After Work

I made my nightly call to Jeff tonight on my way home. It's Friday and I was happy the week was finally over. It had been a long week and the day was the longest of all. What I really wanted to do was just go home, snuggle up on the couch and watch tv and go to bed early. I asked Jeff on the phone, "What our your plans for us tonight." He said, "I was thinking of taking you to dinner at Hooters, but I'm tired and don't know if I feel like driving." He doesn't often say He really wants to do anything specific like that, so despite how tired I was, I thought, let's go. He said lets decide when you get home, so when I finally got there, I said, "Let's go, I'll drive."
I'm so glad we did. It was a lot of fun, not that we did anything special, but we ate and laughed a lot, though the music was so loud we probably only heard about half of what the other was saying. Jeff stared at my cleavage as much or more then he noticed the Hooter's girls around us which made me feel good.
I tried the shrimp tonight, done like the do the wings and they were awesome, probably the best shrimp dish I've ever had.
I was tired, but the drive and the extra effort was worth it, knowing that Jeff was enjoying His self, and knowing that I could do something to make his life a little easier and bring him a little extra enjoyment. He seems to always be taking care of me in some way...I love doing something special for him.

Veterans Day Reunion with Jeff's Buddies

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

Last weekend we went to Kentucky to visit with Jeff's Airforce buddies. We had a great time. It's become an annual event, though this is the first year we've gone. Jeff really enjoyed spending some time with the guys and I enjoyed meeting them and their wives/girlfriends.

It was held in Jeff's friend Steve's home, a beautiful home, perfect for entertaining. Next year they are planning a trip to Germany. I've told Jeff, "let's go if you want" but he seems content with not going. It will be a busy and exciting time in our lives since we are planning on marrying right around the dates they've picked. Either way, I'm happy. Just being with one another is enough to make the least exciting times special.

Us

For a while now I've wanted to blog our story. It's a fairy tale come true in some ways. In other ways, and like all relationships, it takes a lot of work, dedication and the mindset that "I'm going to do this right this time."

Both of us come from difficult past relationships, where a lot of time and effort was spent on people who seemed capable of only pushing us to our breaking points. It's hard to love someone who constantly takes advantage of you. It's even harder to love and trust the next person in your life, even if they are worthy of loving and trusting. Trust and love are such fragile things, once they have been damaged, it takes a lot to place them in situations where they could be damaged again.

Also coming from these types of situations hasn't always meant that we ourselves have had the best skills and ways to deal with things. We develop habits, habits that aren't the best in dealing with others, in order to cope with the chaos around us. So it takes a lot of thought and effort to change these habits into more productive ways of coping in a relationship. You don't want to make the same mistakes this second time around.

When you find someone though that seems worthy, the only thing you can do is jump in with both feet and pray that they will treasure what you are offering them.

We have definitely struggled with making things work, and it only does work because of how much thought, effort, intentionality and ingenuity we put into developing and growing as a couple.