Our Tenth Anniversary

   I feel like number ten is a mile marker in our marriage. It seems like just yesterday that Andy and I met for the first time and now, ten years have passed!  Andy and I were engaged after just 6 weeks of knowing each other and married within the next few months. I was one of those girls who would ask, "How do you know he's the right one?"  I was always given the answer, "You JUST KNOW."  That always frustrated me because I wanted an explaination, an example. And no one could seem to give me one. It was always, "You'll know when it happens."  Well, I determined that I would wait til it did and then take good notice of it so that I would be the very first on earth to be able to explain to all those other questioning girls out there just how I knew!  Well.....I can't. When Mr. Right came along, somewhere in my heart, I knew without a doubt he was the one, even before I fell in love with him. In fact, I fought it, hoping it wasn't true because I didn't want to marry him!  :)  But, it turned out to be the best decision of my life. I couldn't ask for a better husband. Andy has been so patient with me over the past ten years. I truly don't deserve him. He has loved me through good times and bad and has walked with God and remained faithful in hardship. I'm the luckiest girl alive!
   Andy wanted to make our tenth anniversary very special. He started the celebration three days early by giving me a gift and a special card each morning. On the first, he gave me a small bottle of perfume, the kind I wore when we were first married. The second day, he carried in my 34 string Regency Celtic harp!!!  It's needed a few repairs so I've not played it in over two years!  I was so happy to see it again!  I've put new strings on it and am trying to get it tuned.  It'll take several tunings before the strings will be stretched enough to hold. It's the most beautiful instrument in the world, I think!
   The next morning, I looked outside and saw a lawn swing!  Oh, I've been wanting a swing forever!!!!  Andy said it was a good desire for a mother to want to take time out of her busy schedule to sit and watch her children play. We spent the evening doing just that!!  There is a constant breeze here, and sitting there on my swing in the cool spring evenings seems to gently blow the stress and cares of the day away, leaving me feeling refreshed. I just love my swing!!!
   Day four, last Friday, we drove to Indianpolis and went to the Harrison House. It's Benjamin Harrison's mansion. (One of those not-so-famous presidents). I wish I could post pictures!  The place was beautiful with all the antique furniture, wall paper, and other decor of the period. The staircases going between floors were curved and beautifully carved. They had a dress there that belonged to Mrs. Harrison. She was tiny!!!  Her waist couldn't have been more than 15-18 inches around!!!!   We had a wonderful time.
   After leaving the mansion, we got a shake, then drove to Muncie. It took us about an hour with all the traffic. We stopped to visit Andy's grandmother, then went to eat supper at our favorite Chinese restaurant. They've got THE BEST  hibachi grill!!!  We had a wonderful day! and a beautiful tenth anniversary!   I'm so blessed to be married to a man like Andy.
   We had a good day at church yesterday. We had the Lords Supper during the evening service and what a sweet time it was. Andy had all our people move up and sit in the first few rows for the service, a new thing for our church, and it really made it special and feel more personal.
    Monday morning and I'm back to painting.  I'm almost done with Christians room, finally!  With three little ones in the house, it makes it difficult to stick with anything for longer than a few minutes at a time. But the end is in sight now!!!
   Christian is doing good and changing by the day it seems!  He's grown out of the toddler stage and is full swing into the little boy stage. He thinks he's much older than he is and acts it most of the time. I have to catch myself many times and remind myself that this big boy in a little boys body is still only three. He's very smart and trying to hold him back from things he's sure he can handle is getting harder and harder!  He just can't understand why he can't use his daddy's drills and tools or mow the grass by himself. He'd do it too, if we let him. :). He wants so badly to grow up and be like his daddy. He already knows what vehicle he's going to buy, talks about what his first house is going to look like (he's even got a maid), he's going to have fields and combines and tractors, of course, and a wife with ten kids who are are all going to sleep downstairs in his big house while he sleeps upstairs!  Oh, he's got his life planned out already!
   Audra is changing too. I don't know if it's because she's a girl, or if it's because she's so little, but I still think of her as my "baby girl" even though she's now two years old. And she's all girl at that!  Anything from a fly buzzi her head to a worm on the ground will make her shriek!  I don't encourage this, nor do I know where she got it. :)  I guess I won't have to worry about her dragging in every little critter she finds outside. I had to tell Christian to leave his pet earth worm outside yesterday. At least it's just a worm and not a snake!!!  But it'll come!
   Wesley is cutting four more teeth and letting the rest of us know it!  Oh, he's been miserable!  Six and a half months old and already six teeth!  I've finally got him on a bottle and formula as of this past week and so far I've only had to treat his rash twice. So that tells me that something in my diet was bothering him and causing a bad reaction. He still had very dry skin, but the red ichy rash seems to be going away. It's been a long battle, since January, and though I still don't know what is causing it, I do know it's not just a skin condition on his part but rather something that he was getting from me. Now that he's on formula, the rash has disappeared. This will make it easy as I begin to introduce foods to him one at a time. It may take awhile, but we'll catch it eventually. At least for now, we won't have to keep him on the creams constantly.
   I forgot to mention that Andy also got me six grape vines!!  That was my fit for day four. :). We planted them yesterday evenin and oh! I can hardly wait to get fresh grapes again!
   Well, back to my painting...