Better Together

Tonight while we were doing the dishes Joe did the cutest thing. I put some music on, and I just happened to choose Jack Johnson "Better Together". This song is from the CD In Between Dreams and Joe bought it at his A&M New Student Conference. Needless to say we listened to it A LOT that summer. When the song started Joe went into a shpiel about how he couldn't listen to it, that it was too sentimental. Uh, my heart melted. I love how we both become so attached to music, and associate the season of life we were in at the time when we listened to it. For this particular song it was the beginning. What a sweet time; however, we just made a new memory associated to this song– dancing in the kitchen in our first little apartment. It is these little things that grow my love daily for my man more than any grandiose gesture could.

Our Story: Five Years in the Making

Today marks the 5 year anniversary of being an official, exclusive couple. So I don't forget any more details, I thought I would share our full story. Enjoy!

Joseph and I met officially in November of 2001. I don't have much memory of this, only blurry scenes. It was region band auditions, how cool are we, and I decided to ride the bust with the high schoolers, as opposed to ride with my mom. Joe says he remembers me at this point. "You were wearing glasses " he says. We didn't speak until after my auditions. I was very focused on my playing and goal of first chair, which I achieved. After my audition, I do remember the HCHS trumpet guy, coming up and asking me how it went. I think I tried to act all cool, and just said "oh...fine", not wanting to show my excitement of the attention I had received. So, that is a recount of our real first meeting, if you would have told me then. A year and a half later, we met again, on the first day of school, at the pep rally. I think Joe was irritated with me, I couldn't play my part, and I had quite the reputation. Joe was even afraid I was going to take his chair...that never happened. Joe is a fairly personable guy, so it didn't take long before we were fairly good "band friends". We didn't really get to know each other until the band trip to Winter Park, Colorado. Shortly before this, I had begun praying for Joe regularly in my journal. I new he came from a christian family, and I would always correct him when a curse word would slip etc. I so wanted him to be the man at HCHS he was supposed to be. Something deep inside of me was drawn to me. I did't know why, but going through those prayer journals one year later would absolutely solidify my feelings for Joe. Nothing really happened with our relationship until the next fall. In september the guy I had been causally dating, ended things. This would send me into a time of heartache, but also a time of growth. Some of my darkest days ever, were during this time. I don't usually talk about this part of our, my story often, but it is significant. I was in a Jazz Band class with Joe and that would be the catalyst for the huge growth that occurred in our friendship between August and March. Joe saw me at my absolute worst and was still my friend. This could only be said of maybe four people. Our interest, romantically, in eachother started at a high school football game. I was standing on the track with the band, and Joe was just exiting the field in his cute little football uniform. We just happened to make eye contact, and Joe winked the cutest, most sincere wink EVER. I was caught way off guard. I had butterflies in my stomach for the first time in a while, I found myself really shocked at my own reaction. I was still caught up in my heart ache, and never even considered Joe as anything but my friend. Joe, playing war in CO at the age of 17, speaking in weird accents, funny Joe. I remember my mom totally blowing it off, she said something to the effect of 'oh he was just all riled up from playing', none the less, my interest began to surface. The spring semester would bring much desired relief and plain happiness. Our friendship continued to grow, and Solo and Ensemble would be Joe's excuse for offering to drive me somewhere for the first time. He did this lots before we started dating, you people think I made the first move... I didn't. Things changed drastically when we went to Disneyworld. Disneyworld changed everything, if you will. We were pretty much inseparable, where I was, Joe was and visa versa. He would even just put his arm around me randomly, I couldn't get enough. At this point, I hit my knees. I had been in the wrong relationship before, and I so wanted to do God's will in this situation. It became more and more evident that Joe was romantically interested, driving me home etc. but he was going to have to go summer school, I thought that was my answer. I was wrong. Joe had become my best friend, and he had a plan in mind. The week of the musical, Singing in the Rain, he invited me over. This is probably one of my funniest stories. Joe had to change for the musical, so I was sitting downstairs in the front room of the couch, when I hear a car drive up. I was freaking out, I had never met Joe's dad before, and I knew an awkward interaction was about to occur. The door opened, and Jim began walking into the house, apparently I turned my head really quickly and said "You don't know me...." and that's all Jim heard. He proceeded to back out of the door. I guess he figured I wasn't going to murder him or something, and came in and asked if Joe was here. I'm sure I was some bright shade of red, barely getting out 'um yeah, up stairs'. Jim loves this story, he was really creeped out, woops. Joe asked me to prom the next day, with the sweetest bouquet of flowers, that his mother bought I believe, and a card. Friday, he took me home so I could change, and asked me to be his girlfriend, while watching Swiss Family Robinson on April 22, 2005. Whew, that was long, sorry. Of course the month that followed went all to fast, and before we knew it we were in a long distance relationship. Of course, memories from 'the beginning' fill my head: watching the Love Bug, and having Terry come in and tell us to turn the light on in the family room, our first kiss while finishing the love bug, our first dinner with just my parents at Skeeters, Jim not letting us share a blanket, camping with the Weinbergers with Terry sleeping in between us, Joe telling me he loved me and apparently I didn't hear him, three plus hour phone calls daily... I could go on and on. We got serious really fast, but I don't think we had a choice. We knew what we wanted out of the relationship. There were some really hard, hard times. Times when we both thought we wouldn't make it, but we just stuck through it, for whatever reason. I knew when I moved to College Station, the real test would come. What if we hated eachother? Obviously, we didn't. Our relationship really began to grow at this point, and it didn't take long for marriage plans to start being discussed. We knew when we wanted to get married, and I even reserved the church before we were engaged. Finally, on December 16, 2008 he asked me. So, here we are. The first, almost four months of marriage has really been fantastic. It is so much more than I could have ever hoped for.

Here are some pictures from our journey thus far.

April '04: This is the first picture we ever took together. We had been stuck on a ski lift together in a blizzard for over an hour.

Disney World, Spring Break '05. This picture cracks me up. We were not dating, so why are we standing there cuddled up. I didn't start it.

In every picture from this trip we are next to eachother. Later Joe told me that when ever we would pose for a pic. he would make sure he was next to me...aww.

Again.

A lot happened in between this pics. but this is April 23, 2005 after the Musical.

Joe's senior prom.

Joe's HS graduation.

My Junior prom.

Joe's first trip to LV, July '06

This game changed my life. Really.

My Senior prom.

My HS graduation.

Jump way ahead to one of my favorite days, December 16, 2008

Joe's Fighten' Texas Aggie Ring Day! WH09P!

One of our many engagement pics.

The most wonderful day of our lives. January 2, 2010.

Easter '10 at Aunt Karens.

Parent's Weekend

This weekend my parents came up for their last parent's weekend. Said very dramatically. Joe and I had a ton of fun playing hostess and I must say, we did it pretty successfully. It was so strange, because in a way this was the first time that I felt like this was my home. Again, just another part of the transformation. The only real aggie type thing we did, was go to the bonfire memorial. I had actually never been there, and to say it is overwhelming would be an under statement. It just reminded me all over again how special it is to attend this university. On Sunday, we took my parents to our church, I was a bit nervous. What if they didn't like it? It went fine, of course, but I was silently praying the whole time that nothing ridiculous would come out of our pastor's mouth. Is this horrible? Joe introduced my mom to the XBOX, and she loved it. It was pretty funny to see my mom playing brother's in arms. She thought the dying was hilarious. We also played rock band for the bulk of Sunday afternoon. It was really fun, and I look forward to hosting many more friends/family members... hint, hint, nudge, nudge.

Digi Scrapbooking

I recently discovered a trend among my twenty/thirty something peers- Digital Scrapbooking, or as it is called in our community, "Digi" Scrapbooking. It is really quite fascinating. It is just like physical scrapbooking, you just download pictures of ribbons, papers etc instead of buying them at your chosen craft store. Get this, people pay for these things. I am not one of those people. I find the freebies. I am way behind in my actual scrapbooking. I haven't finished the book from last school year, or even started the engagement/wedding book. Whew, do I have lots of gluing, cutting and creative thinking ahead of me. So I have decided for this school year, I'm going to try digi scrapbooking. It is way cheaper, but not faster. In a way, it is slower. I'm depending on a computar, ugg, and to say I have been a bit impatient would be an understatement. This picture is just a little page I did for fun. So, we'll see how it goes. I feel like this is just another step into becoming a wife/grownup/ twenty something as opposed to a college student. Everyday I find new little things I do or think, that are like a wife or grownup. For instance, I watch Good Morning America every morning, I check how the house market is doing in Houston weekly, and I even started listening to MPR news, because I really cared about the news. Weird. Among those and other things, the most striking and unexplainable is the transformation that has occurred, and is occurring in my heart and mind. God can only be to blame.

Do You Smell It? The End!

I'm not sure how we got here, but we have three weeks of classes left. Praise the good Lord. While I am of course taking summer classes, I'm hoping/praying they will not compare to a normal schedule. This also means that I am about to start, in four months, my final semester of college. Can I get an Amen? The past two semesters have been a bit intense. I'm taking/took heavy loads, and quite a bit of change has occurred. All for good, but I'm okay with a change of scenery. With all of this wonderfulness, uncertainty follows closely behind. Joe and I have no earthly clue where God will take us in December. We need your prayer. My heart knows that He already knows, but my thoughts race none the less. Joe's project ends October 31, so he could technically start a Job in November, do we pursue long distance marriage? He will get payed in November, and we will have enough in savings for December, but what if he doesn't get a job? Are we going to have to move in with either of our parents? These are just a few examples of my thoughts. I don't mean to be a downer, and really I'm not loosing sleep over this, but this is just one those instances when I just want to know.

On a lighter note, I can not wait for summer. Although I'm having travel withdrawals, I'm excited about being in CS when no one is here, camping trips, road trips to NOLA, and going to Colorado for Joe's childhood bestfriend, Alex's wedding, and oh yeah MY 21st BIRTHDAY!! Good times are sure to be had.

He is Risen!

It feels like we have been making the trek down Highway 6 to 290 a lot lately. This past weekend it was for our family's Easter festivities. The weekend began at 8:30 Thursday night, when I began the cake for my Dad's birthday party on Friday. I had the grand idea to make fondant, which I had never made before, and buttercream icing, along with the actual cake. Needless to say, there were tears, loud sighs of exasperation, and maybe even a fist pound; however, the end result was pretty satisfying. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be on Food Network Cake Challenge anytime soon, but nobody threw up. Friday we made the very familiar journey to Houston, and met my parents and Terry at Papadeaux for boiled crawfish and crab dip. MMMMMmmmm my favorite meal in the entire world. Well, at least during crawfish season. My Aunt's family was going to Dallas for Easter, so we tacked on our regular Easter happenings onto Friday evening. No hunting occurred because we have all aged out, but much egg dying was enjoyed. We also gathered around the piano and sang Easter hymns. This has always been one of my fantasies. We are a very musical family and yet we have never sung Christmas carols etc. around the piano, even when my grandmother was well. This is now one of my favorite family memories. Saturday we went to Joe's Aunt's house out Kickapoo and had a nice day in the country. I am so blessed by my new family. Sunday we went to HFBC and had Sunday dinner at my parent's house. I'm always emotional at the Easter season. When Pastor Greg said "He is risen" I could barely choke out "He is risen indeed." Our God is just so good, and the conviction of His love and sacrifice just gets me, especially at Easter. I don't know, I guess its the fanfare, the music, the childhood memories et cetera. Joe has a four day weekend, so I am very much looking forward to spending the whole weekend together. Saturday, we are once again making the familiar trek, but for a very good cause. My cousin Peter's wife Melissa, is turning 30 this month and her parent's are hosting a party. I have known Melissa since I was five, and she has been a major influence in my life. She is absolutely one of the sweetest people I know. Before the party we are going to meet Terry and go shopping. I can hardly contain myself. Joe and I have been on a major, MAJOR budget since January to save money after the honeymoon and replacing Joe's computer prolonged the process a bit. Urban Outfitters here I come!!