6 Months Married!

It's been 6 months since I said "I do" to the best man I have ever known. In the days since our wedding we have been tested in many ways, and have had to overcome obstacles...hand in hand. All of our experiences so far have helped to shape us into people October 20th, 2012 wouldn't recognize.

I had no idea the ways in which marriage would change me. I am constantly reminded that by vowing to love my husband forever I have promised to put him before myself and serve fully and with out fail...always. I have learned that marriage is work, but at the end of the day I am filled with joy knowing that I am doing all I can to bring glory to God with my relationship with George.

I wish I could say that we have done everything perfect over these past few months...but alas, we are human and made of flesh. So, I will have to say that we have made mistakes, hurt one anothers feelings, and disappointed each other on many occasions. However, we have grown and George is showing me with his patience, grace, mercy,  more of who Jesus is.

Often I find it hard to fathom how much Christ loves me because I can't imagine being loved any more than my husband loves me, but God loves me so much more. Sometimes I can only weep at the thought of that much love.

Last night we were talking after going to bed and George reflected on how grateful he is to be a part of my life and I quietly listened thinking: "I can't believe God gave me this amazing man to love and he thinks he should be grateful."

I wish I could put into words how blessed I feel to even know George Clackum...much less be the one he is sharing his life with. I know I don't deserve his love, but I will spend every second, moment, hour, and day being thankful that I have it. These 6 months have flown by...it's hard to imagine that a lifetime would ever be enough with this man.

I love you sweet one. You have changed me for the better and you have brought me unspeakable joy. Here's to many more months and years side by side. This is only the beginning.

Forever & Always. 

18 on the 18th

My brother is 18 today. Wow, I never ever realized how fast time flies. I can see him clearly as a tiny baby, a precious bleach-blond-hair 4 year old, and a 12 year old annoying little prankster but all grown up and 18 is much harder to wrap my mind around.

In my teenage years I was so worried about growing up myself I never stopped to think that my brother was doing the same.

He and I are different in many ways but I am seeing a lot of myself in him these days. 18 for me was all about having friends and having fun. I wish now I would have taken more time to cherish or even just pay attention to how fast my  little brother was growing.

He has his own life and his own friends now and he is becoming his own person. I am so proud of the man that he is becoming. He is loyal, strong, loving, impulsive, smart, and the absolute best little brother.

I thought that he would always look up to me...but as Tyler enters adulthood I am finding myself slowing looking up to him instead.

I love you sweet brother...I hope you have had the best birthday ever. I only wish I was there to hug you and tell you in person how thankful I am for every second I have had the privilege of being your sister.

Burgers + Barnes & Noble

Last night the Hubs and I went on a date for the first time in a LONG time! 

We haven't had a whole lot of free time lately so we took full advantage of our spare time last night!

Red Robin has recently become one of our favorite restaurants...so we jumped at the opportunity to start our our date night with the best burgers ever...seriously. Thankfully Red Robin didn't disappoint. We started out date night RIGHT! 

After an amazing dinner Barnes & Noble was the next stop. Yesterday I found a bookstore date idea from one of my favorite sites thedatingdivas.com. The date instructions outline the steps to a fun filled evening at a bookstore...these are the first 3...and the only ones we had the time to complete!

#1 - Visit the COOKING section & chose a recipe that you would like to make for your spouse.

#2 – Visit the MAGAZINE section & find a quiz in a magazine that you and your spouse could do together.

#3 - Visit the CHILDREN’S section & find a book that was a favorite when you were a child or that holds a special memory for you…and read them to each other when you meet back up.

We ended up starting with the magazine task...George chose an HGTV magazine with a quiz on different style homes for me, and I chose a baseball magazine with a quick quiz on baseball history for him! It seems that I know quite a bit more about homes than George knows about baseball history! ;) It was so much fun to see who knew more about our selected subjects!

Next our task was to find our favorite childhood book and read them to one another! Since I have always loved reading...I had to ask my Mom what exactly my most favorite book was when I was little. She informed me that I was quite fond of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. After re-reading the book I completely understand why it was my favorite. It's all about food :) 

George had already told me a while back that his favorite book growing up was The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss...which is fitting because he and Dr. Seuss have the same birthday! I must say...I laughed and giggled the entire time he read to me because he went all out! He started using different voices and everything. It definitely warmed my heart to think our little ones will be laughing and giggling at their Daddy's crazy story telling antics one day! 

Unfortunately our recipes didn't go so well...I ended up finding one recipe that I would like to make for George but he couldn't find one for his picky wife ;) we ended up agreeing to use mine for the both of us because it sounds so good!

We had an amazing night dating. I can't stress enough how important it is to keep being creative when it comes to dating your spouse! Experiencing new things with George makes me fall in love with him all over again!