365 Days as Mr. and Mrs. Douglas and counting...

A year has gone by since we became husband and wife; it has been the best year of our lives. We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father and His perfect plan from eternity past.

Cameron surprised me by planning a trip to Fort Worth to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. All I knew was that we were going to the ballet on Saturday evening. We stayed at The Ashton, a four diamond hotel in downtown. Our suite was beautiful and the highlight of our room had to be the Jacuzzi tub.

We walked around downtown’s Sundance Square and located the Bass Performance Hall which was only a couple of blocks away from our hotel. That night we saw the Ballet performing Mozart’s Requiem. We literally had front row seats. The orchestra pit was right in front of us. We were able to see all of Fort Worth’s Symphony Orchestra , the quartet (alto, soprano, tenor and bass) and the rest of the chorus. The ballet dancers were excellent. Their face expressions were so touching and so clear (since we were only a few feet away from them). We were so close to them that we could hear them breath, see their sweat drip down their forehead and even hear the taping of their ballet shoes on the platform. It was an unforgettable experience!

After checking out from our hotel, we went to Fort Worth Stockyards just three miles from downtown. We had the opportunity to see a long-horn cattle drive, visit the old wood corrals, walk around the various shops and enjoy the old town/ranch environment. We ended our trip by enjoying a delicious lunch at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse.

The front view of the Ashton Hotel

Interior

Inside the room...

(Claw foot jacuzzi tub)

Downtown

Bass Performance Hall (Opened in 1998)

Before the Ballet

Fort Worth Stockyards

(Daily Cattle Drive)

Somebody got in trouble.....

The Fort Worth Herd

After looking at all that beef we needed some lunch.

Flowers for the bride

Preservation League

Cameron recently contacted a preservation league and volunteered his drafting and construction skills. He immediately met with the director and was told that they could need all the help possible in the drafting, cleaning and restoration of an old house that was built in 1903. The house suffered a fire early this year and has been sitting empty ever since.

Cameron met with the architect and we are currently in the process of field measuring and putting the floor plans together. Last Saturday we took all the exterior measurements from the first floor; it was interesting and a learning experience. It was a pleasant evening and we had to use lots of bug spray otherwise it would have been impossible to stay focused.

If you look closely, you can see a man standing on the left side of the porch:

105 years later, this is what it looks today (if you look closely, you can see a man standing on the right side of the porch):

Most of the roof is gone:

The staircase is still in good shape:

The second floor still needs to be cleaned out:

Taking measurements:

Logging the dimensions:

Thirty Candles

Today is Cameron’s birthday and he started his celebration by an early run at the park. If you know Cameron, you would know that he doesn’t like to make a big deal out of this day. He did have a small request: a lemon cake. This is the type of cake his mom made him when he was a kid and in order to keep up with that tradition, he asked me to bake him one.

The easiest way would have been to buy one at the bakery or buy a cake mix, but since it was an important birthday, I decided that I would bake one from scratch. This was my first cake from scratch and my first attempt at decorating one. Fortunately it came out pretty good.

For his last birthday, Cameron got himself a WIFE (our marriage license was signed on his birthday) and this year he got himself a SHOT GUN! Is there something wrong with this picture?!?

Besides the shot gun, Cameron also got lots of birthday cards, gift cards, a backpack and lots of shirts. We will be going out to dinner for good Texas barbeque.

Thank you Nancy for giving birth to my dear husband!

Aunt Jan's gift to Cameron:

Cam, is that a purse? "No, it is a man bag"

The making of Lemon Cake with Lemon Filling and Lemon Butter Frosting:

On another note, we got a new piece of furniture. Cameron has wanted a leather chair for comfortable reading and we finally got it! We had to rearrange our living room furniture; after moving everything around, it finally came together.

Cam's new reading chair: