Sweet Memories: Round 1

Happy 117 months, Ryan! I love you so and hope you enjoy today's post, which seems very fitting to appear on this day. 

 You know how it stinks when you come up with a great idea and realize the timing won't fit in a pretty little package? Two days ago, I came up with the idea for a countdown to our 10th anniversary. I wanted to pick one thing from each month of marriage and celebrate that one thing each day between now and our anniversary. Problem? I don't have enough days left until our anniversary to account for each month. It doesn't feel like our anniversary is that close! But it really is! So instead, I am going to devote (most) Fridays between now and then to looking back over each of the years. I am grateful for the story God has written for us, and I want to look back at some of the sweetest memories and lessons from each year.

Today we'll throw ALL the way back to the start, with the very first year. 

Month 01. Our first Christmas tree.

Everything about our engagement was fast. From proposal to vows, we only had two days shy of two months to plan the whole wedding and travel to Florida. Then we had almost a week for our honeymoon. We came home and realized we did not have much time at all until Christmas. We hadn't decorated. We hadn't shopped. We hadn't mailed cards. All these milestones for our first Christmas together had to be rushed. As you know, I'm a tree-in-every-room sort of girl, and I had no idea how I would get it all done. My friend and co-worker, Amy, suggested we just do one tree that year. Pull a tub out of the attic, she suggested, and whatever was in that tub would be our decorating scheme. And that's exactly what we did. We spent a coveted weeknight at home, putting up our first Christmas tree together, and for the first time ever, I had a mistletoe kiss! It was the most perfectly imperfect Christmas ever. 

Month 02. Working concerts.

I was still working at WBCL during the early months of our marriage, and I had been assigned to work the Winter Jam concert. This particular Winter Jam was memorable. It took place on a Sunday evening, and the temperature and wind chill that day were beyond dangerously low. Despite that, more people came to the concert than could fit into the Coliseum. They were trying to figure out how to keep everyone safe during a multi-hour wait. It was crazy! I was so grateful that Winter Jam for us fell on a weekend that year (often it happened on a weeknight) so Ryan could go with me, do all the driving, and it could double as a date for us. Our schedule was so full in those double-commuting months that my job provided most of our dates for us. Sure, it was still work, but it was also a lot of fun on the side! 

Month 03. Going to a marriage retreat.

Our newlywed life was far more chaotic than I would ever recommend to any engaged couple. In addition to the double-commuting, we were planning for our at-home reception, trying to sell the house Ryan had owned and lived in prior to our marriage, and figuring out how to find our groove as husband and wife. One of the best gifts we gave ourselves in that season (besides weekly date nights) was a little getaway to a marriage retreat. It was in Fort Wayne, and we were able to hang out with friends, go on dates, enjoy a hotel room, and learn wisdom about our marriage. Fun fact: years later we looked into working full time at a marriage retreat center, but they didn't have openings that would work for both of us. I still think that would have been a very fun job, and who knows!? Perhaps the Lord has something similar in our future here where we are now! 

Month 04. Full circle in the prayer chapel.

I worked at Indiana Wesleyan for 11 years, and I was single for all of them. Toward the end of those years of working there, I would regularly spend my lunch hour in the prayer chapel, praying for my future husband. When Ryan and I started dating (and were serious about the future), I took him to the prayer chapel to pray there with him, and that was such a beautiful moment. I had planned to visit the prayer chapel on our wedding day for photos and prayer but getting married out of state made that impossible. SO! On our at-home reception day, we spent some time in the chapel, having pictures taken and praying together. This was a beautiful, full-circle moment that I have never forgotten. 

Month 05. The first time to celebrate the birthday boy!

Ryan had a birthday this month, and while I have loved celebrating ALL his birthdays over the last decade, this one was particularly meaningful, because it was the first. We both had to work that day, the weather was lousy, and a whole bunch of things went wrong, but we still celebrated, and this particular year is still dear to me because it was the answer to all those many years of praying that I could celebrate my husband's birthday with him! 

Month 06. Beginning to make our home...ours.

This month held so much. There was my birthday...our first annual birthday getaway...and more. But what sticks out to me the most is that this was the month we began to make our home OURS. We started by buying the pergola (we called it a pirogi, remember?) and putting it up on the slab behind the garage at our Marion house. TO THIS DAY, this yard has been my favorite of any we have ever had. Who ever would have imagined it? And I feel that way largely because of this little sanctuary spot we made and loved for so long. We spent SO many evenings out there, napping in the hammock, eating dinner at our little patio table, sitting by the fire pit, enjoying the shade of the massive maple tree, and listening to the wind rustle in the ferns. This was also the month we renovated our little galley kitchen and gave it impressive new life. (New flooring, refinished countertops, painted walls and hardware, and a new stove!) I appreciate all of these things so much more now than I did then. I look back on these memories with great fondness. And one day...one day! I hope we have a yard as inviting as that one. 

Month 07. A Gift of Love.

Yes, the pirogi is making an appearance again. My favorite memory from this month, hands down, was a sweet gift of love Ryan gave me. I was assigned to work a concert in Ohio on a Friday night. I had gotten up at 4:45 that morning, gotten ready, driven to Fort Wayne, worked a full day, ridden over to Ohio for the concert, stayed to the end, driven back to Fort Wayne to drop off the van, and then still had to drive back home. I think I got home about 1:00 in the morning on Saturday, and I was exhausted. Ryan hadn't been able to go with me to this concert, since it was a weekday and out of town. I fully expected him to be asleep when I arrived home, but he met me at the door, led me through the house, and out into the yard. While I had been gone, he had installed lights and a fan in our pirogi, so we could enjoy it even more. We danced out there in the yard in the middle of the night, and I felt so loved.

Month 08. A romantic movie date. 

This was another crazy full month. We watched fireworks on the fourth of July, went to the lake a couple of times, worked some more on home renovations, went to the fair, worked a golf scramble, participated in parades for work. I am fairly certain I had some gallbladder attacks among all those things - brought on by stress, I'm sure. but what I remember most was Ryan picking me up from a baby shower so we could go on a date. He planned the whole thing. We went to a drive-in movie (our first movie together!), and he had made this whole romantic setup in the back of our car, complete with dinner, popcorn, blankets and pillows! I have loved every date he has ever planned, but this one was extra special. 

Month 09. A private beach in Nassau!

Ryan told me from the moment we were married that one day he would take me on a cruise. And before we had been married even a year, he did just that! I had never been on a cruise before, and it was a fun and grand adventure. We made many memories (some of them pretty funny!) on that trip, but one of my favorite memories was the day we ended up on a private beach in Nassau. We still have no idea how it happened. We asked the bus to drop us off at a particular beach - can't remember the name of it now. He stopped, pointed down an alley, and told us the beach was there. I have no idea what beach it was, but no one else was there, and chances are good we shouldn't have been either! We thoroughly enjoyed the privacy and our chance to enjoy a Caribbean beach all by ourselves!

Month 10. Finding our hospitality groove.

Even though our schedules were busy, we did our best to spend time with friends and family when we could. We had a couple of cookouts during this month, eating outside, enjoying the cooler fall weather, and practicing hospitality. I think it was during this season that we realized how much we truly enjoy having people over for meals in our home! (That hasn't changed!) We worked as a team from the very beginning, collaborating on making the meals and decorating the tables. This picture was from the night we had Ryan's dad's side of the family over for chili and cornbread! 

Month 11. Fun with friends.

Because everything about our relationship had happened so fast, it took us months (into years?) to meet each other's friends. My friends Frog and Jenna live in Illinois, and they hadn't been able to come to our reception, so they still hadn't met Ryan. This was the month we took a weekend trip to see them and their two little kids. We went to an apple orchard, carved pumpkins, and had SO much fun together. One of my favorite things about our relationship is how easily we have grown to love one another's friends and how readily all of them accepted us! 

Month 12. Fun Celebrations!

It felt appropriate that the final month in our first year of marriage was also a month of culmination in so many other areas. We cleaned up our yard for the winter. We finished all the renovations projects on the house that we hoped to complete in that first year of marriage. It was a full circle moment, and that wasn't lost to us. But I think one of my favorite moments from that month was a moment that walked us into the first day of our first anniversary celebration. we went to Indianapolis for our anniversary that year and stood in the FREEZING COLD on the Circle downtown to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree. I think we stood out there for about five hours total. I couldn't feel my feet by the end. We were both shivering completely. But it made such a fun memory. We had a front row spot, we heard so much good music, we got to see pretty fireworks, and we celebrated all the good and the hard that had gone into year #1!