Today is our eighth anniversary, and for once, I can confidently say it: this was the best year yet.
I was reading back through my anniversary posts from years past, and I am so thankful to not be wandering in those confusing, painful seasons anymore. Maybe more days like that will come. Probably more days like that will come.
This time around, though, I know that we can get through it. We can make it through anything. Year eight was the Promised Land after all the years of wandering. Finally, the "for better."
Thank you Jesus for a taste of glory.
During year eight, I fell in love with Matt a thousand times over as I watched him fall in love with our daughter. I can't imagine an earthly joy that compares to watching him be a daddy.
On our walk yesterday, I commented that year eight was the best yet. He replied that the next one, year nine, would be even better.
How?, I asked. We already have Millie. How could it possibly be any better?
He actually couldn't think of anything concrete, because clearly I was right (not unusual). We did agree, however, that the next year might be a tiny bit better because we would have Millie for ALL of it- not just 10.75 months of it. And so I'll give him that. I guess the next year might be better. We will be a family of three for all of it. And I really don't imagine it can get any better than that. (But I'm open to being proven wrong, I suppose.)
Happy anniversary, Mattie. I can't imagine anyone else I'd rather share this life with.
As far as I know, this was the first picture ever taken of Matt and I together. It was January of 2006. We had been coworkers for about 5 months, and it was safe to say there was some mutual crushing going on. On this day, we'd been at a work-related conference and decided to spend the lunch break at a local playground with our mutual friend Catherine.
We didn't officially begin dating for another month, but I remember how nervous and excited and happy I was to be spending time with Matt (with the safety net of Catherine, of course!), to ride in his disgustingly nasty Honda, to see how gleefully he played on a kids' playground.
And God bless Catherine for spending the afternoon with two crushing goobers.
I thought Matt was so cute. Ohmygosh. And despite his obvious hunk status (I mean, at any given time, he was dating one girl and had 14 girls not-so-secretly lusting after him from afar), he would go to a playground and goof off on the monkey bars? Swoon.
The great thing is, eight years later- he isn't so different. He dresses a lot better (gee, I wonder who we can thank for that?). He drives a significantly less smelly car. He gets most of his exercise done in a gym and not on a park playground.
He still spends many afternoons hanging around (upside down or otherwise) with me and Catherine. I still think he's the cutest guy ever, and I still can't believe he picked me. For no particular reason except that I came across the pictures and they made me smile-- happy Thursday, Mattie. I think going to the playground for our lunch break that day could have been one of the most important trivial decisions we ever made. And this picture was taken about a month later. This is a face he's probably much more accustomed to seeing from me. ;)
I may be Not Amused, but I couldn't love him any more.
It's a pretty big day in our house- Lola's 6th birthday!! Her birthday is just an estimate, of course. We got her from the Humane Society when she was about 8 weeks old...so we just counted back and picked a day and called it her birthday. July 11 it was! I bet she was an adorable newborn puppy...but luckily she was still stinkin' cute when we got her at 8 weeks!
Choosing Lola was one of our first great marital compromises. We'd both wanted a dog for months. I grew up with dogs- always small ones (except for a few large ones which terrorized me). I knew small dogs. I loved small dogs. I wanted to get a small dog. Matt had never had a dog, but something in his Y chromosome led him to believe that he absolutely needed a large dog. Despite the fact the he knew and loved my family's small dogs, he refused to entertain the notion of bringing one into our house. Men need BIG dogs. Obviously his ignorance annoyed me. Matt knew nothing about dogs! He didn't know what it took to take care of them, to feed them, to pay their vet bills-- that everything hinges on size, and bigger=more expensive!! And big dogs would make big messes, make big piles of poop that we'd have to scoop, and like...we really just needed a small dog. Obviously. So we didn't get a dog for months...locked in our standstill about dog size. Finally it came to us. The perfect compromise. A mutt puppy of indeterminate breed. We decided to go pick out a small puppy that we both loved. We'd be sure we couldn't tell what she might grow up to be. And then we'd bring her home and love her and by the time she grew up, to whatever size that may be, we would already love her and not care how big or small she was.
We chose Lola on September 27, 2008. Clearly, she was the cutest puppy not only in her litter, but in the whole world. The Humane Society people guessed that she might be "part Lab, part terrier." Since my eyes are not broken, I felt a little skeptical about that terrier part, but it still gave me comfort to hear them mention a smaller breed along with LAB-- something I decidedly would NOT select if given a choice.
We brought Lola home, and just as we'd planned, we fell in love. She was a wonderful puppy, easy to house train, and as it turned out, Matt took to doggie fatherhood just fine. You couldn't even tell he was a newbie. Lola grew up to be absolutely perfect, size-wise and otherwise. She weighs around 50 pounds and sheds like crazy and I couldn't care less. I can't believe I would have passed her over if I'd known how big she would grow up to be. I would have missed out on the best doggie ever!!
Happy Birthday, Lola. Even though you're six, you still can't read, so you'll never see this...but I hope you know how wonderful and adorable we still think you are. But if you decided to shed less, we would be okay with that, too. Just so you know.
Seven years ago today, we made our vows. That means that we've concluded seven whole years of marriage. Seven years of matrimony doesn't seem that impressive when you consider that lots of people have been married, like...forty years. But since I'm not even forty years old, I don't consider that to be an obtainable goal for myself. Seven years is good.
Seven years is as long as it took me to get through middle and high school.
(Seven years of marriage has definitely been better than middle and high school, which is saying something. I loved middle and high school, bless my heart.)
I tried to think of other significant things that happen in sevens, but I'm coming up mostly blank. All I can think of is the Harry Potter books (shocking, I know), which happen to be seven volumes covering seven years. And although I'm still 100 pages from the end of Book 7 right now (which means it's a damn MIRACLE that I'm blogging and not reading, okay?) and don't yet know how it ends, I have heard that the ending will supposedly be satisfying. Everyone tells me that my mind will be blown, that all of the pieces will fall into place, that the details and mysteries of the first six years all prove to have been intentional, to serve a purpose, and to come together into a conclusion that is meaningful and satisfying. I can't wait to see what happens, and I'm savoring every paragraph as I quickly make my way to the end.
And although our marriage is nowhere near its end, I'd like to think that you can look at it kind of the same way. These seven years haven't always been easy. Like a brilliant book series, there have been rises and falls, mysteries solved while other mysteries remain, laughter and tears, heartache and unfinished business. I have no idea, most of the time, where the story is going next- I can only enjoy (or endure) where it is at the time. But even during the hardest chapters, the ones where you're sobbing and angry and not sure where the story goes from here...you keep going, trusting that the author knows what they're doing.
I trust that the Author knows where we're going. And that the story will be good.
Our seventh year of marriage didn't play out quite how we'd hoped. There were a lot more sad chapters than I would have chosen. But there were a lot of good things, too. Adventures. Happiness. Moments of bliss and peace. One day, maybe, we'll look back and say Year Seven was awesome. It was crazy at the time, but later, when you look back...it all made sense. Because I think that the Author knows what he's doing here. Nothing is by chance.
I am incredibly thankful for Mattie, my partner in adventure and misery and whatever else life throws at us. I love almost everything about him (an exception being made for this one really abnormal nose hair he has that grows at like six times the rate of any other nose hair...I do not love that, nor do I love when Matt tortures me by pretending he's going to touch me with it) and love that he loves (or at least tolerates) almost everything about me. There is no one else I would rather do life with.
Happy Anniversary, Mattie. Since you started reading my blog semi-regularly at some point during our seventh year of marriage, there's actually a chance you may see this someday. Thanks for letting me express my love for you by constantly torturing and pranking you, and thanks for still never laughing at my jokes. I can't imagine the self-control that that requires- I stand in awe. Thanks for always wanting to be twinsies with me and getting as excited about stupid stuff as I do. As always, I hope that the next year of our marriage is the best one yet-- but by now, I've lived and learned enough to know that even if it isn't...it'll still be pretty good, and it will definitely be worth it. I love you!
Don't let the title fool you. I don't have a game plan just yet. But there are still 24 hours until the games start, so it's not too late yet. In case you don't know, the World Cup starts tomorrow. If you are in the "this is news to me" camp, I can only assume you aren't married to Matt. (There are other clues that also lead me to believe you're not married to Matt, but this is a big one.) If you were married to Matt like I am, you would know. WORLD CUP!!! OH MY GOSH!!! EEEEKKKK!! WOOOOOO!!!
Handsome husband, gorgeous hydrangeas. Hydrangeas courtesy of UGA...can't take credit for anything except admiring and appreciating them on a daily basis.
Matt has an excitement and passion about the World Cup that rivals my enthusiasm for Mexican food, nail polish, and reality TV...which is to say a lot. Unfortunately, soccer isn't one of our shared passions. This presents a problem for a month every fourth year, because what we do share is a single TV in our shared living room. You can see the obvious issues here. So now the time is upon us again and I'm finding that I neglected to remedy our soccer issues during the last four years (you know, by either becoming passionate about soccer myself, or convincing Matt to hate it). Clearly I'm going to need a survival game plan for the next month. I'm just not sure what it's going to be. Here are some options: 1. Try to learn about soccer and get interested in it, which could possibly lead to actually enjoying the (endless) games on TV. This is extremely unlikely because it is a verified fact (9 out of 10 scientists agree!) that soccer is the most boring sport on earth. It is boring to play (all you do is run around) and it is boring to watch (all they do is run around). Since none of that has changed since the last time I tried to care about soccer, it's safe to say that I'm still going to find it boring this year. So...next! 2. Try to convince Matt he doesn't want to watch. Unfortunately, he is already brainwashed beyond help into thinking that soccer is both fun to watch and play (I know, right?? So sad). But perhaps I can find something about the World Cup itself that will be appalling enough to keep him from supporting? Like...some egregious scandal...or something?? This is a stretch, but I'm keeping my ears open for anything that could horrify him into a boycott. 3. Buy another TV. This seems drastic and expensive. Plus, we don't have another room to put a TV in (the laundry room? Kitchen? Garage?) since we're anti-TV-in-the-bedrooms. Also, it's not so much that I have so many important things that I'd rather be watching...I can always watch Netflix on a laptop if I really want to. It's more like...I just get annoyed by hearing soccer on the TV and not having a husband to hang out with because HE is busy watching soccer. So another TV isn't really going to help with any of that. 4. Take up a new hobby for a month. Maybe if I had something fun and distracting to focus on during the evenings (I'm guessing he'll be DVRing the games since they come on at like 1 and 4 pm or something and he won't be able to watch them live), hearing soccer on the TV and having an absentee husband wouldn't be so annoying. But I can't really think of any hobbies I'm dying to take up. I guess I could start a book series or something? Hmmm... 5. Distraction. Maybe I can make myself so annoying amusing and distracting that Matt will just get fed up and cut off the TV? Like...tap dancing while using power tools in the garage. Or something. It would be really loud and I doubt Matt could really concentrate on the TV if he were preoccupied with how I'm probably breaking his power tools and/or chopping off my own limbs. Also, who wouldn't prefer watching me tap dance over seeing random guys run around after a ball on TV? Exactly. Ugh. These are all the plans I've thought of so far and none of them are really speaking to me. I'm leaning towards some combination of #4 and #5. A distracting new hobby. I have one day to figure out what, so wish me luck!
Well, our snow fun has ended. We headed back to work yesterday and life is pretty much back to its regular pace. For as beautiful as snow is when it's falling and covering everything like a white blanket...it's really depressing to watch it melt away and turn everything into a mud pit.
Here's the front of our house as we left this morning. Womp womp-- no fun. Snowball fights are never gonna happen in something as lame as that. Speaking of which-- I may not have blogged yesterday, but I made up for it in an over-abundance of sharing on Facebook and Instagram. If you don't follow me on either of those places, then you don't know that I treated Matt to a most worthy SNOWINYO'FAAAAACE!!! sequel: I pelted him with a snowball while he was showering yesterday morning!! It was awesome. And he has yet to seek revenge for either of my snow-related attacks, so...that's pretty much exactly how I expected things to go. I prank him. He gets mad for 10 seconds and then forgets to ever seek retribution. The key to a great marriage. Who needs marriage counseling when you have me? And I'm free!! Sheesh. During our day and a half of snowcation we started two new shows on Netflix. On Tuesday night I decided to start Mad Men. I've heard many good things over the years but have never watched a single episode. So I watched three on Tuesday. But I'm gonna have to say...I didn't love it. Is that bad? It felt really slow. I kept getting bored and would look at the computer for a few minutes, then be slightly confused when I re-focused on the show...but then get bored again...and like, I didn't hate it, but it just didn't really draw me in. I turned it off easily and when I got up on Wednesday I didn't feel any compulsion to watch it again. Am I missing something? Have I dumbed myself down by a steady diet of reality TV and easy comedies? Oh well. So Wednesday night I decided to try something else. Revenge popped up on my recommended list, so I said why not? And THAT is what's up. Revenge? Are you kidding me??! That show sucked me in within the first 10 minutes. We blew through about 5 episodes that night (staying up waaaaaay too late for a work night, oops!) and another dozen few last night. Maybe I'm wasting my life, but I really love marathoning TV shows. And this one is so worth it. Any other fans out there? I'm only about 10 episodes in or so, but I can tell this is how I'm going to be spending my weekend. Emily Thorne, you complete me!! So that you don't think I'm totally, 100% nothing but lazy, may I present to you my almost-complete January workout calendar:
So far in January we've worked out 18 times!! And we're going to the gym today, too, so make that 19 when all's said and done. I am so proud of myself! Considering there were several obstacles to overcome (bronchitis at the beginning of the month, a long weekend traveling, being snowed in)...I think we did really good!! I wanted to get my money's worth out of our new gym membership, and I'd have to wholeheartedly say that we did this month. Finally, a random screenshot of the funniest 'available wireless network' that popped up on my phone yesterday. I kindly bleeped out the most offensive words, but I'm pretty sure you'll be able to figure out what it said...
Sooo...yeah. It totally made me crack up. A house in my neighborhood has their wireless network named 'FBI SURVEILLANCE' and that makes me laugh every time too. Mine is something super boring, like a nondescript series of numbers and letters...and I don't really know how to change it...so I feel like I'm robbing my neighbors of the pleasure of easy entertainment. Sad situation, folks. I'm trying to get over it. Have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks to (at least in part, I'm sure) the devoted praying and hoping of millions of residents of the South, our dreams of snow became a reality yesterday. First snow since 2011, baby-- woo!!!! I am thankful that my personal snow experience has been all positive so far, but I don't want to be disrespectful to the thousands of people in Atlanta for whom that is not the case. In case you haven't heard, it was/is a mess there. As in...it's 11:20 on Wednesday and people are still stuck in YESTERDAY'S after-work (which began about 1:00 p.m. for most folks/schools) traffic jams. It's crazy. Check out the Atlanta paper online or basically any major news outlet...it's insanity. Kids and teachers stuck overnight at schools. Friends of mine stuck on interstates for 12 hours, eventually just abandoning their cars when they ran out of gas and walking to stores/strangers' homes/churches to sleep. It is insanity. None of that happened in Athens, a far, far smaller city...but since we're so close to Atlanta, with many friends living there and through this...man. Just bizarre.
Yesterday at work, before a single flake of snow had fallen, we were discussing when to make 'the call' about closing work, etc. Some of us were joking about all of the school systems that had already canceled school...even when it was still 60 degrees outside. "No wonder everyone in the country makes fun of us!!!" we were commiserating. But our boss-man said something very wise and it's stuck with me: When you overreact [to the threat of severe weather], you get mocked. When you underreact, you get sued.
Pretty sure we all have a new appreciation for that truth now. Props to the people silly enough to cancel stuff way early and not have their people out stuck in the madness overnight.
Anyway!! With all due respect to the people that are NOT enjoying this Snowpocalypse...it's been pretty great for me. I spent the morning at work compulsively running to windows (and out doors) to see if it had started snowing yet. Finally finally fiiiinally, around noon, it started. Matt and I ate a quick lunch and then decided to take a 'snow walk' to a coffee shop a few blocks away. Since we had no idea whether the snow would actually stick or not, we wanted to at least enjoy it while we could. It was so fun with the flurries gently swirling around us!! We could see the flakes in the air and on our dark coats, but nothing was sticking. We tried to take pictures anyway...
...annnnnd you can't see anything. But I promise it was snowing. I wouldn't lie about such a monumental thing. Shortly after this failed snow photo shoot, it started really coming down and sticking. My work decided to let us leave at 2:00. This was awesome, except that Matt's work WASN'T letting them leave early...and we only had one car. Very thankfully, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law came to the rescue by volunteering to come fetch me and drive me home. I was SUPER happy about that, since sitting in the lobby of Matt's bank seemed like a really boring way to spend 3 hours of a snow day. (My other option was going to be having my coworker/friend drop me off at the gym and waiting out the time there. Three hours at the gym. Sounds great!!! Or not.) I got home around 3 and spent the afternoon monitoring the snow progress, watching Lola 'discover' the snow, and taking selfies with the snow to send to Matt, who was stuck in jail work and obviously needed to be updated about life on the outside.
Look at the snow progress!!
Matt eventually got to leave work and come home-- thankfully, the roads were still totally fine and he got home without any problems. Once he got home, we came to the scary realization that our supply of Adult Beverages was running low, which is obviously an unacceptable situation under these conditions. We took a quick trip up the street to replenish our supplies and admire the snowy landscape.
Those poor cows looked so cold!!! You should know that approximately 200 yards away from that tree they're all huddled under is a big huge open barn. One cow managed to think things through and go stand in the dry, presumably warmer barn. The rest of them...bless their hearts. It must suck to be not smart. We made it back home and settled in for the night with plenty of snacks, a fire, and Netflix.
Lola knows what's up. She'd be the smart cow in the barn.
Around 8:00 I received the happy news that my work was canceled for today. We went to bed hoping that Matt would receive similar news in the morning. Around 7:00 a.m., he did. He didn't have to report til noon! There are two ways to respond to the news that you don't have to go in to work until late: A) Yay, we can sleep in! B) Yay, we can play in the snow! Matt goes with A. I'm a B. Unfortunately for Matt, I'm also kind of a big jerk. And I'm easily entertained. And I like pranks. Therefore, this happened:
Please don't judge the tiny bit of snow I managed to grab. First of all, it was cold. Who knew. Secondly, I was having to hold/record with my phone in the other hand, PLUS open doors...and finally, I really didn't want to make a huge mess that I'd have to clean up. Or like...actually make Matt really, really mad. :) Luckily, even after my 'mean and terrible' prank, as Matt called it, we managed to have a great morning. Coffee and waffles fueled us for a lovely walk around our neighborhood. We sported the traditional snow gear of native Georgians: All The Clothes In Your Closet At Once.
Lola wasn't big on posing for the camera. Silly dog. You might think that the most exciting thing we saw on our walk around the neighborhood would have been snow. Or ice. Or perhaps children sledding (on pool floats and trashcan lids, of course. Don't nobody actually own sleds). You would be wrong.
Exactly my thoughts. Of course there are Halloweenish creepy dentures on the street in January. Welcome to the sticks. Matt just arrived safely at work-- he said that the roads between our small town and Athens were 'treacherous' but roads in Athens are fine. So he'll be working while I'm holding down the couch and watching my snow attack video on repeat a couple dozen more times. I hope that you are all managing to stay safe and warm, and I highly recommend you take advantage of any opportunity to sneak attack your loved ones with indoor snowballs. It's as awesome as you are probably imagining it is.
This is my first time doing this 'Friday Five' thing...I like to wait until about a year after a trend starts to jump onboard, so I guess this is in keeping with tradition. Or something like that. ONE: Yall- your response to my post yesterday was AWESOME. Seriously- your enthusiasm for grammar truly warmed my heart. And cracked me up. And then I had these awesome grammar questions/conundrums/debates/anecdotes rolling into my inbox all day and it was like NERD OVERLOAD. Sometimes I am super jealous of Grammar Girl and I wish that I'd thought of it (and claimed that name) first, but yesterday I felt like I got my own little corner of the 'grammar advice girl' market and it was super fun. Thanks for your enthusiasm! TWO: Yesterday I finally signed up for Dropbox! In keeping with tradition, I waited until the whole concept is super old news to everyone else on earth until I looked into it for myself. It took about a million hours to sync up all the pictures from my phone, but it's almost done now. Really the whole reason I decided to sign up was to get the baby pictures off my phone without having to look at them...but I'm sure I'll find other reasons to like the service now that I have it. THREE: Yesterday Matt and I semi-inadvertently dressed like twinsies. Like, we realized it before we left the house in the morning...so that's why I say semi-inadvertently. I guess we could have changed if we'd wanted to. But we like being twinsies, so obviously we didn't. Anyway. One of my co-workers noticed and wanted to take our picture at lunch because our twinsieness was so inspirational to her (or something). Then she put the picture on Facebook. And this story is getting really long and boring but HERE'S THE POINT: One of HER Facebook friends (not someone I know) commented on the picture and said "they look like the couple from Parks & Rec!" And like- WHAAAAT??! Obviously this person is my new best friend. Now, we still haven't even finished Season 4, so we're nowhere near caught up...so the thing is, I'm not sure which couple she is even referring to. Probably by now there are multiple new couples on the show that I haven't even 'met' yet. But STILL! That she thinks we look like 'that couple from Parks & Rec' is probably my greatest life achievement thus far. As long as it's a good couple and not like...Ron and Tammy 2 or something. FOUR: Did you know that I sang with the African-American Choral Ensemble when I was a student at UGA? Well, I did. It was super awesome and one of the most fun (and tear-jerky) choirs I've ever been a part of. Anyway, their fall concert is tonight and we are going to attend! I am probably more excited than is appropriate. FIVE: In the last...month...???...we have TOTALLY slacked off on our eMeals. And grocery shopping and cooking in general. After the adoption failed, our friends, family, and church were SO generous with bringing us dinners, frozen food, snacks, restaurant gift cards, and asking us over/out for dinner...we absolutely have not had to think about providing food for ourselves in quite some time. But I still get my eMeals meal plans in my inbox like clockwork and now I'm starting to look forward to getting back on schedule and cooking like a normal person. But not for at least another week...no sense in trying to start during a holiday week, right? So December 1. That's the plan. That's when I'll re-join the adults of the world and do things like cook myself my own food again. And also hopefully become less fat because HOMEGIRL HAS BEEN LAZY for the last month and that's just not gonna fly. So, cooking and running. That's the plan. And that's a wrap for my first Friday 5! Only 8 hours of work to get through and then it's a weekend of concerts, Christmas tree shopping/decorating, and CATCHING FIRE!!!!
Not that my blogs are ever particularly cohesive, but I think one reason I love linking up with E for Midweek Confessions is that I don't even feel like I have to try to make an attempt at cohesiveness. It's awesome. They're confessions! They're random! So yay. Giddyup.
1. One of the bizarre things I found myself doing last week (Mourning Week) was having this sudden need for The Perfect Candle(s). I haven't bothered much with candles in a few years (I think there was some health/fertility/artificial scents have some effect on estrogen? reason for this, but I've pretty much forgotten what it was) but suddenly I realized that my house didn't smell like fall and IT WAS NOT OKAY. So Matt and I spent a good chunk of time and change driving around town to every store and seeking out the perfect candle to set the mood in the house. We finally settled on these two from Bath & Body Works.
We've probably burned through 1/2 to 2/3 of the Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin one and it is faaaabulous. And I'm already feeling sad for when it runs out. Also, when I came back to work Monday, there was a random Yankee candle (in a Ginger Spice Cookie (or something) scent) on one of my shelves. My office frequently becomes a collecting/dumping ground for Random Stuff, so I don't know where this came from, but instead of trying to find the rightful owner...yeah, I just started using it. And it's awesome. So...that'll teach you to leave your random stuff in my office. 2. In Post-Adoption-Failure-Recovery-News, I think I'm making progress. Yesterday I decided to update both my Infertility page and my About Me page...I've had a lot of new blog readers stopping by since...ya know...and those two pages have gotten a lot of traffic. And they hadn't been updated in like...months. Old news. So anyway. I wanted to update them, but I also try to avoid talking/thinking/typing about it. BUT. Yesterday I did it and I didn't even cry, so YEAH. I briefly typed out the one-sentence version of the sad story- TWICE- and no tears? Either I'm healing or I need to see a psychologist because my emotional frigidity has reached new levels. One of those. Let's go with the former. 3. I feel horribly under-prepared for Christmas this year. Since our Christmas plans all pretty much revolved around a) having a newborn, b) being on maternity/paternity leave, c) being really poor due to Expensive Baby Stuff, and d) being deliriously happy because we had a baby...and well, now none of that applies...I just don't know what to do with Christmas. Despite that, I'm going to decorate this weekend. Hopefully if it starts looking festive, festive feelings will follow and I'll get my normal level of Christmas (and birthday) excitement back. 4. Catching Fire comes out this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!! Matt, Mollyanne, and I have our tickets for the Saturday 12:15 p.m. showing. I know. Who goes to the movies at noon? Hopefully just us and not a lot of stupid noisy teenagers, that's who. 5. Matt's growing out his annual Winter Lumberjack Beard (with my full support...until I decide it's too scratchy).
Progress as of this morning
Growing out the beard is always highly entertaining because it means I get emails like this:
Sorry, but if you don't think that the phrase 'beard holes' is hilarious, there's something wrong with you. We spend probably 80% of our waking time talking about the beard holes and it never stops being funny. With that, I'm done. Have a great Wednesday, and may your beard holes not be too hurty.
An office worker by day am I- With air conditioning and much coffee, the hours go by. Editing webpages all day, Proofing grammar-- oy vey. While my heart longs for green grass and blue sky.
So when five o'clock comes and I leave, From climate-controlled buildings I seek my reprieve. Discarding wedges and trendy shirt Donning old Asics, stained with dirt, And to my dreams of being a farmer I cleave.
"Dibs on the tractor!" to the husband I say, For its power and speed call to me this day. And as I circle 'round and 'round Piles of wet grass and angry ants abound, As I gleefully race my trusty steed through the fray.
And the husband watches warily on As I cluelessly surge across the lawn, For it happens every time (I'm kinda helpless, is that a crime?) That the thing breaks, and Matt's help is called upon.
But such a mower-fixer as he you've never met, A handy skill when you're married to me, I bet. For in all my exhilaration I lack the proper concentration And paying attention to what I'm doing? I forget.
For when I'm up on my mower, you see Going fast and turning donuts fills me with glee! And the more mundane things- Like going straight and listening for strange pings? Well, those things from my consciousness do flee.
But since Matt's skills are always up to speed, It's back to business in no time- on my steed! Bringing order to my land As I raise up my hand And salute my farm-boy, though 'slow down!' his eyes plead.
As I circle around again I smile and I laugh in the wind- I get the best of both worlds, Farmer life and office girl. (And a husband with a lovely back end.)
PS. It's my seven-hundredth post! You should offer a toast!
We had a pretty great weekend. I was planning on telling you all about it, but then something so amazing...so awe-inspiring...so life changing...happened. And I couldn't dare lump it into a post with other such inconsequential events and pictures...this thing truly deserved a post all unto itself. Today. Monday morning. The 'prime time' of blogging, if you will. (Actually, is it? I will need to study my Analytics to determine what is actually prime time. I'll report back.) You are probably already aware that Matt and I like to be 'twinsies.' We like to coordinate our outfits (exhibit A, exhibit B). We get really excited when we say the same thing at the same time (preferring to exclaim 'TWINSIES!!!' instead of 'jinx,' because we think it is a good thing and we don't like owing Cokes. (did other people treat 'jinx' like that or all you all confused?)). We like to eat the same things and often order the same meal in restaurants. If we both under-sunscreen our left shoulders and have pink left shoulders, we high five because TWINSIES. We like sports where people do synchronized things because we can talk about how we would do it better because WE ARE BETTER TWINSIES:
(Like, their ponytail curves are atrocious. If Matt and I were both girl divers, we would have the same haircut so that our ponytails would line up better. Also we would be the same amount of tan. Truly, these ladies are appalling. Have they no dedication to their sport?) (Sike, seriously they are badasses. But there's always room for improvement!)
So yesterday afternoon we are innocently doing our grocery shopping. We're in the produce aisle and I'm selecting peaches while Matt guards the cart and scrutinizes the price of grapes. We're standing right next to each other but not interacting at the moment.
And then it happens.
With no buildup and no warning, it happens.
We both sneeze.
At. The. Same. Moment.
ahh-CHOO!!
Exactly the same moment.
And of course we both realize it at exactly the same moment. Synchronized sneezes?? You couldn't make that happen if you TRIED!
Our faces and exuberant high-fives announced our excitement about this Ultimate Moment of Twinsies:
(re-enactment)
DID WE SERIOUSLY JUST BOTH SNEEZE AT THE SAME TIME?!??!?!?!?!??!
WE ARE SO FREAKING AMAZING!!!!! TWINSIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And we spent a good 15 seconds just being in general awe of our own awesomeness and twinsieness. And it would have been a great moment, but then it got better.
We had an audience.
Apparently we weren't the only people that witnessed the Miracle of Synchronized Sneezing. A fellow shopper had the privilege of seeing/hearing it as well, and suffice it to say...I think it changed her life.
I base this assumption on the fact that she was doubled over laughing. Like, couldn't catch her breath laughing. At us. And then when we saw her laughing, she gave us a thumbs-up and nod of approval. And then she couldn't STOP laughing. I know it was amazing, lady, but now you're causing a spectacle. Pull yourself together, woman! I guess when you witness something like that, you can't really control your reactions because she seriously lost it. After we finished exchanging smiles with her, we moved on because like...seriously. Enough is enough. But then every time we passed her in the rest of the store (going up and down the aisles) she started laughing again.
I bet that if she has a blog, she's telling this story today, too. I wouldn't be surprised if she sneaked a few phone pictures of us, either. An eyewitness to the world's first (and only, because I mean...for real.) synchronized sneeze? At least she appreciated the miraculousness of it.
And with that, Matt and I have solidified our position as the World's Most Twinsy Twinsies. Everyone else who was hoping to compete...well, thanks for playing. But the competition is over.
Each year since, I've taken a minute (or sixty) to write down my thoughts about that day, or the previous year, or life and love and marriage and hope in general. Today won't be any different. Except I couldn't figure out what to write about. I didn't want to just repeat stuff I've already said. And last year...well, I said it really well. I half wanted to just say 'DITTO TO LAST YEAR' and call it a day. So despite thinking (and mildly stressing) about it all week, as of yesterday morning, I still hadn't figured out what to write about.
So we went on our little 'anniversary adventure' late yesterday morning. We'd decided to check out Treetop Quest, a 'treetop obstacle course and ziplining' place in a nearby city. I don't know what sparked our desire to go spend a day doing this, other than the fact that we're on a 'do fun stuff' kick lately, and this seemed like it might be fun.
We took a quick class where they got us all strapped up and showed us how to use the various pieces of our harnesses/caribiners/things I don't remember the names of, and then we were off to conquer the 5 different courses on our own. Don't worry, there were always staff people nearby to offer assistance (or climb up and rescue you, as we saw one girl take 'em up on).
I'm not necessarily scared of heights, but I have a pretty intense lifelong fear of bridges and a healthy desire to not plunge to my death from any height, so I wouldn't say that this whole thing was exactly in my comfort zone. I do, however, have a deep and burning desire to be a badass (see: trying to do a triathlon), so I was determined to complete all five courses, panic attacks, weak upper body, and tears be damned.
And here's what I realized as I bravely fought my way through the course (you knew a metaphor was coming, right?): this is just like marriage.
It sounded like it would be fun. There were a lot of great opportunities for photos. And the first few things were fun and easy. But then there were hard things. And then it turns out that- heck, I'm scared of normal, regular bridges- the kind with 4 lanes and twenty tons of concrete holding you up- but now I'm supposed to cross a 'bridge' made out of 4-inch squares of wood suspended 70 feet above the ground, and that is too hard for me. That isn't fun. And so I cried, and I wanted to quit because I don't like this part. But then I dried my tears and crossed that bridge. With shaking legs, and no shortage of fear, and no attempt at looking brave...I did it. And then you get to a zipline, which is relatively easy and lots of fun...but then the next thing is some other sadistic bridge-type thing that is not fun. And now my legs are tired and I'm sweaty and if I weren't stuck in a tree 80 feet in the air, I really might have just said 'peace!' and sat that one out...but I wanted to finish the course. I said I was going to do it. I know I can do it. I know the equipment is safe, my harness is secure, and so instead of submitting to what I felt like, I did what I knew I could.
And you know what? When you complete a section that was fun or relatively simple, you feel pretty good. I mean, it's fun to have just done something fun. But when you complete a section that was more than you thought you could handle? A section that you really thought you might die on? You feel incredible. You high-five your husband and you fist pump and you feel a little bit better about tackling whatever thing comes next.
It's just like marriage. It's just like life. There were sections of the course that were really hard and scary. There were sections that were super fun and had you flying through the trees. You never knew which section was coming next until you got there, and by the time you were there it was time to do it. Maybe it would have been nice if the whole course had been easy. I mean, I could have stuck with the children's course the whole time...the one where no obstacle or zipline is higher than about 6 feet? Where my feet would have drug the ground the whole time? There'd have been no fear of heights there. No fear of plunging 80 feet to paralysis or death. No sketchy bridges. But it also wouldn't have really been fun. There'd have been no exhilarating flying over the treetops. No triumphant high-fiving when you conquer something hard. No opportunity to cheer on your partner, to offer tips to passing strangers, to ask advice from the freakishly strong and fearless 8-year-old following you around.
The last six years have had more than their fair share of obstacles. I've been stuck on a swinging rope bridge, living out my greatest fear, with nothing but a couple cables keeping me from falling off. I've envied other people on the lower, easier courses. The people who somehow found the course with all ziplines and no bridge obstacles. And yet we keep climbing. We keep going and going, and there are sections of absolute joy and exhilaration, and there are sections of fear and trembling. But when it's over, and we look back at what we've been through and accomplished (or survived) in a week, or a season, or several years...it is worth it. Somehow the memories of the hard times fade a bit, while the pride in overcoming obstacles and the happy memories of the fun sections stays in the forefront of your mind, and you say it was awesome. I can't wait to do it again. You HAVE to do it.
Our six years haven't always been easy ones. But they have been worth it. And we are getting stronger, and our marriage is getting stronger, and now I've been on the swinging rope bridge enough times to know that I may not always enjoy it, but I can do it.
Happy Anniversary to you, Mattie. You are the best partner I could have ever picked and I am thankful every single minute that you still choose me.
For your bonus viewing pleasure, here are a few videos we took on some of the obstacles. (And sorry they're not aligned correctly...Blogger is being a pain in the butt.)
This one is me on my most-hated obstacle, a very high swinging log bridge. There's a separate video of me getting on and getting off the very first step about 3 times, freaking out, and trying to quit. Then I just did it. Like a boss.
Matt on a similar obstacle. I hated this one, too.
This one was really fun, but TOUGH! Had to swing (like Tarzan) and then land and grab onto the net and climb up a ways, then sideways over to the landing. Climbing nets is HARD!!!
This one I thought I would HATE. I'd seen other people really struggle with it, and it falls in the whole 'swinging bridge' category of things in my mind...but actually I ended up doing really well and conquering it pretty quickly! It was a pleasant surprise.
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