Anniversary #3

Yes, I know. Our anniversary was an entire week ago. But I never got to tell you what we did that day. So here I am to tell you!

Ryan doesn't get a ton of time off work, and between our vacation in October and his round of jury duty in November, he'd missed a lot lately. So we didn't really have a lot to work with when it came to time off for our anniversary. He told me he could take one day, and I could choose if he took it as part of our weekend getaway or on the actual day. I chose the actual day.

It was so nice to sleep in that morning; we needed extra rest, especially since he was fighting that silly cold. We made breakfast at home and eased our way into the day. {Easing included a workout. That part was not easy.}

We went out to run some errands {because that's so romantic!!!!} It was right about here that I began to wonder if he actually loved me at all anymore.

Yes. On our anniversary.

But, on to happier times...including hunting down a dress our niece needed for the weekend. I think it looked better on her.

 Our poor Firby tree had been sitting all naked for three days, so we came home and decorated him:

It's not finished here, but that was as far as we got that day, because it was time to go take our anniversary pictures...you remember those from yesterday!

After the pictures, we went out for dinner. A new little Thai restaurant opened in town not long ago, and we'd never been there. So we went, and it was quite tasty!!

We came home for our gift exchange. You remember Ryan's rhino, which was the unbeatable gift of all time, but did you REALLY think I could go through a whole anniversary without giving him the designated gift? {Third anniversary is leather.} I got him this leather desk caddy, which he promptly declared should be a remote boat, and I have to admit, it works really well as one!

He gave me glass jewelry, which I absolutely adore.

We curled up with coffee and cupcakes and watched/cried over our wedding video. You can guess who did what.}

It was a lovely, lovely day. Thank you, Baby, for taking off work and hanging out with me. I loved having the day with you! And I have loved these three years with you!

Anniversary Photo Love

Before I show you my pictures, I wanted to let you know that podcast, episode three is UP! {Last week the hosting site had some technical issues the same day Episode 2 went up, so if you missed it, you can still hear it.} Anyway. Click the link below the picture here and you can enjoy episode 3. Or at least we hope you enjoy it! {Trust me - there are a couple stories you don't want to miss. Sigh.}

Click here to listen

So....I know I haven't told you about our adventures ON our actual anniversary, but I gotta show you these pictures! Every year, as you may or may not remember, we recreate the same handful of wedding pictures, and then I make a little collage to show the journey of us. Normally we just use our tripod for these photo shoots, but our friend Nate had offered us a photo shoot since I helped him with his family pictures a few weeks ago. I asked if he would be willing to do the shoot for us, and he said YES. He's a friend of Ryan's from PTA school, and they have a blast together. I had to get this picture of them before we left that day.

Nate was amazing - we only had about a half hour to squeeze these pictures in between the time he got off work and the time it became too dark to take pictures. And he rushed to get them - and still paid attention to each detail of the pictures we recreated. This was my favorite. I just adore this one.

And while this one was not one of our recreated poses, I love this one too!!

Okay - so here is our collection of recreated photos! {You can click on them to make them larger if they're hard to see.}

And then I made this with all our  monthiversary pictures from 2015. We've been asked when we plan to give up celebrating monthiversaries. Uh, don't plan to!

And one more shot from the day:

92 County Tour: Allen County

We decided to merge our anniversary getaway trip with our 92 county tour and knock out Allen County while we were at it! It was challenging, actually, for two reasons. First {and foremost}, Allen County is the biggest county in the state, and it's no joke - 660 square miles! That's a lot of ground to cover! Secondly, Allen County is where I worked for four years, so Ryan and I have already traveled over a lot of it already, and I wanted to find things that were new and different to try for our trip!

Your history lesson for the day is that Allen County is named after Colonel John Allen, who was killed in the War of 1812. {Before our time.}

There is SO MUCH to do in this county, so please know this is certainly not an exhaustive list of options.

It's kind of hard to see, but my chalkboard really says Allen. :)

I told you about it already here, but we did a lot of shopping! Fort Wayne has a great mall {at least it's great in the eyes of this Grant County girl}. Actually it has two great malls. The indoor, traditional kind of mall and an outdoor shopping center. We went to both!

And of course, you can't go to Allen County without stopping at DeBrand for some chocolates. Oh my goodness. So good. DeBrand has been around since 1987 and has established quite a reputation of delicious chocolates and desserts. They have multiple locations in Fort Wayne, and at one, you can take a tour of the place, but we visited a different one, so we didn't take a tour. We did, however, eat up, and it was completely delicious!

And as you also already read, we took a trip through the Fantasy of Lights, which was delightful as well! We have a similar light display here in Marion, but it's always fun to see what other places have to offer.

The last day of our weekend in Allen County, we visited a coffee shop, just like we always do in every county! I wanted to find a shop I'd not been to before, and this was the winner: Mocha Lounge!

It was a coffee shop in a strip mall - but you guys, look what it has???

A food truck!! {Smitten.}

The inside was adorable - and much bigger than we envisioned. Our drinks came in enormous mugs that are pretty much the size mugs should be.

Delicious!! And my favorite thing was that they had a TRUCK!!!!

Once we were sufficiently caffeinated, we headed to the  St. Joe Christmas tree farm I told you about:

We didn't cover all 600 some square miles of the county with this tour, but we sure did have a blast seeing some new pieces of the land that we'd not seen before. Thanks, Allen County, for being great hosts!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, we woke up in our hotel room in Fort Wayne, looking ahead to the last day of our anniversary getaway. We had a leisurely day that included a visit to a coffee shop, and a trip to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree, which we named Firby. It was a great, fun day! {And when we came home, we not only had luggage and a naked Christmas tree, but we started ripping apart our house to rearrange some rooms. Because why not?}

* I devoted all of Monday to unpacking from our trip, doing massive amounts of laundry, and arranging the living room so at least one room was complete and put together. And while I edited pictures, someone decided out of the blue that my lap is her new favorite place to be. No idea why she suddenly loves me, but I'll take it!

* Tuesday was December 1, so we pulled out my Advent book and started reading it again; I love that tradition I get to share with Ryan! Speaking of Ryan, though he was officially sicker than a dog {how sick is that, anyway?} with a cold, he volunteered to ring Salvation Arm bells with his boss. Isn't he the cutest bell ringer? And that night, you know, just for funsies, we moved a couch up the stairs. That was interesting!! {Don't miss Ryan at the top of the picture, right under the 12!

* Wednesday was our anniversary {YAY!!!} and Ryan took the day off work to spend it with me! We got to rest and do a little shopping, and we had our pictures taken before going out to dinner. We watched our wedding video while we ate cupcakes and just had such a lovely day remembering THE lovely day of our wedding!

* Thursday morning I got to do my devos by the light of the Christmas tree, which was lovely in every way. Ryan and I had put the lights and ornaments on it the day before, but it still needed some finishing up, so I worked hard on that - and on decorating the rest of the house that day. I'll give you a better view of all that later, but here's a sneak peek. I went low-key this year, but I like how it turned out!

* Friday I decorated the outside of our house {also low-key this year} and we hung up our mistletoe {YAY!}. That night, after Ryan got home from work, we went to his mom's house to pick up a dining room table he'd had in storage for something like a decade or more. Much more on this to come, but basically our table was just too small, so now we have one {for free!} that was certainly MUCH larger.

 * Yesterday Ryan worked, so I sent a little tree with him for his office. No ornaments, just a tree with lights. {Didn't want him to lose his man card ENTIRELY by having a fully decorated tree.} And last night, we went to our brother-in-law's 40th {surprise} birthday party, which was really a lot of fun! I took pictures all night and am always happiest when I have a job and a purpose, so it was a great time. Ryan's sister rocked it with the preparation!

The Saturday Six

One.

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If this season is a hard one for you - because of a fresh hurt in your soul or an old scar that still flares up pain, read this bit of comfort from the wise Susie Davis.

Two.

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We all know I am scared to death of heights and can't handle rides, but I have to tell you, this post on the world's tallest roller coaster {post by my blog friend Tamar} has me highly intrigued. If I ever get to Vegas... 

Three.

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I am such a sucker for Christmas decor, and I especially love a good Christmas  porch. This one from Between Naps on the Porch....oh be still my heart.  

Four.

I have no idea where this originated, but a friend of mine sent it to me this week and said she could have seen me doing something like this before the days of Ryan. I am so bummed I did not know about it then, or you can sure bet I would have! I LOVE THIS!!! 

Five.

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I love this real life story by fiction author Jody Hedlund. Great, great faith booster here. If you need a pick-me-up, read this!  Proof of Divine appointments always helps focus on the ways God does the same sort of thing in my life! 

Six.

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For a girl who grew up reading strictly Christian romance, I'm thoroughly enjoying the genre of Christian suspense. Nancy Mehl's new book, Rising Darkness caught my eye, so even though I'd not read the first two books in the trilogy, I wanted to try this one. I'm new to Nancy's writing, and I found my introduction to her work thoroughly enjoyable. 

The book tells the story of Sophie Wittenbauer, or Sophie Bauer as she is known in the journalism world. She came from a small, conservative Mennonite community but has spent the past several years putting her growing-up life behind her and establishing herself as the woman she wants to be. From losing weight to finding her fashion style to pursuing a degree, she's done all she can to become someone, but she feels she will finally fully arrive if she has a chance to break a big story.

That is what leads Sophie to a little town called Sanctuary - a place delightfully intimate and not as legalistic as her home community. She arrives under a false name and story to investigate a criminal tied to a murder years earlier, but quickly learns that she can't hide as much as she thought from the good people of the town. With her life in danger and the story on the line, Sophie pushes ahead, determined to uncover the truth.

As seems to be my pattern lately, I loved the small town setting of this book. I loved the people, and I loved the message of grace that was taught through the stories of their lives. I enjoyed the way Nancy made the story suspenseful without making me so edgy that I jumped every time I heard a noise while reading. I did not figure out the mystery before the end, which made me very happy {I like to be surprised}, and I loved the weaving of a romantic storyline in with the suspense.

The book was easy to read and made me go back to look up the other two books to see whose story I could learn more about by reading those books as well. It was tasteful in presentation {if you like mystery that's not so scary, this is a great choice} and the faith component wast strong without being overbearing.

I would absolutely look up more of Nancy's books and am glad Bethany House sent a copy of this one my way in exchange for an honest review.