Category Archives: Life

(Vday flowers, local chocolates and sweet card from my main squeeze as tweeted earlier today. Jason had them waiting for me at my 6 am workout in the basement. What a keeper!)

Truth: I love Valentine’s Day and only think it’s overly commercialized if you let it be. Love is great and what’s wrong with celebrating it? So, in honor of today, I’m going to tell you all a little love story… my love story.

I’ve already covered how Jason and I met and how he proposed (though I can’t seem to find the links to those stories. boo! I will update if I find them), so this story will focus on the “in between.”

So, Jason and I had our first date on my dad’s birthday. That’s the only way I remotely remember that it was August 27. It had been a little over a week between when we first met and when we had our first date, so I had kind of forgotten what he even looked like. Our first date was great as evidenced by the obligatory bathroom call (I didn’t text until I met Jason) to my girl friends, and when I got home, my friend Amanda was there and looked at me and said that we were going to get married. Pshhhaw/whatever was what I thought. I was in my senior year of college and totally interested in living it up before I entered the real world. Having a boyfriend was on my radar of things that would cramp my style.

About three months in, we had a DTR talk and decide to just keep things loosey goosey like they were. Mind you, I was not dating anyone else (neither was Jason), but I also wasn’t really interested in dating anyone else, but I also wasn’t sure I wanted a boyfriend, but I also didn’t want to seem clingy. So, I was like, fine whatever that’s cool. Then fast forward another month and I was out with some friends at a local watering hole and Jason and his friend showed up. One of my friends who had a little too much too drink sees Jason and starts yelling “BOYFRIEND!!!!” over and over to him. EEEK! I immediately shushed her and started shaking my head. I was so afraid Jason would think I was telling everyone that we were serious when we had decided not to be. Well, Jason misinterpreted my body language as the fact that I had another boy there. Can you even believe that?! I didn’t find out that’s what he thought until the next day because he left in a huff.  So, then Jason goes off on a snow boarding trip and when he comes back we go out to dinner. I told him that my standoffishness that night was because I didn’t know what to call him, and he responded… well… you can call me whatever you want. And our coupledom  status was solidified —- four months after we started dating.

So, then we dated for a whole other year before the first time we said “I love you.” When I met Jason, he had come out of a long term relationship with a crazy girl*, so I didn’t want to pressure him into anything until he felt ready, even though I knew long before that I did indeed love him. Let me also note that Jason was the first man I ever actually loved, so I think I was confused by my feelings for a while. Anywho, we went to Breckenridge to celebrate New Year’s with some friends. I was 22 and he was 25. And after our night of revelry, Jason professed his love. I was so happy, but also sort of brushed it off because well, it was NYE which came with obvious drinks consumed in celebration. Two days later, I had to fly back to Raleigh, but Jason stayed behind. He took me to the airport and when he dropped me off, he said, loud and clear, “I love you.” and I responded in kind. I was so happy I think I skipped through the terminal and smiled at every cranky airport worker. Nothing could ruin my mood.

So, we kept dating – seriously – for another year, and when I was 23, Jason moved to Wrightsville Beach for a job. I didn’t want to uproot my whole life for a boy, so we agreed that this would be a good testing period. If we were apart and just couldn’t stand it, then we would know we should get married and if we were apart and didn’t mind it, then well…. it wasn’t meant to be.

After three months of living a two hour drive apart (I would visit on the weekends), Jason popped the question. And 10 months later (I was 24 and Jason was 27), we were married.

Our love story is special because it’s ours, but I also think it’s special because we took things extremely slow. Like if a turtle and a snail were racing with our relationship, they would have beat us. But at the same time, I knew that when Jason and I took the next step, it would mean that without a doubt we were both ready for it and sure of it. And that is truly something special.

Happy Valentine’s Day you sexy Mofrickas!

*Note: She probably doesn’t think she is crazy, but aren’t all ex girlfriends crazy at least for a little while?

Update: I was just asking myself why on earth do I feel the need to focus on what ages Jason I were during the telling of this story, and the answer just hit me. I found out last week that my brother and his fiance were actually married a year ago… or so he told us. Then, I found out last night (thanks to marriage licenses being public record) that nope, they’ve been married for two years which means she was 20 and he was 22 when they got married and decided to hide it from everyone for two years. And while the age at which is appropriate to be married varies depending on opinion, I guess it subconsciously prompted me to enter my own ages into my story. Not sure why I felt the need to but it’s there nonetheless.

(birthday cupcakes from Gigi’s)

This weekend was Jason’s 33rd birthday.The big three three! The best advice I can give you when getting married is to marry a man older than you because then when you are on the verge of turning 30, you will still feel young in comparison. Forget communication, compromise and honesty, what I’ve just told you here is definitely the secret to marriage happiness. For sure.

To celebrate Jason’s birthday he just wanted to hang out, just the two of us. I happily obliged him and used his birthday as an opportunity to stick a candle in everything, including pancakes.

The highlight of this birthday celebration was a tour at the Big Boss Brewery. I’d venture to say that Big Boss is our favorite local beer company and it was so sweet of them to plan a tour on Jason’s birthday. They have another one the second Saturday of every month.

There were a lot of people there to celebrate with us. Unfortunately, sticking a candle in a beer was not an option.

After the tour, we went to Jason’s favorite hangout, World of Beer. It is just what it sounds like – a world of beer. They have 50 different beers on draft and 500 different bottles, which all rotate depending on availability. It’s a little overwhelming, so I just stuck with a beer flight and got tastes of four different beers and “mixed beers” (like a chocolate stout with a blueberry ale… yum!) that all sounded interesting.

After our afternoon of brew tasting, we had dinner at our current favorite restaurant, Mia Francesca’s. Apparently, this is currently the only location outside of Chicago and the bartender let slip that the restaurant was actually paid to open its doors here in Raleigh. We are so glad they did because this place is so good. They make all of the pastas from scratch and the bolognese is to die for.

Happy 33rd birthday Jason! I love you!

February is full of tons and tons and tons of birthdays of all the people I like best. That’s great.

And then in March, we have my birthday!!!! And not just any birthday, but my 30th birthday. The big three oh. I’ve been having mixed feelings on this upcoming day which I’ll share when I’ve sorted through them, but in the mean time, there is a party to plan.

I love celebrating birthdays, it’s one of my favorite things to do. In fact, just this weekend, I was mulling over some ideas for Jason’s birthday this Saturday. It went sort of like this:

Me: What do you want to do for your birthday on Saturday?

Jason: I don’t know. Just chill.

Me: Well, I could plan a poker night for you and your friends and make a bunch of appetizers and drinks for you and stuff. And I’ll stay at the house just to make sure the food and drinks don’t run out, but otherwise, I’ll be incognito so it’s just da boyz unless you want me to leave then I can make plans or something.

Jason: That would be fun, but I dunno…. I kind of just want to relax.

Me: Okay, well we could go to a brewery tour and invite your friends and then go out to eat afterward and grab some drinks downtown. The weather will be cold but sunny so we could go somewhere with windows so we can see the sunlight but we’ll be inside.

Jason: Yeah, but I think it might be nice if it’s just you and me.

Me: Okay, well I can make us a nice brunch on Saturday and we could do the brewery tour and then eat by ourselves and then have my parents over for cake later. What kind of cake do you want? And if you want to invite any friends over for cake, we can do that too. You just let me know. I’ll take care of it!

Jason: Julie, I am just not like you. I don’t want a big celebration.

me: …[silence while I comprehended what that meant]…

Anywho, the point of sharing that whole conversation is to illustrate the point that not everyone likes to celebrate their birthday, but I LOVE to celebrate mine (and theirs, too).

For my 26th birthday, we were still living in Wilmington and I made Jason do a “tourist in your own town” day with me where we spent time on the RiverWalk, visited the snake museum, shopped, and ate and then had a nice dinner out.

For my 27th birthday, me and my friends dressed up like 80s rockstars and went to see an 80s coverband play.

For my 28th birthday, a group of pals convened in a park on a beautiful spring day and we had a picnic, complete with copious amounts of sangria and guitar strumming (I just listened, obvi).

For my 29th birthday, I kept it pretty low key – we watched a movie and then a few days later I met my friends out for some sushi. I knew I wanted something quiet since I was preparing for my 30th birthday, so no pictures of that one.

So now we are at present day… my 30th birthday. Six months ago, I had grand plans of an extravaganza in Las Vegas. But now, I have friends getting married and bachelorette parties and wedding showers to plan and/or attend. Plus, I’d really like to celebrate my birthday with all the people I like best, and I don’t think it’s realistic to expect them all to come to Vegas. So, that plan is out.

I’ve toyed with a few ideas for parties at casa de Daily Julie, like:

• a Mexican fiesta at my hizzy (If you are what you eat, I’d be a tortilla chip. I loooove Mexican food)
• a “cake and cocktails” party
• a brunch with a mimosa bar (as seen on Pinterest. ha!) as brunch is my favorite meal of the day….errr… weekend.

But between Pinterest, and the rest of the internet, I just don’t know what to do. There are so many good ideas, and honestly I’m great at executing a plan, but finalizing all the details is the hard part. Jason knows me well enough to leave 99% of the planning to me because I am a control freak and also because I love planning parties, but nailing down the one idea to move forward with is proving to be the hard part. I have a tendency to go way overboard trying to incorporate every single little idea I find and that adds up in terms of time, money and then a bunch of wasted food and drinks. Seriously, I must think my friends have side jobs as sumo wrestlers with the amount of food I over-plan.

So, I’m asking you… what adult birthday parties have you been to and had a blast at? What did you do for your most recent birthday? Conversely, what was the stupidest birthday party you ever went to.

Thanks!

(Ed note: Yes, I know my birthday is not until March, but I like to get the ball rolling early on these things. I’m a working woman with limited time, ya know. A gal’s got to plan!)

Happy first birthday to my sweet niece Avery who turns one tomorrow. We were able celebrate with her on Saturday in Charlotte and she truly is a sweet, little miracle.

Her mama went all out with the fun pink decor and don’t you just love Avery’s little birthday hat?