Nine Years and Going Strong

Rick and I celebrated our nine year anniverary in October. Nine wonderful years. Boy am I glad I married him.

I am certain that Rick got the short end of the stick in this deal. I feel like he is the giver and I have been mostly been taking. He has given me unconditional love, patience, endless service, security, laughter, and two beautiful daughters. The list really goes on and on.

He could give more backrubs, but nobody is perfect.

We decided to not do gifts this year, but we still both ended up suprising each other with a little something.

I decided to make Rick Red Velvet Cake Balls which is something I've been wanting to try for a while now. It is really hard to suprise Rick, mostly because I'm not very good at keeping secrets, and also because Gwen has a way of ruining suprises for me.

I went to great lengths to keep things top secret. This involved doing my baking while Gwen was in quiet time, doing lots of dishes to destroy the evidence, and hiding the treats in my closet. They turned out great!

Rick showed up from work with nine roses for me to represent the nine years we have been together.

He also had one for Gwen (because her middle name is Rose). She was overjoyed!

We then gave instructions to the best baby sitter in the world, bestowed a kiss upon each girl, and escaped to a nearby restaurant.

We ate our food slowly without stopping to cut up somebody's meat or to wipe up spilled milk. We took time to reflect on the food's taste. We ordered an appetizer just so it would take longer.

We enjoyed over an hour of conversation. Adult conversation. No interruptions unless you count the visits from the server who was practically invisible to us anyway. It was so nice to talk and to laugh and to remember why I fell in love with this man...

Of course, it was also nice to actually be able to taste my food. And to taste Rick's too...

We came home to three girls. Two peacefully sleeping and one happily cuddling with the youngest of the three...

The spell was broken when Fiona woke up and and altered our plans of cuddling on the couch and watching a rented movie. Don't worry- we watched it the next day!