Friday, April 30, 2010

First Post: A Dedication

Hayley told me last week that she will be devoting 85% of her energy to this blog. Quite a committment. When she saw the tears streaming down my face she tried to explain that she meant "85% of her online social networking" energy, we'll see.

Hayley has made it clear that my blog debute is supposed to be lovey. Several tiimes over the last couple weeks I've felt a certain moment in our lives would well be captured with a timeless entry in the H+D blog archives. I have been assured repeatedly that most of my would-be blog entries are not of general interest or offensive. I have therefore had to put on the backburner accounts such as "The Camel," a humorous tale of a loving wife spitting on her doting husband's face in the middle of the night during what she called a "dream."

Instead, this blog entry is dedicated to my Hayley. We met when we were 15, stayed in touch and stayed friends, remet at OBX and are now married. It's the best thing to ever happen to me. Our relationship (in it's varying forms over the years) has been based largely on our ability to talk to each other for so many more hours than should be possible. I have long been a fan of Arrested Development (put it in your permanent collection immediately), and Hayley and I have recently rewatched all three seasons. Last night we had the final episode left, a mere 23 minutes of comic genius left to go. We fired up the dvd and started to watch. We often have to pause shows/movies when someone wants to say something. Last night we didn't get a minute into the episode before we had to pause it to talk about something. That something turned into several hours of chatting on the living room floor. We never finished the episode, but we had fun doing what we've done since we were 15.

I have now blogged. We'll see how close to 85% my energy committment gets.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Pie a la' Duke

I've been banned from the kitchen.

Whenever my husband "bans" me from the kitchen, I know he is up to something... the last time he did this we ended up with the most ridiculous dessert I have ever seen/tasted/heard of in my entire life. Seriously. It was sick. It was the first time both of us failed to finish our plates! (We made up for it later though when we ate dessert for breakfast, afternoon tea and then dessert again the next day!)

This is all the evidence that remained:

Recipe for Pie a la' Duke:

*homemade graham cracker crust (graham crackers, sugar, butter)
*cream cheese (flavored strawberry/pineapple also good)
*brownie mix - no eggs
*shredded coconut
*cool whip

Layer the crust, cream cheese and brownie mix in the order written above. After putting the brownie mix in the pie crust, cook briefly just till the edges are beginning to set. Remove from the oven, top with the coconut and cool whip. Good luck!

I wonder what surprise I am in for today...

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Keeping the peace


Last year, when booking tickets to visit D over the New Year (FOUR MONTHS before the trip would take place!) we were forced into making a quick evaluation on the state of our relationship. Not sure where things were heading, I turned to my dad for some advice:

"Well, do you think you can keep the peace until then?" he asked.
"I don't know!" I answered, honestly.

Obviously, we kept the peace and a la' Derrald we "took it to the next level"...

Today is our One Month Anniversary.

One month ago today, we found ourselves sitting on our patio, eating our lunch and pondering whether we should just head right over to the courthouse that very instant, round us up a couple of witnesses on site and get the whole marriage thing over with. The more we thought about it, the easier it seemed. We never wanted anything dramatic. We weren't sure how it was going to work out regarding paperwork etc. and we could always just get our marriage license regardless and come back for the actual service with our friends another day... Sold. A quick shower and a nice pair of jeans later, we were on our way.

Our license was obtained quickly and painlessly, with only one minor confusion when D ticked a box indicating that we were related to each other on a level closer than first cousins (?!!?!) So, license in hand, we headed our way over to the local jailhouse to find the magistrate.

The magistrate was a fairly young guy and he could not have been more excited to see us. We were a "breath of fresh air" after a day involving criminals, drug addicts and an emergency call to the paramedics after one guy had a seizure (drug induced) in the chair D was now sitting in.

Romance was....not....in the air. But it was exciting. We were in a bubble and nothing could penetrate it. We nabbed ourselves a couple witnesses off the street (one of them being the seizure guy's girlfriend!! - Derrald I told you not her!), shared our proposal story with the magistrate, who was newly engaged himself, said our "I do's" and we were HITCHED!

For those of you that are still confused, Derrald and I got married a month ago. For real.

Yes, our cute little wedding ticker suggests that our wedding is not for another 57 days, and it's correct. The wedding will be June 18th and we are saving our celebrations until then. D keeps joking that even if I get cold feet, what am I going to do? He'll just see me at home. haha!

We highly recommend this approach to marriage. Do it yourselves. Quietly. Without fuss. Together. Two weeks before. That's what we would do if we were to plan it. It takes all the stress and performance out of it. It is actually very romantic (jailhouse and all). We love how simple it was and how we got to focus on each other. Now the wedding can really be all about celebrating with our friends and family.

Today is our one month anniversary and we have kept the peace.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

And thus it begins...

I have never kept a blog before.

Derrald and I have been talking for months about starting one, on the condition that I am never the only one left posting things and that we make an effort to update no more than twice a month, no less than once.

Wow. We had conditions. All we needed to do was start.

So this is it. This is the start.

I spend most my time at home these days and therefore you will be hearing from me... at first. We have a few things to catch up on and then hopefully we'll be up to speed with the wedding just 58 days around the corner...