Our Love Story Link up

I have been reading a couple of blogs who all seemed to be linked up with From Mrs to Mama. Since today is Valentine's Day and my hubby and I are finally doing something for V-Day, I thought I'd participate!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

My hubby and I have been together since 2002 and we got married in 2007. 

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

We met through mutual friends. The one thing I remember about meeting him was that I felt an instant attraction to him. Unfortunately, he thought I was kind of stupid. It wasn't until much later on that we went on our first date. 

3. If married, how long have you been married? 

We've been married since 2007. Our anniversary is June 23rd!! A lot of people were mad at us for our wedding being in late June. It was a tad bit hot. 

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? 

Our wedding was medium size, I guess. It was about 200 people and we got married in downtown Greenville. We got married and had our reception in the same place. It's an open brick building along the Reedy River. It actually used to be a coach house where coaches were built for the Revolutionary War!

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? 

I don't know if you've ever seen that SNL skit with Kristin Wolf and Jason Sedakis. They're an annoying couple and he calls her babe a lot. That's what he calls me and he calls me that in the same way. 

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

1. He is stable - something that I've always struggled with in my life is feeling secure and he has added that security to my life that I've needed!
2. Loving - he always tells me how beautiful I am, how much he loves me, etc. I've never been with someone who does that. At first, it was so different to me, it made me uncomfortable, but really, it makes me feel so good!
3. Sounding Board - I know that if I'm struggling with something, I can tell him about it. He listens and he gives me a reassuring voice. 

7. Tell us how he proposed? 

He took me out to Chophouse (which is a fancy restaurant - especially for a new college graduate) and proposed at dinner. 

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

Actually, he's not any of those. We typically don't really celebrate valentine's day, but this year, we decided to go to Soby's for dinner. I bought him a present simply because I buy myself stuff all the time and he never buys anything, so I thought it'd be nice to get him something! But for Christmas, he surprised me with some beautiful earrings to match my wedding ring. 

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

I'm both. I love the time at night I have with my husband. We watch tv together by the fire and laugh about silly things. But, we've also had some beautiful dinners in neat places like Italy and Mexico. We really have fun no matter what we do.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

We both would really like to go back to Italy and spend more time there. We went on a Mediterranean cruise for our honeymoon and only spent 1 day in each place. So, we've talked about one day going back and spending some time in Italy. 

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

We're eating dinner at a restaurant called Soby's downtown. It's really good!! Other than that, I have to work :(

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

I told him please don't get me anything because I always buy stuff. 

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

The best thing I ever learned about being in a marriage is that it is my job to build him up. Even if I'm mad, or don't think he's making the best decision or I dont know if the decision is right or not, but I have a lot of fear about it, I have to trust him. I have to let him make his own mistakes and love him right through them. The best thing I can do as a wife is be there for him. 


When he started his tree business, I was so scared and I realized that I was being very hard on him as far as making demands about what he should be doing. But it was his life long dream to own his own business and this was his opportunity. When he had to make some changes within his business, I was very fearful but I knew that my job was to support him so I just told him I believed in him. I told him how smart and strong I knew he was and that he could make anything successful. When he would come home stressed out, I just tried to be an ear and give a supportive voice. He told me that my attitude during that time was a changing tone for our relationship. He said he loved me so much after that and we've grown ever since. 


So ladies, make sure you build your man up!! 

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

If I won the lottery...

My husband and I like to play the game, what would we do if we won the lottery? We think of the things we'd buy, the people we'd give money to, etc etc. I think of all of the hobbies I have and how I could actually turn them into a business and finally be able to do things I love without worrying if it'd be enough to support the family. So here is a list of things I'd do if I won the lottery, which at this point is $350 million.

1. Start a breakfast place - 


My husband and I have this dream of opening this good breakfast place in Greenville. We don't really have very many places to go that are kind of nice. We have things on the very very cheap side like Waffle House, IHOP, the Clock, etc. Then we have very high end like High Cotton, the Westin, etc. The only thing that's a reasonable price is Mimi's Cafe, and it's a chain.

I don't know what we'd call it. James really wants it to be like this restaurant in Charleston, Virginia's on King.

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It is mid price and has really really good food. You can get eggs/bacon, Eggs Benedict, all kinds of delicious breakfast food. They also have lunch and dinner, but anytime we go to Charleston, we always go there. 

I'd really like it to be like this place we went in Boulder, Snooze. 

They had these specialty pancakes, cinnabon, red velvet, etc. I got the breakfast pot pie which had a pastry, sausage gravy, eggs and hollandaise sauce - it was so good. 

We'd specialize in breakfast, and that's it. I think we'd try to have it downtown, simply because that's where all of the great restaurants are in greenville. Maybe we'd end up being successful enough to open one on Woodruff rd. Who knows!!

2. Start a bakery 

We have a really delicious bakery here, Strossner's, but we could always use another, right?? I LOVE baking and still have so much to learn, but if we won the lottery, I could go to culinary school before I opened my bakery. 

We would do things like cakes and things like that, but we would specialize in cookies, brownies and pastries. The thing that we don't have here in SC are good pastry places. When I was in Mexico and Costa Rica, they had panaderias and they had things like sweet bread and chocolate croissants and things like that. They were SO GOOD - WHY DO WE NOT HAVE MANY OF THESE IN THE US????

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3. Let's pretend we hit the jackpot and won $350 million - I would open some kind of center here to help kids in need - and then maybe one in Africa too 

The place I am going, Faith Victory Association, is a community dedicated to orphans. They set up family type environments and have schools and a medical center. It would be really awesome if we had that here too. South Carolina doesn't do much to support children in need. We think that if people aren't willing to work like they do, then they're worthless but what makes me sad are the children. So, wouldn't it be awesome if we could do a community type thing that helps children in need. It could be an after school type thing with counseling, activities, ways to get involved and learn hobbies that they could possibly use later in life, a community garden, etc etc etc etc. Then maybe we could do it in Africa too. There are lots of places in need - those are just two places near and dear to my heart. 

4. Open a recovery focused gym

There are so many people that suffer from eating disorders, drug/alcohol issues/etc. I think it'd be awesome to have a gym for people to work out and get healthy, but do it with the guidance of qualified recovery therapists and work out focused people. So the purpose of these workouts would be for building confidence, learning healthy habits, the importance of taking care of yourself, therapy. This would not be a, just come here and lose weight gym. 

For me, I've realized that working out helps me to build confidence. When I challenge myself and complete a task, it helps me realize that I can do things that seems impossible. Enough of that in the gym, and I start feeling like I can take on other things. I also would have lots of yoga therapy there because I think a yoga practice can solve the world's problems! Nutritionists would be on hand to help learn healthy habits, maybe we could even have some 12 step meetings like Eating Disorders Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous, etc. 

Oh to dream!! What we could do if we didn't have to make money!

What would you do if you won the lottery??