two years of loving lola

Two years ago today, after a series of very rational and level-headed "Reasons Not to Get a Dog Right Now" speeches from Kevin, and a very charming and persuasive "Okay, But Here's Why We Should Get a Dog" speech from me, we picked up our sweet Lola at our local Animal Humane Society. It is the best joint decision Kevin and I have ever made (other than the decision to spend our lives together, of course).

Lola, even though you can't read, I am declaring my love for you in this blog post. You are the doggiest dog in all the land, and I am in love with your pure and joyful soul. You are a wise, funny, playful, serious, silly, mischievous, howly, sleek, patient, crazy, noble, fast-running, tail-wagging, water-loving, mitten-chewing, treat-loving, crooked-eared fifty pounds of pure awesome. Also, you are very beautiful.

It has been an emotional and challenging year in our household, and Kevin and I agree that our lovely Lola has played a big role in getting us through the roughest parts. My love for this furry non-human being might seem a little over the top to some people, but I feel deep gratitude for the honest and unconditional love she gives. I marvel at the fact that we are two species co-habitating, enjoying our sincere affection for one another, and delighting in our mutual love of both rowdy good times and quiet nights on the couch.

This dog howls at weather sirens, patiently waits for me to go upstairs to bed at night, does whole-body leaps when we come home at the end of the day, sits quietly beside me when my heart is breaking, and wakes me up on weekend mornings by putting her paws on my chest and furiously wagging her tail. She's not "just a dog," she's family. Furry, couch-ruining family, but family nonetheless.

five years

Happy 5th wedding anniversary to my love. 

When I listen to this song, my heart swells with all the love that I hold in my heart for you, for us, and for our life together. Thank you for always making me feel like this:

There were days, in our early years, when I didn't know if we were going to make it. There were times when I doubted if we had what it took to make it through a lifetime together, to survive what can be the unbearable pressure of the daily routine. When I look at the photos from our wedding day, I am overcome with emotion at the naivety and simple enthusiasm with which we were entering marriage.

August 12, 2006

We were armed with little more than a somewhat bewildering mutual understanding that we were meant to share our lives together, and a sweet and slightly deluded blind faith in an institution of we which we had so little understanding. And yet, here we are. We are still together - having survived partially on that naive hope and enthusiasm with which we started out, and having gutted it out through our fair share of heart-wrenching mistakes. We are more in love with each other than ever before, which is a beautiful and hard-earned gift.

I am thankful - for each day, for each year that I have gotten to share with you. My heart delights in the sense of security and peace that I feel in my core when I think of us, and of what we are building together. I value, above everything else in my life, what exists between us, and I promise all over again to love you forever.

half-aversary

Happy four-and-a-half years of marriage (on February 12th), and seven-and-a-half years of dating (on the 17th) to my sweet husband. I LOVE YOU. Let's count the ways.

I love you because you are not afraid to be romantic - in your own way. A kiss on the ice, slow-dancing in the kitchen, a Hollywood-style dip and kiss in the lumber aisle at The Home Depot, calling me lollipop in your midday texts from work, a Starbucks chai latte in bed on a weekend morning --- you so often make me laugh and melt at the same time.

I love you because it's so easy, and fun, to be goofy with you. 

I love you because you work hard (in all the big and little ways) for our family, and because you never ever complain about having to shovel mountains of snow. So much snow.

I love you because you embraced my family right from the start. You fit right in, honey. 

I love you because you  never make me feel weird for asking you to take a picture of me lying under the dining room table with our dog --- or jumping in front of a variety of things, or eating Vietnamese soup, or of my feet in new rain boots, or of any of the other occasions I alone declare picture-worthy. 

I love you because you made my Paris dream come true. 

I love you because you love an adventure. A four-hour drive to the Grand Canyon, on a whim, and then four hours back? Yes! 

I love you because you are super cute. I am allowed at least one totally shallow reason for being in love with you.

I love you because we look good so dern good together.

And, I love you for many reasons that I won't go into here because they are just for you and me. 

Happy half-aversary, Kev.  

Love, 

Tam

anniversary

Cheese alert! Kevin and I celebrated 2.5 years of marriage on the 12th (complete with wine, roses, corny balloon, anniversary cupcake, cards, candles, and pork ribs, of course), and today marks 5.5 years together overall. I know, we're too much. We can't help it!

Love you, Kev.

five years

Five years ago today (also, by the way, on a Sunday), a twenty-five-year-old Kevin and a twenty-year-old Tammy were on their first date at the California State Fair. Whoa, five years. Our relationship is a kindergartener.

In the beginning:

Man, we look young. 

lovely

Had an absolutely lovely evening last night celebrating our second wedding anniversary. I had grand plans to start the day with french toast and mimosas, but as Kevin leaves for work at 7:30 am, and I am not usually awake until 9:30 am (hey, it's my summer of leisure), this did not actually happen. Nevertheless, we were determined to have a nice, casual, lovely evening together, and we did.

I worked hard to make the house and myself pretty, and when Kev got home (with a bottle of some really yummy sparkling wine, beautiful flowers, and a sweet card) we toasted each other, did a little dancing in the kitchen, read our cards, Kevin serenaded me, and then we headed out to dinner at 112 Eatery in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis. We were about 25 minutes early to dinner and they couldn't seat us yet, so we decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood while we waited for our 8 o'clock reservation. There were some awesome old brick buildings with cool walls and windows and so, naturally, we decided to do an impromptu (and goofy) anniversary photo shoot. After taking way too many pictures of ourselves we walked back to 112 Eatery and sat at the bar to wait for our table. It was perfect timing because the minute I had a glass of riesling in my hand and Kev had a beer, an absolute downpour started outside. We were perfectly happy knowing that we were going to be inside eating delicious food for the next couple of hours. Really, is there anything lovelier than being in a cozy restaurant with the one you love, while it rains outside? I think not.

We chose 112 because it came highly recommended by various foodie friends, and they certainly did not oversell this place! The ambiance was wonderful, the wine tasty, the wait staff attentive and friendly, and the food absolutely amazing. Our anniversary meal is our "don't hold back" splurge each year, and so we did it up last night. To start, we split two appetizers: the steak tartare and the sea scallops on a bed of the most perfect and delectable mushrooms I have ever tasted. For our entrees, I chose the halibut with roasted tomatoes (divine), and Kev ate the pork loin on bone (he loved it). For dessert, I had the chocolate pot de creme (seriously good stuff), and Kevin had the tres leches cake (each dessert with a candle in it - two total for our two years of marriage). Now, at this point we had also eaten two baskets of the yummy bread (I had forgotten what real, creamy, delicious butter tastes like - we eat "whipped vegetable spread" at home), and so we were pretty full. So full, in fact, that we had to bring most of our desserts home, and I have never seen Kevin Shevlin not finish a dessert, so that tells you how much we ate! Kevin had a chardonnay with dinner and I had a nice vouvray - both very good. This was probably one of the best meals I've ever had and it was a wonderful place to celebrate our anniversary - we will definitely be back.

Any anniversary romance that might have happened once we got home was vetoed in favor of laying on the couch watching the Olympics and saying over and over again "Man, I'm full." A great night!

one year

My blog is one today. :)

on marriage (anniversary part 2)

Wedding Poem for Schele and Phil

by Bill Holm

A marriage is risky business these days
Says some old and prudent voice inside.
We don't need twenty children anymore
To keep the family line alive,
Or gather up the hay before the rain.
No law demands respectability.
Love can arrive without certificate or cash.
History and experience both make clear
That men and women do not hear
The music of the world in the same key,
Rather rolling dissonances doomed to clash.

So what is left to justify a marriage?
Maybe only the hunch that half the world
Will ever be present in any room
With just a single pair of eyes to see it.
Whatever is invisible to one
Is to the other an enormous golden lion
Calm and sleeping in the easy chair.
After many years, if things go right
Both lion and emptiness are always there;
The one never true without the other.

But the dark secret of the ones long married,
A pleasure never mentioned to the young,
Is the sweet heat made from two bodies in a bed
Curled together on a winter night,
The smell of the other always in the quilt,
The hand set quietly on the other's flank
That carries news from another world
Light-years away from the one inside
That you always thought you inhabited alone.
The heat in that hand could melt a stone.

on our anniversary

Two years of marriage and five happy years together overall: we are so lucky. I love you, darling.

August 12, 2006, a beautiful day.

Our Irish honeymoon.