10 Years and More to Come

I can't believe we've been married 10 years! We celebrated our anniversary August 3rd. Here are some photos from the beginning.

And here we are at Jenny's Lake celebrating our very first anniversary.

I can't even begin to describe all the years in between.

We've definitely had our battles, especially those first few years.
Our first battle was over whether I should complete college--Scott didn't like the idea at first but I won this battle.
In the middle of college, I wanted to start our family. At first Scott wasn't ready and I did everything I could to convince him. But when he and I were on the same page, our blessing was slow to come, I had no choice but to continue to complete my studies and the month after I graduated, we found out we were expecting--God won this battle.
We often battled over whether Scott should own a snowmobile. Off and on for six years this was a hot topic (mostly in the fall and winter for obvious reasons). 2 snowmobiles and thousands of dollars later, I won this battle. After a scary accident Scott had up at Tony Grove when Kate was only a few months old, Scott sold his snowmobile but his next snowmobile is still in the plan. As soon as business gets better he will have his beloved toy again. I say our car should be paid off first, we'll see who wins. :)

The greatest thing we've faced together has been our everyday moments. Just boring and mundane is happy and pleasant. We love Saturday and Sunday morning waffles, going to church together, supporting each other in church callings, Monday family home evening, holidays, vacations, movies at home, working in the yard, walks, date nights, trips to the park, meals together, and sitting on our front porch on summer evenings, watching the world go by. We love that it doesn't take much to make a wonderful moment. Even when all our plans flop, we have fun just laughing about it.

So far, the hardest thing we've faced together has been not being able to plan our family. That one little thing has brought more tears and heartache than anything. We both catch ourselves looking around at how life has panned out for our peers. As we look, we see that most of them have three or four young ones--as we remain, facing our hardest trial. We think now that we will have to learn to live with what we have and find the joy in it.

The Zoo

Waiting to see Zuri, the baby elephant

Another great time at the Zoo!

Self Portrait

Advice from Elder Busche

What I'm Up To

• Exercising everyday {except Sunday, of course} with Insanity - a Beachbody workout program - I'm just starting week 6 of 10 and I love it!
• Writing a children's book about Scott's Grandpa and trying to talk myself out of illustrating it because that seems overwhelming but I might still do it.
• Learning in a mentoring program with 3 Key Elements. I'm my mentor's first mentee which means I get to go through the program FREE.
• Feeling guilty that I ate four chocolate chip cookies today. {dag-nabbit!}
•  Working on 3 different blurb projects {have you heard of blurb? it's this awesome book-making software. i love it! i use it for so many things. check it out!}
• Dreaming bigger than ever and it's an awesome feeling.
• Being Kate's mom
• Trying to send out positive vibes that Scott and I WILL have *another child despite my mom and sisters' best efforts to thwart my vibes! {my family thinks I should just be happy with one and face the fact that God only intended that I have one child} {possibly they are right-but I'm still not convinced}

*How stinking fun would it be for Kate to have a sibling! Seriuosly! Everyone else seems to get one or two or three siblings, why not Kate?

*She took a bath with her same-aged cousin, Hailey, yesterday at my sister-in-law's house while Scott and I were on a date and Kate had so much fun and I realized she's NEVER bathed with another child before. I was always in the tub with my sis. I know it isn't a big deal and bathing together is totally under-rated {and possibly intensely inappropriate}but it's weird to think how different Kate's life is as an only child.


Beside the point, here are some cool books I've read recently: Remembering Wholeness by Carol Tuttle, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne {the secret was a second time through. That's a must have-must review sort of book}

Only My Dad...

...Would think to put googly eyes on a glass of water.

My mom and dad came over for dinner and my mom brought a little craft for Kate to do while I finished up the cooking. My dad being the silly guy that he is, put googly eyes on his eyeglasses - I didn't get a picture of that, he moves too fast - then he put the eyes on his glass of water. So, I chose one of the rolls that looked the most like a creature and added googly eyes and set it on his plate when he stepped out of the room. My dad got a kick out of that and suggested I add some raspberry jam for the mouth. 

Lonely Kate

I don't have much to say. I've been apathetic toward blogging lately and I'm not sure why.

Kate is so lonely these days. The last two days I called 6 different friends for her to play with and no one was home, they were sick, or they had other plans. This is the bummer with having one 4-year-old and nothing else.  We just don't have enough going on to keep her entertained.

She was able to play with both her Grandmas, and even one of her Grandpas, yesterday and that made her day.