Blurry Pictures

 

Something you don’t want to hear
when you’re having blood taken:
“Oh wow, you certainly have tiny veins…”

Something you don’t want to hear
when your husband is cooking you lunch:
“Uh oh, you’re going to be upset…”

Something you don’t want to hear 

at 5:00 in the morning:
Your alarm.

I heard all three of these today. Combine loss of blood, a burned lunch, and lack of sleep with an awful case of feeling icky, having to come in an hour early and stay an hour late at work, PLUS a marathon shopping trip for groceries… and I’ve had one crazy day.

However, the one good thing all those not so good things have in common is Timmy. Getting blood taken is much happier when you have a husband to hold your hand (and put cold ice on your head when you very nearly pass out). Having a husband willing to cook lunch for you every day is pretty fabulous (even if he does burn it sometimes). And having the alarm go off at 5:00 AM is better when your husband is also awakened to share the misery.

All that to say,
I like being married.
More specifically, I like being married to Timmy. 

 

(Even on those days when all we have to show for it

is a blurry picture of us pretending to smile.)

 

Some days are just blurry picture days. 

 

The End.

Gathered Fabric Flower DIY

My new favorite fabric flower making technique.

  

Materials Needed:

Fabric (I used lace)
Matching thread
Needle

Beads

Step One:

Cut out a circle. (It can be any size. Mine is about 4' in diameter.)

Step Two:

Sew a running stitch around the outside edge.

Step Three:

Pull on both ends of the thread to gather the circle.

 

Step Four:

Tie a knot, and push the outer edge into the inside of the flower.

Step Five:

Sew beads into the center.

Ta-da! So simple. 

These romantic blooms can be used in a variety of ways. I grouped mine with two other flowers and added an alligator clip to the back, using felt.

Darling.

A Conversation: About Eating

Me: Babe, you should eat a bagel before bed.
You didn't eat dinner - you must be hungry!

Tim: *whining* But eating a bagel is just SO much work…

Me: I'll toast and butter it for you!

Tim: But you can't help me chew.

If I were to pick a favorite,
today would be the day.
Time keeps moving quickly
and there is hardly time to stay.
Right here in this moment,
I am happy as can be.
At 19 Months of living,
and of being “you and me”.
Each day that comes and passes,
is better than the last.
Because we’re one day closer,
and life is moving fast.
Today is like a treasure,
and treasure it we may.
For if I must pick a favorite,
today would be that day. 

(Happy 19 Months, Babe!
Every day with you is
my favorite one yet.) 

60 days until Spring…

B&T 2010

 
Sometimes I get big ideas in my mind and I estimate the time it would take to create these big ideas to be much less than what is actually true. This was the case with Timmy’s Christmas present. I decided to make him a book of our past year, complete with daily activities, quotes, conversations, and photos. It ended up being a little bit more of a project than I anticipated. As in, I spent every free second I had working on it, and I still didn’t get it totally done in time for Christmas. (Tim promised he didn’t mind.)  

I guess I should be happy that it isn’t too easy
to sum up our last year of living.

It was a huge job, and a little overwhelming. But as I looked back through hundreds of pictures, my daily planner, and my blog, I became more and more thankful for all that 2010 has been, and how blessed I am to have a handsome husband like Timmy to live my years with.

The book starts out with a little section full of fun facts and charts and graphs about our year. Tim loves graphs, and it was pretty fun to gather statistics, like where we'd been, how we spent our time, and how many times we ate at Chipotle per month. 

 

There is a section for each month of our year,
with a highlight page beginning each new section. 

I’ve never been good at keeping a diary, but I have adopted a new method for keeping track of days,
and it works very well for me. Every year I buy a small monthly planner, and every day I write just a sentence or two, detailing a little bit of what we did that day. 

It’s easy, and because there isn’t much space, I’m forced to only write a little bit. It’s perfect for me, and it’s so fun to glance back at “last year on this day” and see what we did. Usually it’s just things like, “Grocery shopping. Pizza dinner. Scrabble game.” 

It is fun for me to see our marked days, and how we spent them together. And my monthly planner was invaluable when making Tim’s book. It’s easy to forget the little things, like the night we got our hair cut together, or our first picnic of the year, but I thankfully had it all on record. 

I rounded up 12-15 photos from each month, and printed them on photo paper. 

For captions, I found quotes of different things Tim or I said or wrote during the year, explaining what was happening in the photo. This part probably took the longest, as I did a lot of searching through emails, love letters, and blog comments to find the perfect caption for each photo.

 

Timmy says so many hilarious things. I share lots of them, but for every one I share, there are ten other ones I don’t (or can’t) share. Every time he says something particularly funny, I jot it down somewhere and add it to my file of funny “conversations”. 

I started this when we first began dating, so I have a very extensive file by now. I took some of the best 2010 conversations and added them to Timmy’s book. (I think this was his favorite part.)

I tried to keep it simple (and it still took me forever to finish!), and bought a pretty binder at Target to house the pages. I started out doing it another way (more complicated) but then was inspired by Jamie's inspiration from this. I love the simplicity, and since I want to be able to continue this project into the coming years, simple is important.    

Timmy loved his present. We read it from start to finish together, and it was delightful for us to relive our year, remembering lost memories and realizing all over again how very blessed we are. I picture our children looking at this someday, and I hope they can catch a glimpse of who their parents were when they were young, just married, and blissfully in love.

As I was looking through old photos…

I found a memory.
A little girl and her daddy
she is "helping" him build their house.
And I can't help but wonder if
their matching red shirts
weren't planned purposely. 

If you look closely you can see
the little hammer in her hand
and a cow grazing on the hill behind them.
I'm pretty sure that cow's name
was Pokey.

The man in the red shirt

was that little girl's hero.

Still is.

New Years Resolution: Make Bread

My little loaf of whole wheat bread was a total success.
Crusty on the outside, soft on the inside.

Timmy ate the entire loaf for dinner,
so I guess that's my proof that it was delicious.

Yum.  

All thanks to this book, and a Mom who gives great Christmas presents.

A Conversation: About Blogging

Timmy: Babe, I really want to start helping with some different things
in your life because you're just getting too overwhelmed. What could I do?

Me: Nothing...

Timmy: *with excitement* I know!!! I could probably put up a
Happily, Becki blog post for you!

Me: Oh really?

Timmy: Yes, I'd be like, "Hi! I'm a kitten..."

2010 Statistics - Chipotle Meals

Clearly, we have an obsession.

Apple Wellness Resolutions

January is a big month for nutrition stores, thanks to all those beautiful New Year's resolutions to be healthier and such. (We love New Year's resolutions.)

It's exciting to be in an industry that really, truly helps people in ways that can transform their life. I love to be able to confidently promote our products, and my prayer for this January is that we can impact each customer in a way that will make them want to make a lasting difference in their overall health.  

I kind of took a teensy break from Apple Wellness craziness in December, because I was all about Christmas presents (I still have more to share!). I did, however, design some pretty great posters to ring in the New Year and make our front windows a lot more attractive.

My goal was to find a way to convey health, energy, and happiness with my designs. Somehow happy, jumping people seemed to fit right in with all that Apple Wellness is – especially since my husband, the owner, is a happy jumping person himself!

I love Apple Wellness.

Worry less and pray more. Visit a new country.
Leave refined sugar behind. Climb a mountain.
Listen to mom's advice, because it's never wrong.
Appreciate time alone. Learn to love my "real" job.
Learn to say "no". Keep in touch. Exercise.
Limit time wasted on Facebook. Be patient.
Handmake all my Christmas gifts before October.
Conquer a fear. Learn conversational French. Bake bread.
Fall more deeply in love with my husband. Try something new.

(Happy New Year! Today is the first day of a brand new 365 day set.
And with a date like 1-1-11, I feel like this year is a fresh start.)