Love in an Elevator: The Anniversary Post

I met Scot the second day of my freshman year of college.

That morning I stepped onto my dorm elevator to go to my first Intro to Physical Therapy class (because I was a physical therapy major for about five minutes).  As I stood on the crowded elevator, I overheard some guy say that he was going to Intro to Physical Therapy, too.  I looked up, way up, to see dark brown eyes peeking out from under a white Missouri hat.

       "I'm going to that class, too, " I said.
        "Can I walk you?"  Some Guy said.
        "Sure," I responded. 

"Some Guy" turned out to be Scot, and I was already impressed. Seriously, what 18-year-old guy politely asks a girl if he can walk her to class?

So Scot and I walked to class and talked and laughed. Then we sat and talked all through class.  (Dad, it was just an Intro to Physical Therapy pass/fail class. No tuition dollars wasted. Unless you consider that I have never been a physical therapist.)

Anyway.

We dated. He taught me to love football and I taught him to tolerate sorority parties. We hung out with each other's friends.  We drank coffee and studied at Memorial Union.  I cheered him on in intramural sports.  We sat on the columns and the balcony of our dorm and talked until the wee morning hours. He gave blood for me during Greek Week after I nearly passed out.  We had some of the best times of our lives together.

As poor college students, cheap dates were a must. We often took long walks through campus together.  One of our favorite places on campus was Peace Park. Rumor had it that if you walked over the little bridge in the park with your date, you would marry that person. We walked over it many, many times.

Before long we were completely inseperable and I knew he was "the one." He made me laugh. He was always so thoughtful and kind and good to me. He was my best friend. I knew I never, ever wanted to be without him.

Winter of our senior year he got down on one knee and proposed on the bridge we'd crossed so many times together. I cried my eyes out.

And ten years ago today we got married!

(Me throwing the bouquet over everyone's head and into the fireplace in the back.)

So, happy anniversary, Scot! What an amazing 10 years. We've moved five times, lived in three states, gotten degrees, changed careers and had babies.  I can't wait to see what else life has for us.

I thank God for you every single day. 

And I'm so glad we were too lazy to take the steps.

Christmas 2010: Part 2

For the second part of our Christmas we headed out to see Nina and Pop Pop. The kids were so excited to go to "Nina's house" again. 

Brooke was more than willing to help pass out gifts.  And to rip into them.

One of the favorite gifts:  a Fancy Nancy ensemble, complete with purse, jewelry and feather boa.  "Ensemble" is a fancy word for outfit, as Fancy Nancy would say.

You know girlfriend needs her some cute shoes.

Do you ever see my family and wonder, "Why are they all wearing Mizzou stuff?"  Because we get it for Christmas and because we love it.  That's why.  These two are ready to get in the game... 

After we opened gifts we played and played and played.

My mother has a Hannah Montana wig.  Long story.  Scary, isn't it? 

We love you, Nina and Pop Pop!  We had a wonderful Christmas with you!

Christmas 2010: Part 1

We had a great Christmas at home this year.

We woke up first thing in the morning to find that Santa had come.  The cookies we left by the fireplace were gone and the gifts were under the tree. 

We dug in.

By the way, does anyone know how to Photoshop out snot? 

I got Brooke a doll even though she's never been interested in them. I thought maybe if she had a more realistic-looking doll she'd play with it.  It's so sweet when little girls play with dolls.

At first it looked promising.  Brooke named the doll Sassy.  She held her and patted her. It was sweet. 

Then she dropped her. And there she stayed.  The end. 

The Santa aftermath.  And sweet hair, Mom.

When the chaos of gift-opening settled down, we read the story of Jesus's birth, a story the kids have heard many times over the past few weeks.  Brooke likes to pretend she's baby Jesus. Maybe a slightly inflated sense of self?

We spent the afternoon playing with the new toys.  Tea, anyone?

We watched the snow.  The beautiful, Christmas-card snow.

We (briefly) played in it.

I made a small Christmas dinner for us.  I decided to tackle a new kind of stuffing this year.  Herbs, cranberries, apples, sausage, and bread (obviously).  It was really, really good, thankyouverymuch. :-)



Unfortunately, the meal went downhill from there.  What's wrong with the picture below?

The child on the left is crying even though she's about to be served a much-better-than-usual meal.  Child on the right (not pictured) is screaming, too. 

Seriously, I have no idea what was wrong with either one of them.  It was weird.

So Scot and I exercised some outstanding parenting: we got frustrated, parked the kids in front of the TV and ate a nice Christmas meal together, just the two of us. And as much as I had wanted a family meal, it was really nice to have dinner alone. I didn't even have to cut Scot's food or wipe his hands off after dinner.  

Christmas of 2010 was a very merry one.

A Christmas of Firsts...

We've had all kinds of firsts this Christmas. 

First preschool Christmas program.

First Christmas present from Brooke.  I wanted to wait for Scot to get home to open it.

My suggestion was not well-received. 



A gift with a picture and hand prints??  Love it!

First snow while old enough to watch and get excited.

First gingerbread house made at first happy birthday Jesus party. 

I took exactly one picture before Brooke reminded me why I keep the gingerbread house on top of the fridge.

First ever batch of crackle-top molasses cookies.  This one's not much of a "first," I know.  But they were so pretty I had to show them off.  I don't always get "pretty" when I bake.

  Eating cookies and making messes?  First...nothing.
  

Santa Babies

I absolutely love this time of year.  And it's even more fun with little ones.  Everything is new and exciting.

We braved the Arctic temperatures the other night to go see Santa at the park. I thought the kids wouldn't want to sit on his lap or that they'd be scared of him.  

I was wrong. They liked him. A lot.

Brooke announced that she wanted a reindeer for Christmas.  Nothing else.  So she might be a little disappointed on Christmas morning.  But at least we got a picture of Comet:

Nate just sat and looked around.  What does he want, Santa?  He's 17 months old.  He wants the boxes and the wrapping paper.

Such a sweet (cold!) night with Santa.

Girl Time

Girl time is awesome.

After lunch I hose down Stinks and ship him off to bed.

Then we play, just me and my girl.  

Her newest favorite toy?  Scot's "Bahamas" hat.  Brooke and Nathan have been wearing it nonstop.  It's like having tiny retirees running around the house. 

Today we pulled out the Play-doh.  You may remember that we love Play-doh around here. 

Can you tell what we made today?  A snake with a dress and glass slippers.

Duh.

Do you think Brooke will remember these little times we stopped everything and just played, even though the house looks like this?

Except it looks way worse. But that mess will be here tomorrow or whenever I finally decide I can't stand it anymore. So, instead of cleaning, we play snake dress-up with the Play-doh on the kitchen floor while wearing straw hats. 

I don't know if she'll remember these sweet little times, but I will. I'm so glad for them. 

I just love that girl of mine.

Sweet

In my world there are two kinds of sweet: 

1. things that are sweet now and
2. things that will be sweet someday when the babies are bigger and I think back to these baby days.  But for now, maybe not so much.   

For example.

Sweet now:  looking in the rear view mirror to see the little guys holding hands across their car seats.  (And finding that they're still holding hands when I come back with the camera!)

Sweet later: Christmas ornaments all over my house. 

Sweet now:  finding evidence that Brooke was playing mama and babies with the snowmen.

Sweet later:  My favorite Christmas decorations gobbed together at the top of the tree and out of reach.  And two little people constantly trying to reach them.

Sweet now:  Brooke's if-you-find-a-good-spot-stick-with-it decorating mantra.

Sweet (much) later:  the basketball goal in my entryway.

Nice, no? It says, "Welcome.  Stay a while.  Dunk." 

So, so sweet now:  watching these babies get excited for Christmas...