Warning: This post might be viewed as a Rated R
(Not the usual "right to hell rating" - I am married)

Planning for an Anniversary

He never reads these, so I shouldn't have to worry about ruining the surprise.
Dan is in New Zealand and has about 2 weeks left there now. He's missing our 1st year anniversary, so I've got a lot planned for him when he gets home :)

We'll be at my parent's house in Maryland when he first gets back. I am going to have to rent a hotel room for at least one night (right? It's just too weird having sex in my parent's house... let alone doing anything more than we usually do) I'm trying to plan a night of remembering the past year, savor the moment of the night and look forward to what's coming ahead. I made him a scrapbook of our first few months together, and I made him some coupons for things that he loves me to do : for example, he LOVES it when I tickle his back. Not scratch it, but to just run my fingers over his back, sometimes just barely touching the small hairs. So, he will have a coupon for 1 hour worth of back tickling :) I've also hid 52 playing cards around the house. For what purpose, I'll leave to your imagination.

I have also recently purchased a couple of things to prepare for the night. One is Turbo Jam! To work on my abs and start to lose a little bit of weight. I love Turbo Jam - it is SO much fun, and I'm really starting to see the results I was hoping for (I've decided to become one of those success stories you see on the infomercials :)). The second purchase is more for those exciting first few nights when Dan comes home. I got about 5 pieces of sexy lingerie. I won't describe them for you, except that one looks awfully similar to a nurse's uniform :).

Other than the exciting joy of enjoying God's gift to married couples, I am SO looking forward to just embracing each other while sitting on the swing outside in the evening, watching the sky go from beautiful sunset to starry, starry night. Those times which allow us to catch up and talk, talk, talk.

I love being married.

OK, we have to get over this. The time between my entries is just too long entirely.

Introduction for today
It's amazing how many blogging sites there are - don't you think?? There's this one, MySpace, Xanga, BattleCry, personal blog on my personal website, etc. And I'm sure I haven't even really scratched the surface on what's really out there. The problem is - there are different features on different sites that I like. MySpace enables you to post video, which is very easy and very cool. Xanga is the one I have used the longest and most of my friends use it. BattleCry is a tool used by Teen Mania, which is awesome, because you encourage one another towards Christ and it enables you to track how you're spirtual life is going and lets you focus on different areas. My personal blog on my personal website - I don't use. But it's out there. Well, I guess I might start to use it just for our teenagers at church. We'll see. Blogger is neat, because you can have more than one blog - but it's all in one central location.

I do have an account at each one. Because I guess I use them all in different ways. MySpace I use to connect specifically with my family. It enables us to see how we're all doing, and by posting video - it's the next best thing to being there. Xanga, like I mentioned, helps me connect with friends (specifically Honor Academy Friends) who I never get to see, but Xanga allows me to still be up to date on what's going on in their lives. BattleCry, I think I covered that above how I use it. And Blogger? I've been using it to blog my family. I guess it's not so bad having so many blog sites... As long as they're all used in different ways. I just need to be sure that I'm updating each one regularly! (and every 3 months or so is not regular)

Today's Blog
So, my vision for Blogger: To blog the every day stuff of family life. This year, specifically my newly married life with Dan. Maybe in the years coming up: babies will join us! I guess I'm a little weird - but we have all of our kids' names picked out: Carolyn Marie, Abigail Jayne, Ruth Sarai, Elijah Ioan (pronounced Yowan), Ethan Edward, and Joseph Boaz (we also like Benjamin James). We are planning for six. Yes. We have prayed about it, talked, talked, talked about it, debated it, and decided it: we're having six kids. 3 boys and 3 girls? It probably won't work out that way. But we have the names just in case!

So anyway, to get even weirder... I have prayed for my kids for years now, and I frequently write letters to them. I want them to be able to look back and know that they were in my heart a long time before they were ever born. I want them to know that they are covered in prayer and that God has some big and mighty things in store for them. And so, of course, I have a section on my blogger for each child (I only have one currently set up for Carolyn and Elijah - cause those will probably be the first names of our first son and first daughter) - remember, I mentioned that blogger is cool in that you can set up more than one blog and still see it from a central location? So on the personal site of my kids - I want to be able to post things on there that I am thinking about in regards to them specifically, post pictures and updates for when they are born - but when they're here - I want it to be a place where I can keep track and journal EVERY day. For example, today was the first time I ever heard a mean thing come out of that girl's mouth - she told her friend, Kelsey, that she didn't like to play with her anymore and to go home (this is JUST an example - I have no idea what will happen in the future. But that's the kind of stuff I want to write down.. funny things they say, etc. I'll probably be asking every day: what did they do today? What was challenging about today? How did we overcome it? What was exciting and a blessing today? etc.)

And from there, I'll probably then be using this blog to specifically talk about the family as a whole. Kind of like I do now. I think. SO... it should only get more interesting from here, right?

Stay Tuned...

Hmm... It's the middle of January. Sunday afternoon. Dan's at work. I had Subway for lunch. We have a video camera now! Yea! It is so much fun to record each other and the cat, to record places around town, our apartment, etc. A lot, a lot of fun. But I've been getting frustrated, because I can't put any of our footage on the computer. I just have the DVD's that they're burned on directly from the camera, but the files aren't compatible to any software. BLAH! Why won't it work? I was planning on being able to edit the footage, make a short movie, and send it home to our families. That's what I really want to do! If you have any ideas - let me know.

We got something called "Simply Romantic Nights" for Christmas, and we had our first "date night" last week. It was so much fun. I love Dan so much and I love spending time with him. He is such an amazing man. I couldn't have asked God for a more amazing husband :)!

Work is going well. SF Banking is kind of slow during January - and I'm just doing the best that I can. I really do enjoy it, but once we have kids, I would still like to be a stay at home mom. That's really a passion of mine - to be able to give my kids all of my attention, to make a home warm and inviting, to make it a safe haven for my husband to come home to each day - to make it a place where he truly is the king and where he feels like it :)

Dan is in his last semester of school. I can't believe we're finally here! 6 long years of school is what it will have been once it's over. He does still have one more year of rotations. But it will all be worth it once he's done. We'll be able to move back home, raise a family together, secure the future of our kids, etc. I think next year will be hardest one of them all, though. Just have to do everything I can to make it as smooth for him as possible.

I miss our families.