Celebrating 2 Years of ShepAlder!

It's true: Josh and I have now been married for two whole years, which means that we have been together for three and a half years. Yikes! For some of you, that may not seem very long, but for me it seems like a big milestone.

So I just wanted to share some pictures and memories from our life together (so far):

Josh and I started hanging out more often when our friend Mike's cat had kittens. We would make a date of sneaking into the Hansen's garage and take pictures/videos. Our cat Falkor is from this litter. We had also adopted his sister Ambrosius, but when we moved to Hillsboro, she had a hard time living with my cat Mercury, so we had to give her to Josh's old roommate Jeff.

Here are Ambrosius and Falkor in their kitten days



This picture was taken a year exactly before we got married. We were at the Oregon Zoo for a concert (Dar Williams & Shawn Colvin). I think I broke up with Josh a few days later, but it didn't last because I kept wanting to hang out with him!


In 2006 my family took a trip to Friday Harbor in the San Juan islands.
For the first day, the only thing I could think was how much cooler it would be if Josh were there. So I called him and invited him along. He missed a day of work and drove almost 300 miles, but we got to go to the Whale Museum.


One of the things Josh and I love to do together is go to Ducks games. Back in the day when Josh was a struggling journalist, he was able to sit in the press box, which was cool because they served food and cookies at halftime!



January 2007 we got engaged, but that's its own long story.


My dad took our engagement pictures up at Hoodoo



We gave this engagement picture to our friends.
I think it accurately sums up our relationship.


We have a habit of hugging ducks


This is how we registered for wedding gifts.
Perhaps this is why we only received one or two from our registry.


For Spring Break 2007, my family went to Disneyworld and Josh came along.
I made him buy a matching sweatshirt so people would know we belonged together.


We went to Vegas in May 2007 and went to the temple.
It was the first non-Portland temple I had been inside.


In Vegas we also went to the wax museum, where Josh hit on J. Lo


And Babe Ruth hit on me!


We got married July 28th, 2007


We went on a honeymoon to San Francisco, where we visited Alcatraz
and took a city tour


And spent a week in Jamaica, where we sat on the beach and read books

Josh got a picture in a Jamaican bobsled, which was
worth the trip for him.


August 2007 I started graduate school
(this is me on my first day!)


We hung out a lot in our first home together-- a townhouse in
the Tanasbourne area of Hillsboro, OR


December 2007 we went to Texas for the first time.
My sister had just moved to Austin 6 months earlier.


We spent spring break 2008 in Disneyland, San Diego, and Hollywood


Josh grew a beard at some point
and we went to a bunch of concerts together
(we think this one was The Decemberists, but we can't remember).


I randomly wore a moustache.



April 2008 we bought a house!


But first we had to look at about a million inferior houses.


In August 2008 we did a Grand Temple Tour
and visited 13 temples in 2 weeks

We dressed up a lot.



In December 2008 we went to Texas again to visit my sister,
her family, and to do other stuff.



For Spring Break 2009 we went to Disneyland (again) with Josh's dad and youngest sister.
We drove there and back. It was a long trip, but we had fun.



We adopted our third cat May 2009 and named her Mr. F.

That, in summary, is what 3 1/2 years of ShepAlder looks like. Hooray!

Josh + Emily = Awesome!

One Year Older and Wiser Too?

My birthday was last Monday. This is mostly how I celebrated:

It's an old picture, but you get the idea.

There is something very anticlimactic about turning 28. Maybe it's because I am pretty much at the same place at 28 that I was at 18: in college. Maybe it's also because being 27 was so crummy. Do things just get worse and worse with age? I won't bore you with the details, but believe me when I say that being 27 was above and beyond the worst I have ever experienced. Ever. Ugh.

When I told a member of our ward last week that it was my birthday the next day, he asked if I was turning 21. Josh laughed uproariously at the notion, which seemed to confuse the guy. I couldn't tell whether he was joking (because, come on, even if I was vain enough to believe I still look like I did at 21, I've been married for 2 years and have finished 2 years of graduate school. I'd have to be some sort of genius to get that done by 21 and if there is one thing I know I am not, it's a genius), but I really, really hope he was!

In other news: I was released from my calling as a Primary teacher today and wasn't given a new calling. I get a little antsy when I don't have anything to do, so church today was tough (especially since it's been a year since I've been around most of the adults in our ward). Perhaps I was released because I kept trying to use behaviorist techniques to keep my class in line. . .