Love Dare: 14 Day Challenge

Since having a child over three months ago, there has been a little adjustment to our marriage...to say the least. I know that I am the primary caretaker for this little man, I am after all his food source, but sometimes I get a little frustrated about it and I tend to take it out on my husband. Don't get me wrong, I love being a Mom, but it can be a little overwhelming at times. I am lucky to have a great husband who is a great Dad. He can usually tell when I am starting to get a little on edge and takes our little guy from me.

There are, however, those moments where I hit a wall and end up yelling and venting about something stupid. I am a loud person, so yelling just comes naturally to me :) The other day it was over me spilling a huge glass of water all over the table filled with my phone, papers, and other items. My husband just sat there listening to me vent and not really saying much. At that moment, you know what I realized?? I was not being nice! I mean who really wants to sit there and listen to their wife (or husband) yell over something stupid. When did it all of a sudden become OK to take out my bad moods on him? That is not being a good Mom, a good wife, or good for our marriage.

So the other day I received an email from a fellow blogger asking me to join her Love Dare and all I could think was "what a good idea!" It's a 14-Day challenge leading up to Valentines Day. Each day highlights a verse from the bible that speaks of love.



Here are the verses:
Day 1 (Feb 1) "Love is patient" Eph. 4:2
Day 2 (Feb 2) "Love is kind" Eph. 4:32
Day 3 (Feb 3) "Love is not selfish" Rom. 12:10
Day 4 (Feb 4) "Love is thoughtful" Psalm 139:17-18
Day 5 (Feb 5) "Love is not rude" Proverbs 27:14
Day 6 (Feb 6) "Love is not irritable" Proverbs 16:32
Day 7 (Feb 7) "Love believes the best" 1 Cor. 13:7
Day 8 (Feb 8) "Love is not jealous" Song of Sol. 8:6
Day 9 (Feb 9) "Love makes good impressions" 1 Pet. 5:14
Day 10 (Feb 10) "Love is unconditional" Rom. 5:8
Day 11 (Feb 11) "Love cherishes" Eph. 5:28
Day 12 (Feb 12) "Love lets others win" Phil. 2:4
Day 13 (Feb 13) "Love fights fair" Mark 3:25
Day 14 (Feb 14) "Love takes delight" Eccles. 9:9

My goal is to focus on one of these verses each day and apply it to our marriage. I hope that by doing this little dare, it will help my relationship grow with my husband and continue to build on our marriage. Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate. It's the process of being unselfish, willing to compromise, and putting the relationship and the other person first. I think this challenge will bring me one step closer to being the wife, mother, and person I want to be.

~Beth

The Last vacation

Well here l am, drinking my coffee and watching the waves roll in. My husband is sitting quietly beside me reading his book. We are enjoying our final vacation till our little bundle of joy arrives. These are the moments I am going to miss as our family is beginning and these quiet moments are ending...or at least becoming more infrequent.

We are making the most of this time together. We have this nice little deck we have made our morning nest.

And a view of the ocean that can't be beat.

As we enter the next chapter of our lives, I know I will look back at this vacation with wonderful memories. Right now though, as the baby is kicking, I am also looking forward to the new.

~Beth

Even Though We Ain't Got Money

I admit from time to time I find myself listening to the light station. 92.5..."Turn the light on" as they say in Sioux Falls. It's extremely dorky and kind of lame to say the least. I also realized that they tend to play the same loop of soft rock every. single. day. "Lean On Me" at 2:00 pm. "Pina Colada" at 2:30. Ugh... You get the idea. While flipping through the radio stations today a song came on that made me get a little sentimental: "Danny's Song" by Loggins & Messina. I guess the song was named for the singer's brother and family when they had their first son. Anyway, it's super old and a little cheesy but I couldn't help but feel like this was the perfect way to describe what Nathan and I are going through. Like a lot of people our age we're feeling bummed by the economy/job market and absolutely buried by our student loan debt. But regardless of the fact that we're not rolling in the money we are so, so happy. Almost every night we find ourselves being silly and just laughing until our stomachs ache (the best kind of laughter!). I am a very lucky woman and regardless of our money situation I cannot lose sight of the fact that I married a wonderful man and that our love will always suffice. Everything will be okay.

"Even though we ain't got money,

I'm so in love with you, honey,

And everything will bring a chain of love.

And in the morning, when I rise,

You bring a tear of joy to my eyes

And tell me everything is gonna be alright."

~Christi

Little Notes Can Mean So Much

My morning routine is pretty much the same everyday. Rush to shower, rush to do my hair, rush to dress, rush to get Gizmo outside, rush making lunch and rush out the door. As you can tell, I really don't make much time for anything in my morning schedule.

As I am rushing out the door early this morning, I notice a paper sticking out of my purse and it just seems off. I grab it and read quickly it, "Hope you have a nice day at work. I love you!" It's from my husband.

Many times in life we are moving so fast that we don't take time to write a quick little note that could mean so much to that special person in our lives. I was starting out my day pretty bad, very tired, and just counting down till the end of the week. His little note, though it was short, added a bright spot to my day. It's nice to have husband remembers to do little things like this and I really appreciate all the little things he does that mean so much to me.

I am sharing this with all of you to remind you that the little things, no matter how small, can really make a difference in your significant others day. You don't need to write some long drawn out letter, buy flowers, or bake a cake. The little things, such as a note scratched out on a coffee stained piece of paper, can give that little reminder that there is someone else out there thinking of you.

~Beth

Picnic at Wilde Prairie Winery

A few weeks ago Nathan and I decided to go to a local winery in Brandon, South Dakota. We packed up a delicious lunch of egg salad, cheese, crackers, and fruit and headed out to Wilde Prairie Winery. We have always wanted to go to a winery and do some sampling so why not start in South Dakota! We made our way out to Brandon and met this nice husband and wife who run the winery out of the basement of their old barn. It was very quaint!

Some of the vines


The barn we went inside. In the bottom they had all the canisters where they made wine.

They had all different kinds of wine including Dandelion Wine, Apple Raspberry Wine, Rhubarb Strawberry Wine, Strawberry Wine and Pear Wine among many others. It was definitely on the sweet side but they had some nice red wine as well. The strawberry seemed like it would be a great dessert wine!

So after the sampling session we purchased a couple bottles of wine and then headed back outside for a picnic.

Nathan savoring his tofu egg salad sandwich...


Enjoying the beautiful day and the picnic!

We had a great time that day and can't wait to try out the other wineries in South Dakota. There are 8 total and in August we plan on attending The Great Dakota Wine Fest at Valiant Vineyards in Vermillion, SD. This event features grape stomping, food booths, live music and of course South Dakota wine from all the wineries around!

Maybe someday we'll take a trip to Napa Valley and do some wine tasting there. Who knows what the future holds!

~Christi

Distraction At Its Best!

Lately I have been feeling a little distracted, to say the least. My husband and I found out right before my trip to Florida that I was pregnant. I have basically spent the last four weeks hiding it from our family & the last twelve weeks hiding it from our friends and co-workers. I have wanted SOOOOO badly to blog about this wonderful time in our life, but we wanted to make sure everything was going to go smoothly. My husband and I wanted to wait until our first doctor's appointment and makes sure that all things checked out fine. It is finally safe to say that we can finally let everyone know the wonderful news.

We decided to let our family know early. We broke the news to our parents with some cleverly decorated Easter eggs that said "We're Egg-specting". We had such a fun time decorating the eggs. Actually, I pretty much was in charge of placing the decals and he decorated all of the eggs but two. We went to his parents house over Easter weekend and stopped at my parents house along the way. It was so funny to see our parents reactions because both were so different. My parents, already being Grandparents were not quite as excited as his. My mom struggled, trying to read the words and the eggs. I finally had to tell her what they said, and my parents seemed to sit there in shock at first and then were very happy for us. His parents had a more energetic reaction. Being first time Grandparents and all, his Mom started screaming (a good scream) and his Dad insisted on we head out to the bar to celebrate. Which we did and I had root beer!

After three weeks of begging, on my 29th birthday, my husband took me to the hospital and performed our first ultrasound. It was so nice to have just the two of us in that room to see our baby for the first time. He guessed I was about 9-10 weeks along because you can't detect the heartbeat very easily until that point. After a couple times of pushing and prodding, he found our baby. I really can't tell at all that the image was a baby, but he could pick up the arms, legs, heart-beating and a little movement. Here's the picture taken by my cell phone.
On Thursday of this last week, we finally had our first doctor's appointment. It seems really late, but we chose a doctor that my husband has worked with and my friends have gone to. It turns out she is REALLY in demand and hard to get into. After the visit, I see why she has been a favorite OB around our town, she was awesome! The results are in...I am officially twelve weeks and three days along! And so far, so good. The baby is at a healthy weight and everything appears to be going good.
Now that we had the OK from our doctor, we were able to tell our co-workers and friends...and of course "make it official" by announcing it on facebook! I was very nervous about telling the company I work for. I work for a small business and when we are down one person, it is a really big strain on everyone there. To my relief they took the news great! They said we would figure something out, even maybe letting me work from home and on the weekends. Such wonderful news! I have the best job in the world!

When we told our friends, there was a little more mystery involved. We were all getting together for a barbecue on Friday. My husband thought it would be funny to make a fake email address (whosebaby@rocketmail.com) and send out the ultrasound photos to everyone on the invite list. It made for quite the game, and emails started flying around all day the next day. Well, I knew I was in trouble. I mean if I show up the party with juice in hand, everyone will know right away! I had to come up with a clever plan. Here was my plan: Buy a bottle of Fre non-alcoholic wine, rip off the label, create a new one at work that says "alcoholic". My devious plan totally worked! I had to go through the night drinking some pretty nasty tasting grape juice, but it was fun just to see all the guesses going around the party. A couple hours into the barbecue, my husband started handing out cigars and everyone knew! It was such a fun night and I stayed out to 1am, which is the latest I have been up for months!

So needless to say, I have spent the last 12 weeks a little distracted with the new baby and all. I have been lucky enough not to be sick, but I have been very tired and lost some of my normal motivation. I still go to the gym and try to run a couple miles a week. Sometimes, all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch movies, so really it is whatever I feel like that day.

The kitchen has almost come to a complete halt. We had our new granite counter tops installed while I was in Florida, but since then not much has been done. My husband has almost finished resurfacing all the cupboards. I did finish up sanding all the crown molding, but now that I can't stain (due to the fumes) things have really hit a stopping point. I came home yesterday to my husband starting the backsplash, so I guess we will start up again. He made up this rule that we can't start another room until the first one is finished, so I just have to hang out and wait on that kitchen. I can't wait to start the nursury! I already have so many plans in mind.

That is my exciting news to share with the world. Having a baby is such wonderful news and we are so excited to begin starting our family!

~Beth

Making Time For Friends

When you get married, you take the vows to be with your spouse “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”. Some of us really have taken our vows quite literally, well the ‘death do us part” part. I am not saying this is bad, I mean it is good for a marriage to spend time together. To enjoy each others company, laugh with each other, and really just connect with your husband. However, many times we women tend to take it too literally and barely make time for our friends, which can also be a strain on your marriage. Let’s face it ladies, men really don’t find our topic of conversations all that interesting ALL the time. My husband could care less about my new shirt I bought or whether the new nail polish color goes well with my feet. It’s healthy and good for us women to make that girl time and keep it.

I find that I am very guilty in keeping my vows of marriage too much. I LOVE being with my husband, we always have such a good time together, but he too understands how important it is for us to spend some time apart. He is very good about making his friend time, but I do have quite the hard time making time for my friends. Before I make plans with people I say that I need to check my husband’s schedule. I should say though, that my husband does not work a normal schedule. He works at a hospital which makes most of his work hours weekends and nights…which is opposite of my schedule, I work a 7:30-4:30 Monday through Friday schedule. That means our schedules are pretty much opposite, so when we do have time overlapping I tend to find myself choosing to spend time with my husband more than hanging out with my friends. I have missing baby showers, wedding showers, monthly girls night dinners, and just weekends away visiting a friend who only live 6 hours away (sorry Sarah).

So when my old roommates from when I was 19 wanted to plan a getaway, I thought this could be my perfect time to make more time for my friends. We planned a 5 day trip to Destin, FL. Hoping to catch some rays, relax, and just enjoy each other’s company. This was our first time we have ever planned a trip together and I was super excited. I mean, it’s been 10 years since we have lived with each other. The last time I saw them was our weddings, which were 3 years ago. I am so glad that I made the decision to go. Each of us have changed all so much since we were 19 year-olds living in our tiny, 90 degree heated, 4 bedroom apartment in Minnesota. We have all moved to different states, gotten married or engaged, graduated college, changed jobs, bought houses, and so much more.

Though the weather in Destin wasn’t what we expected, we still had a great time together! It was nice to sit down with a bottle of wine and just talk all about girly things that our significant others probably would rather gouged their ears out then hear. We broke into the pool in the condo, got kicked out of it and laughed the whole time doing it. We went fishing together, had our mani and pedi day, ate wonderful food, and really just enjoyed each other’s company. All in all, I got back totally exhausted, not in the best mood (flight was canceled), but it was totally worth it. For a person like me, who has moved every four years of her life, it is great to find such wonderful friends that I have had for 10 year now. I just hope the next time we do this, it won’t be a 20 year reunion!


Though I missed my husband, I think the time away was good for us. I came home to a husband that missed me considerably and even offered to go grocery shopping with me just to spend some extra time together. The moral of this story is: making time for your friends isn’t betraying your vows. It’s healthy to be apart from each other and make some good memories with your friends. It helps you grow more as a person and it reminds you how much your spouse really means to you. Besides, a little absence can really make the heart grow fonder!

~Beth

Remodeling Your Marriage

It's no secret that home remodeling can not only tear you life apart, but also become quite a strain on your marriage. The project can begin to take on a life of its own. It messes up your home, costs money (especially unplanned money) and overall disrupts everyday life.


The key to having your marriage survive a remodeling project is to communicate with each other! For my husband and me, these projects serve as bonding time. Each project is an opportunity to build more on our marriage. We team up to fight through the rough times (chiseling the floor in the bathroom) and the annoying times (not having a cooktop for three weeks now.) It has taught us to compromise our ideas and find the middle ground of what the finished product will be. In fact, I can honestly say some of my best memories of our relationship are times when we both have been covered in dirt and grime, working together.



All of our ventures have taught us to recognize each other’s strengths and know when just to let the other person handle tasks that we aren’t so good at. I have been lucky though, married to a man that has the patience of a saint so through all our remodeling projects he has been the rock. He is a genius when it comes to electrical work and really anything involving an electrical saw. He would say he is happy to have a wife that likes to paint and doesn’t mind spending all of her weekends off working on the project doing the tasks he really hates to do. Collectively we work towards an overall goal in mind, we might not always agree on the path to take to get there, but through all the blood, sweat, and dust we make it to the end. Each project we finish gets us one step closer to making this house our home and our relationship even stronger.


~Beth

Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so I know a lot of people hate Valentine's Day but I've just never been one of those people... ever! I can't think of a time in my life when I detested it or cried over it. Honestly, it's just another day right? More importantly, I treat as I do a most holidays: a reason to dress festively and eat yummy food! I mean pink and red are two of my favorite colors so yay, I get to wear either of those AND I get to gorge myself with chocolate! How is this not a win-win situation??

But seriously, this is the first year Nathan and I have celebrated Valentine's Day as *husband & wife* - and may I add that we are extremely happy and excited about this. Just being able to buy each other cards that say "husband" and "wife" ... it just makes everything seem that much more special. We celebrated by going out to dinner at Spezia's and then to the movie Valentine's Day. I know some people say, "Valentine's Day is stupid because you should celebrate your love every day." Well, I disagree with this. I say, "Why not?" I mean, do you really celebrate your love adequately? every. single. day. Really?? In the midst of daily stresses from work and just life in general I think it can be difficult to make time for yourselves. So here's one day that gives you the excuse to dismiss everything else going on and just have time to yourselves. Why not?

Is it ever a bad time, especially on Valentine's Day, to show your loved one how much you care about them? I think not :)

~Christi