Wishing I could Nest

I am so thankful for Vince's family. I can't even express my gratitude for letting us stay with them for months already, and probably many more to come. I mean this from the deepest of my heart.
With that said, I really want to NEST!
When we got married, I loved every moment of putting together our first home together, and it was such a joy. Even though the place was tiny, and horribly dirty when we started, I loved making it not just an apartment, but our home.
I knew it would be hard to leave all the things that we have accumulated through the years. I had not idea how overwhelming it would be to want to have my own space and place and style again.

I have been spending an unhealthy amount of time on realtor.com. In my head, we have already gotten a house, and I know what every room will look like. The color of the walls, the rug on the floor, the furniture, and how perfectly it will all fit together.
I have always loved decorating, and I just can't wait to see it all come together when we finally get home.
For now, I will keep dreaming, and looking for the right house on realtor.com.

Oregon is BEAUTIFUL! You should go!

It is going to take me awhile to catch up from all the things I have missed in my blogging life, but let me just go ahead an start by saying that we had an incredible trip to Oregon. We went for a conference with Campus Crusade, and it was so wonderful. Vince and I felt so encouraged, and challenged, and really feel more prepared for our ministry, and to handle our personal finances. After the 4 day conference Vince and I took a few days to go visit Oregon, and to spend time with my family! It was great, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

me and my little sister Caitlin

Vince and my little brother Connor watching football

Vince and I at the Conference centerThis is what I saw out the window while we were listening to speakers at the Conference... it was a little hard to concentrate with that amazing view. One morning the whole valley was filled with fog, and you could not even see the whole deck!

Vince out front of the conference center! Can you believe this was 20 feet from our bedroom??

We took a quick trip to the coast during the Conference and it was amazing!Me and SaraThe rocky cliffs were breathtaking, and fun to hike around!We saw the W River- the world's shortest river! No joke! It really was not that impressive. After the Conference we took a few days to enjoy God's creation- we started at Cannon Beach and this was our super-cute cottage!This is a normal day at the beach!We got there right as the tide went out so we got to play in the tide-pools and we saw all kinds of stuff... fish, sea anemonies, crabs and starfish. We saw SO many starfish, they were bright orange and purple.Vince hiking around the tide-pools. The view from the top. If you look at the shore line, you can see cannon beach and maybe even our little cottage!
The next morning we went and saw Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach. How the heck does a boulder this gigantic get out in the ocean? It was amazing, and there were boulders everywhere!I missed Jonas, and there were puppy prints everywere. I took this picture to email back to him. Then Vince called me crazy and so I never did send the email. We drove down the coast and did a "3 Cape Scenic Tour" and it was so cool. We just stopped different places all day. This was inside the lighthouse we saw!Vince keeping an eye out for ships coming. There was am Octopus Tree! It was just a normal tree that was really strange because of the high winds coming from the coast. We couldn't figure out why only 1 tree was like that, but I guess we are not smart enough... And we also were not smart enough to not get our rental car stuck in the sand... A caring man stopped and helped tow us out. Ha! Vince hated that I even took this picture. How could I not?More of the Scenic Cape Tour= Amazing. That night we drove to Salem and we stayed there and the next morning we got up and went to hike Silver Falls- an 8 mile hike where we got to see 10 waterfalls! It was FANTASTIC!! We were BEHIND a waterfall!

Then my camera battery died... so you miss seeing us having sore legs and tired faces later that day, and fun with my family later that weekend.

All in all we had a BLAST!!

You should go too!

Jonas is 1!

Hello hello! My little darling puppy is not so much a puppy anymore! On Sunday little Jones turned one year old! Of course, we had a birthday celebration for him, complete with wrapped presents! Jonas loved it! For awhile he couldn't figure out what to do with the wrapped presents- which I find pretty funny since he tries to bite and eat every paper thing that we have.
But once he got one open, he went wild. He was so protective over his new toy that he wouldn't let it go even to open the new one. Ha!

And he wouldn't let go- even when we we holding the toy 4 feet in the air- he's still holding on. And I really wanted a good family picture, seeing as it was the puppy's birthday- but... this was the 7th picture, and it's still bad.

I just can't believe my little guy is growing up so fast! Haha!

Have you made your handwriting a font? I have!!!

So I have been looking for a way to create a font that uses my handwriting as the text. As I was looking, there were a lot of sites that offered the service, but... cost about $150 to make the new font. Yikes. And not worth it. A few weeks ago I found one that said it would be around $30. I still decided to pass, mainly because I wasn't even sure if it would work.

Well today I decided it would be worthwhile, even if it did cost a bit, mainly for Crusade stuff. I got online and looked for the site that did it for $30, and it was gone! Sad! BUT... I found a site that did it for FREE!!! Too good to be true? I feared so. But nope, 100% legit! The best part is- it is so fast! Here is my handiwork! And since I know you are dying to make your own....go to

http://www.yourfonts.com/

Enjoy!!!!

A Rather Long Quick Update

Life has been flying by, and crawling at the same time. I can't even believe that we are a mere 2 days from October, I swear September just started! But, I also collapse into bed every night and I feel like my day was so full and I couldn't quite get everything done.

In lieu of my blogging hiatus from anything significant, I am here to give you an update on all things Walsh's... well at least all things Autumn Walsh.

Since I don't really know the best place to start, I'll start at the beginning.

1.) We are still living in Allen! We are working on building our ministry team before we are able to return to SFA. I can't lie, I am starting to get a little "homesick" for Nac. Of course I have been missing all my dear friends back in Nac, but its becoming more than just that. We are still really enjoying it here, but I do miss being able to get anywhere in town in 10 mins, being surrounded by beautiful huge trees, our church!!! All that said, We are still happy to be here, and working on our MPD as much as possible!

2.) Now a Gap Kids and Baby employee!! After a few week at the Gap Outlet, I asked to be moved to the Kid store. Not what I had originally been thinking, but I did my training there, and worked for a day over in their store (it's a few shops down from the "big Gap") and I LOVED it there. I can't get enough of the tiny tiny baby clothes. The socks for the newborns are not even as long as my pointer finger! I just really loved the environment, and of course all the adorable babies that are proudly paraded around the store. It takes all my control not to ask to hold some of them! Well anyhow, last Monday I started my first official day over there, and now I feel happily settled into my new "working home." Everyone kept asking me if working there was going going to make me want a baby. The answer? No. Don't misunderstand, the kids are tickle-their-cute-tiny-tummy adorable, but, after hearing a baby scream for the whole time, or seeing crazy children pull things off the shelves and climb on the counter tops, and can we even begin to talk about how expensive kids clothes alone can be? WOW. So in summation, i moved to the new store, am loving it, and am still not ready for kids. Joy!

3.) I am WAY behind in my class. We are taking a New Testament Survey Seminary class as part of our new jobs as full-time staff, and its all online lectures and then lots of homework. By I am way behind, I mean there are 20, 1 hour lectures to listen to, and as of now, I should be on lecture 14. I just finished lecture 4, and as i was doing that I was getting caught up on all my blogs that I read. Yeah. The lecture is actually enjoyable material, but just sitting and listening with nothing to look at for an hour kills me. Not to mention that nothing is easy about the "getting ready to listen" process. First, you cannot save the lectures, as far as I can tell, and so you have to listen to them while it streams. Living out in the country, this is a very difficult task. Oh and you can't pick where you want to start listening to the lecture. So when the stream freaks out and your lecture stops 12 mins in, you have to restart. When it stops 33 mins in, you have to restart. When it stops 47 mins it, you have to restart. Are you starting to see why I am only on lecture 4? They should pay me more to do this. Better yet, they should pay me to re-do this, I would even make everyone else a CD to listen to also if they only gave me the chance. All this is extremely significant because it is mandatory, and get this... has to be submitted complete with a proctored final and all by Dec. 1. Good grief. I have lots of catching up to do.

4.) My puppy is crazy. That actually is nothing new, but there have been some funny things happening lately. And because I have no "real" children, I use all my "kid" photos for my dog. First, Jonas is almost one, Oct. 12 is his birthday! His Cowboys jersey was his actual present, but I also found some really cute toys for him. I can't wait. Also, he still hasn't managed to control his happy peeing, and Vince has had enough. We priced how much it would be to get puppy diapers, and it was a shocking $27 for 30 diapers! Well that is just ridiculous, so we priced, and bought some baby diapers, and just cut a hole out for his tail. Apparently kids and dogs don't wear the same size of diapers according to their weight. Unfortunately, when we put the little baby diaper on Jonas it didn't cover..ahem.. his "man" parts, and therefore didn't fix the happy-pee problem. But, it was hilarious, and humiliating to Jonas, and he hated every moment, of which I took lots of pictures. He was so upset he wouldn't look at me. Ha!

In that last shot Jonas had ripped off his diaper, and he was attacking it, which was pretty funny too. I think he knows when we are making fun of him.

Also we were carrying him around in one of my Gap bags. It was too funny, and He actually really liked it. psycho.

5.) We are going to Oregon in a few weeks! We have a MPD follow-up conference to go to in Oct, and there were 4 locations to chose from, but none of them were anywhere close to us! Fortunately, there was one in Portland where my dad and family live, so we are taking a trip! We will be leaving Oct 18th! The countdown begins! I am pretty excited for a few reasons. We get to see amazingly beautiful Portland and the coast. Vince has never been out there, and I can't wait to show him all the places that I love. Also, we get to see my family, which will be great. I haven't seen them since the wedding, and it will be nice to catch up and visit with the family. With that, I have set a goal for myself to bring all their Christmas presents with me so that we can save the crazy postage rates for holiday delivery. So far the plan is working. I'm really excited to go and see all our new staffers at the conference too! It is a really fun group of people, and I can't wait. But I can't lie, I am super sad the Reece's won't be there. (Emily change your mind, get Sam to come to Oregon! Kelly and David and the Cooleys and the Barron's will be there!) We are also combining the trip with celebrating our first anniversary, and we are staying at these really cool places along the coast. I will post lots of pictures of our trip when we get back!

6.) And the rest! Few other random things. Sunset finally came out, so I tried to reserve it at the library. Apparently I should have done this sooner because by today, I was number 39 to reserve the book. So maybe by next September I will finally get to know what happens to the Baxter family! Or I could just break down and buy it. Ehh. Also, I cannot wait much longer for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 to come to the dollar theater. I think the day it gets there I am going to go!

So there you have it. A long-quick update.

it's us!

I convinced Vince to make a Mosiac with me! YAY! So here you have it, it's us!


Just in case you want to see our answers, mine are first, vince's second:
The Questions:

1. What is your first name? [autumn, vince]
2. What is your favorite food? [strawberry, steak]
3. What college did you go to? [baylor university, SFASU]
4. What is your favorite color? [peacock blue, dallas cowboys blue]
5. Who is your celebrity crush? [carrie underwood, tony romo]
6. Favorite drink? [hot tea, boba tea]
7. Dream vacation? [tour of europe, europe]
8. Favorite dessert? [chocolate molten cake, mint chocolate chip icecream]
9. What you want to be when you grow up? [mommy, pro football player]
10. What do you love most in life? [my God, God]
11. One Word to describe you. [loved, genius]
12. Your favorite animal. [daschund puppy, dog]

If you want to make one too, look at my last post for what to do!

here are the photo credits too!
1. 秋天到了！ Autumn Has Arrived! de Herbscht isch cho!, 2. Vince Young carry, 3. Strawberry, 4. New York Steak, 5. Swing on campus (Baylor University), 6. stephen f. austin statue, 7. Exhibitionist!!, 8. blue star seats, 9. Let's get out of this town tonight...., 10. Dallas Cowboys Drawing, 11. Breakfast and Tea with colors...., 12. Boston Tea Stop, 13. La Tour - noir & blanche, 14. Chateau of Chambord, 15. anniversary dessert, 16. Bad News Ice Cream, 17. Mommy Shoes, 18. superbowl XL 1 - Pittsburgh Steelers - World Champions, 19. My first decent God light shot, 20. Savoir Vivre... hmmmmmm, 21. Love Is Light, 22. Uros Petrovic - Genius, 23. Mad Dog, 24. Gizmo

we watch too much TV

As I pondered all the shows that are starting up again, I began to think that Vince and I watch way too much TV. We are talking hours per week. And in case you are wondering, thanks to the genius of DVR... on a weekly basis...


The Unit
CSI Miami
Without a Trace
How I Met Your Mother
Scrubs
The Office
The Hills (I watch this alone...)
Greek (usually this one too)
Every sport known to man * (thats Vince, and i watch as rarely as I can get away with)

That is not to mention all the ESPN, HGTV, and TLC when we get a chance. Gaaahhhhh!!!


And I saw this on Rach's blog and loved it...
so here is a mosaic of me!



1. 秋天到了！ Autumn Has Arrived! de Herbscht isch cho!, 2. Strawberry, 3. Swing on campus (Baylor University), 4. Exhibitionist!!, 5. Let's get out of this town tonight...., 6. Breakfast and Tea with colors...., 7. La Tour - noir & blanche, 8. anniversary dessert, 9. Mommy Shoes, 10. My first decent God light shot, 11. Love Is Light, 12. Mad Dog

Make your own:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into FDs Mosaic Maker. Choose 3 columns with 4 rows.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? [autumn]
2. What is your favorite food? [strawberry]
3. What college did you go to? [baylor university]
4. What is your favorite color? [peacock blue]
5. Who is your celebrity crush? [carrie underwood]
6. Favorite drink? [hot tea]
7. Dream vacation? [tour of europe]
8. Favorite dessert? [chocolate molten cake]
9. What you want to be when you grow up? [mommy]
10. What do you love most in life? [my God]
11. One Word to describe you. [loved]
12. Your favorite animal. [daschund puppy]



*Nascar is NOT a sport

dressing up the dog

I am so excited that it is the weekend. Now that I am pulling double-duty, my weekends are very precious to me. With all the bad weather, we have been enjoying being at home, and making Jonas into our little doll. This is how our normally precious-hyper-happypeeing puppy looks. He's so cute I can hardly resist him. Well today we were at target, and SO fun, they had lots of puppy clothes! We are a sucker for puppy clothes, and we just got some great deals! (Shirts for a buck!) Anyway, safe and sound at home we introduced Jonas to his new wardrobe, (although he has already experienced his cowboys jersey)
This is the first of the new looks. Vince is playing in another softball league and we (Jonas and I) usually go and support him! This is his new gameday shirt. It says "My team rules, your team drools!" How adorable! And although he has had this for a bit, and I have already posted pictures of his sweet new outfit, this is a critical piece in the new "puppy collection". I mean how cute??
This has personal sentimental reasons. When we were getting Jonas Vince and I could NOT agree on a name. Vince kept insisting that it be something along the lines of Tony, Emmit, Julius, Marion, Irwin ect. If those seem like random names, take a peek at the picture above this one, and it might give you a clue. I was pulling for something like Piper, Blane, Elliot, Baylor. Mine were more random, but still. Anyhow, we again turned to TV to answer our delima and one of our favorite shows, The Unit. If you have not seen it, its about to start up again! This is one of the best shows on TV, and stars Dennis Haysbert at Jonas Blane, a kick-butt army guy who is part of a co-op undercover part of the army that does all the most insane stuff, and gets none of the credit. Check it out! http://www.cbs.com/primetime/the_unit/ Anyway, I digress, but this is so perfect for him because its a complete replica, dog tags and all. As I am writing this, the hat that goes with the outfit was just eaten up. Ha! Jonas is still learning to love it., Sorry I don't have a picture of him with the hat on, its too funny!

the life of a double working girl

For most people, getting up at 7am is par for the course. for me, not so much. One of my favorite parts about working with Crusade is getting to sleep at least until 8. Sure came as a surprise to me that a retail store that opens at 10 would need me to come in at 8 am. And being back in Dallas, there is traffic at that time! I know I know, welcome to the "real world". The funny thing is that I don't really mind. I have been really enjoying working up at the Gap, and it makes my days go by quickly, and not to mention pulling in a bit extra moo-lah. I just really love being around people, and it is a good environment to do it in! Anyhow, when I get home, its time to cook some dinner, and then make calls or have appointments or something. So far, its been good!

And I need to brag on my fantastic hubby, he has been doing so so much to help with things that need to be done, laundry, running to the store, making calls to fix mix-ups with bills ect. I just really have been so thankful that he is doing so much, and being so wonderful! Yay for my hubby!

Also, I really want to see Ariel's Beginnings. Ariel is my favorite by far, and even though the new one is probably going to be a horrible excuse for a Disney classic, I am still really excited to see it!

Other things I am seriously looking forward to in September

• My first GAP paycheck- date TBA
• the weather cooling off!!!
• Sunset, Karen Kingsbury, Sept 23(the long awaited final book to the 14 book series about the Baxter family. I am not sure if I am happy or sad to read the last pages chronicling their life. But it is a MUST read all-nighter-tear-jerker series)
• The Office Season Premier Sept 25
• The Unit Season Premier Sept 28
• the continuation of my sweet new obsession, Greek. more on that later.

Say Hello to your friendly Gap employee!!!

As some of you may know, Vince and I have been talking a lot, and praying more about if I should be working a day job during our time back in Allen. We decided to see how things went during our first few weeks back, and basically I was going stir crazy during the day which led to 3 things. 1.) lots of munching 2.) watching way too much TV 3.) shopping shopping shopping.
As you can imagine, I none of those things are good for me, my figure, or bank account! So... Autumn got a job! We had been praying that God would open the right door at the right time. I am pretty complicated since I need a job that is really flexible and understands my hours with Crusade, and that it is my priority. IE I cant work nights or weekends- which in the sales industry is a death pill. Anyway, I applied at Fossil where I used to work, and loved, but they didn't need someone who could work when I was available. So today, I was talking with Lori Joiner, my support coach, and she said, "I am going to be praying that God gives you a job that they need you so much, that they are willing to take you when you can work for them!" All I can say is I want her praying for everything in my life because not even an hour later, I stopped by the Gap to just see if they were hiring so I could drop off a resume. I met with a manager, and they asked me to fill out an application, and before I knew it I was in an interview with the store manager. I was still worried they would be deterred by my availability, and that I have a few weeks over the next few months that I will be traveling with Crusade, but CRAZY God thing, they said 1.) It wasn't a problem 2.) They needed someone to work exactly the hours I am available 3.) Can I start tomorrow??? That was amazing, and I clearly saw how God worked it all out, from getting along well with the manager, who was excited I am a believer, and is also a writing major (crazy!), and the hours and they pay is perfect!
We will see how it pans out, but I am so thankful! We are excited to have a little extra coming in to help out and save towards the future! Exciting!!!

Soo...... come visit me, I'm at the Gap Outlet!

a happy COWBOYS family!

As I alluded to a few days ago, Cowboys season is quickly approaching. (ie: pure bliss for 1 specific member of our house) So, we are gearing up for a WINNING season, and have to dress the part. The other day I was at the Sam Moon Luggage and Gift store and I found a full out Cowboys jersey for our little pup. I couldn't wait to put it on him (dressing our little Jonas is not a new trend, and complain all you want, but I think it is precious). As soon as I got home I gave Jonas his "Birthday" present. He was less than thrilled, but I could not have been happier! He looked so precious.... for the 3 seconds he wore it before scratching his body along every surface he could find trying to pull it off. Ha! Too bad for him that he doesn't have much control over if he wears clothes or not! I won out, and little Jonas is getting used to the idea of wearing his "gameday uniform". Like I said, as funny as it sounds it is an essential in our house, so lets hope

he doesnt chew a hole in his precious Cowboys jersey. Isn't he cute?

rainboots

It's a good thing I am a sucker for a fashion trend like rainboots.

Summers in Dallas rarely see too much rain. Usually, a bit here and there, but nothing major. Lets just say these past few days have been an exception. It has been drizzly and rainy the past few days, but last night it MONSOONED!

About midnight last night Vince, Jonas and I all woke up to our room literally shaking from the thunder. Storms are usually cool to me, but this one was downright scary. No exaggeration, the storm with 5-8 seconds of lightening and thunder happening every few minutes lasted for hours. Needless to say, Jonas was freaking out and running circles on our bed and shaking. I was really afraid he was going to pee everywhere. It was a restless night, but when we got up, we saw the crazy results. Vince's family has a small creek that runs through the backyard, and it was a river. It actually came up into the yard and we were walking around in a lake back there. ( You can see that "river" in the background is usually about 2 feed wide and 3 inches deep, and the to yard is a lake!) News crews were everywhere, and we actually saw our neighborhood on the NEWS! Crazy! It is still raining now!

I looked, and looked and looked for fun rainboots last fall. It rains in Nacogdoches more than a tropical rainforest, and when it rains, it floods, and let me tell you there is not much I hate more than wet jeans, socks, and shoes. Anyway, it has not rained here ALL summer it seems, but with our crazy weather...you know what that means!!!!! RAINBOOTS! They are even houndstooth. I have attached a picture for your reading pleasure! ( I'm actually standing on the drivwasy, and the water covers my feet!)

where in the world are the walsh's?

For those of you who have been wondering about where in the world we are, and what we have been up to, allow me to share!
After spending our first year of marriage in Nacogdoches, TX working with Campus Crusade for Christ, we decided to joining staff full time and continue to work for Crusade for the long-haul. We are super excited, and it has already been an awesome adventure. We got back a few weeks ago from our New Staff Training in Orlando, FL with Campus Crusade. Now, Vince and I are taking a few months back in the Allen/McKinney, TX area to spend some time building our ministry team that will sustain us for the years to come in ministry.
Although it is really hard to not be back at SFA for the start of the new semester, we have been really enjoying being back "home." Both Vince and I grew up in the area so it has been really nice to be near (or living with) family, and connecting with friends. Besides that there are stores other than just Walmart here... which I personally am loving, and Vince is hating.
---To digress for just a moment, I have to confess that I have a deep love for shopping. Actually a better word would be browsing. I can spend a whole day going from shop to shop, just looking and enjoying, trying things on, and still leaving them in the store. I just really love to look. I know it is ultimately a waste of time, but I just feel relaxed and somehow comforted when I get to wander back and forth the aisles with no particular purpose. Vince doesn't understand, but at least he doesn't mind. Maybe you can relate... maybe not... But back to our life---
We have been busy busy since we have been here! We have so loved getting together with our ministry partners from the past years, and hearing all about what is going on in their lives! We have been so blessed in getting to meet with them!Even though that is the majority of our time, we have been really enjoying a few other things around here. I have so many people that I know who are going into teaching, and I have been trying to help them get their classrooms ready. I have been writing nameplates and birthday charts, sewing what seems like hundreds of curtains, battling staplers to hang bulletin boards and other random "teacher" activities! I feel like I could be a kindergarten teacher myself after all this preparation, but I have loved it! I have also been enjoying Wii Fit, swimming at the Natatorium, and taking Jonas, and occasionally Max, on long walks at Celebration Park (but I am so paranoid that keep my mace ready, even at 3 in the afternoon.) I just chopped off my ridiculously curly locks of hair and I am now sporting a new do- short, sleek (as long as its not raining) with sassy bangs. Totally different and I LOVE it! And there are a million other things, errands and such, but mainly meeting with people about our ministry. Vince has been working with his dad at their office supply company, and putting together and moving lots of furniture for new schools that are opening in about a week. My man using his muscles, I love it! He loves being able to see every Rangers game,( in Nac we got maybe 1 of 5 games) and he is ridiculously excited for the Cowboys season to start. Its a big deal in our house. Even little Jonas has his game-day shirt (we each have to wear our game shirt EVERY game, and can only wash when they loose.) He is also playing softball with the city league when he can, and is doing really well. My man knows how to catch a ball! We both have been really enjoying the Olympics, and staying up waaayyy too late to catch it all. I find myself screaming and whooping at the TV, as if that really makes a difference, and just loving all of it. Vince keeps saying that the gymnastics "aren't really a sport" and wants to change the channel, but I eat it right up! Gymnastics and skiing are the only sports that I am good at, and I won't let him rain on my parade. But we, as with the rest of America, and likely the world, have been completely sucked in by the Olympics. What will happen in 2 days when its all done? Lets not go there.
We have also really been enjoying hanging out with friends- its amazing that we have people here that we go so far back with and it has been so so fun to hang out with people. I wish we had more free time (and they did too) so we can hang out more, but I guess that comes with growing up. Dang being grown-up.

Well I guess that is about it. We are in Allen. We are here for a number of months. We want to hang out before we head back to Nacogdoches (ie: the middle of no-where East Texas that even though we love, it will take 3+ hours to drive to get there...so see us while we are close!)

Not too many women can say they really think that thier husband is the most amazing man in the world, but mine is. I think the longer that I am married, and dont get me wrong we are just talking a year here, the more I find that I love about Vince. Its crazy we have already been married for a year, but yet have only been married a year. I just love being his Mrs. !