Year 2, Day 210: Wedding anniversary time!

It's that time of year! Double anniversary, plus bonus! Quick synopsis: Jared and I got married in NH on July 28th so that my parents and siblings could be there of course.  Our marriage license is from there.  Then we flew to Indianapolis that night, Jared staying at his parents, and I stayed our first apartment.  Then we went to church the next morning and did a modified ceremony (he walked me down the aisle) for all of his friends and family in the midwest.  THEN we went on our honeymoon.  My parents and siblings did not fly out to Indianapolis, and only his family and groomsmen flew to NH.  Both weddings were not super expensive because we borrowed decorations and picnic/potluck type themes for food. The weather was much like it was today.  Warm, but bearable.  Anyway, that was 16 years ago!  That's the "double" part.  The bonus is that today, July 29th, is Gary and Leah's 39th wedding anniversary!  So, yes, we share one of our anniversary days with them!  It just happened to fall on a Sunday that year (when we got married the 2nd time in Indiana), so it worked out.  I never, ever get tired of telling this story.  Why? Because it's so unique and I remember things like my parents' friends making food for it, and my mom making the bridesmaids dresses, as well as all the hand sewing on my dress.  I remember encouraging our guests in Indiana come to the reception, which was held in a park, in their picnic clothes and making sure I ate something because I hadn't during the reception the day before.  And I got to wear my dress twice and have my hair all curled twice and felt like a princess.

Fast forward 16 years to 4 kids, 1 dog, 5 homes, 2 countries, and all the going on's in between.  It feels like a lifetime ago!  But I wouldn't trade it for the world.  A few words to describe "us" are faithful and unique.  We simply don't give up easily and we lean into hard situations.  And we usually come at life with a unique, or unconventional, angle.  For example, we light birthday candles with big torches! Or, we have our child earning money to go to a private high school.  Or, we moved to a brand new country 1600 miles away and then moved back.  But that's us.

We had a great date night Friday night!  We ate dinner at home because it's actually less stress on me with my diet restrictions.  Then I "insisted" that we go see "Wonder Woman" together.  It was only at the most expensive theater and in the most expensive seats, but since we didn't spend money on dinner, that was ok.  It was worth seeing though!  And Jared later thanked me for insisting on going.  I won't drag him to all the comic book movies, but I had seen enough reviews and just a little bit of the plot that I knew this one had some deeper themes running through it.  And because the setting was in World War I, the morals were going to be a bit better.  It was well made.  Classic.  Fight for justice for the women and children and innocents.  And having the Greek mythology in there gave it a great spin, too.  Justin will like it someday because right now he is studying Greek mythology all on his own because he is reading a series of books based on them.  He reads some of his fiction book, and then reads part of one of the best books picture books on the subject by D'Aulaire.  And rereads the book, too!  Which is perfect because we will be studying that as soon as we start school after vacation.

Back to date night.  Gary and Leah took ALL 4 kids for the NIGHT to their house! Wow!  I don't think we've had a completely no kids in our house overnight type night since......well, since Benaiah starting sleeping over there house before Justin was born.  Yup, that's probably accurate.  We did sleep in a bit, but the sun is bright in our room, so we were up by 9:30 am.  Then the kids were dropped back off.  They also got to go see "Cars 3" with the folks and Abishai sat through the whole thing!  Granted, he was in different laps at different times, but he made it through!  Maybe taking him later in the day helped.  All 4 kids enjoyed it.  I know it's a pretty good movie based on the reviews.

The rest of the day today was your average Saturday.  Jared took Abishai with him to Lowe's for more supplies and also stopped to get diapers since we were completely out.  I even said to myself when I passed them the other day, "Ah, we don't need them this week."  Whoops!  Then Abishai wouldn't settle for naptime, so he napped with Jared.  Keturah developed a head cold over the course of the day, so she didn't make it to church tonight.  I went with the boys, and Jared will go tomorrow.  I was going to have a homeschool meeting at my house tomorrow night, but we had to move it so no one catches the bad germs.  I'm a little bummed, because we made the huge effort of moving boxes, but at the same time, I'm glad it's done because I can now use my space!  And work on more decorating!

Oh, and one more thing happened after church, but I'll share that at the end.

Keturah found the perfect seat for her doll! A lumberjack made it in a demonstration at the Indiana State Fair 7 years or so ago.  Gary bought it for Benaiah and the lumberjack signed it.

Someone got into the glitter again.  She is now banned from glitter forever!  Not forever, but it's now well hidden and she's not allowed to use it for awhile.

Fancy dinner at home!

 

I loved how I could buy the tickets on my phone and then saved the email confirmation.  I showed the email to the ticket checker, he scanned it, and away we went to our movie.  No waiting in line!

Boxes full of books make for great climbing.

Although we can't have our meeting here, I'm super grateful that it made me clear out this room.  My friend Alisha hit the nail on the head when she told me that it made her sad that this room was full of books and stuff and I couldn't use it as my peaceful place.  I think it was affecting me to have it full of boxes.  I do have a bookshelf for the books, but it's in the way of the bathroom remodel, so it has to wait just a little longer.  I can breathe again!

This corner came together pretty quickly! The top shelf is all about NH.  The middle shelf is all about Canada.  An the bottom shelf has mugs and cups from all over!  I'll probably add some Indiana elements as well, but the cityscape picture of Indianapolis is going in the TV room.  I still have to hang stuff on the walls, too.  But this little memory corner makes me so happy!

This is the result of the glitter mess.  She used the empty duct tape rolls to make Wonder Woman cuffs.

That's what I like to see!  A girl with a big pile of books!

Fancy dinner prepped! Bacon wrapped chicken with green onion for Jared and chicken with green onions for me.  As well as carrots, peppers, and squash roasted with dill and olive oil and salt.

Dinner is cooked!  I didn't make a salad like you find at a restaurant, but we didn't need it.  And I warmed up some already baked potatoes as well.  I dipped my potato in the dill/olive oil mixture from the roasted veggies and Jared dressed up his with butter, sour cream and parsley.

Unique: we don't seem to own any matches so Jared used the torch and a wood shim to light the candles.

It worked!  The candles were from our wedding, and the fake flowers were from the bouquet I used for the rehearsal.  It was a light blue and white themed wedding.

Fizzy water for me with my dinner.

And a different kind of fizzy water for him.  These are new to us plates that I haven't brought out yet, but will eventually replace our original set of dishes we have used for 16 years.  I also brought out the new, fancy silverware as well.  They aren't real silver, but they are very nice.

I said that since I cooked, you get to wash dishes, and he did!  Only it was just his dish.  Lol!  We also put our cell phones in the middle of the table on top of each other like some people do so they can concentrate on the conversation instead of looking at their phone.  I was the first one to pick it up because I did get an important message I needed to respond to.

Fast forward to today, Saturday, and this pair wore themselves out at the hardware store.  Can you tell they are related?  Yup!  So cute!  And they left the bedroom door open and didn't wake up when the dog barked or people used the bathroom, etc.  They were exhausted!

After church, we enjoyed some outdoor time in our backyard.  I took these pics when I was up on the platform after I undid the swing that had been wrapped around the crossbeam by Keturah.

Letting the dog get some exercise.  And the kids.  I'm so glad that Socks doesn't jump the fence when we are near him.

Playing fetch? Playing keep away? Not sure.

Abishai can climb up it well.  And Socks tried but I wouldn't let him.  I don't want him jumping off the other side and breaking a hip or something.

Yummy stick.

Gorgeous evening! Beautiful dog.

The moon in a clear blue sky!

Abishai wanted Mommy to push him but Babee Justin gave it a try instead.

Awww

While we played, Jared and Benaiah picked up some appliances from a friend.  A mutual friend told me that this friend had just posted these on Facebook.  So, we snatched them up! Woot! Woot!  Can you guess what they are?

Once this kid opened the latch of the truck, got in, and figured out how to make the horn work, he wouldn't stop beeping it!

And yes, he attempted to climb through the window to find the keys so he could turn the truck on.  Later, when we were trying to close it up, we put him in the truck bed and he scrambled to get back through the window and to the horn to beep it.  He threw a fit when we told him he was all done.

I'm so glad I have two strong men in the family now!

Then Justin came out and it was perfect timing to get a little brother wrestling match done. 

Ta-da! A washer and dryer!  For cheap!  We weren't really prepared for them, so the book boxes are in their spot on the other wall.  We'll have to move them and then determine if we need to fix anything on the plumbing and venting before we hook them up.  But they are here!

And even more DAddy time!  Watching airplanes, eating sausage, his favorite, and banana chip.  All on Daddy's lap.  Abishai is in heaven!

And that's it!  I am excited that my iPhone has a decent camera and plenty of space, but I need to take more with the big camera again.  There were 3 pictures to add to this from the DSLR and the rest were all taken with the iPhone.  It's awesome having equipment that works! Good night!