Happy Valentine's Day!

Today...the day of love!  I'll join in with the trend by saying a little about the beginning 'us.'

I met Tyler my freshman year of college at a Bible study.  Back then, I saw him as a quiet guy.  But he was the quiet guy that really liked to talk.  Most of the time, he talked to me about rocks and geographic forms, or oil rigs.  I was really confused about that, so I just listened for a little while and moved on.  I like rocks, but I didn't really want to have a 20 minute conversation about them.

We continued to be friends, occasionally studying together, or doing things with our Bible study or group of friends.  At the end of the year, the organization had a banquet christian prom.  But the prom lacked dancing, of course.  It was such a big deal, because suddenly all the crushes from the entire year or semester suddenly came out of the water.  This was often how relationships started, of course they probably wouldn't really start until they got back from summer break and whatever mission trip they went on.  Or sometimes people would casually go to banquet together.  Almost all the girls had been asked by the boys to banquet already, except me and two of my good friends.  I guess we weren't the in the "in" crowd.

Well, I guess we should have already known we weren't in the "in" crowd from Christmas when the entire freshman class put on a Christmas play - but we were forgotten, so they made up three new positions for us... 

We were background sheep.

Me being my outspoken freshman ridiculous self decided to go on a complaining tangent about this.  This led to my most remembered quote from college.  I was at dinner in the cafeteria with all my friends...this amount of people generally consisted of a packed 6 foot table, or more.  But if there were more, it was so loud that your listening audience is only about three people down on either side.  Within my listening circle were my girlfriends,  and Tyler.  

This is part of the dinner table group.  So imagine this, and about half of the dinner group are not in this picture.

After my rant about how silly it was that we were the only girls who hadn't been asked yet, of course Tyler had no other choice (besides the fact that he liked me).  First, he asked, "So what is the banquet?"  My girlfriends explained it in short.  Then he said, "Saxon, would you like to go to the banquet?"  Me, still being in my sarcastic and opinionated mood (please believe me, I have become much more shy and introverted since this time in my life) responded to Tyler with this exact phrase: "Oh!  I'll go with anyone!!"  

As you might believe, I soon realized the awful thing that I said.  I apologized profusely to Tyler, and assured him that I wanted to go to the banquet with him.  All the while, my girlfriends laughed on and on. 

Tyler just described my emotion at the time as "careless, enthusiastic and desperate."  So very very sad and shameful. haha

Needless to say, I went to the banquet with Tyler.  He bought me flowers, picked me up, and thus was the beginning of our not relationship, yet.  It took me another year and three months before I would give in to liking him back.  So here's to the beginning of our story.  Silly, sarcastic, and abnormal.  

"I'll go with anyone."

From this point forward, anytime Tyler has bought me flowers, the card ALWAYS says "I'll go with anyone."

Tyler, I'm so glad I went with you, and am going with you forever!  

Happy Valentine's Day!

To All My Single Ladies - Valentine's Day

It is the week of love for some, single's awareness day for others.  

While I'm no longer single, I can certainly remember those days when I was.  There were the days that it seemed like I would just stay single the rest of my life, the idea that anyone was open to being the latest crush, girl nights stalking guys on facebook to see if they should be a crush, etc.  Some of this was all fun, but then the times wondering why no guy liked me, or wondering why THAT guy actually did like me, or wondering how long I'd have to be single was never fun.

I feel like for a lot of people, single's awareness day just kind of sucks.  It makes you think all those thoughts while the rest of your dating or married friends are out celebrating in some mushy manner that makes you just want to puke.

But as I found out my sophomore year, as long as you can find some other singles to hang out with, it doesn't have to be such a dreaded day!  Since I was in high school and through college until I started dating Tyler, Valentine's day was either a time for a girl night consisting of Pride and Prejudice type movies and lots of chocolate or a fun outing.  Those times with friends and girl friends were really some of the best times for me, and I will especially never forget the most fun Valentines in college my sophomore year.  While my friends who were dating went to the movies and dinner with their guys (sorry ladies, movies are boring), I went with five single friends and had a blast.

This is a shout out to single girls (or guys) surfing the net because you're bored on V-Day...get out and do something fun with your other single friends!  Seriously, this is the best excuse to go on a fun group activity and get all dressed up for no reason.  Plus, you might actually be on your first valentine with your future hubby....and not know it. ;)

For starters, some friends still lived in the dorms, so I was there hanging out on this particular night when someone brought up the idea of all of us getting dressed up and going out for dinner together - all dutch.

We called and texted as many single friends as we could and off to the mall we went...where we thought we would eat at the mexican restaurant.  It was closed, as was everything else (this particular Valentine's Day was on Sunday, so everything closed early).

We decided to take some fun pictures before we left the mall!  Some pretty sharp looking guys...especially the one in the middle trying to impress the girls by holding their coats!  ;-)

Who wouldn't try to stand in the weirdest positions like the Forever 21 manechins??

Since El Chico was closed, we headed to the college student's restaurant by default...IHOP.  After we had some pancakes, the night was still young.  So the next default for the not-so-partyer type college students was to go do random things at Walmart...

Well, how funny that we actually have a couple's picture from our first Valentine together.  Tyler liked me (his like was unrequited at the time...hence my awkward distance), so I'm going to say he staged this photo since I usually avoided anything I thought would lead him on....like taking pictures and making sure I sat in the middle of friends so he couldn't sit next to me.  That was so mean and I was terrified I guess.

  #christiangirlswayoverthinkeverythingwhichisdumbinhindsight

#idontknowwhythatisahashtag

#thatsmyhusbandnow

And these two country girls really had to go for the camo!

So with all that I say, go at it, singles! :)  Have some fun this week.

Love Month Retrospect

So, Valentines Day may be long gone, but I thought I'd show some things we did!  Due to the inconvenience that the 14th fell on a Tuesday, our Valentines activities were spread out over multiple days and times, which is just fine with me!  Last year, my sweet boyfriend Tyler cooked me a wonderful dinner and served it candlelight style, took me dancing just the two of us, very romantic...and, well, my goal is to always out-do him.  Haha...okay, so I really just wanted to be nice this year, but it was lots of fun!

  First off, the Friday night before Valentines Day I decorated my apartment, bought him some little gifts, and cooked a big dinner!  Crazy enough, when I arrived home from my errands of preparation that morning, I got home to six university men in my apartment with the door wide open.  Apparently the neighbor had plumbing issues and they had to access the pipe from our side.  Always fun!  They were real nice and didn't stay much longer, however of course none of them took their shoes off at my door, and had created quite a muddy mess in my kitchen.  They vowed to mop it up...and they did mop the main problem area, but...the honest truth is, God put women in charge of housekeeping for a reason.  Men just can't do it right!  So I had to clean up...but back to the real thing.

  For our dinner, I first cooked a tasty dessert that I'm sure you've all seen on Pinterest already:  Soppapilla Cheesecake.  If you'd like the recipe, check out their blog:  Link to Soppapilla Cheesecake Recipe.

 Here's mine:  (It was quite yummy.)

  Then I cooked some simple baked chicken and baked potatoes.  We had a romantic night with lots of candlelight, and rented the new True Grit to end the night. 

  Tyler really is perfect and sweet, because he stole my stuffed dog one day (which happens to be his first present to me in our relationship).  Her name is Maggie, and she went to China with me.  Due to the air pollution and other adventures through the hectic airport, she was kind of dirty and smelly.  He sweetly stole her, and it didn't take me long to notice and drive him crazy asking where he hid her. haha  However, since the dry cleaners rejected to clean her, my sweet guy did it himself, and I must say she smells and looks MUCH better!

And here's our family portrait!

Tyler is also perfect and sweet by knowing that I'd prefer a real plant over cut flowers so that I can enjoy it much longer!  Here's my awesome plant!

My sweet creative card :)

  In all my busyness preparing for the meal, I never made Tyler a card.  We are firm believers in creativity, and that the time and creative power put into something is worth more than any kind of store bought thing.  Tyler very sweetly made me this card, but I didn't have one for him.  I felt bad since I always stress the importance of how I like handmade things and I didn't have anything handmade for him!

  Then, on actual Valentines Day, Tyler made chocolate fondue with pretzels and strawberries.  We also made coffee smoothies!

I love those coffee smoothies:  best thing for the left over coffee.

All you need for the Coffee Smoothies are to blend all these ingredients in a blender until smooth. (These measurements are rough estimates.  I rarely measure things for smoothies, but this is my educated guess.)

• 1 ice tray of left over coffee
• cooled left over coffee in the fridge or elsewhere
• 1/4 C Milk
• 3 Tbs Sugar (or to your taste)

Optional to make it better:

• Hershey's Caramel Syrup
• Hershey's Chocolate Syrup  
• A few Dove Dark Chocolate squares to make a Java Chip version.
• I also sometimes use a Frappe Mix from Starbucks as a bonding ingredient.  

 Our Valentines Picture!

  Okay, so I mentioned that I didn't make a card.  Tyler has been wanting me to make a picture for him for a while, so I figured now would be the time.  I haven't really drawn a picture besides what I did when I was an interior design major, so this is my first drawing in about four years.  I'm excited, and I've missed using my supplies and making the time to do it.  Thank you, laundry, for giving me that time. haha 

  Here is that "card" I finally made, and this is the first time I've taken step by step photos of a work.  I'm excited to have done one once again!  Total time spent on this was about 6-7 hours, it is marker and colored pencil. 

This is the inspiration picture, one of my favorites of us.

That's all for now, folks!