Happy 7th Anniversary!

We went on a date Saturday night (a few days early, due to logistics and availability) for the first time in...well, quite a while. We had Dad take a few photos of us in the front yard first.

Seven!

Then we went to Brann's for a burger & a beer, to a River City Improv (RCI) show downtown, and then to a bar called Hopcats for another drink and munchies. At Brann's the logo is a steer with sunglasses but we couldn't help see it as something else when it had the "loop" at the top to hold a menu. Do you see it?

It's a woman sitting cross-legged with arms raised, black boobies, and either swollen lymph nodes or hairy armpits. Whoo! Way to obliviously channel the Momma energy, Brann's!

After dinner we drove downtown to the Ladies Literary Guild for the RCI show. My sister is a member of the team but is away in Spain for a year. Before she left, she made sure we had a few passes to the shows though, and we know most/all of the other members by now anyway. What a good, clean, fun date for us! We laughed ourselves silly. If you don't know RCI, I highly recommend you check out a show as you're able.

After the show we walked a few blocks and went to Hopcats for a drink. I also got a sandwich & crack fries ("They're really that addictive") which were yummy. We didn't really know what to do with ourselves at a bar, but we figured it out quickly enough. We tried 4 different beers (2 each) and chatted about our past year and what we're looking forward to this year. It was a great date - thanks Mom & Dad for providing childcare!

And, due to inspiration from another friends' blog:

Seven Reasons Why I'm Grateful To Be Married To Adam (in no particular order):

1. Our kids! Not only could I not have had them without a little help from him in the first place, I love how committed he is as Daddy. He loves to play with them, he helps with any & every task (usually quite joyfully), and he's fully devoted to being a big part of their lives.
   
2. His faith: I'm grateful that at every step along my faith journey, I can count on Adam being within shouting distance. We've had some dramatic twists & turns with regard to church and beliefs & decisions about how to raise our kids with regard to faith, and I'm grateful that we've always been able to find the place where our beliefs intersect enough to be compatible.
3. His humor: I'm grateful for his ability to find humor in almost anything...or nothing. I tend to take things much more seriously than he does - maybe more seriously than I should - and he helps me keep things in perspective by providing some levity to our (semi-regularly very difficult) situation.
4. His openness to different philosophies: Sometimes Adam drives me nuts because he seems almost TOO flexible about some of his values...but then I realize that if we were both really dogmatic we'd clash all the time. Thankfully, he's much more relaxed than I am. Over the years I've challenged him to be vegetarian, then vegan, then back to meat-eating, then eating organic & local, then flexing again to what's more affordable. Through this all, he's been at least open, if not enthusiastic. Through the years I've steered us through some dramatic shifts in spirituality & practice thereof, and he's come along like a trooper. When we decided to have kids I opted for a midwife-assisted homebirth (he was a champion from the start), breastfeeding, cloth diapering, baby-wearing, non-vaccinating, non-circumcising attachment parenting style. He effectively said "okay" with a smile - and only periodically grumbles about rinsing poopy cloth diapers/covers in the toilet. Now that Simon's old enough for us to begin talking about school I realize again his openness as we consider an educational philosophy...somewhere in the realm of homeschooling, Montessori or Waldorf education.
   
5. His hard work: Adam's a really hard worker. I've seen him work several different jobs, some of which were better fits than others for him, and I've also seen him start up his own business as a self-employed tile contractor for several years. He doesn't always take as much hasty initiative on home projects as I'd like to see (who does?) but there's no denying that he's a hard worker, a good business owner, and a great employee.
   
6. His friendship: Adam's been my friend, helper, partner for more than 7 years. He became my buddy back in the fall of 1997 and has been a friend ever since. I like to hang out with him, watch movies with him, go places with him, talk with him, cuddle quietly without talking with him. He's a good guy to hang out with and be around. Good thing.
   
7. His determination to keep working at it in spite of it all! We've had a sizeable share of challenges in our marriage, but every year that passes we look at each other & realize that the other person is still there - still working at it, still committed to finding active ways of loving each other & caring for our marriage & family.

I finally finished this blog! I started it early in the afternoon but finished it at 11:38PM. At least it's still October 6, so it's still our anniversary. Now let's see how long it takes Adam to read this & make his OWN "Happy Anniversary" post... I DID authorize him to post entries on this blog, after all, so maybe this will be the catalyst to his first post. You think?