05/13/10: I'm back!!!

Good Afternoon, y'all!

So I told y'all back in February about how I met my husband.  Well.  May 10th was our two year wedding anniversary.  We went to a cute little ranch B&B.  Well, not little.  It's a working ranch and therefore is ranch sized spaces.  The owner of the ranch has taken all the various homes that have been built through the years, plus she's added a few more, and turned each of those into cottages you can stay in.

So before I tell you about our anniversary, a bit about our marriage should be shared.  I told, in Feb, that we booked our church before we actually got engaged.  So here's the story of our engagement.

We met in Feb and pretty much instantly knew where our relationship was going.  We had talked about spring weddings vs. fall weddings and spring was our choice - although my sweet hubby didn't get that message in the initial conversation.  :)  In April that year (2007) I went offshore with my previous company and was gone for about 5 weeks.  I was working on a vessel coming and going out of Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico.  (No, not Carmen that y'all would have seen gorgeous pictures of, Ciudad del Carmen.  A very different working type of city - not resort city.)  When the vessel was in port, I could use my cell phone to call my boyfriend.  And I did.  A LOT!  We missed each other terribly and discovered pure certainty in the fact that we wanted to get married.  And towards the end of that trip, we started really talking about it.  We were talking in one conversation about when we would get married and he said something about the fall, meaning fall '08.  And I said "But I want a spring wedding" - and of course, we are still talking about '08.  And he responded "So soon?!!!?"

Hmmm.  Not the response I was hoping for/expecting.  And he quickly tried to recover but...suffice it to say, it has turned into something we laugh about to this day.  My sweetheart!!!  Always gives me something to laugh at!

He tried and tried and tried to correct himself - which made it even funnier.  And nowhere in that conversation did I ever doubt his intent to marry me.  It really was pretty funny!

So when I got home from that trip at the end of May, we went ring shopping.  He wanted to get a sense of what I wanted.  But we ended up finding the perfect set of wedding rings and engagement ring pretty quick and we bought them.  The engagement ring didn't have a stone and he intended to shop for awhile, without me, to find the right one.  But again, we were together when we saw the stone that was perfect for what we wanted.  So here it is, Memorial Day weekend of 2007 and he has a ring in his pocket and we are getting engaged.

He proceeded to take the ring with him everywhere for the next week showing it off to anyone and everyone he could.  Meanwhile, I'm talking to my friends about the impending engagement and they are all taunting me with, he must not be serious, otherwise he would have proposed by now.

Still...time goes on...and no questions are asked...

The Weds of that week we had an appt with our pastor to ask about booking the church.  We settled on April 19th.  Sat of Memorial Day weekend we took a tour of Butler's Courtyard (if you click that link, you'll see a picture of us!!!) and fell in love.  But here I am, walking around without a ring.  And other brides-to-be are checking out my bare hand.  We also checked out other spots to have our reception, as well.  And always, brides-to-be are looking at me like I'm a fraud.

Couple those looks with my friends and their taunts and by the end of that week I was beginning to wonder what the hold-up was.  Friday afternoon I made a comment to my boyfriend that it was getting to me.  I mean, we'd settled on Butler's Courtyard and were going to book a date and pay our deposit on Saturday.  So what was going on?

He was trying and trying to make it special.  And he was racking his brain for just the way to propose.  But feeling the pressure, he decided Friday would be the day.  He found a cute little romantic spot in a restaurant in Kemah that was notorious for proposals and made a reservation for that evening.

Fast forward to dinner - and it was the most awkward we have ever been with each other.  I knew something was coming.  He knew I knew.  He was working out how.  And I was on guard for when.  There was a couple at a table right next to us and he didn't want to cause a scene with them so close by.  So after they ate and paid and then left, that was when he struck.  He ordered me my favorite desert (creme brulee) and it arrived in a heart shaped ramekin.  And after we shared that desert, as he was picking his napkin up from his lap, he dropped it.  And the next thing I know, he's falling out of his chair to retrieve the napkin.  He somehow managed to land on a knee as he fell and in all this commotion, this bright light starts glaring at me from the table.

The box the ring was in had a white light in it when you opened it.  This corner of the restaurant that we were in was pretty dark so that little white light in the box was pretty bright.  And turn to see what's causing this brightness and there is the ring.  And I turn back to his smiling face and he asked me to marry him.  I said yes, of course, and it was a done deal!  That was on June 1st, 2007. 

When we went to Butler's Courtyard the next day to book and pay our deposit, we discovered that our only weekend available was May 10th.  So we called our Pastor who said it was no problem to switch the date.

And May 10th became our day.

We planned the wedding from start to finish together.  My husband wanted a big extravagant wedding and that was what he got.  We each had 7 people in our parties plus 3 flower girls and 1 ring bearer.  Yes, I said my husband wanted that - not me.  It was a great wedding, though, and I'm glad he was so vocal about what he wanted.  Since I am at work right now, I don't have any wedding photos I can post.  I will update this when I get home tonight and get some photos added.

So now onto this weekend.  We went to a bed and breakfast on a ranch.  The place is called Blisswood.  You can stay on the main ranch - there are about 7 or 8 different houses/cottages to choose from.  Or you can stay at a place about a mile down the road (a dirt road, but it's a road) called "Oasis".  Our little cottage was at the Oasis.  The Oasis had about 5 different green houses, one the owner is cultivating orchids in, another is for a pool (a VERY cold pool!) and the remainder were for plants and flowers that are pretty and amazing - just not orchids.  There was also a number of ponds and waterfountains and a little creek ran along the outer edge of this property.  Being at the Oasis, we still had full access to the ranch without all the comings and goings.  No matter how you cut it, though, this place is RUUUUURRRRRAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!

We arrived Sunday in the early evening time and settled in.  We took our doggies along with us - they had a blast, although I think they were afraid we were giving them away.  Poor puppies!  They were happy to get home, that's for sure!  We wandered the property and unpacked stuff then settled in for a quiet evening.  There was no tv there, so that was pretty odd to my sweet hubby, I think.

Monday, we slept in and had massage therapists come to our little cottage for a one hour couples massage.  My sweet hubby says his was the best he's ever gotten.  My lady spent more time scratching my scalp than anything else.  What little else she did was nice - but I could have done without having my scalp scratched for about half an hour.  Oh well.  We spent the afternoon wandering the main ranch and checking things out.  Pictures are below.  Then we headed back to our lanai for an afternoon of cheese and wine and fruit.  I read while my sweet hubby just watched the world.  It was incredibly peaceful and relaxing.

Monday night we settled in for some games and just chilled out.  I think the lack of tv really started to get to my hubby, though, as he started to get stir crazy and was really ready to go home.  We also had pretty poor cell phone reception, if at all, so he couldn't even get to his tweets (my hubby is a twitter junkie!).  My sweet hubby is also a news junkie and the lack of news, I think, just irritated him.  He sure was ready to go when it was time to leave!

Not the best of pictures - I managed to forget a camera so these were taken with my phone...

Tuesday was also a day off for us but we spent it doing odds and ends of things - I bought pots for my garden as well as a "cattle panel" for my cucumbers, zucchini and squash to grow up and over on.  I'll post pictures of my garden in my next post.  Everything is planted now - and best yet, our sprinkler system is fixed.  Apparently it was irritating our yard crew as they just turned the water off to the system!  We got some work done on our truck - maintenance stuff.  And we took our neighbor/friend out to lunch for her birthday.

And now here I am, today, Thursday back at work.  Yesterday I had my first fill.  I didn't end up seeing my surgeon for my follow-up - I was told I could wait until he got out of surgery to see him but who knew how long that would be and he had a waiting room full of people waiting to see him.  I go back for my next fill in two weeks so I can see him then, if it works out.  If not, I'm not having any issues, they have all signed off that the incisions look good, I am losing weight...so I may never see him again.  Darn!

My first fill I got 1.5cc's so I now have a total of 2.5cc's.  They did it under fluoroscopy so I could see that I am back to a straw-sized opening again.  Last week, somewhere around tues/weds, I was HUNGEEEEERRRRRREEEE!  And I was able to enjoy eating over the weekend.  :)  Oddly - last week, as I fought eating an entire horse, I managed to gain weight.  Over the weekend and anniversary, I decided "it is what it is" and I managed to ungain those few pounds I gained while "fighting it".  So as of yesterday morning, I was back to my low and this morning was down from yesterday.  According to the scale at the bariatric center, I was down 6 pounds since surgery.  Not much, but not a gain, either.  I can't believe I go back for my next fill in two weeks!  She told me it would likely be another 1cc or 1.5cc's then, too - and then I should be able to slow down on visits after that.

I know this morning I could not finish my 6oz's of smoothie.  And today, for lunch, I managed about half my 4oz of tuna salad.  This morning, I took my zyrtec, which I still can't seem to be without quite yet, and what I thought was a "sip" of water was apparently too much - about half the water came back up.  :)  As a reflex I swallowed again and it went down fine.  It was rather odd.  I am definitely chew chew chewing!  And I'm pausing between bites to make sure my little itty bitty bites are all going down before I take my next little itty bitty bite.

I sure wasn't eating like this over the weekend.  :)

And that's about all I know.  I'm back.  I don't have my next class until July so I will be reading and catching up again.  My next trip isn't until July, too, so even weekends should be better.  I will start catching up today.  Almost two weeks to catch up on, though...this seems a daunting task!