14 years

This post is a week late but I still wanted to sneak it in before I posted about the other things going on around here.

Last Wednesday, the 19th, was Mark's and my 14th anniversary.  We were super excited to be able to find a sitter and have a night out together. 

He came home and surprised me with these gorgeous flowers.

I can lean towards the too practical side of only get me what I need which is why I'm so very thankful for a husband who just wants to bless me. I've thoroughly enjoyed these flowers and am sad now to have thrown some away as they've wilted.  Truly the most beautiful bouquet I think I've ever received. 

We went to dinner at East by Southwest. We have fun sharing sushi together.  Our kids aren't quite ready for that leap just yet! 

After dinner we got dessert and then just drove around and dreamed together.  Definitely something we don't always do enough of. 

Our house is back on the market and we've had 1 showing, 1 showing cancel and 1 showing scheduled.  All in 2 weeks. We are hoping that this is a good time to sell. We shall see what God says! 

Tonight is my date with Kale.  Fancy dinner out at Ken and Sue's. Looking forward to some time with him. 

This weekend Kale and Kate are having a sleepover at church.  It's a camp preparation party :) both of them are old enough for camp this year.  Poor Jack...he doesn't know what to do with himself!  It's hard being the youngest :(

We've been good overall.  Just making it from one day to the next at times. Kate's birthday is this Monday and then we have a big marriage dinner at the church next weekend.  Lots going on! 

Never dull around here. Never dull. 

Tweens

Our anniversary was Sunday. It was our 12th. We're tweens :) Next year we will enter our teenage years of marriage. I wonder if we'll get attitudes...JK.

We haven't really been good at doing special things on our anniversary. I think it's because Kale's birthday is 2 days before and Kate's is 2 weeks after so it gets kinda smushed in between and forgotten. But not this year!

For some crazy reason, in the midst of our crazy life, we decided to make this a priority and go out. And I'm pretty sure this was the top anniversary date of all time! (although our 1st anniversary was pretty sweet since our youth group had gotten us ski tickets and a stay up at a hotel near Purgatory...that one was quite awesome too).

We had been given a gift certificate toby some wonderful people in the church a couple months ago so we decided to get the kids a babysitter and go there. It would've been a normal, wonderful date except that Mark preached yesterday about marriage and announced to the church that our anniversary was that day. After service a friend of Mark's (who also happens to be the chef at Ken & Sue's) came up and asked Mark if we were going out. Mark laughed and said that we were actually planning on coming to his restaurant. They were joking about having a delicious meal with chocolate!

That afternoon Mark got a text from Curtis (chef friend) that he'd taken care of our reservations and we were set to come in at 5:30. Mark tried to tell him not to worry about but Curtis insisted.

So we show up and the host, once he found out who we were, wished us a happy anniversary and took us to our table. He was super friendly and really happy to see us. Then our waitress came over to our table and she was pretty much the best waitress we'd ever had! She went on and on about how excited she was that we were there and how excited Curtis was that we were there. It was so sweet. She said that Curtis was going to take care of us.

Mark went back to say hi to him and thank him for the great table and Curtis said he was going to send us out some appetizers. He asked if we were adventurous and if there was anything we wouldn't eat. There isn't much we won't try (at least once). So Curtis sent out mussels!Let me just say that we never would've ordered this on our own but they were amazing! The sauce was incredible and Mark and I laughed because we actually love them :) Sadly we are total mussel novices because it wasn't until they were almost gone that we discovered the little forks that you're supposed to eat them with. We just kept digging them out with our giant forks!

He also sent out a plate of delicious chicken in a sweet peanut sauce. YUM!

We ordered our entrees and ate a bit but then forced ourselves to stop because we knew dessert was coming. And of course that was amazing as well.

By the way, we had a couple waiters and the manager come over and wish us a happy anniversary. Apparently Curtis had made a big deal about us coming there for dinner and wanting it to be special so they all did what they could to make it amazing and it really was.

So here's the dessert. Molten Lava Cake!Melted chocolate oozes out of it when you cut into it. *sigh* Heaven!

They took our picture and gave us a card to remember the night.It was so special. We had a blast just talking and laughing and being amazed at their kindness and service. We were so blessed!So our normal, wonderful date turned in to an extraordinary, special gift!

10 years baby!

Yesterday was our 10th anniversary. So crazy to me to think that 10 years ago we officially started this wonderful journey together. And I have to laugh at some of the lessons learned and figured out. I also have to laugh at how many hundreds - possibly thousands - more we have yet to learn.

Last night, after the daddy daughter dance, we were getting ready for bed - exhausted. We normally go to bed at the same time so we get ready for bed at the same time. We have a ritual. A routine. It's weird when it gets messed up. We have a Sonicare toothbrush so we have to take turns brushing our teeth. I usually brush mine first so that he can brush his teeth while I'm washing my face. {I'm sure you're wondering why in the world am I sharing this information but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with my story...we'll see}.

As I was getting ready to brush my teeth I grab the toothpaste. And I can't get the lid off...again! Ok a little back story is necessary. Ya see, we've figured out some of the normal arguments. We both squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom up. We've figured out the toilet seat thing (we always leave it completely down). And we know that the toilet paper gets rolled over the top (of course it does!). So we don't have many little issues....except for the lid to the toothpaste.Mark puts it on so stinkin' tight I can't get it off. He swears he doesn't do it on purpose but I'm not so sure he doesn't do it just to see me sweat :) We have the toothpaste where the lid twists off. And it has all those little grooves on it. And it hurts to struggle to open it! I know I sound like a wienie but I'm serious here people. I have to grab a towel to get a good, safe, comfortable grip and twist off the top. Or I have to get Mark to do it (and he just laughs at me).

Last night I tried unscrewing the cap and I twisted the whole tube of toothpaste! Seriously isn't that a bit too tight?!

We've tried the flip tops but they're annoying too. They always tend to break not long after you start using them and then you have to finish off the tube (like another 3 months) with the top dangling off or, worse yet, poking you everytime you try to remove it. *sigh*So last night, as we're laughing at how hard the top was screwed on, I gave Mark a lesson on putting the lid on so his wife wouldn't loose her mind everytime she tried to brush her teeth. I showed him that as he's twisting, as soon as he feels resistance -- STOP TWISTING! Don't crank it down another half turn for good measure!

By the way, he does this with Nalgene bottles too. He screws the lid down so hard I have to have special tools to open it to get a drink. I'm pretty sure that's why I feel like I have arthritis...

So while we've learned many things in 10 years ... we have a long way to go :) And I couldn't be more thrilled with who I get to go on this journey with. Love you Mark!