15 Years is a good start!

Eric and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary today. After enjoying a fab dinner at V's Italian we're doing the normal thing...he's watching LOST (his soap) and I'm, well, you know what I'm doing.


Love ya babe! Our trip to Italy will certainly be icing on the cake. Or gelato. That might be better anyway!

(Kudos to Seth Jones for the awesome collage! It's perfect!)


We discussed travel plans over dinner...quite exciting! Yesterday I found out that Lisa (my friend & the wife of the other mad scientist that is traveling) and I will potentially have a four hour layover in Paris...woot! woot! I think I'll be googling "what you can cram in in a 4 hour layover in Paris". Do you think there are enough "in's" in that?

Must run...perhaps I'll start writing a bit more now as school wraps up. Perhaps. Blessings!

17 Years Ago...

Okay, you have to wait to read about this day in my past...the fun news? Dunt da da daaa...I'm typing on my brand new iMac! Love. Little tricky with the tee-tinsy keyboard and getting used to a mouse again (been in laptop land a loooong time) but all in all it's awesome.

We got our deal on Black Friday (which I still have yet to recoup all my sleep from btw) and Eric set it up Saturday. Only bad news is that I couldn't convince him to sign me up for One to One...he said I don't have time. Whaat? Me? Is he crazy? Oh yes, and that he could teach me anything I wanted to know. Yee-ah...that always sounds good, but evidently I always think there should be a better way to do "stuff" so I'm a horrid student. Whatever.

Well, 17 years ago tonight I was on my first date with this guy Eric who asked me out kinda out of the blue. It had been a weird Thanksgiving break...I went to my ex-boyfriend's family dinner (why?) I suppose for some closure. That or to suffer through the afternoon...can you say *awkward*? Should have got my "stuff" back that day--like my senior key and the pricey 8x10 sexy senior picture of myself--ya know so I could give it to some other guy later on. Anyway, I think that was the last I saw of him! Then one of the previously mentioned guys kinda invited himself out to meet my parents. Ooooo-kaay. Not that into you dude, but whatever makes you happy? That was weird too. Ugh!

Back to the best part...the date. Eric picked me up at my dorm in his way-awesome silver Pontiac Sunbird. At least I think that's what it was. All I remember was that he made sure to point out the very-stretched-out lacy prom garter dangling from his car mirror was indeed just "very-stretched-out"...he didn't go with a fat girl. (Please tell me why I remember some things?) We went for dinner at Subway...woot, woot! (I hate Subway now...not related to the date.) Then we went to the mall theater to see A Perfect World with Kevin Costner. Back home to Nation Hall, a quick good-night kiss at the door and done! Poof! History made!



I did happen to jot down a couple lines in my journal that night:

"Monday, November 29, 1993 12:20 am (on Tues)
I just walked Eric to the door after our first date. He seems like a pretty awesome guy~we're going out again on Friday so who knows."

Wow! Gotta love those details! It jumps pretty far and fast from there peeps. In January he told me he loved me...and I was on cloud nine. Actually wrote that I felt like the happiest girl in the world and my heart just took off and flew away. CHEESY! Blech...so corny, so young. Makes me laugh now!

Many drama-filled months later, we were engaged the summer of '95 and married in May of 1996. I still had a year to finish at Pitt, then we were off for Knoxville while Eric attended grad school at UT.



And tonight, to celebrate? Well, I kinda forgot that tonight was the anniversary...and it was the whole reason I started these posts! Was going to get a sitter and plan a night out...oh well! Maybe next year. We had a pretty yummy meal of Greek pork and some turkey day left overs with the three kiddos. He's watching TV and I'm, well, you know what I am doing. Ah, the simple things are nice. Love ya babe!

17 Years Ago...

Things were quieting down on campus for the Thanksgiving holiday. It turned out that lots of kids headed home early after classes let out Monday afternoon. I was car-less and therefore at the mercy of my good friends to make the 3 hour trek back to Cheney which wouldn't be until the next day.

Never being classified as a neat-freak, my dorm room was in its typical state of organized chaos, and for some strange reason I decided to tidy up a bit. Afterwards, I remember thinking how nice it was to sit on a smoothly made bed listening to CDs while looking up at my neat desk and beautiful collection of MardiGras ceramic masks hanging on the cider block walls. While perched on said bed, a soft knock came at the door. "Hmmm, who could that be?", I wondered. My door was half open so I peered around to see...oh my...it was that Eric guy again!

I have fuzzy memories of the actual conversation, though I do recall being nervous...and glad I cleaned up my room! He asked me out on a date...a real dinner and movies date...and we agreed on the following Monday...right after the break. I was a bit smitten. He was really cute! And what nerve, lurking around until someone let him in our dorm and then just walking up to my door...what else was there to do? Text? Email? Ha.

So here's the kicker. When I was around 12 or 13 I had a dream about my wedding. Vivid dream. I was walking down the aisle, but my groom had his back to me. The only distinction about him that remained ingrained in my memory was the color of his hair...dark, dark brown. Every boyfriend that I scrawled my name with his last name attached to it in my diary I knew wouldn't be the one...the blond, the redhead, the mousy brown, well, one other had dark hair, but I kinda knew it wasn't a forever thing there. But this Eric guy? Dark brown hair....almost black. Something about him made my knees a little wobbly...maybe it was the dream, maybe something else, but for the first time I found myself a little at a loss for words and, dare I say, a bit shy?

*****

Have a great Thanksgiving week y'all! We'll be gingerbreading on Thursday and the new Mac is hopefully coming home with us Friday. Yeeeee!

Fourteen Years

Yesterday Eric and I celebrated 14 years of marriage! We went all-out: had our friends watch the kiddos, ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Jose Peppers, and made a quick Home Depot run. Ha. Isn't it funny how a simple evening can be just as great together as an elaborate event sometimes?

I worked on the "Album of Us" that I started four years ago as a gift to him. It's now almost complete up to 2006. I did 5 years worth of scrapbooking (1 8x8 page spread per year) in 2 hours yesterday afternoon. For a non-scrapper like myself, that's pretty darn good. This photo is one of my favorites. It's from our 10 year anniversary trip to San Diego. We were out to eat at a pizza place in Little Italy with Jodi and Nate. Ahh, great memories.

Well, babe, here's to all the years behind and ahead. Someday 14 years will seem like a drop in the bucket!

A Dozen Years!

Eric and I celebrated 12 years of marriage last weekend. Holy cow! Well, sometimes it feels that long and other times I think we're still kids...not "we HAVE kids"! Chuck and Cheri are always so great about watching the kids for a few days (we are very spoiled with all our parents!), so off we went to our current fav B&B in Lawrence.

Now, since the kiddos weren't with us, we didn't really think to use the camera to catch some of the sights of our retreat...but you're not missing much unless you count the movie theatre and the gunk that fell from the trees onto our car parked in the street. The muddy disc golf course was challenging and the shopping on Mass street fun...but again...no snaps. So here's just us before we left the Halcyon House to go home.


And, 12 years prior, the happy couple looks ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime...oooor not.
Let me explain. After the ceremony, the photographer ushered us in to cut the cake in the reception hall, then back into the sanctuary for an hour-long, unorganized attempt to take a picture of every single family member with us. I had cried during our vows (fear? joy?) so most of my make-up was gone and Eric, well, let's just say he was less than pleased that he was missing 1. more cake 2. all the guests as they were leaving instead of hanging around! Can't blame them. But nonetheless, several of our pictures towards the end of the day looked like this and it also happened to be the only one I could find in iPhoto...I'm not so ambitious to whip out the scanner and the wedding albums for the sake of the blog!

Last year, I think we went on an anniversary date...I know we went to Ace Hardware at least, as this is the pretty columbine Eric bought for me. I love it!!


One way or the other, we ARE surviving the adventure of marriage and I couldn't me more thankful to God for my wonderful, caring, kind and fabulously HOT husband!! Love ya Babe! And here's to several dozen more years!