What's In a Name?

Juliet to Romeo:  What's in a name?  That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.*

Zak and I are a good team.  He's a great husband and I know I'm a great wife.  I always know how to make him laugh.  I can tell when a bad day at work means he needs a hug or that he needs some down time when he gets home.  I cook him (from scratch) three meals a day at least six days of the week.  These are some of the things that make our relationship better.  But there's one area of being a wife that I've totally failed at, ever since saying "I do" fifteen months ago.

I'm yet to change my name.

Juliet said to Romeo that a name was just a name, it wasn't important.  Who cared that she was a Capulet and he was a Montague?  It was JUST A NAME.  Well, Jules, I beg to differ.

There are a number of reasons, maybe even excuses, why I haven't done this yet.  First off, I love my maiden name.  It's nothing against his surname, but I love mine.  I've known it and had it for nearly 27 years now, and I'm extremely proud of my family.  It keeps me connected to my roots.  I'm very proud to be English, and I have married and resided in Texas with a Texan.  Our kids (if any) will be more Texan than English.  So my brain has made the drastic jump to "last name of a Texan = no longer English."  I know that's silly (I never promised my reasons would be logical).  The third reason even trumps the validity of the second reason.  I am actually STILL English, by every sense of the law.  I'm not a U.S. citizen.  This leads me to the third reason.  Do you know how expensive it will be to change all of those documents just so I can add a name to it all?  The answer is very.  And I mean it when I say "add" a name and not "change."  I originally thought that although it would be difficult to not have my maiden name be a part of my main identity anymore, I could always just make my maiden name my middle name (I don't have a middle name) and then take on the new surname.  I was pleased with that idea, and was going to change my name within the first 6 months of marriage.  Then somehing happened.  My mother-in-law pointed out that we'd then have the same initials.  And as flimsy as it is, it is this last reason that's truly prevented me from legally changing things up.

Zak's asked me that I change my name for his birthday present, which is a little over a month away.  So it's time to do some serious thinking and make a choice:  stick to what I've known for over two decades, or swallow my pride for the man I love.


* from Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

Moving On

So it's been a while since I've shared anything....a long while.....nearly a year.  Oops!  Well to pick up where I left off, I stopped writing because for a long time there weren't things worth sharing.  But over the last 7 months, I can say that things have been getting increasingly better.

Major developments are that I am in a new job working for a Norwegian company in the oil industry, I get to travel again (one of my favourite things in the world), I managed to get 2 holidays last year (more travelling - yay!), Zak and I adopted a second dog, we celebrated our first anniversary, and we became homeowners!  Not bad, huh?

Here's a picture I took while in Oslo last August for work:

So now that the ice is broken, albeit rather bluntly, I plan on developing a few things in 2012.  No, I didn't make an New Year's Resolutions.  The main reason being that by 31 December I can never remember what I promised myself 365 days ago, so I never know if I've kept or broken my resolutions.  Instead I just want to keep evolving.  I want to keep up what I'm doing that's good and improve on what I'm doing that's....well, not as good (this blog is one of those "improve upon" items).  And I want more time for my hobbies, which as a homeowner I can now add "gardening" to that list.

So there are the basics.  I'll leave you all with that and hopefully be able to write much more in the future.

Remembering a Special Day

Last night Zak and I got to see our edited wedding video for the first time.  We got a package where we had all the raw footage plus a 10 minute movie-like short that our videographers put together.  The raw footage we'll see when we receive the DVDs next week, but we got to preview the short, just to make sure that nothing was really out of place.

We chose the music.  Our videographer asked for a list of ten songs to choose from.  So we had an idea of what could be in the film, but ultimately had no idea how they would put it together and what their vision would be.  With both Zak and myself being into film and photography, we were very excited.

So yesterday evening we had my family come over (my mum thoughtfully brought a bottle of prosecco), and we all watched it together for the first time.  It was a roller coaster of emotions from start to finish.  I didn't know that within ten minutes you could go from laughing to crying, back to laughing, back to crying, and then laughing again.  They captured just how happy and emotional that day was.  The music was a key point to the film, and they timed every shot with perfection. 

What made it even more special was getting to share it with my family.  Being able to see it for the first time and getting to see each other's reactions was a bonding experience of some sorts (my dad's speech had us girls all reaching for the tissues at the same time).  We watched it twice together and then got to chat and laugh about it afterwards.

Later in the evening Zak and I watched it twice by ourselves.  It really brought home just how incredible the day was for us and how much fun everybody had.  It was, from beginning to end, a celebration.  I can't wait to see the rest of the footage on DVD.  :)

Tulips

Today I got home from a loooooooooooooong day at work and started my long list of housework that needed to be done.  Generally, I like to clean and tidy, but today I was dreading it.  Luckily the stereo blasting made the laundry, ironing, dishes, vacuuming, and other general tidying up go by a lot quicker than I thought it would.  I finished off my hardwork with a small glass of white wine before heading out the door to take Sheila, the dog, for her evening walk.

As luck would have it, right as I stepped out of the front door, I saw Zak pull into the car park from work.  I was excited to tell him that I'd ironed his work shirts (something I hate doing) as a nice little surprise for him.  However, when he got out of the car he had a surprise for me - a beautiful bunch of tulips.

Tulips have always been one of my favourite flowers.  I love the elegance of their shape, the clean lines of both petals and stems, and I love the fact that their emergence signifies the coming of spring.  Also after spending two months as an intern in the Netherlands, I fell in love with the flower even more.  My time over there also helped me choose my favourite colour of tulip:  orange (or oranje as the Dutch say).

So as a Tuesday treat, I was given a bunch of 10 of the prettiest orange tulips that have a yellow ombre effect on the tips.  I've put them on our hall table next to our wedding champagne flutes and a framed wedding photo.  And for the next few days I'm guaranteed not only an excited dog when I walk through the door, but a sunny bunch of my favourite flowers.

Feel the Love

So as you all know, today is Valentine's Day.....the day (and night) of love.  It is also the first Valentine's Day that Zak (that wonderful husband I mentioned in my first post) and I have ever truly celebrated.  But rather than try to unwind enough to let the love flow at the beginning of what's looking to be a very long work week, we celebrated it Saturday night with a four course dinner at home.

The dinner was wonderful, and I got to try cooking something new.  Fondue!  One of our best dates was at a fondue restaurant called the Melting Pot when we lived in central Texas.  So over two years later we thougtht we'd recreate the experience.  We started off with a cheese fondue, which was thick and creamy and delicious.  Then we moved onto our salads:  mixed baby greens, cherry tomatoes, purple onion, and almonds all coated in my homemade balsamic dressing.  That was the perfect cleanser before the main:  a huge steaming pot of beef broth with garlic, onion, star anise, bay leaves, mushroom and potatoes, where we cooked bites of beef, pork, and chicken.  I don't know how but somehow we found the room to share a poached pear for dessert.  Needless to say, we were full by the end of it, but the beautiful thing about fondue is that it's a nice drawn out dinner.  You have to wait for each bite of meat to cook before you can move onto the next.  So it's no surprise that we were at the dinner table for four hours, eating, talking, and laughing.

I feel lucky that for all the time that Zak and I spend together, we still have something to talk about.  We are each other's best friends and even though we've been living together for nearly 4 years now, we're still able to have (and want) good conversation.  I'm happy that our first Valentine's celebration was as husband and wife, and that we were able to have such a good time together. 

Happy Valentine's Day, Zak.  I love you.