Five Years

I Kristen, take thee Mike
as my wedded Husband, to have
and to hold from this day forward, for better
for worse, for richer for poorer,
in sickness and in health, to love and to
cherish, till death us do part,
according to God's holy ordinance; and
thereto I plight thee my troth.

I Mike, take thee Kristen as my wedded
Wife, to have and to hold from this day
forward, for better for worse, for
richer for poorer, in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish, till
death us do part, according to God's holy
ordinance; and thereto I plight
thee my troth.

Five years ago today, my husband and I spoke those words to eachother in the church I grew up in. My grandfather performed the ceremony. My other grand-father (now deceased) prayed for us. My cousin Karen and my sister-in-law Sema stood up for me as bridesmaids. My brother and Mike's brother stood up him as groomsmen. My mother-in-law sang; my parents sang; Sema and Kevin quoted the love chapter from 1 Corinthians. Anakin was our ring-bearer. My father-in-law was our photographer. Mike's sister and his brother's wife were our candle-lighters. It was a very family oriented ceremony.

The day of the wedding was busy and bustling. I spent the afternoon with all of the female members of the wedding party at a local tea-house. I got my hair done. It was a very busy and un-restful day. By the time the wedding actually arrived, I was exhausted. It didn't help that right as Mike was to be taking his place at the altar, Anakin decided to start giving us trouble.

Five years ago today. The time has flown. I look back on the past five years and wonder where it all went. In our five years of marriage, we've had sickness and health; good times and bad; better and worse. But despite the tests and the difficulties we still love eachother.

Five years. I wonder what the next five years will bring. Hopefully more health than sickness; more good times than bad; more better than worse.

I love you, Mike. Happy Anniversary.

Back On The Homefront

Vacation is nice. Time away is nice. Sleeping in is nice. Staying up later than usual is nice. What's nicer? Coming home and being literally tackled to the floor by my kids who are thrilled to see me. That's what life is all about.

Hasta La Vista, babies!....

In t-minus two hours, Mike and I are heading for the hills. We are going to a nice cabin in the mountains for an anniversary/Valentine's get-away for two whole days! Our anniversary isn't actually until March 15, but we have some extra moula now that we may not have in a month, and we thought it'd be fun to combine the two holidays. My mom and dad will be watching the little ones for us....pray for them. No seriously. (hee-hee). I won't be around this weekend, so I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

A Trip To Where The Healing Began

Hubby and I are celebrating our 5th anniversary on March 15. We've been talking for several months now about what we would like to do to celebrate the momentous occasion. (Short of buying me a new diamond, of course). For our honeymoon and for all subsequent anniversaries, we have gone to a little mountain town about 30 miles west of where we live. We're tired of little mountain town. We love little mountain town, but in March (the off season), everything in little mountain town shuts down by about 8 or 9 p.m. Anniversary #2 was spent in our little room eating licorice....because the grocery store was closed...it was 9:00 p.m.

This event has to be planned quite a ways into the future because, well, while the grandparents love their kids, for some reason they seem to like to have some advance notice when they are going to be keeping our kids for four or five days. Go figure.

Long before the idea was born to write My Story on my blog, hubby and I had been discussing taking a trip out to Arizona to visit this important part of my history. Not only do I think it would be great for him to see where I spent the most important 3 or 4 months of my life, but I'd like to take a walk down memory lane; see if there is anyone there remaining that was there when I was.

Of course, we couldn't go to Arizona without also taking in the Grand Canyon; Lake Powell; other great sights in Arizona. (Also, the thought of escaping this winter waste-land in which I live and being able to wear short sleeves and light jackets is rather appealing.)

So, if all goes well and as planned, we'll be heading to Arizona a little over a month. Looking forward to it with great anticipation.

And another year has come & gone

And next year will be the big five. What is that anniversary? Paper? Wood? Dirt? Maybe I'll get a nice piece of coal or something next year for my anniversary. What is it with making stuff like that an anniversary marking anyway? Let's just stick to the precious gems, people. I don't need a hunk of wood for my anniversary! (Although wood did help to make a nice fire that night.)

So, we didn't do anything outrageously special or expensive this year. We just basically had two date nights and spent the night at home while our respective parents spent their nights living out the exhaustion we live on a daily basis. Hee hee! I shouldn't get joy out of that right? But hey, I got two nights of un-interrupted sleep. That gives me a right to be joyous. But like I said before it won't happen for another several months, if not a year. By then I'll have a full head of that blondish grey hair and wrinkles as deep as the grand canyon.

We saw three pretty good movies this weekend. Hubby forced me to go to the theater with him and see "V for Vendetta". The hubster and I usually agree on movies. Movies we want to see, movies we have seen, etc. He's lucky. I'm not one of those "chick-flick" kinda gals (and at the same token, I'm lucky because he's not a maniac sports enthusiast, thus I get to avoid March Madness....sorry Karen.) But anyway, I wasn't sure what I thought of "V for Vendetta" when I saw the previews. But he wanted to see it so bad I gave in. If you like action, on the edge of your seat type movies GO. SEE. IT! It is crazy. Then we saw "Walk The Line" (at home. sitting by the fire.) Good flick. I can see why Reese won the Oscar. But Joaquin should have, too. Hey, I'm no movie critic. It's just my opinion. We also rented "The Constant Gardener", but I fell asleep on it. It was due yesterday. I haven't watched it yet. It better be good for the cost of a day late fee.

The weekend is over. I had a good time, but went through withdrawl. Why is it that I can so look forward to time away from my kids, but when they are gone I miss them like crazy? What a conflict.

Tonight is American Idol. C'mon Ace & Chris. Blow 'em away!!

YIPPEEEE SKIPPEEE!!

WASSUPPP!! So, the weekend anniversary is going to happen. My mom is going to watch the kids tonight until noon tomorrow, we will pick them up and spend some time with them until 4:00 when hubby's Dad will pick them up at 4:00 and take them tomorrow night. Pardon the excitement, but the hubster and I have not had a night out alone in over 3 months and the fact that I get two whole nights in one weekend is almost too much for my over-tired brain to comprehend. It's even greater because I'll get to spend some time with the kiddoes tomorrow (lest I miss them too much...which I will) but then get to have another date night tomorrow. Too good to be true. I better enjoy it while it lasts, cuz I guarantee it'll be another several months before this ever happens again. :-)

Enjoy your weekend all!

Four Years & Counting

Well, here it is. The day I married my husband. Four years ago. I woke up this morning, busy with getting ready for work, getting the kids ready for school and the day, fixing breakfast, fixing lunch, etc...I looked over at my husband who was standing at the refrigerator and had a wierd feeling that there was something special about today. But dang it if I can't remember what it is. Then I recalled my blog post from yesterday. Oh yeah....it's the anniversary. I quickly told the hubby "Happy Anniversary" so I didn't look like the bad guy for forgetting, but when he looked at my blank faced and said, "Oh yeah, you too", I didn't feel so bad. Now, don't feel sorry for us for the lack of excitement over the anniversary. It's been a real weird month and no wonder that we forgot. My grandma even gave me a card yesterday and I looked at her confused wondering why she was giving us a card. Wow, when grandma remembers and we forget, that's pretty bad.

In the spirit of Karen and Queen's recent postings, I will give a shortened version of how my husband and I met. It's not nearly as romantic and feel good as theirs, it's more weird actually. I met the hubby when I was attempting to re-connect with my old boyfriend from high school. It had been years since I had seen him and through a series of rather strange circumstances, I re-located him through an acquaintance. Don't ask why I would want to re-connect with this person. Maybe I was just curious and wanted to see what he had been doing for the past 5 or so years of his life since I had last seen him.

So anyway, a friend and I made the trip over to his apartment. He opened the door and looked like he had been sleeping. He looked at me with a very confused look on his face, said, "Kristen?!" and let the friend and I in. After some catch up conversation (in which I found out he was currently trying to patch up a relationship with a current girlfriend) he told me that he has a roommate who has a 1.5 year old son who he was currently with at the time. I didn't think much of it. He invited my friend and me back the next day (looking back on it, I think he was trying to set us up; why else would he invite me back when he was trying to make his relationship with this other person work). Anyway, we did come over the next day, and I met his roommate. He seemed a little shy and didn't say much while we were there. Over the course of the next few weeks, we got to know eachother a little better and I really enjoyed his company. The fun really started when his ex-girlfriend, mother of his son, showed up when I was there one day with his son (who I affectionately now refer to as Yoda on my blog). She was under the mistaken impression that she and the hubby were trying to "work things out" and was not in the least happy to see that he had apparently moved on with someone else. It was not a pretty sight and I'm not going to go into that now....that's a whole weeks worth of blogs in and of itself. I got to meet Yoda that day, who I thought was about the cutest boy I had ever met.

Long story short (because really there's nothing that remarkable about our courtship), we were together for 2.5 years when we finally got married. Yoda was our ring bearer. He was 4 years old by that time.

Here is our engagement picture:

Here is a picture of Yoda at our wedding:

Like I said, not a terribly exciting story, no bells and whistles, but he's my hubby and I love him. He's a wonderful father; I couldn't ask for better. We may try to get away this weekend to a nice little mountain town a few miles from here. We'll see. That is, if anyone can watch our three little monkeys. Any takers? :-)

Have a great day!