Why We Work (Our 8th Anniversary)

Joe and I celebrate our 8th anniversary this week. I have been thinking back over the years and wanted to tell you why I think we work. I know all relationships are different but ever since we got married, we have been pretty happy most of the time.

Has it all been butterflies and puppies? No. Do we fight often? No. Do we hurt each others feelings? Of course...we are human. Here are some things that have helped us have a healthy and well-balanced marriage.

1. I admire him. He is the most charming, out going, hard worker I know. When he decides he wants something...he goes out at gets it. He works his regular job, flies for a few cooperate companies, builds things for me (and others) and is in the process of starting his own airline. I think being each others biggest cheerleader is very important.

2. We enjoy doing some of the same things. We both love watching a bunch of the same shows, eating at the same restaurants over and over again (las delicias!), traveling, sily youtube videos, having parties, etc. It's fun to do things together, but we also have our own interests. Joe golfs, I craft. Joe plays disc golf, I bake. We realize that its fun to do stuff together (and important), but we don't need to spend every waking moment with each other. That brings me to #3. 

3. We have time away from each other. Due to Joe's job, he is often away. While I do get lonely and miss him at times, I think we both enjoy our "alone" time. We can take up the whole bed, watch what we want on TV, etc. Absence makes the heart grow finder, right? It does for us. 

4. We fight fair. And infrequently...and its usually about silly stuff.

5. We are smart in different ways and on different subjects. Joe is very book smart, knows to how fix and build just about everything. He can talk about planes until he is blue in the face. I am really good with money, couponing, planning our trips, etc. We balance each other out.

6. We want the same things in life.....kids, a pretty house, stuff from Pottery Barn, to travel, retire early and sail around the caribbean on a boat in our bathing suits....you know the usual stuff. I knew that Joe would be a great dad from the moment I first met him.

7. We both love to travel and it's one of the things that is most important things in our lives. 

8. We support each other no matter what. We have been through a lot in 8 years...job changes, moving houses, having a baby, my mom dying, etc. We have stuck by each other and had each other's backs through everything.

9. We laugh just about everyday.

10. We try to never go to bed angry. If Joe is home, we always kiss each other before bed...we also have a little thing that we have said to each other every night for the past 8 years. Its a very special thing between us.

Happy Anniversary Joe! Life gets more fun everyday! You are the best husband that I could ask for. Thank you for being such a hard worker, a dreamer, and a thinker. I love you so much!!

p.s.

If you want to see details from our wedding go here.

Hubs in the Hot Seat

I saw this on another blog and decided to link up with Ashlee too.

Sarah: If I had to pick one food to live on for a month, what would it be?

Joe: Either fried chicken salad or BBQ Chicken Pizza

Sarah: Hmmm...probably the BLT salad from Firebirds

Sarah: What would you choose for yourself?

Joe: Lee Kan's General Tso's Chicken

Sarah: YUMMMM!!

Sarah: What is your favorite childhood memory?

Joe: Water Sking

Sarah: I would NOT have guessed that.

Sarah: What is your favorite physical feature of mine?

Joe: Your eyeballs

Sarah: I love how you say eyeballs and not just the normal "eyes"

Sarah: What is your favorite personality trait of mine?

Joe: Your patience

Sarah: I try :)

Sarah: If you had to pick a cartoon character that reminded you of me, which one would it be?

Joe: Minnie Mouse

Sarah: I'll take that answer....he knows I LOVE Disney!

Sarah: What movie has made you laugh like no other?

Joe: Stepbrothers

Sarah: Good answer!

Sarah: What is your favorite quote/scene from that movie?

Joe:

Dale: (to parents) "Can we turn our beds into bunkbeds?"

Brennan: (pleading) "It'll give us so much extra space to do activities."

Robert: "You're adults...you can do whatever you want."

Dale: "This is the funnest night ever!"

Sarah: Bahahahaha!

Sarah: Describe me in one word.

Joe: Perfect

Sarah: Awwww!!

What's YOUR Love Story (Link Up)

I am linking up today with From Mrs. to Mama for her "What's Your Love Story" post. It looks like a lot of fun. Feel free to go over and link up with her as well.

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We have been married 5.5 years but together for 7.

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Read all about that crazy experience here.

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

We have been married for 5 1/2 wonderful years :)

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?

You can read all about our wedding here. It was the best!!

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Joe used to call me "Monkey-Butt" and I called him "Toof" but now we both call each other "Scrunch". It started out as Munchkin and then changed to Scrunchkin and now it's Scrunch.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

1. He is a very hard worker.

2. He is nice to animals and doesn't hunt.

3. He is very supportive of everything that I want to do.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

You can read all about the day we got engaged here.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He is a flowers and chocolate kind of guy....the best! If he was the kind of guy that brought me a teddy bear we wouldn't be together...not my style.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

I would much rather pop in a movie and order a pizza or Chinese take out....but I also LOVE getting dressed up and being taken out on the town.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

I would love to travel across Europe with Joe for a few months.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

Our sweet baby girl is scheduled to come ANY day now...so we will be having a VERY low-key Valentine's Day.....exchanging cards, going to a nice dinner....maybe some chocolate...nothing too crazy.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope...just a healthy baby girl. I hope she does NOT come on Valentine's Day. I really want her to have her own special day and not have to share it with a holiday.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

COMMUNICATE!!! I cannot say it enough. You must keep the lines of communication open.

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Valentine's Day Challenge-Our Wedding

Today's topic is about your wedding. I think my "Wedding ABC's" post pretty much covers our wedding. Read about it here.

I loved everything about our wedding. If I was to do it again there is nothing that I would change!

My Match.com Experience (Or How I Met My Husband)

Let's go back to December of 2004. I had graduated a year before and was currently teaching Kindergarten. I had recently ended a relationship with a U of Memphis football player who decided he liked football better than me and I was feeling hopeless. How was I supposed to meet someone?? I certainly was not interested in the divorced/single dads that were hitting on me at work, nor was I interested in meeting guys at the bar. So when you are in mid-twenties....where are you supposed to meet someone. Most of my girlfriends from college lived in other cities so it's not like I was going out all the time. One day, a friend from high school told me that another mutual friend was on Match.com....the internet? This I had to see for myself.

So...I logged on to see our friends profile. And then my curiosity got the best of me. I started browsing through the pictures and found myself saying, "Wow, these boys are pretty cute!". Then I decided to check out the girls....you know...my competition. The girls weren't that cute. I might really have a shot at this stuff. So I signed for for a free trial. I filled out the long form and loaded some decent pictures of myself....what's the worst that could happen?

Well.....let me just say....I started getting messages right away. From cute boys. This was fun!! We could only "wink" at each other...no conversations...since this was just a free trial and all. So I decided to just bite the bullet and sign up for three months. It was cheap....much cheaper than going out. I justified it to myself that this way they could buy me food and drinks....it was actually cheaper this way. I started off just emailing with people. It was so much better than meeting random people. I got to decide who could talk to me. My standards were high.

On the list:

*They must have graduated from college and have a good job.

*They must not smoke.

*They must be a Christian.

*They must be single (never married, no kids, etc.)

*They must not hunt.

Pretty easy huh? If we hit it off through emails, we would talk on the phone. If they made it past that round I would meet them for dinner, coffee, etc. I went on A LOT of dates....I mean A LOT! Some of them were great, some of them were bad. Sometimes I thought that they were great and then I never heard from the guy again. boo! Sometimes they probably thought the date was great and I was like...."no way!". It was nice to have to go out and tell your story, talk about yourself, etc. I have always been the kind of girl who went from boyfriend to boyfriend so I did not have a whole lot of experience "dating". Most of the guys were really nice. I kept a notebook to help me remember who was who...crazy huh?

Then I got the email....the one where I knew something was special. His profile was hilarious. His screen name was SillyMonkey (mine was Sassy Kindergarten Teacher...ha! Well....I am....). He talked about bigfoot on his profile...and gnomes. and monkeys. I had to know more. I sent his messages to my best friend, Kristy and she liked him from the start. We talked on the phone and hit it off right away and made plans to go to dinner. He warned me that he was moving back to Minnesota in a month and that he couldnt get too serious with anyone. No problem I said... we could still hang out. We made plans...and he broke them. I decided to give him one more chance.

We met for dinner at Bahama Breeze. He was shorter than I expected. He was cute though and had a nice truck. We split the Coconut Shrimp...neither of us double dipped in the sauce...we poured it on our plates. We were on our best behavior. Joe ordered fish to make himself look sophisticated :) The conversation was awesome. I felt like I had known him my whole life. I called my mom from the bathroom to tell her how much I liked him and how it was going. I told her we were going to go to The Blue Monkey. She was concerned. We took our own cars and went to the Blue Monkey to hang out some more. Joe's friends showed up and somehow we ended up at Backstreet (a gay club right down the street). I had never been to a gay club and had certainly never seen a drag show...I kept thinking "This guys is crazy...but fun!!". We then went to Ihop....keep in mind this was probably 3 in the morning. My mom was freaking out telling me that i should NOT be staying out so long with someone that I have just met...."it's not lady like she said"...silly Southern mama....

When it was finally time to say goodnight, Joe told me how much he liked me...in the parking lot...of the gay club. He told me that he wanted to kiss me....but he wasn't going to...he was going to wait. I was on cloud nine. I kew from that night on that he was something special and that we were going to be together.

Joe was supposed to go home to Minnesota for Christmas and did not make his flight, so I invited him to come to Christmas with my family....the rest is history. He decided NOT to move back to Minnesota and we were engaged 6 months later...when you know, you know right?!

And I finally did that kiss from him :)

His & Hers

HER:

biggest pet peeve: littering

most hated food: cheese

most despised type of music: country

chore to avoid: putting away the laundry

worst trend imaginable: sagging pants

idea of the worst vacation: somewhere where everyone is partying and acting stupid

HIS:

biggest pet peeve: when people make gross noises...especially with their mouth

most hated food: rudabagas

most despised type of music: death metal

chore to avoid: emptying the dishwasher or folding the clothes....they both suck

worst trend imaginable: mullet

idea of the worst vacation: somewhere hot with no ocean, air conditioning is broken and flight is delayed

I LOVE This Man!

He has the most positive outlook on life and never lets me down :)

Viva la Mexico!

Here we are at the Memphis airport waiting for our plane. Goodbye Memphis....

Hello Mexico!! Here is the front of the resort as you drive up. We stayed at the

Excellence Playa Mujeres and it was awesome!!

Just take a look at the lobby. They were waiting with cool towels and champagne when we checked in....I could get used to this treatment!

Look at our wonderful room....this is actually a standard (and the cheapest room).

The view of our room..nice huh?

We had a hot tub in the room that opened up to the balcony....balcony you asked?

Oh yes! And it had a napping bed....we preceded to fall asleep on this thing a few times.

Look at the view from our balcony. We were right across from the spa and had the lazy river floating underneath.

Joe found a friend whose nickname for the week was "Jersey". Yup...he was a full fledged Guido and Joe and him liked to fist pump.

On the first night Joe and I went to Spice, the Asian restaurant, and ate at the Hibachi table.

They even brought us a special dessert at the end!

Oh....and there was a turn down service every night....with chocolates....love it!

We stayed in room 1306.....close enough to everything but far away to feel secluded.

Friday was our anniversary and we did it up right. Here I am enjoying a mimosa with breakfast....pretty sure this was an everyday thing.

Here is the anniversary card that Joe made me. I love his homemade cards.

When we came back to the room after lunch they had decorated our door

and left cold champagne and fruit in the room.

Look at the swans and rose petals....so fancy!

For dinner that night we hit up the Italian restaurant....it was yummy!

The next morning it was pool time....again! I usually came out earlier than Joe and snagged us good chairs.

Let the relaxing begin....

For dinner that night we went to the Lobster House....grilled lobsters.....yummmmmmm!

Here are the free sailboats that you can take out....we went almost every day. Joe went to sailing camp when he was younger....so he knew how to do it.

Iguana!! This is a small one, but there were big ones

everywhere and they love the fruit garnishes from your drink :)

Joe enjoying the pool.

Joe playing volleyball. He did this everyday...I preferred to lay out and read.

Yummy desserts from lunch one day.

Look a rainbow!

This is the life!

Pretty birds that I stopped to talk to everyday.

Joe and I ready for dinner on our last night. We are much tanner than when we first got here.

Our sweet friends we met...Vicki and Lord Lee...yup they are from England and he is a Lord....I do not know what that means, but it sounds important. Lee's family owns beach houses in Greece and we hope we can go with them soon.

Adios Mexico....we loved you so! We can't wait to come back to the Excellence. It was beautiful and the service was wonderful!

Let me know if you have any questions.