5th Anniversary

This year marked J.R. and my 5th anniversary. It's hard to believe its already been 5 years, but here we are. Not exactly where either of us believed we would be after 5 years. But that's life isn't is? Despite all the trials and hardships we've had to endure as of late things are good.

Because funds have been understandably tight, J.R. got creative this year. We went down to our favorite place, San Diego. We drove over to Coronado and J.R. surprised me with a picnic lunch on the beach. We decided to take the ferry over to downtown San Diego and walked around there for a bit then took the ferry back. It wasn't much but it was a beautiful and relaxing day. We really enjoyed the time together. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

Texas - The Final Chapter ... For Now

Since I came home from Texas a month ago tomorrow, I figured it's time to wrap up my adventures in Texas. Thankfully, the rest of my time there was much calmer than the first part. Sunday morning was my first experience at their new church. It's a pretty small church and you feel like you are walking into the past when you walk into the doors. Everyone was extremely friendly (well that was just about everywhere we went really). I really enjoyed the morning service, which was a nice surprise because I didn't know quite what to expect.

Their New Church

That afternoon we relaxed a bit. We had been working so hard for a couple of weeks and we all needed the rest. At this new church every 5th Sunday of the month the church has their Sunday evening service (yes they still have Sunday evening services) at the lake. One of the couples in the church owns a house on the lake and they have their service there and have a potluck after. It was really beautiful and very relaxing to sit around by the lake. Some went fishing and others just sat around and talked. All in all a very nice evening.

Isn't this house incredible?

Their backyard

Monday the three of us got up and went to the house to see how much unpacking we could possibly get done. It seemed pretty overwhelming at first. However, by the end of the day the end was in sight. We got very close to finishing up and my parents were able to finish things up on their own in a matter of days. We did, however, end up spending the whole time I was in Texas at my uncle's house. My parents didn't spend their first night in their new home until I already left.

Tuesday was a difficult day. Actually, I tear up just thinking about it. My flight left around 3:00 and we had a three hour drive to Houston to get me there. So we made sure to leave the house early enough so that we had plenty of time. We got to the airport and said our goodbyes at the curb. That was really hard on all of us. I really didn't want to go. Honestly, if it weren't for J.R. I probably wouldn't have.

I then had to wait at the airport for a couple of hours which thankfully didn't seem to long. I had a short layover in Phoenix where I didn't even change planes just got off and right back on. Both flights were packed so I was uncomfortable most of the trip. Oh well. Then I finally made it home to find J.R. there with these.

(And a sparkly clean house to boot.) I love that man. He knows how to take care of me, that is for sure.

In Sickness . . .

Yesterday, J.R. and I both were sick. J.R. quite a bit more than me. It wasn't fun. I tried to do my best to take care of him. He threw up from about 5am to 10 or 11am. It wasn't cool. And I had to keep my distance otherwise I would have been in the same situation. I did manage a run to the store to pick up some essentials. But I was quickly beginning to suffer the same fate. Thankfully, I never threw up because I hate throwing up probably more than anything in the world.

So J.R. and I spent all day in bed. We had a little Star Wars marathon. I'm amazed at the attention to detail the Logos Star Wars game has. It's incredible. The sets looks almost exactly the same. So we slept on and off throughout the day. J.R. came down with a fever. I shortly after came down with one as well. We were miserable. Thankfully, I have wonderful parents who sent Greg over with some soup and Tylenol (we had run out). My mom called later in the evening to check on us. She even waited on the phone while we took our temps. She's such a great mom. We are feeling much better today. J.R. went into work, albeit pretty sore from the workout he got yesterday. I'm starting to get hungry, so that's a good sign.

Turns out it was food poisoning from Tuesday night. A few others from church were sick as well. We still haven't figured out what caused it. I hope and pray it wasn't my pies, though I doubt it. But that settles it for me, no more potlucks. I've gotten food poisoning twice in the last 3 months from those things. I guess I'll be a little more picky with what I eat from now on.

Breakfast

I have one of the most wonderful husbands ever. Every Saturday J.R. either makes breakfast for me or goes out and gets breakfast for me. More and more he's been doing a lot of cooking. He's gotten pretty good. He'll make me breakfast burritos or pancakes. He even started using cookie cutters to make me shaped pancakes. Very cute. This week he branched out a little and made me french toast. I am very impressed. Thanks babe! You are the best!

Our Anniversary - Take 2

A lot of people have been asking me how was J.R. going to top my birthday present. Well, I don't really expect that of him as that was a pretty incredible present and would be difficult to top (especially considering our current economic situation).

Last night J.R. came home from work and we exchanged gifts. He got me a beautiful scrapbook. I mistakenly thought that year 4 was wood, it's not. Year 4 is fruit and flower. Yeah that would have been a difficult one to do. So I got J.R.'s degree framed. It's been sitting in our desk for a year and half now while my two degrees sit on the wall. So I knew he would love to have his up there. And I was right he loved it. I'll take some pictures once we get it hung. (And get our camera fixed which we learned is going to cost $130 to do. blech!)

To celebrate our anniversary we went to dinner down by the beach. It was a really nice dinner. We talked about going for a walk on the beach afterwards but instead decided to just drive along PCH (Pacific Coast Highway for you non-southern California people). We were really glad we did as the wind was blowing something fierce and the fog had rolled in pretty thick. So thick in fact that we couldn't really see the ocean at all. But it was a nice and relaxing night out. J.R. later apologized for not being able to do more. But I loved every minute of it and it was just fine for me. Sometimes the simplest of things are the best.

Our Anniversary!

Today is our 4th anniversary! Yeah!! It's really hard to believe it's already been four years. The time has flown by. Last night I was going through all our pictures creating a scrapbook. I created one from the time we met to just before we got married. I can't wait till it gets here. It seems so much has changed since then but also so little. While it's hard to believe it's been 4 years already, it's also difficult to remember what life was like before J.R. was around. I'm not usually the sappy sort but I really can't imagine my life without him. He is very much a stabilizing force in my life. So happy anniversary babe!

As far as plans, well, I don't know what we are doing. I'm sure (hope) he has at least a little something planned. Every year I consult the traditional gift giving guide for anniversaries and try to come up with something creative. The first year is paper, so I got a book to record all our anniversary memories. Ok so that gift was more for us than him but it still fits. The second year is cotton, so I got him a handkerchief with our monogram and wedding date embroidered on it. Last year was leather, so I bought him a leather wallet. This year is wood. And just in case J.R. reads this before I give him his present I'm not telling what I got him. But I think it's a pretty good gift.

Soaring!

I have the best husband EVER. He surprised me with a wonderful wonderful gift yesterday. My birthday is in 4 days and J.R. and Pam got together and well I'll just show you what I got to do today.

Ever since I met J.R. he has been obsessed with planes and flying. He has wanted to get his pilots liscence and I've always encouraged him to go for it because I know its something he loves. Pam works with a guy, M, that owns his own plane and has been telling J.R. that he will fly us just about whenever we want. J.R. has always been very excited about this prospect but has never taken him up on the offer, that is until a couple weeks ago. A few weeks ago J.R. came home beaming and told me I was going to get a "kick ass birthday present" (so very unlike J.R. to say ANYTHING like this.) If you know me, you know I love surprises so I definitely didn't want him to spoil this surprise. Little did I know was that J.R. had gone up with M. It almost killed J.R. to keep this a secret from me as he was so excited about it.

This week Pam emailed me and told me she wanted to take me to brunch Sunday morning for my birthday. I hestitated a little bit because I really hate missing church, but I figured I couldn't turn down her generous offer and agreed to go. On the way to brunch yesterday morning J.R. gave me the following card.

I was stunned. (This is highly unusual because J.R. has a very difficult time surprising me. I always seem to know what is coming even if I'm not trying or even want to know.) He had even thought ahead to pack some clothes for me as he knew I wouldn't want to spend the day at Catalina in a dress. What a great guy!

So after a short flight to Catalina and a very scary bus ride down the hill to the town, we spent the day just walking around, doing a little sight seeing and just enjoying our time together. It was really wonderful. But, honestly, for me the highlight was flying. It was SO.MUCH.FUN. Throughout the whole time M kept looking at me and asking if I was ok and if I was nervous. I thought are you kidding? this is fun. We are also going to be doing a lot more of this. M is working on gaining more hours and told us he'll take us up just about whenever we want. So exciting! So I'll leave you with some photos from our incredible day. What a great way to start off my birthday week!

That look just says leave me alone and stop taking pictures of me.

Catalina Casino

I loved the ceiling in this little arch.

Bus from the scary bus ride! (Yes, the bus ride scared me, the flight didn't.)

Again the leave me alone look.

Waiting for the bus to leave.

Got some pretty good shots from a moving bus!

I couldn't have done this if I had tried!

Beautiful blue sky!

Catalina Casino from the sky!

Huntington Beach

Vanguard

And back to John Wayne