Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for 2026!
My theme this year is simply things that I’m grateful for.
It’s a broad and varied theme but was surprisingly easy to fill in each letter!
I'm revisiting this topic!
It just occurred to me that I have never explained the title of my blog.
It's pretty simple actually - Love is our last name!
For realz.
So that makes it pretty easy to figure out that where we live would be the Love Shaque.
I used to live in Washington State - I was stationed in Everett the last couple years I was in the Navy. I had been married, but the now-ex chose his drinking buddies over his wife & kid. I also think it really irked him that I outranked him. And when he told me that his cowboy hat meant more to him than I did..... I told him I hope it keeps him warm at night and filed for divorce. It was final shortly after my enlistment was up so I packed up the Spawn, who was 2 at the time and moved back home to Michigan.
It was almost 2 years later when I got lonely and since I really didn't go any place to meet people, I went online. I met the guy who became the Spouse on Yahoo Personals, back when that was a thing, in 2001. He actually only lived the next city over from me - about 15 minutes away. The day that I met the eventual Spouse in person, he had come over to my apartment and found me barefoot & no makeup, chasing a naked giggling Spawn, trying to get her dressed after a bath. He said he knew right then that he was going to marry me.
This is in our living room right now.
The little googly-eyed figures on the shelf were actually on our wedding cake. I had them custom made by an artist I found on eBay. I sent her pics of us, including the 2 cats & dog, and details about what we'd be wearing. I absolutely loved what she came up with!
Six months after I met him, he asked if I wanted to join him on a vacation he'd already had planned - to Alaska! That was an awesome trip. We went in July. I realized years later that the picture we have of his first time on a horse was 4 years to the day before our wedding!
Our official engagement picture
We had gone on a cruise with a group of friends when he proposed. This was on an excursion we took while in Cozumel - we rode back to some caves and saw a native show by firelight, then we had dinner & margaritas back at the ranch house. This was his second time on a horse because of me. I was given "Holxux" which supposedly means "Damn Horse" who had a bit more spice and was fun to ride. I'd let him loose to gallop along the trail and when I got to a curve, I stopped and looked back to see the Spouse trotting up, looking like a pro, and that's when he popped the question! I almost fell out of the saddle, leaning over to hug him.
Because he is a wise man and knew I wouldn't want an ordinary diamond ring, he basically let me loose in a jewelry store on the cruise liner to pick out my own ring. I have since then sported a beautiful blue tanzanite stone on my left hand.
One of my favorite pics of us.
At our reception, my brother who had just retired from the Air Force thought it would be funny to handcuff us together. So this is how we went around and greeted our guests.
And with a name like Love... it was super easy to find decorations for the wedding!
I always tell the Spouse that he's stuck with me forever because I have a tattoo around my ankle of a vine of roses that also says "love" in it.
I don't think that'll be a problem!
.JPG)
