When the lights go out.

Some of the most exhilarating times growing up were spent when a particular storm hit, the electric took a break, and the lights went out. It added an element of excitement to the mundane routine of life—a random surprise thrown in the mix. There could be an underlying sense of fear—dark hallways with lurking monsters and burglers, but my parents took on the burden of making the event happy instead. Instead of being defeated by the dark, my Mom would take out all the candles that were stored away, scattering them all over the house making it smell like a Yankee Candle shop. My Dad would light up the generator—making our kitchen nice and toasty. We’d whip out the old Monopoly board and strike up a game over hot cocoa. The feeling of living like a “Pioneer family” like we had been learning about in school. Needless to say, I looked forward to these times—memories with family, the quiet of the night interuppted by rips of laughter over a bloodbath at Monopoly. 

Just the other night I was taken back with this nostalgia, when our apartments lights flickered, sputtered, and went out. I was immediately filled with warm, fuzzy feelings from the past. Remniscient of my family—knowing what we would be doing right then (if I were still home with them and 10 years younger). So Drew and I whipped out every candle that we owned—making the house smell like a great big pumpkin pie. We didn’t have a generator, so we pulled out every blanket that we own—bundling up, and making ourselves nice and toasty. Instead of Monopoly, we had to act like adults and finish our homework in the light of our laptops. But it was a similar idea. 

My favorite things.

This week I have been especially reminded of how blessed I am to have Andrew in my life. I don’t mean in the sappy, cliche, lovey duvy way—but in the best friend, laughing with each other, and making the most of life together way. There is no denying that I am predominantly the type of person who thrives on organization, sticks to the schedule, and cleans the house with an OCD like manner. And there is no denying that Andrew is predominately the type who thrives on spontanaiety, lives hap-hazardly, and leaves a trail in his wake. There are a few exceptions where the lines are blurred or we share similarities in personality, but between the two of us—we make a pretty good balance of a person.

I love the fact that we can wake up laughing, understand what each other is saying when they can’t even explain it themselves, and do all the weird, quirky things together that make us…us. Outside of the home (and sometimes in), we can control ourselves and be the adults that we should be. But at the end of the day, I love that we can be exactly, bottom-line, who we are with each other, letting loose and having fun. On the flip side, he’s the person that I can talk to about anything. He is that type of person that you just click with—they’re on the same wavelength, they talk your language. That is Andrew with me. There is no concern, no issue, and no topic that I can think of that would be outside of his jurisdiction. There is nothing that I cannot talk to Andrew about, there are no secrets to keep—and even if I tried, Andrew would be able to tell. He knows me better than I know myself. He helps me to be a better person, he makes me want to be a better person—and often through all the little things that he does without realizing it’s impact on me. 

When I said "yes!"

Exactly one year ago, today, Andrew asked me to marry him on a random road, on a North Carolina mountain overlooking a ravine splashed with the colors of fall.

It’s amazing to look back and think on what has happened since then—well, now we’re actually married and life has never been better. I knew then that I was saying yes to adventuring through life with my best friend, and a few months of marriage has only proved that to be more than true.

Wedding film.

Folks, not to be proud, but this is a wedding film must-see! Our videographers, Kent and Ashleigh (soon to say “I do” as well) did nothing other than a fantastic job in capturing moments from our wedding day. Kent is also the man behind our engagement pictures (one of which is shown above), you can find our favorites in this post.

Our wedding video can be found here at Kent Mast Exposed, while it is featured on his website.

Enjoy!

Highlights from August 3rd.

Where to begin? How do you start to sum up all of the happy tears, giddiness, overwhelming peace, wonderful nervousness, and overflowing joy that comprises the day that you have the honor of saying, “I do” to your best friend, for the rest of your life?

Well, in my opinion, words can’t do it justice. And since pictures are worth a thousand words I’m going to post some of the pictures in sequence and we’ll leave it at that. 

After wedding life.

Well, we are back from a wonderfully relaxing time on our honeymoon. From here, life is non-stop for a while as it typically tends to be. But I am so thankful that this time, I don’t have to tearfully say goodbye to my man, instead we get to be together through everything for the rest of our lives—and I’ve got the certificate to prove it!

I have a lot of thoughts in regards to weddings and I will be sharing the highlights in a future post. But for now I want to end this short post with a smattering of thankfulness.