Dear Mr. Rasmussen,
Here’s to Eleven in 11 of 11! Happy Anniversary, Babe!
Love,
Mrs. Rasmussen
Editor’s Note: Experts tell us that the keys to a successful, happy marriage are communication & compromise, but we know the truth…and, it’s the title of this post. 
Today marks a day I’ve been dreaming about for years. 11 years to be exact.
11 years ago, I wanted to get married on 11-11, but we couldn’t, because the Courthouse will always be closed that day for Veteran’s Day. So, we shifted our plan to the 15th. (The 23rd was another option, for not-so-obvious reasons – Hail Eris! – but that was too close to Thanksgiving and would put a kink in our Honeymoon Plans. Priorities, people.)
You see, we “eloped” and the filling out of the paperwork and turning it in is what made everything legal, hence the trip to the Courthouse, and thus the reason for the 11-11 wish that wasn’t to be exactly the way we wanted it. Knowing that our 11 year anniversary would fall in 11 of 11 made it all better. No, really, it did.
Why 11-11?
I always make 11:11 wishes. Usually twice a day, if I happen to see the clock. It’s almost always the same wish. No, I won’t share what it is, but it’s like a mantra that I whisper to myself. It keeps me grounded, and it makes me smile.
Today’s wish needs to be turned up to 11.
So, whatever you’re doing today at 11:11 on 11-11-11, I hope you pause and make a wish. A date like this won’t come around again for a while.
Click photo for more detail.
This is one of my favorite photos from Hawaii. Yes, I say that with almost every photo. I can’t help it!
Why does this one look weird? Well, when we were in Kauai, we were fortunate to have a blazingly bright full moon. We decided to play around with our new camera on the beach, and we set the exposure really long and used the moonlight to take our photo.
I haven’t edited this photo at all. This is the power of a fancy camera, creativity, and moonlight.
I love how the waves appear to wash right through us, softened and morphed together as time goes on. Little movements we made while standing still for so long appear blurry and soft.
When I saw this photo, it reminded me of our relationship. For almost 14 years, we’ve stood by each other as waves have crashed around us, sometimes soothing, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes frightening, always exciting. Time has softened it all. Little movements we’ve made together or separate appear blurry now, but when held long enough, our image is strong.
Today, 10 years ago, we made this bond public and official.
Here’s to many more years of magic and moonlight, softness and strength, love and excitement.
Happy Anniversary!
I love you, babe.
It’s NaBloPoMo Day 15!
Today’s confession: Nine years ago today we eloped. Kinda.
Today is our 9th Wedding Anniversary. We’ve lived together almost 13 years! It’s amazing how quickly the time flies by when you’re having fun. I’m so thankful to look back over the last decade-plus and see such happy times. There have been some struggles here or there, but at the end of the day, every day for almost 13 years, we’ve ended the day on the same side.
We were just as committed to each other the day we moved in together as the day we got married, so that’s why I always honor the total time together.
In the state of Colorado, you are allowed to officiate the ceremony yourself, and that’s just what we did. By the time my husband officially proposed, we’d lived together almost 4 years.
Why wait so long? Why not?
We weren’t in any hurry.
I’m a perfectionist, but I’m not a traditionalist. Neither is my husband, so we make the perfect pair! By the time we decided to tie the knot, we’d been in 10 weddings. We were all traditional-wedding’d out! We are firm believers in doing what is best for you. All those weddings were awesome for the people who wanted that. We didn’t. It isn’t who we are.
Our new lives and home were in Colorado, and the thought of going back to the Midwest for a traditional wedding ceremony just wasn’t who we were.
We didn’t want to waste money on a big to-do, knowing that it wasn’t what we wanted.
He proposed at the end of September, and we set a date in Mid-November to make things official. I’ve always had an affinity for 11:11, so we wanted to get married that day. Unfortunately, the 11th is Veteran’s Day, so the courthouse wouldn’t be open. The next logical day was the 15th, so we took it. Plus, getting married in 2000 had its advantages. The last two digits of the year are how many years we’ve been married. Simple!
Why so quickly? Why not?
We put the plans into motion. We ordered announcements with a gorgeous mountain cut-out scene on them. We were going to be married at the foot of the rockies in a local courthouse. We loved the view from there.
Not everyone would be able to make it out here, so rather than hurt some feelings, we risked hurting everyone’s feelings equally. No one was invited. That way, everyone was equally perturbed.
Many of our out-of-state friends would be traveling back to the Midwest to visit relatives (just like we did year after year) over the Christmas Holiday, so we planned a Reception back there for friends and relatives.
So, on Wednesday, November 15, 2000 at around 10am, we exchanged our own vows in our apartment. We exchanged rings that symbolized what we already knew and had already been living. We drove to the courthouse and signed a paper. It was an elopement without all the secrecy. The ladies behind the desk cheered and then got teary. We did the same.
We hopped a plane and flew to Vegas to party for a week. A month later, during our Holiday Visit back to the Midwest, we celebrated with friends and relatives.
It was simple. It was practical. It worked out perfectly. It was exactly how we wanted it. I wouldn’t change it for anything.
I can’t let this week slip by without mentioning a milestone of sorts…
July 22nd was The Casual Perfectionist’s 2-year birthday! Can you believe it? So far, we’ve survived the last few days without many tantrums, but the week isn’t over yet.
Now, if you look in the archives, you’ll see things written back in May of 2007, but as I mention there, those were all post-dated with things I’d written offline. The official go-live date of the blog was July 22, 2007.
So, here we are two years and 936 posts later (937 if you count this one), and the story has only just begun.
Thank you for following along with me! I can’t wait to see what the next year brings!
A year ago today I stood at the edge and looked over the side. I’d been to a similar cliffside many times in the past, and I’d jumped with no problems.
I’d always landed with perfect form. Every move calculated, the result expected and achieved.
But this time was different. I wasn’t going to be leaping toward something tangible.
The excitement of the unknown not only threatened to eat me alive, it made me feel more alive than I ever had.
The urge to jump was overwhelming.
So, what was holding me back?
I’d done all my research, the Pros to Jumping weighing so much more than the Cons that it nearly pulled me over the edge.
I didn’t want to be pushed.
I wanted to jump.
There’s a difference.
It took all my strength to stand there, the different choices blowing about me like the winds coming up from the canyon floor.
The sun was shining warm on my back.
The breeze was blowing softly on my face.
My heart lit up with a smile, and my head started to breathe.
Well, well, well…what have we here? Another year has slipped by in the blink of an eye. It seems like I was writing an Anniversary Post just a few months ago, but it’s really been a whole year! (I checked.)
Today marks our 8-year Wedding Anniversary! We’ve scheduled a sitter, and we’re going out for sushi. Nothing says “I love you” like a sitter and sushi.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yeah!
I can’t wait!
What follows may or may not be my side of a conversation I’ve had with my hubby regarding this day. More than once. He always remembers our anniversary, but it’s the years that throw him off. Either that, or he just likes to mess with me.
Anyway…we’ve been married for eight years!
For real. No, really…do the math. Plus, it’s easy! Remember, we got married in 2000, so the last two digits of the current year are how many years we’ve been married?
See? Eight.
Yes…this is 2008. It’s not 2009 yet. 2007 was last year.
Yes, we’ve lived together for almost 12 years…we lived together for almost 4-years before we got married. Almost four plus eight is twelve.
Yes, twelve!
Yes! I know. I think it’s wild too. No, I didn’t think we were too young when we got married…yes, that’s a long time. No, I don’t think we’re old. Well, I don’t think I’m old.
Just kidding!
Old man.
HA!
Just kidding.
Maybe.
As they say, it’s not the years, it’s the mileage.
So, here’s to eight…or almost twelve…wonderful years, Babe!
…and many more!
Yes…it really has been eight years…
May 14th marks the one year anniversary of my first post-dated post. Technically, this blog was born on July 22, 2007, but I really started writing with the intention of eventually posting online, one year ago today.
So, if you look in the archives, that is what you’ll see, because I post-dated my writings for clarity’s sake. One year and 481 posts later, here I am!
At first, I didn’t write every day, and it wasn’t until August that I started updating daily. Will I always update daily? I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out as time goes by.
A lot has changed around here. We have a new look. We have some ads. I captured the best of the blog for 2007 and published it in book-form. And, I have some new priorities. It’s ever-changing, and I love chronicling Claire’s journey into toddlerhood and my journey into parenthood. Both are full of surprises and adventure.
As I’ve heard many times before, the only constant is change, and I may be a perfectionist, but I’m trying to be casual about it. And, I’ve discovered that the more you pretend to be flexible, the more flexible you actually become. I dare say this may be one of the keys to surviving raising a toddler.
Well, that and always having Fruit Snacks on hand.
So…here’s to one year, and many more!
I’m in love with a new store.
I’ve wanted to write about this place for a while, but a certain someone reads this site, and I know she’d be wondering why I was talking about such a place, and then she’d figure out what she and Dad were getting for their 35th Wedding Anniversary today.
Yes, I’m talking about my mom…and Harry and David. Have you heard of this place? You have? Where have I been?
A while ago, my siblings and I were discussing what to do for Mom and Dad’s 35th wedding anniversary. We were bouncing ideas off one another, and in one of the many emails going back and forth, one of my sisters said that she’d always had good luck with Harry and David in situations like this in the past.
Who?
I didn’t want to admit that I had no idea who she was talking about, so I nonchalantly typed the name into Google and immediately fell in love with this store! Where has it been all my life! Surely this is a regional thing and that’s why I’ve been left in the cold dark world without Harry and David. Then, I realized that one of the malls in our area has a store! How could I have missed this!?
No, I’ve not gotten the courage to actually walk into a Harry and David store, because I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to walk out. 
Just looking at the site online makes me want to lick my monitor, so I’m afraid of what the clerks would do to me if I was left alone in the room with all of the actual gift baskets. Those places have video cameras. Youtube is an icon. Claire wouldn’t want to go anywhere in public with me again.
Anyway, we sorted through the bazillion options and settled on what we thought would be the perfect gift for Mom and Dad. Hopefully the real-life basket was just as exciting as the online version. It actually arrived earlier than we anticipated, but with the crazy weather the Midwest is having, I suppose ‘early’ is better than ‘dumped in the ditch somewhere on its side in the middle of an ice storm.’
I just peeked at the site…dangerous, I know…and it says that today is the LAST DAY to order something for Christmas and have it arrive via standard delivery! Here’s the link! So, if you’re at a loss as to what to get a certain someone for the holidays, or a birthday, or an anniversary, check out Harry and David. I really don’t think there’s a poor choice.
No, this little product review is not a paid endorsement, and like I’ve said before, if something appears on the sidebar, it’s purely coincidental. (Awesome, but purely coincidental.)
Of course, now that I know how wonderful Harry and David is (are?), I see them everywhere. Go figure.
Oh, and Happy 35th Anniversary, Mom and Dad! Here’s to many more!
Wow.
SEVEN Years!!
Today marks the seventh anniversary
of the day
we ran to the courthouse,
legally tied the knot and
hopped a plane to Vegas to celebrate.
November 15, 2000 – the day we went on record
It’s hard to believe we’ve been together almost ELEVEN years.
February 11, 1997 – the day I knew it was real
Through all the ups and downs, I wouldn’t change a thing,
because it all has made us who we are,
and I love who we are.
I love that you love who we are.
Even though things have changed over the years,
our lives are just as hectic now as they were seven years ago…
And almost eleven years ago…
But, our lives are different.
And, yet they are the same.
Almost two years ago
we added someone
to this bond
we created so many years ago.
Every day I look at her
and silently thank you for being who you are,
because without you, she wouldn’t be here.
Without you, I wouldn’t be here.
I love you.
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