Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Happy birthday, Aaron Nix! 

You are my best friend, greatest blessing and the best beard I know. You are 25, which makes me 23, which means you should stop calling me your teenage girlfriend, especially in public. I know you won't, but it makes me laugh when you do. Thank you for being the best at making me laugh. When we first met, I thought you were the most handsome, mysterious man I'd ever seen. A few years later, and I still think you're the most handsome. You talk too much to be mysterious, though. I love that, and so much more, about you. 

National Pancake Day 2011

Did you know today is National Pancake Day? If you go to IHOP you can get free pancakes.

See?

My husband the Lumberjack loves his pancakes. I don't really like them, but I like to make him happy. And not much makes him happier than a pancake dinner. Especially a free one.

Full circle, like the ring on my finger.

Tonight, while driving home from an awesome girls' weekend with my sisters- and mother-in-law in Chattanooga, Tenn., I saw the most amazing melon and orange sunset. I have a thing for sunsets on February 6ths.

Here's why: Our proposal story. Take a look :)

On the six-hour drive home I found a mix Aaron made for me for my 21st birthday. I was terribly homesick, living alone on Cape Cod, working strange hours and learning how to be away from everything I loved. I played that CD every day for two months, and as I listened to it tonight I smiled as I anticipated the notes of every next song. The Jayhawks' All the Right Reasons started playing, which was our first dance at our wedding reception, and a winsome feeling overtook me. I chose that song to be our first dance song because it made me cry every time I listened to it without Aaron when I was on Cape. Now we're married, living in a new place, creating a new chapter and solving the intricacies of our life together. 

I looked out at that sunset and gave thanks out loud. It was a full-circle moment.

It may be silly to celebrate all of these things, but I don't care. I never want a day to come when I look back and wish I had remembered and celebrated out loud the amazing blessings in my life. There is too much good in life, and such a short time to live it, that I think we all should celebrate with each other in our joys both big and small. 

I promise an update on the awesome weekend soon, but first I need to unpack, do some laundry, etc. And give my sweet husband a kiss when he gets home from set. It's Super Bowl Sunday, but I don't feel like going out and watching the game. Sometimes not having cable is nice... 

Happy 24th birthday, Aaron!

to the most practically perfect man I know. I am happiest being your wife!

Itsa me, Luigi!

Just when I was getting really sad because he wasn't going to be able to come to Texas, Aaron went and shaved his beard into this monstrosity:

Oh my goodness, no. Not the mustache. I told him he looked like Tom Selleck, and he said, "Tom Selleck? Awesome! Then the ladies will FLOCK TO ME!" ... 

I don't think Tom Selleck must or Mustache Aaron are particularly attractive. I don't think he will get rid of that thing while I'm gone for the weekend, either. At least I will be in a different time zone... just kidding! 

Also, I've been working on a fall wreath, and I'd love to share it with you later this evening. Stay tuned!

the cutest boy in the world

     

 I found these old pictures of my adorable husband. Isn't he just the cutest? He is crewing for thesis films tonight, and we are both eager and anxious to find out what the next nine months will look like for his often-unpredictable schedule! I'll be back with a report tomorrow on how crewing went. Cross your fingers, toes and eyes that everything goes swimmingly!

Scenes from a marriage:
A: I'm glad I married you and no one else. But you probably can't say that about me.
E: I'm glad I married you. I can't imagine being married to anyone else.
A: BUT YOU PROBABLY COULD! YOU'D LOVE TO BE MARRIED TO SOMEONE ELSE AND YOU WOULD TORTURE THEM! YOU'D BE HAPPY WITH SOMEONE ELSE IF THEY HAD LOTS OF MONEY!
(sigh).

This coming from the same guy who watched this commercial and, the entire time, squawked "all the polar bear wants is a hug!"

But I digress.

Sept. 5, 2010 - Orlando, Fla.

So, what have you all been up to lately? Honestly, I feel like I've been playing catch up all week. The long weekend was an absolute godsend, but it passed way too quickly. Aaron and I went to visit his brother and sister-in-law in Orlando, where they are currently on vacation.

It's been so nice having Aaron at home in the evenings and on weekends. This semester is nothing like the previous fall, winter and summer semesters, when his schedule was essentially 24/7. Lately, Aaron has been at home preparing for pre-production, which means he can help prepare dinner. It's awesome to walk into our home and find out he is already preparing dinner for the evening. I am blessed by this period in our lives of him being home so frequently.

Along with this newfound sense of marriedness, however, comes the learning curve. We got married in late December, and by January 3 Aaron was on Thesis production schedule for the now-graduated MFA second years. He continued this schedule for five or so months, with an occasional day off, often on a Wednesday, when we weren't able to spend the day together. Then, beginning mid-May until the beginning of August, Aaron began production cycle for his class' own D2 (directing 2) films, keeping that same intense (understatement of the year) cycle.

In August, we celebrated the end of production cycle with D2 and thesis screenings, a wedding and a short trip to Nebraska for our friends' wedding and to Aaron's hometown. Once we returned from the latter trip, we settled in to a routine. This was the first time in eight months that we spent "quantity time" together, and so it has been only recently that I've really felt married. For instance, it has taken me about nine months to realize that Aaron doesn't close the shower curtain when he is done showering - a pet peeve of mine. We've had to adjust to the quirks we just didn't know about each other after nine months of marriage. I laugh because I often tell people we've been married nine months going on three weeks. I don't mind the curve, though. Recently, I looked down at my phone to make a call to Aaron and pressed the speed dial for "home," not immediately recognizing that the "home" number my phone is still programmed to is my parents' home phone. At that moment, I felt married, not because my "home" had physically changed, but because, after what has been at times a really tough period in our lives, I had subconsciously changed my "home" to be Aaron.

Aside from my broken computer, I have fallen off the blog train because I want to cherish the time we have before thesis really gets going and I am a film school widow again. I'm sure it will fly by...

P.S. - I've finally configured the Flickr widget for the blog. Long story short, I forgot the username to my old Flickr account and can't access it any longer, so I made a new account. If you're following along in a reader, click to the site and you'll notice that in the sidebar there is a box to my new, improved Flickr account. I plan on updating it frequently, so check back often. The link to my new account is flickr.com/emnix.

You'll also notice that the blog template-of-old has been replaced, temporarily, until the one in progress is finished. I know it wasn't necessary, but I just couldn't stand the messed-up sizing of my old template, even though it was what I was used to, and, if I could have fixed the sizing, preferred to stay with. Please bear with me until it's all done!

Thank you guys, as always, for reading.

The Little Things

I'm very sorry that it's impossible it is to read yesterday's post. I don't know what I did to the formatting, and I promise tomorrow to fix it. It's just not gonna happen tonight...

I love my husband. The little things he does mean so much. This weekend, those "little things" included:

He is a wonderful daddy to Olive. He makes me laugh when he calls the cat his daughter, and I think it's weird, but I know how much he loves her. Saturday we went to the Humane Society to see the dogs and cats, and afterward we went to PetsMart to get some food for Liv. His heart for animals is something I appreciate about him.I love watching him interact with the dogs. I would love to surprise him with one, but now is just not the time. One day!

He can fix my broken computer. [That's it, underneath his, which I've been borrowing since mine died.]

He bought me a 12-pack of Coke this evening. We have stopped drinking Cokes, but he knows how much I love them, so he surprised me tonight.

Last night he hung my birthday present on the wall. I've been putting this off, and he did it because he knew I wouldn't make a decision.

He makes avatars of himself for NCAA football. Lord help me, he's ranked #1 on the Heisman watch list.

He leaves notes like this around the house.

He spent too much time with me at Home Depot this weekend looking for paint for our living room/kitchen. Here is one partially-painted wall.

That's a wrap!

Throwdown is picture locked, sound locked and ready for the big screen! I can't tell you how proud I am of my husband, and I'm so excited to see it and all of the D2s this Thursday and celebrate with our film school family. That's two of the three films for graduate school completed... one more left!

All of My Days

Set me as a seal upon your heart

















thanks to leah muse for giving me happy tears every time I look at these pictures!

Lumberjack

I married the founder of UNL's Lumberjack Club. When he was a junior, AC decided to start a club whose sole purpose was to celebrate away games by eating pancakes and wearing flannel.

It became something of a legend. We started dating, in large part, because we got to know each other pretty well at the Lumberjack Club pancake meetings. We liked each other so much we decided to go on a first date, then a second... The first Halloween that we were dating we decided that we would carve a pumpkin together- here it is!

This is the stump Aaron and Levi had in their apartment for two years of undergrad. Along with the axe. My mom was kind of worried about it when I introduced her to Aaron and she saw it hanging on his wall.

Cutting down the boys' Christmas tree for the balcony. It was ultimately confiscated for being a fire hazard.

Lumberjack Club attire. Note Levi in the background :)

This was AC's Groom's cake. A tree stump in honor of his days as the founder of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Lumberjack club. The baker was THRILLED to have this abnormal (ahem, weird) cake to design, and our guests thought it was hilarious.

1, 2, 3, 4

Today we've been married for four months. It feels like four days and four lifetimes all at once. Here are four prominent memories and pertinent thoughts on our first four months as husband and wife:

• We slept on a full mattress that was about 15 years old for our first two months of marriage. It's now in our guest bedroom. The other night, when our shower wouldn't turn off in our bedroom, I couldn't sleep. We had gotten into a pretty mean argument the night before, and Aaron was sleeping in the guest bedroom, so I had to choose between being stubborn and staying in the waterfall room or putting aside some of my pride, going to the guest bedroom, waking Aaron up and asking him if I could sleep with him in the old bed. He's pretty quick to forgive, fortunately, so we spent the next half hour talking about the first few weeks of being married and remembering uncomfortably sleeping on that bed in our old apartment. It's nice to revisit memories like that, especially when you know you can sleep in your nice, new mattress again soon.

{honeymoon- january 2010}

• We still have a lot of issues that we haven't completely worked out. We read a few books before our marriage ceremony that helped us identify the things we thought might be sticking points, and we did sort through some things. But "preventative maintenance" hasn't worked on everything, and contrary to what any book says, hashing out those disagreements and not solving anything instead of trying to pretend has been an honest and good part of our relationship. We've fought over washing dishes, family issues, Aaron's awful schedule, money and paint colors, and guess what? It's OK. We're OK.

{disney world- february 2010}

• Listen to advice, but don't believe that everything everyone tells you is what is necessarily what's best for you. We love and appreciate what we've learned from our friends and family who have healthy, thriving relationships, and at the same time, we have also learned that we have a somewhat unique situation, and we are content to learn what is best for us through experience.

{easter sunday}

• Moving away from our families has really forced us to rely on each other. I say "our" and "us," but I really mean me. Aaron was essentially isolated from everyone for a few months before we got married, and also immersed in film school culture and activities. When I moved here, I didn't have the luxury/exhaustion of graduate school activity 18 out of 24 hours a day. Certainly my job and the multiple moves have given me things to do, but not having my best friends 3 feet away from me essentially all the time was and is hard to adjust to. I don't have any friends here who are my age and in my situation but Aaron. There's an incredible amount of respect I've gained for him as I've been here and seen what he does - he is truly humble and would never honestly tell me or anyone how tough it can be - and yet he continues to be the guy I cry to, yell at, and laugh with. He makes it all look easy.

{st. george island- april 2010}

{I'm not sure if the face is because of the sunburn or the bunny ears}

One week later, we can sort of look back at the awful sunburn Aaron got at the beach last Saturday and relive what we would have done differently. The big sil didn't wear any sunscreen(!!!) which is a definite no-no anytime, much less if you plan on spending hours seaside. Well, needless to say, a couple hours after we returned home from St. George Island, Aaron was in a state of misery. I took this picture Sunday morning after church, about two hours before he really began feeling bad. Sunday night Aaron began itching and feeling bad, and so I got him aloe with lidocaine and he put it on. Growing up at the beach had taught me that you're asking for pain if you make the mistake of not wearing sunscreen to begin with, so I figured that Aaron's discomfort was just the result of a quite bad burn. Sunday night he slept poorly, tossing and turning all night and wearing a t-shirt to bed to keep him from scratching at his burn. He was radiating heat, though I didn't think anything of it because he was sunburnt and, well, duh, people who are burnt are hot!

He was obviously miserable when I woke up for work Monday morning; I saw where he had tried sleeping in our bed, in the guest bed and on the couch in the living room to no avail. He was grumpy, which is unusual for him, but once again I wrote it off as a bad burn and went to work on Monday morning a little groggier than usual because my bedfellow kept me up with his tossing and turning. Late that afternoon, he texted me and told me he was in an extreme amount of pain. I thought he was joking at first, and I glanced at the clock and saw that I would be home soon so I didn't bother texting him back. Minutes later he called, which worried me, because he rarely calls at work. He was writhing in pain on our kitchen floor. Fortunately, by this time I could head home. I stopped by a drugstore and bought Benadryl to keep him from scratching. When I got home, I was pretty frightened by what I saw.

He was on our kitchen floor, like he told me, and in an immense amount of pain. My co-workers had mentioned we might need to get him into an urgent care center to see if he had sun poisoning, and once I saw him in such a terrible, completely uncharacteristic state, I called the number and found out that in order to get in we would have to wait five and a half hours. I told Aaron, and he refused to sit in a waiting room for five and a half hours, so I gave him Benadryl and he mellowed out before falling asleep on the couch. Neither of us thought about going to the emergency room, though we probably should have given how much pain he was in.

That night was a repeat of the pain and irritation of the last 24 hours. It was unbearable for him and I pitied him/was exhausted. He finally showed signs of being normal Aaron Tuesday night. In retrospect, I should have taken him to the emergency room. He showed the signs of sun poisoning, but I had never before encountered it, so I wasn't sure what to do or if going to the hospital was even necessary. Now I know a trip to the hospital could have given him more immediate relief as well as helped him sleep. Of course, wearing sunscreen to begin with would have prevented this whole scenario, but we both know that now. It's SPF for two now!

3.25.10

I don't have much to say tonight... most of it came out in a 3o-comment Facebook battle I incited today. But really, it was great to stretch my thinking and put myself in a situation where my thoughts were challenged and I had to prove them. What is that called? Oh yeah, learning. Anyway, all of that commentary showed me one thing: I love my husband. I love that my husband loves babies. I love that my husband has convictions. I love that my husband will stand up for his beliefs, and I especially like when our passions are the same, because then he stands up for both of our beliefs and I don't have to talk as much... which I know nobody minds ;)

This guy rocks.

Here's to the "strong, silent type," who doesn't say much but who is worth listening to when he does. Who also folded all of our laundry while I was working today. CHA-CHING!

these are the days

This is my first post in a good while.

I feel a little overwhelmed, a little sad, a little anxious, a little eager and kind of tired. Aaron left the Cape yesterday after five awesome days of adventure and exploring. We went around the entire cape, from Provincetown to Falmouth, and saw so many great things.

We ate lots of ice cream, played in the Atlantic Ocean, saw Up and Star Trek at a REAL drive-in theater and learned some of the ins and outs of Cape Cod life. But now, he's gone. It's shocking to think that that 5-day period was probably one of the longest we'll spend together before getting married in December. I bawled my eyes out a good portion of yesterday (right up until I started my first day of work at 4:30 p.m.) 

Work was good for the first day. Everyone on the desk was very nice and very helpful. Not what I was expecting, I guess... I worked 4:30 p.m. to midnight last night, and my new shift, which starts today, is from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. I'll be working true late nights and I'm a little nervous about driving home so late in this unfamiliar area. 

I have a lot more to say, but it can wait. Basically, I miss Aaron, I miss my friends and family and I miss Nebraska. It is such a wonderful place. Not that the Cape isn't, but I think Nebraska feels like home. I wouldn't doubt that in a few years you can find the Nixes living there :)

he's coming to see ME!

My fiance is driving 28 hours to see me. He left this afternoon, is spending the night with his good friend, and will be in Pennsylvania early Friday morning. I can't wait to see him.

{He wore abominable snowman gear on the beach. So Aaron}