November

It is that time of year where everyone begins their 30 days this year of posting on Facebook what they are thankful for.  I was a little late in the game, so here are 30 things I am thankful for about my husband.

1.  I am thankful when my husband does the dishes.

2.  I am thankful when my husband empties the trash.

3.  I am thankful when my husband lets the dogs out.

4.  I am thankful when my husband helps with the laundry.

5.  I am thankful when my husband pays the electric bill, so I don't have to venture to that creepy part of town where the homeless people stalk me.

6.  I am thankful when my husband remembers to puts the toilet seat down.

7.  I am extremely grateful when my husband puts both the seat and the lid down on the toilet!

8.  I am thankful when my husband watches "chick flicks" with me.

9.  I am thankful my husband is a handy man.

10.  I am thankful my husband knows when to call a repair man.

11.  I am thankful my husband is a good GREAT bug killer!

12.  I am thankful when my husband cooks dinner for me.

13.  I am thankful my husband tries to put up with my PMS!

14.  I am thankful when my husband falls asleep last, so I don't have to hear him snore.

15.  I am thankful that my husband knows I am ALWAYS right!

16.  I am thankful my husband is like a BIG kid.

17.  I am thankful my husband got the first gray hair between the two of us!

18.  I am thankful my husband's toes are warm when we get in bed.

19.  I am thankful for my husband's unique sense of humor.
20.  I am thankful my husband is patient, even with me.

(Man I hope Phillip is reading this!  And if you are baby here is like an instruction manual on how to keep me happy on a daily basis! Love you!)

In all seriousness though...

21.  I am thankful that my husband loves me.
22.  I am thankful that my husband loves my family.
23.  I am thankful that my husband has a job.
24.  I am thankful that my husband works hard, so that I don't have to work during Nursing School.
25.  I am thankful that I can trust my husband's judgement.
26.  I am thankful that my husband makes me laugh.
27.  I am thankful that my husband is honest.
28.  I am thankful my husband is my best friend.
29.  I am thankful that he has a giving heart and puts others before himself.
30.  Most importantly, I am thankful my husband is a man of God.  And we share the same beliefs and can talk and worship with one another.

There are so many things I am thankful for this month, but not just this month every month, every day, and every second.  I am so blessed to have my family and friends in my life. I have a roof over my head and food on my plate.  I can take these basic essentials for granted sometimes and when I actually stop and think I see that I am blessed beyond measure.  Our November date we decided to give back.
We went out for dinner, and then hit up the stores and went shopping for our Christmas Tree Angel.  It was so much fun!  Phillip especially enjoyed himself getting to check out all the toys he thought would be great for our little angel, and by angel I mean himself!  We probably went over board, but it was great getting to shop for "our" little one.

Other than our date night we also got Christmas pictures done for our Christmas cards this year.

And now we are getting prepared for Thanksgiving this week!  I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!  I will check in again next month!

October!

So I realize this is November, but I am posting for this past month!  A lot happened in October.  Well, it was my BIRTHDAY and yes I wore out Taylor Swift's "22" song! Everyday! ONCE Multiple times a day!  We went out with friends and Phillip and I had my birthday dinner. My parents came into town to see me.  Which kinda made my birthday like a birthday week, but I was totally fine with that.  I know Phillip got tired of hearing me say, "It's my BIRTHDAY" because I sure got tired of hearing him say "No it was two days ago!"  I made my first A on my MedSurg test this semester!  Pretty big accomplishment it was Endocrine, and if you are in Nursing School you understand.

Anyways, continuing on with our monthly dates Phillip and I edited our date up a little.  We were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch, carve pumpkins, and haunted house, but we decided to have a fright fest movie marathon instead.

And this picture pretty much sums it up. 

Here are our pumpkins we carved.

So our date night wound up turning into an entire weekend.  It all started Thursday night around 10:30 (when I had clinical the NEXT morning and had to be up at 5 AM!)  We carved our pumpkins.  It turned into a race who could sling out the most pumpkin guts the fastest.  I now understand why my dad only carved pumpkins a couple years with me it is A LOT of WORK!  The next night we made our gourmet dinner of cheeseburgers and tater tots (YUM!) and watched scary movies for the rest of the night, which continued on to all day Saturday and Sunday.  We had great snuggle time on the couch.  And really had time to catch up with each other.  For the past month or so Phillip has been working mostly nights and I am gone early mornings so it honestly felt like a month since I had actually sat down and talked with my husband.  I am just reminded of how much I love this man when we get our special "date" nights and time together.  There are so many things that go on that get us all caught up in everything else, but each other.  I seriously recommend everyone setting aside one night a month to date their spouse.  It doesn't have to be anything big.  Just the time you get to spend with them is what it is about!  All right guys!  Talk to you next month!

September

So it has been about a month since I last blogged!  We have been BUSY!  Nursing school has kept me going nonstop and Phillip is starting in his busy season at work and has been working long and crazy hours!

But here is a little catch up for this past month:

• Started back to school
• 2 tests so far
• Clinicals have started
• Phillip is looking into schools in San Antonio
• I painted a storm trooper for Phillip
• We celebrated our first anniversary
• Phillip took me out for a lovely dinner
• I gave Phillip 12 months of preplanned dates for his anniversary present

Here is September's envelope.

We went on our September date last night.  Which kind of got edited a bit.  We went out for dinner at Pier 27 one of the local restaurants in the area.  The food was AMAZING!  While we were at dinner we were talking and Phillip reminded me that it had been exactly 7 years this month since he tried to pursue me for the very first time!  I was a freshman and he was a senior. I wouldn't even give him the time of day when I was 14. Funny thing was though I actually had a secret crush on him, but assumed he wasn't interested so I didn't tell him... until about 3 years later when he was in Michigan in the Coast Guard.  It's so funny to think that are paths continually crossed my entire life from cradle roll to church member to friend's brother to classmate to boyfriend to fiance and now and forever my husband and best friend.

After dinner we went and got The Words and Jack the Giant Slayer from redbox and came home and changed into our jammies.  We answered questions out of Do You KNOW? quiz books and let me tell you I thought I knew everything there was to know about Phillip, but this is NOT true.  It is crazy to think that the person I live with and share my life with can still surprise me! Even crazier there were 100 questions to each book and all worth 10 points a piece with some bonus questions, anyways we both scored a 935!  Too weird!  I seriously would recommend these quiz books to any couple it was so much fun and we spent seriously 2 hours talking.  It was so nice.  It was like we had a chance to reconnect with how busy our lives have been this past month just getting the coming and going "Hi" and "Bye."

AND THEN...

We went to the living room turning off lights to watch our movie only to find a spider died right in front of the door and apparently when they die if they have a sac their babies hatch or they hatch then the momma spider dies!!! Anyways needless to say I had a MAJOR freak out last night because we looked down to find a dead spider and about 200 baby spiders running away from their momma!  So at 11:00 PM Phillip had to make a Walmart run after killing and sweeping out all of them!  (Crossing our fingers anyways!!!!)  So I spent the next hour cleaning everything where I thought they could be and we sprayed the whole place down.  There was seriously a haze in our apartment for about an hour.  What is even worse the exterminator people just came last week! I still have the itchies!

So after this TRAGEDY we sat down and watched Jack the Giant Slayer, well Phillip watched anyways I was exhausted and passed out on the couch.  All in all, it was a nice date night!  I will keep you updated for next months date!

Year One

I have never been one for writing things down, journaling or blogging.  But there is so much that I want to be able to remember and look back on so I thought I should start.  So here it goes!

Our Happily Ever After:

Phillip and I are asked all the time, "How's married life?"  I never know how to answer this particular question.  It's good, great, exciting, and fun!  It's HARD. FRUSTRATING. EMOTIONAL. NEVER-ENDING! My typical answer is "It's marriage."  Assuming married couples know what I mean and my single friends just nod.  But here is the real honest truth...

Well after all the excitement of the wedding, honeymoon, and newlywed phase wore off there was just Phillip and I.  How much more could someone ask for than to spend the rest of their life with their best friend???  Well I would ask the dishes be rinsed off, laundry put in laundry baskets, and trash to make it in the trash can to just name a few!   It has been such a learning process over this past year.  I never realized how bad this man snored, how cranky he is when he just wakes up, and how many comic books he actually has!  I didn't realize how many conversations there were to be over what's for dinner?  What time?  Who's cooking?  Can friends come over?  Do you like this?  What about that?  There is never anything that is just done anymore. Marriage is checking one another's schedule and their opinion on any situation even something as simple as toilet paper!  (Which is not simple by the way!)  It's a constant study of learning what your spouse likes and even more how they think!

There are days when I am so frustrated with this man of my dreams I look for hiding spaces in our tiny 1,000 square foot apartment.  And cry.  Tears of pain.  Tears of despair.  Tears of exhaustion.  And then this man who knows me better than anyone ever could makes me smile.  And he makes me laugh. My heart still skips a beat when I catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye.  He makes me happy.  Happier than I have ever been.  I joke with him all the time "I love you, but I DO NOT like you right now!"  Truth is I wouldn't want to be angry, frustrated, silly, happy, crazy, or exhausted with anyone but HIM.  He completes me in every way and makes me want to be a better person.  And I am learning everyday how to love him more and love him better!  One year down.  Forever to go.

So I guess my answer now a year later to "How's married life?" would be "It's an adjustment."  But I wouldn't want it any other way!