Four years today...

Melissa and I get the honor of celebrating four years of marriage today. Well... I say today, but in actuality our "celebrating" will be coming monetarily and momentarily later. We have a getaway planned in August as a summer vacation/anniversary celebration and we have tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil this October. So for today we will be celebrating simply :-).

Mel and I are really good at that too - working as a team that is (although we are good at living simply as well!) I'm proud of the dynamic team that we are. Sometimes we even see eye-to-eye before we talk about it. God has made us unique individuals. We each have our strengths and weaknesses. For the most part our individual strengths complement our individual weaknesses and when we are both lacking, then we do our best to encourage one another.

Our running comes to mind. Mel and I have each had the opportunity to cheer each other on. Literally. Cheering for her in San Francisco, and she gave me hope when I ran Houston.

So what does simply look like today? (Sorry dear reader for digressing a bit!) Well, this blog for one - and I know that my sweet bride has written one as well; however, we haven't read each other's blog's yet because we are utilizing future posting by blogger. (you see I'm actually writing this on the 27th... not the 28th. Cool, huh?) We're planning on letting someone else do the cooking tonight. Maybe it'll be mexican takeout, or pizza, or we may even just stop into a local deli for a family date with our little one. We'll see. No matter what I can't wait! We're also going to relax and watch a movie as well. This harkens back to our dating days... In my old apartment we'd always eat while sitting on the floor gathered around the coffee table. We still do that sometimes and it makes it special :-)

One of the things I have ALWAYS loved about Melissa is the way that she is creative, spontaneous, and fun. She has this unique way of naming things that just makes me laugh. When we were dating she named the basil plant I was growing "Billy." Billy the Basil. And now there's Gail the Garmin. From my single days apartment - my neighbor upstairs was G.U.S. (Guy UpStairs) and his pet D.U.S (Yep, Dog UpStairs).

So the other day, after buying a toothbrush holder for our new house I found this note:

On the back this was written:

She makes me SO happy! I smile every time I see this note. My jaw still drops whenever I see her. The love of my life, my beautiful Melissa...

At the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco

Aquarium!

Yesterday Melissa and I decided to take Liam to the Downtown Aquarium. It was SO much fun! Liam was smiling a lot and was constantly wanting to touch what was behind the glass. The only downside was having to wait in line to get tickets. (There were a TON of daycare or summer programs for kids there. So, in turn there were many groups to contend with). Below are some pictures of our outing:

Waiting to get inside. It's HOT!

Liam meets an Eel :-)

Child-like Wonder

Liam couldn't take his eyes off this catfish...

... Because it was HUGE!!!!

"Reach for the sky, fishies!"

"Hmmmm... what does a lion fish feel like?"

There weren't just aquatic creatures at the aquarium either. This snake weighed over 300 lbs!

No, No Liam... Stingrays don't need a Paci :-)

The finale of the aquarium was a white tiger exhibit.

Face-to-face with the beast! ROAR!

The official "tourist" shot.

Okay. So the funniest thing about Melissa wearing a white tiger mask? That she still smiled for the camera underneath it! =)

All in all we had a wonderful time. I can't wait to do more things with Liam... he is learning SO much right now. I love getting to share life with my little boy! And, on an aside Mel and I are definitely going to have to go back to visit the aquarium's restaurant some evening. The atmosphere was lovely and the food smelled great!

Goin' Stainless!

You can view Melissa's blog here for some pics of the old ones, but the long and the short of it is that we got some new appliances! I cannot begin to say how excited I am to be cooking on a gas range. Not only is it a gas range but the burner grates are cast iron too! I LOVE cast iron. I actually have a large reversible cast iron griddle that fits perfectally over the middle burner. (It's an oblong burner that is designed for such cookware:-)

Besides the cool new oven, we got a nice over-the-range microwave to match. What do I love best about this microwave? The fact that it's musical. Really. It is. Promise. The beeps and chimes on it are very pleasant to listen too. Don't believe me? Come on over and I'll use it to time how long it actually takes me to cook dinner. After that I'll use it to keep your said dinner warm for up to 99:99 while you're lifting your jaw off the ground from dropping due to all the sheer awesomeness.

The new appliances didn't look right against the previous owners cabinet hardware. I mean... I love Texas. I do. I'm a die-hard born 'n' bred native, but this hardware would be better served for our second house in the country. Maybe at our retirement B & B that we'll run someday. But right... we're certainly not retired and yep, last time I checked no country getaway house either. Darn. Guess the cabinet hardware did have to change. Below is its mugshot:

And here's the new look!

What do ya think???

"Man Bag"

No, I'm not referring to a "man-purse" (or "murse" if you will), "shoulder bag", or any other coined term for a man bag. What I AM referring to is the way that a diaper bag is packed for Liam and myself when I'm headed out with him.

Yesterday was my first day off with Liam at the new house. We had some errands to run so I packed things up for him and me in his diaper bag. Home Depot and Kroger were on the list. We needed stuff for the house in more ways then one! So what I included in the diaper bag was a little more than the usual diapers and wipes....

oh yeah - Speaker cable and makeup accesories. Why do makeup accesories qualify as "man bag" material? Because I'd be lost in the makeup aisle at Kroger trying to figure out what new replacements my wife needs in her collection which is why the loving wife that I have sent me with the "empties" so I'd know exactly what I was looking for :-) Like I said... Man Bag!

I've succesfully set up our home theater sound system with my father-in-law save for the fact for some reason we can't get sound from our DVD player. bummer. MAJOR bummer. Oh well, we'll get there eventually.

In the mean time, I did get new locks installed on all of our doors today. Little by little we're making this place our home.

G

Boxing Match

So, the only bad thing about getting down the basics set for moving in (you know.... clothes, food, and a place to sleep... oh yeah, and internet) is that it TOTALLY strips away the motivation and need to get everything else unpacked.

I'm a guy.

I could probably leave boxes sitting around for weeks as long as I have a working kitchen. (So, I'm not your everyday fella). That being said, we're trying to maintain momentum and keep unpacking things. A co-worker at work (is that redundant?) told me that it takes 2-3 months to get unpacked and settled. I scoffed at the notion. Or choked. No, no... we'll go with scoffed. Because in my head my response was rather flippant.

At any rate, after dealing with stock and inventory in retail (going on almost 2 years experience here...) I can blow through unpacking boxes at a rather quick rate.

What's the challenge then you say? Why the hold up you ask?

Life.

Pure and simple. Life, the every day exactitudes of existence; the eating, sleeping, clothes-washing, bill-paying responsibilities of the norm; is what keeps it all from happening at once.

What I do like about this new place is how we've had the ability to purge a LOT from our old house and there is a lot that we want for this new house in terms of organization and neatness.

It's nice to have a fresh start and a blank pallete :-)

G

Move-In Day!

Tomorrow will be when we officially move in to our new home! We had the movers move our stuff on April 22nd, but we haven't actually begun living there yet... this all changes in less than 24 hrs.

So... our family will be in transition... again. BUT, with this single transition comes a world of promise. No more commuting for an hour both ways to go to work, to check on the house, to move, etc. No more having to live out of boxes (well, eventually!) or suitcases, or closet space - it's been a VERY long time since we've been able to say that.

Melissa, Liam, and I have kinda developed our own sort of "routine" while living with her parents. As irregular as it could be it still had its "usuals," ya know? So, while we are anxious to get into our new house and excited about it too, there's a lot of emotion with "uprooting" again.

Melissa and I have probably taken for granted that there has always been another hand on deck while living with her parents. So although I can speak for Mel, I for one am a little nervous of flying more solo with childcare. But I'm also looking forward to how I'll be able to bond with my son more. For the most part I feel like I've been absent a lot over the past 6 months while having to tend to all this house stuff. Kinda makes my heart break a little, but I realize that its only been for a season and I am not in the least an absentee parent. I make the most of every chance I get with him.

The other day on my "lunch" break I came home and Mel and Liam were sitting outside at her parents place. I made a sandwich and ate out there while enjoying their company. I have to say this was probably one of my highlights for 2011 so far. Its hard to describe, but that instance was very special to me. Maybe because in that moment it was nice to just be a family and nothing else interposing on that. It was cool to see my son be in wonder of all the things around him. It was nice to sit back and laugh with Melissa. One of the biggest highlights of our new home is the extended covered patio. I look forward to many, many more times of just relaxing outside together... as a family in our new home :-)

G

Found one!

So, after the weeks... no months... of doing house stuff we currently are OUT of the option period on the sale of our home AND we've made an offer on a new home. The offer hasn't been signed yet by the sellers (thus making it an official contract) but we are basically 100% certain that they will.

May 7th? Well, hopefully that will be one everything is all said and done and we'll be able to feel a bit more settled. In the meantime we will be living in a whirlwind.

Tonight gave us a bit of much need "pause" however. We went to our old church for a concert of worship. We even took Liam with us for a late evening out. I'm so proud. He did great! The women at the church childcare were all bragging about what a good baby he was too. Mel and I had much needed night of worship. For me personally it gave me a lot of time for reflection. It gave me time to reconnect with God and Melissa that has been a bit lacking with the hectic life that we have been leading.

I'm grateful for our many blessings.

Although the next few weeks are going to be stressful... I don't mind it. "Busy" stress is a WHOLE lot different than "worry" stress :-)