Mr. Birthday

Parker turned 29 today.  He had a second round of birthday celebrations with his brother, sister-in-law, and his dad, who came up for the weekend to help Parker on his basement project.  I'm actually a bit jealous that I'm missing out on another delicious meal cooked by Marshall.  He really has some mad kitchen skills!  

Parker opened more of his birthday gifts on his actual birthday.  One that I got for him was the Mr. Birthday book.  Do you remember these from our childhood?  Anyone?  I was absolutely obsessed with them for a season in elementary school!  I looked forward to our weekly library check out time when I could read more about Little Miss Sunshine, Mr. Bounce, Mr. Cool, and Mr. Funny.  Who knew that Little Miss Late, Little Miss Tidy, Little Miss Busy, and Little Miss Chatterbox would describe me so well later in life?

Mr. Clever, Mr. Strong, Mr. Tall, Mr. Funny, Mr. Good, Mr. Busy, Mr. Brave, and of course Mr. Perfect fit my guy to a tea!

On a more serious note, in honor of Parker turning 29, here are just a few of the things that I love about my fiance...

1)  his heart for God and his passion to follow wholly after Him
2)  he makes the most delicious coffee and breakfast
3)  he can fix anything around the house
4)  his sense of adventure and love for the outdoors
5)  his sense of humor and ability to make me laugh
6)  they way he treats me like the most beautiful princess in all the land
7)  his vocal and instrumental musical talents
8)  he's a manly man who likes to fish, get dirty, and do other guy stuff
9)  his love for family
10)  his problem-solving abilities, work ethic, and integrity at work
11)  he plans awesome dates
12)  he loves to travel and experience new things
13)  we make a good tag team in the kitchen
14)  he likes to plan, make lists, and do lots of research on various topics
15)  education is important to him and he is a life-long learner
16)  he's a Midwestern guy with a laid back personality and traditional values
17)  his servant heart
18)  his brilliant mind
19)  his spreadsheet making skills are out of this world
20)  the way he understands my roots and my past
21)  his love for the mountains
22)  he is a strong, yet tender, leader of us
23)  his knowledge and ability to use technology
24)  the way he shares his heart with me, even his deepest hopes, dreams, and fears
25)  he is a deep, reflective thinker
26)  the way he holds me and makes me feel like everything is going to be okay
27)  he is brave, strong, wild & free
28)  he's my best friend and is always there to listen, support, and encourage
29)  he picked me!

...and the love and good times continue

My guy is really incredible...super caring and thoughtful.  Just when I thought that we were done celebrating Valentines Day, I received another surprise.  Well, that is after a little prompting from Parker to make sure that I checked my mail.  You see, we have very different priorities about checking our mailbox.  For Parker, it's like the first thing he does when he pulls into his driveway.  Sometimes, he even checks it several times a day.  Me on the other hand, well, if it's cold and dark out when I get home, I just don't feel like walking all the way down the sidewalk to check the mail.  I'll maybe check it a few times a week.  So, I guess you could say that maybe I hurt Parker's feelings a little bit when he put a lot of effort (and a few extra dollars) into making sure that I got my Valentine's Day card on time, only to realize that I hadn't been checking my mail for the past few days.  If only I had know what I had been missing out on, I surely would have been checking my mail several times a day!

Parker sent me this card...originally entitled "Autumn in the Headwaters" by a British Columbia photographer.  According to Parker though, it was renamed what else, but "Mountains Meet the Prairie."  

Dear Sweetheart,
Taller than the mountains seeming to reach up to heaven, wider than the prairie seeming to stretch on forever, these are two ways to describe my love for you.  I am far from perfect.  And I have many mistakes yet to make.  Though through it all, you can still depend on my.  I am yours, through and through.  For what it's worth, it's true.  Champion or failure, hero or not, brilliant or average, normal or weird, I am yours.  May we ever learn to grow together.
Love always, Parker

The sweetness continued when I got to visit Parker just a few days later for the long President's day weekend.  We met where else, but at an airport.  His work unexpectedly took him to Calgary for two days, so his amazing work travel agent scheduled his flight so that he arrived back home just a few hours before me.  He greeted me at my gate and gave me this sweet gift:

a children's book about Minnesota.  The whole collecting kids books from important places tradition started last year when Parker gave me "Catch the Wind," a book about his company's wind farms.  Though we continue to discuss future plans together, both the mountains out west and the woods and prairie in the Midwest will always be a part of us.

The rest of the weekend was spent with family, an early celebration of Parker's birthday, and some wedding planning.

We got my ring resized (again), and it came back extra clean and very sparkly.  It was also super exciting to pick out Parker's band.  It is made from cobalt and is simple, sturdy, manly, and strong just like my guy.

We had a double date with Kate & Marshall to Minnesota's public radio show "A Prairie Home Companion."  While I was not previously familiar with the show, it was very much a part of Parker and Marshall's childhood.  It was special to be able to share something so meaningful with them.  I did enjoy Heather Masse, a special guest and former Wailin' Jennys member.  The atmosphere and live broadcast from the cool old Fitzgerald Theater downtown was pretty sweet too.

 

Another fun thing from the weekend was beginning our wedding registry together.  Crate & Barrel has a special even where the store was closed down for regular customers, and it opened early just for wedding couples.  A lot of the representatives from the products (pots/pans, knives, small appliances, etc.) were there and others came around and served us free appetizers and treats.  It was amazing.  In just under 3 hours, we had a pretty successful first registering experience.  Of course, Parker's favorite thing was the Wusthof knives.  After picking out several, he even scored a free pair of kitchen sheers (which made his brother very jealous :).

Not only cute, but the best name ever!

We continue to experience many more "firsts" together.  One not so pleasant one was when we decided to tag team the afternoon meal.  Well, by "tag team" I basically mean that Parker let me use his car to go pick up my ring since I was going crazy without it, while he made us lunch.  (Yes by these choices, you can see who is the more thoughtful and serving one in the relationship.)  So, after peeling out of the drive way with the touchy gas pedal, I felt like I had the hang of his car.  That is until I came out of the jewelry store and tried to unlock it.  At this point, his car decided to HATE me!  I thought that I would just manually unlock the driver's door and save a click on the automatic opener.  Bad choice.  The alarm went off and continued to go off for what felt like five minutes (though in reality was probably more like 60 seconds).  Despite my valiant efforts to turn it on/off, get out and back in, attempt to start the car (which of course didn't work), push every button imaginable (don't ask me how I thought the windshield wipers would fix the problem, but at the time it seemed reasonable), use the key in the door or just the clicker, and all of the above-mentioned steps as fast as I could and as many as I could do at a time, nothing worked.  My frustration was compounded with the fact that Parker didn't answer either of his phones when his damsel in distress called.  Finally, by some miracle, the car decided to stop hating me and it started.  Let's just say that by the time I walked back into Parker's house, I wasn't the excited girl that just picked up her ring.  Maybe I softened a little with a bear hug, and when I saw the meal awaiting me:

Besides  having a fruit, vegetable, and grain (nice work Parker), do you notice any other theme?  

We had another delicious meal cooked by Marshall, which even included some homemade chocolate truffles and custard for dessert.  This was also the first of many birthday celebrations for Parker.  As tradition has it in the Lohrenz family, Parker insisted on decorating his own cake.  I was only allowed to make the fun-fetti part.  Leave it to my engineering guy to use a paring knife, computer paper, a cutting board, and dark hot chocolate powder to pull off something amazing...

After some good quality time and talks about our future, we once again headed to the MSP airport.  This time, I was headed home and Parker was off to Milwaukee for a 24 hour business trip.  Someday, just someday we'll go to the airport together, get on the SAME flight, and end up in the SAME place.  I can hardly wait for that day...

My Valentine

It's kind of weird to think that at this time last year Parker and I weren't officially dating.  Well, we had been Skyping, talking, and emailing a lot, but he was just about to come to Colorado to see me...basically for the first time (unless we count shaking hands in church back in 2008).  So much has happened in just 1 year...

So, since we've never been together for a Valentine's Day, I didn't really know what to expect.  I also don't really like surprises.  (Though, Parker is really great about gently easing me in with small ones.)  That being said, you could say that I was really surprised when a bouquet of chocolate dipped strawberries from Edible Arrangements arrived for me at work on the 13th!  They were delicious!  I had them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the past few days.  He's such a thoughtful guy and he knows me well!  A little fruit (the healthy component) and then lots of chocolate...yum!

 

 

On Valentine's, I also woke up to this text:  Good morning my love, my sweetheart, my Valentine.  My heart is yours this and every day.  May your heart be overflowing with joy...

We finished out the day with a date night Skype.  Parker opened his gift from me, a Mixbook digital photo book entitled "I Love You, Let Me Count the Ways..."  It was definitely a hit.  Maybe I'll get him to tell you about it, buy adding his voice to our blog...hummmm.

Even if it is sort of a silly Hallmark holiday, it's a good reminder to let the people in our lives know we love them and that they matter to us.  We hope you were able to celebrate in some way with your loved ones.