birthday suit

Today is the husbo's 33rd birthday and in honor of the occasion he decided to don his best birthday suit.


He's so handsome! I love my boo and I'm glad we get to grow.....mature together.

32/365

In our Project 365 group, February's theme, appropriately enough is "the things we love." Since I got to just stay home Monday night and not really do much for the first time in a couple weeks, I thought I'd start off taking a picture of one of the things I love most of all...that's right, get your trash cans out and your index finger ready...my husband.

He is my best friend, he makes me laugh harder than anyone else can, he challenges me and he's my number one supporter and fan. Plus he's not hard to look at.

"husbo"


Oh, in addition to loving my husbo, it should also be mentioned that I love hot tea, though I do not love the two in equal portions.

mini blog re: LOST

Tonight marks the season premier of the FINAL season of LOST ever. EVER!! Kevin is the one who got me into LOST. We had just started dating and I was really sick in bed for about a week. He brought me cough drops, nyquil, food and Season 1 of LOST on DVD to watch. I was not into the show and didn't really know if I wanted to be, but what choice did I have? And so began my descent into LOSTeeism. I even joined a now dissipating discussion group, but that's a conversation NOT to have another day or ever.

We are splitting up tonight to watch the LOST opening episode tonight. Kevin started watching it with his brother and cousins 6 years ago, and that's how he's going to start this season, too, down in Cleburne. I'm sticking around in Dallas to watch with a couple of friends here in town, so I won't see him until late tonight. As we were getting ready this morning we were talking about it because we're huge giant nerds, and as we were walking out to our cars to go to work, he paused, looked back at me and said,

"Just think, next time we see each other everything will be different."

I love my husband.

[POST BLOG CONFESSION]: I feel a twinge of shame every time I capitalize all the letters in LOST. But I can't not capitalize them!

30/365

This post, like my next photo is inspired by the creatures of the sky. My new coworker and fast friend, we'll call her "Dana", knows that I have a definite and overwhelming penchant for owls, or as I like to call them, hoot hoots. Said penchant developed after I started dating Kevin many moons ago and he started to grow his glorious beard out. I was perusing the various booths at my favorite local antique shop Dolly Python, and stumbled upon the cutest little ceramic owl ever my eyes had seen. It was adorable on its own, but it was even more adorable because it looked JUST LIKE KEVIN. JUST LIKE HIM.

Naturally I purchased my new tiny treasure, and thus began a new collection of various owl items, most of which are antiques or unique representations of these sweet beasts of the night. Over the weekend, "Dana" sent me this article about an overly verbal owl disturbing his neighbors and it left me no other choice but to make my photo for the day owl focused. The small owl on the left was my first owl purchase (and Kevin's non-living doppleganger). The wooden one next to it is one my mom got us to add to our collection.

"what a hoot"


Now just try to tell me there's not an uncanny resemblance:

He's even got a feathered friend on his shoulder for crying out loud!

marital conversation

This is an excerpt from a conversation Kevin and I just had over the phone. I was asking him how he slept last night (he was just rousing from slumber as I left for work this morning) and was telling him that I had the hardest time getting out of bed this morning. He told me that he had some crazy dreams, and before he went into any details, I shared with him that I, too, had some crazy dreams.

I dreamed in two parts. In the first part, I don't remember much, only that Jared Harris, guest star of various Fringe episodes as well as Law & Order, was someone I was afraid of, but whose trust I was trying to gain in order to outsmart him.

In the second part I worked in some office with wood paneling, and all I can really remember is that at one point during work, our office got shot up as in a drive by shooting, but the shooters were walking by in the hallway, not driving, and I dove behind one of four giant high backed living room chairs of various colors that were all around the room and just stayed low until the shooting stopped. I injured my elbow somehow because there was a bandage on it for the rest of the dream, but I didn't remember whether I was shot or not. What I DID remember was that Legacy, of So You Think You Can Dance fame, also worked in the office with me, and after the traumatic shooting he comforted me with an embrace and ultimately a passionate kiss. Even as I type this I'm laughing hysterically, much as I was while I was telling Kevin this over the phone.

"Oh good, great, so you cheated on me. And you cheated on me with Lord of the Dance. Excellent," he responded.

"Are you jelly?" (short for "jealous" because I think it's hilarious to speak in ridiculous abbreves to Kevin) I asked, still laughing uncontrollably the whole time.

He replied assuredly, "I am totes not jelly. Also you are now forbidden to watch So You Think You Can Dance. So there's that."

poison, winged creatures, creatures of the night, and my cute husband

Okay, so I finally, after some reluctance, jumped on the Twilight bandwagon. When I first heard about it I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in engaging in a silly story about "the cold ones" (read: vampires). But.........everyone was so interested in it I thought it might be one of those books that our entire generation talks about and owns, like Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive album that all of our parents owned.....Do you feel like I feel?

So.....in anticipation of just that, several months ago I found the first 2 books on amazon - paperback, naturally - for a great deal, and I just bought them. What the hey. If I get the urge to actually read them, they'll be there. It wasn't until a couple weeks ago when we were down at Kevin's parents' house for a belated Father's Day dinner that all of that changed. My glorious sister-in-law Natalie is......how shall we say............QUITE into the books. :) She asked me if I had read the books or seen the movie, the answer to which was no on both counts. She lovingly suggested that I might begin reading them before our big family vacation (which will involve approximately 20 hours in the car each way) to the Teton Mountains so she has someone to talk about the books with. I obliged.

I started the books, and initially, my low expectations were justified. The writing style of the author isn't the greatest, and it was somewhat of a turn off. Also, the beginning seemed a bit cheesy to me. But.........it wasn't long before the story sucked me in beyond anything I had EVER expected. Suddenly I couldn't put the book down. About halfway through the first book I was so glad I'd gone ahead and purchased the second because I knew I would be moving seamlessly into that one as well.

I can't even remember the last time I felt this way about reading. When I was in high school, I was a good kid. I didn't rebel, didn't sneak out, etc. The ONE way I most frequently broke the rules was reading past my bedtime. I know, look out, add her to your prayer list folks! I would bring my little desk lamp under my covers - so hot it would get! - and read until 1-2 in the morning on school nights. My desk lamp had one of those on/off devices that you have to twist that's part of the cord. And just in case my parents were to come in and catch me, I would have the on/off switch twisted as far as it would go before turning off, so that with just a quick flick of my fingers it would be off. Yes....I was all about strategy even at a young age.

All that to say, it was really thrilling to feel that way again. There have been more than a couple nights where Kevin wanted to go to bed, so I laid on the the floor with some pillows, and read by the light of my iPhone until my eyes would stay open no more. I am INTO this saga.

So my mom was in town this past weekend for 4th of July, and I finished the first book while she was here. Kevin and I decide to go rent a movie for all of us, and Kevin so lovingly offers up Twilight as a suggestion. He's not so into it, but he knows that my reading of said book has been out of control so he sacrifices his own desires and we rent it. But we compromise, and help him maintain his masculine sensibilities by also renting Quantum of Solace.

So we watch the movie, which, though it naturally couldn't fit all the nuances of the 500 page book into it's 2 hours, but it was much better and much less lame than I was expecting. Kevin even admitted it wasn't bad. So after the movie we're hanging out in the living room watching some tv program that I can't recall, when I happen to look over at Kevin's computer screen.

Here is what I saw:


In case you can't see the detail, let me break it down for you in the order in which I noticed each part.

1. First I noticed in bright red type amid the brightly colored website the title of the page - "Caterpillar and Butterfly Defense Mechanisms" - ADORABLE

2. I noticed what he had searched in the google bar - "poisonous butterflies"

3. Next I noticed the website URL - www.enchantedlearning.com - this is when I lose control and start laughing beyond my capacity to stop, as he looks innocently up from his "research."

4. Now, giving in to my heaving laughter, I notice the cute little pictures of caterpillars and butterflies and what their defense mechanisms really are, such as, hiding, bad smells, poison, etc. - also hilarious and endearing. Bad smells!??! Come on! That's hilarious!

It is at this point that it's clear why I married my husband. He is one of the most adorable people in the world with his incredibly intelligent science mind, and he makes me laugh harder than anyone I've ever met in the whole world.

It took me so long to stop laughing that I forgot to ask him how he went from Twilight and vampires to poisonous butterflies and their defense mechanisms. I want to hug that hilarious train of thought real big!

Kevin Howard RULES!!!

food cookin', cookin' them foods again.....

(NOTE TO READER: it looks like a lot of words, I know, but don't worry, pictures are buried "deep" within the contents so it will aaaaall be worth it)

For those of you who know me at all, you know that I'm not one to......cook. Or at least not until more recently anyway. I was spurred to change that in myself recently by a trip to see my family in Kansas this past Thanksgiving. I teamed up with my mom and Kevin to make potatoes au gratin, deviled eggs and pumpkin pie. Now while the pumpkin pie making process is not much more than pouring and mixing, it was still the first one I ever made, and I was proud of myself. *beam* And the potatoes - shwew! Now that was a' cookin'. So I stored that little recipe nugget in my brain to take home and make for Kevin's family Thanksgiving and it was a hit! Seconds abounded! (in that people got seconds-sometimes I don't make sense)

So I got a bit of the cooking bug, but I've begun to realize how ill-equipped our kitchen was for......cooking. Not the kitchen itself, it's been equipped just fine, but rather the utensils were lacking. Like, oh I don't know...a CUTTING BOARD. And a NON-SERRATED KNIFE for, let's say....CUTTING POTATOES! All of these epiphanies came to me while I was getting preparing the potatoes au gratin for Kevin's side of the family. It was then that I realized that a serrated steak knife was simply not going to work. I wasn't making potato chips au gratin after all.

Luckily (and unluckily) we have a Tom Thumb within walking distance from our apartment. (don't worry I drove) I say luckily obviously because of the proximity, and I say unluckily because Tom Thumb is ridiculously expensive and I prefer the flagship Kroger any day, and it's still pretty close, but not close enough when your potatoes are turning brown with every passing second you're out buying all the things reasonable, cooking people already have in their homes!!!

So I stock up some and things are fine. Plus I learned about the whole "put the potatoes in water" trick. Also I learned that I should check my utensils before I begin preparing ANY meal.

All that to say, on Tuesday, our office got out a wee bit early because of the impending inclement weather, and Kevin's been on a mini-vacation of sorts so I suggest that we cook at home, where we can be cozy while the wintery arctic blast mix descends upon us. He naturally agreed. So I look in my allrecipes.com recipe box because I'm feeling in a chicken mood. They have one titled "Easy Garlic Broiled Chicken", and I like the word "easy" and so does Kevin. We also had some wild rice in the pantry so we collectively decide this is going to be our cozy night dinner of choice.

Problem 1: I don't know how to broil anything.

Now I know that I seem like a cute little fool to some of you (Annie) cooking connoisseurs, but I'm just learning. And I did go into this at LEAST knowing that when you broil something it cooks from the top burner of the oven, so I wasn't completely clueless - just to the nuances. So to fix this problem, we do two things - a) google the phrase "What is broil?" which leads us to this answer, which is helpful....then b) call my mom, who was more helpful and has broiled successfully many a time.

I should also mention that for Christmas, since we had been talking about cooking more, etc., Mom got us this amazing knife set, a cute little timer (seen later in pics) fancy tiny measuring spoons from William Sonoma (again I say FANCY!), a nice bread cutting/presentation board, cook books and most cutestly (work with me), matching personalized aprons for me and my boo. See adorable picture below:



So with Mom's insight and our determination, we set out to the store to get a baster (one of the aforementioned utensils we lack and don't know we lack it until something calls for basting), chicken thighs and soy sauce (low sodium, what what!) in one of those cute little restaurant containers and we're back in the kitchen cooking.

Oven hot! Broil on hot oven, broil on!


Controversial Kevin, always stirring the pot:


And after a quick 20 minutes of ovening, basting, turning, ovening, we get this:


And with the side dish:


And finally.......PRESENTATION!


The food was AMAZING and Kevin and I both think it might be the best chicken we've ever had!! Let's just say we'll be buying more thighs reeeeeeals soon!

Thanks Mom!

p.s. thigh is a strange word.

runnin' from the law...

I was walking to my car yesterday morning to go to work, like I do every week day, when what to my wondering eyes should appear? This citation from the city of Dallas, nestled into my driver's side window:



Is it wrong that I'm strangely attracted to the Mayor? Is it!?

p.s. Please note the insane cuteness of the Texas with the star where Dallas is. Please, please please note it.

ere the beard is no more....

In light of the fast approaching expiration date on Kevin's beard, I thought it appropriate to honor it in a blog post or two (depending on whether or not I actually write a second one). Many thanks to sweet hampton for pointing me in this website's direction.

Here is one of my faves:


Here are a couple pics of the beard almost a year strong from the Ben Folds concert last week (where we actually ran into said hampton):


Here's a more full shot of the beard (pardon Kevin's bedroom eyes):


Beards!!

kevin is cool vol. 2

We were in the car the other night listening to Jeff Tweedy's "Simple Twist of Fate" (interesting that all my blogworthy Kevin moments occur whilst Jeff Tweedy croons through the car speakers, isn't it?) returning back after spending a day down south with Kevin's fam (and my fam, too now) for the infamously annual (wha?) Ledbetter Reunion.

I had been making my way through the tracks of Kevin's latest and greatest mix CD to find this particular Band of Horses track I've been obsessed with of late, and he had me stop on the aforementioned song. He said, "There's this great string part I want you to hear towards the end!" I told him that that's always what he tells me when he wants me to start loving a song he already loves. There's always some great string part that I'll just love at the end of a song that reminds him of me. You see since I plaaaaay (sic) a stringed instrument, naturally I will love every song that has strings in it, especially towards the end. Touche.

He replied saying, "It reminds me of our wedding."

I sit there for a sec trying to figure out why this song with the luscious strings at the end reminds him of our wedding day, he kind of leans over towards me in the car making direct eye contact and says this.

"That just melted your heart a little, didn't it?"

Yet another reminder of how he suckered me into falling in love with him with his ever so quick wit. Le sigh.

p.s. this is the song (Marry Song) by Band of Horses I've been lovin' on these days.

Jeff Tweedy

Quick anecdote since I haven't blogged in literally almost TWO DANG MONTHS!!!

Kevin and I were driving home from meeting some friends at the Ginger Man tonight listening to a mix cd he'd made for work. Until You Came Along by Golden Smog came on and Kevin screamed.....yes, that's right, screamed...

"JEFF TWEEDY!!! YOU HAVE THE VOICE OF A GOSH!!"

He's so huggable.


Post Script - There's more to come as I need to blog about Kevin's graduation and me ole pal Adriana's wedding! I promise!!

Post Post Script - This picture is in no way an accurate representation of the current and majestic state of Kevin's beard.

at last, my love has come along

I came home to my sweet sick Kevin today and went in the kitchen to get some grapes. I love grapes. And I love the grapes I got at Target. Because I love Target. But I digress. I came home and am in the kitchen when Kevin asks me from the living room if I'll put up the LOST season 2 dvd set. You see, he's sick, and can't put them up himself. I come back from getting my cup o' grapes, grab the dvd, open up the dresser/entertainment center and put them away. I start to walk back to the couch to eat my grapes in peace and Kevin says,

"Baaaabe."

I open it back up and say, "Did I not put the dvds away to your liking?"

He laughs and as I open it up again to readjust them, he says, "What's that down there?"

I'LL TELL YOU WHAT WAS DOWN THERE!!!!!



What's that? You can't see what's down there? Take a closer look!



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

He got a bonus at work and used it to get me a MacBook!! I have the best husband in all the land! I've been saving to get my MacBook since I graduated college in 2005 and something else has always come up just when I have enough money. Car, wedding, etc. I can't believe it! He's getting double hugs tonight, what what!!

Here are a couple more pics of my new and glorious word processor:





I love Kevin and I love Flotilda, my sweet little southern MacBook!

b-day hoopla!

Well, the 18th was officially my first birthday as a married gal, and it was the best one ever!! I woke up in the morning, got in the shower, and when I got out, what to my wondering eyes did appear? Kevin standing in the bedroom NAKED! Ha ha! Just kidding. Actually he was holding a tray with waffles and juice! (3 cute points) On top of the waffles he had placed a candle bearing the number 26! (2 cute points!) Then as my ravenous hunger took over and I dove for the waffles, he said, "Wait! First come with me into the hall of mystery!"** as he extended his arm towards the doorway. (6 cute points for the arm extension and clever hallway moniker) He's hilarious by the way. We walk out into the hall and what do I find?! The hallway is decorated to the nines with streamers and balloons and happy birthday banners, and at the end of the hallway were my cute presents!! (15 cute points!)

I love Kevin!! It was a GREAT birthday and he got me goodies from Anthropologie, my favorite store EVA! as well as one of his brilliant mix cds. It was perfect! I have a LOT to live up to for his fast approaching birthday. I've got some ideas, but I'll wait until after his birthday and update you with what I do. In the meantime, here's a picture of the hallway:



I have the best husband ever! And he's quite handsome, too!


**oh and it should be known that halfway through the day, Kevin decided to rename the hall of mystery the "hall of wonderment," and he asked that I update anyone I may have told about said hall of mystery. (cute points TBD)

dream jerks

Okay, so everyone's had the dream where a friend betrays you or flirts with your boyfriend or just totally embarrasses you, right? And then you wake up and are totally and irrationally mad at them, and even though you know that you shouldn't be, you still are.

Well Kevin had this dream the other night, but with a twist. Sounds exciting doesn't it? (I have taken creative license and embellished a few minor details to enhance the readers' experience)

I call this dream, "Jack Nicholson (who will heretofore be referred to using both names) Comes to Town and Isn't As Cool as We'd Hoped!!"

-Apparently, Jack Nicholson was visiting Cleburne (per uszhe) and was apparently doing some sort of charity event at a house that had been made into a church.....or vice versa, I can't really remember. Someone who was at the event was talking to Jack Nicholson and offered to buy him dinner.

Jack Nicholson tilted his head to the side ever so slightly (embellishment), paused and said,

"I don't think so, buddy. You couldn't affoooooord to buy me dinner."-

Kevin woke up feeling that he had no desire whatsoever to go see the Bucket List!*

You're a jerk, dream Jack Nicholson!!




*whether he ever intended to previously or not remains shrouded in mystery.

thankful

It is officially the day before Thanksgiving and boy do I have a lot to be thankful for. The weather is getting cooler, I'm wearing one of my favorite mustard yellow sweaters in honor of "fall," - if there is such a thing in Texas - and I'm generally probably living in the best time of my life to date.

Here's a list of things I'm thankful for, not including those I just mentioned.

1. Jesus. I wonder if He's getting excited about his forthcoming birthday! WINK!

2. a "new" bedspread that's finally in use after receiving it as a gift last Christmas. (don't worry, this isn't a picture of our actual room.....just the merchandising of said bedspread online)



3. living in Dallas. It's changing my/our lives. I think I only had to fill up once last week, rather than twice, and Kevin has exchanged his 3 fill ups/week for 1 every week and a half. Hurrah! We're also grateful for living so close to our work places. Getting hours of your life back every day is indeed praiseworthy.

4. having the luxury of a "guest" bathroom. guests......BRING IT ON!

5. not having to say "goodnight" anymore.

6. Barcelona slideshows that will be up as soon as we get internet.

7. my family.

8. my new family.

9. our pots and pans and my new recipes!

and finally.......

10. I am exceedingly grateful for this most wonderful and recently acquired husband of mine.


I love him so much and I'm excited about this little adventure we're starting. Plus he's pretty easy on the eyes.

with which you dress...

I've been wanting to write more blogs with substance lately, but I'm having trouble deciding about what to write. Given that the level of humor in my writing has significantly decreased, I'm trying to think of something funny to blog about that doesn't involve a funny video or a post of entirely pictures, where in it LOOKS like I'm blogging and taking up a lot of space, but my 3 readers can only be fooled by such antics for so long.

Okay, this isn't necessarily "funny" in the classical sense of the word, but it will do. As some of you know and some of you might not, Kevin, my betrothed, works as a manager at a popular "inner city" department store for today's hep cats (read: hip kids). This has been a giant blessing for us in lots of ways, especially as we prepare to join all of our belongs together as one in holy material-things matrimony.

Well recently, as this "non-rural" store has been preparing to change it's face a bit and thus will be doing some redecorating, Kevin came into work one afternoon recently to a note that said the sweetest words I've ever heard...

"We're getting rid of all the furniture. If you have the means to take anything TODAY, take whatever you want. We're giving whatever isn't taken away tomorrow."

HOLLERLUJAH!!

Kevin usually drives what he describes as an............... ahem........... older, fatherly figure type man car. Chrysler Sebring to be exact. But on this day......on this most GLORIOUS of days, Kevin's car was going to be in the shop, so he borrowed his dad's truck, which as chance would have it, was the EXACT size of our BRAND NEW VERY OLD DRESSER!

Now, this is a preliminary picture, and Kevin doesn't think it's his best photography work as the dresser was still in the bed of the truck when the picture was taken and Kevin is not 6'11", but I think you get the idea. Granted it will need some paint work and perhaps some new hardware-ing up (that's right Kevin, I said it! Live on national television!) but I LOVE it and it's my favorite piece of furniture I think we'll have at this point.

Once we get into wherever the heck we're going to live and paint the furniture and fix it up, I'll do some before and after, and maybe even some during photos! But for now, I'll go with all we've got. I'm only going to post pictures of the dresser right now because it's got the best lighting. More to come, dear millions of readers.....more to come.

Dresser 1:


Dresser 2:

And I even have this cool antique-ish mirror that I got at our youth group garage sale (WHAT WHAT!) that we can hang above the dresser where we'll gaze narcissistically at our glorious faces! Er.....

I can't wait!! It's going to be fun, getting married!

new last names are pretty cool...

I have held off posting about this for a while because I wanted to make sure that my mom & dad didn't find out via the world wide web. (They were the first people I called, incidentally)

Basically, the best thing that has ever happened to me happened a week ago on the 4th day of February in the 2007th year of our Lord.

I'm engaged ya'll!!

That's right, Kevin to tha Michael Howard asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. Isn't it awesome and crazy and wonderful? *le sigh*

We had taken a trip to New York recently to visit my friend Julie and my other friend Marti (who are now also friends with one another) and apparently Special K was planning on asking me then, but we didn't have a whole lot of alone time together and Kevin didn't feel like the timing was right, so he waited. Apparently a lot of our friends knew about this and were planning on meeting us at the airport when we got back, so Kevin was sending out covert text messages reading, "Abort! Abort!"

So what does Kevin do? This sweet man just carries the ring he got me around in his jacket pocket for about 2.5 weeks! Waiting for the perfect moment. Reflecting back, I did noticed that he had been wearing the same jacket every day. Hmm....

So Sunday, Feb. 4th comes along, and it also happens to be our official 1 year anniversary. At this point, he's still not planning on proposing that night, and we didn't really have any plans for the evening other than wanting to hang out together. So after church I have a rehearsal and when I'm coming back from that rehearsal, he suggests that we go to the Mandalay Canal in Las Colinas...

Sidebar - this is where I took Kevin on his birthday last year and where/when we said those magical little words ("I love you," not to be confused with "Abracadabra") to one another for the first time - End of sidebar

...So I say that it's a wonderful idea and we can eat at a restaurant down there and then walk by the water, etc. So we get down there around 7ish on Sunday, and all the restaurants are closed except for a deli. So Kevin suggests that we go somewhere else, and I'm all, "Hey, don't you want to walk by the water and stuff, since we're here and it'd be all romantic?" and he's all, "Yeah, on a full stomach," and I'm all, "Let's just do it anyway for a minute and then we can go eat since we're never over here," and he all concedes and stuff.

So we walk over there and we're standing by the water and hugging and just talking about what a great year it's been and everything mushy, and I start gettin' a little misty and emotional. Then he said some wonderful stuff to me, stuff about loving me, and never getting tired of looking at my face, and that I'm perfect for him, and about how I don't have anything to worry about, (and all this other stuff that is probably way more interesting and meaningful to me than those that Kevin didn't propose to) and then he steps back, pulls the ring out of his pocket and gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him.

And let me tell you, I wasn't sure if I would be a cryer or not...



I was a cryer.



Then we wanted to go eat after we had called the families, but as it was the Lord's day, lots of places were closing, so we decided to go to our old fallback....the International House of Pancakes. We had been sitting down for all of a minute and a half when this truck driver, "Rick," who was sitting in the booth across from us says, "Is that an engagement ring?" And from then on, he talked to us for the next 2 hours, and we didn't leave until about 11:30. He was a truck driver for stage equipment for mega-famous stars such as Cher and Elton John, por ejémple, and he also had a daughter who was 23 and engaged, so he was fun to talk to. He even ended up paying for our meal! Woop woop!!

Oh yeah, and my ring is ridiculously awesome! There was this antique shop in Dallas and at the back of it, there was an estate jewelry shop where they make their own rings, but they also have a collection of rings from the late 1800s to the 1940s. AWESOME! The one Kevin chose for me is from 1910, and we're really excited that in 3 years it will be 100. Really excited.

It was the best night of my life to date. It's truly like Kevin was custom made for me, and I can't express in words how much I love him. Thank you God and thank you Kevin.

microbial genetics

I'm sitting at Café Studio right now with Kevin, and he's studying for his chemistry test that he's taking tomorrow morning and I'm sitting next to him surfing around on the proverbial "net." You know, like the net in the proverb.

It's pretty neat for a couple of reasons. One, I like to read this blog called "dooce.com," where the blogger, Heather Armstrong's website became famous because she blogged about her job and it got her fired. Her website became so popular that it enabled her husband to stop working because the ads on the site pay for.....well, they pay for everything in their lives and their daughter's, essentially. Pretty neat.

So anyway, sometimes when I read her blog, I kind of imagine little clips of her life where it's afternoon, and there's a lot of natural light in the house, and she's drinking something out of a mug (probably coffee, but I don't like coffee, so I always hope it's something else) and she's sitting indian style on her couch, and her husband is sitting next to her, either playing with their daughter or eating or working on his blog, or any number of things, and it just seems so warm and peaceful.

I know it's not always like that, and life isn't always like that and that our days can't all be like that, nor should they, necessarily. But it still feels warm. And I'm not even drinking anything out of a mug. And sitting here next to Kevin while he's manifesting his genius on notecards and college ruled paper and I'm recording my thoughts on this here technology machine just feels nice. And I love him. And God is so good. And life is so nice. And it's these little moments that can make a bad day not seem so bad, and life not seem so exhausting.