5 years and counting

Five years ago I married a man who was more wonderful than I could have imagined. I thought he was fabulous when we were engaged, I learned that he was truly amazing once we were married, and now that we've had a few years to grow I know that he couldn't be more perfect for me. Not perfect (have to throw that in there for reality's sake, and just so that he won't think I'm lying about everything else) but closer than I deserve, and my true love. Or, "sweet love" as my neice once called me before we got married. She said those were the best two words you could put together, and that's what WH has been calling me since then.

I was thinking about it just now, and we've only had one anniversary out of five where I wasn't pregnant or had a newborn. This year, we have a 7 month old who we are leaving with family so that we can go away to our honeymoon cabin for the weekend. We thought about taking him, but he is just about to start crawling, and he's getting to be less of a baby that you just park somewhere. He wants to be entertained. At one point WH said, "If we took him it would be a really sweet time to spend with just him." Then he smiled and said, "Hmmm, guess that's not really the point of an anniversary trip, huh?" But knowing he was willing and even happy to have the baby come along made me love him all the more.

At the very beginning we decided to take turns planning our anniversary celebrations. The first year he planned, the second year I planned, and so on. We haven't always gone away, depending on our circumstances. One year we didn't even go out to dinner until July, but that's life. We also watch our wedding video every anniversary, just for kicks.

So here we are, then and now. All my wedding pictures are on a disk somewhere deep in a box, so all I have is us, a week before we got married:

And on our honeymoon (look how young-and thin- we look!!!):

First anniversary- We went to a dumpy little cabin found on the internet. Made us both grateful our honeymoon cabin was so fabulous...we obviously did not have the same luck here. There was a hot tub but the hot water heater was so small that in order to fill it we had to boil water. Both of us had gained about 30 lbs, and I was close to giving birth to baby #1 (sympathy weight?). He also had pretty bad heartburn along with me. Very empathetic husband.

Second anniversary- Trip to Lexington, VA where we stayed in a fabulous bed and breakfast. It was wonderful. We left Coop with WH's Mom, but it was only for a night. Not a great picture...it's all we've got.

Third anniversary- WH planned a fun evening out where we went to four different places, working off the theme of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." It was a lot of fun. No pictures...I always take my camera to these types of things but often forget to pull it out. Here we are a few weeks later:



Fourth anniversary- Some good (great!) friends in town watched the two older kids (I was pregnant with Baby T) and we had about 20 hours to ourselves. I made a little "Choose your own adventure" booklet and WH had about four different options for how we would spend our time. We ended up going out for a nice dinner, coming home to watch our wedding video (although by this year we both had a magazine while we were watching it), slept in and had a lazy breakfast, and then went to the art museum before picking up our kids.

Fifth anniversary- We'll be dropping our kids off Friday morning and won't be returning until Sunday night. It's the longest we've been by ourselves in over four years. Can't wait! God is good.

Pre-Father's Day party

This has been sick week at our house, and I seem to be deteriorating instead of getting better. Not sure what I have, but there are several nasty viruses going around and my brother-in-law has been sick with some unknown virus for over 3 weeks. Hoping I don't have what he has. WH has insisted I stay in bed as much as possible, so he's been doing double duty with the kids. Poor guy. He has a great attitude about it, but I know it's a lot of work. He took them to the park today, and then took all three to the health food store and the fire station (trying to kill time and give me some quiet since my main symptom is a massive head/neck/earache). He also did several loads of laundry and put them out on the line.

Yesterday, when I was still in denial about being sick all week, and operating under the thought that if I act well, then I will get well, we planned a little pre-Father's Day celebration. Next Sunday we will be away for our anniversary so I thought an early special day was in order. WH worked second shift and was home all morning, so it was a great time (except that afterward I fell into bed and slept for several hours). Not exactly the day I was planning, but it was a good breakfast. The kids helped me make Moriah's famous 10-minute donuts, bacon, and a quick egg dish. WH had been asking for donuts for a long time, and since I am usually against anything fried before 5pm, it was a rare treat.

A while ago I ordered a tie from Land's End for $4.99 (now you know how cheap it was, honey), and we picked up some gum and M&M's, just so that each child could have something to give him. When I asked the kids if they wanted to wrap the presents, Coop said, "This is how you do it, Mom. You wrap it in a bag, like one of those bags under the sink from the grocery store. And then you hide it under your shirt and bring it out and say, 'Happy Father's Day.'" I died laughing, since that was, indeed, how they presented their Mother's Day gifts to me. Daddy wrapping, we call it. :)

This was an early-morning pj shot. I used to scoff at people who let their girls have "Pretty Princess" polyester nightgowns. Look how low I've sunk. Look at that lapful of children! (Cock your head...not sure why this picture is this way- weird Blogger thing.)

Birthday Bash

Some people are accusing me of talking too much about sewing in this spot, and that the topic might not necessarily be of general interest. I never promised to be wildly entertaining, or even mildly entertaining for that matter. This is just a hum-drum record of our little corner of the world, and there happens to be a lot of sewing going on here these days. But for you (and you know who you are) I will talk about something else.

Birthdays. That's a topic of general interest. Yesterday was mine, and here are few highlights:

A camera from my dear husband. Our last camera was fabulous when my grandparents gave it to us 5 years ago for our wedding, but technology is changing so fast, and they don't even make a camera with so few megapixels anymore. It is great for still shots in perfect lighting, but if anything is moving (which my 3 little subjects often are) it is hard to capture much more than the blur.

Three of my sisters-in-law were in town to put together a joint birthday party for my mother-in-law and myself, and they went to great lengths to give me a gourmet yet dairy-free spread. AND I got presents, too! Kitchen stuff, house stuff, and even some homemade all-natural soap.

There was some angel food cake and homemade sorbet:
Some fun and much-needed kitchen stuff (yes, Mom, there are still a few things I don't own):

And happy children all around:

It was a good day.