Decorating at the HOH: Picture Wall

Here’s the thing. When it comes to decorating ability, I totally lose my girl card. I mean, I’m not sure I have a full girl card anyway, but when it come to the decorating gene, I totally didn’t get one.

Now, I will say this was HARD early on in our marriage. I THOUGHT I was supposed to be the one who did all those decorating things. You know, curtains and pictures and furniture and knick knacks and whatever else is involved. So, I would try and do them. And, I would fail. Miserably. And, David would do them better. WAY BETTER. And it would make me mad. Why couldn’t I do it? Why couldn’t I see it that way? I was the wife. It was my job.

Finally, I accepted that God did not give me the decorating gene. He gave me David, who has multiple. He gave me my other half. A half that cares about curtains and pictures and furniture and knick knacks. (See, I really didn’t even care.)

David knows what color our house is. I have no idea. David knows how to arrange the bookshelves. I have no idea. David knows where the curtains were bought. I have… wait, I actually know that one. I think. David has an eye for design. I DO NOT.

But I appreciate it when I see it.

So, when I came home a couple Saturdays ago and saw this…

Decorating at the HOH: Picture Wall

I almost cried. It’s beautiful. It’s everything I care about. And, it’s on my wall for me to see every day. I never could have done this. So, God gave me someone who can… and does.

Ya, I got a good one.

What can your spouse do that you can’t and you’re ever so thankful for it?

It’s been 15 years since I said “I do”

Fifteen years.

That’s how long I’ve been Mrs. Hill. I love being Mrs. Hill. For one thing, it’s much easier to spell than my maiden name. But, I truly love being Mrs. Hill because that means I’m married to Mr. Hill.

Wedding Pic House of Hills

I’ve been thinking of how to tell my hubby what an honor and joy it is to be his wife. I thought about getting crafty and making a beautiful list or cards or something like that. But, Christmas crazy is in full swing around here, and ain’t nobody got time for crafty.

Note to those thinking December is an awesome time to get married. Yes, the church is decorated beautifully, but know you will almost never get to truly celebrate your anniversary during the month of December, especially once you have kids. It’s just too crazy. You have been warned. 

Back to my dilemma. How do I let Mr. Hill know how much I love being Mrs. Hill? After much internal debate, I decided to make a list on the blog. We live our lives on social media anyway, so it’s the perfect spot!

Wedding Pic 2 House of Hills

10 Reasons Why I Love Being Mrs. Hill

1. I get to kiss Mr. Hill every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to sleep.

2. I get to hear I’m beautiful and loved every day of my life both through word and deed.

3. I get to watch my amazing hubby be the perfect father to our little girl.

4. On cold nights, my sweetie will lay on my side of the bed while I finish my evening routine so it’s nice and toasty when I slide under the covers. (I don’t like to be cold at night!)

5. When I go out with Mr. Hill, every door is opened for me, and I am treated like I’m a lady and worthy of being served. (I actually fought this for awhile because I’m “independent.” Ladies, let your man treat you like the lady you are. You don’t have to do it yourself. Now, I expect a man to get the door, and am shocked when they don’t.)

6. My man believes in public displays of affection, and I love that it claims me to him and him to me when we’re out – or even at church. (I love the shocked looks when he kisses my bye in church. We’re married, people. Get over it.)

7. My love supports me in whatever I feel I’m called to do. He’s folded more Operation Christmas Child boxes than I can count, done graphic design work for my job, run to the grocery for the one thing I forgot when I’m making a meal for someone. Whatever I need, he’ll do.

8. Mr. Hill gives me kitchen equipment rather than flowers to show his love. (Flowers make me sneeze. Kitchen equipment makes me happy.)

9. My amazing man is not afraid to do the laundry. In fact, during peak rehearsal season, he’s the main laundry doer. Nothing is sexier than a stack of clean, folded towels.

10. Mr. Hill loves God more than me, and I think that is the thing I love most about Him. I will never forget our first time worshipping together (at 7:22 at Dunwoody Baptist). I watched this man I barely knew at the time worship loud and strong his love for his Savior, and I felt comfortable doing the same while holding his hand. I think I knew then that this was the man God had chosen for me. Our faith grew in leaps and bounds while we were dating and continues to be the center of our journey.

So babe, Happy Anniversary.

I love you even more today than I did last year and a whole lot more than the day we said “I do.” I can’t wait to do lots more years with you.

 

Finer Things Friday: Date Days

Many of you have heard of date night. I highly recommend date night. However, at the House of Hills, we really like Date Day. My Sweetie has Fridays off since he works Sundays. Therefore, he’s home all day Friday. Typically, I work on Friday and he runs some errands for us. But once a month or so, I take the morning off, and we have date day. Then, he gets the Princess off the bus, and I work until dinner.

What’s GREAT about date day? Well, for one thing, we’re not tired. As in, it’s light outside and we can have a conversation without wondering when it’s time for night night. Going out to a nice dinner is great, but at the end of the day, I’m wiped. On Date Day, we will usually go out for brunch, which is WAY cheaper than dinner. It also happens to be my favorite meal (especially if there are tasty pancakes involved) so that’s a bonus. Oh, and did I mention it’s during the day so we’re not tired. That lends itself to umm…other things… as well (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Today is Date Day at House of Hills. That means once this post goes up, I won’t be checking in with you for awhile… not on the blog, not on Twitter, not on Facebook. I’ll be hanging with My Sweetie. That’s definitely a FINER THING. He might even take me out for pancakes.

Date Days… A Finer Thing….

For more finer things head on over to Finer Thing Friday.

Couple Time in Tennessee

I wanted to tell you all about the wonderful time we had in Tennessee over New Years. I was going to start with a picture of us together – our loving selves. But, I don’t have one. Seriously! How hysterical is that? What I do have is lots of pictures of food. This was seriously a trip about eating good food and just being together. Two of our favorite things.

Let me start by saying that My Sweetie planned this whole thing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE him for that. As the CEO of the House of Hills, I do most of the planning, organizing, thinking it through, troubleshooting – you know all that stuff. It works ’cause I’m a Type A. However, even us Type A’s love to be just taken care of every once in awhile, and that’s what My Sweetie did for me. It was Heavenly. And because he was planning with me in mind, he made a big list of places I might like to eat. Love that man.

My Sweetie figuring out what we're going to do next on that handy computer he calls a phone.

We arrived in Franklin around noon on New Year’s Eve. We checked in to the hotel and then went to beautiful downtown Franklin – you know one of those fun downtowns with lots of shops and restaurants. We had heard from several people of places to try and ended up at Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant. It was a fabulous, fun place. You could tell lots of locals loved it because people kept running into friends and saying “Happy New Year!” The people watching was awesome. We waited (this will be a theme) for a table and finally sat down. I was STARVING by then. I had the Tennessee Philly Sandwich. It was SO SO good. Here’s a picture so you can want one too.

The Tennessee Philly - divine

After lunch, we walked around downtown Franklin. We held hands, went into shops, pretended we were going to spend crazy money on things we didn’t need and then put them back on the shelf. It brought back memories of when we were dating. When we just wanted to be together so we would walk around somewhere, talking and just hanging out. So wonderful. It got to be a bit chilly walking around – this would be the beginning of the massive cold front that is hovering over the south right now. So, we drove around a bit, grabbed some sandwiches to eat later and headed back to the hotel to watch football on the massive HD screen in our hotel.

Oh! And we bought cupcakes – lots of cupcakes. You can read about that here.

The next morning, My Sweetie drove me into Nashville to eat at the Pancake Pantry. It is apparently a Nashville tradition (says so on the menu) and there is ALWAYS a line. Keep in mind, this is New Year’s Day. It is literally freezing outside. There is a line. We wait. Outside. In the cold. For pancakes. Did I mention that I love My Sweetie. He twittered this picture and said the wait was worth it.

Mmmmm...pancakes

Oh, and here is how much syrup (the best syrup I’ve ever had – they make it there) we used on our pancakes. The bottle was full when we started. Mmmmmmm….

After we rolled ourselves out of the Pancake Pantry and back into the car, we drove around the area for awhile. Did I mention it was COLD! The original plan was to walk around, however Mother Nature nixed that one. So we drove on over to Opryland to check that out. They wanted $18 to park and go inside. Ummmm – no. The building was LOVELY. We drove all around it. Then we ended up at the massive mall there. Ya, we went shopping. Well, we actually went window shopping. Again, more time to hold hands and just be. In WARMTH. We laughed when Sweetie said “We could do this at home.” My reply,”Ya, but we don’t.” Good to just be.

By the time we were actually thinking about food again, My Sweetie had a plan. He drove me out to the Loveless Cafe. Another historic, traditional place to dine. We tweeted that we were heading there and found out what we should order. Amazing how many people know the different restaurants. We got there and waited. Again. For an hour. Which was actually good because we were finally hungry by the time we got to the table. This meal about put us over the edge. I’ll give it to you in pictures.

THE BEST BISCUITS EVER! EVER! We ate a total of nine. I'm not going to say who at the most, but...

this face happened several times. They were SO SO amazing.

My Sweetie's plate

My Sweetie's Plate

My Plate

Both plates were empty at the end of the meal. And, I believe I may have moaned when eating. Not sure, but probably. Then, the nice waitress who was trying to kill us with such good cooking asked if we wanted dessert. Well… oh decisions… Who am I kidding? I had seen a fudge pie! Of course I was getting dessert! And shocking!!! My Sweetie ordered too. He doesn’t usually do dessert. Here’s dessert…

MINE

My Sweetie's - Key Lime

The WALL My Sweetie built around his pie so he wouldn't have to share. As if that could stop me. Ha!

We had a wonderful time at the Loveless Cafe. Laughing and cutting up. Being generally goofy. And eating SUCH good food. After that meal, we fell into the car and headed to the hotel to watch more football. I really do enjoy football. Especially on a massive HD screen.

The next morning we packed up to head home. The thought of eating made us both a little queasy. Well, I did eat a cupcake around 7am while waiting for him to wake up. So, he was queasy. I was full. We had a light breakfast and headed back to the ATL to pick up The Princess from my mom’s.

Breakfast - Last Day

It was a wonderful two-day getaway. We’re already thinking about where to go for the next one. Love spending time with just My Sweetie.