It took me three tries to get the password right to log into my blog. This is not a good sign. I am, officially, the very worst blogger.
I’ve been spending the past few months deciding whether to keep blogging or not. Around a year ago, I noticed that instead of feeling like an extrovert (as I have felt for the past 27 years), I was beginning to feel like an introvert. I don’t think marriage is what made me feel this way; I just think it’s a shift in my personality as I age. I’m just quieter now. With that said, I think I’m going to leave the blog up and hope that, at some point, I get that blog loving feeling back. I don’t think it’s necessarily that I don’t want to blog; I just don’t know what I’d blog about. I had a whole lot more stories back when children were roaming my house.
Marriage is good. I’ve hesitated to write about it because I know that, for a lot of people, the first year is the hardest. That hasn’t been the case so far for us and I didn’t want to seem to happy / prideful / naive by mentioning it. But I will say this: marriage is so much better than I even hoped it would be back when I was dreaming as a single girl. I think the biggest reason it has been so nice is because Paul makes it easy to be married to him. I hope I make it easy for him to be married to me, too, but I am certain he makes it easier on me than I do on him.
We have, of course, had hard moments over the last year (he moved here exactly a year ago — hard to believe, right?). But it sure is easier to deal with hard moments when you’ve got someone to help you with them. I wouldn’t trade Paul for a mountain of orange Jello and that, my friends, is true love.
Here’s a peek into the last few months for those of you who don’t follow me on Instagram:
Aviean is a regular part of our life these days, which thrills me to no end. She adores Paul and Paul adores her. The picture above is from the night we went to “Boo at the Zoo” in Chattanooga. Aviean dressed as a mermaid and did everything from riding a pony to looking for camels to begging “Uncle Paul” to carry her around.
We also got to go trick or treating with baby Rylan, the lion! Doesn’t Paul look good with a baby? I think he needs about three of them, don’t you?
The puppies are alive and well and are very thankful to have a father figure. Cuddles routinely falls asleep on Paul’s lap, regardless of the day or time.
As you might remember, we have a new child in the family! My cousin’s son, Rylan, is growing up so fast! For his first birthday, his mom threw the best Sock Monkey party I’ve ever seen. Naturally, Uncle Paul and I had to order a school bus full of sock monkeys for the birthday boy.
This was our little first married Christmas corner! We had a tree, of course, but we put our stockings and gifts for each other under the mantle. It was so fun to wake up on Christmas morning in my own house with my very own husband.
Speaking of waking up on Christmas morning, this is what Paul woke up to on the kitchen table! He loves doughnuts, but rarely eats them, so I thought he would like a little doughnut man (and fruit) for breakfast.
We happened to have Aviean on New Years Eve, so you better believe we went wild. Of course, wild for us means eating at her favorite restaurant (Japanese) and then cosmic bowling. I am ashamed to admit this but… I got beat my my husband and a seven year old.
Early in the new year, I was a vendor at a wedding fair. For the last three years, I haven’t done any advertisement for my photography business and have solely relied on word of mouth. I decided to have a booth at a local bridal fair and ordered these GIANT pictures for it!
One cold winter day, Aviean and I made a memory that I am quite certain we will never forget. We went to Babyland, which is the headquarters of the Cabbage Patch Dolls (yes, that’s a cabbage Aviean is sitting in above). When I was a little girl, I was obsessed with any and every baby doll. Aviean is entering the baby doll phase right now so I thought we deserved a trip to see where the baby dolls are “born.”
It turns out that watching baby doll heads move in cabbage is a little traumatic for the seven year old and the 28 year old. If you’ve never been there before, allow me to paint a picture for you: the staff walks around in medical scrubs, dressed as either doctors or nurses. Every half hour, you hear a voice over the intercom say “Dr. So-and-So, please report to the maternity wing immediately. Mother Cabbage is eight leaves dilated.” You then watch as a “doctor” does an “ultrasound” on a cabbage. Once he has determined whether it is a girl or boy, “labor” begins complete with salad tongs for forceps. Minutes later, a doll is “born” out of Mother Cabbage. After we witness the first birth (we stayed for four), Aviean and I spent about two minutes just staring at each other. Finally, she whispered “Well, that was interesting” and I breathed a sigh of relief and steered us towards the gift shop.
Speaking of babies, every time I go to the hospital (to visit someone, to have blood work done, etc.) I am the creeper who goes up to the baby window even if the blinds are closed. Sometimes, if you squint, you can still see the babies through the corners of the blinds. Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this?
Aviean has a half-sister who lives quite a long distance from us so “Uncle Paul” and I don’t get to take her to do as many fun things as we get to do with Aviean. Instead, we mail her packages of little things we think she would like. Here’s Paul modeling one of our boxes of gifts. I have no idea why it is on his head.
Easter baskets for the little ones in our lives… (can you tell I need children of my own, yet?).
Around Easter, the local supply store had a whole lot of baby chicks and ducks. This meant that, for three weeks a row, I made Paul take me on dates to check on them and see how they were doing. Dinner and baby chick visiting… what could be better?
And there you have it, the last few months, all caught up. What will I blog about next?!
