Ramblings on Marriage

I think when you get married, you believe life's going to be a fairy tale. You've found your Prince Charming and nothing else matters.

And then you go to work, and work beats you down. And you buy a house, and the bills stress you out. And you join groups and clubs at work, and they take time away from home. You join a gym, trying to maintain the body that you used to have, and that takes up even more of your time. Maybe you start a blog or get a myspace account and end up spending more time on the computer than you should. Before you know it, you're spending so much time and energy on your "obligations" that you forget to live. And it becomes very obvious that there are more factors at work in a marriage than just the love of a husband and a wife.

Kevin and I were watching our wedding video last week, and it made me so emotional to look at the two kids that we were, jumping in to life head first. We had very little income, no savings, no house, no real retirement plans, no idea what the future would hold, and at that point, no fear. In many ways we've come so far, and yet in some ways we're still those two kids.

Sometimes you forget how it felt when you first fell in love. Sometimes you say mean things to each other out of frustration, and you even do things now and then without realizing that you've hurt the person you vowed to protect and support.

And then again, there are times when life couldn't be more perfect. Yesterday (on a day where there was literally not one cloud in the sky), as I was eating a hamburger with Kevin and my parents in Galveston while watching the waves crash against the shore, I was very aware of how truly blessed I am. It's moments like that that make life worthwhile.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't change a thing.


"You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly."
--Sam Keen

Costume Party!

Tonight was the annual costume party at my cousin's house. It's always a fun time, and I thought I'd share some of the pictures from tonight...


This is me (Learline) with Elvira


...and with my man, Purvis


My personal favorite of the night, Deena - the retired hooters girl. Cracked me up!


Matt and Jason as the Blues Brothers...or the Blues father and son???


Al and Peg Bundy. So funny :)


Frankie...always a clown!


This was classic! This is Mark dressing up as Dwayne, who dressed up as the guy from The Crow.


You totally can't see it here, but Ernie actually had a 3 foot 'fro. Awesome!!!

I am enlisting the help of all my blogger buddies on this "nonproblem" I'm having.
Kev and I decided to go as an 80's small town country/cowboy couple for Halloween. So exciting. Kev has the mullet and bubba teeth, I have the platinum blonde tennessee country singer hair and the "tractor supply" vest, complete with blank name tag, meaning I can name myself. Therein lies my problem: What to name myself??? I've thus far come up with Merline, Lurline and Vertie Jo. But I'm wanting something outrageous. So any ides/suggestions for names would be helpful. If you can think of something funny and outrageous, please leave your suggestion in my comments section. Thanks for your help on this!!

Dreee-eee-eee-eeeam, Dream, Dream, Dream

So I still haven't gotten my glasses that I ordered something like 11 days ago!
And I'm getting nervous about it now because as the days pass, I'm beginning to imagine these horrific frames (something like my fourth grade teacher used to wear) that are huge and round and UGLY!
Last night, I dreamed that I rode my tricycle (?) down to LensCrafters to pick up my glasses only to discover that I had ordered a pair that was half sunglasses and half bifocals. So one side was dark with a brown frame that was super round. And the other side was teeny tiny, half moon shaped with a gold wire frame.
I was horrified!
And I remember saying, "This can't be what I ordered. I would never wear something like this."
And the salesman responded, "Well, who's to say what you ordered - your eyes were still dilated when you picked your glasses out."
I woke up this morning, so grateful to find our that I had been dreaming!

Perspective

Why is it that it always takes a tragedy to put life into perspective?
Today, one of my coworkers had a birthday party for her son, who was turning four. And while on the way to the birthday party, my coworker's mom was killed in a car accident.
It made me think about how quickly a joyful day turned into a tragic one, how my friend was on top of the world this morning before her world got turned upside down this afternoon.
It breaks my heart, how suddenly her life changed; and it scares me, how quickly happiness can turn to grief.
Above all, it makes me realize how little the "extras" in life matter.
At the end of the day all that matters is that you love and are loved, that you know God and where you're going at the end of this short life.

Note To Self

...no matter how bad things seem, it can always be worse:

Expensive Weekend

Sure was.
Saturday I got up to discover that my tires were losing air, due to what my husband deemed, "inaction" on my part to get new tires after putting some 39,000 miles on my car. I maintain that tire maintenance falls under the duties of the husband. Regardless, I had to give in on Saturday and head down to Discount Tire (an ironic name, if you ask me) to hand over my hard earned money in exchange for the ability to continue driving my car without fear of a blowout. Fine.
Then, it was time to head to the optometrist. Turns out this girl was blind and in need of glasses for the FIRST TIME EVER. It was a truly sad day!!! LOL. Especially when I had to pick out glasses while my eyes were still dilated. I'm still nervous about that...
Following that event, I took my self to the local gym to look into membership packages. Granted, I shouldn't have gone. I was having a moment of weakness following my meeting with the optometrist, meaning I was probably going to be an easy sell for the manager of the gym.
To make a long story short, I left the gym an hour later with a two, count it, two-year membership to the local gym.
To sum it all up, I'm going to be driving smooth and seeing clearly, with sore muscles for the next couple of weeks.
What a weekend.

"Friends" Quotes of the Day

Sometimes, you need some funny Friends quotes to help pass the day :)


Joey: (watching old videos of Monica): Some girl ate Monica!!! "
Monica: Shut up, the camera adds 10 pounds. "
Chandler: so how many cameras are actually on you?


Ross: Your money's mine Green.
Rachel: Your fly's open Gellar!!


Joey to Chandler: Okay, man, I didn't want to bring this up, but Chandler is the stupidest name I've ever heard in my whole life! It's not even a name! It's barely even a word. It's kind of like chandelier...but it's not. It's a stupid, stupid, non-name.


Chandler: All right, you will notice that I am fully dressed. I, in turn, have noticed that you are not. So in the words of A. A. Milne, "Get out of my chair, dillhole!"

Competitive Computing

Well, it's finally happened.
The long-dreaded moment when my husband would discover that MySpace was not just for "chicks and geeks."
And now there is a computer sharing program in the works at the Olson household. I've got it for the next 30 minutes, which I've decided to use to catch up with the bloggin' buds.
I know not when we'll meet again, dear friends. Be well. Live long and prosper. Send comments to my husband urging him to buy a second computer and cable hookup! www.myspace.com/odeetx

Weekly Blogger

...yep, that's me. I've turned into a weekly blogger. So much going on though, I never realize that I've gone an entire week without blogging.

-Had to give another training session this morning at work. I'm starting to like giving training, which is unexpected and out of the blue. Once the utter fear and butterflies subside, I actually get a rush from it, which is odd.

-Went to a revival at a local church last night and had a great time. It really brought to light the fact that sometimes we get so caught up in doing church work that we forget the reason behind that work. Interesting thought.

-Had my performance evaluation at work today, which stressed me out all weekend long. And then after all that worrying and stress, everything turned out fine. I don't know why I continue to freak out over evaluations, but that's my personality I guess...

-Got the email that gave me the website for my 10 year high school reunion. Had mixed emotions on that: 1) Can't believe I'm getting so OLD!!! LOL 2)It's so funny to see everybody's descriptions of their lives (including my own) - you never see people say, "I have a job that I hate and spend the majority of my time there, allowing it to suck the life right out of my body, get home too tired to truly enjoy my spouse, and spend the majority of my time watching television shows that really don't matter." Nope, it's all butterflies and sunshine in the descriptions of our lives (including my own), which is awesome. Turns out every member of my graduating class (including me) has the perfect job, the perfect spouse, the perfect car and the perfect pet. We're one lucky group of people I guess :)