Married: F o u r Y e a r s

Today is our four year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's already been f o u r  y e a r s! It's wild to think about all of the milestones we've gone through together in just four short years and how each of those events has shaped what our marriage is today.

Our first year of marriage was spent in separate parts of the world while Jeff was deployed in Iraq. Our second year of marriage we took the plunge into fur-parenthood and adopted our favorite little animal Turbo. Our third year of marriage Jeff landed a new full-time job and I began planning my inevitable escape from Starbucks. And finally, our fourth year of marriage we've made some of our biggest life decisions yet! I've gone full-time with my photography business and Jeff has decided to further his career in the Army, with songs of re-enlisting and becoming a pilot being sung through out our home. Yowza! I'm sworn to secrecy on details, but more on that in the coming months ;).

Thinking back to four years ago today, I didn't know what marriage at 22 years old would look like. I didn't think it would be easy, and I didn't think it would be perfect, but I did know that Jeff and I had the power to figure that out together and we were so excited to do so.

By no means have we figured out the formula to a perfect marriage and I know that we never will because perfection isn't achievable. But we have figured out what works for us and I am so happy to be doing life side by side with the man God had for me! I am so excited to see where God takes our marriage and our little story in the next four years because if it's anything like the first four, I know it'll be wild, beautiful, adventurous, full of laughing, big changes, and completely us.

Also, we had this conversation this morning:

Jeff: should we name our future son Maxwell?

Me: sure that's a cute name

Jeff: actually let's go with Maximus. Maximus Greenwald...gotta set him up for success.

I love a man with aspirations to further our nonexistent child's career. 

Three Years

Three years ago I remember walking out of Starbucks and getting a phone call from Jeff. I freaked out because of the whole "don't talk/see/touch each other the day of your wedding before your ceremony" thing. But I answered, and it was Jeff asking if he needed to bring anything to the wedding. I assured him that I had everything taken care of and all he needed to do was show up in his tuxedo, ready for pictures by "xyz" time. He said something along the lines of feeling like there was more he was supposed to be doing but that he couldn't remember what it was...I once again assured him everything was taken care of and that we should probably stop talking before we destroyed some magical notion of talking to each other before the ceremony :) With a quick "love you, marry ya later!" he was off the phone.

Today, Jeff and I celebrated 3 years of marriage. I'm laying in bed, at the end of our anniversary today feeling so happy, and blessed to do life with him, even though he just rolled over and sleepily asked why the heck I'm blogging so late :) I've blogged our anniversaries every year, and this space is a place for me to reminisce and look back on in years to come, so tonight, I blog.

I'm not usually a "play-by-play" kind of blogger, but tonight there's no rules and I'm just going to type! This will probably bore everyone except my mom, but here was our anniversary numba three play by play. This was the first year Jeff and I actually got to spend our whole anniversary together. Year one, he was in Iraq and year two he had school all day long followed by drill the next morning, so it wasn't super awesome, until the following week when we could actually celebrate. Well this year WAS awesome.

We woke up this morning and had breakfast together followed by a trip to a local nursery with a super cute restaurant [that of course I didn't get pictures of...except koi fish, that's all I took pictures of today...koi fish from the nursery pond, I don't even know]. We had a nice lunch outside after we looked around at all the plants that I need want. On our drive home, I reminded Jeff of that conversation we had the morning of our wedding, and we talked a bit about how cute it was. Then Jeff went on to be his typical goofy self trying to annoy me some how or another, while I drove. And I jokingly asked him to remind me why I married him again... he quickly responded with, "Because I say cute things like, 'marry ya later!'" And he was so right. It wasn't an honest question, [me asking him to remind me why I married him] because we were both being silly and laughing. But when he said that, among our laughing, it kind of sunk down into my heart again and reminded me of how blessed I truly am to call him my husband. I love how sweet and goofy he is to me and I can't wait for years and years to come of cute things like "marry ya later." :)

We came back to the apartment and caught up on some Big Bang Theory, because what's an anniversary with out a little mid-day relaxation together? Then we picked ourselves up and went to Starbucks, where we looked up recipes for our new [to-come] juicer!!

[source]

That's a whole story in, and of itself. Let's just say there are really awesome people in the world, and I can't wait to have the means to return that sort of kindness in the future. 

Anyway, we did some juicer shopping at Trader Joes which was actually really fun. I love that things like going to the grocery store, and Costco have become fun for the two of us. We're a little married couple now and these types of things still make us happy...I hope that never changes. We came home and made our selves a caprese pizza together, drank a little champaign and watched GATSBY for the first time. I've never read the book, so I kinda did things out of order, but I thought it was a really good movie. I have mixed feelings over the ending, but I won't spoil that here in case you're like me and waiting until now to catch up with the rest of the world ;) 

Today was great though, I'm just so happy to be where we're at. We're both moving forward with careers and life decisions and I love that we're doing it together. It's so much fun to hang out with your best friend every day and honestly figure out how to do life together. It takes a lot of work, and I know we're still young and probably naive to some things...but that's okay with me, I like naive sometimes. We're learning, growing, and making a pretty awesome little life for our family one step at a time. I love that. 

Here's to year four bringing a lot of awesome our way.

we dont really celebrate valentines day...but flowers are always okay

Valentine's Day. I've had an inner battle with the Hallmark holiday the last couple of years. I love feeling spoiled, and getting flowers, spending time with my love, and the happiness that comes with a little holiday spirit...but, it's really a tad too commercial and....pink for me. Valentine's Day was always super fun as a little one because I got loaded up on candy hearts and paper card Valentine's from my crush-of-the-year. However, now that I'm married and practice love daily, I could do with out the pink overload, and $5 raise on flowers for a week. Never the less, I see it as an excuse to continue our love more, on the same day as everyone else. So we acknowledge the hearts and such..but keep it mellow.

Our day consisted of a nice morning walk, where we found this cool knotty tree and critiqued the houses we do and don't like in our cute neighborhood. After our walk, Jeff went to class and I ventured to a 4-hour shift, making lattes and shaken tea lemonades for the coffee drinkers of America. When I got home from work, my lover was playing video games and had a nicely arranged tulip bouquet with red wine on the counter waiting for me. After the video games were ex-communicated by el wifey, a lovely dinner of zucchini, bread, and chicken cordon bleu was prepared by the hubby.

As we ate our yummy dinner we watched the show Africa, because we're a pretty educational couple, and finished it out with a round of Ridiculousness...just to keep things in perspective.

Once we were fully stuffed with dinner, naturally we needed ice cream. So, we ended our date night with a little Coldstone and the movie Liberal Arts. The world celebrated love yesterday...and though it's commercial, and very pink...our world can use more love so I won't argue with it :)

september fourteenth wasn't our anniversary...but we celebrated like it was

Mr and I weren't really able to do much celebrating on our actual anniversary because of school, work, and the Army so we both took Thursday off from work this week and spent the day together. It was much needed, and we had such a wonderful day together. It was nothing extravagant or over the top. But it was us, and I like us :)

We started off the morning at a local coffee shop where two of our best friends work. It's a sweet, intimate little shop with brick walls, local artist's paintings on the walls, little coves with lamps and pillows where we were able to enjoy each other's company and sip on delicious coffee. 

This is one of our best friends that works there, and just so happened to be working when we came in. He sat with us for a bit after his shift ended and we had some good chats :)

and this is what happens when you give boys your camera.....

Mr and I spent the afternoon shopping around town for some new clothes for the upcoming Fall season :) and later that evening he surprised me with a trip up the road into the hills for dinner. Unfortunately, the really awesome restaurant he planned to go to was randomly closed for the night so we decided on the local pizza joint. Voted number one pizza place in our city last year!

The artwork throughout the pizza joint was hilarious and we had a good laugh checking out the walls with frame to frame pictures around the entire place. Like this lady for example...who knows what she's doing? We ate dinner right next to her though :)

See the big fat bellies in the top right corner? Yea we ate by them too.

and then there was the table next to us. Those cross eyes looked at me all through dinner, and I loved every bit of it.

Friends, marriage is hard..but so rewarding. Goodness, I get to sleep next to my best friend every night. I get to curl up on the couch and read my book while he sits next to me making comments about the atomic..nuclear..whatcha-muh-call-it from his biology text book, and I love every second of it. We've been through a lot together and setting aside this day to celebrate our love was everything I'd hoped for. God is so good to us.

Life without my hubby in it wouldn't even make sense to me, and I'm so thankful he's been mine for the past 5 years...2 of which by marriage. I love you bub, you make me the happiest I've ever been and will ever be.

two years of being married is the coolest

we're just babies..but two years strong my friends. mr and i just celebrated two years together on wednesday, the 5th. so thankful we were able to spend our anniversary together this year. unfortunately he's in school and had to wake up at 4am for drill, so we were only able to spend the evening together but that's better than a pixelated skype call! we plan on spending a whole day together next week when stuff settles down a bit.

we enjoyed a lovely dinner out to BJ's restaurant followed by some relaxation at home. how beautiful was the sunset that night? i just love when God paints the sky :)

valentine's day recap

Mr and I celebrated our first Valentine's Day in three years together yesterday and it delivered quite nicely. I was slightly out of practice on the Valentine's celebratory-ness because Mr's been gone with the Army for the past two years. I don't think I paid much attention to lover's day these last couple years because of that. To be honest, I think it's a totally commercialized, hallmark holiday and I don't know how I feel about it. But, as I said yesterday..we can always use more love.

I spent 9am-6pm taking notes in class so I couldn't wait to get home to my lover. I was greeted at the door with a clean-cut, nicely dressed Mr. He had Pandora's "Love Songs" station playing in the background and directed my attention to the beautiful hand made bouquet sitting on our in-table. I told him he looked nice and that he was the best lover ever and then he told me to get dressed and ready because we had dinner reservations at one of the nicest restaurants in town. Spoiled? Yes!

I had a mojito...my drink of choice as of late, and he sipped on beer while we enjoyed each others' company and waited for our meal. Honey walnut prawns, general's chicken and white rice. Get in my bellllly.

It was a great night spent with Mr and he earned himself some brownie points for sure. A hand made bouquet and love songs...could he be any sweeter?

I love you Mr, thank you for a wonderful first Valentine's Day as hubs and wifey..you far exceeded and made your lady feel oh so loved.

Oh and check out day two of these flowers...he done good my friends. he done good.

my sweet, sweet love

i carry your heart with me

i carry it in my heart

i am never without it

anywhere i go you go,

my dear;

and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling

i fear
no fate

for you are my fate, my sweet

i want
no world

for beautiful you are my world, my true

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant 
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart

i carry it in my heart

e.e.cummings  

i love you mr

some thoughts

I won't specify where the thoughts for this post came from, but I'm just throwing my two sense out. It makes my heart ache when people don't treasure a marriage. Marriage was designed and created by our Father in Heaven, representing Christ's love for the church. The distorted view that many people have of this sacred union is really scary to me. It's tossed around like a recreational activity which lends to the polluted view of marriage that many people have today. If only I could talk with a handful of people and catch a glimpse of where these views start and why the treasure of being husband and wife has turned so fowl to some. It might lend to answer the questions I have for them.

edit: This isn't to say I think marriage is easy, or that Mr and I live in a world full of fairy-tales and rainbows. Nor am I blind to the many circumstances where women/men should protect themselves and their children from certain happenings in a marriage, by leaving. This post just stemmed from conversations lately and personal experience. Please know I would never be so naive to think that marriage isn't a two-way road. I also mentioned how I'd love to talk with people that have negative views toward marriage in general to hear their story/understand their reasons. As I stated in the beginning..it's just my two cents, thrown out in my personal blog ;)

Some inspiration from a daily read, Jesus Calling, Mr and I have been reading together:

Through spending time in My Presence, you gain glimpses of My overflowing vastness. These glimpses are tiny foretastes of what you will experience eternally in heaven.

Let My Love envelop your outreach to other people take time to rest in the Love-Light of My Presence.

Ask My Spirit to quiet your mind so that you can think My thoughts.


Buy it, read it and be blessed like I have. Jesus is so fulfilling and overwhelming in the ways He speaks to me. The temptation to go about my day with out acknowledging my Heavenly Father is easy and never intended. But I'm often reminded to stop and just let God.

So for now, I'll continue back to what I was supposed to be doing. However, I don't suppose He minds when we break from our mundane tasks to reflect on His love and purposes for our life.

dave matthews band

mr loves DMB

wait..he's obsessed.

and he sings this song to me from time to time

in the car

with vibrato..

or so he thinks.

he'll say, "did you hear that? clearly vibrato"

i'll say, "if vibrato was a lack in pitch change and flat singing, sure that was vibrato"

then he'll say, "nicolai [ni-kol-eye], it was vibrato."

and i'll say, "okay, babe"

...

though i tease of his vibrato-ness,
the lyrics of this song are just about perfect
and i love when he sings it to me.
mr's vibrato-ness just makes me giggle.

so nice to meet you

 Oh, hey 200 followers.  

Just acknowledging your existence.  

You all look quite nice over there, I'm glad we're friends.  

Shall we further our acquaintance?

Fancy meeting you here.

 What?

You didn't know we were models?

Wait

We usually just look like this

Don't worry.

  Whew

I had first date jitters 

revealing our faces to you.

But
now that's out of the way
and you can
let it settle in.

Oh..and my name's Nicole

you can still call the other guy

Mr though.

introducing: MR!

I need to introduce you all to my special man,
in order to do so I think there are a few
things you should know about Mr before you officially meet.

1. His idea of summarizing is, not so much summarizing,
rather giving you every small detail until he's sure you understand the story just as he did.
From start to finish.

2. He knows every word to Katy Perry's Teenage Dream.

3. He used to be in a scream-o band
and made me take an oath to never again speak of said band,
hand up, repeat after me.. type oath.
He's feisty, I know.

4. He spilled sardine juice on my brand new place mats one time,
it still smells.

5. Most importantly,
he is my best friend and lover
no matter how much you wish he was yours,
(because I know you do)
wink
you can't have him.
He's mine, and I don't share well
:)

river flows in you

"I am like a lily among thorns,

so is my love among the daughters..

I sat down in His shade with great delight

and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

He brought me to the banqueting house

and His banner over me was love.

Sustain me..

Refresh me..

For I am lovesick"

Song of Solomon 2:2-4

all images © Chestnut Tree Photography

What a comfort that Bible verse is to me right now.

I walked down the aisle to this song 6 months ago.
It brings tears to my eyes because
absolutely nothing compared to the smile on my
husband's face as I walked each step closer to him,
ready to begin our life as husband and wife forever.
If only we could go back in time and re-live moments,
that's one I would live over and over again, it was truly amazing.
I miss him with every ounce of me and
would give anything to see that smile right now.
I hold this song very dear to my heart because of the
smile I see when it begins to play.

Link up to Goodnight Moon and share
your meaningful songs today!