Back to the Land of the (OSU) Cowboys

As soon as we get off work today Arsen and myself, along with little Addison Jane, will be heading to the great state of Oklahoma. This weekend is officially the first weekend of OSU football, which is a big deal in our household. I myself am (obviously) not a huge football fan, but Arsen has been counting down the days for months now.

I'm in it purely for the social aspect of things. I love going back because I get all warm and fuzzy inside remembering how amazingly fun and care-free college was, and we get to reunite with friends we haven't seen in awhile. Tailgating is a big deal in good ole' Stillwater. Actually, everything about football season is pretty big in Stillwater.

 

 

So can't wait for that.

Our first stop will be at my dad's place this evening. His birthday was actually Tuesday, so I made him a cake (from a box, don't be too impressed) and we have a special little gift for him. He has informed me, however, that the grasshopper invasion (discussed here and here) has reached an all-time high, so we've been plotting ways to get me in and out of his house without being attacked. His latest idea was to wrap me in a sheet and then for me to run inside....we'll see how that goes. He actually said that they will jump on you and bite you, and that there are literally thousands of them. Apparently it sounds like your car is being hailed on when you drive down his driveway, which sounds like my worst nightmare. I want to cry just thinking about it.

The rest of the weekend will be spent seeing other family, tailgating, and hopefully relaxing. Friday night we are eating at our favorite restaurant of all time, Tokyo Pot, in Stillwater. It's a shabu shabu place, and if you've never tried shabu shabu, do it immediately. You cook your own meat in a boiling pot of flavored broth on your table, and eat it with rice and veggies, and it is like heaven in your mouth. I'm drooling a little thinking about it.

So this will most likely be my last post for the long weekend....I am going to soak up every minute of free time that I have until next Tuesday. Hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day weekend!!!

Wedding Planning: It's Not For Everyone

The moment I got engaged, I started planning my wedding. Seriously, like that night, in my head. Of course I already had some ideas...what girl hasn't been thinking about her wedding (on some level) for years?

Before we were engaged I imagined that the time spent planning my wedding was going to be a glorious time. I couldn't wait to buy a wedding planning book, tons of bridal magazines, and sign up for The Knot. Arsen and I had been talking about getting married for long enough that I had considered buying some of this stuff before, but I knew I would feel like an imposter without a ring on my finger. So finally, I could do all of the things I'd been dreaming of for so long. 

And then reality came crashing down. Planning a wedding is hard. It's stressful. It's actually quite infuriating at times. And this is why: EVERYONE has an opinion. EVERYONE thinks they know what's best. Yes, it was my wedding, but I had to take into consideration what I wanted, what Arsen wanted, what his family wanted, what my family wanted....and everyone wanted very different things.

The first couple of months weren't bad. We started looking for venues right away, and I found a few that I loved. Two of them were way out of our budget (who can pay $48,000 for their venue alone? Not this girl.), but one was perfect. It was so cute and quaint, beautiful and white (a blank canvas is what they called it), and everyone there was so incredibly nice. I was sold. So was Arsen.

But then....then we started writing up the guest list. This venue had a capacity of 150 people. Let's just say we went way over that. Way. Apparently in the Armenian tradition, you don't just invite the bride and groom's friends. You invite the parent's friends. And the sibling's friends. And their grandkids and aunts and third cousins. It was hilarious. I felt so bad for his poor mom, because she kept trying to narrow down the list, but she was so upset and worried that people were going to be offended if they weren't invited.

This is one of the many reasons that we had to have two weddings. We just couldn't narrow the list down to 150 no matter what we did. We probably ended up having about 150 at each wedding, so obviously it was a necessity.

After the venue debacle was decided, it was time for all of the little details. Oh my, there are SO many little details. Cake tasting was awesome. Shopping for my wedding dress was amazing. I found the one I wanted on the very first day. Picking out tuxes wasn't bad, because I left that in Arsen's hands. And taking our engagement photos was a blast. But literally almost every other part was not pleasant.

I think part of the reason this was a less than joyous time in my life is because my mom and all but one of my bridesmaids were more than three hours away. So I just didn't have much help, even though my mom made several trips down throughout the course of the planning process. And I will be the first to admit that I get stressed out easily. And overwhelmed. And I tend to blow things out of proportion just a little bit. So poor Arsen was the only one who got to deal with my insanity on a daily basis.

But when it came down to it, none of it mattered. The wedding was beautiful, and incredibly fun, and meaningful and sweet, and I didn't even notice all of the millions of little details. Of course there were day-of catastrophes, of course everything wasn't perfect. But in my eyes, it couldn't have been better.

So for any of you girls out there who are newly engaged or know your time is coming, brace yourself. It can still be a wonderful time, but don't get too down if it's not the perfect wedding planning process you always imagined. In the end, it will all work out.

Now, feast your eyes on some of our fun engagement pics:

An Engagement Story

By the time Arsen and I got engaged we had been dating for just over two years. Looking back that doesn't sound like much time at all. But by that point in our relationship I was ready.

You can read all about how we fell in loooove in this post. Even though we met in college and were not planning on it turning into anything serious, it did. By the two year mark in our relationship it was one of those situations where we knew we would be together forever...so why wait?

Plus, I wasn't exactly the "normal" college age. I was 25 when we graduated. Yes, it took me seven years (off and on) to get a Bachelor's degree. So I felt pretty much ready in that way as well.

But I had no idea when it would be happening. We moved to the Dallas area after graduation in May of 2010. I got an apartment with my friend Amelia, and he was living with his brother to save up some money. I had a feeling it would be coming soon...but he kept throwing me off! Our two year anniversary came and went on September 19th. My 26th birthday passed by on October 12th. Nothing. I wasn't yet to the point of frustration, but I was definitely curious.

One weekend in late October we headed back to Oklahoma for OSU's Homecoming. Homecoming is a BIG deal for us...supposedly it's "the biggest Homecoming in the nation". Not sure if that's a fact, but people sure think it is. So we were both super excited and had been talking for weeks about our plans.

On Friday we took the day off work, and headed north on I-35 early in the day. The plan was to drop Addie off at my mom's house in OKC and then head to Stillwater for something we call "Walk Around". All the Greek houses decorate these crazy elaborate displays and thousands of people walk around and look at them. It's always a great time because you're almost guaranteed to run into someone you haven't seen in forever, plus it involves tons of reminiscing about the good ole days.

Well, on the way to Stillwater it started to rain. I was being a huge brat that day, and was like "Ugh, I don't want to go to Walk Around in the rain! That sounds miserable! Who are we even meeting up here? What's the point of driving all the way to Stillwater if we can't even do Walk Around?" and my favorite complaint, "Arsen, seriously I don't want to ruin my new boots!". I'm sure he was rethinking his decision every minute of my whining.

Finally when we were about 15 minutes out the rain stopped. The sun was out, and I was happy again. We drove into town, and instead of going straight to campus he took a little detour through his old neighborhood. The house that he lived in when we met is near and dear to our hearts. It's the place that we spent all of our time together in the beginning. It's where we fell in love. It was a dirty college boys house, but I will always love it. We even named our little fur baby after that place. It's on a street named Admiral, so that's where Addie originated from.

I love driving by it, just because of all the great memories it brings back. We drove by, drove around campus a bit, and then instead of looking for a parking spot he drove back to the Admiral house. This time, he pulled up in front and parked. I was super confused, because it is way too far from campus to walk all the way to Walk Around from there. He turned in his seat to look at me, and started saying all these adorably sweet things, about how much he loved me, and how happy I made him, and how he couldn't wait to spend the rest of his life with me.

I know by now anyone in their right mind would probably have put two and two together, but I just thought he was being sweet. Didn't even cross my mind that something special was going on until he jumped out of the car and ran around to my door. The minute he opened his door I knew. He opened my door up, and got down on one knee. He said " Stillwater is where we met, Stillwater is where we fell in love, and Stillwater is where I want to ask you this question. Celeste, will you marry me?"

I had a reaction that I never expected myself to have when I was proposed to, and to this day Arsen won't let me live it down. I started laughing! I was so happy, and so shocked, and so overwhelmed, and so giddy....I just smiled and laughed and said "Oh my God!!" a lot. And of course, I said "YES!!!". And put that beautiful ring right on my finger.

Arsen was upset there were no tears, but I'm not really a happy crier. I cry when I'm sad, but when I'm happy I usually get uncontrollable giggles. So I guess it was to be expected.

After the proposal, he hopped back in the car and took off out of town. I was even more confused now. I just assumed we were meeting up with friends to celebrate. But we headed back toward OKC.

Obviously I called my two best friends, Rachel and Katie immediately. They were both super sweet and excited and happy for me, and I'm so glad they were the first people I spoke to. I didn't call my mom since I knew by that point that we were heading back to her house, and I thought I would call my dad when we got there. The 45 minute drive back to her house was a fun one. I kept staring at my ring, laughing, and saying "I can't believe this!".

We got to my mom's house, and I couldn't wait to walk in and give her a hug and show her my ring! I walked through the back door, through the hall, and into the kitchen....and my mom, my dad, Rachel and Katie were all sitting at the dining room table!!! I started jumping around and yelling "Yay!!! Oh my God, I can't believe you guys are here!!!" and giving everyone hugs. I couldn't believe that he was so thoughtful to have all the people who he knew I loved most in my life waiting there for me.

We spent the night eating cake, drinking champagne, laughing and talking. It was really just such a special night, and I will absolutely cherish it forever.

It wasn't an extravagant proposal in some exotic location, it wasn't skywriting and fireworks, but it was absolutely, positively perfect for me. For our relationship. For us :)

What Have I Done?

Guys, I really got myself into something I shouldn't have. I'm not sure what I was thinking....but now there's no changing my mind.

Somehow, I thought it was a good idea to agree to participate in a fantasy football league. Me. The girl who literally couldn't tell you one thing about the game of football, even after cheering at football games for six years of her life. The girl who's idea of torture is being forced to sit and actually watch a game of football. Who can only name the NFL players that are hot enough to be featured in a magazine or are in funny commercials. What on earth was I thinking?

Probably the closest I've ever been to a football.

I'm participating in the Battle of the Spouses GMC Fantasy Football draft this Sunday here in DFW (Irving to be exact) with some other bloggers and their significant others. When I got the email I was actually pretty excited, because somehow I missed the whole "battle of the spouses" thing and mistakenly thought Arsen and I would be competing together. Nope. I'm on my own. And I'm scared.

So you can expect a full report in the next few days, probably about my utter embarrassment at being the least knowledgeable person there. I'm just holding out hope that I can sit close enough to Arsen that he can whisper some tips to me....

Along with that hilariousness, we have a pretty great weekend planned. Tonight we'll be going out with some of Arsen's coworkers. I heard their might be a piano bar involved, which makes me giddy with excitement. A little known fact about me: I love music, and I love all kinds. Like alllll kinds. I can identify and sing along to more random songs than you would believe. And it brings me some kind of twisted pleasure when people are shocked to hear me singing along to something completely unexpected....especially Arsen. So a piano bar is the perfect place for me. You're actually encouraged to sing along, no matter how off key....which I most usually am.

Tomorrow we are dropping the pup off at her favorite daycare for a nice little haircut and a day full of playing with her best doggie friends. Then Arsen and I are heading to Fort Worth for more fantasy football. Luckily, I'm not playing this time (although I should probably pay attention and take notes). Some other wives/girlfriends will be there for a girls night in a separate part of the house. Sounds pretty good to me.

So please, please, wish me luck. If you have any magical tricks or helpful fantasy football pointers, please let me know. Seriously.

When He Met She

When A and I met, we were both in college at Oklahoma State University (the best school in all the land but that's beside the point). To say that neither of us were looking for a relationship is a huge understatement. I had just gotten out of a relationship a couple of months before, and A was in the midst of very intentional single streak in his life. Let's just say I had heard of him long before I ever met him.

We both had one major focus in our lives. Having fun. Period, end of story. And in the past for both of us relationships did not equal fun. Not one bit.

One night in the summer of 2008 two of my best friends and I decided to venture over to Oklahoma City. School was out, we didn't have much going on, so we went to stay with my mom who lived in a suburb of the city and went out. I don't remember too much that went on that night, but I have one incredibly clear memory. We were walking through the bar, and I saw this guy standing on a raised surface (a stage? a bar? who knows.) doing something that resembled the Dougie. He was surrounded by girls, and he had a fauxhawk which immediately got me. At that point in my life crazy hair was the number one thing that attracted me to a guy. (No, I don't know why. It was a strange phase.) Anyway, this guy was a really good dancer. Two points for random bar guy.

At this point my friend Laura says "Oh my God! That's A! He goes to OSU!". Then she turns around to look at me and says "You should totally date him". My immediate thought was, yes, I totally should.

After summer was over and we were back in the swing of things in Stillwater, my best friend Katie and I spent the majority of our time "socializing". Otherwise known as going out every night of the week. (Don't judge, we were young) Wouldn't you know, this just so happened to be A's favorite activity as well.

So I had my eye on him. In fact, I had already determined that he would, in fact, be mine. Slightly creepy? Yes. But I make no apologies.

The thing was...A wanted nothing to do with me. Katie was friends with him and all of his friends, so that was my in. We would pass by him at the bar, Katie would tell him hi, he would give her a friendly hug, I would stand there and try to look friendly and approachable....and nothing. Not even a glance in my direction. I can recall several instances that this happened. It was SO frustrating.

Finally, on one glorious football Saturday, we spoke. Katie and I were sitting at the bar at Chili's having margaritas, and A and a group of his friends came in. Katie and I had just decided to leave, so I was a little upset, but I was still giddy with excitement because I knew she would go talk to them before we left. We walked over, and I positioned myself directly behind where he was sitting at the bar. (man, I sound like such a creeper) He wasn't paying any attention to me, and I knew we were about to leave, so I said the first thing I could think of. I pointed at his drink and I said "What's that?". 

Good one. He answered that it was a Bloody Mary, and I asked what that was...stimulating conversation here, people. After he told me and I said something awesome like "Oh, that sounds so nasty!", he turned back around to the bar. Defeat.

But then! Then he turned to look at me and said "I really like your hair". And that was it.

But that's all that I needed. I knew that I had him! I mean, he liked my hair, hello! A couple of days later I was in my room in the apartment that I shared with three friends, and I logged into Facebook for some daily stalking. And he had requested my friendship. OMG. I took off running into the living room where Katie was watching Family Guy and eating an entire sleeve of saltine crackers (just a guess, but she did this a lot) and I yelled out "Katie! Oh my God! A just added me on Facebook!!!". She was so sweet and said "Yay CeCe!!!" and celebrated with me. Months later she would tell me that he had requested her friendship the same day, she just didn't want to ruin it for me.

However, this was the beginning of a beautiful thing, this Facebook friendship. One night Katie and I ended up at what turned out to be A's house. Honestly, I had no idea...I wasn't THAT big of a stalker. But much to my disappointment he wasn't home. So when I got home that night I messaged him and said I had been at his house, where was he? He wrote back the next morning and said he was in Arkansas, why was I at his house? And I was in.

Thankfully, the next time we saw A and his friends out, he actually acknowledged that I existed. We started talking and flirting, and before you know it, we were "a thing". You see, I still didn't want a real relationship, I just wanted the cute boy to flirt back and pay attention to me. And he didn't want one either. Or so we thought.

We were inseparable. Every free minute we had we spent together. Literally. I remember one of my roommates asking what I would do if this "thing" between me and A turned into something serious, and I insisted that we were just hanging out and having fun, nothing serious could ever come of it.

Fast forward two months down the road, and A was sitting on his couch whispering in my ear that he loved me while all our friends drank wine and were laughing and joking around us. A couple of months from that, we were discussing marriage. Not like, planning to get married soon, but just knowing that it would happen.

So the moral of the story here people, is that you never know. If you would have told me that night at the bar in OKC that I would marry the crazy dancing guy with the fauxhawk I would have laughed in your face. But here we are, four years later. Isn't life funny?

Let's Talk About Weddings

Or more specifically, my wedding.

In less than one month I will have survived an entire year of wedded bliss with my adoring hubby. Yes, I meant to say survived.

It has been wonderful. Beautiful. Amazing. But it has also been stressful. Scary. HARD.

So I've decided that in honor of our first year of marriage I'm going to focus on our wedding and everything that went into it over the next few weeks. I've already done a post about our wedding day, but that was before any of YOU were reading. Meaning, most likely my mother is the only person who ever read that one. So I'll do another one just for fun.

Also, if you're so inclined, you can read all about our Armenian wedding here. Yes, we had two weddings. Yes, it was crazy.

So I hope you guys are excited! I'm pretty pumped about reliving all of the craziness with you. I'm also looking forward to sharing the vast amount of knowledge that I've gathered after an entire year of matrimony. You're welcome ;)

If you guys have any questions you want me to answer or anything you're just dying to know....let me know and I'll be sure and cover it in one of the upcoming posts!

Let's Get Real

I've noticed in the blogging world that for the most part, everyone's lives seem pretty freaking fabulous. I'm sure that from an outsiders perspective, mine seems pretty great as well. And it is. But come on...it can't be all rainbows and butterflies all the time for everyone. It certainly isn't in my life.

But I get it. Who wants to blog about the negative side of things? Who wants to blog about the piles of laundry, the stress at work, the fights with the husband....all the unglamorous parts of every day life? I don't. I don't want people to know that things aren't always perfect.

But there is no way that things can be perfect every single day for anyone. That's just not how life goes. And I think it can be incredibly unhealthy to compare yourself to all the other seemingly perfect lives out there in this great big blogging universe. I don't struggle with comparison like I used to, but it still comes up every now and then.

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When Facebook first came around, I was living in California. All by myself. I was following my dreams, but I certainly wasn't "living the dream". It was tough. I've talked about it before in this post. I would look at all the Facebook updates of everyone back in Oklahoma, living the college life, going out with friends, having what looked like the best time of their lives, and I would get so depressed. I felt like everyone was so happy and I was so alone and sad....it was so, so unhealthy.

Now that I'm older, wiser, and in a much better place in my life, I don't struggle with that. As much. But when I do, it's not with Facebook now....now, it's with bloggers. Some bloggers seem to have the best marriages. It seems like they are so madly, deeply in love that they never have stupid fights over what to make for dinner, or who should have replaced the trash can liner. And some of them, their homes are just so beautiful. And organized. And clean. And some of them are just so incredibly crafty. And they have adorable little shops where they sell the crafty things they make.

And every once in awhile, if I'm having a down day, or maybe am feeling a little more...ahem....moody than usual, it gets to me. I can feel that urge to compare creeping up on me, and I have to make a conscious decision to fight it. And to remind myself...there's no way it's all perfection, all the time.

I saw this quote on Pinterest once, months ago, and it really stuck with me: "The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlights reel". That is SO TRUE. Of course everyone is only posting about the best things in life! Why wouldn't you? But sitting on the other side of things, it's so easy to assume that that's just their every day. Beautiful, happy life, 24/7.

Please know, I am blissfully happy in my life....most of the time. I adore my husband, he is my best friend, and we have a wonderful relationship....most of the time. And I love my house, and I love keeping it nice and clean and pretty and organized....most of the time. So if you're ever sitting here reading my blog, and you're thinking something along the lines of Good Lord, this girl brags an awful lot about her hottie husband and her cute little dog and how great things are...remember this. Remember this post. And remember that most likely, every other blogger out there, big and small, is showing you their highlights reel. And feel better.

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Typically on Sunday or Monday each week I do a little recap of our weekend. Well, I'm happy to report that this weekend, I basically have nothing to recap.

That's right. We didn't do much of anything this weekend, and it. was. glorious.

I don't even have any good pictures to share. Only crappy iPhone randoms. That's how amazingly, blissfully boring it was. Arsen may disagree, but this was exactly what I've been wanting.

Friday we did actually go to Dallas for a friend's birthday. We went to a Mexican restaurant over by the SMU campus, and then went out to for a bit. I'm not drinking much lately, other than the occasional glass of wine, so Arsen has a built in DD. We were actually home and in bed by about 1:30.

Saturday was just one of those days where things weren't really working out for us. We went to work out, and then decided we wanted to go eat someplace new. For some reason we were both in incredibly indecisive moods, so we went back and forth forever. After we finally decided on the Shops at Legacy we headed out....and about three minutes before we got there it started raining. And we didn't have an umbrella.

Then when we pulled up to the place we had decided on, the sign on the door said Open Daily at 5 PM. It was about 2:45. Okay...so, on to the next one. We drove around and found another place, a pizza place called Coal Vines that we'd never been to. We walked through the rain from the parking garage over to the restaurant, and when we walked in the hostess said "Just so you know, we don't serve pizza until 4 PM". Of course. The entire reason we went there is because we wanted to split a pizza. We glanced at the rest of the menu, decided we didn't want anything else they had, and then just walked over to the next restaurant we saw. It was just too difficult.

After finally eating, we went shopping for a bit. Arsen was the one who was looking for something, but I'm the one who ended up buying. Imagine that. By the time we were done shopping it was absolutely pouring outside, so we decided it was a good night for cuddling up on the couch with a couple of movies. And that's what we did. It was delightful.

Today was just a normal Sunday. Gym, groceries, visit with Arsen's parents, and cleaning up the house. Now, I'm ready for bed. I am literally exhausted and I have no idea why since this is the least I've done on a weekend in I don't know how long. So I'm going to finish up the laundry, get lunch ready for tomorrow, and hopefully be in bed by 9 PM. Nothing sounds better.

Happy Sunday people. Tomorrow's Monday. Get excited.

The only random pics from this weekend:

 Addie really digs her new bed. 

So I forgot to take my band aids off before my spray tan....awesome.

 Exhausted.

 Spotted this at a bar in Los Colinas. Creepy.

 Arsen and one of his best frans.

On our way to visit the in-laws. Don't mind my no-makeup look.

A Scary Story For Your Friday

Well, we've made it to Friday again. I'm pretty excited about what this weekend has in store. Time with friends, working on the house....maybe a little shopping? We'll see if I can convince Arsen that it's a good idea.

Last night we had a moment of terror in our household. Arsen and I were watching TV, and Addie had gone to our bedroom. On the days that she goes to daycare she has started "putting herself to bed" as I like to say. It's like she's just so exhausted that the sound of the television and our talking is too much for her, so she'll go in the room and hop up in bed around 8 or 9.

I wanted to make sure that this is what she had done, so I got up and started walking toward the room. When I was just about to the bedroom door, I saw something small run right by my foot. Being the huge baby that I am, I screamed and started jumping from one foot to the other. Addie came running from the bedroom as fast as she could. Arsen is getting used to my overreactions, so he just said "What is it?".

It was a freaking gecko! A tiny grey gecko, in my house. Of course I'm freaking out, saying, "Babe, come get it! Get something! Come get it! I can't have a gecko loose in my house!!!". So he gets up, grabs a plastic cup, and traps it. Impressive, cause those things are speedy.

Please Don't Hurt Me Mr. Arsen

Then we were kind of at a loss for what to do. I told him to get a piece of paper and slide it under there, then dump him outside. The little thing was kind of cute, I definitely didn't want to kill it!

By this point Addie is in my arms, and we are standing on the third step of the stairs, peering over the side. Can't risk that thing touching us. So Arsen gets the paper, and as he's going to slide it under, he looks up at me and said "Oh no. I squished his tail.". Then we both immediately felt awful for the poor little guy. Arsen said "Look what you made me do!". Way to make me feel like a heartless b-word.

So he picks him up, and releases him outside....and he didn't move. Pretty sure we murdered an innocent little gecko. But he did inform me that our front porch was covered in them, so that's awesome. We had all of our front landscaping ripped out on Wednesday, and I'm guessing it disturbed their habitat or something. Who knows, I'm not a scientist.

It was a very emotional evening for all of us. 

I Have a Problem.

I'm a worrier. And I hate it. I worry about everything. A typical day for me includes a solid 1-2 hours of worrying (by my best estimate). Arsen has a great solution for me: Stop Worrying. But for some reason that doesn't seem to work.

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When I'm at work, and we've left Addie home for the day, I sit there and worry about her. I worry about the house catching on fire and her being trapped inside with no way out. I worry about someone breaking in and dognapping her. I worry about her choking on something. Worry worry worry.

When Arsen is gone, I worry. Just about all the millions of things that could go wrong. And if he doesn't answer his phone? Good Lord, the world is coming to an end! All I can think about are car wrecks, muggings, random shootings....it's never ending.

I spilled some dry fettuccine on the floor last weekend, and Addie took off with a piece. By the time I got to her, she had already eaten the entire thing. I didn't think much about it, but an hour or so later when I was on the elliptical at the gym I started thinking....couldn't that be dangerous? That pasta is hard, and sharp when broken. What if it lodged in one of her organs and she was slowly bleeding to death? I started googling "my dog ate dried pasta" and similar things, and one result said emergency surgery could be necessary. Google is a dangerous weapon for a girl like me. By the time we left I insisted we needed to go home to check on her before we ran the rest of our errands. Arsen was not pleased.

I need to find a way to get past the worry, because I can only IMAGINE how much worse this will get with children. I don't want to be the girl who is paranoid throughout my pregnancy, and then worries every day of my kids lives. I'll lose my mind!

This is what brought on this post today:

As soon as I noticed her sad little loose tooth, I started panicking slightly. Her teeth are one of her cutest features! They're so crooked and teeny tiny, and I can't imagine her without them. Then she won't look like a cute puppy, she'll look like an older dog. And this started me on the path of Addie getting older....and soon I'm on the verge of tears. I know, I'm ridiculous! I just can't help myself.

You can tell by Arsen's reaction in the above example what he thinks of my insanity. Not impressed. And probably quite tired of dealing with it. I get upset when he doesn't validate my feelings and tell me that yes, I have every reason to be freaking out about whatever random thing is freaking me out, but....it's not like I can blame him.

Anybody have any suggestions or miracle cures? Am I the only crazy person who deals with this? Seriously, it's a problem.

A's Story

I know I've mentioned many times on this little blog that my husband is Armenian, and I think I've even mentioned that he wasn't born here in the U.S. But I haven't ever really shared his whole story. I find it fascinating, and I know a lot of other people do too...so I thought why not share it with you all?

A was born in Azerbaijan in 1985. Now, I know very little about this country. Or that entire area of the world, to be honest. But it's somewhere in the vicinity of Russia and Armenia...and at that time was a part of the Soviet Union.

Little Bebe A

When little A was born, he was welcomed by his parents, as well as two older siblings. His brother and sister were both in their early teens at the time, so you can just imagine how spoiled little baby A was. He is still the golden child of the family. It is beyond obvious.

A grew up speaking Russian and Armenian, and he is still conversationally fluent in Russian...somehow the Armenian language slipped right out of his brain. But I am super excited because this means I will have bilingual babies! The majority of the time his entire family speaks Russian (as I sit there mesmerized, catching a random word here or there), and we've both agreed we want our kids to learn both languages from day one.

A's family moved to America in the summer of 1992, not long after the dissolution of the Soviet Union when things got a little crazy. From what I understand, the area they lived in was predominately Muslim, and for some reason they were running all of the Christians out. In fact, a few days after they left for America, his family found out their home had been set on fire. They actually moved here as refugees, sponsored by a church in Oklahoma. They picked up and left everything they owned, every person they knew, and moved to a foreign country where none of them spoke the language.

Little A started first grade not knowing a lick of English. He says one of his earliest memories is crying in class on his first day, confused and not understanding anything that was happening. Break my heart why don't you! But luckily, the social butterfly has always been alive and well within him, and it didn't take long for him to pick up the language and make lots of friends.

It wasn't as easy for his parents. Imagine having to start your life over from square one, learn a new language, and somehow support a family. They had a lot of success before they moved here...I can't imagine losing it all. But somehow they turned it all around, and every single one of them (his parents, his brother, and his sister) have been very successful here.

Naturally, A grew up in a very traditionally Armenian environment. He was completely immersed in that culture, other than when he was at work or school. A year out of high school he decided community college wasn't the route he wanted to take, and he enrolled at Oklahoma State University on a whim. Imagine the culture shock that he had going into a fraternity house with a bunch of crazy college guys...yikes. But, as always, he jumped right in and didn't miss a beat. By the time I met him just a few years later he was as Americanized as it gets. (I've actually heard his dad say this with a bit of disgust, "Oh, you're a real American boy now!")

Early College A. Love it.

So when I have mentioned that it may have been tough for his family to embrace this little blonde haired, green eyed, completely un-domesticated Oklahoma girl, I mean....umm, really tough. They naturally assumed he would marry an Armenian girl. Why wouldn't he? His brother met his wife back in Russia, his sister met her husband there....what in the world was he thinking!? But I do have to say, I have never once felt the slightest bit of hesitation from his sister or mother when it comes to them embracing me wholeheartedly. If they weren't thrilled about me being a part of their lives, I never knew it. Of course it was a bit tougher for the men....they were mainly concerned he wouldn't have anyone to take care of him I think. But four years in, I'd have to say we're at a pretty great place.

I love nothing more than sitting down with his sweet little mom, or his sister or sister in law, and asking questions about their life. I'm completely fascinated. I discover so many little gems that I'm so incredibly glad I'm nosy enough to ask about. They have lived amazing lives, and I want to know all about it!

I remember once, right before we got married, his dad told me I won the lottery because I was marrying an Armenian guy. They have SO much pride in their culture, and I think that's such a beautiful thing. His dad has also asked me where I'm from. When I answered Oklahoma, he said, no, where are you from? Umm...America? Nope. I had to dig back and tell him....Germany? I think? I'm a lot German and some French and...umm....yeah. He wasn't very satisfied with that answer.

Even though it's been a bit of a challenge merging our two very different cultures, I am so glad. I feel blessed to be a part of his wonderful family, and to be a part of something as crazy and wild and beautiful as the Armenian culture. 

More than anything, I'm just incredibly proud of the man that A has become. He was faced with hardships that a lot of people don't have to deal with. He put himself through school 100%. He worked at UPS and had another job at our campus fitness center, all while going to classes and keeping his grades up. Now, he is the hardest worker that I know, determined to do something incredible with his life. And I have no doubt that he will. I'm proud to call him mine, that crazy little Armenian. 

My Love

You Guys....

I broke the 100 followers mark this weekend! What in the world? Let me say, we all know "it's not about the numbers" and all that, but come on....it's a little bit about the numbers. All that I mean by that is, it's much more exciting to be doing this whole blogging thing when you know there are people actually reading the things that you're posting. But much more than it being about the quantity of followers, it's about the quality. And you guys have been making me a very happy girl with all your sweet and thoughtful comments lately.

Soooo in saying that, I would really like to thank all of you wonderful people by doing my very first giveaway. It won't be anything fancy schmancy, but just a little token of my appreciation. I'm currently brainstorming on what I want to do. Stay tuned...

So in addition to that just really making me happy, we had a pretty great weekend. Arsen decided to take the day off on Friday, and I worked from home until one. We decided we wanted to try something new, go somewhere we'd never been before...just shake things up a bit. So we went to Mckinney, another suburb really close to here that we've heard quite a bit about. We went to their downtown area, which is super cute. It has a lot of old buildings that have been revamped and turned into restaurants, bars, and shops. And there were a ton of antique shops, which I love. Sounds like a pretty crazy adventure, right?

We had lunch/dinner at a little Italian restaurant called Sauce. I'm still doing my cleanse/healthier eating thing, so it made it a bit of a challenge. Needless to say, I failed on that meal. We split a pizza, and it was pretty amazing. I also had a strawberry basil mojito and it was yum. After eating we did a little walking around town and stopped in a couple of antique stores. I lovelovelove all the little treasures you can find in antique stores and could spend hours looking around. Arsen was not quite as impressed, shockingly enough. I also discovered it was his first time ever in an antique store, which just blew my mind.

 

After that I decided that we should have a good old fashioned movie night. We went to rent a few movies at an actual video store, not a Redbox or On Demand, popped some popcorn, and cuddled up for a couple of movies. We watched Friends With Kids, which was eh, and 21 Jump Street, which was surprisingly hilarious. Pretty great evening I must say.

Saturday we randomly decided to have some people over. Our friends Amelia and David (the newly engaged couple), and Joel and Mitch (roommmates, not a couple) came over for a fun night in. Arsen grilled some short ribs and fajita meat that he gets at a local Mexican grocery store and it was delicious. We (everyone else) watched the Rangers game, then a bit of the Olympics, then things got really wild...we played a bit of Catch Phrase. If you've never played the game, it is so much fun. I am not competitive in the least, but I do get just a teeny tiny bit into this game. We ended up playing for a couple of hours...until David decided Wii Zumba was a good idea. No one else was into it, but he had a great time for about three minutes. And I'm not sure I've ever laughed that hard. Everyone sat around awkwardly watching him...it was absolutely hilarious.

Today was pretty low key. Lunch at Chuy's (best Mexican food ever), went to the gym (to combat the Mexican food), went to visit Arsen's parents, and now....now we are watching yet another movie. Addie is curled up in my lap, I'm showered and ready for bed...it's just after 9 pm and I've got this entire day wrapped up. So now I'm going to cuddle up with my hubby and my pup and finish this movie, and head to bed nice and early. Goodnight friends!