a {sickening} love montage - a Valentine's post

This is our story: How the New Witty's came to be.

Established 2002

...and here we go! 

2002 - High School me working at Pizza Hut

2002 - College Sophomore him working at Pizza Hut {wearing a Mr. Jim's Pizza t-shirt}. 

You can see how that smile just swept me off my feet. 

2002 - Meet my family in Dublin, TX

2002 - Spontaneous getaway weekend

2002 - Trip to Colorado with his family

2002 - the picture we each had when I went away for summers, Stephenville, TX

2002 - Local concert in Stephenville, TX

2003 - Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, TX

2003 - Moved to Orlando, Florida for my school

2003 - Orlando, FL House of Blues was our best friend!

2003 - Christmas back in Dublin, Tx {and pierced lip!}

2004 - Disneyland

2004 - Eating out at Chipotle in Orlando, Fl

2004 - Family Reunion, Granbury, TX. Moved back to Texas.

2005 - Night Life in Mazatlan, Mexico

 

2006 - Colorado

2006 - Edgefest {concert} - Dallas

2007 - Edgefest {concert}- Dallas

2007 - Deep Ellum {Dallas}

2007 - Date Night Dallas, TX

2007 - Engagement Picture, Dublin, TX

2007 - Husband & Wife in Comanche, TX!

2008 - Pregnant and Spring Break in San Antonio, TX

2008 - Andrew arrived via home birth, Dublin, TX

2009 - Fuzzy's Taco in Fort Worth, TX

2009 - Moved to Abilene, TX and got knocked up-again. 

2010 - Jonah arrived! Abilene, TX

2011 - Abilene, TX

2011 - Spontaneous road trip to NEW YORK CITY! 

Posts 1, 2, and 3 HERE! 

2011 - Halloween! Abilene, TX

2011 - Abilene, TX

2012 - Easter egg hunt in the dark in Dublin, TX

2012 - Photo booth in Dublin, TX

2012 - Moved to Porter {Houston}, TX! 

2012 - Date Night at the Gaylord in Grapevine, TX

2012 - Porter, TX. 

And here we are. 

We were silly, immature, concert goers, spontaneous, dirt-poor, and crazy-like-a-pony-in-love kids. 

And look at us now. Responsible adults {and still madly and gushy in love most days}. 

Who woulda thought time passed by so quick? 

I hope I didn't make you gag too much. I really believe it's important to document relationships.

With your husband, friends, family, etc., just as long as it gets documented so that there's a memory of it!!!  

hmmm...now I kinda wanna do a separate post of our wedding!!! 

PS. See if you can count how many hairstyles/hair colors I have had! 

free-lensing

So I heard about this new thing that the kids were doing.

It's called free-lensing.

It's when you take your lens off your DSLR and manually maneuver it to take some pictures.

freaky, huh?

there's a really simple tutorial here

I seriously needed a third arm to accomplish this...but some of my results were similar to using Instagram or some kind of editing software with various filters.

Below, is an example of the 'macro' capabilities and also the dark tone coming in from the top left corner is a result from the angle of the lens against the body of the camera. You get different effects depending on your light source, angle, etc. 

 I probably should work on the focus, but it was really tricky. 

I have to adjust 3 different things at once, while I have a toddler as a subject {who constantly moves} 

And my lighting could be a little better. 

But for my first try, I was surprised at my attempts.

I just wish it wasn't so risky--some dust particles entered my camera and I'm worried about them.

People suggest buying older lenses for this particular style but it still wouldn't stop any dust from entering the inside of my camera.

We'll see. 

...he's never had a surprise birthday party...

For about a month, I had been lying to my own husband. Telling him that I had already paid for my high school's 10th year reunion tickets in my hometown that happened to coincide with his 30th birthday. 

He's not one to ever throw a fit, he goes with the flow. But OH, he threw a fit. 

Pouted, yelled, and stern-faced me about 2 days straight before I actually told him--"SURPRISE! We're not really going to drive 5 hours to see a buncha people I hardly know {I transferred a lot}, love. NO. I'm driving, so get your precious buns in the car." 

You see, I've never done this. Not for him, not for anyone. The most of my birthday planning is for my two kids and that's easy. My husband is as picky as a pickle {honestly, I don't know what's pickier, a two year old or my husband} so I naturally HATE shopping for him for fear he'll reject what I get him.

But this year, he'd expressed his excitement when we would pass Shark Weekend at the Aquarium in Downtown Houston billboard so I instantly knew that's where we would go. 

And that I would lie to him about it.

It's funner that way. 

Here's our pre-surprise-birthday-party picture, Take #75. 

OOh, I thought I was so clever. I printed out maps of our route, only they were the wrong destinations.

So, after I missed the turn for an important highway {he usually drives because he has Google maps integrated into his brain while I mindlessly think about non-important things and daydream the entire way} and had to turn around, his frustration grew because I wouldn't tell him where we were going.

It was when we had to spend 30 minutes driving around looking for parking spot that he finally knew our first destination. He likes sharks. Just like I like cats. 

It was Shark Weekend, it was 100 degrees, and a bijillion people showed up. 

AWESOME.

Surprising moment of the day? When I told the boys to sit and look at the camera and Andrew grabbed Jonah's neck and pulled him in close. My heart COMPLETELY melted. <3 p="p">

And in we went to see some spectacular fishes, amphibians, invertebrates, reptiles, and even tigers.

It was so hot, and lucky us, all the rides were outdoors. But our wait for the Shark Train wasn't that bad...

Daddy had to grab some nice cold Coca Colas----AHHHH!----and we were feeling so much better.

Share. Share. Share.

The boys hogged them, of course. 

Off to see the sharks!

 ...and into the sealed, air-less, tunnel to watch the sharks swim above us. 

Pretty neat. Unfortunately, that was it for the sharks. 

Oh wait....there was this guy who scared us to death....

And then, this was next. 

A nice view of downtown Houston! NO SMOG visible--haha!

 It was so hot, every body was sweating. The boys didn't complain though. They were troopers.

I, however, completely protested with my smudged makeup and 1 bobby pin for my disastrous hair.

OOooOOooh the carousel was next! 

The boys liked the animals so much, we rode it twice.

I LOVED this sea horse! I wanted to take it home with me...I wished it woulda popped out like in Mary Poppins.

 His crotch He really didn't like that sea horse....

 See? Loved it.

Unbeknownst to him again, I tried driving us to this fancy place in The Woodlands called Skeeter's. I had to drive about 20 minutes to our destination and then waste an hour for our reservations at the restaurant. I counted on my sister-in-law to bring cake and balloons so we could party it up like crazy folks. The thing was, Skeeter's didn't end up being fancy {never been there before} so I felt like a fool walking in and seeing this fancy sign for our table. DOH. 

Yeah, Skeeters was WAY fancy. 

We put in the million candles, sang, took pictures, ate cake and then...

...guess who had to lick the icing off Daddy's face?!

 He really appreciate the gift I so thoughtfully got for him.

 And as if we weren't salty enough from the scorching sun and bone-dog-tired from the days' events, we finished the bash with some bowling at Main Event.

 And of course, boys will be boys.

We were pooped. We were tired. We were disgustingly nasty.

Man, that was one hell of a birthday. When we pulled up at our place, he looks over to me and says Thank you. I'm thinking, Hope you enjoyed it 'cause you're never getting another surprise birthday bash for the rest of your life....but I just tell him You're welcome.

Love.