Happy 7th Anniversary!

 


Today Bill and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! It seems like way longer than that though. LOL. I'm not sure why. I guess because it feels like we've always been together. We treated ourselves to a date afternoon/evening. I have really been itching to see the Our Bodies: The Universe Within exhibit ever since I noticed it advertised in Orlando. I never got a chance to go. Well, I found out that it was at the University of Texas I asked Bill if we could go. I'm not sure he was as enthusiastic as I was, but he did agree that it was really cool. The price tag is a little steep, but it was spectacular. It really was such an awe inspiring experience. It totally illustrated to us how magnificient God's plan for a human body to work is just amazing. Seriously, our bodies are marvelous machines. And the exhibit while graphic in some regards (ie a man was holding his own skin) and even a little emotional in others (ie the babies that died before they had a chance to live here on Earth), it truly was an amazing experience!

 
 
 
 
(photos are not allowed. i found these on the internet and they are of the displays that we saw.)

After leaving the university, we headed to Round Rock to the French Bistro/Cafe, La Madeleine. We each enjoyed a sandwich and pasta salad and sampled a couple of their little pastries before heading over to the Cinemark to catch Iron Man 2. We knew that was the movie that we had to choose since we saw Iron Man on our last anniversary date when we celebrated our 5th anniversary. We both agreed that it was good, but that the first one had a better story line. We laughed and marked our mental calendars for our 9th anniversary date to see Iron Man 3. LOL.


 
 

After the movies, we headed home. Bill did me a favor and put together our wagon that we've had for nearly years and that I need tomorrow while I went out and fetched our traditional anniversary treat carrot cake. We really loved the ones from Publix that we have had before, but this one from Walmart wasn't too bad of a substitute.
 

My gift is doing double duty. It's a 22 carat gold bangle from Bahrain. It's beautiful! Bill said it's for Mother's Day and our anniversary!

 
 

What the Hey! How I Met My Love!

Okay, so I've never done this blog hop thing. First off, it's mostly due to ignorance of exactly how to participate (so forgive me if I totally botch this attempt) and 2nd, it's because most of the topics I have next to ZERO to say or what I do have to say isn't nearly as eloquent or entertaining as the previous posters and who wants to be the boring among all the bling? So without further ado, here is my attempt at HOW I MET MY LOVE.

This is a little story of serendipity as one would have it. Can you say totally randomly? Can you say NOT EVEN REMOTELY INTERESTED IN LOOKING? Well this is what I can say for sure.

It was July 2002. I had broken off a pretty serious relationship in February and I was pretty jaded about "love" and finding it. I was doing pretty well on my own as it was. I had my own place, a pretty loyal little dog, and a really good job. I was free as a bird! So as it was, I had finally come into the modern times and purchased my first personal computer with its own dial up internet access via AOL. I had a pretty boring sign on which I still use today: HOAGY74 and my profile said these things: SINGLE, FEMALE, INDIANAPOLIS, Wherever you go, that's where you are. Did I mention that it was boring? Oh yes, moving on.

So it was a pretty typically day in Indy. I had worked. I had gone home. I had probably eaten some boring convenience food though I don't remember. I mostly remember that I was shopping for a new vehicle. I had a perfectly decent 1998 Honda Accord EX-L, but I was getting antsy to get an SUV for some weird reason. It really wasn't a necessary "upgrade", but it just seemed like the thing to do. So instead of hitting up dealerships as that "stupid, single female" I was doing my research online and checking out VIN numbers at the local establishments.

Most everyone will recall that when you used AOL back then that you automatically would be signed onto AIM when you were online. You could block IMs if you wanted to, but most of us just left it on and would occasionally chat with a buddy. Well this particular night, minding my own business, typing in VIN numbers I got a RANDOM IM from a person with an onscreen name of BOLTS505. I generally would ignore these random unknown people. I mean it is kind of unsafe to entertain strangers and I am a pretty "by the rules" kind of girl. So whatever possessed me to reply to this annoying IM, I still don't know. The exact line is something I don't remember. I just remember thinking, EXCUSE ME? So this is how I met my husband. A RANDOM instant message. He found me in the online list and assumed by the 74 in my screen name that I must be about his age or super old. LOL. (Old people weren't as likely to be online back then.) And the SINGLE FEMALE also said something. :) So we instant messaged back and forth for a while. He told me he was a soldier. That he worked at DFAS and that he would send me an email from his AKO (military email) account to prove it. (It would be fairly hard to fake this so I had no reason not to believe him.) He asked for my number and I figured he was harmless so I told him and we talked for hours and hours. Finally, we agreed to meet in person. We met for a drink, then dinner and then we went to a bar to KARAOKE. The rest is history. Well there is a little more. (I actually almost dumped him after the 2nd date, but I will leave that story for another day.)