Anniversary Weekend

We had a wonderful Anniversary Weekend. We started our Saturday with exchanging gifts. Since the traditional gift for the 5th Anniversary is wood--a representation of how strong and long-lasting our marriage is, I gifted Randy this beautiful Willow Tree figure "Together". The second piece of the gift is a display shelf...but I won't buy that until after we move.

Randy's gift to me each year for our Anniversary has been a James Avery charm that represents something significant that happened in our marriage that year. Just to share what I currently have on my charm bracelet:

1st year: Anniversary charm (with our wedding date engraved on it)

2nd year: stethoscope charm (we moved to VA to begin the long journey of medical education)

3rd year: Kenya-shaped charm (as a remembrance of our mission to Kenya together)

4th year: baby shoe charm with Josiah's name and birthdate engraved on it

And for the 5th year: a charm in the shape of the number 5 (nothing too crazy happened to us this past year)

After we blessed each other with our gifts and a kiss, Randy made breakfast...heart-shaped french toast and eggs/sausage burritos. This was Randy's first try at french toast, and I must say that he did an outstanding job.

Then we spent a good portion of the morning just hanging out with our little man, watching a new Veggie Tales DVD that Grandma had sent and "Thomas". Once we put Josiah down for a nap, Randy and I took a few minutes going through a box of pictures (before the digital age) and reminisced. We had a lot of fun and laughs thinking back to when we first met and especially how awkward our first couple of kisses were. So as per the request of my SIL, Elizabeth, I will share a funny (and embarrassing) story about one of our first kisses....and hopefully, I'll get it right. Randy is usually much better at remembering stories that involve me being embarrassed than I do.

Here it goes....one night, after a date, Randy and I walked up to my apartment to watch a movie. As I had turned around from hanging my coat, Randy caught me and gave me a hug and kiss. And on any other night he would have enjoyed kissing me except that on that particular night while kissing me, he thought, "man, this girl smells like crap". He eventually pulled away after not being able to take the "smell" any longer. Well, on my way to the kitchen to get us drinks, Randy noticed "track marks" on the carpet. We immediately checked our shoes...only to find out that I had stepped in dog poop on our way in from the car. I was so embarrassed and on the verge of tears. But Randy, the good man that he is, helped me clean up the mess...with no additional commentary. As we started to clean up the poop, he started laughing....well, that only made me more mad. Afterall, he wasn't the one who had dog poop on their carpet. I asked him, "why are you laughing?" And his reply was, "and this whole time I thought it was you who smelled liked crap." Now there's a kiss-and-tell story for the books.

Okay, so back to our weekend. We dropped Josiah off with good friends and headed for the movie theater...our first movie (in the theater) since Josiah's birth day. We saw "Vantage Point", which was pretty good overall. I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars. Then we headed to Kabuki, a Japanese steakhouse, for dinner. We love the entertainment that the hibachi table provides....and Randy caught the flying shrimp in his mouth. What a proud moment.

And before the night ended, I wanted a few pictures. It's rare that I "do" my hair and put on makeup. Plus, I haven't been very good with taking belly pictures during this pregnancy. So here I am at 32 weeks...I'm definitely bigger now than I ever got with Josiah (and I'm definitely feeling it).






On Sunday evening, we had our good friends, Sara and Chris, over for dinner. They, too, are expecting another little one, in just a few short weeks (about 5 weeks before us). Their little man, Grant, is only 7 weeks older than Josiah...and they have a lot of fun together, but we rarely get a chance to get together due to schedules and/or sickness. Both boys enjoyed the laundry basket when they were babies...boy, did they enjoy this new "ride" last night.



And so as to not break tradition, I had one of guys take Sara and my picture (we did this during our last pregnancy together). Sara: 37 weeks, me: 32 1/2 weeks.

Like I said, we had a great weekend and hope to be break away for some "just us" time much sooner.