2.5 Years

Two and 1/2 years ago today, Jesse and I said our vows in a Virginia church before friends, family, and God. Unfortunately, since I'm writing this at work, I don't have time to rhapsodize about how much I love him and how much he means to me and how wonderful he is. (I'm sure you are all now sighing in relief.)

Instead, I just have to simply say, "I love you, my dear, wonderful husband!"

I talked to God

I gave God a call because I wasn't coming up with anything as a good idea for Valentines Day, and I figured that if anyone would know what to do, He would. He said "Hold on a minute," and suddenly *PING* I had an email! He had apparently hijacked Hubble to take a couple pictures to show how much I love my wife.



Happy Valentines Day dearest! My love for you goes for light-years and light-years! (so sayeth the Lord!)

I wish I had his turn of phrase

... but unfortunately, I'm not a skilled language artist like Patrick Rothfuss. So, I'll just shamelessly copy and paste from him. Valentines Day brought out the "gush" in him, and his girlfriend Sarah is the recipient of some very public praise and flattery. The whole thing is good, and I'm shamelessly (did I mention I'm shameless in doing this) cribbing his words. (Italics are my adjustments to make it fit.)

No offense to your girlfriend SAM. She's obviously a woman of impeccable taste. But she can't hold a candle to my wife.

My wife's name is C. She is, to put it plainly, the best of all possible wives.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg. She's hella smart, a great writer, and better at everything than me. She does community service, keeps up on current events, and makes awesome meals. Her hair smells really, really, good.

C is also hot. Beyond hot. I'm not even kidding here. You know when you see a geeky guy walking around an absolute bombshell and you think, "The hell? How did he end up with her? She's a thousand times hotter than him!" Well C and I are like that, with the main difference that I'm pretty sexy too.

She's so sexy that Homeland Security is worried about her falling into the hands of the terrorists. FEMA has passed a special set of laws requiring her to always wear at least three layers of clothing whenever she's in public. If she wears only one layer, she causes car wrecks. If she wears a tank top, men without protective eyewear have grand-mal seizures and passing women become suddenly bi-curious.

In less, the sexiness she throws off is like the radiation from a nuclear bomb. If we hadn't lined the walls of the bedroom and bathroom with three inches of lead, no man in Northern Virginia could wear tight fitting pants, and every woman in Leesburg would be gay.

Yes dearest, you're all that and much, much more!

Two Years!

Happy Anniversary, My Love! It has been two wonderful years! Your actions and words are a blessing to me everyday. My words and actions in trying to express to you how much you mean to me seem so inadequate.

I love you and look forward to many more years together with you.

Home-owning Husband

I think my wonderful husband has taken to home-owning much better than I have!

Since we bought the house, he has:
- Fixed the poorly sealed area under the shower door of the master bath.
- Torn out the walls around the tub of the main bath.
- Contacted the city to get the water turned on.
- Dewinterized the house.
- Turned on the hot water heater (which took some investigation and finagling, with the heater locked in behind the washer and dryer in the back of the downstairs half-bath).
- Called the locksmith to change the locks on the house. (Thanks, David, for being around when they came.)
- Called to have Internet scheduled for connection to our house.
- Diagnosed and fixed a leak in the shower drain of the master bath.
- Cleaned up the mess of tearing out the walls around the tub of the main bath.
- Positioned two of our three bookcases in the living room.

Since we bought the house, I have:
- Watched his family move all our large items (beds, dressers, couch, bookcases, etc) from the old house to the new house.
- Watched his family gather and move all the boxes of stuff from the bedrooms (and some other areas) in the old house to the new house.
- Rearranged our bedroom furniture in the new house, making a mess of all our clothes and leaving them piled on the floor.

And in the midst of all this, he still bought me flowers and surprised me with them already in a vase. :-)

I Love My Wife

That is all. You may go back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Flowers

My wonderful husband has sent me flowers again! They arrived on the anniversary of the day we officially started dating with thoughts and wishes for me to not be too stressed this very busy week.

In the Night

At some point last night as I drifted briefly into consciousness in order to find a more comfortable position, Jesse paid me a compliment. While he is generous with his compliments (which I appreciate greatly), this particular incident was a unique enough to stick in my memory even as I fell directly back to sleep.

This morning, as we were getting dressed, Jesse related a dream from last night. When he got to the part of the dream that included a compliment, it was the exact same compliment I'd heard in the night!

I guess it still counts. :)

Guilty and Lonesome

I'm feeling guilty for not posting in such a long time and lonesome because Jesse is away until tomorrow evening with the youth group at youth convention.



I really shouldn't be missing him so much already, because at this point we are both at work on a Friday afternoon and haven't gone any longer apart than normal. I guess it is that most Friday's I spend the afternoon excitedly thinking about all the activities (mundane or otherwise) that we have planned for the weekend and am looking forward to a whole weekend together. I don't have that as much this afternoon.



But really, I've got a list of projects I could work on that could keep me busy the entire weekend, but it only needs to occupy my for tonight and tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon, I can go help get ready for the Isaacs concert. (You should come!) And then Jesse will be back for the concert!



Sunday afternoon, I think we'll try to make it to the open house to welcome MattD back from Iraq! He left a year ago, mere weeks after he got married. He and his wife are hoping to take a trip to Scottland almost immediately.

Living Life

Please don't be alarmed by the fact that there are currently three contributors to this blog. I'm in the process of sorting out which e-mail accounts and which Google accounts I want to keep and which one I want to use. So at the moment, I'm a contributor from two different accounts. I'm still deciding how I want to handle accounts, so I'm not sure if this is a temporary arrangement or a long-term arrangement.

My sticking point is that I want to use one Google account as my primary e-mail account and I want to use the other Google account as my primary blogging account. Since Google doesn't allow one to log into two different accounts at the same time (even if one is blogger and one is e-mail), I have to re-login everytime I want switch between e-mail and blogging. That has been part of the reason my blog posting has been down in recent months.

Despite the lack of posts, life has been going very well for us. Jesse still surprises me with text messages and the so many little things he does for me--hot tea, foot rubs, opening doors, or just waking me up with a kiss.

I'm sure no one's cares.....but it was 31 months ago that we started dating and 22 months ago that we got engaged!

On Jesse's Car

Jesse chose to get a personalized license plate for his car:
MRD MYLV

I love you too!

One-Year Anniversary

Happy (belated) Anniversary, Jesse, love of my life!

For the past week, we've been reminding each other of the events of "one year ago." One year ago today, we were on our honeymoon in Nevada. One year ago, I was still adjusting to the idea that my life would never be the same, but would forever be better because you are part of it!

Today, you still amaze me with your constant reminders of your love for me! Today, I still marvel at how my life is changing and becoming better with you. Today, I love you more than I did a year ago.

Tomorrow, I look forward to once again trying to tell you how much I love you. Tomorrow, I look forward to sharing another day with you, with it's experiences, thoughts, and dreams. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, but by God's grace, our tomorrows will continue for many years to come!

Down In The Valley

C sent me this beautiful song today. 1) I want to crow about how wonderful C is, and 2) this is a really nice song. She got it from a book of old folk songs gathered together by a Dr. Gainer. We found out about it while at the WV State Folk Festival.



Yes, it's possibly a copyright violation to publicly post this page, but it's only one page, and the book has been long out of print.

You'll Never Know

These are the words from a card that Jesse gave me before we were married with what I've been thinking about this week when I read them again.

You'll never know how much your smile lights up the room
(when I walk in the door from work)
or your laughter fills my soul,
(when Jer is being cute)
making all the little problems of the day disappear.
(with a cup of tea and a back rub)
You'll never know how much it means to me when you do or say something thoughtful and totally unexpected--usually just at the moment I need it most.
(Listening when I complain about my uncertainties and offering support and solutions when I'm ready for them.)
You'll neve know how much pride I hold in my heart for the person you are and the things you do--
for your strength
(rearranging and moving the furniture--again)
and your gentleness,
(caring for Jer)
your courage
(committing to spend your life with me)
and your determination,
(mowing the lawn)
your accomplishments
(fixing your computer to have Internet access)
and your dreams.
(earning another degree)
You'll never know how much I need you by my side--
in the best of times
(attending a performance like "Tale of Two Cities")
and the worst of times
(hmmm...have we really had any yet?)
and all the times in between.
(clogging performances, church activities, waking up in the morning)
It really doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing,
(visiting a friend's home, playing at the park , working on the house and lawn)
as long as we're together to share it all.
(prayer, Bible reading, faith)
I love you with all my heart and soul--you'll never know how much.

"We'll have many years to spend showing each other how much we love each other. I may not be able to say how much I love you, but I pray that I will be able to show you."

Lover

Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.