The First Night Of The Rest Of My Life

Once upon a time there was a girl who was in love with romance. She read book after book by Nicolas Sparks, daydreamed about finding Prince Charming, planned intricate details of her wedding, made lists of must-have qualities of the perfect guy, and always cried during the movie Pearl Harbor. Never having been truly "in love", her biggest fear was that life would pass by too quickly and not give her the opportunity to meet The One, and that one day she would look back, lonely and wishful, and wonder what had happened.

That girl... Was me. I am literally rolling my eyes at past-tense me. What was I thinking? And how on earth did I come to own eighteen books by Sparks? Did I realize they're all kind of the same story, in the same state, with a slight character modification here and there? And also, what exactly made Edward Cullen so desirable? And how could I so happily hear the words "As you wish" out of Wesley's mouth and not cringe at the sappiness? 

You want to know what caused the 180? It was the night of October 23, 2011.
My friend T and I decided to randomly throw a get-together for no good reason but to celebrate the serendipitous fact that we both ended up living in the same apartment complex and had no idea we would meet each other 2 months prior.We spent ridiculous amounts of money on all flavors of junk food and then invited basically all the church friends we knew, and most of them showed up.
After some grilled burgers we all settled down to watch a movie and had a pretty good time just hanging out. One by one, guests trickled slowly out the door until only 2 remained. These guys:

One of them (far right) lived over an hour away and decided he didn't feel like driving. He wandered into my bedroom and quietly fell asleep without alerting anyone. 

The other took ownership of my couch and no matter how much I asked, prodded, whined, and shoved, refused to move. At the time I didn't really know much about him, so I didn't know he worked oil field and was probably too tired to get up and to lazy to care that this was a girls apartment and he needed to get out of here soon. 

He didn't get out. All I succeeded in doing was pushing him off the couch and somehow toppling over onto him in the process. And there we stayed, laying side by side, and spent the entire night talking. Just talking. Sometime around 4AM, G wandered out of my bedroom dazed and confused, took one look at us laying on the floor, and went back to bed. 

They both left next morning and I groggily took back my bed and drifted off to sleep. 

Somehow, for some inexpiable reason, that was the night that brought us together 3 years ago, and together we have been ever since. 

You know the quote by Winnie the Poo that says "Ever since I met you, I knew and adventure was going to happen." ? That could not be closer to the truth. 

The time that I really, truly met Philip Wyeth, I had no idea that I'd just spent the night talking with the most important person of my life. I just knew that he was one of the most cunning, daring, frustrating, devious person I'd met, and that we needed to spend some more time together. I felt suspicious, curious, hesitant, and a little unsure of where I wanted this to go, but I was too intrigued to just ignore him. 

And so there went the romantic side of me. I spent the next few days subconsciously organizing my mind so that there would be room for him along with the million other things I was responsible for, like not forgetting to buy bathroom tissue and drinking 64 ounces of water a day. I stopped wanting romance because I had more. I had this strange relationship with this guy who drove me crazy with ever other sentence, and who somehow made me believe it was a great idea to dye our hair blue (and we did... before we knew each other's names). Looking back on it I really wish I had recorded every detail of our beginnings, How I Met Your Mother style, so that I could have enough of a story to put into a book of some kind. Unfortunately, these blog posts will have to do. 

Wow, 3 years went by fast! 

Empty Nesting

Is this what empty nesting feels like? Because if it is, then I'm about 25 years too early. Philip left this morning for a job in Newark, NJ and our little apartment has never felt bigger. He's been out in the GoM working at an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana for the past 2-ish weeks, and now he's gone again! He was only in Corpus Christi for about 16 hours, and 8 of those I was at work, 4 were spent sleeping, 2 were spent stuck in traffic, and 2 were spent packing. It kinda sucked, but at least I got to see him.
I dropped him off at the airport this morning; he will be working in Newark, NJ for the next 3.5 weeks! Ugh, being an adult isn't fun sometimes.
BUT, on the other hand... here are the things I get to do in his absence:

1. drive his truck. seriously, I don't think he is ever getting this truck back. finders keepers. 
2. cook foods i love, but he doesn't. like spaghetti and all kinds of soup!
3. decorate like crazy and move furniture around
4. plan for super fun holiday trips like Christmas in New York :)
5. read more books! (I read 3 during the 2 weeks he was out at sea, it was great)
6. spend more time at Barnes and Nobel and less time at Lowe's
7. visit more people everywhere; the Valley, San Antonio, and I might even get wild and show up in Houston, Loni! 
8. give the TV/Xbox a much-needed rest
9. not feel guilty about takeout on the nights when i'm just not hungry enough to make dinner
10. have a fantastic week every month of having my hubby home with no other obligations <3

Ok, coming up with 10 good things about being lonely was more difficult than I thought it would be, but I think this schedule is something I could really get used to. I have tons of things to do while he's away, and I will always have something to look forward to. 

On a related subject, look at these pictures of him working out in the middle of the ocean! 

the basket that lifted them onto the platform

hardly working

and working hard

an almost-sunset 

My Valentine

I love quotes. I really really love quotes. I admire the quoters for being able to express exactly what I am feeling by using the least amount of words possible, which is something I can rarely accomplish. There is one in particular which I have applied to Philip from the moment I read it, and it goes like this:

"I didn't need, or even want, to be with the best-looking man in the room, but the one who inevitably got my attention was the one whose eyes held a glint of something magnetic: humor, mischief, curiosity, a sense of adventure." - Meg Donohue

I must admit, yes (of course) I did have an attraction to all the 'best-looking' guys out there, because isn't that how 'the hunt' for a partner begins? In like... every species?...
But the point is, even though there was a sensible amount of other dudes out there who might have been a better fit than Philip, they didn't hold my interest very long. For some strange, complicated, otherworldly reason, it was him who caught my interest, and who holds it still. I'm not going to lie, ours is NOT a Prince Charming and Cinderella relationship. We don't spend our days doting on each other, we have to play on opposing teams in any sport, we don't give each other the heavens or the shooting stars, we rarely see eye to eye, and we have conflicting views on 90% of anything that we could possibly disagree on (and I'm not even kidding. or exaggerating.) We can be childish, insensitive, stubborn, ignorant, and selfish a dozen times a day... but we get through it. Before meeting Phil, I used to disbelieve that opposites attract, and he proved me wrong.
I have come to realize what really matters. I don't care for songs and sonnets written about me... I care for thumb wars that turn into pillow fights that turn into wresting matches. I care for weird, made-up goodnight stories about Prince Philip and the Chupacabra. I care for moments when we laugh so hard that we just lay there for minutes recovering from belly aches. I care for spur of the moment late-night dinners, for code words about restaurants, and for yelling "bread makes you fat??!" in public places.
It's definitely not easy just living a normal, married life and make normal, reasonable decisions. We kick and scream our way through things we don't feel like doing (him folding laundry, me making important phone calls) and argue about the uselessness of stuff the other makes us do (him not leaving his shoes where I trip over them, me not leaving on the lights when I leave the room). We push each other to our limits almost every day. And living a normal life can get kinda hard.
But you know what is NOT hard? It's never hard to laugh with each other, for each other, or about each other. It's never hard to take long road trips and discuss important topics for hours. It's never hard to agree on money management, careers, education, family, or our futures. It's never hard for us to drop whatever we are doing and go help a friend in need when the call comes. It's never hard to bring each other up when we are down. It's never hard to listen to each other's vents, dreams, jokes, and stories. I always have a best friend in my husband. And really, that's all that truly matters.
Now I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Valentine's Day with the one who matters most :)

He totally lost at Battleship the other day. 

2014 01 01 Sleep Talking

Philip welcomed the New Year with some more of his "sleep talking." This time the conversation went as follows:

*complete silence at 2 am* 

Phil: Are you going to pray!

Me: Why pray? (extremely drowsy) 

Phil: THE EAGLES ARE PLAYING! 

Me: So? 

Phil: Are you going to pray or not?

Me: I'm not praying, go back to sleep

Phil: FINE. I'll pray. 

Me: (under my breath) ugh you're so strange. 

Sleep Working?

Did ya'll know that Philip talks in his sleep? I'm thinking of sleeping with a notepad next to our bed so that I can write down our conversations. I find it funny that he ALWAYS thinks he's at work. Here's our conversation last night:

Me: I love you boo
Phil: It's what, two-eighths or three-eighths?
Me: uh.... its three-eighths
Phil: ok thanks
Me: what are we talking about?
Phil: the stud against the pipes
Me: Oh ok
Phil: *rolls over and continues sleeping*

Sometimes when he's awake I have trouble understanding what he says, but when he sleep talks he speaks in a very clear voice, and even says thank you! Haha, I love my hubby. Can you believe we've been married for almost 4 months already?! Seems like no time has gone by.