Wow. I'm ashamed of how long it's been since my last post! I am so sorry- I did not abandon you, I promise! Life interrupted and it's been crazy. Oi.

At the moment, I confess to being a bit "meh". On Sunday our church had communion. Communion means bread (or crackers). Bread (or crackers) means wheat and gluten. Did we think of this? No, not until I already had a small piece in my hand. TBG and I deliberated for a few seconds and then figured that a tiny piece should be fine...right?.... WRONG!  Oyiee! I've been off and on sick since Sunday, dealing with dizzyness, nausea, headaches, stomaches, displeased bowels....ugh. Looks like from now on I'll need to be bringing my own little crackers to church for communion every first Sunday..

I may bite the bullet and go in for official celiac diagnosis soon. The only problem with doing that is that the diagnosis will not be accurate if I've been eating gluten free. (there's nothing to show, in a sense) So if I want to be tested accurately, I need to be eating gluten for a couple days. .....not really sure if I want to do that anytime soon...considering how sick a tiny communion cracker made me?.. Although, if I was to eat gluten for a few days, I'd do my best to suffer through it. Auntie Anne's hot pretzel, Carl's Jr double western bacon with onion rings and a cookie, and Rattler's BBQ with a triple fudge blackout cake slice. Yeah...I think I could enjoy that part of it all. ^_^ It's just the aftermath I don't know so much about... >_>

Because of my meh-ness, I haven't been able to start experimenting again this week like I had planned. *displeasure* Oh-and another thing we've noticed recently? My body seems to dislike having so much meat. If I have meat two or three times a day, I get horrible stomache aches! The "cure" for that is to take some of his Multizyme. (enzyme supplement to aid digestion) Of course, the best fix is to stop eating meat so much. So poor TBG has been experiencing more vegetarian dinners. Thankfully, he likes my lasagna even when it's only tofu and no meat, and he also likes my spaghetti squash salad. Granted, I miss the meat, but if it means I'm not curled up the couch cursing my culinary edible delights after, then I can learn to live with it.

Mmm, another news. Sad news. Our family is no longer a family of five. Earl passed away two Monday's ago. He had become quite the gaunt kitty, and was snubbing all foods. (even rotissierie chicken, fresh turkey, sandwich meats, everything we could think of!) He was apathetic and could barely move. (*will not cry, will not cry, will not cry*) We had taken him to the vet near the beginning of his decline, and they had told us that it was because of his age, but he was well enough to live at home and enjoy what time he had with us. Well, we knew the time had ended, so two Monday's ago we took him the vet for the last time. He was my first mammel pet. (I had 13 goldfish and 2 chinese fighting fish growing up) That was a rough couple days. The comfort was knowing he was no longer in discomfort, and that we still have Sephiroth and Malificent to care for. Now Seph-Kun is more cuddly, and Mal-Chan wants to play more. I think a bit of Earl rubbed off on them. ^_^

On to happy matters of food. Our organic box had plums in last week! They reached their full ripeness today, so tonight we'll be having plum glazed pork chops, fresh broccoli and roasted red fingerling potato's for dinner. (I'm eating vegetarian all day today so tonight won't be too bad) Soo looking forward to dinner! And any leftover glaze will go on my salad tomorrow for dressing. Mmmm!

O_o Note to self. Trim Seph-Kun's claws. ASAP. The big baby is sitting on my lap, and he stretched...I think my thigh has been punctured..ow...

I've gone back onto my carb counting diet. I realized recently what extra poundage I've accumulated, and decided it's time to lose it. Again. TBG and I have an anime convention in July that we're dressing up for, and we're going as a military couple. Soo...I gotta get in shape. Quick! I suppose one plus side to being so sick again is that I have very little appetite, so I haven't been eating as much. I guess that's good?...

Well, thinking of food and all, it's time for me to grab some lunch. Gonna enjoy some leftover spaghetti squash salad. Yay for veggies! Hopefully I'll be back soon with some recipes.

Anniversary!

So today is our anniversary-2 years of marital joys, challenges and adventures! It's hard to believe it's two years already...time has truly flown by! Two years ago, at this exact time, we had one hour before the ceremony. Finishing up the last minute tweaks around the yard, making sure hair/makeup looked good, gathering to pray, and resting before the festivities. Oh-and 15 minutes before the ceremony, finding the right track on the CD for the music walking back! *laughs* All in all, the Lord really blessed that day-no notable problems or hitches, and the few little could-have-been-a-problem were flawlessly taken care of. And for the most part, I was blissfully unaware of any of those little problems. Not like I would have cared anyways-as long as I left that night with my man and a ring on my finger, I was a happy woman!

I'm still amazed at how skinny I was then!

  Was feeling a bit nostalgic today (who wouldn't on their anniversary?)  and was looking through our pictures. Such a fun day! Our photographer rocked-I've known her since...2nd grade? Sooner? A very long time. Her entire family is gifted with a camera-and she and her older brother are both photographers. Amazing stuff. I was actually glancing at her brother's site today, and Lukas has some amazing wedding photo's up-underwater session! Dress and suit and amazingness! I'd love to do that with TBG someday-we'd probably find a way to bring lightsabers or something nerdy in with us. ^_^ He's even doing a free contest right now for an underwater session- http://www.lukasvandyke.com/?p=5234 . We'd have such a blast with that-especially me, after all those years as a child wishing I was mermaid-finally, an opprotunity to dress up pretty AND be in the water! *laughs* Check out his site! I do hope he picks us for the contest winners, just because of how much fun that'd be-and it'd be great for a 2 year anniversary photo shoot! I'll be excited for whoever wins though, he's a blast to be around, and for such an idea as underwater??? Gonna be great!

I loved my bouquet-I gathered a red rose from different special ladies in my
 life who helped shape me and guide me into who I am today.

I love this picture- That Bearded Guy then and now!
From nerd to studly nerd! I love my man

 Did I ever give the story of how we met? Through a mutual friend at church back in high school. I thought That Bearded Guy was a goody two-shoes, and he thought I was a hyper active girl who wouldn't stop talking. (he was right, for the record) I didn't like him for a long time-I even started the club that hated him! The club thought he was stealing away one of our friends-but truth be told, that friend would just follow him around like a lost puppy, and the whole time TBG was trying to lose him at camp. *laughs* Oh miscommunication! 

 Anyways, we started talking for the first time in the church dumpster. We were serving at a church-wide yard sale that weekend, and we both got put on trash duty. So it can be said that the seeds of our love sprouted in the dumpster. Laugh as much as you want. It's true. That's the point where we discovered that we were both nerds, both teased our mutual friend about the same things, and we were both hungry. We went to Carl's Jr after that to keep discussing our silly mutual friend and our love for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and the like. We were highschool sweethearts for about a year and a half-we weren't allowed to date yet, so we called it a "thing-ish". Those are great memories. We parted ways for a few reasons, mostly because we lived an hour apart, and he was in college and I was still in high school, and the gaps were kinda difficult. We wanted to remain friends, and wanted to end what bit of romance we did have before it could turn sour.

 I need to get some good photo's of us in high school to post here!

 Fast forward to a few years later. Namely, Thanksgiving 07. A random anime craving forced me to call him up and borrow some DVD's. (for the non-nerd, anime is Japanese cartoons) That little bit of anime craving started us talking again, and then after Christmas, we started hanging out more. I had a foot surgery right after the holiday, and so he was kind to gimpy little me, and gave me rides to church as needed whenever my parents were out of town. (they seemed pretty happy about encouraging that too) He officially asked me out Jan 13...and then we got married Sept 13! I still sometimes find it hard to believe that I've been blessed with marrying my high school sweetheart. And we haven't changed too much either, with the exception of his football. *sighs* It was great in high school, he didn't really like sports. Now he likes football a bit. Oi. Granted, now I have recipes and cookbooks and kitties to keep me occupied! ^_^

Nerdy Love in February

 I'll probably be posting more later after I make dinner, but I just wanted to blog a bit about our wedding and memories and meetings. That was such a great start to our life together-and here's to many more years!

We walked out to the Star Wars main theme!

Here's our photographer's site- Cassia has amazing photo's of our wedding!
http://ckvphotography.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/mike-and-beckys-wedding/

And here's a normal link to her brother's site, Lukas and Sia have two different styles of photography, so it's really fun seeing the different ideas they each have. ^_^
http://www.lukasvandyke.com/