weekend wrap-up

First off, thank you guys so much for all your AMAZING comments on my last post. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I was going to get out of blogging, but I am completely overwhelmed by the friendships I've formed and the awesome support you guys give. It's been a tough road, but one that you guys actually made quite a bit more bearable. I truly can't thank you all enough for sticking around!!

So this was our last weekend with the Marine before he heads off to A-stan. Boo. We played a bit of RockBand (duh) and spent a lot of time with family. We got together for dinner on Saturday night to also celebrate my grandmothers and the Marine's upcoming birthdays. Of course, it turned into quite the picture-rama.







I'm trying not to think about the little bro being gone for 7 months. It sucks. He's my best friend and I hate thinking that he's going to miss all of my pregnancy.

But my whine is over. I know some military families have it far worse and I thank God he's only gone for 7 months.

Sunday was spent hanging around the house and finalizing work on the Taj Mahal storage unit. Seriously guys, wait til you see this thing. The bestest and her kids came by for a few minutes on their way to a birthday party which was huge since I haven't seen them since June. They should totally come down from Charleston way more often!

B with the babes. My version of the same pic is not blogworthy!


Everyone cleared out Sunday night and Mr. Perfect and I collapsed on the couch. We have very quickly gotten back into our couch/tv routine and we LOVE it. We sure have missed being our quiet, boring selves! Although.. I sure do miss the Marine. We'll be making the trek up to MarineTown, USA too soon to put him on a plane. Gah.

Other than that, I have a ridiculously busy week. Work is insane and I have a shower and a dinner get together that I have to finish putting together for Saturday. I love it though. Keep me busy.. make those weeks fly by. =)

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

scenes from a marriage.

The other day for my birthday, the Mister and I picked up 6 Coldstone cupcakes as a snack. After picking them up, we stopped by my friend KP's workplace and let her have one. She picked the cake batter one. Super delicious.

On the way home (with only 5 cupcakes left- only one cake batter), the Mister, whose been doing Atkins, tells me he's going to cheat for my birthday and have a cupcake. I tell him, of course you should!

Then he picks the last cake batter.

I could feel my bottom lip practically hit my feet as I looked at him with wide eyes and said "But I WANT the cake batter!!".

We're sitting at a stop light so the Mister looks at me calm as anything and says "How will I ever handle 2 children?"

Huh?

He explains that when we do have a child it will be his second, as he's already dealing with me as his first.

Nice...

I sucked my lip back in, sat up straight, and pretended that 2 year old whine did not come out of my mouth.

And when we got home, I let him eat the last cake batter cupcake. Pretty big of me huh?!

hardest thing ever.

Mr. Perfect and I didn't live together before we got married. We actually didn't even live in the same town until we got married. In college, I lived in different apartments with different girls. There was always someone around, someone to watch TV with, someone's clothes to borrow.

There were the not so good roommates. I had one who always had people over. Every single night. They slept in our living room. Usually on the floor. They would leave food out everywhere. Needless to say, I didn't live with her long.

Then there was my roommate that would "disappear". No lie. For days on end she would be gone. We didn't have any classes together so I don't even know if she went to class. She'd show up every now and then and then usually sleep for 3 days straight. Three days in which I had to tiptoe around as to not wake her up. Who sleeps on a Friday night at 6?!?

After college, the little brother and I actually got an apartment together. Living with a boy was pretty low key. Except that he thought he needed to carpet our bathroom floor with his boxers. I did not get that. But he did that when we lived with the parents too, so I was used to it. The Marine (little brother) and I hung out with the same people, worked together, and lived together. Good thing we got along amazingly well. And that our work schedules were opposite, so sometimes we got a break from each other. I loved living with him. There was always something going on, he could cook (yay!), and I could clean. It worked.

Then I got married. I actually cried the day I moved out of my apartment. I remember sobbing to my Mom about how I had to move and "live with a boy!!". I know that I was living with my brother, but it's different.

That first night, I could not sleep. We were in our own house, in our own bed, and he wouldn't quit snoring. I could not figure out how I was going to ever get used to sleeping with that noise. I must have slept on the couch most nights those first couple of months. Then I got used to it. Now I can't sleep without him there, or if I do, it's not a good sleep.

Next thing I noticed about living with my boy was his stuff. It was everywhere. Stuff I couldn't even figure out what it was. I put most of it "away" which usually ended up badly. Apparently he had meant to leave it in the middle of the floor. Gah. I noticed one day that I a bra of mine came out of the dryer with a bunch of white t-shirts and socks. I almost had a meltdown. Didn't he know?!?!?

Boxers still end up on my bathroom floor. Sometimes bras still end up in the dryer. My kitchen counter at times is littered with "stuff". Our coffee table occasionally ends up becoming a gun workshop of sorts. It's a constant work in progress trying to mesh two ways of thinking into one house. He still doesn't load the dishwasher "right". He would probably say I don't. He would be wrong.

Becoming a household of our own was a process, but now we work perfectly. He cooks, I clean. I do the laundry, he wears the clothes. It works. There are still days that I look at something and am baffled as to how it makes sense to him. I will never understand clothes in front of the hamper or leaving the sleep machine on all day. But I wouldn't change him for the world. It might have been the hardest thing ever meshing our two worlds, but it's been ridiculously well worth it.

i miss sleep.

When I was little, I had to have the radio on to sleep. I would sing along for a little bit, but eventually I would just drift off to dreamland. I could not sleep without that noise. Probably something to do with how I can't turn my mind off.

Then in high school, I added the tv. I would go to sleep to a good movie or television show. The lights flashing didn't even phase me. I could not sleep without it.

At my senior prom one of my girlfriends took a college boy as her date. That night, the boy, Chris, slept through one of the loudest parties ever. Like slept in the middle of it. I was in awe. How on earth does one sleep through "Animal House" 2.0? He told me to wait til I got to college and I would understand.

Then I did. My dorm was full of screaming co-eds and they never bothered me. I was an athlete, so I got up super early in the morning and napped in the afternoon and I could have slept through the second coming. My roommate at the time couldn't sleep with any noise. So long nightly radio and tv. We slept with a fan. I was so tired all the time that I didn't care.

When I got out of college, my sleep patterns changed. I couldn't handle any noise at all but the fan. Thank you college roomie for ruining me. Noises outside drove me crazy. I would find myself focusing on every little sound and it keeping me awake all night. I was starting to miss my sleep.

Then I got married. Now I love my husband, but the boy is a snorer. I spent a good portion of the first couple months of our marriage sleeping on the couch, or the guest bed. I could not take it. We got a noise maker and eventually I learned that if I turned the noisemaker on and got to sleep first, I could sleep for a few hours til he would wake me up in the middle of the night. Sleeping next to him turned out to be worth it all though..

Now Mr. Perfect has a sleep machine. Oh. My. Gosh. I loathe this thing. It hums, it whispers, and it sounds like Darth Vader coming to kill me in my sleep. I can hear it over the noisemaker, I can hear it over the fan, I can even hear it over the dogs. I can't sleep. It freaks me out. I just sit there and listen to it hum and breathe. Yes, it breathes.

I friggin' miss my sleep. I am so tired, but he has to have this machine. Anyone else sleep with this wannabe alien in their room? How do you cope sleep with it on?!? I can't do earplugs. They make my ears feel dirty. I already tried them.

Must find coffee. Somehow I need to function today.

it's our anniversary! (sing that..)

Four years ago today, I married my best friend.



Hands down; best thing I ever did. Never in my life has anyone made me laugh like he does. Never in my life has anyone made me feel as good as he does. Never in my life has anyone loved me like he does.



We've been on a heckuva ride these past four years, but it's made our relationship stronger with every hardship. We've been through heartbreak and good times and it's all been so worth it.



So thank you Mr. Perfect for the last four years. Thanks for choosing me to spend the rest of your life with. And most importantly, thank you for loving me unconditionally. Thank you for putting up with my spastic behavior. For never hardly ever getting frustrated with my inability to remember anything. For dealing with my flightiness. I can't wait to spend the next 80 years with you babe.. I promise you it's going to be a great ride!!

Standards

So I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that our church is doing this amazing marriage study at the moment. I am loving it. One of the things that I think has caused Mr. Perfect and I so much trouble in our marriage is that we didn't really get good pre-marital counseling. We had some, but no where near what I would recommend to an engaged couple. We were pretty much left in the dark with so much so these sermons have been a definite wake up call in our marriage.

Our preacher spoke to us today on the roles of parents, husbands, and wives in a marriage. I'm not going to give you the whole sermon, because frankly I don't remember it all. Good memory- I do not have.

What stuck out to both Mr. Perfect and myself was the section on setting standards in our marriage. Our Sunday School teacher actually did an excellent job preaching on this. I set a lot of standards for myself and people I surround myself with daily. I expect a ton from my co-workers because I have such a high standard for what I produce. And I usually do just what I set out to do. I definitely got my parents hardworking gene. Thanks! Mr. Perfect is the same. He sets very high standards for his employees. I always joke that there is no way I could work for him because he expects so much! However, it gets him the respect he deserves as their boss.

Where we both lack is the same; we don't set standards for ourselves in our home.

Huh?

We're very chill at our house. It works for us right now, but what we got to thinking about was setting a standard for our family. Example: I have told him time and again that when we procreate (love that word) the TV is gone. I kid you not. We will not have a family television. Mr. Perfect used to just dismiss this as one of my many passing fancies. But I'm serious. Have you seen what's on television today? I'm guilty of encouraging it by what I watch but come on. Saturday morning at work we were watching cartoons and a condom commercial came on. Are you kidding me?!? I don't want my children seeing that. My other thing with the tv is the materialism it breeds. I don't want my children "wanting" things that the tv shows them over and over and tells them they "need". I don't judge people that do allow their children tv time, it's just not what I think I want at this time. We will keep our small tv in our room for DVD's and such though.. I do need my FRIENDS!

I want my children to see Mr. Perfect and I set standards for relationships. I want them to see that he always opens my door for me and that we hug, and touch, and are affectionate. I want them to know that their parents love each other, therefore making it easier to love them. I want God first in our house. I want us in church when the doors are open. Our SS teacher said if you raise the standards so high, your children will more than likely set theirs just a bit below that. Well by golly, I'll set mine so high that their lower standards are still high!

We felt such a conviction on this today. We were disappointed in ourselves that we do set such high standards everywhere else but our home. That the second most important relationship we have in this world is the one we expect the least from. That's not how it's supposed to be. So we'll be setting up our standards for our family. I'm sure it's going to be a process but oh how worth it it will be. By the time God decides to bless us with our little one, I want the strongest foundation we can possibly have on which they will grow.

I love sermons like today when it's just what I needed to hear...

The Boy Did Good...

So... how was everyone's Valentine's Day?! Not gonna lie.. I had maybe the best EVER!! Let me preface this by telling you a bit about me or you're just going to be like "Huh? I don't understand?!". So I love all things scary. Scary movies (not slasher films-- I hate movies like Scream), ghost stories, haunted places, etc. Which is weird because I hate being scared. I know this because Mr. Perfect scares me at least once fifty times a day. Whole other story. I am not a fan of this habit of his!! But I digress...

I am also a huge history fan. Seriously. Love. It. Like in a can't get enough, read about it, Google historic facts way.

All this to tell you about our V-day. Which happened to be the day after an even better day; that's right, Friday the 13th.


Mr. Perfect called me at work Friday and asked me to leave early. Trust me. He didn't have to ask me that twice!! Then he told me to come on home. I told him "No prob. I'll just swing by the gym for a bit". To which he said "Nope. Come straight home." WHAT?! You can't tell me to skip the gym and think I'm not going to know somethings up!!! So I whined for five minutes a minute, but then agreed to just come on home.

I get home and Mr. Perfect tells me I have 30 minutes to get changed and pack an overnite bag. Right.... Give me something I can realistically do!!! An hour later I was ready to go. (NO idea what I'd packed. I know I didn't have his definition of comfortable shoes!)

We headed to the Historic Downtown district of our lovely little city. Once we headed there he told me we were going to eat at the Pirate House. Yay! 1) I've actually never eaten there in my 26 years in this town, 2) it's deliciously "haunted" (a must for Friday the 13th), and 3) I've heard the food is incredible.
It was. My drink was even better. And we got to hear a ghost story from a pirate while eating! They don't do that at Chili's!!

Mr. Perfect enjoying his food..


Me enjoying mine and my delicious "Flirtini". No clue. Cute name!


After stuffing ourselves silly dinner, we walked down to another cute restaurant for dessert and coffee for Mr. Perfect, wine for me. I'd been to this restaurant before but it had been years. Just as good as I remembered.

Then on to our next stop. (I was currently regretting my not so comfortable shoe choice, but don't you dare tell Mr. Perfect!!) We got back to the Pirate's House and on to this!!


That's right!! We did a Ghosts and Gravestones Haunted Tour of the City!!! Shut up! I've always wanted to do one of these! It was great. I absolutely loved it. How could you combine history and ghosts and not have a successful evening?! I thoroughly enjoyed this. We don't take enough advantage of the gorgeous City we live in and any time we do "touristy" things like this, we always like it. So this was a grand slam in the idea department!

But he wasn't done yet... After we climbed our slightly frozen behinds off the trolley, we headed out to lovely little Tybee Island to spend the night out on the beach. Yep. Oceanfront room for the nite please!! It was awesome! (I realize there are WAY too many exclamation points in this point but Mr. Perfect deserves them!)
We stayed out on Tybee for this night, and then got up for lunch at our favorite restaurant of all time, The Crab Shack. It was kind of cold, but we love this season at the Crab Shack. No tourists and only locals make it a very relaxed place to have lunch. We eat here too much. We can call the servers by name.

Us leaving the Crab Shack.



I honestly had the best weekend ever. Mr. Perfect even made me the best card. He hates buying cards but I love cards, so this made my day. Every day that goes by that I get to spend with this man is a little better than the one before. I swear I love him more and more each day!! I truly hope you all had a great day!!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Whew! What a weekend. We started it off on not such a great note when we had to put our family dog, Indy, to sleep. Never easy and we were all pretty upset most of the day Saturday, but it gets better. His buddy Abby is back in the North with my parents and is kind of having a hard time. You see it a lot actually. When two dogs spend that much time together, if one passes, the one left behind has to deal with the loss. They will literally make themselves sick with grief. So Mom and Dad are showering her with extra attention right now. She'll love that! She's such a good dog!

Saturday afternoon we went to grab a quick bite to eat with the fam at the Dawghouse Grill. Excellente! Even though I didn't get my normal extra long cheese coney and opted for a salad, it was still so good. We had an oyster roast over at the grandparents that nite. My little brother was in town this weekend to come to the baptism. However, he spent most of the time with a former best friend of mine so I barely got to see him. It doesn't bother me that he did this; what bothers me is when I asked him about it, he flat lied to my face. Not cool. But I digress.. So we had an oyster roast. I of course ate my weight in oysters (pure protein people!). It was such a gorgeous nite out!

Oyster roasts are probably one of my fave things to do where I live. So relaxed and chill just sitting 'round the bonfire. The food and drink rocks too. And I go where the food goes!

Sunday Mr. Perfect and I got baptised!! It was awesome. Both sets of our parents came as well as my little brother and my grandparents. The sermon was awesome as well that day so our whole family approves of our new church! Yay! I can't believe we're church members!! This is a first for our little family! I was a nervous wreck. Not gonna lie. I was shaking so hard I thought for sure you'd be able to hear my teeth all the way at the back of the church. I'm still not sure how I didn't pass out. I HATE being in front of that big a crowd. I still am not sure how I even managed to form words. I'm pretty sure they weren't understandable. Oh well. God got it =). We went to dinner afterwords. Always interesting. Like I said in my Not Me Monday post, Mr. Perfects mom, Mrs. M, totally ratted me out in front of everyone for something I've managed to keep a secret for 6 years!! Thanks Mrs. M!!! She sure keeps things interesting!! We had a great lunch. It's so rare that we actually get our whole family together and nobody gets hurt!! Kidding. Kind of. Mr. Perfect's family left right after lunch to make the 3 6 hour drive home. I was so glad they made it down. We thought they weren't going to be able to come and I know Mr. Perfect would have been so disappointed. It meant so much to both of us to have our whole family there!
We spent the rest of the day Sunday in our favorite way: on the couch together, watching TV and reading blogs. It was a great weekend. And I think I love my husband a little bit more now that we are truly united in Christ. It can only get better!!

A new beginning....

So it's been a weird couple of months at our household. Basically we've let the stresses of the outside world somehow make their way into our marriage and it's been so HARD on us as a couple. I'll be the first to admit it's mainly me.. I'm really having a hard time learning to be a "wife". I got married way younger than I ever thought I would (22) and I thought I was ready but I'm learning that I have a lot of growing up to do. I am, however, married to my soulmate. No one would have been able to put up with what I've put him through like he has. I've just been having a really hard time separating who I am with who I thought I would be.. That probably makes no sense but it's so true. I need to learn that I am someone's wife. I made that choice 3 1/2 years ago and it's a choice that I will stick to. I've got to let go of the selfishness that is me and focus on "us". So that's where we're at. Basically I need to make some cuts and some changes in my life that will get me back on the path that I need to be on. We're working on our family now.. Us as a couple and maybe some additions down the road. We're spending more quality time together and I'm trying to be ok with that. I've always been the life of the party but he's more of a stay at home family man and I'm learning to be more ok with it just being "us". I do have the best of friends and support system that knows I need to make some changes and will completely be there for me and us as we head down this new road...