Feeling the Love

Although I may be a sap and a romantic at heart, I never totally understood Valentine's Day.  I never understood why we needed one day to let those that we love know that we love them... shouldn't we be doing that every day of the year?!  That being said, this year was the first year that Mark and I have spent together on the actual Valentine's Day and it seriously couldn't have been a more perfect day!!

Friday night was a rough night at work but I wasn't going to let that stop us from having a decent Saturday together.  One of the best things about Valentine's Day this year was that Mark and I actually had NOTHING planned. For once in our lives we had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING going on.  Some of you might find that strange, but if you know us, you know that we are pretty much ALWAYS on the go... most Saturdays are filled with so many activities that I almost forget what it is like to have a day to do nothing.  Valentine's Day was one of those days.  I got up at a fairly reasonable hour and after getting ready Mark and I exchanged our Valentine's Day gifts. Though I got Mark a bunch of different things, I am pretty sure that his Fitbit Charge HR was his favorite gift of all as he immediately tried to set it up and we had to take the portable charger with us when we went out so that he could charge it enough to use it.

I may have gone a little overboard on the presents for the hubby this year... Whoops

Mark got me a bunch of different things... feeding pretty much all of my addictions. He got me a gorgeous bouquet of roses,  some jewelry (what girl doesn't love jewelry), a new "Wifey" sweatshirt (which should be here tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!), and a new winter jacket (for the sub zero temperatures we are having here in Philly this week)!!

Gorgeous Roses

A traditional "funny" card and a picture of my new sweatshirt!

A more serious card and a picture of a potential winter jacket!

Snowman necklace... because I love my season themed jewelry

Owl jewelry set... feeding my owl addiction one thing at a time!

After spending the day shopping for a jacket, Mark and I had a nice lunch a Mesa Fresh and then came home to relax and then cook dinner together.

Mmmmmm surf & turf!

I seriously couldn't have asked for a better Valentine's Day.  What meant the most to me was definitely just getting to spend some quality time with Mark.  Due to our opposite work schedules it is very rare that we get to spend so much time together, much less an entire day just the two of us.  I love my husband every day of the year, and I try to always show him how much I love him, but it was definitely nice to show him just a little extra love on our first Valentine's Day spent together!!

What did you do for Valentine's Day?

#tbt... First Christmas with my Girls

Last night as I was watching the Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony it got me thinking about the first Christmas that I spent with my girls after I had moved down this way for law school.  While watching the Rockettes perform it made me think back to our crazy party complete with peppermint patty shots (done the right way a.k.a. the Bucknell way), posing like the Rockettes, drinking champagne, elf and santa hats, and overall just an amazing time with some of the best friends a girl could ask for.  Although we have all moved at one point or another... some of us moving quite far away from each other (N to San Diego, L to D.C., K moved to N.C. but is finally back with us)... we have all still remained a great group of friends and I am so thankful that I have them all in my life.  So this post is for you ladies... here's to our first Christmas together and here's to one day all of us having enough money to be able to once again get together and repeat this wonderful party!! I still have my elf hat and will be ready to go!! 

Always opening the champagne outside on my front porch because we were terrible at it

Santas having some fun

Some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for!

We are silly and a ton of fun!

We elves decided to show the Santas how to have some fun

Shot glasses for peppermint patty shots?!  I don't think so ;-)

Rockette Pose

The "right" way to do a peppermint patty shot

Have you ever had a holiday party with a group of your closest friends you wish you could relive?

12 Reasons Why I Love My Husband

I am sure you are all getting pretty sick of hearing about how it is almost our 1 year anniversary and about how much I love my husband.  Don't worry, I will be back to my regularly scheduled blogging next week.  I just feel that as we approach our anniversary it is important to share some of the things that make our marriage work.  Everyone always says that year 1 is the hardest year, and while our first year of marriage hasn't been perfect, it has been pretty close.  I also think that it is important to take the time on here to let everyone know how important my husband is to me and how much I love him... just in case you ever doubted it. So in honor of 12 months of marriage I am going to share with you all today 12 reasons why I love my husband!

one// He drives me crazy... but in a good way.  Boy does that man know how to push my buttons and as much as I say I am mad at him, I'm really not.  He knows how to get to me, but he always knows just how far to push it so that I don't actually get mad at him... and that makes me laugh.

two// He is ALWAYS there for me... and I mean ALWAYS.  He has been known to bring me home flowers and my favorite ice cream because I had a bad day.  He is willing to talk to me at 2am when I get home from work and just need to vent.  He is there for me whenever something goes wrong.  He lends me his ear and his support whenever I need it.

three// He is a PHENOMENAL cook.  Seriously, this man knows how to cook and I love it.  Sure I love to cook to and I love to cook meals with him... but I also love that I don't always have to do ALL of the cooking.  It is nice to know that M can fend for himself if I am not around.

Homemade pumpkin roll M made me for my 29th birthday last year

four// He is nerdy, but oh so cute.  He wears shirts that say things like "I'm an engineer... I'm good at maths" or "This guy loves his wife".  He knows all kinds of stuff about science and technology that I can't even begin to explain (or to even understand for that matter).  But he is still so stinkin' adorable that it isn't even funny.  And he gets this goofy grin on his face every time he does something nerdy that he knows I don't understand even though I am trying really hard to.  Makes me melt.

five// He can fix anything.  I feel like he may disagree with this one, but yeah I am pretty postiive my husband can fix anything.

six// He knows how to make me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world even when I am sick, in my pajamas and feel like poop... he still manages to make me feel beautiful.

seven// His "baby blues"  If you ask him, he will tell you that they are why I started dating him in the first place... he claims I couldn't resist them.  I beg to differ, but if that is what he wants to think, we're just going to roll with it.

He does have some pretty baby blues... doesn't he?

eight// I always feel safe in his arms.  When M has his arms wrapped around me I feel like nothing can hurt me.  It is so comforting.

nine// Along the same lines as number eight, I love the way that a hug and a kiss on my forehead from M make all my problems go away and seem insignificant.  It is like in that moment when he does that I forget about everything that is bothering me and just focus on the fact that I know that M loves me with his entire heart and that he would do practically anything for me.

ten// He constantly supports me.  He may not always understand my decisions and we may argue over them and I may feel like he isn't supporting my decision, but he always comes around and ends up supporting me whether he thinks I am making the right decision or not.

eleven// He always encourages me to reach for the moon.  When I get down about not being able to find a career oriented job he is constantly telling me that any employer would be lucky to have me.  He tells me to apply for things even though I think I might not be qualified because someone could see something in me that they like and give me a chance.  He always encourages me to do my best and tells me that I can do anything I put my mind to.

twelve// I love that M is just as wacky as I am and that after almost 8 years of being together, we still know how to have a good time.

What are some reasons you love your significant other?

If You Were My First Love

I normally listen to country music (I know, strange for a girl coming from the suburbs of NYC), but decided that as long as I am still bartending I should probably know what is going on the the wonderful world of music.  People are always talking about new songs, new artists, etc. and usually I have NO idea who they are talking about unless it is someone like Luke Bryan (mmmmm), Florida Georgia Line, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, etc.  So today while listening to the "Today's Hits" station on Pandora the song "First Love" by Jennifer Lopez came on, and the song really got me thinking.

The chorus of the song says, "I wish you were my first love. 'Cause if you were first. Baby there would have been no second, third or fourth love." This is the part of the song that got me really thinking.

It is no secret that I love M... I pretty much profess my love for him on here constantly and let's be real, if I didn't love the guy I never would have married him.  BUT that being said... if M had been my first love I am not sure that I would be where I am today because in dating and "loving" a few different guys I was 200% sure that M was the guy for me when I did finally meet him and date him and fall in love with him.

But that got me thinking about my other "loves" and what I learned from each one of them.  Sometimes I even wonder if what I actually felt for these various boyfriends was actually love, but deep down I know that I loved them all each in their own way (although some of them made a bigger impact on my life than other boyfriends did).  I just hadn't found my one "true love"

My first "love" if you could call him that was a guy that I am ashamed to say that I met on the internet, in a chatroom, while I was in highschool, and he was like 5 years older than me. It was my senior year, I was feeling insecure about myself, nervous about going off to college without ever having had a boyfriend or even a first kiss for that matter and this guy, we'll call him "A" made me feel special.  I never really told anyone about him because well I knew no one would approve.  We mostly met out at various places... the mall, restaurants, places like that... and we were never together for long periods of time.  We e-mailed a lot... talked on the phone a bunch... and texted even more.  I don't know that we ever actually broke up... although I basically just stopped talking to him, so I guess he eventually got the hint.  As insecure as I was, he was just as insecure as he would call/text me obscene amounts when he knew I was cheering at a game/competition or knew I was at practice or knew I was with some of my other friends because I couldn't let me parents know I had a guy, so I did every so often actually have to hang out with my friends so my parents wouldn't get too suspicious (sorry Mom & Dad if you are reading this... I promise this was the only time I didn't share a boyfriend with you... and you should know that cause I definitely shared some with you that you did NOT approve of).  I thought I loved "A" and I know I even told him I loved him, but looking back I think I more of loved the idea of him and loved how he made me feel.  A small minute part of me will always love him because he taught me how to love myself (something I have always struggled with my entire life) and showed me that there was someone out there for me.

One of my other loves, we'll call him "B" was a guy that I had known for a good portion of my life.  We had grown up together and decided to give dating a try when we were in college .  Our relationship was rocky at times... we started dating, broke up and then got back together like a few weeks later and then dated for a substantial period of time.  I loved this guy more than any other guy I dated besides M.  B was my best friend... he had been with me through so many things in my life and he knew me better than anyone else.  I am 100% sure that I was in love with him and when we were together I was convinced that we would be together for life.  People warned me that we shouldn't date because dating your best friend is always risky.  But I didn't listen.  I loved him as a friend before we started dating so I was convinced that our love could endure anything.  Unfortunately our love didn't last and neither did our friendship.  I will admit that I went kind of crazy after we broke up... a breakup hurts just so much more when you not only feel like you are losing your boyfriend but like you are losing a friend that you have had for a good portion of your life.  A small part of me will always love B and always wants the best for him.  Losing him definitely put a hole in my heart and although M has filled my heart with so much love that it could burst, there is definitely a little piece that still misses B as my friend... not as a love, but just as my very best friend.

After B, I was in a bad place.  I got really sick (had a bleeding stomach ulcer... not from the breakup... but I am pretty sure it was a contributing factor) and was just really down.  Joining a sorority and having so many fabulous sisters helped matters... there was never a dull moment when I was with my Chi Omega sisters.  Eventually I fell in love for a third time with, well we'll call him "C".  C was everything I needed at the time, but he was oh so wrong for me.  He was a nice, strong guy... or so I thought.  I don't even want to go in to all the details of my relationship with him on here because well we'll leave it at that he was in fact NOT a nice guy and I'm not sure if I was really in love with him or scared of him.  Loving and being with C made me realize that there was definitely somewhere better for me out there... in fact he was my last boyfriend before I finally started dating M.

Having dated a bunch of other guys and having been in "love" a few times when I met M there was no question in my mind that he was the one for me.  The way I felt around him was nothing like the way I had ever felt around any guy ever before.  With M I knew I was safe.  With M I knew that in his eyes I was the most beautiful girl in the world.  With M I felt like I could take on the world.  I was always able to be myself with M and I never had to pretend to be something I was not... he loved me... flaws and all.  Even when I was freaking out because we had been dating for almost 6 years and he still hadn't proposed to me, I knew I still loved M and I knew that he loved me... I never doubted our love for each other for even a second.  I told people I had set deadlines for him proposing and that I was going to leave him if he hadn't... we all know I never would have done that because I don't think my heart would have ever healed (Thankfully he proposed before my deadline, so I didn't ever have to worry about that).  Having loved others before falling in love with M allowed me to love him with my whole heart and to know what true love feels like.  Had M been my first love, I honestly don't know if we would be where we are today.

Since my post started with a song, it is only fitting that I end it with a song that really describes what it took for me to discover my one true love and to begin what has so far been the best days of my life being married to him!

As corny as this sounds, listening to this song always brings tears to my eyes because I know it was a broken and rocky road that led me to M, but I thank God every day that He led me to M because I truly can't imagine my life without him. I love you honey!!

Do you think your life would have been different if your first love was your only love?

29 Things I Love About My Hubby for His 29th Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!!!!

Traditional homemade bday cake by me for the hubby... chocolate cake with peanut butter icing... his favorite!

That's right, today is my husband's 29th birthday!! Although it is only his 29th (making him one year close to the BIG 3-0!) I feel like today needs to be celebrated because a) it is M's birthday and b) because it is his first birthday as my husband (and I feel like that is kind of a big deal)!  So today in honor of M I am going to share with you all 29 things I love about my husband!

1. He is my best friend.
2. He gets me when no one else does.
3. After being together for almost 8 years, he still manages to surprise me every so often.
4. He gives the BEST hugs!
5. Speaking of hugs, being in his arms can sometimes make all my worries disappear!
6. His baby blues (a.k.a. his eyes... he claims this is part of how he landed me... by batting his baby blues at me... I beg to differ)

Seriously though... look how blue they are here!

7. That although he is definitely a tough guy, he does show his emotions every so often!

One of my favorites from our wedding... using my look at the ceiling so you don't cry trick!

8.  He is so super thoughtful sometimes (i.e. telling me to purchase a spa package for myself as his bday gift because all he wanted for his bday was for me to relax)
9. The fact that he is an engineer (I always have someone who can fix things for me!)

10. The fact that he is way more technologically inclined than I am.
11. That he yells at me when I skip meals (I know it isn't good for me, and sometimes I just need him to kick my butt and remind me of that fact)
12.  He is a great bug-killer.
13. He reminds me to not take myself so seriously all the time (even though I don't always listen to him)

14. His goofy smile when he knows he is being so off the wall.
15. Actually I just love his smile period.
16. The way that he can make me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world.
17.  The fact that he puts me in my place (or at least tries to) when I am being completely irrational.
18. He is my partner in crime.
19.  He is an amazing cook/baker (M seriously makes one banging cheesecake! [among other things])

Proof that he actually does step foot in the kitchen!

20. He challenges me to do things outside of my comfort zone (even when I protest a ton)
21. He reminds me that sometimes we need to slow down and smell the roses... literally.
22.  That when I get into bed after a rough night at work, whether he wakes up or not he always rolls over and puts his arm around me.
23. That he can have full conversations with me while sleeping and not remember a thing in the morning (He might tell you I hate this about him, but it is one of his funny little quirks that I kinda love now)
24. When he does the dishes or laundry or cleans the house a little bit... makes me feel really loved.
25. The way he pesters me to talk about whatever is bothering me (I usually don't want to talk at first but it always feels so much better after I do talk to him about it all)
26. That even when he is super tired he always tries to stay awake until I get home from work as long as he doesn't need to work the next day (9 times out of 10 I find him passed out on the couch when I get home)
27.  That he loves me despite my many flaws.
28.  That he will always defend the ones he loves... be it friends or family... he is definitely a guy that you want to have on your side!
29. And last but not least I love the fact that he is my husband and that we get to spend the rest of our lives together!

What are some things that you love about your significant other?

Wordless Wednesday... Engagement Pictures

I know this is supposed to be a Wordless Wednesday post, but I feel like I need to have some sort of Preface to it... so here goes.  Sorry I have been sort of M.I.A. these past couple of weeks, but life has been crazy.  We have had so much wedding stuff going on, plus me working both jobs, it feels as though we just haven't had a break.  A couple of weeks ago we headed out to Lewisburg, PA to have our engagement pictures taken, so here are some of my favorites from the session!

Start of our Engagement Session in Lewisburg, PA

Hanging out at the train station

Still shorter than Mark even standing on the tracks

True love <3 nbsp="" td="">

Favorite Picture from the Session

Covered bridges are my favorites

A little sassy