Happy Birthday

Okay so this memory monday isn't a very distant memory, but since I slacked and didn't write about it then, I will now. 

Cam's Birthday was a couple weeks ago.  I stress a lot about what to get and do and how to make him feel special.  He doesn't really care too much about his birthday and I think that is weird.  I think birthdays are such fun holidays because they are yours.  All the other holidays you have to share, but birthdays are your very own...unless of course you share which is very common in our families. 

Anywho, the day (March 11th) came and unfortunately it landed on a Thursday which meant I had to work late.  The one good thing was that I could do something for him before work because I started later.  I decided to put together a candy jar for his desk filled with his favorite treats.  He always teases me that I always eat all the treats before he can get to them and I hate to admit it, but it is usually true.  So I thought it would be perfect to give him some for his desk, that way I couldn't get to them first. 

I bought all the goods, put it together and drove out to his work.  I wanted to see him, but wanted to surprise him so after I got there and put it in the car, I called him and made up a story about leaving something in the car and asked him to go make sure it was in there because I wanted to make sure I didn't lose it. Blah, blah, blah. He bought it 100% and I was pleased.  I never get anything past him so I was especially excited. 

I waited forever and almost left because I was going to be late for work when he finally came out.  I watched him peek in the window looking for the "lost" item and was happy to see he was excited to see his surprise.  I caught him as he was turning to go back inside to get his keys so he could retrieve his gift. 

It was a very small and insignificant surprise, but I'm pretty sure it made him happy to be able to see me in the middle of the day and he loved the treats. After some quick birthday hugs and kisses, I left to pick up his gifts and head to work.

It was my lucky day because our schedule did not fill up to the scheduled time so I was off at a decent hour to be able to go to dinner.  He wanted me to choose and I wanted to do something a little more special than a regular date so I made reservations at Rodizio Grill.  He figured it out as we were driving there and was excited about it.  Thankfully I was able to wake him up from his nap when I got home, I almost thought he was going to sleep right through his birthday party. 

Dinner was fantastic and we got super full and headed home to open gifts and watch a movie.  He never helped me out by telling me what he wanted, he is pretty unselfish like that.  Its very sweet, but makes gift buying kind of difficult.  I bought him tickets to the Daughtry concert which he is super excited about and he also got a memory foam mattress topper for our bed.  Funny that both gifts will be enjoyed by me as well, but I promise that was not why I bought them, just an added bonus. 

I was very happy that he was surprised by and loved his gifts.  We put the tickets on the fridge to look forward to and immediately put the mattress topper on our bed.  Let me tell you...it. is. heavenly.  Ironically, though, we didn't even sleep on it that night, we ended up falling asleep on the couch almost the entire night.  We were pretty dissappointed when we woke up the next morning, but we have enjoyed it very much since then.

So Happy Birthday (late) to the very best husband I could have ever wished for. I hope you know how much I love you because it is a whole bunch.

Newlyweds

I've been a slacker the past couple of Mondays so I'm trying do better this week.  For my memory monday post this week, I have just a short and vague memory to share.  It actually is more like an overall memory instead of a specific one...maybe that's confusing, sorry.  Anyway, on with it.

Like every other couple, we found ourselves pretty much inseparable as we dated, fell in love and were engaged.  And as mentioned before, I absolutely hated going home at night.  Not that I didn't love my family or have a great home, I just did want to be anywhere where Cam wasn't.  So needless to say, I was really looking forward to being able to live together. 

Our Honeymoon was my dream come true because we spent every moment together.  I remember dreading having to go to work the Monday after we came home.  The thought of leaving was quite depressing. Cam was searching for a new job at the time since his previous one was just seasonal so he spent the day working on finding new employment while I headed to see my friends at work.  At the time I couldn't have loved my job more so I was excited to see my friends again and tell them all about our grand honeymoon.  I was happy and glowing with the newlywed love all while missing my new husband.  I just remember thinking all day about going home and I couldn't wait.

I don't remember specifics, but I think that I had the chance to go home for lunch since we just lived down the street from the office.  The short visit was a good pick-me-up to get through the rest of the day.  The rest of the afternoon all I could think about was getting home.  As I pulled into the parking lot and walked up the stairs to my door all I remember was how excited I was just to be home and to get to spend all evening with Cam.  It honestly felt like Christmas morning except it was bright, sunny and warm. 

I know it sounds really cheesy and maybe a little childish, but I loved how excited I was.  I loved the fact that I didn't have to go home to my separate house and wait to see him until we figured out our plans for the rest of the evening.  I loved that I could go home and fix dinner and hang out, just us, for the rest of the night. The excited feelings I had were just how I imagined I would feel and I couldn't have been more pleased. 

Its funny, I thought that maybe those feelings of excitement as I came home every night would fade as time went on and the thought of that kind of worried me.   Of course at times they are stronger than others, but I can honestly say that the thought of seeing Cam every night gives me those same butterflies.  I get excited when I see that he is already home when I get there and I don't have to wait any longer. And I also love when I get home before him and I can get our house in order and start dinner before he comes home.  Its so fun to anticipate his arrival and I also really love that we both show our excitement when we see each other.  Most times a huge hug and a bunch of kisses are exchanged at the door.  Its easily my favorite part of the day :) 

Trampoline

 Cam's parents have a trampoline in the ground in the backyard.  It quickly became one of our favorite places while we were dating.  I know what you are thinking and I promise that we didn't just go out there for a make-out session. :) Sometimes yes, kissing was involved. We were falling in love what do you expect! But we more enjoyed having a quiet place to cuddle while we talked about anything and everything. 

The first time Cam took me out there we had been spending the Sunday evening with his family and even though it wasn't said, we both wanted some alone time.  Cam took the initiative to take me out there and I was happy to follow.  We talked about the future and skipped around the subject of financial stability if by chance we did decide to take the plunge and other related topics. We talked about a lot of other things but  nothing concrete or final was decided, but we were moving toward marriage and I was thrilled. 

We spent many of those summer evenings on the tramp and it quickly became my favorite part of our nights.  I loved the fact that Cam wanted be able to be just us.  I think that was one of the first things I fell in love with.  He always made time for us to be together and to spend quality time.  I loved just talking and having quality conversations so that we could get to know each other in a way that we could find out how much we loved each other. 

Since it was usually late by the time we headed out there, more often than not we would fall asleep while talking.  We quickly learned to set an alarm so I could get home at a decent hour.  I developed a very hateful relationship with that alarm and dreaded the sound of it.  I hated the pit in my stomach that came at the very thought of having to go home and because the alarm signaled that time, I hated it. So. Bad. 

One of the times we fell asleep, the alarm did not go off...or maybe I just snoozed it too many times, but regardless, we didn't wake up until 4:15 am.  Terrible I know, but even worse is the fact that my dad wakes up for work at 4:30 and, well you can imagine how happy he would be if I wasn't home when he left?  So I fratically woke Cam up, quickly said good bye and HURRIED home.  (Good thing I only lived 30 seconds away.)  I tried to come up with a plan as I drove home.  I came from the other side of the street so I wouldn't have to drive past, turned off my headlights, parked on the road, and snuck in the garage door.  I was pretty successful and just as my head hit the pillow, I heard my dad's alarm go off.  Close one. 

I thought I was home free until my mom came in while I was getting ready for work and asked what time I got in and proceeded to tell me that someone had broken into my dad and brother's truck that night and she wondered if I saw anything out of place when I came home.  Seriously of all nights!  I reluctantly told her the truth and endured her small lecture and then told her I hadn't seen anything. Then i quickly begged her not to tell my dad.  Unfortunately, the word got to my dad and we both got another small lecture at our softball game the next day.  Luckily he was good natured about it and mostly teased us, but we knew we had to not ever let it happen again and we didn't. 

Like I said before, I absolutely HATED having to go home. On more than one occasion I said that when we were married, I wanted to come and sleep out on the tramp all night just because that is what I always wished I could do.  So we did just that.  Last year we chose a night and after our friends left our apartment after hanging out, we grabbed our sleeping bags and headed down to Cam's parents house.  They didn't know we were planning on it and we didn't tell them we had arrived because it was after midnight by the time we got there.  So they were surprised to see our car the next morning and even more surprised to find us sleeping on the tramp. 

We have recently decided to make it a tradition to spend one summer night each year camping out on the trampoline.  I just can't wait for it to get warm enough so we can!

Our First Date

For our first "Memory Monday" post, I thought I would write about our first date. 

Cam came home from his mission in March of 2008 and we had only talked briefly at church and exchanged phone numbers.  I think that he texted me later that night to see if I was going to ward prayer and then he texted me the next day to see if I wanted to go to the Joseph Smith movie (classic return missionary date right?) I unfortunately had to take a test in my class so I declined and  was flattered but honestly didn't think that much about it. 

A couple weeks later we ran into each other at the ward temple day and talked briefly.  I remember feeling self conscious because we had done baptisms and my hair was wet and I had no make-up on.  We again spoke briefly and again I didn't think that much about it.

The next day I got another text from him while I was at work and that's when we really started talking.  Since I was at work, we couldn't talk on the phone, but we did have quite the conversation and I found myself getting excited about each response.  After almost a whole day of texting, I, very uncharacteristically, asked if we were ever going to do something...a.k.a. was he going to ask me out.  Again, very unlike me.  I could tell he was a little taken surprised by my being so forward, but asked what I was doing that weekend.  I had already agreed to a blind date on Saturday, so I told him I was available on Friday.  Being a little nosy, he asked why I couldn't do it on Saturday and I, not wanting to lie told him about my date.  So we agreed on bowling and I couldn't wait. 

I was so excited all day on Friday.  I was hanging out with my friend Brynne and I remember telling her how excited I was about it.  I couldn't decide if it was because we were friends before and I knew how fun he was, or what it was, but I liked it and thought about it all day.

After carefully getting ready and deciding to wear my new cute jacked and my favorite "worn out" jeans, I waited for what seemed like forever for him to pick me up (he was a little late). My Dad asked where I was going.  The detail as to whether it was an actual date or not were a little fuzzy and not wanting to assume too much,  I told him I was going to hang out with Cam.  My dad loves to tease and he also knew Cam really well because of the fact that we were in the same ward.  He started to tell me that he heard Cam was training to be a cage fighter and I, of course, just laughed and said that it didn't matter because we were just hanging out. ...little did I know :)

Finally he came to pick  me up looking so cute in his plaid shorts and a cream quicksilver jacket and from the moment I opened the door until the time he brought me home, I was laughing.  I remember thinking "you better stop laughing at everything or he is going to think you are weird" but I couldn't stop and I'm pretty sure he liked that I thought he was so funny. 

It sounds weird, but the first part of our date we went to get a Jamba Juice and a balloon for his best friend's step mom.  I know, strange, but Cam is just relaxed like that and decided to include it because he wanted to take her something because she was just like a mom to him and I guess didn't want to put off our date until later so that was the beginning of our night. 

We then decided on Winger's for dinner, which I had only been once before, but it is now one of our favorite.  Conversation was easy and fun and I enjoyed every minute.  We then finished up with bowling at Orchard Lanes.  I remember sitting there while he was taking his turn and thinking two things.

One: "This is really fun, I would love to spend more time with him" and Two: "Wow, he has a really cute rear end" :)  Two very important things wouldn't you say? It was pretty late by the time we were done so he took me home after that.  

Even if it wasn't clear before as to the status of that night, it became a date because he paid for all of it.  And it must have gone well because aside from the date I had already set for the next night, neither one of us went out with anyone else from that point on.  We also spent almost every day texting during work and then hanging out after.  Dating was so fun.  Short, but fun :) and I will be writing more about those times in the future.  But as for now, that is how this whole thing got started.