Nine Years Down, a Million to Go

We had our 9th anniversary yesterday.  I can't believe we are only a year away from 10.  Holy smokes.  It was kind of funny because we both totally forgot about it.  Luke had added it to the calendar on his phone and at 4:30 a.m., I heard his phone ring.  It only rang once so I figured it was somebody on the east coast calling the wrong number, which happens occasionally since we still have our old numbers.  But then when I checked his phone that morning, no one had called.  So then I hunted through his alarms and calendar to figure why it had rung so mysteriously and discovered that it was December 18.  Oops.  At least we both totally forgot and realized in time to sort of celebrate.  It was nice because it was his first day of freedom after finishing his first semester of his Master's (yippee, wahoo, hooray!  2 A-pluses so far!  My honey is a genius!) so we got to spend the whole day together. We shopped, wrapped, and then spent an hour at the post office.  Yeah, we know how to party.  The girls got to hang out at Grandma's house for the whole evening.  Can I just say how amazing it is to have family within 2 miles?  Finding babysitters at the last minute is stressful, but with grandparents, you're just making their day!  (Because of course my kids are so well behaved and perfect and they never demand anything or have melt-downs or super stinky feet and always clean up after themselves--thanks Mom, Dad, and Bonnie). 

For our date, we went to Uno's who have the most amazing pizza in the universe: Deep Dish Spinoccoli--feta, broccoli, spinach, chunky tomatoes--mmmmmm.  Luke, who is crazy and doesn't like greasy deep dish pizza, got a steak.  It would be the perfect restaurant except they don't have Diet Coke.  The girls even love it, but I think mostly because they know I love it so much and when Mommy's happy, everyone's happy.  :)  Last time we were there with the kids, Apple started talking to the bricks in the wall and pretending they were a family.  Strawberry used to do the same thing with her fingers, but this was a little weirder.  I guess I should just be grateful for their active imaginations.  

After dinner, we got lost in downtown Scottsdale on the way to the movies to see Slumdog Millionaire.  I had been wanting to see it, but there was only one theater in the entire valley where it was playing and it is 20 miles away, so it kind of had to be a special occasion.  Scottsdale is amazing and I hope we can get back there for window shopping some time before we go.  They have tons of galleries and boutiques and cute little restaurants.  The theater was pretty big and was packed by the time the movie started.  Which makes sense because the movie was amazing.  It was just the kind of thing we love.  I am completely fascinated by the Indian culture and the dramatic contrasts between beauty and ugliness in that country that shapes who they are.  They produce some of the greatest minds in the world, but a huge portion of the population lives in conditions that are absolutely horrifying.  There were a couple of scenes that were hard to watch, but it really was good.  

So, yeah, we've been married a long time.  If you had told me on our wedding day that in 9 years I would be Navy wife with only 2 kids living in Mesa with an RN behind my name and a Virginia phone number, I would have said you were completely insane.  I was going to be a forest ranger's wife with at least 5 kids living in Logan, UT with a CPA behind my name.  Being married to this wonderful man has definitely turned out to be an adventure.  :)