And he never even wakes up.

On occasion, Levi confuses me with his pillow. Which is understandable really, since our "bed" when we go to sleep, looks something like the picture above. It's really just a mess of pillows and blankets and couch cushions and other such nonsense. [Yes, you heard correctly, we sleep on the floor. It's actually quite convenient until we get the master bedroom set up with room for a bed.] The floor is usually where most of the bedding "stuff" ends up by the time we wake up anyway, which I guess would explain why Levi has to resort to the next best thing after his pillow. Which I'm proud to say, is apparently me. [Do I get a medal for that or something?] It's only on occasion, and it doesn't last too terribly long, but every so often, I wake up to something nuzzling up to the side of my arm. Then, when I'm lucid enough to realize it's Levi's head, I just lay there and watch him - sound asleep, of course - reach his arm up, lay it over me to cover the crack between arm + side of self, then he scoots his head over the little bridge he just created and lands it perfectly on my stomach [proof I need to start working out better if he thinks that my abs are soft and squishy enough to be considered proper cushion for that melon of his]. He curls up horizontal on our "mess" and sleeps there quite soundly for a good five to ten minutes. At which point I start failing in my attempt to breathe with my chest and my diaphragm [probably] starts making him sea sick moving his head up and down...and up...and down like that. Eventually, he rolls himself right off of me and proceeds to the next mass of well, anything he can find to support his never waking head. In the morning, he's none the wiser.

I love this entire process quite completely. I think if I had to choose a second life, I would choose to be that boy's pillow.

And that, is the honest to goodness truth.

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Today I Love

Today I love: cuddling him while he drives, the hesitant little boy look he gave me when he asked me if I could hem the curtains for him tonight, his extreme desire to do things the right way [even if it means it takes us two hours to do a fifteen minute project], how he never forgets to tell me that the kitchen looks beautiful after I clean it, his impeccable sixth sense which somehow allows him to know [sometimes before I do] that something is wrong with me, and his face because it's cute and hot and when pressed up against mine makes my heart beat in double time.

Today WE love: playing poker til the sun comes up.

DISCLAIMER: Insert [almost] right between "my" and "husband" in the picture above. Kthanks.

The games he plays. I tell ya.

Sometimes, we can be a little immature. I won't even lie.
We occasionally flip each other off, there may have been a time or two when we've called each other things like "dip-wad" or "stupid-face" and every so often I'll sneak ice-cold fingers onto his bare skinned back and send him writhing in a chilly disposition onto the floor.

The real kicker, is nights like tonight, where we can be...hmm, let's just say...MORE than a little immature.

While we were watching Charlie St. Cloud, we decided right about the same time as each other that it was time for an ice cream break [chocolate chip cookie dough, of course]. So, we paused the movie, and walked casually down the stairs together, and when we got to the bottom, grabbed the ice cream and cups and spoons together and proceeded to scoop and eat in perfect harmony.

Or...Maybe, just maybe I may have squealed something like "I'm gonna get the ice cream before youuuuu doooo!" and went racing down the stairs. The boy is a quick one though, he flipped off the lights and seriously slowed me down [by almost killing me, might I add - this house is an obstacle course when the lights are out]. We proceeded in the [freaking] world series of cup, spoon, and ice cream stealing, which [almost] ended in Levi locking himself in the closet with all three. [Insert large amounts of dip-wad calling here]. However. A little charm and a little middle finger action and I got my ice cream. We came to a peaceful resolution.

Or so I thought.

Then he grabbed the Lays Salt and Vinegar Kettle Cooked [best ever] chips. All I had to do, was express the tiniest bit of interest...

...and he was off!

"BAHHHHHHH!" as he scooted away [boy is a pretty quick scooter, if I do say so myself] hoarding the chips the whole while.

He held onto them for quite some time before actually letting me have any. Really, if we're being totally honest, he's just a little more immature than I am. Figures. He is the boy.

Stupid-face.

Today I Love

Today I love: how I only have to say things once, watching him peel and pick apart potatoes until there's really nothing left, his creative vision, the way he stocks up on things [before he has to pound the shampoo bottle on the side of the tub twenty times to get the last drops out], how he stands [and poses] when he thinks no one is looking, and all the times throughout the day that he catches my eye just to look away again [I think he thinks it makes him mysterious and I am just fine letting him believe it].

Today WE love: staying up late enough that breakfast becomes dinner.

He's got the beach in his heart.

Today I love: watching him read his ipod two inches from his face before he finds his glasses in the morning, the way he forgets to dry his back off when he gets out of the shower, his willingness to forgive and forget, the way he puts his foot up on the seat when he drives, the smack on the bum I got when I cornered him in the pantry, his so insistent ever failing attempts to teach me how to play pool, and the inner California boy inside of him just dying to get out.

Just call me Levi's Girlfriend.

I went down to Fresh and Easy today to grab some milk while Levi tried to get some work done outside before the sun went down. As I checked out, one of the boys who seems to be working every time we're there stopped me, "Where's' your second half?" he said with a smile on his face. "I know, right? He had to stay home and get some work done today." "Aw, well tell him I say not to work too hard." He gave me a little wave, and headed off to clean up the Greek Yogurt display [which had recently been traumatized by some rather rambunctious little younglings who by the looks of things were confusing the plastic cups with hand grenades.]

Can I just say how much ridiculous joy I get from knowing people associate me with Levi Chell Roberts?

You know how while you're growing up, if you have like, Miss Everybody Knows Her as a sister, or you become friends with Popular Mcgee at some point, and you say hi to someone who knows one of them, they're like, "Oh, you're Miss Everybody Knows Her's sister, right?" or, "Oh, I've seen you with Popular Mcgee, haven't I?" and you hate it with a passion and decide you'd just rather nobody even know you?

Well that is NOT what this is like. Not even a little bit. This is like, if everywhere I went for the rest of my life, every single person referred to me as Levi's girlfriend and no one ever even said my name again, I would be such a happy little duck. In fact, it would be quite an honor.

In fact, from now on, if you would be so kind as to start just calling me Levi's Girlfriend, that'd be great!

Dear Mr. Roberts,
I'm the other half of your Peanut Butter Mood, the other half of your Sweet Pork Salad, the other half of your Honey Lime Enchiladas, and I love it all. Let's never stop finding things to share!
Love, Me

The better story.

It's just more exciting this way. I mean I could say that I would've discovered it anyway. I could tell you that it would have caught on no matter what.

I mean really. I love creative photography. LOVE it. And I know I haven't been doing a ton of it, as of late, but I want to, and I LOVE it. [Did I say that yet?] I just mean, that I could tell you, quite easily, that I picked up the camera all by myself and started snapping away. OR.

I could tell you my story. Which really, is the real story anyway.

You be the judge.

Time to back up again. Three years ago [but really we're going on four now]. It's him and me. We're just talking. Like we did. All the time. In fact probably, it was one of those times when I texted him and he [just a little slower on the whole texting scene than I was] called me back within minutes to talk about the "Hey!" I had just texted him. We started talking about people and life and inspiration and all that jazz, and he asked if I had heard of Elsie. At the time, to him, just someone his sister told him about doing a cool thing called "Project 365". I had, of course [hasn't everyone?]. After flipping through some of her pictures the boy said,

"I think we should do it together."

And it all started. We took pictures everyday. I would post, and he would post, and we would comment, and we would text, and we would go on photo shoots together [all of which were a bust because the girl was too nervous to aim a camera at herself in front of him anyway], but it was fun! It was fun and inspiring. And I was hooked. I get that some people might call it "stretching" it a little, but I'm not kidding people. I honestly, one hundred percent BLAME THE BOY. I'm just not sure I ever would have really gotten into it the way I did if it weren't for him.

Really I just believe in giving credit where credit is due. I'm just fairly certain that there's not a single greater thing in the world than having someone in your life who inspires you so fully!

Here's to pictures on top of pictures that I get to take with youuuuu, for years to come. Thanks, babe.

Some randoms, really.

Woke up to the boy today. To his cute little boy whisper.

"Babe! Babe, it's raining!"

He jumped up and stumbled around until he found his glasses, then threw on his jacket. He was outside on the porch before I even fully comprehended what he had said. By the time I figured that out, he was poking his messy haired head back inside, "Come watch with me soon, k?" and the door swung shut again.

It was quite an impressive morning show really, I mean, the boy isn't exactly a morning person. Although this did all happen around 3:00 this afternoon. Either way. It was adorable, and it certainly made it hard for me to stay in bed for any period of time. I was up with my jacket on, on the porch, blinking away the eye boogers quicker than you can say the alphabet.

It was cold, so we only watched it for a while, outside like that. [Not like last summer, when it rained this hard and we threw on our swimming suits and ran around the neighborhood park laughing out loud like crazy people all night long.] However, we opened the windows and made sure to stop and enjoy the scene every time we passed. The boy caught me in one of these particular, moments.

I love that my boyfriend takes the time to take pictures. I love that my boyfriend takes time, really. A few minutes ago he asked me if I ever get "jealous of his job". I gave him my best "Huh?" look, and he explained that he wondered if I got jealous of the time he spent working.

This is coming from the boy who on EVERY break, asks if I want to play poker with him. Or watch a movie with him. Or eat something with him. Or go to the store with him.

This is also coming from the boy who asks me to come hang out with him while he does his handi-work.

Oh, and the same boy who tells me on a regular basis that he loves that I sleep with him even if he works crazy schedules.

I then gave him my  best, "Pleeeeaaase." look and followed it up with a "C'mon, baby. If you start thinking your shoes are hotter than me, then I might start to worry."

Speaking of hot, remember me saying something about how good the boy looks in a white tee shirt the other day? I think he took that to heart. He pulled this one out on me the other day.

Yes that's Wendy's. We're not perfect, okay?

Ummm, is he trying to kill me? DANG babe.

All right. I am fully aware that this blog post is completely random and inclusive of thought processes that you [more than likely] care very little about, but we never really talked much about our Valentines Day, and really there's just not much to tell. I told you, we're not huge Vday lovers. We're the annoying, "What? I don't need one day to tell you I love you, I tell you that every dayyyy!" people. It works for us, but don't let that get you down. If you came home to an over-sized teddy bear and pink and white m&m's scattered all over the floor, hey. Props! That's just not really my  kind of thang. We made dinner together, and we ate it together, and it was delishhhh. The only gift-giving we did, was this. I told Levi I was "giving him a promise". He was really excited when we [thought about] starting project 365 - but geeeeez. That's a lot of pressure to take on up front like that! So. I told him that I would make sure we were taking 3 pictures a week together. 3 out of 7...that's do-able, right? Anyways. I'm posting it for all the world to see so that maybe, just maybe, it'll be easier for me to stick to it. Wish us luck! New week. Fresh start. Gotta love Sundays. Talk to you soon!

The story of the brick.

Here's how laying our patio ended up going.

First, we spent four months buying all the supplies, readying the cement, and laying the pattern. Then, Saturday morning, we swept sand over it to fill all the cracks. 

Here's the exciting part. Sunday, we sprayed it all off.

Then, we enjoyed it for like a day.

Then, it was time to seal it. [Seal? Is that right?] We went for the "wet-look" seal, and we rolled it on...

White?? Just kidding. It got clear as it dried. Now, we get to enjoy it endlessly.

The end.

In all actuality, this was a long and grueling, and OH, SO, WORTH IT process! We're seriously so excited and proud to be done with this part of it. Even if there is a lot of work still ahead of us, seeing this part is enough of a reward for us to keep pluggin'. 

I'll post more "norm" pictures of it soon, but first we need to clean it off from our Valentines Day SLASH Christmas Tree Disposal fire. Oh yes, we combined them. We're not huge Valentines Day people - could you tell? Sorry for the ridiculous lack of posts as of late, I'll get back on it...tomorrow. Probably. Maybe. We'll see. I'll try?

Our sick day turned into a sick week.

Sorry? We're just finally starting to feel ourselves again. Can I get a BIG hallelujah??

Huh.

All this time, and I STILL can not spell that word on the first try [hall-lay-loo-ya]. Thank goodness for spell check.

Despite our current predicament [of being ill], we've stayed fairly busy [ten points to the first person to guess why such a simple "cold" has lasted this long...]. Levi's been working some more on our patio which has turned into a [possibly ten year] project. And we turned last night into a lovely little impromptu date night. We ate at Pei Wei, [where I got the Mandarin Kung Pao chicken and may or may not have cried a little at the way it filled my mouth with deliciousness] and then we went and walked around the Barnes and Noble where we went on one of our first dates to [three years ago]. In retrospect, I probably should've gotten a picture of us reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid which is what we read there together three years ago, but you know that part in Singing in the Rain where they're watching the first talking motion picture and the voices get all off so the dude is saying "No no no!" in a squeaky high pitched girl voice and the girl is shaking her head "Yes yes yes!" in a lovely deep masculine voice? My brain and my body are working a little like those two at the moment. Not exactly all together yet so, I didn't think about it until now. Next time, next time. Anyway. As we were sitting in Pei Wei, we looked around at the all the other little couples in the restaurant enjoying their food together and we started analyzing them. We tried to figure out which were on first dates, which had been together a long time, which had been friends for a while and were finally trying to bump it up to dating...oh we had them all figured out. Then somehow our focuses started zeroing in on ourselves. We started wondering what people thought about us sitting there, and what the people in Seattle thought watching us that first week we were there. We decided that there hasn't been a single time in the history of our relationship where we actually looked like first date material.

I won't use the "love at first sight" card, and I won't even claim to have really fallen in love with him that first week, but there was a moment right after he picked me up where we realized we had left my phone and his map back at my parents house, when we went back to get them, he told me he'd just run in and grab them real quick, so I didn't have to get out of the truck. Watching him run in for me, I knew right then and there that I could definitely, fall in love, with Levi Chell Roberts.

I was right. And by the time we even got to the first place anyone would have seen us together to analyze us, we would've looked like newlyweds.

The note we left at our hotel after that first night.

Then last night, there we were. Sitting on the same side of the table [to make cuddling a little easier, of course], eating off of each others plates, getting each other to-go boxes and drinks, and laughing at each others dumb jokes.

It's not that we don't have our moments, it's just that today, in particular, I'm grateful to have found someone who is as dedicated as I am to never losing that giddy, young love spirit. I will love that boy out loud until the day I die.

[Negative 15 points to everyone who had to sing, "I'll spill my heart for you..." after that sentence. But positive 20 points for that being a dang good song!]

Sick day.

We're calling in sick today.

From you know, life.

Our throats are all scratchy.

Our noses are all sneezy.

Our heads are all fuzzy.

And these coughs - Oh these coughs! - they're going to be the end of us. We're near positive.

 It's the kind of coughs that send the picture-perfect-full-of-laughter-five-bags-of-Marshmallow-Matey's-falling-out-of-their-shopping-cart  families speed walking out of the isles you enter at the grocery store. Like just being in the same city with you is icky.

They're probably right.

We feel icky.

Anyone feeling inclined to send us chicken noodle soup and taco bell burritos is more than welcome.

It's like you know me.

I have this thing about starting blogs in the middle of a thought. For example, today's post.

Not the kind of lecture that makes you feel bad about something in the past, the kind of lecture that makes you feel good about something in the future. [Yes, that was really the start of the blog. You can stop trying to scroll up now.] That's the kind of lecture it was. The kind that left me walkin' on air. The kind that made me feel worthwhile. The kind that re-convinces me of his love for me.

See, I like to just pretend that you already know that I struggle a little with feeling worth it. To anyone. Anywhere. I just pretend that you already know that the whole lecture started because after Jamba Juice last night, I asked if we could run into Target real quick, then quickly began apologizing for even asking because I'm just sure he doesn't want to and why would I make him run into Target with me just because I want to see if they have this lipstick color in stock when he's a boy and doesn't care about stuff like that. I pretend you know that and that you even know how fully Levi would love to run into Target with me because he's so willing to be interested in anything that I am. It's like whistling a happy tune. I think maybe if I just tell myself that you know how fully worth it that lecture made me feel, than maybe you will. 

Because really, it's a feeling you should know.

Wait for it.

We took pictures of each other today. That sort of counts as a 365 entry...right?

My favorite look of his [today]:

His favorite look of mine [today]:

Coincidences.

It's a good thing we're good at some things...cause we are officially horrible at taking pictures every day.

[This is from day 1.]

 [What is it about that boy in a white t shirt.]

Today when I got home from work, the boy came down the stairs halfway, squatted down to catch me in the eye and excitedly shouted, "Hey babe!". I can't actually think of a better anything to come home to.

Yesterday when I was getting ready to leave for work I realized how cold it was outside and said some out loud realization that I probably should have headed out earlier because the trucks windows were sure to be frosted over. Superman strikes again. The boy had gone out and started it about 20 minutes earlier. He saves my life on a regular basis, I tell you.

The other day after a very girlish and ridiculous blow up from me to him, he went on to explain to me how it was all right because really he should be kissing me more than he has been lately, and that he should probably be cuddling me more than he has lately, oh and that he missed that one day that one time when he could've walked me out and didn't. Right honey. Those are definitely reasons why you deserve the third degree burns I just gave you from my fire breathing extravaganza.

Then, there's tonight. Here's the back-up story. This afternoon, after laying the kids I nanny down for a nap, and upon the commencement of the cleansing of the living room quarters, I flipped on TBS just for some background sound. Friends came on. It was the episode where Joey decides to take Rachel out on a date because she's preggo and missing that whole scene. [You know, hasn't everyone seen every episode of Friends ever?] Anyway. He's so sweet. He "knocks" on the door despite the fact that they live in the same apartment. He brings her flowers. He asks her questions. He shows her his "moves". Really, he's the perfect date. I was thinking about how much fun it looked like as I watched it. What a nice kind of "escape" he provides for Rachel and how adorable it is for him to do that for her. Tonight, when I got home. There were some things going on. I talked to Levi about them but was still feeling just a little overwhelmed. Amidst the tears, I unloaded on him a bit. What does he do? [Mind you, I haven't told him yet about the Friends I watched today. Still haven't, actually.] This is his response, "Amalie, will you go on a date with me?"

HOW does he do that? Yes people, he:

1. Knocked on my door.

2. Asked me questions.

3. Flirted.

4. Made me forget everything.

5. Gave me a PERFECT escape for the night.

I don't know how he does it, but remind me to NEVER let that boy go.

Dear Levi,

Thank you for being perfect. You are a real catch. That Jamba was healing.

Love, Me