/c hubby grabbed the wrong can.  Hey no biggie to me!

Now doesn’t this look scrumptious?

Hey look, it’s a white plate.  And yes, in case you wondered, I washed it :).

Just in to making the sauce I made the comment, wouldn’t bread be good to go with it?  Well we didn’t have any bread b/c we haven’t been keeping any in the house, so I told him I’d make beer bread.  A girl at work gave me the recipe.  4 ingredients.  That’s it!  It did however take an hour to bake, so it just gave the sauce longer to simmer and marinate together!

If you know us, we also don’t drink beer, but we do like to cook with it from time to time.  It’s great in chili or making a pizza crust with some bisquick or in this case, making beer bread.  I hate beer but love beer bread.

Easy Beer Bread

16 oz. beer – not dark ale
3 c. self rising flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Mix all together. Spray pan with non-stick and put in 350 oven for 1 hour.
 

I feel like we had a fabulous Valentine’s Day Dinner in.  It was a snap even!  No tv on.  No radio on.  We sat at the table and enjoyed each other’s company over great food!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!!

Easy Beer Bread

by Nicole
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Keywords: bake bread side appetizer self rising flour Beer American
Ingredients
  • 16 oz. beer – not dark ale
  • 3 c. self rising flour
  • 1/3 c. sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Mix all together.
Spray pan with non-stick and put in 350 oven for 1 hour.
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2 Years

Where were you 2 years ago?  What day would that have been?  What year?  Can you answer any of those questions?  I can.

The day of the week would have been a Friday.  The year would have been 2010.  Starting at 8am in the morning I was making phone calls left and right.  First to the bank, then to the hospital and back again.  The Hospital said I didn’t pay a $25 co-pay bill (that they make you pay in advance before they’ll do anything to you) from 2008.  The bank wanted to charge me $28/hr to research and find the check I had written.  I was arguing with the hospital that they wouldn’t see me without paying the co-pay.  I was arguing with the bank that I wasn’t going to pay $28/hr to find a $25 check.

The bank finally reasoned with me that that wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do.  I finally proved that I paid the $25 co-pay but the hospital didn’t credit it to my account for a while, so therefore they thought I hadn’t paid it.  Gah and people wonder why I don’t go to the hospital/doctor!

About 10am  I was mad.  I had been so shook up because I am one to PAY MY BILLS.  The mail gal came by and saw my face was red and talked to me for a few minutes and then went on her way.  Just as she left Nancy at the front desk called me to tell me I had a beautiful package sitting on her desk.  I told her I’d be up.  I started to do the mail real fast and said, nope, screw it.

Would you like to know what I was wearing?  My husband says I have a steel trapped mind sometimes.  I know what I was wearing this particular day.  One of my favorite pairs of Lucky’s.  My Red Nike Shocks.  A t-shirt that said Tbugs Cheer team on it.  And my Fight like a girl sweatshirt.  Sorry I can’t tell you what bra and panties… I know you’re bummed about that right?

And this was what was waiting for me at the front desk.

Now I had already told the boy, Don’t get me flowers.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like them.  What girl doesn’t like flowers, even when she says she doesn’t want them. :).

I called him on my trek back to my desk to give him fits.  He didn’t answer his phone.  Odd because he was just talking to me via g-talk.  That’s fine, whatever I’ll go hit him up when I get back to my desk.

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