the Paladinos

It’s hard to believe that 10 years ago today I became Mrs. Leslie Paladino.  These have been the best years of my life and I so look forward to the next 50+ with my sweet, loving Michael.  God could not have blessed me with a more perfect man and I am so thankful for His wisdom and grace that brought us together.       

Since our blog doesn’t go back that far I’ll reminisce a little about our relationship.  We met sophomore year at the U of A in an Accounting II group.  We were just friends and parted ways with an occasional hello in the hallway.  Senior year we were thrown together again in a class called Death and Dying (yes, that’s seriously what it was about).  His was the only familiar face in the class of 200 so we gratefully sat together for the semester and became friends.  Our last semester we slowly started flirting and hanging out more.  It was our friend, Michelle, who finally brought us together when she asked “so, do you think there could be some interest there?”  The answer from both of us was yes and a few weeks later we were officially dating.  Michael actually thought we were dating for 2 weeks before our first official date but I kindly corrected him on that misconception.  Just for the record, when you start out as friends you have to make a distinction between hanging out and dating.  I’m not sure when it happened for him but I fell in love soon after when we took a class trip to Belize.  I remember telling one of my friends after the trip that Michael was definitely the man I wanted to marry. 

A year and half later we went out to eat at our favorite restaurant and ended the night with dessert at James at the Mill.  After dessert we walked down to the fish pond and there was a bouquet of roses and an envelope with my name waiting.  Michael got very lucky because I was sick that night and completely clueless to what was going on until I literally read my name on the envelope.  Seriously Leslie?!  The roses didn’t even tip me off.  The note said to turn around and there was my Michael down on one knee.  After he proposed we both couldn’t remember if I actually said yes what with all the crying, laughing and hugging.  But I think he got the idea.  We had a Christmas wedding 6 months later at Central United Methodist in Fayetteville.  Such sweet memories and so many more sweet memories to make.  All my love to you Michael John Paladino.
  

(Please forgive the quality of these pictures.  They’re old scans of our proof book because I was too lazy to get out the album and make better scans.)

Yep, that’s us leading a conga line at the reception.  :) 

Last weekend we took our annual Christmas trip to Silver Dollar City to see the lights and apparently to see all the people.  Or at least that’s how it felt.  I do NOT recommend going to the park the first Saturday in December when it’s a beautiful 70 degrees outside.  By the time we left you really couldn’t move through the crowd or find anywhere to stop and stand.  People were even parking on the side of the road.  Definitely the most crowded we had ever seen it.  But we still enjoyed some rides and a few Christmas shows.  It wouldn’t be Christmas without it!  But I think next year we’ll go on a Thursday.

Gabby and her sweet friends, Aubrie and Lily.

Peter had his first program last month at his preschool.  He’s never been up on the big stage before so it was pretty exciting to see him in the spotlight…until we actually saw him in the spotlight.  He was cute because he’s always cute but I think he was also a little lost.  He sang the first song and got into the motions a little.  But by the second song he pretty much just stood there with his little mouth open looking around.  Every once in awhile he would yawn or rub his eyes.  But that was about it.  Poor little guy.  He didn’t sleep well the night before and woke up early so I think he was just tired.  Or he might not be the natural performer that his big sister is which is okay with me. 

Waving as they walk in.  He’s such a good little waver. :)


Getting into it with the first song. 


And this is pretty much him through the rest of the program.