Everyone knows that I like it when Dave shaves.  Yes, yes, part of this has to do with kissing.  It’s true.  Nobody likes a scratchy kiss.  But part of why I like to see Dave clean-shaven is because I like the way it looks.  I think that he looks cleaner, neater and less shady.  Not that my husband is shady, but you understand.  My opinion on facial hair, however, does not just apply to Dave.

I would like to present a few pieces of evidence in support of my opinion that all guys look better clean-shaven…

Exhibit A – This is my brother, Michael.  Don’t be scared.  He really is a nice guy under all that scruff.  This picture was taken a few years ago on St. Patrick’s Day.  This was the very day that he skipped around the local grocery store, dressed as a leprechaun, singing “Where are me Lucky Charms?  They’re Magically Delicious!”  Like I said, he is a very nice young man under all the hair…and comedy!

Exhibit B – Michael has recently shaved and cut his hair.  He sent me this picture and an e-mail the other day saying, “Blog about this.”  Well, ok.  He cleans up nicely, no?  

A couple of years ago, Michael and I spent the summer together in Chicago.  Good times were had by all.  He slept on my futon.  I charged him rent.  He has yet to forgive me for that.  Anyhow, that summer I lined up a temp job for him at a law firm in the suburbs somewhere.  I made him shave and wear a suit for his first day on the job.  He walked into the law firm and all the attorneys were wearing blue jeans and sporting facial hair.  I believe one of the attorneys actually said, “Oh, look how cute you are in your suit.  You can take off your jacket and tie now.”  He has also yet to forgive me for that.

Maybe he will forgive me for this?

It was not planned at all, but ever since I started cooking healthier, we have gravitated toward the dinner table to eat our meals instead of the sofa and the flat screen TV.

Odd.

“He perceived with a flash of chilling insight that in the future many problems would be thus negatively solved for him; but as he paid the hansom and followed his wife’s long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage.  “After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other’s angles.” he reflected; but the worst of it was that May’s pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep.”

This is a quote from my most recent book club read, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.  This book, published in 1920, is set in the 1870′s amongst New York’s wealthy upper class.  It is a sharp commentary on society at the time and the things that make up a marriage, both from the external social perspective and from behind closed doors.  This book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1921, the first Pulitzer Prize ever to be awarded to a woman.

Dave and I are pretty lucky to have had a good start to our marriage.  So we got evicted, what of it?  That might have ruined us socially in 1870′s New York, but is not so important to making a marriage really work.  That being said, put any two people who have made a commitment before God to love and honor each other all the days of their lives under the same roof, and they are going to try to correct some of those sharp angles that they see in each other.

So what are your keys to marital happiness?  Did you get to keep any of the “very angles whose sharpness you most wanted to keep”?

We might not be getting ALL of those chores done this weekend, but we have not hesitated to devote hours to our new toy, the Wii Fit.

If you can get past the initial shock of a video game making you just as chubby on the screen as you are in real life, it is actually quite fun.  It does give you a good workout, and there are lots of games for balance, strength and cardiovascular activity.  Just be prepared, the Wii Fit may refer to you as an “amateur” and a “couch potato”.  Oh, and it reminds you to brush your teeth.

Serious cut throat Wii Fit hoola hoop competitions between husband and wife are healhty, right?

Santa Clause didn’t know that Dave had his arm in a sling when he put a Wii under the Christmas tree.  But a sling didn’t stop my husband from playing the Wii left handed.

The day after Christmas, we did finally make it out of town to visit my family in Indiana.  It was a nice, relaxing and quiet trip.  Great presents were exchanged.  My parents loved the wedding album we put together.  And everyone tried their hand at a Wii Sport game.  A few became fierce competitors.  You can see here a picture of Dave and my sister, Morgan, competing in baseball while my brother, Michael, looks on.

Dave’s arm is doing better.  The doctor pronounced it as seriously bruised.   There is no lasting muscle, ligament or bone damage.  It is still very sore, but should start to heal itself within two to three weeks.

Thank God it isn’t broken!

Oh, and Dave surprised me and shaved for the Christmas break.  My Mom’s reaction when we walked in the door on Friday, “Oh, Dave, you look so young!”

I think I am losing the war.

I will confess, if you send me a chain e-mail about how I have to make seven wishes, say seven prayers and send another seven e-mails to seven people within seven minutes so that my seven wishes will come true…I will delete it.  So how will I respond to the blogging equivalent?

Carrie, a friend of mine from college, “tagged” me with a Kreativ Blogger Award.  Carrie is a newlywed herself who just celebrated her first wedding anniversary.  Originally from Ohio, Carrie and her husband, Shawn, now live in the Pacific Northwest.

“What is a Kreativ Blogger Award?” you might ask.  Basically, I blog about six things that make me happy, and then ask six of my favorite bloggers to do the same.  It gives me a reason to share a few things on the blog and gets me in touch with other bloggers.  I think that if I am going to be a real blogger, I should sit down and accomplish the task at hand.

Six things that make me happy:

• Seeing Dave happy – Not the kind of happy my husband gets from playing hours of video games or from dreaming of going to race car driving school, but the kind of happy I can see in Dave’s eyes and know that he is happy to be married to me…that makes me happier than I anything I can think of.
• Entertaining – I will cook you something from scratch and I will get you drunk.  It makes me very happy to combine my love of cooking with my love of family and friends.  Anyone want to come over?
• Accomplishing something big at work -  I work hard and I am proud of the work that I do.  This is not, however, a professional blog.
• Looking at old pictures – I framed 120 of my favorite old pictures from my family and from Dave’s family and used them as decoration at the wedding.  It makes me happy to remember all the good times we have both had and the family and friends who helped us get here.  You can see above one of my favorite old pictures of me and my Dad.
• Coming home to a clean apartment – Not that I have a clean apartment at the moment to reference, but it makes me happy when I come home from vacation, from work or even from errands to a clean and clutter free space.
• Chicago – Yes, we have corrupt politicians.  Sure, the taxes are really high.  Of course, the Cubs did not win this year.  Chicago makes me happy just the same.  The vibrant culture, the good Midwest people and the endless opportunities all come together to make Chicago one of the best cities in our country.

Now I have to “tag” six of my favorite bloggers to answer the same question.  Since I don’t actually know six bloggers that well, I am just going to pick two who actually know that I read their blogs.

• My sister, Amy, who is a blogger and photographer extraordinaire.
• My sister-in-law, Mrs. Pickles, who blogs about her baby pickles.

What other blogs should I know about?

My thoughts on getting a Christmas tree – We don’t really need one.  We live in an apartment.  We are not even going to be in the apartment on Christmas day.  This sounds like a lot of work.  We should spend our time and energy on unpacking all those boxes in the hallway, and the living room, and the office.  The cat will knock it over.  We would have to buy lights.  We would have to buy ornaments.  We would have to buy a tree stand.  This sounds expensive.  This sounds like a fire hazard.

Dave’s thoughts on getting a Christmas tree – Santa Clause will not come if we do not have a real live Christmas tree.  We might as well just not even celebrate Christmas this year.

Yes, I know, I am the grinch.

I woke up early on Saturday morning to go out Christmas shopping before the shopping rush.  I came back with a tree stand, a couple strands of lights and a real live Christmas tree.  It’s a little tree.  At five feet, or so, I was able to slide it into the back of the car without any trouble, and just a little mess.

Dave’s reaction, “I love you a little bit more.”

Moxie and I both love the tree too.  It turns out that a little extra Christmas spirit and a little extra marital harmony are both well worth the trouble.

I would be horribly remiss if after all these honeymoon posts I did not share a picture of Dave (almost) clean-shaven.  Dave and I have known each other for some ten plus years.  We were friends in college and kept in touch over the years, only to start dating in 2006.  I have always known him to have facial hair.  He says that a goatee makes him look “older” and “well distinguished”.  And although Dave swears that he was clean-shaven for a short period of time in college, I don’t remember what he looked like back then.

I wanted him to shave.

As the story goes, he promised to shave for our wedding if I watched every single episode of Star Wars.  As you can see from the previous wedding post, I did not complete this task.  Actually this epic quest for a clean-shaven groom came to an end right as the Episode 4 original VHS tape came to an end.

I married him anyway.  He married me anyway!  And he shaved for the honeymoon…and only the honeymoon.

Surely I can get enough support from the new readers of this blog to convince Dave to do it one more time?

If you plan on visiting Washington State, you should be on your very greenest behavior.  I am scared of what would happen otherwise.

We spent our two week honeymoon in Washington State.  We highly recommend the views.  And the people.  And the food.  And the wine.  It was a great time for us to unwind from the wedding, spend quality time together and just relax.  It is a miracle that when you turn off your cell phone, do not set your alarm and forget about internet access you start doing things like talking to each other about nothing, reading novels for fun, doing puzzles, taking leisurely hikes, making new friends and driving just to see where you end up.

When is the next flight out?