10th Anniversary

Adam and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week. May 22, 1999 was a big day. May 22, 2009 was totally ordinary and perfect. Adam went to work, we lazed around the house, we took the kids swimming and I opted for pizza instead of cooking. See! Ordinary and perfect.

We "celebrated" our anniversary last weekend with a short little run (Ogden Marathon, post coming soon) and a lovely night at a b & b. I love, love, love b & b's.

10 Tidbits that made our Wedding One-of-a-Kind

1. Three days before getting married we left SLC and drove straight through to his grandparents house in Kansas City, MO. We thought it would be fun to catch a Royals game but were so tired we only made it though six innings.

2. His grandma (GG to our kids) woke me up the next morning with a knock, knock on the door and a "Wake up, sleeping beauty." in her sweetest voice. We love GG and Pop.

1. We got married in St. Louis, MO. Missouri has a three day waiting period for marriage licenses. We didn't have three days to wait. We hit the first courthouse in western Missouri(Jackson Co.) and prayed some judge would give us a marriage license. Thankfully the first one did. Interestingly enough, Pop went with us to get our marriage license.

2. We'd allowed the whole day for the three hour drive from KC to STL just in case judges were being stingy with marriage licenses that day. We'd planned to hit every county courthouse until someone said yes. Since the first one said yes, we had time to kill so we drove up to Liberty, MO to the visitor center there. Very cool!

3. The day we got married I remember driving to the temple with my mom and dad. My dad commented that I was the coolest (not nervous) bride he's ever seen. He also reassured me that if I wanted to back out, I was welcome to. (My parents really do like Adam, promise.)

4. The photographer we'd planned on, who wasn't coming since she had a daughter in the hospital, ended up coming but forgot film in the rush to get there FROM THE HOSPITAL (the woman's a saint). Everyone scavenged their cars and purses and came up with six rolls of film. We both got sunburned while Janette took six rolls of gorgeous pictures. After we finished, she handed us the film, congratulated us and, I assume, returned to the hospital.

5. We then changed clothes and drove the five hours to Memphis where our reception was waiting for us at mom and dad's. The house looked gorgeous.

6. My brother, Ben, was away serving a mission in Canada when we got married. A guy owed my dad a favor and made a life size cardboard cut out of Ben. It was hilarious to have "Ben" standing in the corner and more hilarious to see people momentarily mistake it for the real Ben.

7. We parked the car in the garage and locked all doors leading to the garage. Only my immediate family knew how to get into the garage. My dad sold us out and our friends (Lance, Brent, Chrissy and Amy) worked a number on our car. In the process, Lance ruined the tie he was wearing (that's he'd borrowed from Adam, funny huh?) Adam was ticked when we found the chocolate syrup and Oreo mess but Jeff (trying to impress my sister) washed it for us so Adam wouldn't ruin his tux. Thanks Jeff!

8. We spent the night in Memphis at the Adam's Mark Hotel (which everyone thought was wildly funny.)

9. Then Sunday morning we drove down to the Gulf (at some point Adam woke up to me doing about 90 and flipped out) where we stayed for four days. When the people at the hotel found out we were newlyweds they comped the room for us. So sweet of them. We had a fabulous time. I love the Gulf!

10. My dad was sweet enough to give us his "TOTAL" gas card to pay for the gas to and from Gulf Port. There were a million TOTAL stations in Memphis in the last nineties and absolutely none between Memphis and Gulf Port. We didn't charge a dime to his card but it was the thought that counted. Thanks dad.

Thank you everyone for all the driving you did. No one got away with less than ten hours of driving while Adam's family drove over 60 hours that trip.

Thank you, Janette, for leaving your 12 year old in the hospital to take our wedding pictures. I love them so much.

Thank you to our friends Brent, Lance, Amy and Chrissy for making such long drives to our wedding. They all have their own funny stories to tell from that trip.

Thank you mom and Vickie for making bride's maid dresses and to my mom again, for making my wedding dress and veil. I love, love, love my wedding dress. And was so glad to share my veil with my sister when she got married last year. Can you feel the love?

These last ten years have gone incredibly fast and unbelievably slow. We've moved 11 times, lived in two countries, three states (with a child born in each) and nine cities. We both graduated from college and Adam is on his second career, both of which he has loved. We've driven cross country more in ten years than lots of people do in a life time. We love adventures and are willing to do something different to accomplish a goal. I am here to push and pull Adam outside himself while Adam reminds me to relax and have fun. We kiss in public and do our best not to settle into a married/parental routine. I am thankful to have so much more than a roommate and a co-parent. I have a best friend, a lover, a confidant, a sounding board, a therapist, an editor and a motivator. Man, did I get a great deal, or what?

If you read all the way through this you are truly a good friend (or just plain bored). Now go kiss your husband/wife just because and don't forget your own anniversary.

p.s. Did I mention that I got caught in the automatic sliding doors when leaving the temple? Oh, it was . . . totally not embarrassing! Not at all!

Genius

Isn't it funny how kids pick up on things we, as parents, do and say? For example,

We were in the car today on our way home. We were waiting behind another car waiting to take a left. We been waiting about 30 seconds when Ella says, "Let's go genius." Despite my best efforts I laughed out loud.

Then to amaze and amuse me further, she starts singing along with Taylor Swift and knows every word to "Our Song" . Is that child sitting back there in her booster six or 16?


p.s. After school Ella informed that I didn't look old or young, just medium. "Like, ummmm, 39."

CREEPY

Is it just me or is it not totally creepy when you're at an indoor fast food playground with your kids and some guy comes into the playplace to eat but doesn't have children with him? And the restaurant outside the playplace is practically empty. Is it just me or is it not then time to go? It was creepy and we left.

CREEPY . . . I hate that!

Not Me Monday

A friend my mine does Not Me Monday and I love them. I thought I'd give it a try and see who begins avoiding me.

On this Monday night my youngest is most definitely not sleeping in a pair of his sister's leggings because a) he refuses to sleep without pants and b) every single pair of pj's and/or soft pants he owns is dirty. At least they're gray!

My girls are most certainly not asleep in their cute summer pj's sans underwear because I just didn't get to laundry today. And I did not refuse to let them wear swimwear as underwear for fear that they couldn't get it off in time to pee at, say, 3 in the morning.

And I am not refusing to buy my girls more underwear because they have plenty, as long as they don't change them 47 times a day.

And I did not just go check my laundry and realized that I washed that load without adding soap.

I'm just certain that none of y'all have laundry issues, right?

Sure Sign of Summer

SNOW SHACKS!

Snow shacks (my generic term for all sno-cones little hut/booth places) are one of my sure signs of summer.

A snow shack near us opened today and we were all over it. As soon as Ella got off the bus we headed straight there. Good thing too. When we got there, there was five people in front of us and when we left there were 15 people behind us.

Grace got rainbow.

Joseph wanted "red" so I got him Tiger's Blood (one of my favs).

Ella wanted rainbow.

Within five minutes of getting our cones, true to form, someone had to pee. We carefully headed home to finish them in the front yard.

Adam will surely be disappointed that we didn't wait for him to make our first of the summer sno-cone run. Don't worry, Adam, we do love you and promise to force ourselves to eat another sno-cone this weekend when you're with us.

Oh the sacrifices we make for the ones we love.



p.s. Weird spacing is annoying in the post but I'm not OCD enough to redo it. You'll live, right? I'm already over it.

Why Do Kids Do These Things?

The weather was so beautiful today I finally took the kids to the "sand park". Now as a general rule, I truly abhor playgrounds that are covered in sand but this one is the closest by far and we were short on time.
This year Joseph is big enough to play by himself on the toys. He loves to dig and dig and dig. Why do boys love to dig? And why do kids, at about two and a half, enter the "cheese" phase? You know, mama says, "Joe, look at mama." and Joseph squenches his face and says "cheese" usually without looking at the camera. I got lucky with this pic.

And then why do little girls love, love, love to dump sand on the slide?

Then why do big sisters love, love, love to order little sisters not to dump sand on the slide then stomp over to sweep it off when little sisters don't listen?
I haven't a clue why my kids love, love, love these things but I do know that they are stinkin' funny to watch.

(P.S. When Grace was dumping the sand on the slide she was pretending to "feed the poor". She fed the poor on the swings, on the slide and up on the platform. Grace is such a funny girl.)

Taking Requests

It has been requested that I get my tail in gear and start blogging a little more often. I have already warned the requesters that my life is wonderfully boring right now and I'm a touch ornery but willing to blog. I can not guarantee my posts won't be strange, boring, random and/or angry.

If you are okay with the before mentioned "strange, boring, random and/or angry" then welcome back.