The Ussery Update

Another month has come and is almost gone (come Monday), so as we close February I wanted to post my favorite things to be happy about from my daily calendar. If you didn't read my previous post on this topic, click here to catch up and read the "January Edition". Here are my February things to be happy about... A spotless house - Boy do I love a perfectly clean house from top to bottom Knowing where everything is - Being insanely organized, this is a given and wonderful Penguins diving - John loves penguins and we've seen our share at aquariums - such fun animals A fail-proof recipe - One of those classics that you know will be absolutely delicious every single time Wind Chimes - I love the sound of these on a back porch or hanging from a storefront Reorganizing your desk - I can't get enough...whether at home or at work, it's always nice to give my desk a makeover and re-straightening A one-traffic-light town - small towns are so delightful A touchi...

February is a BIG month for us! Both of our birthdays, our anniversary and Valentine's Day are all within the first two weeks of February. It can get crazy, but it's so much fun year after year celebrating our lives and our love. I turned 31 on the 5th, John turned 33 on the 9th and we celebrated 7 years of wedded bliss on the 8th. Because of these events, we shared some fun meals together, enjoyed birthday cake and birthday peanut butter pie, were showered with cards and gifts from family and friends, exchanged cards and gifts from each other and looked through all of our wedding photos. For Valentine's Day, we stayed at home to celebrate. We decided not to get each other a gift this year (especially with already getting birthday and anniversary gifts), but instead to make each other a card with the various craft supplies we had at home. The cards were fun to make and all the more special. We made chili for dinner and heart shaped brownies for dessert. I even made heart ...

We are sentimental people - especially when it comes to our love and life shared together. We have been "together" for eight years and married for seven. In that time, we have saved EVERYTHING we have given each other. The picture above is of our "treasure tubs". We each have one. In these tubs are various things that serve as a memory of our time spent together. There are cards, notes, letters, movie ticket stubs, deflated balloons, cards from flowers, birthday candles, ziplock bags from lunches, tickets to several events, programs, miniature golf score cards, empty candy boxes and wrappers, receipts...and the list goes on and on. As we exchange, collect and enjoy these items year after year, they go in these tubs. We try to go through them once a year - take a trip down memory lane and look back through all of our memories and tangible reminders of how wonderful our life has been together. It brings laughs and tears! We went through our treasure tubs about a week ...

Welcome to snowy Dallas! They were predicting MAYBE an inch of snow. Well, John went out and measured this morning and we have 7". It's been nice to spend some time indoors and look out at the snow, but we went out and played in it as well - fun times! Instead of a snowman, we built a snow bunny. John even had a snowball fight with some of the neighborhood kids. All of the schools are closed around here and all is quiet. The snow is just beautiful - it snowed for almost 24 hours straight. It's not snowing anymore, but still super cold and cloudy. We have some plans "out and about" this weekend, but I think the weather should be clearing up. Enjoy a few pictures... We also have lots of birthday and anniversary pictures to share, but those will come at another time so stay tuned! Have a wonderful weekend from the winter wonderland! Until we meet again... Riley

Today I am celebrating my fabulous husband John. Happy 33rd Birthday , my dear! You are the love of my life and I'm thankful that God blessed this world by bringing you into it. I wish you the happiest of birthdays and I look forward to our evening together. The birthday boy has requested a homemade pizza and peanut butter pie for dinner - along with cards and gifts, should be a fun time! Until we meet again... Riley

Hip Hip Hooray - it's our 7th Anniversary today! Words cannot describe how wonderful our marriage is and how much God has blessed us over these past 7 years. It's truly amazing how God brought us together and how he continues to help us make our marriage better and stronger on a daily basis. We are SO happy and SO in love, but we know that we have only just begun. Our relationship and friendship is truly a dream come true! We have plans to go out for dinner and then we will go back home and open cards and gifts that we have received in the mail and from each other. Also, every year on our anniversary we look at our wedding scrapbook, wedding pictures and also watch our wedding video. It so nice to remember that wonderful day! We are looking forward to our evening together. To my husband ~ I'm so thankful to be your bride! In my years of praying, waiting and hoping for that right guy to become my husband, I never imagined I would be blessed with someone as incredible as you!...

Tomorrow, we celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary! That means at this time seven years ago, we were preparing for our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was such a fun night filled with anticipation. Seven years ago today, we were engaged to be married and excited for our wedding day... This picture isn't the best quality, but it shows us at the end of the rehearsal - all smiles with "Bride" and "Groom" nametags. We are looking forward to celebrating our anniversary tomorrow and have some plans together for the evening! Until we meet again... Riley

HOORAY, it's my birthday! 31 years ago today, at 9:30am - my Mom gave birth to 7 pound, 15 ounce and 22" long - ME! I love birthdays! Yes, I'm getting older and I still find it hard to believe I'm in my 30s, but I am beyond blessed and I enjoy celebrating another year of life that God has given me. And the fact that my birthday is on a Friday - what's better than that? My day started about 5:25am with my sweet husband snuggling with me in bed and singing "Happy Birthday"! The morning thus far has been filled with many phone calls and texts from dear family and friends - thank you all so very much! It means a great deal to me and will make my birthday extra special. I also got a coupon from Starbucks for a free coffee on my birthday so I pulled in there on my way to work for a vanilla latte - mmmm. Tonight, John is taking me out to dinner to a place called Edohana (which is a hibachi style place) and is incredibly yummy. He has also ordered a birthday cake...

We've been working on making a few changes in our dining room. It was already a nice space, but we wanted to add a few more things ~ specifically more chairs, a buffet table, a mirror and a vinyl wall decal. I wanted a buffet table for more storage space for kitchen/dining/serving items and the table needed some decor above it to fill up the wall space. We only have four dining table chairs, but we wanted to have eight for when we have family, friends and other guests over. We are hosting our "Dinner for Eight" group later this month, so it'll be great to have chairs for everyone. We spent last Saturday morning working on getting everything in place. Here are a couple of pictures of what the space looked like BEFORE... And here are some AFTER pictures... We are so glad to have this project finished and enjoy our dining room more. Thanks for letting us share! Until we meet again... Riley