Happy Anniversary ....

"What God has joined, let no man put asunder"

10 years ago today, I married my best friend. Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

In February of 2000 my life changed. In many ways, but in one way specifically.

I was working as a CSM (Customer Service Manager) for the now defunct Circuit City. I was making good money, I had just gotten a new car, life was good. As good as it could be anyway. I came home from work one night, and sat down in front of my computer to 'unwind'.

I had AOL at the time (who didn't right?) and I had been signed on for all of 10 minutes. I get an IM from someone who called himself "DanTheMan875". I'm thinking to myself, "Who is this? I don't know anyone with this screen name."

The IM said something along the lines of "Hi, my name is Dan. How are you?" Even though I didn't know this person, I didn't want to be rude. So I went along with the conversation. We ended up talking for a while that first night, and then the next day, and the next, and the next.

I actually looked forward to getting off of work, and signing onto AOL, so that I could chat with "Dan". I use the quotation marks at this point, because he was still just "Dan". I didn't know him personally, I wouldn't have known him if I'd walked past him on the street. I didn't even know at this point if his name was really Dan. But our conversations were the highlight of my day.

So around April, things progressed. We went from just chatting within IM's, to chatting on the telephone. I instantly was attracted to his voice. He had a really nice phone voice, and he told me I had the same. We would talk for hours. My cell phone bill was a little high, but I had the money to pay for it, so what did I care. I was enjoying myself.

We were becoming more of an item at this point, than even I realized. My mom, and my friends would comment on how my attitude had changed, and how I was acting as if I had a boyfriend. I didn't notice the difference but everyone else did.

April 8th of 2000, I was in my friends wedding. It was a hectic day. I woke up not feeling well, but I had a job to do. I had to stand up and play a part and I couldn't let a little 'illness' that would probably pass in a few hours, get in my way.

I thought about Dan all day long. I thought, prematurely of course, what if I end up marrying him? Remember, at this point, I had yet to meet him in person. He was just a voice on the other end of the phone, just a name on the computer screen. I hadn't even seen a picture of him.

I ended up having to leave the reception early, because I just didn't feel well at all. I drove myself home, and went straight to bed. That night, I ended up in the ER. Apparently I was experiencing Kidney Stones. I was VERY sick for the next few weeks. The only thing I could do was lay in bed, and of course talk on the phone, and online to Dan.

I stayed sick for a while, but finally got better, after a minor procedure. While I was sick, Dan and I had made plans to actually have a 'date'. He was going to meet me at my house, and then we were going to go to dinner, and to a movie. Typical first date stuff.

I was nervous as hell. The whole day. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to wear, how to do my hair, what make-up would match my outfit. It had been a long time since I'd actually been on a date. Come to think of it, I don't think I EVER had been on a date. I mean I had boyfriends, but they were after the fact boyfriends. Boyfriends that became boyfriends AFTER we were already really good friends. Which I don't recommend by the way, cause if the romantic relationship doesn't work out, not only do you lose your boyfriend, but you don't have your best friend to lean on for support, and you lose a friendship as well.

So, back to my, or OUR, first date.

Dan was supposed to be at my house at 3pm that day. At 3pm, on the nose, and I knew it was on the nose because I watching out the kitchen window, there was Dan, pulling up to my house.

My brother, bless his little heart, decided that his car needed to be 'worked on' this day, and around 2:45pm, he was under the car, 'working'. Really he was waiting for Dan to arrive, and then he started 'working'. When I think about it, this was a much better option than what he'd wanted to do. He told me the day before, that he was going to have shotgun shell on the counter, and that he was going to write Dan's name on it. He wanted to make sure that Dan saw it, and that Dan knew it was meant for him, should the need arise.

I threw a fit, of course, and nixed that plan in the bud. I settled for him (my brother) 'working' on his car.

OK, so back to it. I'm watching him, through the peephole now because I didn't want him to see me watching him, walk up to my house, and he's holding a bouquet of roses. Pink roses. Apparently he had done some research and found out that pink roses meant 'I'm thinking of you'. Which was really sweet. They weren't saying "I love you" they were saying "I'm thinking of you". Aww ...

So we had decided before that we were going to go to the park, and 'talk'. Sure we had talked on the phone, and we had talked online, a lot, but we hadn't actually had a face to face conversation. We sat at the park for a few hours, and just talked. We talked about all kinds of stuff. Then we decided to go to Camelot. We played putt-putt golf, which was actually really fun. And then we went to dinner.

Long story, which it's becoming, short .. we hit it off. From this point on, we were inseparable. I was going over to his house after work, and on the weekends. Basically anytime I wasn't working, and he wasn't working, we were together.

In June is when he popped the question. I was beyond surprised, but over the moon excited. I know what kind of looks you're giving me right now. You just met him, and you MET HIM ONLINE, and now you're ENGAGED?! Are you CRAZY?! I heard that from EVERYONE.

I can remember asking my mom when I was younger "How will you know when you meet the person you're supposed to be with for the rest of your life?" Her answer was always the same. "You'll just know." I never knew what she meant, until I met Dan. I knew from the moment I saw him, that he was the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with. In fact, when he knocked on my door, the day we had our first date, before I answered the door, I stood there in front of it, with my hand on the doorknob, and said to myself "OK Amanda, get ready to meet the man you're going to spend the rest of your life with."

We originally set the date for our wedding for March 24th 2001. We were planning on taking our Honeymoon in Hawaii. We were set.

Then, things changed. In late August, early September Dan was having money issues, and had decided that he was going to have to move back home. Home for him was South Lake Tahoe. This couldn't happen. South Lake Tahoe was 3 hours away from me. I couldn't let him leave. I knew that if he left, he wouldn't be able to come back anytime soon.

I told my mother, yes I was 21 years old, and still lived with my mother, that I was going to move in with Dan, so that he wouldn't have to move away. She, my mother, was NOT having any part of that. Her exact words were "you can't live with him unless you're married" (my mother is old-fashioned). So .. I made the decision right then that we would move the wedding up. We were getting married as soon as possible.

I called Dan and told him what was going on, and he agreed to the sooner nuptials. Now all we had to do was find a place to get married. That was going to be our biggest obstacle. Someplace that would marry us, and quickly.

Dan grew up in South Lake Tahoe. Wedding chapels are all over the place up there. It's like a mini-Las Vegas. So we did some online looking, made a few phone calls, and booked our wedding date for September 30th. Less than 20 days away. We had a lot to do.

Thankfully I had already found my wedding dress, I had already been fitted, and it was already on it's way. I just had to hope that the alterations would be completed in time. Thankfully they were. We made the reservations for the tuxedo, I found a maid-of-honor, and Dan found a best man. Travel was booked. Hotels were booked. Time off of work was requested, and approved. The ball was rolling, quickly, but at least it was rolling.

The day came. Finally. It was actually very quick from the time we booked the chapel, to THE day, but it seemed like it took forever. The actual day, because we weren't getting married until 4pm, took even longer. But, finally, it happened.

Amanda Hightower was no more. I was now, Mrs. Daniel Robertson. I loved the sound of that. I still love the sound of it.

Through out the past 10 years, we've faced our share of problems. We've gone from having a good amount of money, to having not much. We've had our fights, and our arguments, but we've always worked through them. That's what marriage is about. Learning to love your partner through the good times, AND the bad times.

A lot of people told us, before we got married, that we wouldn't make it. That our marriage wouldn't last, because we were doing it all too quickly. Well, to those nay-sayers, I have this to say. Look at us now. What do you have to say now? We made it. And we'll continue to make it. Here's to the last 10 years, and to the many, many more that are waiting for us.

I love you babe!!

Until Next Time ...

~Mrs. Amanda Robertson ... (told you I still liked the sound of it)

Postmortem

I've jumped back into this book. I've read it before, but I wanted to re-read it so that I could continue with the series. I remember certain things about it from the first time I read it, but I couldn't remember the entire thing. So, I decided that if I wanted to get the full effect, I'd have to re-read.

Since we took a trip to the library this weekend, I decided this would be a good time to start. I probably should have thought my little plan through a bit more though, seeing as how I start back to school tomorrow. I have a full load too. I know I've covered it already, but it really is kind of overwhelming. It's going to take a lot of determination on my part though.

So the cover of the book is kind of macabre, but then again, the title should have been a clue. The entire book is kind of macabre. I'm like 5 chapters into the book, and I'm just as hooked as I was the first time I read it. I'm sure this time around it'll take me a bit longer than 3 days to read it, with my school schedule, but I have it for 21 (well, 20 now) days, I think I'll be OK.

Anyway, back to my point. There was a paragraph that I just read that made me stop and think about the world we're living in today. I'll share ...

"It has been conjectured that at least one percent of the population is

psychopathic. Genetically, these individuals are fearless; they are people

users and supreme manipulators. On the right side, they are terrific spies,

war heroes, five-star generals, corporate billionaires, and James Bonds. On

the wrong side, they are strikingly evil; the Neros, the Hitlers, the Richard

Specks, the Ted Bundys, antisocial but clinically sane people who commit

atrocities for which they feel no remorse and assume no blame."

Wow. Really? I understand that in this context, a seemingly serial killer is being profiled. However, I wonder if this statistic is more than just fiction in a setting meant to provide entertainment. The quote goes on to further profile said serial killer, but the above excerpt really caught my mind.

I can personally attribute the above qualities to at least one person off the top of my head. How scary is that? Do I think that this person, the person that I thought of, is a serial killer? No. Does that mean that they couldn't be? No. That is the scary part.

I think I've been spending too much time with Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Would you agree?

Until Next Time ... (and hopefully a much brighter topic)

~A

I think I need a tutorial

So yesterday a friend of mine asked me if I could make her a tutorial on how to use this site to blog. Even though I thought she was a little crazy for asking me (haha Joyce) I said that I would do my best.

I thought I was a cool dude too, let me tell you. I made a 10 page, yes you read that right. A 10-page instruction manual of sorts, even including screen shots, to make it a bit easier for her to understand my madness.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Until today.

I'm looking around at some of the other blogs I follow, and mine sucks! My friends have pictures, music even. How do I do that to mine?! I tried to put pictures in my blog, once. And it turned out all wonky. The pictures are huge, and misplaced. Not anywhere where I wanted them to be.

So this to you my technical blog savvy friends ... can you 'tutorial' me?? Please?!

I wanna be the cool kid on the block with a kicking blog too. I'm stuck over here in boring corner .. and it's lonely.

Until Next Time ..

~A

Our Outing to the Library

My daughter has been begging us to take her to the library since we moved into Eugene. Dan and I have always either been busy (with him working and needing the car) or something else has been going on.

Today was the day that absolutely NOTHING was happening, so we decided we'd go this morning. We loaded into the car, and off we went.

Paying to park at the library is something new to me, since that wasn't something we had to do back home. But there are a lot of things that are different here than back home.

So we paid the fee, .75 cents per hour (we paid for 2 hours since this was our first trip) and we were off.

I have to say that this is my first trip to a library that has more than one level. This one has 3 floors. It's massive. The bottom floor is mostly the children's section. The biggest selection of children's books I've ever seen. They had DVD's, CD's, and even CD-ROM's. The next time we go back, I'm absolutely going to check out "The Neverending Story". That's a MUST see movie for ALL ages!! (Maybe I'll see if they have Labyrinth too)

Then we went upstairs. 2nd floor was all non-fiction, magazines, and newspapers. 3rd floor was all fiction. That was my playground.

I'm going to re-read "PostMortem" by Patricia Cornwell so I can read the entire series revolving around Kay Scarpetta. Dan checked out a book by Bentley Little .. The Store .. or something like that.

Mikaila ended up checking out 2 books, a CD, and a CD-ROM.

I don't know who's more excited about our next trip. Mikaila .. or me.

Gotta love the public library!!! Free Entertainment!

Until Next Time ..

~A

The luck of the draw ..

A lot of people talk about luck. Good luck, bad luck, no luck. Luck luck luck. If I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any. You know, I'm sure you've heard it all.

A lot has happened in the lives of my family members in the past few months, that's made me think a lot about luck. I say all the time what I stated above. "If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any." I don't know if I can say that anymore.

I look at my life. My husband and I have been married for 10 years (well, in 7 days it'll be 10 years). I know my husband loves me unconditionally. He loves me with all my faults and all my weaknesses. He loves my quirks, and my strengths. I'm secure in his love for me, as I know he's secure in my love for him.

We have 2 beautiful, and healthy children. They don't "need" for anything. Sure they might want things that they don't get, but they always have what they need. Food in their tummies, clothes on their backs, a roof over their head, and a warm bed to dream in.

I wouldn't say that we're financially stable, because let's face it. Who is in this economy? But we do OK. Sure sometimes, maybe more often than not, we're living paycheck to paycheck, but we survive. That's what's important.

I take a look at my life, and I realize, I'm pretty lucky. I don't have to worry about who is parenting my child, because their parents are. I don't have to worry about what's going to happen next, with my 'ex', because I don't have one.

My point is simple. My point is this. The next time you want to say "I wish I could have something go my way." or "I wish I had good luck instead of bad luck." Think about your life. Truly and honestly think about it. Do you have what you need? Is your family healthy? If you can answer yes to those questions, then in my personal opinion, you're the luckiest person in the world.

"Walk a mile in someone else's shoes, before you think your walk isn't worth it."

-Amanda Robertson

Until Next Time ...

~A

And so it begins ... again

Monday, September 27th, marks the start of Fall Term.

I have a tough load this term. Classes only 3 days a week, but they're going to be tough classes. And, I have to be at school at 8am. If that's not bad enough, my last class of the day isn't over until 4:50pm. Granted I have a LOT of breaks during the day, but it's going to make for a LONG LONG day for me.

Not to mention I still have to do the normal family stuff at home. Helping Mikaila with her homework, getting dinner fed, baths taken, and kiddos to bed.

Not only does school start Monday, but my 10th wedding anniversary is Thursday. I don't know what we'll do to celebrate, if anything. 10 years is a big one, in my opinion. Especially when a LOT of people didn't think we'd make it even 1.

It's been a great 10 years. Sure we've had our uphill battles, who hasn't. But the important thing is that we've gotten through it, together, and maintained our love for each other. We've made the two most beautiful children in the entire world (OK I'll admit I"m a little biased).

Sure they test my patience daily, but they're my reason for breathing. The reason I get up in the morning.

With the memory of this past weekend still very fresh in my mind, I thank God every single day for my wonderful life. I can't imagine it being any other way.

Lord,

I come to You now, and I thank You for everything that You've given me. You've blessed me far more than I deserve to be blessed. Thank You for bringing my wonderful husband into my life, and for blessing me with my beautiful children. These things I pray in Your Son's name, Amen.

Until Next Time ...

~A

Cannon Beach

I just got home from an AMAZING weekend. Literally AMAZING.

It was spiritual. It was relaxing. It was Godly. It was exactly what I needed, in more ways than one.

My sister-in-law Chrisy, and I, spent the weekend at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center. We got to enjoy the music of Bonnie Knopf and Georgine Rice (who happens to be from Portland), and we got to listen to Dr. RoseAnne Coleman speak from her heart about the experiences she's had with God. again, it was Amazing.

I don't even know where to begin when talking about this weekend. There's so much I'd like to share about it. I'm just afraid that I won't do it justice.

First of all I'll talk a little bit about Cannon Beach itself. It's beautiful. Everything you could possibly imagine about a little beach town, would be spot on. There's the little shops, and of course, the beach. There's a landmark of sorts, called Haystack Rock on the beach. I'd not only never seen the rock, but I'd never heard of it. Why would you call a rock, a haystack!?

If you've never seen it, do me a favor. Google "haystack rock" and you'll understand. It's beautiful in pictures, but absolutely breathtaking in person. Yes I know it's a rock, how can a rock be breathtaking. I don't know how exactly to answer that. Maybe it's the moment that I was in. Feeling so close to God, and experiencing His splendor. Whatever the reason, it WAS breathtaking.

We stayed at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center (which I hyperlinked above if you're interested in taking a look). It was not at ALL what I expected. I was under the impression that we were staying in a hotel. While it IS a hotel of sorts, it's not traditional by any means. There are NO televisions. There are NO telephones. There wasn't even a clock in our room. I was a little bit put off by that at first, but by the end of the weekend, I hadn't missed any of those things.

Enough about the actual place. I NEED to share with you about the people.

I'll start with Georgine Rice. Georgine hosts a daily radio talk show in the Portland Oregon area, on 93.9, KDPQ FM. I've personally never heard her radio show, but I can tell you that the woman can SING. From the first time she opened her mouth, I was mesmerized. She has the voice of an angel. And she really knows how to intertwine her testimony in with the songs that she sings. And I'll tell you this, she has an AMAZING testimony. If you ever get the chance or opportunity to listen to her (either on the radio during her broadcast, or her angelic voice) PLEASE take it. You WILL be blessed. I was.

Then there was Bonnie Knopf (again whom I've hyperlinked above). Another angelic voice to listen to. She was our "worship leader" for the weekend, and did she ever lead us in worship. She shared a little about her life, and some of the struggles she's facing. And I'll tell ya, not only could the woman lead some worship, she could also lead a large group of women to tears. Her music was more than just music. It was scripture. It was life. It was scripture AND life, set to music.

I hope that I can talk about this next woman and do her justice. I also included a hyperlink to her website above. Dr. RoseAnne Coleman .. is more than just a woman of God. She's more than just a servant of God. I think she's an angel in disguise. She spoke so effortlessly but everything she said was important. I literally clung to every word.

Often times when I'm sitting in church, my mind will wander. I'll end up cleaning out my purse, doodling on some paper, or flipping through the hymnal. Focus is not my strong point when it comes to listening to a sermon. I can say this with complete honesty. I couldn't NOT focus on what RoseAnne was saying. I looked forward to every "meeting" with her. I can't even begin to remember everything that she talked about this weekend (even though I just said that I couldn't NOT focus on what she said) she covered so much.

Talk a look at her website. I wish I could have been able to by her book. She talked a little bit about it, but I really wanted to read it.

Anyway .. I'm sure I'm rambling at this point ... so I'll stop now.

Thank you Jesus for this wonderful and amazing weekend. It was exactly what I needed, and for so many reasons.

Until Next Time ...

~A

My newest favorite website

So I'm pretty much a creature of habit when it comes to things I do online.

I visit Parenting 101 daily. This place is very often the reason I'm still sane. A great group of girls (a few guys too) that make the daily struggles of being a parent a little bit easier to stomach. Love that place!!

Then I visit Facebook, daily. Actually, if I'm being honest, multiple times daily. But then again, who doesn't?! I'm completely engrossed in a few games, OK honesty again, QUITE a few games. But that's besides the point.

I also, every single Sunday, visit Post Secret. I'm completely addicted, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I actually wish sometimes, and this will show you what a complete loser I actually am, that I had a secret juicy enough to submit. LOSER! Haha .. maybe I can submit that one.

"I wish I had a secret juicy enough to submit to Post Secret"

Then of course I do the normal checking of the email, and I fiddle around on the website of the college I go to, and of course blog spot.

I've now been introduced to a NEW website. One that will be added to my daily rotation. Thanks for sharing it with me Dee!! Shit My Kids Ruined is hilarious!! I see these pictures, and I have to laugh, because it could be, and in some cases, HAS BEEN my life.

You know the old saying "Misery Loves Company". It's nice to know, that somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight ... oh wait. that's something different. Back to my point. It's nice to know that somewhere, someone else is living the same craziness that I call my life.

So .. to the children of the world, keep ruining shit. If you don't ruin shit, you'll end up ruining MY shit, cause you'll mess up my new daily rotation.

To the mom's of the world, please continue to take pictures of said ruined shit. Because if you don't, You'll be responsible for ruining shit. My shit. Well .. you get the picture.

Until next time ..

~A

Book, Books, and more Books ...

Today was the day. The day that we had to make the trek down to the college and fight the mad rush crowds at the bookstore, and get our books.

As I was looking around online a few weeks ago on the college website, I noticed a little tab that said "Pre-Order Books Here". My interest was peaked, so I clicked the link. It took me to the bookstore's website, where I was then able to do exactly that. Pre-order my books.

The coolest part, or so I thought at that point, was that I found out I would get a 10% discount by ordering them online. Yay!!! So I placed my order, and opted to pick them up in the store, so that i could do the deferred billing, and not have to pay out of pocket right now.

We got to the bookstore this morning, after what seemed like forever. You see we had to take the little one across town to her grandma's house. Then we had to take the bigger one to school, and drop her off. Then we had to go to the college. We were there before 8am, trying to beat the crowds. Which we did, somewhat.

There was a separate section for "online" orders. I had some other things to get, so I got what I needed and went to wait in that line. Oh My God. It took forever.

You remember when I was talking about the cool part, of being able to save 10% on the books? Well, that kind of became a moot point when I found out that you're only able to get NEW books when you do the online ordering.

That SUCKS. When I placed my order I stated that USED was preferred. The site said that if USED books were available we would get those. Well, there were a TON of used books available, but we still got the new ones.

Oh well. I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles. This time anyway. I've learned my lesson though. When something looks like it's too good to be true, it's probably because it is.

Until next time ..

~A

First Day of 3rd Grade

Is off and rolling.

It's amazing to me how things have changed. I did the traditional "first day of school pictures" this morning, and once I got home and started the process of uploading them from my camera to my computer, I came across some pictures that I took of Mikaila's first day of Kindergarten.

My oh my how things have changed. This picture (the one with 2007 in the date) is obviously her kindergarten first day picture. She just looks so little. She's still got the baby fat in her face, all her baby teeth, and just the baby appearance.

Today, she looks so ... big. Again, I've provided photographic evidence of her changes. For some reason I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out how to properly place the pictures in my blog, where I actually want them. Apparently they, or my blog, has a mind of it's own, and decides to place my pictures in the most random of places.

Oh well .. my point is still made. She's growing up. Plain and simple. And I"m not sure that I like it all that much.

Until next time .. (Hopefully with an update of how the first day went)

~A