Happy Anniversary to Me!

Friday was mine and Kev's 10th wedding anniversary. Can you believe we've been married 10 years??? I can't. That's a decade, a tenth of a century. It's a third of my life so far. And I can honestly say that I am more in love with him now than I was when I was 19, or have ever been for that matter. I'm certainly not going to advocate getting married as young as I did. But there is something really wonderful about growing up with someone and then growing old with them too.

So, I just have to share how special this anniversary was to me. Let me just start by telling you that my husband is good at lots of things, but surprises are not one of them. In fact he's terrible at them. In fact he's been pretty terrible about special occasions ever since we've been married, with a few notable examples. Unfortunately (for me anyway), we have the same birthday. And as some of you know, I also have a twin sister so I have never had my "own" birthday. On our first mutual birthday as a married couple, I pulled from the back of the closet the gift I had purchased and excitedly gave it to him first thing that morning. His response? "Oh, I'm not really a birthday kind of guy. They're just not that big of a deal to me." And I am stuck sharing mine with this person!!!

To be honest, I've always placed my birthday higher on the totum pole than my anniversary. There haven't been that many memorable ones out of the ten, except I think one year we went snowboarding and one year we ordered a $75 bottle of wine (on accident!). But this one I will remember. I guess you always think that for your 10th you'll be going on a really cool trip or something. But with a 3 month old baby, that we would have to take with us for nutritional purposes, that was not going to happen. Even if we could afford it. Which we can't after buying a new car and shelling out over 12, 000 dollars in the last two years to have babies (praise God right now if you have maternity insurance!). So, maybe for our 20th that will be a possibility, but not right now. And since I'm the one who usually plans things I told Kev that I'd handle the babysitters if he 'd take care of everything else. I got my mom to keep the girls and his mom to keep Boaz. He told me reservations were at 7. We gave each other a $25 budget for gifts and exchanged them before we left the house, mostly because Bronwyn loves presents and was dying to open them for us. I got him 3 pairs of socks and a down coat that I got 75% off at American Eagle. He gave me 2 Ryan Adams CDs and a book. Very sweet and thoughtful. We had sushi for dinner (yum!) and picked Holland up by 9 and headed home. Now, in the chaos of trying to get out the door with all the kids and overnight bags I was just trying to make sure we didn't forget any special blankets or stuffed animals (or children). And Kev is going behind me tidying up! So not like him! Well, when we got home I realized why. I opened the door to a path of rose petals. Not a trail, a path! They went from the garage door all the way through the hall, living room, long hall, short hall, and into the bedroom where the trail divided and one went to the bed and up onto it and the other led to the bathroom and up to the ledge of the tub. Around the tub and bathroom were about 50 lit candles. The tub was full of hot water and bubbles and my favorite wine was sitting on the counter. Oh yeah, and a fire was lit in the living room. My jaw was on the floor! I was just impressed that he got me CDs! I just kept going what? How? All props to our good friends (and fellow Blackhawks) Eden and Todd who live in our neighborhood. Apparently Kev had gathered everything, including candles, wine and 100 roses, during the week and had enlisted their help to pull it all off. Right before we left the restaurant he said he had to go to the bathroom and that's when he phoned them with the green light. And amazingly Holland went right back to sleep when we got home.

I'm telling you right now that if you have ever thought the cliche roses and candlelight would come off as cheesy, I'm here to tell you it absolutely doesn't! It was so sweet and beautiful. The best part about it was knowing that people I love had conspired to make me happy. Thank you Coldirons! And thank you Kevin, for a beautiful night and an amazing 10 year adventure. I'm looking forward to the next 40.