always.

i just have to remember... 10 more months of school.  9 more months til the election.  almost there.

can it at least be may yet?

birthday love.

alright, so it's been nearly a week since my birthday but i figured i'd finally share some pictures with you.  it was an awesome weekend filled with lots of love and cocktails fun.  my sister from tennessee was here last weekend and it basically rocked my socks off.

the fun continued after the weekend was over - philip surprised me with a birthday with my friends on thursday night at our new favorite place.  and he also surprised me with a gift certificate to a spa for a few treatments... i've been super stressed so that was a welcome and thoughtful gift :)  my mom got me a new lens for my camera (major upgrade!!!) and a pair of diamond earrings my dad gave her - my first diamond earrings!  i tell ya, putting those on really makes a girl feel like a woman.  it was a great weekend.

great divide brewery

sushi!

birthday brunch w/the family

momma, miss amy & my brother clarence

me and my sister anne! 

the whole fam (except AJ!)

bowling after brunch

beautiful larimer square

FITB saturday

well, yesterday was miserable. and i didn't get to do anything near a computer (including homework!), so today's blanks are being brought to you on saturday.  and today lauren's blanks are love-themed, thank goodness, because right now i am more thankful for philip than ever before.  he's the one that holds my crazy world together.  that being said...

1.  the love of my life is  philip - obvi :)

2.   falling in love is  one moment.  there's that moment where you realize, 'oh my god, i'm in love with him.' it happened to me with philip when we were riding on a bus.  we were headed to the tree lighting ceremony in old town square while we were living in prague, and i was worried we were going to miss it.  he was putting so much effort into us getting there on time, and i remember looking at him and for the first time thinking i was in love with him.

3.  marriage is  so much fun.  i honestly love being married, and some of the most fun we have had is during the last three and a half years.

4. the longest relationship i've ever had was  my current relationship of five and a half years!  we got engaged after four months, the rest we've been married.

5. the key to a good relationship is  communication.  talk, all the time.  bring even the little things that bother you up, and in the end the rest is easy.

6. i feel loved when  someone does something thoughtful for me at the right time.  like when i come home from school after work and philip made me dinner that he knew i would like.  or when people take the time to do things for me when their own lives are so busy and chaotic too.

7.  my favorite quote about love is from my favorite book extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer.  it's long - but it's about a boy and a girl who are best friends and talk between their apartment buildings on a telephone made out of a tin can and string:

the strong between them grew incredibly long, so that it had to be extended with many other strings tied together: his yo-yo string, the pull from her talking doll, the twine that had fastened his father's diary, the waxy strong that had kept he grandmother's pearls around her neck and off the floor, the thread that had separated his great-uncle's childhood quilt from a pile of rags.  contained within everything they shared with one another were the yo-yo, the doll, the diary, the necklace, and the quilt. they had more and more to tell each other, and less and less string.

the boy asked the girl to say 'i love you' into her can, giving her no further explanation.

and she didn't ask for any, or say, 'that's silly,' or 'we're too young,' or even suggest that she was saying 'i love you' because he asked her to.  instead she said, 'i love you.'  the words traveled the yo-yo. the doll, the diary, the necklace, the quilt, the clothesline, the birthday present, the harp, the tea bag, the tennis racket, the hem of the skirt he one day should have pulled from her body.  the boy covered his can with a lid, removed it from the string, and put her love for him on a shelf in his closet.  of course, he would never open the can, because then he would lose its contents.  it was enough to know it was there.

happy weekend friends :)

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