Love... True Love

There are a few things I feel like blogging about today. First, I have finished decorating our apartment after a year of living here! yay! Our apartment has been decorated up, but I have never felt that it has been complete until now. We have a lot of stuff so it may be a little stuffy with the decor, but when we get a two room apartment in the future, or a house, it will all fit nicely.

This kitchen piece took me forever to finish because I have not been able to find a chef to put on it. I finally got online and looked for some "fat Italian chefs" scrap book paper or craft piece. All I could find that I liked were iron on fabric appliques. So I ordered one knowing that if I was not satisfied, I could return it. I ordered a different one than what is on there now, but this is what was sent. As first I was disappointed because I really liked the fat little chef with pasta that I ordered. The more i looked at this one though, I thought it was cute and I figured that it was more applicable because I am a woman and I really love to bake. All in all I think it turned out to be pretty cute.  It is now hanging above our ghetto gas stove that I love to cook on! My kitchen is really small so not much room for cute decorations, but I do have a few really cute things that help me to feel more like a legit chef :).

The next room full of decorations that I am most excited about is our bedroom. Before, it felt more like a place where we strictly went to sleep or to store what doesn't fit in the hall way closet. First off, I brought home a custom cabinet from my Dad's cabinet shop that was in the display room. I love it so much, even though it caused a couple of arguments, weighs like 500 pounds, and we had to bring from Pocatello, it has definitely served us well. We can fit a lot of things in it which were in the hall way closet, so now random things are organized in the closet instead of scattered around our room. PLUS, it is ADORABLE! Because we sold the striped chair that was there, we were able to move the bed over more so that Pedro has more than a foot of space to get into bed from. When we first got our bed set, the guys who set it up, put it all together so quickly that I didn't have time to really say if it was arranged perfectly or not, thus, one foot of room for Pedro. We also had a tug of war on who got the night stand on their side. I won out and it ended up on my side. Now there can't be any bitter feelings because Pedro now has the night stand by his side and I have the cabinet :). 

Also in our bedroom  I have been able to arrange the pictures better. I kind of just hung them up randomly in there when we first moved in and none of them really matched. I now have enough wall photos and decorations that I was able to put them in order and get them to match. My favorite pieces are our shrine of photos and a map of the world that Tereza gave Pedro for Christmas. The picture frame has been sitting in our bedroom for about 8 months because I was too cheap to buy photos to put in it. I splurged and finally put them up. I also finally printed all of our wedding and Hawaii photos so that other people can enjoy them too.

The map of the world is so beautiful, even though this picture of it is not very good. I took it from a distance because I was excited that I finally found a place to hang it that I liked. Before it was hanging above our desk in the living room, but it just never felt at home there. Now that everything is situated in our bedroom, I truly feel like our home is complete. Also, now that it is situated the way it is, Pedro can get into bed and into the closet. Before the striped chair was right against his side of the closet so he would have to squeeze in from my side. So he is loving the new arrangements.

Finally is our living room and bathroom. The bathroom did not have anything hanging on the walls before, now there are two frames that I made. The living room has been rearranged and I am loving it! We have a shelf that has 8 square sections in it. Before it was standing up tall and now I have it laying on its side. It looks pretty good and I feel like it gives the room some levels to play with the eye. We had too many tall things in this room. 

The other new additions to this room are two red frames that I made with scrapbook paper and pictures on cabinet doors. I also put some scrapbook paper on letters to spell out our last name. Our DVD shelf is a reject over the toilet cabinet from my dad's shop. I love it, but it is totally full now. I just love movies I guess!





















One other favorite from my living and then I will talk about something other than my decorating. I made my bouquet for my wedding out of fake white calla lilies and white embellishments. It was so fun to make and now I can keep it forever. it is in a vase on top of our t.v. Not only is it beautiful, but it brings back such beautiful memories every time I look at it.


That leads me into what I want to talk about next. Pedro and I have been married for just over a year and a half now. It seems like it has been much longer than that, but in the perspective of eternity, it has only been a split second of a split second of marriage. Not all of it has been easy, but as I look at our relationship, I feel like we have learned much and grown closer together and in love. When we first got married, it felt so nice to

not have to worry about dating anymore and to not have to travel to Pocatello every weekend. We had each other so close now, but not everything was pearly and blissful. We both had school to deal with and I was super busy with my nursing stuff. It was not an ideal way to start a marriage, but it helped us to grow appreciation and respect for one another. Whenever someone would say how is married life, I would of course respond that it was great, but I would always be annoyed that people asked it that way. Silly, I know, but it did. I was more annoyed that I had to answer in a way that did not match my feelings. I was expecting everything to be better than it was to start off, but reality is what it is. I was annoyed that I was imperfect and that our marriage wasn't filled with all of the romantic whims you see in movies and hear about on facebook. I wanted my life to be a fairytale romance, but as long as I was looking for perfection, I was never going to find that dream.

Once I started embracing our imperfections, we grew stronger. Once I gave up my skewed vision of how my life should be, I started living. Our problems, our weaknesses, our inabilities are what make us stronger. They allow us to turn to each other and learn together how to overcome what we don't understand or what we don't know how to perform. I let down my walls and was able to learn from Pedro. He has taught me so much about love, selflessness, and how to relax. I now can answer the question I used to fear and dread with a surety, I love marriage. It truly is the greatest part about life.

I really cannot imagine my life without Pedro. He is my anchor, my relief, and my greatest love. I do not believe it was chance that we met when we did. I believe in destiny. In fact, our wedding song was Destiny by Jim Brickman. Baby you're my destiny, you and I were meant to be. Those words have more firmly planted themselves into my soul as I have pondered on our courtship and even the years leading up to our meeting.

When I was younger I, like most girls, fantasized about who I would marry, what our children would be named and how he would propose. At that time I always felt like the person I would marry would be somebody close by and a person that I have seen and crossed paths with, but never met. This feeling turned into reality. Pedro and I, once he moved from Brasil, grew up about 3 blocks away from each other. He was indeed close, and we indeed had crossed paths and seen each other whether we realized it or not. Pedro also made a prediction of his own while on his mission. I will refer you to our love story at the bottom of my blog for details. He predicted he would marry Rachael Ray, and as fate has it, he did marry Rachel Rey. This threw it over for me, and I now believe in destiny.

From the day Pedro and I met, I have loved him. I immediately clicked with him and I wanted to impress him wholeheartedly in any way I could. We hit it off immediately and became best friends. Here is another touch of destiny... the day that I claim we started dating was the day that we shared our first kiss, my birthday. Funnily enough we got married on my birthday one year from the day that we shared that special kiss. It lead to courtship, which lead to engagement, and that lead to marriage, where a year after our first kiss, we took our first steps into eternity hand in hand.

As I was flipping through the wedding photos that I finally printed off, I found this morsel of happiness. This picture caught me off guard and I wept a little as I looked at my true love look at me. It reminded me of when Pedro first got a glimpse of me in my wedding dress. That bright smile shone and I knew that he loved me. I still know that he loves me because he gives me so much. I want to be better so that I can see that look in his eyes every time we look at each other. Pedro is the greatest husband and I am so lucky to have him for all of time and eternity.

Pedro's birthday is this Tuesday. he will be turning 25. He says that he has reached 1/5 of his life span. Yes, you heard me right, 1/5. He is certain that he will live well beyond 100 and  I believe him. His love for life and his positive outlook will carry him far. I wish him a happy birthday and want him to know how much I love and appreciate him. I really, truly know that we were destined to each other because we made it that way. We chose each other and and so it will be forever.

Destiny: Jim Brickman