Five years ago, I said, “I do” to my best friend. Five years ago, surrounded by family and friends, I became my husband’s wife. Five years ago… seems like it was just yesterday.

I randomly will remember moments from that day. Everything from making sure I didn’t run into my groom before I walked down the aisle to the rain softly falling as we stepped out of the church to cutting the cake to doing the Aggie War Hymn to sitting at our little cabin for the night eating summer sausage and drinking Crown and cokes. And everything in between those events. It doesn’t feel like we should be celebrating FIVE YEARS.

But, in the same breath… I can believe it.

I sure can’t fit in my dress any more. We’ve had three different addresses in those five years. We’ve handled job losses and job advances. We’ve lost pets, and we’ve gotten new ones. We continue to chase our dreams, both each other’s biggest fans. We now understand the statement, “I love you more every day.”

We’ve had arguments. We’ve had laughter so hard we couldn’t breathe. We’ve had moments of glory, we’ve had moments of failure. We’ve lived our life hand-in-hand for the last five years, and we hold hands looking to many, many more ahead.

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*Photo by AJW Photo.

This was the 10th New Year’s Eve I’ve spent with my husband.

We rang in…
2003: Billy Bob’s Texas, Ft. Worth, TX
2004: Cowboys Red River, Dallas, TX
2005: Sixth Street, Austin, TX
2006: Jubitz, Portland, OR
2007: Flag Hall, Cyclone, TX
2008: Lexington, KY
2009: Fiddle & Steel, Nashville, TN
2010: Flag Hall, Cyclone, TX
2011: Fiddle & Steel, Nashville, TN
2012: Fiddle & Steel, Nashville, TN

This was the first year that we BOTH worked the night, which meant we were together, but not. My husband taking the cover charge at the door; me, slinging drinks behind the bar.

It was a crazy  night, a bigger New Year’s Eve than I’d seen in… well… ever. SO many people downtown Nashville, and it got scary to look up at the bar patrons. Lined four deep, it got overwhelming at times, trying to keep up with the demand. We ran out of most of our beer, and we actually called it a night a little bit early.

Didn’t help much, as we still didn’t leave the bar until 5:30 am… but I have to say, I can’t think of a more satisfying way to open 2012. Working hard as the clock struck midnight. Lets hope this year is full of hard, satisfying work, where we end it looking back feeling like we’ve been successful in all our endeavors.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Wishing my husband a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

If you’d asked me before this weekend if I was afraid to go on a long ride on the back of a bike, I’d have probably not given you much of an answer. Or, I’d have given you a much longer answer than you wanted.

I’m not afraid. Its just not high on my list of things to do. As in, not even on my bucket list to be knocked off it.

HOWEVER.

I married a man who happens to love motorcycles. Who has had bad accidents on them, and yet still wants to get right back on. There’s something admirable about that… not letting anything stop him from doing something he loves.

Not even a wife who practically wanted to burst into tears over plans to go riding yesterday. Because that “just not interested” turned out to be, “Scared to death.”

When a friend offered us his bike for the afternoon, my husband became more excited than anyone’s kids after Halloween, staring at a big bowl of candy. I couldn’t not go. I couldn’t deny him this excitement. He wanted to share this big part of himself with me, and I appreciated that more than I could share under the quivering, shaking, terrified child I became.

We went to pick up the bike. We got bundled up (since even though it was upper 60s, it would be chilly on the bike), my husband plopped a helmet on my head and… I swung a leg over and had a death grip on my husband as we took off.

We hooked up with some friends to go riding together, and off we went hitting back roads around Nashville. It took awhile, but I slowly released the death grip I had on Hubby’s jacket. I even got confident enough to dig out my phone and take a few photos.

Half-way through our travels, we stopped to have a light lunch together. Fighting daylight, we didn’t linger long before we took off again. Getting back on the bike, I figured out a more comfortable way to sit, and my confidence went even higher.

As the sun started to set (darn time change), it started to get chilly. We stopped to stretch our legs for a moment and come up with a plan. We headed for a local bar for a post-ride drink before calling it a night.

I faced a fear, and I conquered it. I have to thank my husband for being so adamant we were going, despite my fears. I didn’t fall off. We didn’t crash. We only  had ONE vehicle ignore a Yield sign and pull out in front of us — but then, that happens ALL THE TIME here, so it was just annoying versus scary. I didn’t freeze. And… dare I say it? I had fun.

Yes. I had fun. There. I said it.

I. Had. Fun.

And I will be happy to do it again sometime.

Craigslist. That awesome little site for buying and selling. Who HASN’T perused the pages of Craigslist? I mean, at LEAST the rants and raves. Its one part shopping, one part selling, one part entertaining…

My husband and I have sold a hand full of items on Craigslist. And I know countless people who have both sold and purchased things successfully on there. But, random news articles about scams and people being attacked after buying or selling items has left me leery.

Since my husband and I got married, we’ve both lamented that we don’t have bicycles. We want to be in better shape, but somehow walking just… we do it, we enjoy it, but we both stare wistfully at bike riders whizzing past us. We’d talk about how we want bikes, but then the price tag would make us walk away.

Sunday, we went for a long walk and talked again about how we wished we had bikes. That night, my husband scoured Craigslist, and before I knew it, he had contacted two listings about bikes. He was a man on a mission! I’ll be honest, I’ve not seen him THAT determined in awhile, and before I knew it, we had two bikes secured. We would be off to pick them up soon.

Now, I was apprehensive, as I said. Especially because the first one we went out to the middle of nowhere to get. Beautiful drive, but I didn’t even have cell service when we got there! But, thankfully, both homes we visited to get the bikes were people who were friendly and happy to make the sale. No attacks or muggings for us today! WHEW!

Bike maintenance!

We got the bikes home and went to work on personalizing them. Adjusting seats, moving the brake levers to a comfortable location, making sure the chains were well oiled, and dusting the seats off. It was too dark by the time we finished to go for a ride, but it didn’t stop me from riding up and down our driveway in my cowboy boots!

I’m so glad my husband was Mr. Determined on this! I was skeptical. I was a bit apprehensive. Now? Now I’m just GIDDY. I’m a teenager all over again, I swear! (Thanks, honey, for getting these for us!!) I can’t wait until we get a free afternoon/evening to go for a ride. I can’t wait to see how this opens up our exercise routines (what’s that??), and how it opens up more places to photograph to me.  Like I said, GIDDY!!

Yay bikes!!

My husband had this weekend off. I think its the first weekend he’s had off in two or three months, and I am pretty sure its his last one off until sometime in November. So, of course, we looked at each other and went, “Well what do we with this time off?”

We haven’t gone on vacation in a long time, but we want to be able to go to Oregon to see my husband’s family for Christmas this year. So our logical brains prevailed and we decided to, basically, go on a stay-cation. Every day, we got out and did something different… and it was wonderful!

One day we just took off for a drive and discovered a cool “Wall of Honor” literally in the middle of nowhere.

The next day, we visited the Farmers Market, where pumpkins are already on sale…

… then over to Yazoo Brewery’s Tap Room,where we finally got to have dinner from the Grilled Cheeserie, a popular food truck in Nashville…

…then ended up having drinks on a patio in an area of town I’d only visited once before.

 The next night, we headed out to a small Cruise-In and had dinner at a Drive-In. Hamburgers, tater tots and a milk shake for dessert! Yum!

Finally, after finding we couldn’t watch the Oregon game after all, we headed out to Arrington Vineyards. We’d heard it was a fun outing, but we weren’t prepared for the beauty of the area, the delicious taste of the wine, nor the romantic mood the whole thing created. Heavenly! We will SO be back… often.

I often remind myself and my husband that we live in a city that people come to on vacation… perhaps we should take the time more often to explore areas we never visit. I am SO glad we took the last several days/nights to get out and visit different areas of our city. Can’t wait for our chance to do it again!