Best BF ever award goes to...

Justin once again!

Last night he gave me the vintage top I've been DYING for. I almost passed out when he gave it to me. So in love.

a scary story...

(this is my latest favorite picture of Justin. He was sick with a cold & so so cute)

I look forward to the Academy Awards every year. This year was no different. I was all set Sunday night to watch with Justin. We cuddled up (with my awesome new body pillow Justin bought me) & put on the show. About 10 minutes into it 

I. Fall. Asleep. 

Except I don't realize it because my dreams were about watching the Oscars with Justin. I literally thought I watched the whole thing. I even knew who was winning all the awards.

(I must have been listening in my sleep. So weird)

Well, I wake up. 

I look next to me.

Justin is GONE.

So I sit up & scream JUSTIN?!!

I thought he left without saying good bye. This was NOT ok. My heart was racing & I was completely freaking out. It was the scariest thing in the world waking up alone. 

I run into the living room & he's sitting there with my parents watching the awards.

I ran & jumped on his lap. Still freaking out. 

He made up for it by holding me & saying it's ok he would never leave. 

Worst moment of my life. 

Almost. 

Still bummed I missed most of the show.

Happy Leap Year!

This made me laugh

These are the things people have typed into google & found my blog...


best boyfriend ever award - I agree google


my adventure book

something funny to cheer me up - Aw thanks google. I'm glad you think I'm funny! Whoever typed this: I hope you were cheered up.

danny gokey - hahahaha

hobbiehollie@blogspot.com 

is breaking dawn an adventure book - Indeed it is.

justin kobus - Why is someone searching Justin's name other than me...?

my adventure book - part 1

my adveture book art 1

the mommy years blog jamie halquist - Oh hey Jamie!

Happy list IX

I believe I did that roman numeral correct? Anyway, time for some more happy...

1. Renting movies the old fashion way. At one of the last remaining Family Video.

2. Orange juice. I'm addicted. It's a problem.

3. Pink blush. Covering my naturally pink cheeks with foundation then making them just as pink with blush. Why? I'm not sure. It just looks nicer I think.

4. Pillow fights & water fights!! Justin & I have been having a lot of those. Pretty much the most fun of my life. I always dominate.

5. Core Secrets.

6. Blogging. It sounds lame but blogging really brings me so much joy. It's the perfect creative outlet I've been looking for.

7. The starting of { t w i r l } !!

8. Picking my bridesmaid colors. Oh & to answer your question no. I'm not engaged yet. Am I crazy? Maybe.

9. Gossip Girl. I'm finally catching up on last season & oh boy. I was up way too late last night watching. I just can't get enough.

10. Small group. I'm involved in a coed small group & I love it so much. I've learned a lot & the girls there are the sweetest! I feel so blessed to have them in my life.

Decisions

Grow my bangs out or cut them?

My apologies for the extremely creepy facial expressions.

One time...

One time Justin took me to Bravo for a fancy dinner. We get our food. A man comes to our table & asks if we would like cheese? I say yes. He starts to grate the cheese when suddenly the whole block flies out of his hand onto my plate. We all pause. Justin & I start to laugh. He does not. He simply says "can you give me my cheese back please?" I hand him the cheese. He goes about his business. We die of laughter. Yeah, we have fun together.

Best day of my life so far...

Saturday Justin & I celebrated Valentines day. It was simple & cute. I loved it. I enjoyed it so much I forgot to take any pictures. Instead I'm going to share with you the best day of my life so far. This happened a couple weekends ago. 

It was our 7 month celebration & I wasn't expecting much. Boy, was I wrong. Justin came over with flowers & candy to start our day off. He then took me to Cafe Hollander for brunch. The food was so good! We had the best time talking & people watching.

After brunch we had some time to kill before the movie. Justin, knowing me so well, took me shopping! He found & bought these for me!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!! 

After shopping we went to see The Artist at the Downer Theatre. It was so cool seeing a silent film in an old movie theatre. I was dying. Justin wasn't a huge fan of the fact that it was a silent movie but he sat through it. Gosh he is the best. 

After the movie we did a little more shopping (of course) then it was dinner time. We went to Red Robin because every restaurant we called had an 1.5 hour wait. We shared a raspberry limeade. It was soso good.

To end the night we went to the Melting Pot for some chocolate fondue. It was so perfect!  

Words can't even describe how happy this date made me. I honestly feel like the luckiest girl in the world when I'm with Justin. He spoils me beyond belief. I love him so much it feels like my heart is going to burst! 

cold medicine is the way to a girls heart...

I am sick.

With a cold.

Boo.

Thankfully I have the best boyfriend in the world.

He loves taking care of me.

Last night he took me to Olive Garden for my favorite soup.

Then to Walgreens for some much needed cold medicine.

I am in love all over again.

Happy List VIII

Time for another happy list!

This week I am extremely happy.

1. Valentines Day!! I just love that holiday so much. If you missed my recap you can read it here.

2. COFFEE. Need I say more?

3. Hair appointments. Finally have one on Saturday. Much needed.

4. Having off for Presidents Day! Pretty much the only plus of working at a bank. All the holidays off.

5. Birthday Parties! It feels like we have a lot of birthdays in February. There is a party every weekend!

6. Tax return money! Holla!

7. Justin's love story. Melted my heart.

8. Sisters who have your back when you need them.

9. Roses. Justin is the best.

10. Finding peace after many weeks of trials. If you've been following my blog you know that the past month was a rough one for me. I did my best to persevere through it & thank God I did. I'm at such a peace now about where I am & what I'm doing.

Valentines Day Recap

Hello all! I hope you had a wonderful Valentines Day yesterday. (I know I did) I also hope that you enjoyed reading all the love stories! For those of you who participated, THANK YOU. I literally couldn't have done it without you. I had so much fun reading all of them!

I'm not sure if you could tell or not but i. love. Valentines Day! Even when I was single I still loved it. I love the idea of a day devoted to love, flowers, candy, & all things pretty. So you can imagine my excitement for this year. My first real (with a boyfriend) Valentines day! Unfortunately, my boyfriend happens to be a super focused hard worker with a crazy busy schedule. No time to see me :( But he told me that we are going to celebrate on Saturday & he's planning some surprise
(I'm sosososo excited!)

Well, not seeing him on Valentines day was just not an option for me. So, like the little creepy stalker that I am I woke up at 5:00am. FIVE A.M. to go buy his favorite donuts & surprise him before work.

I was so excited I couldn't sleep anyway so it worked out.

He starts work at 7:00am so I thought for sure he'd be leaving his house by 6:30. 

I park next to his car in the back at about 6:21. I text him "Tap. Tap. Tap. Good Morning! :)" 

10 minutes later...

Justin: "Happy Valentines Day!"

Stacey: "I have a surprise for you :)"

Justin: "Oh boy! Please say it's a squirrel!"

I see the back door open. My heart starts to race. The dog comes out. The door closes. He didn't even see me. Now I'm feeling officially creepy.

Stacey: "Haha no it's better. When do you leave for work?"

Door opens again. Heart really racing. Dog runs inside. Door closes. Still nothing.

6:45am

He finally leaves his house. Stops. Looks at my car. Tilts his head like "what the heck?"

I wave to him feeling like a stalker. 

I jumped out & gave him a big hug. I go to hand him the donuts..."I don't like those"

Heart drops. 

"I'm kidding! I love those! Thank you so much. I'm so glad you're here!!"

hahaha so in the end he wasn't creeped out. He was happy. I was tired but so happy I got to see him for at least a little bit. 

The day goes on & my co worker receives flowers from her boyfriend. Don't get me wrong, I genuinely was happy for her. Although at the same time a rush of jealousy filled my whole body. (I'm such a brat) I decided I wouldn't compare or complain. But then I did. I text Justin: "So, Maggie got flowers from her boyfriend today..." not a second later my phone rings.

"Hey Stacey a package arrived for you."

I run upstairs & open THESE!!!

 Red, white, & pink roses!!!! Love, Purity, & my favorite color.

I HAVE THE BEST BOYFRIEND EVER!

(Maggie got carnations. heh heh)

Having surprises delivered to work is my new favorite thing.

 This is how I looked yesterday. When I left the house I thought to myself "huh, just enough red. Not over doing it."

Apparently I was wrong.

All I heard all day "Wow don't you look like a little Valentine!"

"Got enough red on today Stacey?"

From a lady literally dressed in all red: "Finally someone who dressed like me today! Love the outfit girl!"

sigh.

 Justin & I also engaged in some Twitter flirting.

Which I loved.

 To end the day Justin invited me over to spend a little time with him after his class. It was perfect. I both started & ended my day with my love.

Couldn't ask for anything more than that!

Oh & this is what my roses look like today...even BETTER!

Happy Hump day!

.xoxo.

Love Story by Justin Kobus

Happy Valentines day!! 

You all are in for a TREAT today! My handsome, smart, amazing, funny, talented, super hot boyfriend wrote our love story for today. I am not a cryer, but the tears were flowing when I read this. He is just the very best ever ever ever. 

Enjoy! 

a lolololololove Story!

Stacey and I met through a friend at the Ave but we didn’t start hanging out until our groups of friends started to overlap. Our conversations at that point went a bit like this: me: "hi Stacey! ".  The day of the Summer Solstice Festival in downtown Milwaukee my friend Mark and I decided we would bike there on our new Fixie Bikes.  We were going to watch some of the local bands and meet some of our friends.  We arrived and there was Stacey and her friend Nik.  Stacey greeted us by saying “do you guys always dress like this?” I hadn’t really up until then but I sure do now.  I quickly noticed something about Stacey that stood out to me even more than her big blonde hair: Her laugh.  It wasn’t weird, odd, obnoxious, or anything like that. It was cute. Plus, it almost always followed the things I would say.  Never have I ever found someone who loved and understood my odd sense of humor as Stacey does.  As I mentioned before I went to see the bands but what I ended up doing was chasing after Stacey. Wherever she went I was sure to go too.  After the festival I drove with Stacey to my place and everyone met us there to hang out, it was one of my favorite nights ever. 

I wanted nothing more than to hang out with this girl who just thought I was the funniest guy on the planet, it didn’t hurt that she was so cute either.  However, me being the semi awkward guy that I am wasn’t really sure what to do from here. I didn’t fully realize that I liked Stacey as much as I did until she left and I never asked for her phone number.  Stacey and I didn’t hang out right after this either. It was almost to the point where she didn’t think that I liked her at all but I really did.  I had never really done this before so I had to ask Mark how to go about getting it from her.  He was nice enough to arrange a hangout for all of our friends including Stacey so I would have another opportunity to hang out with her. My excuse to get her number was Summer Fest and it worked!  We went to see Panic at the Disco but really we saw each other.  It was yet another great night.  We both liked the same movies so I decided to take a leap and invite her over to my place to watch movies with me.  We did what we still love doing now, watched movies. We would watch movie after movie till the wee hours of the night.  She never wanted to leave and I never wanted her to leave.

  I quickly realized that I could tell her anything. She was so open and accepting of who I am and was and she still is. As weird as I can be I never scared her off. This girl would just laugh and laugh and laugh.  One thing that really made me think that we had something was when our friend Sara said  "Justin is over there being a big goofball and that would drive most people nuts but Stacey's just sitting there right next too him with a big grin on her face" My feelings for her grew quickly until I knew I was in love.  I knew that I would do anything for her. No matter what happened or what she said I wanted to be there with her and her laughing.  It’s not a sappy love story or anything like that but Stacey is to me what love is. She’s patient with me, kind to me, she doesn’t boast and isn’t over proud, she is always tuned into what my wants and needs are, she isn’t easily angered at me, she doesn’t keep track of all of the dumb things I do, she’s always there for me and she trusts me. Oh and did I mention that she loves to laugh at the things I say???  I couldn’t ask for anything more than this. She truly is a blessing from God.  She challenges me in my faith and has helped me grow in my relationship with Christ.  Plus, she has an awesome big family which I have always longed for growing up as an only child. 

I am so excited to see what God has in store for the two of us and one thing is for sure, she’s stuck with me.

Love Story by Tom and Janet Sindorf

I am so excited about today's love story. It's about my grandparents. They are still so madly in love & I love the way they look at each other. 

I interviewed them Saturday night...

They met in the 7th grade at school. They were in most classes together from then on. He used to copy her homework. She used to worry she would be late for class. He made her laugh. She made his heart melt. They started dating in the 10th grade. They were each others first loves. He was swept away by what a beautiful person she was. She thought he was very handsome and always laid back when she was anxious. He was smitten walking with her at Smith Park. She was singing "Boomp a deedle doddle boomp a doo". That was the night he told her he loved her. He still remembers what she was wearing. Green skirt, yellow blouse, and black suede flats with buckles on them. He told her that he didn't care what happened, he would always love her. {and he's stayed true to that} They got engaged at Christmas time. He proposed by saying "Hey, want to go get a blood test?" She knew she was in a for a long life ;) They were married April 12, 1952. Their wedding day weather was less than pleasant. About 4 inches of slush, rain, and snow. But they didn't care, they were head over heals. When it was time to exchange the rings the pastor said "Put the ringer on her finger." It took everything inside her not to laugh. As wedding gifts they received 3 toasters and not much else. They were cautious about getting married because of the Korean war but the timing was perfect. She got pregnant with their first child Thomas in July. He went in for his physical to be drafted into the war but because she was pregnant he didn't have to go. God worked everything out in their favor. Since then they have had 4 children. 8 grandchildren. 6 great grandchildren and 1 on the way. They celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary April 12. Their love is still stronger than ever. I asked them both what their favorite thing was about the other. She said he's always been forgiving and calming. He said she is SO beautiful both inside and out. Their love has lasted through trials, hard times, good times, celebrations, life, death, and has never wavered. They built their foundation on the solid rock of Jesus Christ and have never been disappointed. 

Happy List VII

It's time for another happy list! Here goes nothing...

1. Love

2. St. Valentine's Day

3. Apples & Peanut Butter

4. My new shoes from Justin!!

5. Vaseline for chapped lips

6. Sunglasses in the winter

7. My love story series!

(read stories here 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

8. Breakfast surprises

9. Naps

10. Justin took me on the best date ever last Saturday!

Post to come soon about it :)

Happy Thursday!

Love Story by Mary Manning

Today's love story is by one of my favorite people in life, Mary. She is such a sweetheart! Her husband is the youth pastor at my church & I love them both! Such a cute story.

This is me and my love:

His name is Conor and he's pretty much the best thing that has ever happened to me (besides my 2 angel babies).

We first met when we were in high school (2001, wow I feel old).

But we were just friends back then. He says I liked him, but that's just not true. He liked me. :)

We met up again 5 years later during Christmas time (one of the best Christmases of my LIFE!)

(isn't he so cute???!!!) He had just had shoulder surgery, so that's why he has a sling.

We dated long distance (which is really tough!) for most of our relationship. My first trip to see Conor in Sacramento was over Valentine's Day weekend.

We walked the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Rick's Dessert Diner, and saw a drive-in movie. Can you say romantic???

We had been dating for four months when Conor proposed to me at Corona Del Mar.

I said yes :) One of the best days of my life! Seriously, it was like a fairy tale.

And six months later, on October 25, 2008, we got married!!!

Again, amazing day!

We've been through lots together... lots of good and lots of bad. I seriously love him more every day. And as sappy as it sounds, Conor is my best friend and I'm so happy to be spending the rest of my life with him. He's pretty much the best there is.

And when I thought he couldn't be any better, he became the amazing dad to these precious babies:

(Can you tell we love the Steelers?)

Am I lucky or what?!

Mary Manning :)

Love Story by Cortney Dlapa

Today's love story is by my friend Cortney. Her & her boyfriend Jake have been dating for a couple years now. They are the cutest little couple & I love the story she decided to share with us. You've got to love those awkward teenage crushes. Enjoy!

This is just a story from the very beginning and our first hug.

Carly and I were having our 16th birthday party together at North Campus. Jake and I had been talking for a little bit, nothing major but friends knew I had a crush on him. The whole night we would casually talk because I didn't want to be too obvious. I remember playing ghost in the graveyard and him being weird about always having carmex on. We had a small conversation about that and I was sooo nervous like the whole time. Then him and his friends were getting ready to leave and I was behind the Undying Allegiance table (cause Carly and I were really cool and had them play at our party...ha) getting pics with the band. Jake awkwardly comes by the table and says "ok...well... I'm leaving, thanks for inviting me." and so I adorably said "alright well let me give you a hug." (ahahaha how cheesy we were!!) So I remember giving him an awkward one arm hug and like freaking out inside mouthing "OH MY GOODNESS!!!" to Korryn over his shoulder. I was so scared. Then as he walks away I realize I left a make up mark on his perfectly white shirt.

The rest is history.

Love Story by Sara Troy

Our love story today is by my good friend Sara. When I first read her story I was so into it my heart was racing haha. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oq0PsJVPWQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hi my name is Sara! Stacey asked me to write about my love story for her blog. I am engaged to a wonderful guy named David and he is just the cat’s pajamas. I love him so, but it wasn’t always this way.

You see David and I met through the college group at our church through mutual friends. He was and is the quiet one, and I am well…the loud mouth

rambunctious one. So needless to say, this wasn’t really your love at first sight kind of meeting. David tells me now that he thought I was really attractive, but a little too on the wild side for his taste. But we were still friends, and would hang out in large groups all the time. I thought he was very nerdy. He is an engineer, so he talks, thinks, and acts like an engineer. Need I say more? And to top it off, I felt he had this unhealthy obsession with the packers…and he still does, but now I am into it so it’s okay. I would ask him to hang out with us in smaller groups, and he would tell me things like “I have to do homework” or “There’s a Packer game on, sorry”. And I was just like “who actually does their homework?!?” Well David did, and it paid off because of the nice job he has now. So you are probably wondering how this all went into motion right? Doesn’t seem like either one of them really likes each other right? WRONG! Even though David was the complete and polar opposite of all the guys I had dated or been interested in the past, I was just plain head over heels. My heart skipped every time I saw him at church or when we were out with friends. I mean literally, I had one of my friends feel my pounding chest at church, it was the real deal. And it made no sense to me; I had no explanation as to why I was so infatuated by this boy. But you see David didn’t seem interested in the least. I was always the one to initiate things, invite him places, text him, you name it and I was the one who set things in motion. I even painted this kid a picture of a Led Zepplin album with an angel on it! And still nothing! Well we started hanging out in smaller and smaller groups (thanks to me!) and finally David and I went for a hike all alone. Just the two of us, and it was wonderful. But did anything come of it? Of course not! I mean I did take into consideration that David had never had a girlfriend and didn’t have that many close friends that were girls, but come on!

But still I was so infatuated with David that I even signed up for a church trip to Colorado that he was going on. A backpacking trip. No bathrooms. No hotels. No showers ( well except for one day). Limited not to mention gross food. No make up. Oh and I forgot to also mention that the objective was to hike to Mt.Princeton AND summit it… And that its elevation is 14,197 ft.… Um…yeah! I must have been on some crazy love juice, because if you know me, I would be the last person you would suspect to go on that trip. So by the time this trip rolled around I was on my last nerve. I was totally head over heels for this guy and it felt as if I didn’t mean anything to him. I put all this energy into our friendship hoping and praying that something more would happen and it hadn’t. I was defeated and sad. Rejected without actually being verbally rejected. Every single one of our friends knew that I was in love with David, but David. My mother told me to give up, she told me to cut my losses and that I was worth more than this. So I went on the trip with a totally new perspective. I wasn’t going to go on this trip for anybody but me! I was going to prove to myself that I could do this and I would get to that top of that dang mountain, even if it killed me! (Which btw it almost did)

 So here I was on my way to Colorado with this boy who I was really trying to get over and suppress my feelings for, yeah should be good right? I tried my hardest not to gravitate towards this fella, but alas I found myself near him constantly. But it was weird because it was not always me initiating it. It was mutual!

 

Shocking right? I was stunned, but I tried not to let myself get too excited. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen on the mountain affecting his brain? You know? Girls gotta guard her heart. So needless to say, we were pretty close the whole trip. He was my buddy for hikes and was nearly always by my side. And the other girls on the trip suspected things. So there were nights where I poured my heart out late at night in our tent, and there were lots of “ awws” and “OoooOoos” and giggles.

But my heart still yearned. The day or should I say butt crack of dawn (we left at 3 in the morning and I got my period! Double yikes freak out! ) came when we were to summit this beast of a mountain. And I will spare you all of the details. But David was by my side THE ENTIRE TIME! He encouraged me and even physically gave me his hand to get up the steep parts. My best friend Tracie could see from below us and always talks about how it was so sweet she almost barfed. Ha. But let’s take her word for it. I was so blessed to have David on this journey; I don’t think I would have made it to the top if it weren’t for him. Forget liking this guy, I felt like I was in love with him. For real real love, how could I not? He literally lead me up a mountain and then back down. I trusted in him and he did not disappoint.

 

So we eventually left CO and headed back to good old WISCO. And David took me home from church and chatted with my Mom and I for a bit. And once he left, my head was spinning. And my mother’s head was left shaking; because I was right where I had started…but worse with the intensity of my feelings. A couple of days passed since the trip and I hadn’t really had too heard from David, until my phone started going off. I it up my phone and glanced at the screen and all I read: Incoming call David Figie…um what? Did he forget something at my house? Had he been in an accident? Why was he calling me? So I picked up hesitantly and this is how it went:

Me: Hello?....

David: Hey Sara, its David Figie

Me: Oh, hi what’s up?

David: Nothing too much, how about you?

Me: Good, did you need something? What’s this call for?

David: Umm nothing, just to talk…

Me: …Oh okay…

 

And we proceeded to talk on the phone in a somewhat awkward conversation, but it was good and cute. And a few more days had passed and we went to a friends going away party and that’s where it happened. We were alone on a walk from the park and David said those words I had waited so long to hear. “I like you…a lot” Eeeeks I died inside when I heard them! Was this real life? Am I floating? I actually started laughing and said “are we really doing this right now?” But it wasn’t in a mean way; it was a just checking to make sure this is going where I think its going. Ha! To my laughing David replied, “ hey stop laughing, I’ve never done this before!” Which I did and told him I liked him too and that I was just really happy we were finally having this talk. He asked me to be his girlfriend, and the rest is history. We have been together for two and half years and I love it! David is one of the best things/ people to happen to me and walk into my life. He is so opposite from me and really balances me out. I cannot wait to tie the knot with this stud and make a life together. We have been through so much together and I really treasure our love journey, which all began 14,000 ft in the air...

PS: If you were wondering what took David so long to realize his feelings, he told me later on that he had no idea I liked him. He figured I had so many guy friends and was so flirty, that he was just another one of them. PSH! He should’ve known I had only eyes for him! ;)