The Lazy Days of Winter ~

First of all, I know it's not officially winter yet, but there are a few kids, two dogs and 14 pigs around here that would argue with you. We've spent the past two days in the coziness of our home with a fire crackling in the wood burning stove and it's been wonderful. I was thinking about how nice it's been and how lazy we've been and started to wonder where the saying "lazy days of summer" came from. I don't know about you but our summers are packed with fun and very rarely do we sit around being "lazy" but give us a few days of snow on the ground and ice on the roads and we do lazy really well.

This was Jack's first snow and from what I could tell, he loved it. Don't let the sad puppy dog eyes fool you, he looks like this all the time. :)

I'm pretty sure if they could talk they would be complaining about the cold. The one on the right is named Thor (we also have a Hulk and an Ironman.) I found Thor in his pin buried under hay; all you could see was a little of his back...smart pig. I woke him up, that 's when he went to discuss the frigid temps with his neighbor, Chester. 

The rest of the day included a snowball fight, being pulled behind the four-wheeler on a disk, frozen fingers, hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows. Here's a little secret...I can't resist a roasted marshmallow and for the next week I'll be detoxing from all the sugar. 

After supper we played several hands of spoons (the Farmer won them all) and a mean game of Farmopoly. K won  and ended the game with over $3000!

I Must Be a Little Crazy ~

So I have to tell you about the crazy thing I did on Friday. As I was typing my blog post on Friday, K's teacher sent me and a few other moms pictures of all the girls in class dressed up for 80's day. They all looked so cute and very sassy! :) So, as we're texting back and forth about the girls, one of the moms says, "I think us mothers should show up in 80's style." Then K's teacher said something that really got the ball rolling...she said, "I dare you!!" At first it was just a little joke about how funny it would be and how the girls would die if we showed up at the school looking all 80's. I even joked about how I would do it if my parachute pants still fit (which I do still have, but they do not fit so I was safe, or so I thought.)

Somewhere between thinking it would be funny, being dared to do it and picturing myself in parachute pants, I told them I was in.

I'm not sure if you've ever seen the Disney sitcom Good Luck Charlie, but it's one of my favorite Disney shows. Of course Charlie is precious but it's really the mom who makes the show. I love her and have joked with my kids several times about how she's my role model. :) She's forever embarrassing her kids; so when I started considering this whole 80's thing I actually thought, "What would Amy Duncan do?"

A few hours later I found myself back in the 80's, music and all. There's nothing like a little 80's music to really put you in the right frame of mind. :) Luckily my mom let me borrow her super heavy duty hairspray for K's hair otherwise I might not have been able to pull it off. (What's funny is aside from the big hair, I really never dressed like this back in the day.)

I wish I had a video of the moment we walked into that classroom. It was hysterical. All the kids were screaming and laughing. K said she actually had tears coming out of her eyes. It was awesome! So worth taking a step outside of myself to have this moment with her; a moment I'm pretty sure she will never forget.

You had me at 'Hello' ~

...sort of.

I love telling our love story. I love the way I can look back and see God's hand all over it.

Before I begin, though, I must start out by saying we are not perfect people. We are both very stubborn individuals who most of the time think we are right. Our core values are the same, we both love the same God, we both believe the same politically and we love our family. I tend to run my mouth while he thinks about what he wants to say before he says it. I tend to yell, this makes him crazy. We both love Mexican food, but I can't get him to eat Asian food to save my life (even on my birthday.) My healthy ways drive him nuts and I wish he would quit dipping snuff. See, no perfection here.

But lets back up about 16 years when we were both under the illusion that the other had descended from heaven on the wings of a snow white dove...ahhh. Those were the good old days. You remember them right? Those first few glances at each other in hopes that the person sitting across from you felt the same. And knowing beyond all certainty that you had found your one true love who would make all your dreams come true.

We met while I was working at my dad's CPA office. I remember the day perfectly. I had just called off my engagement with a guy I had dated on and off for 7 years. I felt like a new person with all kinds of possibilities before me. I remember R and his dad walking in the office. R's dad was curious as to why I was so happy. I told him. R says he wanted to ask me out that day, but didn't think the timing was right. :)

Fast forward 9 months and R's back in the office; this time ready to ask me if I would like to go on a date. I still remember the red GAP sweatshirt I was wearing that day (I still have it btw) and I'm pretty sure my face turned as red as that sweater. I said 'yes' we went out to eat and to a movie. For the life of me I can't remember what movie we saw. I do remember our second date the next night. We went to see Braveheart. I remember going to the bathroom, looking in the mirror and thinking, "I can't do this. I'm not ready for another relationship."

Five months and many phone calls later, R finally told me he was done. If I wanted to talk to him, I could call  him. Fine by me, or so I thought. That summer my sister and I moved from a house to an apartment and needed help moving the fridge. Here's what she said to me, " You know you could call R and get him to help us move the fridge. He has called you and wants to be your friend; you never call him back. You just don't treat your friends that way." So I started feeling bad for the way I was treating him and decided to call. I don't know why, but he said he would help us. I fell in love while watching him move a fridge...

I watched every step he took and saw something I had overlooked before. I saw someone who was willing to help me even after I had treated him like pooh. I saw a take charge, organized, "get it done" kind of guy. To this day he is the same person. When he decides to do something, he finds a way to make it happen. On that late summer evening back in 1996 with a refrigerator in between us, I knew he was the one for me.

This picture was taken a few days after we were engaged

Today we celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. We'll be celebrating our big day on the practice field tonight with 17 boys who are trying to grasp the game of football. R on the field, me on the sidelines. This weekend we will go out to eat, I'll probably remind him of those first few days, of his persistence and my resistance and he'll joke about how the last 15 years seem like 150 (he thinks he's funny.)

Our wedding ~ September 6, 1997

I truly believe I married the man God put on this earth for me. We're not perfect, we drive each other crazy alot of the time but we have built a life together and I am so thankful for that.

Here's to many more years of marital bliss...I love you R.