Look at that three years of marriage for us already! This past year of marriage has been nothing short of busy, crazy, fun, challenging, and a blessing. Since all those adjectives cover a wide range of emotions and experiences, I’d say that just about every year of marriage can be described that way most of the time, since we all walk through different seasons at different times.
As anniversaries can just be another day to some people, I can honestly say this day was extremely thoughtful and it made my heart more grateful for the decision I made three years ago to marry Ryan. I told Ryan he could plan the festivities, well, alright, I’ll be honest, I told Ryan TO plan the festivities. I wanted to put my planning skills on hold and see what Ryan would prepare in celebration.
I think there are some no brainer ways to make for an awesome anniversary:
Anyway, Ryan did a phenomenal job by planning pretty much a whole day for us together. He sent me away the day before because he needed some time to ‘prepare’ for the next day. We woke up that morning after sleeping in and managed to wipe all the eye boogies from our eyes to pretty ourselves up to go to a surprise location. I was contemplating closing my eyes all the way from our house to the wherever we arrived so I would be truly surprised as to where we were going, but for fear of falling back asleep in the car, I just tried to stay bright eyed the whole way. First familiar direction we took was headed east, so the common option would be Covington or Mandeville…. As we approached the Mandeville area we arrived closer to the lakefront, and then come to find out we pulled up to a delicious breakfast spot of what was previously ‘Another Broken Egg Cafe’ to what is now called LaLou. Pretty much the same menu and everything they had before, they just changed their name. If someone wants to explain why, I’d love to know, but either way, the food was DELICIOUS! And I could not get enough of the coffee, I think I had three cups before we left. So first surprise, success!
As anniversaries can just be another day to some people, I can honestly say this day was extremely thoughtful and it made my heart more grateful for the decision I made three years ago to marry Ryan. I told Ryan he could plan the festivities, well, alright, I’ll be honest, I told Ryan TO plan the festivities. I wanted to put my planning skills on hold and see what Ryan would prepare in celebration.
I think there are some no brainer ways to make for an awesome anniversary:
- Make a memory (whether your plans turn out great or you get rained out, make a story for the kids)
- Find adventure (even if it’s local)
- Try something new (new restaurant, new recipe, new city)
- Be intentional about making great conversation wherever you are or whatever you’re doing (this is the time where you can reflect on life and even dream together of what’s ahead or what goal you want to accomplish.) -- put away the phone as MUCH as possible, unless you’re trying to document the experience of course. :)
Anyway, Ryan did a phenomenal job by planning pretty much a whole day for us together. He sent me away the day before because he needed some time to ‘prepare’ for the next day. We woke up that morning after sleeping in and managed to wipe all the eye boogies from our eyes to pretty ourselves up to go to a surprise location. I was contemplating closing my eyes all the way from our house to the wherever we arrived so I would be truly surprised as to where we were going, but for fear of falling back asleep in the car, I just tried to stay bright eyed the whole way. First familiar direction we took was headed east, so the common option would be Covington or Mandeville…. As we approached the Mandeville area we arrived closer to the lakefront, and then come to find out we pulled up to a delicious breakfast spot of what was previously ‘Another Broken Egg Cafe’ to what is now called LaLou. Pretty much the same menu and everything they had before, they just changed their name. If someone wants to explain why, I’d love to know, but either way, the food was DELICIOUS! And I could not get enough of the coffee, I think I had three cups before we left. So first surprise, success!
Our time at breakfast left us delightfully stuffed, and afterwards Ryan disclosed a little bit of his last surprise of the day, but it was no offense to me as I suggested that we get the ingredients for the (surprise) dinner locally. So we headed to the local butcher in Mandeville, Saia’s, and then proceeded to the Covington Farmer’s Market for the rest of our goodies. We had picked up everything we needed and headed back home to our puppy to see what the next surprise was!
I was very suspicious as Ryan leads me out to the backyard all the way out to the shed, and says ‘Heyyy, you know all the lumber I got the other day to make that raised garden bed? Wellll.. *he opens up the shed door* it wasn’t for a raised garden bed!’ Hahaha, alright, my stunned face was like ‘Oooookkaaaay, so what was it for?’ He said ‘Your very own picnic table you wanted! We are going to build it together!’
Alright, super cool, this was on my wish list, and all his ‘preparation’ the day before was him cutting and sanding down all the proper pieces that would make up the picnic table. So we didn’t waste anytime and started to load all the lumber up and bring it out to where we would assemble it. Of course Eva wanted to help several times, but instead she just checked up on us to see if we were doing it right. Now in all fairness, Ryan probably did 90% of the work, but I stayed outside the whole time and waited to see how I could help, and it was hot and sweaty, but it was a really cool experience and memory. I felt like we were a team while building it, which is how marriage should feel, right? Surprise number two -- two thumbs up --- success!!!
So not so slightly surprise number three was preparation for dinner. After Ryan had been sweating his butt off all afternoon, I saw all the ingredients for dinner and wondered how I could help jazz it up a bit. So I channeled my inner ‘Miss Mary Ann’ (my mom) and started searching for some tips to add to our steak dinner. So I figured we could grill the corn, and we could make some homemade herb compound butter. YUM! That butter was a winner, and it totally brightened up the flavor of everything on the table. Plus, I made mint passion tea and homemade lemonade. I had never been so excited to eat, everything was looking great! And our newly finished picnic table was beckoning us while we prepared dinner. Ryan did a great job with the steaks, he might say otherwise, but they were super tender and if they seemed any bit overcooked it was redeemed by the garlic herb butter to dip it into!
After I had set out everything for dinner, I was genuinely surprised by one last thing Ryan had up his sleeve. I walked out to the picnic table and there was a picture frame that had my favorite bible verse on it. Not JUST the verse either. I had explained to Ryan why Psalm 136:1 is my favorite. The whole chapter is dedicated to showing the greatness of God’s love, but the best part is that no matter how you say it, ‘His faithful love endures forever’ --- no matter what word you choose to accent, HIS faithful love endures forever, His FAITHFUL love endures forever, etc. It will just magnify and show you another facet of why His love is so great. It’s great ‘cause it’s His love, and it’s faithful, and it’s love, and it endures, and it will endure forever! Sorry if this takeaway is a bit redundant, but it’s just a personal revelation that I love about the verse. So the finished product was a gold foil Ryan had made for me that displayed visually everything I love about Psalm 136:1. Last surprise of the day --- perfect!
You know, Ryan’s anniversary plans all went as, well, as planned. But I’d like to think that even if the extravagance of our dinner was rained out, we’d still make the most of it. I was asked by our good friend what I had learned after three years of marriage. It’s not anything super spectacular, it was just an honest answer, but I told him ‘Well, I learned that we still love each other and we still bicker and fight, but we’ve learned to choose our battles.’ Kind of a negative debbie downer answer, but life happens and it isn’t always roses and perfect. Love is a choice, and sometimes you don’t feel like loving, but you do anyway. Sometimes your plans don’t go as planned, but it’s all in what you make it. That’s something I’ve personally learned from Ryan. He has brought me back to reality many a times when my expectations were set on perfection. And marriage is just like anything else in life, it’s what you both put into it. Are you acting like a team or you being a one-man team that is struggling to make it without a partner? It’s a million humbling moments all wrapped up into a relationship that was designed to be unbreakable and incredible. So here is to many more years of loving, laughing, and learning with the one who I love so very much.
Love,
Love,