Category Archives: Marriage

Our Wild Weekend.

May 13, 2013 Pamela Stephens

This weekend was a busy one. We spent Friday night hanging out at the new River & Rail Cantina with Amanda. The outing originated from an excuse to wear new shoes, but we camouflaged it as an early birthday celebration for Matt. We sat out on the patio next to the fire pits, overlooking the Ouachita River and had the best time laughing the night away. The atmosphere at R&R is superb. (Pardon the water on Matt’s shirt. I couldn’t crop it out or only my head would be left..short girl probs.)

Saturday brought upon a very special day in the Petrus household…Matt’s birthday! Poor thing had to go help with athletic physicals at 7 am (nursing school probs), but this gave me time to wrap presents and tie up loose ends for his big day. I decorated the house as if we were having a big party. Birthdays were always a big deal when I was growing up. My mom always did perfectly themed parties or special birthday activities, so I feel like you absolutely have to make a big deal of the day.

Even though Matt wanted a quiet night at home, I just couldn’t help decorating the place so that he’d have something exciting to come home too. He grilled some of the most delicious steaks, and Amanda came over to play some board games. I hope he felt extra special on this day.

Sunday was Mother’s Day, and we invited my family over for lunch. I offered to host the gathering, because I’m the only one in my family who’s not a mommy yet. Matt grilled burgers, which were delicious as usual. We all sat around a chatted for a bit. Of course, I forgot to take many pics, but I was excited about this get together, because it was our first family gathering for Matt and I to host at our home! (Again, the firsts are always special!) I did catch a picture of Dana (my oldest sister) with “check yes or no” written in the background. The girls lost a ball under the house, and I couldn’t resist a picture of their attempt to fish it out. (They taped a rake to the end of a 10′ pole!) We may have lost a piece of siding during the process, but that’s ok. Memories were made, and I have a handy husband who can fix it in no time. We enjoyed the chance to spend some time with my side of our family and are looking forward to visiting with Matt’s side of the family soon.

I hope everyone had as wonderful of a weekend as we did! We especially hope all of the Moms have a fantastic time (especially our moms/grandmothers…we love you all!). Now we’re off to another busy week!

You can read about some of our others “firsts” here.

What Married People Do: Buy a car.

May 2, 2013 Pamela Stephens

We bought a car! I’m more excited than usual over a new car, because this was mine and Matt’s first big purchase as a married couple.

Funny side note: Matt has learned a very valuable lesson. At first, he didn’t understand that our first of everything was vitally important…our first Christmas, first vacation, first house…I’m obsessed with it all. In the beginning he wouldn’t get very excited about all of the little firsts here and there. After about 6 months in, he realized that I want to make a big deal of all of those things. Now, as soon as I say, “Aww…it’s our first {insert random item/holiday/experience}” – he immediately follows with, “You’re right, it’s our first {repeat random item/holiday/experience} and it’s important because all of our firsts are important.” He figured it out! On a serious note, I’m very happy that my husband will play along with my silly notions.

That being said, I made quite a big deal of our car-buying process. (If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you already know this because I posted 3 pics of the process…more than I usually allow.) However, it felt like a huge deal to me. We had just made our first big decisions as a couple and worked amazingly together…I felt like celebrating!

Our car-buying strategy was a tad more elaborate than most. We spent 2+ weeks analyzing different options…Accords, Altimas, Camrys. New, used, certified. Future trade in values, mpg, insurance, down payments…you name it. If it could be considered, then I guarantee we talked it through. We even had a spreadsheet…a color-coded spreadsheet at that! After analyzing the numbers to death, we finally decided to write which car we really wanted down on a note card and show each other at the same time. (That’s how all big decisions are made right??) Luckily, it was the same car!

Why were we buying a new car? Matt is driving 60 miles round trip to Ruston everyday. Our original plan was for him to drive my car to school instead of his big Dodge with a whopping 16mpg. However, my 6′ tall husband didn’t fit so well into my little g6. So, we decided to buy me a slightly bigger car that he can drive on school days.

I think we knocked this one out of the park. We got a great car with awesome features (You can thumbs up/thumbs down your Pandora from the screen – my fav! Plus, it has back up & lane watch cameras.), and Matt driving it to school is going to save us a ton of money each month.

When I married my husband, one of the biggest draws was that I felt like we could work together through anything. This car-buying experience has shown me that yet again, we make an amazing team. Ladies, when you’re picking a husband, be sure it’s someone you can work through both little and big things with. And someone that you can enjoy the process of making these sorts of decisions with. It will make a huge difference in your overall happiness.

So here it is…the newest addition to the Petrus family – our 2013 Honda Accord EX! We love it’s long list of fun features, the crazy good gas mileage, and the fact that there’s only 3 of this color in the state of Louisiana. Plus, apparently a carseat will fit easily in the back. 🙂

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Big Things

March 17, 2013 Pamela Stephens

Since Matt & I have been married, I’ve been in search of the perfect journal to keep notes about our adventures. Both Matt & I have pretty awful memories, so I’m afraid that we will eventually forget about a lot of the great times that we’ve had.

I’ve literally searched for months, looked practically everywhere, and not found anything that felt right. (Plus, Matt vetoed most of them!) I’ve even looked at genuine leather, custom made books that were hundreds of dollars and still didn’t feel like I’d found the right book. Well, this week I stumbled across this little fella at none other than TJ Max and thought it was perfect! And to make it even more exciting, it was only $5!

What do I plan to do with it? I don’t plan on actually journaling the events. I won’t write detailed accounts of everything. Instead, it’ll just be quick notes about what we did and why it was special. For example, I’ll include things like this: May 2012 – the time that we sat on the floor in his living room and talked for 4 hours.

This was a turning point in our relationship and the day that we both knew there was something different about our relationship. There are several little things like this that I don’t want to forget, and I know there will be hundreds more. Now, we have a cute little book to jot them down in to provoke our memories if we start to forget. I think this will be a treasure to have one day when we’re old and gray. It’ll also be useful on those days when we won’t really like each other! We can use it as a reminder maybe??

See why this book is so perfect? It will be full of “little things” that are actually big things for the two of us. Be sure to celebrate these little things in your relationships. They’re often the most important.

Blank pages waiting to be filled — Black pages for writing lots & lots of special memories.

This type of book would also work well for jotting down special memories of your kids. They’d love to read it later on! If you have kids that are older or you’re years in to a relationship, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve missed too much already. No way! It’s never too late to start. Even if you’ve missed several years, it’s better to have something to look back at rather than nothing. So, go ahead…get started! Find a little notebook like this one and starting jotting things down. You’ll be happy to have it later and so will your loved ones.

Anyone already do something like this?? I’d love to hear about it!

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