February

The celebrations of February continued through the weekend, which marked our 6-month anniversary.

Though I'd realized some time ago that this weekend was the 6-month anniversary, I hadn't bothered to do anything for it. [I'll use the excuse that I don't like setting precedent that I can't continue :D ] But then Jesse shows up with flowers and a card!

Maybe I'll mark the occasion by getting the next installment of our story written and posted this week. :)

Birthday Bouquet

Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well. --Lazarus Long

These are the flowers I received 2 weeks ago for my birthday. My camera phone wasn't working then and I just got the warranty replacement phone.

February

As Jesse stated on his blog, it seems we've been celebrating for the past two weeks.

I'm not going to try to re-count all the things he has done, just in the last two weeks. Things that have made my day, every time. Re-counting them would probably be tedious reading, even for the interested. Suffice to say, it continues to be glaringly obvious to me that I'm completely un-romantic and un-creative compared to Jesse.

There may be guys out there who aren't romantic, who stick with cliche' gifts, who get whatever they can at the last minute, or who just do something because it is expected. That's not Jesse!

I'm not sure I necessarily want to know the answer immediately, but now I'm curious, "Jesse, have you made it through your stockpile of gifts from Ireland?" :)

Birthday Dinner

It was Friday night before our schedules allowed enough time together for a birthday celebration. Friday evening, Jesse made dinner for me at his place. We had soup, chicken, salad and rice. Followed up by root beer floats for dessert. A very delicious meal! (I'd even say better than my cooking. :)

The evening gave us time to talk and catch-up too. Between our schedules, times with just the two of us can seem a bit far between. But then I think of the couples I know that are across the country from each other (or even in different parts of the world) and remember that we are blessed.

Last year for my birthday, I barely had time to notice, as I struggled to keep up with everything happening in the library. In the last 7 months, I've hired help in the library, been to Ireland, started dating my best friend, and lost my grandfather. Yes, there have been a lot of changes in my life in the past year! Only God knows what the coming year holds. May I rely on Him for strength and guidance, whatever lies ahead.

The Story Restarted

Oh ho! I'll bet y'all thought the Saga had been dropped. Never! It's just been slowed down a bit because we've both been running around like the proverbial headless chicken for the last couple months. Unfortunately that hasn't changed, for me anyway, but it's been long enough, and I'm not going to bleed to death, headless or no, so on with the story! (Ok, so maybe I'm stretching the metaphor.)

To catch you up with the story so far, the end of June brought me to the point where I finally decided that, yes, I would go ahead and pursue Charlessa. It had been building for a while, and the beginning of June had me putting serious prayer into the issue, and at the end of June/beginning of July I made the decision to go ahead and stop vacillating. I just didn't bring it up with Charlessa right away.

We had a trip to Ireland with our clogging group coming up in another month, and Charlessa's parents were coming! I was SO totally thinking only of Charlessa and her parents' comfort when deciding to wait until after the trip to talk with them. I wasn't nervous! It would be awkward for them to go on a trip with their daughter's boyfriend right there! Me nervous? Never! It was only for their comfort that I waited, right? Right. (Actually, that did work out pretty well.)

So through July and the first week of August, Charlessa and I proceeded pretty much as normal. And then came Ireland. Oh wow! Fantastic in so many ways! I definitely got to meet and get to know Charlessa's parents, and the same for them. It helped that her parents and I were in the same cottage most of the time, so between activities done with them and just spending time in the same building I wasn't a total stranger to them by the end of the trip. Which was a good thing since I was planning on talking to them afterwards. Charlessa and I took some walks, spent a few evenings talking late into the night, sat together for a week of bus rides, and even managed to get ourselves kicked out of a pub, though only because they were closing down before we stopped talking. :^) And one of my favorite individual moments was toward the end of the trip, everyone was exhausted, and on the bus ride back she went to sleep on my shoulder. Oh, I pretended to fall asleep too, but it was more of a blissful daze than actual sleep.

Quick note: Pretty early on, something that clued in dense ol' me that maybe I wasn't fooling anyone, was that even though the bus was pretty full as we traveled around, after a couple days there was always an open seat left for me beside Charlessa! Thanks Beth!

Finally the trip ended, and though I was feeling much better about talking with her folks, I was still pretty apprehensive. But it worked out better than I had hoped!

Continue: The Story: To Ireland and Back

It's a day to celebrate!

Yup, today's the day to celebrate the birth of Charlessa, and my life is certainly far the better and happier because of that happy event!

Happy Birthday Charlessa