I Shouldn’t be in Charge

I love to plan events. Love it. Granted, the biggest event of my life so far I didn’t have much to do with since I was living out of state and finishing school.

But besides that, planning is fun for me. Whether it be birthday surprises or holidays or weekend getaways, I could spend hours working on and deciding all the details. It’s probably why I always go over board on Mr. A’s gifts.

So our wedding anniversary was no different.

Last year, we thought it would be fun to sort of recreate our wedding weekend. We stayed in the same hotel that we did on our wedding night and went to a Cards game the next day. Since our wedding was on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we had invited guests that wanted to go to the baseball game on Monday as another way to spend time with people that traveled to visit us and share in our special day.

However, our first anniversary didn’t go as planned.

While the hotel was amazing (one of my top two hotels in STL- if you need recommendations, let me know!), I made a HUGE mistake.

Since I was still working retail last year, while I wanted to do something special for our first anniversary, we were also trying to save money where possible. Groupon came to the rescue since it was offering some awesome deals on pretty good seats for Memorial Day weekend. I bought two and had even sent in for us to be on the message board.

When we walked up to the gate, the tickets wouldn’t scan. I was perturbed since I had printed tickets before without issue, so I figured it was something with their machine. Until the woman took a closer look and informed me that they were for the following day.

I had bought tickets for the wrong day’s game!

Cue instant tears. I was embarrassed since we were holding up the line of people getting into the game and I had made a big to do about planning our anniversary and had screwed it up.

Now, my husband doesn’t always have the largest reserve of patience, but when it comes to me and if I make a mistake or something, he is the most calm and understanding human on the planet. I love that man.

We then approached a scalper and bought overpriced, crappy seats since we had planned on going to the game. He swore he was happy being at the game with me and sweating profusely in the summer sun.

Well, this year was no different.

We were trying to be more low key since Mr. A had just returned from a 6 day bachelor party in Vegas. We have a lot of travelling going on this summer, so to be able to stay in our own house meant something to us.

I planned the day where we would spend the afternoon at the winery and then come home to get ready for a nice dinner. I had made reservations online for a new and very nice restaurant in our area and was excited to go try it out. I had even already picked what I was going to order from their menu and which signature cocktails I wanted to try.

Well, the restaurant is part of of a brand new winery, but they have several different buildings/locations on their extremely expansive property, so we stopped at the front building to ask where the restaurant was. I got a little nervous since the woman working said that the restaurant wasn’t typically open on Wednesdays. I knew I had made reservations for the correct date since I remembered checking it several times.

I was nervous, but once the restaurant was in view, we saw quite a few cars and I figured that maybe they had new summer hours and the woman had been mistaken.

So we walked up to the host and gave our names and he then asked “Are you here for the wine dinner?”

Mr. A and I both must have had confused looks on our faces so the man explained that on the last Wednesday of every month they did a wine around the world event, which included 7 courses and 7 wines. For a pretty hefty price per person. NO WHERE did the reservation site say anything about that and from the man’s response, we were not the first ones to run into this problem. Apparently their online program didn’t differentiate a special event and didn’t inform us about it.

He said we were welcome to join, but that the normal menu wasn’t available and they were just serving for the event.

We stepped aside to discuss and decided that had we planned on the very high expense, it would have been one thing, but we didn’t and decided not to do the event.

Again, cue the tears welling my eyes, since I had, yet again, screwed up our anniversary plans. Again, Mr. A was incredibly reassuring and commented several times how it wasn’t my fault, but theirs and I couldn’t have known. While trying to determine what to do, we went over to the new bar they had. It served drinks and a few small appetizers.

Well, it turned out even better than planned since the place was phenomenal. The drinks were superb and we are now looking into how much it would be to have some reserved tables for after graduation next year. We spend two hours there drinking very unique and delicious drinks and talking with the bartender/manager and hearing about all the new things that are planned for the estate.

We finally left and went to a little restaurant that Mr. A hadn’t been to yet. Dinner was delicious and we had a great time just talking and spending time together. We came home to enjoy the specialty tiramisu cake I had ordered for us and we watched a movie and sipped champagne.

While both anniversaries turned out just fine, and it does make for some interesting stories, next year, either Mr. A plans it or I’m making him check over the details 20 times beforehand. I would like just one anniversary to follow my plans. Is that too much to ask for?

2 Years Later

A letter to my husband on our two year anniversary

Mr. A,

Today, we have been married for two years. For two, wonderful, stressful, fun, challenging, and exciting years.

This second year of marriage has been our best, by far. Our first year was wrought with challenges we never anticipated and we struggled to support each other at the same time we were each facing our own difficulties that we didn’t know how to deal with. You were in your first year of law school, in a new city, without knowing anyone, all the while having to deal with me. The girl freaking out over unemployment, then underemployment. You battled some health issues and I tried not to lose my ever loving mind. We didn’t like our new city and we hadn’t made good friends yet. We questioned our decision and wondered “what if?”.

But we made it.

And this year was wonderful. You were more confident in yourself and knew that this is where you were supposed to be. I started grad school and an assistantship that allowed me to teach at the college level. We moved to a much more awesome apartment and we could finally enjoy being married and explored our new, albeit tiny, city. There isn’t a ton to do here, but we’ve been trying to make the best of it.

We became “parents” this year. Our very precious furbaby has been wonderful for us and we have learned that is possible to love something with the whole of our hearts. She may just be a kitten, but she is preparing us for those future real children. I love when she curls up in your lap and you both take a nap. It is just incredibly cute and I get all emotional and imagine you napping with your future kids.

Next year at this time, we will both be graduated and life will be moving at a million miles an hour. You will be done with school, but prepping for the bar. I will be done with my master’s and, hopefully, I will be looking for jobs in wherever our new city is. We will be packing and moving and starting our “grown up” lives. Next year, for our third anniversary, life will be a blur and we will be trying to figure everything out.

So this year is a special one. We can enjoy where we are and look forward to where our life is headed. Soon there will be a house and kids and jobs and while I know we will continue to love and learn from each other, but we will have to work a little harder to relax and find the time to remember how far we have come. I want to make sure to remember these early moments. These moments where we can lounge on the couch and just laugh at silly episodes of shows. I love our impromptu date nights for dinner and ice cream. I love when we grab coffee and wander Lowes, talking about what we would love to have in our future house, picking out appliances and paint colors.

I truly love our life right now. And I love you more than a little letter can express. But I wanted to find a way to tell you how much you mean to me. I know we’re enjoying our winery day and I look forward to many more anniversaries with you. Hopefully we always find time to celebrate this special day, even if it’s just a card left on a pillow or a glass of wine together.

Happy anniversary honey. Cheers to us.

Something Fun

And we’re off on our crazy adventure of a summer.

Mr. A has worked very hard this semester. On top of backstabbings and general first year stress, Mr. A also had some pretty rough health problems flare up. I think he had something like 5 or 6 small surgeries/procedures where he had to be put under general anesthesia. And that’s not even counting the 8 hour night in the emergency room and the doctor’s visits and the general not feeling well for much of the first part of the semester.

I felt he deserved a small little token of my appreciation.

I bought him a couple of his favorite cigars and some crafts beers and took him out to dinner. I wanted him to have a couple days to relax before he headed to his first summer job.

Nothing too fancy. Nothing that was a big deal. Just something small.

But that’s not the only thing we have to celebrate.

On Memorial Day, May 30th, we will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary.

I have a whole post planned for it, but it has been one heck of a year. And, I think, we both deserve a little fun and celebration.

I had originally been planning maybe going to one of the local wineries and enjoying the sun. Maybe going to a nice dinner.

But this weekend, Mr. A surprised me. He said that we would be going to STL, getting a hotel room at one of the nicer ones downtown, going to a special dinner, and then going to a baseball game on that Monday, exactly as we did one year earlier. The fun of getting married around a holiday is getting extra days off to spend time together.

Since I had an e-mail with a discount to book a hotel through one of the booking websites, Mr. A asked me to book the room. He mentioned a couple hotels- one we’ve been to and loved, and another very nice one. I started looking at prices and upgrades and what was available. And then it hit me. Why not go back to the hotel we stayed at on our wedding night?

Through the travel site, the hotel was a little more than we were planning on spending. We may want to have a nice weekend, but we can’t just splurge and spend all our money on extravagant hotel suites.

I still wanted to see if it was possible, and lucky me, the hotel’s website had a special going on and I got the room for a deal.

So so so excited. The room and hotel was amazing. And now I have a surprise for Mr. A since he doesn’t know where we’re staying.

And one other little present.

Mr. A wears suits, or at least dress shirts and ties, every day for work and will do the same for his second externship. He dresses up nicely and actually prefers dress shirts to anything else. So I ordered him some brass shirt stays and had them engraved. Nothing big, but something so he knows how much I love him.

That’s our fun for now. I have no idea where we’re going for dinner since Mr. A wants to surprise me with that detail. I think he’s just thrown that I won’t tell him where we’re staying.

P.S. We’re also getting breakfast in bed on Monday.

P.P.S. Also can’t wait to eat our wedding cake! (Hope it’s still good. It sure was delicious last year!)

P.P.S.S. Wishing we were going back to Mexico, but maybe next year…

Best time of the year

I love March. Spring is coming. It’s getting warmer and the frigid winter air is moving out finally.

I also love March because not only is it my birthday month, it’s also fiance and mine’s anniversary.

We have been together for 4 years. 4 years sounds like such a long time, but it doesn’t feel like that. I still remember when I met him at the gym. We had mutual friends through his fraternity and the guys had invited us to go, never intending a new romance start. I went to get away from doing homework that night. I just wanted to hang out.

Honestly, I thought he was too cute and out of my league. I have always been friends with guys, so I was very used to being in the “friend zone”. Well, we started talking. Watched a movie with the friends, and he invited me to dinner at the new thai restaurant in town (which was a big deal because the university we go to is in a VERY small tiny town, so a new restaurant is BIG).

Well, you know the rest. Dates, meet the parents, a few fights that test this new relationship, realizing we don’t want to be without each other. Yada yada.

4 years later, and we are two months away from our wedding, moving to a new town this summer for him to start law school, and trying to find a teaching job. Very much looking forward to it all.

And to top off the wonderful month, it was my birthday today! I know, most women as they get older, the dread birthdays, but I love them. Always have. I always joke that I will be the 80 year old woman in the nursing home still excited it’s my birthday. So to all of you who have a birthday today as well, I hope you had a great day!

I’m off to go sleep in tomorrow. Homemade french toast tomorrow morning and relaxing. Couldn’t be better. (I’ll post some more pictures this week.)

Goodnight!

New Teacher. New Wife.