Birthday Celebrations

Last week, I turned 26. Somehow it just sounds more mature than 25. I am now officially closer to 30 than I am to 20, Hmmm... not sure how I feel about that yet. However, I had a wonderful birthday celebration thanks to Austin, sweet friends and precious family!

The morning of my birthday, when I went to work, this is what I saw:

Needless to say, I was surprised! The streamers in the ceiling were particularly impressive. They literally formed a canopy over my desk and extended over towards the student worker desk. I had no idea who had done it, but I marveled at the amount of time it took, as evidenced by these other pictures:

As you can see, my chair was wrapped, the computer screen was wrapped, and there were small pieces of streamers everywhere. I had to take it all in for a few minutes!

One of my favorite touches! 26! Wooo!

I started piecing together who might have done all of this when I started thinking about who had connections with Safety and Security! My suspicions proved correct when I discovered that Stephanie, Meghan, Kristen, Andey and Kensie were the awesome decorators! Here they are in action:

Thanks again, ladies!!

The morning was made even better by my co-workers giving me a scone (the benefits of having my birthday fall on a Thursday!!!) with a birthday candle and singing happy birthday! It was so happy!

Austin dropped by later in the morning and brought me a monogrammed gift basket with lavender body wash, soap, bath salts, and lotion in it with a note giving me permission to relax. He also included an awesome invitation to a birthday dinner that night!

The day was made even more special through numerous calls, texts and facebook posts to wish me a happy birthday. I truly felt so blessed!

Austin took me out to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays, and that night we had a steak at Logan's (my favorite!!!) The day ended with him giving me beautiful pale pink roses and gorgeous drop earrings that have pressed dried flowers in them to match the necklace that he gave me for my birthday last year :-) It was a wonderful day!!!

The birthday festivities continued on into the weekend with a special trip to Patti's with Dustin and Jessie! It was our first road trip in the van! I was driving so I can't vouch for everything that happened on that trip, but some hilarious 90's VHS tapes might have been played in the VHS player! Old School!

We made it to Patti's (the place where Austin and I got engaged!) and had a lovely lunch. Dustin and Jessie had never been before and they enjoyed it! Here was the view from our table, just to provide a glimpse of the atmosphere:

After we ate, we walked around the grounds at Patti's, saw some bunnies and a huge black pig in the petting zoo, and showed them our chapel. The weather was absolutely beautiful!

Then, we got back in the van and headed to Paducah! Dustin spent a lot of time in Paducah with his previous job, so we all took a walk down memory lane, so to speak. Our first stop was the Ohio River. It is so peaceful just to sit and watch the water.

Of course, the boys decided to skip rocks! They were both very good at it. Jess and I were supportive and hope to improve our rock-skipping skills in the future. Here is Austin in action!

After skipping rocks, we walked around the downtown area for a little while. We found the Chocolate Factory, a quaint chocolate store, where we sampled delicious fudge and talked with the owners! Then, Dustin and Austin went to the Outdoors store while Jessie and I checked out my favorite shop in Paducah, The Victorian Parlor. Anything girly, vintage, feminine, beautiful, lacy- it's all in there! 

We went from downtown to a mini-driving tour of Paducah, and we ended up at my grandparent's house! It was so good to see them! Grandmommy, ever the gracious hostess, had chocolate silk pie for us, which we all thoroughly enjoyed! The visit wasn't long enough, but it was so fun to fellowship together!

No trip to Paducah would be complete without stopping at Chick-fil-A (especially since Jackson's free standing unit is closed for the next month for renovations!!!), so we enjoyed a yummy dinner there before heading back to Jackson! I would say without a doubt that our road trip was a success!

On Sunday, we made an impromptu trip to Nashville! Austin's immediate family was gathering to celebrate Adam's birthday from earlier in the month, so we decided not to let the opportunity to hang out with everyone slip by! We were so glad we went!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Newk's and enjoyed chatting and spending time together. Arica and Dylan had to leave earlier to do stuff for the play that Arica is in later this month, but we got to spend a lot of time with Adam, Leslie, the kids, and Austin's parents! We didn't do anything particularly special, we went to TJ Maxx and shopped, then went to Whole Foods and shopped and hung out some more, then ate dinner together at Tazikis, but we enjoyed every minute! We weren't ready to return to Jackson so we didn't- haha! Instead we spent the night in Dickson at Austin's parents house (who were ironically staying in Smyrna with Arica). It was good to just have a change of scenery.

Such a wonderful weekend! 26 has already been great!!!

Three Year Dating Anniversary/ Valentine's Day

Three years seems like a long time. Realizing that we were (nearly) 23 when we went on our first date on February 14, 2010 and now we're about to turn 26 seems unreal. It has honestly been the best three years! I'm so thankful that my first-ever Valentine is my one and only Valentine :-) I remember rolling my eyes when my mom would say that all the waiting wouldn't seem like any time at all once the right one came along. She was right.

This Three Year Dating Anniversary/Valentine celebration was lots of fun! I think Austin and I starting to get the hang of this! I realize that many people think that Valentine's Day is a commercial exploitation based very loosely on a semi-historical figure and I understand that opinion, but I am coming to the point in my life where I embrace the fact that I am cliche and a romantic. Valentine's Day includes both of those things, so I like it. To me, it is a happy coincidence that the anniversary of our first date falls on February 14th, because the whole point of Valentine's Day is to celebrate the blessing of love with the person you love!

Austin surprised me in the morning with a bouquet of beautiful red roses, a precious card, and a box of chocolates, which I loved looking at for the remainder of the day! Also, because it was Thursday, Beth Wilson baked scones for Barefoot's Joe, which made the morning even better! I felt the need to include it in the picture!

At lunch, Austin took me to Olive Garden, where we enjoyed the Soup, Salad and Bread sticks lunch special. Both economical and delicious!

When I came home that evening, Austin had cleaned up the entire downstairs and had the Big Band Pandora Station (my favorite!) playing on his phone. He even had on his hounds tooth blazer. I felt like we were transported back in time! So, of course, I put on my lovely apron made by my sister in law and began pulling out ingredients for dinner! We began doing this only to realize that Austin had put the chicken breasts in the freezer instead of the refrigerator, so our dinner preparations were temporarily postponed until they thawed out! Oops! I will check on that next time! 

Our menu included: Pan Seared Chicken Breasts with Balsamic Cream and Mushroom Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli and Sparkling Apple Cider.

It was so much better than a restaurant! Here is what our table looked like before we sat down to eat. It was so fun to pull out the china, nice flatware, tablecloth and candles! 

It's fun to think back to our first date in Paducah three years ago. We were so giddy/nervous/excited/awkward, yet we were at ease with each other and knew that God had a plan for us. We celebrate what He has accomplished in and through us since that time!

Throwback picture! Taken on February 21, 2010! Our first picture together as an "official" couple! 

We're Just Doing Life

Tonight, as Austin and I were sitting in our living room, he looked over and said, "We're just doing life, aren't we?" That statement really sums up what we've been up to since the start of this New Year. I would love for our blog posts to be profound, funny or even ridiculous, but this one is just ordinary. I haven't been re-decorating our house, working on cute crafts, or making meals from scratch  I've been going to work, going to church, hanging out with friends, spending time with Austin, exercising and trying to stay dedicated to even cooking dinner. Despite the hum drum of our everyday lives, God is so good and is constantly providing for us! A wonderful example of that is that we have a new (to us) vehicle!

I had mentioned in the New Year's post that Alvey has, sadly, bitten the dust. Suddenly, Austin and I were in the process of looking at car options. All the options were really overwhelming. Something we had thrown around, jokingly at first, was getting a mini-van. I know what y'all are thinking, and, no, it is not indicative of plans in the immediate future! We compared prices and looked at our budget and nothing really seemed to click. Fortunately, God's timing is perfect, for several months earlier, Austin's mom bought a new van and put her old one up for sale. There had been a few interested parties, but nothing worked out. When we were at the birthday party of our beautiful niece, Ailidh, the last weekend in January, it hit us that we should ask about the van! Austin's parents were excited that we wanted it and we picked it up the following weekend!

So, yes, we are the happy and proud owners of a Navy Blue Nissan Quest mini-van! In Austin's words, "having a van is like having an enclosed truck!" Although we haven't yet had the opportunity to move anything big around in it, we're glad that it is a possibility. We also recognize the road-trip potential of a mini-van and look forward to that at some point! Of course, the comment we keep hearing is that now that we have a mini-van, we have room to fill it up with children! Yes, that is true! We're anticipating that season of life with joy but we're still enjoying life pre-children. In the meantime, we've got a sweet, smooth ride!

An immediate benefit of having a van is transporting me around with my injured knee! Last week I was exercising (doing a reverse lunge with bicep curl to be precise) and heard my knee pop as I was coming up from the lunge. The sound itself scared me and I felt that something wasn't right with my kneecap. Austin heard the sound from the other room and came running. He was so calm and reassuring as I was crying hysterically, convinced that I would never walk again (dramatic reaction, I know.) We ended up going to Quality Care that night. Tears still running down my face (this time from pure frustration that I hurt myself doing something good for my body!), Austin wheeled me around in a wheelchair and they took an X-ray of my knee. After the doctor bent it and stretched it every which way, he told me that the knee cartilage was strained. He told me that my ligaments and tendons were all fine, and I just needed to stay off my knee and let it heal, but that I wouldn't be down for long. That was music to my ears. He gave me some meds and sent me home. I missed work the next day to keep it iced and elevated and Austin did a good job bringing me what I needed. I discovered that I'm not a good patient when my mobility is severely limited! Long story short, we ended up going back to the doctor that night, to to make sure everything was still okay. It was, and I even got some crutches! I also learned that most people use crutches that are adjustable and start at 5'10". I had to get the mini-crutches, which start at 5'2". Ha!

We made it to the weekend, thankfully, and we had the best day on Saturday! Uncle Patrick and Aunt Sherry came to visit from Paducah! We ate lunch at Zaxby's, took a driving tour of Humboldt and Jackson (we even found Union's old campus!), played the Wii (hilarious!!!) and ate dinner at Catfish Cabin. They are such blessings in our lives and we always have a ton of fun when we're with them.

We went to bed Saturday night, exhausted. I woke up the next morning to find out that Austin had been sick multiple times that night. I slept right through it! Poor thing- I felt like an awful wife for not being there. At first we thought it was food poisoning (we're a little wary of land-locked local seafood places), but came to find out that the Australian stomach bug was running rampant on Union's campus. Needless to say, we didn't make it to church. Austin spent the day drifting in and out of sleep on the recliner, and I was stretched out with my knee propped up on the couch. We were quite a pair! Thankfully, Mary brought us some groceries and some dinner for me. Austin has made a full recovery, although the campus was closed down starting Monday at noon through today because there were so many cases of it!

So, Austin and I have been together almost constantly for the past 5 days. Pretty sure neither of us really knows what day it is, but it has been quite an experience!

We're just doing life! We're so thankful that the Lord is so gracious and patient with us. We're thankful that our bodies are healing and that we're able to work and do things we enjoy!