Vacation Brain

Despite the fact that this winter has not been bad at all--no freezing temps, snowstorms, and ice to put visions of warm beaches in my head, I am still already craving summer vacation, especially because it's looking like Will is going to have a little time "off" (he'll still be writing papers etc.) before he goes back to clinics in mid-June. Also, because we haven't had any snow days YET, I'm kind of hoping we don't end up with any AT ALL, because that means we would be out of school on May 22nd! AMAZING. Every year I've taught in Liberty we've had between 5 and 9 snow days...which is crazy and we've almost always gone till Memorial Day weekend or after. May 22nd would be so early! So...here is our potential vacation list for late May/June 2012.

OPTION 1: OREGON COAST/PORTLAND/SEATTLE (Katie's Pick!)
We went to the West Coast two years ago but only did California stuff--which was a wonderful trip--but I've heard from various different people recently who've traveled there that the Portland beer scene, NW Oregon Coast, Seattle and San Juan Islands are fantastic as well--this seems up our alley, a good mix of beautiful scenery, fun cities and a part of the country we've never been before.

(Oregon Coast)

(Seattle City Living)

(Whale Watching in the San Juan Islands, WA)

OPTION 2: BOSTON AND NYC (Will's Pick)
I think Will wants to go here to check out what life would be like to live here someday--maybe when Residency time comes in a couple of years and I'm definitely up for a trip to check it out. I did this trip with my family when I was probably 5 or 6 (right Mom?) and actually have lots of memories of this trip still. In fact, probably one of our family's most classic trip disaster's was on this vacation in NYC when the valet wrecked our car and we had to basically tie the driver's side door on for the remainder of our trip and all the way back to STL it was SO loud! Needless to say, at age 5 or 6 we did not paint the town the way we would now and it would be an experience to see Ground Zero, maybe a Broadway show and I know exploring Boston would be really fun too.

(Swan Boats in Boston)

(NYC Skyline)

OTHER OPTIONS:
I'm up for any trip and things have come to mind like visiting family on the east coast in Richmond and North Carolina with a detour to the Outer Banks in NC, or possibly the Southwest to visit our sweet friends Clare and Craig in New Mexico, we could go to Durango, Santa Fe and more out there too. I think we're definitely doing a US trip, as much fun as it would be to try and plan something big and overseas, I don't think we're ready for that this year.

Now...we just have to get through the next few weeks to see how Will's spring schedule will pan out with his dissertation defense and then we can really start planning!

In the meantime, I am pumped for Spring Break with my mom and dad (and hopefully Will too!) in Destin, FL! So, I guess I should look forward to that trip first, then we'll talk summer vacation!

What trip would you recommend??? If you had to choose between the options above, what would you pick??!! Want to go with us??!! Always open for suggestions and dreaming!

Love,
The Messamores

New Year's Eve Party

This is the story of our first New Year's party...on our 5th anniversary! We had great friends and family over to celebrate with us and we also had a beer tasting contest which was such a fun way to spend the evening. We had 3 rounds of tasting and people brought a 6 pack to enter in each category they wanted to--the more beer you brought, the better your chances of winning! I think the winners were from the "Domestic" category-Goose Island 312 (from Katie and Zach Ressler), the "Foreign" winner was La Fin Du Monde (Messamore's!) and the "Seasonal" category winner was Winter Hook from Red Hook Brewery (Dave and Lyndsey Guggenmos). The winner of each category got to take home one of each of the beers that were in the contest which ended up being 10 different kinds! It was great! We would definitely do something like this again--maybe for a summer BBQ or something. Oh, and I can't forget Will's music video playlist which was perfectly timed and really fun entertainment! Great conversation and fun times were had and the only casualty of the night was front porch chair cushion that was burned with sparklers because that's where we decided to light them since it was sleeting outside (brilliant idea by me!)!

Photos are by the lovely Charlie and maybe a few from our camera too that was miraculously revived after a year of not working just days before our party! Also...Will says I can't have anymore parties when I have a week to decorate, plan, clean and bake for because it cost too much money (it really didn't...I just spent a week doing different projects for this one!)! Enjoy!

The decorations---so much glitter! I had so much fun getting the decorations all ready and the after Christmas sales with lots of Gold and Silver things for cheap prices made it easy to go maybe slightly overboard!

Entry table--found the awesome printable here in the frame which Will modified some to say "Old Friends" right above "New Beginnings". You can also see the beautiful dish that Rob and Char gave us for our anniversary! Such sweet friends!

Tissue Paper Tassel Garland--my favorite last minute Pinterest find! It was so easy to make! I'll be doing this project again for showers/parties in the future!

Tissue "Poof Balls" and 3D Snowflakes! A staple for most showers/parties I help with!

Glitter letters! Easy and fun!

The whole table...I don't think I have a pic of my embossed napkins, but they were awesome too!

Cake Balls! Debbie got me a cake ball pan for Christmas so we gave them a go...the pan worked great...the cake pops tasted just ok, but they looked cool! I'll have to try again with a different flavor!

Champagne Raspberry Jello Shots...delicious! Now for some pics of friends who came to celebrate...we didn't take nearly enough pictures with people...oh well!

 

These next 3 might be my favorites of the whole night...we may have had some wine/beer... 

And of course a few fun pictures with my guy on our 5th anniversary!

Love him.

Love,
The Messamores

One More Anniversary Post

As we celebrated 5 years, we had one more tradition to keep up, our anniversary journal! This journal was given to us by a mentor of mine from college right before our wedding and she explained the tradition that had been passed down to them. She taught us to spend some time every year on our anniversary writing down milestones, events in the news, vacations, life changes, goals accomplished, things we loved and most importantly recapping growth in our marriage and setting goals for ways we would like to continue to grow as individuals and as a couple our in our faith and marriage in the following year! Will thought this was a cheesy thing at the beginning, but now he looks forward to it every year too. We hope to pass this tradition on to others, so if you have been married for 5, 10, 30 or more years I would suggest starting now! And...if you just got married and we love you a lot....keep your eyes out for one of these bad boys on your 1st anniversary!
New Years Eve party recap this weekend hopefully!
Love,
The Messamores

5 Years!

I don't know if I'm a bit more nostalgic these days because it's our 5th anniversary--sort of a big milestone, or if it was just because of an awesome Winter Break and good time together with families and friends, but I was. Here's what I've been thinking about in light of celebrating this milestone!

The traditional anniversary gift for 5 years is Wood. Now, I didn't get Will something made of wood, although you could say his new tread desk made with some wooden shelves was part of his Christmas/Anniversary gift, but I did think about how symbolic that is for us because of how much we've grown as individuals and a couple in 5 years! Seriously...we were BABIES when we got married and it is hard to even explain how much we've "put down roots" (got that wood/tree reference?) and matured into small little saplings like those ones you get on Earth Day in elementary school in our first few years of marriage. The growth I think we've experienced in our faith, perspective on marriage, careers, and just in general as adults (what?) over just the past 3 years has been nothing short of amazing. The main thing being a deeper trust in the Gospel and looking to Jesus as our only hope instead of each other. Our early years of marriage, at least on my part for sure, Will can speak for himself on this though--(even though back then I would have said I didn't) I definitely looked to him to make me happy, lead our spiritual walk, fix things when they were broken, and do all the things I expected a husband should do...well, needless to say, that left me feeling pretty bummed out when (Surprise, Surprise...) he couldn't fulfill all those things for me. Our church really helped to shape these last few years for us as we grew to understand that to look to our husband/wife to be our ultimate hope is nothing short of idolatry--as our pastors often say in Redeemer wedding ceremonies that I help with occasionally--and that is a problem! Luckily we don't have to rely on each other for all of those things and we can put our hope and our trust that Jesus will satisfy us, make us happy, help us with any problem, guide my spiritual walk, and is the Ultimate Husband. Now, that's not to say we shouldn't try to be those things and strive for that in our marriage of course, but I think the main thing is it should free us to love each other, give grace and help one another more because we can let go of some of our expectations and just follow the example He set out for us.

This may sound a bit over the top and cheesy, but I think the fact that we've begun to understand (we aren't there yet and I don't know if we ever will be) this truth in recent years has been the best thing that has happened to us in the past 5 years. Our roots are set deeply in this truth and hopefully that will help us to grow old and strong (and hopefully not too big around) together!

I love you Will and I'm thankful that God gave you to me.

For some more insights on this perspective on marriage that has really changed our hearts--check out this article by Tim Keller which is a preview of a book we would love to read this year, The Meaning of Marriage.

Also, hoping to have a post up soon with pictures of our awesome Anniversary/New Year's Eve party where we got to celebrate and probably another post about one of our anniversary traditions--I want to keep on writing but I guess that's something I'll have to learn about blogging--keep it short and sweet!!!!
Love,
The Messamores