Servanthood

Well today is the last day of Andrew’s birthday week, I could have extended it through Saturday and Sunday, but if you’ve noticed I am not really very good about writing on the weekends.  Here is the last quality I am going to highlight, I could probably fill a month with positive words about Andrew, but I won’t.  People who know Andrew the best know that one of his best qualities is his servant’s heart.  This was one of the very first things that attracted me to him.  I had a long list of requirements for the person I would marry and one of them was that he serves in the local church on his own accord.  The first Sunday I showed up at Godsearch I found out that Andrew was the service director for the hospitality team.  This far exceeded my requirement…I would have taken someone who passed an offering bag once a month. 

His serving definitely doesn’t stop at church, he is so good about serving me in our home.  We had a day where we took off work and cleaned our place from top to bottom.  We wrote a list of tasks and split it up.  Countless times I would look over and he would be doing something that was totally not on the list because he saw that it needed to be done.  When we first started dating he requested that I never ask him to do anything.  He said if you don’t ask me to do something I will do it when I see that it needs to be done. This has really held true as far as chores in the house goes.  The first person to have time to do dishes does the dishes, whoever sees a crumb on the floor sweeps it up, etc. etc.  We’ve modified this rule slightly because I took it to the extreme where I wouldn’t ask him things I REALLY needed to know because I didn’t want him to have to do something to find the answer.  So now I just don’t ask him to do chore type stuff. 

His love language spoken is hands down acts of service, but he does not receive them that way at all.  If I ever try to make dinner he breathes down my neck the entire time until I finally just hand over the recipe and ingredients because he would so much rather fix it himself.  Don’t hear this as a complaint…I love that I never have to cook a meal!  I have learned to receive his love through serving me, this is not my primary love language, but because he speaks it so fluently I’ve learned to interpret it into love.  So thank you Andrew for being an incredibly servant-hearted man!

If you are wondering what in the World this love language talk is all about go here to take the test to discover how you give and recieve love, it is really great for all relationships in your life, not just marriage.  It totally changed the way I interact with people.

The Otherside of Andrew

Day 4 of Andrew’s birthday week and it’s time for me to reveal something else about him that I LOVE!  He is just as obnoxious, loud and dramatic as I am.  This is one of those things that I wish everyone could really experience.  I feel like when we are out with a group of people Andrew does this whole subdued quiet thing.  He is the opposite of quiet around me.  Each time we ride in the car we sing at the top of our lungs, and believe me when I say he initiates these mini concerts on a daily basis.  Most of the time he does a little out of control solo, I stop singing, look at him like he’s crazy, resume singing and then burst into laughter.  Car rides are some of my favorite times with Andrew, I have a feeling we will be driving a lot more now that Andrew has developed a complete hatred for flying!

Let’s talk about Andrew’s dramatic flair that so many of you are unaware of.  Many times he will throw mini fake tantrums when he doesn’t get his way.  He has done this at my parent’s house a few times and they just stop and look at me like who is this person?  Well to answer your question it is my dramatic husband that I so love to laugh at when he does these.  He is totally playing, but his dramatic flair ups make me feel less insecure about mine that I have every once in a while (or once a week, but who is counting?).

Stay tuned tomorrow as I reveal Andrew’s absolute best quality hands down…get excited people!

Networking

Andrew loves to network.  While this is one of my biggest pet peeves of his it is also something I appreciate.  He gets more excited about finding out that so and so knows him or her than he does about pretty much anything else.  Going on vacation…no reaction, having a day off…nothing, his birthday…eh take it or leave it, but Sally Jo knowing Bobby through Timmy…That’s a BIG DEAL!!  I get phone calls that start off with GUESS WHAT?? Did we win something…no, Did we get money back for something…no, Then what??…I found out that someone knows someone that I went to undergrad with!!!  Well call the bakery, let’s get a cake to celebrate!

Networkers dream?  Facebook.  While I look at pictures or who recently got engaged, Andrew looks at mutual friends of everyone.  I asked him last night if non private profiles were a networkers dream come true?  We laughed hysterically for about 5 minutes and then he told me he hated me…I’m pretty sure he was kidding, but I probably deserved it!

Why I love this?  Well first of all it is a pretty big chunk of who he is and what he enjoys so of course naturally I’m going to love it.  The main reason though…net-workers get jobs.  I have total faith and trust that Andrew will get a job because he will know someone who knows someone who works in the chemical industry that will want to offer him a high paying wonderful job.  So keep it up, you tell me about who knows who and I’ll keep you up to date on my blog friends who I’ve never met 🙂

Happy Birthday Friend!  The first 1/4 of your life is over…here’s to the next 75 years!!

Tangerine Mixer

So in honor of Andrew’s birthday week (starting yesterday) I thought I’d post a daily story with a tidbit into our lives and what I find so stinkin awesome about this man.  I’ll try not to get to mushy gushy about him…I would hate for our readers to gag, but I want you all to feel like you know Andrew a little better by the end of his birthday week (his actual birthday is tomorrow).  Yesterday my affection was slightly hidden, but to sum up yesterday’s post I love that he supports this flower business thing  and helps me do flowers even though that is probably the last thing he would want to do on a weekend!

So today I want to tell you about our Tangerine Kitchenaid Mixer.  Some people may think that Andrew just let’s me have and do whatever I want.  I can see how you think this about him because I am rather spoiled, however there are some things he has strong opinons about…Kitchenaid Mixers is not one of them!  During our whole wedding process Andrew made many of the choices and had definite opinions about certain things.  Luckily we had strong opinions about opposite things.  He cared about the colors, food, photography and wordings.  I cared about the favors, details, flowers, music, etiquiette and desserts.  We were the perfect wedding plaining pair and honestly Andrew did just as much for the wedding as I did.

Registering for gifts was fun and exhausting, unfortunately for him he really only cared about 2 things…knives and cookware.  When we got to the Kitchenaid section I decided “why not register for one?” I originally hadn’t planned on it, but I knew that if we didn’t get it as a gift for our wedding it would be YEARS before I would ever splurge on one for myself.  Knowing how much I love to bake Andrew encouraged me to register for it.  Then the big question… what color to choose, there are so many colors these days.  When I saw the tangerine one I just knew I HAD TO HAVE IT.  Orange is my favorite color and I thought about how wonderful this bright orange piece of machinery would look in our little kitchen.  People tried to discourage me from picking such a bold color; “you’ll hate it in 10 years,” “These things last a lifetime,” ” Are you SURE you don’t want to go with the safe color?”  I was sure I wanted the orange one and Andrew only encouraged me to pick the one I truly wanted.  So our church friends went together and surprised us with our kitchenaid mixer.  I really cherish it and use it at least once a week.  It sits on our counter next to our orange walls, it probably technically clashes, but I don’t really care…I have a TANGERINE Kitchenaid Mixer.

Last week Andrew was sitting at the dining room table.  I looked at him and out of the corner of my eye I saw the mixer.  This is what I said to him in that moment,” Andrew, everytime I look at that Orange mixer I think about how lucky I am that you let me choose the one I wanted, you didn’t tell me I would eventually hate it, you didn’t throw a stink, you just let me have it.  I think about how much I love you everytime I see that bright orange thing on the counter.  In 10 years when I hate the orange and I gaze over at the mixer covered up with a neutral cover I will still think about how much I love that you let me choose the unconventional color because that’s the one I wanted in the moment.  So thanks for loving me enough to let me have some of the things I want.”

To sum up Andrew’s awesome quality here it is:  He is not a pushover.  If he cares enough about something he will stand firm and have an opinion.  If he doesn’t have a strong opinion he doesn’t form one just to be difficult.  In other words he is EXTREMELY easy to live with!

Two in One

So we survived…it was a close one, but we made it to the other side of a CRAZY busy weekend.  Two weddings in one weekend, I think it is safe to say that I will not be signing us up for this again anytime soon!  Wednesday afternoon the flowers arrived.  I probably received the best shipment of roses I’ve ever had so we were off to a great start and the orchids were beautiful as well.  Thursday we began preparing the flowers for the Friday wedding.  I took off work a couple hours early and got busy.  I got most of the boutonnieres and corsages done before dinner. Then it was on to the bouquets.  I had never done a cascade bouquet before, but I decided there was a first time for everything and I knew orchids would look the best in a cascade as opposed to a clutch so the learning process began.  I get a little irrational sometimes and Thursday night was no exception.  Luckily after ruining only one or two bouquet holders I was able to successfully create a beautiful cascade bouquet for the bride and bridesmaid…that’s right only 2 bouquets, I really lucked out on this wedding!  We wrapped up relatively early Thursday night and headed home.  I’m totally blessed by two parents that allow us to do flowers at their home even though it creates a HUGE mess.  Yea I know, I’m (we’re) spoiled!

Friday: We successfully dropped all the flowers off, set up the reception, and made it to the wedding with 10 minutes to spare.  As we parked the car Andrew realized that we had just driven into a swampy area and our car was stuck.  After the wedding commenced we headed to the car and for the next 20 minutes attempted to rock and push the car out of the mud.  Andrew and crew finally decided to give up and call for a tow (Thanks Mum Campbell for the AAA membership!)  Andrew let me go on the reception while he waited for the rescue.  He arrived an hour later and we enjoyed great food and friends.

We headed home from the reception and got to work on the Saturday wedding.  I knew it would take me around 8 hours and we began work at around 10:00PM.  So we figured we would work until 2:00AM and then get up early and work from 8:00AM-Noon when the flowers needed to be delivered.  Our plan worked out wonderfully and the flowers turned out great.  We left the flower drop off exhausted, but feeling really good about our accomplishments. 

I couldn’t do any of this without Andrew’s full support and efforts, he is quite possibly the best floral assistant EVER!  I also couldn’t do this without the help of my wonderful parents, so THANK YOU, thanks for helping us complete TWO weddings in ONE weekend!

I hope to post pictures on my blogspot soon, I need to collect them first.  I’ll let you know when you can check them out!!

Breathing Easy

I am doing flowers for two weddings this weekend.  That’s a lot for one weekend and it will be my first double wedding weekend since I began my flower business.  One wedding is on Friday and the other is on Saturday so that makes a big difference, but it is still a bit overwhelming.  I have a mental checklist of all the things that stress me out.  On the top of the list is receiving the flowers and the condition of the flowers.  They arrived today and they are BEAUTIFUL!!!  YAY one stress down, just a few more to go.  So I got to breathe easy for a moment today.  Tonight I’ll do all the prep work with Andrew and then create some beautiful arrangements tomorrow and Friday.  If I’m a little sporadic on my posts it’s because I am running around trying to create the perfect arrangements for 2 awesome brides.  I’ll let you know when the pictures are up on my blogspot!

I WAS WRONG!

There Andrew, are you happy, I said it.  For the past year and a half (basically since I’ve known Andrew) I’ve been pestering him to get a new driver’s license.  He switched over his license plate so we at least have Illinois plates, but did not want to change his license partly because he didn’t want to take the test and partly (perhaps the bigger part) because he didn’t want to be an official midwesterner.  I told him it was illegal to drive with mismatched license plate and license, but he ignored me…what a surprise.  Well the time has come that he either has to fly to Massachussetts to renew his license or bite the bullet, take the test and become an official Illinois resident.  His license expires in 8 days, on his birthday.  Before this whole ordeal is over he felt the need to research this notion that he has been driving illegally for the last year which resulted in this e-mail entitled Technically Speaking:

I am reading the Illinois rules of the road, and there IS an exemption for college students with out-of-state licenses. Page 15 says that all college/university students may drive with a valid out-of-state license. Obviously, I have to change mine this month since it expires, but I have not been driving illegally for the past 4 years…
Just thought you’d like to know 🙂

Andrew Campbell

By the way he chose the test/new license option.  Flying to Massachussetts this week doesn’t quite fit into our budget or work schedule.  So Andrew…Welcome to Illinois!

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match

Yesterday my mom and I threw Aubrey a bridal shower.  Aubrey is Andrew and my longtime friend.  Actually she is my family’s longtime friend as well.  You see Aubrey and I knew each other since I was about 10 or so.  Our families hung out together and we built a friendship overtime.  Andrew became friends with Aubrey about 4 years ago and then one day Andrew’s World with Aubrey and my World with Aubrey finally crossed paths.  She is the reason we met, but I wouldn’t say she set us up.  I wouldn’t have gone for that whole set up thing and I don’t know if Andrew would have either.  We give her credit anyway because without her we wouldn’t know each other.  Apparently Aubrey has had this effect on MANY relationships.  She’ll have to comment on the number of couples that are wed because of her influence!

ANYWAY Andrew and I like to take credit (but totally don’t deserve it) for Aubrey and Gabe getting married in just 6 short weeks!  At our wedding jealousy reared its ugly head because Aubrey chose to take someone else as her date.  She didn’t want to make it public just yet that her feelings for Gabe were more than the friend kind of feeling, so she brought Adam and boy was Gabe MAD!!! Okay maybe just hurt, but MAD sounds so much better.  That is what sent Gabe into proactive mode and he went in for the Kill, kinda, and confessed his feelings for our beloved friend.  So there you have it folks matchmaking turned full circle, well sorta 🙂

So Andrew and I will be standing up with our friends at there wedding on June 27th.  I am so excited about the events of that weekend and we got to start celebrating a little early with her shower yesterday afternoon.  My mom made the beautiful cake, we made chocolate rose suckers for party favors and played our homemade version of LOVE name that tune.  It was a great afternoon of hanging out with good friends.  Here are a few pictures courtesy of Jen.

Lovely Tunes

So for the last 6 months I have been racking my brain trying to figure out where my Lynn O’Brien CD went.  Yesterday I FOUND IT!!!  It was with some other Cd’s in my trunk that never made it out after I moved in with Andrew.  So right now as I type I’m listening to her sweet voice.  I went to High school with Lynn and was always excited to hear her sing. Then she fulfilled a dream and recorded this gorgeous CD.  I can’t say enough great things about Lynn or her music.  Enjoy your Sunday.

Wanting to Purge…

No no no, not that kind of purge!  Rather the clothing kind.  I recently purged about 50 pieces of clothing which felt really good because then I was able to get my velvet slimline hangers and have a beautifully organized closet.  Even after organizing my closet I still feel like I have nothing to wear.  This week while having a stay-cation at my parents I realized that perhaps it’s not that I don’t have anything to wear, rather I have too much to wear and therefore cannot make a decision.  Not only have I been able to quickly get ready in the morning, but I’ve gotten compliments on every outfit I’ve worn this week. 

If you know me well you know that I love to get rid of stuff.  The less I have the happier I am.  I was trying to figure out where this came from and I figured it out today!  When my mom turned 50 she went on this whole simplify your life kick for a couple years and had garage sales, took stuff to classic home consignment, and threw stuff out.  These years were during the time I was figuring out what kind of home I wanted to have and it turns out I love a simple, clean, clutter free home.  I’m not there yet, but I’m getting there.

So who knows what tomorrow brings, perhaps a bag full of clothes and trinkets looking for a new home!