Memories...Months 41-50

Thanks for traveling down memory lane with us this week! Today brings us to the halfway point in our months-of-marriage tour. When I stopped writing yesterday, we had just moved to Kokomo, so I'm excited to look back at our beloved house there and the fun memories we made!

Month 41. 

Moving to Kokomo meant tons of house projects, including the beginning of that stone feature wall we did between the living room and kitchen. I still loved the results of that project. (The project itself was exhausting, but the results were one of my favorite things about the house.) We continued moving things out of our Marion house (mostly stuff in the garage) and spruced it up to be officially sold. But one of our favorite adventures that month was traveling to Chilton, Wisconsin for our annual birthday trip! It was a business/pleasure trip. I spoke at a women's conference, and we visited our friends Tom and Olivia while we were there. We also got to tour a cheese factory, try some coffee shops, visit a HUGE dairy farm, and eat at the ice cream shop that TO THIS DAY still holds the #1 spot in my heart. I would seriously drive back to Chilton just to have more of that ice cream. 

Month 42.

It was a BIG month in Shafferland. BIG. Ryan and I began to make our new Shafferland our own with some new landscaping. We hosted our first Mommapalooza in our new place, which is where we learned that maybe having a dining room would occasionally matter. :) Ryan took me on an all-day outing to IKEA for my birthday, which was a SUPER fun date. But the biggest life-changing moments of the month were: saying our final goodbye to our first house together (the Marion house) and having our praise party in the front yard when we saw the sold sign planted there and...MEETING PHOEBE!! It was in month #42 that we took care of her for the very first time. Her people went on a weeklong vacation and she came to stay with us. She was so little (aka skinny) back then!! 

Month 43. 

This month was full of exploring our new town (Kokomo) and enjoying all the many things we found to do there: the Strawberry Festival, Dan's Donuts, Kokomo Beach, Ribfest, etc. Summer was a fun time that year! But our biggest memory from that month was finishing out our garage so we could use it as an entertaining space. (We learned our lesson from Mommapalooza.) This involved insulating, which we did ourselves, drywalling - which we did NOT do ourselves - and painting, which brought out THE STORY of the year. You might remember it. We were painting during a rainstorm and our fire alarm went off, so while Ryan was on the phone trying to get some help with that, I asked for more paint in my tray. The can (which he was using to paint) slipped from his hand and shot paint all over the raised garage door, Ryan's head, and the huge, borrowed pressure washer that sat in our garage. We will never forget that day. But when it was all done, that garage was pretty spiffy, let me tell you.

Month 44.

We continued our home improvement project fun with a quick back patio makeover that allowed us to get rid of nasty old carpet that wasn't staying down anyway. There were the standby adventures of fireworks over the lake and going to the fair. And then there was the project of moving everything out of the Kokomo house (yes, all the things we just moved INTO it) so we could replace all the carpet that we shouldn't have had to replace. But one of our favorite memories from that month came at the end of the month when we went to the lake with Ryan's family - and we got to meet Natasha and Dave and their kids! Blog friends to real-life friends! What fun! :) 

Month 45.

I don't know that any month of our marriage has had as many STOP RIGHT NOW memorable and shaping moments as this one right here. Seriously, so many. All in one month. Therefore, everything I mention here will get a photo below, because it was all THAT BIG. First of all, we drove our first and last all nighter. We drove from Indiana to Kansas all through the night so we could surprise my family by arriving early for my niece's wedding. (We are not made for all-nighters.) Then there were all the wedding festivities. (Decorating, making party favors, taking pictures, the wedding itself.) Then there was the day of touring Greensburg, because Ryan had never been there. Then there was a tornado in Kokomo that went RIGHT PAST OUR NEW HOUSE. It Then there was my 20th high school reunion. Then there was the best surprise we've EVER pulled off: my mom's surprise birthday party for her 80th. A double surprise. First that there was a party and then that both my sisters came. A most fun day.  Enjoy the photo dump below. Month 45, you were great...tornado excluded.

Month 46.

Hard to top that month, right? But we still had a great time, even if the days were slightly less eventful. My second book released that month, which was fun for us! We spent time apart AGAIN when I left to speak at a women's retreat. (I think this was the 4th time ever in our marriage. And I still think there's been only one other time.) We toured Tippecanoe County, which was a really fun date. And we started something new that we loved so much for the season we were able to do it: Tuesdays at the Table! We loved opening our home for people to come over for dinner on Tuesday evenings! But probably our favorite memory from this month was a surprise date that Ryan planned. We did a digital scavenger hunt of downtown Indianapolis and it was a BLAST! I loved his initiative of date-planning (something he's really good at) and the date itself. 

Month 47. 

This month was full of fun things, like watching Phoebe a few times, inviting more friends over for Tuesdays at the Table, touring Delaware County, and having some Halloween fun. But our favorite memory was a new thing for us. After being apart for that weekend the month before, we decided that in the future, even if I'm speaking at a retreat, we go as a team. We need each other and I'm a better speaker when I have Ryan's prayer support right there in person. And that month we did our first retreat "together." It was on a beautiful lake and the weather was SO pretty. It was a beautiful start to a new tradition for us!

Month 48. 

We hosted a craft night in our newly finished garage - and that was so much fun. (We really do miss entertaining!) We did our annual Christmas shopping and enjoyed Thanksgiving together and had the BEST time decorating our Kokomo house for Christmas - for the first time! I think that was one of our favorite memories from that month. Seeing a huge holiday in a new space for the first time and working together to make it beautiful was fun for us!

That brought us to our FOURTH anniversary, which was a fun trip, too! We went to French Lick, which is in southern Indiana. We toured the French Lick Resort and West Baden Hotel, took a carriage ride (where I accidentally threw Ryan's gloves out of the carriage and we had to go hunt for them after the ride) and ate at a restaurant where Ryan got to hold Larry Bird's NBA trophy and wear his Olympic jacket! 

Month 49.

A fun, Christmas-filled month! Lights in the park....a tour of the Seiberling Mansion in Kokomo, all kinds of Christmas fun, and probably one of the most fun Christmas dates we've ever taken. (It was my Mom's idea, so I'll give her all the credit! There was a little place near Kokomo that has a recreated 50s diner and old fashioned tiny town. We went on a date where we ate dinner at the diner and then watched Elf in their little theater. It was SO MUCH FUN!

Month 50. 

The month didn't start the way we hoped or planned. Another ER visit - this time for Ryan. Then two days later...another one. It was his turn for a gallbladder eviction! That was one of the biggest things of the whole month for us - and we learned that he is a much better caretaker than patient. (And I'm a much better patient than caretaker.) We also started another fun adventure that month: alphabetical dates! Our first one happened this month. We celebrated our friends' ADOPTION, ate from the APPETIZER menu at the Cheesecake Factory, and then went to every store in the mall that started with the letter A!