Anniversary Celebration

Thank you to everyone who read our anniversary dedications and wishes us a happy day! We had an AMAZING weekend celebrating our first year of marriage!

Before I start talking about our anniversary, let me promote my hubs a little. His short story "Birth of an American Gigolo" releases later this year, and we now have the cover available to share. We'll be running a cover reveal November 17-19, and we'd love to have you participate! If you're interested in being a host, please fill out this form, and Deek will send his media kit on over to you! http://goo.gl/forms/T6xCXVBjZH

Ok...and we're back. For those getting married soon, we wanted to share a great idea. You know how people say to freeze a slice of cake to defrost and eat on your first anniversary? Well, Deek and I have an even cooler idea! When you get monetary gifts during your wedding, set some aside to spend on your one year anniversary. That way, you've got instant money to help celebrate your first year!

Here we are ready to celebrate!

Since this is our last anniversary in the Pacific Northwest, we decided to do a tour down memory lane and revisit several places we visited on our honeymoon. First thing first, we got massages (just as we did for our honeymoon--see, this is where saving money from your wedding to use on your first anniversary comes in handy!). Oh, are massages heavenly! Deek had tweaked a muscle in his shoulder during some of our lifting, so they did a procedure on his back that left it looking like a pizza. LOL! But the good news is that it really seemed to help his shoulder.

Pizza back

Deek wouldn't stop taking pictures of me. He was like the paparazzi. LOL!

We were all super zen after the lovely massages!

After we left the massage, we headed over to have lunch at the same place we ate for our honeymoon...complete with the same kind of nachos! 

Deek and nachos on our honeymoon

Deek and nachos on our first anniversary

Sneaking in a kiss! ;) 

After lunch, we walked to the place where we stayed for our honeymoon--The Portland White House. It's a total beauty and a gem of a place where you'd least expect it.

The Portland White House--so beautiful!

From our honeymoon

This year, it was raining, so it was harder to get good pictures.

Then, as we did a year ago on our honeymoon, we wandered around the streets of our beautiful city, hand-in-hand. We talked and laughed while enjoying one another and the city. In addition, we sampled some of the local yummy treats. My favorite had to be the salted caramel cheesecake. Holy. Moly. I'm glad Deek and I split a teeny piece because it was rich, but boy did my taste buds do a happy dance. 

I love how they light up the city for Christmas. That's a definite plus about having a November anniversary!

Just a girl, her coffee, and her thoughts on a rainy day

Just a guy, his umbrella, his coffee, and his thoughts on a rainy day.

Of course, we had to visit a bookstore. We ARE authors after all, and we had a gift card. Woot!

And we topped the evening off with the same kind of nachos we had a year ago. Yum! Do you see a nacho theme in our lives?? LOL!

As we did for our honeymoon the year before, Deek and I got tattoos. This time, we opted to get three!

Deek a year ago

 Me a year ago

Our tattoos from a year ago

So, here is the story behind one of our tattoos. When we got married, we both said we wanted to get tattoo wedding rings. For the wedding, we had our actual wedding rings, which we planned to exchange for the tattoo bands on our first anniversary. Well...we fell in love with our actual wedding bands and didn't want to give them up. So, we discussed getting one another's lowercase initial (it's a running thing between us to use our lowercase initials) at the top of the fourth finger on our left hands. But when we talked to our tattoo artist at the consultation a few weeks before our anniversary, she said finger tattoos never end up like people hope. They're often fuzzier than other tattoos, and they grow dull or come off completely quite fast since people use their hands so much. The tattoo place will give free touchups on any location except the finger because of how quickly they turn bad. So, Deek and I elected to get one another's initials on our left wrists instead. Now, you may notice there is a "j" on my arm instead of a "d." That's because Deek's superhero name (aka: real name) is Jay. ;) The fonts match the ones on our "tenacious" tattoos from the year before. 

Our wedding band tattoo ring alternatives

We got two other tattoos as well. I got two on my feet, and Deek got two on his calves. I'd heard that feet hurt the worst of all, so I was pleased to discover they didn't hurt much more than the wrist. Where the skin gets the thinnest on the foot, it stings a bit more, but nothing I couldn't handle. Thank goodness. But to our surprise, Deek said the calf muscles hurt more than he expected. Maybe because the lines his needed required a bigger needle? 

Deek's toughing out the calf ink!

Later, as we talked in bed, I paparazzi photoed him. Haha! Payback! ;) 

Deek is my best friend, my soulmate, and my better half. He's there for me through thick and thin, and he's always got my back. He makes me laugh, wraps me in his arms, listens to me, talks to me, challenges my way of thinking, helps me be a better artist, and loves me no matter what. I'm blessed beyond measure to even know him...mind blown that I get the honor of being his wife. I love you, Deek. #Always your e

Deek is my soulmate!