How Did I Get So Lucky?

One thing that I have enjoyed about not working is sleeping in.  For the past year, I woke up every day at 5:30.  Then when I moved to Ohio and was searching for a job, I got used to sleeping in until about 9.  Since Travis does have to work early, I also got used to him giving me a goodbye kiss every morning.  There have been a couple of occasions where I have woken up before he left and was in the other room and I thought he had left without giving me a kiss.  It always makes me sad until I realize he is still there.  It is one of my favorite things.

Now that I have started substituting, I normally leave before him and don't get the kiss to wake me up each morning.  Since I don't get as many days to sleep in and my migraines have started coming back, he has been leaving notes instead of waking me up to say bye.  Now I look forward to seeing if he has left anything for me.  Last night I had a terrible migraine, so he just let me sleep this morning.  I had somewhere to be mid-morning so I got up and just started getting ready.  In the midst of drying my hair I got excited to see if he had written me a note so I went out in search of one and I came across this:

I was so excited and wondered how I got so lucky.  He won't admit this, but he is a very sensitive guy.  At our wedding, he cried more than me and I didn't think that was possible.  Whenever it comes to family matters, he is very sensitive.  He would do anything for me.  Like going to the grocery store late at night to get me a Dr. Pepper to help my head (last night).  I am so lucky to have him!

Here are some other notes that I have found from him.  He always finds new places to put them so it makes it more exciting for me.

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it.  This was on the fridge.

 This was one of my favorite spots.  As I opened the refrigerator door to get breakfast, this note feel to the ground.  It made me laugh.

 I think this was the first note he left in the morning for me.  It was on his pillow.  My favorite part is where it says, "PS-I did give you a kiss goodbye but you probably didn't know it."

He has left notes in the bathroom sink, on my steering wheel and other random places.  I love getting these notes.  It puts a great start to my day.  I love him and I am so lucky to be married to him!

Earrings

I joined Pinterest several weeks ago and have been gathering ideas of craft projects that I want to do one day.  My problem is that I just keep getting more and more ideas and I am not actually doing any of them.  So, this weekend Travis and I went to Goodwill to see if we could find anything that would inspire us.  I found a big picture frame with an old fashion lady holding an umbrella.  It made me think of something I saw on Pinterest to hold your earrings.

I am really bad at remembering to take pictures so this is after I started painting it.  Here is the semi-before:

And the after:

It isn't exactly like the one on Pinterest, but I can never find frames like that unless they are at a retail store for $20 or more.  It looks boring now that I compare the two.  My frame was only $3, the lace was $2 and I had the paint already.  At least now I have somewhere to put my earrings!

New Car

If you remember, Travis got rear-ended about 3 weeks ago.  Ever since then, he has been spending every minute of the day searching for cars and doing research on them.  He always has to make sure he has the best product for the best price.

Well, the search has finally come to an end and I now get to spend time with my husband again.  We bought a car on Wednesday and brought it home on Friday.  We are very excited about it!  It is a 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Travis really wanted a Nissan Maxima, but it wasn't as logical.  He drives a lot for work, so one of the requirements was that it needed to have good gas mileage.  We are very happy with our choice.

Picture Overload

 

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Barlow

 

Family at Wedding

We had all of our siblings and parents at the wedding.  We also had some of our best friends at the wedding.  We are blessed to have such good friends and family!  Thanks to everyone who came and helped make our day the best!

 

 Us with everyone!

 

 Our adorable nieces!

 More nieces and nephews on the Barlow side.

 I went from 0 nieces to 16!

Broadhead Family

 

 Barlow Family

 

Broadhead Siblings

 

Barlow Siblings

 

Me with Madre and Daddy

 Travis and his mom

 Me and the girls!

 Travis and the boys.  I have never met closer friends!

Wedding Pictures

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to Shonda for doing our pictures.  She did an amazing job!  There are so many that I like that I am going to break it up into a couple posts.  First, these are from the night before our wedding.  I love how the temple looks like it is glowing!
WARNING-There are kissing pictures.  We were just doing what Shonda told us to do.  :)

 

Travis waiting to see me for the first time in my dress.

Me waiting for Travis.

 Seeing me for the first time.

  I love this picture!

 Glowing temple

 One not kissing

Reflection pool

Caesar Creek

On Labor Day, Travis and I drove to a local park to go hiking.  It isn't quite like Utah hiking, but I really enjoyed it.  It was a more like a hilly nature walk.  It was the perfect hiking day...not too cold, not too hot.  All of the sudden, the weather went from Summer to Fall.  There weren't very many people on the trail so I found it very peaceful and relaxing being surrounded by nature.  Travis and I got some time to just talk and not have the distractions of the world around us. 

 Travis always has to climb on dangerous things.

 Travis lays on bridges, I sit on fences.

All the paths were this beautiful!

This used to be a waterfall. 

After hiking around for a while, we went and ate at a small family diner.  Then we walked around the cute little town of Waynesville.  There were tons of antique shops lining the street.  I loved it!  Travis liked it for the first little bit, but he let me continue looking.  Apparently this is the most haunted town in Ohio and they offer ghost tours around Halloween.  I think we are going to go back because one lady really talked us into it.  She got Travis hooked by saying that you can see orbs if you take pictures.  I am skeptical about it, but Travis is convinced you can.  

Labor Day

For Labor Day, I really wanted to get out and do something fun.  Travis and I talked about our options and narrowed it down to going to Chicago or Nauvoo.  I was super excited because I have never been to either place.  Well, if you know how my life works out, you know that things probably didn't go as planned.

After researching the weather and seeing a forecast full of rain, we decided Chicago would be better because it was more indoors.  The plan was to leave after Travis got off work on Friday.  As he was on his way home, he got a call from one of his coworkers saying that he cut his hand and needed Travis to come and finish up the appointment so he could go get stitches.  Travis ended up getting home at 10:00.  I was sad because that ruined travel plans, but at the same time a bit relieved because I had a terrible migraine.  Also, we had a lot we needed to do this weekend, so it worked out better.


On Saturday, we decided to explore Cincinnati.  It was a blazing 102 degrees.  We walked around a little bit and drove around a lot.  It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, but I had fun because Travis and I had some time together.  We did go to a scrapbooking store and I got some paper to scrapbook our wedding.  I also found some cute picture frames to decorate.  We also checked out several car dealerships, but didn't find anything.

Sunday we went to church where Travis taught his Mission Prep class.  Then we came home and cooked stew that turned out amazing.  (see, I can cook!)  We also finally hung up some pictures around the apartment.  It was a very relaxing weekend even though it didn't go as planned. 

P.F. Chang's

Once again Daddy came up to Ohio for business.  Travis and I drove down to West Chester to meet him for dinner.  This time I did remember to take a picture.

We ate at P.F. Chang's, which reminded of Utah.  Jessica and I used to go there for girls nights.  I always get the Mongolian beef.  Since dad and Travis were with me, I got to try lots of new things.  The Mongolian beef is still my favorite, but I also like the spicy beans that dad got.

We had a nice visit with dad, but it was pretty short because we had to get back to Dayton because Travis had work the next morning.   

One of my favorite things about living in Ohio is that I get to see my parents more than just at Christmas and a week or two during the summer.