Happy Birthday Audrey!!

Happy 6th Birthday sweet girl...your smile and chunky cheeks

bring joy to my heart each time I remember them!! Miss you like crazy!!

Love,

Racher

Day 463: 1st Anniversary

One year....365 days from our wedding.....463 days from our first date!! 

The Lord has continued to move big and fast in our lives and we are enjoying the journey He has mapped out for us! Especially because we get to spend it together. 

We spent the night at a B&B in Stonewall, TX (between Johnson City and Fredericksburg)!

A picture is worth a thousand words so I'll let them do the talking!!

My Anniversary card from Paul. The inside says "and then there's spice!"

And he got me roses Friday evening to start off the weekend!!

I made a picnic lunch of hummus, cucumber, tomatoes and kalamata olives--all scooped up by yummy pita chips. We enjoyed this at the vineyard just before our tour began.

Chosen at random from the website and it turned out to be a TON of fun!! Yeah for random!

This just looked like the tree of life...the grounds look like something straight from Tuscany!!

The main building had a tasting room and a gift shop. Then there were miles and miles of grapes!! Paul said "the only thing they didn't show us was the grapes of wrath!" Bummer!

We got a wonderful tour from Jeff. First picture is the bottling station and the second is the fermentation room.

60 gallons of wine fills each barrel and each barrel is made from either French or American oak.

Tour guide, Jeff, is using the 'wine stealer' to let us sample some red wine that was just recently barreled. 

Cheers! Then back on the trolley to the main building!

This is our adorable cottage at The Italian Place Bed and Breakfast. This was the most wonderful getaway. First they let you stay for one night (which most other places won't) and it was cozy, romantic and had several personal touches (like a small bottle of champaigne for our anniversary!!

There are two cottages available...ours was Buona Sera (Italian for 'good luck').
Below are several shots of our room--picture perfect for our anniversary celebration!

We enjoyed dinner in Fredericksburg at Rathskeller (German for 'basement'). 

Paul had mentioned several times how much he thought I'd look good in a dress like this. I did a little shopping and decided upwards of $60 was not an acceptable price. So I spent about $20 on materials and had my very talented friend Julie help me combine a couple of patterns and made one for myself. While we were the only people dressed up in all of Fredericksburg, it was a fun way to debut my special dress!! And Paul loved it, which was all that mattered!

We got back from dinner and these cute little guys were on the counter. 

This is the only kind of mouse I like--they were quite tasty!!

For dessert we enjoyed the "top layer" of our wedding cake. One year old frozen cake never sounded good to us so we contacted Sweet Stirrings and asked her to make a replica of our top layer. She also included a special message on top from me to Paul. I packed out toasting flutes and cake cutter and we made the first cut together just like we did a year ago!

One of the best aspects of The Italian Place is that they put your breakfast in the fridge the night before so you can eat it by yourself, at your leisure the next morning. 

It was so fun to eat in bed, in jammies, watching TV--and not have to make any of it!! 

Maple sausage quiche was a fantastic way to start the morning.

Back to Austin and ready for many more years to come! 

Thank you Lord for so richly blessing us in this first year. We pray that our lives will point others to YOU and that we always remember to whom we owe everything we have been given. 

Amen!

Missing in Action and Our 1st Anniversary!!

I can't believe it has been over a month since I had some dedicated time to sit and write. While being a nanny was a challenging job in some ways, it also had a lot of perks that a "regular" job does not....I am finding this transition back into the "real world" to be much harder than anticipated. Just finding time to get chores done feels like rocket science...which is why I'm not too annoyed that the Lord has me up this morning-a Saturday morning-at the same time I would normally be getting ready for work. It's this pocket of time He carved out for me to do something I love: write. Thank you Lord!!

Our first anniversary is tomorrow!! WOW! That is crazy...wonderful, but crazy!! Last year at 7:30 on Saturday morning I was driving to the church to have my seven closest girlfriends and my family get me dressed for an event I will never forget. Last year at 7:30 on Saturday morning I was making sure all my necessities were in my bag, double checking that I had extra copies of the music just in case, and was running on pure adrenaline! This year just before 7:30 I was snuggled in bed next to my best friend. This year just before 7:30 I rolled over and said "I have to get up, I'm starving" and heard "ok, I love you!" It's interesting isn't it...when we are hoping to receive a gift from the Lord, a year feels like an eternity. But, when we have received that gift from the Lord, a year feels like only a second!

We've fit a lot of fun into what feels like a second. A wedding, a honeymoon in Maui, moving to a new apartment, a couple of 'Nights of Praise' at church, bible study fun, weekly date nights (playing games at Starbucks is my favorite), a birthday for each of us, Gaither Homecoming Tour Concert, countless movies (I have seen more movies at the theater since I met Paul than in the last 3 years combined), seasons 1-8 of Friends, seasons 1-3 of The Simpsons (I'm soooo not holding up my and of the bargain), and more laughs than could ever be counted. Don't get me wrong, we've had tears, frustrations, heated discussions and hurt feelings too. And while this is definitely my fairy tale come true, I think there was some creative editing done to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White ;-). But it's in these trying situations that we get closer to the Lord and thus closer to one another--which makes the good times that much better!!

Our pastor was recently doing a sermon on love in which he stated "Marriage is not about finding someone you can live with. It's about finding the one you can't live without." I think that about sums it up! Here's to many more years of not being able to live without one another!!