Nate and I...

have this thing. It's an agreement really. It's something like this...he makes the mistakes. lots of them. He makes mistakes all the time. Lots of little mistakes. But I...I make the BIG ONES. Not very often, actually. you might even say rarely do I make "mistakes". But when i do, wowsers, they are DOOSIES.

Nate makes the mistakes in marriage that are really just irritations. He leaves the toilet seat up. He loses his keys. He forgets to get his credit card out of the ATM and it eats it up. He leaves his wallet at the movie theatre. He throws away important papers. These are the mistakes in marriage that can really light some fires, but are relatively easily remedied. For instance (as if you dont already have enough instances to make my point) but for instance, three days ago I asked him to stop setting his dirty socks on the dining room table. Why, you might ask, is he setting his dirty socks on the dining room table? Because it is one of those mistakes Nate makes. I told him that he has been doing it forever and I just cant take it anymore. We eat there. The laundry room is less than 20 feet way. And he agreed it was ridiculous and could not even recall why he had set them there. Of course he would put them somewhere else. So yesterday morning I come out to make the girls breakfast and what to my wondering eyes did appear but Nate's smelly socks on the dining room table. I once again reminded him that we had an agreement....no stinky socks on the table. Of course he was mortified, and vowed never to do it again. Until today, that is. Yes, I once again awoke to two dirty white socks on the dining room table. I waited until he was wide awake, then kindly held them up in the air and simply said.."this is day three with stinky socks on the table. Is it ever gonna end??" "Really?" he asked. "I did it again??" These are Nate mistakes.

I feel comfortable relaying all of this to you because I am about to be very vulnerable here. Im ok with telling you all about my husbands "mistakes" because mine are SO MUCH BIGGER. Here's a little rundown to lead you into the point of this blog. I do a lot of "right" things. No, im not bragging, Im just admitting that I am a perfectionist. I am a control...freak, per se. I dont like to make mistakes and admitting I make them is even tougher than actually making them. But there's no hiding my mistakes. I do things like back into my friends car (2003) or lose a $1000 check (1999) or arrive too late to the bank to deposit an $80,000 check for my boss that I was told to "no matter what deposit before 5:00!"(1994) I also almost set our apartment on fire by forgetting I left something in the toaster (2001) (thank goodness Nate has great lungs and he blew out the billowing flames) and I left tater tots cooking in the oven at 400 degrees while we went grocery shopping at Walmart for two hours. Thank the Lord I remembered just before we hit the check out lines and Nate drove home like a maniac and got em out of the oven just before they caught fire. these are the kinds of mistakes I make. And today was no different.

The girls and I headed out to Lowes to buy a few flowers to add to our garden, and along the way we turned on the radio. One of my all time favorite songs came on. A song we sang in elementary school to honor the Veterans who had served our country. It still brings tears to my eyes when I hear it, and I was so excited the girls were getting to hear it too. As "Proud to Be An American" blasted through our car and out the windows to the general populations we arrived at Lowes and pulled into a parking spot. The song was still on, so we paused to let it finish. "Cause there aint no doubt I love this land.....God bless the U...S....A....!!!!!!" Yes, what a great song!! I hit the OFF button on the stereo and Luxie expressed her love for the song too. I stepped out of the car, got the girls, and headed inside for some shopping.

About 20-30 minutes later we emerged with our Petunias and headed towards the car. As I approached the passenger side I realized I could not find my keys! I searched my purse, looked in the cart, my pockets...they were nowhere to be found. I got over to the driver side and said, "Mommy must have left them in the car. Ive never done that before." (this is usually how my mistakes go...never been done before.) then it dawned on me...that "humm" I'd been hearing from the front of the car was not the car beside me, but my own car. I had left the car running in the Lowes parking lot with the windows down and the car unlocked!! Unbelievable!! I had been so caught up in the music that I completely forgot to turn off the car!!

And that, my friends, is a big mistake.

a glamorous meme

Jo at A Glamorous Life posted this meme and tagged whoever felt interested. As you know Im always interested in a meme, so here we go...

My (Current) Top Five Obsessions:

SLEEP~ yes party people, when you have kids sleep becomes an obsession. a never ending quest for a full night of sleep has been my passion for almost 5 years now (you have to count pregnancy time in there too, because the Lord knows no one sleeps well with something growing in their stomach.) Sleep, oh sleep, how i long for the days of waking on my own around 930am and wondering what to do with my well rested self. nights spent out on the town confident of hours of wonderful sleep ahead of me..."what? it's 130am? no problem, i can sleep til 10 if i like..." oh the nights spent sleeping, how i miss those days. sleep while you can my kidless friends. enjoy those 8 hours you toss away everynight. the only comfort i have at 3am with the baby is that mothers across the world are up wide awake with me.


FOREVER 21 FITTED T-SHIRTS FOR $4.80~ I actually have almost 10 of these tees, and I LOVE THEM. They are long enough to provide "kid lifting" coverage and fit just right...not too tight, not too loose. I collect a few each spring and wear them all year around. I dont think ive ever bought a single other thing there, but these tees are da bomb.


TiVo~ I just really think this is the greatest invention ever for television viewers. I could spend hours updating my Season Pass and scheduling episodes of my favorite programs to record. Deleting old shows, creating new wish lists, it goes on and on. Im telling you people (yes you and you and you..you know who you are..) you really need to experience the TiVo revolution. Remember how amazing it was to have your very own cell phone? Your first experience with the internet? You gotta believe me, it will blow your mind! It will leave you thinking to yourself..."what in the world did i ever do before this??"


PASTA~ Im not sure you could say this is my obsession so much as my family's obsession. See, i love noodles. Im a pasta loving girl. Macaroni and cheese, pasta casseroles, spaghetti and meat sauce, what have you. But my girls have made pasta an obsession because it is almost the only thing they will eat. Zaine has some form of noodles at least once a day. Right now her diet consists of noodles, cheese, apples, grapes, or crackers. Luxie will only eat bread products and chicken. And of course sweets. So pasta has become a Corrona Family obsession. It's not one of those interesting obsessions, either, but rather an almost nauseating one. Im so tired of fixing pasta all the time, and surely, one of these days the girls will grow tired of it too, right? I mean, if i have to look at one more plate of pasty white noodles with a little salt and butter I just might gag. Seriously. When will it end???


GARDENING~ Now let me explain. I am by no means a gardener. My idea of gardening consists of making sure I put water on the tiny seeds we recently planted in the three flower beds around our home. I also pull the big menacing weeds that pop up around the place and I pick the dead blooms off of the flowering plants that are growing. I have also become a big fan of the weed-eater because we do not have a lawn so much as a tropical forest surrounding us, and in order for the kids to walk around to the back of the house, we have to weed eat the yard. There are two very nice grassy spots for the girls to play on, and I have mowed the lawn three times now, but the weed eater has become my favorite yard tool. But back to the tiny seeds...Target had these packages of wildflower seeds for sale in their $1 section and my mom was kind enough to buy a couple of bags for us while she was here. We planted there and now we are watching them sprout up to about the length of my pinky finger. It is so exciting to watch the growth take place and has become a fun little diversion from our typical daily routine. I really think once the kids are older (Zaine, actually) and i dont have to keep such a close eye on them while we are outside I will really begin to enjoy the whole gardening thing. but for now im content to watch the seeds grow.

10

May 10, 1997, Wedding Day



fall 1998, Indianapolis



August 2003 with Luxie



January 2006



April 2006 with Zaine



July 2006



April 2007

So here we are....10 years later. So very strange, i tell you. I keep trying to get it into my head, ten...TEN...10...yeeaarrrsss. We have gone thru so many changes, highs, lows, homes, illnesses, joyous moments and amazing adventures during our marriage. Things like deciding to make music a full time occupation. Or finding out I was pregnant as we were driving to catch a cruise ship. Having to live with parents and having parents live with us. Travels to England, Amsterdam, and even South Africa. The sadness of a miscarriage. Driving across country several times together (sometimes fun...sometimes not so fun.) The deaths of beloved family members. A trip to the Price is Right. Family reunions and high school reunions. Beaches. A recording contract or two. The births of two beautiful girls. Cars, oh the cars. Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Atlanta. Christmas memories I hold so dear. Hearing his music on the radio for the first time. Nights spent up playing the most intense board games, and hours spent laughing after them. I could go on and on. It's really been ten years? It's funny, when you put it all together as one big package, you can really see how amazing a life shared with another is. We are getting older now. I can see the lines around the eyes that didnt used to be there, and that familiar face has changed over time. And yes, there are a few things I could really do without. Those little things I thought would go away but instead have hung around thru the years. But I love the peace that comes with knowing he'll be with me forever. I love that man, and I thank God he loves me too. It's been quite a journey thus far and I cant wait to see where God takes us from here.