Memories...

By the time I was 27, I figured I would be single my entire life!  But then one day as luck would have it, I met my now- husband Tony.  It wasn't love at first sight, in fact, we struck up a nice friendship. Neither one of us wanted to move "fast" and had been hurt in previous relationships.  So we took it slow.

And here we are, married for 7 years, recently having celebrated this milestone.  There have been bumps in the road, stresses, but these issues have seemed to bring us closer together.  He is truly my best friend and I can't ever imagine my life without him.  We have been through so much together and are still going strong.  Marriage isn't easy.  I have a dear friend who told me once that a marriage is like a garden; you have to constantly tend to it and care for it.  That is so true.  The biggest joy I have experienced is having my own family outside of my parents and grandparents, etc.  I remember when we were waiting to move in together- we both were nervous and excited.  I thought at first, oh man, this is going to be so weird but it just seemed to flow naturally.  That's how I could tell this was forever.  Granted, we don't agree on everything- including TV...lol  But we are both hobby nerds, love to go antiquing, legend tripping, visiting museums; we have a lot in common and that friendship is the basis of living out our lives together.  Being lovers is one thing, but it's such a small part of being truly "together."  For a couple, I think that you need to have the physical AND emotional connection to really make it work.

After about 7 months together, we got engaged.  And no, I was not pregnant....LOL  We just wanted to get married.

Tony proposed to me in front of a beautiful church in Minnesota.  We took this photo right after~

These pictures are taken from the Eau Claire County Courthouse where we first got married~

Then in 2010, we decided to have our "big wedding" as I like to call it.  We renewed our vows in the presence of family and friends.  We had the ceremony and reception at the beautiful DeKoven Center in Racine, Wisconsin, which is my hometown.  It is on Lake Michigan and over 100 years old (and reported to be haunted!).

Here is the St. John's Chapel on the grounds of the DeKoven Center where we had our ceremony~

(photo copyrighted by Jean Budden Beranek)

During the ceremony~

(photos copyrighted by Jean Budden Beranek)

Photos of Tony & I near Lake Michigan~

(photos copyrighted by Jean Budden Beranek)

The wedding party (Jesse, Dennis, Tony, Devon, Loni, and Alyssa)~

(photos copyrighted by Jean Budden Beranek)

My handsome groom :-)

(photo copyrighted by Jean Budden Beranek)

The bride wearing the ultimate of wedding dress reproductions!  I always wanted a reproduction of Christine Daae's wedding gown in the final lair scene from ALW's stage version of, "The Phantom of the Opera" and it came true!!

(photo copyrighted by Jean Budden Beranek)

These are a couple photos taken walking out of the church right after the ceremony.  Gotta love bubbles instead of rice!

(photos copyrighted by Jean Budden Beranek)

Our photographer Jean, took some lovely photos of some of our table settings and wedding favors~

(photos copyrighted by Jean Budden Beranek)

Our wedding and renewal of our vows were something so special, and just like that- it was done and is now 7 years later.  It's a journey and I look forward to continuing that journey with my husband.  

Happy 7 Year Anniversary Tony!  I love you so much!

*Please note that many of these wedding photos are owned and copyrighted by photographer Jean Budden Beranek.  Please do not use (repost, etc.) without permission.  Thank you.

Model Cars

Tony doesn't really get into toy cars, however, he found a few that he really wanted- partly because he would love to someday have the real thing in his personal car collection. ;-)

Latest Purchases~

This past weekend, Tony and I went to a few antique/hobby shops.  We swung by Mills Fleet Farm and he got a bunch of Ertl farm toys including some sets.  Here are the pics of his new toys:

Here are a couple photos of Tony opening up the dairy farm set.  He had one as a young child and has since wanted the feeling of reopening another one.  They had such a great discount at Mills, he got two!

Now he's setting up an entire farm scale with accessories, dirt for the driveways and all!  We have a hobby table as we like to call it.  So he will set this up and leave it up for show for a few months and then we will switch it out.

Goat Dairy Barn Creation

So Tony decided that he's going to make his own goat dairy barn since I guess you can't buy that as a set.  He's taking a pre-existing barn he had as a kid and sort of reinventing it- and that's where the goat dairy barn comes in.  Below are a couple photos of the project in progress~

Welcome to the Bell Farm!

My hubby had the day off of work and so he went to work setting up some of his farm displays on our kitchen table...lol  I told him as long as they don't stay up for too long then that was okay. ;-)

He's obviously a hobby fanatic just like me so that's one of quite a few things we have in common. Yes, we are nerds and proud of it!  I like to say we are nerds with edge...hehe

Without further ado, here are some photos of his farm display:

Tony is someday in the near future going to set up a more permanent farm toy display with the fake grass, gravel driveway, etc.  Until then- the kitchen table is his playground! Hey, we both work with what we have for right now. ;-)