Chocolates, Flowers or an Air Gauge

Today is our 14th anniversary.

We're not real big on over-the top celebrations so we'll be celebrating today by hanging out as a family. We've spent several anniversaries apart, one with a coughing new-born and one in a Civic in a heat wave without AC, so just hanging out is rather nice.

A few days ago Way Cooler noticed that the air was getting low on one of my tires. He mentioned it to me and I had full plans of getting to it in a day or two when I was running errands. I am no stranger to filling up the air in my tires because while we adore our Toyota, the tires our Sienna came with leaked air faster than a beach ball from the dollar store. I have added air in the snow and the rain, in a skirt and always with two small observers. I am a rather independent sort and quite capable of handing the day to day minutia of my vehicle.

However.

I was not looking forward to doing it this time as bending still causes me a fair bit of pain. The next evening Way Cooler took my van and the boys and did it for me. I almost cried I was so happy. To me, romance is doing the little things. I had fifteen minutes alone to make dinner AND they took the van through the car wash as well. It doesn't get better than that.

Don't get me wrong, I do like flowers and notes and candy, but in every day living, fourteen years in, an errand run when I didn't even have to ask for it is better than a box of chocolates.

Happy Anniversary sweetheart.

Money for Nothing.

When I first started blogging, it was met with some rather healthy skepticism by a certain husband of mine.

He wasn't exactly sure he saw the point and was a bit nervous that I would be airing all our dirty laundry right out there on the internet. A concern that does have a fair bit of basis in reality, as I do like to over-share. And then share some more.

So, imagine my surprise when I was asked the other day, "So, how do you set up one of those blog-things?"

It turns out, that his blog has a purpose. As does everything Way Cooler does. In direct contrast to his much flightier wife.

One of Way Cooler's BIG interests in the stock market and wise investing. Always has been. He spends hours researching, analyzing and generally doing stuff that makes my eyes glaze over. I honestly cannot think of a more boring hobby. Watching bowling on TV holds more appeal to me. But he truly loves it and I love that he has a hobby. Keeps him out of my waytrouble.

Plus, another upside to all this research and stuff is that we have a portfolio. And money in it. If I was in charge, there'd just be dust.

And now, my hubby wants to share his insight with the Internet. He's good that way.

So, I'm pleased to introduce Way Cooler's blog. It will be full basic investment advice, tips on how to pick good stocks, and all that fun stuff. And no dirty laundry. (That's my job.)

So, if you've got a second, head on over, and say hi.

Welcome to blogging sweetie. You're gonna love it.

13

Today is our 13th Anniversary.  So, to celebrate I thought I'd share 13 little known facts about my wedding.

I'd include a picture but I do not have a scanner so, believe me when I tell you, I was a smokin' hot bride.  I had never looked that good before and never will again. It required the services of a professional make-up artist and about 60 bobby-pins, but it was worth it.

1.  I got the idea for all our bouquets from Martha Stewart's big blue book of weddings.  While I find the woman unbelievably pretentious now I was rather smitten with her then.  A family friend made the bouquets, mainly from flowers from her garden as well as my parent's.  They were amazing.

2.  I wore white leather Keds sneakers.  My dress hid them, but there was no way I was going to suffer in bad shoes all day long.  So, I stole an idea from Father of the Bride and wore runners.  Best.Decision.Ever.

3.  Way Cooler is 5'5".  His best man was 6'4".  Our photographer nearly had a heart attack.  We took a lot of pictures on a hillside with us at the top and the rest of the party a little below us.

4.  My grandpa married us.

5.  Because I had read waaay too many Brock and Bodie Thoene novels I incorporated the breaking of the glass ceremony into our wedding.  I was quite thrilled with it.  Way Cooler was a little less enthusiastic, especially after nearly breaking his foot on the tumbler I had chosen during the rehearsal.  One of my aunts was then dispatched to Wal-mart to get a wine glass.  It worked much better.

6.  Our wedding pictures were taken at one of the oldest public gardens in our city.  It is right next to a cemetery.  My F-I-L was fond of telling people that our pictures were taken in a cemetery.   He had a rather weird sense of humour.

7.  My make-up lady was a wizard.  The week before the wedding I had an unfortunate mishap involving a self-propelled lawn mower and a very large evergreen.  My arms were a mess of scratches.  They looked like the legs of a three year old boy.  I was wearing a short-sleeved dress.  It didn't look promising but she managed to cover it all up and it looked incredibly natural.

8.  The morning after our wedding I wrote out our vows and put it in my Bible.  Still there.

9.  My sister and brother were both in the wedding party.  At one point my sister was starting to get a bit teary so my brother gave her the finger when no one was looking.  This became a family tradition during weddings.  I promise, we only do obscene gestures during weddings.  And the occasional funeral.  Other than that, we are a very respectable obscenity-free family.

10. I had wanted my bridesmaids bouquets to be all sweet-peas tied together with ribbon. They are my favorite flower. My dad and our friend planted sweet-peas for that very purpose.  We had an unusually rainy spring and there were no sweet-peas to be found.  Anywhere.  My bridesmaids carried Sweet William instead with one lone sweet-pea in each bouquet.  It was pretty much the only year ever that the sweet peas were that late in blooming.

11.   I usually have very short hair.  The day I told my hairdresser I was getting married she told me that I only had ten months to grow it out, but I had better grow it out if I wanted her to do my hair for my wedding.  She scared me a little bit at the best of times so I obeyed.  Never mess with a woman with a curling iron.

12.  I had registered for forest green, navy and cream bath towels.  I got 12 sets of towels, mostly pink with a few emerald green thrown in for good measure.   

13.  It was truly one of the best days of my life.  There were no mishaps at all, it was just fun from start to finish.  

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

Things we Learned on the Way Home from Miami

* Customs agents can be a bit grumpy. Making sarcastic jokes while dealing with them can result in them yelling. Lots. It's a good thing this was pre 9-11 or Way Cooler would still be languishing in a Miami jail.

*If you rush and hustle to make your flight, (including running the length of the airport) it's pretty much a guarantee that your plane will have mechanical difficulties.

*Some airlines like to have you wait on the plane while they fix the mechanical difficulties so they don't have to go through the trouble of re-boarding you later.

*If a plane is being fixed on the tarmac, they cannot run the AC.

*Miami tends to be a bit warm in August.

*If you have to sit in a plane in steerage economy for three hours without AC you will sweat off all the weight you gained on your cruise.

*Planes that sit for three hours while being fixed (in the heat) can develop other difficulties that will only show up as you taxi out to the run-way.

*If your flight is eight hours late leaving Miami, there is a really good chance you will not make your connection in Dallas.

*When you are stuck overnight in an airport, they will not give your checked luggage. Instead, they hand you a cute barbie sized bag full of barbie sized toiletries, including 1/4 tsp of laundry soap.

*1/4 tsp of laundry soap is really not adequate for properly laundering sweat-soaked unmentionables in a Dallas hotel at one in the morning.

*If you wash your unmentionables at one in the morning they will still be damp the next morning. Very, very damp.

*Dining options tend to be limited at the DFW airport at seven in the morning on a Sunday.

* They put jalapenos in scrambled eggs in Texas. That's just wrong.

* Heartburn is especially gross at 30,000 feet.

*There really is no place like home, especially with your new (and amazing) spouse.

The Epic Part Three

We spent the first week of our honeymoon in Disney World. It was very fun. It was also very hot.

Picture two Canadians in Florida in July. We were pasty puddles of sweat. So we came up with a plan to avoid melting away completely while in line for Thunder Mountain.

We would get up really early in the morning and be there when the gates opened. We'd frolic until it got unbearably hot and then go back to our hotel room for a, ummm nap. Yep. A honeymoon nap.

We'd then go back out after our nap later in the evening and not leave till the gates were shut. Because we are so very cool.

We were staying in a motel-type Disney resort. There were windows from our room looking out onto the open walk-way that lead to all the other rooms. This being Disney, our resort was full of young families. Full.

One afternoon we were umm, especially tired and were in quite a rush to get to our nap. So much so that we forgot to close our blinds. The ones on the picture windows. That looked out onto a walk-way that was full of young families. Who could easily peek in and see us napping.

Sorry Disney.

Epic Part Two

A cruise was an excellent choice for Way Cooler and I. We tend to vacation differently. I view a vacation as a time to relax. Way Cooler gets his relaxing done at home. When on vacation he wants to experience. Everything. At all times. He has paid for this cruise and he is going to partake of every activity that he can to really get his money's worth.

So, on a day at sea my plans consisted of a book, a beach chair and frothy drinks with an umbrella. Way Cooler preferred to act like a retiree on speed.

There really wasn't an art auction, fitness class, ping-pong tournament, dance class (I kid you not), cooking demonstration and history lecture that he did not attend. But the nice thing was, he could learn and do to his heart's content and I could accomplish my big goal of turning over occasionally and we could still meet up for dinner.

One evening after a strenuous day of tanning I decided that I too would do a little more than imitate a beach chair. Way Cooler was attending a sit and be fit class (again, not kidding) so I hit the den of sin casino alone. I was mainly curious to see if I would go up into a puff of smoke just walking into the place.

Nope.

I ventured in a little further. I really had no idea what went on in a casino and was curious. If the whole spontaneous combustion thing didn't happen then maybe they weren't so bad after all.

I had ten bucks burning a hole in my pocket and being the wild and crazy party girl that I was decided to try my hand at the slots.

Just incase that you are new here and think that maybe I was a party animal in my younger days, yeah, not so much. I was born and raised Baptist, had a perm at the time that I BRUSHED OUT EVERY DAY, I couldn't name a radio station that played the top 40 let alone identify a single song on the top forty and I had had two sips of champagne the night before because I felt if I had any more I might get drunk.

Basically, once a geek, always a geek.

I approached the slots with caution. I really wasn't certain what to do but didn't want to look as if I was clueless. The fact that I carefully watched everyone else, had glasses bigger than my head, and wore socks with my bermuda shorts and runners didn't give my naivety away at all.

I got change and told myself that I would spend the ten bucks and get the heck out of dodge.

I put in my first quarter, pulled the handle and won. 4 quarters. Wow, I was queen of the slots. So I continued. On my 4th pull I hit the jackpot. Seriously. I won $250. Now this may not seem like a lot to you, but I was giddy at winning the dollar. $250 put me over the edge. I decided it was best to quit while I was ahead and wanted to get my HUGE jackpot upstairs as fast as possibly so that I would not be tempted to gamble it away. Plus I didn't want anyone to steal it.

But then I faced a dilemma. How did I get this upstairs? While the shorts on my pockets were roomy I already had my keys, my previous 4 quarters and my sunglasses in there. 1000 quarters were just not going to fit. So, I filled up 2 of those little pop-corn type buckets that they give you for your earnings and headed for my room.

What I didn't realize is that casinos can take your quarters and pay you in more transportable forms of currency. Instead, I left the casino carrying my two very full buckets and proceeded to walk the length of the ship (and up like 4 floors) back to my room. Because I am cool like that.

Did I mention that I was practically running in my haste to get the quarters into the security of my room's safe? I really blended in.

But at least all 1000 quarters were safe.

The Epic part One

Pretty much since we had started dating Way Cooler saved all his Toonies and Loonies for my engagement ring and our honeymoon.

Repeat after me: awwwwwww.

He wanted it to be special. He also wanted it to be a surprise. The only problem was, I don't do surprises well. I'm a control freak planner and really did want to know what was going on.

So, a couple of months before the wedding after much prodding and pleading on my part he told me that we were going to Disney World. I was so excited. He also told me that we were then going to fly to Miami and spend a week on a beach.

Awesome.

We made it through the wedding and all that stuff and had a marvelous week at Disney. The weeks leading to the wedding had been rather stressful and then we hit Disney World quite hard, going from sun up to sun down. I was really looking forward to a beach-y week.

We were on the plane flying to Miami when Way Cooler asked if I wanted to see a picture of our hotel.

Certainly. I was picturing a pool with a swim-up bar in my mind. He handed me a picture of a cruise ship.

We were going on a cruise. He couldn't wait to see my reaction.

He didn't quite get what he had bargained for.

I did what any over-tired, stressed out twenty-one year old would do.

I burst into tears.

And kept going.

And going.

And going.

That's right folks. I cried for the rest of the plane trip, in the airport, while waiting for our cruise ship escorts, while on the bus to the port, in the line-up to get on the ship, and through the lifeboat drill.

Three of the longest hours of Way Cooler's life.

I.Could.Not.Stop.

Trust me I tried. But then I would think about how I didn't have anything to wear, or how mad Way Cooler was, or how tired I was and the water-works would flow again.

It was my own special version of water torture for my poor, long-suffering husband. Who by that point was wondering if it was too late for an annulment.

It was. He was stuck.

I finally stopped crying and we managed to have a very, very good time.

But he has never ever surprised me like that again.

Ever.

It's an Epic..or Something Like That

You know, January can be a rather rough month.  It's often colder than should be legal and there's no real fun event to look forward to.  Just a month of housebound togetherness.  And then both Beck and Veronica closed down their blogs for a while to pursue other writing.

Sob.

So, I got thinking, I need something to brighten my January.  I'm gonna tell you all about my honeymoon.  It was really one misadventure after another.    Trust me.

And to give myself something to chuckle over I'm going to re-live it for you in a series of posts.  Really, what else do you have to do all month anyway?

To give you a little background, Way Cooler and I were married at the ripe old ages of 21 and 22.  We had dated long-distance exclusively and our honeymoon was the longest period of time we had ever spent together in the same city.

I cannot emphasize enough how much we do not recommend this.  We made it through that first year because for two reasons only.

We are exceedingly stubborn.  

God is exceedingly gracious.

You'll see why.