How I Met Your Blogger with Design Dump

 

 

Allen and i met at church. He had been out of the country for 2 years, and I had been living in North Carolina. We met when we both returned home to live with our parents for the summer in Knoxville, Tennessee.  We have known each other for 18 years, and have been married for 16 1/2 years. (Wow. that just made me feel really, really old.)

I was in Utah going to school, and he was in Tennessee working and saving money for college. He proposed to me the day i flew home for Christmas. He picked me up at the airport, and brought me back to his parents house, where he had planned a special dinner for the two of us, complete with his 8 year old sister and 12 year old brother acting as our servers. It was pretty cute. His family left to go “look at Christmas lights”, and while they were out of the house, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I knew he was going to ask me sometime during my 2 weeks back in Tennessee for Christmas, but i was genuinely surprised that he did it the day I flew in! I immediately started jumping up and down and yelling “what?? are you serious?! no way!” oh, and of course, i also said “YES!” After his family came back to the house, my parents came over, and we all had dessert. It was pretty darn perfect.

We were married in Washington DC, nearly 8 hours away from our home, and so the wedding was very small, with just families and a couple of close friends. I think the “funniest” thing was that right after the wedding, we had a luncheon. Allen and i got up and gave little speeches to each other and our families. my youngest brother was 18 at the time, and offered to videotape the luncheon for us. when i got up to speak, he was crouched down to the side of me, looking up. when we went to watch the video, i was mortified! because of the low, weird angle, my boobs looked HUGE….not to mention the fact that they looked like they were right in my face. It was awful! We cant even show the video to anyone! Thanks little Bro!

Allen and i LOVE to get away every year for our anniversary. Sometimes, these getaways have been a one night stay in a nearby town, and other years, we have gone on more elaborate trips. We both love architecture and design, and some of our favorite trips have been to Charleston, Savannah, the Florida Keys, and Kennebunkport, Maine. We also love a good home building or remodeling project. In addition to the dozens of homes we built for clients, we also remodeled three personal homes and are currently building our third personal home. I know some people say that building or remodeling a home can be hard on a relationship, but we have found the opposite to be true. We love it! He is a genius at all-things construction, including creating the site plan for the house, trim-work, landscaping, exterior details and materials, and i am great at interior space planning, material selections, and finding great looking bargains to fill our house!

It really is SO hard to choose my favorite thing about Allen. He is one of those guys that has so many qualities that i admire. He is insanely smart, witty, charming, kind, an amazing dad and funny as hell. I guess if i HAD to choose my favorite thing about Allen, it would be that he is always strong when i am weak. When I have those moments (or weeks) when i am angry or bitter or sad or hurt, he is always the voice of reason, happiness, tenderness and patience. And did i mention that he is funny as hell? He can always, always make me laugh!

He says:

Autumn has dozens of traits, mannerisms, qualities and virtues that I love and enjoy daily.  Singling out one trait to be dubbed Allen’s most favorite thing about Autumn is an almost unfair task.  Come on, I have to select from an exhaustive list which includes interior designer, chef, organizer, comedian, travel agent, navigator, event planner, stick figure cartoonist, movie aficionado, and phenomenal kisser.  However, to play along I will name the first characteristic that came to my mind when asked the question, “What is your favorite thing about Autumn?”  Well, it is when I witness her sheer giddiness about life’s adventures.  It’s her joy seeing new places, her smile when at the beach, or her wide eyes watching something we build together come to fruition.  I just love seeing how excited she gets about our life together.

*****************************************************************

Thanks so much Autumn and Allen! Check out more at Design Dump! Careful…her stylish blog is addicting!!