Happy 28, Adam!

Today is my amazing husband's 28th birthday. Our 7th birthday to have celebrated together. I never thought I'd say, "We met when we were both 20," and feel like that was such a long time ago.

I'm so very thankful that Adam is the complete opposite of most every boy I ever dated before we met. He's completely dependable, punctual, steady, predictable, and any other word that could be synonymous with 'security' for his wife. I didn't always have that. Security. Predictability. Dependability. Someone who was on my side no matter what. Adam is all of those things.

I so enjoyed our laid back celebration of him today. Gifts before he left this morning, 'Happy Birthday' texts throughout the day, and a relaxing dinner out for our family of 3 tonight. Predictable. Dependable. Secure.

Happy Birthday, love of my life.I pray God gives us many, many, many more birthdays to celebrate with one another...even if the thought of me turning 28 later this year gives me the heebie jeebies! :)

happy year-and-a-half-aversary to us!

This month, Adam and I will be married for a year and a half. Last year, when we reached the 6-month milestone, Adam took me down to San Antonio for a weekend, and we had a blast! I'd never been, and it was a whole new world. We decided, after that, to make it one of our first Rieger family traditions, and take the trip each fall.

Last weekend, we spent our second annual weekend in San Antonio. We visited Sea World, which was so exciting and fun! We got to feed dolphins, pet them, and see two great shows with Killer Whales, Balouga Whales, acrobats, and Dolphins. The weather was perfect, and we stayed in a beautiful, historic hotel built in the 1920's right next to the Alamo.

How blessed I am to have a sweet husband who treasures our marriage enough to want to take me to do fun, special things like that!

Take a look at our Sea World pictures on our Flickr Page if you get a chance...they're fun!

how quickly things become familiar...

Adam is going on a 'guys getaway' this weekend. He'll only be gone one night, but it will be the first night I've ever slept alone in our big king-sized bed. The newness of our living together still feels so fresh and new, and we've been married almost a year and a half! It's funny to me that it can feel fresh and new, and at the same time, feel worn in and comfortable. To the point that the thing that is now unfamiliar is for him not to be there with me.

I know he'll have a blast spending time with his good friends, kayaking, probably getting sunburned, grilling hot dogs, and whatever else it is that guys do when their wives aren't around. (Frankly, I don't think I even want to know.) He just better miss me!


On another note, I'm looking forward to some fun girls time while he's out with the guys. It's so nice to have friends over...the friends who notice that your house is clean, who notice a new picture on the wall. GIRL friends. Haha...

I'm so thankful that we can each be refreshed by time with friends we love, and thankful that we serve a God who is faithful to use even our time apart to draw us closer together.

cruisin' into summer

Today, our 10 days of summer vacation come to an end. I am so blessed to have an amazing husband who wants to take me to do fun and exciting things! We left at noon on Friday the 17th and drove down to Galveston. Saturday morning, we woke up early, got ready, and headed for our amazing CRUISE SHIP!!

After wandering through a few snake-like lines to check in, we finally boarded the huge boat.

It was SO big!

We went up to the very top deck and lounged around
until the boat left a few hours later. While we were laying up on top,
a reporter from the Spanish channel came up there and asked us to
be in an intro for her show, so we became TV stars! A pretty
exciting start to our vacation, I must say!

We got to watch a beautiful (though chilly) sunset
our first night on the boat.

My handsome husband!

We were so excited and surprised to find a cute little
towel animal on our beautifully turned-down bed after
watching the sunset

I love this picture of the two of us at dinner the first night!

Our first day at sea, the pool area was packed!

The second night was our formal night at dinner,
so we got to get all dressed up!

Our second towel animal was a doggie. So cute!

I confess: I ate this yummy molten chocolate cake
every single night at dinner

I loved sitting in our little porthole seat all week long.

See the "al" in "Carnival"? Our portholes were the
ones directly under the "al", except we were on the other side
of the ship.

Our first port was Cozumel, Mexico. Isn't this beautiful? Adam
made reservations for us at this gorgeous private beach. We
even got to go snorkeling!

Lovely, aren't we?

We took the underwater camera, which is
always fun to use. That's our little snorkel guide in the water
above.

The fish were practically swarming all around us
right at the surface. Hopefully you can make out the fish
tail in the picture above.

Yay, finally a picture with the ship!

The third night, we got an adorable ape!

The second port was Progreso, Mexico. We got amazing
massages by the amazing masseurs above. Best massage I've ever had.

After our massage, we walked along the beach.

Our ship docked in Progreso.

It was so windy, I thought my skirt would be invisible
in this picture, but apparently I lucked out!

The next adorable animal we got was an elephant.
How cute is he?

Our last day on the ship was spent relaxing in the sun.

At dinner, our waiters were gracious enough
to pose for a picture with us. Their names were
Edgar and Wayhu. They were great!

We enjoyed one last sunset before heading inside on the final
night at sea.

It was such a memorable, fun vacation! Although I ate more than I think I've ever eaten in my life, got a little sunburned, and felt the boat move from time to time, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

When we got home late Thursday afternoon, it was so nice to know he still had 4 days off work.

We had such a relaxing weekend, went to Colonial in the terrible Texas heat on Sunday, and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the movies today.

I'm so thankful.

happy first anniversary!

This past Monday, April 21st, Adam and I celebrated our very first wedding anniversary! Here we are with our cake top. It only took 2 days to thaw after a year of being trapped in the bottom of our garage freezer. Isn't it pretty?

I was a little scared to taste it, but it still tastes amazing! We're still enjoying it. I'll be a little sad when it's gone! Adam gave me a beautiful new watch, along with a gift certificate to get a full body hour long swedish massage! I can't wait! He's so thoughtful and attentive. This year has been a dream come true for us, and we are so thankful to our sweet Jesus for making it such a fun, joyful season in our lives!

I can't wait to see what's in store for the years to come!

recently...

Recently, our dogs have been extra snuggly. Sometimes Adam turns off his alarm in the mornings just fast enough that I don't wake up. (I may actually be the lightest sleeper in the whole world.) He took these pictures the other morning when he came back into the bedroom to realize the dogs had taken over his side of the bed, and I hadn't even moved! Poor little scout looks trapped.

Recently, a new friend has been hanging out around Memaw's house. She and Carolyn named him Bob, as in "bobtail". He's an adorable, friendly little squirrel without a tail! One of his favorite things to do is to hide food in her potted plants on the porch. It's so fun and entertaining to watch him try and dig them out, even though it has made a mess of a few of her potted plants.

Isn't he cute with his little bunny tail?!

I'm really excited to spend the whole day today with my wonderful husband. We're taking the day to celebrate our first anniversary, since it falls on this coming Monday, and Adam will have to work all day. I can't believe it's been an entire year! I'm sure there will be a lengthy post on that subject in the next few days, though...

happy ( 1st married) valentine's day

So yesterday was our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife. It was so fun! Adam gave me a dozen roses before he even left for work! (He did so good!) We laughed about how we had fun picking out cards that said "husband" and "wife" on them. It's still so surreal and giggly to get to do things like that! I even made Adam pink heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. Am I the epitome of a stereotypical Valentine nerd, or what??


He took me out for a wonderful Mexican food dinner at Rio Mambo. A perfect end to a perfect day.

things I thought would never change

When you're in the middle of having a blast running all over town every weekend with your great group of closest-friends-ever as a teenager, some adult says to you, "Enjoy it. It will all be different one day."

You shake your head with a full and sure knowledge that it truly will NEVER change. You are connected to these people. You know them inside and out, and they you. If the direction of the wind so much as shifts, you call one another to report it.

I must've blinked. You know how people say, "Don't blink. You'll miss it"? I did.

I feel like I woke up one day and turned to find an amazing husband by my side. A wonderful, supportive love that I'm still surprised I found. But is it ok that sometimes I miss my friends?

In high school, if they're lucky, everyone has that amazing, steady, dependable group of friends to hang out with on the weekends. When Friday rolls around, you don't call one another to see if you're hanging out, but to find out just what you're doing, because it's a given that you'll be together. My favorite nights were the sleep-over ones, especially at Hillary's. Looking back, it seems like they were probably every weekend. We'd all lay on the sofa for hours watching Notting Hill, or Steel Magnolias so that we could pick which character we all were. We'd make cheese dip, or sometimes Hill would concoct some new dish using her mom's over-the-top kitchen gadgets. It would usually sit on the countertop all night, and we'd heat it up for breakfast.

By the time I got to college, it had already all changed. I just didn't realize the permanence of that change yet. "My girls" and I used to see one another at least on a monthly basis. My "BFF" (don't worry, we only call each other that to make fun of the 14-year-olds who actually say it out loud) and I saw each other at least a hundred times a week. If we didn't, you could bet that our voice-mail boxes, text inboxes, and e-mailboxes were overflowing.

Before that started to dwindle too much, Adam and I got engaged. Best. Day. Ever. I had the blessing of sharing it with everyone I love. It was so exciting and fulfilling all at once! My girls were forced to spend time with me for the next 8 months, helping me plan every detail of my wedding. They were so precious and fun and gracious in all that they did, and I'm thankful for every bit of it. After the wedding, though... we haven't seen much of each other. We've all been together on 2 occasions since then. Two. In nearly 10 months, we've been together twice.

Things really do change in the blink of an eye.

Today, I can honestly say that it has probably been two weeks or more since I have had even a phone conversation with anyone who isn't in my immediate family. I love my life. I feel safer, stronger, and more secure than I have in a long, long time. But just because I'm thrilled to be right where my precious Jesus has placed me today doesn't mean that I'm not nostailgic for the days that brought me here.

Maybe it's my own fault. Maybe I have not put enough effort and time into trying to be available to talk with and spend time with the people I love most in life. Maybe I'll add that to my list, if it's not too late, of new year's resolutions...

Maybe I'm just in the doldrums today because I've been sick with a stupid upper respiratory infection for a WEEK.

Either way, I choose Christ. And in Him, I choose to say, as Jim Elliot did, "Wherever you are, be ALL THERE." Today, I will be the best possible sickly wife, daughter, sister, granddaughter, and friend I can be.

6th monthaversary trip to San An-tone!

Adam took me to San Antonio this weekend in celebration of our six-monthaversary. I can't believe we've already been married six months! This year has been incredible, and I have to confess I'm a little downhearted to see it flying by so quickly.

Sitting here, with my two precious doggies sleeping by my side, I know that this has truly become my home. When Adam and I were in San Antonio, it became a comforting fact that the things I missed about home were the same things he was missing...because we were missing the same home. We especially missed the same pillows because the hotel pillows were some half-size version of overly-fluffy stuffed squares. I had to use three in an attempt to sleep at all Friday night. All that to say...it's true that being married to some one means sharing everything with them. The good, the bad, and the ugly...and even the things you miss at home when you're out of town.

San Antonio was so fun! We stayed in a hotel on the Riverwalk, and spent most of our time walking and sitting (not to mention eating) along the lush riverwalk paths. I feel so fortunate to have a husband who values me and our relationship enough to take me away for an anniversary others might not even notice. How precious my Jesus is to have given me such an attentive, loving husband!