22 years of bliss...

 22 years ago,Tracy and I started the RIDE of a lifetime 
as we drove to Logan, Utah, to be married...

I still remember the drive as if it happened yesterday!
We watched the sun come up on our three hour drive,

we talked about our dreams, and we couldn't stop being excited about the events that were to happen in the next few hours.

(photo on the left is the last photo taken before we got married

photo on the right..."Mr. and Mrs. Tracy Smith") 

I've always loved this saying...

"Choose Thy Love... 

 ...Love Thy Choice"

And this is something that I have reflected on daily because I truly cherish and

 LOVE MY CHOICE!

I'm married to such a hopeless romantic
and I get LOVE notes on a weekly basis.

This year, Tracy made me such a priceless treasure...he printed out an old fashioned looking post card and then spent the next 2 weeks writing love notes and thoughts all over it.
I LOVE this so much...
I can't stop picking it up and reading and cherishing all of the sweet, heartfelt sentiments!  

This is a collection of thoughts I gave to Tracy for his 42nd birthday in 2010...these feelings still ring true today and so I'm preserving them in my journal...

My Dearest, husband, love and best friend...

Happy birthday 2010!   

42 wonderful reasons why I am so head over heels in love with you!!

-- Gorgeous eyes and smile I LOVE your bright blue eyes and your electric smile.

-- LOVE your gap in your front teeth!!  I know you don’t enjoy the gap in your teeth, but I LOVE it!! Your smile makes me melt and get weak in the knees!  I couldn’t imagine a better smile than yours!
-- I love your sense of style in the way you dress. Even if you are mechanicing on the cars or working in the yard you like to be dressed nice. I still remember seeing you for the first time in Pearl of Great Price and how nice you were dressed…striped turtleneck, white V-neck sweater with burgundy and navy banding around the collar, tapered pants and your black penny loafers with the beefy sole.
-- You have the BEST sense of humor! I love that my everyday is filled with laughter because of your awesome personality and sense of humor. I know that you fill many a life with laughter and humor as well.  I just can’t believe that I have YOU to spend my life and every day with. I AM LUCKY!!
-- Love all of your doodling and drawings that you do when you explain things. I love how visual you make everything when you describe or explain something to me. This is such a wonderful strength you have!

-- I LOVE my notebook and all of your sweet love notes you leave me. I get SO excited to walk through the kitchen door each day and I am hopeful that I will see a notebook lying on the counter with notes and thoughts from you!!  They are such treasures to me!
-- Kindness...I love how kind you are to everyone you meet. I don’t think there is a mean bone in your body.
-- Curly hair. I always dreamed of marrying someone with blonde highlighted hair. I know you don’t like when your hair gets long, but I LOVE your curly locks of hair. I get excited thinking of growing old together and having you be a spunky old man with grey curly hair!
-- Facial hair! I love that you are a manly man and that you can grow facial hair. My favorite thing is when you have your “Goatee”.
-- I love that I am married to capable man!! It doesn’t matter what task you have to do, you are always capable of doing whatever comes your way and you always do a wonderful job as well!
-- Make people feel comfortable!  What a blessing it is to be married to a man that makes people feel comfortable. From co-workers, to your scouts, to ward members and family, people LOVE to be around you because you make them feel comfortable with your “put people at ease” personality you have!

-- LOVE that you love to talk and speak what's on your mind. I never have to guess what you are thinking. I am SO lucky as there are many a woman out there that would love to have husbands that would talk to them!
-- I love your zest for life and your desire to be healthy!!  How lucky I am to be married to a husband that takes care of himself physically and strives daily to make conscious choices to be healthy!
-- You love the outdoors!! I am SO grateful that our sons have a dad that has such a great love for the outdoors and I love that you so willing take us to the outdoors to enjoy hikes and nature every chance you get.
-- You are the most incredible LOVER!!  I am completely fulfilled in my sexual life and you know how to make me feel incredibly good!!  What’s amazing is that our sex life just keeps on getting better and better!  It is like an aged wine…it just gets better with age!

-- Patient...I can't believe how many people you deal with at your work and you are always patient with them.  I know that you work with many teachers and co-workers that say and do dumb things, but you are always patient and nice with them!
-- I love your desire for knowledge and learning!  It doesn’t matter what the subject is, you are constantly, learning and gaining knowledge! It is such a blessing to not be married to someone that thinks they know it all! You are never too good to learn from others.
-- Smart!  I sometimes don’t know how you got stuck with me, because I am far from being as smart and intelligent as you are!  I am daily amazed by the intelligent words that come out of your mouth and you know and teach me things that I never knew, but, you knew everything about!
-- Creative! All I can say is WOW to your creativity! You are a dream husband and you are one of the main reasons that I don’t choose to hang out with other girls, because we craft together, decorate the house together and I get all of my JOY from doing all of these FUN things with you!

-- Eloquent speaker!  You exude talent in this area. Anytime you talk you use such big words, but you can relate to anyone on any level and they can understand you!
-- Sincere!  You are always SO sincere. Even when someone bugs you, you can be sincere and give them some kind of genuine compliment!
-- Adventurous!  I love that from the moment I started dating you, you took me on adventurous and unique dates! I will forever always remember our FUN date to the bat cave and our discovery of “Calli-delight” (along with some other FUN moments in the cave as well)

(and in your mess of things in your "Man-cave", you have an 

"I love my wife" sticker amongst all of your things...)

-- Jack of all trades!  I’m sorry to admit it, but I sometimes take you for granted, because in our 20 years of marriage you have been able to figure out and fix anything you touch!
-- You’re my editor...you make me look good! I love that you proof-read all of my posts and catch and fix things so they read and post well on my Blog, because sometimes I use the wrong homonyms. 
-- You are the BEST dad!  I know that being a dad is not always easy, but you are SO wonderful to our sons! Even though they both are unique, you try to bring out the best in both of our sons. I love that you take time for them and you always want to make sure we have FUN in our home each and every day!
-- You have a great body! I love your body and you have the most sexy butt!  You look amazing for being 42 years old. I love everything about your body and WOW you know how to make me feel oh so good!
-- You take care of yourself! I am SO lucky to be married to a man that clips his nails, picks the black heads on his nose, showers, washes his hair and brushes and flosses his teeth daily. You are clean and always smell good and that is a blessing as there are women that have husbands that aren't that meticulously about grooming. You are yummy!!

-- You're mine! I truly have to someday pinch myself to make sure I am in real life!  I am SO lucky that YOU are my hubby!

-- You are SO thoughtful!! I am always finding thoughtful things from my sweetie! I have treasure boxes full of 20 years of thoughtful notes and gifts from you.  I LOVE THEM ALL!!
-- You are a great teacher!  You teach me so many things as well as our kids, but I am really enjoying watching your teaching skills with your scouts. They are learning SO many things because of your great teaching abilities!
-- People feel safe around you!  Your boys in your Scout Troop are so fortunate they have a leader they can feel safe around!  I love that people that are the “underdog” can feel safe because of your kind nature!
-- You have filled my life with FREEDOM!  I love our freedom that we experience in every area of our life! Thanks for giving me butterfly wings!
-- You are a Thinker! I am SO grateful to have a husband that thinks for himself and that doesn’t lock step to everything that everyone says to do. I love our conversations about the Cosmos and Truth and I am SO blessed that you aren’t afraid to question things. I love your honesty as well.
-- You Radiate JOY and Happiness…when I think of these 2 words YOU come to my mind!

-- You mend our clothes and can create masterpieces out of nothing…you truly know how to make a silk purse out of a sows ear!

-- You're my everything...my mechanic, my artist, my carpenter, my tailor, my landscape artist, etc....

-- you are PERFECT for me!! 

Love, Kimmie

Happy anniversary to my sweetheart! 

I hope we ring in at least another 50 together!

21 years of bliss!

This past month,  

has been quite a trip down memory lane.  

Our main computer has been ready to die for the past 6 months and Tracy had another computer already put together to be our main computer, but I didn't want to deal with transferring data and losing all of my Picasa photo folders I have created over the past three years. 

Well, 2 weeks ago, our computer would no longer boot and so Tracy pulled the old hard drive and put it in our new computer he built and we proceeded with the painful process of moving all of our data from our old computer to our new one, which was A LOT of work!! 

I had to move over all of my fonts, Word documents and family photos. During this process I came across this love letter that I had created for Tracy for our 14th Wedding Anniversary and since my Blog is my journal that will get printed into a nice book, I wanted to have this for memory sake and besides this perfectly sums up my feelings at this time in my life as well.

 (Spring 2004)

**************************

(April 24, 2004) 

10 reasons why I Love Tracy! 

--He is the person that I long to see at the end of the day—he is truly the love of my life!
It’s like we’re still dating, because when he comes home I want to be looking my best, have fresh gum in my mouth and a spray of perfume and fresh lipstick and look forward to his wonderful hug and kiss when he walks through the kitchen door!  Love is wonderful! 

-- Tracy ALWAYS make me laugh and there’s never a dull moment with him around. He has this funny way he sings songs and is constantly making funny faces and gestures! I can’t even count how many times a day he makes all of us laugh. His laugh is contagious and you can’t help but be in a happy mood with him around.

--Tracy is truly a “handyman” and can fix anything—Most women would do anything to have what I have in a husband. He is the one who always makes our home shine with all of the “fix-it up” jobs that he does. We never have cupboards that are falling off the hinges, or leaky faucets or toilets, or broken doorknobs, or squeaky floors, or a head board that bangs against the wall.  Tracy can buy anything from the store and put it together because he has all the tools for the job and has an incredible mind that can figure anything out. I’m amazed at how he can take a “sows ear” and make a “silk purse” out of anything that he touches.

--Tracy is an awesome dad and hubby— Tracy is the kind of husband who adores his wife and can’t say enough positive, sweet things to her. He makes me feel like a queen and the most wonderful, treasured wife in the world—He is the most AWESOME dad who always puts his kids first--the kids are so excited to see him at the end of the day—they wait patiently by the kitchen door and as soon as they hear the garage door go up they run out screaming to see their dad. It’s the neatest thing.

--He loves to make our place homey with his tools, talent and excellent ideas. Tracy is every woman’s dream.  Not only is he “MANLY” in every way that a husband can be, but he loves to go to home shows together and get ideas for fun things we can do to our home. He is part of every aspect of decorating our house---from deciding what we should hang on the walls to how we should landscape our yard—to buying me hanging planters for my front porch—he has great ideas for all of this!  He also loves to go and shop for clothes and housewares---I LOVE that he has a sense of “fashion” and is always dressing in the latest styles.

--Tracy is SO talented—from building beautiful furniture to making ‘antique wooden blocks” and fun cards for all occasions. Tracy’s favorite program is watching “The New Yankee Workshop” on PBS.  He is amazing with all the beautiful pieces of furniture and shelves he has built----AND he has the“garage workshop” to die for and is the envy of everyone on our block because he has all the tools for the job and not only do he have all the tools for the job, he uses every tool that he has. They’re NOT just something to look cool on the wall.  I’ve attached a photo in the picture section of the shelf he built me for Christmas—he made up his own plans—it’s a masterpiece. In fact, most of the “knick-knacks” on the shelf were carved, drawn and painted by him!

--Awesome lover....I just wish that life wasn’t so crazy so that we could enjoy this kind of FUN with each other more often than 2 or 3 times each week!  (the rest of this is probably not Blog appropriate, so I took it out)

--Tracy is definitely NON-controlling and I feel like a complete “butterfly” who can say and do what I feel.  Tracy never gets jealous—if another man talks with me, he sees it as a compliment that he has a “great catch”.  I wish more women could have a husband like this.  Jealousy and fear and guilt are terrible things and I am SO glad that they don’t exist in our home.

--He is my hiking/camping buddy and the person that I want to experience everything in life with. I never get sick of him or need a break from him. I love going on long drives with him listening to our CD’S or MP3’S that he has burned for us ”, and talking about everything in life.  I could drive all across the US and back with him and never tire or have a dull moment!!  I can truly say that if we were stranded on a desert island and there were not other people there I would be completely 100% content and thrilled and love every minute of it!

--Another word for Tracy is: Mister “Prepared” for anything—with Tracy around we will NEVER be without the necessities whether we are hiking, camping, driving in the car, etc... It doesn’t matter what emergency we have, we always come out on top because Tracy has thought to pack things to get the job done. He is truly amazing in this area and our neighbors and family are always fascinated that we never seem to get in bad predicaments because Tracy has thought of everything.

--And last of all---Tracy is the most kind and Christ-like person I have ever met. There is not anything that he wouldn’t do for you. He teaches me so much about doing for others and putting other’s needs above your own.

There are only two things 

that really bug me about Tracy

1st, he is not a very “punctual” person—in fact, we are late to everything—I am the kind of person that is always 10 minutes early to everything (as long as I am not with Tracy). In fact, our son had 26 tardies last trimester because Tracy kept hitting the “Snooze” and didn’t get ready in time to get Jade to school on time.  I am hoping that maybe someday being punctual and on time will rub off on him. His nick-name in High School was "Tardy Tracy"!  (ACTUALLY, in 2011 Tracy is doing WONDERFUL in this area, he has been in some church callings where people were always late and someone had made a comment that it is really rude to be late and that is shows people you really don't care and so for the past 3 years, being punctual has been a priority to Tracy!)

And the 2nd thing that bugs me is he has a difficulty with self discipline when it comes to “eating too much” at night.  I will have fixed a healthy, yummy supper that leaves you “pleasantly full” and then Tracy has to go and raid the pantry or fridge and finish supper with 2 bowls of cold cereal, chips and salsa, or ½ a bag of M&M's. There have been many mornings I have awoke to a bag of chips on the counter that he opened and enjoyed when he had a midnight snack craving.(sigh!)

I want to live until we are

in our 90’s in great health together! 

***************************

(our little family in Spring 2004)

(here and here 

for previous anniversary posts!)

Looking forward to another 

20, 30 and 40 years together as the 

"Happily Married Smith's"!! 

So blessed beyond measure 

to have this wonderful man in my life! 

My Real Life Love Story!

The song "Love Story" by Taylor Swift

seems to be popular with the youth right now. In fact, this past month Tracy and Jade went to a youth fireside and "Jon Schmidt" was one of the performers and played this on the piano and the kids in the audience went wild and were singing the song word for word.

Tracy came across this
"A More Real Love Story" video
that is a parody of the Taylor Swift song/video
that is PERFECT for all married couples
in Love with Children.

It starts out showing a young couple meeting and then falling in love and then how REAL LIFE sets in and you deal with the chaos of life and wonder if you're ever going to be able to go on a date again!!
To see this video with the catchy modern tune

(listen closely to the words)

that will make you dance, make you smile, make you laugh and make you want to get out there on a date with your sweetie...
Click Here
(Ethan was sitting with Tracy and I when we first watched/listened to this and he loved this song/video SO much he laughed and played it over and over and over...just like a typical kid.)

A few photos from my
Real Life Love story...
"Mr. and Mrs. Smith".

20 Years of wedded bliss!!
(Even though it started out in front of a "balloon backdrop" and my handsome prince charming forgot his white socks and was wearing black socks with his white shoes and tuxedo...We both still laugh at both of those moments!)

Marrying Mr. Smith

has been and always will be the HAPPIEST and most perfect day of my life!!

Through thick and thin, good and bad hair days, daily walks together around the block, perfect days, rain storms, snow storms, hikes in the mountains, raising sons, camping, playing in the water on the beach, enjoying nature, dealing with the stress of sick kids, DATE NIGHT, whatever it is we are doing, there is always lots of hand holding and plenty of laughter and joy and

I LOVE and cherish each and every moment of my
very REAL,
very HAPPY
Love Story!!
Looking forward to getting all "gussied up" to enjoy my Friday Night Date with the love of my life "Mr. Smith"!!

Happy Weekend,
Happy Date Night,
Happy Life!!

Choose thy Love...Love thy choice!

19-1/2 years ago

I laid my eyes on the most handsome man ever! Tracy and I had a class together at Rick’s College and little did we know we would end up dating and marrying.

It’s funny how life works out. I had a secret crush on Tracy and always made sure I had fresh gum in my mouth, fresh lipstick on and a little bit of perfume on when I went to class each day!
*************
Well, we ended up being in the same ward and we also worked together in our ward callings helping with the music in our ward. Tracy was pretty shy (although he hasn’t been shy since...in fact, I'm the SHY one in our marriage) and so I actually was the one that took him on our first date. I needed a date for a holiday work party and didn’t feel confident asking anyone I knew, but for some reason Tracy was in the right place at the right time and Tracy ended up being the person I took for my date to my party, I had to work at my job during the holidays in Rexburg, which left me all alone at Rick’s college during the holidays and when Tracy found out about this he invited me to attend his parents ward with him during the holidays, which was our second date and the rest was history and we continued dating, fell in love and were married on
April 12, 1990!

I can honestly say it’s been the best 19 years of my life
and I have no regrets and truly the highlight of my day is when my sweetie comes home and I get to be with him!
I look forward to that big hug and kiss
I get from him every night after a long days work!!
(And my favorite of all...he makes me LAUGH!)

I never get sick of him and if we were both stranded on a desert island with nobody else, that would be perfectly fine with me. He is my everything…
the first person I want to see each morning,
the person I want to hear from in the middle of the day
and the last person I want to see before I go to bed each night.
He is the love of my life
and I can say we are still NEWLYWEDS
and head over heels in love with each other!!

Engagement photo we had on our invitations!
Happily Married couple outside the Logan Temple!
This is a hilarious photo...
our photographer handed us this bag and snapped the photo and said:
"I always like to get a photo of the newlyweds in "the sack" on their wedding day"!
He was definitely an interesting photographer!
This is a wedding collage
I made showcasing our wedding invitation, napkin, hanky and also my favorite wedding quote that I cross-stitched:
"If I could capture
somehow
a moment out of time
Preserve it in a crystal cube
and place it on a shelf
for easy view.
I'd choose the white serenity
and tingling, quiet joy,
of reaching over crocheted lace,
and clasping hands
Eternally with YOU"!
This photo breaks my heart...
we were college students our first anniversary and there just wasn't much money and also this was before the days of Wal-Mart and so for our anniversary I cross-stitched a Logan Temple, had a trail of "Kisses" leading to the bedroom and made Tracy a homemade from scratch corn tortilla in the shape of a bunny with homemade refried beans, covered in lettuce, with cheese slices for the whiskers, and sour cream, cheese and hot sauce for the eyes and mouth.
It's pretty sad, but it is a wonderful memory!
Our first year of marriage I cross-stitched this saying and it has been my motto:
I “Chose my Love” and I very much “Love and adore my Choice”!

A very sweet note my hubby left for me on Friday in my "Notebook"!
I Cherish my Love Letters that I get almost daily from my sweetie and I am looking forward to MANY more years together!!
(I'm also looking forward to our anniversary celebration
going to our DEPECHE MODE concert in August!)