That Time of Year

I never forget the anniversary of my proposal to Megan. I can't. It's not possible.

You see, every year — right around this time — I get an email reminding me to renew the TuttleTree.com domain. After I proposed, and she accepted, and we celebrated with a wicked high-five (true story), I did what any self respecting geek who just convinced a beautiful woman to marry him would do; register a domain! So every March I look back on that fateful evening in 2005, and the events leading up to it.

I think about the time we visited her parents and how I almost peed my pants getting up the courage to ask for their blessing. I think about the butterflies I had in my stomach all week. About how I had the ring almost 2 weeks early and planned on waiting until our dating anniversary (on April fool's — no joke!) to pop the question, but like The One Ring, I felt a burning desire to use it.

But most of all, I think about how lucky I am to have found someone who so wholly completes me. Someone who all at the same time can make me smile, make me want to scream, and challenge me to be a better person. She's also the kickin-rad guitar player in my band. And you can't put a price on that.

TuttleTree Holiday Letter, Version 3.0

Welcome back for another installment of What the heck did we do this year? Oh yeah that one thing. All things considered, it's been a quiet year for us. We didn't get any new jobs, houses, pets, or relatives this year. Megan obtained her Clinical Social Work License in May, the highest level of licensure she can obtain as a social worker short of becoming a doctor. She can now see Medicare clients, and works one day a week at the main office in Downingtown in addition to her normal schedule in Oxford. In August, Adam obtained a special "Advanced ColdFusion Developer Certification" from Adobe, which makes him more marketable to clients and a more valuable asset to his company. Speaking of which, E-Tech was bought in March by Perficient, but not much has changed for Adam. Just last week he had his 2nd yearly review and received a promotion, making him a Senior Technical Consultant!

In February we went skiing with some friends at Blue Knob. It was Megan's first time and by the end of the weekend she had worked up the skill and the courage to leave the bunny slope a few times. Adam was still in a lot of pain from his Crohn's/Spondylitis, but happy to deal with the pain just for the opportunity to spend some time on the slopes again; snowboarding is one of his favorite hobbies.

This summer we did lots of camping, canoing, and fishing; and to make our outdoor lifestyle a little easier Adam traded in his car for a pickup truck. He got a Ford Explorer Sport Trac, which has a full size cab with room for the dog and extra family or friends, and can easily carry our canoe on the roof. (Adam is also thrilled to finally have heated seats and four-wheel-drive!) We also took advantage of the good weather this summer to repair our fence (hat tip to Mom & Dad R) and plant a few trees along the back of our yard to provide a little bit more privacy. August brought the only wedding of the year: Megan's long time friend Luke was married in Detroit, making this the second farthest we've driven for a wedding to date. (No wiener-mobile this time, either.) Adam also started Remicade treatment in August for his Ankylosing Spondylitis and Crohn's Disease, and thankfully that seems to have ended months (that felt like years) of anguish and restlessness. It has helped him so much that he often forgets he ever even had back pain! And just in time!

In September we celebrated our second wedding anniversary by taking a week's vacation to Ireland. We saw most of the major cities along a loop of the southern third of the island, and took almost a thousand pictures! It was so much fun and so beautiful, we wished we could just bring it all home with us. In fact if you're all willing to come with us (because we can't just leave you behind), then we're ready to make the move to Kenmare. We were fortunate enough to get tickets to a Penn State football game in October (hat tip to Zach, his dad, and his parents), and took the opportunity to visit Megan's Grandparents B in State College, PA. It was great to finally see Penn State play in person, and apparently we were good luck because they brought home a win that day! So here's to another wonderful year from the Pennsylvanian Tuttle's and we wish you all a happy holiday. Much love, Megan and Adam

How I Met Your Mother

Megan has gone up to bed, no doubt expecting that I'll post something along the lines of, "Hey, look, a post!" and then scuffle up behind her. So why not take this opportunity to tell you the story that someday I'll be able to tell our children. I hope you find it as romantic and apropos as I do. Now, to tell you this story, I first have to tell you another story. My family moved a lot. I was a "military brat" and even when my mom was discharged from the Air Force it seemed like we kept the lifestyle, mostly meaning that we moved every couple of years. My parents were constantly struggling to do the best that they could for myself and my brothers, and when they got a better job offer on the other side of the country, it was a no-brainer to take it. Or at least it seemed that way to an 8 year old who had to say goodbye to his school and friends again. I ended up attending a handful of elementary schools (one of which in Portugal), and 2 high schools. During my freshman year of high school my dad got a job offer in Maryland and spent a few months commuting back and forth to Virginia Beach to see us on the weekends and help pack our things while we finished out the school year. Then, on the last day of school I got off of the bus, walked 100 yards or so, got into the minivan, and we drove to our new house in Maryland. I hated the idea of moving on the first day of summer and I made quite sure my parents knew it. I had no time to make friends to hang out with over summer break and essentially nothing to do all summer except try to fit in with the neighborhood kids and end up getting into fights on one of our front lawns. I don't mean to sound ungrateful — my parents have always done the best they can for my brothers and I and have always acted in our best interests. We were just too young to understand. When I did manage to make some friends in my new high school, I took whatever I could get. I ended up joining Young Life — a Christian Youth Group — mostly just to have something to talk about with people my age. Most of my regular readers know that I'm an Atheist and to be honest, I think I knew it even then, but I was desperate for friends. One of my friends from YL was also a girl in my English class, and we kind of hit it off. She and I eventually became high school sweethearts because she was willing to date me and I was willing to put up with her crap so that I could hang out with her friends. (It's amazing the light that years of retrospect can shine on a situation.) We stayed together — in an off-again, on-again fashion, for the rest of high school. When it was time to pick colleges, she took whatever state school would take her, and I went somewhere nearby with a half decent computer science program (since I got wait-listed at her school). And of course, after doing the long distance thing for a while the separation was making our life together — but apart — difficult. She got all manic and cheated on me and dumped me. I was so dumbstruck by the whole thing that when she offered to get back together and work things out I half-heartedly accepted but insisted that I needed some time to sort out my feelings. Later that year she transferred home, and I was never sure exactly why. I just knew I wanted to be near her. It was like a bad drug addiction. I got nothing but pain and suffering from her by this point, but it was all I knew, and I needed it. When my parents offered me the option of moving home to cut both their and my costs for tuition/room/board, that pretty much made the decision for me to move home and be back with her. And it was only a few weeks — Christmas Eve, if memory serves — until she dumped me outright. The story gets even worse from there, but I think I've made my point. By this time, I've become incredibly familiar with what makes a bad relationship… but it has become a part of me. I knew I had to start all over: learn how to be social, make new friends, and have real, meaningful relationships with people. I figured I'd join a club or something. As it turned out, while I was waiting for the campus activities fair — where all of the clubs and organizations set up tables and recruited new members — someone I was getting to know in my Mathematics of Computer Science class asked me if I wanted to go to the driving range and hit some golf balls with his friends. I was trying to think of a shorter word than "yes," and I think I gave a stupid grin and stuttered out an 8-syllable affirmative answer. We never did actually make it to the driving range. At the last minute the plans for the evening changed to be a party at one of the guys' house. And come to think of it, I think this was the first time I had actually been invited to a real party, with music and dancing and people making out in a back room and a constant tone of "yeah, do whatever you want as long as you don't make the neighbors call the cops, because there are like 30 underage people here drinking." I ended up making a couple of really close friends that night and went on to help them found our chapter of our fraternity on campus. The guy that had invited me to play golf with them was one of the guys I was close with, and eventually we ended up being roommates. One day I came back from class or work and his car and one I didn't recognize were in the driveway. Thinking what I was, I probably should have made my way upstairs discreetly, peeked around the corner for something hanging from his doorknob, and quietly shut myself into my bedroom. But that's not my style at all. I stomped up the stairs yelling about the red Mitsubishi in my parking spot hoping to embarrass my friend. When I got to the top of the stairs I jumped around the corner to see what was going on in his room, and saw him and my now-wife watching a movie in his room. He introduced us, and then leaned over and farted on her. When she laughed instead of hitting him in disgust, I knew she had my sense of humor and appreciated a well timed fart. And that's the first thing I look for in a girl. I invited her to a few parties and took her out for romantic things like cheap italian food and bowling. It took me a couple of months to realize that nothing was wrong with our relationship. We were just… normal! I genuinely enjoyed her presence and she didn't seem overly disgusted with mine. Sometimes I think about how fast we moved from introduction to engagement, and I'm glad that I experienced just how bad a relationship can be, so that I can truly appreciate how enjoyable a good relationship can be. I love you, Megan!