Tonight the husband and I are celebrating our third wedding anniversary. At this time three years ago, we were melting in the Bakersfield sun, probably still exchanging our vows (our officiant decided to speak forever). Over the past three years a lot has changed: we moved to a whole new location, got new jobs, continued our education, and grew up a lot. We comfortably fell into married life. I attempted a number of recipes, some successful, some Cale rescued, and some ended up in the garbage. We’ve vacationed. We’ve enjoyed the day to day. We’ve played soccer, golf, table tennis, finished triathlons. We’ve started gym memberships. Cancelled gym memberships. We’ve gone on hikes. We’ve taken late night drives to get milkshakes. We’ve taken late night drives just to see deer in our neighborhood. We’re constantly figuring out the day to day, and I’m glad I have such a great partner right with me.

Three years seems like such a long time, and if you count the five years we dated before getting married, it’s hard for me to imagine my life without Cale. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Happy anniversary babe.

Perfectly harmless right? Well this weekend, my husband was about ready to ban me from the blogging world. All because of a few innocent little curtain rods that needed .5 billion screws. Should I start from the beginning?

Kerri posted her curtains on flickr. Not that I’m blaming her at all. Her beautiful new dining room just reminded me of all our plain windows. It was like Kerri had these pretty frosted cupcakes, and I was sitting there with this muffin. A muffin is delicious, don’t get me wrong. But a cupcake with pretty frosting (funfetti perhaps?) is always better.

So I discussed my plans with Cale; we’ll rearrange the bedroom, which is something we’d been talking about doing for months now. Then we would hang curtains on our windows, centering one big set of curtains behind the bed. He thought it would be a great idea, so off I went skipping to Target, where I cursed Target for being remarkably un-cute. I ultimately found my super adorable curtains at World Market (as if I wasn’t copying Kerri enough!). I came home feeling inspired and charged with this decorative electricity. There was no stopping me. I rearranged the entire room just in time for Cale to come home for his job: the curtain rods. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve hung many a curtain rod in my day. I’m all for feminine empowerment, but did you just read that last sentence? I rearranged the entire room, which included vacuuming under the bed, reorganizing under the bed, moving the freakin’ bed. I was tired.

Let’s just cut this short and say: Cale did not appreciate hanging the curtain rods and has requested that any future blogger projects not include screws, unless you plan on buying him a drill.

Are we understood blogging world? Because I love you too much, and I believe somewhere in my contract that I signed for Cale to hang the curtains included a clause that requires me to disclose that information. No more screws. Got it?

the new bedroom. Please ignore Cale’s messy nightstand, it’s now clean.

new bedroom #2

As with any furniture rearrangement, we’re convinced that it’s so much bigger now, etc. etc. But I really believe it compared to the old bedroom. So yay for successful attempts at maximizing the space in our itty bitty one bedroom cottage.

Our bathroom also got a little sprucing up.

How about a new curtain made out of World Market napkins

And yay for finding a great painting under your bed while you’re cleaning it out!

In a very desperate attempt to get my husband to forgive me after the curtain rod debacle, I made hand squeezed orange juice and french toast the next morning.

A feat easier said than done

French toast a la Alton Brown with a few modifications: super hearty whole wheat bread, substituted soy milk, and added some cinnamon

Okay he’s pretty darn cute. Whatever. As long as he doesn’t get cat hair anywhere near my french toast, he’s safe.

So our weekend started out insanely uneventful, but really was pretty sweet. How was yours? What aspects of the blogging world have permeated your life, and even, maybe, your marriage?

So if you thought I died in Vegas..

You were about half right.

I got back from Vegas with an occasional *cough cough*. You know, those dainty little coughs that come and go.

Well fast forward to last Tuesday, and I was like *COUGH URGGGGJROOOTHSKG COUGH* Phlegm everywhere. Eyes crossed. Fever. Kill me now. That kind of sick. And from there I went into a Nyquil-induced coma whence I emerged today. I dragged my booty back to work, resisted my urges to ram my car into the other lane during my morning commute, because clearly a broken leg or two wouldn’t be as bad as coming into work when I still am battling a chest cold and when my body decided that four days of 20 hours of sleep wasn’t enough because oh-my-goodness I’m still exhausted.

During this coma, I managed to sleep my way through our 2 year anniversary. A day when usually I would write an adorable post about how much I love my husband and we’re meant to be, with butterflies and doves fluttering about. Instead my anniversary will forever be marked by:

but my husband brought me jamba juice, crackers, cake, gatorade, and now getting me french fries. Exactly why we’re been married for 2 years
9:54 PM Jun 10th from Tweetie

There you go, the mark of a wonderful marriage: a husband who indulges your horrendous sick-person-appetite with whatever it is you’re craving because otherwise you’d just rather starve.

Luckily we did celebrate our anniversary properly while in Vegas a few weekends ago. A weekend that involved room service of Jalapeno poppers and Champagne, my first Bloody Mary with breakfast of course, a mani/pedi for me, getting outfitted by a seriously awesome Gap employee, fabulously fancy Chinese food at Fin, the front row at the Beatles LOVE, and Cale doubling up his gambling money before left for our flight home. The Beatles LOVE was AMAZING. I cried. We bonded with the other Beatles-obsessed woman sitting next to us. I almost died from the Blackbird flying 2 inches above my head. It was worth every single penny. Actually, it was worth the entire trip.

The next weekend I flew back to Vegas for a weekend of fun with bloggers. Some I read, some I didn’t. My pre-Vegas-cram-session of reading blogs didn’t end up happening. But by the end of the trip, my faith in humanity was restored. I’m most certainly the textbook definition of an introvert, so flying to Vegas where I did not know a single person “in real life” was without-a-doubt frightening. I was ready to back out. I was literally talking myself up until I was seated in the airplane. I got there and all my anxiety was gone the moment I walked into wishcake’s and my hotel room, helped myself to her wine, and waited for them to come meet me. Everyone was just as nice as I imagined, multiplied by five hundred. I felt a little behind because I missed the group dinner with all the introductions, but spent the weekend meeting everyone and having a good time. I always knew I could stalk their name and other details I missed when I got home. I concentrated on having fun during the short time we had together. It was truly a life-altering experience. I had sunshine paired with a Bud Light at the Luxor pool, amazing pasta at Mario Batali’s, cheap wine at Zefferino, and a tall margarita-dacquiri-something-who-cares-it-was-delicious at the Mirage. There were tons of laughs the entire time. I now know that I have friends all over the United States with whom could have a fabulous time. At any time. And who I fully expect to see next year because we must do this again. And it makes me despise the fact that I’m not called “Steph Corwin” in my “real life”.

Some of the many girls that are my new BFFs. Photo courtesy of the talented and sweet Elizabeth

As if my life hasn’t been exhausting enough, this weekend I am ecstatic to go to Bakersfield to meet my new little brother and sister-in-law, who were born the day Cale and I got back from Vegas. They are both healthy and at home with Cale’s dad and wife. The little boy looks like Cale and his dad, which just makes me so gushy and happy. I am looking forward to spending the entire day trading off holding them and taking pictures of them.

That’s my life in a nutshell. I’m sad that I’ve been out-of-commission the past few days, but if you want to know some good shows to watch while you are sick: Californication and United States of Tara. Though during my bouts of unconsciousness, I did end up having some pretty crazy dreams filled with sex, drugs, and tattoos, most certainly thanks to watching two entire seasons of Californication in the span of two days. Entertaining to say the least.

Yeah Cale got me sick. I knew it was just a matter of time. I think it’s only made worse by knowing what is in store for me after watching Cale go through it.

This should be an interesting weekend.

So by the time I got home, I presented Cale with the directions to the two breweries with the open end that he could choose somewhere else, “You know like sushi or Claim Jumper or whatever you want.” So Claim Jumper it was. And it turned out fabulous. Their veggie burger is good, and I had half left over for lunch yesterday. I got my favorite martini (the Buttered Rum Martini), and we ate until we were stuffed.

While we did end up having a wonderful birthday dinner, I still hate yelp. There are always those snobs who go on there and give bad reviews that make me nervous about every place I go to now! Does any one else notice this? There is always that one person who says “I’ve had waaay better (insert whatever you could think of).” I bet these people never have anyone go out to dinner with them because they are such pains-in-the-you-know-what. Gr.

Then we got home nice and early, and I curled into bed with my book (The Memory Keeper’s Daughter) with two hundred pages left. And before I knew it there was only one hundred pages left. Then at midnight when I was finally going to fall asleep with about seventy pages left.. things got interesting, and I could not put it down. Finally around 1:30am, I finished. And ohh it felt good. This was the first for-pleasure book I’d finished since Pride and Prejudice that both Cale and I read to each other during long train rides on our Honeymoon. I really felt awesome. I finished a book. I used to be such an avid reader. I would curl up in my papasan chair in my childhood bedroom and read for days. But through high school and college I found myself having to read so many other things that by the time I had time to myself, the last thing I wanted to do was read. But that is something I have wanted to change. I love reading. Getting lost in the pages, hearing the characters’ voices, and feeling their emotions. Now I can mark #49 on my list as in progress. Sweet!

An early morning Daily Steph

Oh and you know whose husband also made an appearance on her blog today? Ashley’s! How fun is that! Watch out world, I think the husbands are going to take over the blogosphere.

EDIT: Okay I’m so rude! I didn’t offer to interview anyone else! Okay I will take five people who want to be interviewed. Just leave a comment. I blame posting this after midnight for the oversight.

Oh and you get extra credit if you post your answers in a video… with your significant other.

Okay so I’ve already used this picture on this blog before, but shoot me, okay?! I couldn’t find another one that was recent that I’d uploaded. So you get this one.

My husband is a quarter of a century old, folks! Last night I told him he gets to look forward to three more lifetimes with me. (Because apparently we are going to both live to be one hundred.)

And then he tried to drown himself in the shower.

And then I laughed at him because what silly person tries to drown themselves in the shower?! The toilet was right there!

But seriously. My husband is twenty-five. It is a great day. I mean twenty-five has got to be a great year, right? He can rent a car! And even though he’s feeling ridiculously old today, I have the pleasure of rubbing it in because I still have ten long months of twenty-four-dom to look forward to. Don’t worry though I am making it up to him by taking him out to a nice dinner to ___________. Hah. Juuuust kidding; it’s a surprise. Cale did stipulate, though, that this birthday dinner surprise does not count as one of this surprises from my 101 list. No way was he getting gypped out of an awesome surprise for some lousy old dinner.

So to clarify, to celebrate my husband’s birthday, we are going out to dinner at ________ (hah thought I’d let it slip again? Nah), and it will not count towards his three surprises coming to him before 10/31/2011.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVER-BUNS. (Just kidding we don’t call each other that).

What Downtown San Jose looks like from the freeway late at night

Well it definitely helps when you have an awesome husband who cooks dinner and helps out when you are working late. When I said that my husband has been such a huge help this past year, I was not kidding.

So this week when I came home and he looked like this in the kitchen, I just had to take a picture.

He’s a pro, what can I say?

How have your weeks been going? All I know is I’m exhausted and am so ready for this weekend.