Becoming Analise

It was a normal Friday night at the Cochran house. We had just finished supper, bath time, and story time with Riley Grace. Patrick was grading papers for his classes, and I was putting Riley Grace to bed. After Riley Grace was snuggled in her bed with about fifty stuffed animals and goodnight kisses (along with fifty “last things” she had to tell me before I finally left the room), it was time for me to soak in my bubble bath (my Friday night ritual after a long work week). J I walked through the kitchen to the bathroom when I noticed the laundry closet was open. I peeked in to see that Patrick had washed some clothes. This is no big deal. He washes clothes often. But something about the laundry that night made me tear up. (And, yes, I do tear up easily, but not usually over laundry!) Before I made it to the bubble bath, I stopped to sit next to Patrick on the couch. I just sat there and gazed at him until he looked up from his work to question why I was staring at him with a go...

Happy Valentine’s Day Eve! I love L.O.V.E.! Dark chocolate, gifts, hugs, smooches, romantic stuff, cuddles, sweet nothings, $5 cards, Hallmark movies, all of it! I love thinking about memories with my husband as we approach Valentine’s Day – how we met, how we were too shy to speak to each other, how we planned “the talk,” how we knew that we didn’t want to be apart, how we endured six months of long-distance dating, how we began wedding plans, how we told our families, how we planned our honeymoon, etc. But those are not my only thoughts of Valentine’s Day. I have lots of other Valentine’s memories, too - the ones that consist of me being alone on the dreaded holiday. I didn’t date until I met Patrick, which means that 25 of the 29 Valentine’s Days that I’ve been alive were spent without a significant other … I have not at all forgotten about what it was like to be single, and I remember the heartache I experienced as I longed for the Lord to allow me to be romanced by a m...

My husband and I have been married for 2 years and 8 months! The pictures shown above are from our engagement pic session taken by my lovely friend Claire! (We are cute!) Patrick and I had a relatively short dating relationship before we were married. We met in November of 2011, began dating in December, got engaged in July, and were married on November 17, 2012 (and then got pregnant one month later, but that’s another story!). You could say it was love at first sight! During the semester that we met, we had been in a seminary class together. The class began in August, but we didn’t actually speak to each other until November! We’re both pretty introverted, so it took a lot of courage to initiate that first conversation! Anyway, needless to say, we hit it off from the first conversation. Our first “non-date” was to a coffee shop that only accepted cash … well I didn’t bring any cash, so Patrick had to pay for my coffee! I was so embarrassed. He had wanted to pay, so my blunder...