Gone are the days

Gone are the days of cuddling on the couch, stroking each others hair (although, this does happen from time to time).

 

Here are the days of watching him cuddle our baby, stroking her hair.

 

 

Gone are the days of strolling downtown with no agenda or schedule, holding each other hands.

 

Here are the days of pushing a stroller and watching her get excited about every single thing she sees.

 

 

Gone are the days of carefree weekends.

 

Here are the days of exploring the world and seeing it all anew through her eyes.

 

 

Gone are the days of catching each other’s eye across the bar and smiling knowingly.

 

Here are the days of catching each other’s eye above the baby’s head and beaming with joy, pride and complete happiness.

 

How I became the queen

Do you love my corny title?

Catch up on part one of our Wedding day here.

And a very happy anniversary to the love of my life.

Now back to the story.

Jon and I still hadn’t seen each other, and after getting dressed and taking some pictures, the girls and I had some celebratory champagne (you know, just to take the edge off).


(don’t worry, the little girl was drinking water)

Once outside, we saw the limo pull up and the girls helped me get in.

That limo, peeps, smelled disgusting.  I have no idea what had gone on the night before but I could guess.  It smelled like puke.

The girls and I all held our breath the best we could and made the trip to the Church.



Fun fact for ya - the air conditioning at the Church was broken.  And they only had a couple of fans set up.  Oh, and it was a sweltering 90+ degrees.  To say that we were all sweating would be an understatement.

Nevertheless, we made it down the isle.

My dad held me tight as we walked down and we whispered jokes to one another to keep each other from crying.



Jon waited nervously (I’m guessing by the way he was standing and smiling at me nervously) and took my hand from my dad.

We went through a very short ceremony (I believe I told our Justice of Peace to keep it under 10 minutes), but Jon still managed to say “I do” about 2 minutes before he was supposed to.



And before we knew it, we were married.





We all climbed into the limo, cracked open the beers, hiked up our dresses (we were sweating), and eagerly celebrated.

The reception went off without a hitch.  We ate, we drank, we danced (don’t worry, I requested the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and every single other corny song you can imagine).  I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

























Happy anniversary, my love.  And here’s to many more.

4 years is a lifetime

Tomorrow marks 4 years since Jon and I said those two little words that legally bound us to one another.

In honor of that, I’ll tell you about our wedding day.

First, your should catch up on our love story here.

Second, let me set the scene - we’re barely 24 years old (kids!) and we were dating for 8 months before we got engaged and waiting barely 9 months after our engagement before we got married.

Any who, let’s take it back to July 28th, 2007.

Jon and I decided that although we didn’t do any of that other stuff right (moved in together, then started dating, then got engaged), we would spend our last night before marriage apart.  Jon stayed at his mom’s house (she lived local to where we were getting married in Western mass) and I stayed at the hotel near our reception place.  My sister decided to stay with me since she was my Maid of Honor and because the hotel lost my parents’ reservation, they stayed with us too.  As weird as it might be to someone to have their entire immediate family spend the night with them before they got married, it was actually pretty amazing.  It was the last night that I got to hang out with my family before I started a family of my own.  It was amazing to be this close to the people that brought me up to be the person that I am today. 

That morning I woke up at 6am (which was super early for me back then) with a feeling of complete calm washing over me.  I was freaking out over everything from the guestbook to the guest list to the limo for days before our wedding.  Yet that morning I woke up and felt at peace.  I pulled out a book I brought with me and read for just over an hour until the alarm rang and my sister woke up.

We stayed in the same bed just like we did when we were kids. 

She woke up excited and immediately started planning out our whole day.  My parents woke up shortly after that and we all headed downstairs for breakfast.

In the hotel lobby I ran into some of our guests and greeted them excitedly.  I barely ate anything.  Following breakfast, the Bridesmaids and I had hair and make-up appointments.



It was down pouring outside, but none of that seemed to bother me.  The rain stopped for about 2 minutes while we ran from the car to the hair appointment, 2 minutes while we ran from the hair appointment to he make up appointment, and again when we were finished. 



Back at the hotel, I snuck into my parents’ room (they were finally able to check in) and stuffed my face.  Then I saw my roommate from college checking in, so I hung out with her and another friend for a while.

Finally, it was time to get dressed.



Tomorrow I’ll tell ya all about the actual wedding.

I'm in love

Help, I've fallen into love

and I can't get up.

Dear husband - I love you

Yesterday I came back from visiting Peanut at lunch to this:

And when I thought that was amazing, I read the note.

And then I cried a little.

Happy birthday Hubs!

Today is a very special day.

This guy

is 28 years old.

Well, old man, what can I say?

You're my best friend,

my partner in crime,

my true love.

I can't nor want to imagine a single day without you in my life.

You're an amazing husband

and a wonderful father.

We love you and wish you the happiest of birthdays!

PS- I think Peanut has a present for you in her diaper.

I'm married to the Grinch

Sometimes you catch your family in a cute moment but you just don't have enough time to grab the camera.

That's when I'm thankful that I have my iPhone with me.

This here is the Grinch with my fur-babies: Cailey and Travis.

I suppose it's time that I tell you why I keep calling the father of my unborn child the Grinch.

It all started years ago - when Jon and I started dating while living together.  We decided to go out and get our very first Christmas Tree together.  I was really excited and wanted the fluffiest, biggest, tallest tree on the lot, but Noooooo.  The Grinch wouldn't have it.  He kept telling me it wouldn't fit into our tiny apartment living room.

Things only got worse when we were hanging out in front of our significantly-smaller-than-I-wanted-but-fit-in-our-living-room tree.  It was a week before Christmas but there were a couple of presents with my name under the tree.  I got excited, shaking and guessing my gifts.  And do you think that the Grinch gave any of them away? Noooo...he wouldn't.  And the worst part?  He wouldn't let me open any of them early!

The past 3 years things progressed.  The Grinch has gotten tired of me guessing all of my gifts and fighting me while I try to rip the packaging from the gifts that are placed under the tree early.  Instead, he started buying my gifts last minute or, *gasp* hiding them!

But this year took the cake.  After spending an entire week cleaning, hosting the shower at our house, driving to MA for Thanksgiving, driving to MA for a dinner cruise, and cleaning after all the fun events, the Grinch decided to put off getting our Christmas Tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Something about being tired and needing our rest before we went back to work.  All I hear is "blah blah blah I hate Christmas blah blah blah you're not getting any presents blah blah blah."

What a Grinch!

Part 11- Our engagement goes public

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written about The King and Me, so feel free to catch up here.

After the initial shock of the engagement wore off, reality began to set in.  We called our family and close friends to let them know the news.  Then Jon and I talked about what this would mean for our workplace, especially since we spent so much time and effort convincing everyone that nothing was going on between us.  What would we say?  How would we announce it?  Would we announce it?  Are our friends going to feel betrayed by our lies?  But it was late so we decided to deal with it in the morning.

The next day at work was nerve wrecking.  I didn’t want to lie even more by not wearing the ring, but I also didn’t want to shove it in anyone’s face.  We told Laura and Nate about the engagement in the morning because they already knew that we were dating, so it would be less of a shock.  They were excited but a bit surprised by our short time line.  The rest of the morning flew by without anyone noticing, yet my heart was beating out of my chest the entire time.

Finally, at lunch, I relaxed a bit, thinking that the day was half over and no one had said a thing.  It was routine for our offices (by this point we had 2) to call each other during lunch time to catch up at least once a week.  A group of us gathered in the conference room with our lunches and dialed the other office.  The energy was high, everyone was excited to hear the voices of those that moved away after our training sessions and we were all talking at once.  Suddenly, I noticed one of our co-workers, Matt, staring at me with a perplexed expression across the conference room table.  I followed his gaze to my ring finger and instinctively covered it with my other hand (and I’m sure blushed about 40 shades or red).  This only set Matt off further.  “Is that what I think that is?” he practically yelled across the room, causing everyone in our office to stop talking and turn to stare at me.  I thought I would die in my seat.  I glanced at Jon for comfort, but he looked just as spooked and was trying to make himself as small as possible in his corner.  I saw a couple of eyes dart at him and then at my now exposed ring finger.  I nodded.  The other office continued to talk to no one, barely realizing that no one was listening any more.  Our office had gathered around us, grilling us with details.  I may have passed out a time or two, or at least wished I did so that it would end.

Once the inquisition winded down, Jon and I sneaked outside to formulate a game plan.  It would be a matter of minutes before this spread throughout the rest of the company and we had to inform our bosses on our own terms.  Jon decided to talk to his boss, while I talked to mine.

Jon’s conversation seemed to go off without a hitch.  His boss smirked and said he had an inkling that we weren’t as platonic as we pretended, but he was excited for us.  My conversation went more like this, “Just roommates my ass!”  My boss has a way with words.  But it was finally over, we had told everyone in our office and we both still had jobs.  In fact, once the initial news settled in, most of our coworkers said that they either knew that something was going on and/or that they were really happy to see us together.  We made it through the first day as an engaged couple.

Now we just had to plan a wedding.

Chicken beater

When Jon and I just moved in together to our first apartment in East Haven, CT, we were both just learning to be on our own.  One of our undertakings was learning how to cook.  At that point my most intricate meal consisted of mac and cheese and I'm pretty sure that I even managed to ruin that.

So about a month or two into our new independent life, I decided to call my mother and ask her how to make chicken.  She explained the many details that went into making chicken, like buying the chicken, salt and peppering it, breading it and then sticking it on the skillet.  One thing she did mention is to make sure that the chicken is kind of thin so it doesn't dry out when I try to overcook it, which I obviously would. 

Jon and I decided that this was totally doable and went to Wal-Mart to get some supplies, like a skillet and breading.  We were walking up and down isles looking for supplies, but I couldn't find the one thing that I really needed.  I walked up the Wal-Mart employee and said, "Excuse me, but do you know where I could find a chicken beater?"

This employee was a young girl who must still be in high school.

The employee looked at me and said, "Do you mean the meat tenderizer?"

Love at first sight

My entire life I believed that when I finally met "the one", I would know it from first sight.  It's as if one day I would look up from my book/computer screen/whatever I am doing and there would be this light shining down on some cute boy, fireworks would erupt, and the whole world would spin. It's a bit naive, but what can I say?  I'm a die hard romantic.

In high school and college boys came and went.  I still believed in love at first sight, even though I didn't think that those boys were it.  I guess deep down I knew that they were just a short-story romance that would one day end.  And then I would look up from my book/computer screen/whatever I am doing and fall in love.

Then I met Jon.

 
It wasn't love at first with us.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that there was a year or two when I didn't even know he existed.  We probably passed each other in the hallways daily without ever looking up or seeing any fireworks.

We even became co-workers, friends, and roommates without any fireworks.  We spent hours laughing at each others' jokes, hanging out together, and generally spending hours upon hours looking up from cooking, books, TV, or whatever else we were doing without any fireworks.  There was no shining light illuminating his face when I looked over.

You'd think that after all this time, I'd give up on believing in love at first sight. But I guess to me love at first sight was never about looking up from my book/computer screen/whatever I was doing and seeing a stranger.  It was just about looking at someone and instantly falling in love.

So when I looked up at this guy that's been in my life for over a year and finally saw him for the first time in a whole new light; yeah, I think it was love at first sight.

What your couch says about you

My friend reminded me of something today that I loved about the progression in our relationship.

When Jon and I were roommates who just moved in together, we had two couches and a chair in our living room.

That's the hubs playing his guitar in our living room.  We just moved in together a couple of days before.  Isn't he dreamy?  Now that I see this picture, I honestly have no idea how I didn't know I'd be in love with this boy from day 1.

Although Jon and I knew each other relatively well, we were still very cautious and awkward around one another.  We always gave each other space and spent our time hanging out on our respective couches.  It was kind of cute - I'd walk in to the room and sit down.  Jon would come in, look at me on the couch, and take a seat on the other couch, as far away from me as possible.  It was as if cooties had an approximate radius of 10 feet, but it would be safer for us both if he kept as far away as possible.

This applied to many other areas of our house.  I checked if I smelled, but I was clean.

As time passed and things progressed, Jon decided that perhaps cooties only had a 5 foot radius, so it was okay to come just a little closer.   We occasionally passed each other in the hallway without slamming up against the wall to avoid physical contact.   It was a fun game we played.  A sort of dance.

When Jon and I finally gave in to our feelings and decided we belonged together, we gave up our notion of keeping to our separate couches.  Now when Jon walked into the living room and saw me sitting on the couch, he'd smile and plop his cute butt next to me.  It seemed the more in love we fell, the closer we sat together on the couch

Then we moved to a new place with one bedroom and so, it was only natural, that we kept only one couch in our living room.

We spent most of our time cuddled up on this one couch.

After we got married and moved in to our house, we bought a new couch.  A big couch.

The new couch is amazing.  Not only is it incredibly comfortable, but it finally fits our little family of 4.5 (I miss you Jazzy) just fine!

Cailey likes snuggling up among pillows.

Travis keeps to his corner.

Sometimes, we all napped together.

And even now, years after our awkward moments and separate couches, we still snuggle up together.