Five Years

Yesterday marked five years since my wedding day. 

Yes, it's true, we share an anniversary with the Royal Couple.  I won't lie, I'm a little excited about that.

I haven't really thought through what I am going to say to commemorate this anniversary.  I mean, it's been a crazy week, right?!!  And my mind is a bit heavy with all that has gone on.  Mainly I am feeling thankful for my home and the safety of my family.  And I feel a bit shocked by the results of Wednesday's weather.  I am even wrestling with some things in my mind, since I fully understand that God is in control of the weather--complete control.  And I KNOW that he is sovereign and good.  But it still makes me wrestle. 

And at the same time as this enormous tragedy, God is also saying no to a lot of our personal, family prayers.  Things so small compared to what happened on Wednesday, but things that I know he could change in the blink of an eye, and He chooses not to.  I am wrestling with that as well. 

Intellectually, I know that God is good and that much that God chooses to do is beyond the realm of my understanding.  He is God, after all.  He is infinite in wisdom and understanding--and I am not. 

So what does this have to do with celebrating five years of marriage? 

Well, I am sure that ya'll have all heard Andrew Peterson's song, Dancing in the Minefield.  It's so great, right?  You know what I love about it?  That hard times in marriage are the norm.  If they weren't the norm, he couldn't write a successful song about marriage being hard.  Literature of any kind, or art of any kind, is based on universal truths.  This must mean that marriage being hard is a universal truth.  Are you following me?  And I know that this makes it sound like my marriage is so hard, and in fact, it's not.  As far as marriages go, Scott and I have a fairly easy one.  Our relationship has always been fairly easy.  But it's daily.  It is so daily.  And it is reality, and it can get pretty ugly at times.  So, I love these words especially...

Cause we bear the light of the son of man
So there's nothing left to fear
So I'll walk with you in the shadow lands
Till the shadows disappear
Cause he promised not to leave us
And his promises are true
So in the face of all this chaos baby
I can dance with you

This is what I know is true.  These past five years haven't been, well, smooth sailing.  They just haven't.  And Scott has seen some ugly parts of me.  But we are still going strong.  And we are just beginning, you know?  God only knows what the years have in store for us.  So, how do I know that our marriage will stand the test of time--"because HE promised not to leave us, and HIS promises are true"--and I am married to a man who takes me back to this truth.  God's grace is absolutely sufficient.  It is even sufficient for times of wrestling with what I know to be true.  And God has given me such a gift in Scott. 
 
Scott is kind to me and patient.  Always kind and patient.  It's why I loved him in the first place, and it's why I am so thankful for him now.  He is the absolute right match for me.  He is.  And there is much about our life circumstances that I wish I could change, but how gracious God is to give me this man to lead me through it. 
 
So, Scott, I echo Andrew Peterson, and say this to you,
 
So lets go dancing in the minefields
Lets go sailing in the storms
Oh lets go dancing in the minefields
And kicking down the doors
Oh lets go dancing in the minefields
And sailing in the storms
Oh this is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for
That's what the promise is for

five years ago at our rehearsal dinner, not really having one clue what we were getting into;)

And this one I love so much more than the rehearsal dinner picture because it's real life.  One of those defining marriage moments--finally bringing John home from the hospital. 

Happy five years, Scott.  I am praying for many, many more.

And just like that, it's over

Well, this is how we spent the last three days, but we are now quickly back to reality. And to be honest, we were about to die to see little Ada. It seemed everywhere we turned there was somebody toddling about that reminded us of Ada. And if we weren't seeing someone who reminded of us Ada, we were noticing things that we were sure Ada would, "just love."

But...it was so refreshing to spend some uninterrupted time together. We talked and relaxed and read lots and lots. And we ate good food. And for just a few days we didn't worry about the budget and cleaning the house and everything else that makes up daily life. It was fabulous and over far too quickly.And, it's official, we have decided that we will retire right here. Would you like to join us in the house next door?
p.s. I have decided to put the crimper away and just make do with a little styling cream and a diffuser. Oh well, it was a fun to try something different.

Three Years Ago Today

We were giddy newlyweds headed out of Auburn for Rosemary Beach, FL. The second picture was taken by one of my bridesmaids (can't remember which one) who was waiting for me back at the Gameday Center to help me quickly get ready and on the road after my wedding.

I love you, babe. God confirms to me on a daily basis that we are most certainly meant to spend our lives together. It just works, doesn't it?

I am so excited to once again be headed to Rosemary Beach to spend the weekend with you. Happy, happy anniversary!

Because we celebrate three years on Wednesday...

I have been reminiscing a lot about our first few months of marriage and how far we've come since then. You have often heard me talk about that tiny apartment we were living in back when we had two incomes and plenty of time to hang out. Let me give you a quick tour.Our front (and only) door. In the summer, we kept the real door open and just left the screen door shut to try to let in some air. With no central heat or air, things could get a bit stifling if I was trying to cook dinner. Obviously the above picture was taken in the fall.
So, that's it, ya'll. Three rooms (not counting the laundry, which was I was incredibly thankful to have, and the tiny bathroom off of the kitchen. Yes, it's true. You had to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom. Doesn't seem super sanitary to me, but we did it.) And the only room that could be closed off (again, other than the laundry and bathroom) was the bedroom, but when the door was closed, there was a huge gap between the floor and the beginning of the door, so, really, it was like you were still in the same room with the other person. When we first looked at the apartment, all engaged and smitten with each other and the idea of marriage, we were like, we don't need space. We will want to be together all of the time. Everyone laugh with me now. So that was the setting for our first year of marriage. And honestly, I mostly have wonderful memories of that little place. We were a five minute walk from Piedmont Park, and a five minute drive from everything else. In fact on nights when things seemed too closed in, we would get in the car and drive through down town just to let our brains "air out." It gets me a little teary eyed just looking at the pictures. It was a fun time. But, there were some not so fun times as we tried to adjust to marriage and living together. Let me give you an example.

Scott and I are so different in so many ways. And mostly this is a good thing. But one major difference we had when we first got married is that Scott liked to stay up late and sleep in, and I liked to go to bed at a reasonable hour and wake up early. I felt like the weekend was wasted if I slept in, and he felt like it was wasted if he went to bed early. This was the start of many an argument in those first few months.

The other major sore spot in the marriage was Scott's love for X-box. This sore spot started on our honeymoon. We rented a house in Rosemary Beach that was equipped with a large, flat screen television and an X-Box, and I thought that Scott could play the X-box on that trip if there were times that I wanted to lie out in the sun, and he didn't want to. No problem, right? Wrong. That X-box took over, and it even created some arguments on the honeymoon. Ah, the memories. So, I had a bad taste in my mouth over the X-box from the very beginning.

Well, often on the weekends, Scott would "go to bed early" with me (not that early--11:00, midnight even), and then, I would wake up to find him sitting on the end of the bed playing a football game on X-box. The first few times this happened, I calmly asked him to turn it off and come to bed. Seriously, we had several conversations about this. Well, one night, I reached my breaking point. I woke up to find him once again sitting on the end of the bed, in the middle of the night, playing X-box, and I just snapped. I jumped out of bed, started yelling, throwing pillows at him--it was bad. I am pretty sure he didn't play X-box in the middle of the night after that. We laugh about it now, but it is such a picture of the adjustment that first year was.

So, babe, thanks for no longer playing X-box in the middle of the night, and I am thinking that yelling and throwing pillows was not the most Christ like way I could have handled the situation, so please, forgive me. I am thankful we survived the whole X-box catastrophe. It was a low point, wasn't it;)

These days, we stumble into bed around 10:00, exhausted as can be. We no longer feel the need to argue over that one. Thank you parenthood for solving that problem in our marriage.

Still no time for blogging

I have so much I want to blog about, yet I don't have the time to do it. So, I am stopping by for a quick hello.

The beach is six weeks away, and I could not be more excited than I am. Really, Scott and I thinking we are looking more forward to this trip than we were honeymoon. We didn't know what we had that week of our honeymoon. We thought all of marriage would be like that--ha;) However, I am not looking forward to putting on a swim suit, or anything that shows my arms or legs for that matter because I am quite out of shape. Like, maybe the worst shape of my life? So...I am counting calories and committing to Tae Bo every. single. day. And then, maybe the bathing suit part of the beach trip won't be quite as painful. We'll see. Bathing suit season always catches me by surprise. I am all covered up in winter clothes, and then, boom, it's 70 degrees outside, and I am scrambling to get myself into some kind of shape.

So...on today's schedule, cleaning for bible study tonight, tae bo (which takes almost an hour!!!!!!), keeping up with Ada, tutoring, and the list could go on and on. I will be back in the next couple of days to talk about the grocery plan for the rest of the month.

Preview--Kashi frozen meals are B1G1 at Publix this week, just in time for operation I have to wear a bathing suit in six weeks. Those will make a nice treat at lunch time next week.

It's a good day for so many reasons

let's start with a confession--I did not wake up before the rest of the house.

Scott woke up super early to go the gym before his final weigh in for his Biggest Loser contest at work. I haven't mentioned the contest lately because Scott didn't want anyone at work to know how hard he was working, hoping it would discourage the competition. That being said, that contest has been the center of our world for the past few weeks. Anyway, he went to the gym this morning for one last work out, and I was so fast asleep I didn't even hear him leave. He told me that he reset the alarm for 6 am, but I did not hear it go off. It is entirely possible that I turned it off without even realizing it. At 6:30, Ada woke me up, and so the day began. Needless to say, the day didn't start out as planned, but that's okay, there is always tomorrow.

Back to the contest, though. All the hard work was oh so worth it because SCOTT WON. HE WON. We are going to the beach for our anniversary, and we could not be more excited. I have found this cute little studio condo right outside of Rosemary Beach that costs next to nothing, and with gasoline prices down, we are going to do this thing the right way--on a budget. We plan to not spend one dime other than the prize money. We were talking about it today, and all we could talk about was how much sleep we are going to get. And how relaxed we are going to be when we come back. We plan to go away for three nights, and I think that will be just enough to come back very refreshed. Again, we are so stinkin' excited.

I am very proud of Scott. He stuck to this thing through Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I rewarded him with a very yummy pasta meal tonight and brownies for dessert. He hasn't had a single carb all week, so he was very excited about the meal. My hubby is the same weight he was when we got married. He's looking good, if I do say so myself;) I don't think he has big plans to actually keep the weight off, but we'll see. With no money to motivate him, the old eating habits may come right back.

Anyway...that's our big news of the day. I did wake up to a shiny sink, and I made my bed as soon as I got out of it. Now, if the alarm would actually wake me up, I might be able to complete the week's baby steps.

Tomorrow I will be back with all of my grocery shopping plans for the week. I feel like a kid in a candy shop with all the deals that are out there. I am slightly blown away. It's going to be a record week, I think. I'll keep you posted.

Late Christmas Present

Scott is done with work for the week. Finished until Monday. Woo-hoo.

We were just discussing a sleeping plan. Tomorrow, since it's his first day off, he can sleep in, then me, and so on. To sum up, I am looking at three mornings of sleeping in between now and Monday. Again, woo-hoo.

Plus, because all of the students are still Christmas Breaking, I have zero tutoring hours, which is bad for the bank account, great for quality time with the hubby. We have big plans to get Ada in bed, then settle in for several episodes of Lost. We are re-watching last season in preparation for this season.

Time with my husband, during the day, after sleeping in--my favorite Christmas gift of the season.

Quick Update--still from Alabama

I am still in Alabama, but now Scott is with us--hallelujah. On Friday when he finally got here, Ada hugged him for a solid five or ten minutes. It was so cute. (And a nice break for me). Scott is a very hands on dad, so when he is around it really breaks the load in half. Little Ada is napping right now, which is why I am on the computer.

I finally got my Christmas cards in the mail today. It has been the year of the disastrous Christmas Card. First we had to postpone pictures for forever, so I was waiting on those to come back. Once they did, I immediately ordered the card, and I had them sent to my mom's house, since I knew I would be in Scottsboro. They finally, finally came in this past Saturday when Scott and I were in Crossville. So...I delivered them to the Post Office this morning. My addresses got accidentally returned to McDonough (they were in my car so that I would have them here to address the cards, but you know how those things go), so not everyone will be receiving one, but the cards are in the mail, and some may even arrive before Christmas day. Next year I plan to be way more on the ball with the family Christmas card. We live and learn, right?

Other Christmas news--Scott and I went on a Christmas date last night, which was such a treat. We left Ada with mom, and we went to Toys R Us to finish up shopping for Ada. Both my aunt Mary Ann and my Grandmother Rhodes sent money for us to pick out gifts for Ada, so we picked up a couple of last things we wanted for her--a toy toaster (she gets excited when her waffle pops up out of the toaster) and a purse full of little toy things (she loves to go through my purse and wallet). Ada will be having a very kitchen themed Christmas. Her "big" gift from Scott and me is a play kitchen, and my mom is giving her some pots and pans, a grocery cart, play groceries, and a tea set. In addition to the toaster, we also got her a toy microwave, so the majority of her gifts have to do with cooking. I am considering putting the toy kitchen in our real kitchen in hopes that it will make dinner preparation easier for me. We'll see. I'll try to take lots of pictures of all of the Christmas morning hoopla, which will take place at Ann's house.

The Moore family Christmas went well. Ada received a precious little doll buggy and doll from Scott's parents, in addition to a blow up ball pit/slide. I know that the ball pit will be lots of fun for her, but she hasn't seen it yet. It is waiting for her in McDonough. We are saving the kitchen and ball pit for when we return. We plan to have our own little family Christmas the Saturday after we return.

As I mentioned above, Scott and I had our own Christmas date last night. After Toys R Us, we had a very yummy dinner at Outback, and we went to the Monaco Theater at Bridge Street to see Four Christmases, which was okay. We laughed a few times. We loved Vince Vaughn in The Break Up, so our expectations may have been a bit much. It was great to have some alone time to enjoy dinner and talk without little Ada constantly demanding our attention. We joked about how we would "see each other again next year."

I realize that you may not even be interested in all these tiny Christmas details, but more than anything, this blog is used to record the comings and goings of our life, and this is Christmas 2008 for us. If you are still reading:), I hope you are having good times with family and friends, and that you are experiencing the peace that only comes from knowing Jesus.

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth," John 14:1.

A very quick post

This is going to be a very quick post to share a little Scott story that has required me to remember my vows of, "for better and for worse." Currently, Scott and I are sleeping on a queen size bed with a double size mattress. When we moved, my parents gave us their old bed to go in our master bedroom, but we only have two mattress sets right now and both are double size. Well, we still haven't bought a queen size mattress for the bed, but it's working okay so far. (Not forever, though, Scott). Well, Scott's parents are in McDonough right now for Ada's birthday, and they brought a queen size air mattress for us to have for guests that come to visit. We have one guest bed right now, but there are definitely times that an extra bed would be nice. And obviously, an air mattress is a great solution for GUESTS. Well Scott, in all seriousness, tells me that he thinks that we should put the air mattress in our bed and put the double size mattress on our extra double size bed. I promise he was serious. Wow. This is when I have to remember that even when my husband thinks that an air mattress is a proper solution for our queen size bed, I have to choose to love him. Just joking, but seriously, an air mattress???

I love him, though, despite these things:)

A Successful Anniversary Celebration

We have reentered reality, but it was nice to escape for a night. Celebrating our second anniversary went much better than celebrating the first.

First of all...loved the hotel much more than last year's. If you have a need to stay over night in the ATL, I highly recommend the Twelve Hotel. Instead of feeling like we were staying in a hotel, we felt like we were living in a loft in midtown Atlanta. Very fun for me since that was what I originally wanted back before life took a major turn. We had a very nice kitchen with stainless steel appliances, not one, but two, flat screen HD televisions, high ceilings, an INCREDIBLY comfortable bed (we were tempted to check in, go to sleep, and not wake up until we checked out the next day), and huge windows that overlooked the city. Too bad we were on the second floor. And, my favorite part of all, all the toiletries provided were Aveda. I LOVE Aveda. Aveda has been my product of choice since Jr. High. The bathroom was huge as well, with a big soaking tub and separate shower. We were living the high life, if only for one night.

We decided to forgo a fancy dinner and splurge on the hotel instead, so we had a nice, affordable dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. When we were first married, we lived about five minutes from Atlantic Station, and we went to CPK so much, that one waiter knew us by name. We love CPK. The night I got my tutoring job a few weeks into marriage, we celebrated there; the night after my first day of teaching at Pebblebrook--CPK, and the night we found out we were pregnant, we ended up back at CPK. It has not let us down yet, and last night was no exception. We were able to eat outside, and dinner was incredibly relaxing. We just kept looking at each other and saying, we get to sleep all night tonight. It felt unreal. By the way, we also kept talking about how good it would be to see Ada the next day. Such a paradox.

The other thing I was looking forward to at Atlantic Station was visiting H & M. They have been promising forever that it was opening, Spring 2008. Well, folks, it is May 2008, we are quickly approaching summer, and H & M is no where to be found. That was a low moment in the weekend.

Later in the night, Scott gave me my final anniversary gift. The most exciting thing of all--the ESV Literary Study Bible. I have been wanting it forever, and, finally, I have it. Well, I have the promise of it. It is in the mail right now, on it's way to me.

Today, we slept in. Well, we slept until 8 am. But we went to sleep at 11, so that was NINE HOURS!!! We planned on staying up late just because we could, but we barely made it to 11. We then walked around Ikea for a while, drove through our old neighborhood, had lunch in the Highlands, and by that point, we were dying to see Ada, so we headed home. And now she's in bed, and I already feel tired again. But, I also feel refreshed. I am extra connected to Scott, and the time away from Ada made me so excited to get back to our daily routine. Anniversary #2 was a success.

I have never been good at the beginning of things--freshman year of high school was just terrible. I was awkward and clumsy and so self-conscious. I felt all of those same feeling again freshman year at Auburn. I was struggling to figure out where my place was in the college world. I remember coming back to Auburn my sophomore year and feeling so relieved not to be a freshman. By senior year, I never wanted to leave Auburn. It was the place that felt most like home to me. This anniversary feels a little bit like that. Like finally we are figuring this thing out.