Married Life Meme!

After reading Shannon's anniversary post and meme, I am doing my duty and joining in. :-)


1. What year did you meet your spouse? late in 2000


2. Who said “I love you” first? yeah, so...I can't remember. I even asked Jer, who also can't remember. However, I am 99.9% sure it was me, knowing us like I do. ;-)


3. How long after meeting your spouse did you get engaged? hmmm...we got engaged in early spring 2003. I suppose it was around two years after we met, but we did not begin dating immediately. He was just one of our hot pilots for awhile there and I don't date pilots. Oops. ;-)

4. How did the proposal go? Jer had been on a trip and arrived home to find me scurrying around trying to get ready for an evening out with our friends. He was talking to me and I was running around putting on make-up and fixing my hair. I must not have been paying much attention, because he finally said, "CHALNA! PLEASE come sit on the couch for a second and listen to me!". He had such a serious face when I sat down that I asked him if he was about to break up with me. HAHA! :-) He said the most precious things and asked me to marry him with the most beautiful ring that he bought in Phoenix. He had done a lot of research on the ring and even planned things out with the jeweler there so that he could buy the ring while he was out on the trip. It was the most amazing moment!!!!

5. When did you get married? July 11, 2003

6. What’s something that drives you nuts about your spouse? he doesn't like the same movies that I do. ;-)

7. How big is your bed? King size...we love it because there is plenty of room for Enzo and Ferris Mewler.

8. Who cooks dinner the most? It used to be Jer (he is a great cook!) but it is me since I started staying home with Colin. I think I have gotten really good!

9. Do you have any children? Only the sweetest boy in the world! :-)

10. What city was the first place you lived as a married couple? Bethlehem, PA

11. Where did you go on your honeymoon? We never had an official honeymoon. We married in Vegas over a long weekend.

12. What’s your favorite thing about being married? I adore that I share my life with my best friend. I love that I feel "complete" with Jeremy, like I am with my other half. It is just this safe, whole feeling that gives me peace. We were meant to be...we are just right. That feeling is my favorite part about being married.

13. What is one thing your spouse would say really annoys them about you? Probably that I am horrible with anything related to paperwork. He is so right about that. Jer literally took my voter registration card out of my hand the other day and put it away so I would not lose it. Which I totally would have. ;-)

14. Where’s your favorite place to go on vacation? We both want to spend time in Europe. Jer has been before, but I have not. We can't wait to go together one day.

15. What vehicle was your “get away” car from the wedding reception? a bright white limo! Vegas, baby!

16. Did you have a big wedding? No, it was teeny tiny! We practically eloped!

17. If you could change two things about your wedding what would they be? I would have done the honeymoon...we were so busy with work and I wish I had just done it anyway. I miss that we did not run away to Mexico or something equally great. We said we were going to have one shortly there after, but time got away and it never happened. Other than that, I would not have changed a thing about the actual wedding. It was adorable and perfect for us.
18. What’s your song? "Northern Sky" by Nick Drake. Long story here, but suffice it to say that this song will be important to me for all time.

19. What do you enjoy doing as a family/couple? As a couple, we loved to explore new foods and awesome places to eat before we had the little one. We will get back into that more when Colin is slightly older. We also loved going to the movies. Now, we are all about anything that is fun for Colin. We all love to picnic. Jer and I love to lay in bed at night and catch up on the news together, read, or just chat. Our hours together after Colin goes to bed have become very special to us.

20. How many family pets do you have? two...the famous Enzo the Italian Greyhound and Ferris Mewler the fat cat.

If you are reading this, you have been tagged!

Peeking!

Dana tagged me for this meme, and this one is tough! The rules are as follows: you have to take pictures of the following things, just as they appear at the time of being tagged. No straightening, no cleaning! Then tag someone else (preferably more than one person).

Dana technically tagged me at 7:30am this morning when I read her blog. So all of the pictures were taken this morning at that time, even though I am just now putting the post together. I even broke down and took the self portrait at that time, too, with no shower or even my teeth brushed yet. LOVELY. I decided to play by the rules. :-)

1. The Fridge: Colin is in this picture because you cannot open the door without him trying to take everything at eye level out. This is a VERY good description of what it is like to go into our fridge. :-)

2. A Closet: This is my favorite closet in the house because this is where I keep all the Christmas stuff! This is also where all of my suits are stored since I certainly don't wear them at the moment!

3. The Kitchen Sink: I just had to take the picture at this angle...it just so happens that I had sippy cups for Colin and Mama drying this morning. HA!

4. A Bathroom: This is our small second bathroom. It is very hard to get a picture of it because of the size and layout, but lord knows it is in better shape than our master bath, so here ya go!

5. Favorite Shoes: This, good people, is a hard one for me. I love shoes. I have a LOT of shoes. It used to be my obsession before I had a baby. I am choosing these for the picture after much internal debate. I adore my red shoes. I love the toe and the color and the kitten heel...I LOVE THEM. I used to rock these shoes. I have not had the chance to wear them since I started staying home. I may need to start wearing them to the post office. :-) I have good shoes.

6. Favorite Room: I am choosing our bedroom for my favorite room. This room has become our own little sanctuary and I love it. Colin does not spend any real time in this room since it is gated off and it is the only room that is free of toddler things. The layout of our house means that in our bedroom we are the farthest away from Colin's room, so Jer and I always spend our entire evenings in our room after Colin goes to bed. We watch TV, Jer catches up on work if he needs to, I blog from the laptop and we just hang out without disturbing Colin. We both find it soothing and comfortable and it feels good to just exist with each other for a few hours just the two of us. I also make our bed in the mornings because with the rest of my house covered in baby chaos, it soothes my soul to have one neat place to retreat to. You can probably also see the baby monitor and a stack of magazines on my side of the bed. I love to spend the evenings reading. Right now, I am working on the "Cooking Light" and "Parenting" September issues. And yes, that is my fat cat Ferris Mewler.

7. Self Portrait: The funny thing about this? Despite the fact that I took this picture first thing in the morning with no shower and still in pj's while feeding Colin breakfast, I love it. I decided to include Colin and held the camera up to us. He thought it was so funny that I did that and started to laugh! So even though I look horrible, the flash is scary, and for some reason my sun damage is highlighted (ugh!), I love this! :-) This is what we look like every morning together as we share our breakfast. Me and my boy in our pj's having some Eggo's!

Now I tag Shannon, Melissa, and April! Get going, girls!! :-)