Things - to the 6th

Pam tagged me for another Meme. I was ready to post what I wanted today, so I'll do this instead. Mine's going to be a bit different than hers. I decided since yesterday was my anniversary, I will reminisce and tell you 6 things about my wedding.

Also, thanks to everyone who wished us a happy anniversary. We went out to eat last night. Zachariah was really good, so we all had a fun time. On Saturday we plan to go to a really nice restaurant, and Zachariah will spend the evening with Matt's parents.

Oh, and I did pass that letter along to Matt for those of you who asked. He does not read my blog, but I reposted this on MySpace. He got to read it this morning and loved it.

1. Yes, Erica, we were babies. Looking back now I realize, wow, we were so young. I see people older than we were when we got married and think they are just too young to get married. I honestly have NO regrets about that, though. We were ready.

2. Our wedding party consisted of our 4 combined siblings (all younger than us) and two friends. My sisters were 14 & 16 and Matt's sister was 15. They were my bridesmaids. Matt's brother was 18, and he was the best man. Another groomsman was 18 too and is the pastor's son (a long time friend of ours). And the other groomsman is a close friend of my parents and a great friend to Matt and I (and my mom's boss as well). He was about 50 when we got married. Talk about an odd assortment.

3. The date was not our first choice. The first date we chose was Aug. 5th, but there was a wedding scheduled at the church that day. We discussed making it later, but that didn't work for someone. Earlier didn't work for others. I finally decided we were going to stop asking everyone else what worked for them. We sat down with our pastor (and friend) and looked at his (and the church's) availability. We settled on July 29th, and that was that.

4. We were engaged for 9 months. We'd dated for almost 5 years by then.

5. We got married while both of us were in college. I know my parents wanted me to finish college first, but I still finished on schedule. And Matt and I had committed to each other that we wouldn't get engaged until once of us had a good full-time job...he did.

6. Our wedding cake (so beautiful) was free. The mom of one of my best friends from high school made it. She had told all of us girls who hung out together that she'd make our wedding cakes. I was the first to get married, and she has made all of our wedding cakes. She didn't charge us a thing. She let me pick out whatever I wanted, bought a new cake stand because that's what I liked, and even paid for the fresh flowers from our florist (we told her to add it to our bill). She did a great job, and I loved it.

Tag, tag, who to tag. Well, I just did a meme recently and tagged people, so I won't do it this time. If you want to do this, go ahead and consider yourself tagged. Let me know in your comment, so I can make sure I read your meme.

Bronze

Today is my anniversary. Matt and I are celebrated 8 wonderful, happy years as a married couple.

Dear Matt,

Our lives have changed so much (yet in some ways so little) in 8 years. You has enhanced my life in ways that no one else ever could. We have built a beautiful life together.

Things may not have turned out exactly like we thought they would, but I like where we are. And the best part is we're here together. We take the good and get through the bad.

I love and respect you more than I ever thought possible. My love really does grow every day, every month, every year. And I know we will enjoy many more years together. I can't wait to see what other things are in store for us in this life we've made together.

Happy Anniversary, My love. I love you more than you know. Thanks for this wonderful life.

Forever Yours,

Sarah

Heartbreaker **

I haven't experienced too much heartbreak in my life. As I wrote about in this blog post, my husband and I got together when we were young and just stayed together. But there is one person's heart who I broke. (The short version is at the end of this.)

When Matt and I were dating I found out there was a guy (let's call him Andy) who liked me. He went to church with me, and I always thought I'd date (maybe marry) a guy from my church. He had just moved to the area a few years before, and we had before pretty good friends. He was a little odd, though. I can't explain it exactly, but Andy lived in his own little world. But that's OK, everyone has a few quirks and many of my friends had some anyway.

Andy and I participated in activities together, and we had long talks from time to time. At some point I realized that things were different between us. I thought that he was falling for me. I had a boyfriend...a serious boyfriend. The more I worried about his crush on me, the more I starting liking him for more than just a friend.

After talking to Matt about these feelings, he urged me to go out for an evening with Andy. You know...to get it out of my system (I never dated anyone before Matt). So, I did what any stupid teenage girl would do, I went out with Andy.

We just went to dinner and a movie. But we were THE ONLY ONES at the movie. And he totally did that yawn & reach his arm around me thing. Ugh. But the bad part is that he never put his arm around me. Dinner was light and chatty and ... friendly. So when we came back to my house, we talked for a while too. When it was time to go I walked him to the porch. He stood there looking at me awkwardly and then openly admitted that this was the first date he'd ever been on and he didn't know how to end it. (First I should let you know that he was 18 years old and about to start college in a few short months. See? I told you he was a bit odd.)

So, where were we? Oh yes, standing awkwardly on the front porch together. So, I did what a nice Christian girl should do, I held out my hand for a handshake and said "Well, have a nice night", turned and went back into the house.

It was the worse date I'd ever gone on. I knew without a doubt that I did not want to be with Andy.

The problem was it was the best (*ahem* and only) date Andy had been on. And he wanted me to leave Matt and date him exclusively. And he wanted to marry me. And he knew, just knew, that I was the wife that God had given to him.

What? He got all of that from one date? Seriously? Even when I got a totally different feeling?

I avoided Andy for a few weeks. When we finally talked, I let him know that things were great between Matt and I. I really wasn't looking for something else.

He continued sending me small gifts, writing me poems and letters, and following me around whenever we were together. But he did respect my relationship with Matt.

Andy went away to college that fall. And he was still heartbroken. So was his mom. She really liked me and was hoping for someone like me for her son. But it wasn't meant to be.

I went on with my life. He didn't go on with his. We were still friends, but I didn't go near him when I wasn't with Matt or a family member. He claimed that he loved me until the day I married Matt. Then he knew there was no hope we'd get together.

Now that is heartbroken.



**Edited to add (since everyone seems really worried about how Andy turned out):
Andy is happily (as far as I know) married now. He found a girl who I hear is a little odd. In other words, perfect for him. I think he's over me now. Once in a great while our paths cross if he's visiting family while I am too and we both happen to go to our home church at the same time. I don't talk to him though. He did and said some things publicly that really embarrassed me, and we're not really friends any more.

Not ready yet, so help cheer me up!

I need to compose a blog about something that has come up today. Matt and I have been hurt by some friends. I do want to talk about it here, because I think it will help me sort through my feelings. But, I'm not quite ready to do that yet. I'll probably start composing the blog and changing it along the way.

So, I hope that you all are having a better day than me. And in the meantime, let's do something fun.

Tell me about whether or not you're watching television this summer. (Or perhaps movies you've seen lately.) What are you watching? What is your favorite? Is it one I'm watching? If so, let's talk about it.

Here's what we've been watching lately (mostly reality): Big Brother 10, The Mole, The Next Food Network Star, The Bachelorette (now over), So You Think You Can Dance, Last Comic Standing. Can you tell I'm a reality whore during the summer? It's just light and easy going enough that it keeps me interested.

We have seen a few movies in the past few months too: Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian (before summer, but still), Hancock, Don't Mess with the Zohan (don't waste your money on this one). And I had sitting on my shelf to watch yet: The Bucket List, Fool's Gold, and The Illusionist.

Your turn now.

The spoils...

Zachariah is an only child (for now) and even better an only grandchild...on both sides. This little guy is pretty spoiled by grandparents. Luckily it's not excessive, in my opinion. But he does get some special things from time to time. We all know grandparents love to get things and do special things for their grandkids. And since Zachariah is the only one, it's even easy to see that he is properly spoiled. And that doesn't even take into account all his aunts and uncles that he has to spoil him.



Here's the newest addition to the spoilage. My parents found a cast iron pedal John Deere tractor. They got it used and still paid a lot for it. He is in love with it. We only had it outside for a short while, because it was really hot the day they brought it over. My dad was upset that my mom was bringing it. I told my mom it would make her the favorite, because she was giving him a tractor. It was actually my dad who found it and bought it. She promised to video tape it. And he was not disappointed. We told him it was from Grandpa, so he kept saying "sank you grandpa". Then he got off the tractor long enough to walk over to my sister (who was holding the video camera) and request saying thanks to Grandpa. She put the camera on him, he leaned right in and said thank you again. It was so cute. But he loves this new tractor. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to pedal it. He almost had it going one day when he was pretty determined. I don't think it will be long. I also think it needs to be moved back out of my house soon. (Matt cleaned out the garage this weekend, partially to make sure there was room to get this little tractor in and out.) So I believe the next step of spoiling has begun. I hope it doesn't get too bad.

The horror...

Here is a story from my childhood. We learned lessons then that mean even more to me as a mother now.





When I was about 10 or 11 we went to North Carolina for the first time. We were traveling with my dad while he was on business. So my mom, dad, two sisters and I piled into a tiny little Mercury Topaz for a 10+ hour drive.

The day or so before our trip my mom took us kids to a tiny little carryout in the town next to us (the town where I grew up was so small it had nothing of the sorts...the one where she took us only had this little shop and that was it). Anyway, they had great cheap candy. They had penny, nickel, dime, and quarter candy. We could get quite a bit of variety for the little amount of money we usually had. We didn't often stop here, so it was a real treat when we did. That day Mom gave each of us girls $2.00 to get as much candy as we wanted. I remember carefully picking out my purchases and paying for it with great excitement. We each came out of the store with a paper lunch sack filled with candy. Mom put the candy up and saved it for our trip.

We headed out early for our long drive. I remember keeping a "journal" of our travels. Since they pulled me out of school for a week to do this, I thought it would be fun to keep track of everything we did. I first wrote something like "It's now 4:30AM and we're heading out. I can't believe we're leaving this early, but now I'm awake and excited.". (But it was probably more youthful and silly sounding...you know...because I thought I was cool and tried too hard.)

Mom gave us each our sack of candy to hold and do with as we wanted. It was supposed to last us all day, so we had to think about that. Well, my youngest sister Mary was probably 4 years old when we went. She was super excited to have candy, and she dug into hers right away. I remember Rachel (about 6 or 7 at the time) and I giggling to each other, because we knew we'd have all this candy and Mary wouldn't have any left and we were SO NOT SHARING with her.

Since we lived in the NW corner of Ohio, it took us quite a while to drive across Ohio to the SE. We stopped for breakfast while we were still in Ohio. Mary was not hungry and my mom couldn't figure out why. She knew that she'd been eating candy (but she didn't know until later how much Mary had actually eaten already). So Mary just had some orange juice.

You're starting to see where this is going, right?

Once we got back into the car Mary started complaining that her stomach hurt. Well, Mary has always been a bit of a drama queen, so we usually took her complaints with a grain of salt. Mom probably said something like "Oh, you're fine, just try to sleep for a bit." And she did sleep...for a little bit.

Next thing we knew Mary is throwing up all over the place. Remember we're all squished into a tiny Topaz. Mary is the youngest, so she's aways sitting in the middle seat in the back. She threw up all over herself and a little on Rachel and all over the floor. Ugh. We were just about to cross the Ohio River at this point, so we were really on our way. Dad looked for a place to pull over as we were all complaining and protesting from the back seat.

He found a little run-down rest stop right along the river. We got Mary out of the car and started cleaning her off. My mom went to the restrooms to get a wet cloth. There was no running water! Lovely. There was a little hand pump that had a little water, so we were able to clean her up. My mom was trying to get a change of clothes for Mary, but everything was packed either too far back in the trunk (which was pretty tiny) or on top of the car in a big car-top carrier.

I think that my dad ended up taking the big car-top carrier off, so my mom could rummage through luggage and find a change of clothes for my sister. And that carrier was heavy and awkward and not easy to get on and off of the car. I know my mom was not happy. And when getting everything situated and back into the car, that's when she noticed how much candy Mary had actually eaten. It was way too much. She promptly took her bag away. Rachel and I had eaten one or two pieces...Mary had eaten half a bag.

Luckily we made it the rest of the way without incident. The rest of the week was fun. We spent time at the hotel while Dad was in meetings. Unfortunately it was too early for the hotel's outdoor pool to be filled. We went to the park and did little things like that. Later in the week we spent a day at the ocean after Dad was done with his work. The hotel we stayed in was pretty ugly. But that's a whole other long story.

Lessons learned - 1. Always pack one change of clothes where you can quickly access them. 2. Never give a greedy child a whole bag of candy. 3. Whenever you squeeze 3 children into the back of a small car for a long drive, someone will get sick on the way.

My 400th (seriously?) post

I can't believe this is my 400th post. And looking at how little I've been posting lately, I probably could have hit it sooner. This has been a fun journey blogging, and I hope I have many many more posts coming.

*****

A while ago, Sarah at No Whey, Mama tagged me for a Meme. I think this is a good time to do it. She did a great job with hers, and it looked like fun. (15 years puts me back before high school even, so we'll see where this goes.)

The rules: Think back on the last 15 years of your life. What would you tell someone that you hadn’t seen or talked to for 15 years? How would you sum up your life? You get 10 bullet points. A list of 10 things to summarize about you. At the end of your list, tag 5 more people and send on the love…

1. You know that guy Matt? Well, we got together in high school, stayed together, and got married (and are still happily married 8 years later).

2. Yep, I finished high school with a pretty good GPA too.

3. I went to college (got married half-way through), studied Elementary Education (and Math), and graduated with honors.

4. I became a substitute teacher.

5. I took up a few odd jobs.

6. I went back to teaching.

7. I started tutoring at My Tutoring Center Name.

8. I got pregnant, had some complications early on, was banned from driving for most of my pregnancy, so tutoring was the only thing I could keep up with.

9. Had a beautiful baby boy, Zachariah Matthew, and fell in love again (with my baby AND husband).

10. I'm still staying home with my son, tutoring, married, and loving every minute of my life.


Tagging:
1. Sarah at Semi-Desperate Housewife
2. Heidi at Mommy Doesn't Live Here Anymore
3. Shelly at Scenic Overlook
4. Erica at All Dressed Up
5. Devan at All D's

Come on in...the water's fine

So, I went ahead and did it. I have a confession to make...so far, I love it.

I'm just talking about Twitter people. You can find me at this link.

If you're there, you should add me. Leave me a comment here if you do that, so I know who you are there. I know several of you have added me already, and that's why I've already enjoyed it just after one day.

I can see that I'm going to need a program to follow tweets with. Jennifer has suggested twhirl, but I can't seem to get that to load. I'll have to mess with it some more. Or it looks like there are some other similar programs. OH, NEVERMIND, I just tried again and got it loaded. Now I don't have to hit refresh over and over. I can just leave this open like I do my messenger program. Cool!

So, anyone else wanna join me in the fun?

What pushed me over the edge was the impending arrival of SaLy's baby and Erica's upcoming surgery. I thought I might be able to keep in touch with them better through Twitter when they can't always make a long post on their blog.

Random Friday

*This morning was fun! I took Zachariah to the park and there were no kids there (after the park's summer program left), so we had the whole place to ourselves. He's great at climbing now and going down slides. I don't have to follow him every where. And I could probably sit on a bench with a book, but it was way more fun chasing him around, pushing the merry-go-round, and swinging beside him.

*Going to a park when it's getting hot will result in a cranky two-year-old. Ugh. But he ate a great lunch when we got home.

*Mmm, I love burritos. That was a great lunch. (There is a great place down the road that does make-your-own-burritos, like Chipotle, but local.)

*I need to finish getting my Pay it Forward box packaged and mailed. I'm about half finished, Joanne. I keep thinking of other things to add. I hope you like it all. Maybe I'll get a chance to get it mailed tomorrow.

*Tomorrow we're going to a wedding. This is a super great couple that is in our small group from church. It's like seeing a sibling get married, it's so awesome.

*Twitter, everyone's doing it now. Should I join in the fun? I leave my computer on most of the time, so I think I'd enjoy keeping up with everyone. I'm picturing it more like an IM type thing. Comments about this?

*Our laptop charging cord broke. It still works, but I can't move it while it's charging. Very inconvenient. Luckily it still holds quite a bit of battery life, so I can use it off the power cord for a while. Just frustrating.

*I'd love to get my house in tip-top clean condition, but I don't have the energy for that. I have been slowly working on a few things that needed done, so that makes me happy that it's getting there. Just clutter issues that never seem to go away. I'd like to just take a trash bag through my house and get rid of lots of things, but I better not right now.

Eyes on the prizes

In this blogging community I have had my eyes opened to so many new things. I have learned so much about parenting and being a better mother. I have learned about things like cloth diapering and baby wearing that I never knew about. I love it, and I can't wait to have another baby to do all these things with. It would be an awesome start to win this prize. What a way to start baby wearing.

Toddler humor

I haven't been around much. Well, I am now, but there are things I want to blog about and can't bring myself to right now. So I thought I'd share a few funny things that my son has told me lately.

*****
After eating pizza for lunch with my sister:

MD: So Zachariah, you didn't like the pizza much today? You said it was too spicy, huh?
Zachariah: No Mom, not pizza spicy.
MD: OK
Z: Pizza not spicy. Pepperoni spicy, Mom.

Oh, my mistake. For the record he was totally right! I just didn't expect that from my two-year-old.

*****
Driving in the car he always is on the lookout for tractors, animals, trucks, trains, and other fun things. We usually let him know where to look for things by saying "look at the tractor on Mom's side" or "Look, there's a cow on Dad's side". Today on the way to the store.

Z (with much excitement in his voice): Oh, Mom, tractor right dere. Tractor Zacky's* side.
MD (stifling a laugh): Yes, I see that tractor.

Oh yes, baby, that tractor is on your side. I'm so glad that you pointed it out JUST LIKE WE DO only for you.

*****
In the car on the way home today...again.

MD: Look, Zachariah there's a tractor right in front of us coming this way.
Z: No tractor, Mom.
MD: Yes, it's right there in front of us.
Z: No, COMBINE right dere, Mom.

I swear I could hear him roll his eyes at me. And of course, he was right. It really WAS a combine not just a silly tractor.

*****
Zachariah spent 2 days with my parents last week. They did lots of fun things. When they brought him back he was telling me about some of the things he did.

MD's Dad, aka Papa: Zac, tell Mommy what we saw in the creek at our house.
Z (with his eyes wide and as serious as he gets): Agergator, Mom. (translation: Alligator, Mom)
MD: Oh REALLY?
Z (nods furiously): Uh huh!
MD: OK, if you saw so.
Papa (laughing hysterically): Umm, no, that's NOT what we saw. We really saw a big heron.
MD: That sounds more like it.

You know, this is OHIO, not Florida. Otherwise I may have believed him. He is usually right (see above stories) and he doesn't let much get by him. But he has told every person he's seen lately that he saw alligators at Papa's house. I have no idea why he thinks this. Hilarious!



*Zachariah calls himself Zac-y now. I don't know how to spell that. It looks funny like "Zacy", but we spell Zac like that...just a C. So, Zacky? Zacie? Zachy? Zachie? I don't know.

Winner, winner, we have a winner

Contest over! Thanks everyone for playing along with my Pay It Forward contest. The comments are closed and I "drew" a winner. I used the random number puller that Swistle recommended and the number it picked was......

#42 - Joanne from Bebellyboo

Congrats Joanne, I will work on getting the prize around for you. I will be e-mailing you shortly to also notify you of your win. Now you get to Pay It Forward yourself. I believe you hosted a contest yourself, so you can consult Swistle's post about what to do now.

And everyone else be sure to keep an eye out on Joanne's blog to see the prize I send her. And thanks for entering.

A little birthday fun

Birthday Blessings

Instead of counting candles,
Or tallying the years,
Contemplate your blessings,
As your birthday nears.

Consider special people
Who love you, and who care,
And others who’ve enriched your life
Just by being there.

Think about the memories
Passing years can never mar,
Experiences great and small
That have made you who you are.

Another year is a happy gift,
So cut your cake, and say,
"Instead of counting birthdays,
I count blessings every day!"

By Joanna Fuchs

A blast from my past/a few turns in my baby book:

Did you notice my wide open mouth smile in photos a) on the horsey b) in the bathtub c) on the floor and d) with birthday cake smeared all over my mouth? Ha, ha!