Anniversary Week

As you all know, Derek and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thursday of last week. Four wonderful years of marriage. :) To celebrate we took a trip to our favorite restaurant. Shogun!! We took the little man with us this year because we thought he would love it. He totally did!

 He ate SO much and loved when the cook make a little volcano. He didn't like the really big flame at the very beginning  but he warmed up to the idea once there wasn't a 5 foot high flame in his face haha.

Friday, Derek and I took a half day at work and headed to St Louis for more celebration. Derek had an infected tooth that was hurting him so he did this for the entire car ride up there.

Once we got to Harrah's we went and got a drink and some awesome shrimp at a restaurant called Sammy's (Sammy Hagar). It was happy hour so everything was half price! Score!

There were only like 5 pieces of shrimp but they were SO good!

Derek's Dad and Step-Mom Lisa let us stay in the suite. The jacuzzi was amazing. We got in it both nights we stayed there.

The bed was super comfortable too. It was HUGE compared to our bed at home. (Notice my cute new shoes?)

Derek being himself in front of the mini bar.

More of Derek being Derek in our "Living Room" as he called it. Haha.

Friday night we ate at a fancy Italian restaurant in the hotel called Charlie Gitto's. It was really good!

Derek had his first dirty martini ever. It smelled and tasted horrible but he drink the whole thing.

We got a crab cake too. It was delicious! The only down side is that it was $12 for only 1!!

Derek's meal looked SO pretty with the cheesy garnish on it.

Mine was not so pretty.

  After dinner we went and played the slot machines. Penny slots of course.

Derek started with $5 and got all the way up to $20 so we cashed out and got pretzels.

Here was the front of Charlie Gitto's.  It was so strange because when you were in the casino if felt like day time even though it was like 10 or 11 at night. The ceiling was painted to look like the sky and it's REALLY bright.

The front of Sammy's. That was probably our favorite place to go. They have awesome sweet potato fries.

Derek was in love with the pretzel place in the hotel. We went there twice.

It was only 10:07 and we were already ready to go to bed. We are such old people.

Saturday morning. We got to see Little Man. He stayed with Dale and Lisa at the hotel too and he came and ate breakfast with us that morning. It was such a treat to get to see him for a little bit.

Derek looking dapper as always.

Saturday we went to the mall and shopped around. We also met up with one of Derek's friends that we met at a concert and hung out with them at the mall for a few hours before we went and ate dinner.

Derek and I ate dinner at The Melting Pot. All I can say is OH MY GOSH! This place was heaven!

I ate SO much! I even had to unbutton my pants. That's pretty sad.

We started out with bread, veggies and apples to dip in cheddar cheese then we had salads. (Derek had a regular salad and I got a fruit salad.) Then it was on to the main dish. We got steak, chicken and shrimp.

We were stuck back in the corner in this tiny little booth. It was kind of sweet to get to sit so close to Derek.

The stew that we boiled the meat in was delish! It was a citrusy mix that made the steak and chicken taste SO good. The meat was super tender too which was perfect for Derek and his achy tooth. 

For dessert we got the mix called Banana's Foster. It was really good but really rich. It was white chocolate, caramel, and bananas. They set it on fire and sprinkled cinnamon on it to make it sparkle. It was really cool.

Here was the dessert tray with all of the yummy treats on it (minus the bananas that we had already inhaled).  It took everything in me to not eat the whole plate. I didn't want to make myself sick.  

 Sunday morning we woke up early and headed down to the cafe to get a bite to eat. I got a muffin and some apple juice and Derek stuck with water because his tooth was so bad by that point it was strictly liquids. There was a gentleman in front of me that had been in the casino all night and asked if I would like a truffle. I said yes of course because I thought he was talking about the chocolate ones that were in the window next to the mint chocolate, and the bacon lovers truffle. Which one did he buy me? The bacon lovers one. He got on for himself too. (side note: it was 8:30 in the morning and this man still had an alcoholic beverage in his hand. This is how drunk he was) I took a bite of the shell and it was heaven. The best milk chocolate you could ask for. The next bite was not so pleasant. I hit the bacony center and it was like someone had poured liquid smoke into this wonderful chocolate and served it to me. It was HORRIBLE! I spit it out and was so disappointed that someone would ruin chocolate like that. It should be a crime to put bacon in something so wonderful as chocolate.  I said thank you to the guy and threw the rest of it away once he was gone.

We had a wonderful weekend spending out Anniversary weekend together. It would have been better if Derek hadn't had been in so much pain but we made the best of it like we always do. As far as Derek's tooth? That's why I wasn't able to blog yesterday. We went to the Dr and he had one tooth on top pulled out and the one on bottom cut out. He was in a lot of pain but he is such a trooper. He is even at work today! I am so proud of him for being so strong.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Would you have eaten the Bacon Truffle?

Happy Anniversay

Today I have been married for 4 wonderful years.

There have been ups and downs but most of all there has been lots and lots of love and good times.

I am so thankful to have such a great husband. He puts up with me everyday and loves me even though I am by far the biggest pain in the butt I know. He loves our son more and more everyday and he is such a good daddy to our little boy.

Dear Derek,

Thank you for being there when I have needed you the most and loving me when I was at my very worst. Thank you for loving me unconditionally and no matter how bad our arguments are telling me you love me even if we're still mad at each other. Sometimes it's really hard for me to say it back.

 Thank you for letting me get the ugliest cat I could find and loving him just as much as I do. Thank you for cleaning out his litter box for me too because I would vomit in it if I had to do it myself.

 Thank you for being the best daddy a little boy could ask for. Thank you for taking care of Stratton when I work late or when I go to school to work on homework.  I'm so lucky to have a husband that would stay at home with my kid while I try to finish school.

 Thank you for doing things with me that we both love. I'm so glad that going to concerts is something we can do together. Even if you do look like a cuter younger version of the singer of Down. ;)

 Thank you for doing even the things you think are ridiculous. Like painting the nails on my right hand because when I do it, it looks like there was an earthquake while I was painting.

 Thank you for taking care of cleaning the house when I can't. Even though sometimes you make a bigger mess that what was already there.

 Thank you for helping me make a beautiful family.

 Thank you for being a goof ball at all the right moments.

 Thank you for helping me make many many family memories...

 Thank you for always knowing how to make me laugh.

 and thank you for not cutting your thumb completely off.

I love you so much honey. You are the butter to my bread. The mac to my cheese. The ink to my pen. I am the luckiest girl in the world and I thank God everyday that I have you.

Happy Anniversary...hope there are many many more to come!

Happy Birthday & Happy Anniversary

Monday was Derek's 24th birthday! Happy Birthday Derek!


Today is my 3rd Anniversary with Derek. I can't believe it's been three years. It's seems like so much longer. I couldn't imagine my life without him now. I know everyone around me is getting a divorce so it's really nice to know that I have one of the few men that will truly stick with me until the end. We have such a great support group of family and friends.  It makes it easy to have an ear to bitch in and a shoulder to cry on when you need it instead of taking it out on the husband. We have made it through a few tough times but I know we will have many more in the future. I'm so happy I have Derek and so blessed that he gave me one of the greatest gifts ever...Stratton. I hope we have many more anniversaries together in the future. Here is what I got him for our anniversary.

I got this idea from a friend who also got one made for a child they lost. I ordered it from a couple who has a blog called Memories In The Sand here. They were super fast at getting me the file of the image and I ordered it from shutterfly. It turned our really neat and I think Derek was pretty impressed that I went through all the effort to get it. I thought it turned our really neat and it's something I can keep for many years to come.

How I met my Mr.

Everyone has been talking about their significant others on so many other blogs and how they met their other halves so here I go, I'm jumping on the band wagon and telling my and Derek's "how we met story"

Preface: My story isn't pretty but it's ours. Don't judge. Mom, I know you're going to read this so don't say anything!

In April of 2007 Derek and I met for the first time. Derek and I had two friends that were dating (Ali Turner & Corey Seabaugh). Corey lived up the street from Derek when he was living with his friend Jonathan Jones.The first night Derek and I met, I was hanging out with my friend Ali. We were invited to a house party at her boyfriend Corey's friend's house (Derek and Jones' house). I was a little reluctant to go because I wasn't going to know a lot of people and I wasn't really that much of a partier.  Ali and I showed up with Corey and everyone was planning on going to a little bar (that is now closed) called Muddy Waters. A local band (John D Hale Band) was playing so everyone was trying to figure out how they were going to get there and how they were going to get home. Me being the non-drinker that I am was the first one to be volunteered as a DD. Then one by one everyone started to not want to go to the bar...except Derek. Derek was really wanting to go out there for some reason so I decided I would take him there, drop him off, and pick him up when the concert was over (I know, I'm WAY too nice). I drove his piece of crap Ford Explorer out to Muddy Waters. (Which by the way, the fuse in his cigarette lighter went out so he took the fuse from his seat adjuster and put it in where the cigarette lighter went, so of course I had to sit on the very edge of the seat so my feet reach the pedals.) Once we arrived there, I was about to drop his drunk butt off and leave when I noticed that there was NO SIGNAL on our phones. None! Not even a little blip of signal so I could text. I wanted to leave...really bad. I felt bad because we had already driven all the way out to the bar (which is like 20 min away) so we were trying to hatch out an idea of how he was going to get home. That didn't last long because Derek (being as drunk as he was) saw one of his friends and bolted out of the car. Looks like I was staying until this whole thing got over with. It actually turned out to be pretty fun and I had a great time. I even started talking to a guy that I had class with (that will remain unnamed and referred to as Classmate). Come to find out this guy in my class was the older brother of one of Derek's other friends and had known Derek for a long while. So, the band played, I danced with Classmate, found Derek once the band was done and Classmate asked if I could give him a ride home. I had no problem with that (really I was WAY too nice back then). I drug the stumbling drunk Derek out to his car with the help of Classmate and we all three were on our way home.  Derek would fall asleep then wake back up and change positions in the front seat and go back to sleep. About 5 minuets after we left he woke up, sat up straight in the seat and said he needed to use the restroom. So, I pulled over (this place is seriously in the middle of nowhere) and thought it would be easy just to let him pee and get going. WRONG! As Derek is peeing and I'm talking to Classmate I notice these pretty blue and red lights pull up behind us. Great... I have no idea why but Derek is now talking to the police officer and he puts Derek in the back of the squat car. At this point I'm freaking out. I didn't know Derek, I barely knew Classmate and I'm out in the middle of nowhere driving some guys car that I have no idea who he is and now we're having to talk to a cop!!! It took a little bit but Classmate got me calmed down. (Considering I had no reason to panic in the first place. I wasn't doing anything wrong and I hadn't been drinking.)  After about 20 minuets of Derek and the cop talking, the cop comes up to the passenger window and asks me the regular questions and tells me to get Derek back home after he made sure I hadn't been drinking. Once Derek gets in the car again I find out that Derek not only was going pee but he was getting beer out of the back of his Explorer. Side note: Derek was only 20 at the time. Being that he was underage he received a MIC. For those of you out there that don't know what that is, it's a Minor in Consumption. Meaning: if you're underage, don't have a beer in your hand but you're drunk, you get a MIC.  He got off really easy considering he could have given him a few other charges (which looking back he probably should have). I later found out that when Derek was taking the breathalyzer test he sucked on the machine twice before actually blowing AND he refused to sign his ticket until the cop threatened to take him "down town." Derek got back in the car and turned around to Classmate and says "Huh, holy crap, there really is someone in my back seat." It was a long noisy ride back to Derek's house where Classmate helped me get Derek in bed. As we were walking back out the door we hear a huge THUD and out came Derek in his boxers, waving around his new ticket as he declared that if he's going to get in trouble for drinking he's going to drink all night. About that time me and Classmate sprinted out the door and back to Cape.

Two weeks had gone by and I hadn't heard anything from Derek but Ali kept telling me that he really liked me any that I should give him a chance because we both had tattoos and liked the same music. Friday rolls by and I get a phone call from Derek (or so I think it's Derek) with an invitation to come over and hang out because there was a bbq at his house and he wanted me to come. (I later found out Derek was too chicken to call me so he had Jones call from Derek's phone and act like it was him). I came over, had fun, talked to Derek some more and we started talking more often after that. We talked all summer and even though I was dating someone else we would hang out every now and then. I worked at AT&T in Jackson and it wasn't far from where Derek lived so I would stop by after work and hang out with him, watch movies, make dinner. The guy I was dating at the time was always gone because of his work and so I hung out with Derek as friends. It didn't take long for the guy that I was dating to hate the fact that I was hanging out with Derek and soon there after we broke up because he didn't trust me (even though I had never actually cheated on him). Come to find out the break up was because rumors from some of my "friends" had gotten back to the guy I was dating and of course he believed them and not me. His loss! Anyway, Derek and started "officially" dating on Oct 13th, 2007. We hung out all the time, loved on each other all the time, and after four months of dating we found out that I was pregnant. Feb 1st, 2008 was the day I found out I was pregnant. I had been staying at his apt because I worked in Jackson 3 days a week and went to school all day the other two days. It was convenient to stay at his house the nights that I had to work the next day. Not to mention I didn't have to wake up early and I got to spend more time with him. Anyway, after we found out I was pregnant we wanted to get married before the baby was born and before I was showing. We talked to all the family members and the only weekend we had available for everyone to come in was 3 weeks after we found out I was pregnant. We got married Feb 23rd, 2008, two days after Derek's 21st birthday. We moved out of our apartment a few months after we got married because it had brown recluse really bad and I was scared of getting bit. September 2008 we moved into our own home and October 2, 2008 (my 22nd birthday) we welcomed out little boy Stratton Allen Williams into the world. We have been through a lot together in the almost three years that we have been together but I can truly say I have never been more happy than when I'm with Derek. I love him so much.

So there you have it. That's my and Derek's get to know you story. Like it or not, that's us and I wouldn't have it any other way.