In lieu of a card

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which have a most vehement flame." Song of Solomon 8:6

Capri, Italy 2007


So, I am embarrassed to admit that due to two major back to back snowstorms and a stomach virus at Chez Porter I did not get Wayne anything for Valentine's Day this year. Although this day falls way at the bottom of the list for me I still acknowledge it with cards, candy and/or small presents for my love. I also realize that people shouldn't need an 'I love you' holiday to tell those important to them just that-but that's not the case here. So, in lieu of a card, I've compiled a list of things that I love about my Urby and hope that this will move him more than any glittery Hallmark card out there.

I love that when you send me flowers for no reason you try to have the florist include a few gerbera daisies-the flower that I carried down the aisle on our wedding day-and my fave :)

I love your smile and the look on your face as you glance at me in the passenger seat. Beside you is one of my favorite places to be.

I love the way you are with our kids.

I love that you're the kind of man that my Nanny wanted me to have. That makes me smile.

I love his determination. You've never given up on me...even when I've given up on myself.

I love that even in sleep your hand still finds mine to hold.

Holding hands in the car...love that, too.

Your eyes light up when I come to ACS to visit you. That melts my heart.

I love that you sing Italian Restaurant to me sometimes when I'm ready to go to sleep.

I love that your parents value your opinion so much.

I love that you're an upstanding businessman.

I love that you love our babies so selflessly.

You are the epitome of selfless.

Or that you don't get mad when I download 50 albums on iTunes in one month.

Or that I go over my cell phone minutes sometimes, okay, oftentimes.

I guess I love that you're so even tempered. I've never seen you really angry and I've done some pretty dumb things.

I love that I can trust you enough to tell you anything.

You watch movies like Steel Magnolias and The Notebook with me.

I love that we can laugh together (even though we both know that I'm funnier).

I love getting LOST with you. :)

I love that you've taken my heart so completely that I cannot imagine my life before you or without you-and that's just fine with me.

@ the lake 2010

Our other baby

This pup and I spend a lot of time together. And, sadly most of my friends and family do not appreciate her attention and affection as much as I do. Yes, she's eaten many a Longaberger basket, she chewed my favorite patent leather peep toe heels, she sheds small fur tumbleweeds all over our hardwood floors, but she's faithful. She needs to be where I am-right beside me-and even though her being underfoot is sometimes annoying I still love her. She lays in bed with me all day when I'm sick with a migraine. She keeps my feet warm (and my heart). She's sweet and still thinks that she's a lapdog. She just hasn't quite realized that she's not winning anyone over with the knee licking thing. But, we're working on it. :)

I really wanted to play with picture size and found this one that I took the other day and it was all over. I couldn't keep looking through pictures to try :)

Project Life: Week 5 :)

With all this snow I was hoping to be ahead of the game and just be ready to post this bright and early this morning. However, I'm too into my Pioneer Woman cookbook. And, I just found out it's on sale here for under $20!!! I've always had an aversion to cooking but I'm having so much fun! I'm mincing garlic, making my own meat sauce for lasagna and planning an herb garden. I love the feeling of picking out something from her book and preparing it for my family. That sounds strange, maybe, but the thought of Wayne walking in the door to some yummy home cooked meal makes me giddy. Plus, our family eats out waaaay too much and I really am liking the time at home more than I like having to go out or order in somewhere. We live in a college town which means there are about 15 pizza joints and one questionable Chinese establishment in our surrounding area-needless to say-we go out a lot more than we order in. Anyway, if you haven't checked her out, I encourage you to do so. She's awesome and can be found here. Have a blessed week!!

1.31.10-We picked the kids up from my in-laws house on Sunday as Wayne surprised me with a concert weekend away and it was wonderful. My sweet mother in law was teaching Mia to knit and I tried and tried to capture that moment. Mia is very excited for her next lesson with Grammy.

1.1.10-Peyton's cub scout gang (do they have an official name?) went to our local bookstore and Mr. Fred had the Pioneer Woman book waiting for me. When I was in earlier and asked him to order it he said "I need to find out more about this Pioneer Woman! I just read an article about her in Woman's Day!!" LOL

1.2.10-Today, I attempted PW's Restaurant Style Salsa. It was heavenly. I impressed my husband and my friends with this easy, yummy treat. I made it during the snowstorm and delivered it to my neighbors who had been helping us keep on top of snow blowing. Love it.
1.3.10-The kids came home from school today and wanted to help wash up some dishes. They were so nice about it and were actually working nicely together that I had to photograph it!
1.4.10-We had friends over for dinner on Thursday after dance class. Macey and Mia had a lot of fun playing together. The adults also had fun sitting around a table full of food from Giuseppe's and talking/laughing.
1.5.10-I made my first roast ever and although the snowfall was going to be my picture for this day, I'm just so proud of myself that the roast wins. :) It was delicious and went perfectly with homemade scalloped potatoes and mac&cheese-all from PW's website. Can I say again, I heart the Pioneer Woman!!
1.6.10-We woke up to about two feet of snow on Saturday morning and it was still falling. One of the city plow trucks got stuck right in front of our driveway. Over all, I believe Frostburg was covered with about 40inches total. As I type this Tuesday morning, we're waiting to see if the 12 additional inches that could come today and tomorrow is going to start. Is it Spring yet?

Project Life: Week 4

Hey, all! I actually forgot that today was PLTuesday-I'm in the midst of making The Pioneer Woman's Restaurant Style Salsa. Yummy. Seriously...check her out. She's funny and makes things that even I'm not afraid to try-and that's saying a lot.

1.24.10-After church Mia had a friend over to play. They wanted to do facials and make lip gloss. What a mess! This was right at the beginning of oatmeal masks. :)

1.25.10-My baby lost her first tooth! I blogged about it here.
1.26.10-My Nanny is in a care facility and has been diagnosed with dementia. I always struggle when going to visit her because it's just emotionally draining. During each visit, I pray that my outlook and attitude are cheerful. God has shown up in little ways by making me smile. It's in something funny that Nanny says, a phone call from my husband before I walk into the building and then, there was this:
1.27.10-The forth Wednesday of each month I participate in our school's SIT committee meeting. I enjoy the adult interaction and it keeps me up to date with things going on in our school. I also enjoy the teacher speak :)
1.28.10-Yay! It finally arrived. I can't wait to get started in putting it together!
1.29.10-This is one of the two sweet faces that we left with my in-laws for the weekend. She's so attached to us (esp. me) and whenever we've been gone from them she says "I cried 'bout you." It warms my heart! <3
1.30.10-Wayne and I went to WinterJam in State College, PA. He planned this surprised weekend for us and we had a blast! He even got VIP seating so that we didn't have to stand in the cold and we were front row right beside the catwalk! It was great.
And, I would be remiss if I didn't include this picture of one of my favorite men...

Project Life Tuesday Week 3

Good morning! This week was hectic, but provided lots of opportunities for pictures. I had a hard time picking from some of the days! I love this project because I'm getting better at having my camera handy!

1.17.10-Wii Fit-have been doing this fairly consistently (with room for improvement) have lost 5lbs so far! This past week has been not so good-so I need to step it up. St. Thomas in June is my motivation! 1.18.10-This is what $250 bucks will get you during a semester of graduate classes. I'm applying for graduation in February so hopefully this will be the last gaggle of books I purchase for a while!
1.19.10-We love doing things as a family and Wayne and I try to do some one on one things with the kids, too. This night, Emilia and I were spending some time together and were talking about The Little Mermaid on Broadway. Disney had some clips on youtube of the musical so we checked them out. She's growing up so quickly and although most of the time I want to strangle her and her newfound attitude (she's 5!) I love this time together! FYI-the National tour of TLM starts this Fall!
1.20.10-Forgive me if you're tired of pictures of this big sleeping beast. :) In this one, she's laid down right on my laptop cord and pulled it out of the wall-that didn't bother her one bit. This week as I write this she's perched on my brand-new leather reading chair watching it snow.

1.21.10-We got furniture for Wayne's office! I've wanted to have a chair in this room so that I can read while he works and we had talked about a couch in front of his desk so that the kids can be in there with us watching movies or playing games. The best part? We got it on clearance at Wolf Furniture outlet!! I love, love, love it! The back walls look pretty bare-I'm framing some kind of flight maps for him to put there.
1.22.10-My mom turned 50 on the tenth so I did what I do best-threw her a party! Some family came in and her friends from work were there, too. It was a really nice night. I love this picture but hate the the bottle of Asti made it's way in there, too. And, because it's now a game-another picture of Dad & I from this night is included as an added bonus lol.

1.23.10-Peyton's birthday is the day after Christmas and we usually wait a little while before doing anything with his friends. This year, he elected to bring three friends to the Lake for dinner and a movie. It was a really fun night!

I have a confession....

I keep my children's teeth in my jewelry box. Does that make me morbid? And tonight, with a sweet solution of joy and sadness I get to put another tooth in the box. My baby (she's 5-I can't help it) lost her first tooth tonight! We were laying in bed together watching The Little Mermaid and we were wiggling and wiggling it and it just came out! She let out the sweetest little squeal of excitement while inside I got a little sad. We had a celebration with each tooth that entered their little mouths...at least that's how I like to think of it now...then it was drool and fevers and those herbal teething tablets by the gallon. I can't help but keep them. I only have about 4 now so it's not too weird yet, right? Peyton lost 2-literally-and I dropped one of his down the drain!

When Peyton started to loose his teeth Mia cried and announced in her no longer present baby voice that she wanted "dog teeth, too!" We laughed so hard when, days later, we finally figured out that dog=adult! Now, she's got a gap in her sweet smile and it's just one more way that she's growing up. So-one of these will prob. be my Project Life pic for this day, but I wanted to post them tonight, too.

Love, actually :)

"I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest."

~Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing

I LOVE my husband. I also love literature and sappy love quotes. I really love leaving them on his Facebook page despite the fact that he rarely uses Facebook. He gets an email notification and he has an Outlook folder dedicated to the messages declaring that yet another post (by me) has been made on his wall. It may sound geeky, but when I saw that folder on his laptop one evening, it made me swoon. Really.

I love this quote from MAAN as Beatrice declares her love for Benedick. I get excited when I stumble upon new quotes while reading. I dog-ear the pages and draw hearts in the margin and underline, circle and star words and lines until my heart's content! (You should see my copy of Wuthering Heights :)

This evening these few, simple words kept running through my mind at a funeral home-of all places! My FIL's sister had passed away and although Wayne and I didn't really know her we went as a show of support for his dad. I spent the evening sitting at one end of the room while Wayne stayed with his dad and cousins on another end. Anyway, at one point Wayne's dad quickly left the room and I saw that Wayne hadn't noticed. I spoke his name, "Wayne." not loud but in a normal volume level sure that he wouldn't hear me. Almost as quickly as I spoke he turned around and his gaze met mine. I looked at this man, my heart, who knew my voice in a crowded room full of people and just melted. I love big stuff that he does, but this little stuff, something as simple as the act of turning around at the sound of my voice just puts me over the edge somedays.

I know he lurks on here sometimes, and if you're reading this:

I love YOU, U.W.P with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.

Beatrice and I, we have it pretty bad.