I remember the day like it was yesterday.

I woke in my apartment sometime around 2am and turned to look at my Blackberry like I'd done so many nights before. It was flashing red, meaning I had an email. I was half asleep when I read the email from my boss, introducing me to some guy named Dom from Las Vegas. I responded to my boss with a well thought out, "Vegas?!"

That was January 28th, 2010.

++

We spoke on the phone for the first time on February 8. For three hours.

Dom flew out, and we met in person for the first time on March 5.

I visited him in Vegas for the first time on May 7. 

June 4, he flies out to visit me again. He wanted to be with me on my birthday (the seventh).

Dom tells me he loves me. It is June 19, 2010. 

On July 4th we begin to talk about a future together. 

I finally get the nerve to tell Dom I love him, too. It is July 21, 2010.

We are engaged in Las Vegas on September 6th, 2010.

On January 22, 2011, I move to Las Vegas. 

We are married April 2, 2011. 

++

It's been seven years since I received that very first email and my god am I grateful that I did. Because I cannot—will not—imagine my life without him.

I'm a bookworm. I always have been and I always will be. It's rare that I don't have a book with me. It's rare to see me, in my spare time, not with a book in my hand or close by. I love to read ... but lately I feel a little like I'm not enjoying it as much as I could be. 

It made me think of the incredible, Ksenia Anske.

I follow Ksenia on social media religiously, so I knew she was—for lack of a better term—really paying attention to the books she read, even before she wrote this post about it. I read her post. I read it a second time. And then I thought: this is what I need to do. Maybe not write notes in the detail that she does, but take the time to truly notice how they're written. I have this bad habit of racing through books—especially the ones I like. And sometimes I feel like that's going it a disservice. What I really should be doing is slowing down and enjoying it. 

By the end of this month, I am hoping I'll be able to share the news that we've officially bought our house. It's been in the works for a while, we've gone back and forth, tossing around the idea of leaving this place and building a new one, but ultimately we've decided this is where we'll be staying. It's been a long time coming, really. We've been renting out our place in North Las Vegas and renting this place from Dom's parents for over five years. Soon, we'll be paying off the NLV house and buying this one. Yay for no more renting!

And since it's officially becoming ours, we're renovating. Like ... a lot. The master bathroom is 99% complete, and we started priming and painting the entire house, because my goodness was I sick of that awful off-white color. Because we're painting, the house is in total disarray. It moves from room to room like a virus, ha.

"It's funny, we really don't have a lot of stuff, but you move it around a little bit and realize how much you do have."

I agreed with him, which might be crazy to those of you who have been to our house and know how little we have tucked in this house of ours. We pride ourselves on that actually. But there really is something about seeing everything piled together in the middle of the room to make you feel like you still have too much stuff. 

I'm hoping to share more of the work as we go along. This stuff is kind of fun to share. I mean, we've lived here for over five years but are just now making it ours.

Some days, you botch things up a bit.

You have a few misteps.

Missed steps.

Some days, you do a few things right,

but one thing you did

not quite so right,

[even if you weren't exactly wrong,

it just didn't feel right]

sticks to the roof of your mouth,

and nothing else tastes

the way it might have

the rest of the day

if you had not had

that one bad spoonfull.

Some days, all you have,

at the end of the day,

to show or to tell,

are two pictures,

that you think

look nice together.

Some days, that will have to be enough.

- Tara Thayer

Here are (in my humble opinion) the best books I read in 2016, in no particular order:

IT ENDS WITH US by Colleen Hoover

There are only two books I've ever read that have made me cry, and It Ends With Us is one of them. It was brave and heartbreaking and glorious and absolutely unforgettable.

A LOVE LETTER TO WHISKEY by Kandi Steiner

If you've read A Love Letter To Whiskey, you know I don't even really need to explain why this was one of my favorite books I've read this year.

I LET YOU GO by Clare Mackintosh

I Let You Go was well written and had me staying up late for three nights reading it. It was engaging and kept me guessing for the most part (I will admit that some of it was predictable, but it's pretty much impossible NOT to have some predictability). That twist in the middle, though... that one got me :)

AFTER I DO by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Let me gush about the perfection of AFTER I DO for a moment. This book. This. Book. I felt as though I crawled into Ryan and Lauren's life. I felt their pain. I felt their frustrations and indifference and joy. I laughed. I cried. Oh how I cried!

A PLACE IN THE SUN by R.S. Grey

A Place In The Sun was romantic in a way that I haven't seen in quite some time. It wasn't the fastest paced, nor did it give you emotional whiplash ... but I was grateful for that. It was ... exactly what I needed it to be: light, funny, sweet and full of hope. R.S. Grey out did herself.

THE DREAMLAND SERIES by E.J. Mellow

I love when I pick up a book that I would usually pass by ... and love it. The first of the series, The Dreamer was one of those books. I'll be honest, I'm not usually one to read fantasy, but I gave this series a go and I was absolutely not disappointed. I will say this: buy all of the series in one go, because ending this one where it left off without having the next book was torture!

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SOPHIE STARK by Anna North

I absolutely loved this book. Such beautiful writing. I was on vacation when I read this and it couldn't have been more perfect.

What are the best books you read last year?

Waking up on January 1st always feels like a new beginning. It doesn't matter if you're one of those people who think new years resolutions are a joke. Because I don't. To me, it's a fresh start. A clean slate. A whole new year to do with it what I like, and put the past behind me. 

With that in mind, here's a little glimpse at life right now:

things currently on the table.

2 hot wheels cars

half-burnt candle

black pen

a half-eaten bowl of soggy cereal (thanks DJ)

things i want to purchase but won't.

all the candles

a pair of red converse

all the jeans

a new, better quality laptop case

the type of woman I want to be.

kind

ambitious

patient

what I'm working on.

myself

my marriage

writing. always writing.

patience

things I've loved lately.

anything by taylor jenkins reid

candy cane coffee

sitting, reading next to the christmas tree

what i want to get better at this year.

eating healthier and smarter

washing my face at the end of every day

putting my marriage first