Chris and I are celebrating our seventh wedding anniversary today! I guess we aren't really doing the actual celebrating today, we'll probably just go out as a family or something, and my fabulously supportive parents will take the kids all next weekend so we can really have some nice time just the two of us.
This is a collage I made for him in high school.
Anyway, we have quite a story! We were high school sweethearts...eventually. After being good friends for two years, he was my best friend our Junior year and we started our official high school relationship that summer on August 1st at 1:00 AM when he kissed me for the briefest half-second while standing in his driveway. My family was heading to McCall for most of August, and we'd been holding hands for like a month so my girlfriends Leisha and Jenn told me that I HAD to have "the talk" with him before leaving for the month. I made him a little August calendar with something written on every day for him to do, like "Call my home phone just to make sure I'm not there" and "write Rebecca a letter and mail it to..." Anyway, it was his birthday on August 1st, and my curfew prohibited me from giving him his present ON his birthday and my family was driving off to McCall at the crack of dawn, so I snuck out, took the car and drove the twenty minutes to his house where he was waiting.
So that was the start...back in 1994, and he asked me to marry him in that same driveway over 7 years later...and seven more years later we have two kids and our own driveway, no curfew, our own road trips to McCall and many long kisses between us.
This is a random picture of us probably about a year after Ruby was born.
We are polar opposites. He likes one song (okay, one genre) and I like all music. He doesn't do romantic movies and I love a good chick flick. He hates reality TV and I can't be entertained by today's scripted shows. He wants to spend every minute of his life being super productive, and I wouldn't mind if I had a week stretching before me with nothing on the agenda. He figures if he hasn't talked to someone in six months they aren't a friend anymore, and I keep in touch with two elementary school teachers and several kids from my kindergarten class. My favorite pizza is the gourmet veggie from Papa Murphey's and his is the Meat Lovers. I'm a morning person, he's not. His side of the closet is orderly and all the sleeves face the same way, the work shirts and dress shirts separate...you get the picture, the only things hanging on my side are things that no longer fit, and some of them are inside out or on children's hangars for all I care.
Us in front of our first house (his bachelor pad). I was very pregnant with R in this picture.
We share the most important things in life: faith, family and our future, and I think he's worth all the compromise! I think I am an easy laugh, I don't mean pity laugh, but I laugh at most anything. Anyway, he is funny enough to make me truly laugh hard almost every day, and I love that about him.
Not the best pic of our wedding day, but it was the easiest to find.
We know how to get under each other's skin, and we do it intentionally for fun...often. What amazes me is that we are both so skilled at it that we both still fall for each other's efforts EVERY TIME! He knows that if he wakes up on a Saturday morning and says, "Okay, lets talk about our plan for the day," he's going to get an eye roll, and that's what he wants. I know that on his way home from work on Friday night if I say, "Okay, so we are all packed and we'll just leave for my parents house when you get home, right?" that there will be a long pause in our conversation, which is what I want. I can also get him with claiming I got a bargain. So if I was garage sale-ing and lets say I bought a sled for $5...I'd leave it in the middle of the floor of his carefully organized garage, and he'd ask, "where'd you get this and where can I put it?" and I'd say, "It was so cheap, I got it for $30 at a garage sale today!" and he totally falls for it. He loves to inch the truck forward when I'm at the door trying to open it, or honk the horn when I'm right in front of his truck, and even though I know the reaction he's going for, I can't help but give it to him. If he is ever on the phone, I'm always curious who he's talking to and what they talked about. So for example if he's on the phone with his folks and I decide to put the kids to bed, I'll ask later, "So, what did your parents have to say?" and he'll respond, "Nothing." Just to drive me crazy! He also likes to position himself so he's "mooning" me and then he'll call my attention. I'm actually catching on to this one, and he doesn't get me as often, but he still tries. Another one that I'm practically immune to is when we are staying somewhere with other people ie: the cabin, his parents house, etc., he'll have one of his brothers come to the door when I'm fresh out of the shower on the other side. He'll have them out of sight, but they'll say, "Chris?" and Chris will open the door and come walking in. It makes me think that the person with the voice is walking in on me! He intentionally pretends to bang (hard, loud and dramatically clutching his supposed injury) into all signs, door jams, telephone poles, or otherwise. I don't think he does this anymore to get a laugh out of me, but he still laughs himself, and the kids think it's hilarious...he likes the reaction he gets from concerned onlookers.
Anyway, we are probably only cut out for each other, and I think most people who know us as a couple are pretty sure of that. One thing that's good for us is that I have a high tolerance for public humiliation and he likes to publicly humiliate. Like when we played 2 truths and a lie at our friends' Halloween party with like 20 other couples.
His list:
1. I went to a NKOTB concert in sixth grade
2. I like to eat my toenails
3. I was married briefly once before I was married to Rebecca
All eyes on me. All I could say was, "I know he doesn't like to eat his toenails!" I mean, how is it possible that I would fall for something as ridiculous as that? But I did! I was thinking, "well, we didn't have a lot of contact for like five years, and he could have pulled a Britney Spears 24 hour vegas marriage for all I know!" Nope! Just a ploy to make me squirm, and I squirmed and laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed. I think everyone else in the room was just plain uncomfortable, but not us.
Anyway, maybe these are the quirks that indicate that we did in fact start our relationship when we were seventeen years old. Happy Anniversary to us.
So I am a huge nerd. As we were walking through the lobby, I saw John Curley, a local tv magazine host. He was a huge help last year when we were raising money for a local family in need...he offered to be our auctioneer for FREE (a $4k value), and because of him we were able to really raise some serious dough. I've since been in contact with him for some other reasons, and I wanted to say "hello" and reintroduce myself. There were cameras and lights and all that, but he was talking to this group of high-schoolers as we approached and it appeared he was just hanging out. I was almost going to tap him on the shoulder when I realized HE WAS TAPING!
R wanted to paint A's face, and I figured there was no harm in that...they were really proud of the artwork, but when it was time for their next activity, R said, "mom, I want to help A wipe her face clean so that she's not embarrassed!" A wouldn't hear of it.
They wanted to have a picnic out in the front yard. Yes, it was 22 degrees here today, but they really wanted to, and I let them. They took a pumpkin muffin and some graham crackers out to the sidewalk in front of the house and happily ate a snack in the freezing cold. (What did I say about crack? JUST SAY NO!) 
They came to me and wanted to have "holes in their jump ropes" or lassos. So I made them lassos and told them NOT to put anything around their necks (as A was in the process of doing as I spoke). A said, I'm gonna say, "Hi-de-ho!" and off they were to lasso the stair railing.
R made me a little book about us. She's such a fun little writer, and I'm getting better at decoding her phonetic (sometimes) spellings. I have dozens of drawings and stories and books along these lines. And I really need to be better about documenting the dates so I can see her progress more easily.
My biggest bangs were in sixth grade (1988-89, also the year I proudly donned my black Debbie Gibson hat and serenaded boys over the phone to my expert piano playing of "Lost in Your Eyes") but this pic is from 7th grade, when they were changing a bit...the forehead was entering its days of exposure and soon, by 8th grade, the transition to no bangs was complete. I think I was on the tail end of the bangs era (I know, I'm just a baby really).
Yes, they were due in June. I couldn't believe it! It still took a few weeks to get the new ones (thank you, Chris) and now we are all good to go (not that we stopped going in the meantime). 
