The Cherry On Top!

Life is so good! 
My sweetie has been at the new job for over a week now and is doing just fine. There's a lot to learn and he comes home mentally exhausted but it's all good. We're taking it one day at a time and continuing to trust God. He's never failed us.

Life is so good!
Spring is just around the corner and with that comes a special celebration!

The first day of spring is.... (drum roll please) .... this Friday! We've been blessed with an exceptionally tame winter and spring-like weather has been teasing us for weeks now. There are buds and blossoms breaking out all around us and we've even mowed our lawn once! And just like spring, where new things blossom and grow, so it goes with the story of the love-burkes.  Our first date was on the first day of Spring 21 years ago this year! 

If you have been following this blog for any length of time, or if you know me in real life, you know that I LOVE to celebrate! Birthdays, Anniversaries, milestones-- all worthy of a shout out!  When it comes to me n' my sweetie, it's no exception. I make no apologies for loving this man and letting the world know it. So, if you aren't interested in sharing in this celebration, just skip on over to your next favorite blog. No hard feelings.

To mark this years occasion I decided to put together a slideshow of pictures of us over the year as a surprise for my sweetie. It was hard to decide which pictures to include and which ones to pass on, so I ended up with a pretty lengthy presentation! It was a lot of fun to revisit the box of photos though! I found pictures I'd forgotten about (oh those days before we had digital!)

check out these young things!

the 80's called; they want their dress back!

that shaggy haired worker guy

young babes in love

I'm so glad we were able to work past the fear and trepidation we had about dating and risking our hearts for a new relationship. It was all worth it and the fact that we clicked, fell in love and ended up together has been the cherry on top!

He Said "Yes"

I love it when things come together. When a plan I hatch, crazy as it may seem, doesn't scramble like eggs but rather sets up nicely, like pudding. And I do love to plan things. Much as I am a 'fly by the seat of my pants' girl, I also pay attention to details and plot out the arrangements for weeks in advance. But those impulsive last minute decisions are just plain fun. Dangerous perhaps, but FUN!

I think I've shared a bit about how the Love-Burkes came to be, but you know it's almost spring time when the memories and pictures start making their annual appearance! Our first date was on March 20, 1994-- 20 years ago this year!!- which is also the first day of Spring! I love that our love story coincides with the arrival of a new season... as the buds are busting out on the trees and blooms appear, so it was with the friendship between us that quickly progressed to love.

What you may not know is that I'm the one who asked him out. I'd been so stand-offish in the past several encounters we'd had, kind of leaving him with Freezer Burn, so when I suddenly began to thaw-- even melt, he was, not surprisingly, a wee bit suspicious and perhaps gun shy of thinking we might possible move into a relationship. I dropped some subtle hints that might prod him into asking me out but when that didn't seem to be yielding the results I wanted, I finally had to just get bold and do the asking.

You will laugh at this, but I actually scripted out what I was going to say once I got him on the phone. I wanted the conversation to be causal and non-threatening, just a "hey I was thinking of going to the movies this weekend, you wanna tag along" sort of invite. So, I wrote it out, a couple of different ways, then pacing the hallway of my home, I practiced. When I thought I finally had it down I dialed his number quickly before I lost my nerve. I pitched my invitation in an airy, off handed way... "So... after that discussion we had about the movie Schindler's List, I decided I'm going to go see it on Sunday. I wondered if maybe you'd like to go along?"

April 1994, after we'd been dating for about a month

There was a silence on his end, for probably a second or two, but from my perspective it was a LONG silence. I have since learned so much about my man, that I can now picture exactly the look on his face and hear the wheels turning in his head as he processed this seemingly out of the blue request.

Then, mercifully, he said yes.

And, the rest, as they say,  is history.