Lunch Date

For the first two months that Nate and I were married, I was a tutor. I only worked 10 hours a week, between 4pm and 7-8pm, depending on the night. This meant that I was able to sleep in every morning, meet Nate for lunch every day, and have a house that was always clean because I had nothing better to do while Nate was at work during the afternoons. I LOVED being able to meet Nate for lunch everyday. It was so wonderful! The only downside to that schedule was that we didn't get to have much time together in the evenings. However, the job was only temporary so I had to find a new job as soon as it ended. 

Starting a full-time job for the first time in my life had its challenges (I was completely exhausted for the first two months and couldn't understand why), but what I hated the most was packing lunch! Ugh, I still hate packing lunch and I dread doing it every night before I can go to bed. 

Side note: The week after Halloween when I was in fifth grade, two of my classmates (they were twin sisters) came to lunch with lunchboxes full of candy because their mom let them pack their own lunch. I remember going home and begging my mom to let me start packing my own lunch. It only took me about a week to realize that I still wasn't going to be allowed to take candy for lunch and that I hated packing my own lunch. What was I thinking??!

Anyways, Wednesday night, I had fallen asleep on the couch while watching a movie and when I woke up, I just wanted to go to bed, but unfortunately I still had to make my stinkin lunch! We had leftovers for dinner, which meant I didn't have leftovers to pack for lunch the next day. We also did not have bread which was fine with me because I had sandwiches for lunch for the past two weeks and I was sick of them. I decided to ask Nate if he would bring me lunch the next day because I only have a half hour for lunch which isn't enough time to go get something. He was hesitant to agree because he didn't want to use the gas in his work van to bring me lunch. I just assumed that we would put gas in the van and it would be fine. I pitched a little fit and went to bed mad. He came in and offered to bring me lunch, but my bratty response was, "No, Nate, you should do it out love, not out of obligation!". Basically, there are two morals to this story and the first is this: Once I fall asleep, I should probably stay asleep because otherwise, I get a little crazy. 

So Thursday afternoon rolls around and Nate texted to say he was bringing me lunch. I had already texted him to tell him it was not necessary and to apologize but he came anyways. Then he volunteered to stay and eat lunch with me! It was so nice! I have missed having lunch with Nate and it was such a nice break in the middle of a crazy work day. So in conclustion, the second moral of the story is that husbands and wives should always get to have lunch together. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Valentine's Day

Well, I've pretty much given up on trying to do the February Photo-A-Day challenge, but I am trying to be more consistent in taking pictures of our day-to-day life together. Yesterday was Valentine's Day and Nate made it so wonderful for me! We have always made a big deal of our anniversary and of birthdays, but never really made a big deal out of Valentine's so we were not planning much. We had just planned on trying a new recipe at home and that was it. However, when I got home, Nate opened the door just a crack and said, "You're early!" (which I wasn't), and I knew right then that he was up to something. I walked in to find that the house had been cleaned, the table was set and a dozen roses in a vase. He even made the bed and left some chocolates there. It was so romantic!

Definitely my best Valentine's Day so far! I love my husband! :)

Day 11: Makes Me Happy

The theme for Day 11 is "Makes Me Happy". This has three things that make me happy: 1. My most favoritest ever, Nathan, 2. Nate's hoodie, which means its cold outside (YAY!), and 3. Nate's lipring...let's face it: he's way sexy! I love this man so much!

More February Pictures

The theme of my February Photo-A-Day Challenge posts so far seems to be "Well, the picture was supposed to be ....., but its actually......, because .......". It turns out I'm really bad at remembering to take a picture everyday. And some days, even when I do remember, I still can't take the right picture. That's how Day 8 went. The picture was supposed to be of the sun, but I leave for work at 6:45am and get home at 5:45pm, so I don't really have very many sun-photo-taking opportunities during the week. Don't get me wrong, some mornings, I drive to work surrounded by a gorgeous pink/orange/reddish sky, but I try to refrain from taking pictures while driving. So for Day 8, I took a picture of our dinner since its one of our favorites and I forgot the picture on the actual "dinner" day. Here it is, Cajun Chicken:

Please excuse my extremely poor photography skills (although, I think I should get some credit for using our awesome square white plates instead of the paper plates we would have used if I was taking a picture).

And here is Day 9, which is actually what it's supposed to be: the front door!!! Yay, I remembered!!!

The pinecones were inspired by a pin I saw on Pinterest. They probably look a bit random by themselves but they go great with my "winter mantel" in the living room (which I hope I might remember to take pictures of some day).

That's it for now. Maybe I'll get those mantel pictures tomorrow while its still light outside. 

Then, maybe someday my house will clean enough to be considered "photographable" and I will finally get pictures of our totally adorable apartment up on here. But that's a long shot...  :)

Day 7 Photo

Let's just pretend that we were supposed to skip days 5 and 6 of the February Photo-A-Day Challenge. That's  a much better story than the truth, which is that I forgot. Unfortunately, the theme for both days was somewhat time-sensitive. Day 5 was "10 AM" at which time I was pouring my coffee and getting to rush out the door for church. Day 6 was "Dinner" but I forgot until after Nate and I had already devoured our tacos and disposed of the evidence. Oh well, too bad. Today's theme was "Button". I decided to take a picture of my latest favorite button:

the "Auto" button on the coffee pot. I used to get my coffee ready every night before bed when Nate and I were in second year up at Word of Life NY.  I just had to hit the auto button and then I would wake up every morning to the sound and smell of fresh coffee brewing. I felt like such a cool college student as I would sip my coffee at my desk while I got ready for class and did my quiet time. Nowadays, I usually get my coffee when I get to work in the morning. Recently, though, we decided not to brew coffee at work for  a while, so I started brewing it at home. Since I still really hate getting up in the mornings and I'm always running late, I've started setting the pot at night again. Let me just say that whoever invented the "auto" button was a genius! 

Marriage Advice

Today, via Pinterest, I came across a new (to me) blog, Today's Letter. The first post I read was called "10 Things that Have Made All the Difference". I LOVED the advice in this post! Nathan and I have a great marriage but its because we work at it. We have made our marriage a top priority in our lives and we treat it like the valuable and precious gift it is. Emily's post had some great ideas for little things that could make a big difference in a marriage. I just wanted to share her post here so that others could enjoy it, too. Nate and I have decided that we are definitely going to start a "Metal Box Account" so that we, too, can enjoy a second honeymoon sometime! ;) Enjoy!

A Non-Day 4 Picture

The Day 4 picture for the February Photo-A-Day Challenge was supposed to be of a stranger, but I didn't really think that was the best way to photograph my everyday life, plus I felt like a creeper trying to take a discreet picture of a stranger. Instead, I decided to finally post a picture of our tattoos. Nate and I got our "wedding tattoos" a little over a month ago, on the day before our two-year anniversary. We had been talking about them for a while and I finally got brave enough to go through with it. 

We went with two interlocking hearts because Nate used to draw two little interlocking hearts at the bottom of all of his love notes to me. It was the same symbol that he used to mark passages about love and marriage in his Bible. As it turns out, our tattoos represent our marriage even more than we though they would. As much as  we each love our own tattoo, what we love best is how they look together. In the same sense, we are better because of the time that we have spent together and the experiences we have shared. We are better together. Our little hearts are meaningful to us and we love our tattoos!

More Bucket List

7. Go to a drive-in  movie theater
8. Go back to the cabin where Nate and I spent our honeymoon

Day 3: Hands

I love the theme for Day 3 of the February Photo-A-Day Challenge. Here's my photo:

Obviously, I chose to photograph myself holding hands with Nate, as its one of my favorite things to do! (Although, I did think about taking a picture of my finger because I burned it last weekend and now it has these really weird/annoying leathery-feeling patch on it, but it probably wouldn't show up in pictures...lucky you!). See, Nate and I spent a year of the year-and-a-half that we dated at the Word of Life Bible Institute, where there is a "No PC (personal contact)" rule for guys and girls. I'm not going to lie, it was extremely difficult to date him and spend so much time with him without being able to hug him, kiss him, or even hold his hand. I think that time made us appreciate every bit of the freedom that we have in marriage even more. Now, it just feels weird to be next to him and not hold his hand.
We have "Move Along" by the All-American Rejects on one of our mix CDs and one of my all-time favorite lines is "Your hands are mine to hold". I think that is the best possible caption for this picture and perfectly explains why I enjoyed today's theme so much!

My Bucket List, Cont.

A few additions to my Bucket List:

5. Ride a red double-decker bus
6. Visit London (and meet Harry Potter.....just kidding!...mostly)

Well, I guess thats it for now. I thought a couple of things that I've always wanted to do as we were laying in bed and talking the other night, but as I did not immediately write them down/blog about them, I forgot them. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be too young for this sort of memory loss....

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I just started watching Glee and I LOVE it! I don't know how I waited so long before watching it! This show makes me miss being in chorus and our show ensemble, High Frequency. Man, those were fun times! I basically only want to watch Glee now, but for Nate's sake, we mix in some America's Funniest Home Videos and Man vs. Wild.

Day 2 and Already Slacking

It's February, already?! I can hardly believe that its 2012, let alone the second month of the year! Today is Day 2 of the February Photo-A-Day Challenge. Unfortunately, I forgot Day 1 so instead I'll post a picture that I found on the camera when uploading my picture from Day 2. Here's my "Day 1" photo:

This was the first day that we were able to wear "winter clothes" this winter. I was showing off my scarf and Nate was showing off his flannel. We love our winter weather!

The theme for Day 2 is "Words". Here's what I photographed:

Its a pin (Pinterest, of course) that I saw recently and loved. It's so true! I'm a sucker for a good love story and I love listening to others tell theirs. Our love story is hardly your typical story (We "took a break" twice while we were dating) but it is definitely the story with the best ending. Nate's Papa told us tonight that he has never been more sure of a marriage. I almost think its kinda funny because he didn't meet me until shortly before the wedding and we haven't been able to spend much time with him since then, so I wonder how he could say something when he hasn't spent much time with us. But I guess he just knows, the way we just knew, even though it seemed crazy to everyone on the outside looking in. I really do love our love story! 

I'm looking for Day 3 tomorrow!