Amberly's Wedding Vows

We decided to write our own vows for the ceremony, so they would be authentic and a meet the needs of the writer and recipient. I also think they portray each of our personalities and love of each other well. Like many things where our AD/HD enters the scene, these were finished last minute (well, as last minute as our more organized officiant, Tricia, could stand). Instead of polishing them up or editing them in any way, I think I’ll stay with the authenticity and present them to you in the form they were read and are kept in our wedding binder (a beloved wedding gift from Tricia). I am posting in them, like our wedding poems, in the order in which we chose to read them in the ceremony. We concluded each of our vows with the ring exchange, so I am posting those pictures as well. Enjoy!

Robert,

As the moon and the sun compliment each other in their heavenly journeys, so, too, do we thrive when our lives are united.

                        I believe you are in my life for many reasons. You have taught me how to love and accept the person I am. I promise to continue developing my individual self and offer you the same loving acceptance to continue developing yourself. Your have taught me how to play and enjoy life. I promise to keep looking for opportunities to look at life with a light heart and a curious mind. You inspire me to nurture my goals and believe in my dreams, and I offer you that same support.

                        As we have been together, I have discovered the value of openly expressing love. I promise to give affection and attention to you and your needs, while tending to my own. I promise that with you, I will continue to nurture our relationship from which many of our needs are met.

                        The moon dances through the sky in her ever-changing guises, and the sun casts his mirthful light as he steadily marches through the sky celebrating each season. They are forever circling and complimenting each other-sometimes making space for each other and sometimes being intimately close. These cycles demonstrate the natural rhythms of two individuals as they pledge with their hearts to enter into marriage. Like these cycles, this ring symbolizes the promises I make to you now and will keep forever.

Kitchen Unpacked!

            The kitchen was my first priority as far as unpacking. I got the majority of it done the first week in the house. However, I left a couple of boxes lingering until May 15 - at which point it was time to finish the job. One month later, in typical "Amberly" fashion, I'm posting about it. :)

Jak was able to enjoy his box tower for two full months. I think he especially liked the crinkling bags on top. I took some pictures, resolved to find a replacement for Jak's morning nap in the kitchen, and set to unpacking. 

See how cute he is? That is worth procrastinating for!

Could you take this guy's box tower away?

Some of the boxes had plastic storage containers, which I loathe and, quite frankly, did not want to find a place to put them in our new house. Thanks to fabulous wedding gifts and diligent saving of glass jars, we have ample storage containers that I love. So, I recycled all the plastic storage containers, and those boxes were easily and happily unpacked.

Benny appreciates that the kitchen, which he considers to be his room, is fully unpacked. As you can see in the pictures below, the kitchen is where he does all of his major work: watch us cook, oversee cat activity, eat whatever food cats may happen to get to the floor, and nap.

Settling down for a nap

Benny overseeing Albert's activities

House Guests

            We had our first overnight house guest this past weekend. Robert’s younger brother, Michael, stayed in our guest bedroom Saturday and Sunday. He and their mom drove to town for Mother’s Day weekend. They both received their first tour of our new house. It was so nice to have their perspective of how great the house looked and just how exciting it is that we own our first house. It helped to change my eyes from looking at everything that wasn’t unpacked or every project that I had not yet started and remember to enjoy this process of making our house a home and appreciating the excitement of this new adventure in our lives.

            Their visit also prompted a little extra cleaning and unpacking prior to their arrival, as is the benefit of having company. We paid special attention to the guest bedroom. No, it is not exactly as we want it, but there is still time to get it there. It is painted a very, very bright pink. We chose some neutral shades for the bed linens to tone the brightness down a bit. We are grateful to Robert’s sister and her husband to giving us their extra guest bed. Robert only just brought it home the weekend prior to Michael’s stay. So, all-in-all, we are proud of what we have done with the guest bedroom and bathroom. They make for a cozy stay this early in the game, which is impressive.

            While Michael was here, I noticed we had, perhaps, overlooked another house guest. We haven’t actually seen this guest “up close and personal,” but our new tenant has made its stay undeniable. 

Snake Skin

Robert's Wedding Poem

Here is the poem that Robert chose, which was read by his friend, Patrick:

Wondrous Moment

            By Alexander Pushkin

The wondrous moment of our meeting
I well remember you appear
Before me like a vision fleeting,
A beauty's angel pure and clear.
 
In hopeless ennui surrounding
The worldly bustle, to my ear
For long your tender voice kept sounding,
For long in dreams came features dear.
 
Time passed. Unruly storms confounded
Old dreams, and I from year to year
Forgot how tender you had sounded,
Your heavenly features once so dear.
 
My backwoods days dragged slow and quiet
Dull fence around, dark vault above
Devoid of God and uninspired,
Devoid of tears, of fire, of love.
 
Sleep from my soul began retreating,
And here you once again appear
Before me like a vision fleeting,
A beauty's angel pure and clear.
 
In ecstasy the heart is beating,
Old joys for it anew revive;
Inspired and God-filled, it is greeting
The fire, and tears, and love alive.

Photo by Kristina Strane

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Amberly's Wedding Poem

We both picked out a poem to be read aloud during our wedding. Here is what I chose, read by my dear friend, Kimberly:

A Birthday

            By Christina Georgina Rossetti

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Kristina Strane

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley

 

 

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Amberly Turns Thirty

Time and Tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty. ~Robert Frost

            I wasn’t totally thrilled with the idea of turning thirty at first, but it began to grow on me. Maybe now that I’m married and own a home, I feel more ready to be thirty. I feel more like myself, like I’m on my life’s path. It took a couple of painful years of the Saturn return to get me on my path, but here I am and it feels great! Someone very dear to me recently told me that, “thirty is when a woman comes into her own.” I can definitely related to that sentiment!

            My sister-in-law invited me to go to the beach with her and her three sons (my new nephews) for four days before my birthday. It was such a renewing way to ease myself into my thirtieth year. I’ve always been a fish out of water, but it’s been years since I went to the beach. Being in the water and under the sun was so soothing. I also learned the lesson that the concept, “all things in moderation,” truly means ALL things in moderation-including the sun! So I entered my thirtieth year with a reminder from the folly of my youth to reapply sunscreen. I also discovered sunburns don’t heal as quickly as they did when I was 19. Ah…the great lessons life has in store for us. Despite the sunburn, the trip was great. I enjoyed spending time with my sister-in-law and nephews, and had plenty of time to read the day I was stuck inside, in bed, healing from too much sun, not enough reapplication of sunscreen.

            We returned home just in time for my birthday, literally. We hit loads of traffic on the way back, so it was after 11pm when we arrived home. Robert and I spent the following day in typical Amberly birthday style. We tried out the Flying Biscuit for the first time and loved it! We did the traditional trip to the bookstore and Italian food for dinner. We also watched P.S. I Love You as a tribute to my love of all things Ireland. It’s a good movie, but I definitely recommend the book by Cecilia Ahern, which is very different from the movie. The whole book is set in Ireland, and it tells an interesting, moving story.

            The following week, we celebrated my birthday with family at my sister- and brother-in-law’s house. We grilled out, visited, and had cake with a candle worthy of a thirty-year-old.

Many Milestones and a Misplaced Camera

We have moved into our first house in a different state, Robert has a new job, Albert has turned 5, I have turned 30, and I could not find my in order camera to document any of this bloggety blog worthy news! I just found it this weekend in the glove box of my car, Regina. Now, I am ready to get back to blogging!

 

 

Our First House!

Our New Home

We are very excited to be first-time homeowners. We have a two-story, colonial style house in a wonderfully fun neighborhood. This weekend, we finally bought a lawnmower and cut the weeds. Our yard will definitely be an ongoing project for us, which is exciting. Robert wants a lawn to take pride in that is good for football playing. I take after my father and really just need to garden. In the dead of winter, it is easy to find me gardening inside with indoor plants. Now, we have almost an acre of land to cultivate to our hearts’ content.

View with the new basketball net

Shortly after we moved in the house, I ordered a beautiful peacock feather door button. Robert also bought and hung a new basketball net and raised the goal to the appropriate height. The new doorbell and basketball net add a bit of character and shine to the house, don’t you think?

New Doorbell Button

Albert’s Fifth Birthday

            My first little kitty turned five years old on April 6^th. He is no longer the little ginger fuzz ball I adopted so many moons ago. He is a long cat with an even longer tail. He is a big kitty who can jump from the (indoor) second floor balcony to the landing and from the third step from the top all the way down into the foyer. However, just because he is older and longer does not mean that he is going to put himself in danger. Therefore, each Monday when the garbage truck and the recycling truck pass by the house, you can rest assured that Albert will be hidden underneath the bedspread in the master bedroom, safe from all scary trucks. The same is true when we dare to vacuum in the house. Really, under the bedspread is just safer. We gave him some new foam bouncy balls as his birthday present. They are his absolute favorite toys, and he is good at catching those things! Sometimes, he will even bring them back for a couple more tosses. 

Baby Albert

Our 5-year-old Alby Cat

Blogging Resolution

            Now that I have my camera, I resolve to post more often here to keep everyone updated. My current goal is to post twice a week. Upcoming posts will include my birthday; wedding pictures, poems, and vows; more pictures of our new home; and, as promised in the first post, personality profiles of Benny and The Cats! You stay tuned and I’ll keep posting.

Our First Yule Tree

The Decision

After much discussion about the environmental impact of different kinds of trees and how to handle the cats and a tree, we finally decided to go with a fresh cut tree. We knew we needed something large and stable enough to handle either of our jungle cats going for a climb. We also knew we wanted to go with a tree that was as environmentally friendly as possible. We ruled out an artificial tree for two very important reasons: 1) the cats eat them despite the fact that they cannot digest them and 2) that’s a lot of plastic for an all natural woman like me to have to handle.

The Tree

One day, Robert was stopping by Whole Foods on his way home and gave me a call to see what I needed from the grocery. I replied, “milk and a Christmas tree.” He purchased a Fraser Fir, which smells heavenly, and a stand that would stabilize it well for possible cat climbers. Also, the tag on the tree said that the farm where it is from plants two new trees for each tree that is cut down. The tag mentioned more about the origins of the tree and the farm, but, sadly, I cannot find it right now. I will add to the post if I find it, but there is a blog post about trees from Whole Foods that can give you more information.

 

The Snafu

A few days later, I was very concerned that the tree wouldn’t soak up the water it needed if we didn’t cut off the bottom part of the trunk as advised on the tag. I took the ornaments down, bought a saw (and led lights), clipped the lowest boughs, and sawed off the very bottom. I sat it back in its stand and stabilized it with the screw thingys and was very proud of my initiative…until I looked at the tree. It was very, very crooked. Fortunately, Robert came home from work early that day and straightened out the…ahem…situation. That evening, we decorated the tree together, complete with lights and beaded garland. It was a fun tradition to start and the tree looked beautiful.

Our Cozy Fire and Mantel Decor

The Holiday

For our first Christmas together, we stayed home and had a nice quiet holiday. It snowed almost all day. There was no accumulation, but it was beautiful to watch. We built a beautiful fire and opened our gifts in front of it. Benny even scored big with his holiday gift…perhaps too big.

The bone that was bigger than Benny.

Benny enjoying his bone by the fire.

Building Our Little Nest

    Another project that Robert and I undertook during our Honeymoon was picking out, purchasing, and putting together a new bedroom suite. We feel so adult to have all matching furniture in our bedroom. It’s a beautiful mahogany set that we found at World Market. These pictures were taken shortly after the honeymoon. We’ve since found a matching nightstand for Robert, and I’ve put up different curtains. However, these pictures give a general idea of what it looks like (especially in early autumn when there was lots of sunshine). Robert, darling husband that he is, actually put all of the furniture together himself. We are so grateful to the many people that contributed to our nest in the form of wedding presents. I am glad we have such blessed beginnings to our marriage.

Where's Benny?

Thanksgiving

Yes, it's a little late, but I wanted to post about our first Thanksgiving together. We stayed home and my youngest sister came to visit. Robert worked so hard to make us a wonderfully delicious turkey (seriously, it was that good). He also made yummy mashed potatoes and stuffing. I made green beans and that pretty salad. We had all kinds of fun watching Finding Nemo and playing Uno and Scattergories. Shannon was a super helper-she washed all of the dishes!!! Sorry folks, we have dibs on her for all Thanksgivings henceforth. As you can see, we used our new dishes. These are our everyday dishes. Unfortunately, we only have enough of our formal ware for tea and biscuits. As you know, Thanksgiving calls for a more filling feast. :)