meme of LOVE

How long have you and your significant other been together?

Since February 11, 2006! I told that story in all of its detailed glory right here.

How did you meet?
Whaddaya know, I've told that story before, too! In short, we met while doing a post-grad internship at the UGA Wesley Foundation, mostly because of a mutual love of pirates.

If married, how long have you been married?

We got married June 30, 2007. If you are reading this on Feb. 14, 2012, that means we've been married for 4 years, 7 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day. If you're reading this on another day, check out my little ticker-thing on the sidebar. :)
 

If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? 
We got married at the State Botanical Gardens in Athens, Georgia. You can look at some wedding pictures (and hear stories about the wedding) here, here, and here.

 Our wedding was medium-ish (how's that for noncommittal to a size categorization?)...about 130 people.

Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? 

Oh, definitely. And I'm sure they are 100% nauseating to anyone other than us. We normally call each other 'baby,' which sounds really stupid when you just write it out like that, but sounds much better in real life. I always call Matt 'Mattie,' and he sometimes returns the favor by calling me 'Erika-ie,' which doesn't actually work. We sign our emails to each other (we send about 100 emails per day) 'husbie' and 'wifey.' That is a huge improvement, since for the first year of marriage, Matt signed his emails to ME with his FULL FIRST (Matthew) AND LAST NAME...as though I might be unclear about WHO this was emailing me? Which Matt is this? It was so weird.

Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

Only 3? Impossible. We'll sum up with: he's smokin' hot, he cheerfully (most of the time) does all of the stuff I hate doing/won't do, he's creative and dreams big, he loves Jesus, he serves selflessly, he works hard, he gives great back massages.

Tell us how he proposed?
It was the night before my 24th birthday and we were in Augusta for the weekend. He'd taken me to a fancy restaurant that night and I had expected him to propose then. But he didn't. But I looked cute anyway, right?

 

So we went back to my parents house, changed into PJs, and got ready for a game of Scrabble by the fire.

And it was the worst game ever because I had the worst tiles ever and therefore the worst attitude ever. I was sick of it and ready for bed. And then I stuck my hand in the tile bag to get some more stupid vowels  tiles, and LO AND BEHOLD there was a ring box instead! So I pulled it out and got over my bad attitude long enough to say "yes," but only if we could stop this stupid game immediately.

We ran and woke my parents up to give them the good news, and got them to take some blurry, teary pictures.

 

Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Umm...luckily for us all, neither-- because I am not the kind of girl that would enjoy EITHER of those options. He's a flowers frequently kind of guy, because I am a flowers frequently kind of girl-- but not red roses or anything cheesy like that. I don't think he's EVER given me roses, which is great because roses are rather lame as far as flowers go (knock-out roses excluded, of course...but considering we grow those ourselves and I've never noticed a florist sell them...those aren't really an option). Rose PETALS? Are you kidding me?? PULLING THE PETALS OFF OF FLOWERS? That is infuriating and ridiculous. And messy. Pass. Teddy bears? I'm not a 2 year old, so no thanks. I have no problems with strawberries or champagne, which is why I will buy them myself at the grocery store if I see a need for them in the pantry/fridge.

Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
Both of those sound good to me, except I can rarely stay awake long enough for a whole movie. And we live really far from the beach. But in theory, I'm good with both.

Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

Do anything? Have children and raise a family together.
Go anywhere? One of those little huts over the water in Fiji.

Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.
Go to work, come home, walk the dog, eat dinner with his family like we do every Tuesday night.
 

Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?
Umm...snow? There's like a 2% chance or something (and it goes away and becomes a chance of rain instead like 10 times a day)...but that would be pretty awesome!! Also, we'd like to have a kid. Just FYI.

Give us one piece of advice for keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
 Honesty with yourself, each other, and people who love you: what's working for ya, what isn't, what do you need, how are you hurting...I think honesty is the key to keeping your marriage on track. Also: have fun. Do things together that are fun, that make you happy. Don't get stuck in the boring day-to-day (if your day-to-day is boring, that is).


Show us a picture of what love means to you.
 I bet it'd be great to have a picture of us with our kid(s) to put here, right? Ugh. In lieu of that, I will show you this: Matt being the best husband ever by a) putting together shelves so that our garage can be more organized (organization is my love language, putting stuff together is NOT a gift of mine) and b) READING THE INSTRUCTIONS so that it can be done correctly the first time. Not many men do it this way, and I love that mine will (not because he really WANTS to or "needs" to read the instructions, of course, but because he knows that I want him to). LOVE.

Happy Valentine's Day, yall!