Wuv, Twoo Wuv...

Yes, we had hundreds of engagement pictures taken. Hey, we were madly in love and were perfectly content to gaze into eachother's eyes for eternity! Plus, we were so overjoyed to have found eachother that we could (and did!) smile cheesily at eachother for hours on end as well.

It was love, true love..... And he is still my true love. I have a top 10 list of why my Dan is the greatest, but some of it is embarassing, and some of it is, uh, not for public sharing. Sufficeth to say, there are many more than 10 reasons why I have a fantastic husband, and those reasons have grown as the years have passed, and he's become a great dad as well as a great husband.

Those awful teen years!

Here is my hot hubbie at the tender and gwaky age of 16. He was on the cross country team in high school and was a conservative, nice guy. Would I have dated him in HS? Probably not, and I nearly didn't in college either! Not like I dated a lot, and I tended to go for the losers and fixer-uppers. Dan would have been way too good for me. Wait, he still was when we met!

As for me, I hated high school. Yep, hated it. I skipped school once. Well, I did it more than once. I only did it my senior year, I'll have you know, and I got caught the first time. I think I got caught the second time as well. (I only got caught the 2 times). Punishment on the second offense was an in-school suspension. How stupid is that?! I skipped school to get out of class, so to punish me you are keeping me out of class?! So dumb. And not the story I was headed for.

I was going to tell you how the principal, who knew my mom, talked to me. She asked why I had skipped school. I said I didn't like it. She asked if I was going to go to college. I said, duh, yes. She asked why I would go to college if I didn't like school. Hmmmm.... I could spend 4 years unhappy and have a good job, or I could be unhappy doing something I hated on minimum wage for the rest of my life. I may be dumb enough to get caught skipping school, but I am smart enough to figure that out!

So, here I am, in all my bad-attitude glory at age 16. College was more fun than HS, but I didn't get smarter for a while! Don't you love that look on my face!! Check out my bangs, too! Wow! I finally decided I didn't need to spend 45 minutes each morning trying to achieve that look, and let my bangs grow out. More laziness than fashion, but, whatever.

Let this be a lesson to all that you can start off like this in High School, and still end up with someone fabulous. It happened to me. And this post is dedicated to my upcoming anniversery! 9 years with my wonderful, fabulous oh-so-cute husband!

This Week

This is Dan and me, 9 years ago. This is us doing the "Bond" pose. Yes, we once were young and silly, before we became weighed down by the whole marriage and kids thing.

I show this to commemorate the nearly 9 years we have been married. We'll see if I can post fun pre-marriage photos till Thursday, which is our Anniversery. That's right folks, we've made it 9 years! I've never committed to anything 9 years of my life. Wait, I have.... horsebackriding. But that did only last about 10 years. Other than that, I never lived anywhere or had a hobby or anything (other than the aforementioned horsebackriding neurosis) which I sustained for more than 9 years.

So, let me say how fantastic my sweetie is. How lucky I am to be married to him. How wonderful and fabulous and great he is. He is all that and I am thankful every day for him. Okay, maybe not EVERY day, but I would be if I thought about it every day. And now it is late and I have to get up early to run in the morning! I'll look for something fun for tomorrow!

Fun photos

So, My baby brother Adam (as discussed and shown in a previous post) works at Harry & David. He lovingly sent me a box of delights. We unpacked the box and this is what was in it! Hog Heaven! Yes, 45 pounds of deliciousness which we have been giving away like.... well, like candy.

I was upstairs dealing with Delaney one afternoon and when I came down, I couldn't find Callie. I asked Marian where Callie was and Marian said "She's asleep in the black chair." Hmmm. She wasn't in the black recliner... what other black chair was there?! Oh, the computer chair! Here is how I found her.

Joshua had a most fantastic day. Dan took him out on a Daddy Date and they had lunch at BK. Then Daddy inflated the raft and took the kids to the beach to try it out. Later Daddy helped the kids set up the slip-n-slide and let them trash the yard again. Then they got to play on the neighbor girls super-cool inflatable slide and pool. Then Mommy made a treasure hunt with clues that led the kids to a tasty treat (see top photo!). And yet, after all this fun, THIS is the face we saw the most today. There is just no pleasing some people. Dan is mocking Joshua in this picture, which isn't helping, but it sure is funny!

After all the things that Daddy did today, you must be wondering just what Mommy did today. I rode my bike 5 miles, ran 3 1/2 and got a headache from it all. I did 4 loads of laundry and ate half a pound of pistachios. I prepared a Sunday School lesson and fish sticks for lunch. I organized my collection of Family History stories and I took a nap. I also prepared and executed said treasure hunt from above. And now, I am going to finish watching "War of the Worlds." I've never seen it and so far it is exciting, but boy, there is a lot of screaming in it!

Feeling Smart

I think I am so clever sometimes. We have this complicated move coming up. The original plan called for 9 nights on the road- at 5 different places! The plan is to move out of here, go up to DC and check the place out, let Dan check in, then drive to my parent's house. All this would take a good 10 days. In the interest of sanity and continuity, rather than 1-2 nights at each previously planned spot, we will now be staying here 2 nights while the movers take care of our stuff, then 6 nights at Ft Belvoir, then 1 night on the road to Mom and Dad's. That's the new plan. And that is totally not what I came on to say!

I meant to tell you how smart I think I am. I hear you laughing; traveling that long and far with 4 children under the age of 7 is not smart. Well, here is what I have come up with.... I got a bunch of small, interesting things for the kids. I got notebooks, crayons, activity books, that sort of thing. For Joshua it was more lego kits (the little $5 ones) and books. If you check out the link I have to momsminivan.com you'll see why I think they are fabulous! So many good ideas. They have a great link to another place that sells travel toys, and I got a bunch of the magnetic ones.

So, I got all these things. I have now wrapped all 65 of them. (I purchased them over the last 2 months so I wouldn't cringe at the cost so much!) I will pass out a wrapped present to the kids each day. I also have some fun candy things- the candy pacifiers and rings I never buy for them at Walmart, no matter how much they beg. Yep, now they will come as a special added surprise. Random presents and snacks, it should ensure a fun trip, right? In theory they will be so delighted with their new item that they will play happily with it all day. In reality, I expect they will play with it for 5 minutes and complain that they like their sister's thing better. Then they will fight. Then I will throw their toys out the window.

It seems like a good idea- the wrapping new activities to do, not the throwing them out the window. I will let you know how it goes next month!