Refrigerator

Exactly two and a half years ago I started life with my very best friend. It was a beautiful and fun day, but not without it's mishaps. No wedding can be perfect, right? If you weren't there or were sitting too far in the back to really hear what was happening, let me enlighten you.

We got through the first half of our ceremony without a hitch. Then came the vows. Nate's grandfather, sweet and loving as he is, is getting old and not as mentally on top of things as he used to be. So for our vows he says to Nate, "Repeat after me" and then proceeds to start reading the entire paragraph that is our vows. "I, Nathaniel, take you, Jaime, to be my wedded wife. To have and to hold..." It should have been, "I, Nathaniel, take you, Jaime" (pause while Nate repeats), "to be my wedded wife." (pause while Nate repeats), and so on. My dad is sitting in the front row really impressed that Nate's memorized the whole thing. Um, no. So while Nate looks like a deer in the headlights, I lean over to Poppy and say, "Poppy, he's not going to remember all that." To which Poppy replies, drum roll please, "That's alright, we'll just put in on the refrigerator." *Badum-CHI*

Um, did that really just happen...?

In the middle of my wedding ceremony?

My dad is about to pee his pants he thinks it's so funny.

I'm not sure weather to laugh or cry.

It makes me sad not because my wedding wasn't perfect, but because that's supposed to be a special moment where you look into your husband's eyes and promise to love him forever. You hear the words given you and you repeat them with all the love in your heart while lost in the depths of his eyes. At least, that's how I imagined it.

I couldn't exactly stop the entire ceremony to explain to Poppy where he had gone amiss and how to do it correctly. So in an effort to salvage what was supposed to be a special moment, I just turned the paper in Poppy's hands toward Nate so he could read it. Then, turned them toward me so I could read them. Once in a lifetime, fairy tale moment lost.

At any rate, in retrospect, Poppy's response was hilarious. And several times over the past two and half years Dad has commented that something is missing from our refrigerator. Most recently it was directed at the picture I posted on here of the kitchen in our apartment. Apparently, it was missing something. To rectify the problem I got this for Nate and Dad for Christmas.

It's a magnet.

When they opened them we all laughed. Hard. I laughed so hard I cried. And my dad ran to the refrigerator so he could have his up before Nate.

It was a special moment in it's own right ♥

Christmas tree, Christmas tree

Sing to the tune of "Jingle bells, jingle bells". It's short, sweet, and expresses my complete happiness at having an 8 foot real tree in my living room. Oh how I adore Christmas!

And my husband who helped decorate it ;)

Winston-Salem Snow Day

This past weekend Nate and I made the 4 hour trek to Winston-Salem to visit one of my best friends, Cat, and her fiance, Clay. Nate had duty Thursday night so Friday he had an "easy day". So we were able to leave Jacksonville early afternoon to be in Winston early enough for me to make it to Cat's first wedding dress shopping trip! She has honored me by asking me to be a bridesmaid so I was able to try on dresses too. The trip was surprisingly successful. Cat picked out the bridesmaids dresses AND HER WEDDING DRESS! I was so glad I was able to be there :) We spent the night with her and had plans to go tour Wake Forest (where her and Clay both went to school) the next day but our plans changed due to SNOW!!! Since we're not likely to get snow here in Jacksonville, it was a nice surprise. Daisy LOVED it! She was absolutely hilarious to watch. And our plans changed to include playing the Wii, a game of Life, and watching Duke basketball. It was a wonderful time with friends made all the better by the wintery wonderland. And, of course, here's some pictures :)

Cat and Clay

Daisy figuring out this wet cold stuff (real quick - see snowball about to hit her)
Me and Daisy running around

Crazy Daisy

Daisy attacking the snowball in Nate's hand :)

River Court

We made our first trek down to Wilmington this past weekend. Jacksonville isn't exactly a booming metropolis and, while it has most everything you need, some things you just have to drive to Wilmington for. This time it was NY & Co. Everything was 50% off this weekend and I needed some new winter clothes, so to Wilmington we went. We had great success shopping and the shopping center we were at was decorated with "reindeer". We decided to make it a photo op :) We definitely turned a few heads, but the pictures are amusing.



After shopping, we decided to go see the USS North Carolina Battleship. It was dark, but Nate had heard on the radio that they put Christmas lights on it so we decided to go check it out. Definitely not nearly as cool as it sounded and taking a good picture was pretty well impossible. We'll probably go back to monkey around on it sometime, but the location is great because right across the river is downtown Wilmington complete with a Christmas tree and lights!


I wanted to get a picture of the tree and lights so we walked across a grassy area to the edge of the river. Once we were finished taking pictures and walking back to the car I looked to my left and saw something that looked suspiciously like a basketball court with a set of bleachers (which was the give away). Once we were in the car I had Nate shine the headlights on aforementioned suspect area and sure enough, basketball court. Many of you probably think I'm crazy for ranting about some basketball court on the side of a river next to a battleship. But if you've ever watched One Tree Hill (which is filmed in Wilmington), you'd understand my excitement at stumbling across the River Court. All things important on that show happen at the River Court and it was just funny to find it without even trying (yes, at some point my sister and I will drive around and take pictures of all the locations on the show - don't judge).

However, I must say that a scene at the River Court will never be quite the same. I'll forever be seeing the battleship they're filming next too.