Our 12th Anniversary

On the 6th, we celebrated 14 years of being together. (Last year, little Miss Melina was conceived on that day...although we wouldn't find that out until the middle of October...tmi...well, it is my blog and I'll share if I want to. ;-) Anyway, we've been looking at each other all googily eyed this week...Emma's been making fun of us all week. She asked Andy why we hold hands one day and Andy said to her "well, you know how you hold our hands sometimes so that you feel safe or that you don't get lost?" She says "yup" and he said "well, I would be lost without Mommy if I didn't hold her hand sometimes too." Totally made my heart melt. And then we were sitting at the dinner table one night and Emma says "why do you guys keep staring at each other and smiling? Does that mean you're in love?" She is totally into asking questions about relationships and marriage and all that right now. I worry about her sometimes, but as Andy was quick to point out...this may be the first time in her life that she's seen Mommy's and Daddy's who stay together and that truly love one another.

Today is our 12th wedding anniversary, My Mom watched the kids last night for us so that we could go to the Melting Pot for dinner, which was totally delicious. Then, we went and did some birthday shopping for Miss Tracie and then we had to pick up stuff for the kids lunches this week. We had some great conversation about the plans for our marriage and for our family. I'm totally in love with my husband right now...I love him more with every passing day. We talked about some of my insecurities that came about when my parents divorced and we talked about what we wanted for our family over the next few years. And it was fun to walk through Walmart laughing, shopping, and holding hands. We were almost giddy with each other. We came home to see how Mom survived and the kids were all good for her. This is the first time that she's ever watched all 5 of them...she fed them, watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with them and even brought them their own bandana to wear, made them popcorn, got them in their jammies and put them to bed. She said that Josiah and Emma only got sent to their rooms once and she had to give Josiah a spanking once. And Josiah did try to test her when it was bed time. He came back downstairs and said "Grandma, there's a ghost in my room." She said to him "Josiah, I guess you better tell that ghost to get in his own bed...now you need to go to bed." He marched back upstairs and went to sleep. I thought that was hilarious. He's the "king" of coming up with stalling techniques. He's not scared of the dark or anything...he was just seeing what he could get away with. lol. I was glad that the kids behaved well for her and she said she'd watch them again if we wanted to get out. I know that it's something that we need to do more of in our marriage....I was trying to remember the last time that we'd gotten out and I think it was in june when my friend had come in from MI to see us and Melina and she watched the kids so we could go to dinner and a walk in the park. The time before that, I think was our last anniversary when Mom watched them so we could go to the Olive Garden for dinner. We need to start doing it at least every 3 months or so at a minimum. It was good for us!

We came home and put Deidra and Miss Melina down for bed and went to bed ourselves. Mom called us and said she got locked out of her house as her garage door wasn't working and so Jimmie was going to meet her in front of our house with his house key so she didn't have to break a window. I told her she could wait inside, but she said she didn't want to disturb us and she'd just sit out in the car and read her books. I decided to wait on the couch to see who got there first so they could come inside, but I laid down and a minute later I was asleep. Andy said that he didn't think anybody ever showed up, so I'm wondering if they decided to meet at Walmart instead like my brother wanted to do. Anyway, please bless Mom, Abba, and help her through her trials with her house repairs that have come up over the past couple of days and I thank you for Andy and our time out together. Please continue to bless our marriage. We had a really great day together!

11 years...

11 years ago today, Andy and I got married! I cannot believe that it's been 11 years...wow! I got him a watch (the theme to get this year was steel). He didn't know how to adjust the band and then said "we'll take it back and it will fund dinner." That told me how much he thought of that. He didn't get me a card or a gift which kind of hurts if I'm being honest. But, since in Bible study (went this morning) we were studying to rejoice in all things, I chose to thank God that I do have a husband that loves me and that he is faithful. Then, I wanted special doughnuts from Shipley's...we rode down there and Deidra and I went in to get the doughnuts. I ate one and went to grab another and he made a comment about "you're eating another doughnut?" I put it back and then didn't talk the rest of the way home. Deidra wanted it later and I told her to eat it. Andy said "geez, I didn't tell you not to eat it...you do what you want." I decided to put the girl's pages in their scrapbooks and I had to run to Wal-mart and to Target to get more pages and came home soaking wet from the rain. The whole way home, I had to tell myself "rejoice no matter what the circumstance." I'm trying. I've been cuddling with the kiddos most of the day. We're going to Olive Garden tonight for dinner to celebrate. He did figure out how to adjust the watch band, so he is wearing it.

Our 10th Anniversary Celebration

We celebrated 10 years of marriage together on September 12. We were a bit nervous about leaving for our 3-day weekend together with Hurricane Ike hitting Texas. Thankfully, we didn't get much here other than some wind and a little rain. We've had thunderstorms worse than that. But, I was worried and family and friends that we had down in the Houston area. I got word that they were safe and then I felt better.

Friday, we went and picked Deidra up from school and then we started dropping the kids off to where they were staying for the weekend and then we took Deidra to my Mom's work so that we could drop her off with my Mom. Then, we came home to change and we went to The Melting Pot for dinner. I had asked Andy if he thought we needed reservations and he didn't think so. We got there at 7 and they had to put us down for an 8:45 pm dinner as that was their first available opening. So, we wound up going to Sam's Club to walk around and check out a couple things. We headed back and ordered our dinner. They presented us with our own private little cubby hole to eat our dinner as well as an Anniversary card from all the waiters. We ordered and I had a bit of an embarrassing moment with our waiter while ordering (if you wnat to hear it just email me...but we giggled about it afterwards). We ate some really great food and were very stuffed by the time we were done. We got home about midnight and checked radar before heading to bed.

Saturday, I woke up at 6 am as the sounds of the wind picking up woke me. I came downstairs to check radar and went and got Andy up as well. We stood outside for a bit and then came back inside. We decided to get ready for breakfast and so we headed for IHOP. Breakfast was good and everyone was talking about the hurricane as it was due to hit by us later in the day. We left and the wind had really picked up then and we were watching the cloud bands come over us. We came home to pack for our hotel stay. We drove in to Dallas and made a couple stops along the way, including Fadi's for lunch, and then headed for our hotel. We stayed at the Magnolia Hotel in Dallas. http://www.magnoliahoteldallas.com/dallas.aspx and we found our suite was much bigger than our first apartment that we shared together. lol. It was really nice with a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and a huge bathroom. We loved it! They brought us a dozen chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of champagne and we had matching very fuzzy and soft robes on our bed with a CD of love songs. They had complimentary happy hour at the hotel and then we went for a walk in the rain. Andy said it reminded him of the day he proposed although it was the completely wrong city and we weren't walking along the beach...but it was raining then too. Anyway, I had to go to the bathroom and nobody had public restrooms so we had to head back to the hotel. We wanted to watch a movie, but for some reason we couldn't get it to work and so I wound up falling asleep on the couch while he watched Man vs. Wild. Romantic huh? lol. Anyway, our bed was really comfortable and we slept really well. I asked Andy if he thought the hotel would notice if we tried to fit the mattress in the elevator when we checked out. lol.

Sunday, I woke up early and headed in to watch the news. I watched the hurricane coverage and I started crying while watching it. I felt so bad for those people. I woke Andy up around 8 and we ordered breakfast...I got some pound cake french toast that was to die for and he got a Mexican breakfast burrito that he really liked too. We vegged out for awhile and then we checked out so that we could go to church together at the Cathedral. After church, we wound up going to visit all the animals at the pet adoption center, we did some thrift shopping for our ebay business, and then we decided to head for my Mom's to pick up Deidra. Then, it was time to go get the kids from the other 2 places that they were. We came home and fed everyone and then got them ready for bed. They welcomed us back to reality really quick. lol. It was really nice to get away and we really had a good time together. It was nice being able to talk without interrruptions and to just have fun together.