Ten Years and Counting

Yesterday we had a marriage blessing at the church before the 5:15 Mass. It was just the six of
us, David's parents, and our niece who came into town with my in-laws. Deacon Bill did a wonderful job, and at one point our wedding rings were blessed. David wasn't wearing his, (oops!) so Deacon Bill blessed mine, and continued, saying, "...when David wears his." That was hilarious, and we were all cracking up about it.

We are not always good about taking pictures, so we have pictures from the church, but not from the party. I am sorry about that. But everyone had a great time, and many friends came, nearly all of them with children in tow. So we had lots of kids running around, and getting wet in the water slide we set up outside. About 50 people came to celebrate with us, and it was the best party ever--especially since we had the food catered from Eva's Mexican Restaurant. (I was not about to try and feed that many people myself). The food was fantastic--we definitely recommend Eva's, and will certainly eat there at some point. David's favorite meal is fajitas, so that is what we had, with all the usual sides and fixings- rice, beans, tortillas, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, salsa, and chips. It wasn't all eaten, so he's especially happy to have yummy leftovers for lunch over the next few days-- maybe for a week! We had a cake (from SAMS), and ice cream for the kids also.

It was very touching that some people brought gifts, which we were not expecting at all. One friend brought a beautiful bouquet of roses, which my mother-in-law (Terry) promptly put in water. I must tell you she was such a big help, and started cleaning up the kitchen before the party was over. I told Terry she had to stop and come hang out in the living room, but she shooed me away, saying she was fine, and for me to just go and enjoy myself. She worked so hard, by the time the party was over, we only had a little bit of cleaning up left. It was a true act of charity for her to do all the work she did. But I digress...

We received gifts cards to 2 restaurants, one retail store, the movie theatre, and a coupon for for one free night of babysitting from our sitter who came with her sister and parents. All of you with kids know that was definitely the BEST gift of all. We can go out, have dinner, see a movie, and have free babysitting, all at no charge. I am still in awe! The funniest gift was from Jim and Rachel, who respectively were the best man and one of my bridesmaids at our wedding. They had looked up what you were supposed to give at the 10 year anniversary, so they brought a roll of aluminum foil, complete with a silver bow. Check out the picture! We were laughing and laughing.

Lastly we got 2 bottles of wine which we will enjoy at a later time. We didn't break them out at the party since we had plenty of beer, soda, juice boxes for the kids, and champagne. David was pressured to and eventually gave a toast, even putting our share into the flutes we got at Ring Dance (which is where our relationship began). He thanked everyone for coming and said he hoped we could continue to share our life with all of our family and friends.

I should also mention, our actual anniversary is June 27, but we always celebrate a week earlier or later, as the 27th is also Joshua's birthday. We figure we're the grownups, so it doesn't really matter how we spend the day. So on the 27th, we celebrated Joshua's 9th birthday with a cookie cake, presents, and taking him to see WALLE with a friend, and that night David and I ordered take-out and ate after the kids went to bed. I gave David a new watch (I hope he doesn't break it, since he's hard on his watches), and he gave me a mother's ring with all the kids birthstones in it. I'd been dropping hints for months :-). I was so excited, I couldn't open the box, so David had to do it for me. Well, what do you think? He did pretty good, didn't he?

I was very tired last night, but the blessing and party were exactly what we wanted to mark this anniversary. Everyone told they us they had a GREAT time. We look forward to celebrating many more milestones in our marriage in the years to come. I can't believe it, 10 years, four kids, a house in the suburbs, and a minivan. Wow... God is so good. Thank you Father, for all of our blessings. May we continue to deserve all of the gifts you've given us.

[Okay, I have to add a side note. I feel like I've become real tech smart since I started all this. I've created a blog, customized my page, posted my news, and figured out how to download pictures from the camera, save them in the correct folder on the hard drive, and then download them again onto my blog. I'm pretty proud of myself!]

"Mommy, I'm all wet!"

We went to playgroup today at Tammy's house. Someone must have been watering their yard, because the gutters had a couple of inches of water in them. The kids pile out, and I tell them, while looking straight at Christina,

"Make sure you get out on this side, and don't step in the water."

I say this because Christina has been attracted to H2O since the day she was born. She gives the phrase, "...like a duck to water" a whole new meaning. That child will get soaking wet in a mere quarter inch of water. At least 2x a week, she will come to me, and her shirt/pants/feet/hair will be wet somehow. Have I emphasized this enough now?
The kids start going up to the front door. I hear Christina let out a little yelp. I turn around, and Christina is walking in the water. I say,

"Christina Mary, get out of the water!"

And then, it happens. The child's feet slip out from under her, and she falls splat right on her butt. So now she has wet feet, and a soaking wet bottom.

"Mommy, I'm all WET!"

Duh!
(I am grateful that her lovey-- a little pink blankie with a bunny head didn't get wet at all).

I sigh, hoist Gabriel up on my hip, and go into the house. I'm annoyed, but also laughing inside because it was just meant to happen, right?
Meanwhile, Tammy's oldest, Brittany (who is just as helpful as can be) had seen Christina fall, and asks if I need to borrow a pair of shorts. Before I know it, she's run off and comes back with a pair of pink shorts. I ask Tammy if that's okay, and says sure, that's fine. I get Christina changed, and she goes off to play. Problem solved.
We had a great time. Rebecca played with her friend Anna, and I know she was happy to see her. Joshua was a little bored because at 9 years old, he's outgrowing playgroup, but he didn't seem to mind playing with little kid toys too much. Gabriel showed off his walking skills (finally, at 16 months he is starting to walk). He was delighted to climb the stairs because there was no gate at the bottom, only the top. The dining room chairs had been scooted over to block the base of the stairs, but Gabriel figured out how to crawl under them and then go upstairs. The look on his face... you know the one that says,

"Look at me Mommy! I figured it out all by myself! Aren't you proud of me? Now, what are you going to do about it?"

Now for the not-so-smart thing I did today.

I bought 4th of July t-shirts for everyone to wear on Friday (and to the CCL Convention later this month). I also bought the girls the matching red scooters b/c they were so cute. I threw all the outfits into the wash today, came back from playgroup and was going to transfer them to the dryer. Opps, what was I thinking? I've been doing laundry for how long, and everyone knows you don't throw brand new RED shorts into the wash with mainly white t-shirts. Sure enough, there were nice pink spots on the t-shirts. Okay, break out the Oxy-Clean (I love that stuff). After a long soak with warm H2O, they're just fine.

Oh well. I'm letting Jesus drive today. Really I am.

Carpet Crisis

Alright, my first post...here goes nothing.

Well, our 10th anniversary was last Friday. We're going to have a marriage blessing and party this Saturday. I thought I should clean the carpet in the living room so it wouldn't look quite so bad for the party. I borrowed my friend's steam vac, and fired it up Saturday afternoon. David had taken everyone to go see WAll-E and Gabriel was napping, so I knew I could get it done.
After about 5 passes, the machine starts to spit out these huge blobs of dark, rusty, brown water. Those of you who have been in my house know I have very light, cream-colored carpet (which I'm telling you looked darker in the showroom when I picked it out).
Okay, I tell myself, don't panic. I'll try to use the machine to get the spots up. After about 10 more passes, I realize the machine's supply of rusty water is not running out, and now the spots are covering an area of about 6 feet by 3 feet. I turn the vacum off, look at the damage, and literally say, "Oh Jesus, what am I going to do?"
I get out the can of carpet stain remover, spray the entire area, and start working on all the water stains with a mountain of paper towels. I realize very quickly this is going to take an eternity, and I really need another steam vac to get the stains up. So I'm racking my brain, b/c I can't think of anyone else who has one. And then... the lightbulb goes off in my head! I had been talking to Tim (my friend Cathy's husband) that morning at McDonalds, and I'd been telling him what I was going to do that afternoon (cleaning the carpet). He mentioned they had a carpet vac, and used it all the time.

I FLY to the phone, call up Cathy and say, "Cathy, I need a really BIG favor!"

Cathy comes over right away with her steam vac, and 2 bottles of the cleaning solution (BTW, Cathy gets the "Lifesaver of the Year Award"-- thanks Cathy!). She gets me started, and it's clear her vac will get the rusty water stains out. She heads on home, and I get to some serious vacuming. By the end of the day, and 2 rounds of cleaning, only a few very, very faint spots are left. But I scooted the couch over, which meant moving the coffee table over, and it covered those spots. Yeehaw... I'm saved! My right arm is still sore, but don't even care.
The last thing I have to do is call my friend Amy (the owner of the spitting steam vac), and tell her what happened. I feel terrible b/c I didn't want to say anything, but I definitely didn't want the machine to treat her carpet to the same rusty water fate mine went through. She is of course, really apologetic, and I tell her not to worry, every thing's fine, and the carpet is now clean (thanks to Cathy's vac).
Don't think I want to clean the carpet again for a while.