8 Years and Still Kickin'

It was a sweet day 8 years ago, March 27th, 2004, when I married the love of my life. I need to figure out how to scan a picture in of our wedding day, which would be more appropriate. Here we are tonight, Esther snapped a picture of us as we were headed to dinner. Walking out of the Olive Garden Steven told me "I didn't know I would be this happy being married to you." At first I was like, "thanks, babe," but he went on to explain that marriage is a little scary and intimidating before you get into it. We had both seen many marriages fail, and as Christians we don't believe we could just walk out of it. Thankfully, neither of us want to, and I pray we never will. The Lord is gracious and I am so blessed to be Steven's wife, to enjoy our day to day routine and also special dates like tonight.
A little tradition we have is to watch the "trailer" of our wedding video - a 3-4 minute video collage to "Come Away With Me" (Norah Jones) that plays at the beginning of the DVD. Esther and Sadie watched it with us, then I went upstairs to put the kids to bed. It was still rolling when I came back down (the actual video is pretty long) so I finished watching the reception. I danced a lot at my wedding, probably too much, but it was such a fun night. If you think you can't get anyone to dance at a wedding without alcohol just come over and I'll show you my video. Just kidding, I would never do that to anyone (except Esther, I think she watched the whole thing... sweet girl). It was fun to see the people in my video tonight and think of all that has happened in 8 years. Several of those friends have since married, and probably close to 20 babies have been born to our wedding party alone! I actually registered Sadie for Kindergarten for the fall, at Pleasant Garden Elementary. I can't believe my baby will go to school in a few months! She will love it. We were playing the animal game the other day (you give a clue to have the other person try and guess the animal you are thinking of) and I said "my animal is extinct." Immediately Sadie said "skunk!" I laughed a little then explained what extinct actually means. Eli is getting better at the animal game, he used to always say "my animal has a long neck....can you guess what it is?" again, and again. He also loves to play "honey and babe" with Sadie, their version of husband and wife. And his favorite food currently? Pampakes.
Oh! I forgot to report, I did pretty well with my "no sweets" diet (Sadie called me on it last weekend when I tried to eat a chocolate-covered donut for breakfast....is that really a sweet?). I went to the Rush today and was down 6 pounds, supposedly. Olive Garden for dinner, including dessert, probably negates at least 2 of those pounds, but that's OK, the donuts dipped in chocolate were totally worth it.
Another report....I have been couponing. Triple couponing, this week. I thought I was doing pretty good until I read some other people's blogs, but my receipt says I'm saving almost half. Hopefully I'll remember what I bought and eat it so it's actually worth it. Somehow I feel like I've been cooking less since I started couponing so that's not really going to help the budget. And after 2 very carefully planned Harris Teeter trips this week (1 with all 3 kids...ahh!), somehow we're almost out of milk...oops. What's that saying, you can't win for losing? Or trying? I can't remember it. But couponing is kind of fun, so I'll stick with it for now.
I need to go to sleep, somehow I am again awake at midnight. Maybe this will be one of the rare nights that no one wakes up. Either way I will sleep well, thankful for my snoring hubby beside me and the 8 sweet years we have had. Goodnight!

Yo-rick

The fish died. The next morning after I blogged about it....go figure. I had to go to work that morning and didn't have the time or the stomach to deal with it so I told Steven to take care of it without Sadie knowing. He was supposed to talk to her about it but unfortunately she noticed the fishbowl was missing. Her knowledgable cousin Turner filled her in....and showed her where her Daddy had thrown it in the bushes. Not exactly how I had planned to break it to her...but she recovered. Steven keeps talking about getting another one, including a real tank, so she's pretty excited about that.
I wasn't planning on blogging about the fish, again, I've actually been lamenting Eli's improved vocabulary and wanted to record some of the cute things he says before he quits saying all of them. The title of this post is what he has always called yogurt, one of my favorites. He also uses "d" in place of a lot of letters. "Dadie, let's listen to our dongs!" His favorite show used to be "me-me-mo", now it's "Max and Ruvie." Sadie loved "The Soot Book", for Eli it's "The Doot Book." He also likes "Ham and Cheese" (Green Eggs and Ham). Steven loves for him to tell a story, it almost always starts with "Once upon a time, dere was a man walking in the woods..." It usually involves a deer, here lately he talks about crocodiles from Sadie's "peeschool" pond, and how they eat people. Steven tells him stories at night too and Eli's favorite is about Captain "Huk". Not sure where the accent comes from, but when he says marshmellow he sounds British. His reasoning needs a little work, too. The other day he took a toy out of David's hand and I said "Eli, don't do that, he was playing with that ball." Eli answered "He likes it when I take it from him." Real believable, buddy. He is actually still sweet, most of the time. Last night we had a 10 minute conversation about Jesus. I pray he keeps his sweet spirit as he grows up, and is sensitive to the Lord's calling. That's actually my prayer for all my children. Sometimes it seems impossible as the sin natures are blantantly obvious. Like right now, as I realize they are both still awake at 10:30!? I best end this blog and go deal with this....goodnight!

I've entered a new world.

I caved. I was a bit proud of the fact that we weren't pet owners....but things change. This was actually out of my control. I was at work in Charlotte a few Saturday's ago in Charlotte and my Mom took the kids to Southpark Mall to see "The Cat in the Hat," and somehow Eli won this fish. Sadie was immediately in love.

Since he survived in Charlotte a couple weeks I decided to bring him home the last time I was there. Sadie helped me wash out a bowl we had and at Walmart we bought some pretty "jewels" for it. She feeds him every afternoon. It doesn't make any noise, doesn't bark at me or jump on me, and doesn't stink up the house. I think I can handle it.

 In other news, I have survived one week without sweets, and have lost a couple pounds! Goes to show how much damage I can do with dessert! Eli looks so grown up to me in this picture. Steven's Mom was asking him the other day why he is so sweet and he said 'because my Mommy hugs me a lot." I was laying down with him the other day to get him to take a nap and he said "I love you every day....but I don't want to take a nap with you." Oh please stay this sweet forever! This age is priceless, they can communicate with you, they aren't sassy, and they love to just be with you (except when they figure out it's just for the purpose of sleep).

9 months is pretty precious too. Although they have to separate him from the other babies at KidKare (at the gym), apparently he likes to pull hair and hit. I guess it's from the constant defense he plays at home. He is loving his mobility, and getting into everything!! He and Eli have an interesting relationship. When he was first born Eli kissed him a million times a day. Now he touches his face, not sure why he switched but it's the same obsessive behavior as the kissing. Esther managed to capture it on her camera.

So one day they'll fight and wrestle, for now they just show lots of affection. I'll take it.

Goodnight!

27 days

I am in sweets rehab, motivated by my free "fit coach" session yesterday. I had to weigh and get my body fat measurements done, which showed me to be in the "high risk" zone. I think the main reason they do that is to get you to purchase training sessions...but instead of spending 500 bucks for 12 sessions I decided to go on another sweets fast. Whenever  I consider doing something like this I always make sure there's nothing that will be too tempting for me during the time frame, and I always set a time frame or I will fail immediately. We will be married 8 years on March 27th and I'm hoping we will dine out....Melting Pot, maybe?? I decided this last night, the last day of February, and then ate way too many oreos. Steven's giving up coke until the 27th, but he forgot and drank one at  lunch. Oh, and I am going to allow myself one dark chocolate nugget once a day (it's only 42 calories!). People who are good at losing weight are probably laughing at this right now, but like I've said before, I have to take baby steps.
Speaking of baby steps...D is trying to take his already! He pushes a little car all around the house (walking)  and thinks he is great stuff. Sadie walked at 9 1/2 months, Eli at 10 1/2, so I shouldn't be surprised I guess. But he's my baby! Today Steven popped his head around the corner and said "D!" David looked up, smiled, and said "Da!" So sweet. He sat in the baby swing at the park today for like 45 minutes, sometimes just sitting still, happy to be in the sunshine and watching the big kids play. 3rd kids are the best!
I can't think of anything else to say, I think it's the lack of dessert tonight. Goodnight!