Check 'Yes'

Bobby and I have our own romantic history that we celebrate on Valentine's Day. It gives this holiday a special twist and helps us make the day our own.

We mark February 14th as the time we started dating, back in 2004. Bobby left a long-stemmed red rose in my mailbox in the HTV room at Hillcrest, during the Valentine's Day 'Buzz-A-Thon', accompanied by a note that read (with a nod to George Strait) "Will you be my Valentine? Check 'yes' or 'no'."

I checked 'yes', and so began our love story.

Valentine's Day 2010
Six roses for six years of "togetherness" and six months (minus one day) of marriage.
Romantic, isn't he?

To my Valentine of seven years...

I've never loved you more.

A Big First Step

Today, Bobby and I took a big first step toward the purchase of our first home; I am happy to report that we are now pre-approved for a loan!

It's one thing to update our budget, take a long, hard look at our finances...and say, "yeah, it looks like we're set. Let's go buy a house!"

It's quite another thing for the bank to examine our financial circumstances...and agree.
(Our loan officer's actual words were, "Go find a house!" To which I replied, "We'd love to!")

The home-buying process (as I well-know from my time working in the real estate world) is one with many, many steps along the way. Still, to have made significant headway in the not-so-insignificant funding aspect of the process, seems a momentous occasion...worth celebrating in some small way!

We are so excited & proud & motivated, and we cannot wait to build upon the momentum of today.


We are officially in the market for our first home, and I just have a feeling...this is going to be fun.

"Hey, Bobby...for real this time...let's go buy a house!"

Poof!

I'm so glad I have a husband who can make me laugh. When he's trying to, and when he's not.

Take, for instance, two nights ago.

We sat down to our (coffee) table with our big bowls of chili on a cold, snowy night. (Perfect!)

Bobby grabbed the package of oyster crackers, and gingerly started to open it.

"You've gotta be careful," he said, "so the bag doesn't go 'poof'...all over everywhere".

Can you guess what happened approximately 1.5 seconds later?

Poof! All over everywhere.

Priceless. He didn't know his own strength...and he couldn't have scripted it any better! (I don't think the picture really does the scene justice, to be honest. I mean, it was a full bag...we're talking major spillage.)

Oh, the laughter between us that followed...such fun. You should've been there. I'm certainly glad I was.

Like I said, he makes me laugh; I sure do love him for it.


*Disclaimer: No feelings were harmed in the publishing of this post. Bobby granted full permission for the details of this story to be shared with the general public, as gaining spousal approval for the recounting of stories such as this is highly advisable. 

Job 37:5-7

⁵ God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; 

   he does great things beyond our understanding. 

⁶ He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ 

   and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ 

⁷ So that everyone he has made may know his work, 

   he stops all people from their labor.

Snow Day!

I am loving today. Thanks to a rare "Blizzard Warning" that has most of the Springfield population and the surrounding areas staying home today...we are! Staying home, that is.

We slept in, ate french toast, and are enjoying our second cups of coffee. Bobby is here...still working, but here...and I could definitely get used to that. I'm sitting on the couch, watching the snow fall, waiting for my fresh coat of bright red toenail polish to dry. (It is February now, after all!) We are cozy, warm, and oh, so content.

(And, I'll be starting my "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" DVD marathon shortly, which practically guarantees that the rest of my morning will be as delightful and relaxing as the first part of the day has been.)

What a great blessing today is. A chance to snuggle and relax...and such a wonderful reminder that for all of our constant "going & going & going", God can direct nature in such a way that forces us all to stop...to rest...to be still.

Pillow Talk

A nice hotel pillow is pretty hard to beat. And, by "nice", I mean "likely to be found at a middle-of-line-chain, a place with no bed bugs in sight and where one doesn't feel the need for a shower after just sitting on the bed". That kind of "nice". Ignoring the fact that, yes, other people have had their heads on the pillow (which, as someone who doesn't handle germs terribly well, has surprisingly never bothered me all that much), most of the hotel pillows I've encountered lately have been plush, comfortable, and "where can I get one of these?!" wonderful. Such was the case at the Homewood Suites by Hilton where Bobby and I stayed during one of his business trips this fall. 

See? Here's the bed.

Now, I recognize that it makes me seem more than a little bit lame to have taken a picture of the bed at a hotel in Arkansas. I assure you, it was not the only photo I took of the hotel. (Okay, that doesn't really sound like it's helping my cause to seem less lame. Oh, well.) Really, though, I took a few pictures, purely in the interest of capturing some of the decor details that I was loving while I was there. The wallpaper, the artwork, the lighting fixtures...all so lovely and inspirational. But, for now, lame though it may be, having a random picture of the bed with its' pillows in all their lofty grandeur is coming in quite handy!

The pillows at this hotel were so pleasant, in fact, that I actually checked online to find out if I could buy them. (Also lame, I know. Cut me some slack, I didn't have much to do with my time down there!) As it turns out, I could! For $60 a pop, however, I decided against it at that point...but my dream of having high-quality pillows was reinvigorated.

I am not one to spend extravagantly, by any means, but I have no qualms about living a bit more luxuriously when it comes to bedding. After all, going to bed is something I do daily (nightly, rather) and there is nothing more comforting than being able to crawl into a bed that makes the tensions of the day melt away. A good night's sleep is totally worth it. For Bobby and I, anyway.

We have our high thread-count sheets, down comforters, and several pillows...but the pillows have been a problem. In fact, Bobby has not been sleeping very well lately, in large part due to the lack of support of his current one. (In smaller part due to my late-night "fidgety-ness" that has come about recently, but that is neither here nor there.) So, we decided to take advantage of the January "White Sales" and finally made the move to becoming down-alternative pillow people.

I wish we hadn't waited so long.

We have both slept wonderfully for the past five nights, and attribute that primarily to our latest luxury. These pillows aren't quite Hilton quality, and I'd love to upgrade down the road, but we have certainly taken a huge step in the direction of pillow perfection...and it feels so great.

It's the little things, you know?

A Glimmer

The sun came out today! The temperature was near 50 degrees! I went shopping...and the birds were chirping when I got out of the car. And, I didn't even wear my big winter coat into the store. (Which, may or may not have been a wise decision given my recent illness, but it just felt so nice.)

By this time of winter, I start to get anxious for any glimmer of spring on the horizon. (Christmas is over, and the cold just really isn't all that much fun after the holidays, you know?) Sure, there is a lot of cold weather...and likely, snow...left in the season. (Those birds are going to be very disappointed.) But, if I'm looking at the forecast correctly, it appears that we should have a few more sunny, "warm" days ahead of us before we get reminded that it is, in fact, still only January.

Regardless, I'm thankful for the sunshine today...and the happy memories of warmer days to help get me through the chilly ones.

The tulips we enjoyed at our apartment in St. Louis last spring.

As long as the earth endures, 

seedtime and harvest, 

cold and heat, 

summer and winter, 

day and night will never cease.

Genesis 8:22

Motivation

Okay. It's time to get serious.

Confession. I haven't worked out since before Thanksgiving. Maybe not since Halloween.

I know! It's terrible!

To be fair, I have had a lot on my plate. Packing, moving, unpacking, holidays, etc. (These only sound like excuses...actually, they...okay, yeah. They're excuses.) But, then again, it isn't as though the packing and moving (not so much the holidays) can't be counted as exercise. Hello! That's hard work. Plus, there's been the lugging heavy laundry to my parents' house, and carrying groceries into the house, and chasing 1st graders...all exercise from my point of view.

But, also, still not a good excuse.

I'll admit it. I've been slacking. The reality is, it's been winter and even though I can literally see the apartment's gym from my living room, the cold, dreary days have been too strong a force for me to overcome. I have had literally no desire to venture outside "unnecessarily". Which doesn't explain why I haven't even been able to bring myself to pop in my favorite workout DVD's.

Basically, my willpower has been minimal and my laziness great.

More motivation. I can do that again.

After giving my lack of motivation to workout ample consideration, I realized that it boils down to exactly that. Zero motivation. Without my impending wedding and honeymoon (Workout Motivations 2009) or pool season and tropical anniversary trip (Workout Motivations 2010), I'm basically without great cause or incentive to get off the couch.

The reality is, and please don't be mad at me for saying this...I'm blessed with excellent metabolism, which means that I can still feel pretty good about how I look, minus having to exert much effort exercising or overly watching what I eat. That fact makes it pretty darn easy to avoid the gym when it's too cold and I just don't feel like working out. Which, has pretty much been the case for the past six or so months.

But, like I said, it's time to get serious. Enough is enough. (Or, more appropriately, not enough is enough. Does that make any sense?) I have found my motivation!


Workout Motivations 2011

#1: Spring is practically here! Warmer weather! And, then, summer! And who doesn't want to look good during tank top and bathing suit season?!

#2: I'm planning to wear cute dresses for the four special upcoming weddings this year, and it just makes sense to have good-looking arms and legs to go with. With so many photo-ops ahead, why wouldn't I want to look my best?

#3: I should just face it. My days of having a pre-baby body are numbered. I really do owe it to myself to push my body to it's 'early twenties, tip-top, prime shape' before, well, you know.... And, who knows what babies will do to my metabolism that has thus far been so helpful. Oh, yes, I'm trying to prepare myself for that.... (And, I know you're smirking, you who wanted to smack me after reading my previous comment about my excellent metabolism. Not nice.)

#4: It's the healthy thing to do. End of story.


Well, okay then. After thinking through those factors, it really seems like my motivation to workout this year should be greater than the years past! Sure, my wedding and tropical vacations were huge life events, worthy of looking good for, but truly, this stuff is pretty big, too.

So, what am I waiting for? Here goes nothing! Beach body, wedding body, baby body...here I come.

Sick Days

Truly, substitute teaching has been such a fun experience. I love being around the students, I love surprising them with my energy, I love the confidence I have in front of a classroom, I love being in charge (it's true), I love hearing myself talk (I can admit that!), and I love feeling as though I'm making some sort of difference (albeit, likely a small one) and doing something worthwhile.

I haven't gotten to play with use an overhead projector yet, which really would be the fulfillment of a childhood fantasy. (You think I'm kidding? I'm the girl who asked the teacher for the "instructor's copy" of the Scholastic "Weekly Reader" so I could 'play school' with it at home, bought old textbooks at a used-books store on a number of occasions greater than one, and hoped Santa would bring an overhead projector on Christmas morning. Get it now?) Sure, the Smart Boards are cool...but, it's just not the same.

Spending time in the classroom has given me the chance to get the teaching bug out of my system a bit, since I came thisssss close to going into education (but didn't), and you might say it's been somewhat of a lifetime "dream" to teach. So, I'm very thankful for the chance to do this.

WITH THAT SAID (speaking of the "teaching bug"...), I have just about HAD it with being sick. I have succumbed in the past 2 months (the same amount of time I've been subbing, mind you), to a cold that knocked me flat on my back for a solid 2 days, a 24-hour flu bug, and another 24-hour bug-of-some-sort that has now morphed into a chest cold.

Coincidence? I think not. Especially given that I don't believe I've had this many "sick days" in the past several winter seasons combined. (Given, last year's flu season was spent in St. Louis, somewhat in isolation given our somewhat anti-social nature there. Still....) My immune system is usually very reliable, but it's apparently no match for the germs that large sums of children bring to the table school.

Part of the benefit of subbing is saying 'goodbye' to a group of kids in the afternoon, and not letting work come home with me. The problem is, the germs are.

(And then, there's my mother. Who, as a veteran teacher of many years, has not used a sick day in who knows how long?! My theory is that she's been around long enough to be immune to just about every bug that students throw (up?) at her. Or, she's just far more tough in the face of impending illness than less-seasoned teachers. Which, wouldn't surprise me a bit. Whatever her secret, I'm impressed.)

Now, it's probably not fair to blame my illnesses entirely on the student population. There's the grocery store, the mall...germs are pretty much everywhere this time of year. (Gross.) But, it does make sense that schools are infested. (I mean, they're needing substitutes for a reason, right?) You don't have to be "smarter than a 5th grader" (and boy, let me tell you, is it ever humbling to be asked a seemingly simple question by a middle-schooler about a vocabulary word or geography lesson and really have to think about it for a minute?!) to realize that all these precious children bringing their germs to school in the morning, sitting in an enclosed building all day, and leaving said germs behind to multiply overnight, can only spell disaster (read: a few sick days) for the rest of us....

Having a cold and a round of the flu is only slightly more than annoying with medicine and an otherwise healthy body. Things could be far worse, and I'm so thankful that they're not. But, for someone who hates being sick (and who doesn't, really?), this stinks.

Substitute teaching, although largely enjoyable and satisfying, will likely not be my career path forever. But, until an acceptable substitute (I couldn't help myself) comes along, I'll continue to help keep the hand-sanitizer industry going strong, and hope this bug quickly runs its course.

Class dismissed.

Random photo from St. Lucia.
Seemingly-irrelevant, except that honeymoon pictures always make me feel better.

"I'd Settle for a Slowdown"

Whew! What a busy, busy few weeks this has been. Between packing, Thanksgiving, moving, unpacking, shopping, holiday preparations & celebrations, Christmas, New Year's, Bobby's surgery, and a trip to Minnesota, there has simply not been a lot of time to just be. And, truly, I need that.

Here's hoping the next several weeks slow down a bit, and allow for a bit of downtime and regrouping. Because as much fun as all that activity has certainly been, I'm really ready for a bit of routine and simplicity, time to get coffee with my best friend and talk "wedding" with my sister....

We shall see! 

In any case, it's Friday. Welcome words, indeed.
Happy Weekend, all.