On March 21st Nate and I celebrated seven years of knowing one another. We sent our annual (slightly cliché and sappy) text messages to each other on Thursday, gushing about how ridiculous it seems that we have been together for over 1/3 of our lives now.

♥ June 15, 2009 ♥Yesterday it hit me a little differently as I sat at work longing to relive this past weekend. It was one of those ‘ah ha’ moments that made me positively giddy and excited to be living this one precious life. What was it, you ask? The realization that our relationship has been growing every day since the day that we met, and that it will continue to get better every day going forward. That’s exciting, right? Every day of my marriage will be the best day of my marriage yet because we’re learning more about each other every single day. A lot of people frown upon getting married young because “people change”. But I haven’t been able to figure out how that’s a bad thing. Watching Nate change and grow has been one of my favorite things about being married to him and I hope he would say the same about me. Some of the most identifiable traits that make us each who we are today have really only developed in the last few years. Nate wasn’t a runner when we met; not even when we got married! So he certainly didn’t have a goal to run a marathon on all 7 continents in 2016 at that time! I was a blogger, but I didn’t have a sense of direction that I wanted to go in with blogging. I had no plans of being serious about photography, handmade, or lifestyle blogging as an actual source of income – but that’s slowly started to change and I’m making baby steps. We both have these relatively new interests and lofty goals to accompany them – but we love helping each other toward achieving those goals.

This past weekend was wonderful – we watched our two sweet friends get married, danced the night away at their wedding, went out for a delicious Sunday afternoon brunch at First Watch (we’d never been before!), hung out a while at our favorite local cd/record store, had a beer at Country Boy, and stopped at Barnes & Noble on the way home to buy a book I’ve been looking for. Our weekend was the perfect mix of things we both enjoy (except for the dancing – he did that just for me! haha!) and I’m so thankful that we’ve started to love a lot of the same things. I can’t wait to see how our relationship will continue to grow over the next year and the next!

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I ran across a post earlier that I wrote in January of this year. It was only a small paragraph about a few changes I wanted to make within myself – a fleeting thought – as many of my goals tend to be! But as I read it I was filled with a sense of accomplishment.

“This year is about trying new things, going the extra mile, being realistic; but optimistic, and being more accepting of myself. I think I’ll share this little blog space with more people that know me (in the real world), speak my mind more, ask for the things I want. I won’t shy away from new opportunities – even when I’m scared and I can’t tell if they’ll work out or not.”

I did those things in 2012. I didn’t shy away from new opportunities with unpredictable outcomes, I went the extra mile in order to receive those opportunities, I opened myself up by sharing this space with more people I know offline, and even in the midst of all consuming grief I have managed to stay optimistic about the future. I’ve become more accepting of myself in many ways, but I still have a bit to accomplish in this area. Though I think most of us will continue to work on this particular skill most of the days of our lives as we change, grow, and find ourselves continuously faced with new challenges.

Nate and I have so much planned for the upcoming year. I feel like 2013 is our year – fresh and new, not forgetting the sadness or the courage it took to get through 2012 but taking comfort in the fact that we have so much to be thankful for in 2013. We have grown so much since we started our little family in 2010. Together we’ve already accomplished major life goals and sometimes I think it’s easy to forget that we have so much, so early in life. It can be easy to focus on all of the things we could have done even better up to this point and while I want to make sure we move forward and upward from those things, I also just really want to tell my husband how proud I am to be his wife. He is his biggest critic and I want the world to know how well he takes care of us and how motivated he is to beat his personal best in everything that he does. I feel like we are both focused and ready to meet this New Year in every way!

Happy New Years Eve to all of you!

Xoxo.

I don’t think I can put in to words what the past two years have meant to me or how wonderful they’ve been. It’s easy to forget sometimes that we didn’t always have all of this – a marriage, a house, pets, real jobs, routines, grocery lists, and bills! And not all of the things that come with being married adults are always fun or wonderful, but they’re ours – together. When we take little trips like the one we just took to San Francisco it gives us time to recharge and be thankful that we’re as fortunate as we are to have each other and to have opportunities to do the things that we love together. And when we get back home I’m reminded of how blessed we are to have a home to come back to, and sweet baby bunnies waiting on our return! This hasn’t been the easiest year and I don’t know what life plans to throw our way next, but I know that together we can handle it.

Nate, I love you and I can’t wait to spend forever with you! I can’t wait to go on more trips, to continue to decorate and add things to our home, and to just continue loving our life. Sometimes we’re messy and our house is messy, sometimes it smells like bunnies (to me – you usually don’t notice), sometimes we let our yard grow a few weeds because we’re too busy out having fun with friends and the neighborhood lawn police sends us stupid warnings in the mail and threatens to fine us (don’t live in a deed restricted community, y’all), sometimes we’re too tired after work to do anything but stare at the TV and eat fast food – but I love all of those things. Sometimes. ;]

Last night Nate and I had a little date night. It was so fun to get dressed up and go out. We had such a nice time and enjoyed so much delicious food at PF Changs. I swear by the crispy green beans and the garlic noodles. I literally have no food wall when I eat there. I just eat until I’m totally miserable and can’t move. Luckily I was able to control myself this time so we could enjoy the rest of the night. After dinner we headed downtown to one of our favorite local hang out spots, Charlie Browns. We grabbed a couch right in front of the fireplace and pretended we were on a first date. It was pretty corny, but I love stuff like that. ;] I took a few photos of us in front of the Christmas tree before we left..

Today we went out and got a gym membership, spent my $10 in Kohl’s cash, and bought cleaning supplies. Exciting times. I’ve felt pretty moody all day long and it’s been a pretty gross feeling. This has been happening to me a lot lately. I feel a huge burst of happy productive energy and then something, I’m never sure quite what, will change my mood and I will feel like everything is horrible and I’m about to crack. One minute I’m like, “YES – let’s do this!” and the next (sometimes hour, or day) it’s the total opposite and I don’t care about anything. It’s just definitely time to get a handle on it because it’s not fair to me or Nate to keep thinking on my good days that it’s fine. The cycle just repeats again. :\

I did perk up a bit after we got home from our errand running long enough to make my parents a Christmas card and to wrap my Mom’s presents in my own totally handmade wrapping paper. It took like 3 hours, ha! But I had a lot of fun with it. I kept walking over to Nate and showing him what I’d done so far, “Does this look stupid?” … He had to laugh when I realized I had stamped “Chrismas” on the front of the card I’d already worked so hard on. I wasn’t laughing. ;] But I did manage fix it, thank goodness. I was already on the fourth try for that card as it was! Scatterbrain alert.

I am now trying to rush around and do some of the mandatory Sunday chores that I put off due to 3 hours of crafting- like laundry, and actually putting away laundry vs. piling it into the wing back char in our bedroom that we never get to see because it’s always covered in clean clothes. Let’s look forward to three day Christmas weekend ahead, shall we? =)

PS: We bought the cutest white bunny ornament at Kohl’s and it looks just like Biscuit. Now we just need one for Freckles! If you see any speckled bunny ornaments, let me know!