OUR ANNIVERSARY {2014}

It's our second wedding anniversary and although it  isn't epic by any means I want to celebrate it with all of my heart because it's the small victories that keep you motivated to the finish line.  This year we were both at the card store looking for cards and instead of buying each other a card - we just picked them out laughed a little at the goofiness of it and then decided to exchanged them right there in the card aisle. I want to start a new personal series for my husband because in the blink of an eye time passes and I don't want to ever forget to tell him how much he means to me and how lucky I feel everyday I get to be his wife.

Dear Joe,

Two years ago I stood by your side as we exchanged looks, rings and stefana crowns vowing before God to love each other forever and be true to one another until death do us part.  So much has happened these last two years - and so much more has happened over the last year. I still can't believe that we built our first home.  What's even more shocking is the plans we are making for our second home and the possibilities of starting a family. What shocks me the most is the simple fact that I started my own Company and have business plans for the next two years. You have been so supportive and loving through all these changes and have been incredibly giving; not only with your time and love but also financially. I am so grateful and feel so blessed to call you my best friend over the last 9 years, but more importantly to call you husband, these last two years. I will forever be grateful to fate and the Lord above who brought us together.  Still to this day I can't get enough of your touch and the simple pleasure of holding your hand and having doors opened for me. I hope we stay this way. Walking in the rain sharing your pockets, finishing each other's sentences with clips from Seinfeld, booty dances in the kitchen, singing in the shower and chasing each other while our furry child barks. I hope you continue to complain to me about the flower messes in your perfectly organized garage, tell me to pick up my clothes and makeup from the bathroom and keep asking me how much longer until I'm ready to go. I hope I never get tired of having you wake up on Saturday's to find me in the studio pouring over floral stems, or working by my side during set up and tear down of events and I pray that I never get enough of those ice blue eyes. I love you Joe - with every bit of every part of my heart. Happy Anniversary - Forever and Always

Greek Goddess

OUR ANNIVERSARY 2013 + ISP UPDATE {One Year}

One year ago today I married this man. This man that I have shared my life with since January 2006. A man that I can close my eyes, hang on to and lean as far back as I can go, because I know he's got me and he's not going to let go. I think we make it look easy. I see a lot of people rolling their eyes at us at the store, because we still hold-hands, he still shamelessly tickles me in public, he still opens the car-door for me and I still put my nose in his neck to breathe in that reassurance that only he can give me.  We do make it look easy - but it's not. It so much work.  I think being a newlywed is hard. You see all these amazingly happy pictures of newlyweds plastered all over the place and you want it to be that way - all the time. But the reality is it's not that way - all the time. Everyone thinks that because you're newlyweds it's all about love and honeymooning, holding-hands and kissing. Or maybe the wedding industry and magazines paint it to be this picturesque scene of the newly married couple walking down the beach, laughing and just gloriously happy. Ha! Gloriously happy? If your like me .. your thinking ... what the hell does that mean? Where's the realistic ads about how you want to claw his eyes out the first time you sit on the toilet in cold water because he didn't put the seat down? Or your cleaning up hair again from the sink because somehow he thought he got it all? (Really? How do you not see the black hair on the sink lip?) Or the irritation he shows because I said "I'll be down in 5min", an hour ago. (true story!) I think getting into your first year of marriage you really have no idea what to really expect. I know what I wanted our first year to be like - a two-story house, a black rod-iron fence, JD's squad car parked right out front for the whole world to see, him home at night helping me finish dinner and a little baby-bump he'd rub and talk to.  HA! That's what I thought I wanted (or maybe what I have been told I'm suppose to want)  Want to know what I got? I got middle-of-night I miss you & love you phone calls, stinky Kevlar to hand wash, missed holidays because he's on duty, a squad car I can't pull out of the driveway - (but I do operate the lights! (YES!) a downtown townhome that I live alone in and a man that loves me to enough to drive the hour and half home after his 2 a.m. shift just to hold me. All I really wanted - was for him to come home, so we can live a resemblance of a "normal" life.  I don't know what "normal" is, but for me it would mean less time in my car traveling to see him, and more time laying in bed with him. Well - just as we were deciding on a move date for me - JD got the call from District 9. He's coming home. Hang on - let me just say that again! Friends!! My husband is coming home! Two years! We've been waiting since February 2012. God is so good.

Saying we are excited/happy/bursting with happiness/joy/excitement & whatever other adjective you can come up with would be an understatement. I simply just cried after he got off the phone. To my poor dear husbands disbelief. ("Baby, aren't you happy?") All the emotions, struggles, fights, late-night drives, doubts, fears, good-byes - everything just came out in the form of tears - ever flowing emotional tears. All the struggles, all sacrifices, all the distance - all the loneliness - was all worth it. To get to this place - and what's crazy - the tough times are really just starting.

Yes - yes it is. Our love, our story is proof. It really is worth it.

We've picked up looking for houses, and are going to attempt to hit 10 open-houses this weekend and pick out pumpkins for our carvings. Halloween really is JD's favorite holiday. Oh- friends a happy happy day to you - grab your loved ones and tell them how much you love them.

XOXO - Cas

Wedding Photo by the amazing Ravetta Photography. Love is worth it design by yours truly.