Our Love Story

It's a cold, blustery day today, and while we got quite a bit done yesterday, today has turned into a "sit in front of the computer" day. I did get our taxes done and filed this morning. I also paid the light bill online and updated my Etsy page. I let the horses out, but haven't checked to see if we've gotten eggs yet. The dogs have come and gone. I washed a load of clothes and am fixing to load the dishwasher. But, I said this was a love story, so forget the chores Cinderella and remember the ball. ;o)

This story begins about 12 years ago. I was a single mom who was alone, but secure in her loneliness. Basically, I had decided that men were too much trouble and I had a little bundle of joy to focus on. My friend, who was happily married, wasn't so convinced. She had tried to set me up with a few different male friends, but nothing had clicked. She had even tried to introduce me to my future hubby, but things didn't work out as planned. (He didn't know about the trap, and hadn't shown up as planned, anticipated, expected.) He still kicks himself for not coming that night. Instead I met a jerk, which just further turned me off men and dating, much less relationships.

Lots of months went by. Many things happened in that time, both for me and for him, but those are stories for another time. One day I'm sitting at my friend's house, as I usually did, and she decides one more time to give the Cupid gig a try. She digs out the photos of a company Christmas party to show me how cute Future Hubby was. Actually, that plan rather backfired, because a "bit" of alcohol had been consumed and he wasn't his most attractive at the time. What she didn't tell me was that her husband and Future Hubby were hunting at that very moment, and despite all her denials later, a trap had been laid for the both of us.

We're innocently watching TV or gossiping, or whatever the chosen activity was at the time, when the phone rings. It was her husband and he wanted to know if I was still at their house. When she informed him that I was, he told her to keep me there at all costs, that Future Hubby was coming to meet me. I bolted. She literally had to restrain me to keep me from going out the door. All the protests in the world about not liking men, not having time for a relationship, he's a drunk for Heaven's Sake, fell on deaf ears. So, there I sat, like a condemned woman awaiting her sentence. (Ok that's a bit melodramatic, but I really didn't want to meet anyone new.)

Finally the wait was over. Guess what? He was rather cute and charming and not a drunk at all. We all played cards, laughed, and joked. Things were going good and then my friend gets me rip roaring drunk. Oops. She said later that she figured that he might as well see us in action from the beginning to make sure that he could cope. At the end of the night, I was convinced that I had messed up big time and he'd never want to see me again. I gave him a peck on the cheek (I think... that parts a bit fuzzy) and told him not to be a stranger, or something equally dumb.

The next day, I slept the hangover off. I didn't see my friend again until the day after that, which happened to be Labor Day. She was determined that he was perfect for me, and tried calling him to invite him over, so that we both could see that she was right. He never answered the phone. Told you that I messed up big time, or at least so I thought. ;o)

She, not to be deterred by a little thing like him not answering the phone, proceeds to plan our wedding. She's picking out the colors that she wants to wear (red) which to her means that we get married Christmas Day. I told her that Christmas was a bit rushed, could we possibly wait until Valentine's Day? I was joking, but her husband didn't think so. He told Future Hubby to watch out because we had plans for him. Future Hubby still jokes about his only involvement in our wedding was showing up when he was told.

As it turned out, he did finally answer the phone, but it was a day or two later. She invited him to come over the following weekend. He asks her if he could bring his kids because he'd really like for them to meet me. Gulp! Meet the kids? What if I was wrong and he wasn't so charming? I know he'd met my little one, but she wouldn't have remembered one way or the other. Finally after much foot tapping on her part, I agreed to meet him and his kids at her house the next weekend.

Tune in tomorrow for Part Two of Our Love Story...or You're Getting Married When?

A Bit of a Break

I took some time off this weekend. The hubby was going to be gone this week, so I wanted to spend some time with him before he left. Then, after he left, I went to go a visit a dear friend and distant cousin who will be 95 this year. All I can say is that I hope I'm half as sharp and spry as she is if I live that long. She lives about 3 hours away, so I spent the night. At my cousin's house, the neighborhood feeds the deer, mostly to keep them from eating all of their flowers. I had this amazing experience of being about 3 feet from about 5 or 6 deer.







My cousin lives on a lake that is absolutely incredible! Her house is on a pretty steep hill, so they use this trolley system to go down to the water.

I saw this the next morning as I was leaving. There was this fog rolling across the lake and it was so beautiful that I had to stop and take a picture.



On the way back, I stopped at an incredible state park. I only spent an hour there, but I took some great shots.





So, back to the farm. Not much happens around here this time of year. Seed catalogs have started to arrive in the mail, but, my favorite catalog is the chicken catalog. (My nickname from the kids is the Chicken Lady.) The hubs and I want to update the flock this spring. We never seem to have enough eggs to meet demand, so we're going to go with some production reds this year. I also need to start getting my potato bed ready. My pops always said that bare root roses and potatoes need to be in the ground by Valentine's Day (at least in our area). The few potatoes I planted last year did so well, the hubs and I want to plant a lot more.


This spring I also want to plant some fruit trees and pecan trees. I might buy a couple of trees, to get a head start on the fruit, but I want to plant some from seed to see if I can do it.

So, the final thing is that I've opened a site on Etsy. I was trying to think of crafts to sell, and I might do that eventually, but something that I have now is photos. So, I'm going to see how that does. The address is http://www.shutterbugs.etsy.com/ I'd really appreciate you looking at it and telling me what you think.