The Backwards Surprise, a Homecoming Tale.

about two years ago (roughly) My very large extended family all congregated together at the Bush intercontinental airport to see my baby brother Stephen,

Yes girls I KNOW, get it out of your systems..."He is SO hot!" and for those
of you who knew him in Memphis, "THAT is Stephen? WOW!" yeah yeah...

off on his mission. 

What's that? A bunch of good looking Shivers? Oh Yeah!

So anyways, we spent the last two years, you know, living our lives while HE was out in the Philippines spreadin' the ole "good news" and "convertin' the heathen" and all that jazz.

 Well, it got to be late this summer and the topic of 'The exact date' of Stephen getting home started popping up in emails. We finally found out that he would be coming home on January 11th.  It was after Christmas, but we were just happy to know which day to count down to. 

    Welp...we started counting weeks back in November, when I THOUGHT we were still 8 weeks away...

  Friday night, when I had my family over for a little first birthday party for Aubrey ( next blog, I promise, there are Rainbow cupcake pictures from THAT one!) My dad told us that we needed to make sure we were all at his house the next day for the little Christmas party they were having, because when it was over, we were all going to get in the car and drive to the airport to PICK UP MY BROTHER!

   My first thought was, "Crap! Why is he coming home early? did he SERIOUSLY do something to get sent home when he is ONLY four weeks away from his return date??" Turns out, he knew that this was the day he was coming home all along and TOLD us that it was January! Pretty sneaky little bro, pretty sneaky...

     WELL the plan was that My dad knew about it, and no one else. He was going to pick up my brother from the airport and have him walk into a big christmas party. Well as the day got closer and Daddy got the flight information, he found that the flight would be ARRIVING at 12:45 a.m. in Houston, which is an hour and a half away from where they live, and where the party would have been. That wasn't going to work. So Daddy (who had told mom like a month before the actual date he was coming home) decided to turn the 'surprise' aspect around on Stephen and have us all meet him at the airport, even though he wasn't expecting it.

   SO to catch you all up, Stephen was going to surprise us all by "coming home early for christmas" but we turned it around and surprised HIM by being at the airport instead. It's like "Missionary Inception" a surprise within a surprise.

Mom has a Cricut, and got all crazy-excited about
making signs.

  We got to the airport at 12:30 and decided how we were going to play it out. Those that "knew" he was coming home (as far as Stephen knew Mom didn't even know) waiting out by the gate to see him. The rest of us waited around the corner. We had made signs for him and everything, PLUS dad had someone film the whole thing.  When he got out of the gate, daddy had him walk around to corner to "get to the escalator" and there we all were! He was adequately surprised and we all made a lot of noise, and hugged him, and had a great little homecoming. 

Oh yeah, I got the first hug!

Meeting his niece for the FIRST TIME!!

Telling us some important "mission thing"

Rob did most of the work gluing the words to the poster board once mom had cut them out. Bonus points if you get the references on the poster on top. Stephen kept his ridiculous sense of humor throughout the mission and wrote about the holy spirit "roundhouse kicking people in the face" and other such things. So this was appropriate.

The group with "big Steve"

So, my baby brother is back in, what he referred to in all his emails, "The great motherland of TEXAS"  and we are SO happy to have him back! (despite the fact that he still has to correct himself when he gets all excited and starts talking in Tagolog)

    

         Welcome home Stephen! Now brace for impact, we all know the girls are waiting.....

Oh the weather outside...

Is WAY warmer than it ought to be right now, given that it is the middle of december and SHOULD be lower than 77 degrees! Such is life in southeast texas I suppose. Why, last week was lovely and chilly all week! (when I say "chilly" for all you North people who get snow and all that wonderful wintry weather that I ENVY so, I mean it was in the 40's)
  Anyways it was cold enough to finally make use of our FIREPLACE!! This is the first apartment we have lived in since we have been married, that has a fireplace!

It make me feel like singing..."Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."

Also, Andrew had been begging me for a couple of days to "make christmas cookies mommy!" So he found my christmas cookie cutters and I made some sugar cookie dough and he got to help me make his "christmas cookies" I typically have little to no patience when it comes to having little kids "help" in the kitchen, but he was SO sweet and anxious to do it that I HAD to let him!

I would place the cookie cutter on the dough and he would press it down. Then I let him sprinkle the red and green decorator sugar on the cookies before we baked them. He REALLY enjoyed that part. for the next few days he decided that he needed a "christmas cookie" every time he used the potty (we still aren't 100% with the potty training...)

You know what though? I am still pretty sure I have the worlds most awesome kids!

One whole year BABY!

 Exactly one year and one day ago, I was at my parents house (which was pretty common for that time since we lived down the street from them. Also we were spending lots of time over there anyways since my grandmother had spent her last few weeks at my mom and daddy's house after she was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer, but THAT is another blog...)  Anyways, I was getting ready to go home. I was 37 1/2 weeks pregnant and getting tired of my baby kicking me in the ribs. I went to say goodnight to my little sister who promptly looked at my belly and said, "Okay Aubrey, you need to come out now!" We all laughed and said "yeah right!" and went home.

(Sorry we laughed Jen!)
     

Later that night, around 1:00a.m. I woke up with contractions. Convinced that it was false labor, I lay back down and tried to go back to sleep. An hour and a half later I woke Robert up and told him we should probably start timing them. At 3:00a.m. he decided that we needed to call my mom and the doctor. By 4:00a.m. we were at the hospital in one of those "observation rooms" by 7:00 I had my own room and was in active labor. By 9:00a.m. my doc came to see me and break my water, drenching that drop-cloth thing they put under you with copious amounts of amniotic fluid, whereupon I promptly asked for an epidural (this was the point that I remembered, just how bad contractions were when the amniotic fluid wasn't cushioning them). By 9:45a.m. I had an (effective) epidural. By 10:30a.m. I had a 'hot spot' on my right side (meaning I could feel all the contracting in that spot) By 11:00a.m. I could feel everything on the right half of my abdomen and was pretty sure it was about time to get my baby out.

No, this has not been photoshopped, I REALLY looked
THAT hot, post delivery....

At 11:25a.m. December 14, 2010- Exactly one year ago today, I got to see my very first daughter for the first time. She was and is beautiful, and adorable, and precious and really, REALLY different from her big brother.
     I guess she got the memo that Andrew was an EXCELLENT baby when it came to sleeping and chilling in his bouncy chair, and playing on the floor quietly. This is not to say that she was a BAD baby, quite the contrary she was sweet tempered and lovely....as long as I was holding her. She decided that since Andrew was GREAT at being independent, she would be the neediest baby EVER!

   But hey, she really IS beautiful

BEST Christmas present EVER!

Because she was born in december, the hospital sent her home
in a Christmas stocking. True story. *squeal*

When she is happy...you definitely know it! (CLAP YOUR HANDS!)

 

She also looks AMAZING in girly things like headbands and bows

Did I ever mention that I went a little crazy and made a whole bunch of headbands with bows and flowers for almost every outfit I had for her? Yeeeeeah.... I went a little crazy and made headbands with bows and flowers for almost every outfit I had for her....

"So, uh...you gonna pick me up, or what?"

Aubrey Noelle Attaya, you make my life better just by being here every day. You may be needy, but I am privileged to be the one you seem to need! I love you, my baby girl! 

Happy first birthday, and many MANY more!

 

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!

SO, just in case any of you don't know I LOVE Christmas! I am a 'christmas-a-holic' if you will. My Christmas season starts (officially) on Thanksgiving day, at the end of the Macy's thanksgiving day parade....When Santa Claus passes by. This is something that has been a family tradition since I was a little girl. However....I must admit...that I cheat. I know, everyone complains that all the stores get jumpy, setting up christmas displays and merchandise almost as soon as halloween is over. But me,  I LOVE it! I walk into wal-mart or target a day or two after halloween, bypass the halloween candy in the clearance bins, and beeline to the christmas section (always the garden center of wal-mart, and the seasonal aisles at target...just in case you were wondering)  I walk slowly up and down the aisles of sparkly glass ornaments, nativity scenes, christmas villages, and cinnamon scented pinecones. I close my eyes and take a deep breath in, like a junkie with a fresh ziplock bag full of crack...Christmas Crack!
It's even worse when I go to the craft store and see things like...

a little angel ornament that resembles my baby girl. Compelling me to take a picture with my phone to send to my husband, hoping he has the same "awwww!" moment I did (he doesn't, but pretends to anyways, because he loves me!)

This one is the ornament...

THIS one is my baby....Uncanny Right?!?!

And of course all the seasonal food items that pop up at the grocery store. Especially, Egg Nog!

And THIS is the best kind EVER!

...anyways, like I said I LOVE Christmas, and the whole holiday season that surrounds it I love decorating my christmas tree...

Eclectic, with glowy white lights and shiny ornaments
AS IT SHOULD BE!

....And my Parent's Christmas tree...

I haven't lived at home in 6 1/2 years and still it is MY  job to
 bedazzle their house for the holidays (good thing I LOVE it!)

And for the past several years we have made sure to participate in the "Journey Through Bethlehem" which is a multi-faith ministry that re-creates Bethlehem city at the time of Christ's birth, complete with everyone in full costume and character! Kind of like the renaissance festival, but more....biblical-ish.

Taxes, Amiright?! Ugh Ceasar Augustus,
I didn't vote for him!

Also, cutest little shepherd baby ever?
 I think YES!

The whole christmas season just makes me downright giddy. It was ALMOST embarrassing when I became an adult and still acted like Buddy the Elf whenever I saw a house with a REALLY good light display. or a pretty Christmas tree. Or heard a Christmas song...any christmas song...

People would give me weird looks and I JUST didn't care! (I mean I did, but not enough to stop doing it)  Then I discovered something, a 'secret' if you will. If you have kids, you can be as CRAZY about christmas as you want to be and everyone just assumes you are doing it for your KIDS!!! Seriously! having kids is like a free ticket to go nuts during the holidays, and the BEST part is that as much as I loved Christmas before, it REALLY is better because it is all NEW for them! I have my own arsenal of Christmas movies that I grew up on. I only watch them during the designated "Holiday Season" so as not to sully their 'special-ness', and since Andrew is now old enough to appreciate them, we watch them A LOT! And I am loving it! Especially when he goes walking around the house quoting such things as,"No MONEY! No TICKET!" and "You're a mean one...Mr. Grinch!" 

 I think the big test of my children's "Christmas saturation" is when we meet up with Jolly old St Nick, at the ward Christmas party and BOTH my kids sit on his lap like its not even a big deal!

Andy looks right at home!

Aubrey is all like, "Nice list? Psh! I INVENTED the nice list!"

Pictures like THIS, with MY babies sitting all perfect and cute with Santa Claus...make me squeal just a little....

So pardon me a little, if you will, dear blog-readers, because in MY world, Christmas-time, is CORINNE time! If you have ever wanted to see me absurdly, giddily and quite frankly, alarmingly happy, come find me during the holidays. And if you are in need of any kind of a pick-me-up, we can just pop in, "a Christmas Story" seriously, if you aren't at least SMILING at the end of that one...you have no soul!

 Merry Christmas everyone!

Forever Team Twilight.

*Warning- This post contains a RIDICULOUS amount of Twilight. If you are offended/irritated by, or just dislike Twilight and the subsequent Stephenie Meyer novels, discontinue reading this and go find something else to do. I recommend failblog or cakewrecks. THIS is a 'safe place' for Twilight fans*  


During the last month of my very first pregnancy, I picked up a book. It was the middle of july in 2008, I was nearing the end of my rope and needed the kind of escape from reality that only a good book could offer. Being that I worked in a bookstore, I had access to a nice little handful of books and had a mental list of what I wanted to read (still do for that matter) Someone had mentioned that a book was being made into a movie, and being the nerd that I was, I decided that I needed to go ahead and read it before the movie came out. So I waddled myself to my place of work and purchased Twilight.

I read it.

I loved it.

I bought New Moon.

I read it.

I loved it.

I bought Eclipse

I read it. 

I loved it. 

I partially blame the fact that I was pregnant for the intensity with which I dove into becoming a "Twi-nerd" (I refuse to be called a 'twi-hard' because I do Twilight MY way!)
 Either way, I was hooked. I immediately pre-ordered my copy of "Breaking Dawn" (Which was only 4 weeks away from its release date) and sat around waiting for my baby to be born, and for my book to be released. When it came out, I had a two week old baby that I carried with me to Hastings, at 11:30p.m. to wait for midnight so I could buy my book, cause thats how I roll!

I read it TOO.

I loved it TOO.

That was when I started to get excited about the movies. I proceeded to get tickets for the midnight releases of each movie as they each came out. I won't get into what I thought of each movie, as my opinions are varied for each film. Overall I love them, though if I wanted to I could get very nit-picky.

Being the AWESOME big sister that I am (no brag, just fact) I convinced both my little sisters to read the books. Both sisters loved them, but for some reason, it brought me and Jennifer closer. We had always had a pretty awesome connection (being sisters and all....and also the fact that EVERYWHERE we go people tend to go on about how much we look alike...) but this sealed it, and from then on we were bound together as Twi-nerds forever!
 Well, starting about a year ago, Jen and I decided that we wanted to do something extra special for Breaking Dawn. We were obviously going to see the midnight show, but we wanted to go a little further. (If you are still reading this, remember I WARNED you it was going to get Twi-nerdy!) 
 I checked out my local movie theater (my NEW local theater, since I moved) and found that they were doing a twilight marathon before the midnight show. Well I just HAD to get in on that! I got tickets a month ahead of time for my sister and myself. My sweet husband told me he would stay home and take care of the kids for me (he usually does the midnight shows with us, how lucky am I?) I then made preparations for our "Day of Twilight" as I started thinking of it. I bought black t-shirts and painted on them, I made some SUPER comfy pajama bottoms to match, and I acquired some body glitter and feathers to complete things (see I TOLD you it was going to get bad!) 
The weeks and then days leading up to November 17 my sister and I blasted each others facebook pages with encouraging words of excitement about our upcoming "Twi-day", youtube links to Bruno Mars and Christina Perri songs, and the latest pictures and teaser trailers. I know that I personally caught alot of flack from the "Twi-haters" but I just didn't care!
Finally the day came! I picked up my sister and we came to my house to get ready.

It helps that we are ADORABLE!

On the front: Team Edward, He can: Bust my headboard, Bite my pillows
and Bruise my body any day!

We donned our comfy PJ pants and t-shirts that I had painstakingly hand-painted,

And on the back: "Why am I covered in FEATHERS?"

pinned our hair back with white feathers (if you have read the book you will understand this) artfully applied glitter to our faces and necks, gave ourselves Twilight saga manicures (its all in the details for us)

And we were ready to go!
  We got to the theater at around 3:15 and found a line already forming for the midnight show! I smiled a little smugly as I walked past the line of girls camped out on the floor, knowing that while, yes, I too would be waiting for the same thing, I would be waiting in a cushioned theater seat, watching twilight movies rather than sitting on a hard tile floor watching people buy popcorn.
 We found some good seats in our theater and got comfortable, watching our movies. Since we have seen the older twilight movies MANY times before, we spent alot of the time talking through them and making a myriad of inside jokes throughout. After the first movie started, one of Jen's best friends, Staci, showed up and joined our ridiculousness. between almost every movie we would make a trip to the snack bar for candy, popcorn, nachos, pizza and soda. At one point Jen and Staci made a trip to a convenience store for a wider selection of candy.

Chillin' in our seats, lovin' life.....and Edward!

 FINALLY after 8 hours of waiting and watching Edward and Bella falling in love, and Jacob taking his shirt off, it was time for what we had been waiting for; Breaking Dawn part 1!
 We were so keyed up by this point that the entire movie became almost a religious experience!
From the wedding (*sigh*), the honeymoon (*SIGH*) the EXCELLENT portrayal of the vampire pregnancy, Jacob leaving the pack, and the SUPER scary, but AWESOME birth of Renesmee scene, the FANTASTIC imprinting montage, and of course Bella changing into a Vampire, we spent more time on the edges of our seats, squealing and squeezing the life our of each others hands than anything else.
  Needless to say we had an INCREDIBLE time! We spent the drive home that night incredulating about how much we loved it, and talking about when we could see it again! (I took Robert to see it the very next day, HE loved it too. I am a LUCKY girl!!)
 I have to say that I am not happy with whoever made the decision to make us wait another YEAR before we can see part 2, but since I have no choice, I will wait, and make as big of a nerd of myself as I did for this one!

Anne Geddes, Eat Your Heart Out!

Sometimes I have to sit back and let the little things in life grab my attention and captivate me. I know that if I sit around waiting for something spectacular to happen I will spend my entire life waiting. Which is nothing short of a waste of time.

The other evening I had gone upstairs to shower and get ready for bed. When I was finished blow drying my hair, Andrew (who I had already put to bed earlier) came into my room and climbed onto my bed next to me with the sweetest grin on his face and said, "Mommy, I wanna snuggle you?" I knew that I should tell him to go right back to bed, but that grin made it pretty impossible to do so. I sat back on my pillow, turned on the food network and encouraged my little boy to snuggle into the crook of my arm, which he did and we proceeded to watch about a half an hour of "cook" (anytime I watch the food network he says, "Mommy's watching cook") It was lovely and peaceful and when the show was over, I put him back into his little bed, covered him up and kissed him one more time as he curled up on his side with another sweet smile on his face. I realized then that I had not seen Robert and Aubrey in a little while, so I decided to go downstairs and check on them. 

This is what I found:

Photoshop? Picnik? NOOO She looked like this, all soft and
ethereal when I took the picture...I swear!

I could not resist taking a picture of my angelic baby girl sleeping on her daddy's tummy before getting them both into their respective beds.

It is evenings like this one that make me realize how beautiful my life can be, without me even trying to make it be that way.

(It also helps to have magnificently beautiful offspring....just sayin')

I am still here, I promise!

 So, I am sure you are all very worried about me, since its been a MONTH and a HALF since I last blogged!
"But Corinne, there must be some reason you haven't posted in SO LONG! Inquiring minds want to know!"
Well let me tell ya.....I don't have any kind of good answer. I guess I am just not as amazing as some of the great, dedicated bloggers out there. So what if I am no Julia! So what if I can't come up with witty clevernesses about my kids and husband EVERY OTHER DAY like she can...... Anyways....
 I am sure that all five of you who read this are on the edges of your seats wondering what has been up with me all this time! WELL, I have decided to do a little recap of the past 6 weeks or so.
 Here goes:

Kids 
    My babies are, as always, beautiful and well. 

SO. MUCH. CUTENESS!!!!!

Andrew: is stubborn. I have been valiantly trying to get him to use the potty for a while now. I started MONTHS ago and he just had no interest, so we backed off for a while. I gave him his space. Then, a few weeks ago we started trying again. Its still pretty hit or miss. I think the biggest problem is that my son, is lazy. He would rather sit and watch the "Bubble Guppies" than walk the ten steps it takes to get to the bathroom and sit on his 'frog'. I have to ask him every so often if he needs to go potty. More often than not, he doesn't answer and I have to tell him to go "try". He usually does, and is usually successful, so I am hopeful that we will get this potty training business over with...soon. *dreamingofonlyonekidindiapers*

Aubrey: is ambitious. It took me until Andrew was nearly nine months old to get him to crawl. Aubrey was all over the place at six months. She has been pulling up to a standing position for the past two months and for the past several weeks has been letting go so she is standing on her own. She will look at me, smile and clap her hands, which is, lets face it, the cutest thing in the entire world and DEMANDS me to respond each and every time. I have no doubt in my mind that she will be walking/running all over my house by Christmas. *sigh* I am not entirely sure how I feel about that yet...

Running   

Still doing it. 3 miles a day. Jeans are getting looser.......

My Birthday 

 On October 12 I became closer to 30 than I am to 20.... (I turned 26) I am coming to terms with it. Its not that I worry about getting older. Quite the contrary, I have always thought like an old person, I might as well BE an old person. The problem is, that I don't really FEEL like an old person yet, which I guess is good and all, but slightly awkward because I really DO have to be the "grown up" now.  Like I said, coming to terms with it. 

    My incredibly sweet, and thoughtful, husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him I hadn't had a real "birthday party" since I was 16 (and it was kind of a small affair) I told him I wanted a "tenth anniversary of my sweet sixteen" party, and it turned out to be really fun! We had it at the teen club, which meant there were ALOT of teenagers there, which was fine, but also a decent handful of my own friends, which made me happy! We danced, we ate cupcakes and soda, we hung out, and had a really great time, and after all, isn't that what birthday parties are all about?

Ocularity 

 I got glasses. The general response to this is, "Since when do you wear glasses?" The answer is, technically since I was about 13, but because I am far sighted and don't really have to wear them all the time, I quit for a while. However, I have been having to strain my eyes to see more and more lately and it gives me headaches, so I broke down and made an appointment with the optometrist. Now I can see, and as an added bonus, I get to look like a pseudo-hipster most of the time! Win :)

Television

 Soooooo I have a dvr now, aaaaand I kind of love it. As a result I am able to watch ALOT more television shows than I used to, AND at my leisure!  Here they are for your own random knowledge, some of my favorite shows! (at least the ones that show up most often on my dvr :P)

• 'How I Met Your Mother' - I know this one has been on for a while, but I only just recently got into it. Jason Segal and Neil Patrick Harris...Love it!
• 'Pan Am'- With a pilot for a husband, we had to get into this one, I must say, I am really kind of liking it.
• 'Once Upon a Time' - Okay, this show was like, custom made for me! I ADORE the fairy tale premise and how it intertwines with the modern story! Awesome!
• 'American Horror Story'- This one definitely has a creepy premise, but a REALLY interesting storyline. I am kind of captivated by the whole thing, and I really want to know what is up with that house!
• 'The Sing Off'- This is my all time favorite music competition on television! No accompaniment at all, now THAT takes talent!
• 'Up All Night' - fantastic, mid week hilarity :)
• 'Chuck' 
• Cooking shows, Rachel Ray, Alton Brown, Ina Garten, need I say more??
• 'Sister Wives' - But only because I enjoy sitting with my husband and making fun of the whole thing.

Halloween 

 I love the Fall/Winter Holidays, SO much! Halloween is the one that starts them all, so I like to try and do as much as I can to celebrate it. This year I got to do halloween THREE separate times!! The first was a small party hosted by a good friend of mine. We basically hung out, ate snacks and played 'dirty minds' which ended up being hilarious. I dressed up for this one as the little mermaid. Since my hair has been a spectacular red color lately, I decided to make use of it. It was honestly the easiest costume I have ever come up with. I basically bought a couple of yards of muslin and made a length of rope and tied them both around me and voila! Little mermaid, right-after-she got legs costume! 

  The second Halloween was the Lock-in at the Teen club. This was also a costume party so I decided to dress up this time as a twilight vampire from the 1800's (Thats right, I am a Twi-nerd! What are you gonna do about it?!?!) My baby sister decided to go vamp too. I think we looked pretty hot...

The third halloween was the actual halloween night. This night was for the kids. Andrew got to have his first, real experience, trick or treating! We took him to my in-laws neighborhood (a.k.a. the Rich neighborhood) 

He would hesitate after knocking on the door and back WAY up, it was so cute!

      Andy was a cute cowboy!                                         Aubrey was an adorable baby bumble bee!

All in all it was a very successful night, for my little boy. He ended up with a nice amount of candy in his little pumpkin bucket. Plenty for Mommy and Daddy him to enjoy for a while.

You gotta love how the rich neighborhoods always hand out the good stuff!

So thats what has been going on with me! I will get better about posting, besides, this time of year, there is always alot to write about!

A Half Dozen Years.

Okay boys and girls, I am going to tell you a little story. Get comfy now....what? You don't want to hear a story? Yeah, I don't really care, and am going to tell you anyways.  This is the story of.....  'How I met.....the Spaz that I married'

     Once upon a time, there was a young girl. (and when I say "young" I mean that I WAS of legal age, but only just barely....Seriously, I was 18 and three months....)

 
  

      This young girl was just embarking on the world of adulthood....at her local LDSSA Institute. She was a hesitant girl, but starting to come into her own. Intimidated by most social relationships due to bad experiences during her adolescence, and a handful of mean people who took particular pleasure in making her feel worthless, she was starting to finally feel like she had friends who actually cared about her. 

 One day, at the beginning of the spring semester, the young girl decided to make a stop at the institute with her aunt. The girls aunt had a father, who was a little obsessed with those puzzles that have a billion tiny pieces, and when he finished with one, he never touched it again. The aunt asked if the girl knew what she could do with the mountain of puzzles he had already finished with. Being a thoughtful person, the girl suggested that they take the puzzles to the institute for her friends to enjoy in between classes (as she knew they already killed time putting puzzles together in between classes anyway)

  They loaded the puzzles into the backseat and trunk of the aunts car  (did I mention there were ALOT of puzzles?) and brought them to the institute. Upon arrival the girl and her aunt loaded their arms with the boxes and proceeded to carry them into the building, and attempt to not drop them all over the floor. As she entered the main room of the institute building with her second load of puzzles, a new guy, who was himself, perched over a puzzle-in-progress, looked up incredulous and exclaimed, "What?!?! Not MORE!!"

The girl (having recently developed a tad bit of confidence in herself, and feeling that HE was being rather bold, as she had been a part of this institute longer than he, and therefore felt this was HER turf...) exclaimed, "Yes, MORE!!! Deal with it, as I go get the rest!" 

   And those were the very romantic and heartwarming first words my future husband and I ever spoke to one another. 

Eight months later, we were engaged

Eleven months after that, we were married

Another 6 years after that, we are still saying ridiculous things to one another, making fun of stupid movies, and being VERY snide and judgemental about people in restaurants.

  I must say, its been a great half dozen years!