Tag Archives: marriage

happy anniversary to us

official wedding 200I started writing this post 5 or 6 times and inevitably deleted them all. Marriage is so different than I had ever imagined. So much better and fulfilling and yet so much harder all at the same time. Ray and I were best friends long before we were dating or engaged. While it might have seemed fast, our love grew slowly and through authentic experiences.
The last 4 years have been amazing at times and terrible at times, and I am forever grateful  to have shared those experiences with Ray. He leads our family in the right direction and sticks to what he believes.
2010 5Happy anniversary to my soul-mate, my “one”, my ride-or-die, my bae! official wedding 129 Extra! The photo above is my #1 favorite from our reception!

Weird Shit My Husband Owns – Boots

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? If you’re interested, you can see the previous WSMHO posts here, here and here.IMG_0107IMG_0108

Allison’s take:
If you’re familiar with Ray, then you know he has very distinct style. If you catch him at work he will be wearing grey slacks, a collared button up, ox blood winged tipped shoes, and possibly a tie. Outside of work is a different story. In his off time Ray typically wears either a super hero tshirt or western button up, a vest, jeans, and boots. Always boots. Specifically, snake skin boots. He’s been wearing boots for as long as we’ve been friends.
Another thing you may or may not know about Ray is that he’s thrifty. Because boots can be VERY expensive, he usually buys them gently used off ebay. I left that tidbit of information in this post so you wouldn’t think we’ve spent hundreds of dollars on each pair of these boots. We’re crazy, but not that kind of crazy.
A few weeks ago, while we were doing a little spring (winter?) closet cleaning, I counted no less than 9 pairs of boots. That didn’t include the pair on his feet, the pair in the living room or the pair under our bed.
You might be thinking “There’s got to be an explanation. Maybe Ray moonlights as a Florida cracker cowboy at night” but you’re wrong. He doesn’t own a ranch (but maybe one day!!) or hang with cattle ever. He works on computers at a bank and podcasts about super heroes. So, Ray having 10 + pairs of boots is weird, right?IMG_0113

Ray’s take: Okay guys, so I like boots. I wear boots a lot. Up until recently they were my everyday-all-day shoe of choice. And yes, I am partial to snake skin boots, I just like them. I do not feel like it is crazy or weird that I have 10+ pair of boots though. Girls have tons of shoes, but I’m not writing a “Weird Shit My Wife Owns, 33 pair of Ballerina Flats” post. For some reason that seems completely reasonable to people.
Anyway, why do I own so many boots? Well I wear a 12 1/2 in boots, and I Prefer Tony Lama boots. That’s not a combination you come across often in the gently-used market. So 2-3 pair of those boots are for future use. I haven’t started wearing them yet, but I found a good deal on them, and pulled the trigger. They are my spares right now.
I don’t really have an explanation for the other 7 or so pair other than they all have a story. The pair on the middle row far left, were the first boots I started wearing. They were not snake skin, but they did belong to my dad. I wore them for years. Same row but to the far right  were my wedding boots. I had them patched up and resoled specifically for our wedding. They were my first pair of snake skin boots, and very comfortable. The pair on the left on the bottom row are my Dragon Slayer boots, self explanatory of course. Top Right hand corner, I wore while in Guatemala, they have paint on them from where we helped paint some houses. Bottom right were my dress boots for a while.

So every boot tells a story, don’t it? So in conclusion, not weird.

Allison’s take x2 – I love him and I actually don’t care if he has lots and lots of boots. 🙂

anniversary day date according to our iphones

photo 3 (3)Last weekend we were finally able to spend some time together celebrating our 3 year anniversary. We took a day trip to St. Augustine, which is only about an hour and a half from our home.
When we arrived we had breakfast treats and day cocktails.photo (10)

We walked around the oldest city in America, window shopping and people watching. We visited Wolf’s Museum of Mystery. It was, well, everything I expected. Strange art and artifacts, horror movie props, photographs and other oddities. Upstairs is a mini theater (more like a Halloween decorated living room) where you can watch horror movies and eat popcorn at your leisure. If you’re into Butch Anthony style art, this is the place for you.photo 1 (15)

After the museum, we went to San Sebastian Winery for a wine tasting. San Sebastian specializes in wine made from muscadine grapes, which are native to Florida. I only liked one wine I tasted which was the Vinters White.photo (12)

Next we headed to a comic shop, which was super boring to me but Ray loved it.
We drove over to the island to smell the beach air before heading to The Columbia for dinner. 1905 salad + champagne sangria = YES PLEASE
We finished the night drinking coffee and walking around historical downtown.photo 2 (15)We had such a nice day celebrating our marriage!

Thoughts on Marriage

marriage 2Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot on marriage. Everyone always says marriage is hard, and it definitely can be. When I was younger I always assumed that hard was a bad thing. Hard was equated with bad, while easy was equated with good. In actuality the hard parts of marriage, or rather the sanctifying and edifying parts have been some of the greatest.
Overall, living my life with Ray Hancock came easy, but that’s not to say there weren’t any adjustments. I had to forego my habits and wants and put him before myself, which is still hard for me. BUT, I get to live life with someone who passionately loves the lost, is strong and determined, encouraging, who isn’t a quitter and who is cautious with decision making (none of which really apply to me). My life was awesome before Ray and I were married and despite being super poor, 3 broken cars in 1 year, job loss and a tree breaking our house, my life is even better with him.
I don’t have an agenda or anything for this post, I just wanted to share a little of what’s happening in my brain. =)