“You’re beautiful. You’re beautiful. You’re beautiful, it’s true. “

It’s no secret that I met Olin on Eharmony. Because I had a success story, I will forever suggest that site. I suppose it’s all a matter of personal opinion. Eharmony is a complex site where you have to go through “stages” of talking with someone before you are allowed to have open communication. This is to insure that you match on several different levels before you commit to becoming emotionally attached. Olin and I communicated for a couple of months before our first night on the phone. Six wonderful hours later, we decided to meet. Within a few days, we were an item.

Olin and I consider our date of officially beginning to date to be October 26, 2007. We did a lot of talking and getting to know one another. After all, we weren’t getting any younger and didn’t want to waste each others time if we weren’t compatible. I can honestly say that Olin is the first person that I ever have been ENTIRELY up front and honest with. Not that I told people that I was someone that I wasn’t but I never told them everything. Everything I am is a lot for me to handle at times. I can only imagine if you are someone looking in from the outside. Anyway…..On our first “date”, Olin asked me if anyone had ever told me how beautiful I was. It took me a second to reply, as I told him simply that nobody had ever told me-in my entire life-that I was beautiful. It’s something that bothered me from time to time but nothing I wallowed in. After all, I had a sorry opinion of myself. Why should anyone else think any better? He was genuinely surprised and immediately told me that I was beautiful. And then he kissed me. For the first time ever. Little did I know that night, but it would be my LAST “first kiss” ever.

All of this to say: I know that there are times I fuss about how messy my husband is, how scatter-brained he can be, among a list of many other things. However, when we celebrated our 3 year anniversary of dating yesterday, I realize the one thing he does do. EVERY DAY, for the past 1095 days of my life, I have heard every day that I am beautiful. Whether it’s in his “good morning beautiful” when I roll out of bed, no make-up (which is common) and my hair all over my head…..or if it’s when I come out of the bathroom after getting dressed to go on a date with him. He has not missed a single day in over 1000 days. He was the only one to say it to me on the day we were married-and somehow, that was ok. After all, his opinion was the only one I was worried about. He is the one to tell me when I am sick as a dog and have been in the bed for a couple days. He is the one to tell me when we have been confined inside a truck with one another for weeks at a time…when others would be ready to push the other half out of the truck, he greets me with a kiss and “hey beautiful”.

He totally makes up for the first 30 years of not hearing it. Today, I am thankful that God redeemed it. And boy, did He ever redeem it! I love you, Olin, and look forward to the next 30 years!!

(by the way…You’re not so bad yourself!)

Better late than never!

Ok....so I am a day late in posting this but better late than never, right? Yesterday was my mom's 52nd birthday!!! She celebrated with friends and family Saturday night and spent yesterday resting, I believe. They had the fire pits going, hamburgers on the grill, and no party in Abby Park is complete without the kareoke machine. (I am not sure of the spelling of kareoke...tells you how much I participate! HA!) Mom often jokes with me that I do what she should be doing and she does what I should be doing at our respective ages. She enjoys going out and dancing, etc. I enjoy being in my house with the doors locked by dark and Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. Don't get me wrong, we have some common ground but for the most part, at least socially, our roles are quite reversed! She is the "fun" grandma, who lets the kids get away with stuff I never would. Hers is the house that everyone goes to to hang out and have a good time. And when things are going really wrong and they need somewhere to rest and recover. She fills all of those shoes for a lot of people. When I met my husband, I knew that he and I would go well together when he loved my mama. Lord knows, I was worried about them loving each other! I had no need to worry, though. They hit it off immediately. He likes to have her over and feed her dinner and she likes to pick on me with him. They feel safer in pairs of two or more when giving me a hard time! He would do anything for her that she needed and heaven knows she has helped us out more times than we can count! Seth loves to spend time with Green Gene and pick on her about being old. The other night, he was telling her a story about a little old lady that he loved...and he said it was his favorite old person! He then, very seriously, turned to her, patted her on the shoulder, and said: "Now, I don't want to hurt your feelings. I like you too!" LOL I sure am glad that after 52 years she still has a sense of humor!!!
Mom-I hope you had a wonderful birthday and I pray that your 52nd year of life is the greatest one yet. Please know that we love you and appreciate all you do for us and love spending time with you!! Here's to 52 more wonderful years!
Love,
Olin, Courtney, and Seth

Under Construction

Hi! This blog will be "under construction" today! Please pardon the mess while I work to make it a bit more snazzy! If there are any problems seeing anything or pulling anything up, please email me at courtney7880@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Falling in love with Fall!

Just a post to catch you up on what is new in the Wiggins family!

1. Can anyone else feel the fall in the air? The hubs and I can and we love it! We just got all of the stuff to make smores so when the little man is with us next week, that's on the schedule!!!

2. I just celebrated my second wedding anniversary with the greatest man I have ever known! We went to dinner in Charlotte at the Omaha Steakhouse and it was wonderful! He took me to Ikea before, because he speaks my love language, and we did a little Christmas shopping!

3. Speaking of Christmas, I have made a jump start on shopping. Woo hoo!!!!! Now, I am trying to con my husband in to letting me start decorating for Christmas. I think I am slowly wearing him down. I just want my tree and village up!!!

4. Um...the little guy has all B's in school! You have no idea what an accomplishment this is for all of us! We are so proud of him! When I got his grades, I decided a celebration was in order. We had a small cake from the store, and when he got home from school and I told him, he told me he was going to go put on his celebration clothes. This consisted of his pj pants and a t-shirt. Um....I love this kid! He is taking after me in his idea of celebration clothes! Love it!

5. I am oficially 32 years old. I need to add some more memories to the memory post but haven't done it yet. Call me slack. I say it's old age.

6. If anyone has any wonderful ideas for homemade Christmas ideas, please pass them along!~ We are looking to focus on the meaning of Christmas the most this year and less on materialism. That doesn't mean that nobody will get gifts, but that certainly won't be the focus. I am looking for homemade gift ideas, traditions that are neat, etc. You can comment on here or email me at courtney7880@yahoo.com.

Ok...that's it you guys. I am off to read some more of Sun Stand Still and try to lure my husband in from the outside. He loves this weather as much as I do! Talk to everyone soon! Happy Fall, Y'All!