Why I love Karma

Photogenic Friday is canceled this week. Partly because I don't really have a good picture for it and also because the following story was too good not to share.

Andy has an irrational fear of the litter boxes the bunnies use. Gutting a deer? No problem. Bunny poop? Mortal fear.

I mean, they are kind of yucky, but they are a necessary evil. When he empties them (like twice a year) he pulls his shirt over his nose, turns his head in the opposite direction and makes gagging noises. Sometimes I make him do it just so I can laugh at him and then tell him how much new born babies like to poop.

What? I'm just preparing him for the future.

So anyway, today Andy took a half day off of work to go do manly things in the woods. He came home to eat first and get some things he needed. He was being really sassy. We spent a good amount of time bantering with one another back and forth. We like to give each other a hard time, but today the sass was heavy.

He was kind of getting on my nerves.

All his things were gathered and then he remembered that he'd forgotten his camouflage hat. He took it off the hook on the door and put it on the table.

Now, there are many things that I do that Andy doesn't like. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but we aren't talking about me. We're talking about him, and I hate it when he puts his hats on the table. They never get washed and he wears them until they either a) fall apart or b) have a visible layer of slime on the inside.

I expressed my distaste about the hat on the table.

I'm sure he had some kind of earth shattering sassy response for me, but he was stopped short. He took off the hat that he was wearing in order to shake it at me, but had forgotten that his sunglasses were on his hat. They flew off his hat, across the room and landed directly into the litter box.

VINDICATION!!!

I told him he got what he deserved and he told me I was going to wash his glasses.

Oh no I wasn't!

Really I was. I had no problem washing his glasses. I just wanted to see him squirm.

He said he couldn't wash them because they were "covered in fecal matter dust."

I'm still laughing and it's been an hour.

Finally I caved, but not before I told him it was a real shame he wouldn't be able to use his glasses again because they were nice and kind of expensive.

I let him take his death march over to the sink before I intervened.

::Giggle::

Happy weekend!

"I'm over vampires"

Andy has had enough.

I, on the other hand, have not. I've had a thing for vampires since the first time I saw The Lost Boys. Swoon.

Unless you've been living under a rock lately you've noticed the recent surge of vampire mania in television and movies.

Last night when a commercial came on for New Moon Andy looked over at me (squealing and clapping in anticipation) and told me he was done. No more. He refuses to be my enabler any longer.

I have to say he's been really tolerant. Because I'm not just into the Twilight saga. Any movie, show or book about vampires will usually hold my attention - at least long enough for me to determine if it's worth my time. Any time at all is too long for Andy.

So I'm trying to get my fix on the sly. I watch what I can online. Books are easier because Andy doesn't read them with me. He can pretend they are about something else.

But I need a date to go see the movie. Who's in? I'm willing to wait a bit to avoid as much of the tween frenzy as possible.

In the meantime I'll just get my jollies from watching The Vampire Diaries online. (I also have a weakness for teen television dramas. Shut Up! I'll grow up when everyone else does!)

What's your guilty pleasure?

Photogenic Friday: Bug genocide

Did you know that the title box on blogger doesn't do spell check? I have to double check things in the text box or look it up to make sure I'm spelling my titles right. It's annoying.

Moving on.

This is what my kitchen looks like right now:


Want to know why? Of course you do!

Andy and I have recently been having a bug problem. Andy says they are fruit flies, but I call them gnats because we don't have any fruit out on our counters. Don't fruit flies have to eat fruit to live? These bugs just live off air. I'm not kidding.

We have gone through several cans of raid and reached a level of cleanliness in or home that I didn't think possible in a rental. Still, the bugs thrived. We've been more diligent about cleaning up after ourselves in two weeks than we have or entire marriage. It's probably the only good thing that has come out of this bug invasion. I'm hoping we formed a habit.

So anyway, like I said, these bugs eat air. I promise it wasn't the bunnies that kept them around. The bugs generally avoided the bunny cage and litter boxes. It wasn't because we're pet owners.

Something had to be done. We were about to lose our ever loving minds. Also, we're hosting Thanksgiving in our apartment in two weeks and we can't have our company being dive bombed by gnats while they are eating.

Seriously. Dive bombing gnats. They started that a couple days ago.

They had reproduced in our apartment so many times that this "new bug generation" wasn't afraid of us. They didn't even fly away if we tried to squash them. They just flew a couple inches over and landed next to our hand. It was getting scary.

So last night Andy bought these fogging bomb thingies. That brings me back to my kitchen. Remember my kitchen?

The entire contents of my kitchen is in either a trash bag or saran wrap to protect it from the bug killing juice. Can I just tell you how fun it was to do that? Who wants to come help me put the kitchen back together?

::crickets::

No one? Really?

I have my worries about our clothing and bedding. Andy says everything but what we eat off of is fine. I'm not so sure. I think I'll change the sheets tonight just to be sure. It's time to break out the flannel sheets anyway.

In case you're wondering, no we didn't leave the bunnies in the apartment. Andy celebrated the first annual "Bring Your Bunny to Work Day" today. Let's hope it's the only annual "Bring Your Bunny to Work Day" day.

They're fine and healthy as can be, though very happy to be home. Pissed off doesn't begin to describe their attitude towards sitting in their cage at Andy's office for most of the day.

Oh, one more question. If you won't help with the kitchen, how about coming to help clean up all the tiny little bug carcasses?

::more crickets::

You people have no sense of adventure.

Happy weekend!

This is why he's hot!

I didn't just marry Andy because he's a good mechanic.

He's really quite handy to have around the house as well.

Brave is a also a good descriptive word that comes to mind when I look at these photos.


Very brave indeed to make bread in the presence of his anal, perfectionist wife.

Usually Andy is more of a cook and I'm the household baker. It's a rare occasion when he undertakes a baking project and even more rare that he allows me to be home while he's doing it.

I do enjoy bossing him around and making faces when he does something wrong.

Right about now I'm missing him like crazy.

He's coming home tomorrow.

I'm terribly excited. The left side of the bed has been cold for a week and a half.

P.S. If he comes back without a present I'm sending him back.

Three Years

Embracing stereotypes

This morning in our kitchen:

Me: (At the sink doing dishes) Can you unscrew the blade from the bottom of the blender for me please.

Andy: (Takes the blender pitcher from me) Have you ever been able to do this yourself?

Me: Sometimes, but it takes me longer and if you're standing right here why not have you do it instead?

Andy: But what if I'm not here?

Me: I'll just wait until you get home.

Andy: But what if I'm dead?

Me: Well, then I'll marry someone else. But first I'll make sure he can take apart the blender for me.

I'm a philanthropist and I can prove it

Rewind to tax season 2008.

For a large portion of 2007 Andy was considered self employed. So our taxes for that year were not pretty. It could have been worse, but it could have been a lot better.

We had to pay federal taxes, but we did manage to scrimp out a refund from our state return. A whole, whopping $7.

I know, how exciting is that? We left the tax office with big plans for our rebate. We were going to treat ourselves with a feast from the nearest dollar menu as soon as the check came in the mail. Anticipation was high.

A month or so later the check came. Whoot! I remember taking it out of the mail box, but after that things get blurry. I think I may have told Andy that it came, but who really knows? At the time gas was through the roof and the bank wasn't exactly close, so I just planned on cashing the check whenever I was in town again.

Maybe a month after that we had a conversation that went something like this:

Andy: Hey, did you ever cash that rebate check?

Me: Oh! No I don't think I did.

Andy: So what did you do with it?

Me: I'm not entirely sure. It'll probably turn up and when it does I'll take it to the bank.

Andy: Well, whatever. It was only $7.

Fast forward to last Saturday.

It's a woman's prerogative to have as many purses as her closet will hold and then stuff in a few more just because she can. Last week, before the family picnic, I decided it was time for a change. So I went into my closet to pull out one of my summer bags. The one I had in mind was a little bigger than my current bag; it had been a birthday gift from my inlaws last year. Plenty of room for my wallet and sunglasses and a book of course and lot's of other completely unnecessary items.

If you're anything like me every purse in your arsenal is storage for a bunch of crap that you never cleaned out. You know, stuff that doesn't really have a home, but you don't want to throw it out, but it isn't worthy to transfer to your new bag. Or you're just lazy, like I am, and it's easier to take out the necessary things and cram the rest of it back in the bag and into the closet.

So I rummaged around for a minute until I finally found my desired tote and I pulled it out. Of course it had to be purged of all the "stuff" still in it. I pulled it all out to sort it into trash and keep piles.

Guess what was in it?

The $7 rebate check from the state of North Carolina.

"Huh." I said aloud and then laid it down and went about my business. It was only $7 after all.

I forgot about it (again) until last night when Andy comes in the living room holding a piece of paper and says, "So how about this tax rebate check? Where did this come from?"

I laugh and tell him where I found it. Then he actually gets defensive and wants to know why I didn't cash it. I remind him of that conversation we had a year ago and that he knew all along that I didn't cash it.

Of course the deadline to cash it is long past due. So I guess I've done my part for the economy. I donated our $7 back to this glorious state.

You're welcome North Carolina!

Time together

For the last two and a half years that Andy and I have been married we have always had long periods of time where we don't really get to see each other. Usually this is caused by our employment situations. Schedules not matching and whatnot. It isn't something we mind so much. I like my alone time and Andy likes to be busy. So we've been ok with finding a day or two here and there to spend as a married couple.

I guess the majority of our relationship has been this way. We've never clung to tightly to one another and always been happy to give the other person the space that they need. I think it's how we survive. We love one another very much, but even the most solid couples need some time apart once in a while.

Lately though, it seems like our time apart has taken over our marriage. One of us always had something to do that didn't include the other. I didn't realize how much I was missing time with my husband until recently.

Since the accident we've had nothing but time together. I'm not very independent with constant pain medication and crutches. It took me a while to convince Andy that I could do anything by myself. For the first week he was afraid to go anywhere if there wasn't another person here to look after me. That was stressful. There were things he needed to do, but we each knew that he was stuck here at home until some relief came.

As I have healed we have managed to work out a schedule. I'm more steady on my crutches and I even worked out a system so that I can shower without assistance. The main thing I can't do is prepare food for myself. Since the ski shop is just up the road Andy can pop in and get me food and check on me. I know he's been glad to go back to work. It takes his mind off of all the stress that has come from the accident. It also gives me some time to myself, which is something I have always treasured.

But these last couple of weeks, evenings have been reserved for just the two of us. Before the accident if we found ourselves home together too often at night we would get bored really easily and argue about what to watch on television. We've even been known to make up excuses to drive to town and break up the monotony of it all.

Now though, we enjoy each others' company. We always have something to talk about. The other person's television preferences are interesting rather than boring. Last night we sat on the couch for a couple of hours looking at recipes on The Pioneer Woman and laughing at the decorator disasters on Cake Wrecks. It was the most fun we've had in a really long time. Including before the accident.

If anything good has come from this whole debacle it's this. Our relationship seems to be on a totally different level now. I know taking care of me, the apartment, the bunnies, the legal matters and his job have been very stressful for Andy. I'm still trying to figure out a way to thank him when this is all over. In return he's thankful to see me healing; to know for sure that his wife will soon be whole again. I haven't been in Andy's shoes before; not yet anyway. I hope to never be on the receiving end of a situation like this. I can only imagine what was going through his head when he got that phone call three weeks ago. A stranger on the other end calling to say that his wife had been in a head on collision and he needed to come to the scene of the accident. What did he think when he saw me? How alone he must have felt before our families got to the hospital.

He's my love and my best friend. When all this is over and our lives return to normal I'm going to do my best to remember this feeling. To remember how much I appreciate him right now and to never take our time together for granted again.

***********************************************************

A small update:

• I get my cast off on May 18th! That's two weeks before we originally thought. I'll still have to be in a boot, but I can take a shower without the "cast condom" and put my designer crutches away, hopefully forever.
• Right now I can't breathe out of my right nostril. This could be because there are still some stitches in there that are clogging it up. It could also be because I'm still slightly swollen on that side. Or it could be because of my deviated septum and will need to be corrected with surgery. I won't know until I go to the doctor on the 27th. Until then I'm praying for either of the first two options.
  

Ch-ch-ch-changes

One day, when I was in the fifth grade, our school nurse came around to my classroom and announced that all the girls in my class should form a line at the door and the boys should all stay put. I proceeded quietly down the hall with my female classmates into another room where I found every other 5th grade girl in my school. We all crammed in together and of course the whispering began. What was going on? Why were we all here? There were those among us who already knew. You see, one or the other of their parents worked in the school and had forewarned their daughters of what was going to happen that day. There were murmurs around the room that we were about to learn about having our periods and S-E-X!!

What!?!?!?!?

A very distinct atmosphere filled the room, half excitement and half terror.

The nurse proceeded to the front of the class and, as she passed out booklets, confirmed our worst fear. They were indeed going to tell us all about or menstrual cycles. Then someone turned out the lights... thank God. For about the next half hour we learned all about our bodies and how they worked. At least as much as the administration would allow a school nurse to tell a room full of impressionable girls. As far as I remember we didn't talk about S-E-X (that didn't happen until 9th grade), but we did, very briefly, go over the diagram of male reproductive anatomy. At which time my face turned about twenty different shades of red. Along with everyone else's face in the room, I'm sure, including the adults. But, like I said, the lights were out... thank God.

I left that room thoroughly enlightened. My mother had discussed certain things with me, but I'd never had it projected on a 10'x10' screen and given a full color illustration book. I shared that book with my mother when I got home that day. She was horrified - no - pissed that the school took it upon themselves to tell me about the birds and the bees. I don't remember any follow up discussion about what I learned. I'm sure I told her all about it and she corrected anything that I had gotten mixed up. What I do remember is that she was so upset that she took my book to work the next day to show her one an only female co-worker so that they could commiserate in anger against the school board. I never saw my full color illustration book again. She lost it. She lost it in a building full of men. Men I'd grown up around and who I didn't want knowing that I was about to go through puberty. It didn't matter that they probably could figure it out on their own. What mattered was that I didn't want them knowing that I knew what was coming. Clearly, I've never forgiven my mother for this misstep.

But, I digress.

None of this is the point. What I'm circling around to is that in that classroom they failed to mention that your body never, ever, ever stops changing, ever. They lead me to believe that puberty would only last for a short time and I'd come out of it with boobs and a menstrual cycle.

I'm sure all of you are getting very uncomfortable at this point. You're wondering if I'm about to tell you all about my girlie bits right here and now. Well, no I'm not. I'm just a little disgruntled that I had to figure out so much on my own. The "changes" they told me about came and went, but new ones set in. I guess you could call it aging.

If you're a woman you know all of this. You know that your hips spread. Not just once, but several times, and I don't mean they get fat, I mean that your hip bones literally spread apart in preparation for the babies you may or may not be having. Your body gets curvier. The acne never really goes away, it just lessens and changes. And your metabolism slows. None of this is true for men. Except the acne part.

That slow metabolism thing is what really gets you. One day you wake up and realize you should have changed your eating habits about 10 years ago in order to accommodate the metabolism that you will have, not the one you do. I'm a creature of habit and I'm used to giving into my every whim. If I get a hankerin' for junk food I've got to have something. Cravings kind of take over my brain and I can think of nothing else until I've satisfied it. Pair that with a mouth full of sweet teeth and you've got yourself an ugly picture, or at least someone on their way to something ugly. Namely, me. I do try to not buy junk food. Andy and I have always been on a strict "junk food is too expensive" grocery budget. I plan our meals very carefully and rarely allow myself to stray from my list in the grocery store. I'm not denying the occasional late night trip to satisfy a craving. As a matter of fact, just last Wednesday we kind of went over board on a quick trip to the grocery. That couldn't have been good for my midsection and it definitely wreaked havoc on my dreams, think M. Night Shyamalan.

Do you know what is totally and completely unfair about all this?

Andy put on a little weight after college. He has kind of yo-yo'ed up and down about ten pounds ever since then. Until last spring. He decided that he wanted to cut down on his alcohol intake. Not to say that he had a problem, he just decided that it wasn't very good for him and he wasn't going to drink very much anymore. He didn't change anything else about his dietary intake but that. He is now down to the weight he was when he started college. When he was 18.

I could get really upset about this, and the only thing stopping me is my other blog. This is the year of gratitude and I'm working hard not to be bitter about anything. Bitterness makes it hard to find the beauty in life. So Andy can drop weight without trying. So what? I've put on some weight since I was 18. Ok, I've put on a lot of weight since I was 18. Look at me here:

Who the hell is that stick with Andy?
Oh, yeah. That's me.
Sweet holy Moses, this was taken a long time ago.

At least now I've got some curves to show from all that sugar intake.

Something else they don't tell you in 5th grade? Men's ears and noses never stop growing. So when we are old and gray, my hips are all spread out and I've lost the ability to make any babies, my face will still be in the same proportion as it is now. A little saggier? Yes, but still in proportion. Andy, on the other hand, will have giant features with gray hair growing out of them.

So, God really does make everything balance out after all.

Telling Andy

Andy was out of town last night when I had my little accident on the keyboard. So when he got home today I decided to bite the bullet and tell him in case the keyboard didn't recover and he sat down and tried to type to no avail. This is how it went down:

Me: I spilled water on the keyboard last night

Andy: ::rolls eyes:: Well, I guess I'll buy you a keyboard for Christmas

Me: Maybe not. It hasn't all dried out yet.

Andy: Well, does it work now?

Me: ::types a pass word into a website::

Andy: Don't try to use it until it dries out!!


Someone tell me how the hell I was supposed to find out if it works without typing on it.

As you can see the crisis has been averted and our patient has made a full recovery.

*****************************************************************

And now for something completely different.

This was on our Christmas card that I sent out. How stinkin' cute is this? It took nearly 40 pictures to get it right, but I think it was well worth the effort.

Procrastination

Ok, so I took more than a couple of days off. I have a lot of things going on in my head, but haven't taken the time to separate them out and make some sense of them. I've also been working at the ski shop this week. Not for Andy, for the retail manager. It has totally drained me. Turns out 9 months of not standing on your feet all day makes it hard to get used to the physical demands of a retail job again. So blogging hasn't been my top priority this week. Sleep has though.

Even though I'm not working for Andy I still see him all day. There are a lot of people that come in who say, "Hey that's awesome that you guys get to see each other all day." We just kind of smile and nod. The people that say this are not married. Do you know how I know that they aren't married? Because that statement made it through their brain and out their mouth. If they were married they would know that it is not "awesome" to see your spouse all day every day. Sometimes it's good to have time apart.

I'm leaving town today to go see Julie! Andy and I both are excited about this trip. I'm excited to be out of town and see my BFF, and he is excited to have the house to himself for a couple of days.

Can you tell it's been a long week?

I'll be back to the blog Sunday with some pictures to chronicle my time with Julie and away from my husband.

A text conversation

This morning the bunnies have been extra mischievous and giving me a hard time. I haven't made it into the shower yet and about the time I started to hop in (around lunch time) they decided to set up camp in the bathroom.

So what else could I do but complain to Andy, through text, about how they were getting on my nerves.

Me to Andy: Your sons are driving me crazy

Andy's response: You could heat me up some pot pie

Me to Andy: If you can come get them out of the bathroom

Andy's response: Why is the pot pie in the bathroom?

Oh Lord, please help my patience today.

No Juice

Two weeks ago, in my car, Andy is driving:

Andy: Your check engine light is on

Me: Oh is it? That means the battery is about to die.

Andy: How do you know?

Me: That is what happens when I need a new battery.

Fast forward a couple of days:

My jeep takes longer than usual to start a couple of times

Me: My jeep didn't want to start today. We need to replace the battery.

Andy: You don't know for sure it's the battery, it could be any number of things.

Me: Ok, whatever.

Fast forward to this afternoon:

I drive to town and my dead battery leaves me stranded

Me: (on the phone with Andy) I told you so

Andy: Yeah, well... just shut up.

Reminiscence

Andy and I are going to sit down and look at our wedding album later tonight. I just finished it a few months ago, so this is the first anniversary that we won't have to view our pictures on a computer screen.

Here is a sampling of what we'll be looking at tonight. Enjoy!

Jenn put on my earrings (something blue)
while Julie laced up my dress

The bottom of my shoes
I did this myself

My mom and I had matching shoesAshley had the ring situation under controlSeeing Andy for the first timeAndy seeing me for the first timePinning on his boutonnièrePortrait in the stairwellOne of the few good ones I have of AndyThe boysThe girlsSaying our vowsIsn't the church beautiful?Right after the ceremonyA moment alone before everyone joined usOne of the gifts waiting for us The cake and cupcakes
(Julie and I made those green fondant hearts
and stamped them with an "S" to match the caked topper)Cutting the cakeAndy thought my garter was up too high
He was embarrassedGoodbye!

2 years

Thats how long Andy and I have been married as of tomorrow. Time flies. I've been reflecting a lot lately on my age and my life and I'm struggling with the concept that I'm a 26 year old married woman. Not that I don't love my husband and our life together, but sometimes it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that I'm an adult. Sometimes I feel like a teenager who is playing house. Any minute someone is going to bust into my house and say, "Ok! The jigg is up! You aren't old enough for this!"

Seriously. Where did the time go? Didn't I just celebrate my 20th birthday? No? That was six and a half years ago? Whatever you say chief...

We are still undecided about what to do to celebrate. I would just be happy to sit at home with some wine, some movie rentals and no cell phones. Right now that is my dream date. I don't care if that sounds boring. If, after two years of married and 8 years of being a couple, we aren't entitled to sit on the couch together and do nothing, please tell me when that time comes. How old do I have to be to be boring? That will give me something to look forward to.

Right now I'm thinking about what was happening two years ago at this time. I think it's right about the time I had my first real bridezilla moment. I was at my parents house with Andy and most of my bridesmaids and I was trying to get some last minute things accomplished, but no one was listening to me. They were all busy catching up with each other's lives. Which, don't get me wrong, I appreciate that we hadn't seen each other in a while. But hello! I was getting married in just over 24 hours and I needed some extra hands. I needed them to work while they talked. So I had a little fit and started handing out assignments like a drill sergeant. But I think everyone forgave me pretty quickly. As bridezillas go I wasn't as horrible as I think everyone had expected, so if that was the worst of it they would take it with a smile.

Afterwards we headed to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Honestly I think I enjoyed that day more than my actual wedding day. I did love my wedding and it was a wonderful time, but the day before seemed so much more relaxed. I could spend time with my closest family and friends without the pressure of promising my life to someone else forever.

It was truly a wonderful time and I still feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude to everyone who worked so hard to make those two days possible. No amount of thank yous can express how grateful I am to all those people. I won't start naming names because I'll forget someone. I think I'm one of the few people who would do it all over again and love every minute of it, again.

I'll leave you with a picture of us on our special day to help commemorate the countdown. Tune in tomorrow when I'll bombard you with pictures of us. Because I know you care so much.

My Knight

Andy and I have never really called each other by our real names. We have always had nick names for each other. Even from the very beginning. When we first got married I complained that I would like to be called by my name once in a while, so Andy complied. It was too friekin' weired. So we went on, happily, with our nick names.

When we first started dating I called him a nerd once and he took great offense to that. I don't think he realized at first that I was kidding, so he called me a geek. I laughed and then he got it. Somehow this developed into our first set of nick names; Geeky Princess and Nerd in Shinning Armor. We even used the label maker at work to print these out and wore them on the back of our name tags. How disgusting were we?

Early on in our relationship it became apparent to me just how much Andy was my own personal white knight.

About a month after we had been dating my dad passed away. It was completely out of the blue. Actually, he had been in declining health for a while and I guess it wasn't totally unexpected for some, but for me it was a swift kick in the gut. I won't go into detail, that's another post for another day, just know that it was quite traumatic for me.

An event like this can have quite a toll on a new relationship. Especially if the two people involved are young like we were. Most boys wouldn't know how to console someone and would probably shut down and withdraw. And who could blame them? It isn't every day in a teenager's life you have to be present for a friend in need. At least not in need like that.

I was an emotional basket case. I am normally, but more so then, understandably so. But Andy stepped right in. He was my rock. He took off work and school to be there for me at the receiving and at the funeral. I have to say I was a little shocked. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to have a partner, someone who was just there to comfort me and no one else, but I never expected this of him. I didn't ask him either. I told him it would be nice, but I understood if he had other obligations.

And it wasn't just being there for me in my time of need. Not only did he have to lend a shoulder to his girlfriend of only 1 month, but he had to meet my ENTIRE family. He had never met my dad. My parents separated when I was 18 months old and though my dad was present he didn't meet my boyfriends right away. As a matter of fact, he didn't meet any of them, ever. But Andy didn't just have to meet my dad's side of the family, which is quite large and loud, but he also met my mom's side (larger and louder). He came through it beautifully. It didn't occur to me at the time how awful that must have been for him. Not to say my family grilled him or "stuck it to him" because that wasn't the point of the day, but he had only known me for a short time and my family is a lot to take in. I usually like to introduce people into it a little more slowly. You know, let them get to know my own personal kind of crazy and then introduce them to the fam. But Andy jumped right into the deep end. Willingly.

I don't think my knight will ever know just how much that meant to me then, and still means to me now. But that time together seemed to put a seal on our relationship. I knew he was someone to hold on too. Ever since then he's been coming to my rescue when I needed it. For that I am eternally great full.

The first "I love you"

At this point I would have told you about our first kiss. Sadly, our first kiss was not much to brag about. I won't go into detail, but just say that our second was much more enjoyable.

Andy and I were so enamored with each other and so much in lurve, that we celebrated every.single.month anniversary during our first year of dating bliss. So like every month previously, on our fifth month we went out to a nice dinner (maybe a movie too, I don't really remember at this point), and then Andy drove me home.

Let me interject here that Andy has an obsession with big souped up cars. In particular Jeeps and at the time he was sporting at 1992 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Edition with a lovely, albeit loud, flowmaster muffler. His Nana loved it. I did not. To add to the loudness of the muffler there was the stereo that had to be cranked up in order to hear the music over the rumble of the flowmaster. Needless to say, conversation at a regular octave was not possible.

So we pulled up in my driveway and we were giving goodnight smooches, but Andy had not shut off the engine. He generally didn't. I guess because he usually just drove right away and the car made more noise when it was started than when it was just sitting idle.

I don't remember everything that was said, but Andy said that he loved me. Telling someone you love them is a very tender moment and not meant to be shouted over a car muffler. He wasn't shouting, and I barely heard him, but I did, in fact, hear him. Of course I said it right back, but to this day Andy swears that I didn't reciprocate his feelings until a day later. I'm a soft spoken person and when using a normal voice I'm not very loud. So you can imagine that over all that extra noise I am difficult to hear. And since I didn't want to shout, "I LOVE YOU TOO!!!!!!!" Andy simply didn't hear me.

I did think he acted weired after that, but it never occurred to me that he never heard my response. The confusion was cleared up the next day, though I'm not sure he believes that I actually did validate him that night.

Ever since then I refuse to have a conversation with him in a car if I have to strain my vocal cords in any way. It's either the radio or me babe.

The First Date

It took Andy a little while, but he managed to muster up the courage to ask me out. He came in one night under the guise that he needed to make copies for a school project. He wasn't working, I was.
He came over to say hello and another girl (let's call her J) was there with me. We chit chatted for a while and he talked about his school project. I remember he had a history book with him.

Then, when there was a lull in the conversation, he came out with it. He asked, "So, do you want to go fishing sometime?"

Now, if you know much about me, you know that I am not so much of a great outdoors kind of girl. I'm especially not a great outdoors activity kind of girl. It didn't occur to me what Andy was trying to do. All I could think about was worms and slimy scaly fish and why on earth would I want to do an activity that involved those two things? So I replied, "Fishing?! Why would I want to go fishing?!"

At that, Andy became visibly nervous and probably started to sweat a little bit. He began to stammer and even turned to J and said, "Tell her she needs to go fishing with me." J also had not caught on to what was going on, and knowing me as she did, she also queried why I would want to go fishing.

Lucky for Andy, I have super deductive skills and they lead me to believe that he might just be asking me out on a date. So I threw the boy a bone and suggested that we just go out to a movie or dinner sometime, and explained that I'm not so much into fishing. He said that was a good idea, but we never actually set a date. I guess he was so horrified at how not smooth he appeared that he just left after he got a yes.

It took us about a month to get a time nailed down and we went on our first date on St Patrick's Day. We were both working so we just went out for ice cream after work that night. We went to I Can't Believe it's Yogurt and he had chocolate-vanilla swirl and I had just chocolate with Oreo crumbles. Andy wasn't wearing green. He swears he was, but he was not. He was wearing an over sized long sleeved t-shirt that was navy blue. Those days Andy's wardrobe consisted of blue, gray, white, and blue jean. This is how I'm sure he was not wearing green, not just because that night is etched into my memory forever.

We ended our night with a hug and said goodbye, and I thought to myself that I would definitely see him again.

Through the years

I took Andy to my senior prom
(How much did I weigh here? Holy cow!)

Before Andy's senior homecoming game
I'm pretty sure this was my 19th birthdayAndy's senior prom
(We went to 3 proms together, and I went to 5 proms total)Andy's graduation party
On the parkway for our 4 year dating anniversary
With Andy's sister Emily and her boyfriend David
(I think this is the first time we met David)

Let the countdown begin

After I made my post yesterday about our upcoming anniversary I became very nostalgic. So I've decided to entertain you with our own personal love story.

Andy and I met back in 1999. We worked together at Staples. When we were hired the store wasn't open yet and we were part of the set up team. There were lots of other people there from other stores and from companies that came in to do that sort of thing. So in the beginning he was just another face in the crowd.

Then the store opened and all those other people left except for the permanent staff, and Andy became that scrawny younger guy that hung around with the even scrawnier guy that was annoying. I would see the two of them coming and groan internally because scrawny guy #2 was sometimes overbearing and hard to be around (he turned out to be a very sweet fella' and a really good friend, but that's beside the point). It seemed like if one of them was working so was the other. They were always together and any chance I had of getting to know Andy by himself was thwarted.

Not that I wanted to get to know him. He was just another guy that I worked with and I knew he was younger. Of course I was oh so mature and was about to graduate from high school (early because I had my fill of high school by the end of my junior year so I had decided to cut my senior year short), and he was only a junior at his school and dating someone younger was beneath me. So, initially, there was no interest at all.

Then, finally, Andy started getting some shifts without his sidekick. I got to know him for him. He's very quiet and unless you have him alone he doesn't really say much. He was younger, but not that much, only 6 months and he was in a grade below me because his birthday was in the fall. And then I began to notice some flirtations coming from his end. Was this shy, quiet, younger dude trying to pick me up? And was it possible that I thought he was kind of cute? I think I did.

He was in fact planning to declare his love for me, or at least to ask me out. But that is a whole other post for another day.

At this point you must be asking yourself, "With all this flirtation and getting to know each other going on, did these kids ever get any work done?" Absolutely not.