Our Valentine's Day ♡♡♡

     Our Valentine's Day together is always special ♡♡♡ 

It doesn't require a whole ot of fuss for us if you ask me or my husband Curt. Although my sweet husband is a truly romantic man and insists on going out of his way to get me the loveliest of flowers and a special card, he understand completely that I do not need anything extravagant from him on Valentine's Day or any other day on the calendar. I do the same for him, I get him a special card too! We actually have a scrapbook of our cards to each other. A dinner outing together is what we normally do. Ahh but yesterday, suddenly he was hit with the flu while he was at work. My poor man had to come home and from there I nursed him and cancelled our dinner outing plans. I tucked him into bed and went to work to get ahead of the flu and its nastiness. He is always a good and cooperative patient for me whenever he gets sick. Me personally, I consider it a blessing whenever I am the one to take care of him and comfort him when sickness comes his way. He got me these beautiful roses the day before Valentine's Day for Valentine's Day ♡♡♡ I just love him! Before he was knocked down with the flu yesterday he posted to me this beautiful message on our Facebook page... That and a very special few tantalizingly romantic texts about his thoughts and feelings and plans for our evening. I consider these little things about my sweet husband Curt, the greatest gifts I could ever receive on Valentine's Day...any day really. The LOVE he so freely and openly expresses to me is something beyond measure. I love my "Forever Valentine" ♡♡♡

The beautiful roses my sweet Valentine got me this year for Valentine's Day

A special message post from my husband on Facebook

Nursing my sweet husband on Valentine's Day

Our 3 basset hounds Benny, Gabby Lynn and Dewey yesterday morning.

Forever Valentine's 

Ahhh Comfort Food

Sometimes you just have to give into some Yummy Ol' Comfort Food!  After an eventful week and a mixture of emotions and pressures together, we took a much needed time out in silence so to speak together, phones off for 24 hours, social media turned down...and we just got lost in each other in the way that is ours. Phones back on, the mute buttons off, figuratively speaking, we tackled another round of what needed to be done together. Back and forth to Dallas,out and about in the chilly, rainy weather we took care of business. Then my sweet husband suggested on this cold rainy day, some yummy comfort food of Burgers, fries and Shakes at our place Steak N Shake. Ahhh Comfort food! We enjoyed our first ever Salt & Vinegar Seasoned Fries and his Parmesan Cheese & Herb Fries. I enjoyed the Double Guacamole Steak Burger on top and he had the Jamaican Jerk Burger. Giggling together we decided to try both kinds of seasoned fries I mentioned in this post...Just to share both styles... Then came the yummy Shakes!!!  Comfort food...for many reasons today.
One being that today marks One Year that my brother-in-law, my husband Curt's brother John went home to be with the Lord.

Remembering Our Brother John Today. We love and miss you!

Everything Together...

Every moment, every day, every look, every kiss, every touch, every conversation, every giggle, every night, every meal, every prayer, every today, every tomorrow... Everything, we celebrate everything about our TOGETHERNESS.

#LoversMarriage Boudoir Shots

Sorting and arranging new photo disk CD's for printing and adding to our Marriage Photo Album *** Our Boudoir Shots :  #LoversMarriage #BoudoirShots We are going to have some new boudoir shots done in the next 2 weeks.

Boudoir: Well, let's define Boudoir: French for a woman's private room or bedroom, or in photography terms, a bedroom, hotel or somewhere that creates an intimate setting for classy and romantic images ***

Time Together Is Precious

It's that special time of the year that my dear husband Curt and I love so much together! A warm fire in the fireplace, Christmas music, hot chocolate, cocoa or tea. Snuggling together is something we enjoy doing any time of the year! But this year it holds a very very special meaning to us both to be able to do and share these special moments during this time of the year together, as we are holding onto each other tightly during a unique chapter in our lives together. We are also especially blessed with our close-knit circle of praying family and friends who continue to inspire us, encourage us and touch our hearts as a whole in marriage. We share these amazing prayers together and we share the joy of having some very special [true] friends who have quietly been praying for us during a difficult time in our lives together. Difficult circumstances have a way of revealing to you the true nature and depth of people, friends, family and Faith. We are blessed with every single moment together. We are especially blessed with true friends who have shown such unshakable honor and respect for our personal privacy in our shared confidence with people closest to us during this time.We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

The wonderful message my Sissy sent me today ♡ There's a very special bond between my Sissy & my husband Curt that words cannot fully define! ‪#‎Blessed‬

Hello December 2015

It has been a very busy last several days for us! We had a very quiet Thanksgiving Day and managed to put up our Christmas trees the following 2 days after Thanksgiving Day! Yes I said [trees]. We always put up our main tree in the front of our home and then a small live Christmas tree for our furbabies. It is a tradition now we have done for 5 years now.  We Wish you a very Merry Christmas to everyone around the world!  Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving and then getting ready for Christmas.

This picture was taken days before Thanksgiving Day this year.
We always post some kind of a seasonal holiday photo banners for our social media sites

The Charlie Basset Hound Cookie Jars. In the Basset Hound & Rescue Community around the world these are very popular. These were shipped to us as gifts from across the United States. We have been involved in Basset Hound Rescue since 2011. These little fellas came from both Maine & Michigan. I decided to buy 2 hats at the Dollar Tree to make these look festive in our kitchen. $1.00 per hat!

My Husband and I worked on creating this Christmas Centerpiece together. We made this in 2012. We place a fresh poinsettia in the center every year. It is lighted. We like the DIY-Do It Yourself fun!

  My husband working with me on Our Christmas Tree this year.

        

This is our yearly set up up The Furbaby Christmas Tree. Pet-Parents and Animal Rescuers
around the world understand this concept.

Every year for 5 years my sweet husband Curt has sat down and talked to our oldest basset hound Benny before their new toys and presents end up under the tree. He's continued to do this same thing every year since with every furbaby of ours-fosters included ♡ This is Benny and Curt this year ♡ ‪  You see, my husband and I were never blessed with human children so these wonderful little basset hounds are known around the world as "our" furbabies-the canine version of children. 

 Our 2nd to the oldest Basset Hound, also a rescue- Baby Dewey and Curt this year.

This is our youngest Basset Hound, also a rescue-Gabby Lynn; She found "Mr. Cuddles who arrived by way of Airmail from her Basset Hound Cousins Loui & Lola in the United Kingdom this year.  Basset Hound Rescue is a BIG DEAL! 

This year is our Gabby Lynn's 2nd Christmas. The picture shows her as a
baby on her 1st Christmas in 2014 just weeks after we rescued her. She sure has grown!

And last but not least is this picture of me yesterday downtown Fort Worth, Texas taking care of some personal business with my dear husband Curt. See my Frosty the Snowman Scarf???

Merry Christmas everyone! If I get anything for Christmas this year beside just having my sweet husband beside me which is really enough, I hope to just get my hair colored! In the last few weeks I have been invaded by gray hairs! #StresWillGetcha

What Isn't A Perfect Marriage

What Isn't A Perfect Marriage: 

A perfect marriage is most definitely not a union of two perfect people.

A perfect marriage is surely not a life shared where everything comes easy.; all peaches and cream. That there would be an unrealistic fantasy.

Because in a all reality LIFE happens. That means that there will be changing Seasons. Ups, downs, twists and turns. Think about it, how else would the power and divinity of God be more glorified if there was not some event or circumstances in the very lives of married couples to actually LOVE one another through TOGETHER? Love is not just that physical passion shared between spouses. Love in marriage is a deeply shared sanctuary that is built around the union of the marriage. A safe shelter from the storms. A place of acceptance and peace. The kind of peace that is comforting and edifying one another when any number of odds may be stacked against you.

What is a perfect marriage? We can only speak for our own. And we've continued to be inspired by other loving marriages, that a perfect marriage is a union so deeply committed in mind, body, and a prayerful and humble spirit to Go The Distance! "In sickness and in health, for better or worse..."

A perfect marriage to us is that inner certainty that Come what may, WE continue to thrive and endure TOGETHER, with each other, FOR each other, standing on the very foundation of PRAYER. Do we have the perfect marriage? To us we do, and we are not alone in this understanding.

Our marriage is perfectly aligned with God's Purpose for us both together and as the individuals we came into this marriage with in our separate beings. Intimacy, intimacy is continuously developed each and every moment we share as a married couple. It's the grand moments as well as the little moments. It's the laughter and the tears, it's the harmony and then the occasional moments sprinkled in of imbalance all combined.

A perfect marriage for us is an all weather treated union that is unshakable; it's unstoppable. It runs deep with tenderness and love that is well rooted in a faith in God and each other. Our marriage is a daily celebration of Togetherness. We could have everything or nothing in this world but in our marriage we say we have EVERYTHING!

-Mina Leann Sowell *Sowell2Sowell 2015