AWWWWWW…. isn’t he cute? Okay, okay, so this is my husband. When he was just a little boy, yet to grow into the wonderful man who put gas in my car when it was -5 this morning and the man that just toasted me a corn muffin toasty to eat while I blog. Although, I have dated a few others before him – and it’s incredibly and shamelessly corny – he is truly my first love. Therefore, in my mind, he’s the only one worth re-hashing. The others that came before him were more like lessons. Lessons in what I didn’t want, lessons in what I couldn’t tolerate, lessons in learning not to settle. Lessons that in turn created who I am today, and made me the woman that Casey chose to marry.

There are a lot of rough things that I’ve “survived” in my relatively short 28 years in life. I have been to more funerals and spent countless hours in hospitals with various medical issues – both that of my family and myself. There have been MANY times that I have cursed the universe. But, when I take a step back, I realize how very lucky I am. Because although I have been given a lot to manage, I’ve also been given everything I need to manage it – and by that, I mean the people that surround me. Casey is one of those amazing people and I feel so blessed to call him my husband, and my very first love.

Yay, I’m first today!  My first love is Jenn, regardless of what I may have thought in the past.  This makes this particular topic hard to blog about today, since it’s kind of the theme of the blog and as such I’ve already been blogging about it quite a bit already.

I will say again that I feel that Jenn is the other half of me, and that we complete each other.  In short, we are soul mates.  I could tell you about the first time I fell in love with her, but I did that yesterday!

Unfortunately, I don’t have much else to add to this today, except for an addendum to yesterday.  Jenn reminded me this morning on our ride up to work (we got to ride up together today, yay!) that on the night I proposed, we had just spent the evening dancing the foxtrot in the kitchen to “So This Is Love”.  So, as you can see, “So This Is Love” has quite a deep meaning for us and has been a part of many major milestones in our relationship!

This blog is like half a day old and already has like three Jenn posts on it, so I guess it’s high time I got in on the action!  So here is my answer to today’s blog challenge, reprinted below for the readers’ convenience!

There’s a picture first, because I’m rebellous like that.  This shot was taken at our friend Karli’s wedding last summer!  It was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed much dancing and cupcake-eating!

My wife has already done a good job of introducing me, but I suppose I can elaborate a little more.  I’m 32, I have a BS degree in Electrical Engineering, which somehow eventually translated to designing plumbing and fire protection systems for a varierty of building types, but primarily supermarkets.  If you ever go to the bathroom at a Shaw’s, think of me because there is a chance that I may have had something to do with making it work (or getting it through permitting anyway!)  I hope to get my Professional Engineer’s license in Fire Protection this October.

I love my wife very much.  She is the center of my world, and I love being in love and just enjoying the simple things we do together, like holding hands, cuddling in front of the TV or a camp fire, and taking off to different fun locations around Maine and beyond, like Rockland, Islesboro, Boston, and this summer Barcelona, Rome, and France.

I also have a lot of fun with her being active, whether it be walks, a trip to the gym, or swimming in Sebago Lake in mid-April (triathlon training; you do what you gotta do)!

Lastly, as Jenn touched upon, I am also a super nerd.  Not as much as I was pre-Jenn, before I had a life, but I still have a file at Casablanca Comics (that’s where the people working there grab things that I’ve reserved so I can pick them up at my convenience), I know all the names, mask colors, weapons, and personalities of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and I sit down in the basement about every third Friday night with my friend Justin and play with little plastic superheroes.  So some of my nerdy heritage certainly lives on.

Now onto the five facts…hopefully they are interesting!

1. I’m going to totally copy Jenn, and start with the fact that up until four years ago my blood type was Ragu.  Let’s have a look at the photo, taken around the summer of 2006:

1. I used to look like this. In 2006, I graduated from my BSW program (undergraduate) and realized I looked like THIS. Finally, something hit me, and I joined a gym. The first time I went to the gym (with best friend, Stacey, in tow) I got on an elliptical and COULD NOT FINISH 5 MINUTES. I went home and cried. A lot. This time, however, I went back the next day and it led to a weight loss journey of 114 lbs. Pretty much a whole person. Without Stacey working out and helping me cook, and my Mom giving me her advice (being that she also lost a significant amount of weight – I think in the 90-100lb range), I would not have been able to do it. Thankfully, I did have them – and I was able to get down to a healthy weight without a program, surgery, or any major health complications. This doesn’t stop me from having continuous body image issues to this day. When I look in the mirror, I pretty much still see this girl. I don’t know how to change that.

2. On June 13, 2010 Casey and I completed our first Triathlon together! For those who don’t know, that is a swim, bike, and run. We completed a sprint triathlon – which was a 1/3 mile swim, 13 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run. I vowed in my wedding vows to Casey that we would complete one, and we did! We plan on doing another one this year. In fact, we just entered training again. It’s good to have a goal to work toward, or I find I get very easily lazy in my work-outs!

3. My Dad and I danced to “Walk Like an Eygptian” at my wedding. It may not be your typical father-daughter dance, but it was important to us. Why? Because every time that came on in our living room when I was little, my Dad would dance around with me like a big dork. I always told him that someday he and I would dance to it at our wedding. I’m pretty sure he didn’t believe me. This was the look he gave me when my slow father-daughter dance broke into the Bangles! Then! The whole family got involved. It got a little dicey and ended up looking like this (see above)

4. Casey and I were on the TODAY show!!!  On August 4, 2008 (I think) we were hosted by Joy Bauer, Kathy Lee Gifford, and Hoda (I’m not sure of her last name). I wrote into the show because I had lost over 100 pounds without surgery or a program. I was accepted onto the show and asked if Casey could join me, because he also had lost over 100 pounds!! It was a totally surreal, amazing experience. We were flown out to NY for one night, two days. We were then featured on our local station for their “Fit at Five” series. That story is here. The one on the TODAY show is no longer available by the web. It was nearly 3 years ago, I suppose! 🙂

5. I never thought I’d be working with kids. But I am. And most days, I really love it. Most of my adult life, and most of the time I’ve spent working, I’ve always worked with adults in the mental health field. When I graduated with my masters degree, I basically took the first (well, technically, the second) job that was offered to me, because I needed money. BAD. They took a chance on me, because I had never worked with kids. I guess I took a chance too. You never know where life’s road will lead you!

Welcome to our new blog! We’ve created this as a way to document our journey as a married couple, and a virtual scrapbook of memories and pictures. Here are those that play the “starring roles” in our lives 🙂

Okay, so this is Casey & I. Casey is a 32 year old, handsome man who likes long walks on the beach, comic books, heroclix, and holding my hand 🙂 He does engineering work (plumbing & fire protection) for a company called Harriman.

As for me, I’m a 28 year old social worker. To be specific I am a LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) and I do therapy with kids and families right now for two agencies in Maine. Be prepared to hear kid stories and endless “kid quotes of the day,” because without laughing I might go insane. Nobody likes an insane therapist.

This is where we got married on September 19, 2009. It is a beautiful and magical place that features the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. We knew from the moment we were engaged that we wanted to get married here – primarily because this is where Casey fell madly in love with me. Or at least this is where we were when he first realized it 😉

So this is that day that Casey will talk about when he realized that he was in love with me. I am sitting on the rocks with a starring member of our family, SKEETER! I received Skeeter as a gift from my Mom & Dad when I graduated from my undergraduate program back in 2006. My Mom furthered the gift of Skeeter by keeping him and house training him, so that when he came to live with me and my best friend Stacey in Maine, he was fully house trained! I know, best gift ever. She has since done this with Stacey’s dog, Chandler as well

This is my brother Patrick, and his wife Katie. Currently, I don’t have communication with them – for reasons best left untalked about (I hate it when I go into a Hulk-like-rage, so it’s best I don’t talk about them). That said, that are part of my family, and here they are. To the best of my knowledge they are currently in Texas.

To the left of this writing is Casey and his Mom dancing at my parent’s anniversary party. To the right of this writing is Casey’s Dad who pretty much will never pose for a picture. I searched and searched and I do not have a picture of them together that isn’t 20 years old! Can you tell they don’t like to have their pictures taken? Well, here are my in-laws!! They live right near to us, and have often been helpful when we need things fixed around the house, and surprised us with plowing our driveway while we were in VT for Christmas and got a huge snowstorm!!! They enjoy cooking, ice fishing, and have the most amazing garden you’ll ever have the pleasure of seeing. I look forward to some fresh summer produce!!

This lovely couple is my sister-in-law Katie, and her husband Jim. They also live right near us, and have a very cute puppy named Baxter. Okay, he’s not a puppy – but neither are mine and I still call them my puppies! Katie and Jim’s wedding was the first that Casey and I attended as a couple; they were married in July of 2008. They were also one of the few folks that were brave enough to sing karaoke at our wedding! They did a great rendition of “A Whole New World.”

Here I am with my best friend Stacey on my wedding day. Stacey and I have been friends since our sophmore year in high school – yup that’s nearly 14 years ago. There isn’t a lot I can say about Stacey except that I don’t know what I’d do without her. She even saved my mother’s life- by donating a kidney to her back in September of 2007. WHO DOES THAT? Stacey does that. She currently lives about 20 minutes from me, but we did spend about 8 years living together (and moving together – we remember years by which apartment we lived in).

Okay… here are some of the greatest social workers I know. These are the social workers who I went to graduate school with, and still remain in touch with. It’s nice to have people who GET IT. . .because social work is a hard gig. I’m thankful for them, and I’m so happy to be attending the upcoming weddings of two of them! Although I’ll admit, attending all these weddings makes me feel OLD. I love it, anyway! By the way, we are bad at posing for pictures. Sorry ’bout that!

Here is Jules and Justin. Having reconnected with Jules (from knowing her briefly back in high school in VTand then figuring out she lives maybe 10 minutes from me here in Maine!) and her husband Justin has been awesome! Justin and Casey have become fast friends (by reveling in the fact that they are both HUGE NERDS) and it’s been great to add to our small group of close friends. Plus it doesn’t hurt that they are great cooks, love karaoke (well, Jules does!), play crazy board games, and willingly dress up for our Halloween parties!

Now, here I am with Amy. I met Amy back when I began working in the mental health field in roughly 2002? I think? She was easy. I was trash. (Better not to ask). Anyway, it’s been a long while. Amy’s one of those friends who is just there when you need her and she gets things DONE. Like, if you want to get a bunch of aimless wedding guests in line – Amy can do it. Or if you need to organize an office – Amy can do it. She’s good like that and has a huge heart. She’s also been a “gateway” friend to other friends that we’ve enjoyed adventures of snow tubing, eating cheesecake, and ringing in the new year with!