Monthly Archives: October 2013

Married Eight Years!

Tom and I celebrated eight years of marriage on Tuesday.  This is one of the first years since we had kids that we actually went out on our anniversary.  I have either been pregnant, just had a baby, or we are too tired to go out.  We are finally entering a season of life when the kids are old enough for us to celebrate our anniversary properly.

We decided to go to Mickey and Mooch for dinner.  This is the restaurant that Tom and I frequented when we were dating.  They serve a very generous portion of wine and an even bigger piece of chocolate cake for dessert.   Those are the two main reasons that we went there so much when dating.  That, and it was right down the street from where I was living with my parents.  My dad reaped the benefits of leftover cake after our dates.

As for our eight years of marriage, my dad said it best the other day when he chuckled and said, “Did you think you would ever make it to eight years?”

My response was, “no”.  I laughed.

Before I got married my parents told me, “You will have rough years in marriage.  Not just rough days.”  I wondered why anyone would sign up for that?!  But I signed up anyways.  We were married in October 2005.  I have to be honest and say that 2006, 2010 and 2012 were rough years.  Some were due to my issues and some were due to Tom’s.  I think it is harder when you get married later in life, more baggage and bad habits.

There are many things that have contributed to the success of our marriage:  family support, counseling, kids, and a strong commitment to God through our vows.  In our vows we said that we would be married in “sickness and health, for richer or poorer…”  When we said those vows we made divorce a non-issue.  It wouldn’t happen.  This has made us work through our issues and we have come out better on the other side.  I think we are truly happier today than we ever have been.  This is not to say that our marriage has been terrible or that we haven’t had fun together, it is just to say that we are both human, have baggage, and marriage takes work.  We have had three beautiful children and they have made it worth every second!  God continues to bless our marriage and our family.

I am sure that Tom and I will have many, many more anniversaries together.  We joke that we might even be able to reach 50-60 years of marriage if God blesses us both with very long lives, which we hope we have (we were 32 and 42 when we married).

We had a fabulous anniversary dinner: drinks, a fabulous meal that I didn’t have to cook, chocolate cake, and a very enjoyable time with my husband that I know loves me very much.  It was a night to remember.

Horse Birthday party

Wilson was invited to his first birthday party who wasn’t a family member. It was neat to see Wilson among friends. He has never had his own friends. They have always been shared by Faith. Now that he is going to school he has his own friends.  It is really cute to see!

He was invited to Michaels fourth birthday party at a ranch north of town.  I was hoping to get some “Becca time”, but had forgotten that mom’s stay to help out at four year old birthday parties.  Oh well!  It gave Wilson and I a chance to hang out.  Each child was given a cowboy hat and a vest to wear.  The kids took turns brushing a horse and then riding the horse around a big loop.  Wilson was very excited about this.  Here he is getting ready to ride…

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After the horse riding the kids had pizza, another exciting event.  Then they picked out colors that they would paint on a plate and the horse would then rub the paint around with it’s nose.  The horses didn’t seem to mind and Wilson got a colorful picture to bring home.

As an observer, I did notice a few things about kids’ birthdays and parents these days:

1-gift bags are everywhere!  I know that they are convenient, but do we use them because we are all too lazy to actually wrap a gift?  I think so.  I am guilty of this as well.  Ripping open a gift with paper is way more fun!

2-I am not a germ-a-phobe (which I knew), but all the mom’s were obsessed with their kids using hand sanitizer after touching the horse.  We never use that stuff and are rarely sick.  I don’t think Wilson even used it until the end of the day.  (not really a bragging point, but still….)

The best, and funniest, part of the day was when I asked the woman in charge where Wilson could go to the bathroom.  She told me to walk through the barn and go into the last stall on the left.  There was fresh sawdust in there for anyone who needed to go to the bathroom.  I couldn’t believe she was serious!  Now don’t get me wrong, Wilson pees on a tree or bush more than he pees in the toilet, but she was encouraging him to pee in a horse stall!  I told Wilson that “in the spirit of the horse birthday party that he was going to pee like a horse”.  He did and thought that it was great. That give a new meaning to the saying, “I have to pee like a race horse!”.