Our Love Story Part 3

Read part one of our love story here
Read part two of our love story here.

...when I finally caught my breath and opened my eyes, I saw not just some sweet boy who I was on friend terms with but a man who had knocked me off of my access and caused my stomach to churn.  I remember that we didn't say a single word to one another.  Not even a smile.  Just looked at each other.  I'm pretty sure that kiss and robbed Tony of his minor beer buzz.  He wasn't flirty and joking with me anymore.  He actually just walked away.  I didn't know what to think.  But I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened.  And neither could he.  We parted ways that night without another word spoken.  Until 2 a.m. when I got a text from him.  All the text message said was "wow".  Good sign.  Except I had no idea what to say back.  Which is so unlike me.  I'm full of things to say.  But I didn't respond.

He continued to text me over the next two weeks asking me to come over to his place and watch a movie or to let him take me out to dinner.  I ignored him mostly or would make excuses that I was busy.  I know... such a snob.  But I was so scared.  I was a little scared because I didn't want to hurt our friendship if things didn't work out.  I was also scared that I was graduating in a month and that he was going back to Utah for the Summer and still had his senior year to come back to in the Fall. But I was mostly scared because I knew it WOULD work out.  I knew that if I started dating him that this would be it.  That he would be the guy I should have been dating all this time.  That he would treat me better than anyone ever had.  That I would fall in love with him.  That I would marry him.  It's not like I'd be forced to or that I wasn't ready to be in that sort of relationship.  I was just scared.  That's the only way I could explain it.  After days of him asking and with a little bit of begging over the last couple of days, I decided to meet up with him one night after one of his baseball games.  But totally in a group setting. 

I got off work, rushed home to shower and change my clothes, and I drove to one of the local BCU watering holes at the bottom of the hill to meet up with he and the rest of his baseball buddies.  I was SO NERVOUS.  Thank goodness all of his friends were guys I could call my friends too.  They helped ease my nerves.  I sat across a table from him that night and tried my best to be the normal Amy that he knew.  It was hard.  I was shy but I covered that up by trying to be funny and make he and the other guys laugh.  It all worked out for the best.  I went back to their place that night and we sat out on the patio telling stories and reminicing about the school year and plans for that summer.  I sat next to him and he brought me a sweatshirt of his when I got cold.  When I left that night, I took that sweatshirt home.  Just another excuse for me to see him right?  That night was the end and beginning of so much of my being.  From then on I was hooked. We had our first actual date a couple of days later...

...to be continued...

A Life Lost Too Soon

I'm sure I'll post about this tragic event a few times over the coming days.  Probably even months from now.  I am still in shock.  This just doesn't seem real.  It's like a dream.

My family lost a piece of the puzzle last Wednesday night.  My sister-in-law was taken to heaven sooner than anyone had hoped.  Please say a prayer for my brother and his two small boys.  Thank you to those who already have. I can't believe how many people have come together and shared so much love over such a tragic event.  Our family is truly blessed.

 

Boys 'Round Here-- Our Tribute to Blake Shelton

Summer is not complete without a trip to Lake Powell in this house.  This year we were blessed enough to go three times.  A trip to Powell without music is a trip wasted.  And you can always count on Uncle Chris to have the tunes going from the moment the boat touches the water until the time we take it off.  We listened to a lot of Blake Shelton this Summer and I'm not even mad about it.  In fact Tony and I have been trying to figure out ways to get him to hang out with us if we ever take a trip to Oklahoma.  I don't see that trip happening but just in case... the dude is a badass.  Here's our family home music video we made to our favorite song this summer.  So many great memories from this trip.. and I may or may not have Tweeted this to Blake himself asking him to join us on the pontoon at Powell next year.. hoping for a re-tweet!  Fingers crossed! 

Recipe: Grandma's Scalloped Ham and Potatoes

These recipe is something that I'll forever cherish from my Grandma Hope.  She made these all the time as a kid for holidays.  Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving... I absolutely loved them!  And I am sad to admit that I forgot about them. It's been YEARS since I'd last had them.  In the last few weeks I've been racking my brain for my favorite Autumn comfort food recipes when these came to mind.  They are the easiest to make and only take a few ingredients.  One of them being bacon.  And who doesn't love some good home grown Midwestern bacon??  We actually got this meat from my dad who butchered the hog himself, prepped, cured, and packaged the meat.  The best part is you have no limit on how much bacon you add to this recipe.  I mean, of course you want to be able to taste the potatoes but you can splurge a bit on the bacon with these. 

Biting into these again brought back so many memories.  I even had tears in my eyes.  Tony absolutely loved them and has already asked that I make them again in the coming weeks.  Normally you would eat these as a side dish but we decided they would be good enough as a meal last night.  I hope you enjoy these!  Be sure to leave a comment letting me know what you thought!

Prep time:  20 minutes

Bake time: 80-90 minutes

Special instructions:  I made a smaller batch that was enough for the two of us plus leftovers as a side for today.  You can adjust depending on how many you are feeding.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Ingredients:

4 large baking potatoes

3 C. Whipping Cream

1 C. Milk (I use skim because the cream is pretty heavy already) 

3 tbsp. flour

Bacon- had I bought a store bought package I probably would have used 3/4 of the package 

Salt and pepper to taste

Dried parsley to garnish

Wash and peel the potatoes.  Cut them into thin circle slices and then cut slices in half.  Layer in greased baking dish (I forgot to do that and my dish was so hard to clean) with strips of bacon.   In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cream, and milk until mostly smooth.  Pour the milk mixture over top of the potatoes and bacon.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to your liking.  

Place dish in a 350 degree oven and bake for 80-90 minutes.  I did the full 90 and they were perfect.  I also took the dish out half way through and stirred the mixture to get some of the bacon from the bottom of the pan on top to get a more crispy texture.  Serve garnished with dried parsley. 

Heaven in your mouth I swear!!!

Text Message Conversations With My Mom

Having text message conversations with my mom is a weekly thing.  Either she or I are both busy and on different schedules so it works for us.  Had to share this recent conversation from my birthday yesterday.  Gave me the warm fuzzies..

Our Love Story Part 2

Read Part 1 of Our Love Story found here.

For the first year of our friendship I tried to hook Tony up with other girls and it never worked out.  After a break-up and other random, meaningless dates on my end I "discovered" I had a little crush on Tony.  For a couple of months I'd make little visits to his room on my way back to my dorm after lunch.  I'd always go up to him at parties and chat with him for hours, I'd throw my arm out waving at him across the mall of our university, I went to all of his baseball games-- even made big huge signs I would hang on the fence of the field, and I would hug the hell out of him when I'd see him.  In my eyes I thought that I was "laying it on thick" but apparently not thick enough.  I gave up and moved on thinking that he wasn't interested in more than friendship.  More meaningless dating for me and then Tony, better late than never, finally gets it.  This time he tried to reciprocate, not as strongly as I did because you know guys, they have to be smooth about it.  I had no clue and so he moved on.  I had a new beau and again tried to hook Tony up with other girls.  To my advantage nothing worked out on his end and eventually my relationship failed miserably.  It hurt quite a bit and who was there to help me pick up the pieces?  I'll give you one guess.

I got my life back together and started eating healthy and exercising regularly.  A couple of months had passed since I'd seen Tony and one Wednesday night some girlfriends and I hit up a local dive with all of the other of age students from Briar Cliff.  I'd lost 30 lbs and I was feeling good.  I was never really "fat" but I had gained the freshman 15 and another 15 when I turned 21.  I was back to the weight I was when playing sports in hs and felt good.  I remember walking into the bar that night, and not to brag, but I turned a lot of heads.  All guys who were my best buds.  I being shy and not the type to read into attention quickly sat down and hung my head while chatting with a friend.  In a second Tony was behind me at the table and without hesitation (because he had lost a few games of darts and had had a few drinks) said to me, "Ames, you are lookin' HOT!"  I just laughed at him because this so wasn't the Tony I knew.  His version of hitting on me seemed to be more of a joke.  He stuck around and chatted with my friend Megan and I. He continued to compliment me and then started to tease me.  Because that's what Tony does, he's a teaser.  He picks and picks until you want to sock him in the arm.  Eventually Megan decided to stick up for me.  She told Tony to give me a kiss and tell me he was sorry.  I, thinking we're totally just on friend terms because I've already tried, turn around, pucker up real big, and squeeze my eyes super tight only to be rocked with a kiss so amazing that I could barely open them back up....

...to be continued. 

The night that changed my life forever

In Denial

I turn 30 on Monday... I'm kind of in denial about it.  To be honest with you, it scares the hell out of me.  For the last few months I've had this growing fear of life being too short (not that it will happen anytime soon but just dying in general).  I'm scared that I'm not taking advantage of everything life has to offer, that I'm not seeing everything I should be, and that I'm blowing by experiences that I should be taking.  I have this total feeling of wanderlust.  I want to see the world and experience things that most others don't even think about.  All with my love by my side of course.  Time is going by so fast.  It seems that my birthday comes faster with every year.

However, this year has been the best of my being.  I feel like I've finally figured out who I really am.  The true Amy.  I have never been happier.  Ever!  I have an amazing husband, wonderful family and friends, a thriving business, and a jubilant sprit.  I'm healthy and I feel fortunate for the things I have because I know there are so many out there who have less than I.  Overall I feel pretty darn bless.  Here's to thirty more years.  And maybe 30 after that!

Love Notes 9.15

Anytime I see a quote that reminds me of Tony, I save it in a folder on my computer.  I thought this would be a good place for me to start sharing those..

Our Love Story Part 1

So how we met.  Tony and I both attended Briar Cliff university in Sioux City, Iowa.  I, the "Midwest Woman", grew up in a tiny town about 30 minutes from Sioux City and Tony, the "Mountain Man", grew up in east/central Utah, also in a small town.  My first recollection of him was when I moved into the dorms (2 weeks early) during my sophomore year of college.  I remember driving up the hill, pulling into the parking lot, and seeing this HUGE red LIFTED (midwest boys rarely have lifted trucks) truck in the parking lot.  I thought to myself, "who's truck is that????????"  Two weeks in a quiet, empty dormitory and still I had no idea.  The week after school started however, my then boyfriend, a senior on the baseball team, dropped me off at work and when he came to pick me up, he was sitting shot gun in that big red truck with a boy I didn't know who was a freshman on the baseball team.  As part of freshman initiation, the senior guys made the freshman guys run all of their errands and drive them around.  Little did I know that afternoon as I rode back to the dorms between my then boyfriend and this shy, quiet guy from Utah that I would one day more the latter of the two.  We instantly became friends...

...to be continued.

Hello

So I've had this idea to start a lifestyle blog highlighting little bits and pieces of our life.  Not because I think we're super awesome or anything but because this Tony of mine makes me so darn happy that I want to document our love and look back on it later in life.  Kind of like how Noah reads his journal to Allie in the movie "The Notebook" except hopefully we both still have our memories years from now.  I do like to think of our life as a love story though.  Not a perfect love story, because what healthy relationship doesn't have a few downs here and there, but its our love story and we are okay with it not being perfect.

Here's where we'll share our adventures, favorite recipes, family get togethers, restaurant reviews (so I've mentioned food twice now- yes we love food), camping and boating trips, our thoughts behind waiting to start having babies, inspiring quotes, lofty dreams, and just other things that make us who who are.  Hope you come back soon!