The Wonderful World of Weekends!

If any day of the week becomes mixed up, it is certainly never Friday...at least not in our home. On Friday mornings, my husband wakes up, gives me a sweet kiss, says "Good Morning, Wife", followed by "It's Friday!". All I can do is grin a sleepy grin because I know how the rest of the day will go. At lunch, my husband will tell me both when he enters our apartment and just before leaving "It's Friday, Wife!". When he calls at five, it will be my turn. I always end the phone call with "It's Friday, Husband!." Then, as soon as he comes through the door, he says again "It's Friday!". What can I say, Fridays are exciting. Did I mention we don't always have plans? Crazy, I know, but the weekend means just us. We can go visit family. We can work on a project. We can sit at home. We can do everything together and it is really nice. This past weekend was no exception.

It all started Friday night. I had been considering a haircut for the last couple of months. My husband likes my hair long, so he wasn't super excited when I mentioned scissors. Truth is, I sometimes like my hair long, but it had reached the split-ends and uncooperative length. It needed to go. I don't know if I have always been this daring or perhaps I just think simple is daring, but I decided that for the straight cut I wanted, I could do it myself.. My ever-supportive husband was nervous when I asked him to cut the back, but, y'all, he was so cute triple-checking that he was matching the front lengths with the back.

From the side- Poor Husband hates when his hair flips up in the front.

Mind you, this is in a ponytail. It was MUCH longer than this when down!

We decided to make a night of it. I trimmed his hair (a VERY little bit) & he shaved his beard! It is so much easier to see his sweet smile without his beard. :)

We woke up early the next morning for breakfast out. My husband was perhaps more excited than I was about Taco Bell's new breakfast menu. We couldn't wait to try it. We quickly picked it up and came home.

From top left to bottom right- Sausage Waffle Taco, AM Grilled Sausage Taco, & AM Bacon Crunchwrap

Afterwards, we ran out to Michaels to buy a few early gifts. When we came home, we couldn't quit thinking about the nice weather outside. Y'all, I am by far an inside girl, but the weather was cool and the sun was out and the wind would not quit blowing. I could not resist. We changed clothes and quickly headed out. We only stopped for water. *I swear, if there was a bottled water of the month club, I think my husband would love it.* You can sort of see my new hair-do. It just reaches my shoulders!

After nearly two hours of walking, it was time to eat. Pizza!

Johnny's- it's not Pizza Hut, but....

a Sweep the Kitchen with no anchovies, no jalapenos, & no mushrooms is acceptable. :)

On Sunday, we woke up and began discussing our plans for the day. We quickly threw out the original plan to stay inside all day. Again, the weather was beautiful and it had been nice to get out Saturday. We loaded up and headed to Home Depot and Lowes to look at paint for our house! We decided we are going to paint our living room, kitchen, and bedroom as soon as we move in. He was so sweet helping me pick colors...granted it may not have been his first idea of fun. :) Afterwards, we had to go by his office. It was nice tagging along and I love to watch him work. We decided since we were out we would stop to eat afterwards. Chilis is our favorite place and we haven't been since we came home from the honeymoon. We had to go back to his office one more time, and my ever-hopeful husband thought that he could get us to Starbucks in time for a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, the Starbucks in town closes entirely too early, so we missed it by 15 minutes. Ahhh, but all was not lost. We then decided to make the 30 minute trek to the next Starbucks. My parents had given us Starbucks giftcards in our Christmas stockings last year and we had a little left to use!

Husband's Iced Caramel Macchiato & My Java Chip Frappacino

It was a wonderful night. The drive to Starbucks brought back old memories of not so long ago when we were only able to meet after work and on weekends and when I was returned to my family after each date. It reminded us of a lot of excitement and nerves and hopeful conversations that were just beginning. We decided during the drive that for our first anniversary, we are going to go to Ruston and eat at Chilis and get Starbucks.

It was a wonderful weekend together!

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad In-Between Part of Marriage

The reason I began a new blog, simply put, is because I have started a new life. We have started a new life. When I first started blogging, I did so with the hope that even if I never acquired another reader outside of myself that my children may read this one day and know what their mother was truly like in the time before them. I wanted to record my journey, and all of its many, many lessons, for them. Now, it is not my journey that they need to know, but ours.

After reading my last post, I somewhat worried that I had made our marriage sound perfect. Too me, it is a blessing- a wonderfully, perfect blessing. Still, it is not without mistakes at times. We are not so perfect that we never fail to make a mess, though typically it is a mess of the simplest matters. Funny how the simplest things can upset feelings the most sometimes. It is as funny as it is sad that sometimes others feel the need to interfere and create a mess that need never have been.

In the past five months there have been disappointments and frustration. There have been late nights, long afternoons, and a few tears shed. The rule that states "Never go to bed angry." has been broken once. I guess because neither of us ever heard it stated as fact by those we trust, we instead found out that sometimes you say things you don't mean and you don't listen to the other as you usually would in your exhaustion. I can not even recall anymore what caused the upset that night. I only remember the worst part being that both of us woke up feeling sorry, but neither of us had time to talk it out before work. We always try to settle matters swiftly, but that night we were not so lucky.

When I married my husband, I truly wanted to believe that I knew him so well that we could never argue. I think we both did. To give ourselves a little bit of credit, sure, we did. We knew all that we could possibly know at that time. In the ten months that we had known each other, we had only gone one day without speaking. In our letters and conversations we had opened up and shared with one another a lot more than we had ever told anyone else. Even so, neither of us knew everything about the other.

My husband and I smile now when we consider our first week together. Everyone always speaks of those days as being nothing more than romance, but for us it was a little more than that. In the daytime, we spoke about those in our lives. At night, we spoke about the past and the future. I remember laughing one night as I told him how surprised our children might be one day to know that we were discussing them in our first days of marriage- everything from how wonderful they would be to the scrapes they were sure to get into. No, it may not have been what people say it ought to be, but for us our first week together was the very beginning of what was to come.

I knew that at some point we would disagree. Worse yet, I knew feelings would be hurt. It seems like the world only tells of the two extremes- either you will both always be happy or you will both always be miserable. The reality of the in between is little mentioned except by those who love you most.

I love my husband. I can not imagine my life without him. Becoming his wife has been one of the best decisions I have ever made and I know it. Even so, there are days when my head begins to ache as I try to explain something to him. There are nights when I hop in the shower just to cool down and think before I speak. It is the cooling down that is hard. It is the pinpointing just what upsets me that has been the struggle sometimes. Before, I might have been upset with someone simply because they said something I didn't like, therefore I automatically assumed I had a right to be upset. With him though, I can't just say that. I have to know why. Why am I upset he said this or that? Why am I upset he didn't do or did something? It's not worth it to me to just go running up to him and tell him he was mean. I am not five. I am a wife- a very much loved wife who very much loves her husband. Something I have had to remember each time is that my husband does care for me even when we don't agree. If I don't tell him specifically what is wrong, he can't fix it. He'll apologize, and he will be sincere, but he won't really know why I am upset. Chances are, if he doesn't understand why, it will happen again. It's not to be cruel. It's not to be stubborn. It will happen again because he will do it as unintentionally as he did the first time. That said, my husband remembers what I tell him, especially when it is something about me. If I tell him the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (no drama or exaggeration necessary) he will do all he can to make sure he understands. The same goes for me. I have never meant to argue or upset my husband, but of course times have come when I have failed him, too. Rather than yell or rush out, he knows he has to tell me and he knows to explain it. He knows, thankfully, that at the end of the day I love him. We both know the other loves us, and therefore it makes the difficult, frustrating times a whole lot easier to let pass. Knowing there will be forgiveness, and knowing that the person who has hurt you loves you and did so by sheer accident, makes it all the easier for us to work things out. Yes, the talk is sometimes hard. Feelings are raw. At the end of the day though, we have to remind ourselves that this is marriage. It is the harder part of it that we could not have prevented unless we were perfect. As it is, we are not, so we laugh and we smile, and we disagree and we talk, and we forgive each other and we work things out all because we love the person that we are married to and thankfully they love us, too.

Our Engagement Picture- June 2013

Just Thinking...

Over the years, I have on occasion heard my parents say that marrying each other had changed them. It baffled me because I did not understand. I could not understand how you were supposed to get to know someone and let them know you for the person you really are, fall in love, and get married...only to change afterwards. They never said it with remorse or bitterness. If anything, they made it sound like a good thing. They made it sound like they had changed for the better together.

I can smile now because I understand why they said it. I know what they meant. Now, I will say here, I by no means believe that I have changed as much as I ever will. I simply see that just as my life is growing, so must I.

From the very first morning that I woke up a wife, I felt a change in my heart. My life was no longer my own. I saw the man beside me as someone more than I had before. I saw him, truly saw him, as my protector, my advisor, my most trusted confidant- my husband. I realized how truly valuable my parents advice would be to not only me, but to us. If I wanted, really wanted, to be a good wife, I would recall every ounce of advice they had ever given me and I would put it into practice daily. I can never thank God enough for the man that He intended me for. I have been blessed with a good man. I want nothing more than to live my days in effort of becoming a good woman.

Something my mother taught me long ago is that a wife has many duties. She has many skills, many responsibilities, and an enormous amount of love and trust within her hold. In spite of what some may say, I do not believe that her title calls her to change her husband. For me, I believe that God has placed me in my post not to abuse the man He has intended me for, but to help him. A wife can know more about her husband than most. I know my husband's worries and I know his past fears. I have heard of his wants, and listened to his pains. I have seen him irritated, and I have seen him hurt. I have also seen him happy. I have seen when he is most confidant, and when he is most at ease.

I have no desire to change my husband. (Well, okay, I have gotten him to start wearing long sleeves in the winter, but that falls under "in sickness & in health".) I do not believe it is my job to change him, only to encourage all that is good in him. I believe that is a responsibility we owe to each other. When either of us need a dose of sense, we give it without reprimand. Whenever one of us is nervous, we do not mock, but encourage. Whenever we see a gift that belongs to the other, we know that is our job to encourage the other as often as needed with patience and love. No, my job as a wife is not about changing, but about helping.

Very Fun, Slightly Crazy Saturday

A typical Saturday in our home means sleeping in, brunches, and whatever else we decide. Sometimes we run errands, sometimes we visit our families, and sometimes we simply stay at home. According to the weatherman, it is supposed to be a lovely rainy weekend. (Yes, I like the occasional wet weekend.) Seeing as I've not seen a drop of rain yet, I have a feeling it is holding out until we are fast asleep tonight.

This Saturday has been a little different than most. My husband wanted to take his truck in to be looked at this week, and Saturday sounded good to us. Thinking that we could drop it off with their "Before Hours" policy, we were willing to get up early in the hopes of dealing with little to no traffic and pick it up by noon. All I can say is- haha!

 

Look at that sweet smile! You would never think he could be too peppy a morning person, but let me tell you....

We decided to wake up by 5:30. My husband (being a regular Flash when it comes to the morning routine) got up first. Then he came to pester me until I finally got out of bed. We had thought promising ourselves a trip to the donut shop would be a good incentive for such an early trip...but I can honestly say that I hardly cared about that this morning as I was being shaken awake. Having been woken up just enough to think, I decided to skip the makeup routine so we could hurry and get back. I mean, I put on mascara and the one lip gloss I own that actually darkens my lips, but that was it for the morning.

Husband took the picture- and insisted on my pose. He loves when I wear my glasses, too.

I guess we had both considered donuts not being enough this morning because we had also decided that after breakfast we would try to catch a nap. We dropped off my husband's truck right on time, and were happy to see only one other car in the parking lot. We hurried to the donut shop, where my husband went in to explore the selection.


Donut holes for me & a blueberry donut with an old-fashioned donut for Husband!

It was nice to come back home with treats in hand. It took little to convince my husband we should have a breakfast picnic in bed.

After breakfast, we laid back down and hoped to fall back to sleep. The feeling of laying against my husband's chest, with his arm wrapped around my shoulder, is a feeling I can not imagine ever becoming tired of.
We woke up at 10:30 with the phone ringing. It turns out that they had JUST decided to look at his truck. Long story short, his truck will be in the shop until Monday. This is one of those times when we could either be extremely irritated with their timing...or we could be grateful that we are married, have a car, and our life is not put on hold at all by this. (Okay, so I'm still a little irritated with their customer service.)
Either way, our Saturday has still been a good one. We got up and called in lunch. My husband's uncle receives free pizza cards from a friend of his sometimes, and, rather than keeping them all to himself, he shares them with the rest of the family. (Thank you, Uncle Dennis!) We were able to enjoy hot pizza for lunch today, and it's looking as though tomorrow will be a bright lunch with leftovers.
We came home to eat and watch a little tv. We always watch western tv series on the weekends, but our favorites weren't on yet. If you've never seen "Wanted- Dead or Alive" or "Bonanza" or "Big Valley" you are missing out. Oh, and our favorite is "The Rifleman"!

The Rifleman

Like I said though, none of them were on. I picked up the computer to look at our soon-to-be house and soon my husband mentioned the first house he'd lived in. He pulled up directions only to find it is all of 2 blocks from our future home. Well, of course, we just had to go out to see, and while we were out, we had to time the drive to and from his work. It just didn't make sense to skip Happy Hour at Sonic at this point, and after the first sip of strawberry slushie we just had to go for a ride. :)

Needless to say, it has been a very fun, very relaxing, slightly crazy Saturday. I've even had time to post before supper. I hope all of you are enjoying your weekends as well!

*Oh, and before I forget, this is the new artwork for our living room. The canvas was on sale at Hobby Lobby. I coated with color acrylic & then dry brushed with antiquing-medium & copper acrylics. The letters were precut. I stained them with antiquing-medium as well, and then used tacky glue to center them on the canvas. We figure I can add to this as our family grows, too! In the meantime, my husband loved seeing our initials together!

Newlywed Quiz

I found this quiz on Mrs. Rachel's blog! It looked like too much fun to pass up. My husband even helped, so this is our first Husband/Wife post together. :) His answers are in blue.

1. How long were you dating your spouse before getting engaged?

5 months- we met at the first of January and he proposed on May 30th.
We were dating for 5 months.

2. Do you remember your first big fight, what was it about?

It was just after we were engaged. We had never disagreed before then, but our disagreement brought out emotions in both of us. It was a lesson in not taking out your outside frustrations on those who love you.
It was after we were engaged, and we were at her parents house. It was the night we were talking to her parents about us getting married.

3. Who said "I love you" first?

I had surprised him with a cup of cider from Starbucks and written under the cup sleeve "Love, Paige". He actually said it first two days later.
She had it in words first. I spoke it first.

4. What is your spouse most afraid of?

Spiders...although a few plastic roaches strategically placed work pretty well. :)
Usually wasps and bees, but right now she's terrified of the scratching sound coming from the bathroom vent.

5. Who uses more hair-care products?

I do.
She does.

6. Who initiated the first kiss? How was it on a scale from 1-10?

He did. I thought about that kiss for the rest of the night and into the morning. I was so flustered.
I did. A 10 for sure.

7. You are on your way out, and need to turn around because someone forgot something... was it you or your spouse who most likely forgot something?

Him- he once forgot his wallet at work.
It was probably me. It was to go to the bathroom though.:)

8. Who takes longer in front of the mirror? You or your spouse?

I do- it's the makeup's fault!
She does! lol

9. What would your spouse name your children if you had one girl and one boy?

We discussed it before we ever got married- Julie Addison (girl) & Reagan Lee (boy).
Julie Addison and Reagan Lee

10. If you were able to give away one thing that your spouse owned, what would you choose?

Angry Birds on his phone...he has made me addicted to it. I've never been addicted to playing any game!
Her drawer full of 9 or was it 10 plastic roaches.