Vous et Nul Autre

Charlie and I had a wonderful pre-anniversary celebrati0n this weekend. And my mom and dad sent us our first anniversary card! It's this sweet vintage couple and quite possibly my favorite card of all time!

Since our actual anniversary is tomorrow, Monday, we decided to live it up over the weekend at the Omni Houston. From the pool to the tennis courts we really enjoyed our mini-vacation. My boss suprised us with a beautiful upgraded room with a pool view.

We had to go and check out the black swans. They are so cute and one of the mamma's had some little ducklings not too long ago!

"Stop looking at me swan!"

We also ate alot! For lunch we had some great Greek food at Yia Yia Mary's...OPA!!!

Our friends at the Omni westside even set up some champagne and chocolate covered strawberries....

Charlie had no shame showing his excitment for the suprise delivery!

Charlie also surprised me with beautiful pearl earrings from Tiffany's. Although these were beautiful I was more excited about the "infinity pearl" earnings Charlie had originally picked out.

The ones he had in mind were apparently sold out every where except for Japan so I'd have to wait a few months until the store had more shipped in. So we brought them back to the galleria this morning and the girl who helped us checked their wearhouse again (I can't imagine Tiffany's having a wearhouse...) and they had some in stock! We placed the order and I should get them by Friday; I was sooo excited!

And did I mention we ate alot? For dinner we had great steaks at Ruth's Chris. Our waiter was super nice and gave us a free desert since it was almost our anniversary.

I was able to order a new cake top from the lady who made our wedding cake as a suprise for Charlie!

...she makes really, really great cakes!

I am looking at my wedding ring as I type, remembering the night Charlie proposed to me. I stood in front of him while he opened a ring box and I knew that I loved him more than I ever thought I would love somebody. I remember the first few days after I met Charlie we were at a volleyball game and how I really wanted to "spike" the ball well so he would notice me. I remember how I waited for him to call. I remember the way he surprised me with the tulip set engagement ring I had fallen in love with. His hands were shaking and he bent down and I just kept thinking that it couldn't be real.

I've written this post before but I thought since tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary it was appropriate...
"What Our Marriage Is"

It's late night tennis games.

It's laughing hysterically at parts of a movie no one else thinks are funny.

It's me looking up from my book to see Charlie waving at me from the kitchen.

Its dragging him to one more store looking for the perfect gift.

It's burnt dinner (which he would never complain about), clean laundry (which most likely, he did), and staying up until 3 a.m. watching The Office.

It's telling the truth, even when it hurts.

It's spending your nights in a hospital room holding his hand.

It's ordering take out and singing along to terrible Kansas music....It's believing what God does with what we give Him is far greater than what we could have done with it ourselves.

It's Charlie and Kristin, and it's good.

But it's not perfect.

It's a slamming door because we've had a rough day. It's the sharp voice that comes out of you when you just meant to ask where your shoes are. It's your heart breaking because you can't fix it all. It's wishing you could rewind to a chapel and tell the newlyweds that there really is some "worse" with the "better." But through it all Christ has been the center of the ups and downs. God has blessed us tremendously with each other! And we praise Him for his wisdom in the design of marriage! And even though we cannot love each other perfectly, Christ gives us the grace to forgive, to smile, to hug, to say I'm sorry. And just like the bible verse below says, "by HIS wounds we are healed."

"But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed. " Isaiah 53:5-6

As we reflect on the past year and look forward to the upcoming one, I pray that increased faith in God would be manifested in us through a deeper dependence on Him in prayer so that we would be encouraged and take more things to him that way!

I love you Charlie

....You and no other!