My husband, Mike and me on New Year's Eve. I look kinda weird because I was dressed as Kim Kardashian, but I took off the wig in this picture.

I just went looking for a post on my wedding, and there wasn’t one! I can’t believe I forgot to post about my wedding. Well, here’s a picture of us on our wedding day.

January 17, 2009 in Newport Beach, CA.

As much fun as it was to marry my best friend in front of our family and friends, we had been together so long at that point it kind of felt like we were already married, lol. We purposely chose to get married as close to our original dating anniversary as possible (Jan 20th), since we had been together almost SIX YEARS by the time we got married. So even though we’ve only been married three years… we’ve been together for nine years now. I can’t believe it!

Mike and I on our first date in 2003, our senior year Winter Formal.

I can’t believe how young we look there. Happy anniversary to my best friend, my confidante, my biggest supporter and the love of my life! We are going to dinner tonight to celebrate.

Have a great day!

We went to The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, CA. The Villa itself is incredible, it was built in the same style as the art it houses (mostly ancient Greek and Roman pieces).

lol, Are we old enough to be married? We still act like children!

Us in front of the fountain in the gardens.

That afternoon, we drove over to the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey and checked in. The staff there was really friendly and excellent. They saw our note that we were celebrating our first anniversary, so gave us complimentary champagne:

and strawberries:

View from our room:

After we dropped our stuff off in our room, we rented bikes from the concierge and took a ride along Venice Beach:

The next day we went to The Grove and The Farmer’s Market:

tee hee

Afterwards, we tried to get in to see The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien but we didn’t get in. It’s really unfortunate that we didn’t, now that he’s off the show. Instead, we went to LA Live to look at the new Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles (it wasn’t open yet, so we couldn’t go inside) and saw Avatar and went to a really nice dinner at Sur using a coupon from Groupon:

The next day we went to the Griffith Observatory:

You may remember it from movies and tv.

Awesome Periodic Table exhibit:

Went to the plane-arium and saw a show:

Oh hey, Hollywood sign!

The next day we drove to Marana, AZ and checked into our hotel:

They upgraded us to Club Level (!! a room with unlimited free drinks and food) and more champagne and strawberries were waiting in our hotel room:

View from our balcony:

The next day we went down to the pools. Mike went down the water slide:

It was kinda cool outside so I didn’t go in the pool.

Mike used to work with the guy that is now head chef of the restaurant CORE, he made us a really nice meal that night (that he didn’t comp it ended up being like $100, thanks for nothing, man! Oh well, it was still really nice of him, and tasty):

The next day we had to drive home :

It was an incredibly long drive:

The next day was our actual anniversary, we stayed in and celebrated All in all, a great way to end the first year!

Me: “Husband, will you please go to BevMo on your way home from work and buy Triple Sec and Peach Schnapps? We’re out.”
Husband: “Sure, will you come outside and bring my wallet? I actually just got home.”
M: “I can’t, I’m not wearing pants.”
H: “Put some on and come with me.”
M: “But I’m doing the dishes.”
H: “Do them later?”
M: “Also, we’re out of beer.”
H: “You’re an alkie.”

Eventually I brought him his wallet, but didn’t go with him to BevMo. Some wives send their husbands out for milk or diapers, but in our house it’s “Don’t come home without the vodka.”

I had a cold shot of Tequila waiting for him when he got home.

Predictably, Mike’s parents started harping on him about the usual: school, work, how he needs to get a “five-year plan,” etc. Mike is so good, if it were me I would have started shouting at them about giving this tired subject a rest. After all, it’s only about the fifth time in the last month they have brought this up. But he is so patient with them and reminds me that they only want the best for us, please don’t take what they say the wrong way, etc. But I’m really sick of them always asking us if we’ve started planning on any future commitment yet. Mike’s barely 21! I don’t know why they are rushing him into marriage. Just because his brother is getting married next year doesn’t mean we have to be. I’m not anywhere near being close to getting married, I’ve said so before many times, but they will not drop the subject. So I told Mike that he really needs to just move out and be on his own immediately. I’m really tired of always being around them, especially since I worked with them for two years. I would really be fine with seeing them once a month, haha. Maybe Mike can see them more often if he feels like it.

After that, we attempted to go to the Sawdust Festival, but it had closed the day before. Bummer. So we parked and walked around downtown Laguna Beach for a while. We stopped by a Koi pond place on the way back home, but they were closed, too. Bummer. We almost went out to see March of the Penguins, but then I got sleepy and lazy and just wanted to cuddle with Mike.

Overall a relaxing day. Today I called a tutoring place that had called me last week wanting to set up an interview. I never called them back because I wanted to see how things went with the nanny position. The lady said she wants to have me come in and interview, but she needed to talk to the owner of the place before she could confirm. Hopefully she calls me tomorrow morning. :???:

I can’t believe how quick this semester is going. Already I have two exams next week! One class has me writing a paper a week. They’re short, though. At least I’m feeling a bit more challenged than usual.

And I started thinking about what she said. Why DO I want to get married now? Obviously because I love {Mike}, and I want to be with him all the time, and I started thinking… what would change if we got married? Would we be able to be together all the time? No. We would get to see each other pretty much the same amount, and then get to sleep together at night. Which I like.

And I AM too young. I’m only 19, I wanted until I was at least 21, but now I’m thinking longer. Maybe like 23, that seems like a good age. I don’t know why, lol.

And she’s right, I have plenty of time to be married. It’s not like if I don’t marry Mike tomorrow, he’s going to run off. And if he were going to run off, it would be a lot easier for him to do so if we weren’t married (haha, that sounds really bad. :angel: ).

I do want to have fun being young! I want to get drunk and be hung over, I want to go on a roadtrip and get completely lost, I want to go to a concert and act crazy, I want to study abroad, I want to go clubbing, I want to be a typical college student! But I can’t do a lot of these things if I’m married.

Mike has often said, if we get engaged, it’s not like we have to get married right away. We can wait a few years and have a lengthy engagement. And initially, I agreed with him. But now, I’m not so sure. I know that if we get engaged now, we’ll just be itching to get married, and I doubt we would be able to wait longer than a year to be married. Not to mention all the pressure from our families to get married after we’re engaged. No, I’m pretty sure the long engagement plan is out the window.

So yesterday when he showed me a ring online that he liked, I thought little of it. I thought, oh yeah that’s cute, put that on the list of maybes. But when he suggested going in to the store to look at it, I have to say I panicked a little. But it’s not like we haven’t gone into jewelry stores to look at rings before. We’ve even talked to assistants about financing. So I don’t know why I got panicked when he suggested it this time, but I went ahead and agreed to go.

Today when it came down to it, I decided I didn’t want to go, and I spilled my guts about all this marriage business that I explained above. Poor guy, he was really crushed I think. “A few years?” He said. “How many, exactly?”

“Oh, I was thinking maybe after we finish school, or when I’m 23.”

“But by then I’ll be 24! I’ll be old!”

“Old? 24 is hardly old!”

“I know but… older than I would want to be married…”

We had a good talk about it though, and decided we won’t think about marriage again for a good while. I’m not sure if maybe he’s feeling pressure from his mom, and I know I’ve been a bit obsessed about it in the past, or from somewhere else. Maybe it’s what his mom and I talked about before. She once told me that she wanted Mike to be married, before it was too late. I wasn’t sure what she meant until she went on, she started talking about Mike’s cancer and how afraid she and his dad were that he wouldn’t make it. So maybe he’s trying to seize the day, to fulfill all of his dreams before his cancer comes back. Or maybe he’s just really in love with me and wants to marry me. I tend to think it’s this last one more than all of the others, just because Mike isn’t melodramatic like me. :cheerful:

After we settled on all of this, he told me that if I liked the ring (I think it was this one) today, and if the price was good, he was going to buy the ring and propose to me on our 2 year anniversary on the 20th. Part of me was disappointed I said anything, and part of me was glad. But I think if I had any doubts about getting engaged, it was good for me to say something now. :smile:

I love you, Mike.